Mexican PPV, Ruleta de la Muerte I.- This was done on 1998 July, I couldn't watch it by then, but they broadcasted it again this Sunday July 11.
---- It started with a 32 men battle royal, but they didn't air it complete, just a few clips from that, the battle served to stablish 16 tag teams who will go into a 'losers advance' mini tournaments.
* Abdul (with el Esclavo) and Violencia vs Rey Pirata and El Zapatista.- Bottom of the bottom guys, Rey Pirata is Morgan's brother, and I think Rey Bucanero's dad... but I'm not 100% sure. Rudos vs Rudos match, Zapatista more or less worked as tecnico, even delivering a pescado plancha which nearly misses anyway, that was enough to put Abdul out long enough for Pirata to pin Violencia. (As if someone would care to see a Rey Pirata vs Zapatista Mask match).
* Dr Wagner Jr and Super Astro vs Hijo del Gladiador and Mr Tormenta.- Dr Wagner gets the crowd into the match (the previous match was not very hot) attacking Mr Tormenta, who then gets the upper hand with some weak tecnico offensive. Super Astro is tagged in to show his amazing stuff, flipping and jumping all around. But he nails Wagner with a diving tope from the ttb, the non-superstars do a double halfpowerbomb on Astro, making him land on Wagener, who is pinned, then they force Astro to submit. (Same comment with Hijo and Tormenta... although a Wagner-Astro mask match would be mind blowing).
*Angel Azteca and (not Not) Mascara Sagrada vs Shu El Guerrero and Rey Bucanero.- The rudos jump on the tecnicos immediatly, the plan backfires when end on the floor to get into the receiving end of double topes suicidas!! Tecnicos control the match from there with no problem at all untill the ending, which had (Yes) Mascara Sagrada hitting missile kicks on his partner (Shu pulled Bucanero away), Rey Bucanero uses a STF on Mascara, while Shu does 'la bolita' on Angel Azteca for the upset win.
* Black Warrior and Mr Niebla vs Universo 2000 and Tinieblas jr.- Now, this is what I call interesting mask matches prospects, well, Universo-Tinieblas would do well in terms of interest, but would suck, Warrior-Niebla, otoh, would rule! Black Warrior starts working quite fast and even makes Tinieblitas jr look goo... less bad, but, well, nothing really happens. Then, Mr Niebla gets to make some of his great tope teases and manhandles Universo, but the match goes to Universo and Tinieblitas after they made their foes submit. The victors eneded up teasing a fight with each other, but who cares.
* Morgue and Scorpio jr vs Fantasma and Solar I.- The match opens with everyone going to the mat, this last quite some time, the rudos never had a chance, Fantasma hits a powerslam and gets the 3 count on Morgue, Solar uses a double armbar move to force Scorpio to quit.
* Tinieblas (w/Alushe) and Mascara Magica vs Blue Panther and Felino.- Mascara Magica had one of the better performances of the first round here. He kept up to Felino's speed, and nailed him with a great looking through the ropes somersault body block!! Next, it is Blue Panther vs Tinieblas, we all know that Tinieblas doesn't do anything any more (I'm not sure if he was ever any good), but he's got Alushe with him, so he sent Panther to the floor, setting him ready for Alushe to hit a mini plancha which got the biggest pop from the crowd so far. Then Tinieblas delivers one of the worst split legged senton I've ever seen, however, this is all Blue Panther needed to be out of comission for the rest of the match. In the ring, Mascara Magica tries a frankensteiner, but Felino blocks and powerbombs for a 2 count! Felino with the splash mountain, NO! It's hurracanrana for another near fall! Magica uses a torture rack variation to make Felino submit. They spend some more time setting Felino near the corner so Alushe could hit another senton.
* Fishman and Lizmark vs Guerrero del Futuro and Santito.- Fishman starts slapping Santito all around the ring, then Lizmark works his spots over Guerrero, Liz's still quite good but not as fluid and effortless looking as always. Lizmark and Santito go at it... hey, remember, by this time, Santito was rudo. Lizmark gets the better of it with 2 Quebradora con Giro, and then uses a gory special+pin thing to defeat Hijo del Santo. Fishman uses la cavernaria on Futuro and it's over.
* Shocker and Villano III vs Rayo de Jalisco jr and Mil Mascaras.- Lots and lots of matwork, at some point, Shocker hints traces of becoming rudo when he enters to help Villano III to double team Mil Mascaras, but the living legend can out power both of his foes even at 60+ (?). Then Rayo enters, more of the same, the crowd thought the match was very good, I think it was nothing to write home about.
* Dr Wagner jr and Super Astro vs Violencia and Abdul.- The rudo team bum rush Wagner and Astro to begin the match. This last a few seconds, but Wagner balences the action powerslamming Abdul and slapping Violencia to death. Wagner missile kicks Abdul, who leaves the ring and gets nailed by a near cornerpost tope suicida by Super Astro (who else?). Wagner takes Violencia to the ttb and performs corner suplex, but then misses a plancha, Violencia uses the Scorpion death lock to defeat Wagner. Abdul does a back body drop on Super Astro and gets the 3 count with a crucifix pin.
* Black Warrior and Mr Niebla vs Angel Azteca and Mascara Sagrada.- Mascara and Azteca do their tecnico spots, nothing too impressive, Warrior starts taking his trademark bumps, Niebla performs his cool armdrags and the match goes on well. Angel Azteca dropkicks Niebla out of the ring, next, it is Mascara who joins Mr Niebla on the floor, Niebla holds Mascara so Warrior goes for the wicked running tope suicida connecting on Mr Niebla on THE highspot of the night!!! Ouch!!! Tecnicos take Black Warrior back to the ring, and force him to quit to an assisted Gory Special, Niebla surrenders with an assited Swastica.
