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Post by jetlag on Jan 6, 2018 7:47:13 GMT -5
tl;dr hell of a fight between badass old guy Lothario and uppity little punk Hernandez in a cage match with surprisingly high end psychology
Full review from PWO:
I watched this match and I was blown away by how good the psychology in this bout was. It felt like an AJPW heavyweight bout structure in a violent 70s style revenge massacre. That and the fact that they kept this interesting and high in intensity over 25 minutes was damn impressive. The announcer points out Gino gets pins in order to improve his confidence and that is a neat story. Gino looks like he's really losing his cool being locked in a cage and you buy it when he panics and tries escaping the cage after Lothario attempts to rip his guts out. Gino's positioning and tactics were damn great. Lothario is great as a tough bastard with nasty punches and holds that just look excrutiating. Everytime he gets ahold of Gino he looks like he is just going to rip him in half. Selling in between the falls was incredibly well done and kept you buying into the gimmick despite them having 60 seconds of rest before the count. We even get an AJPW style big match finisher to top it all off. Great great match.
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Post by elliott on Jan 10, 2018 0:58:58 GMT -5
Seconded.
I wanted to start watching matches I haven't seen before and need a second or third nomination. This is a worthy match for sure. I usually like short sprinty cage matches like Hayes/Kerry or Dibiase/Duggan. But this is an awesome, long, methodical cage match with excellent psychology, great selling, and tons of violence. Excellent match overall that really impressed me. Something I'll watch again as we move through the project.
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Post by mvz on Mar 25, 2018 6:08:43 GMT -5
This was a clinic in keeping a crowd invested in a match. Gino has great charisma and you just want to see him get what’s coming to him. Lothario gives it to him in spades with great punches, armwork, and violence. Both men are great at selling during the match and between falls. A big surprising finish as well. Worth going out if your way to see.
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Post by superstarsleeze on Mar 15, 2019 18:23:14 GMT -5
I was not as high on this as most. I thought the finish was exceptionally lame even for the 1980s. Lothario's arm work in the beginning was great in response to Gino breaking Jose's arm at a previous date. Then it worked into the finish of one of the falls. I just didnt think Gino was the refined heat seeking heel from World Class.
Jose Lothario vs Gino Hernandez - Houston 1/19/79 Texas Death Steel Cage Match
Lothario was a major find of the Houston footage as an asskicking avenger. Hernandez is someone who left us way too soon, but outside the short World Class run and the limited Southwest Championship Wrestling footage, we dont have much. I was going to remark on Hernandez interesting short cropped Caesar-esque hair style as sticking as a sore thumb in the big hair of the late 70s/early 80s, but we find out he had lost hair in a hair vs hair match with the balding Lothario. That's a pretty good deal for Lothario. However, Hernandez did break Lothario's arm at an earlier date. In a neat bit of psychology, Lothario is trying to rip off Gino's arm in response. Gino is the first to send Lothario into the cage out of desperation. But Lothario comes storming back and he lives up to the hype as a badass asskicker, punching his way out of trouble. I like that Gino's response to Lothario first throwing him into the cage is to try to escape. However, we are informed that nobody has ever successfully scaled the cage. Boy, would that change! Gino wins the first fall with a series of Russian legsweeps. This is a one minute respite followed by the ten count. Lothario is able to send him hard into the cage. The crowd screams on for more! Lothario drops fists and knees and legs on the head of Gino until he picks up a fall. At the start of the third fall, Lothario presses, but Gino sends him into the turnbuckle. Now he is punching his forehead, biting, sends him hard into the cage. Lothario comes up bloody. Gino pummels Lothario in the open wound, hits the big splash from the middle rope and picks up the third fall. The fourth fall is short, it is purpose is to show Gino is in dominant position in a about minute's time he pins Lothario just from beating on him. Things look bleak for our hero. Gino is pounding on him, but he is getting a bit cocky. Lothario on his knees and he applies the STOMACH CLAW~! Gino is in a world of hurt and tries to climb the turnbuckles, but Lothario drags him down. Lothario beats his ass from pillar to post. Combination of cage shots and punches bust the Handsome Half-Breed wide open! Lothario picks up the fifth fall. Just as the fourth fall was short to show Gino in dominant so was the sixth fall for Lothario. He picks Gino like a lawn dart drives him hard into the cage face first, a fist drop and he picks up the sixth fall. It is now tied 3 falls apiece. Now Lothario is looking to rip off the arm of Gino. Full on Fujiwara armbar, I am going to take this home with me. Gino submits to end the seventh fall. Lothario is pissed. He does not want to let go. He wants this to be the end of the match. I am loving how Lothario is selling this. Lothario hooks him in a guillotine choke in the eighth fall, but Gino hoists him up as if he to do a superplex, but the cage is in the way and Lothario takes a gentle bump to the canvas. Gino wins the eighth and final fall and I gotta say that was a LAME FINISH!
It was lame because it was not cool, it did not look like hurt, the heel won, but it really was not that underhanded, Lothario was not protected. It was lame, lame, lame. It is a bummer because the match up until that point was a badass match. I thought Lothario outperformed Gino. Gino had his moments of strutting and cockiness, but this was the mature, refined product you see against the Von Erichs. He was not yet that heat-seeking heel. Lothario made up for him by kicking ass and taking names. The armbar at the end did a great job connecting the end of the match to the beginning. His comeback in the 5th fall was glorious. This pales in comparison to the greatest traditional Texas Death Match of all time, Chris Harris vs James Storm in TNA, but it was cool to finally see Jose Lothario. ***3/4
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