[1994-11-06-AAA-When Worlds Collide] Eddy Guerrero & Love Machine vs El Hijo del Santo & Octagon (Masks vs Hair)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Double Mask versus Hair match. Barr stirs up the crowd with the swimming motions. Tenay uses Monsoons Pearl Harbor wrestling commentary. Hurricarana on Santo off Barr's shoulders. They hit it better than Ohtani/Benoit. Barr with the frogsplash to pick up the victory in first fall. Octogan with a real cool comeback when Santo was already pinned. They were up against the wall at that point. I've noticed Tirantes is using a much quicker count on his pinfalls than what I have seen in rest of yearbook. Octagon is taken out with a tombstone leaving Santo on his own. Santo kicks out of the superplex/frogsplash combo. They really selling the piledriver on Octogan by having him stretchered out. Barr gets nailed with a piledriver by Blue Panther with referee not looking. Guerrero dominates Santo with some big moves but Santo rolls him up for the victory. Gringos Locos had the match twice in their favor and lost it. Great match that I'm sure satisfield the Lucha fans but that was altered every so slighty in a way to appeal to non Lucha fans since it was PPV match shown in US. I felt the non Lucha fan would understand it better but then again that could be the English commentary so who knows.

[Loss]

This looked better than it did the first time I saw it, where it felt like sort of an empty spotfest. I didn't get that vibe at all this time, and thought it was one of the best matches of the year. Maybe part of the rep is based on accessibility, but it also looks better than most of what surrounds it for 1994 AAA, and it's a classic fucking match. Only Espectrito/Sagrada is in the same discussion. I love all of the melodrama of Octagon getting carted out and the final stretch of this has an incredible amount of suspense because of Octagon eating the pin and Santo being on his own to save both his and Octagon's mask. Eddy doing the puroresu suplexes and powerbombs in this style isn't something I particularly care for, but it's really not enough to take down this match even a little.

[Exposer]

This really is a tremendous match. The first fall was really good even with the botched Frankensteiner. The second fall had some slow parts but got great when Octagon had to win the fall by himself. The third fall was tremendously great with some awesome drama and suspense. This is one of the best lucha matches of the year and one of the best matches throughout the whole year.

[soup23]

I didn't love this that much. I felt the crowd never bought Santo being in true danger as much as they tried and the ending of the third fall was too abrupt with Santo just taking so much punishment and seemingly lucky to roll up Eddy. Throw in a few botches and this falls below classic match status for me. Very good to great match but I was pretty disappointed watching it back in retrospect.

[Loss]

Previously at PWO:

 

Eddie Guerrero/Art Barr vs El Hijo Del Santo/Octagon, Masks vs Hair AAA When Worlds Collide 1994

Just borrowed the Eddie dvd again, and this was the first match I watched from it, which I intended since i just aquired the rematch. This is an example of Perfect booking throughout. There was an emotional backstory (Santo/Eddie's Fathers used to tag together and there was jealousy involved as to who's father was better), which really came through in the match with the little things these two did, like getting in the ring when it wasn't their turn just to kick the other really hard.

The first fall was great, as the two Rudo's nailed their big time moves in an effort to get the early fall, which worked well. The jumping Frankeinster from Eddie to Santo just looked sick, did he actually land directly on his neck? The thing that I enjoyed, however, mostly about the first fall was Barr's constant heeling, just ripping into the pro Santo crowd like he could kill them all. The dude definatly hit home with that, ala his mentor and trainer Roddy Pipper was so reknown for.

There was a sense of urgency in the second fall when Hijo got pinned and Octagon was left against both Eddie and Barr (the rules being both members had to be beat before the actual fall counted, and when one member was out he could not interfere). He however made a glorious comeback that the crowd ate up, reversing the double team move and pinning Eddie without Art knowing, then suprising Art with the submission victory. The crowd was on their feet here, and this is one of the best 'Booking as an art' examples I can think of, which only got better in the third fall (this idea could have it's own thread as I think there's a lot to talk about on the topic).

