Exposer

Awesome, awesome match. I liked this better than the first match. The first fall was out of this world great with Cota doing detailed work on Rocca’s arm and hand. My favorite part was Cota mangling Rocca’s hand with his mangled hand. The mat work here was done with so much precision. It also has a feel of toughness to it that’s really unique. The finishing run to the first fall was incredible. Cota was taking great bumps and that last sequence was excellent. The second fall got some time and was really good. Cota starts working over Rocca’s arm and neck area using those awesome throws he does. I loved the near falls too and Cota’s reaction to them. He finally gets Rocca to submit to his contorting submission. The third fall was very short but full speed with some great action. Cota’s post bump was tremendous. The finish is another screwy one but much more clever and believable. Cota grinning and strutting around after the match was fucking hilarious. I loved him pointing at and mocking Rocca for pulling another one on him. This is getting four and half stars from me. That’s a solid A. It was a totally awesome match and all three falls were great. The finish was screwy but at least this time it was entertaining and clever.

Mocho Cota is fucking awesome. He really takes the lead in this match and is great. Rocca is strong underneath and sells pretty well but Cota was the star. The first fall was excellent. The mat work was all very smooth and deliberate with some gritty struggle and really believable transitions. Cota won on the mat but once they got back on their feet Rocca caught him with a back breaker submission for the win. The second and third falls are all about Cota taking complete control and really focusing on Rocca’s arm. He does some really good work here and keeps everything to Rocca’s arm. Cota forces Rocca to submit in the second and we have a really good third fall with Rocca desperately staying alive while nursing his arm. Cota’s second (I believe it’s Talisman) keeps getting involved and pissing off the referee. Rocca gets a comeback but Cota crushes him with an awesome dropkick and hits him with a great dive into the aisle. Talisman rolls Cota back into the ring which pissed the ref off again. Rocca eventually gets a big comeback going but the ref takes a bump and Cota throws Rocca over his head and covers him. Talisman holds onto Rocca’s legs and Cota gets the win. That finish was terrible and it’s a shame because this was a pretty great match before that bullshit. Cota was tremendous in this match having great tunnel vision working over Rocca’s arm and doing awesome throws and shit. A better finish would have made this better than the previous match but I’m not so sure it is now. EDIT: Well, I'll give this four stars or so. I thought about the match for a few minutes and Chad made a great point about how engaging the first fall matwork was. I was totally transfixed. That's a really good thing. I'll give it an A-. After a full day of thinking on it, this match is better than the Atlantis-Satanico match. Everything up until the finish kept me glued to the screen. Atlantis-Satanico lost me a few times with Atlantis' pandering to the crowd in his goofy way and me preferring the psychological mat focused match in Cota-Rocca more.

This is a match that I might be an outlier on. First and foremost, this was a really good match. I might even call it a great one. However, I struggle to see how it’s as good as some people are letting on. It’s certainly a match that’s a good introduction to the style. There was blood, mask pulling, brawling, some good holds, and Satanico pulled some great clever rudo tactics. The low blow out of the referee’s sight was awesome. That was the perfect way to transition into Satanico taking control. I think Atlantis has good offense too. He’s pretty varied and his back breaker is a really good one. The third fall had the blood and brawling which was great. Satanico wiping his face and seeing his own blood then going getting pissed about it was the best moment of the match. The punches were pretty sweet here too. Both guys sold really well here as well. I loved Satanico bringing Atlantis in for a handshake then decking him afterwards. That’s such great heel work. Ultimately, there wasn’t enough in the first two falls to engross me to give this the highest praise. There was nothing bad, but also anything terribly remarkable either. However, the third fall was really great and Satanico’s mannerisms were superb. Four stars or so. Maybe a A- for this or a B+. This is a great match but not a really great one.

I don't think piledrivers became illegal until the late 80s early 90s. You will see many more piledrivers on this set. Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up. I was confused as hell.

