tim.

This must've been some feud because these two do not seem to care for one another, Fiera dragging Babyface by his hair to ram him against the ring panneling right after winning the first fall and Babyface going after Fiera's injured shoulder with no remorse and refusing to break the submission after the second fall. La Fiera working over Babyface in the second fall is just great before his injured shoulder stops him from applying a move and Babyface starts taking advantage (though wrenching on the wrong arm in his submission to win the fall). Third fall is all out, they both bleed and beat the hell out of each other. Fiera's big dive is nuts and unexpected and his followed missed dive on the outside is a sick bump. Ending totally rules: Babyface hits a headbutt below the belt but the ref buys it as a headbutt to the gut, so Fiera grabs the ropes off the victory roll for the win to pay him back. The crowd mobs the ring, some are happy and some are grabbing the ropes and trying to explain the ref which is the best. Top 20 level match, I could see it in top 10s.

Seems like piledrivers were illegal by now? Match isn't much in the first two falls but gets good in the third. Ends with Jalisco turning a spinning backbreaker into a piledriver for the win; the announcer says "prohibido (or something)," the crowd explodes and there's lots of post match drama, so by now piledrivers seemed to have been a big deal. Interesting ending and good final fall but this goes fairly low for me.

What a fun match. Nice to see the Misioneros, complete with a young Navarro and his receeding hairline. This match is really fun. Classic trios structure, some really beautiful punches and some great technico dominance segments especially Lizarks's two segments where he runs around owning the rudos and Dantes' where he kills them all with big atomic drops. Ends to both first two falls were cool with a nice double press slam in the first and a technicos taking the second with the classic hurricanrana in the middle of the four way leg stretch. This is one of those trios matches that's just a blast to sit back and watch, it's not the most exceptional in any particular regard maybe but cool stuff is happening all around and everything is done really well.

God damn what a match. Perro's extended beatdown of Chicana is just about MS1 level and no one takes a beating better than Chicana. Sangre's two abortive comebacks off big punches ruled and made the real comeback all the better. Third fall is a total war, big punches, awesome run of near falls, wild dives and crowd brawling. This is one match where they just launched themselves back into the second and third rows off dives and then fought into them. This feels like a total war by the end and the finish is fantastic, Perro looks ready to just keep killing Chicana with body slams until Chicana is finally out for good but Chicana turns on into a roll up and the crowd explodes, a little kid in the first row is jumping for joy and it's one of the best post-match crowd mobbings of the ring I've seen. Top 10 level.

Another from the show of clipped matches, which is a shame because it looks like we missed at least a big dive. This started sort of weak but got real good at the second fall when the blood and mask ripping starting to come out. Wagner pulling chairs from under the fans to bash Solitario in the head with ruled. Good finishing stretch with both guys bleeding, their masks half off and a hard fought war of attrition feel. This is a match where I started off thinking it would get placed low but starting at the second fall it just kept better and better, though still a bottom half match.

Cool to see Chicana back working rudo. I like my trios chaotic and this certainly was: the constant clipping, unfortunate as it is, actually added to that atmosphere. I enjoyed this match a good bit but it'll go relatively low.

disk four 1. La Fiera, El Faraón y El Egipico vs. MS-1, Satanico y Pirata Morgan (3/29/85)2. Atlantis vs. El Faraón (3/22/85)3. Javier Cruz vs. El Dandy (10/26/84) 4. Sangre Chicana vs. Villano III (12/7/84) 5. Gran Cochise, Villano III y Rayo De Jalisco Jr. vs. Fishman, Mocho Cota y Tony Bennetto (11/30/84) 6. Raul Reyes Jr. y Climax vs. Mocho Cota y Loco Zavala (1985) 7. Americo Rocca vs. El Talisman (3/29/85) 8. Lizmark, Mil Mascaras & Valente Fernandez vs. Sangre Chicana, Angel Blanco & Angel Blanco Jr. (12/1/85) 9. El Hijo del Santo y Black Shadow Jr. vs. Espanto Jr. y Eskeletor (12/1/85)

I really enjoyed the first fall, really fun matwork and rope running armdrag-y stuff. What we got of the brawling on the floor between the second and third falls looked cool. Technico comeback in the last fall was really good but after the technicos look to have put it away the ref declares for the rudos presumptively due to Santito tearing at Espanto's mask. Black Shadow and Santo abuse the ref after the match and the teams keep on skirmishing for quite a while. A lot to enjoy here but this is a weak match relative to the set and will go low for me.

