All the little kids rushing up to touch Solitario and Lizmark, with Solitario wearing this huge black feather thingy strapped around his shoulders, is cool. There's a lot of clipping but it doesn't disguise the work. These guys work fast and snug and it looks great. Ref takes a big bump right before the end of the first fall but he makes the pin anyway -- there's a mask on the line, no time to be hurt! Wagner snaps, ripping Solitario's mask then posting him and chairing him and it's psychotic. Damn clipping; we miss a posting and a dive. This should be a whole lot higher than it'll end up. Also the first unmasking I've ever seen where the guy isn't a scarred up, ugly old guy!
Sangre Chicana vs. Perro Aguayo (Hair vs. Hair) (2/28/86)
Another great entrance as Perro's wearing his giant sombrero. Crowd heat is already molten. Perro jumps Chicana before he can even get in the ring and these guys are just duking it out. The ref is desperately trying to get some order but they continue to throw haymakers at each other. Perro posts Chicana and beats him with a box, then wraps his fist in a towel and punches him more. Then he actually rips off the Corona baseboards to use as a weapon! Holy shit. Finally Perro flies into the post and out of the ring and Chicana gets some payback. Great suspense with a faked foule and a missed senton before Chicana hits his 1000 MPH tope. Then they trade nearfalls for an hour and after the final rollup, I shit you not, the ENTIRE ARENA floods to ringside. No cueballing shown, and this was a little long in the tooth, but what a match.
Lizmark, Alfonso Dantes y Tony Salazar vs. El Signo, El Texano y Negro Navarro (8/15/86)
Well, I guess I know where Dick Togo got the idea for the skull mask he takes off before his matches now. Opening beatdown is kind of listless but los Misionarios pull off a cool triple-team submission, and then after the one-foot cover Tony Salazar protests on the apron and gets slapped right in his goddamn face. That's how you do it rudo style, folks. This looks to be more comedy-oriented with Dantes' run of atomic drops and the second-fall end with a four-way wishbone spot that Lizmark ranas into the middle of. Screwjob ending is horrible. Overall this is rather poor for the set and is gonna rank pretty low. The "brawl" at the end doesn't even have any real heat to it as they put up their dukes and dance around each other. I expected a whole lot more from one of the only two Misionarios matches on the set. One of the few saving graces is Lizmark, his work is flashy yet graceful, everything you want out of a luchador.
Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs. Mascara Ano 2000 (8/15/86)
First off I have to say, having never seen either of these guys, I love their masks. Ano's is beautiful with the tusk-like designs coming out of the cheeks, and Rayo's is awesome in its simplicity, so understated. I wonder how these guys fared in the mask tournament on the old board...
Work is fine if a bit middle-of-the-road. Rayo is one lanky bastard for a luchador. He sells every bump into the turnbuckles like it's killing him. So much for the first two falls, that was quick. After some weak opening offense from Rayo we get two topes and a plancha where he nukes his knee on the floor landing, looks like it hurt a lot. There's some controversy over the martinete as the finish but the ref and the commish seem fine with it so we call it a match. Fair and short, probably low-middle in the rankings.
La Fiera vs. Babyface (8/15/86)
That has to be the first pinfall off a fistdrop I've ever seen. Nice. Baby Face blades in abdomen-covering fashion after the always great Corona sideboard posting. Announcer keeps talking about La Fiera as a master of tae-kwon-do or something, probably because he kicks a lot. The ref having to peel apart the two men from the octopus hold that ends segunda caida underlines the hate these two have for each other. We get a brief clip and Fiera is already bleeding. He has a great response to someone putting you in a hammerlock: just punch 'em in the kidneys! There's an even better moment where Baby Face picks up Fiera's feet as he's hanging through the ropes and just dumps him on his head. So many cheap shots in this one. Fiera bouncing off the floor is a sight. Nice little "revancha" finish and there goes Baby's mop. I didn't even know this was a hair match! They keep talking shit to each other and Fiera even kicks Baby as he's getting shaved. Great match, nice methodical pace where every shot felt like it was meant to hurt, good armwork from Baby Face too.
Espanto Jr. vs El Hijo Del Santo (Mask vs. Mask) (8/31/86)
This opens with Santito just getting ragdolled by Espanto Jr., who does the very Japanese thing of throwing his opponent back into the ring so he can beat on him more. The little kids coming up and comforting Santito after the first fall was just adorable. Espanto beats on him some more and rips his mask, but then he comes back and despite the truly horrendous audio you can hear the crowd erupt. Man I love the camerawork on this, right up in your face. Espanto does the through-the-ropes Psicosis bump skidding to a stop on his knees. That hurts to watch. Then Santito hits a tope and senton for the second pinfall. We get a great posting shot with Santo flying straight at the camera which Espanto turns to his advantage, chairing him and biting the cut. Awesome Lucha Thing #184: Spitting your opponent's blood in the air after you bite him. Then it's Espanto's turn. He busts out a tope that sees him vanish below the apron from the camera angle, they cut to the two and Espanto is just covered in gore. Both guys are just wore out at this point but Santo still busts out a plancha that the VQ buries. Of course Santito wins with the camel clutch and we get the unmasking of Espanto Jr., noble in defeat.
