Posted March 20, 200817 yr comment_5429629 Mexico 3/88 Cien Caras v. Siglo XX 4/12/87 Siglo XX is not very good (luchawiki says he is the Killer), although he takes a posting well. The first two falls are short and pretty bad. The third fall gets pretty great though, as both guys start bleeding like pigs, and the crowd gets super rabid, crowding the ring. Siglo hits a crazy looking plancha, and the finish is great as he tries a pescada and missed splatting the flood. Cien buries him under chairs and he loses by countout and gets unmasked on a stretcher. I am torn about this, as the beginning is bad, but the finish may be crazy and hot enough to put on. Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Ari Romero + Perverso + Cowboy There are some amazing punch exchanges between Cowboy (I think) and Vulcano, and a nice amount of blood, but I think this is below a cut Kung Fu v. Javier Cruz Kung Fu starts out by cracking Cruz in the head with a nunchuck, and Cruz starts the bleeding. I have never seen Kung Fu as a rudo before, and his karate offense is really nasty looking. A pair of cool dives, some cool brawling and a ton of blood makes this a nom MS1 v. Egipico Cool story with Egipico throwing MS1 off by being left handed, but there are too many good brawls for this to make it. Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Brazos Bloody brawling Brazos are always good. Porky's ring apron dive is amazing looking. Still this is more of a cusp nomination, I can see it going on, but it could fall off too. Pirata Morgan + Hombre Bala + Verdugo v. Atlantis + Angel Azteca + Ringo Mendoza The Buccanaros are so much fun, slow start, but this gets kicking. Tons of fun Buccanaros shtick, and Atlantis looks amazing here too. One of his topes is incredible looking. This cuts off right at the finish, but makes a set.
March 20, 200817 yr comment_5429636 Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Ari Romero + Perverso + Cowboy There are some amazing punch exchanges between Cowboy (I think) and Vulcano, and a nice amount of blood, but I think this is below a cut This is rudo contra rudo and a revancha match. First fall is kind of clipped. They announce it as a quick fall still wahat we got was clipped. Charles is great and both Vuclano and Arce match up with Perverso and Cowboy for some nice stuff but Ari romero is useless. I guess he's doing stalling heel who doesn't want to be involved and he's just kind of wandering around not being in this. This feels really close but a step below. Kung Fu v. Javier Cruz Kung Fu starts out by cracking Cruz in the head with a nunchuck, and Cruz starts the bleeding. I have never seen Kung Fu as a rudo before, and his karate offense is really nasty looking. A pair of cool dives, some cool brawling and a ton of blood makes this a nom Yeah weird to see Kung Fu work like this. He does the super grissly thing of having to move the mask from off his chin so as to drain out the blood pooling under mask. this is also a match that feels to me like a thing thats on the line but just on the plus side of the line. We will have many better Javier Crruz matches. But for now I say this is a yes. I think this is a title match and really not worked at all like a lucha title match. MS1 v. Egipico Cool story with Egipico throwing MS1 off by being left handed, but there are too many good brawls for this to make it. Some neat MS1 one man show stuff to try to craft this match and I did like the south paw vs conventional story once I picked up on it in like second or third fall. But I can safely say no. Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Brazos Bloody brawling Brazos are always good. Porky's ring apron dive is amazing looking. Still this is more of a cusp nomination, I can see it going on, but it could fall off too. Another Rudo contra rudo match. Rudo contra rudo is going to mean falls determined by DQs for excessive rudismo and the rudismo here was often excessive. It actually felt like it might be too long for this type of brawl. As some meandering sections. Pirata Morgan + Hombre Bala + Verdugo v. Atlantis + Angel Azteca + Ringo Mendoza The Buccanaros are so much fun, slow start, but this gets kicking. Tons of fun Buccanaros shtick, and Atlantis looks amazing here too. One of his topes is incredible looking. This cuts off right at the finish, but makes a set. I didn't care for first technico fall at all. But once it gets into the Buccaneros bumping heel show...well thats a great show. this definately goes on. Atlantis almost looks like he went verticle for his tope. There is a low blow finish in front of ref...and before ref can declare a finish we get tape cutting to Magnum Pi or somesuch.
