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.

2002 MOTY Project Update #16

30.  Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Shocker & Vampiro, CMLL 9/13/2002

Another shockingly great match in the Vampiro vs. GDI feud. Getting a great feud out of Vampiro must be the crown jewel in Bucaneros and UGs body of work. This was basically a 12 minute super sprint that they put thought into. Every fall told a story and was intense. Of course, everyone minus Vampiro here is a really great athlete, so they were wrestling on a high level. Shocker played second fiddle to Vampiros charisma, but he was working his ass off bumping and flying and working exchanges. And Vampiro did not shit himself. I always like how hard Bucanero and Guerrero go at their opponents. They are asskickers but they always make sure to get the crowd on their bad site. Near perfect mix of workrate and heelwork.

4. Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas vs. Rey Bucanero & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Tarzan Boy, CMLL 8/30/2002

Even greater match, probably the lucha MOTY. Just an incredible brawl. Just a house of fire with the rudos coming out destroying the technicos and then the technicos coming back laying major assbeatings on them.Tarzan Boy was going hard after Negro Casas since they had a feud, and the bit where Casas was eating a 3 on 1 beatdown on the floor was some street violence. The technicos almost completely forgo any fancy moves and just go right back after the rudos, guys jumping on each other raining punches from mount left and right, it's a frenzy. Casas continueing to beat on Tarzan Boy right after the finish was great. In between the brawling and mask ripping they mix in some incredible sequences. You know it's awesome when Mr. Niebla has his working boots on and Bucaneros monkey flip bump over the rope was out of this world, he just flew into the void. My favourite moment in the whole match may have been Casas landing punches from mount and Bucanero jumping on him ragdolling him across the ring by his hair. You wouldn't think a hair drag would be so awesome but it is. You could tell Casas had a blast too busting out Choshu lariats and kicking dudes in the face. A nice reminder how incredible lucha brawls can be.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #7

 Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura (WAR 10/21/1992) - EPIC

WAR vs. New Japan is one of those few transcendental occurances in wrestling history. This whole match is just from another planet, insane heat, crowd booing and cheering everyone at the same time, dueling chants breaking out, and everyone engages in super uncooperative, violent exchanges. The star of the match is Tenryu as he comes in constantly like a force of nature, there’s an amazing moment where he takes a piledriver on the floor, then cleans house and the camera pans away revealing he has blood streaming down his face, but our boys Orihara and Kitahara are fantastic supporting players. Orihara is young an super fired up, taking big beatings and always firing back, at one point he gets into a fight with Akitoshi Saito who’s outside the ring in his gi and it seems the place comes unglued. Kitahara is right at home in this kind of scrappy match, throwing kicks like baseball bats and looking in shootstyle holds all while drawing baffling heel reactions, I wish he had been in the match a little more. And the Koshinaka/Aoyagi/Kimura was just kicking ass like you wouldn’t believe. Kengo Kimura may have had the night of his life, he is old but he was kicking and punching guys in the face all while acting like a jerk and taunting Tenryu. This was a nice reminder of how much pro wrestling rules.

 

Koki Kitahara & Pierroth & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Vampiro & Atlantis (CMLL 9/23/1994) - GREAT

Koki Kitaharas stay in CMLL lasted about 4 matches. Japanese wrestlers working Mexico for a brief stint usually doesn’t produce great matches, and I was expecting Kitahara to tone his act down, maybe work a bit more like a junior… but boy, I was wrong. This is classic Kitahara acting like a psycho material. He was hellbent on kicking the dogshit out of Vampiro here. Seeing Kithara punting someone in the face on the floor of Arena Mexico is something else. Pierroth and Wagner also seemed to have had it with Vampiro. I imagine he was being a coked up joker on his stay or something, because they were really pasting him with punches and clotheslines, while being absolutely unwilling to make him look good or bump for him in any way. Really one of the meanest rudo performances I've ever seen. It makes for a pretty compelling match as Atlantis and Rayo De Jalisco basically only make sporadic appearance while Vampiro gets his ass kicked and tries to fire back only to get beaten up some more. In the second fall, Vampiro was hitting his own goofy martial arts kicks and I was starting to groan, but then Kitahra elbowed him in the jaw hard and kicked him in the face some more. After the match Kitahara and Pierroth immediately jump on Vamp with Kitahara raining punches on his face and Pierroth looking like he was either trying to protect Vampiro or choke him out. Either way, it’s rare you see an ass kicking like this in Arena Mexico since they banned blood. I’m wondering why it’s not talked about more, but then again, digging up this stuff is what this blog is for.

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

2002 MOTY List Update #3 - Lucha worth watching

Shocker vs. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL 12/13/2002)

Ah, 2002, when Shocker was a great worker. I really liked the brief opening matwork, with Shocker flipping around and Guerrero catching him in a great flash Fujiwara Armbar. 2^nd fall was short but had UG working Shockers arm over with hurty wristlocks and takedowns. Then Shocker made this great comeback and trying to boot his head off. Shocker looked damn good here, even throwing a great punch combo. The 3^rd fall was your typical UG end run where they exchange big dramatic kickouts. Not my favourite thing but it was awesome to watch these two crush eachother with huge chunky guy highspots.  

Vampiro Canadiense vs. Rey Bucanero (CMLL 12/13/2002) 

Psycho bomb throwing war which has to go down as the carryjob of the year. Vampiro was basically a stiff trying to be a video game wrestler here. However, his recklessness may have added to the match as he seemed to be self destructive hitting moves (e.g. knocking himself loopy with his own suplex, injuring his leg hitting a spin kick etc). It really adds to the suspense when you think this washed up drug fiend is going to blow his knees out any moment. Whenever Vampiro was in danger of getting lost, Bucanero engaged in some vicious brawling. I especially loved the segment on the ramp that started with Bucanero just clocking Vampiro in the back of the neck. He also had some really great brief work on the shoulder. The whole match made sense and was never boring as they just kept doing bumps and dives. The one weak point was Vampiros superman comeback which knocked the place down about 15 places in the list.

 Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Damian 666 & Halloween (CMLL 7/5/2002)

Unfortunately, CMLL for some reason decided to have their matches be rather short and fast paced around this time. That feeling was present here, but everyone had their working boots on and there were plenty of good exchanges and some neat spots throughout. Damian 666 is someone you wouldn't associate with this kind of workrate match, but he may have been the coolest dude in the matchs imply due to being middle aged and tubby and still doing all those leaps and getting dropped on his head. Hot finish.

Torneo Cibernetico (CMLL 3/22/2002)

This went 20 minutes and not 50, so it's not a classic. Still, you had some guys with insane highspots rolling out those highspots in a string of well executed, quick exchanges. It's pretty much crazy from the get go with Halloween eating the tope to the back of the head and Nicho getting dumped on his head from a German suplex. Felino turning on the rudos and Casas getting DQ'd was weird, but the old guys were a ton of fun in this otherwise. Also, we got to see Satanico and Casas trading punches. Nice ending with an unexpected guy picking up the win against a legend.

 

2002 MOTY PROJECT MASTER LIST