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.

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.

Random CMLL

 

El Dandy & Silver King & Lizmark vs. Negro Casas & Satanico & Felino, 6/28/1996

I knew this was gonna be good when I saw who was in the match, but it ended up being even better. I think a CMLL trios where everyone has their working boots may be the best wrestling ever and this was pretty damn incredible. First 10 minutes were insanely scrappy and uncooperative. Dandy vs. Casas face punching showdown was incredible, Casas may be the best ever at transferring that kind of stuff on to a big stage, it really felt monumental as Casas would land a punch, do a smug self satisfied little dance before getting popped in the mouth, all to great effect. Casas was full of smirks and antics in the match but still bringing the right amount of legit pro wrestling with his cool spin kicks and blows. Dandy was in his UWF black trunks and kickpads get up so he meant business. Felino and Silver King was on the same level, with both guys being really stubborn and uncooperative going for takedowns, blocking and bitchslapping each other. Satanico/Lizmark was the most traditional pro wrestling in the match and still pretty great and scrappy looking. Rudo beatdown felt intensely violent due Casas trying to choke Dandy out and kicking him in the head, Lizmark taking a beatdown in the corner and almost having his mask pulled off. King getting his head bashed into the post was also really grizzly. At one point Casas was fucking biting Lizmark and you could see the flesh between his teeth before he gives the crowd a smug look, incredible. 3^rd fall retains the uncooperative, violent vibe really well and has some nice retaliation. Especially loved Casas complaining of a foul only to eat some UWF kicks from Dandy who was sick and tired of his shit. I thought it may have needed a bigger showdown considering how incredible the build throughout the match was but Casas getting his head kicked in was nice. Felino and Silver King continueing to streetfight was also excellent and Dandys big dive was thoroughly nuts. Dug the use of the ring with guys taking brutal looking postings and getting bashed into the ring edge.Really excellent match where they went for something pretty unique and everyone looked great, it felt like lucha crossed with WAR Memphis and UWF in the best way.

 Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, 8/28/1992

Pretty epic destruction of Casas. Dragon has it all here, he unloads all of his high end japanese offense on Casas who basically just takes a beat down. Dragons kicks actually look like he is kicking the shit out of his opponent here instead of going through a kick choreography, and he presses the action early on locking in a figure 4 in the first fall instead of the usual chain wrestling. There is some nice wrestling going on but Dragon is the dominant force and Casas is on offense for maybe 30 seconds in the whole match. Casas selling performance was quite amazing as it looks like he got fucked up early on by Dragons kicks and bombs and hanging on by a thread. There is a point where Casas is able to kick Dragon in the back and is unable to follow up so Dragon turns around to kick his ass some more. I was rooting for Casas and wanting him to stage some kind of epic comeback but he is too smart for that and he ends up just capitalizing on Dragon slipping and makes him pay for it. Crowd was mad hot for Ultimo and the match had such a unique vibe. It's rare that you see a title match in lucha be this one sided while going long. Dragon was on and Casas performance was amazing making this really memorable.

Norman Smiley vs. Vampiro, 10/30/1993

 At last, we talk about the truely fascinating stuff on this blog! Norman Smiley being a megastar in Mexico feels so unlikely. Especially since he wrestles the same dry technical style, but I guess the crowds just took a liking to him. Stardom in wrestling is sometimes bestowed in mysterious ways, but I think the guy deserves it just for being unapologetically himself. It's something that almost never gets brought up, as the English speaking internet is largely ignorant to lucha and I imagine the few lucha diehards are also ignorants towards the likes of Smiley and Vampiro since 'it's not real lucha'. This is a pretty interesting match. It's not some kind of hidden gem, but it ain't bad, and they do lots of curious things.  Immediately they start with grappling and trading some hard kicks. I thought Smiley was punishing Vampiro at first, kicking him really hard when he was down and locking in legit holds, with Vampiro looking sloppy and out of position. But Vampiro fired back with stiff looking kicks of his own, even kicking Smiley in the head while he was trying for a UWF leg lock. Smiley torquing 'piro on the ground is good, and Vampiro manages to string some decent power moves together to end the first fall. Vampiro soon goes back to looking like he barely belongs in a ring. He sure is a funny wrestler to watch when he tries. There are some fumblings, and poorly thought out structure, but by gawd they do try hard to work some epic twists and turns and have a lengthy match that succeeds in not stinking it up. I dug Smiley big bump to the outside, and the nonchalant foul he gave Vampiro amping up the pressure in the match was pretty well done. It was not a flawless match but I'd rather watch something like this over generic junior workrate fest #9000.

