Great match, Lou Thez is the ref, and both guys really take it hard to the mat in the first fall, really great struggling mat worker. Negro kept working a cool bridging butterfly suplex. Cool dives into the mud which always look awesome. This felt like a top 10 match, although I imagine this set is going to be epic.

 

NJC 119

Centurion Negro vs. Gran Hamada, 2/14/82 (NJC 119)

- Sweet matwork in the first fall. Not as great as something like Dandy-Azteca but few things are. Negro gets the 1st caida and Hamada is favoring his leg. I don’t know how smart it is for Hamada to work a leg scissor after favoring his leg but it doesn’t work as Negro reverses it. Hamada fights back to even it up in the 2nd round and it felt more like a NJ comeback than a lucha one which is alright by me. Big 3rd fall with the dives into the mud, some cool pinning sequences by Negro and the big kickout stretch run. No way this doesn’t make the set but I don’t know if it hits Top Ten. I can see the guys who like matwork voting it high buit the high flying geeks knocking it down because of some slow spots. STRONG NOMINATION.

UWA Middleweight Title - SR: Lou Thesz: Centurion Negro © vs. Gran Hamada (2/14/82)

 

You know Thesz had to be loving all the matwork here as both men really went at it. Negro hit a great butterfly suplex where he held the arms to apply more pressure and not going for the pin. The action picked up in the 2nd fall as Hamada was bumping around for Negro before making a fun comeback where he evened the odds. 3rd fall was great as you got everything here from matwork to bumping to highspots including dives in the mud to fun pinfall exchanges which had the crowd in a frenzy leading to a fun finish. This was a helluva match and a easy nomination.