Yeah, I’m four days behind Valentine’s day, but there is no such thing as bad timing when it comes down to a good wrestling match, which is the case today. Thinking I could only came up with one luchador that is the closest representation of love in lucha libre, Love Machine.
Love Machine (or Art Barr) history is pretty well known (but if you don’t know it, leave a comment and I’ll write about it someday in the future), so today I bring you, one of the most known matches of this American wrestler, the 1992 bout against Blue Panther in which both masks were on the line.
Reading some articles about how these luchadores got to this point was amazing, you can’t compare it with how some feuds in the last ten years developed until reaching a bet match. What Love Machine and Blue Panther did was just intense.
Love Machine debuted in Mexico in 1991, by the end of that year his rivalry with Blue Panther reached a point of no return. This happened on December when Blue Panther fractured Love Machine’s right leg. On the last show of 1991 in Arena Mexico, Love Machine appeared on crutches to apologize with the audience for not being able to wrestle that night. Blue Panther took advantage of Machine’s condition and attacked him, using one of the crutches and to hit the injured leg, continuing the punishment by squishing the same leg with a chair.
By March in 1992, Love Machine was fully recovered of his injury and as soon as he had the chance, he took revenge on what Blue Panther did to him in December. While Blue Panther was giving an interview in Arena Mexico’s parking lot, Love Machine came out of nowhere and began a street fight with Panther.
The animosity between these guys couldn’t go any further and a contract for a mask vs mask match on the April 3th 1992 in Arena Mexico was signed.
The spectacle for that night was surrounded by controversy even before it began. Thousands of people who tried to witness the match were left outside, the company placed giant screen outside the arena so these people would be able to watch the fight. If it wasn’t enough that thousands of people didn’t enter the arena, well CMLL, somehow managed to add another thousand people to Arena Mexico’s real capacity from something above 17,000, they overcrowded the arena that night with 18,000 people.
The match itself didn’t skip a beat on the polemic part. Before the fight began, a representative of Mexico City’s Lucha Libre Commission, ordered 3 referees for the bout, one for each for all (Following lucha libre tradition the match was set to win 2 out of 3 falls). This decision was made because of El Gato Montini (the referee originally designated for this bout), famous for being partial to the rudo side. A raffle was made to assign one fall for each referee, the first fall was for Pompin, the second one for Guero Rangel and the final one (in case of being needed) for El Gato Montini.
About the match and without getting into details, well, it was awesome and aggressive the whole time, the way Blue Panther won the first fall was great. The ending continued the controversy that surrounded the show that night. There’s nothing else to say about it. You can watch it down here and I hope you enjoy it. This is all for today, see you next week.
Francisco Arreola
@fcoarreola
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