Mascara Año 2000 vs. Anibal
MASK VS. MASK
CMLL
12/13/1991
Year: 1991
Type: Mask vs. Mask
Other: n/a
Synopsis:
Fifty year old Anibal – a star with the UWA from the promotion’s founding in 1975 through the mid-1980’s – drops his mask to Mascara Año 2000 in an entertaining match that used a few key moments to make cover for both wrestler’s in-ring shortcomings (Anibal’s being age related). This match was apparently supposed to involve another Dinamita as Universo 2000 was penciled in to get the big mask win. When word of that leaked, CMLL changed direction and gave the win to Dos Mil. The finish is interesting and at least indirectly plays into the finish of the apuesta match Perro Aguayo and Mascara Año 2000 wrestled in AAA almost 18 months after this one.
Additional Reading:
- Cross Arm Breaker Review
Wrestling Observer Newsletter - December 23, 1991
The final card of the year at Arena Mexico in Mexico City took place on 12/13 headlined by the mask vs. mask match with Mascara Ano 2000 against Anibal. It figured to be a bad match, but it turned out to be quite interesting. I guess to understand it fully you have to realize that Anibal is 51-years-old, and is his heyday was known as a legendary “shooter” in Mexico. He physically looks good for his age, but moves slowly and carefully like the 30 years of bumps have more than taken their toll and his wrestling is basically terrible. Anyway, he won the first fall in 1:03 by submission. During the second fall, which was also a quickie, he did a dive out of the ring but sold like he hurt his head on the landing and submitted after being put back in the ring. The third fall was terrible from a wrestling standpoint but great from a booking standpoint. Cien Caras, the group’s lead heel and the older brother of Mascara Ano 2000, sprinted around the ring and broke a beer bottle over the back of Anibal’s head, and never broke stride and he did his best Ben Johnson imitation to the dressing room (if he had stayed around any longer for the fans to realize what he’d done, there would have been a massive riot). Anyway, it looked like the finish when Anibal, who juiced from the back of his mask, was thrown back in the ring but he kicked out. They did one big move after another and he kept kicking out. Finally Anibal made the big comeback and went after Mascara’s mask. As ref El Pompin (who no doubt is going to turn into a heel ref after this finish) pushed him back off Mascara into the corner, Mascara grabbed Anibal’s leg from behind the ref’s back and lifted it up really fast to give the ref a low blow which the ref sold like mad. So the ref is down and naturally Anibal is tearing up Mascara and gets him in the submission that he won the first fall with. The ref finally gets up and calls for the bell, teasing the submission but instead DQing Anibal. Anibal then stood there and a kid came into the ring who looked like he was maybe 12 or 13. Anibal then unmasked, saying his name was Carlos Ignacio Iscarillo and immediately put the mask on the kid (who I believe was his son) and pretty much proclaimed from this point forward he’s the new Anibal and that when he grows up, he’ll gain revenge for his father (who without a mask looked something like Bulldog Danny Plechas). *3/4 (super storyline but the wrestling was pretty bad.
Accolades:
