Enrique Vera vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84)

[Phil Schneider]

Enrique Vera vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84)

[Graham Crackers]

I get excited about every opportunity to watch Dos Caras do his thing. As I've said before he has an almost Tamon Honda or Volk Han quality where when he applies a hold or takes down an opponent it always looks as if he's generating the force as opposed to how others can appear more cooperative. A Dos Caras title match sounded pretty amazing on paper but this wasn't amazing like that. Still, it was pretty enjoyable. I've been surprised at how much some of the matwork on this set differs from my traditional interpretation of what is lucha matwork. This match was similar to the earlier Canek matches or even the Hamada/CN match in that they spent more time working individual holds as opposed to finding counters and escapes to those holds. This had more chain grappling than the Canek matches. None of it was particularly mindblowing but it looked good and held my attention. Plus most of the grappling here felt like attempts to win the match, especially all of the roll-up nearfalls in the final fall. I liked it but I guess this will be midrange at best and more likely a bottom half match.

[soup23]

Dos Caras has never been one of my favorites.  I should probably rewatch the All Japan matches since I watched them two years ago when I was real wet behind the ears with lucha stuff.  This is a good contrast to the previous match on the same card.  The deadlift spot where Caras pulls Vera  up is really great.   Some minor clipping occurs throughout this match but I don’t think we miss much of anything.  Vera takes the first fall with a submission.  Vera starts off fast in the second fall with two quick dropkicks to try to put Caras away.  Caras is able to roll him up to get the quick flash pin.  Third fall slows the pace back down.  Tons of pin and submission attempts.  Really nice surfboard is executed by Caras.  Vera does a really awful dive off the second rope.  Vera redeems himself with a good dive on the outside to Caras.  Caras is able to get the momentum on the victory roll for the win.  This match was good but mostly bland.  It feels like one of those matches that at the end of the process you look down and see it ranked in the bottom quarter and it’s a realization of how strong the overall set was.

***1/4

[tim.]

This is a match that had a bunch of really cool stuff in it but somehow didn't put it together to become a great match.  I guess the "flow" of the match kinda felt off to me once they left the mat.  Still this had a bunch of awesome counters and submission work and I liked the opening matwork a lot.  Lower half feels likely here but I don't think this is a "lower half match" on just about any other set.

[Log]

Really great stuff on the mat here.  This is like a better version of the Canek matches.  It just moved along better, had a better flow to it.  

 

I agree with everyone else here that the strength of the set will eventually hurt it's ranking.  Absolutely nothing wrong with this match, but it lacks that extra little something to put it up high.  Probably middle to low for me, but that's not really an insult on this set.

[Curt McGirt]

The only time I've seen Papa Del Rio before this is when he was breaking Sasuke's skull in M-Pro so obviously this is an entirely different beast. The baby blue and red gear on him is really ugly. This desperately needs some commentary to cover the drunk fans blowing horns in the cheap seats. Slow start but it picks up after a cool inverted full nelson (I have no clue what else to call it) from Caras. Segunda caida has a classy rollup that ends the fall in seconds. I dig Caras' second stretching out his fingers between falls, it makes him have a purpose to being there instead of just being a towel boy. In tercera caida they trade off submissions and pin attempts in a very "your turn/my turn" fashion that will not be pleasant to those struggling with lucha psychology (or lack thereof). A little slow for my taste, but still solid. 

[Exposer]

The first fall clipping was a problem for me because in lucha there’s so much detail in what’s going on anything missed is a bad thing. However, this was a good title match. I liked some of the early arm stuff in the first fall and the last few minutes were pretty strong as they picked up the pace. The second fall was awfully short but that’s because they were setting up for a huge third fall. The first half of that third fall was great with Vera getting stuck in this awesome holds from Caras followed by the awesome surfboard sequence. The back and forth stuff was good but it was a tad bit annoying at times when they just went to the next spot instead of taking a little more time to sell. I hated Vera recovering quickly from the piledriver. The last few minutes were fun though and the finish had a tremendous pop. This was very good but suffers from clippings and a few annoyances in the third fall.

Three stars or so here. I might call this a B-. Solid to good stuff.

[KillerSpeed]

Good match, with some nice grappling and a really fun 3rd fall. It was a little odd to listen to the fans whistling at Vera for his backbreaker after Caras had just been working over his back, as if he was not allowed to retaliate. My favourite spot may have been Caras reversen the cradle into an indian deathlock - really old but rarely seen. This was good but can't quite stand out among the previous matches, which is a bit of shame because I'm also a big fan of Caras and Vera looked really solid.

[KrisZ]

UWA World Heavyweight Title: Enrique Vera © vs. Dos Caras (2/26/84)Again we get clipping but man this was a really great match. They worked this in the title style so you get plenty of awesome matwork with both guys being great especially Vera who really impressed me here as Dos was one of the best guys in the world at this time and Vera was hanging with him move for move. They would pick up the pace towards the end and it was very solid especially the piledriver by Dos which was awesome. The stretch run was really good too.

[Matt D]

At first glance, I wasn't feeling the technico vs technico stuff in the first two falls but the third fall had a real rise in intensity and struggle. I know the first fall in a lot of these matches are about moves and countermoves but I really felt that came through a lot more in the last fall.

[keith_h]

While technically good, this match was just kind of there for me. The clipping didn't help this I'm sure. Like someone else said, something about it just felt disjointed and after the awesome previous match, this was a bit of come down. It was totally solid and nothing was outright bad about it, and it picked up a bit in the 3rd fall which I found myself enjoying.

 

Call it a C+ or ***

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I thought both guys did a great job of conveying what an important match this was, and it had a definite feeling of the stakes being high. 'Big match feel', as some would say. I also thought they worked the tecnico vs tecnico style well, and I really liked how sporting it all was. Ultimately, though, this didn't really step into a high gear, and it's destined to get lost in the shuffle amongst all the quality on the set.

[newtalkingwall]

I think this will finish higher on my ballot than others, but I tend to really enjoy title matches. I understand how the trading of holds can be jarring to some people, but it really worked for me in this type of really clean and respect-filled title match.

[Lee B.]

This was pretty good.  I liked the good will between the two competitors, shaking hands throughout.  The matwork in the first fall was pretty deliberate but effective.  The first fall submission by Vera was cool, and I liked the super-fast pin by Caras to end the second fall.  I second the love for Caras's second working on him between falls.  In the third fall, Vera's escape from the back-stretcher into a pin attempt was nifty.  Wow, a figure four from Vera, but Caras flips it pretty quickly.  Vera misses a charge to the corner and hurts his knee.  The lack of sell for Caras's piledriver was unfortunate.  Caras hits a good dive to the floor.  Vera nicely suckers Caras to charge the ropes and then ducks, so Caras falls to the floor and gets splashed by Vera.  The finale sees an elaborate pin attempt get reversed into a pin by Caras.  This match cold have been more heated, but it was quite solid, with nothing much wrong with it.  It will probably settle into my mid-range or maybe even slip into my lower half, but I did like it. 

[goc]

This was a good match, but I never really got invested in it. Could be the lack of a heel, as the work was good but it lacked intensity until the very end. Was pretty surprised by the lack of selling for the piledriver also, I thought that was supposed to be kind of a "death" move in lucha and in that context didn't fit in the match at all.