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Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80)


Phil Schneider

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May regret this but I'm going to try to use Parv's grading system on this set.

 

These four guys are a good mixture of well known individuals (Hamada, TM), people we have seen in other 80's set (Babyface), and a lucha guy that is well known (Perro).  Perro sets the tone for the match right away bum rushing Hamada and sending them to the outside.  Good vicious brawling in the opening onset.  Perro casually walking to the outside and facing Hamada was great and Perro overall is my MVP of this match.  Another cool moments happens when Hamada tags in, wants to go after Perro, and he casually walks and steps out of the ring.  Hamada responds by spitting at him and the heat is on.  Hamada has a great combination here where he fends off both Babyface and Perro.  Sayama looked crisper on his stuff here than what I have seen of early 80's TM.  Babyface was the worlds most loyal henchman always letting Perro wail away but standing there by his side and lending a hand.  First fall finish with Sayama/Perro seemed a little botched but they covered it up nicely.  Second fall Perro/Baby are able to get their revenge and even things up.  Third fall has the premise that the rudos have dominated this whole match.  Hamada really comes into play here firing back with just enough stuff to give the viewer a sense of hope before Perro slings him to the outside.  Hamada's bleeding now but not giving up.  His posting of Perro after slinging him out the ring ignites the crowd and myself as a great revenge spot.  You can see both Perro/Babyface losing a sense of control they have had for most of this match and Perro saying fuck it and fouling on Hamada on the surface may seem cheap, in the confines of the match it made perfect sense. I have no idea where this will rank overall of course but if this is a middle of the road match in the set, we are in for a wild ride.

 

B+ (****)

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Good match to start off.  The spots where Hamada runs around dominating the rudos with his speed and finesse are fun and the Perro/Hamada dynamic that develops is awesome -- Hamada posting Perro in revenge and Perro spilling into the crowd is especially great as is a Hamada headbutt barage on Perro that shortly follows.  Ending is good, coming off a heated exchange from Perro and Hamada and Perro having to be forced off Hamada post-match.

 

Sayama's finish on the first fall is weird but also sort of amusing in a way as he keeps trying for different things, either chaning or botching them and you wonder wtf he's trying to end up with.  Perro getting trapped in a submission and screaming "Baby, Baby, Baby!" for help is also an amusing detail.

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Really fun set opener. Hamada and Aguayo have great chemistry, they had some awesome matches against each other a decade later in Hamada's UWF in Japan. Remembered not liking Sayama much when I watched this originally but seeing it again he did have some fun spots, although there were definitely some off spots, including whatever the fuck he was trying to at the finish of the first fall.

 

 

Watched this with my wife and she reacted with a My God with Aguayo's senton in the second caida. She isn't a brawling fan as the wanted more flippies when Perro and Hamada started teeing off on each other. Good finish to open the set, as this is the first of many nut shot DQ's

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I really liked this match. It started out as a fun, fast-paced offense showcase, with Sayama actually looking good and Perro and Baby Face with excellent punches and kicks. Sayama worked well as a young, raw talent not yet experienced enough to overcome Perro & Baby Face's cheating. Hamada as the big brother, getting more and more pissed at the rudos was good, too. Sayama at the end of the first fall has been talked about. It clearly wasn't good. It easily could have been worse.

I loved how this match started to pick up in the 3rd fall, with Hamada getting more and more pissed, until Perro realizes he's probably not gonna' beat him tonight and decides to end the match.

Also, some guy in the front row was on the phone.

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This is my 4th 80's set and Lucha has the best starter yet. Japanese TV brings the cameras thankfully. Perro made me mark out as usual. I love this guy! He had his trademark fluffy boots on and going back a decade in time doesn't appear to have affected his haircut either. The natives were rudoing it up and had general control. The Japanese would come back with quick, exciting bursts of offence. That suited Tiger well. In the 3rd Hamada bled and angry Aguayo got frustrated that he couldn't put him away, leading to the DQ. A nice mixture of lucharesu. Good stuff.

