3/23/25 AEW: Hologram & Komander vs. Dralistico & The Beast Mortos 12:20. Wild, energetic spotfest that harkens back to the earlier days of AEW before most of the roster became bored and complacent. They went all out because they don't get a main event often. This was some crazy fast paced and spectacular action. They worked faster, hit harder, pushed each other to the limit. Being a tag allowed them to speed up the pace considerably. They used the tag structure well, and weren't lackadaisical with their setups, so it was less contrived than their singles matches despite having every big athletic spot they could think of. There was a great Spanish fly where Komander whipped Dralistico out into Hologram. Komander did an avalanche poisonrana. it was overflowing with action, but otherwise it was about what you'd expect offensively. Super spectacular, but also quick hitting with the feeling of trying to get their moves in rather than the opponent just waiting for them. The only downside was they, of course, had to find some way to make it silly and distract from the efforts of the actual wrestlers, they started out with some atrocious guest rambling by Harley Cameron, where her "contribution" was asking the asinine question of whether it was an interspecies match because it contained a beast? Things got slightly less annoying when she left to don the hood as Harleygram. ***3/4

3/15/25 AEW: Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood vs. Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong 16:44
ML: This got off to a rough start, between a few botches from Cash, the slow pace, and the endless distraction of Danny Garcia and Adam Cole being guest announcers who largely took the focus off the action even when they were shilling for their buddies rather than rambling on about their own match no one cares about. Garcia is at least as awful announcing as he is doing promos, but head cheerleader is the best role for Cole, and there's even a 25% chance he won't get injured. O'Reilly started with more basic technical wrestling, trying to build this up. He was quite good throughout, the best wrestler here by a wide margin. Cash wasn't on the same page as Strong in a leapfrog sequence, and later took a clunky bump when Strong pulled the ref into harms way. Both teams tagged frequently, and showed good teamwork. Even though O'Reilly and Strong were opponents in AEW more than partners, they were able to match the teamwork of FTR, and this felt like an old school tag match where both teams were real units that were experts in working together, rather than just two dudes tossed together just because. Dax was executing, and had an intense chop exchange with Strong. At some point, Dax's chest was bloodied from the strikes. Dax was trying a little harder than I would have liked to slow the match down. This is logical against Strong, but gave this the feeling of a match that was going long more than a match that was strategic. The first half of the match was just okay, but Kyle really picked it up with the hot tag after the break, and instilled some much needed intensity. The second half had a lot more pace and urgency then the first, and started to feel like a battle. These guys did a much better job of making this look like a fight than you normally see in AEW. Even the segment where Strong was trying to fight his way out of the FTR corner was good because they did it properly with effort and struggle. There was a double elbow exchange that actually looked like everyone was trying to win it, rather than just waiting for the opponent to hit them back. O'Reilly broke up the cover after the shatter machine by pulling Dax to the outside, so Cash hit O'Reilly with a tope, and rolled Dax back into the ring so he could make another cover on Strong, but Strong got his foot on the ropes. FTR tried the superplex and diving body press combo to Strong, but Strong got his knees up and small packaged Wheeler while O'Reilly took Dax out with a diving knee drop. There was a good surprise finish where O'Reilly and Strong were setting up a double team on Cash where Strong was charging him, but Dax reappeared to push Kyle out of the way, so Strong wound up charging into the shatter machine. Their match a few weeks ago underachieved, and the first half of this was worse, but they really got it together in the second half to deliver something excellent that finally reached the level these guys are capable of. ***1/4

3/12/25 AEW International Title Eliminator Tournament First Round: Mike Bailey vs. The Beast Mortos 10:57.
ML: Bailey made his AEW debut here, and what better opponent is there to have a showcase match with than Mortos? Bailey did a more Lucha oriented match here with more running and jumping, but less kicking. Bailey showed more spectacular offense than Will Ospreay, as usual, and appeared to be about 3 times faster than Ricochet. This was kind of rushed though. They actually fought through the break, including Mortos doing his corkscrew dive. Mortos did less offensively than usual, as the match was more about Bailey getting all his stuff in. This wasn't nearly the match that they are capable of, but it was good for what it was. Bailey won with the spinning hook kick that's supposed to be called Adventure Time after the old Cartoon Network show. It was fine, better than the blows Ospreay & Ricochet are doing instead of winning with a flying move like they should be, but nowhere near as cool as the ultima weapon, or basically anything else he's won with. ***