March 25, 201114 yr comment_5468274 Cien Caras v. Siglo XX 4/12/87 I liked this way more than Phil and OJ. Thought Siglo actually looked really good here. If I didn't know he was Killer, I wouldn't have guessed, because Killer never gave a performance this good. He took a pretty big beating from Cien. Loved how Cien kept kicking him out of the ring every time he tried to get in at the start of the match. He got posted three times and ate it like a champ. Liked his goofy rocking horse finisher thing. And when the brawl was on, this kicked into overdrive. The third fall was spectacular. Kinda had the same feel down the stretch as the Flair/Kevin match that I really liked did, where both guys have taken so many spills by the end that it is clear they are totally wiped out. Siglo going for his zany finisher again but not being able to keep rocking because he just didn't have enough gas left in the tank was a really neat spot. And it was bloody and violent and had big dives and big bumps...fuck it, this feels like a slam dunk to me. Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Ari Romero + Perverso + Cowboy First caida is mostly cut, which is a shame, because the rest of the match looks really good. I won't push for it. Kung Fu v. Javier Cruz I got the sense that - bopping Cruz with the nunchuks aside - Kung Fu's karate offense mainly worked here because he had Cruz eating it. Coming out of the Texas set, I am reminded why I like babyface Kabuki so much more than heel Kabuki. Still, Cruz will bleed and eat your sillier offense like a king, and I thought all of Kung Fu's traditional wrestling offense looked really good. Nice neckbreaker after scoring the first fall. This had problems. Primera caida dragged a bit. Love the way Cruz takes being rammed into the turnbuckle, but still got the feeling the fall was lapping itself. Match also had a weird stretch run, where the bloody brawl turns into a battle of roll-ups, and then they end up outside of the ring, and Cruz appears to graze Kung Fu with an Asai Butt Butt, which I'm pretty sure isn't what he was going for. Then they get back into the ring and Kung Fu just turns his back to his opponent to pose for the crowd so Cruz can put him in a cavernaria......yeah, that didn't work for me. Still, pluses outweighed the minuses, and I'll second the nomination. MS1 v. Egipico Yeah, solid, but not terribly interesting. Tony Arce + Vulcano + Emilio Charles Jr. v. Brazos Yeah, there was some good brawling here, but there was also a fair amount of drag overall. I was underwhelmed. Not a nomination. Pirata Morgan + Hombre Bala + Verdugo v. Atlantis + Angel Azteca + Ringo Mendoza I was OK with the first fall. I noticed up and down this disc that the ring isn't mic'd up at all, but dudes are throwing shots that sound absolutely sickening. This match opens with Pirata Morgan bunching a dude in the chest while he's still wearing his Cap'n Crunch hat, and it sounds like he cracked his sternum. That kinda made the whole fall for me. It's the segunda caida where I have problems. It starts with more rudo brawling, but it isn't as interesting, and there are weird incidences of technicos jumping into rudo offense for no reason. Then the tecnicos take over, and the Buccanero stooging and bumping is great and all, and Angel Azteca throws a ton of great armdrags as always, but there's some really dumb stuff in there like the Buccaneros double back body dropping one of their own for some reason (They were tricked somehow? Lack of depth perception causes you to misidentify your teammate as Angel Azteca?), and Azteca's big leaping diving headbutt to...the bottom rope? The toe of his opponent's boot? I dunno, something cause the guy who's being held up by his partners outside the ring with his feet on the rope, and it causes his feet to slip out and his partners to drop him on the floor, and it doesn't hurt Azteca even though it looks like it would have, and why would he have even done that in the first place....look, I've been watching the lucha for something like a decade now, and I'd like to think I'm past the point where I'm stymied by it's cross-cultural weirdness. I'd also like to think I have a high tolerance for zany lucha comedy. But this all just totally killed my enthusiasm for the match. The tercera caida was amazing, of course, but by that point, the wind had been totally taken out of the sails for me.
