tim.

It's a bummer to see how much steam this project has lost, because it really is an awesome thing. No fault to the organizers of course, just judging from the amount of posts we're getting on the lucha set, it's an interest thing. Then, lucha has always had a problem with generating interest and participation. You'd think a big set like Crocket or the WWF re-do could spark a lot of interest but with how WWE is about their copyrights these days those might be dicey situations.

I read this about two years ago. Man, I have no idea how anyone COULDN'T love Kinbote's melodramatic, self-centered Zembla story. By far my favorite parts. Also here is a good write up by an English professor as to the identity of the narrator: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/palenarr.htm

All the non-taped 80s stuff, and how good what made tape is, really makes you think that the best wrestling match of all time might not have even made tape.

Do a ballot Matt, this being lucha it will unfortunately probably need as many votes as it can get. As long as you can felsh out a top 20 nothing else terribly much matters rankings wise.

I'm now imagining there being minor tensions between the upper and lower class fans at Arena Mexico with the upper classes always looking for a great technical bout and the drunken lower classes just wanting to see some bloody fighting. Boy do I hope it's true.

Why is the world so cruel? Great thread btw.

DISK TEN 1. Pirata Morgan vs. Brazo De Oro (11/17/89) 2. El Dandy vs. Emilio Charles Jr. (12/1/89) 3. El Brazo, Brazo Del Oro y Brazo Del Plata vs. Hombre Bala, Pirata Morgan y El Verdugo (11/10/89) 4. El Brazo, Brazo Del Oro y Brazo Del Plata vs. Hombre Bala, Pirata Morgan y El Verdugo (10/27/89) 5. El Brazo y Brazo De Plata vs. Hombre Bala, El Verdugo (11/17/89) 6. Emilio Charles Jr., MS-1 y Tierra, Viento y Fuego vs. Atlantis, El Dandy y Mascara Sagrada, (11/24/89) 7. Fuerza Guerrera vs. El Hijo Del Santo vs. All Star (12/8/89) 8. Fuerza Guerrera y Rocky Star vs. All Star y El Hijo Del Santo + Fuerza Guerrera vs. Rocky Star (12/1/89) 9. Pirata Morgan vs. Ken Timbs (12/8/89) Well that's that. Great set overall though it really goes out with a whimper. Not that the last two disks are bad, just definitely a lot weaker than what came before. But I suppose that's to be expected with the increased footage, more everything means you don't just get the best ofs.

RUDO SANTO! Holy shit, the crowd does not care for Santo here, and I don't know if Santo plays it up brilliantly, is actually supposed to be a rudo at this point, or is legitimately at a loss and pissed about it. The final match up in this is All Star vs. Santo to decide who loses the mask and the crowd really gets on his case as he's beating All Star around ringside. Post match the crowd is booing him and Santo is flipping off the crowd, arguing with fans, at one point gets a mic and tries to cut a promo; it even looks like he leaves the ring to lash out at some fans who are in the way of him trying to lay a post match beat down on All Star. And he attacks All Star as he's being demasked. Pretty wild spectacle. The match itself. The opening Fuerza vs. Santo section wasn't very good. They just couldn't get anything going, the match sort of had an awkward rhythm to it and it didn't get any good. The All Star vs. Fuerza stuff was actually pretty damn good, Fuerza's mask gets shredded, he blades big and they have a nice one fall battle. The Santo/All Star part has some good stuff, some nice dives and of course the crowd reaction gets very interesting. As a whole this match doesn't impress me a lot but there were things worth seeing and especially from the third fall of the last match it becomes a real spectacle to see the crowd reacting to Santo and him reacting to them.

Hello #100. This is pretty long and pretty dull. Blondy doesn't bring much to the table here. The beginning is sort of interesting in that it really looks like Morgan trying to work the mat with a broomstrick and he seems to almost be guiding every one of Blondy's movements. Seems like a lot of striking in this for a title match. They try to have their run of big moves at counters for the third fall but it doesn't work out for them and they flub a couple spots pretty badly. Morgan does a couple cool things I guess, but overall this isn't an interesting match at all.

