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.

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.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted CMLL

Rey Bucanero vs. Fantastik, CMLL 5/7/1996

This was from a tournament and people always complain about tournament lucha that the matches are super short, but this was a great 5 minute match. Had pretty much everything you can ask for, slick matwork, huge dives, some cool bumps and a cool finish. Fantastik is a luchador who would show up on a lot of BJW undercards and in very little actual stuff from Mexico, but he is a pretty great luchador. Great little moment during the opening grappling where he suplexed Bucanero out of nowhere and then almost crushed his chest with a senton where he landed hip first. Then he whips out his awesome senton to the floor which has to be the nuttiest regular spot any wrestler every had. He takes a super cool bump on a missed kneedrop before Bucanero hits a heavy landing dive of his own and is able to snatch the victory with a cool submission hold.

Tajiri & Fantastik & Ciclon Ramirez vs. Mogur & Halcon Negro & Guerrero de la Muerte (CMLL 12/23/1995)

Sometimes, you just gotta watch a great lucha trios. I think CMLL was having a strong run at best promotion in the world in the late 90s and this was an example of why. Just 6 wrestlers going hard in a very competitive match. You can tell things were on fire when a match involving undercarders is this good. Tajiri was like a fish in water working the Mexican style. He had no problem going hard doing some swank lucha matwork and then hitting some uncharacteristic high kicks. Fantastik vs. Mogur section may have been even better, as both guys work sections around throwing each other hard with judo hip throws. Mogur was in the match to seek heat, which is a totally fine role when there are multiple super athletic wrestlers in the match, and he was hitting good looking uppercuts. Fantastik hits a missile dropkick with such amazing height its ridiculous. Rudo beatdown section was short and fairly violent (I like how they segued into it), including Guerrero de la Muerte hitting a stiff clothesline. 3^rd fall saw Tajiri almost breaking Mogurs jaw with a kick before hitting a great dive and Fantastik once again rolling out the insane senton to he floor. Finish wasn’t epic but Ciclon and Guerrero de la Muerte did some good work before a super blatant foul. I don’t know if this lead to anything (I imagine it was simply an undercard match where they decided to look good before doing a quick finish) but the work was so enjoyable that you won’t be sour about the finish at all.

Bracito de Oro & Orito vs. Felinito & Pierrothito, CMLL 5/24/1996

 Super enjoyable tag that was a preview of the greatness the CMLL minis division would produce in 1997. Seriously everyone here looks like such a high end pro wrestler, just ridiculously smooth matwork, lightning fast rope running, and everything laid out in a pretty complex manner. Felinito was a real fucker in the match too, adding some piss and vinegar, but they make sure to stretch out and let everyone showcase some wrestling. Orito takes one of the highest backdrop bumps I've ever seen, and everyone gets in some great offense, including Pierrothito with a great arm hold suplex and later a beautiful back elbow, and Felinito with a crushing senton. Bracito also busts out some neat chokeslams.