80s Lucha DVD set, disc 1 (part 2)

Again, big gifs. Occasionally, big Texans. Also, I grabbed way too many from one match because the people needed to KNOW.

Kevin von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000 y Halcon Ortiz v. Coloso Colosetti, Pirata Morgan y Herodes (9/23/83) – haven’t seen much of Halcon, but can see how he and Pirata must’ve had a good feud. Crazy bumping Pirata versus anyone would probably be a good feud at this point, but Halcon carries himself well and is very solid in everything he does. He’s a great secondary champion character, where people don’t normally go to see him but everyone insists he’s ‘actually’ the best guy. Announcers worked really hard at getting over Kevin, who looked fine with guys he probably didn’t work much with. Weird to see generic tecnico Mascara Ano 2000. Third fall was really too short. Wish there was more Colosetti.

MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (9/23/83) – match was made by the good Samaritan fan trying to clean the blood off of Sangre Chicana’s face, but they actual match was good too. So much blood that they appeared to run out of it. The big looping punches looked good, most of the time. Maybe too many dives in the final fall, but MS1’s suicide by senton and the resulting sell was quite something. This one I liked, but didn’t have much to say.

Espectro Jr., Satanico y MS-1 vs. Mocho Cota, Sangre Chicana y La Fiera (9/30/83) – felt like chapter 3 in an ongoing story; even with having seen the hair match before, I wanted to see more before or after and not just this in isolation. It was a pretty good brawl buoth way but an incomplete story. Crowd loved Sangre Chicana and the brawling matches felt a lot different than the techincial tittle matches, but this wasn’t one of my favorites.

Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83) – BOOOOO DRAW BOOOO. At least it was a different way of getting to one of those. This never got going felt as strong as I watned – there’s definitely a problem of holds I’ve been trained to ignore meaning a lot more at this point – but it was still an interesting title match. It came off as as Sangre Chicana having to fight and scrape just to hold the super athlete Mendoza. Mendoza totally outclassed him in the first and only made it a match when Chicana made a mistake. Chicana had the size advantage and still very quietly worked as the rudo, but it wasn’t enough to really beat Mendoza. Sangre Chicana very much sells for the ticket buys in the upper deck at times.

Atlantis y El Hijo del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Lobo Rubio (11/25/83) Lobo Rubio is obviously very good at this point; he has a great presence and goes with everything Santo wants to do and is crazy enough to do elbow drops to the floor for no real reason. Atlantis is quick, wanting to move from point A to point B to point C and getting there in a hurry. He and Fuerza probably got complaints for doing too much too fast, given how this looks compared the match one month ago. Fuerza is Fuerza, a good thing, just a little younger, lighter, and faster. His slaps to Santo in the third fall looked perfect. Everyone else is good and is totally overshadowed by Hijo del Santo, who is just out of this world spectacular in the first fall, as impressive as any on today and faster than most. There were armdrag spots I wasn’t sure how he was pulling out, and I’m pretty sure no one else could. He went so far on the third fall match winning dive too. 1983 Hijo del Santo is my new favorite luchador. This is nothing more than an introduction to new guys who will be really important soon, but it’s one heck of an introduction.

DVD #1 Rankings

1. Atlantis y El Hijo del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Lobo Rubio
2. Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face
3. Ring Fujinami vs. El Canek
4. MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana
5. Andre el Gigante & Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes y Sangre Chicana
6. Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza
7. Kevin von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000 y Halcon Ortiz v. Coloso Colosetti, Pirata Morgan y Herodes
8. Centurion Negro vs. Gran Hamada
9. Espectro Jr., Satanico y MS-1 vs. Mocho Cota, Sangre Chicana y La Fiera
10. El Canek vs. Don Corleone