Kurokage vs. Takashi Sasaki
Unusual match to
open your CMLL Japan show, but I‘m not complaining about your DDT
boys getting some work. This was a fun 5 minutes, these two really
work un-lucharesu like and pelt each other with kicks and open hands.
Kurokage kind of gets a showcase here, he busts out a slick armbar,
spikes Sasaki with a vicious Dragon Suplex and gets the pin with a
cool combination.
Maxx Bunny & Super Cacao vs. Masaru
Seno & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa
Fine undercard lucharesu with some comedic elements. Give me some amusing gimmicks and the occasional neat pin or submission and I‘m happy. Tubby boy Kikuzawa looks good doing armdrags and twisting sentons. Seno is the future Daioh Quallt and works as a thick amateur boy here and he is fun. Bunny did the occasional comedy but also brought some wrestling. I think Super Cacao is Nozawa and he‘s inoffensive. There was no need for this to go twice as long as the previous match, though.
El Olimpico
vs. Rencor Latino
I always enjoy luchadores in Japan getting 10 minutes to impress the audience. These two do some really funky matwork to start, lots of cool unorthodox throws. It‘s a pity CMLL pretty much got rid of matwork in the 2000s because things were getting very experimental at this point. The match took a bit of dampener when Olimpico was hesistant on his dive, but they picked up again for the finish when Latino hit his own big dive. Enjoyable stuff, why does it feel like ages since I‘ve seen two luchadores do this kind of match in Japan?
Halcon Negro &
El Salsero & Zumbido vs. Super Delfin & Masato Yakushuji &
Naohiro Hoshikawa
Another really fun
lucharesu match. Everyone had their working boots on. El Salsero was
a fun discovery here, he would do his crazy dancing and then plant
people with big powerbombs and spin kicks. Yakushiji is one of the
most spectacular wrestlers ever and he matches up extremely well with
Zumbido here. Halcon Negro is a lumpy bodied luchador and it‘s fun
watching him bust out dives and get kicked hard by Hoshikawa.
Structure was a bit iffy since the Osaka Pro guys kind of tried to
work rudo but weren‘t very convincing at it (Yakushiji keeps
getting face spots and Delfin doesn‘t do much). Finishing run was
fun though with a big dive train etc.
Ultimo Guerrero & Virus vs. Oriental & Tsubasa
Any long Virus match from this period is a treasure. And this was all these guys going balls out for +20 minutes. Really aiming for the most spectacular match they could possibly produce. We get a bunch of ultra slick opening mat exchanges to start. I‘ve never really noticed Tsubasa before, but he matches up well with Virus, not just „guy who is a warm body getting carried through some sections by Virus“ but actively looking really polished. And Oriental is really underrated and a really good worker. The match goes a bit awry when Oriental goes for diving rana to the outside (an insane move for 1999) and UG miss-catches him. He ends up being fine though and it may have added to the match as immediately there was heat on the rudo beat down section. Oriental regained his senses and later actually hit the big diving rana in a really nice moment. And the rest of this was spectacular and smooth to the max. I‘m surprised I‘ve never heard of this before because how on earth would 90s workrate smarks not love this?! If you want a crazy spotfest you might as well get a bunch of pro luchadores to do it, and they went for big fucking spots here, aside from all the slick ranas and spectacular dives there was Virus busting out a dominator from the top which looked like it could have killed Tsubasa, and Ultimo Guerrero busts out his avalanche reverse suplex on the hard as hell Japanese ring. They executed everything with grace (safe for one or two mishaps) and logic and it was really good shit. Also dug out UG trying to pull out the victory against the odds, real stoic rudo determination. Another really great Oriental performance, too, and did I mention Virus? I'm not overly familiar with 1999 CMLL but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the 2nd or 3rd best Lucha match to happen that year.
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