Lucha Libre from 1998

El Hijo del Santo/ Karloff Lagarde Jr/Violencia vs. Felino/Shocker/Tony Rivera, CMLL 6/19/1998

Another pretty insanely high end workrate match from CMLL in 1998. It’s technicos vs. technicos so there’s no rudo beatdown and it’s just breathless technical exchanges. First fall was packed with awesome matwork, as you had Felino/Karloff reprising their title match with Felino taking Karloff down and slapping the shit out of him at one point. Rivera challenged Hijo del Santo to a mat duel, and it was excellent with Santo basically schooling the young guy with some really fast amateur rides. That match up had really good intensity and should have gone longer. Even the Shocker/Violencia match up brought something to the table. Felino hits a sneaky big powerbomb on Santo as a ‘fuck you’ to end the first fall and after that the match is built around their showdowns. Holy shit Santito was hellbent on proving that he’s the greatest wrestler on earth in this match, he was busting out all kinds of awesome shit to counter Felinos bomb dropping aggressiveness. I also really enjoyed Violencia, people almost never bring up a guy like Violencia but the dude could go, he was on point during all the exchanges, hitting cool snug clotheslines and big moves chucking people hard to the mat, and when it was time to bump he just flew. Rivera and Karloff are kind of the odd men out in this but they worked hard, although some of their stuff felt a bit trained monkeyish it was nothing egregious. And the Santo/Felino stuff totally delivers a huge finish. Killer stuff, CMLL was on fire with these kind of workrate trios matches in 1998.

Mascara Magica vs Karloff Lagarde, Jr. CMLL 1998/2/6

CMLL, bristling with hot talent in 1998, for some reason decided to push Karloff Lagarde Jr, who had all the markings of a non-star with his awkward look and low level skillset. For some reason they gave this guy more than one opportunity in a big title match. To be fair, the first fall matwork is pretty good: late 90s lucha matwork is jarring to back and watch because it feels so competitive, almost like shootstyle. There are intricate movements but it when someone actually locks in a submission it feels like someone going for an armbar in shootstyle, its dangerous. Modern lucha matwork may be more smooth and intricate (at least when done by the masters) but feels more exhibitiony. As such, the 1^st fall is a pretty cool 5 minutes of lucha grappling that is worth checking out. 2^nd fall some awkwardness creeps in and the 3^rd fall is basically an exercise in what you can do with an awkward, not very athletic, green-ish wrestler. Mascara Magica looks very good here and works hard, busting out some big dives including one past the turnbuckle post, but there’s a ceiling to how good things can be with a guy like Lagarde Jr in there. Watching this it’s not hard to see why Felino decided to humiliate the poor guy in their match.

Virus, Zumbido and Halcon Negro vs Olimpico, Super Kendo and Oriental, 1998/6/23

Pretty much a highlight reel for what you can get from a trios match. There are lightning fast Virus/Oriental exchanges, Halcon Negro being amazingly scummy and setting himself up in great ways for Olimpico, and Kendo showing up in Mexico which is always cool to see. Won’t shock you if you’ve seen a ton of trios wrestling but this had pretty much everything done insanely well and with a bit of unpredictability to make it interesting. Oriental probably doesn’t get talked about enough as he always looks pretty great. Both his brief grappling segment aswell as the running exchanges with Virus were great. Rudo beatdown section was also good stuff with some gnarly punches and boots to the face being thrown. Halcon Negro and Olimpico got pretty heated which was cool to see. The finish is pretty brief so it doesn’t end up being anything epic but it’s satisfying. Another one of those great matches that CMLL would throw out constantly because they just had that many great wrestlers in their roster at the time.

Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000 vs Shocker & Mr. Niebla & Brazo de Plata, 10/7/1998

Matches of Los Hermanos Dinamitas almost never get pimped, so I had to check this out. Fun segment before the match with the Dinamitas – in full leather coats, sunglasses and hats looking like the douchiest gay biker gang you’ve ever seen – popping some kids football and getting challenged by the technicos. The match is just a relentless beatdown. There is really nothing that workrate fans could like about the Dinamitas. They don’t really do anything cool, they just beat people down like ice cold pricks. There is a train of double stomps that just looks ruthless. By the 2^nd fall, Shocker and Niebla were bleeding and having their masks ripped, getting their heads bashed into the announce table while a cop sits there. The announcer finds an actor in the audience and he interviews him a bit so we get that in between shots of masked guys bleeding with their faces/masks ripped open and getting beaten on the ground. It really feels like the technicos are done and it makes their eventual comeback feel really spectacular even though it’s extremely simple. There’s pretty much nothing in this match that you could make a GIF out of – except maybe the dives of Shocker or Super Porky, but that wouldn’t really capture the essence of what makes this great. The Capos were just total jerks and absolutely dedicated to their role in the most obnoxious, cold and uncool way. Maybe that’s why they were such big stars.

Random Lucha

 

El Golpeador/Gremlin/Dr. Cerebro vs Mastadonte/Tony Rivera/El Oriental, AAA 5/11/1996

I‘m guessing this is from an AAA show where they aired the match with the local guys. It‘s funny how you can watch a random lucha local guy opener and find a bunch of really good wrestlers you don‘t hear much of. Mastadonte is a big fat guy and Golpeador a scuzzy rudo who stooges for the fat guys fatness in really amusing ways, the part where he got scared of one technico and then ran right into a belly attack was an amazing bit of stooging. Along with that you had some really great workrate sections, Oriental looks just spectacular matching up with Gremlin and Dr. Cerebro here. It was nice to see a young Dr. Cerebro, who at this point looked like the much better Dr. Wagner Jr., acting like a jerk, stooging extremely well and making everything look seemless. He had very cool chemistry with Tony Rivera where they did more solid moves like snug clotheslines and missile dropkicks as opposed to the crazy headscissors and armdrags of Oriental. Another highlight was Orientals inside arm suplex which was a really Honda move for a 90s luchador to bust out. Nice unpredictable structure where they play with your expectations of a classic trios structure so when you expect a rudo beatdown to start, it doesn‘t. Interesting finish too as Mastadonte turns on his technico partners and they lay waste to the technicos in a 4 on 2 beatdown before another luchador in zubaz pants makes the safe. Great tag overall though.

 

Baby Rabbit/Mini Frisbee/Super Muñequito vs. Espectritos I & II/La Parkita, AAA 3/22/1996

Really great match which may very well be an overlooked classic. Just 6 really great wrestlers with charisma working 3 stretched out falls, which is about all you need to produce a great lucha trios. Just one great exchange after another. I really liked how Mini Frisbee started out working some more grounded but cool armdrag variation, but things soon went into overdrive when Baby Rabbit tagged in. That guy had some truely amazing movements, it's gotta be hard diving through the ropes when you are barely the height of the middle ropes but he had no problem. Technicos start busting out dives in the first fall so the rudos had to move. Great extended rudo beatdown with numerous cut offs and a gradual technico comeback. Lucha beatdowns can be trite but that wasn't the case here, the rudos booted people in the face, hit powerbombs on that unforgiving ring and generally strew the faces bodies all over the places. There was a cool moment where Frisbee and somebody blew a sequence but recovered seamlessly, and a dance off between Munequito and La Parkita. Gotta say this Super Munequito has to be a way better wrestler than the big version. The celebration after the 3rd fall felt truely earned, not only because the match felt like a struggle but because they absolutely nailed everything.

Mini Vader & Mini Mankind vs. La Parkita & Mascarita Sagrada Jr., AAA 1/10/1997

MINI VADER. MINI MANKIND. The ref is Mini Tirantes! They have a Mini Paul Bearer! But Mini Paul Bearer is taller than either of them, so I guess the scale was off. This was some good stuff. Mascarita Sagrada Jr. is of course ultra spectacular (apparently he's Baby Rabbit), but Parkita is a really good technico also. Swag dance moves and fast arm drags. He had a really nice moment where he got some real pop on a pop-up rana into a spinning headscissor thing that may have  been the most spectacular moment of the match. I dug Mini Vader a lot here, as he was hitting punches but also really booting peoples heads off with thrust kicks and hitting gnarly power bombs while also being an excellent base. Apparently he's Espectrito who had lost his mask, being Mini Vader a bit longer could've produced some cool match ups but he went back to being Espectrito soon. Weak finish but everything up to that point was all kinds of fun, sometimes you wanna watch a match like this.

