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[1990-WWA] El Hijo del Santo & Yoshinari Asai & Gran Hamada vs Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera


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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, this is absolutely a dream match on paper. Some insanely fluid, fast-paced mat sequences get us started. Casas looks not too far removed from losing a hair match. The Santo/Casas mat exchanges are just on a different level than everyone else's, which are already pretty great, and they also mix in lots of playing to the crowd. It's really fun to see the crowd get so into the matwork.

 

I didn't expect Ultimo to be so good so early. Yes, the gimmick added a lot, but he was in a ring full of legends and didn't look even slightly out of place. Nothing good ever comes out of shaking Fuerza Guerrera's hand, or hugging him. Why can't anyone in lucha ever realize this? :)

 

Hamada and Casas have sort of a violent exchange in the third fall that leads to Hamada bending him like a pretzel on the mat while Panther and Fuerza complain about too much aggression. Casas and Ultimo have great chemistry as they always do.

 

Hell of a match to kick off the year. They cut a Michinoku Pro-like pace and hit some beautiful spots. All of the pairings worked and even within the match, there was quite a bit of variety. Any MPro fans should go out of their way to check this out.

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Oh, dear God...it's going to be awhile before I can comment on these matches without embarrassing myself out of lucha ignorance. Well, that's what the yearbooks are designed to correct.

 

Casas and Santo are definitely a level above everyone else in the match in terms of work, particularly against each other but also when involved with anyone else. Actually the second-best spot of the match is Casas and Hamada throwing some pretty nasty strikes at each other. The best is is a true holy-shit moment when Santo does a somersault off the top onto Blue Panther and then seamlessly bounces up into a past-the-ringpost dive onto Casas on the floor (feel free to not bother telling me if this is something Santo does in every 6-man). Hamada is channeling Kantaro Hoshino through part of this, and not just because of the powder-blue trunks. He absolutely kills...I think it was Guerrera with a wind-up headbutt. Fuerza brings some shtick amidst all the fast-paced matwork. He suckers the young rookie Asai in with a clean handshake and hug, and that's enough to pull the wool over the eyes of Santo later on.

 

Good wrestling-related start.

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Watching this match makes me wish the 80's lucha set would come out tomorrow. Everything seems slick and fresh for 1990. I'm always a fan of the Hamada headbutt and Santo dive combo, but my favorite wrestler here is Negro Casas. He looks like he should of been Lou Diamond Phillips dad in the late 80's. Casas would of slapped Donna's racist dad or told Edward James Olmos to chill the fuck out. Fun first match for the yearbook.

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Really good intro for lucha. Even myself as a novice greatly enjoyed this match.

 

First fall matches interesting pairings and I loved the crowd popping when Santo and Casas hit the ring. I also like how they mixed up the pairings in the first caida. The in ring camera work had a black terry jr. handheld vibe to it where you could really see the transitions. Second caida drops a little bit as Asai and Panther had some miscommunication but I did enjoy the handshake spot with Fuerza. Third fall really amped up the intensity and Casas has two vicious exchanges with hamada and Santo. We also get great signature dives from the principles and the match ended before it felt drawn out. Great start from a wrestling standpoint.

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Thought everyone matched up well early in the bout. Casas looking really clean with the short hair. Asai fit in pretty well though with only one minor mess up. Crowd seemed quiet to me but it could have been how they were mic'd. Guerrera is such a nice guy with his mid match handshakes and hugs. Got a bit confused when everyone was in the ring arguing with the refs as thought match was over. Pretty good start to things.

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This felt like kind of a throw-away match, though the parties involved were talented enough that it was still fun to watch. I would have liked a more competitive tercera caida. As it was, most of the good stuff came in the primera, so the match had an unfortunate inverse build.

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I'm a pretty extreme lucha novice, not because I have anything against the style but because I've always sought out old US territorial stuff at the expense of a lot of Lucha and Japanese stuff, so everything Lucha and Japan will be a new experience for me. Looking forward to it.

 

Anyway, this was a fun six man tag. To me, Casas comes across as the best guy in the match, having great exchanges with Santo and Hamada (who are right there with him, so it's not a steep drop at all). Fuerza is a fun heel with his hugs and handshakes and general scumbaggery. Panther doesn't come across as strongly as everybody else, not that he's bad, in fact I think he's good, but he doesn't leave an impression like everybody else. Fun watching bemulleted Ultimo Dragon in there already looking like 9/10 of the wrestler he will become, strange awkward segment with Panther aside. He's the least of the guys in this match, but there's so many good wrestlers in this one it's hard to call that a criticism.

 

Overall, I'd say I liked this a good deal, and look forward to more lucha on the yearbook.