3/9/25 AEW International Title: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kenny Omega 28:30

3/5/25 AEW: Hologram vs. Dralistico 13:32
ML: Just because they are related to Rush, doesn't mean his brothers are also incapable of doing anything useful. Dralistico didn't get the memo that AEW's Lucha division is just a showcase for Hologram, and decided to give his best effort in the promotion and show him up. This was a fun sprint with Dralistico essentially working like another high flying technico. It was a bit too cooperative, but at least they filled the time and kept moving for the most part. It died during the break, but the final 6 minutes, starting with Dralistico charging into a Spanish fly on the outside were really good. They got Mortos and Komander involved in the post match, which could be an exciting program so long as Rush stays away. ***

3/5/25 AEW TNT Title: Daniel Garcia vs. Lee Moriarty 14:57
ML: There was a time when Daniel Garcia appeared to have good potential, before AEW predictably promoted his goofiest aspects and programmed him against wrestlers who lack any technical chops. While he can be a good worker in an underrepresented style, he's tough to promote because he can't cut a promo or even do any acting in his matches that isn't completely detrimental to their credibility. He needs to be a Dean Malenko sort of serious, man of few words who just does his talking with his submissions. Garcia has always had good chemistry with Moriarty, who is one of the few who works a similar technical style. Moriarty is the ROH Pure champion, but as per usual with ROH champions that show up in AEW, they are just enhancement talents. Very little was done to explain who he is or why he's good, as AEW was just setting Garcia up for more bad matches with the useless twig Adam Cole, assuming he doesn't snap from a gust of wind first. Nigel McGuinness did try to get Moriarty over because he respects him, but Nigel has no credibility as a typical heel announcer who disagrees just to disagree. While overall this match may not have been great for the credibility of Moriarty or ROH, Moriarty was needed in order to actually get a good match out of Garcia again, and he served that purpose, if arguably not many others. This was a dying breed, a wrestling match that amazingly had some wrestling content. I mean, they actually got down on the mat and battled for control. Even if that didn't last long, overall it was more about pressuring the opponent and trying to use counters, leverage, and quick movement to eek out a win, rather than trying to incapacitate the opponent with something big or flashy. The high spots in this match may not have been tremendous, but there was a lot of back and forth, move and counter move. It was quick, and they actually made it seem meaningful. Moriarty is good at controlling his body, rolling with or to avoid moves. He's solid, with good technique. Garcia has a lot more offense though, and is probably the better athlete. They tried really hard to create parity, but that was undermined by no one believing Moriarty had a chance of winning. The match was clearly booked as a showcase for Garcia, even if the wrestlers themselves tried to make it as competitive as possible. Garcia was still on the ascendancy more, getting the near finishes that weren't just quickly trading them. Moriarty had his share of near finishes, but they were mostly flash pins or quick counters, as he wasn't given much opportunity to sustain the offensive. He doesn't necessarily need that as long as he's respected as a dangerous opponent who can pull a submission or flash pin out of nowhere. That wasn't really the perception of Moriarty here, but that's not the workers fault, and they definitely made the most of what they had to work with. ***

4/11/84 UWF: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 13:17
ML: Perro was a beast here, jumping Hamada before the bell and helping The Missionaries put the boots to him on the outside. He was very aggressive and hard-hitting, and while his athleticism obviously isn't on par with Hamada's, the gap was much closer here than during their 1990 matches. I liked that it took speed or deception to get inside to hit the first strike or move. They really put their explosions to good use here. Once someone gained the advantage, it was much easier for them to keep it, but that's somewhat reasonable, and given what we see these days, it's great to see something lucha oriented where they make each other work to gain the advantage. Perro was a lot more crisp and impactful than in their 1990 matches. He threw a shoulder block like it was actually supposed to do some damage rather than just nudge the opponent. His punches were also some of the best, and at one point he used a big forearm to knock Hamada out of the air. Hamada was super explosive here on his comebacks, and no one in the history of wrestling gets their tope off quicker than he did in these days. Hamada never takes much offense in his singles matches, but he makes what he does do count. This was on its way to potentially being a great match, but in the typical awful Japan finish of the time, Perro just randomly decided to use the scissors on Hamada until he got disqualified. Hamada's 2nd, Mano Negra, bladed him just before Perro went crazy with the scissors. I really hated this finish, but they did so much so well up until the nonsense. ***3/4

