LUCHA SET DISC 9

Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon Jr., Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89)

Demon Jr./Panther isn't much to talk about. Charles/Nombre (apparently they just stick someone at random under the Mascara Sagrada hood and costume like WWE does Sin Cara nowadays) is pretty cool though with a mix of amateur and lucha grappling. Cruz flustering Bala to the point where he goes out in the crowd to bitch out the fans is neat as well. Despite the cool roll-up the first fall feels kind of standard and I agree that Cruz is clearly head and shoulders above anyone else with his speed and crispness, which is hard to say when you have a match with Blue Panther in it.

MS-1 y Masakre vs. El Dandy y El Satanico (8/11/89)

I really love that confusion spot in the first fall, it's almost like El Dandy is doing the 'skin the cat' but in-ring, weird yet effective. There are also some great teamwork spots including the totally ridiculous double-team submission. Segunda starts with some great teasing and jawing and Dandy jumping Masakre. He also completely faceplants on an attempted flying headbutt which had to hurt. MS-1's splash is cool as Dandy is halfway across the ring and it looks like he really had to dive low to reach him, coming in like a missile. Los Infernales are such a pair of cocksuckers here, Masakre yelling at the crowd, MS-1 kicking Satanico in the face. I had a bad feeling about the ending and then they pull something off that could only happen in lucha but would work anywhere, just brilliant. Could have done with a longer tercera with more violence but the way it wound up is so damn good.

Super Astro, Atlantis y El Faraón vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther y Emilio Charles (8/18/89)

I know Super Astro is short but he looks like a mini compared to the other guys in this one. Opening matwork is just as good as you would expect from these two maestros. Astro does a gorgeous rolling legscissors into armbar that I had to rewind. Love how he goes straight after a cheating Charles, the largest guy in the match, who begs off running all the way down the aisle! Then they replay the spot with Atlantis flat SPRINTING across the ring after Panther. We get more Panther/Astro and una caida ends spectacularly. Astro completely clowns all three rudos in a funny spot. Faraon acquits himself well briefly and we get a short segunda capped with a Scorpion deathlock. My god, the bit where Fuerza gets punched and runs full on into the post... it's almost as good when he gets knocked off the apron earlier and does this ridiculous Broadway musical sell of it. We need way more of him on this set. Atlantis and Astro both dive; Astro's tope reversa with Panther flying into the crowd is indeed "espectacular" and Panther actually gets stretchered off of it, which is just insane. I feel like if anyone needed to know what a classic lucha trios match is like, they should be shown this. Strong, high ranking match.

Atlantis, Mascara Sagrada y Super Astro vs. Hombre Bala, Pirata Morgan y Verdugo (September 1989)

This match is "relevo cuadrangular" which I guess means trios. Did I ever mention I love los Bucaneros' Rockettes-esque triple kick? Because I do. There is some really choreographed-looking shit with Sagrada taking on all three rudos but it is super entertaining and ends in one of them flying into the other two outside of the ring. Super Astro looks much more natural at this task, screwing up the pirates and making them dizzy. Like the last match we get another great Atlantis triple backbreaker spot and this time he accidentally does it to Astro as well and Sagrada is all "what the fuck, man?!" We get three dives to finish and Astro absolutely blows his last one out of the water, slingshotting himself over the top into a full-on rolling senton to the floor that I can only compare to the one Rey Jr. did to Psicosis in their title match a couple years later (if I'm remembering that correctly). It looks suicidal. That was short but what a tecnico showcase, and the rudo miscommunication spots with them bumping all over and outside the ring were great. I agree with Graham in that this is more fun than a lot of longer matches on the set.