Disc One Rankings: 1. MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (9/23/83) 2. Atlantis y El Hijo Del Santo vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Lobo Rubio (11/25/83) 3. Sangre Chicana vs. Ringo Mendoza (10/28/83) 4. Centurion Negro vs. Gran Hamada (2/14/82) 5. Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80) 6. Espectro Jr., Satanico, y MS-1 vs. Mocho Cota, Sangre Chicana, y La Fiera (9/30/83) 7. El Canek vs. Don Corleone (2/14/82) 8. Kevin Von Erich, Mascara Ano 2000, y Halcon Ortiz vs. Coloso Colosetti, Pirata Morgan, y Herodes (9/23/83) 9. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek (6/12/83) 10. Andre the Giant y Cien Caras vs. Alfonso Dantes, Herodes, y Sangre Chicana (1981) I dug the El Santo tributes in the extras section. That one match looked awesome with just the highlights. Anyways, this disc was very good overall. The first half was a little underwhelming but MS-1-Chicana opened things up and now it's looking like the potential for an extraordinary set. MVP: Sangre Chicana - This guy is one of the best sellers of all time. Incredible performer. Honorable Mention: Gran Hamada - He had a great brawl and a great title match. Variation is a big plus in my book and Hamada has that on the little time he is on this set.

This was a completely different match from everything else on this set so far but it was a really good match. Atlantis and Santo were young as fuck at the time and athletic freaks. If that mixes with Fuerza and Lobo being bumping, bumbling fools than I’m happy. Santo’s got the best variation of arm drag and leg scissors takeovers ever. It’s absurdly awesome. I marked out when Fuerza did his bump but he didn’t go full out here. Maybe he will later in the set. I hope so. All of these first fall exchanges were just monumentally fun. It was comedic and pretty much a showcase for Atlantis and Santo but it was insanely fun to watch. Fuerza is such a great bumbling fool during all of this bumping around, running into Lobo, and causing problems all around. The end of the first fall ruled with Santo’s senton and Camel Clutch combo. Fuerza and Lobo then turned into badasses in the second fall and my God the beating they gave was sweet. Atlantis gets his face crushed by Fuerza while in a tree of woe on the actual ring apron. That was sick. Then we have Lobo literally throwing Santo ten or fifteen yards out of the ring for the count out finish. Damn, this match is fun. The last fall was a total blast too with Fuerza throwing mean punches and Atlantis and Santo ending it with two totally awesome dives. This match ruled. Man, I don’t know. I think I’ll give this four stars or so. This is another B+. It was good as fuck. It was an awesome way to end the disc.

Chicana delivered again. This guy is just incredible. He’s remarkable at selling. It’s full body, engaging, believable, and he always works with a sense of desperation. The opening mat work wasn’t anything too special in my opinion but the dive teases were great and I loved Chicana nearly wiping out on his tease because it was like if he pulled the trigger on that shit he would have taken himself and Ringo to the fifth row. Ringo’s tease was brilliant as he just flattens on the mat, waits for Chicana to get on the apron, then kicks him off and hits him with a flying body press. That whole sequence was great. That leads to Ringo winning the first fall by submission and with a back cradle. Chicana sells his back for the rest of the match and limps around. It’s awesome to watch. Ringo works over Chicana’s back for the entire second fall and Chicana is great at building sympathy. He fights back and submits Ringo with his sick ass submission. So now Ringo’s hurting in the back as well. Chicana’s neck was worked on too so he’s nursing that in the third fall. The third fall is good as fuck with both guys targeting each other’s pains then going to brutal mat work to close it out. The final three minutes of this are superb with Chicana fighting out of a half crab, locking in a variation of the Rings of Saturn or some shit, and then having this tremendous struggle with Ringo over leverage and holds. The counter of the Rings of Saturn hold into the torture rack on the knees was fucking great. Ringo then goes for the camel clutch but Chicana awesomely struggles out of it. Ringo tries this crazy shit to hurt Chicana’s back more but Chicana turns it into a surfboard pinning combo that is tremendously built up for the win. My God, Chicana was great in this. Ringo held his own too. I liked this a ton. Chicana is the absolute gem of this set so far. Four stars maybe on the dot. B + range. Chicana was brilliant in this. Man, he’s fucking great. The post-match was something else too. The fans loved him as well.

This match was a total blast. It was a pier six brawl from start to finish but it was an awesome one. The rudos immediately attacking the techinos during their entrance with the crowd swarming was a holy shit moment to start. Chicana’s posting was nasty as fuck. I love how the rudos isolated him from the get go and just mugged him while keeping Fiera and Cota at bay. The rudos kick ass in the first fall and then in the second isolate Cota and bloody him up. I loved Fiera’s wild bump to the floor during all of this. The pop once the technicos take back over is massive and really tremendous. They storm the ring and shit and it’s just completely great. Chicana gets Satanico back for posting him earlier by posting his ass hard. Then Chicano and Satanico start to really go at it and Chicana punts Satanico in the balls. The technicos won the second fall earlier and we’re to Espectro getting isolated by the faces. They rip his mask off but before the refs DQ them Satanico gets the greatest payback low blow from behind of all time on Chicana for the DQ and the techinos win. This is a totally wild brawl in a totally wild atmosphere that creates immense fun. It’s not a great match really but it’s great fun and was the kind of stuff I wanted out of this set. I’m giving this between three and four stars. Solid B I would think. It’s not quite a great match partly because it’s a continuation of feuds and setting up others, etc. but it does a damn good job of that.

I watched this match a few years ago and thought it was one of the best matches of the 80s. My second viewing hasn’t changed that opinion. I think what really makes this match such a masterpiece is the selling. Chicana’s selling was so brilliant in this. He set the tone for the entire match with his performance early on. MS-1 brought the humiliation and cockiness to make this even better. The moment where Chicana gets that first punch, then a second one, followed by the wild dive is one of the great moments in wrestling that’s hard to forget. The crowd was so behind him chanting his name and that moment was such a great payoff as the turning point in the match. Payback spots are really important to me in matches like these and there were a couple that really stood out and put the match into another level. The first was Chicana busting MS-1 open on the turnbuckle just like MS-1 had done to him at the start of the match. It was a total reversal of fortune and was brilliantly done. The other payback spot is when MS-1 misses his top rope splash in the third fall. He won the first fall with it so it’s a logical point to reference that later in the match and have it backfire on MS-1. The back and forth desperation dives were something else too and the selling was off the charts from both guys at this point. I also think it’s important to note that Chicana withstands everything MS-1 has to offer in that third fall. Both guys selling of fatigue and angst were tremendous during all of that. The finish is incredible. Chicana is finally able to take full control after MS-1 goes to the well one too many times and forces him to submit with that sick ass hold. This is a classic for sure. The storytelling, pacing, selling, structure, violence, and desperation are all superb. The fun post-match is the icing on the cake. This is top of the line work here. Five stars. It’s an A* or 120 with a perfect score and easily the best match on this set so far by a massive margin.

This was a really fun trios. The open minutes were really bland due in large part to Kevin not really fitting in the lucha style. Things picked up at the end of the first fall when Ortiz-Morgan had their first great exchange. We get a tremendous bump from Morgan off of a monkey flip to the outside. Ano throws in a dive and the technicos pick up the win. The second fall was worked with a lot of fun rudo bullshit from the heels and Herodes taking a wild tumble to the floor (I think this was in the second fall. Anyways, it happened and it ruled). The rudos tie it up and the third fall is both good and sour with Kevin looking way out of place but Ortiz-Morgan having great exchanges again. The finish is great with Morgan taking a body slam bump to the floor and Ortiz crushing him with a nose dive head butt on the floor. Kevin hit a nice top rope crossbody for the win. This was super fun at times and boring at others. Morgan and Herodes were great in this and I was impressed with some of what Ortiz gave us. This is hovering around right at three stars probably maybe a tad less. So, the grade would be C+ if I’m pissed off but B – if I’m in a good mood. I’m neutral right now so 79.9? No matter. This was a fun match though with a nice opening performance from Morgan.

