May 3 in Lucha History

AAA 5/3/95 in Aguascalientes:

Los Power Raiders vs Angel Mortal/Marabunta/Mr. Condor/Maremoto/Rabana: The Power Raiders were the Power Rangers knock-offs who had a couple months left under these gimmicks before a poor decision to advertise them for an LA Sports Arena show backfired & a lawsuit showed up. Who'd have guessed? This version was Green (Venum), Black (Ludxor), Blue (Discovery), Red (Lasser) & White (Skayde). The first three were obviously the green kids so not only did they have veteran partners (who lacked charisma so were given new identities... an Antonio Pena staple) but they were also constantly matched up against veteran rudos who only had one job - help them improve and ***COVER FOR THEIR MISTAKES***. Something very much missing in today's world of lucha libre. These matches were always held under "Relevos Japonesa" which really isn't a thing but the idea was the Power Raiders were from Japan (that won't help the court case!) so their style of match was each team has a captain and the match doesn't end until the captain is pinned or submitted but you can beat the other guys all you want... they just get eliminated so you have the number advantage. You'll be stunned to know... this being pro wrestling... it often came down to captain vs captain at the end. Such as happened with Rojo submitting Mr. Condor clean. Match was pretty good. Not the spectacular variety we would come to expect from the tecnicos down the line but they hit all their stuff crisp & did lots of spots messing with the rudos who were good at the stooging.

Dragon De Oro/Super Calo/Torero/Winners vs El Duende/Los Payasos: How did this rudo quartet not end up teaming more often? They were made for each other! I always thought Duende was super underrated. It's funny because luchawiki has him listed as Maremoto too but I am pretty sure something is wrong there or he was a Duende at a different point because Maremoto in the opener and Duende here are nothing alike physically. You know the tecnicos outside of maybe Dragon De Oro who was Black Warrior in one of his many gimmicks. He was kind of treated as the star of his team in this match which was strange since Calo/Winners were in the big feud of the moment and a month away from their mask match series with Angel Mortal & Marabunta. Gotta spread the wealth I guess. Dragon De Oro did an asai moonsault in the first fall where he COMPLETELY OVERSHOT his clown target and was lucky not to get hurt. We also got the Super Calo flip plancha but this was more of the bullet variety and not the launch yourself off your opponent into the crowd variety. This only went two falls and ended with Duende unmasking Dragon De Oro in mid-air as he flew off the top rope. Nice timing! These days you would jump to a conclusion a mask match or feud was forthcoming. Back in '95 with TV tapings multiple times a week and no idea what would or wouldn't air - it was just a rudo finish.

El Hijo Del Santo vs Psicosis (WWA Welterweight Tilte): THE MATCH. If you haven't heard of it I can only assume you are a lucha newbie which is fine. Let me quickly sum up for you since a blow-by-blow of this match is the least important thing. Santo was a huge star. Psicosis was an up-and-coming rudo. Santo knew Psicosis was going to be a star too & respected him for bumping all over the place for him for a couple years. So he decided (probably with pushing from the promotion) to make him in one night. I wouldn't say this officially made him but it certainly didn't hurt! Santo proceeded to not only put Psicosis over... clean... in two straight falls... but he also let him win one of those falls by submitting him via the camel clutch. Yes, you read that right. Unheard of by 2020 standards. The equivalent would be... I don't know. I can't even pretend to see anyone doing that these days. Santo himself wouldn't do it any longer. He got in a lot of stuff during the match & you could tell Psicosis appreciated what was happening because he bumped his god damn ass off to make Santo look like a superstar which logically makes sense... you want the crowd to treat your opponent as a big deal on top of his game if you are about to beat him. The reaction of the crowd when Psicosis pinned Santo in the 2nd fall and they realized... it's over... was priceless. Just stunned silence. If they had internet feeds at the time I'm sure we'd have all been speculating Tirantes messed up the count. But there was no controversy. Santo got pinned & even put the title around Psicosis' waist after the match. THIS. IS. HOW. YOU. MAKE. STARS. AND. BE. A. PROFESSIONAL.

Perro Aguayo/Mascara Sagrada/Latin Lover vs Los Hermanos Dinamita: Your usual AAA main event. Super heated, largely brawling. Really gets put over the top during the awesome tecnico comeback led by Mascara Sagrada. Dinamitas always got a bad rap because everyone was so into the Rey Jr./Psicosis led crew as what lucha actually is but a match like this just shows they were perfectly fine. They bumped their butts off when it was time to sell & played great foils for Perro who was the star the fans came to see (along with Santo but that didn't turn out well for them). Rudos ended up winning by DQ due to frustrated tecnicos. Things were heating up as we were fresh off the beer bottle angle & Sagrada/Universo were constantly teasing a mask match that never came to be.

