[1992-11-27-CMLL] El Dandy vs La Fiera (Hair vs Hair)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Frankensteiner]

I'm assuming the version here is a snowy copy sourced from Jeff Lynch. For anyone interested in seeing this match, there's a much cleaner picture quality version on youtube (I've tried unsuccessfully to get a DVD copy from the guy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVYsjNONac

[Loss]

Disappointing match. Seemed like it went on forever before Dandy showed any signs of a comeback. I have no problem with extended dominance from one side, but it works best when occasional comebacks are teased and cut off, so that it's still more interesting. This was just a slaughter forever and ever, which is a weird thing to say, because this is maybe the shortest match from Mexico on the set. I had trouble buying Dandy's win at the end because he didn't really get in enough good shots on his own. These guys are talented and of course there are good moments, but overall, I think it missed the mark.

 

Also, yes the match is sourced from Lynch. Thanks for the YouTube link.

[FLIK]

I'm assuming the version here is a snowy copy sourced from Jeff Lynch. For anyone interested in seeing this match, there's a much cleaner picture quality version on youtube (I've tried unsuccessfully to get a DVD copy from the guy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukVYsjNONac

Youtube to DVD isn't that hard actually if you want to make your own

 

step 1) there's a million ways to save youtube files to your hard drive, www.keepvid.com works well

 

step 2) then you use something like FLV converter http://www.flv-converter.org to change the file from FLV format to AVI or MPG or whatever

 

step 3) then you can use any # of programs to covert the avi/mpg to DVD format, I use ConvertXtoDVD to DVD myself http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/

 

*note* technically if you put the FLV files into convertx directly it will work but the majority of the time i've tried this the quality turns out like shit hence the need for step 2

[Frankensteiner]

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try it and hope it comes out well.

[Tim Evans]

So who was the Rudo here? I'm guessing Fiera but the ending featured Dandy being very rudoish by holding the ropes? This was ok but like Loss said, Disappointing.

[PeteF3]

Well, it's certainly no lucha MOTYC but I thought this was pretty fucking awesome, about on par with Fiera vs. Tiger Mask and better than any other Fiera appearance in the early '90s. Dandy is such a terrific sympathetic babyface because God knows he wasn't a master of enough styles already, and I completely bought the Northern Lights suplex as a big comeback move to even the falls. Yet another Dandy hair match ends in controversy, as Fiera tries to steal a win with the ropes, but Dandy counters and grabs the ropes himself. This time there's no Atlantis to plead anybody's case, so the decision stands. Start of a rudo turn for Dandy or just a typical poetic-justice finish for the heel? I guess we'll find out in '93.

[WingedEagle]

Fiera attacks early and takes the first fall incredibly quickly. Dandy continues his selling into second fall and takes a slam to the floor he juices before hitting a northern lights suplex out of nowhere for the pin. Fiera bites at Dandy's cut for some great heat and hits a low blow as well. Fiera goes for a power bomb, which sees them both trading counters into sunset flips with and holding the ropes for leverage with Dandy finally getting the pin and Fiera the save. No idea if this was played up as a heel turn or not, but I liked it as a face giving the heel a bit of his own medicine. We'll see how that turns out though.

 

***1/4

[Gregor]

I really liked this. Although I understand and even agree with Loss' criticism of the one-sidedness and absence of hope spots, Fiera's extended dominance doesn't really bother me. For one thing, I think he's a terrific offensive wrestler, and, for another, Dandy's great at selling. The match never drags or feels like Fiera's running out of things to do. It helps that the first two falls are over in under eight minutes, so it's not unrealistic for Dandy to have lasted that long before getting in his first offense of the match.

 

The other complaint I can see people having about this is that Dandy doesn't bring enough hatred to the match. Fiera bloodies him, tosses him around and outside the ring at will, fouls him several times (including once with a beautiful inverted atomic drop), and gloats about all of it, but Dandy never responds in kind. Instead most of his offense is just him trying to win. That worked for me; in fact, if anything it actually makes the match better. Dandy can't afford to bite Fiera's forehead or anything like that. He's fighting from so far behind, and Fiera is so much in control, that all Dandy can do is go for quick strike pinfalls. It plays out like Jesse Ventura's hypothetical hockey game in which one team is peppering the net with shot after shot but manages to bang home only one of them, and the other team can't get anything off other than a few desperation slapshots, but two of them make it in. I really like how strongly they stick to that. Even in the third fall, by which point Dandy is back in the match, he still can't string together two offensive moves in a row.

 

I actually like faces beating the heels at their own game, so Dandy's cheating works especially well here given that Fiera had cheated on a couple of occasions already. This isn't one of the best apuestas matches of all time, and it isn't challenging Dandy vs. Casas for CMLL's match of the year, but I'm not filing this one away as a disappointing effort from '92 Dandy, either.

[ohtani's jacket]

Fiera's performance was too good for the bout to be disappointing, but I had a lot of problems with it structurally. There was a great bout in there if they'd just rearranged a couple of things. Dandy lost face with the finish as far as I'm concerned. I don't see that as poetic justice. He just looked weak. Fiera was fading and Dandy should have put him away especially since in the lead up Fiera was often taking the easy way out in the third caida. I suspect they were trying to play off the finishes to those trios matches but it fell flat.

[garretta]

First, you guys have this match where Michaels/Jannetty from Providence should be, and vice versa.

 

I liked this a lot. Fiera's fit to be tied by the end; he attacks Dandy before the bell, pounds the hell out of him for ninety prevent of the match, and Dandy beats him once with just his second offensive move of the match (yes, I counted) and steals the other by holding the ropes, like Fiera had tried to do to him not five seconds before. Sometimes you get punished for living wrong, that's all there is to it.

 

Dandy turns in one of the most sympathetic performances you'll ever see, as he has literally no offense until late in the second fall after being backjumped and busted open before the ring announcer's even finished the introductions. (The ring announcer's my MVO, by the way; he stands there calmly and quietly while Fiera's beating Dandy to a pulp inches from him, completing the intros as if nothing's happening. He comes within an eyelash of being taken out by an Irish whip, but that doesn't faze him either. Kudos to you wherever you are, good sir!)

 

Did Dandy's lack of offense and using the ropes for the winning fall make him look weak? Not under these circumstances. He was been backjumped in a match where his most prized possession at this time (his hair) was on the line. Who wouldn't react the way he did, tecnico or rudo? Besides, Fiera could have put him away multiple times if he hadn't been so busy heeling it up for the crowd. I sure hope that they don't use this to turn Dandy heel; he's such a great natural babyface, as this very match proved.