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Javier Cruz vs. Hombre Bala (6/30/89)


Phil Schneider

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  • 1 month later...

Another cool looking left field match up that turned out good.  Opening stuff is cool with Bala hitting a big punch to counter a hip toss.  Overall it sort of took me a while to get really into this, maybe because of the low crowd head (though that seems to be an issue with the audio as much as anything else), but there was still some neat stuff in the first two falls.  This is really all about the third fall though.  Cruz takes a cool apron posting where he smashes into the apron and then slides down it like a fireman's pole.  Both guys bleed and they really throw a bunch at each other toward the end, two major highlights being Cruz hitting a Goldust style back elbow off an irish whip into the apron and Bala hitting a really cool tope spot, backflipping off the top as Cruz runs away from a dive and then immediately launching into the tope.  Not really a mind blowing match but good stuff, a bit above mid-level.

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Y'know, I've liked Javier Cruz in the other matches on this set but this is his breakout performance to this point. He had some tremendous selling that pushed this match over the top. He was so fired up and seemed so determined to win this match. This looked like the fight of his life. This was also a match with a lot of workrate and a lot of cool spots and Hombre Bala kind of shines in that sort of match. The big bombs and huge bumps were paced very nicely during the third fall and gave this an epic finishing run. This isn't an amazing upper tier match but this feels like it isn't too far outside of that spectrum. Maybe top 40?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Given that this is a hair match I'm surprised at the seeming indifference of the crowd. First fall ends with a gorgeous missile dropkick and tope from Cruz, and I am psyched. It's one of those moments you are truly thankful for the slo-mo replay. Javier is selling all over the place for Hombre's gourd busters and suplexes until he's just dying on the floor. He still has some fight but a cheap shot to the kidneys puts him outside again. Unfortunately his comeback involves some really shitty kicks and a piss-poor bladejob by Bala. I think they realize where their bread is buttered by Javier getting back into tecnico mode and they have a great bit with some punter dodging Javier coming over the top into a backflip and tope by Bala. Both guys are bleeding now and Cruz eats a powerbomb off the top rope. If the crowd has seemed muted and weak the entire match it may be due to the audio because they come to the front for the cueballing of Bala and by god does he look like Jason from Friday the 13th 2 halfway into his cut. It doesn't help that the barber is missing a bunch of teeth either. Why anyone would want to leave before that is finished is beyond me. 

 

This was short but very good, it had some parts that I can see people left cold on and it has its weaknesses, but the glory of the caida endings is not to be dismissed. 

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Watching this a second time and I think I'm underselling it. This is fuckin' amazing. There is a bunch of cool postings and count-out spots, and the selling is off the chain. Bala also has weird reddish hair dye like any number of middle-aged Latino women to emphasize his perm. The silver bullet on the back of his gear just adds to the sartorial splendor. I love how he pins Cruz with his leg at one point because he's so exhausted. They hand Javier fucking cash at the end and I don't blame them. Might be #1 or #2 on this disc.

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  • 10 months later...

Although Bala starts out strong and vicious, Cruz comes back with a diving headbutt through the ropes and then beats Bala back in the ring to win the first fall.  Bala comes back with some cool suplexes to take the second fall, but not before getting posted a couple of times in the early part of the fall.  The third fall is pretty epic, with more postings and blood from both wrestlers.  Cruz's dodge of Bala's dive before getting nailed by a second attempt is great.  Lots of two-count pin attempts in the third fall before Cruz wins with that spinning over the shoulder chokey thing.  I love how Bala gets slugged after throwing his first clump of shorn hair at Cruz.  I thought this match was very effective and impressive and could see it possibly cracking my top 30.

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  • 1 month later...

This was really good. Not quite on the same level as the elite apuestas matches on the set but definitely somewhere around the top 30-40 range. I liked this postmatch shaving the best out of all the ones so far and liked Bala deciding he'd had enough and leaving with a scant few spots of hair left on his head before the shave was done.

 

The first two falls were pretty short but effective. I liked Cruz's dive to end the first fall but then Hombre Bala outdoes him in the 3rd fall with a dive of his own that sends Cruz into the 2nd or 3rd row. I liked the building of the nearfalls in this one a lot more than some of some of the more recent apuestas matches on the set like Dandy/Charles & Mogur/Mascaro Ano 2000 and dug the finish. It didn't QUITE hit that extra level of hate that the elite stuff on the set like Aguayo/Chicana & La Fiera/Babyface to push this to the very top of my ballot but this was still really good.

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