Talk about it here.

I thought this started off a little on the disappointing side, but it picked up in a big way about 10 minutes in and became a great match. It's the June match between these two that gets the most praise from these two, and based on everything I've read, I'm expecting that to be the lucha MOTY, so I wanted to include as much lead-in to it as possible.

 

This progressively got better with each fall, with the third fall being the most interesting and competitive. It feels like a title match at times, as there is some nice working of holds, but there is also more flying and brawling than you typically get in a title match. There's a confrontation in the post-match, with Dandy throwing a punch. The draw finish makes this feel unresolved, so I'm glad there's another match between these two coming. This is the Championship Carnival draw equivalent to a Triple Crown title match in All Japan.

This was one of the better matches of the year so far with Dandy doing all kinds of nasty stuff to indicate that he was leaning in the rudo direction. There can't have been too many workers in history who could move so seamlessly from matwork to brawling to flying. He's one of the all-time naturals. I'm looking forward to the rematch.

The first two falls are basically perfunctory appetizers to get us to the meat of the match, which is when the big guns are broken out in the third fall. It's officially technico v. technico but Dandy is working a much rougher style, and Dr. Morales points out that la diferencia es Azteca está luchando para el publico, y El Dandy está luchando para el--wrestling for himself. Azteca has a fantastic counter to a plancha suicida by bringing his knee up, which hurts his own knee but incapacitates El Dandy. This rather suddenly goes to either a time limit draw or a double countout, which has everybody upset. Dandy sucker punches Azteca after the match and then mocks him, acting like he just gave him a shove. The announcers discuss a possible hair vs. mask match to settle. Looking forward to it.

Really good match ratcheting up in intensity as it progresses. Dandy was the star here mixing up different stuff and taking crazy bumps all the same but Azteca held his own and mixed in some beautiful dives and nasty submissions as well. Bring on 6/1/90.

Arm drags galore which Dandy wins. The ring apron appears to be ice hockey boards. Dandy wins the first fall convincingly. Dandy drags Azteca around the ring by his mask. Dandy with a nice german suplex. Thank goodness the fans are smart enough to get out of the way early on these dive attempts as Dandy goes flying into the second row. It picked up in the third fall but the finish is confusing as referee raises both men’s arms. Good that there will be a future match with hopefully a clear cut winner.

Good match. Glad I was correct in picking up on Dandy's heeling it up despite nominally being a technico here; I'm always worried about things like that with lucha. The finish did leave me confused but good to know a highly regarded rematch is coming.

Being in the front row for this show was fraught with danger. They weren't going full out here but there was still solid action with some highlights. It did a good job of building up the rivalry. The starter before the main course in June.

A lucha match is likely my Match of the Month for March, but I'm not sure which one. Possibly this one. It'll take a rewatch.

I didn't feel this one. Then again, I've watched every match on the Lucha 80s set plus the two or three on this yearbook so far, and I have yet to get into more than one or two. Nice gymnastics, but give me Hillbilly Jim stripping Mr. Fuji to his boxers in one of Vince's tuxedo matches instead, and I'm being dead serious.

 

I know it's an awful match, but it has Finkel doing ring announcements and Gino and Bobby to talk me through it, things I can understand without thinking too much. With this stuff, I know what the individual moves look like, but they come together in ways I can't begin to figure out. I'll keep trying with some of the rest of these, but I don't hold out much hope. Then again, the penny dropped at least a little with shoot style after a while, so it's not impossible that the same could happen here.

I've heard El Dandy is one of the best in the world in 1990 so it'll be cool to watch the upcoming matches of his. It's a cool aspect of lucha that it seems like the alignments are common knowledge that's presented to the audience rather than implied by actions and promos. So with that said, I guess El Dandy is becoming a rudo here? I picked up on that but honestly I was just confused and thought I missed something before reading this thread. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with understanding lucha. It just feels SO foreign to me. But I've watched luchadores in Mexico and the U.S. and stuff so I don't know. It is very stylized and maybe that combined with the cultural barrier just makes it more difficult.

Dandy playing a subtle rudo throughout and then ramping it up at the end was great. Lacked direction through the first two falls though.

There's some great individual moments here (El Dandy's punches, his heeling, the topes into the crowd), but I felt there wasn't enough connective tissue here for me to appreciate the totality of the match. It's partially my fault for diving into this blind, but lucha libre has always felt innately inaccessible to me, and I just have a harder time viscerally connecting with it. At least in comparison to other styles.

**3/4