(The Loved Ones - "The Bridge")

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AAA 5/3/03 in Mexico City:

Rare Gimnasio Juan De La Barera stop for AAA who didn't use the venue much in these times.

Gran Apache/Fabi Apache/Martha Villalobos vs El Brazo/Histeria/Tiffany: Man & 2 women vs Two Men & 1 woman. But you see Martha & Brazo are both fat so they count as the same. Look... I'm just explaining it as Antonio Pena told his announcers to! We entered the AAA 1 fall era in January so god bless that. This had moments where it was really funny - especially with Brazo doing sumo with Martha but ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY Brazo "accidentally" getting his head rammed into the ringpost by his own partner Tiffany who made him feel better with a kiss. Apache/Histeria had a couple cool spots together but this is AAA in 2003 so you know how this ends! Chessman ran in and spewed Apache with mist (they were feuding at the time).

Mascarita Sagrada 2000/Octagoncito/La Parkita vs Mini Abismo Negro/Mini Psicosis/Rocky Marvin: Look... a lot of people hated AAA in these times. But the one thing even they refused to say was that the AAA minis sucked. Everyone could agree these guys were special - in particular Mascarita & Mini Abismo. These guys had their usual excellent match, always reccomended to go back and watch this crew. But.. and get used to this... it's AAA in 2003! WHAT'S THE FINISH? You guessed it! After a big dive Mascarita is celebrating only for a "fan" wearing his mask to jump out of the crowd and hug him. The humorous part about this is one of the security dudes was not clued in and strolled over to pull the Mascarita "fan" away. He was followed by another security dude was in on it but didn't want to make it so obvious so he had to sorta hold back his clueless security buddy while a fan came over to try and help out thinking it was a legit fan gone nuts situation. Thankfully the "fan" cut straight to the angle and attacked Mascarita, then unmasked himself as Mascarita Maligna - the evil Mascarita Sagrada! Only one problem - he lost his mask the previous month to Mascarita in a cage match! So he then took off that mask too and revaled his face. With AAA 2003 you just gotta appreciate the good match & not even think twice about the ending.

Octagon/El Hijo Del Solitario/El Zorro vs Cibernetico/Mr. Aguila/Pirata Morgan: The Zorro/Aguila show. Literally. Nobody else did anything. These guys were good friends & both spent time in the US (Zorro did a couple ECW shots/Puerto Rico) while Aguila did all that WWF stuff you may have heard about. They were both clearly into Jerry Lynn vs RVD matches because they copied a lot of those spots but put their own spin on it. Legit those guys did some INCREDIBLE stuff together and were a highlight of any trios match where they opposed each other. It was hard to sell people on that back in the day though because once again... it was AAA in 2003. Noody was watching except me & Fredo (Esparza). Finish was very AAA in 2003 with a mistimed cane shot hitting Tirantes (very poorly) & his son calling a DQ on the wrong guy.

Heavy Metal vs El Dandy (Dog Collar Match): Okay here's the thing... dog collar matches in Mexico suck. It's basically a chain/strap match where you gotta touch every corner. It's bad enough with four corners... now picture a six sided AAA ring. They would take FOREVER AND A DAY just for the teases! Thankfully Heavy Metal decided to make this somewhat interesting by bleeding all over the place to the point his entire chest was red by the end. Dandy looked fine but this was all just punches and kicks for the most part until the screwiness began with Copetes Salazar turning on both wrestlers. Don't ask me why... I don't remember. It may have been an AAA vs LLL thing. It was dumb. This led to Pepe Casas running out to get him & helping his son win the match.

La Parka/Latin Lover/Mascara Sagrada vs Abismo Negro/Hector Garza/Leatherface: Your typical AAA main event during this era. All rudos brawling until a tecnicos comeback. That's the way to do it with this type of crowd to be honest. Garza was really coasting by this point doing much more shtick than actual work which he would save up for his US runs. Leatherface only existed to fall onto his own chainsaw but this shtick was over. The finish was very AAA (any time era) as they set up a table and lit it on fire. So you're thinking Leatherface is going through it, right? Wrong. You're thinking the fire went out too early? Wrong! The fire actually played it's role great and engulfed the table. Parka power bombed Abismo onto it but............... it didn't break. The fire was still raging so they decided to try it again and poor Abismo took a second bump onto the table................ which still refused to break. But Parka pinned him and we were done here.

