EVEN MORE Dandy vs. Casas

 El Dandy/Humberto Garza Jr./Silver King vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Negro Casas/Rambo (4/5/1996, Arena Coliseo)

Fun match at a brisk pace. They cycle through all the possible match ups, which means no extended Dandy/Casas section, but there is some, and somebody does get punched in the face. Everyone looks really good here, I especially liked Rambo who is kind of out of place looking with his schlubby appearance but stooges insanely well, even getting a guy as good as Silver King to look on another level. I liked young Humberto Jr as he was opposed a murderers row of great bases, and at one point Casas got bowled out of the ring just to take a bit out of someones candy apple.

El Dandy/Mr. Niebla/Silver King vs. Negro Casas/Black Warrior/Emilio Charles Jr. (9/6/1996, Arena Mexico)

CMLL was white hot in 1996. Blazing blazing hot. Every match up here has so much heat. Casas vs. Dandy is heated because these two are just pure fire in 1996, King vs. Charles Jr. is heated because people want to see King pop that fucker Charles in the mouth, and Niebla/Warrior starts out as good young guy workrate stuff before they also turn up the heat with Warrior trying to unmask Niebla, and then Casas and Dandy are in again and their match up somehow has even more heat. It’s like you have a 6 man tag with one pairing being Rock vs. Austin and the next Sting vs. Goldberg and then Flair vs. Steamboat. Except the wrestling was a hell of a lot better. First fall was very long and felt huge with Dandy and Casas squaring off, doing their scrappy wrestling and punching each other in the face, Warrior/Niebla bringing something fresh to the mix and King/Charles really working the crowd good. It felt like a monumental first fall with an extremely well done finish. The second half focusses less on Dandy/Casas which is less to my liking, though there are some snippets of them such as Casas hitting another sneaky low blow on Dandy. The focus is more on Charles Jr./King and the young guys, though CMLL was so good in 1996 that pretty much no one could do any wrong. Great stuff regardless that was another epic Dandy/Casas showdown away from being one of the best of the year. Apparently this was the last time they matched up on opposite sides on TV not counting the 3 way with Santito. Well, I guess that was a good way for the feud to go out.

El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas vs El Dandy (Mask vs Hair vs Hair - CMLL – 12/6/96)

Well, it’s about the best conclusion to the Dandy/Casas 1996 saga we have. Santitos heel turn overshadows everything, though we get a faint memory of animosities between Dandy and Casas. Opening minutes were incredible as Casas and Dandy just let loose their hatred for Santito and kick the shit out of him. There is a brief face off between Dandy and Casas, but then Casas decides he wants to kick the shit out of Santito some more and fucking jumps at him, only to miss and get his ass kicked a bit. Santito is eliminated quickly leaving us with a few brief more technical exchanges between Dandy and Casas. Casas comes out on top and before leaving he decides to jump Santito from behind and rip his mask. That sets up the blood-drenched feverish war between Santito and Dandy which is the rest of this match. Just absolutely fabulous hatred from the get go. The last portion is truly a war with crazy amounts of blood, really violent stomps, huge dives, bitter fighting from both guys – Dandy struggling out of a La de a Caballo attempt while covered in blood is a truly epic visual. Insane atmosphere too with the crowd refusing to see Santo as the rudo after he just took a 2 on 1 asskicking, while Dandy struggles with the number Casas did on his leg. A truly monumental, classic spectacle from the beginning to the end.

TAKA in CMLL

 

Negro Casas & TAKA & Shocker vs. Black Warrior & Arkangel & Violencia, CMLL 7/4/1997

Man, CMLL in 1997 has such an amazing „this is wrestling at its absolute peak“ vibe. Even a random match like this ends up being pretty great and unpredictable. The heart of the match was Casas vs. Black Warrior. These two were out for blood. Their first exchange was already really scrappy, with an uncooperative suplex being thrown and then Casas spin kicks Warrior under the chin. The other guys were mostly there to spice things up with big spots and fast exchanges, and boy did they do that. Arkangel was really great here, throwing cool punches and clotheslines and generally making TAKA and Shocker look amazing. TAKA was mostly just in for brief bits but he did hit some fairly difficult stuff. Shocker and Violencia were also really good with Violencia bumping big. The Casas/Warrior feud segues nicely into an intense rudo beatdown before we get a quick and exciting 3rd fall with TAKA busting out his insane spaceman rope switching dive. He knew it takes a lot to really impress a mexican crowd so he basically just went for the craziest thing he knew, and he nailed it. Great stuff.

TAKA & La Fiera & Atlantis vs. Headhunters & Apolo Dantes, CMLL 5/16/1997

TAKA, Fiera and Headhunters in one match, this has a lot going for it! And this was ultra heated and absolutely on fire, really spectacular match if you love monster spots and heat. Starts great with the Headhunters rampaging and TAKA taking every crazy bump you can think of. By 1997 TAKA probably didn‘t have many functional nerves left in his back so he was bumping in that stiff as hell Mexican ring like a maniac, press slams, really whipping himself back hard when bumping for shoulder blocks, getting thrown into the turnbuckles, it was wild. Old man Fiera as usual is pretty great at picking his spots, we get him working a sweet comeback, hitting some gnarly kicks including a ridiculously great superkick and taking out Dantes with a cool surprise tope. Headhunters are so great as usual, the thing about them is they are tremendous crushing their opponents, but they are also really great at stooging and milking every bump they took to the absolute maximum, setting themselves up for big vs. Little offense in fun ways and always being ridiculously perfect in place for a pair of guys you‘d expect to be slow moving. They really made the „arch back and wobble your arms to tease falling over“ into an art form. The sequence where TAKA takes down a Headhunter with really fast dropkicks is so great, TAKA in general is a real star here with the crowd loving him and all his stuff looking so perfect. Tremendous finish too. Dantes is also in the match and while he isn‘t as outstanding as everyone else he is a pretty solid prick. This was a bit like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match worked as a sprint with two really great Twin Towers and two way cooler and unlikely Rockers.