This was a weird match. It wasn’t worked like a traditional lucha title match or at least any lucha title match I’ve ever seen. Of course, that is probably to be expected with Fujinami in this match. The early mat work was strong. I thought Fujinami outclassed Canek all over the place here. Fujinami was tighter and more focused with his mat work than Canek was. It’s similar to the last match with Corleone smoking Canek at the same thing. Canek’s offense is lacking in execution too much for me. It’s a lot of moves that don’t really have a definition. He just throws his body around with weird looking elbows and shit. The second fall is totally bizarre with Fujinami throwing out a ton of his signature offense for near falls before finally getting the win with a back suplex. It was a strange one-sided fall. The third fall was solid. I liked Fujinami’s selling after the figure four a lot. And, the finishing run was really hot even though the finish sucked. I think this is a really strange match that is pretty clearly a Fujinami carry job. It’s a good match but nothing in this strikes me as great. I’ll give this between two and three stars. Two and a half I’m thinking. C would be its letter grade. Canek was far behind Fujinami in this and didn’t hold his own too well in this at all. Plus, it was a strange, strange match.

This is a mixed bag to me. On the one hand, the mat work is really outstanding. The struggle of each hold was the most engaging the mat work has looked on this set for me. I really liked Corleone’s mat attack and his various clever ways of gaining control over Canek. For example, the entire surfboard section in the third fall was out of this world great with Canek bridging out of it but Corleone managing to contort his legs up and go back to his base cross face (which was an interesting base by the way and one I enjoyed). The first fall was the best of the three. It was paced really well on the mat and very deliberate. Canek’s fire at the end made sense after losing on the mat and he picked up the win with it. The second fall started out fine but then the match began to fall apart a little bit. I had a hard time understanding or dealing with the fact that Canek got away with a piledriver. That was frustrating to me when Thesz clearly saw it. I did like Corleone’s staggered comeback to win the second fall though. The third fall had some good and bad. I loved Corleone’s focus on Canek’s back but Canek going out and doing body presses after merely escaping a hold was utterly frustrating. I did like that they went back to the back though at the end with Canek missing a second dive and getting tossed to the floor. It sort of fell back into place at the end but then we got the pin controversy which was another frustration. Overall, I think this had the focus and the right amount of good to make it a very good match but the structure was unbalanced to me and the sketchy selling and aggravating finish were enough to hurt it too. Three stars range. The opening tag and the last match are both better than this. It’s still a very good match but there were certainly glaring flaws here. And yeah, Corleone was fantastic in this match.

I liked this a lot. The first fall was really strong with some great mat work. Hamada’s arm whips were killer. Negro did a good job of working over Hamada’s leg and Hamada sold it pretty well throughout the match. The second fall picked up the pace a little bit with Hamada fighting back and withstanding Negro’s further attacks to his leg. The third fall was great. I loved Negro’s wacky cradles and holds. The double dives were great especially with the filth or whatever the fuck it was beyond the mat outside of the ring. The back and forth stuff in the finishing stretch was really strong too with some nice near falls. I liked the finish a lot too as I thought they designed it well. This reaches the four star range. B+ for sure. Hamada’s been in a really fun tag brawl and a fine lucha title match. That’s some good variation from him.

I liked the addition of Andre in this set. It’s always nice to get footage of him from a bunch of different settings. There were parts of this I liked. Sangre Chicana was great as the little fucker of his heel team who desperately tried to bring Andre down. Andre was a ton of fun tossing the heels around and using his tremendous ass offense. I loved Herodes’ sell of his chops. Cien Caras didn’t show me anything that I can gauge with yet but he wasn’t the focal point of the match. Overall, this went on too long and that largely has to do with lucha rules and the 2/3 falls format. I’m not sure Andre should be doing 2/3 falls matches in lucha context. He was fun but it was a little too much for my taste. Two stars at best but it still had its fun parts. I guess C – would be the letter grade for it.

This was a really fun match to start the set. Perro is a badass motherfucker. His mini-war with Gran Hamada throughout the match escalates in a really nice way. I loved the postings and payback spot by Hamada. Elsewhere, Baby Face looked really good in his exchanges with both Hamada and Sayama. He’s a stiff badass too. This was really a great heel team. I loved the ending of the second fall with Perro crushing Hamada with a top rope senton. That was sick. I actually enjoyed the finish. Perro was such a prick throughout the match and it made sense for him to just punt Hamada in the nuts. I’m pumped for more Perro brawling on this set. Three stars or so or B – or whatever the fuck grading system I choose to use. I’m not big on them but I’m going to try and use them on this set.