4/17/84 UWF Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada 13:10
ML: My favorite of the many Hamada vs. Perro matches, with the caveat that of the countless matches they had, the two April 1984 UWF matches when Hamada is 34 and Perro is 38 seem to be the only ones from their prime that survived. They were regular opponents when Hamada started Universal in 1990, but Perro's best days were long gone by then. Perro was an imposing and sadistic brawler here, showing some of Abdullah the Butcher's foreign object use and Bruiser Brody's wildness, but making it feel like his own craziness. He busts Hamada open on the post, and eventually gets himself DQ'd for repeatedly gouging Hamada with a pair of scissors to increase the blood flow. In these days, he took himself seriously and could keep up with Hamada enough to set him up for his spectacular bursts. This dramatic grudge match isn't my preferred style of Hamada match since most of the 1st half is Perro's brawling, but the 2nd fall is fantastic, with Hamada just refusing to lose. The early portion especially is a great example of how fiery and explosive Hamada's comebacks were in his heyday. The later stages are a fantastic example of puroresu near falls being incorporated into what's essentially a lucha style brawl, with Hamada looking to be done several times, especially after a brutal tombstone and later Perro's senton following catching Hamada out of the air on his reverse diving body attack, and just chucking him on his head. When Hamada finally lands on his feet to avoid a suplex back into the ring and wins with his back suplex, it truly feels like a true triumph of the will. This match doesn't start great, but it keeps getting better and better to the point I'm wondering how highly it could rank for overall match of the year. I had it #2 for UWF behind the 12/5/84 No Fall Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. ****1/4

2/1/85: Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid vs. Gran Hamada & Masanobu Fuchi 9:02
ML: High effort short match that's one of the Bulldogs best matches, and a great example of how far ahead of the curve Hamada was in junior (or lucha) tag style. There's a little filler, but these guys worked hard, with Hamada and Dynamite really standing out. Fuchi was willing to work junior style sequences with Dynamite at this point, and could hang in even if Dynamite was obviously the one who was standing out. Dynamite gave Fuchi an avalanche gutwrench suplex. Hamada, and to a lesser extent Dynamite, combined their urgency and intensity with their speedy style of trying to beat their opponent to the move. Davey Boy was pretty laid back, but would go fast with Hamada when Hamada initiated that style. Hamada pulled good stuff out of him, even if Davey was largely the foil. Hamada probably ran the ropes as fast as anyone around at this point. Dynamite vs Hamada was a little disappointing, perhaps because both had put a lot of effort into making the sequences with Fuchi and Davey exciting, and these were their main pairings. It felt like it was perhaps easier for them to do their thing with the opponents who were a different style than to figure out how to make similiar style things work together in the brief time they had. ***1/4

1990 WWA: Gran Hamada & Yoshihiro Asai & El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera 7:20, 3:16, 3:45
ML: Six all-time greats delivering wonderfully slick, fluid, poetic action from start to finish. It's not some big blowoff sort of grudge match, and is possibly not even that far beyond what they might normally have done, but it's a great rivalry match where they put heat on everything even though they try to wrestle technically. There's fantastic attention to detail and consistency in building the conflict through everything they do. Nothing in this match seems throwaway or half assed. They begin with inspired chain wrestling, with Hamada vs. Fuerza and Casas vs. Santo delivering some excellent go behinds and reversals. Putting genuine effort into the small things such as jockying for position really elevated this above the overly choreographed, cooperative modern fair. This basic early match stuff was important, as it made you buy into their games of oneupsmanship that continued into the flashier aspects. Sure, no one was winning a match by out go behinding their oppponent, but this, and everything else seemed important, at least as a battle of pride. These grappling battles segued well into the gymnastics and tumbling. Casas, Hamada, and Fuerza really have the movement, quickness, and body control for the former, while Asai doesn't stand out there, but is the best traditional high flyer of the bunch, taking the first fall with his quebrada. Hamada was noticeably more agile here than in the Michinoku era, and showed a lot of fire. There's almost no roughhousing, but the one very brief exchange between Hamada and Casas was great as an escalation of their frustration over not being able to gain a solid advantage though their technical wrestling. Casas worked a lengthier strike battle with Asai later, getting even more heat on that one. Fuerza had his moments, but all 3 opponents were clearly at their best with Casas, with the Casas vs Santo being on another level. The Asai stuff was the least good because at this early point in his career he was more of a great athlete whose flying moves were way better than his actual movement and coordination in the sequences. Panther was fine, but the only one who didn't truly distinguish himself here. This was greatn even though it never felt like they were trying to have a great match so to speak. It's not a "big" match, and it's a bit rushed and incomplete from the box checking standpoint. However, there's no fat here, and every second was thoroughly entertaining athletic action performed with conviction. ****1/2

