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.

WAR 1/5/1994

Masao Orihara vs. Norman Smiley

Oddly enough, Norman Smiley fit perfectly into WAR. I've yet to check out his mexican work but this may be the best stuff he's ever done. He was allowed to work as this tough as nails shooter who would dominate on the ground and potatoe dudes with nasty shots. Basically an UWF version of Regal. His holds looked clinical and when it was time to kick Orihara like a dog he wasn't playing around. I imagine if Smiley had faced Hashimoto in a big match or something we'd all be Smiley superfans. Orihara works as a Smiley opponent because he is CRAZY and will bust out unexpected highspots. Worth checking out.

 

Great Kabuki vs. Nobukazu Hirai

They start exchanging some solid armlocks before we get to the juicy part: Kabuki punching Hirai in the face. Hirai is spry, firing back bringing out some junior spots, but this was over almost as quickly as it began.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Ishinriki

 

This was very much an Ultimo Dragon match, although because this is WAR they potatoe each other on a level above your typical junior affair. Dragon uncorks some nasty spin kicks, and Ishinriki fires back with sumo clotheslines, palm rushes almost killing Dragon with a suplex. I pefer Ishinriki in heavyweight slugfests but he is a fun junior.

 

Mil Mascaras vs. Pierroth Jr.

 I enjoy watching Mil Mascaras grapple, but you can imagine how much offense Pierroth Jr got in here. It felt like a miracle that he was able to make Mil take a bump.

 

Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Ashura Hara & Hiromichi Fuyuki

Another round of beefy dudes clobbering eachother. This wasn't peak WAR interpromotional material, but I still probably liked the best out of all the matches on the show. Particularily because the whole match felt thoroughly violent, and Fuyuki and Koshinaka were really at each other's throat. They randomly broke out into this super violent exchange that lead to a poor sap getting punched repeatedly and all was right in the world. I continue to enjoy Goto in these Heisei Ishingun tags as old guy with 2 moves who comes in to lariat and backdrop fools and nothing else, altough there was some sloppiness on his part. Hara's career was winding down but he could still take some big bumps. These matches pretty much write themselves but they still work in some things you won't expect.

  

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Keiji Muto & El Samurai - FUN

 

WAR interpromotional tag that lags a little behind the standard for those due to Mutoh and Samurai not being quite up to the violent standards that these matches have. You watch these matches for some kind of violent showdown to happen and these two aren't the types to bring it. Kitahara was also unusually subdued. However I'd still recommend this for Tenryus amazing performance. He would really eat the fuck out of Mutohs flimsy offense and looked great flying around to put over the match. Add in the usual dose of signature Tenryu face kicking, throat chopping, powerbombing and lariating madness and have yourself something fun. 

 

THE LIBRARY

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT