[1992-01-26-UWA] Pegasus Kid vs Villano III

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Not that everyone in lucha is all that flashy, but I still don't think Benoit is a good fit in the style. He just doesn't seem natural at all -- sort of like he's just trying to do the right things in the right order, but he's not really connected to what he's doing. I'm sure he worked hard. This is a good match, but it seems like it should have been much better.

[goodhelmet]

You could say the same thing about Benoit's entire career save for maybe his Japanese work.

[Tim Evans]

I just hate the first 2 quick falls thing in Lucha singles matches. Just makes it meaningless to me. Luckily for this match, they only did it for the second.

[Resident Evil]

For the record, this match is signifigantly clipped iirc. I'm a big fan of the match. One of the matches that turned me into a fan of Villano III

[stunning_grover]

Pegasus Kid Chris Benoit defended the WWF World Light Heavyweight Championship, which he had won on 1991-03-03 from Villano III. He had Tigre Canadiense Mike Lozansky in his corner.

[shoe]

I enjoyed this match. Both guys are really good workers. It seemed that Villano lll realized that lucha wasn't in Benoit's comfort zone so they seem like they work a quasi Stampede/Japan style. Benoit was just suplexing the hell out of Villano lll. I dug the finish to the 3rd caida seeing that Benoit just punished Villano's back.

[MikeCampbell]

I liked this, but Benoit working Lucha just seems like a huge disconnect to me. Sort of like the Benoit/Casas tag match earlier in the set. One thing I did dig is the finish, I've always hated how luchadores seem to give up as soon as the hold is applied, but starting with Villano's missed senton, Benoit focused on his back and Villano lingered in his holds plenty long enough.

[Zenjo]

Matwork in the early stages. I dug Villano's innovative submission holds. He also looked good in the air later on, an impressive performance. Benoit looked slightly out of place at times but improved a lot as it progressed. The start of the 3rd fall was high quality. Finish could've been better. Good overall.

[WingedEagle]

Villano's matwork and submissions early looked nice. Great finish with the missed senton and work on the back leading to the stoppage.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

So far I'm higher on both Benoit matches and Benoit performances than the others. I liked the layout of this a lot, with the usual quickie first fall being moved to the second which serves as a nice change of pace and keeps the first two falls from coming off as perfunctory, which is a common issue in the tres caida matches. Villano III doesn't really come across as Mr. Sympathy when Benoit is tearing up his back but the build to the ref stoppage is well worked. Benoit can come across as overly mechanical regardless of where he's wrestling, but he did a capable job of keeping up on the mat and pacing the match.

[garretta]

The first fall was much more mat- and submission-based than most lucha matches, with particular focus on Benoit's legs. This may seem nitpicky, but I don't think he sold the damage Villano did very well at all. I understand that the vast majority of his offense is based on aerial maneuvers, but he could have made going for the dives he did look like more of a struggle. The second fall was too short to say much about, but I liked Benoit's work on Villano's back to set up the winning submission. I have no idea what the hold was called (reverse STF, maybe?), but it looked like it could legitimately tear a man's head off.

 

One question: We all know that Vince didn't recognize any sort of light heavyweight title here in the States, at least on TV. Did the UWA simply pay for the use of the WWF name, or did the belt really belong to Vince, even though it was defended on a foreign promotion's card? Did anyone at Titan Towers have any say on who held it?

 

Also, who was Mike Lozansky? He couldn't have had much of a career in the States, because I've never heard of him.

[dawho5]

I get that Villano 3 had to work around Benoit's lack of familiarity/comfort with the lucha style. The first caida still dragged more than I liked. Too many holds where the person in the hold had only one limb (at most) free and had to just wait until it was released. Good enough match with a lot of cool stuff, but it didn't click for me.