More Dandy/Casas

 Dos Caras/El Dandy/Lizmark vs. Negro Casas/Bestia Salvaje/Chicago Express (5/31/1996, Arena Coliseo)

It’s hard to believe Negro Casas wasn’t the best wrestler in the world in 1996. He is just dominating every match he’s in. This was basically a really great Dandy/Casas singles match with occasional appearances from the other guys. Everyone else in this match is good-very good of course, but these two take center stage and it was awesome. First fall had some great Dandy/Casas matwork before Casas cheapshotted Dandy at which point the intensity was sent through the roof. Really good mix of hold for hold and more high impact stuff such as Dandys out of nowhere Backdrop suplex. Even a fairly standard spot like countering a back body drop with a kick felt brutal and huge. Second fall Casas starts kicking Dandy in the face and bloodying him which was also really great. The third fall sees a pissed off Dandy comeback and now Casas is bleeding too and both guys are bleeding all over the place and just tearing each other up and this is fucking epic. Man the blood ban really was the worst thing to happen to CMLL, the intensity of these two just blows everything from now away, and the face kicks looked Shibata/Fujita tier violent (tho probably a lot safer). Like I said everyone else is good though their appearances are only brief. Chicago Express is hilarious, he has this ridiculous fluffy mop of hair with a bald spot and goofy singlet. I guess he was trained in Mexico because he wrestles like a luchador, although he looks like the protagonist of an 80s comedy who accidentally ended up in a Mexican wrestling ring. That aside, holy fuck Dandy and Casas are freakin great.

Elimination Match: El Felino/Emilio Charles Jr/Dr. Wagner Jr/Negro Casas vs Pantera/Silver King/El Dandy/El Texano, CMLL 12/15/1995

I am tracking down all the matches with Casas and Dandy on opposing sides because that is clearly a match up that delivers (shocker, I know). They were mostly teaming in 1995 but this seems to be the first time they face off. It’s in a big elimination match where everyone is giving their all, and yet their stuff still feels like it takes an extra stage of importance. The whole match was absolutely excellent, early on we get a great mix of chain wrestling and hard hitting. Casas and Dandy weren’t as hate filled but they already had their dynamic going. They started grappling and then Casas started throwing kicks. I love how Dandy caught his leg, took him down and punished him with a really fast leg twist, such a cool way to make an already impressive spot make sense and look even cooler. Everybody else was awesome too and hitting awesome lucha exchanges left and right without a slip up. I especially loved the Charles/King segment which was really vicious, they did this great squence struggling over abdominal stretches. King ends up putting on an indian deathlock pushing at Charles chin and throwing punches, so Charles reverses and viciously chinlocks king. The athletic stuff of Panter and Charles slow lumbering presence were really cool and mixed it up in a matchup full of stocky middleweight. Lots of cool rope running, snug clotheslines and submissions, everyone is really fast. Elimination can happen anytime but they manage to not rush. The match peaked with Casas suddenly eating powerbombs and giving his all to survive, with the crowd absolutely loving the technicos taking the lead. The match was still very good afterwards, though I was slightly annoyed with Wagner Jrs lack of selling. He and Charles were pushed to the limit facing a 2 vs. 3 disadvantage against the technicos, but it didn’t really translate to Wagners performance as he’s a bit robotic. Still everybody else was great, there was a fantastic dive train with Dandys huge tope being absolutely incredible, and the twists and turns felt earned. 30 minutes of amazing wrestling, CMLL was spitting fire in the mid 90s.

Negro Casas & Felino & Black Panther vs. El Dandy & La Fiera & Silver King, CMLL 12/22/1995

Yeah put 6 awesome wrestlers in a trios why not! We get a nice King/Panther segment (Panther being Black Warrior) before Casas and Dandy match up. They do some intense wrestling that already feels like their hatred for each other is rising, with Dandy grabbing a handful of hair here and Casas really bending Dandys wrists in nasty ways there. It turns into one of those annoying trios matches where the rudos keep running in to break up the chain wrestling which sucks, but the intensity keeps increasing and eventually we get Casas sucker punching Dandy. It does lead to some intense hate filled brawling, with the second fall having another brief but awesome Dandy/Casas exchange and a fantastic dive train with old guy Fiera somehow having the biggest and most awesome dive, and then Casas kicks Dandy in the nuts. Everyone looked good and the match had some awesome stuff, they didn’t go full bore but they set the stage for the more bloodthirsty Casas/Dandy stuff that was to come.

