Watched this again. Satanico is always great but FIRED UP (TM Tommy Rich) Koshinaka is something to see. In the New Japan set he's mediocre (not as bad as Takada... woof) but here he's feeling it and plays to the crowd perfectly. The nut shot to me is clearly a fake-out on Satanico's part and quite the ingenious little finish in how he pulled it off. Fun fun match but I have no idea where it'll rank right now.
El Satanico y Espectro Jr. v. El Faraón y La Fiera (8/12/84)
The clipping hurt this way more than the VQ (which was still irritating as hell, don't get me wrong). La Fiera's jacket and huge hangtime bump to the outside gives this some legs but it really feels like half a match.
After rewatching this I really think I should rework my rankings for this disc. It ended up at the bottom and fuuuuuuuuuck that. There's nothing half-a-match about this, it is just a huge asswhooping that Satanico and Espectro take. Fiera is a total dick using his awesome studded jacket to mutilate Satanico to the tune of a DQ. Then Espectro almost gets murdered on a front piledriver/screwdriver/whatever. They get their comeback, with Fiera doing that huge hangtime dive where he holds on the ropes until the very last second, but it's to no avail. Satanico falls to another hurty finisher as he gets picked up in slam position and dumped face-first on the other dude's knee. Fiera proves he is suicidal again by completely wiping out on the floor but Espectro gets hit by Faraon's tope and gets counted out. Faraon is in the ring over Fiera PUMPING HIS CHEST LIKE HE'S DYING. Yeah I think this is moving way, way up.
Gran Cochise vs. Satanico (9/14/84)
I can't help but think this was a legitimate face turn for Satanico. All it took was for Cochise to use the attempt at the Fuerza handshake to jump Satanico from behind and the crowd was with it, like they collectively said "you just don't pull that kind of shit in a lucha title match". Everybody surrounds the ring at the end and some random dude even tries to lift Satanico on his shoulders which he wasn't having. Maybe I missed it cause I was kind of half watching, but did anyone throw money? This is one I'm gonna have to come back to.
Yeah, totally reworking my rankings for this disc now. This is one for the ages. Satanico is so good he can pull off a face turn in a title match. The exhaustion selling toward the end of this is superb. The open with matwork-into-rope running is par for the course but it adds to the psychology of both guys being blown up by tercera caida. We get a lot of even-steven faceoffs that became overdone after the '90s juniors popularized them but they work within the context of the match. Just a really amazing piece of tapestry these guys wove here, I'm gonna have to rewatch everything on the disc now to see where it stands in comparison. The fact that crazy workrate matches like Chicana/MS-1 parte dos and Villano/Perro are gonna go low on this one is insane.
Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/21/84)
I'm shocked that this was a hair match, and a really nasty feud to boot, and had no blood. Chicana sells like a motherfucker through the whole thing, and the part where MS-1 gave him a neckbreaker that looked like it legit twisted his neck and messed him up, and he sells like a spastic was great. His "Richardson punch" followed up by the dive that the slow-mo replay shows MS-1 launching himself horizontally three rows back and being counted out is a finish I can accept because the execution was so good. Sangre powders and MS-1 gets cueballed. These two matches are so totally different despite the identical stipulations. It's damn good but no way is it touching the first one.
Villano III vs. Perro Aguayo (10/7/84)
And we get more Japanese footage! This is in UWA and I wish we had more of their stuff. Is there any backstory to this match? I'd listen to the continuing podcasts but my net time for the month would be ate up in a day.
Crowd is hugely pro-Villano. His mask and Perro's boots just scream pro wrestling. They open with a very tense struggle that results in a couple standoffs before Villano busts out the dropkicks and senton but Perro quickly takes back control. Of course Perro has his own Senton of Crushing Doom and he busts it out, then the DOUBLE STOMP of Crushing Doom ends the first fall. They trade bombs (including a DDT) and submissions back and forth for segunda caida then the totally hurty-looking Villano Special wins it. Perro's hurt but recovers enough to fuck up another double stomp and the crowd heat is off the chain. You really can see the roots of ROH/US Indie style as both guys are just trading huge moves and elaborate pins/subs at random, with a ton of nearfalls. Both guys basically pin themselves and it's shitty. Luckily Perro decides to stomp the shit out of Villano afterwards, Villano takes off the belt (which is a great version of the strap-drop) and is ready to fight before him and Fishman jump him. Who is the Japanese dude in the red track suit that gets involved?
