Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon, Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89)

[Phil Schneider]

Blue Panther, Emilio Charles Jr. y Hombre Bala vs. Blue Demon, Javier Cruz y Hombre Sin Nombre (8/4/89)

[tim.]

Fun but lesser trios.  Opening mat stuff is alright but nothing special, though the crowd getting rambunctious for Sin Nombre riding Charles' back was funny and Demon Jr's roll up to end the fall was cool.  Sin Nombre's backbreaker to comeback after being worked over for awhile in the third fall was a good spot and Blue Panther sold it appropriately; then a fun two minute or so home stretch featuring a neat comedy spot before Blue Panther ends it for himself with the dreaded foule.  Low end stuff but fun to watch.

[Graham Crackers]

This match follows a standard trios formula. First two pairings work the mat, third pairing runs the ropes, flashy first fall victory for tecnicos, rudos come back with cheating and brawling to win second fall, rudos control the ring in the third fall, a tecnico comeback with dives, and the finish (in this case a low blow). It's a solid formula and this is a solid match but it isn't much more than solid either. The rudos looks good but this tecnico trio is lacking. Cruz is miles better than his partners but we don't see him in the ring nearly as much as we see them.

[Lee B.]

I though the matwork was pretty good in the opening fall, especially the bridge and headstand to escape the head-scissors, and Charles's bridging on his had to avoid getting pinned.  Hombre's riding of Charles was a bit odd but memorable.  Bala's flippy confrontation with Cruz was fun.  There is some good aggression from the heels, but it was a little too much of Hombre getting heat and not enough of Cruz, as mentioned previously.  I did like Cruz and Charles splashing their own partners toward the end for a pinfall, and then having to start over and splash their opponents.  Foule endings work for me if they make sense, are done out of desperation, and it didn't make a lot of sense in this match.  Overall, things seemed a bit disjointed, and I don't think this will get into my top half.

[Curt McGirt]

Demon Jr./Panther isn't much to talk about. Charles/Nombre (apparently they just stick someone at random under the Mascara Sagrada hood and costume like WWE does Sin Cara nowadays) is pretty cool though with a mix of amateur and lucha grappling. Cruz flustering Bala to the point where he goes out in the crowd to bitch out the fans is neat as well. Despite the cool roll-up the first fall feels kind of standard and I agree that Cruz is clearly head and shoulders above anyone else with his speed and crispness, which is hard to say when you have a match with Blue Panther in it. 

 

EDIT: This review is from last year and for some reason I never posted it, thus the Sin Cara mention

[goc]

I was quite surprised how well Demon Jr kept up with Blue Panther on the mat in the first fall but that may have just been smoke and mirrors by Blue Panther, I'm too much of a lucha novice to really tell. Sagrada looked better here than he did in the earlier trio as Magico but that may have just been because he didn't have any horrific botches, he still was the lesser guy in this match. I dug Hombre Bala's big celebration after getting the better of an exchange with Cruz and then leaving the ring to talk trash to the rubes who weren't properly appreciating him. Was kind surprised at the Blue Panther foul to end this and it left a trio that was already going to struggle on my ballot feeling really flat.