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Lucha 1.1
Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80)

Here we go then. Nice big crowd. Pretty cool stiff opening to this. I could swear the commentators are speaking Japanese. Faces in the crowd are awesome. There's one guy in a suit that looks like he's been lifted straight out of an All Japan crowd and plonked in Mexico. I like the guy with the moustache who is wearing his hat at a jaunty angle. And the cop.

So far, absolutely no concerns about getting into this, it's just pro wrestling. Interesting boots on Perro.

I really like the dynamic that is developing here. Hamada and Perro seem to be the ones with real issues and Baby Face works like hired muscle doing a lot of the dirty work. There is a cool mix of brawling, matwork and throws on display which I can get into.

Sayama moves like a cat, and I like that. I don't really understand what is happening with the falls at this stage, but it doesn't feel like it matters too much. What happened with the finish here? Going to rewind it to see if I can figure it out. Has to be that massive kick to the balls, instant DQ.

Pretty hot opener.

B

 

Key for rough star-rating conversion, here
 

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Good start that seems very "traditional" pro wrestling-style as opposed to lucha, which makes for a good gateway with new/inexperienced lucha watchers. Hamada shows some great fire here in-between some dazzling sequences, and this is centered on a developing feud with Aguayo. Babe and Sayama look good too but this is Hamada and Aguayo's match. Finish could be seen as cheap but it was a great, great low blow, and seemed like a natural conclusion to the escalating violence throughout the match.

 

7.0/10

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I thought this was alot of fun. I had fond memories of the Perro/Hamada match from the 80's Other Japan set, and their exchanges here were just as fun and intense.

 

I won't say that he was bad, but Sayama just looked out of place to me with some really akward looking offense. 

 

Very strong opener to the set.

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There's some really cool stuff in this one and it makes for a fun match. Sayama looked perfectly fine here and I thought he was good at playing the weaker member of the Japanese team. His biggest contribution to this match was when he hurt himself when attempting a handspring tope en reversa which lead to the rudos taking control of the second fall. Speaking of rudos, that is one fine rudo tandem. Perro is a scary dude here. He throws great punches and I love his knee lifts and high kicks which caused the babyfaces to take some spectacular bumps. Baby Face is a great base just like I remembered him being on the New Japan set. He and Hamada have great chemistry and he's always in perfect position for what Hamada is going to do next. Hamada? He's easily one of the best high flying wrestlers I've ever seen. Everything he does looks so crisp in this match as well as every other time I've seen him. The sequence with both rudos stooging for him is the highlight for me. And then we get a foul. I love lucha and I know this is just a taste of the great stuff to come on this set.

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Fun match to kick things off.  Really a nice showcase for all of Hamada and Sayama's cool offense.

 

I love that the rudos' offense consisted mainly of punches and knees.  Oh, and Perro's killer senton.

 

I liked this just fine.  Hard to tell where it'll end up this early, though.

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Gran Hamada & Satoru Sayama vs. Perro Aguayo & Babe Face (4/13/80)Fun seeing Sayama looking like Kuniaki Kobayashi here. Perro's cowboy hat is PHENEMONAL.....Great to have some footage of Perro & Babe from this period and they were great here as the nationalistic rudos taking it to the Japanese who look just as great with their high spots and intensity. First two falls were fun but the 3rd one was where it picked up as the rudos were beating down the Japanese with Perro bloodying up Hamada on the floor. Hamada made a fiery comeback though as he posted Perro numerous times bring out the blood from him and that led to a heated exchange where Perro fouled him and had to pulled off by referees. Very fun match with the blood putting it over the top.

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Great visual with the Toreo jam packed. Always makes me sad to see matches from this time period in El Toreo though because you can't help but think how much WASN'T filmed or was filmed but will never see the light of day for the forseeable future.

