Assorted Monterrey

 

Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/Verdugo vs. Apolo Estrada/Tony Reyna/Rudy Reyna (1989)

I dug Apolo Estrada here, as he was willing to bleed like crazy, get his ass kicked and throw great punches in retaliation. That’s about all I need from a great babyface. The Pirates immediately started kicking ass and Estrada was a bloody mess within like 2 minutes. We get a great comeback from Estrada throwing a flurry of punches and then stalking Pirata Morgan, as they would fight through the chairs and punch each other for several minutes in an intense streetfight. It was the kind of moment where they were hard to separate and they just kept fighting as neither wanted to turn his back and it was really grimy and cool. Rest of the match was largely built around Estrada and Pirata Morgan having epic face offs. The Reynas were alright, did their job and didn’t try to take the spotlight from Morgan/Estrada. I liked Rudy who is an exotico, cutting out the bullshit and just throwing punches in the third fall. All the Pirata/Estrada faceoffs were great and we get an awesome dive from Estrada plus absolutely nasty low blow finish. This is definitely a feud I would like to see more of. 

 

 Negro Navarro vs. Apolo Estrada, Monterrey ?/1989

I'd say this was easily one of the most violent lucha matches I've ever seen. Negro Navarro was an absolutely amazing asskicker here. There is some brief wrestling at the start, with some cool trips and takedowns and Negro Navarro locking in a really graceful armbar, but they soon start brawling. Navarro delivers an absolutely sick all time level beatdown on Estrada, knees to the face, amazing punch combos and headbutts. Estrada is soon covered in blood as Navarro is bashing his head into the mat like trying to crack a coconut. The referee stopping the fall as Navarro kept kneeing a bloody Estrada in the face felt like something out of a gruesome early UFC fight. I was pleased to see that the 2nd fall was quite competitive, with Estrada making a big punch comeback but not easily winning. Navarro continously complaining about getting fouled added to the match as it seemed Estrada was close to getting disqualified. Third fall had some more epic punch exchanges, gritty submission holds and scrappy fighting, such as Navarro eating a nasty lariat to the face and then lunging to headbutt Estrada in the kidney. Navarro showed some shades of his later maestro status by executing a really graceful freestyle pin or doing a primitive version of his later finisher. Estrada did not look as good as Navarro, though he also he had nice punches and looked convincingly slaughtered, bleeding like crazy, looking punch drunk and crazy gritting his teeth. Pretty epic much and based on this and the Mando match I'd say Navarro easily looks like an all time level brawler as he had so many different ways to fuck up his opponent and the match never got boring when he was laying in a beatdown. 

EMLL in 1990 #4 - 1/26/1990

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Super Gallo & Remo Banda vs. Panico & Simbolo, CMLL 1/26/1990

Rather skippable match that was largely dominated by rudo shenanigans. Gallo is a fun character and got in some nice sequences, but the rest of this was cheap shotting. Both technicos took some nice bumps for the rudo beatdown and at least got the win in the end. Poor Banda seems to be unable to look blowaway good despite being clearly talented.

Ciclon Ramirez & Rafaga Azul & Octagon vs. Canelo Casas & Fuerza Guerrera & Jaque Mate

This started out with two really nice mat sections, one between Octagon and Canelo and one between Ramirez and Jaque Mate. Soon rudo tactics crept in though and Fuerza was punching people in the face. The rudo beatdown went a bit long, but they picked up the pace quick with some really fast rudo stooging and sequences. I‘m not sure if Octagons weird bottom rope dive was a mess up or he just kind of didn‘t feel like busting out a huge dive. Faces ended up winning 2:0 on kind of a fluke which felt a bit pointless even though it was a solid match.

Pierroth Jr. & Ulises & Gran Markus Jr. vs. Popitekus & Javier Llanes & Huracan Ramirez II

Really really good, long slow building match that was full of good exchanges and told a story. As usual we get two very good opening mat sections. Really enjoyed Ulises/Ramirez, there even was an UWF leglock, and Pierroth Jr./Llanes was good in a different way. Pierroth Jr. Really deserves to be considered up there with the likes of Fit Finlay when it comes to vicious badasses. He really worked over Llanes face in nasty fashion, who shot back by handling Pierroth by the mask. Popitekus/Gran Markus Jr. Was a heavyweight matchup and also really good, these two work their stuff in a way to really make themselves look like behemoths. Markus initially upset Popitekus by pulling his hair and tagged out, so the crowd was buzzing when they faced off for the second time. First fall was really long and developed as they really go deep on each matchup, which was really nice to see. They switch up the matchups in the second fall, with Popi engaging in some really cool quick exchanges. The eventual rudo beatdown was really good, as they kept mixing up the violence. First you got guys getting punched in the face, then getting booted in the face, finally Llanes got his kidney worked over in nasty fashion. Technicos seemed to be making a comeback but then the rudos made Popi take a gigantic bump over the rope, dispatched Ramirez and submitted Llanes. Pretty badass showing and got me excited for the bigger matchup of the rudos facing Los Brazos the next week!

Angel Azteca & Apolo Dantes & Cesar Dantes vs. Pirata Morgan & Verdugo & Hombre Bala

This started out with some comedy and shtick, but once they started wrestling, holy fuck they started wrestling! Plenty of tricky, unusal exchanges. Clearly Los Infernales are all timers at working a lucha trios. They probably lightened up their act a bit here, doing a lot of stooging and bumbling acts to send the fans home happy, but they still hit a lot of freaky triple team moves, including one where they gorilla pressed the other guy to the outside. 3Rd fall had more oddly coordinated multiman sequences and some really great stuff built around the STAR, including the Dantes brothers putting the REVERSE STAR on los Infernales. I‘m a sucker for a good star so I enjoyed al that. This was my first time seeing the Dantes brothers and they looked pretty good and decently athletic, but this was largely the Infernales show.

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