3/2/90 FULL: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 8:05, 6:38
ML: They were apprehensive in the best way early on, attacking smartly rather than just jumping right into it. When Perro gained the early advantage, he did his best to press it. Perro was his old vicious self here, doing a lot more brawling and acting fierce like in the old days, which made this better than their 6/1/90 match. He was very effective here, much better than in June. The first fall finish was terrible though, as Wally Yamaguchi randomly disqualifies Hamada. At first I thought he was saying Hamada's sleeper was a choke, but he was still backtracking to the accidental ref bump when Hamada's dropkick backfired. This takes some of the wind out of the matches sails, and the start of the second fall is kind of slow and meandering, with Perro brawling out of the ring and then using the scissors right in front of Yamaguchi in the ring to bloody Hamada up. The fall picks up a lot with Hamada's comeback, and stays strong as Perro cuts him off. Shockingly, Perro gets the victory, which is another downer since the match was finally taking off, but we don't get a third fall. Perro keeps destroying Hamada anyway for good measure, even though he already controlled at least 3/4 of the match. There was some really good stuff here, but it didn't flow that well for the most part, and the finishes killed it. This would have been better as a 1 fall match, but even then Hamada shouldn't look this weak. Despite the issues, Perro needs to be a wild man, and because he was on his unhinged game here, this was better than their later matches. ***1/4

3/5/90 FULL, UWA World Light Heavyweight Title: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 6:54, 4:39, 7:54.
ML: Aguayo was behaving this time for some reason, and that's never for the better. The first fall was largely technical wrestling, picking up with the running, which is advantage Hamada, and he won with his back suplex. The second fall was dominated by Perro, who was oddly still acting very tame. He finally got his attitude going, kicking Hamada when he was down after scoring the pinfall, and then he started brawling on the floor with a chair to start the third. This is what we were waiting for. A bloody Hamada finally kicked it into gear with his tope, and gave Perro a taste of his own medicine with the chair. Perro cut him off pretty quickly though, and fully reestablished himself. It looked like Hamada was going to go down in a similar fashion as 3 days earlier, but this time he stole the victory with a flash pin. Perro was incensed, and was on the rampage in the post match. This was probably a more cohesive match than what we saw on March 2nd, but Perro's performance wasn't nearly as good because he was less wild, and with him on offense so much, that's a crucial factor. ***

6/1/90 FULL, UWA World Lightweight Title Match: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 11:39.
ML: This was probably the best they could do in 1990 with Perro being more or less friendly. Perro was trying, but especially at this point, he really needs to be a fearsome rudo to make up for his technical deficiencies. He seemed badass days at the outset, but just dropped that cold pretty quickly, switching to rest holds that would have been better as more Perro brawling. They picked it up considerably in the second half, staying on the move, and allowing Hamada to show his thing. Even then, while Hamada has a few moments of greatness, this is largely dominated by Perro. Aguayo was good here, despite lacking the energy and wildness of his youth, but he's not quite good enough to raise this to the level of even their March matches. ***

6/7/90 FULL: Gran Hamada & Perro Aguayo & Kendo vs. Texano & El Signo & Negro Navarro 23:00 (9:18, 6:47, 4:40 of 6:55)
ML: This was fun, but kind of too fun. This match kept a high pace, but Hamada was the only one on his team that was wrestling seriously. There was some real potential in the Hamada vs. Navarro & Texano pairings, as they were really laying into each other. Kendo and Perro were just being charismatic, and the rudos were largely just stooging for the technicos. Kendo has the athleticism to be really good, but was such a frustrating harbinger of things to come because he focused almost entirely on showmanship. ***