 

Crazy to see Sayama/Hamada being cheered more than Perro/Baby. Either shows you how well respected the Japanese duo was or how hated the Mexican team was. Or a mix of both. My first time seeing this match and I was blown away! Japanese guys were sharp with everything. Perro/Hamada interactions were great - especially getting towards the end of the match when they kicked it into brawling mode. Sayama was probably the weakest of the bunch but still did enough to keep up. That senton by Perro to end the second fall was just brutal. Great finishing sequence and post-match beatdown.

 

Might have to re-watch this but on first viewing I'd probably have it higher than most on my list.

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This was a nice opener. Hamada looked great, and I agree with Graham that his flying looks uniquely-crisp as opposed to just elegant or whatever. Perro/Baby's offence being very simple obviously made a strong contrast to Hamada/Sayama's - senton aside - and I always get a kick out of a face/technico whose first offence upon making a comeback is to do a payback spot (in this case Hamada posting Perro). Sayama hurting himself on the handspring headbutt thus allowing the rudos to take over was a nice transition, though most of the other ones were a bit too simplistic. It was probably the right length too, as they'd started repeating a few spots at the end. Still, a fine little build-up match for Hamada/Perro. 

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I've always loved the kick to the balls DQ over some sort of chicken shit finish (walking away, taking out the ref on purpose, etc) as it is the perfect way to get across that the face has totally outclassed the heel. But it has to be followed up with some cheap shots, as it really sells the idea that the heel knows he has been outclassed, feels like he has lost face, and needs to get a few kicks in to feel better about himself. However, a cool dick kick finish can't make a middle of the road match great, and I see this finishing around the middle of my ballot.

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I don't think I have ever seen any lucha from the 80's. I watched a lot of 97 and 2005 lucha and a bit from the last few years, so I'm pretty novice. The set is here and I am ready to start. I'm going to use my system that I used when I watched the AWA set in one month, which is a rating out of 10.0. 

 

This was a whole lot of fun. Perro was the star in this with his awesome boots and just being a complete dick all the way to the finish and beyound. (7.5)

 

A great way to start and I am so looking forward to seeing more of all of these guys except for Tiger Mask.

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When the first thing you see on a set is the bullring lucha setup, you know the set as a whole is going to be a fun one.

 

I was expecting a Perro double stomp instead of the senton to wrap up the second caida.

 

Cops everywhere when a posted Perro staggers into the crowd. AWESOME!

 

It was great to see Perro still out for blood after the foul as opposed to just walking around taunting the crowd, or denying it. Great start to the set

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Ya, this was pretty fun. Aguayo was a blast and Baby Face played a great second to him, filling in a lot of fun spots while letting Aguayo shine. Watching 1980 Aguayo, he really comes off as being in the same vein as Casas and Rush are in 2013.

 

Hamada was a tremendous face here, especially with his headbutts in the third fall. And Sayama typically alternated between sloppy and spectacular but was fun to watch as well. As others have said, I assume this will be middle of the pack but is a fun way to start the set.

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Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80)
- Really fun match with big spots from Hamada and Baby Face. Perro was nasty and Sayama did some cool shit as well. I know what is coming up on the set. This will end up middle of the pack for me. 

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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. 

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Great match to start the set, even if it's 50% japanese guys. Gran Hamada is such a badass little guy and I think this is the first of his many battles with Perro that we have on tape. These two guys would still beat the bloody piss out of eachother 10 years later and this match feels like it's part of such a long rivalry. Anytime the rudos are not throwing punches and brawling the technicos are smoking them with lightning quick exchanges and everything looks beautiful. Between that there is some neat brief mat wrestling in the first fall. It all feels so simple and reasonable and even the flashy stuff like Sayama doing a kipup feels like something you could see in a real fight. I also love the crowd and the setting here as the fans react to something as simple as Hamada getting a comeback with a bodyslam or Perro powdering to the apron then getting spit in the face. Incredibly charming little match.

