Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

Javier Cruz vs. El Dandy (10/26/84)


Phil Schneider

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The draw finish with both guys having to get their head shaved was pretty poetic as both guys should have been trying to win the match. In a hair vs hair match when pride is on the line you should be trying to win. These guys were busy showing off offense when they should have been going for pins or submissions. In some ways this was the brawling equivalent to the Santo/Atlantis vs Fuerza/Lobo Rubio match from earlier. This was about young guys pushing the pace of wrestling faster. When they were just brawling it looked good and they had some interesting ideas for spots but stuff like the 2nd fall overkill DDTs without a follow up hurts this. Pulling your opponent up off the mat during a pin when you haven't won a single fall yet seems foolish. Santo/Atlantis vs Fuerza/Lobo Rubio worked because they worked within archetypes as old as wrestling itself but put their own spin on offense and pacing. This had it's moments but ultimately they lost sight of what really mattered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Pretty random, back-and-forth beginning until the awesome spinning neck submission thing that Javier busts out, that really looks like something that would jack somebody up bad even though it is completely absurd. Cesaro could totally steal that today and it'd get over. We get the dawn of CMLL filming style as taco feasting is more interesting to the cameramen than the action (this would evolve to them paying more attention to cute girls in the crowd, luckily). Dandy beats up on Javier all caida until the half-Gory sub with hair pull. Tercera caida begins to wear on me, they just trade pins and submissions despite a brief bit of good brawling. The finish is unique and deserved as this could have been so much more than it was, so fuck it -- cueball both of 'em! El barbero does a serious Full Metal Jacket job on Javi before the tecnicos force Dandy back into the ring to face the same. He must have had a job either in the prison system or the military because dude surprises me with his speed and efficiency at cutting hair. I guess that says a lot about this match, as I'm more impressed by that than the work involved. Again, a hair match without blood. Sensing a pattern here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a strange match in that I’d typically want a hair match to have blood and violence. This didn’t have any of that. The first two falls I waited for that but it never came. I was feeling disappointed at the beginning of the third fall but by the end of the match I was satisfied. Dandy controls the majority of the first two falls which is fine. He’s got exceptional variation in his offense and brings great punches along with it. Cruz is a fantastic bumper and is seriously a top ten all time probably. His post bump, clothesline bump, and turnbuckle bump were all tremendous in this. I dug both submission finishers as “strangulation” submissions as the commentator was indicating. They both looked pretty brutal. The third fall was chock full of near falls and close calls but it built really well. Dandy’s plancha was great but Cruz has one of the greatest dives ever so his high spot wins out here. That ends up being the finish as both guys tries to keep one another from entering the ring to break the count so they both lose and get haircuts. The post-match haircuts are always a blast too.

Again, I think this is a bit of a hard match to rate because a part of me wanted blood and violence and didn’t get that. However, this built pretty well especially in the third fall and it was satisfying enough to be called a really good match. I don’t think it’s quite great even with the positive write-up so I’ll give it close to four stars. It’s certainly good enough for a B+ I think. It was different but I liked it.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I came into this prewarned by the previous comments that this would not be a crazy bloodwar, which is surprising after the trios match which I thought was fairly heated. Mighty Monarch Cruz looked good in the trios. Dandy's great to start with a cool flapjack, the killer turnbuckle treatment, and an awesome punch and knees. Everything he does looks awesome. I love how he just moves Cruz around the ring with violence. His punch to cut off a hope spot is the most believable thing in the world and he also manages a totally different flapjack variation. This is pretty straightforward stuff. Cruz gets another good hope section but gets run into the post. We get a mini King of the Mountain after that, with an awesome running posting off the apron. He tries it again and gets countered which I thought was going to be a transition into the head of the fall but they tease us a bit as Dandy ducks a headbutt the moment later and only gets stuck in a spinning neckbreaker after putting his head down after that. I liked this because it was full of interesting offense but was also really fundamental. Dandy had control, Cruz fought back. Dandy cut him off in interesting ways and they went into the finish. This would be a great little sprint if it was just one fall.

Second fall starts with Cruz on fire but dandy explodes off the rope with a big flying feet first clothesline. Kris pointed out how Dandy did a payback spot with the head slam and that was a really good catch. Dandy was going all out in the first fall beating Cruz around the ring but here's he's much more methodological working on the head/neck. Plan A didn't work so now he's pissed off and going into Plan B. The multiple DDTs are nuts, and tremendously dickish especially as he pulls Cruz up at two. Dandy loses focus and goes for the bite and Cruz starts to fight back. Dandy cuts him off with a great kick out of nowhere though and goes back to the neck. Good psychology and right into the crazy neckstretcher (that was a decent callback to the end of the first fall too) for the second fall.

