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Kung Fu v. Javier Cruz (3/88)


Phil Schneider

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  • 1 month later...

Kung Fu smashes Cruz in the head with the nunchucku pre-match and the proceeds to ram his head into anything he can find; it's funny seeing a character made for comedy and schtick like Kung Fu working rudo, ironic bows to the crowd and all.  Kung Fu ends the first fall with a neat submission, Cruz does a cool running posting of Kung Fu during his comeback and there's some nice back and force during the tercera but this is sort of a middling lucha brawl for the set.  Good stuff but nothing blew me away.  There were a couple awkward moments in the third fall too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like rudo Kung Fu. I'd seen a few of his matches without the mask where he uses the nunchucks as weapons (like he does to Cruz at the start) and remember enjoying them even if I don't remember one of them being especially great. Similarly, while this isn't the most amazing brawl on the set it was still pretty entertaining. Cruz is a bit dry and I feel like he could have done more to make this feel like a big fight but mechanically he brought a lot to this match. Probably a bottom half match but really fun and I'm glad it was on this set.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kung Fu comes to the ring with a $5 balaclava covering his mask for some reason and cheap shots Javier with the chuks which is funny and effective. The balaclava would probably get huge heat these days considering all the narcos and federales appropriating said fashion statement. We get another weird submission here, kind of a reverse full nelson done with the legs in a bridge (?!). After that Kung Fu does a camera-snapping motion to someone as he stands on Javier. Then he does it two more times and the second time it looks like he steps on his crotch. There are some pretty good bulldogs in this and I dig Kung Fu smashing Javier's head into the mat which, if the stories are true, is about as hard as concrete. Take that in mind when Cruz misses a toprope dive or Kung Fu gets powerbombed right near the apron. 

 

This was more fun than good. There's blood but it's not an apuestas which is strange but spices things up, making it feel like something's at stake when it isn't. Perfectly competent but lower rank match. 

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  • 9 months later...

Kung Fu seems to be having a lot of fun as a heel during the first fall.  Cruz does a great job selling the postings and the rest of the abuse to his forehead.  I like Kung Fu's shrieks as he lays in the kicks during the second fall.  Kung Fu's standing of Cruz's face, as well as his bulldog, are pretty brutal.  Cruz's missile dropkick to take the second fall is beautiful.  Kung Fu's banging Cruz's head into the mat during the third fall, and the resulting stain, is a bit gruesome.  The series of two-counts toward the end are done well.  I like Kung Fu's gloating leading to a couple of submission attempts by Cruz, the second of which works to win the match.  I thought this was indeed fun, but not life-changing or anything.  I would enjoy watching this again more than a lot of other matches, so this will probably end up in the lower top-half for me.

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I'd put this around the middle of the set, maybe as high as 40. But I really like Rudo Kung Fu. I've always liked Kung Fu gimmicks in wrestling. I can understand why a lot of people don't seem to like the kick and strike based offense of Kung Fu and guys like that, but I've never had the same problems with it - I don't think every strike in a wrestling match needs to be sold like death or even sold by bumping to the mat.

 

In this match, Kung Fu's strikes look good and I absolutely love his bowing to the crowd, standing on Cruz, and his general dickishness. It's not anything ground-breaking, but it works and is actually somewhat different from a lot of the rudo stuff on this set. It reminds me more of, say, Hogan's heel work, but in a good way if that's even possible. It's like Kung Fu is reminding the crowd that he used to run the ropes and do the occasional jump and generally just MOVE, but he's done doing that and done trying to impress anybody. He's just gonna' take every cheap shot and shortcut he can.

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  • 2 months later...

I liked the first two falls a lot and if the third fall hadn't seemed to lose a lot of steam I could see this being a top 25 match for me. As it is I'll probably have this around mid-range. I went into this just assuming that Cruz was the one who had turned rudo so seeing Kung Fu blast him with the nun chucks before the bell was real "OH SHIT" moment for me. Cruz did a good job selling it and I liked Kung Fu's rudo antics like bowing to the crowd and standing on Cruz after the fall just as much as I liked him as the goofy babyface. Javier's bloody fiery comeback in the 2nd fall was really awesome and I liked Kung Fu trying to get away only to get a king sized posting. But it kind of fell off a bit and lost me at times in the 3rd fall and by the end I was just ready for the match to be over.

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