Good match. Definitely a bottom half match for me on this set but no doubt it was good. The endings to the first two falls were really cool. Third fall had some nice dives and counters and I really liked the ending: Rocca's got his submission in and he just keeps wrenching on it, the crowd slowly builds up heat waiting for Talisman to tap and they just explode when he finally does.

Man what a great one-two punch on this disk, a classic title match followed by a wild trios brawl. And holy shit is this match awesome. Chaotic brawling all around. The cherry of his beautifully violent cake is the Egipico/Morgan stuff. They really start going at it in the second fall and Egipico is bent on murdering Morgan from then on, whipping him THROUGH the wooden paneling on the ring and then picking up one of the boards of wood and beating him with it. Third fall really feels like a gang war with everyone just beating the shit out of everyone else but especially Egipico taking it to Morgan (in the middle of the chaos the announcer exlaims what sounds like "Una lucha apocolyptica!"). Too many cool little tid bits of brawling in this to mention. Finish is just great with a final big Egipico/Morgan exchange and some cool double team spots ending in stereo dives (where Fiera just about kills himself) with the other four. This goes high on my ballot. I want to buy a ticket for an Egipico/Morgan hair match now.

Faraon is another guy I want to see a lot more of, damn he was good here. Atlantis was no slouch either. First fall matwork was fantastic stuff and the stretch that ended it was probably the most painful that move's ever looked. Faraon pouncing on Atlantis at the bell in the second fall was really cool as was Atlantis' comeback; Atlantis going to town on the arm was great, with the highlight being the super-wrenching on the standing wrist lock, and Faraon sold it beautifully. Faraon coming back with those standing clothelines with the good arm was also awesome. They go all out on the first fall with a bunch of dives and rollups, Atlantis' second dive being especially great. Really cool ending with Faraon going nuts in the roll up trying to kick out. This will do well on my ballot.

Mocho ruled in this, from the beautiful opening mat work to the shenanigans between the first and second fall. Him putting both hands behind his back as a DEFENSIVE maneuver was awesome as were his wild dives outside the ring to get away from Reyes. Climax/Zavala spots in the first fall were great as well and felt like something very unique for lucha. Ending stuff is good, especially the final submission and the brief but intense and awesome stand up between Mocho and Reyes. Can someone find every Mocho Cota match ever?

The first two falls of this are really straight out of MS1/Chicana but that's no criticism, they do it and do it well. Chicana bleeds right out of the gate and Villano III is fantastic working him over. Chicana's comeback is, again, brilliant followed by a totally nuts dive and somehow afterward Villano III is just gushing barrelfuls of blood. The third fall doesn't last long with Villano just drenched in blood and his mask ripped almost completely off; Chicana tears the mask off, Villano responds with a kick to the balls and I think it ends in a double DQ. Which would be positively poetic if so: a double finish involving a mask rip and a nut shot, a symphony of screwy lucha finishes. This is real short but man is it great. I also love the VQ, makes the whole proceeding feel seedy which is about the best atmosphere for a bloody lucha brawl.

This is a match I liked more and more as it went on. The rudo mugging in the second fall was great, they were just brutalizing the technicos all over the ring area, especially the Chocise/Cota stuff with Chochise taking some beautiful postings. Fishman's ending splash was spectacular. Third fall is great with Chochise mounting a comeback and drawing blood from Cota with his teeth. Ending stretch totally ruled with an awesome set of dives leading to Chocise and Cota dueling in out in the ring with Cochise picking up a win with an awesome small package counter. Awesome spirited brawl with some great extended beatdowns and a fantastic ending.

I was pumped for this after their trios and it was pretty damn good. Opening Dandy blitz and Cruz' comeback was cool and both first two falls ended with some really cool submissiosn with an extra malicious umph on them. Camerman sure was interested in that the crowd was eating during the second fall. Third fall was great with some heated, competitive action. I'm a sucker for dudes ducking it out on their knees in lucha matches and this one had a great such spot. As far as draw ending goes this one was really well done and cool.

disk three rankings 1. Gran Cochisse vs. Satanico (9/14/84) 2. El Satanico y Espectro Jr. v. El Faraón y La Fiera (8/12/84) 3. Javier Cruz, Impacto y Solar II vs. El Dandy, Franco Colombo y Panico (10/84) 4. Perro Aguayo vs. Sangre Chicana vs. El Faraón vs. Villano III (10/84) 5. Satanico vs. Shiro Koshinaka (7/30/84) 6. Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/21/84) 7. Satanico vs. Super Astro (10/26/84)8. Villano III vs. Perro Aguayo (10/7/84) 9. Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, MS-1 y Espectro Jr. (9/28/84)

This is an enjoyable trios and all but I didn't think it was that good. Some neat stuff in it, especially certain punches and that gutwrench front slam thing Salazar was hitting on Espectro, but this will finish low for me.

