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This was for a shot at the lightheavyweight title the week after, so if you know 1996 CMLL then you know who wins. It also featured four guys who wrestled in the welterweight division around this time, perhaps a sign that they didn't worry so much about anyone's actual weight by this point. The first time I saw the listing for this match, my immediate reaction was something like, "Oh, get Ringo the fuck out of there." But I tell you he fit in perfectly. I wish he'd worked like this more often, this stooped over old grappler who can dish out some lessons on the mat to a young punk, instead of bouncing off the ropes with slow armdrags and spinkicks. Speaking of spinkicks, Fiera had a pretty excellent outing here. His style always worked better in brawls than in workrate matches like this, but even at 35 he could still move. I loved his reactions from the apron and how he'd stamp his foot like a bull before kicking off an exchange. The best part of the match came when Lagarde landed a spinkick of his own on someone and started pounding his chest in Fiera's direction. Fiera just pointed at Lagarde in acknowledgement. Sure enough, when they met up later on he made it clear that he remembered. Felino and Mascara Magica showed the excellent chemistry they had in their title match, although by the third time they squared off they started reusing spots from the earlier match, which was kind of disappointing. They went to another double countout, and wouldn't you know, Mascara Magica bitched about it again. His fatal flaw as a character. Anyway, not everyone in this cibernetico was a great worker, but they all wrestled like they wanted to be. I don't know why Warrior never reached that level. Mascara Magica of course fell victim to Angel Azteca Disease. They looked like they had all the potential in the world here, but this period probably represents the best either man ever was.

Look at that Dandy-killing unit assembled by Fiera. When you want to put the hurt on El Dandy, Satanico and Charles are the guys you call. Dandy brought some pretty good teammates with him too, as Atlantis in particular had one of those outings that made him the best backup tecnico ever. This felt like a post-AAA split version of the famous match from earlier in the year with Perro Aguayo, Rayo Jr. and Konnan. That was a chaotic brawl with a bright arena, a packed house and the hottest TV acts in all of Mexican wrestling chasing each other all around the ring. This brawl came in a darker arena and a snowy and grayed out video, and it wasn't quite as frenetic, but it also had a much more ominous mood from the sneak attack at the start to the DQ for attempted murder. Fiera looked like the scariest rudo going with the way he mugged Dandy throughout the first fall. Dandy was great trying to fight back (I loved when he pulled himself off the floor to slug it out with Fiera, only to get sent crashing into the front row by a spinkick), but he might have been even better getting his revenge. He busted Fiera open and even dropped a row of chairs on him (you can barely see it in the corner of the video, but it's there), and things somehow got worse for Fiera from there. 1992 was one of the best years for CMLL brawls, and even in that environment this match stands out as one of the best.

This was one of those matches that had a lot of good moments which didn't really fit together. I can see people liking a lot of them, but at the end of the day you have an apuestas match in which things started off almost gentlemanly, Sangre Chicana threw away a fall for no real reason, and Fiera won with a fluky and botched rollup while not looking like a conquering hero. Even in the prematch video package, included to make this feel like a bigtime event, something felt off, as you could see that it wasn't even Chicana who turned on Fiera first. And the bottle shot made no sense. It was a cool image and everything, but it's not like Fiera had been making a comeback or done anything to piss Chicana off. Why wantonly pick a moment in the second fall to take all that anger out on him? I guess you could argue that it fit with Chicana taking random breaks from the fighting to talk to members of the audience, but it's still the weakest way possible for a tecnico to even things up. On a positive note, Fiera's selling really was outstanding, and I liked how committed they were to those ribs. I'd have preferred wild violence to working over a body part, but if you decide to go the latter route then at least make it mean something. Less than the sum of its parts match.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in the early 1990s reused a lot of older, somewhat famous gimmicks. They had updated versions of Los Gemelos Diablo, El Jalisco, Torbellino Negro and probably plenty of others. The Ciclon Mackey in this match is probably one such character, as the original wrestled in the 1930s and supposedly hailed from Ireland, whereas this one does not appear to be in his eighties or nineties and is called a local by the announcers. With four guys I knew were good and one who'd been fine in the few matches I'd seen from him, it was Mackey, who I knew nothing of and lacks even a Luchawiki page, who I guessed might be a weak link in this. Instead this was a match that was about him and he made it count. He beat the hell of out his fellow Ciclon with some of the best headbutts I've ever seen as rudo offense, and then when it was time to turn the tables he was up for some big bumps in return. The star of the match was Ramirez, though. I know he was featured in a big feud with Felino around this time, but talk about an underused talent. His selling consisted of these amazing contortions, both on his bumps and while writhing around on the mat, that I doubt anyone could match except possibly Emilio Charles. It turned a simple head to the turnbuckle spot into a devastating blow. Later on he gave everything back, actually went further than Mackey did, throwing a row of chairs on him and smashing the man's face into the ringpost. In the third fall they slugged it out before dropping to their knees to exchange headbutts. I watched pretty much all of the Ramirez vs Felino stuff from 1993 and I can tell you that nothing that awesome happened in any of those matches. Only Javier Cruz managed to tap into this side of Ciclon Ramirez in Arena Mexico. He probably was best suited for small arena brawls like this, but was too talented for that and ended up getting signed by a company that ensured that fans decades later would get to know who he was. Fiera contributed some crazy bumps that he didn't really need to do on a show like this in a match that wasn't even about him, and Espectro had maybe my favorite sell of a quebradora ever. It's interesting to me that this went back to back with a bloody rudos vs rudos match that had a lot of the same elements, like guys picking up the chairs. You'd think the booker wouldn't want that, because then the crowd wouldn't react as strongly for the main event, but it didn't stop the fans in the front row from giddily offering their seats as a potential landing spot for Mackey. I know Ciclon Ramirez is a bit of a cult figure, so his fans might be pleased to know that this was actually part of an extended feud between the two Ciclones, and a rare chance to see Ramirez as a central figure in anything outside of the neverending Felino feud. They were in six mans on the two shows after this, but either that was it or the final showdown wasn't on TV. Even the Youtube comments (well, one Youtube comment) wondered where the blowoff was. Oh well. Ciclon doesn't fly, and I can't imagine anyone getting tired of watching that man do his dive, but after a fight like that I didn't even feel cheated.

