Thursday 5 December 2013

Jerry Estrada: Drunken Uncle

Dos Caras v Enrique Vera (2/26/84)

I haven't seen a ton of Dos Caras, but everything I have seen has been at worst in the "neat" category. This wasn't blowaway great or anything, and the matwork wasn't spectacular, but it was rock solid and a nice look at Caras in a title match setting. Some of this felt a bit IWRG-esque in that they'd sort of take turns at wrapping each other up as opposed to the matwork in Cota/Rocca, which was more "constant" -- it wasn't hold-release-hold. I watched this a few days ago now and really don't have much to say about it because I've basically forgotten most of it. Match will very likely be bottom half somewhere.


Jerry Estrada v Ultraman (3/2/84)

One of my favourite things about watching Jerry Estrada is seeing how out of his mind he happens to be on that night. He's like your drunken uncle that shows up to Christmas dinner shitfaced. He ALWAYS shows up shitfaced; it's just a matter of HOW shitfaced. Can he string an entire sentence together? Can he use the cutlery properly? Has he fallen asleep in the carrots? So on and so forth (you'll have plenty examples if, like me, you have a drunken uncle that always shows up to Christmas dinner shitfaced). Estrada is actually about as lucid as I've ever seen him here, but there's still one bit where he manages to fuck up running the ropes. I actually dug this a whole lot. It's mostly matwork, which isn't the kind of thing that made me a Jerry Estrada fan in the first place, but after having watched a few Estrada title matches over the last couple years I'm beginning to think he's pretty damn good at them. Jerry is totally playing to the back row and just selling as extravagantly and loudly as possible, milking the absolute shit out of everything. It's a bit hammy at times, but that's part of the charm of the fucked up lunatic that is Jerry Estrada. Plus his selling the longer the match goes is really great. Both dives in the tercera look really reckless. Neither connects too well, but Estrada still ends up cracking the back of his head off a fixed seat. I think he winds up even deeper in the seats after his own tope than Ultraman does. At some point Jerry goes after Ultraman's arm, and Ultraman really goes above and beyond to sell the finish. I might be the biggest Jerry Estrada fan on this here internet.