Assorted Monterrey

 

Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/Verdugo vs. Apolo Estrada/Tony Reyna/Rudy Reyna (1989)

I dug Apolo Estrada here, as he was willing to bleed like crazy, get his ass kicked and throw great punches in retaliation. That’s about all I need from a great babyface. The Pirates immediately started kicking ass and Estrada was a bloody mess within like 2 minutes. We get a great comeback from Estrada throwing a flurry of punches and then stalking Pirata Morgan, as they would fight through the chairs and punch each other for several minutes in an intense streetfight. It was the kind of moment where they were hard to separate and they just kept fighting as neither wanted to turn his back and it was really grimy and cool. Rest of the match was largely built around Estrada and Pirata Morgan having epic face offs. The Reynas were alright, did their job and didn’t try to take the spotlight from Morgan/Estrada. I liked Rudy who is an exotico, cutting out the bullshit and just throwing punches in the third fall. All the Pirata/Estrada faceoffs were great and we get an awesome dive from Estrada plus absolutely nasty low blow finish. This is definitely a feud I would like to see more of. 

 

 Negro Navarro vs. Apolo Estrada, Monterrey ?/1989

I'd say this was easily one of the most violent lucha matches I've ever seen. Negro Navarro was an absolutely amazing asskicker here. There is some brief wrestling at the start, with some cool trips and takedowns and Negro Navarro locking in a really graceful armbar, but they soon start brawling. Navarro delivers an absolutely sick all time level beatdown on Estrada, knees to the face, amazing punch combos and headbutts. Estrada is soon covered in blood as Navarro is bashing his head into the mat like trying to crack a coconut. The referee stopping the fall as Navarro kept kneeing a bloody Estrada in the face felt like something out of a gruesome early UFC fight. I was pleased to see that the 2nd fall was quite competitive, with Estrada making a big punch comeback but not easily winning. Navarro continously complaining about getting fouled added to the match as it seemed Estrada was close to getting disqualified. Third fall had some more epic punch exchanges, gritty submission holds and scrappy fighting, such as Navarro eating a nasty lariat to the face and then lunging to headbutt Estrada in the kidney. Navarro showed some shades of his later maestro status by executing a really graceful freestyle pin or doing a primitive version of his later finisher. Estrada did not look as good as Navarro, though he also he had nice punches and looked convincingly slaughtered, bleeding like crazy, looking punch drunk and crazy gritting his teeth. Pretty epic much and based on this and the Mando match I'd say Navarro easily looks like an all time level brawler as he had so many different ways to fuck up his opponent and the match never got boring when he was laying in a beatdown.