Tag: CMLL 1995

In this inexplicable quest to watch all of 1995 CMLL for no good reason, I find myself watching every currently available match on YouTube. That’s just one match from a TV show in some weeks, and no matches some other weeks. I’m hoping I find entertaining forgotten matches, though I’ll likely just find perfectly serviceable TV matches which I’ll never think about again.

Dr. Wagner Jr., Emilio Charles Jr., Satánico beat Atlantis, Héctor Garza, Silver King
(Arena Coliseo @ 01/13, 17:48, 1/3, ok, dataintcash)

Amusing for Garza over bumping for Satanico at times, and Satanico gnawing at his head. Emilio and Atlantis are very good together but they and the Wagner brothers don’t make a big impact. I wonder what we’d think of Silver King if his heavyweight title reign during this time was treated as a bigger deal; all the defenses we know off were in non-TV settings, but he carries himself like someone you’d believe is the best wrestler in the promotion.

El Dandy, Máscara Mágica, Negro Casas beat Bestia Salvaje, Mano Negra, Mocho Cota
(Arena Coliseo @ 01/13, 14:01, 1/3, ok, Kozmic Trooths)

Mano Negra and Negro Casas keep staring at each other like they’re going to have a big fight, and it never really comes together. This match doesn’t really come together in any memorable way.

El Dandy, Máscara Mágica, Negro Casas beat Arkángel de la Muerte, Bestia Salvaje, Mano Negra
(Arena Coliseo @ 01/20, 17:07, 1/3, ok, rnrwrasslin)

An interesting TV match for the story more than the work. Dandy and Casas are not getting along and nearly fight with some instigation by the rudos. Every match I’m used to seeing means one or the other will cost their team the match. This match has Casas & Dandy get it back together and team up to take out the rudos, while the tension is still there after the match. Mascara Magica struggles a bit in his finish win, and Mano Negra’s suplexes are a bit out of control, but it’s effective as building up that issue.

Dos Caras, Héctor Garza, Atlantis beat Dr. Wagner Jr., Emilio Charles Jr., Satánico
(Arena Coliseo @ 01/20, 15:20, 2/3 DQ, good, rnrwrasslin)

A fun TV match. It’s a 1995 CMLL TV episode so Satanico and Garza are feuding heavily. Atlantis & Emilio seem very on in this match too, with a great sequence in the middle. They’re two opposites who play off each other very well. The overturned finish works in the context of the feud.

Emilio Charles Jr., Pierroth Jr., Satánico beat Brazo de Plata, Dos Caras, Héctor Garza
(Arena Coliseo @ 02/28, 13:59, 1/3 DQ, ok, rnrwrasslin)

More Garza/Satanico. Pierroth has some amusing comedic moments, Porky was good, but this mostly TV filler. Garza striking back at Satanico probably works better in the week to week context, but I’m not sure CMLL’s TV was that developed to make that happen.

Corazón De León beat Felino, Último Dragón, Bestia Salvaje, El Dandy, Negro Casas in Copa Campeon de Campeones
(Arena México @ 03/03, 19:52, ok, rnrwrasslin)

• 03:11 COR Bestia Salvaje
• 04:48 Dandy casita Felino
• 11:38 El Dandy sharpshoto Ultimo Dragon
• 14:35 Corazon de Leon cradle blocked Dandy
• 19:52 Corazon de Leon faceslam Negro Casas

What Happened: Dandy and Dragon, by virtue of being NWA World Champions of their weight divisions, get to pick sides. Dandy wins the coin toss and picks Negro Casas. Dragon debates for a while before picking Corazon de Leon. Dandy takes Bestia Salvaje, leaving Felino last. Felino is not thrilled with this sequence of events but moves on.

Review: Back in the day, a CMLL champions of champions match could have only 6 people. (There were still more champions than that but go with the joke.) I remember reading positive reviews of this match a long time ago. It didn’t feel as good as I thought I read; it’s a lot of survivor series like random eliminations until the final two. The Bestia Salvaje countout is one of those comically fast twenty counts that only happen when someone’s got to go. Negro Casas & Corazon de Leon had a lot of tight near falls, but it didn’t feel more intense than a normal match until then. Casas & Dandy working together to take out Dragon’s knee was nice and the concept of picking teams was interesting but it’s not as strong as the names suggest.

