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.

FULL 6/21/1992

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 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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