July 20, 201213 yr comment_5510608 Mascara contra Mascara: Cien Caras vs. Siglo XX (4/12/87) Siglo would become The Killer and he was shitty here like he would be shitty as The Killer. Cien was okay here but Siglo really stunk at least for the first two falls and then came the 3rd fall. Siglo comes into the 3rd fall bloody from taking a big post shot and takes more punishment from Cien making the blood flow like water. Siglo gets fired up though and finally brings some good stuff here as he viciously goes after Cien's mask and forehead looking for blood and he finds it. Cien ain't giving up either as the taste of his own blood fires him up and this becomes a battle of two dudes covered in blood in a war of atrition trying to save their masks. Siglo hits a huge plancha from the top rope to the floor that gets the crowd going and almost submits Cien with his row your boat submission but he loses his grip so he decides to hit a plancha from the ring to the floor where he almost missed completely. Siglo then goes for another one and this time Cien moves out of the way with Siglo crashing and burning on the wood. Cien then buries him in chairs so he can win by countout. Siglo gets unmasked while taking a ride out on a stretcher which was awesome on its own but Cien & MA2K celebrating in the ring while they are pelted by beer was just as awesome. The 3rd fall of this was so great that it totally made up for the first two falls and this is a solid nomination to me. Tony Arce/Emilio Charles Jr./Vulcano vs. El Convoy/El Perverso/Ari Romero (March 1988) Clipped but fun. Javier "El Monarca" Cruz vs. Kung Fu (March 1988) Kung Fu was swinging the chucks like Great Kabuki before the match then just fuckin jackslapped Cruz right at the bell which was fucking awesome. Cruz is juicing from the eye immediately so Kung Fu goes to work on him fiercely while constantly bowing to the fans like a fucking dick. Cruz is pinballing all over the place while bleeding and it makes you really want to see him kick the shit out of Kung Fu. Cruz would finally wake up and he would throw Kung Fu into the ring post face first on the floor and the shit is on now as he rips at Kung Fu's mask which Kung has to raise it up so his blood can flow under it which was so fucking great. Kung fires back though and the psychology shifts from brawling to a battle of rollups which was odd before they go to the floor with some fun dives. The stretch run was fun as well and this is a solid nomination. El Egipcio vs. MS-1 (March 1988) Yeah I liked the whole left-handed story and this was a fine match but not enough for a nomination. Los Brazos (Brazo/Oro/Plata) vs. Tony Arce/Emilio Charles Jr./Vulcano (March 1988) I always love the masked Brazos and this was nothing but a brawl right from the start which was great. This wasn't pretty just guys beating the shit out of each other with some awesome punches thrown. Both teams gave as good as they got and Porky was like a fucking flying tank here. Rudos contra rudos means violence and we got that, mask ripping we got that, and blood which we got that as well. The fans go fucking apeshit when the bloody Brazos make their comeback bloodying up their opponents and that was awesome. It may have drug some but shit the action here was fierce when they were going strong and I don't see any way this isn't a definite nomination. This is hate filled lucha goddammit. Angel Azteca/Atlantis/Ringo Mendoza vs. Los Bucaneros (Hombre Bala/Pirata Morgan/Verdugo) (March 1988) It's going to be hard to follow that last match. Bucaneros are real pricks to start here as they throw the tecnicos around especially Azteca who takes a bodyslam over the top to the floor before he comes back in the ring and eats a triple slam before a triple dropkick to the head. The tecnicos finally make a comeback in the 2nd fall and now we have the Bucaneros being great at bumping and selling here as they take some punishment. Azteca was really fun here getting his revenge by throwing some great arm drags then flying around like crazy. Atlantis is awesome here too with Ringo not doing much but he does enough to get by as his teammates are stealing the show. The 3rd fall featured some really damn good action and this is a fairly easy nomination.
