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[1993-04-30-AAA-Triplemania] Perro Aguayo vs Mascara Ano 2000 (Hair vs Mask)


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Mascara is pretty limited--he can't do much more than punch, kick, and roll people up. But damned if this isn't a Pat Patterson-level booking masterpiece. The first two falls are over quickly in that perfunctory "let's get them out of the way" manner, but the finishes are delightfully screwy. First, Aguayo is going to town on 2000 in the corner, raining punches on him, when suddenly Chocolate calls for the bell for a low blow. Very cool and out-of-nowhere finish and good use of the standard long lucha replay, as we break down whether or not Aguayo really punched him low or not. You can almost see Chocolate under the hood trying to find "indisputable evidence" whether or not to overturn the call. The ruling on the field stands, and Aguayo is down 1-0 before he has a chance to take a breath. Universo 2000 makes his presence known in the second fall than then Mascara gets greedy, clobbering Aguayo with brass knucks so blatantly than even the heel ref Chocolate has to DQ him for it. That's two falls out of the way in about 5 minutes, leaving about 20 for the rest of the match. Aguayo does a monster blade job off the knucks shot and levels Mascara with every bit of offense that he has, while Ano is just trying to keep his head above water with small packages and cheap shots from Universo. Eventually Mascara's mask is all red, and I can't tell if it's because he bladed himself or it's Aguayo's blood. Universo nails Aguayo as he bounces off the ropes, and as Chocolate goes over to reprimand him, Aguayo recovers to BLATANTLY uppercut Mascara in the nuts as the crowd loses their shit. Universo throws a fit, but Chocolate doesn't see anything and Aguayo covers for the win and the mask. The crowd loves it, and I rejoice never having to tell Universo and Mascara apart again going forward.

One of the most markout-worthy finishes on any Yearbook, a perfect poetic-justice ending built across three falls. I tend to dislike the heel ref shtick in lucha because they never seem to get any comeuppance, so when they inadvertently aid the babyfaces through their own incompetence that sort of feels like a satisfying payoff. AAA would copy this sort of layout with Tirantes, Los Gringos Locos, and Blue Panther in the famous double apuestas match the next year, to similarly great results. As a match, this wasn't as good as Cien Caras' mask loss, but from a booking standpoint it's a highlight of any year. This also has Universo, who does one of the greatest jobs of a ringside second I've ever seen.

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  • 11 months later...

This didn't do much for me. The first two falls were too quick, and if it hadn't been for Perro being busted open I feel like I could have skipped them and not missed a thing. The third fall was worked at half speed, which I guess was the way to go considering that one guy couldn't wrestle and the other was selling blood loss, but it still bored me. The two brief cameos by Jake interested me more than anything either wrestler did for the whole thirty minutes. I appreciate the irony of the third fall finish, but that's about all. To top it off, we miss the actual unmasking entirely. Come to think of it, I also liked the heels beating up the ref that was supposedly in their back pocket. Other than that, I could have lived quite well without ever seeing this, which I seem to be saying or thinking about almost every non-American match lately.

 

I enjoyed the subtle product placement for Corona; could you imagine ads like that for Skittles or Nestle Crunch during WWF broadcasts in the eighties?

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  • 4 months later...

All the way through there was a great atmosphere. It felt like a huge event. The heel ref Chocolaté was an integral component, and actually delivered a great performance himself.

 

Furious and intense from the get-go with a strong rivalry. In the primera Aguayo was very harshly DQ'd for a low blow that wasn't quite that low. In the 2nd Dos Mil quite blatantly used a pair of brass knucks. He may have lost the fall, but Perro was now bleeding a gusher. The tercera was absolutely electric. Half of Mascara's mask had turned from blanco to tinto. Some killer near falls and knife edge submissions. Lucha at its most dramatica. Throughout the contest Ano 2000 had been cheating and this escalated to hitting Perro whilst the ref was distracted. The grizzled vet was so enraged that he deliberately low blowed the rudo scoundrel. He put his head in his hands:

 

'What have I done?!'

 

Half a second later he realised the ref had been admonishing Universo 2000 on the outside and hadn't seen it! An ingenious finish and the acting was absolutely perfect. It was a morality play with the cheat getting exactly what he deserved. The awesomeness wasn't even done there as Chocolaté got roughed up and had his shirt torn by the furious rudos. He couldn't fight back physically, so he went and theatrically raised Perro's hand. Effectively saying a massive 'fuck you'.

 

At one point during the match my face started hurting because I'd probably been smiling for 10m straight! MA2K played his role in proceedings to a tee and wrestled several levels above himself. It was Aguayo's incredible charisma and likeability that helped make this a classic. AAA rating.

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  • 8 months later...

Hilarious bullshit first fall via DQ by the heel ref, then Ano 2000 takes a chance and bashes Perro's head's in with brass knucks. Then goes the bloody brawl, with matwork to boot and footstomps in the gut. Blood everywhere, it looks like Mascara has changed mask when infact he's just bleeding buckets. Only in lucha libre I guess at this point. Excellent use of the seconds, specially the heel one (whom I don't know because I'm just a lucha beginner) and the finish is glorious. I have no idea what the consensus is in the lucha libre community, but I thought it was terrific. Such a gritty, old-school feel. MOTYC level for 93 I'd say.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-04-30-AAA-Triplemania] Perro Aguayo vs Mascara Ano 2000 (Hair vs Mask)

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