Sunday 14 October 2012

Jerry Estrada v La Fiera (Chain Match) (Monterrey, 1991)

This was fucking unreal. I had ludicrously high expectations that could really only be met if it turned out to be the greatest match of all time, and it wasn't quite that, but God damn was it still fucking awesome. The atmosphere is amazing in this. The mat is all torn up and within three minutes there's blood spurting out of Jerry Estrada's forehead, and it all kind of feels like human cock-fighting in a dimly lit, seedy arena. I've basically said this every time I've written anything about a Jerry Estrada match, but man, I fucking love Jerry Estrada. In a match with as much blood and brutality as this one, my favourite part of the whole thing might be Estrada just headbutting the referee right in the snout for trying to stop him from murdering Fiera. Estrada is also the king of the stumbling half-in-the-can tope, and he rolls out a topper in this. Fiera was amazing here as well, though. He comes out at the start wearing spiked gloves and punches Estrada in the face, then when the refs finally get him to take them off he wraps the chain around Estrada's throat and drags him all around the ring. There's this one bit where it looks like he's actually trying to castrate Estrada with the chain. Like, I can't even describe it properly. This also has the best 'guy suplexes himself and opponent over the top rope' spot I've ever seen. Fiera picks Jerry up for a vertical suplex, but he can't hold him properly and is unsteady on his feet (and after all the blood loss and psycho shit they'd put themselves through you can buy that being legit). He stumbles backwards and falls into the ropes, and Estrada drops like a bag of rocks to the floor, but he either holds onto Fiera or Fiera gets tangled up with the chain and he winds up tumbling out after Estrada. That description doesn't really do it justice, but it looked utterly insane and reckless and no wonder Jerry Estrada is in a fucking wheelchair. Finish is really weird and goofy and pretty crappy, but this is Monterrey and I'm pretty sure every match that's ever happened in Monterrey has some kind of horseshit finish, so whatever. That aside, this was just an absolute first class brawl.

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