11/9/90 FULL: Gran Hamada & Yoshihiro Asai vs. Blue Panther & Black Power 16:59
ML: They stuck to the same two pairings, Hamada vs. Panther setting up their 11/13 singles match & Asai vs. Power, with the rudos doing some double teaming. The technicos offense was all about bursts of fast exciting action. Panther worked his technical style, which Hamada would go along with, or more accurately succumb to, until he could find an opening for another explosion. Power helped make the opposition look good, but while he gave a quality performance, he didn't stand out as much as the others. Asai was supposed to climax a three dive sequence with a no touch tope con giro, but nearly killed himself coming down head first (luckily he was able to tuck his head) when he didn't quite clear the top rope. Asai got up, but they seemed to end the match by count out for safety, only to eventually continue it with Hamada going alone for a while. This was very unfortunate because Asai was having a really good match up until this point, and the match was in the very good range. Asai got back onto the ring apron, and Hamada surprisingly tagged him in pretty quickly. The match had definitely lost a lot of momentum due to things going awry, but they were getting it back. It never really hit a second peak though, despite the post blunder part being good. ***1/4

11/13/90 FULL: Gran Hamada vs. Blue Panther 14:57
ML: This felt like a Dean Malenko match for better and worse, where Panther did an amazing job of taking bumps to make Hamada's great athletic offense look that much more impressive, but the match would largely stagnate on the ground in between. The matwork wasn't flimsy, but it kept Hamada stationary, which is never a good thing. This was a handheld from a small house show where they were using the AJW ring, so it's understandable that it's not a blow away match. I don't want to make it sound like this was lazy. It's more that their matwork didn't come together in a way that worked for both parties. Panther missed a rounding body press, but it was largely Hamada being exciting, with Panther facilitating. Hamada got the win landing on his feet for a doublearm suplex, then pinning Panther in a German suplex. ***1/4

3/9/91 FULL: Hijo del Santo & Yoshihiro Asai & Gran Hamada vs. Black Terry & Jose Luis Feliciano & Shu el Guerrero 15:16
ML: Santo teaming with Hamada and Asai is the main selling point. The match was essentially just a showcase for the technicos, but since they all have great offense, that obviously wasn't a bad thing. The structuring could have been a lot better though because it wasn't the most compelling match for the 1st falls even though it was fast-paced and spectacular. Then it wasn't the most interesting 3rd fall because the rudos finally did rudo things. Whatever Hamada, Santo, or Asai were doing during the 1st 2 falls was considerably more interesting than what the rudos did in the 3rd. Feliciano did a tope con giro and a few other athletic things, but the rudos mostly did generic brawling when they finally had a lengthy run of offense in the third. That fall was considerably worse than the other two, only picking up for the finish, so I would have liked this more if their offense was just spread out better. **3/4

11/7/91 FULL: Gran Hamada & MASA Michinoku & Monkey Magic Wakita & El Matematico vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Canelo Casas & Blue Demon Jr. & El Sismo 15:10
ML: This would have been a lot better if it was just Wagner & Casas vs. Hamada & Michinoku. It kind of felt like that's what it was anyway though, as the others had much smaller roles, which was largely for the best. Hamada, Michinoku, & Wakida were working again later, which is probably why they involved so many wrestlers in this one. Casas was much more confident and competent then when I saw him here two months earlier. Wagner was better at setting up and carrying the match, but the raw speed and athleticism of Casas was going a long way towards making this entertaining, and somewhat less predictable. Casas had a wildness and recklessness to his performance that added a level of chaos and danger to a sometimes overly choreographed style. Michinoku wasn't as good as Hamada, but with them opposing each other later in the show, it made sense for the younger Michinoku to be the one who logged more of the ring time. Casas unfortunately slipped off the ropes when he was setting up his moonsault finisher, but at least Matematico was smart enough to miss a flying move to set up Casas doing it again for the win. ***1/4