CMLL Japan Lucha Revolution 2nd 2/24/1999

 Watch

Kurokage vs. Takashi Sasaki

Unusual match to open your CMLL Japan show, but I‘m not complaining about your DDT boys getting some work. This was a fun 5 minutes, these two really work un-lucharesu like and pelt each other with kicks and open hands. Kurokage kind of gets a showcase here, he busts out a slick armbar, spikes Sasaki with a vicious Dragon Suplex and gets the pin with a cool combination.

Maxx Bunny & Super Cacao vs. Masaru Seno & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

Fine undercard lucharesu with some comedic elements. Give me some amusing gimmicks and the occasional neat pin or submission and I‘m happy. Tubby boy Kikuzawa looks good doing armdrags and twisting sentons. Seno is the future Daioh Quallt and works as a thick amateur boy here and he is fun. Bunny did the occasional comedy but also brought some wrestling. I think Super Cacao is Nozawa and he‘s inoffensive. There was no need for this to go twice as long as the previous match, though.

El Olimpico vs. Rencor Latino

I always enjoy luchadores in Japan getting 10 minutes to impress the audience. These two do some really funky matwork to start, lots of cool unorthodox throws. It‘s a pity CMLL pretty much got rid of matwork in the 2000s because things were getting very experimental at this point. The match took a bit of dampener when Olimpico was hesistant on his dive, but they picked up again for the finish when Latino hit his own big dive. Enjoyable stuff, why does it feel like ages since I‘ve seen two luchadores do this kind of match in Japan?

Halcon Negro & El Salsero & Zumbido vs. Super Delfin & Masato Yakushuji & Naohiro Hoshikawa

Another really fun lucharesu match. Everyone had their working boots on. El Salsero was a fun discovery here, he would do his crazy dancing and then plant people with big powerbombs and spin kicks. Yakushiji is one of the most spectacular wrestlers ever and he matches up extremely well with Zumbido here. Halcon Negro is a lumpy bodied luchador and it‘s fun watching him bust out dives and get kicked hard by Hoshikawa. Structure was a bit iffy since the Osaka Pro guys kind of tried to work rudo but weren‘t very convincing at it (Yakushiji keeps getting face spots and Delfin doesn‘t do much). Finishing run was fun though with a big dive train etc.

Ultimo Guerrero & Virus vs. Oriental & Tsubasa

Any long Virus match from this period is a treasure. And this was all these guys going balls out for +20 minutes. Really aiming for the most spectacular match they could possibly produce. We get a bunch of ultra slick opening mat exchanges to start. I‘ve never really noticed Tsubasa before, but he matches up well with Virus, not just „guy who is a warm body getting carried through some sections by Virus“ but actively looking really polished. And Oriental is really underrated and a really good worker. The match goes a bit awry when Oriental goes for diving rana to the outside (an insane move for 1999) and UG miss-catches him. He ends up being fine though and it may have added to the match as immediately there was heat on the rudo beat down section. Oriental regained his senses and later actually hit the big diving rana in a really nice moment. And the rest of this was spectacular and smooth to the max. I‘m surprised I‘ve never heard of this before because how on earth would 90s workrate smarks not love this?! If you want a crazy spotfest you might as well get a bunch of pro luchadores to do it, and they went for big fucking spots here, aside from all the slick ranas and spectacular dives there was Virus busting out a dominator from the top which looked like it could have killed Tsubasa, and Ultimo Guerrero busts out his avalanche reverse suplex on the hard as hell Japanese ring. They executed everything with grace (safe for one or two mishaps) and logic and it was really good shit. Also dug out UG trying to pull out the victory against the odds, real stoic rudo determination. Another really great Oriental performance, too, and did I mention Virus? I'm not overly familiar with 1999 CMLL but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the 2nd or 3rd best Lucha match to happen that year.

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IWA Japan Grand Opening Stage Battle States 5/23/1994

 

Watch

Johnny Gomez vs. Hiroshi Ono

IWA Japan was basically W*ING 2 at this point, so we get all kinds of cool random Puerto Ricans working here. Johnny Gomez looked really good here, he had a bunch of good looking offense and did a neat job directing young nondescript future deathmatch bleeder Hiroshi Ono along. Ono didn‘t show much but he hit a nasty back suplex at one point. Gomez had a really nice thrust kick (always loves those) and the finish was really brutal looking with Gomez hitting a dropkick where he basically landed on Hiroshi Onos face. This went a bit under 5 minutes and was just right.