The final fall sees both teams slowing down the pace which is expected after all the high impact moves being hit from the beginning. What's great here is that everytime one wrestler has a move on the other, the other's tag partner would come in and just stiff kick or puinch their oponent in the head, showing a) the hatred and The importance of the fall. This was so well done, and was a pleasure to watch. When the ref has his back to the Barr and Octagon, Barr hits an illegal tombstone piledriver and gets the pinfall. The crowd is shocked, as now Santo is left by himself to take on the rudo's, and there would be no help even if they were to cheat since Octagon was KO'D. There was sligh clippage, as the match went from what looked like was about to be a superplex to Santo sunset flipping over the top rope and giving Eddie the powerbomb on the outside, which was such a fucking cool move. After a beatdown on Hijo, while Eddie and Santo are on the outside, Blue Panther, Arch enemy of Art Barr sneaks into the ring without the ref knowing and nails Barr with a piledriver! Poetic Justice and the crowd is nuts! Hijo gets the pincount.

This was such simple yet such effective booking, and even better it now leaves Eddie and Hijo to battle it out, to prove who the better is, and to honor their respective family names. Eddie just takes to Santo pulling out every high impact move he can imagine, but Hijo just keeps kicking out, and Eddie is getting frustrated. Eddie tries the same move one too many times and Santo reverses it with a quick rollup for the pincount! The crowd goes absolutly wild and the masks are saved! I would love to see the clippage where the rudo's heads get shaved though.

This has some of the best booking, and some of the best wrestling psychology I have ever seen. Just superb from start to finish, has no letdown, has amazing storytelling, teases and paybacks, the lot. So worth seeing for anyone who hasn't, This is the first Lucha match I've properly come to love, so now I'm on a mission to seek out the other classics!

 

 

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this match. It's very good, but a bit overrated for me, mainly because it just really seems far more like a well-done spotfest than the blowoff for a big feud. Eddy's powerbombs looked great, but just seemed ridiculously out of place because there was no real build to those spots and no pin attempts. That may be me, as I have issues with any style where they don't use a move like a powerbomb as a sudden death match ender. It even bugs me in All Japan, and doing the same powerbomb over and over and over in those big matches is by far my least favorite thing about the style. Earlier in the feud, a year and a day prior to this to be exact, these four had what I think was a far superior match on AAA TV. I'm including that on the next DVD for the DVD Club, and look forward to hearing what people have to say about it. That said, it's a really good intro to lucha libre, and I'm glad it makes you want to see other stuff. I'm never surprised when anyone calls this match their favorite lucha match. Thanks to the Eddie DVD and WCW promotion, it reached audiences that would have otherwise probably not have seen the style at all, which is a good thing. But the whole When Worlds Collide PPV is really more of a showcase PPV to show off the athleticism and get over the style to a new audience. Still, great match, worth seeing, and easily the best match on the show. Anyone who hasn't seen it should make a point to do so.

 

 

I enjoyed the match. What I loved the most was the heat, and the way they were rudoing up on the crowd. The match that Loss references is really cool. They meshed so many different styles in that one. It was such a melting pot of a match.

 

 

I don't like that WWC match at all, but then I don't like Art Barr, Eddie in Mexico or AAA for that matter.

[PeteF3]

The first two falls of this were incredibly rushed, even by lucha standards. From the commentary it sounds like the whole PPV was running behind or just scheduled haphazardly. Los Gringos Locos attempt the same piggyback-Frankensteiner move the Japanese juniors did--they don't quite hit it either but they do come closer. It's when Santo eats the pin that this picks up--Octagon quickly recovers to save the technicos from a two-fall sweep and save the Santo mask, and Barr gets him back later by dropping him with a martinete, which takes Octagon out of the match figuratively and literally. That's followed by Blue Panther sneaking in and dropping Barr with a piledriver of his own, in one of the all-time great payback spots in the history of wrestling, and one of the best crowd pops. Santo does a great crawling, desperation pin of Barr to set up the one-on-one showdown with Eddy. Eddy probably does bust out a few too many finishers here, as though he were auditioning for a job with the Big Two, and Santo's winning pin is a little sudden, but it doesn't detract much from the story of the match.