Tag match starts this off and the losing team has to duke it out afterward for the masks. Kind of turns the standard question of "who's gonna win" on its head as the point of this match is kind of more "who's gonna lose?" Opening tag was brawling heavy and I didn't think it was too great, though there was a nice dive section and Santito's mask gets ripped up real bad. The Fuerza/Rocky section I didn't think was too hot for a mask match either really, though it had some cool stuff. Starts off with Rocky chucking Fuerza three throws into the seating and I'm kind of a mark for dudes throwing each other into the seating. All in all a lower end match.

After the set up trios I assumed this would be another brawl, so I got pretty excited when I saw them posing with the belt in the pre-match. An El Dandy title match is just the thing needed to lead us out of this set. Well, it wasn't all it could be but it was still good. Opening matwork is interesting and, well, more chain wrestling than matwork sort of, but not on the level you imagine from an El Dandy title match. There were a couple awkward spots throughout where one of the guys sort of just walks up on the other after taking a move and grabs a german suplex of their own or something. But mainly this was solidly good kind of workrate style lucha which I don't imagine many people were pulling off like these guys in the day. The third fall is the bulk of this match and features some good back and forth and some nice dives. A middling singles match for the set for me.

Another El Dandy/Charles set up match. Well, it wasn't even close to the first one, but still pretty good. Dandy and Charles pair up before too long and there's this cool moment where Charles is beating down Dandy while he's on the ground at ringside and Dandy starts trying to defend himself with kicks to Charles' legs. Some cool fast pace exchanges in the beginning and some Dandy/Charles brawling, nice match but nothing to knock your socks off.

With their partners in a clean title match, these guys decided to take it to each other in an apuestas. Gotta say, that's a good deal for Brazo de Oro. Morgan looses, he loses the belt; anyone else loses, they loose their hair; Oro loses, meh. The brawling in this is pretty good and there's blood all around. Whenever someone smashes their opponent's bloody head into the seating I always wonder what the guy does whose seat is now covered in luchadore blood. Brazos comeback is good and is capped off by a top rope splash from Plata. Last fall is good stuff with a big dive train jumping off, ending with Plata taking everyone out with a tope. Eventually Brazo and Verdugo are left in the ring and Brazo takes it with a roll up. Good stuff but nothing that blew my socks off.

Nice to see a real title match on the set again. I liked how they both kept a little bit of their schtick in the opening mat work which added a bit of flavor to it. I really like Oro's small package roll up. Beginning of the second fall is cool with Morgan trying to survive the onslaught, especially at first when he taps on Oro's back to get him to think he gave up while in the crab without ever actually verbally quitting to the ref. First two falls were good, solidly good, but not really great. The third fall, though, was great. Oro had submitted to a figure four to lose the second fall and is nursing it in the third, awesomely playing defense trying to keep Morgan away from it. Oro sells the knee throughout and it's a big feature of the fall. At one point he finally takes Morgan down and just starts wrenching on the arm hoping to find some way to equalize things. There are three big dives, lots of missed moves off the top and by the end this really has that great war of attrition feel. Oro grabs another small package and it's a really effective near fall. Morgan wins it at the end with a cobra clutch. The crowd was hot for this throughout and the third fall was fantastic with the story of Oro's leg giving it a really unique feel. Top 30.

While the last match had a more competitive bent, this was all about schtick and brawling. The first fall was all about Brazos schtick, few can dish it out better than los Brazos and few receive better than Los Piratas. Plata's athleticism was on full display again and it was a blast of a fall. Second fall turns to the brawling as Los Piratas take it to the Brazos, El Brazo gushes blood and there's this great spot where all three have Plata down in the corner and they're trying to cave his head in with their boots. Plata accidentally wipes out Brazo with a dive which is the holy shit moment of the match leaving Oro to get taken out by an awesome triple team headbutt followed by a big splash.