Holy shit the crowd storms the ring to celebrate and kids start to play-fight. This was a nice change of pace from the brawls and technical title matches so far and will probably go high on the set.
Satanico vs. Super Astro (10/26/84)
Satanico bellies up to Astro and acts like a bully, then he goes for the Fuerza handshake while referencing he's got the belt (and obviously the champ is a nice guy). He doesn't jump Astro and acts like, "was that so hard?" Then he goes ahead and jumps Astro anyway. Fantastic.
Pretty methodical beatdown on Astro before he recovers for a burst of speed to end the fall. Satanico beats him down again and goes for the mask, including dragging him across the ring by it, which was cool. Super Astro is pissed and decides to brawl resulting in both guys bleeding, then we get the great "punching on your knees" spot which is made greater by Astro's headbutts.
I can see people complaining about the pacing but I thought it worked. Super Astro has the talent to both beat the rudo at his own game with the brawling and then win with his superior technical abilities. This is another feather in Satanico's cap, he's such a bastard here.
Javier Cruz, Impacto y Solar II vs. El Dandy, Franco Colombo y Panico (10/84)
Yeah, this has to be clipped to the second fall. There's some great miscommunication spots with Panico and Columbo (one of whom, I believe Panico, looks like a bit like Herodes with the chops and bulk. Actually upon close-up he kind of looks like Brodus Clay!) Man, Dandy looks young here, and those two sentons of his are just vicious with the airtime he gets and the impact. You can put that second one up against a perfect Macho elbow. While Dandy and Cruz beat on each other there's a huge explosion like pyro went off and a woman screams which is really weird. The two just blast the shit out of each other with awesome punches. Impacto saves and just whales on people. Last bit is super fast-paced with big dropkicks and pinfalls. The story of the young rudo and young tecnico fighting it out backed by two grisled vets is great and the speed of this one is really high.
Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón vs. Villano III (10/84)
I'm just gonna say first off that the spot of someone getting hung under the bottom rope and having their head blasted into the apparently wooden Corona baseboards of the ring is one of the coolest little things I've seen in this set so far.
Thank you to Tim and Graham for pointing out the rules to this one but if you pay attention it's pretty simple. Definitely adds to the overall chaos. Having the two first singles matches end up being rudo/rudo and tecnico/tecnico (I think? Villano does mug Sangre later) works great because when you get thrown out it turns into a lumberjack match with people of the opposite style beating on you. Faraon looks like he blows up and the rudo match ends quick. The tecnicos are too pissed at their rivals at first to get in the ring together but Chicana finally says "fuck it" and starts brawling. After Perro interferes Chicana hits a 1000 MPH tope suicida out of nowhere and we got Perro and Sangre.
The THWACK of Sangre's head against the apron as he gets posted is quick noticeable. About the end, all I can say is "turnabout is fair play", and the fans surrounding and throwing money in the ring proves it.
Despite what it looks like on paper this really runs quick. I'm starting to run out of positive adjectives to describe these matches.
Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, MS-1 y Espectro Jr. (9/28/84)
Los Infernales are all wearing green and black gear, I guess to match Espectro Jr.'s atrocious/nightmare-inducing mask. Satanico begs off Atlantis costing his team una caida. Segunda is over in a flash. Dig Satanico sliding on his knees to backdrop Tony. This is pretty standard trios fare; I expected there to be more hate considering both MS-1 and Tony were sans most of their caballera. End came out of nowhere. Yeah, this is going low.
Disc #3 rankings:
1. Satanico vs. Super Astro (10/26/84)
2. Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón vs. Villano III (Elimination Match) (10/84)
3. Javier Cruz, Impacto y Solar II vs. El Dandy, Franco Colombo y Panico (10/84)
4. Gran Cochise vs. Satanico (9/14/84)
5. Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka (Hair vs. Hair) (7/30/84)
6. Villano III vs. Perro Aguayo (10/7/84)
7. Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (Hair vs. Hair) (9/21/84)
8. Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, MS-1 y Espectro Jr. (9/28/84)
9. El Satanico y Espectro Jr. v. El Faraón y La Fiera (8/12/84)
I skipped around on the first two discs but I'm gonna pick it up and order #3 since I reviewed all the matches. Still kind of floating on where to put Cochise/Satanico because I watched it in two halves on different days.
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