Lucha high spot action, here we come. Juvy was clearly on some stuff during his Nitro run. Watch his shaking entrances. Thug Life Rey Jr, complete with title belt. I’m game.

Psicosis and Juvy double team both men and heel it up. Rey has his moments, even more than Blitz, and your supposed to come away with the idea that Blitz gets the rub from being with Rey – who is the most over guy here. Other than that everyone gets a showcase. It’s basically stand around, someone gets there stuff in, someone sells for a few seconds, and then another guy goes from standing around to getting their stuff in. A fun high spot match that does get better as time goes on, but nothing that really kept my attention overall (slight lie). A small story in there somewhere, and the highlights include Rey and Blitz doing a comeback together. Otherwise Blitz just twists like an idiot. The Rey vs Juvy stuff was awesome and it deserves mention.

This match just kept going. It had moments, but I wasn’t sure when the spots were gonna end. What could the finish be? They had to sell after a while, because they probably ran out of energy. They definitely lost the crowd. They also had enough guys in there that pins were broken up instead of tons of kick outs. In some ways this is the Ultimate Lucha match on Nitro was everything these guys can do – like a video game – was done in this match. For what it’s worth, Psicosis wins in around 20 minutes with a top rope leg drop (Alabama Jam). He’s the new Cruiserweight champion. 3 and 6/10.

I’ll skip the lengthy preamble. I dig Billy Kidman’s high end Nitro stuff, and I always thought Psicosis held up his end of the bargain during the 90s. This looks like a fun match on paper.

Psicosis is working the fans over right from the opening bell, and though it gets a mild response, it shows the comfort and growth the guy was going through even if he was a luchadore cruiserweight in WCW. Psicosis also makes a lot of good choices early on and gives Kidman a fair amount after bullying him at first. Every time Psicosis gains control he pauses to play to the crowd and slow it down after a sprint. Kidman actually seems to be regressing as a face. Suicide dive by Psicosis is your big spot of the first five minutes. I know, I know, heels shouldn’t be flashy. This is Lucha influenced. An exception to every rule.

Kidman’s selling isn’t stirring any sympathy, but I’m not completely apathetic. His hope spots get some reaction and they’re executed well.. The man takes big chances and it looks great. He dives over to the outside, then drop kicks a diving Psicosis. Hot Shit! Kidman ends up winning clean with the Shooting Star Press. I honestly was lost in thought about how Evan Bourne is the new Kidman, but with better skills. 8 minutes that had great moments, but little passion. Kidman’s fatal flaw. 3 ¼ and 6.3/10.

I’m beginning to feel as though these WCW luchadore matches are like candy bars. They are good single serving sweets, but they don’t really add anything to your diet. They exist to impress you for that moment, and there’s nothing that evolves further from it. I don’t blame the workers themselves. All the matches are better than average affairs ranging from 2 ¾ to 3 ¾ stars. But even on 3 hour Nitros these guys got less than ten minutes to do the same frequent match ups. They are great for what they are, but you start to feel like you’re watching the same match with a glass – no, concrete – ceiling overhead.

Raven’s Flock comes through the crowd for your trademark “take the attention off these luchadores” WCW moment. I think may perhaps my problem with some of these Lucha matches is the style is a demonstration of spots to me many times, and if every spot doesn’t land clean it distracts from the overall dance (match). Where as a typical American or Japanese match can be much more guttural and not as tight, but yet still look very cool with the mistakes. There’s more room for error, at least to me.

Solid if unspectacular stuff before the first commercial break. We come back to Psicosis in control and Juvy selling. Juvy come back has some good high spots he hits rather cleanly. The crowd “ohs” at all the moves as they hit. A crazy moment as Juvy drop kicks Psicosis as he flyings from the top to the floor with a dive. Juvy wins with the 450 in about 5:30 minutes. 2 ¾ and 5/10.

Just like match # 80, which was awesome, only we get Garza and Silver King added to the mix for a good old fashion Lucha trios match. There was a time when people were really giving a look at Silver King and El Dandy as being great forgotten Lucha workers who made it to America, but I haven’t seen anything to say since reading that talking point a few years back. Here’s an isolated incident to view Silver King by.