Negro Casas, Apolo Dantes & El Satanico vs. El Hijo del Santo, El Dandy & Silver King (2/2/1996, Arena Coliseo)

Yeah, throw in Santito and Satanico into the mix too, why not! Casas and Dandy largely stay apart, although we get a brief moment of Casas brutalizing Dandy during the beatdown section. Dandy mostly matches up with Satanico, and that is a really good match up. Their matwork is very good, with Satanico busting out some crafty reversals, and their standup stuff is also neat. Dantes vs. King was a hot feud so the crowd was super hype for them, and likewise Santo/Casas was hot fire. Their stuff was great. Chaotic brawling in the 2^nd half was fun and lead to some more violent Casas/Santo exchanges as well as Dantes being quite mean to King. Ending was not huge or epic but still great. It served to heat up the rivalry which is what you want. You could really feel they were just gearing up for what was to come in CMLL later down the year, as all these feuds and characters mingling feel fantastic.

FULL 6/21/1992

 Watch

 Sankigake Gantetsu vs. Super Tigrito

Gantetsu is a young, mulleted Dick Togo. Super Tigrito is probably not a luchador going by how he wrestles here, throwing kicks and working kimuras. Both guys seemed green but this went 5 minutes and they hit enough fun moves for this to get the full Japan indy opening match point. At one point Togo hit this really beautiful twisting senton where he ran up the turnbuckle. It was a fun match.

Kendo & Super Delfin & Robin Hood vs. El Engendro & Rocky Santana & Rambo

This had some unusual sloppiness to begin, but then Engendro took this huge bump to the outside and we're off to the races. Robin Hood and Kendo are so much fun, their stumpy legged athleticism is just the best, and the expert rudo team of  Engendro/Satana/Rambo making young Delfin look really good was great too. They certainly knew how to make these trios matches fun back then and not just a series of highspots. There was a lot of spice due to the rudos antics plus ref comedy and what not. Rambo hit a great looking flying clothesline at one point and you have to love that. Kendo also won the dive train with a huge body press over the top rope.

El Pantera vs. Ciclon Ramirez

I love how booking two luchadores in a singles match in Korakuen Hall is basically always a challenge to them to deliver lucha at the highest level of the artform. This had some fantastic scientific lucha matwork and tricked out armdrags to start. I think Pantera is a pretty underrated luchador and he looked really good. The second half felt a bit like they were wrestling in a vacuum - probably due to all the complicated shit they were doing - but they won the crowd back over with some huge dives which is what counts.

Shu el Guerrero & Scorpio Jr. vs. Bulldog KT & Coolie SZ

Bulldog and Coolie are Jado and Gedo. Gedo has a neon singlet, a mullet and a mustache here and he looks really pudgy. This also had the schizophrenic problem of having Jado and Gedo be the faces. They delivered some decent wrestling, though. I always love seeing Shu El Guerrero and he carries young Gedo no problem through some lucha matwork. Gedos fat boy ranas were actually great.  I don't think I've ever seen a match where Scorpio Jr. looked great but he looked fine here. Eventually Gedo turns heel on Jado for some reason and beats up Kendo. Jado eats a beatdown but actually wins the match with a rollup then gets his ass kicked by Gedo some more. It's unclear how this angle further played out since they actually won the tag titles here, but it seems Gedo won the vacant titles later that year teaming with fucking Pat Tanaka, which I'm gonna have to seek out just for the morbid curiosity of it.

Dos Caras & Gran Hamada vs. Villano IV & Villano V

This starts with the Villanos kicking a lot of ass and taking names. They were like the Miracle Violence Connection in this, except moving faster. One Villano hitting a suicide dive then chucking a chair in Hamadas face was awesome. There was also a great looking solebutt that caught Hamada in the chin. The eventual comeback from Caras and Hamada was fired up, but it looked a bit too easy. They tried to increase the intensity by doing some mask removal spots which lead to Dos Caras and Villano having to wear each others mask which is always fun, but I wanted blood or something. Actually Hamada ends up getting attacked by Gedo after the match and bleeding while garbage is thrown at the ring. It was a little weird that he would wait to do that until after the match.