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I remember reading OJ's review of this months ago and being disappointed that it sounded...well, disappointing. I wasn't hugely fussed about watching it, but I'm going to watch the Casas/Fiera apuestas soon and wanted to see at least a little of the build. As a lead in trios this wasn't as strong as those Dandy/Fiera or Dandy/Llanes trios, but maybe my lowish expectations helped matters because I still enjoyed it. I don't disagree with the criticism that it felt like three separate issues playing out with no real thread to tie them together. I didn't really mind everyone mostly sticking to the one dance partner, though. If the brawling was pedestrian then I might've, but I didn't think this was that. It captured a pretty nice sense of chaos and it wasn't like there weren't moments where one guy would stop beating on their rival to take a swing at someone else. They may not have been brothers in arms, but for this night at least they were makeshift comrades and they had a common goal. Casas/Fiera showed flashes of greatness, I thought. Black Magic/Vampiro and Atlantis/Mano Negra had their moments as well, but it's Casas v Fiera at the Anniversary show and that was the most spotlighted match up. When they turned it loose we got a few cracking moments, like Casas trampling over fans as Fiera chased him into the crowd, Fiera repeatedly ramming Casas' head into a seat and later slamming him into the second row. Casas got himself some nice colour after being lawn darted into the post as well, and on the whole it whet the appetite for the hair match. I can't complain.

Just two weeks after his failed title challenge Fiera found himself in another one on one. He cut a promo about continuing Blue Panther's mission of ridding Mexico of its foreigners while flocked by some giddy rudo fans, and then he spent the first fall putting on a rudo masterpiece. He kicked Black Magic's ass all over the ring and treated him like the newcomer he was, and made rudo referee Gato Montini his half-witting accomplice. The clothesline with the chain was pure brilliance, and as a token of appreciation he clapped right in Montini's face afterward, just to let the ref know how much of a sucker he'd been. Everything in the ring was under Fiera's control. After the fall he wore the biggest, smuggest grin on his face while even getting some Me-xi-co chants. And then by the end of the match he was threatening to kick Montini, the man he'd figured was in his back pocket, right in the face, and screaming about how it was all bullshit, that a man of only physique could never defeat someone who truly understands the sport. By this point the crowd was chanting for Magic, much to Fiera's shock, and he pretty much sealed the deal when he backed out of a postmatch fight just like Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13. His contemptuous look back towards the ring would have made the Hitman proud, too. So by the end of the match Fiera hadn't just put over Magic, he'd given him the crowd and told a twenty minute story of his own unraveling. The actual wrestling wasn't that interesting but for performance and meeting the booking's goal this was excellent.

Fierathon 2017 continues with this mano a mano from both guys' postprime. Emilio came out to a CMLLized version of Pelo Suelto that was pretty cool. One of the comments on Youtube says that he sang it, but I don't know about that. It didn't sound like his voice. Fiera wore a jacket that just said "WRESTLING" on the back and had Van Halen entrance music, so I think the early advantage went to Emilio. He did a really good job beating the hell out of Fiera, one of the better one on one performances I can recall from him actually, and Fiera again bumped and sold as well as you could expect. It really does impress me how a guy who I think of as SUCH a nasty rudo can be so sympathetic. But then again that's wrestling. This was also a match in which he got violent for his comeback, although I could have done without the Randy Savage arm twirls. The finishing stretch seemed abbreviated and I thought Fiera won the second fall a bit too easily, but what really stopped this from being anything special was that it's 2017 and I can look it up and see that they had a hair vs hair in two weeks, so what does it matter who wins this one? Still a good match and a good Fiera performance, no small feat in 1994 CMLL.