Recapped: 2020-07-30

Matches:

Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Emilio Charles Jr., Felino, Negro Casas, El Dandy, Pantera, Silver King, Texano
(Arena México @ 12/15, 28:16, great, Roy Lucier CMLL)

• 11:53 Texano rolled through plancha Felino
• 15:33 Wagner powerbomb Pantera
• 18:17 Dandy casita Negro Casas
• 23:41 Emilio Charles legs crossed wristlock Texano
• 25:53 Dr. Wagner spinning crucifix drop El Dandy
• 27:05 Silver King crucifix cradle Emilio Charles
• 28:16 Dr. Wagner sit down powerbomb Silver King

What Happened: This match is overly “let’s put eight of our best technical guys in a match.” It’s billed as Alto Rendimiento, but they mean that as high quality than win by rendering people via holds.

This is an amazing match for the first twelve minutes or so, before slowing down a bit after the Felino elimination. It’s still very good, with a couple of hitches, but that first section is worked an impressive pace and skill. It completely lives up to the promise of eight of the best guys going at full speed in great combinations. The later Negro Casas/Silver King pairing comes off as the best among a lot of good match ups. Pantera doesn’t seem to be treated at this high of a level most of his CMLL time; he absolutely fits in here. This Emilio Charles is much more an all-around great guy than he’d become (and the Terrible comparisons come through strong here.) Wagner is maybe the weakest link, but he’s not at bad or out of the place.

There’s a couple of smudges in the match. Bad CMLL refereeing exists in 1995. Referee Rafael el Maya eliminates Felino when he gets a shoulder up in plenty of time. (It’s the far shoulder, but Maya should’ve been able to see it.) Negro Casas slips off the second rope in embarrassing fashion, though they go with it as much as they can. The match would’ve been better with some time cut from the middle, but can’t complain too much about getting match time after how badly edited those spring episodes had been. This is worth watching easily.

Shocker beat Kahoz for the mask
(Arena México @ 12/15/1995, 10:04, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

1. Kahoz Gori Special (3:44)
2. Shocker over the shocker quebradora (1:17)
3. Shocker reverse bow and arrow (5:03)

The apuesta match goes well with Kahoz is knocking around Shocker. The problem is it is two falls of Shocker taking almost all the control despite having an unimpressive offense. He’s unrefined, not close to what he’d become later. Shocker also rips Kahoz’ mask so deeply that he’s unable to wrestle without fixing it, making the last stretch of the match a bit of a struggle. Kahoz comes off well, selling a lot even when Shocker isn’t giving much to him, and moves a lot better than most “old guys” in this type of mask match. He looks younger than 45 when they unmask him too.

Apolo Dantés © beat Vampiro for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
(Arena México @ 12/15, 26:40, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

1. Vampiro sit down powerbomb (6:59)
2. Apolo Dantes fisherman’s buster (5:47)
3. Apolo Dantes figure four (13:54)

A big issue with this one is they’re trying to get a sympathetic reaction for Vampiro, except the crowd decided they hate Vampiro from the start. The reaction takes by the end, though it a lot of attacking Vampiro’s right knee and exposing the knee brace on it, but it would’ve worked much better two years before. It’s a struggle to get there. Vampiro isn’t the perfect guy for this spot; he shifts randomly between selling the knee injury as crippling and something he can just easily limp around with slight discomfort with little reason. He’s back to being fine by the end of the match. Vampiro has figured out moves to do on offense but hasn’t figured out any particular order to do them, which means poor Dantes takes some big suplexes that go nowhere in the first fall. It’s generally Vampiro working something like a Japanese style for a disinterested Mexican audience. Apolo does well as the rudo; this might be the best singles match I’ve seen of him. The third fall is too long, especially since that length caused them to slip away from the knee injury storyline that played into the finish. This is still better than I expected from looking at the match up.

Héctor Garza beat Satánico for the hair
(Arena México @ 12/15, 9:44 [0:31, 6:29, 2:44], 1/3, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Satanico puts over Garza huge in what’s effectively an uncompetitive match. Garza has so surpassed Satanico that it only takes one well applied hold to beat the veteran in the first fall. Satanico grinds out a second fall win with every legal punishing he can do, but gives Garza one opening in the third fall and it’s over like that. Garza comes off like a big star, even bigger than he did in April, and that’s a credit to Satanico for giving him much more than a veteran normally would in this spot.

These recaps exist to tell you not to actually watch these shows for the matches. The March editing issues are worse in April, turning most of these matches into just intros and finishes. There’s a few matches of historical importance, so it’s nice to see them at all, but the action is frustrating for how little we get to see of it. These shows feel like they’re produced by someone who wasn’t really much a fan of wrestling.