 

We've essentially seen a two-year build to this, going back to Love Machine's mask loss to Blue Panther in '92, and the payoff works. I've seen this match plenty, but I'm finally now coming around to the idea that Barr could have been something in the U.S. just on the basis of his personality and where wrestling was headed, with spots opening up for smaller and more athletic guys. The WCW production values really elevate this as well (now THERE'S one for the George Carlin "Phrases You Never Hear" file), particularly the EMTs' work over Octagon on the outside and the learned commentary from Cruise & Tenay. One of the two lucha matches of the year, along with Espectrito/Sagrada. This is essentially the lucha equivalent of Warrior vs. Savage, a match that's booked just about letter-perfect and plays every right note that you want in a blowoff, which is enough to elevate it over whatever individual faults are in the match itself.

[mprice]

Even with the quick falls and the botches, I feel like this is a really good match. When watching the Eddie DVD from 04, it does bother me that there is a small cut in the footage but I haven't seen the entire rest of the match to see what I may have missed. I consider it one of the better non AJPW tag matches that I have seen from that year. I love the urgency that all of the wrestlers have throughout the match up because it gives that sense that it has to be done now and only now. The crowd absolutely lost it when Barr hit the tombstone on Octagon, and then I laugh a bit when the medics are called out to help him but we can hear them over the television broadcast. Then it is up to Super Santo who seems to be the "Cena before Cena" as Guerrero and Barr are both taken down soon after.

[Zenjo]

It was really interesting to watch this again because my opinion on it has changed so much over the years. As an initial introduction to Lucha I didn't get it at all. Second time around I appreciated the psychology and crowd manipulation, but didn't feel like the wrestling itself was all that hot. And now? It stands out as a unique match in the history of wrestling. Not just because of the one-off nature of the event. The structure of the match itself was alien and quite brilliant with it.

 

Love Machine had so much personality he'd have definitely been big in the States had he taken a few less vitamins. It was USA vs Mexico and the crowd hated Los Gringos. The rudos took the first. Seeing Santo then get pinned in the 2nd is such a shock to the system for Lucha viewers. Octagon was able to fight back and stave off disaster. But then in the decider Barr utilises a banned piledriver and Octo does a stretcher job. The payback spot with Blue Panther interfering is cool. Santo then finishes off mano a mano against Eddy and saves his heritage. Great structure and the 2nd best AAA bout of the year. The ultimate irony of this event was that a couple of years later AAA would lose many of its top names to WCW. Mexican wrestlers would be imported but not Mexican promotions.

[bradhindsight]

I really dug this match. The heat is uncanny and we get legit pinfalls for each guy with each fall. Barr has a great dropkick. Eddie is just on fire here - ripping off everything in his arsenal trying to put El Hijo del Santo away.

 

The drama with the piledrivers really amps things up during the third fall. I really enjoyed this (also worth noting, the WWE 24/7 version has a 6 minute cut but there is a version on youtube of the complete show that is 6 minutes longer which has the whole match).

[stro]

Match really falls apart in the 3rd fall, and it's fascinating at how much higher of a level Eddie and Art were operating on in comparison to Santo and Octagon. They were just working circles around those two. The heat Eddie and Art garnered was amazing, and they were fabulous assholes in the match. A real shame how awkward and weird the 3rd fall got.

 

But it's nothing compared to the hilarious awkwardness of the main event cage match after it. Almost everything that could be botched was botched in that match.

