Mexican PPV, Guerra de Naciones.- This was done on 1998 October, I couldn't watch it by then, but they broadcasted it again this Sunday July 18.
*** Born Killer (dumb werewolf gimmick), American Destroyer, Ricky Banderas and Heart Breaker vs Villano III, Tinieblas (w/Alushe), Brazo de Plata and Mascara Sagrada.-
1.- This was a major disaster, the guys had no clue about working with each other, Porky got his spot in which he makes everyone to miss cornersplashes and then hits a cornerfatsplash on all of the bad guys (well, the 'Americans'), it comes off right, but then Tinieblas and American Destroyer simply can't work it out, Tinieblas tries a half powerbomb but Destroyer doesn't go up, then counters with a DDT... which Tinieblas just didn't sell!!!!! Well, actually they didn't miss that many spots, and at times the match looked OK, but the guys in there just were not interesting... Porky goes to the top turnbuckle to hit a fat plancha on 3 of the Americans and get the pin.
2.- The Americans start brawling, then the Mexicans take over, but the brawling returns, nothing important happens, everyone goes into the ring and start fighting, the best thing was Villano who 'fouled' (it was never an illegal kick) Heart Breaker and then took Born Killer's and American Destroyer's mask off!!! 3.- Nothing happens... really!!! After a minute of having the guys taking boxing stances, Rangel lifts Mascara Sagrada's arm and the match goes to them... why? Beats me.
*** Fuerza Guerrera and Felino vs Tsubasa and Fujin.- Felino and Fujin take it to the mat to produce a good secuence of holds and moves, Felino goes to his corner but refuses to tag to Fuerza, who won't enter because he wasn't tagged in!! Fuerza and Tsubasa lock horns and go back and forth for a short time, Felino and Fujin return to action and the pace picks up a little, Felino hits a ddt on the Japanese, who goes out of the ring, Fuerza Guerrera goes over there to see if he's OK!! The Japanese don't know what to do about Fuerza... The Mexican team starts working together and control the match for a brief time, untill Felino held Fujin, Fuerza went to the top turnbuckle, but Felino took Fujin to another corner, Fuerza went to that corner and started to climb... but once again Felino took the Japanese to yet another corner, they did that again and then the Japanese reacted, sending Fuerza Guerrera out of the ring, so they could go 2 on 1 on Felino, then on Fuerza, who after a couple of minutes, ended on the floor again, Fujin went for an over the top pescado, but Fuerza just walked away!!! He held Fujin so Felino could hit his own pescado, but Fujin moved and Felino made contact only on Fuerza! The Mexicans managed to recover the control of the match for a while, but then Felino attacked Fuerza and almost took his mask off, so the Japanese took the match either by DQ or by count out.
*** Kikusawa and Nosawa vs Atlantis and Brazo de Oro.- The Japanese go into full rudo mode here, double teaming on Atlantis and then sneak attacking Brazo de Oro, they went happily into beating the tecnicos until Atlantis reacts with a couple of quebradoras con giro and Brazo hits half a dozen clotheslines. They go back and forth from there, with the tecnicos in brief command of the match, but with the rudos hinting coming back with another brawl, Nosawa is pinned after a doomsday device, Atlantis accidently levels Brazo de Oro with dropkicks, so Kikusawa can get a 2 count on Atlantis after a powerslam, Kikusawa goes to the top turnbuckle to deliver moonsault, but Atlanits rolls away, anyway, Kiku landed on his knees, but couldn't surprise Atlantis, who did another quebradora con giro and used 'cruceta con palanca' (sharpshooter or texas coverleaf like hold) to force Kikusawa to quit.
*** Tajiri and Magnum Tokyo vs Scorpio jr and Negro Casas.- Scorpio jr and Tokyo open the match trading some holds and moves, then Negro Casas and Tajiri do some more matwork, at some point, Negro low blows Tajiri ( Negro 440 kicked the middle rope while Tajiri was entering the ring- ouch!!), but the referees didn't see it. Magnum dominates Negro and then he and Tajiri take turns at working on Negro's left leg, Negro hints a comeback with some kicks, but Tajiri kicks him off the top turnbuckle and then nails him with a second rope quebrada!! They made it back to the ring and Tajiri gets a 2 count after a powerbomb, another powerbomb... but Negro escapes over the Japanese head and hits a clothesline for a 2 count, casita... Magnum made the save, another casita attempt, Tajiri blocks, delivers a casita of his own but Scopio is the one with the save now... Scorpio and Magnum take over fighting, and trading some near falls, Negro hits a clothesline on his partner so the rudo said it was enough and attacked Casas, the Japanese teamed up on him and Tajiri used a german suplex with pin to put Scorpio out. Negro had to go vs both Japanese by himself now... Magnum takes him to the top turnbuckle and performs frankensteiner, Negro kicks out at 2, Negro reacts with some choke holds but the Japanese counters with a stunner, then, out of nowhere, Negro does la Casita to defeat Magnum Tokyo. Tajiri enters to continue working on Negro's leg, Negro reaches the ropes and then decks Tajiri with a clothesline and uses the scorpio death lock to take the match, Scorpio attacks Negro after that.
*** Rayo de Jalisco jr, Tinieblas jr, Pierroth jr and Cien Caras vs Solomon Grundy, Fabuloso Blondy and the Head Hunters.- Cage match: Prision de la Muerte. 15 minutes of punching, slaping, fouls, and other non-lucha stuff. If anything, I was surprised that the non-mexicans could actually climb to the top of the cage, since they're all so fat, one of the Hunters almost took a fall from up there, something that would undoubtely been worth the ticket, but he didn't fall. Pierroth and Jalisco escaped and gave the win to their team.
This was not very good, although not especially bad either, it was like a regular Arena Mexico show, but considering this was a PPV, should have been much better. The reports I had read of this card said that only the Negro Casas-Tajiri match was any good, but I don't think it was much better than the rest of the card. The 2 main problems I see with this show are: 1-- The workers selection, why using Rayo de Jalisco, Tinieblas (both), Brazos (both), Cien Caras, etc. and leave Blue Panther, Dr Wagner, Hijo del Santo, Black Warrior and a few others out of the show?? And what about the 'Americans'? Sure, this is not 1992 so they can not put Love Machine, Pegassus Kid, Blue Blazer and Black Scorpio there, but the guys they used were middle of the card from small arenas in the northen part of Mexico at best. They didn't had any real Japanese superstar neither. The other promblem I see is 2.- This was meaningless, the matches were just filling the card, no feud started there, or worse yet, no feud was used to solve anything. The Head Hunters and Grundy were the 'evil foreigners', but soon, the next week, they're booked as megababyfaces. So why bother???