This is also the last batch of spring CMLL TV we have. There are a few matches here and there for the rest of the year before some full episodes late in the year. Those last few episodes are much better.

The April 1st show: 

El Fierito, Felinito, Ultratumbita beat Cicloncito Ramírez, Máscarita Magica, Último Dragóncito
(Arena Coliseo @ 03/28, 4:41, 1/2 DQ, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

What Happened: Ultratumbita and Mascarita Magica set up a mask match next week with a lot mask ripping. Ultratumbita fakes a foul in the second fall.

Review: Just a brief heat building exercise and not much of a match. The first fall may have been edited a bit but there’s not a lot here. Dragoncito’s dive looked great.

The minis match leads into a summary of the Gran Alternativa league, the first I’ve noticed it being mentioned. It’s apparently been going for weeks since many of the participants have finished their matches. The concept is twenty young/undercard wrestlers split up into four groups, with round-robin matches in each group. The top two in each group are seeded into more familiar Gran Alternativa eight-team single-elimination tournament. The league matches are happening in Pista Arena Revolucion and Arena Coliseo, during a point where we rarely have information from those two arenas.

I’ve got El Dandy, Héctor Garza, La Fiera beating MS-1, Pirata Morgan, Satánico listed here, but it’s really just about two minutes of intros, one minute of match shown, and then post-match promos. They too have a mask match next week.

Likewise, Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beating Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo Del Gladiador, Gran Markus Jr. © to win the CMLL World Trios Championship is cut down to four minutes of the third fall. It’s a decent four minutes, with Charles getting a surprise roll-up win for his team after Salvaje was eliminated, but it’s another match cut to very little.

This editing proves to be more a production choice than a time limitation: they roll next into a repeat of the March 21th Salvador Lutteroth cibernetico highlight package. That eats up 8 minutes of TV. They also repeat some of a couple of matches from trios tournament, though not all of them or the relevant final. It’s just there to eat up space, which could’ve been used to show any of the new matches.

The main event of this week is the Brazos triangle match. The three-way match doesn’t exist in CMLL, at least this point, so it is a bit different. The concept instead is each Brazo will toss a coin and the two who match will start a singles match. The winner of the match will face the third brother in a single match. The loser of the first singles match faces the loser of the second match in a three fall match. Someone’s going to lose twice and lose their hair. Of course, these are all edited too; the second match has the most obvious jump cut.

Brazo de Plata beat El Brazo
(Arena México @ 03/31, 1:32, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Brazo de Oro beat Brazo de Plata
(Arena México @ 03/31, 3:32, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

El Brazo beat Brazo de Oro for the hair
(Arena México @ 03/31, 5:37, 1/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

This whole thing feels like it was ten times better in person, and it’s a downer to get it cut down so much. Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata can still very much go at this point, but we only get to see a little of it. What we see doesn’t quite come through well either. The second fall ends with Brazo begging off to trick his brother into a cradle, only the cameras miss the trick. The crowd for the final reacts slightly for the near falls and comes across quiet in between. This might have been memorable in person, but it feels underachieving on TV.

The April 8^th show starts with a mask match. Or part of it.

Ultratumbita beat Máscarita Magica for the mask
(Arena Coliseo @ 04/04, 4:13, ok for what was seen, rnrwrasslin)

The insane Mascara Magica dive was cool. This was still just a glimpse of the match and not really something worth rating against other matches.

There’s still plenty of time to fill: the cibernetico airs again here, and then the same tournament matches. Then onto another clipped tournament: the Gran Alternativa finals. All eight-team meet in the ring for an explanation of the seeding and tiebreaker rules. There’s no battle royal; the league finishes decides who faces whom.

Astro Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Guerrero De La Muerte & Mocho Cota in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 1:55, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Atlantico & Atlantis beat MS-1 & MS-1 Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 0:56, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Bestia Salvaje & Corazón Salvaje beat Emilio Charles Jr. & Halcón Negro in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 1:55, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Shocker & Silver King beat Chicago Express & Pierroth Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 1:16, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Astro Rey Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Atlantico & Atlantis in a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 2:52, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Shocker & Silver King beat Bestia Salvaje & Corazón Salvaje in a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 0:34+0:40, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

What Happened: Shocker & Corazon Salvaje each pin the veterans, then go to a double pin draw. That’s a bit of a problem in a single-elimination tournament. The ring announcer actually announced before the matches started what would happen in the unlikely case of a draw: the two rookies face off in a singles match. It doesn’t go well. Corazon stumbles on a spot, Shocker puts him in a hold for the winning submission, Silver King comes in to celebrate but the referees never actually called the submission, and the Shocker improvises a German suplex to get the three count. Corazon Salvaje is down for a while on the mat, while the others fight to distract from the messed up finish.

