Mogur vs. Mascara Ano 2000 (9/23/88)

[Phil Schneider]

Mogur vs. Mascara Ano 2000 (9/23/88)

[tim.]

After the Caras/Siglo, Arandu/Guerrero Negro and Mogur/Charro classics on disk 7 I'm at the point where a random looking match between two sort of unheralded guys on this set has me as excited as one between two highly regarded GOATs.  To me this looked appropriately left field and it turned out to be appropriately awesome.  There were some real WTF moments in this match, in a good way: Mogur ends the first fall with a sit-out powerbomb of all things and in the second fall Dos Mil is hitting these big Alabama Slams.  There was some good if brief scrappy brawling in the first two falls but this really pops off in the tercera.  It just keeps going, again in a good way, and they throw everything plus the kitchen sink at each other but can't keep the other down.  In the end, Mogur has a submission of Dos Mil and thinks he's got the submission victory and breaks it in celebration; he was gravely mistaken though and Dos Mil comes up behind and drills him with a big back drop.  Mogur folds over himself and it's like Kawada hitting Kobashi with a big backdrop.  They even play a slow motion replay of the move like an AJPW commercial tape.

 

This was great stuff, and I kind of hate to make this criticisms, but I feel the lack of blood made it less dramatic.  They were beating on each other, biting and mask ripping, and the fact that most such matches features some big blade jobs which were conspicuously absent here just made it feel that there was something missing.  This is still top shelf stuff.

[Graham Crackers]

This is another fun heavyweight match but probably not at the same level as Rayo vs 2000 or even Cien Caras vs Siglo. Mogur is really good at working the mask ripping. I love how he tears 2000's mask and proceeds to hit him with brutal crossfaces. I thought Dos Mil was the third best member of Los Hermanos Dinamitas but he has impressed me on this set so I may have to reassess that opinion.

[Curt McGirt]

I've talked a lot of shit about mascara matches with no blood but this is a great exception. What a fight. Both Mogur and Ano DOS MIL~! look like twins fighting each other with almost identical gear, and their fighting styles are similar too -- intensive selling, plus looking for the big move to use it for the win. Mogur has the brutal Liger Bomb but MA2K has the consecutive Alabama Slams that will destroy you. Good short first two falls and we get a good stretch for the finish, which might just be the best finish in the set. Mogur jumps the gun on believing he beat Mascara with a sub and celebrates only to be absolutely MURDERED by back suplex. It's so final the ref de-masks him without letting him regain full consciousness and get his bearings, which is so incredibly humiliating. The slo-mo replay is the last nail in the coffin. I never thought I'd say this but you can take your gorefests and leave 'em at the door when there's this kind of work on hand. Man this was great. Crowd threw trash the entire time, so I don't know what they were thinking.

[Lee B.]

I watched the first 3/4 of this match in one sitting, and watched the very end about a week later.  I remembered the match having some cool stuff in the first two falls, and some just OK stuff.  The third fall was going on for a bit before I had to stop watching.  And things seemed to be repeating themselves a bit much as the third fall went along.  Plus, I hadn't read the comments and wasn't sure who was who.  Picking back up with the match, the sequence where Ano takes a huge backdrop, eats a stiff dropkick, and then falls victim to a spinning splash from the apron was a great sequence.  And then the final suplex to Mogur was insane and made me realize why this match is part of the set.  Mogur did a great job selling the head-drop suplex whatever, and getting unmasked while you are out of it has to be a drag.  There was not a lot of heat in this match, although there was a lot of trash in the ring at the end.  I don't know what the crowd was thinking either.  I agree that Mogur's punches to Ano after and while ripping his mask were cool.  The near-falls toward the end were well-timed.  I think this could end up in my top 40, but I'm not sure about my top 20.