Wow, I think I understood wtf was going on with this match! Opening TODOS CONTRA TODOS and the two match ups were nothing exceptional, though there was some cool stuf in the beginning of Perro/Faraon, but the end to the Chicana/Villano match up was totally awesome and this ended with a really great bloody Chicana/Perro war. That's ultimately what this match rests on. Some awesome punch exchanges, especially one where Chicana hits a quick shot on Perro while he's falling down himself. Same great dives, selling and in general just a top knotch brawl. I didn't much care for the ending at first but was quickly mollified when the crowd rushed the ring and started cheering Chicana for losing the match for himself by punting Perro in the balls. Post match is cool with Perro on his knees still trying to take it to Chicana while the crowd surrounds the ring.

I must have missed something or be going crazy because by my count this match ended with one fall a piece. Either way, this is really good. First appearance of the man who will be tearing up the later disks. Here he's throwing beautiful punches and hitting two of the nastiest looking sentons I've ever seen. Second fall (I guess?) is awesome with Dandy working over Cruz with great punches followed by Impacto staging a one man comeback to ward the rudos off Cruz, then Cruz firing himself back up and he and El Dandy going at it. In the end one of the technicos is eliminated followed by one of the rudos leaving Dandy and Cruz to duke it out for the win and the move Cruz hits to win is something of a holy shit moment, very cool.

This is a match that really piqued my interest on paper. Unfortunately I didn't think the first two falls were very good, mostly consisting of Satanico working over Astro in pretty by the numbers fashion. No doubt I love a good extended rudo beatdown segment but I don't think Satanico was particularly good in his here. Third fall though Astro stages a comeback and both guys bleed and beat the hell out of each other. Astro hits some really great leaping headbutt offense and the highlight of the match is them both on their knees duking it out and Astro hitting these awesome pendulum swing headbutts. Ending call is great: "La rana. La rana? La rana!" Two average falls and one great fall, this won't rank too high for me.

I've decided to let the disks be my master and watch in the order given rather than chronologically. These guys rule the mat pretty hard for the first several minutes but I didn't really dig the ending portion of the first fall (though Perro's double stomp was nuts and awesome) or the second fall. For the third though after Perro misses a double stomp they go off on a pretty good extended home stretch that has some great stuff in it. Still despite the good which this match definitely had it feels awkward at times, looses steam towards the end despite a dive and ends with the most preposterous double pin I've ever seen. This should finish relatively low for me but it's worth repeating that this is still a pretty darn good match.

No doubt this isnt in the same universe as their previous match but it's really still is quite good. MS1 working over Chicana is still pretty good and Chicana's roundhouse left-feuled comebacks still totally rule, that's probably the best punch in all of wrestling. Chicana's finishing dive with MS1 flying back into the chairs really was one of the set highlights so far. In general this match is basically worked as a markedly inferior and less dramatic version of their 83 match and in that sense the work itself -- the dives, the beatdowns, the punches -- were still top knotch but overall this isn't a great match, just really good.

God damn this match is a classic. I just wish they'd stayed on the mat a bit longer because that opening matwork was truly masterful stuff. Back on their feet though they do some cool trading of arm drags etc and posturing, with Satanico's body language etc being especially cool, how calm and collected he kept himself. Second fall is great with awesome deuling arm work, and their little show down on all fours had the crowd whistling and barking which was hilarious. Third fall is just out of this world. It's like the best of all possible go-go-go runs of tons of big moves and counters, but in a 80s lucha style, and it just feels really special and is perfectly worked. Too much awesome stuff to name. I'll be surprised if this doesn't stay in my top 5.

I have a feeling this match will get the short end of the stick due to the VQ but it should do pretty damn well for me. Fiera was the man in this with beautiful punches and awesome looking body slams. He also sold beauitfully for El Satanico off his comeback. Lots of good extended team beat downs. The VQ didn't bother me overall but it is a shame there seemed to be two somewhat significant clippings and a video cut right during the move of a big transition spot. The ending was absolutely nuts a really gave this match an ending boost in my rankings.

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