Shocker & Silver King beat Astro Rey Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa final
(Arena México @ 04/07, 8:52, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

The best part of the final, and the whole tournament, is the giant faceplant Dr. Wagner takes about five minutes in. It’s otherwise just a standard match with the crowd reacting nicely for team Shocker’s win. The work is fine, but there’s no great drama to it. The moment means more to the fans, who got to see a lot more in this tournament than we did. I’m still fascinated by how far Wagner & Mephisto (Astro Rey) are from being the people they’d become. Shocker has a ways to go but it’s possible to see the evolution coming, and obviously CMLL’s way into him at this point to have him win this tournament. There’s no obvious line for those other two.

Héctor Garza beat Satánico for the hair
(Arena México @ 04/07, 2:13, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)

It’s two minutes. It’s a good two minutes, highlighted by Humberto Garza running to ringside to cheerlead for his son and nearly getting arrested for it. (I think it was a planned bit but not one they clued in security about; announcers recognize him immediately.) It’s still just two minutes. CMLL is so different in 1995 than 2020 that it is actually not a terrible issue: these two run the same match back in December, which is up complete.

Recapped: 2020-07-23

1995-03-18 matches:

Atlantis, Negro Casas, Vampiro beat Emilio Charles Jr., Jason The Terrible, Pierroth Jr.
(03/14 @ Arena Coliseo, 9:04, 1/2 DQ, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

What Happened: In the intro, Miguel Linares says Jason the Terrible is Australian! The match is joined with the two teams fighting prior to getting to the ring.

Review: Everyone looks fine but this one doesn’t really pick up before it ends. It’s an abrupt ending, Emilio fouling Vampiro to send this to a straight falls finish in a match where they hadn’t feuded much. 1995 Vampiro likes to take flip bumps out off of clotheslines. He often seems like he’s wrestling his own match, unaware of what is going on around him. He keeps wrestling Jason the Terrible in the first fall long after his partners have ended the fall.

Último Dragón © beat Corazón De León for the NWA World Middleweight Championship
(03/17 @ Arena México, 10:11, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

I was sure this was going to be a match I was really going to enjoy. I couldn’t find a way to give a positive grade even coming in wanting to like it. This is very much a match they could’ve done in the Japan or US with two fall breaks wedged in. It’s not bad for that reason but feels out of place on a CMLL card. It feels weird that Jericho’s going to chinlocks to slow down the match to built to an Ultimo Dragon comeback, and the relatively short time for this match doesn’t really allow those pauses. It’s possible they just edited it down, but what we’re left with doesn’t feel great. Jericho is unpolished, with some moments that really don’t go well. (The dropkick counter/moonsault spot they both try for at the end doesn’t come close to working.) This is one which may have worked better in the time – they’re doing all sorts of suplexes and top rope moves which were more novel in 1995. It doesn’t hold up well now.

Sangre Chicana beat La Fiera for the hair
(03/17 @ Arena México, 7:23, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)

This is maybe a bit of a generous grade. They got to the fighting I was hoping for in the third after two relatively forgettable falls. There’s one tope worth seeing too, though the match ends abruptly (and maybe after an edit.) This is not a patch on the 80s Sangre Chicana hair matches but acceptable for this sort of thing.

1995-03-25 matches

Almost every match on this show (full link) is clipped. I just have the tournament matches listed as airing, but there are clips of matches from other shows which last longer. It’s a useless show if you’re just looking for great matches. The conditions don’t allow for any of the matches to come off well, and the focus is on building to matches on future shows. Might as well talk about that instead of the matches.

Non-tournament matches

• The 03/21 @ Arena Coliseo Salavador Lutteroth cibernetico from 03/21. Mostly just eliminations shown. Dr. Wagner wins over buddy Pierroth.
• The trios main event from the 03/21 Arena Coliseo show. Satanico fouls Hector Garza to continue that issue.
• The 02/24 @ Arena Mexico Reyna Jubuki vs Lady Apache CMLL Women’s Championship, ending when Lady Apache was disqualified for refusing to let go of a hair pull. It’s a bad ending. A Lady Apache sit down interview precedes this building to a rematch. In reality, that was Jubuki’s final match in Mexico and she’s left as champion. It’ll take a year and a half for CMLL to come up with a reason to vacate the title (Jubuki appearing in WCW) and get it to Lady Apache. Jubuki leaving with the title appears to end the 80s/90s rebirth era of the women’s division, with CMLL paying little attention to the championship until Dark Angel showed up.

