extra 1995 CMLL, part 6

Garza tornillo

This should be the last one of these. There’s still a full show recap left but I’ve got all the matches that were up from this year. Except, more matches from 1995 are slowly going up on therealfredo’s YouTube. Maybe I’ll go back and add another part later on. There was no real reason to this than to learn by engaging in a weird portion of completism so I’m not sure if it matters either way.

Felino, Negro Casas, Satánico beat Atlantis, Lizmark Sr., Vampiro
(CMLL @ 10/06, 17:33, ½, ok, dataintcash)

A straight falls clean submission win for the rudos is strange. The match itself is fine, feeling very long in the first fall and never building towards anything maybe because of the format. Negro Casas appeals for a foul off a headbutt. A headbutt to the skull. It doesn’t work.

Atlantis, Canek, Lizmark Sr. beat Emilio Charles Jr., Head Hunter I, Head Hunter II
(CMLL @ 10/13, 10:35, 2/3, ok, aztecpride004)

This is one of those matches where they spent two minutes doing in-ring introductions and then cut to a Head Hunter putting Lizmark in a neck vice mid-fall. It doesn’t get much more exciting. The Head Hunters don’t seem eager to do much at all, but a Canek slam of one still gets a strong reaction. The finishing sequence of each tecnico doing a top rope move and Head Hunter I having to get up after and take another seemed ill-conceived.

Apolo Dantés beat Miguel Perez Jr., hair vs hair
(CMLL @ 10/13, 17:15, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

This worked for the crowd and didn’t feel like something you’d need to see in 2020. It felt like it almost wasn’t going to work for anyone; the fans weren’t reacting to Dantes at all until the end of the second fall, or at least it wasn’t coming through on TV. It felt like these two were miscast. I couldn’t get over that Perez is a fearsome foreign heel who’s using a cartwheel moonsault as a finish. Dantes didn’t come over strongly as a personality as tecnico, though he was clean in executing his moves. An inverted version of this match taking place in Puerto Rico might’ve been much better.

El Dandy, El Hijo Del Santo, Héctor Garza beat Black Panther, Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera
(CMLL @ 11/03, 19:09, 2/3, ok, aztecpride004)

What Happened: This Black Panther is the eventual Black Warrior.

Review: He’s not really Black Warrior though because he does a dive to the floor that’s not a tope – what’s even the point. He seems surprisingly green for a guy who’s been bouncing back between both promotions for the last few years. I’m uncertain if it was Black Panther or an over-enthusiastic Hector Garza responsible for Garza’s hard fall out of the ring, but it does derail a promising match. The Fuerza/Santo interactions are good and Garza has a nice out of control tornillo in the third.

Bestia Salvaje, Kahoz, Satánico beat Héctor Garza, La Fiera, Shocker
(CMLL @ 11/18, 11:15, ½, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

This one doesn’t pull me in that much – it’s basic build to the two apuesta matches coming out of this. The tecnicios get well destroyed but not in a particularly remarkable fashion.

Atlantis, Canek, Héctor Garza beat Dr. Wagner Jr., Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000
(CMLL @ 11/25, 12:38, 1/3, ok, aztecpride004)

Just a normal TV match, albeit a well-received one. The lingering impression I get from these is Hector Garza should’ve been the biggest star in CMLL. The crowd reacts to him hugely for the win and he looked great in getting that win. WCW just changed the entire arc of his career.