La Parka is great with his goofy chair gimmick and dancing. It always seems like he’s doing it at inappropriate times, but I guess that’s part of the charm. King and Garza start off running through some fine point/counterpoint stuff. Raven’s Flock comes out through the crowd for some ADD TV, so the crowd is hot but unfocused. WCW liked doing that a lot and screwing their lower card matches, which were often the best of the night. Juvy/Psicosis have a go and hit most of what they are trying for. Parka plays bumping stooge for the smaller guys well.

Crowd goes electric when Rey Jr. comes in. He runs through the heels hitting his air attack. Everyone tries a top rope move and misses. Then everyone gets to one by one come in and hit a big dive to the outside. It works. They’ve built up the crowd and not overdone everything, though this wouldn’t be as popular with today’s hardcore fans (it was clean enough though that I could be wrong). They don’t overstay their welcome as Rey, while selling the knee, hits a backwards rana on King and then the Springboard rana perfectly for the win in 5 minutes flat. 3 and 6/10.

It’s weird after all their matches to see Rey with Juvy, but with both heels being bigger this on paper looks like a gem.

La Parka was such a good cocky bully heel that he makes Pscosis’ better at being one. They take control early with some crisp double team work. Everyone here is hitting there spots, and I’ve always been more of a Lucha in WCW fan than a Lucha in CMLL/AAA fan. I just feel they work tighter and crisper, but the agreement probably goes back to culture and style in Mexico.

Juvy does a decent job as the face in peril, but the heels carry this with their work. They cut off the ring and any come back attempts perfectly. Fans really want the tag to Mysterio, and when he gets it he rules it. Heels still control over all. The moves back and forth are quick and lead to a double somersault plancha from Mysterio/Juvy. I like the variations of moves and the fact that each team saves their partner from pin attempts. Juvy reverses on the top rope into a crazy slam in the ring. Awesome!

There’s no super-transcendent story here, and you cannot pick and say it’s overkill if you’re not into Lucha, but what is going on is solid fast action. The match peaks at the right time with a Mysterio head scissors on the floor and a Juvy 450 splash for the pin in 6:30 minutes. 3 ¼ and 6.5/10.

Eddie is the U.S. Champ here, I believe. They never really say but from the glimpse of the belt I think it’s the U.S. title. Eddie is your cocky heel here. He outsmarts Psicosis at the bell, but Psicosis come back and hits a nasty senton to the floor on a prone Guerrero. Thankfully Psicosis sells his back too (maybe legit from the looks of the landing), allowing Eddie room to come back. Really solid fun start.

This is from the period where Tenay was profiling Lucha Libre on the show, so it was getting a push to a degree, with Eddie as the main heel and Rey Jr. as the face. Psicosis isn’t a great face, but Eddie compensates enough here in a single match setting (I’m watching a set of great or memorable matches, not episode to episode. I also never realized how much Eddie works the back on Lucha opponents, but seeing a lot of Eddie on Nitro really puts into perspective how cerebral his matches could be. I just thought he did moves well and could move as a teen.

I love the way Psicosis kept escaping moves acrobatically to come back, and progressively Eddie short cuts his way back into control. I’m also left wondering who influenced who to use the big superplex: Guerrero or Benoit. Maybe the answer is as simple as New Japan super juniors.

Eddie wins with a great frog splash across the ring in 4 minutes. It got cheered because Eddie was so good and Psicosis wasn’t a beloved face in a sea of cruiserweights without a real push. This was the opener on this night, so it was a good way to start a show, but by no means did we see an epic match. Still, I almost wanna over rate it because it was so good for what it was. 2 ½ and 5/10.

I use the word sprint from time to time to explain a match that’s front-ended with a lot of cool spots, moves, and/or story because it’s been booked to go under ten minutes. This match was not a sprint, it was a run, and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible. This was something of a squash match to highlight Rey Mysterio, and man did he deliver. He hit ever one of his high flying mores perfectly. Even the short amount of mat wrestling at the start (like 15 seconds worth) was tight stuff. He hit a dive to the outside, and finished the match with his springboard rana that he hit perfectly against Juvi (Match # 52). The crazy thing is Psicosis, who sold perfectly for the whole match, landed on his head during the roll through and it looked even more awesome because of it. Technically the guys messed up the spot, but it was that realistic mess up that makes the match better. I’m not sure how high can go on a four minute match, but this was even better than the last Rey Jr. match. 3 ½ and 6.5/10.

