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December 11, 2001

The drunken ramblings of Northern California's lucha enthusiasts.

Lucha Libre's official message board.

The Official Site of El Santo.

The Official site of Blue Demon.

CMLL's official home page.

Photo Archive of lucha toys!

From Parts Unknown Magazine's site.

Great Eddie Guerrero fan site.

Visit La Mosca de Francia. He rocks the ass.

Universo 2000 VS.
Villano VI

This match was signed last week, following a verbal confrontation between Universo and Villano 4, with Mascara Ano 2000 at Universos' corner and Villano 5 accompanying his brother. Universo 2000 picks up the win in a slow first fall. Even with some mask ripping, the second fall is so uneventful that they are forced to replay some of Villanos' awkward kicks as the highlights of the round. Villano 4 gets the fall with variation of the torture rack. The action picks up in the last fall, with Villano 4 hitting a nice plancha on Universo outside of the ring. Once back in the ring, Villano reverses a body slam into a small package for the victory. Afterwards, he challenges Universo to a rematch for the World Title, which is accepted.

Next, we see highlights from 'La Ras de Leon,' featuring the return of Mr. Aguila. The former Essa Rios looks great in the few clips they air. We also see footage of Los Boriquas employing the use of brass knuckles to win their matchup.

After some commercials, a Guapos vignette airs with Emilio Charles, Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr. and Emilios' fan, Ana having drinks. The CMLL vignettes have always been pretty low quality, but they still maintain a charm that makes them enjoyable. With that said, this particular vignette looked cheap as fuck. It looked like those awful commercials that cable companies air for local businesses. Critisism aside, the four of them basked in Emilios recent victory over Apolo Dantes, and looked on to his upcoming PPV match with Shocker. Scorpio dubbed himself and Bestia Salvaje, "Charlies Angels," as they would always be looking after Emilio 'Charles.' This leads to...

Los Guapos VS.
Shocker, Apolo Dantes & Satanico

Once both teams made their entrances, Emilio and Shocker signed the contract for their hair vs. hair match at Sin Piedad. As soon as the contracts were signed, Los Guapos attacked their opponents. In a much talked about spot, Emilio Charles positions the table used for the signing against the turnbuckles, and Bestia and Scorpio send Shocker crashing through it. In CMLLs' defense, Emilio looked uncomfortable using the table, and violently kicked the remains of it out of the ring when the spot was done.  Shocker gets brutalized for the rest of the ugly first fall, and eventually gets pinned. 
After a long commercial break, a spot for the upcoming PPV airs. For the majority of the second fall, Los Guapos take turns punishing Shocker. Towards the end, Shocker cleans house after getting a second wind, and the crowd responds with a healthy face pop. The action spills out of the ring, and after a confusing turn of events, the Shockers' team gets the fall DQ. (Something seems to have been edited out of the match at this point). Los Guapos regroup, and they begin the third fall. At this point, referee Baby Richard is blatantly biased toward Emilios' team. When Shocker attempts to pin Emilio Charles, Baby Richard gets out of hand with a slow count, causing Dantes and Shocker to confront him. They back the rudo ref into the corner, and the terrified Baby Richard awards the win to Los Guapos as a result.            

Momentos Estelares

This weeks highlights air, with Santo, Rey Jr, Ricky Marvin and Mr. Niebla all hitting some great spots. The highlight of the week is definitely Pantera nailing an unusual tope suicida. He runs down the side of the outside apron and dives in and out of the corner of the ring, through the middle ropes, and back outside onto his opponent.

A vignette airs of Super Porky 'preparing' for his upcoming match at a restaurant. Black Warrior joins him, and tries to give him some health tips. Porky responds by ordering more food.
Ultimo Guerrero, Tarzan Boy & Mascara Magica VS.
Super Porky, Hijo de Lizmark & Black Warrior

Again, this match begins with a contract signing, this time for Porkys' upcoming hair vs. hair match with Tarzan Boy at the PPV. Once the match begins, the rudos toss Black Warrior and Brazo de Plata out of the ring, causing Porky to bleed from the head early on. Once they have Lizmark in the ring alone, Los Guerreros del Inferno show off some great chemistry, as they pull together a chain of 3-man submissioin holds on him, causing him to submit. 
The rudos continue with the triple team into the second fall, this time focusing on Super Porky. After repeated pleas by the referees to stop attacking Porky, the second fall gets awarded to the tecnicos. Once the third fall begins, the faces get organized, and mount a strong offense. Lizmark manages to hit both the Rock Bottom and the spinarooni during this fall. As the action continues, one by one, the luchadores clear out of the ring until only Porky and Tarzan are left. After Tarzan misses a top rop attack, Black Warrior helps Porky waddle up the turnbuckles onto the top rope. Porky hits an extra large splash on Tarzan Boy and covers him for the win. This prompts fellow 'Guerrero del Inferno,' Rey Bucanero to run in, and attack the victorious tecnico team. As the rudos get the post match upper hand, Shocker, Apolo Dantes, and Satanico hit the ring, and dispose of them to end the show.

Overall, the show had some throw away action, but did a good job of building up towards the PPV. The most notable aspect was the fans' response towards Shocker. Even though the announcers seemed to still label him as a rudo, he made sure that the cameras picked up on him hugging Super Porky at the end of the show, and if you hug the lovable, Super Porky, you are officially a tecnico. Hopefully, this will all be a swerve, and Shocker will continue to do his '1000%' schtick.
Speaking of rudos turned tecnico, Black Warrior was great in the main event. Although he was predominantly on defense, he had some great spots with Ultimo Guerrero and Mascara Magica (maybe I just never noticed, but Magica is getting damn good).
Next week show should have some more buildup for Sin Piedad, and I believe will feature Blue Panther in action, who has been absent from the show in recent weeks.

I considered watching AAA this week, as the beginning of the show wasn't awful (I really like Pathfinders' gear). I think that I would probably watch the whole show if it was on a different night, as there is something disenchanting with watching the CMLL main event, and then watching the AAA opener. The contrast is usually so wide that it's easy to rationalize not watching the AAA show. Bottom line: No AAA recap this week.