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WAR 4/27/1994

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yamato

Yamato is Tachihikari doing a face painted gimmick. Man, Hirai looks good here. Just rushing Tachihikari with big forearms and dropkicks, and even clocking him in the back of the head hard. Tachi fires back with sumo rushes and potatoeing Hirai and all is right in the world. Hirai does this cool thing where he powers out of a powerbomb attempt and weakens his own back. Later he hits a missile dropkick and can't get up because his back is messed up. And Tachihikari is kind of more effective as a goofy facepainted guy putting Iron Claws on people than as himself. I need more of this Hirai.

Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match) - GREAT

Fun match that suffered a bit from one team being severely overpowered. There was just nobody to stand up to the violent asskicking that the Kitahara/Ishikawa/Kurisu trio can unleash. Strong Machine tried, hitting some stiff lariats and potatoes, and it was decent enough. Jado/Gedo were kinda clunky at first, but eventually settled into their rhythm when they started cutting off the ring and hitting double teams. Still, their stomp-punches don't quite do it for me in a WAR environment. Ricky Fuji was also clunky, but at least they eliminated him quickly. Ultimo Dragon was there to get his shit in. The finish was really cool with Kitahara standing up to a 3 vs. 1 match up and a hot finish between him and Machine.

 
Ashura Hara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki

This was slow, but I still thought it bordered on nomination worthy. Two thick guys beating on eachother with lots of character selling from Hara. Fuyuki certainly was really good in 1994.

Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Chris Jericho & Ishinriki

Lucha guys did their thing here. Dos Caras looks very good, he really should've worked a WCW PPV or something. You can imagine how much offense Mascaras gave to his opponents. I could imagine better uses for Ishinriki, but Jericho looks where he belongs getting stretched by Dos Caras. Short and pretty much a complete showcase for the luchadores.

 Arashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Rounds)

This Arashi is Daikokubo Benkei under a mask. He was part of a stable of sumo wrestlers and squashing his way through WAR for a bit in 1994, which somehow earns him a match against Tenryu. This was two angry ex-sumos mauling each other, which is why you watch WAR handhelds. Arashi was willing to take punishment here and Tenruy was just tearing into his blubber. Arashi wailing away with his sumo palm strikes at Tenryu in the corner was great. His basic throws also looked good thanks to Arashi being a massive fat guy. The crowd actually buys Arashi as a threat, which helps a lot. Tenryu sold those beatings in a big way, and he comes back in a big way himself cracking Arashi hard in the back of the head and then just destroying him. That stretch submission was a nasty nasty move to put on such a fat guy. Nice reminder how great Tenryu was that he could get a match this fun out of a guy like Benkei, who basically had no good matches ever after this.

 Koji Kitao vs. Meng

Compelling matchup, when you consider that Kitao might blow a tantrum and Meng might rip his eye out. This was short. Both guys hitting the mat was fun, and then they move on to maul each other, so it was great. Kitao was squashing everybody in seconds, so the crowd went wild for Meng making him his bitch. Highlights include an awesome corner dropkick, and big piledriver and suplex on the big gi wearing slug. Wish Meng had went down with a little more fight but at least the finish looked nasty.

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Assorted Lucha

Gran Apache & El Mestizo vs. Escudero Rojo & Reyes Veloz (CMLL 9/12/1993)

It‘s a double hair match, baby! And this was pretty great. We move straight to brawling with the rudos Escudero Rojo and Reyes Veloz lazing into the technicos with cool big boots and clotheslines. Gran Apache looks great here, throwing his awesome punches and flying, and there was one absolutely ridiculous base spot from the rudos where Veloz (?) sprinted into the ring and halfway across to catch an Apache moonsault. Fun layout here with the technicos turning the 1st fall around but getting DQ‘d in the second due to not being able to hold back their hatred for their foes. It builds to an inferno of a 3rd caida where Apache and Mestizo bleed like hell and the rudos make several edge-of-your-seat comebacks. It comes down to Apache vs. Escudero and it‘s everything you want from a hair match with Apache throwing out huge dives, both guys going splat hard on missed flying moves and some big nearfalls. Apaches selling after the tope rope dropkick was epic and so was Escudero Rojo desperately trying to get away.