Well, the Fat Guys/Road Warriors tag has the Road Warriors in it. I hate the Roadies. I think they suck. Their squash matches are really the only thing that I enjoy out of them. Well, I like their theme song too. To be fair, the High Flyers tag with the Roadies was very good and had it somewhere in the middle and I thought the Roadies looked decent in it. I just thought they were really, really boring, and had some embarrassing spots in the match such as the criss cross spot which was also Blackwell's fault too. It's just a bad match. The midget match was horribly boring and went on ten minutes too long. I liked some of the spots on their own but the flow and pacing took me out of the match real quick. I was desperately waited for it to end several minutes before it actually did. Plus, I thought it was still overall a somewhat fun match. I thought this set have very few bad matches. In fact, the only matches I'd call downright terrible on this set are my bottom three. Hell, Buck-Regal was just boring, too long and with a few decent Buck spots. Finally, Mad Dog Vachon's performance in the Blackwell Death Match is far superior to any Roadies performance I've ever seen and it's not even close.

Top 25 1. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (8/30/86) 2. Crusher Blackwell vs. Mad Dog Vachon (Algerian Death Match) (5/22/83) 3. Stan Hansen vs. Curt Hennig (5/31/86) 4. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (11/21/86) 5. King Tonga, Masked Superstar, & Sheik Adnan Kaissey vs. Crusher Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter (Cage Match) (4/21/85) 6. Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich (12/13/88) 7. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Wahoo McDaniel (No DQ & No Count-Out) (8/28/83) 8. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (Cage Match) (1/17/87) 9. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers (1/27/87) 10. Ken Patera/Jesse Ventura/Bobby Heenan vs. Hulk Hogan/High Flyers (3/13/83) 11. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (5/2/87) 12. Jerry Blackwell/Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie vs. High Flyers (Cage Match) (4/18/82) 13. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Rick Martel (9/20/84) 14. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Rick Martel (3/28/85) 15. Rick Martel vs. Harley Race (4/20/86) 16. Buddy Rose, Doug Somers, & Sherri Martel vs. Midnight Rockers & Despina Montegues (11/27/86) 17. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rick Martel (9/29/85) 18. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (12/27/87) 19. Adrian Adonis & Bob Orton Jr. vs. Midnight Rockers (January 1988) 20. Alexis Smirnoff, Buddy Rose, & Doug Somers vs. Midnight Rockers & Curt Hennig (6/28/86) 21. Tito Santana/Rick Martel vs. High Flyers (8/29/82) 22. Crusher Blackwell/Ken Patera vs. High Flyers (11/24/83) 23. Stan Hansen vs. Crusher Blackwell (6/28/86) 24. Jerry Lawler vs. Curt Hennig (7/16/88) 25. Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (3/7/87) Bottom 10 141. Crusher Blackwell & Ken Patera vs. Steve O & Buck Zumhofe (2/3 Falls) (4/15/84) 142. Jerry Blackwell vs. Billy Robinson (12/3/81) 143. Adrian Adonis vs. Hulk Hogan (10/17/82) 144. Little Tokyo & Lord Littlebrook vs. Cowboy Lang & Little Coco (7/18/85) 145. Mando Guerrero vs. Pat Tanaka (6/12/88) 146. Badd Company vs. Midnight Rockers (2/19/88) 147. Steve Regal vs. Buck Zumhofe (11/28/85) 148. Wahoo McDaniel & Tom Zenk vs. Manny Fernandez & Larry Zbyszko (2/7/89) 149. Crusher Blackwell & King Kong Bundy vs. The Road Warriors (11/22/84) 150. Wahoo McDaniel vs. Manny Fernandez (7/6/88)

So is HHH supposed to be afraid of the rosters's uprising? Is that why he's taking on face/tweener characteristics here? I'm not sure how I think about this. I'll have to wait and see but it strikes me as bizarre.

I thought this was a great show in parts and terrible in others. I hated Heyman being the mouthpiece of the best promo in wrestling. I thought Big Show was unintentionally hilarious. I liked the Dusty stuff before Big Show a good deal though. Ziggler-Ambrose was better than their match last night and I liked it a lot. The Orton-Miz segment and Miz's parents was great. I didn't like the Real Americans losing another match. The main event and post-match was outstanding. Overall, a good show but not a great one.