Atlantis y Satanico vs. MS-1 y Tierra Viento y Fuego (Hair/Mask vs. Hair/Mask) (9/22/89)

We haven't seen Tierra Viento y Fuego (Earth Wind and Fire -- you're a shining star, buddy) yet. You would think maybe a blue/green/red colored outfit judging from the name but he's all yellow with red flames down the side of the singlet. It doesn't look much better than the alternative. Total rudo beatdown and dominance for the first fall. Satanico is pretty scrappy trying to fight back but it doesn't add up to much in his favor. Finally the tecnicos regroup but Satanico is covered in blood and there's this great moment with him slumped in the corner, exhausted, where Atlantis tries to tend to him and he jerks back with this startled gut reaction like someone is still trying to get him. Then the ref has to raise his arm for him. That is selling, that is pro wrestling motherfucker. Tercera caida and it's Satanico's Revenge with him still weary but ready to fight. Seems we miss when both rudos get busted open but Tierra's mask is a pool of blood. I don't think I can really do this fall justice with a write-up. Fuego loses his mask and he is PISSED. MS-1 looks like he wants to cut somebody. I want to watch this again right now.

I said "screw it" and just watched the match again. Top five, easy.

El Dandy, Apolo Dantes y Eddy Guerrero vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ary Romero (9/29/89)

It's surreal seeing Eddy with no facial hair. I kept looking and looking but no dice. Some decent matwork to start, tecnicos have some good legwork on Charles (who has a great high-speed scramble to the corner on the mat) and Eddy even does a standing frog splash on his leg. It's kind of weird how the tecnicos are cutting off the ring, switching up and double teaming like rudos. There is some really nice armdrag madness to start segunda but then it kind of bogs down when the rudos take over. Romero's schtick is pretty fun. At one point he kicks Dandy in the shin which nobody would see again until Dude Love came around. We end with a big dive from Eddy and martinete on Dandy. This dragged way too much, maybe if it was more of a sprint it would've been better. Everything was solid enough but it just didn't click. Good seeing Eddy though, always.

Blue Demon Jr., Super Astro y Mascara Sagrada vs. El Supremo, Espectro Jr. y Blue Panther (10/6/89)

Espectro Jr. has me wondering what the top ten barefoot wrestlers of all time were. Weird, I know, but it came to mind. The only people I can come up with off the top of my head are Kevin Von Erich, Jimmy Snuka, the Wild Samoans, and Antonino Rocca. Anyway that's for another thread.

Blue Panther tries to work his magic with Sagrada but man, that's just not him and Astro. I don't know what else is. Astro/Supremo is a little better of a pairing but it's not the same. Astro clowning the rudos with his little dance doesn't make sense -- why don't they all just jump him at once right there? It got some heat from the absolutely dead crowd but them bringing the ass-beat would have even more. We get five seconds of Panther/Astro and the fall ends super weak. Segunda caida is completely listless with a horrible whiffed strike from Supremo that shows more air than Alaska. There's a bit more chaos to the third fall and we get a reiteration of the beautiful slingshot senton to the floor from Astro, but man, this was seriously lacking.

Jerry Estrada, Ary Romero y Rick Patterson vs. Javier Cruz, Eddy Guerrero y El Dandy (10/6/89)

I already watched this once (in a less than sober moment) and dug it so let's give it another try and see what's up.

Rick Patterson is the former Corporal Kirschner/Leatherface wearing the Mr. Pogo/Gladiator makeup. He's a stiff bastard (as anyone who read about him trying to murder someone in Japan in the first Foley book can attest to) and after Eddy lands on his head off a clothesline he gives him a little receipt with a botched looking back body drop/powerslam thing. Jerry isn't much better considering what shape he was probably in so I'd much rather be in with Ary. Segunda caida starts and this is just a total rudo beatdown. All three guys look vicious. Eddy takes the brunt of the beating and the ref just gives up the fall to the tecnicos after the three-man stomping. Now people are throwing drinks at the rudos and the schtick reaches maximum level. They really work in an FMW heel team kind of way, maybe it's Rick's makeup or the fact that they are a low-grade group of rudos with broad characters. Finally Dandy and Cruz man up and start fighting back including a huge assisted plancha... then Jerry wins abruptly and the match fizzles. Eddy was really great here and I don't know why the hate is so high for the rudos. This was perfectly acceptable and fun IMO.

