Mogur vs. As Charro
September 18, 1987
CMLL
Mask vs. Mask
*** 1/4
As Charro and Mogur headlined EMLL’s 54th Anniversary show in a quality if unspectacular mask match.
Charro was ten years Mogur’s senior but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from watching the match. Charro brought the high-end offense including a neat bicycle kick off of a cartwheel and a high arching German suplex to close out the first fall. He also hit what was easily the move of the match with what was either a drop kick or knee strike from the top rope all the way down to the floor. They did not get the best shot of the move so its hard to tell exactly what he did or how hard he landed, but you can hear the loud thud as his body disappears out of sight on the other side of the ring. It is an insane move and not the sort of move I expected to see out of a veteran dropping his mask. Charro added two more dives – a plancha and tope suicida – for good measure in the third fall. He looked really good here. I don’t believe there is a ton of As Charro out there but he gives the type of performance here that makes me want to see more of him. Its possible he went all out because of the magnitude of this match and that it is not necessarily representative of his entire body of work. Even if this was a peak performance, it was a strong enough performance to lead me to believe that his “normal” work might have been pretty good as well.
Mogur assumes the underdog role from the get-go when As Charro jumps him right at the opening whistle. This match was about Charro more so than Mogur, so besides for adequate selling and a decent comeback Mogur did not do anything here that really stood out to me. He has better performances in the following years.
The match itself is laid out in a by-the-numbers fashion, with one possible exception. They steamroll through the first fall but Charro’s high impact offense resonates enough that it is easy to buy into the quick finish. Mogur makes a comeback in the second fall as expected and the third fall has its fair share of big moves. I did like how they placed some of the bigger offensive moves into the first fall rather than saving it all for the final round. It made the match feel whole rather than just a big final fall. That was necessary because the match itself never reached the peak level of drama and excitement that classic match mask matches will reach. Putting more high-end action into the first fall at least partially made up for the lack of major drama in the final fall.
Utilizing fouls – or faked fouls – as near falls is pretty standard in lucha. In this match, Charro and Mogur both claimed to be fouled after a series of dives late in the third fall. It was hard to tell what they were going for. Neither wrestler flops around on the mat enough to the point where it seemed like they were trying to blatantly buy a foul that didn’t happen. Instead the idea appeared to be that both wrestlers – Mogur first, then As Charro – were nearly fouled and the referee made the correct non-call in both situations. When As Charro kicks Mogur in the stomach (and it clearly lands on the stomach), they do manage to get some in the crowd calling for a foul. The near foul from Mogur – which is also clearly clean – doesn’t get much of a reaction at all. At least in execution, this was a wasted section. The rudo committing a foul that the referee doesn’t see right away tends to draw heat. The tecnico getting deserved revenge with a foul draws heat. A rudo flopping and flailing on a non-foul and the referee teasing a disqualification draws heat. This was a situation where both guys clearly did not get fouled, nobody flopped, and the referee made the right call. Not sure what the point was. This was exasperated by the fact that there were not any major near falls down the stretch.
The finish sees Mogur wiggle out of a reverse waist lock and land on As Charro with a plancha for the pin. The reaction felt flat to me but it did get a big reaction. Quick victories are fine and appropriate with the even way this match was worked. My issue was with the move they chose for the ending. I would have preferred something a little more decisive – some sort of pinning combination – rather than Mogur simply shifting his wait and falling on As Charro for the three count.
I think this is a good mid-level mask match that hits on a lot of the important points like blood and big moves, but does not have the heat or drama of a classic or even excellent apuesta match.