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Total lucha virgin here.

 

Opening segment between Asai and Blue Panther a bit "showy" for me.

 

Faster paced segment beteen Hamada and Guerrara better.

 

Then Santo vs. Casas seemed very smooth, as if the two men were acutally attached with a piece of rope.

 

Shots to the crowd are distracting. Liked the little hug.

 

MVP for me here was Santo, he looked pretty amazing to me. Didn't like Asai's flippy flippy antics throughout the match, look too stagey and unrealistic for me. Hamada came across as badass.

 

Was having some trouble telling the difference between Blue Panther and Guerrara in the middle part of the match.

 

There were some pretty cool spots during this match though, and worked much faster than the very little lucha I've seen before. Bodes well.

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  • 2 months later...

Quite the talent line up here with 6 good to great workers. And they did just work as well with no screwiness, which is what I like to see. The Santo vs Casas exchanges were poetry in motion. The pre mask Ultimo took a few minutes to get up to speed before improving later on. Hamada looked good as well in this high quality encounter.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm not really into lucha, but recently I've started watching some IWRG. All of these guys were very good in executing their moves and everything was very smooth. Santo and Casas stood out as being a level above everyone else in this match, but everyone looked pretty good in this. I wouldn't say this is a great match, but it was good and a nice match to start off the set.

 

I also have to chime in and say that the crowd shots were a little distracting and seemed to take away from the match.

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  • 2 months later...

As a complete Lucha novice, was glad to have the opportunity to check some of this action out on the Yearbook. Pretty much echo a lot of what has been said here. I was impressed by the speed of the counters and moves, although I feel that some moves needed more 'selling', though I'm assuming that is just the nature of Lucha Libre at times. I was also impressed by how good Asai looked considering how relatively young into his career he must have been. Enjoyed some of the more violent parts the most - the headbutt was a beauty, and the slaps were also pretty sweet. All in all, a great start.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Fun match. It was cool to see Ultimo before he was Ultimo. That being said, he wasn't very good here and he never seemed to get much better. He's an athletic guy who can do some cool spots, everything else in this match seemed really difficult for him. This was a nice tease for the rest of the guys in the match. Excited to see a lot more from all of them.

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  • 8 months later...

You didn't need to understand the commentary to know that this match was miles ahead of any typical American six-man seen at the time. Great matwork and high flying, and the technicos get the big win, then celebrate with what seems like a few hundred of their younger fans. I agree that the camera work detracted from the match more than a little, but it was still a satisfying experience overall.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Seems like a pretty common trend here going years back that most people are pretty unfilair with lucha. I'm in the same boat. I'm really out of my element here and I've been reading the lucha beginniners guide thread to try to figure out what's happening. This is a cool match and pretty athletically impressive, but I really don't "get" the style yet.

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  • 9 months later...

I'm taking notes offline then copying them here before reading others' thoughts, so apologies if some of this was stated already.

 

We kick off the 90s yearbooks with Lucha, a style in which I am very much a novice. Serious star power in this one. Asai (future Ultimo Dragon) and Panther start with some swank matwork. Don’t know much about Asai at this point of his career but he has a “Super Tiger” vibe to him. Never seen Fuerza; Hamada impresses me in every match I’ve seen him in. I hear Fuerza’s a great rudo but shakes GH’s hand and tags out to Casas who I’ve heard tons about, never saw before and I’m shocked at how small he is. Santo tags in and I’ve heard they had quite the rivalry going at this point and the crowd perks up immediately. Awesome amateur matwork and I’m digging the hell out of this to start. I have a lot to learn re: trios mat structure but the feeling out period is fun.

 

I'm never going to call every highspot in this one, as Fuerza takes the Hamrick bump through the ropes and lands on his feet. All six in and the tecnicos get the first fall. Trying to tell who was legal or if it even matters. Looks to be enough Lucha on this set and the 80s DVDVR where I’m sure I’ll learn. Fuerza’s insincere handshakes are great. Santo from what I've seen is super smooth. Asai is the young lion trying to hang with the vets. I think Hamada submitted but must not be a captain as the fall has not completed. Casas pins Santo and gets the 2nd fall; that was quick. Hamada and Casas start throwing blows. Santo vaults through the ropes near the turnbuckle to the floor with a plancha on Casas which was tremendous. Hamada gets the pin on Panther to win the match. I've been watching a lot of 70s WWWF so the pace of this was impressive. I enjoyed this a lot but at the same time it feels like they barely got started and the falls were rushed. Maybe this is normal and I just need to adjust to the style. Not great but still very good.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1990-WWA] El Hijo del Santo & Yoshinari Asai & Gran Hamada vs Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera

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