All Star, El Dandy y El Texano vs. Espectro Jr., Jerry Estrada y Rocky Star (10/13/89)

Jerry hangs with Texano on the mat in the first fall and I tip my hat. Cool reversal into knucklelock dude. It still makes no sense for him to take a back bump off a push that wouldn't back up a ten year old. 1a. Caida ends in overly choreographed fashion, then we get this amazing horror film camera shot of Espectro Jr. in the crowd that would scare the shit out of any young kid. Immediately after Jerry breaks the fucking middle rope. Good job. At one point he takes out somebody standing at ringside when Dandy is chasing him and it looks like Espectro grabs onto the guy to try and pull him off/defend Jerry which is really weird. We end with Rocky demasking All Star during a pinfall and I had to rewind to realize what happened. Mercifully short, this was interesting as an oddball pick but nothing more. Nobody really needs an All Star/Rocky Star feud in their bucket list of unseen matches.

Chavo Guerrero, Cien Caras y Mascara Ano Dos Mil vs. Lizmark, El Satanico y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (10/20/89)

The beginning of this is the dirt worst. It's soooooooooo slow for the entire first fall but finally the heels eat it (including Chavo sprinting all the way around the ring to evade capture). Everyone is laying in their strikes but by god is it boring. I'm at tercera caida now and I have had nothing else to say. They all brawl to the outside aside from Satanico and Chavo and I have no clue what Satanico is trying for a submission, he just loosely holds him and pats him on the belly a couple times before they start hitting each other again. Then they do a piss-poor rope running spot where they hit each other and I am ready to throw the remote. It finally ends and I was saying out loud to myself "when is this going to end" well before it does. My active #100 and probably the only match I have been not only disappointed but mad at on the set. It's Hermanos, Lizmark, a Guerrero, and fucking SATANICO, how do you stink it up this hard. So lackluster. I didn't expect much from Rayo, his schtick is fine in small doses, but jeez. Nobody was trying here.

Jerry Estrada vs. Javier Cruz (Hair vs. Hair) (10/20/89)

This match won't figure into my ratings, it will be a "?" because Jerry is clearly too impaired to perform. Not that Jerry isn't there all the time, he is, but the moments where the somas and cheap whiskey drive this into the ground are too huge to ignore. Monarca tries to hold it together, and admirably Jerry does too because you can tell he knows he's fucked and is trying to, but I don't know where I could rate this. I don't even think the crowd knows how to, despite them throwing money.

EDIT: Fuck it, I'll be game with this. It'll go low but I refuse to give it a bump up the ratings because of the trainwreck aspect. I do things like Jerry does on a weekly basis, but I'm not going to give him points for such in a wrestling match.

DISC 9 RANKINGS:

1. Atlantis y Satanico vs. MS-1 y Tierra Viento y Fuego (Hair/Mask vs. Hair/Mask) (9/22/89)
2. Super Astro, Atlantis y El Faraón vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Blue Panther y Emilio Charles (8/18/89)
3. MS-1 y Maskare vs. El Dandy y El Satanico, (8/11/89)
4. Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon, Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89)
5. Atlantis, Mascara Sagrada y Super Astro vs. Hombre Bala, Pirata Morgan y Verdugo) (September 1989)
6. Jerry Estrada, Ary Romero y Rick Patterson vs. Javier Cruz, Eddy Guerrero y El Dandy (10/6/89)
7. El Dandy, Apolo Dantes y Eddy Guerrero vs. Emilio Charles Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ary Romero (9/29/89)
8. All Star, El Dandy y El Texano vs. Espectro Jr., Jerry Estrada y Rocky Star (10/13/89)
9. Blue Demon Jr., Super Astro y Mascara Sagrada vs. El Supremo, Espectro Jr. y Blue Panther (10/6/89)
10. Jerry Estrada vs. Javier Cruz (Hair vs. Hair) (10/20/89)
11. Chavo Guerrero, Cien Caras y Mascara Ano Dos Mil vs. Lizmark, El Satanico y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. (10/20/89)

You really can cut this disc in half quality-wise. Only #6, which so far got low marks from Tim and OJ, seemed like a bit of a stand-out to me from the second half. #11 is the dirt-worst and the less said about the infamous Estrada/Cruz match the better. Still the highs were super high, with that Relevos Suicidos being absolutely top shelf. #2 also came in higher for me than it seems like it might get rated.