Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/21/84)

[Phil Schneider]

Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/21/84)

[Graham Crackers]

Their first match is so perfectly simple and there's no way they can top it. This is worked as a more competitive brawl than the original. I mean, Sangre Chicana actually hits some offense in the first fall this time. He still spends most of this match selling a beating and it's still some great selling. This one has a few more bombs/dives and they are all pretty cool even if the first match is better because it doesn't have them. The tope that launches MS-1 back a few rows is pretty awesome and is one of the top 3 dives on this set so far. This is really good, it's just not transcendent like the original.

[tim.]

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.

[Curt McGirt]

I'm shocked that this was a hair match, and a really nasty feud to boot, and had no blood. Chicana sells like a motherfucker through the whole thing, and the part where MS-1 gave him a neckbreaker that looked like it legit twisted his neck and messed him up, and he sells like a spastic was great. His "Richardson punch" followed up by the dive that the slow-mo replay shows MS-1 launching himself horizontally three rows back and being counted out is a finish I can accept because the execution was so good. Sangre powders and MS-1 gets cueballed. These two matches are so totally different despite the identical stipulations. It's damn good but no way is it touching the first one. 

[Exposer]

This was a totally different match than their classic. It has a similar beginning with MS-1 jumping Chicana early on but there’s no blood involved. Both guys are really great selling and they are as good as ever here but what was so unique about this match is how it was worked around dives. In the first fall, Chicana comes back after an initial beating and does a great spear head dive off the apron. He wins the fall with his cool looking leg/arm lock finisher. MS-1 sells his arm for the rest of the match which is awesome. The second fall is a pissed MS-1 getting back on offense and taking full control by hitting his own dive and winning the fall. The third fall has MS-1 working over Chicana’s neck. MS-1 brings the intensity here and is really vicious targeting Chicana’s neck. Chicana makes his classic comeback spot with the haymaker punches. Yeah, his punches are top five, top ten all time for sure. The finish of this is tremendously great with MS-1 getting sent to the floor on a big punch and Chicana hitting an awesome dive that literally sends MS-1 flying into the fourth or fifth row. Chicana wins by count out and poor MS-1 has to get another haircut.

This is somewhere right underneath four stars. B+ range. It’s a very good match with an awesome finish but it was a little too condensed in my opinion.

[Matt D]

I wanted more, and it's very much because of both the previous match and really, the rest of the set. That said, Devon is spot on about the dives. This match was built around them and they meant more here than on any other match in the set. I think it says a lot that they were able to wrestle a hugely different match that hit a lot of different notes and didn't just retread what they had already done, no matter how great it was the first time. I loved a lot of MS-1's offense in this, especially the cruel oklahoma body slam out of the corner. And yeah, those Chicana punches. I love that we lose the last dive due to panicked people rushing out of the way and right in the camera view.

[Log]

Very good match, but still a little disappointing.  I figured this wouldn't be as amazing as their more famous match.  Taken on it's own, this still delivered, but lacked the viciousness I like in a hair match.  Still, can't fault the work they did here.  This is in my mid-high range now.

[KrisZ]

Caballera contra Caballera: Sangre Chicana vs. MS-1 (9/21/84)Now we are at the 1984 Anniversario show with the rematch of the epic main event the year before with two of the best in the world at this time. The previous match was probably the match of the decade in Mexico and to their credit the wrestlers decided not to have a carbon copy of that match but had a different style of match. This match wasn't built on blood and guts like the other one but it was more based on skills with both men trying to prove to the other one who was the better man. MS-1 definitely wanted to get a win here as revenge from last year and he gave his all here but so did Chicana who wanted to maintain his dominance over MS-1 and it led to some fantastic action. The dives here were vicious especially Chicana's tope suicida which ended the match as he KOed MS-1 forcing a countout. This was a great match.

[Robert]

Everyone pretty much covered it already. There's no way to top the previous year & this was way too short. It was a good match though and they certainly went a different way than their first match. The finish is one of my favorites of all-time with MS-1 taking the sick diving bump four rows deep. This will be a hard match to rank. Will definitely be at the top of the re-watch list.

[Lee B.]

I liked the fact that this match was condensed.  It still included a lot of dramatic and impressive moments, even if it didn't include super-long beatdown sequences like the first match.  I was thinking MS-1 was fairly limited on his offense (kick, punch, choke) until his dive and then some moves in the third fall, like the neckbreakers.  The bump off the dive at the end by MS-1 was super-impressive, as everyone has said.  I also really liked the opening bit where Chicana takes several MS-1 kicks but the catches his leg and decks him.  Great punches indeed!  Excellent selling by both throughout.  Definite top-half match for me, and it may not even be far behind their previous match when I do my rankings.

[soup23]

I generally try to not judge matches by expectations of their previous encounters but this just didn't have the length of time either watching the set chronologically or in the calendar year to prevent one from making comparisons to the epic the year before. That is not say this isn't very good, it is and has a neat narrative others have touched on that is unique for the set as the dives really are built up and carry this. I just wanted I guess more violence. This is pleasing and would be a career highlight for many workers, but in the wake of the 1983 apuestas, it feels somewhat hollow. (***3/4)