Blue Panther vs. Dos Caras, AWS 9/25/2004

I had no idea this match ever happened, let alone at a random US indy show. Of course, these guys are way too proud to dog it in such a setting. This was quite the clinic. Both guys did it all. Dos Caras was pretty old here, but he had no problem going hard. It made me wonder what else he was doing during this time period. The crowd responding nicely to this kind of maestros match was cool. Dos Caras is a different weight class, but the match wasn‘t affected. Really good stuff, exactly as good as it looks on paper.

WAR 6/30/1994 Part 2

 Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras

This was just a 10 minute match with Jericho, Como, Jado and Gedo trying to cram in as many moves as possible. Dos Caras and Fuyuki were barely in the match and there was no real heat unlike other Fuyuki Gun matches. Jericho and Como hit this doomsday device move on Jado followed by a big gutwrench bomb and Jado completely no sold it. Jericho locked sloppy. I imagine this is the match 90s tape traders liked the most on this card. I will say that at least they got it over quickly.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara - EPIC

This was a blast. Basically the juniors doing everything they can to annoy the heavyweights, who retaliate in pretty violent fashion. Lots of great triple teams and assist spots, all really well timed. Sasuke sumo pummeling Tenryu was really funny and he looked like the real deal bouncing around evading Tenryus offense. Hamaguchi and Kitahara were great here delivering some violent asskickings. Loved Hamaguchis elbows, headbutts and the weird stretch he broke out. So many neat moments. This was short but honestly a really unique match and totally delivered.

Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito

Yeah, give us a LLPW showcase match, why not! This was pretty fun and more structured than the constant back and forth you often get with joshi showcase matches. There wasn’t much depth, but I still prefer a structured match. Everyone stuck do what they do best: Kazama and Saito throwing violent kicks, Kandori busting out flash submissions, and Sawai being a big powerhouse. It’s good stuff throughout and builds to a really fun, unpredictable finishing stretch with Saito and Kandori showing off their great chemistry together. I was wary about how this being the 8^th match on a really long card but they kept me and the crowd engaged.

Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara

Yeahh, give us a 3^rd place match in this long ass 1 night tournament too, why not! It speaks volumes about these guys that they had all wrestled about 40 minutes already, but they still keep going hard in this and pop the crowd by doing all their shit. Dug Dos Caras busting out the whacky lucha holds, and Shiryu was pretty much the MVP here having fun sequences with Jericho and Como. The match had no depth, but that would’ve been too much at this point, and there is an artform to just rolling out spots for 15 minutes, and they did it well.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki - EPIC

Alas, the final! And this was a total blast, too. Basically Fuyuki Gun try to do their usual spiel and run into a brickwall. Tenryu and crew wouldn’t have their triple teaming shit, and Fuyuki and his goons got the tables turned on them. Mostly Hamaguchi and Kitahara potatoeing and stretching Jado and Gedo. Anytime Tenryu would come in he would kick someone in the face or chop them in the throat really hard. Fuyuki looked damn great and may have been the best guy in the match. He would constantly run in to make these really violent saves by kicking people in the face, then drop elbows, slap Tenryu, are lariat someone in the jaw. It was as if you had two Tenryus in the match! It builds to a really hot second half with Hamaguchi running wild, and Kendo Nagasaki running in to cause more chaos with a fire extinguisher. It could have ended on that interference spot Attitude Era style and it would’ve been pretty great, but then we also get Kitahara having his leg taken out and stubbornly trying to survive against the nefarious Fuyuki. Great shit, a worthy cap of to this great tournament that produced more great matches than an entire month of 2021 pro wrestling. Wrestle and Romance.