* Blue Panther and Felino vs Morgue and Scorpio jr.- The rudo rudos jump on the rudos that sometimes work as tecnicos as soon as they can, but their opponents soon react and dropkick them out of the ring, Panther assisted Felino to deliver an over the top rope side plancha on Scorpio jr, Morgue and Panther fought a while in the ring, trading some pin attempts. Felino and Panther start working better as a team and defeat Morgue, they attack Scorpio after that, making him submit to another Swastica, Panther doesn't let go soon enough and Rangel reversed the result, Felino and Blue Panther started discussing to give the possible mask match some interest...
* Hijo del Santo and Guerrero del Futuro vs Villano III and Shocker.- Shocker becomes full time rudo here, Villano immediatly goes after Santito, he tries to take Santo's mask off (as well as blading him, I suppose), Shocker keeps Guerrero del Futuro away from the ring so Villano can work unmolested. The silver mask is soon soaked on blood, but this was not going to be an easy loss for Hijo del Santo, he reacted with some dropkicks, sending Villano to the floor, Shocker also went to the floor after flying headscissors, next, there is the near cornerpost bloody tope suicida to nail Villano!!! Shocker and Guerrero fight a little, with Guerrero ending on the floor so Shocker can deliver a great back body drop plancha over the third rope!! Villano goes to the ttb, but Santito armdrags him down and then hits a diving tope! Santo for the cover... ropes! Santo fails to get the pin on a couple of tries, then, Villano takes the match with 'el cristo'.
*Black Warrior and Mr Niebla vs Dr Wagner and Super Astro.- Wagner-Niebla was something of a semiclassic in the late 97 and into 1998, so they remember something of that here, Niebla seems to have the control fo the match, performing his cartwheel+reverse tope and then a frankensteiner, unfortunately, he screwed his knee there (I don't know if it was legit or not).Warrior dominates Super Astro, but Dr Wagner jr enters to double team Black Warrior, who has to leave the ring to be attacked by a near cornerpost tope suicida by 'el chaparro de oro'!!! Warrior won't care about the match after that... Niebla barely made it back to the ring, Wagner bodyslams him, goes to the ttb and hits the plancha for the 1,2,3.
* Blue Panther and Felino vs Hijo del Santo and Guerrero del Futuro.- This match was a couple of months before Santito became tecnico again, by that time he was feuding tecnicos Negro and Felino, but here, everything went back to normal with Panther and Felino kicking into full rudo gear while Santito was the tecnico of choice... so he got beated up... here, Panther and Felino were not in good terms to work as a team, Felino even refuses to tag!! Felino and Blue Panther controlled most of the action but then Futuro stages a comeback, sending Panther to the floor, and delivering a tope suicida which came off short of hittin target!!! OUCH!!! Next, it is time for the lucha machine to work, Santo starts killing Felino with flying headscissors, Felino leaves the ring, but Santo goes to the apron to hit yet another scissors!! Before Felino could recover, Santito had climbed the ttb to nail him again with a side plancha! Meanwhile, in the ring, Nudo Lagunero puts Guerrero del Futuro out of the match, Santitito and Panther get into the 'rana clinic', with Santito almost defeating Panther, but then Felino enters to made it 2 on 1 and beat Santito, Felino placed Santo on Panther's shoulders, but Hijo del Santo countered into a hurracanrana for the pin, Felino 'thought' that they had won the match, he even raised his arms with Santito to celebrate the win, but soon got slapped to a HUGE pop from the crowd!! They went at it, with Santito being in his undefeatable mode, but a blind foul allowed Felino to score the match. This was, imo, the best match of the show.
* Black Warrior and Mr Niebla vs Hijo del Santo and Guerrero del Futuro.- The storyline here is that Black Warrior and Gurrero del Futuro were subbing for Atlantis and Hijo del Espectro, so they were not 'psyched up' to this tourney in which they exposed their hoods, so they got this far into the tourney. This match was the worst (I think) of the bunch, Niebla and Santito acted as if being severely injured, so it was all punches and kicks and the 3 counts came in about 3 minutes. There were 'fraude' chants, I don't know if it was because of the outcome of the match or the way it was done.
*** Hijo del Santo vs Guerrero del Futuro Mask vs Mask match!!!.- Futuro starts going on ahead taking advantage from the fact that Santito is injured and in bad shape from the beating Villano, Panther, Felino and Warrior gave him. Santo reacts with kicks, but then goes on to miss ttb plancha, Guerrero misses as well, but is able to block the 'la de a caballo' hold. They trade some pin attempts, and at the end, its a diving tope all Santito needed to set Guerrero del Futuro ready for the 'la de a caballo', and Santito gets yet another mask to his collection.
Overall the show was good, it started OK and ended not very good, the problem is that many of the guys there were no name guys, Abdul, Zapatista, Mr Tormenta; and there were also some big name, poor performers, Tinieblas, Rayo, Universo 2000. And then, the worse guys had to win so the better guys went ahead intot he tourney and the show could have some interest, the problem with that is that they could lose a lot of credibility on that. I think that if they had used Mr Aguila, Ultimo Guerrero, Halcon Negro, Olimpico, Rencor Latino and a few others, they quality of this show could have been outstanding.