A very AAA in 2003 show! I enjoyed it. Minis & Zorro/Aguila parts of their trios are the quality stuff to watch. The rest I would only reccomend to a hardcore fan or someone looking for things to make fun of. Interestingly included in the music video are clips of two guys participating in the yearly young stars tournament. One is Canibal who actually never appeared on TV outside of this spot and wouldn't be hard from again until 2007! The other was unnamed as far as I remember but had a cool futuristic look. I'm sure he became someone.

(Paramore - "My Number One")

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CMLL 5/3/11

The C3 days! Normally we'd get 4 matches but this was a special show as I will explain later so while we got 4 matches, it was not the scheduled 4 matches so the mini's got axed. In 2011 this was considered a huge disapointment, not so much now. Mini Maximo! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! He was hilariously adorable!

Fuego/Pegasso/Rey Cometa vs Arkangel/Dr. X/Loco Max: Who would have ever imagined in 2011 that less than 10 years later all 3 tecnicos (2 recently having jumped from AAA) would still be in CMLL (in the same spot... haha) but all 3 rudos who were locked into spots here for many years would be gone for various different reasons. Mostly death. Sorry to be a bummer. The rudos were part of the Tuereg at this point and their motivation ranged from show to show. It was somewhat up here, maybe due to an actual feud occuring as Fuego/Dr. X were doing their months long build-up to nothing which caused Dr. X to quit the company. In this match he tossed his mask to Fuego for the DQ after Fuego got the visual submission.

Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Metal Blanco: And here is the "special" I had referenced above! CMLL was in the middle of the precursor to En Busca De Un Idolo... this was Forjando Un Idolo. A 16 person 4 block style round robin tournament where you got points for winning, judging & ... DUM DUM DUM... an online popularity contest. Always a poor idea for a company that doesn't give a shit what the fans think & is going to push who they want no matter what. Also, a company that is bad at math. So what happened was the round wrapped up on the previous Friday & the elimination matches were set for the following Friday. SLIGHT PROBLEMO. Maya & Blanco had tied in points. The obvious solution here was for CMLL to work the system. Math is not CMLL's strong suit. They chose not to. Then a press released noted there would be a tiebreaker match unless one of them got the bonus point handed out to the person with the most votes. Neither guy was popular, neither guy got a point. So we were off to the tiebreaker as a special added match to Tuesday's show. ONE MORE SLIGHT PROBLEMO. Maya was booked in Guadalajara. Thankfully CMLL, in a rare move for 2011, changed plans & kept him in Mexico City for the tiebreaker match. All this drama for nothing since it was very obvious the plan was for Maya to advance, CMLL just needed to make it official. And official they did by sending these two guys out to do a quick one fall match that Maya won. The match was great! Triton looked fantastic including slipping on a dive but catching his balance in an incredible show of athleticism. There was another great spot where he went to climb the ropes but Maya followed and dropkicked him. Triton was probably supposed to bump right to the floor but felt into the ring. Either way someone should steal that! But do the bump right! Maya then OBLITERATED him with a tope. Like seriously... this was murder. Straight forward and down. He then finished him off with the sick piledriver spot. A welcome bonus match! Once again proving the best stuff in CMLL is the accidental stuff!

Diamante/Metro/Sangre Azteca vs Misterioso II/Raziel/Virus: See, with 2011 eyes I can laugh at seeing Diamante teamed up with the guy who would eventually steal his name (Metro -> Diamante Azul). Yes, Sangre Azteca was in the middle of his god awful tecnico run that nobody wants to remember & he has openly said was a terrible decision that he only requested thinking it would move him up the lineups but he never got moved and eventually requested to switch back so he could at least be on the side he was meant to be if he was gonna just waste away anyhow. The rudo side really shows the lack of depth in CMLL at this time. Also they were sending more powerful lineups to Guadalajara. This was the highest Raziel & Virus would ever reach in CMLL rings. Misterioso was a semi-main regular at times but only faded from here. Azteca/Misterioso had a slight issue since they were a trio (with Polvora) before Azteca's turn. Match wasn't much of anything. Your usual Tuesday semi-main where everyone did their moves but didn't exhert much energy doing so.