Random Lucha

 

Skayde & Torero vs. Colt & Aspid, Promo Azteca 2/28/1997

Opening matwork between Skayde and Colt was like the lucha equivalent of a high end U-Style match up. Really beautiful but also competitive stuff. Notable how good a random indy luchador like Colt was in 1997. Toreros sections were supposed to add some spice to the match, and his wrestling was fun too. He kept taking his boot off to hit the rudos with, while lizardman Aspid played the fool. The hold he won the first fall with was really cool. The match kept being played like that, Torero doing shtick and Skayde working high end workrate exchanges. Their team work was really cool and something you don‘t see a lot from technico teams. Good stuff and just the first 3 minutes of this are must watch.

 

El Dandy & Hector Garza & Shocker vs. Shu El Guerrero & Felino & Kahoz, CMLL 9/8/1995

CMLL once again throws 6 guys into a match and you get something really good. Shu vs. El Dandy is such a cool match up, and they really stretch out and do a lot together here. They start with a lengthy mat section which was so cool, Dandy allowed to Shu to look beastly, with Shu hitting aggressive takedowns and locking in cool holds on him. Dandy tried to pick at the best by attacking his arms and legs, building to a really nice arm lift spot. Felino/Garza was also so good, man I love Felino as he will just grapple and throw the fuck out of a guy. Garza was this athletic young stud but Felino pretty much overwhelmed him and it was intense stuff. The next good match up in this was Shocker/Kahoz, who apparently had a feud going. Shocker forearmed Kahoz hard as he was standing on the aprom which is totally enough to get me into the match up. Later we get Kahoz working quite mean, hitting some snug clotheslines and kick and even tearing Shockers mask violently. I really liked how Dandy and Garza had to use double teams to use the first fall (earning them some boos since that‘s rudo stuff). The rudo beatdown transitions into everyone working frantic 1 vs. 1 exchanges was also really good and the technicos still being at a disadvantage was a nice touch, as the rudos were quite ruthless hitting gnarly powerbombs on that unforgiving mexican ring mat.. Dandy hit this great desperation tope over the 3rd rope and his partner tried to pull out a win but failed. Sometimes technicos can‘t succeed and this case the rudos were just a bit too vicious.

EMLL in 1990 #1 - 1/5/1990

El Supremo & Hijo de Gladiador & Herodes vs. Ciclon Ramirez & Pantera II & Aguila Solitaria

Well this was just a classic lucha romp with that rudo/technico dynamics. Tons of highly entertaining technicos one upping the clumsy bad guys sequences. The rudo trio is pretty dedicated – Hijo de Gladiador takes a front flip bump when he misses a punch, and Herodes is just gleeful about his own evilness, while El Supremo has a very different presence. I liked how the rudo beatdown started with Supremo basically having enough and clocking Pantera with a stiff elbow. Of the technicos I'd say I liked Pantera II the best who has such beautiful armdrags and his trademark rope running spot altough everyone did something cool. The 3^rd fall had some really amusing chase spots. I was surprised how easily the rudos won this one. 

Angel Azteca & Super Astro & Kung Fu & Emilio Charles Jr. & Jaque Mate & Espectro Jr.

Long, quality lucha that told a story. Early on Emilio Charles Jr. gets the better of Azteca during a wrestling exchange. Of course Angel takes great offense to this and immediately goes after Emilio. Azteca going out of his way to ram into Emilio with a huge forearm while in the middle of a rope running exchange with Espectro was straight out of the AJPW playbook. Of course Emilio Jr. makes him pay dearly later when he slaps the hell out of him during the beatdown. That along may have been the highlight of the match along with Aztecas bumping, including flying with his back into the edge of the ring apron. Of course Super Astro and Kung Fu also do lots of fun wrestling. Astro is such a trip to watch with the insane height on all flying moves, while Kung Fu manages to not suck doing his faux martial arts stuff and hitting weird/cool kicks, punches and leg trips. We also get the awesome and devastating tope to the floor from Super Astro aswell as Emilio Charles Jr. not falling for The Star.

