Tuesday, August 1, 2023

EMLL in 1990 #7 - 2/16/1990

Lola Gonzalez/Irma Gonzalez/Irma Aguilar vs. Martha Villalobos/Rossy Moreno/La Diabolica (Arena Coliseo, 2/16/1990)


Fun match from the ladies. Almost nobody ever talks about Mexican womens wrestling but these ladies could go. Match had an extensive opening fall with lots of fun matwork which is always nice to see, lots of stooging and fun multiperson spots. Pretty much all you want from a lucha trios. The biggest standout in the match was Martha Villalobos, who does not look very athletic but she can wrestle and stooge in fun ways, and also has that sense of comedic timing and swagger you want from the standout of a heel trio.

Ringo & Cachorro Mendoza/Kung Fu vs. Hijo de Gladiador/El Egipcio/Emilio Charles Jr. (Arena Coliseo, 2/16/1990)

A well rounded trios. Lord knows all is right in the world when everybody just gets down and does their thing in a trios. Even with not many stars in the lineup, everyone here is at minimum a good wrestler, and everybody had a cool moment. You get a long first fall that really allows you to the get into the match up, a quick and mean asskicking from the rudos, and a well executed finish that felt unpredictable. The star of the match was Emilio Charles Jr., he went from having some fun mat exchanges with Ringo Mendoza to absolutely beating the dogshit out of Kung Fu. His knee strikes and punches looked like something out of PRIDE and made me wonder if this would kick off a blood feud between him and that goofy martial artist. Kung Fu was in the spotlight a lot, meaning that the rudos stooged a lot for his stuff. While he is sort of goofy, him crane kicking people in the face and throwing fast punch combos is something different. I also like Ringo Mendoza, he is not super spectacular, but every promotion needs a stumpy legged unassuming old man technician who can grapple and bust out a neat move here and there. Hijo de Gladiador had some mean punches to the midsection and Egipcio did good stooging and at one point bitchslapped a Mendoza off his feet. Sometimes that’s all you need to do. They did not go all out because lord this card also has a hair match and a title match, but for undercard action this stuff well and truly serves its purpose.

Comando Ruso vs. Remo Banda


For a hair match this was lacking a bit in intensity. They got the formula right, but didn't really deliver the asskicking to kick it up to the next level. Comando Ruso kind of looked like he was about to check his watch in between hitting Remo. The first two falls were well done but rather short and without surprises. The last fall was much bigger with Banda bumping really big and some huge dives. The best part when both guys started fighting over a superplex and traded punches. They really needed to trade more punches like that. Comando started Remo when he was down and ended up disqualified, which has to be one of the lamest ways to lose your hair. Not horrible but not really worth going out of your way to see, proving that listless big matches with quick opening falls have been a thing in lucha libre for a long time.

Brazos vs. Ulises/Pierroth Jr/Gran Markus Jr.

A title match that delivers. All the falls were pretty short but they went hard delivering everything you want. Matwork, fast exchanges and Brazo de Plata bringing that extra WHOMP that he is so good at. For a bunch of tubby dudes with short legs the Brazos are really damn good wrestlers, really fast moving through intricate exchanges, really good snap on their armdrags and bumps that puts many skinnier wrestlers to shame. The rudo team played fair and they were allowed to look good showcasing their wrestling ability. Brazo de Plata was the man who got the match to the next level, as he really punctuated every fast, slick exchange with his behemoth wrestling style. There is such a real edge to what he does, like he will go for an amateur ride and just flatten his opponent with his sheer size, at one point he grabbed the almost equally massive Markus Jr. and throw him effortlessly with a belly to belly suplex that was awe inspiring. His kip ups and cartwheels were on point and bumped and flew with abandon. It was probably his physical prime and he went hard. There's dive train here that's absolutely spectacular, and I always love the star. I was expecting more intensity considering these teams had some quite heated face offs previously, but what we got was a really cool slice of unique wrestling.

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