[JKWebb]

http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-100-51/2/

 

#70

 

Put me in the really good to almost great camp. The match itself has been broken down enough here, but ill say I was really entertained. However, it didn't seem like a MOTYC or an all-timer to me. I'm only comparing it to that because it's ranked so high here, so I don't want to sound like I didn't like it. Lot's to like here, and for me personally, I think that's largely due to Eddie. I agree some if it felt a bit rushed.

[Microstatistics]

This is a really interesting match in that in happened in a Lucha promotion with lucha stipulations, in the US with WCW coverage but is worked like a Japanese juniors match. Anyways, when it comes to the heel/face dynamic, build, storytelling, drama, emotion and interesting twists and turns, this is as good as anything I've seen in pro wrestling. I liked how the pace slowed down in the 3rd fall and the teams trading stiff punts to the body. The Panther piledriver spot was utterly brilliant and got one of the loudest pops ever. Great finish as Santo was resilient enough to survive and smart enough to grab the win at the right time. It has a few botches but who cares? ****3/4

[Makai Club #1]

A complicated match for new viewers of Lucha. However this is a pretty good gate way for getting into lucha libre still because it captures the magic of the lucha style but does it in a slightly different style. Typical for lucha matches, this is done in a two out of three falls match. In this case, you need to pin both partners to end the fall. For example, Santo and Octagon get pinned in the first round so Los Gringos Locos win the first fall. So naturally this can be confusing if you’re not away from the rules. Apparently, this was supposed to be a singles apuestas match between Hijo del Santo and Eddie Guerrero which would’ve been the first (and presumably only) singles match between the two. That sounds pretty amazing because both are world-class wrestlers on their day but Art Barr changed Pena’s mind and got himself and Octagon put in the match. And it benefits from it because Art Barr is so hated by the crowd and his history with Blue Panther (Santo & Octagon’s second) is played off in a big way in this. 

The match had everything you can want in a match. Excellent tag wrestling with Los Gringos Locos working over the tecnico team, maximising their heat before Santo and Octagon worked together to overcome the double team work, at one point sending Eddie and Barr into each other which lead into a pair of expertly executed synchronized topes on the outside. The story was excellent with the tecnico team having to work their way back in falls with Gringos Locos going ahead almost always, both in the second fall and last with Octagon and Santo each getting their shining spots in those falls. Art Barr taking out Octagon with the piledriver (a banned move in Mexico) while the ref wasn’t looking was amazing. The crowd went nuts at it. And it made it so much more sweeter when Blue Panther came in and did a piledriver to him, allowing Santo to eliminate Barr from the match. It was an excellent call back to the Panther/Barr apuestas match where Barr lost his mask via dq after a piledriver, as well as it being a revenge spot for Octagon, who was being carried out on a stretcher. Santo and Eddie were the main focus of all the hot stretches of the match so naturally there was a lot of tension in the final stretch. Santo is battered and bruised and takes some nasty suplexes, including a dragon suplex on the hard canvas before Santo catches Eddie off guard and pins him with a roll up to a tremendous ovation. Viva la Mexico. ****3/4

[cactus]

The rule that meant you had to pin both your opponents to score one fall was confusing, and the English commentators made no effort to explain this before the match started. I'm sure it's something that you would have known if you were an avid follower of lucha, but seeing as this entire card was designed as a showcase to get more English-speaking fans into lucha, I find it baffling how they did not explain the rules to one of the biggest matches on the show. The work rate here was great, with it feeling like a NJPW juniors at times. Eddy and Art rule as heels, and they did a fantastic job at riling up the fans. There are a few botches or miscommunications here and there that detract from the action slightly. Both teams put over the piledriver as a devastating move, with Octagon selling the Tombstone like absolute death. Santo is left by himself to fight for his team's masks and the last few minutes featured a lot of gripping drama, before Santo is able to score a roll-up to win the match.  I don't quite see this as an all-time great match, but I've always struggled to really get into lucha.  ★★★★