I don't care about the VQ, the clipping, the pauses. This is in the top five of the set easily. Maybe #2 or #3 actually.
Ringo Mendoza, Atlantis y Ultraman vs. Satanico, Masakre y MS-1, (September 1986)
Oh man this starts with a Dr. Morales interview segment with Satanico talking shit (complete with evil laughter) and Mendoza wearing a blue headband that has "RINGO" on it in sparkly silver. We get a kind of slow open, though Ringo puts Satanico in a toehold that has him doing a head stand. MS-1 shoos off Ringo in favor of Atlantis and it's so arrogant. Atlantis finally looks like he's getting ahold of himself in the ring. No shitty playing to the crowd, just high flying, hard and dirty matwork and punking the rudos. He even does the dick move of stomping on MS-1's hand while he's sitting on the mat! No love lost here, obviously. Rudo victory in segunda caida is great, with MS-1 throwing Atlantis onto his face from a powerbomb position (something I've never seen before), a Masakre powerslam and Satanico busting out the Scorpion Deathlock. Tercera caida, Ringo and Satanico just start pasting each other. Ultraman has a nice rally but eventually the rudos decide they're gonna take Atlantis' mask no matter what and triple-team him in true bully fashion. After they take the final fall Pirata Morgan hits the ring to beat the shit out of Satanico! Cien Caras and Baby Face try to keep the peace but Morgan isn't having it. By the time this is over we have the setup for both a trios and a hair match.
Los Infernales are so damn good. Lucha might have a rep for not being stiff but this is not a match that shows it.
Pirata Morgan, BabyFace y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (September 1986)
In the words of AC/DC, "if you want blood, you've got it." Baby Face is hellbent to take out La Fiera and Fiera ends up juicing like a trooper. We even get a closeup of his blood on Baby Face's leg in the second fall. The tecnico rally is fun, and Fiera managing to sell being so beat up he's almost out on his feet yet still fighting fire with fire (pardon the pun) is really good. Him leaping out of the ring to spin-kick Baby right in his Face is the shit. Pirata saves Baby from his bloodening and gets pitched flat out of the ring by Rayo for his troubles, followed up by a big plancha. Then it just kind of ends. Flat finale to a pretty good match. This has to be a glitch in the timeline; Fiera has to get his revenge on Baby Face afterwards.
Americo Rocca, Cacharro Mendoza y Kung Fu vs. El Talisman, El Dandy y Guerrero Negro (September 1986)
This is nice after the last couple of bloodfeasts, a trios comedy match to open the window and get some fresh air, so to speak. We open with Kung Fu exhibiting his nunchaku skills to scare the rudos and the rudo ref as well. There's a funny cultural disconnect in having a guy named Kung Fu dressed like a ninja wielding nunchucks. Dr. Morales mentions Tito Santana and other "lucha Norteamericano" and I wonder what they're talking about. Talisman and Cachorro have a nice little matchup then El Dandy and Rocca come in and the pace picks up, ending in all the rudos getting thrown out of the ring with the final toss due to endless rollup being hilarious. After the first fall Rocca comes in and just smokes Negro with among other things a reverse armdrag and what I can only describe as an "armscissors". We get a rudo beatdown and an unseen foule to keep this from going full-on comedy, then finish up with stereo dives and a revancha foule to cap things off. This doesn't quite reach the heights of, say, the exoticos match on the New Japan set but it's great physical comedy and in small doses I love the hell out of it.
DISC 5 RANKINGS
1. Espanto Jr. vs El Hijo Del Santo (Mask vs. Mask) (8/31/86)
2. La Fiera vs. Babyface (8/15/86)
3. Sangre Chicana vs. Perro Aguayo (Hair vs. Hair) (2/28/86)
4. Ringo Mendoza, Atlantis y Ultraman vs. Satanico, Masakre y MS-1, (September 1986)
5. Pirata Morgan, BabyFace y Cien Caras vs. La Fiera, Lizmark y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (September 1986)
6. Americo Rocca, Cacharro Mendoza y Kung Fu vs. El Talisman, El Dandy y Guerrero Negro (September 1986)
7,El Solitario vs. Dr. Wagner (Mask vs. Mask) (12/1/85)
8,Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs. Mascara Ano 2000 (8/15/86)
9. Lizmark, Alfonso Dantes y Tony Salazar vs. El Signo, El Texano y Negro Navarro (8/15/86)
Super, super disc all around. Top 3 are in the top ten, 4 and 5 are in the top twenty easily. So fucking good, if you don't have this set you need it.
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