El Dandy & Mogur & Popitekus vs. Pierroth Jr. & MS-1 & Ulises

Quality main event. There are some rudo interference shenanigans early on, but we get a long 1^st fall with everyone wrestling. You know it's gonna be good when El Dandy is in his Kazuo Yamazaki tights and UWF kickpads. I especially liked the Dandy/MS-1 matchup. MS-1 is a trickier grappler than he looks like and they play up the size difference. Popitekus is an awesome big tubby luchador and also way brave as he bumps bigger and more often than a guy his size should. Pierroth Jr. deciding to work over Mogur with stiff kicks to the spine was quite unexpected and things took a harsh turn when Mogur decided to fight fire with fire and also rip his mask. Pierroth cracks him open and we got ourselves a heated third fall with a bloody and beaten Mogur trying to stand up to him. At one point El Dandy was hitting these fast enzuigiris and spin wheel kicks before Mogur clocked Pierroth Jr. with a desperation lariat for a big nearfall and it's like this is NJPW now or something. Cool finish which reminds the fans every move is important. I think the match didn't even have a dive so reminder that lucha can be cutting edge and economic too.

 THE LIBRARY

Tokyo Pro 8/25/1996

 

TWA World Tag Challenger Team Decision Match: Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask vs. Takashi Ishikawa & Yoshihiro Takayama

This was a fun match with everyone dishing out stiff shots and Anjoh making jokes. Takayama was wearing biker gloves for some reason, but other than that his exchanges with Anjoh and Tiger Mask were the highlight of the match. Tiger Mask works best against heavyweights because it adds some restraint to his work and Takayama forces him out of his usual spiel by not going along and making him actually hit the mat and work exchanges instead of just hitting his spots.

 

Sabu vs. Black Wazuma (2 Cold Scorpio)

Really good match which may be the best I've seen between the two. They start slow with a lot of matwork and cool rope running exchanges which added a ton to the build of the match. These two have wrestled each other many times especially on this tour but they did a good job making everything come together organically and not making the match look like an exhibition. Sabu hits a really nice low dropkick into a spin kick transition and I'm wondering when the hell did Sabu turn into a graceful junior wrestler but then he goes for a dive and Scorpio just hurls a chair into him and the match goes awry. They move into the spots and reversals you expect from a Sabu/Scorpio match. All the spots still look cool and everything made sense, the only minor upfuck was Sabu's slightly delayed bump on a headscissor. Sabu using the chair to crotch Scorp when he tried his extra flippy legdrop was a really smart spot to allow himself extra breathing space. I dug them going back to some cool mat stuff for a bit in the middle. Match went the right length. Feels weird how out of style Sabu worship is with the indy wrestlers of the last few years, I enjoyed this a lot.

 

NWA Light Heavyweight Title Match: El Dandy vs. Masao Orihara

Looking at this matchup taking place in a sleaze indy fed I was expecting a wild brawl but instead they stick to working a WCW Worldwide match. These are two guys with some fun snappy offense though and they trade some big suplexes, powerbombs and dives. They end up working some bullshit non-finish so they can do a restart with a few minutes overtime and then work a time limit draw. Lazy tricksters.

 

TWA Tag Title Match: Abdullah The Butcher & Daikokubo Benkei vs. Yoji Anjo & Tiger Mask

 Way too fun. This was about the best match you can possibly get out of two dudes as limited as Abby & Benkei. First Anjo and Tiger take turns laying into pudgy old sumowrestler Benkei before Abby comes in for the old stab & chop. Anjo ends up bloodied and playing a really good Ricky Morton for such a natural dipshit heel before coming back by beating the shit out of Abby and bloodying him in return. Undeterred by the potential Hep infection Tiger Mask comes in and beats the shit out of a bloody Abby aswell. Tiger can't really do highspots against these fat dudes so he just throws a bunch of kicks to the face and kneedrops and it's awesome. Abby trapping Anjo with his blob physique was a great spot too. Tiger Mask & Anjo looked super here and Abby selling and coming back with a last ditch throat chop was genuinely exciting stuff.

THE LIBRARY