11/14/91 FULL: Silver King & El Texano & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Gran Hamada & MASA Michinoku & Monkey Magic Wakita 9:52; 4:18; 5:02
ML: This match greatly overachieved what it would have today by taking itself seriously as sport, which was still largely the norm in 1991, at least when Kendo wasn't involved. Lucha Libre got a bad rap in these days for being contrived and phony, but this is a great example of how something completely unrealistic can still come across as an important contest simply by putting effort into doing things in a hurry. I'd say this was more believable than any stop and start AEW posefest exhibition I saw in 2024. Even though most of what AEW does offensively is based on the spectacular aspects of this, they ignore anything that allows one to still take it seriously or care about the outcome. There was a great spot where Wakita set up a plancha on Texano, and King ran across the ring apron and dove at him, trying to intercept to save his partner, but he was a step late. This kind of thing seems inconceivable today, when no one wants to do anything between highspots, put up any resistance, or especially believably portray any danger. It wonderfully distracted us from Texano catching Wakita though, and gave the feel that there were actual consequences to Wakita being successful with his big risk. These guys got consistent great reactions to everything they did by ignoring the audience entirely, and just giving them something they could take seriously as an athletic contest even though the offense of running and jumping at one another was as far from believable as you would get in 1991. Today, they might elicit a wimper for their begging, but then the crowd would rarely react to what they actually did to one another, ie the important part. Wakita, who seemed the obvious weak link, was actually a lot of fun. He was pushing the pace and trying to be exciting, rather than relying on his charisma as he often did in the Super Delfin era. Both teams trying to win went a long way towards masking the cooperation by being fast, tight, and urgent. Yes, this is the same phony stuff you might see today, but the approach and execution is the polar opposite, doing their best to downplay that fact. Wakita & Michinoku were two rookies who were very much still learning and made some mistakes, but the mentality behind their training allowed them to get a lot right that even the better and more experienced workers of today just wouldn't be bothered with because there's no illusion of it being a sport anymore. Hamada had a lot better body control than his teammates, and combining fire with precision movement is always a good mix. Hamada's segments were brief bursts of explosive action that stole the show. The rudos did a good job of keeping this moving. They are all so good it didn't matter who was in, but Texano stood out the most today. This was exciting because they moved with purpose and urgency as much if not more than because they did a lot of flashy stuff such as Masa hitting the Sasuke special in the 3rd fall (after screwing it up in the 1st and being smart enough not to just have his opponent twiddle their thumbs while he tried again). King pinned Wakita with a moonsault attack in the decider. Definitely one of the best Universal matches. ****

1/19/92 FULL, UWA Tag Title Match: Gran Hamada & Kendo vs. Silver King & El Texano 15:00
ML: Cowboys dominated through superior teamwork. Texano was definitely the workhorse in this match, with Silver King coming in and out to double team despite his solo segments generally being pretty brief. Even though both were doing showy Lucha Libre, Hamada & Kendo's approach to it was opposite. It was intense and had something of a real fight feel when Hamada was in, but was overly choreographed and felt like an exhibition when Kendo was in. Some of this was really good, but the tone was quite uneven despite Texano liking to mix it up, and doing his best to reign in Kendo's excesses. Texano took Hamada out with a tombstone on the floor, then they double teamed Kendo in the ring until they finished him off with a double flying elbow. ***

3/10/92 FULL: Gran Hamada & Dos Caras & Kendo vs.Texano & Silver King & Dr.Wagner Jr.
ML: The rudos are all strong performers, and did their best to make the match despite not getting much offense in. The tightest, snappiest, and most serious segments were when Hamada was in. His stuff had the extra gear. Kendo was just goofing around, and rudos were stuck stooging for his telegraphed offense. Caras is from another era, but he gave a good effort and was interesting. He doesn't really sell all that much, but at least he's outsmarting the rudos in a more plausible manner than Kendo. ***

3/14/92 FULL: Dos Caras & El Hijo del Santo & Gran Hamada vs. Silver King & El Texano & Dr Wagner Jr 14:48
ML: An impressive sprint that was chaos in the best possible way. Bodies were flying everywhere as they did their best to give their team every possible advantage, leaping in to run interference and make saves. The rudos were really on their horse when Dos Caras was in, getting matadored and running into his quebradora. Caras was the weak link, but that wasn't really apparent because of the extra effort his opponents put in to make him look good. Hamada gave a strong performance, Santo picked his spots well, and the rudos were pretty much equally excellent. Perhaps there wasn't a lot that stood out, but it was non-stop high quality. ***1/2