DVDVR Top Lucha Matches of the 80s – Disc 1:
UWA
1980/4/13
Gran
Hamada & Satoru Sayama vs. Perro Aguayo & Baby Face
Great
match and a terrific way to start the project. Hamada and Sayama are crazy
athletic, especially for that period, they do moves and chain them into
sequences straight outta karate movies, it looks quite cinematic, must’ve been
a breathtaking thing to see back then. On the other hand, Perro and Baby Face
are the perfect counterparts, two surly charros who will punch you right across
the nose just because they can’t stand your catlike shit. This felt like Aztecs
meet Ninjas, great tag match.
****1/4
UWA
1981/?/?
3-on-2
HANDICAP MATCH: Sangre Chicana, Alfonso Dantes, Herodes vs. Cien Caras & Andre
the Giant
Fun
Andre showcase, he’s an unstoppable behemoth here, this is basically a Wild
Kingdom episode about three hungry coyotes trying to tackle a huge badass
buffalo, and it fucking works. There’s a lot of campy wrestling here, just
think of Star Trek TOS, good match.
***3/4
UWA
1982/2/14
Campeonato Mundial Peso Medio de UWA:
Gran Hamada vs. Centurion Negro ©
I
don’t really know what to write about this match other than “bunch of damn fine
matwork and high flying”. Clean as a whistle lucha title match. Would’ve been
even better with a less confusing finish, Thesz kind of fucked it up.
****
UWA
1982/2/14
Campeonato Mundial Peso Completo de UWA:
Don Corleone vs. Canek ©
Good
match, but they didn’t wow me, and I’m pretty sure this doesn’t belong on this
set. While Canek was good both on offense and as the FIP, Corleone’s workover
session in the tercera was very boring. Fortunately, there was more than enough
good stuff elsewhere to call this match good.
***1/2
UWA
1983/6/12
Campeonato Mundial Peso Completo de UWA:
Canek vs. Tatsumi Fujinami ©
Great
match until the bullshit ending, seriously WTF was the all about? Another one
that doesn’t belong on the set, mos def.
***
CMLL
1983/9/23
Herodes,
Pirata Morgan, Coloso Colosetti vs. Kevin Von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000, Halcon
Ortiz
Good
trio, but I see better every week in CMLL.
***
CMLL
1983/9/23
Cabellera vs. Cabellera: MS-1
vs. Sangre Chicana
One
of the most famous lucha libre matches amongst the internet community
aficionados. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s just getting into
lucha, because the match is quite challenging and demanding, it’s pure 100%
selling and the work is as minimalistic as anything old school you’ll ever see.
It’s a pure, total brawl with both gladiators bleeding a lot, I means
seriously, they were covered in blood and messed the ring mat in process, I’d
give my left nut to see a remastered version of this one day just to enjoy the
stunning visual violence. MS-1 was an unbelievable dickbag aggressor who beat
the shit out of Chicana, pure hate 101 there, all he did was punching and
stomping, but it worked. Insane heat, and seeing the old ladies yelling at him
and pushing him away from Chicana was fucking priceless, what a fantastic rudo.
Chicana’s comeback in the segunda was immense, it’s amongst the best comebacks
ever, I say. The tercera was simply a pure masterpiece, they were selling for
each other like they got hit by a train, they were desperately rolling on a
bloodied mat trying to pin each other, such a sluggish power struggle right
there. Despite the strong and constant selling, it never looked over-the-top or
cartoonish, it felt more than earned. The finish, of course, was a super
fitting end to this cult classic tussle.
A
definite lucha brawl, must-see match.
*****
CMLL
1983/9/30
Satanico,
Espectro Jr., MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana, Mocho Cota, Fiera
Never
seen this trio before, and holy shit – it’s a fucking amazing follow-up to the
hair match from one week earlier. I even dare to say it’s a better match, as
crazy as it sounds. It’s just a violent orgy of nasty smacking, there were tons
of surly punches and obligatory stomping. There was no traditional llaves here,
not even a little bit, instead the entire match was one giant chaos with six
angry men mauling each other mercilessly. Satanico delivered one of the greatest
performances I’ve ever seen in this match.
*****
CMLL
1983/10/28
Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de NWA & Campeonato
Mundial Semi Completo de UWA: Ringo Mendoza (NWA) © vs. Sangre
Chicana (UWA) ©
After
watching Sangre Chicana in two bloodied brawls, here he is in a title match,
and he’s just as amazing as in slugfest tussles. The sanctity of traditional
title match llaves is respected down to a T here, as we got a clean as a
whistle title bout between the men who know their shit. The hold-for-hold
sessions were innovative, creative and super compelling, they didn’t
overcomplicate things, not even once. I knew what Chicana was capable of, but
senor Ringo also delivered a breathtaking performance going toe-to-toe with SC,
it was an amazing watch. I’m a reviewer who rarely touches play-by-play and all
the rigid technical stuff such as which move got hit here and there, I’m rather
a story guy, I like to try and picture stories wrestlers are telling in the
squared circle, and this match is exactly an example where I don’t even want to
bother with moves and shit, all I can say is – wow.
*****
CMLL
1983/11/25
Fuerza
Guerrera & Lobo Rubio vs. Hijo del Santo & Atlantis
Killer
tag with Santo and Atlantis shining as the young promising tecnicos, this was
truly a spectacular showcase of speed, agility and perky high flying. The rudo
duo served as a perfectly suitable roughhouse tandem designed to solidify the
babyafaces as real deals.
****1/2
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