Lucha viewing is such a tricky deal with me. I respect Lucha as a great dance of wrestling style. However, if they go to fast it doesn’t have time to sink in and just looks like a collection of (high) spots that don’t hurt and aren’t sold. If you go to slow though, Lucha can look overly choreographed with men waiting in place during a “fight” for the other performer to hit a move. Basically, I grade Lucha tough sometimes because of the intricate style.

Psicosis blows a high spot early, and almost blows another a minute later. Rey looks pretty spot on, and it doesn’t kill the match as they go with it, in both cases Rey taking the advantage momentarily. Lots of nice roll up combos, which is to be expected. The WCW announcers booth doesn’t have it together tonight, as Heenan and Tony are fighting again. I think Psicosis moves to his big stuff and goes spot to spot with Rey in there with him. Rey is a great babyface in peril, and they have the obvious size difference, so it’s a bit annoying when Psicosis goes from high spot after high spot at times. They were more fluid in their short ECW run. It should be mentioned by me for the hundredth time that the one exception is Psicosis top rope leg drop. This isn’t bad though once he settles down and starts actually doing some damage to the smaller Rey Jr.

The highlight of the match is Rey’s comeback and quick win. That 30 seconds of the 6:30 minute match is what brings this match up, and a PPV style match where he has more comebacks and gets cut off would be the ticket for anyone loving these two in there together. Unfortunately, this is a Nitro matches ballot. 3 stars and 5.8/10.

Psicosis is out in a great white costume. Regal is the TV champ. A hot crowd there. Bischoff and Ted Dibiase are doing NWO heel commentary for this one. This is either going to be a complete train wreck or a neat meshing of styles. With Regal I expect a great match.

Right off the bat I’m struck by Regal being a good enough heel to work the crowd into a frenzy of cheering the non-English speaking Psicosis. Good job.

One thing that I enjoy about a Regal match is how he muscles guys into holds and reversals. Even when things doing go smoothly, he finds a way to make it look good in the context of pro wrestling fights. Psicosis is following along fine, which is what you do in a Regal match. When they reverse Regal sells the heck out of the arm for a moment. Psicosis gets to hit one of his dives (and sells after). This crowd is really hot for Psicosis and his big spots. His top rope leg drop (Alabama Jam to old Eaton fans. is beautiful.

Regal reverses with a belly-to-back suplex and they sell for a while. Both guys condensed the struggle down for TV time even better than earlier Benoit/Guerrero matches people rave about from thus set.
Really nice little match here. Regal slows it down for some of his offense, while still selling the accumulative damage. Good throws and strikes. This isn’t running through moves just because you can do them. There is space between stuff to give it drama. Intelligently designed.

Final stretch sees some Psicosis near falls, but gets caught, and Regal stretches him for the tap out victory. 3 ½ and 7/10.

This is a rematch from earlier in the set (Match # 39) so we’ll see what the difference is in this match. Can’t say the first one had too much personality, other than Eddie as the big face and Psicosis being super Lucha. Psicosis is rocking the Liger-esque gear. A big step up from his AAA and ECW wardrobe.

Lots of fast Lucha stuff early, and I thought it was crisper and more wrestling-realistic than their other encounter. The movement and reactions were faster and flowed better. Psicosis gets heat from the crowd better, while Eddie gets his chants with some good selling. Big spot is Psicosis doing a missile dive through the ropes. Psicosis big leg drop off the top was an under rated big move. Some of Psicosis big stuff is fun BECAUSE it’s sloppy and has great impact.

Eddie’s comeback is early, so you know this isn’t going long. He gets the ‘rana, goes right to the frog splash, and gets the clean pin in five and a half minutes. I’ll take this one by a small amount over their longer earlier match. 2 ½ and 5.5/10.