Edit of my Segunda Caida review. Someone check this out (it's currently on youtube) and tell me if I'm way off in the comparison or not. ---- This was a poor man's Sangre Chicana vs MS-1. That said, even a poor man's Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 is still a rich man's match. I'm not entirely sure what the backstory was here. Kahoz had lost his mask to Shocker in 1995 (which seems very early for Shocker to pick up that sort of a win even if it was December and after he won the Gran Alternativa). I'm sure everyone knows that Kahoz was a gimmick that Pena himself had used but had given to Astro Rey in the 80s. I hadn't known that until now. Anyway, it doesn't look like there was a ton of build to this. It really doesn't matter. This followed the beautifully minimalist Chicana vs MS-1 format, though here Fiera was a full tecnico. That meant that Kahoz took over early, spent long minutes beating Fiera to a pulp, bloodying him all around the ring and the ringside area. This was where Fiera shined, selling broadly, bleeding huge, drawing a ton of sympathy. There was little attempt to fight back but that just build up the pressure for the eventual comeback all the more. Kahoz ended the fall with three pick-up/drop downs in a row (which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen. He could have finished him but kept picking him up; more on that later), and a stepover submission. As a primera, it was just as good as MS-1 vs Chicana, I think, a bloody, brutal beating. The segunda and tercera were still solid, even at times transcendent, but there just wasn't quite enough there to match the very best bloody one-sided brawls. In the moment, like with all Fiera tecnico performances, I kept waiting for the trademark spin-kick to signal the comeback. As a single move, it's not quite as good as Chicana's punch, but it's more stylized, flashier even if less visceral. He hit it early in the segunda, but not until countering a caught kick into an vicious enziguri. From there it was a short but utterly triumphant revenge beating, capped off with a picture perfect frog splash. The tercera was more of the same, awesome punches, blood and selling, a spot-on kick to the back of the head to send Kahoz to the floor followed by exactly the tope the match needed, all capping with a finish that called back to Kahoz arrogantly picking Fiera back up in the primera. Like I said, if you like MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana, you'll probably like this too. Even though it's not as good, that's still as good a company as a hair match can be in.

This ruled, kickass lucha brawl. I keep forgetting how awesome Bestia Salvaje is. He was on a rampage here, just waffling guys in the face left and right. Then you also have reckless kicker Fiera and Super Astro flying around as a wrecking ball and that's totally enough to carry the mediocre dudes in the match. I mean, just when Santana landed an elbow drop and I was thinking "okay this isn't so brilliant now" Salvaje came in and beat Fiera into the hospital. Goodness gracious. I'm so used to seeing Astro as a fun old man flyer in maestro tags that seeing him in a fast paced, competitive, heated match like this blew me away. I also loved how that obnoxious interviewer stuck a mic in Bestia's face while he was dumped with his head into the chairs. Bestia lays out Fiera and keeps stomping on his head while the doctor tries to get between them and a dude with a toddler on his arm laughs at the carnage. Fiera makes his comeback launching Bestia into the 4th row and the interviewer is back sticking a mice in his face. If this were WWE Fiera would talk about his feelings and pose or something but instead he just growls something unintelligible and chucks a row of chairs at Salvaje. Could have used a bigger standoff between Salvaje and Fiera at the end (Especially given that the first two falls got quite a bit of time and false finishes) but whatever. This made me salivate at the mouth to see a Salvaje/Fiera singles match with them kicking the shit out of eachother.

Hat tip to Dylan for pimping this on Twitter. I'm going to have to re-evaluate the Satanico/Pirata Morgan match from 11/26--I had that as the #9 Match of the Year worldwide and the top-ranking lucha match, and I think this compares favorably. This is every bit of the war you'd want to see between these two--I don't know if both are rudos (though Casas is the crowd favorite) but it doesn't much matter. Both guys happily beat the living shit out of the other and both guys provide some great sympathetic selling. Each fall gets time to breathe, and Casas is absolutely unreal working both on top and underneath. He takes an awesome bump over like 3 rows of ringside seats, and his kicks and comebacks are out of this world great. This is about as stiff and high-impact as lucha gets, and I think works great as a match to watch for people who aren't into lucha. The third fall also has a great running story of who can make their high-risk move attempt pay off first, like a lucha title match. Both guys miss at first and you know it's going to come down to who can be the first to hit their top-rope move. Even some really great lucha matches don't always have three good finishes for each fall, but here each fall works.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.