Posted March 27, 201114 yr comment_5468433 Los Brazos vs. Ringo Mendoza/El Faraon/El Rayo De Jalisco Jr. This is a Brazos match, we get all of the great little Brazos notes, a first fall where they rip through the technicos, a second fall where Porky is used as a weapon against his brothers, some dives, a star, a low blow finish. This is what they do, they are awesome at it, and while this breaks absolutely no new ground, this is the kind of thing that should be on a set. Pirata Morgan vs. Ken Timbs Surprised at how much I dug this. I haven't liked Timbs before, but he was perfectly fine working as a rudo in a technical title match. Lots of matwork with Pirata doing a bunch of nifty things, and Timbs doing a nice job working over the shoulder. We get a big batch of stuff finish too, with Pirata wiping out Timbs second with a tope and Timbs doing a foul suplex for the title win. I liked this a alot although I imagine votes will be all over the place for it. Fuerza Guerrera vs. El Hijo Del Santo Fuerza Guerrera vs. All Star El Hijo Del Santo vs. All Star - Mask vs. Mask This is a triangle mask match which we are going to treat as one match. Fuerza v. Santo was a fun Nitro version of their match, Fuerza takes his signature crazy Hamrick bump, Santo hits a plancha, they both work for the caballo, fun start. The Fuerza v. All Star match was pretty neat too, with Fuerza brawling like a king. All Star v. Santo is a classic, with Santo bleeding and flying all over the ring. We also have the weird dynamic with the Arena Mexico crowd booing Santo for some reason, surreal. Whole thing is great and will probably be a top 10 contender.
May 15, 201213 yr comment_5502623 Los Brazos vs. Ringo Mendoza/El Faraon/El Rayo De Jalisco Jr. This feels cuspish. It is a great display of the Brazo's routine, but the tecnicos brought surprisingly little to the table, and one or two comedy spots felt a bit too broad even by Brazo standards. Still, this was engaging throughout, so I'm leaning "yes" on this. Pirata Morgan vs. Ken Timbs It should be said that Ken Timbs sings our national anthem better than most. The Star-Spangled Banner is a notoriously difficult national anthem to sing, and he was doing it every night like it was second nature. I appreciate that. This match makes a very interesting contrast to Pirata's title match with Brazo de Oro, which was all about two guys who don't really fit the lucha title match style trying to adjust to it's standards. This is a match where reigning champ Pirata seems to have acclimated to the style, and it's outsider Blondy who initially finds himself at odds with it, and how that affects the way the match plays out. This means a couple of things. For one, this is easily the most matwork-heavy performance I've ever seen Pirata give, and I was genuinely impressed by how much depth he showed in that area. He pulled out a pretty wide variety of cool stuff that I did not know he had, and looked comfortable enough in the role that I'm almost surprised we don't see him working more of a Black Terry-ish brawler/maestro dual-class style today, because he could probably still do a lot of that and would be less physically demanding. Secondly, this is probably the closest thing I've seen to a territory era Ric Flair NWA Title defense in lucha. Georgia heel Timbs is even more out of place in this setting than Pirata and Brazo were in their match, but like that match, that's the fun of it. But watching him stooging while Pirata tangled him up on the mat reminded me less of any other lucha title match and more of Flair stooging for Kevin Von Erich's MUGA headscissors routine in 1983. And like Flair, when Blondy takes control, it's through more unsportsmanlike methods than you would normally associate with lucha title matches. Yet every time Morgan makes a comeback, he ends up going back to working holds. Yeah, this is a match where Pirata Morgan deliberately avoids brawling, and as uncharacteristic as that is of him, it really works for this kind of "my kung fu is stronger than yours" story. This had a pretty spectacular finish, too, as Gran Davis gets distracted, and Blondy takes advantage with what I can only describe as a foul suplex that gets the win. No friendly handshakes at the end of this lucha title match. I just hope I can find a nice, bloody hair vs. hair match to complement this. Fuerza Guerrera vs. El Hijo Del Santo Fuerza Guerrera vs. All Star El Hijo Del Santo vs. All Star - Mask vs. Mask Yeah, this was an outstanding Santo performance. All Star was pretty game, but this kind of felt like a match he could have had with any sufficiently competent wrestler, which just makes it all the more impressive from my point of view. It also makes the crowd reaction even harder to figure. Santo himself seemed confused by it, and while he didn't rudo it up or anything, I do appreciate his acknowledging it. Fuerza looked like the man in his parts of the match. Easy nomination.
July 23, 201213 yr comment_5510963 Los Brazos (Brazo/Oro/Plata) vs. El Faraon/Ringo Mendoza/Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (12/8/89) Man the Brazos haircuts here were fantastic these guys were begging to lose a hair match. Brazos tour de force here as in the 1st fall they destroy the tecnicos then in the 2nd fall their teamwork is used against them as the tecs use Porky as a weapon against his brothers and they are great working defense as well as comedy. 3rd fall was lots of fun with guys diving all over the place at a fast pace before Ringo kicked Brazo right in the balls for a DQ. Fun match but I wish we had a better finish and while this is a fun Brazos spotlight match sadly this falls short of a nomination. NWA Lt. Heavyweight Title: Pirata Morgan © vs. Fabuloso Blondy (12/8/89) Blondy sings the anthem again to a raucous crowd which is nice. This is a title match so they work the title match style and Blondy does a really solid job of working with Pirata on the mat. Both guys were solid here at working over body parts with Blondy showing his southern expertise on how to sell properly and he was very good at it. Timbs using the cobra clutch to take the 2nd fall was great as he did a solid job of working over the shoulder. The 3rd fall was good back and forth action with both men going for submissions keying on the parts they have already worked on before the stretch run which sees Pirata crash and burn on a tope suicida and Blondy fouling Pirata as he threw him behind him to win. Very good title match and I'll push it on as a low-end pick. Mascara contra Mascara contra Mascara: Hijo del Santo vs. All-Star vs. Fuerza Guerrera (12/8/89) Just an awesome performance by Santo here as he works great with Fuerza and carries All-Star to a helluva match. You get the blood you want and mask ripping then you throw in Fuerza working like a fucking machine when he was in the ring leading up to Santo taking All-Star's hood in the final match revealing him as Cesar Dantes. This was awesome and a slam dunk nomination.
