Video link to the match over at Lucha Central : https://youtu.be/EwSpEFX2asM



Cagematch page for this match/event.

Who’s Who?

Angel Azteca

Angel Azteca made his debut in 1980 and worked initially in UWA before moving over to CMLL. In the 1980′s he captured gold Mexican National Cruiserweight Champion, Mexican National Welterweight Champion and Mexican National Tag Team Championship with Atlantis, the last of which was lost on May 26th less than a week before this. so since 1986 when he won his first belt Angel Azteca had become someone of note. Teaming with Atlantis for an 800+ day reign helped put both men on the map in 1989. Though Atlantis had already main evented Anniversary show twice by this point, they were still a very popular tag team in the late 80′s when they held that belt and would regularly team since EMLL shows were so focused on trios like they still are.

Angel Azteca would famously be one of the talents that jumped ship from EMLL over to AAA when it launched even being one of the people in the first ever main event for AAA. This will be sorta a theme for these matches in the 90′s, because when covering AAA it’s a big point. Since so many people left EMLL for AAA and many would come back. After AAA Angel Azteca would take a retirement from wrestling for a time from 1995 to 2003. Sadly, he never really recovered from that break to become a big star again and died in 2007 at the age of 43 or a heart attack he suffered shortly after performing in a main event at a local show.

El Dandy

Who are you to doubt El Dandy? Is a phrase more people think of when the name comes up famously said by Bret Hart. Who had a point, cause El Dandy is a great talent. Making his debut in 1981, much like Azteca he climbed the ranks in that decade from a rookie to here where he is a title contender. El Dandy though climbed faster capturing more belts in the 1980′s : Mexican National Featherweight Championship, Mexican National Welterweight Championship, NWA World Welterweight Championship(x2), and NWA World Middleweight Championship. El Dandy also never worked in AAA until the early 2000′s, not one of the dozens of EMLL talent who made the jump in the early to mid 1990′s.



El Dandy would leave CMLL though in the mid 1990′s as the peso crashed, which hurt both companies, but AAA took a harder hit and this lead to many people going back to the more stable company of CMLL. Many went more full time to WCW as many people might remember. El Dandy despite not being a AAA talent made the jump as well working a few years in WCW. When he came back to Mexico in the 2000′s he transitioned to a more indie talent not working full time in CMLL or AAA ever again. Working a few matches a year even now at the age of 55, although he only worked 1 in 2017.

How is the match?



Great, there is a reason this match of often touted as one of the best to come out of lucha libre. This match won’t be for everyone, there are long lengthy bits of mat work. The match starts with a long exchange on the mat and there is lots of mat work throughout. I think both men are so good at it and all the holds soon lead to something else. El Dandy does a great job of selling his leg in the match failing to do a surfboard stretch to Angel Azteca.

Another nice thing about this match is that each round and fall feels substantial. Think the 2nd round was the shortest, and perhaps more brief than it needed to be. I was just glad that the 1st round didn’t happen so quickly as it sometimes can with the 2/3 falls format with round 1 and 2 combines often being half the length of the 3rd round. While I think the 3rd round here is probably the longest, it isn’t so blatantly longer.

While the mat work is great in this match, I think when both men did dives or came off the top rope it was good too. While the mat work is what most people come away from here, it’s not a onenote match. Both men do other things to help break up the matwork clinic they are putting on. In what I have read of this time Angel Azteca would turn heel after losing this and the tag belts in a weeks span, I don’t know if that stuck though when he went over to AAA or if they washed that away in favor of keeping him a popular babyface.

Obviously, I’d suggest this match. It’s great from start to finish and is a great display for two guys that often don’t get their fair shake when it comes to wrestling discussion. This is also a great display of why belts have and continue to matter in EMLL/CMLL because it leads to some of the greatest matches in the promotions history. Even if they don’t have a central TOP championship.