Pirata Morgan vs. Brazo de Oro (EMLL - 11/18/1989)

2nd.

Aaah the joy of watching wrestling. This is a long as fuck slow match between two stocky motherfuckers without any spectacular offense and it may very well be one of my favourite lucha title matches of all time.


There has been some talk about "anti-workrate", and some folks may classify this kind of brainy contest under that. But screw that, because this was as epic as a title match can get, with nearfalls out the ass, huge dives, and selling that makes Shawn Michaels look like a master of subtlety. This is a rare chance to see these two doing some straight up wrestling, and there are some really beautiful trippy takedowns and arm rolls in this bout, contestants being very much ugly and not lean and all that.



The main reason why the match is so great is the interplay of Pirata Morgan's character and the title match formula. The amount of cheating you can do and get away with in a lucha title match in 1989 is very low, and yet he still shoehorns as many foul tactics as possible into this. He had to, cause Brazo was pushing him to the limit here. I also really loved the vicious edge Morgan brought to the match, throwing punches when the ref was not looking, elbowing at the joint and generally being as ruthless as you expect a plague of the seven seas to be.



They work a really strong 2nd fall with multiple belieable false finishes with Brazo going to town on Pirata who was desperately trying anything to stay in the match. Eventually he strikes gold when he catches the Figure 4 and goes after Brazo de Oro like a terrier. Some of the best work around a Figure 4 I've seen ensues, and also a really great Brazo de Oro performance. A one legged Brazo scouting around the ring, trying to figure out how to go on while narrowly avoiding defeat at the hands of his super aggressive opponent was really epic. At one point, he just grabbed Pirata's arm, yanking him around some and then digging his head into the elbow joint as if to help thinking of what to do. The match also has some of the best timing and payback spots I've seen, such as the awesome build to the first great fat man dive, an equally great payoff spot when Morgan accidentally nukes his second or Oro's repeated crashing and burning just after gaining some momentum. This is all extremely simple stuff as are all the nearfalls they do, with moves such as sentons or a missed knee drop really adding to the contest, but the execution is great.


This is a fascinating match because it's like a mix of lucha, WoS and NWA or Portland style psychology. And it's done by these two bastards who you expect far away from this kind of scientific match. Just outstanding storytelling and psychology, the kind of stuff that holds up even after years.