El Dandy vs. Emilio Charles Jr.
October 29, 1993
CMLL
Hair vs. Hair
*** 3/4
The CMLL roster was razor thin in 1993 even compared with 1992 and 1994 standards. The split did not happen until May, 1992 and not everyone left immediately. By the end of 1994, several AAA defectors had return (notably Satanico and Mocho Cota), several more UWA wrestlers were absorbed into CMLL (Silver King, Texano) and the roster was aided by several debuts and added foreigners. 1993 was probably the roster’s thinnest point. Despite the depleted roster, CMLL did not always feature El Dandy – one of their better wrestlers and bigger remaining stars – as much as I would have expected. Dandy spent most of his ’93 coming up short in title matches and being a cog in main even trios matches. His big moment in 1993 was this October hair match with old rival, Emilio Charles Jr.
Dandy and Charles feuded once before in 1989. In addition to the pair of strong singles match they had with each other, the ’89 feud also stands out of the unique way it was booked – an inconclusive hair match that led into a definitive title match rather than the other way around. The 1993 feud was booked a little more conventionally. Charles beat Dandy for the CMLL World Middleweight title in May in Acapulco in an isolated event before they crossed paths again in the fall. They worked back-to-back title matches in October. Charles retained his title in the first and lost it in the second in order to set up the feud ending hair match.
There is no blood in this match but that in no way means it wasn’t a violent and brutal match. Dandy takes all kinds of wicked bumps. He takes several post shots outside the ring early that were so rough that I was positive they were going to lead to blood one way or the other. Later on Dandy misses a shoulder tackle in the corner and hits the post as hard as possible shoulder first before tumbling to the outside. In the third fall, he takes one of those great bumps from the ring to the floor where the camera has to go up high in order to keep him in the shot as he goes over the rope and therefore misses him on the way down so it looks like he is falling to nowhere.
Charles carried the bulk offensively. He did a great job of it, too. I have always considered Charles to be a stronger trios worker than singles worker but he is a better singles rudo than I had given him credit for. Sentons highlight his offensive package here but his tope was also awesome. He absolutely crushes Dandy with it. For his part, Dandy flies into the seats off of the tope in another fine bump. Charles’ offense plays nicely off of Dandy’s bumping which is really what makes the match click.
I will almost always prefer a bloody hair match over a non-bloody hair match but Dandy’s insane bumps and the intensity from both wrestlers covers for that. I loved the third fall and ending of the 1989 hair match more than any individual part of this match. However, this one was the better overall match as they established and maintained a high level of intensity from the first post shot through the final bell.