El Oriental & Crash The Terminator vs. Miguel Perez, Jr. & Winger

What amount of drugs could dream up this match up? And – this match ended up being kind of insane and great! Before the match Oriental cuts a promo where he mentions being the brother of the Moreno Sisters, which is kind of cute. Oriental always looks really good when I see him, and he looks really good here getting decent exchanges out of Winger. Then you get Hugh Morrus and Miguel in workrate mode – as both these big guys step up and do a bunch of athletic moves and bumping! Suddenly the match was chock full of memorable moments, such as Crash leaping to the 3rd rope and then hitting a great spinning crossbody – that misses – before Miguel hits an equally great spinning senton of the 2nd rope. Then you get the heavyweights bullying the junior guys around. The section where Crash stooges a bunch for Wingers lucha moves, then catches him on a dive before gently placing him down and getting back into the ring was so out of left field and great. He‘s CRASH THE TERMINATOR, face painted maniac with a skullet, but brawling with a smaller opponent is somehow beneath him, he just wants to wrestle him fair and square in the ring! Perez Jr./Oriental sections where also great. Perez hits a really crazy lariat that drops Oriental on his neck and then Oriental fires back with this awesome front flip kick in his face. Finish was way bigger than you‘d expect too with Miguel busting out a bunch of dives including a crazy huge Asai Moonsault, Winger eating a powerbomb on the floor and Oriental taking a giant chokeslam. For a second match on a card with a bunch of thrown together wrestlers this was about as good as you can ask for.

Dick Murdoch vs. Masayoshi Motegi

Another insane match. Is this Motegis biggest match ever? Bigger than him facing Liger? It definitely felt more meaningful. The first 10 minutes of this were really great and textbook stuff. Both guys were just chain wrestling, but Motegi was going after Murdochs arm like mad and Murdoch did all these neat maestro-ish touches, such as blocking a takedown attempt, sinking in Fujiwara armbars. Despite the size difference they meshed very well. When Murdoch was cutting off Motegi, he always clocked him with a bionic elbow or punch to the face, while selling the arm. Motegi hit these neat punches and kicks to Murdochs arm. Obviously Motegi was a bit limited in terms of what offense he could do to Murdoch, and that held the last couple minutes of this back a bit. Still I was shocked how good this was, as they did a bunch of really good intricate wrestling while keeping it tight.

Shoji Nakamaki vs. Kintaro Kanemura

This was the first match on the card that was entirely within the ordinary. Kanemura gets a barbedwire bat and brutalizes Nakamaki a bunch. Nakamaki makes one fired up comeback and hits a nice diving headbutt. Kanemura takes a nice clothesline bump, but soon goes back to beating on Nakamaki before pinning him quite easily. Good enough to keep things moving and put over Nakamaki as an underdog taking beatings, although I think Nakamaki never really did move on beyond that.

Silver King vs. El Texano

There aren‘t many Texano single matches around that I know of, so this was cool to have. Pretty much a stocky guy workrate match. Both these guys execute all their stuff at a ridiculously high level. Starts great with an amazing looking Texano punch in the ropes before they unroll a bunch of spectacular rope running sequences. All super tight executed. There are some great dives and Texano gets amazing height on a big splash. Not much of a story, but they went out to get pops, and that they did.

Headhunters vs. Nobutaka Araya & El Misterioso

 

Putting Misterioso in the main event?! You better believe it. This was sloppy, but fun. Pretty much a sleazy Twin Towers vs. Rockers match. Headhunters hit a bunch of stiff clotheslines and big body splashes. We get a bunch of cool Big vs. Little interactions between Misterioso, plus a few crazy high spots. Araya hits a huge moonsault to the outside, there‘s a flip dive from a Headhunter. The sloppy/unprepared moments, such as Araya violently lariating an unsuspecting Headhunter over the ropes may have added to the mayhem. The ending is pretty brutal with Araya taking a bunch of Headhunter splashes and a moonsault that seemed to knock him loopy before the doomsday bulldog finish. I always enjoy me some Headhunters and this was a fun main event to cap off this insane card.

 

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