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WAR 6/30/1994 Part 1

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

Yasuraoka may have been the pinnacle of 90s wrestling fashion. He wasn’t at his most extravagant here, but looked like a total gangster coming In with his mullet, baggy pants, martial arts belt and shoes.This was a basic opening match upgraded to WAR-appropriate level of violence with both guys really cracking each other when throwing hands and trying to rip each other in half with half crabs. Starts a bit slow but gets going good with Yasuraoka busting out his cool high spots and Hirai trying to crack his jaw with some mean elbows. Also, because it was the 90s, when they do moves they do cool moves like flying back elbows or sidewalk slams, and execute them with real thud. Hirai may have been at this best as a WAR opening match guy potatoeing his fellows and hitting big elbow drops, and he even wins this match with a really cool huracanrana into a neck crank. Very satisfying.

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Ichiro Yaguchi & Hideo Takayama

It’s nice to get a full version of that NSPW main event. And this was a pretty great match. Everyone looked good potatoeing the shit out of each other. Fuyuki was so great here punching and stomping these kickpadded wannabe shooters into oblivion, at one point even doing a Terry Funk combo, and as usual there were numerous cool cut offs and double teams from Fuyuki-Gun. Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick here, and he is a lot better as a dimestore Volk Han with cool kicks than as a shitty facepainted brawler. At one point he just ragdolled Gedo with a cool wrist throw and that was probably the coolest thing he ever did. Itakura was cool here working fast paced junior sequences with Jado and Gedo, and Hido was there to kick, bleed and get the life beaten out of him. Miss when wrestling was simple and violent.

Dos Caras & Bret Como & Chris Jericho vs. Ashura Hara & Arashi (Benkei) & Super Strong Machine

Now this is a WAR 6-man, baby. And… this went the absurd length of 30(!!!) minutes! It ended up not being a bad match, too! Dos Caras was great here, being pretty much a highspot machine and doing lots of amusing shtick to fill the time, such as challenging Arashi to a posing contest, and trying to unmask everybody else. He was the only on his team to hit a dive! Como and Jericho are more interesting thumbling with some fat sumos than doing their regular junior stuff, and Hara potatoeing them was amusing. And the Arashi sections manage to not stink, even though that guy couldn’t do anything besides some sumo pummeling at this point. After the time runs out Team Caras is awarded the victory. Talk about going to lengths to have Hara and his mates not drop a pinfall.

Great Sasuke, Masao Orihara & Shiryu v Koji Ishinriki, Masanobu Kurisu & Takashi Ishikawa

Man, every match on this card is a main event. This was pretty great too. It was basically a straight WAR match that saw Kurisu and Ishikawa potatoeing guys while the junior side saved their highspots for later, no trained monkey show here. Loved the Kurisu/Shiryu opening segment which saw Kurisu meeting Shiryus lucharesu tendencies by hitting a rope walk armdrag, and also Kurisu stomping and chairing Shiryu really hard. Ishikawa may have been even more vicious as he was kicking Oriharas head like a football. Orihara looked pretty great here (rocking an ultra spaced out 90s look too), and the crowd was insanely hyped for Sasuke, even though he did very little in the match. Ishinriki was wearing a Jason Vorhees mask in this for some reason and basically only in the match to eat the pin while Kurisu did the bulk of the work headbutting guys into oblivion. Finish was great with Sasuke, Orihara and Shiryu hitting a damn triple missile dropkick on Ishinriki before Ishinriki powerbombs Sasuke only for the actual legal man, Orihara to roll him up.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Ryo Miyake & Kishin Kawabata - GREAT

Well, it’s a bunch of beefy dudes potatoeing each other. Almost like this is WAR or something. This was one of the most one sided matches so far as Kitahara and Hamaguchi just mercilessly potatoed Miyake and Kawabata. I think both Miyake and Kawabata got in like a combined 5 offensive moves in this match. Kawabatas piece of offense was a really nice dropkick that caught Tenryu in the mouth, and Miyakes was a pretty pathetic looking dropkick cause Miyake sucks. Other than that, they were there to get kicked in the face and elbowed in the throat by Kitahara and Hamaguchi. Kitahara looked like a killing machine, just killing these poor guys, and Hamaguchi dropped some hard elbows and samoan drops. The match built to a Tenryu/Nagasaki face off, and while it was pretty brief it was cool with Nagasaki smashing Tenryu in the face with chairs. Every match on this card is overdelivering like mad and this was also really cool considering this could’ve been a nothing squash.

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