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Satoru Sayama y Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo y Baby Face (4/13/80)
 
I was gung ho about researching things and being educated coming into these matches a few weeks ago but I have gone from 31 to 32 in that span and now I am world-weary and just want to watch some freaking lucha. I foresee my biggest problem with this set just figuring out which guy is which. The zoom up for the announcements don't help matters. This is why I'm not first. I can figure out from context clues. For instance. Chad said: "Perro sets the tone for the match right away bum rushing Hamada and sending them to the outside"
 
Perro = White Trunks. Hamada = Green Trunks. Baby Face = Red/White Trunks. Sayama = Tights with a stripe.
 
I am in business. Thank you Chad. 
 
Wait, only one guy went to the outside and it wasn't the guy initially bum rushed. No I think I have it. Perro has the freaking awesome boots. Initial strikes look really good. I've seen a lot of lucha brawls recently to get myself ready and acclimated and there's this sense of realism to them when it comes to the really small details. I think it's about the same tools used but in a different language. You get back to the roots of why those tools began to be used in the first place. It's almost like an entomology of wrestling. I see that here already. The VQ on this is actually really good all things considered. I also love the guy with the hat and mustache in the first row. 
 
Perro's driving knee is great. It's like a video game attack. Hamada's pluck is great. Them double teaming the little guy is quite heelish. My still-developing sense of tags/trios in lucha is that the idea is to really take out all of one side so you can just overwhelm whoever is left and that's in play here as Hamada keeps falling to the numbers game (it's also in play in the third fall when Perro keeps doing the cool furry boot kicks through the ropes onto Hamada). We get a perfectly acceptable transition of Hamada catching the driving knee of doom and making the tag, but the heels cheat and take back over. Do i have to call them rudos in these? Anyway, they take back over before Sayama starts his jiving show-off fest which is fun. The Hamada stuff that follows feels a little choreographed but only a little. It is also fun. 
 
There are a lot of resets in this. It's neither a good nor bad thing. It's just not what I'm used to. It goes back to the story's connective tissue being a little looser, maybe? I love the prevailing wariness of Hamada. That first fall is hilarious. It's Yakkety Sax hilarious. That definitely hurts things, but only relative to other matches. By itself it was hugely entertaining. Totally an A for effort. Imagine how your stomach has to feel in front of a crowd like that in a foreign country after you do something like THAT.
 
I can't say I'm totally seeing the connective tissue between the end of the first fall and the start of the second but it's fun to watch. They do a flurry of things before selling any of them which isn't what I'm generally inclined towards but when the selling does happen it's big at least. I really like the way Baby Face strikes. It's this stubby sort of thing. That top rope senton that ended the second fall was the nastiest thing.
 
While it's a little disorienting still, within the cultural confines, I think I like the way Perro and Baby Face are double teaming. We get some heat in the third fall until Sayama starts back with the kicks and then again on Hamada (after a reset instead of a hot tag) who has certainly been opened up by the fuzzy boots. Hamada fights back and the crowd goes nuts. I love Perro's bee-line into the crowd after he gets slammed into the pole. Another reset later we get the crazy awesome headbutts. 
 
There is definitely an undertone of competition and aggression between Perro and Hamada that makes the match but I'd have to watch it from the start again to totally digest it. I do like how it escalated into the finish where Hamada wins the match but Perro wins the war. 
 
I have no idea how this is going to end up relative to anything else and unlike something like oh, Verne vs Bock, there's definitely a sense (and I see this in almost all of the comments so far) of having to grope almost blindly at what's going on. That seems to be a huge part of the fun though.
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This was (like everyone has said) super fun. A ton of stuff that (I assume) was state of the art in 1980 (various arm drags, ranas, back flips, etc) and some nice nastiness from Perro. The revenge posting from Hamada was probably the highlight of the match for me. One of those moments where you wanted to cheer at the TV. Great start to the set.

 

A solid B or ***3/4

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