Third falls starts with Dandy going to the bite again, because it's a frigging hair match and there's hate, but it costs him again and Cruz finally takes over with a huge snap mare variation. Now he starts beating Dandy around the ring, targeting the neck back. Dandy tries another punch cut off but Cruz fires back and they start scrapping awesomely on the ground. They're selling but not for long enough for me. This leads to a bunch of nearfalls back and forth on pin attempts. The weight of what's on the line makes this work well enough, because you do get the sense any of these could be the end. Cruz locks on a camel clutch but Dandy gets out and sinches him up for another pin attempt for two. Cruz then hits a revenge flapjack and that insane head and arm submission, but Dandy's out and goes for this reverse scorpion. Cruz is out and hits a back body drop and then goes for a pin attempt for two and I think maybe they're not quite selling enough for me here. They do start in right about now to put a little more space between their attempts, ending with Cruz kicking Dandy out and hitting a huge plancha. It didn't quite have the build that I've seen in other matches though. Both guys come back in and Cruz runs at Dandy but gets tossed into the turnbuckle. Dandy follows up but misses off the top. Cruz turns it into an inverted surfboard into a pin which is almost a double pin. Dandy recovers and goes for another splash mountainesque pin. And I wish they'd slow down and sell all of this a little more. That's one thing that puts some of the other hair matches we've seen over this. It's not even that those have more blood or violence but that the end of the match comes off more like a war and this is a little too go-go. Dandy misses an elbow off the second rope and Cruz follows up with a pumphandle submission. Then a dropkick out and a tope. They're beating on each other on the outside and the ref is waving his hands for the double countout.

I really liked the first two falls and a lot of the third but I don't think that it ultimately built as well to the end as Devon did and as we've seen in a lot of other matches. To me the story of the match was Dandy wanting badly to brutalize Cruz but paying every time he did until he started to use a more focused, less outright violent approach. It almost felt like a reverse match to me where the third fall was more technical than what came before it, if that makes sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Daaaamn!  Those were some sick-ass submissions to end the first two falls.  So simple.  Just grab a dude by his neck and pull.  Maybe swing him around a bit.  Looked hurty as hell.

 

I really got into the first two falls.  The final fall was a bit lacking, though.  Needed some more hate, just some more heat.  They pick it up on the brawling on the floor, but by then it's over.

 

This was still pretty great, but not what it probably could've been.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

This was really diappointing to me, and not all that good. Cruz just seems like a pretty bland guy, and Dandy was reminding me of the worst of Mark Rocco with the speed at which he was going from spot to spot (though admittedly with more selling, and I liked his exhaustion selling as the match went on). The subs to end the first two falls were swank, especially the first fall, but I didn't like Dandy lifting Cruz off the mat at 2 in the segunda. Not in a hair match, dude. Both guys getting buzzed with the draw seems daft, but I can't hold that against the workers. Had its moments, but I wanted so much more from the first singles Dandy on the set.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I wasn't really feeling this. Had high hopes but it never kicked into high gear. The draw was completely given away in advance if you understood the announcers as they spent all 20 minutes constantly talking about "what happens if they draw?" That was super annoying. The low crowd audio also made it seem like they were wrestling in a library which didn't help. Thought they'd pick things up by getting a little juice going but instead they just went home after the Cruz dive. A forgettable match in my book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I thought this match was pretty fine.  The first two submissions were indeed gnarly, as people have mentioned.  Things did meander in the third fall a bit, and I don't like the pulling up the opponent after a two-count either, unless it leads to some sort of hubris payback.  Which didn't happen here.  The double-pin was an interesting ending.  The head-shaving was quite a spectacle, especially Dandy's attempts to stall.  I wasn't too bothered by the lack of blood.  Villano III v. Chicana made up for that.  In the end, this probably will be mid-range, but I don't recall being annoyed by this at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

This may not have been a crazy bloodwar but it was plenty violent to me. The first fall featured Dandy getting beat up at the onset and some nasty posting and pancaking of Cruz. Cruz responds a little too easy for my liking but he takes the first fall with a sick hangman submission. Second fall was all Dandy working the neck. He gives a vicious clothesline, three DDT's and even pulls up on the pin attempt, two neckbreakers and an equally nasty finish submission where Dandy pulls the hair. Third fall may have actually lost a little bit for me as they meandered a bit after the initial shock of Dandy getting the electric chair. They tease the end with a double pin and then end up both getting shaved with the double countout after the dive. Another very good match that will probably land as #60 and I will be shocked at the quality. (***3/4)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I liked the first two falls a lot but it kind of fell off in the 3rd fall for me. I thought they finally picked it up for the finishing stretch but then it was over and they both got their haircut. Pretty disappointed by the end of this and I felt like this had potential to finish high on my ballot at the end of the first 2 falls.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...