Black Warrior/Maximo/Super Porky vs Atlantis/Hector Garza/Mr. Niebla: A very weak main event by CMLL 2011 standards. Four comedy guys & Atlantis as a last second sub for Dragon Rojo according to luchablog. Don't even remember why, don't even care. Nothing going on here except Garza feuding with Zacarias who was with Niebla. You won't see entertaining main events on Tuesday like this these days but you will see better quality in-ring performances than what these six gave here.

Definitely watch that singles match but you can safely skip everything else.

(No Use For A Name - "Black Box")

Music Video


CMLL 5/3/13:

In the era of 3 matches airing on Galavision, 2 matches on Fox Sports. So the unaired opener was Oro Jr./Soberano Jr. vs Artillero/Super Comando. We had already entered the phase of letting guys do less in the openers so I doubt we missed much.

Aereo/Fantasy/Shockercito vs Pequeno Nitro/Pequeno Violencia/Pequeno Warrior: Still in the era of mini's being exciting! This had some neat stuff by Aereo, Shockercito too & a death bump from Pequeno Nitro! Definitely not the 'A' class mini's CMLL had at their disposal at the time but a perfectly fine showing from this crew.

Fuego/Rey Cometa/Stuka vs Misterioso/Namajague/Okumura: Namajague was fading from existence like Marty McFly at this point. He had lost his mask 7 weeks earlier and his hair the previous week. In typical CMLL fashion he got a win here so kind of save face (get it?). This was really great though with the tecnicos shining - Rey Cometa in particular. He hit his Brillo Dorada perfectly & they did one of the best triple moonsaults from the same turnbuckle spots you will ever see.

Rush/Super Porky/Blue Panther vs Rey Bucanero/Terrible/Tiger: TRT! How can you forget a group with a name like that! It's their initials - get it? They may as well have been called 'Team What The Fuck Do We Do Now That Texano Left, God Damn It We Need Another T'. Tiger was never vital to his group aside from the letter 'T'. As soon as these guys stopped teaming he was back to teaming with his brother in lower card matches. The group never really came off as anything important either outsdie of one trios title challenge. Pretty standard match with Rush/Terrible looking good together (the year before was their hair match at the Anniversary Show). Random tecnico team went over regular rudo group of course.

Atlantis vs Averno: Special match to celebrate Atlantis' 30th Anniversary in professional wrestling. He came out on a motorcycle which was a staple of CMLL special entrances back in the day (one of the bookers is big into motorcycles... even drove some guys to the ring once upon a time). They did all the pre-match pictures and such. Match itself was nothing special. Averno dominated a bit, Atlantis did his usual stuff, Atlantida for the win. The big deal was post-match when Ultimo Guerrero ran out to cut a promo on Atlantis as they teased the mask match at the Anniversary Show. This led to ANOTHER Ultimo Guerrero attacking Atlantis from behind! I think at the time we were waiting to see one of the Ultimo Guerrero's unmask as Niebla Roja or someone new but he didn't. Instead that was his gimmick. Gran Guerrero! Debate raged online whether he was Ultimo Guerrero's son or brother and in the end it was revealed it was his much younger brother who was coming off playing Taurus (no, not the current Taurus obviously). He was not all that impressive as Taurus but got the rocket to instant main events because this is how lucha libre works!

Mascara Dorada/Mistico/Thunder vs Ultimo Guerrero/Euforia/Niebla Roja: This is actually the best usage of Thunder that CMLL ever figured out. Random 3rd guy teaming with two spectacular dudes who could carry the workload and opposite three rudos, including his main trianer, who would do nothing but bump for him and always be in the right spot. He looked fine here. Which is actually saying something since he was total trash & completely untrained outside of whatever he picked up in his less than 1 month in the ring here. Do you realize if he hadn't died he would still be headlining CMLL shows to this day? It sounds crass, yes... but I'm just giving it to you straight. This guy would be a multiple Anniversary Show headliner & doing multiple singles matches per month. Unreal. Dorada/Mistico looked fantastic as you'd expect for their 2013 selves. Rudos got the win because you can't beat Ultimo Guerrero after the angle in the previous match... or any time really.

Main event is a real good watch, as is the semi-main & undercard trios with Cometa. Nothing wrong with the minis either to be honest. A really good Friday show with a quality level you would expect when attending a CMLL show.

(Zebrahead - "Until The Sun Comes Up")

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