Those matches take place in between rounds of a Salvador Lutteroth trios tournament on 03/24 in Arena Coliseo. This is prior to the era of Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, with CMLL looking for a way to honor their founder in March and not yet having struck on building a show around it. There is a seeding battle royal.

• Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazo beat Damián el Guerrero, Guerrero del Futuro, Guerrero Maya in 0:55 shown
• Apolo Dantés, Atlantis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. beat Cadáver De Ultratumba, Espectro Jr., Kahoz in 0:54 shown
  • The rudos fouled Rayo to cost themselves an easy win
• Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Wagner Jr., El Hijo Del Gladiador, Gran Markus Jr. in 1:26 shown
• Dos Caras, El Dandy, Héctor Garza beat MS-1, Pirata Morgan, Satánico in 0:28 shown
  • Satanico & Hector Garza feuding was the focus
• Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazo beat Apolo Dantés, Atlantis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. in 1:43 shown
• Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Dos Caras, El Dandy, Héctor Garza in 1:28 shown

The final was shown complete, or close to it. It still wasn’t long.

Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazo in a tournament final
(03/24 @ Arena México, straight falls, 5:56, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

The whole tournament was building up to miscommunication between El Brazo and his two brothers, leading to a violent fight after the match. El Brazo had been a rudo since late September 1994; it was more surprising he was getting along with his brothers for one night than that they broke up. This leads to a hair match between them the next week, though a trios tournament comes off as a strange way to set that up. Garza/Satanico, which is two weeks away, is a lot more conventionally built. Bestia Salvaje remains a quiet joy, doing a couple of interesting things in every significant match.

Recapped: 2020-07-14

I’m starting at looking at 1995 episodes of CMLL TV, but I think I’m just going to end up bouncing through whatever 90s one I can find when I have a chance to do this.

Brazo de Oro beat Gran Markus Jr. © for the Mexico City Heavyweight Championship
(CMLL 01/31 @ 17:32, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)

What Happened: The Mexico City heavyweight championship – literally a title just for the city – would pop up in CMLL from time to time as a midlevel heavyweight championship. I had Brazo de Oro listed as the champion here, but he’s definitely challenging and this is the title change.

Review: [good] A solid technical title match. I didn’t know what to expect given my experience with these two men is mostly when they were much older. It didn’t look good when it started with some slow mat wrestling. It got much better than there. In 1995, they’re surprising agile big men with decent speed and good drama. Gran Markus was easily getting up and down and Brazo moved around like a much smaller man. This isn’t a match of big moves, but the finish caught me by surprise nicely. Much better than I thought looking at the match listing, closer to being great.

Héctor Garza, La Fiera, Silver King beat Black Magic, Dr. Wagner Jr., Emilio Charles Jr.
(CMLL @ 02/03, 13:46, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

There’s a strong first fall and a good ending in this trios match, and a lot of running clothesline spots that make the match tedious in between. Silver King appears out to lunch at the end of the first fall, struggling setting up his own finish and then forgetting to go for the pin. Garza, Emilio and Black Magic are more positive standouts. It ended up fine enough but nothing worth seeking out.

El Hijo del Solitario, Kato Kung Lee, Shocker beat Arkángel de la Muerte, Cachorro Mendoza, Felino
(CMLL @ 02/07, 14:17, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL

Slow and not so interesting. You can see Arkangel looking a lot more agile than he would end up, and Kato Kung Lee still showing flashes of his own mobility. It just doesn’t go anywhere outside of that match up. It ends suddenly and anticlimactically with an Arkangel foul. Pass.

Negro Casas, Silver King, Vampiro beat Bestia Salvaje, Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo Del Gladiador
(CMLL @ 02/10, 16:59, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

A tedious encounter despite some individual good wrestlers. The first fall goes really long for no reason, and the third fall seems like they edited out the comeback. Or maybe just worked a weird match. Vampiro and Wagner did not seem to be getting along at all; Wagner was clearly upset with Vampiro after he refused to do a spot on the floor late in the second fall and kept at him about it.