Featured Image: Illustration by Chris Bryan (@christhings). Featured in “Way of the Blade: 100 of the Greatest Bloody Matches In Wrestling History” by Phil Schneider

September 23rd has some really awesome matches that have happened on that day. And as my itch to write a wrestling piece grew more intense, I wanted to try my hand at writing about two of my favorite wrestling matches ever involving some of the best wrestlers of all time.

Both are Lucha de apuestas matches. Both took place in Arena Mexico. Both took place in EMLL (now known as CMLL). I’m talking about El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan from 9/23/88 and Sangre Chicana vs MS-1 from 9/23/83.

El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan: 9/23/88

Wrestling doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Wrestling isn’t the hobby of mine that I go to for the deepest layers in acting or storytelling. It’s also not what I go to when I want to be wowed by athleticism. 

That’s not to say that these things aren’t part of what makes wrestling great, because they can be and for my sensibilities, often times are. But it’s to say that for as much time passes, as wrestling as an artform gets older and the way it’s consumed and discussed changes, some things get left behind. 

What’s appreciated in a match layout, what wrestlers are trying to accomplish in their time in the ring or even the wrestling from years past, all are susceptible to being reduced to relics of bygone eras. To being the type of stuff that you’re either stuck in the past or a hipster for wishing that today’s wrestling still had traces of.

El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan from September 23rd, 1988, is a masterclass in pacing and structure. Immediately we get greeted by Morgan attacking Dandy before the match even really begins and we get a phenomenal control segment from Morgan for the first half of this match. 

Morgan is nasty and vicious, gnawing at Dandy’s face until Dandy is covered in blood. Every palm thrust, every punch, is executed to perfection. We get one of the greatest visuals in the history of wrestling when Pirata Morgan, after chewing on the face of Dandy, spits his blood in the air and we just get this crimson mist that eventually dissipates. When you factor in the graininess of the footage, Pirata Morgan being this eyepatch wearing villain of man, with that bloody mist, there’s so few things in wrestling that have ever been cooler than that singular moment. 

The feeling of Dandy being on the ropes and Morgan having complete control of the situation is played to as well as anyone could possibly ask for. But what takes this match to the heights it achieves as an all time classic, is the pacing. The pacing makes everything mean so much more here. Dandy tries time and time again to mount offense in the first two falls, but every time he’s about to punch Morgan with all the hatred and spite he has in his being, the referee grabs his arm and keeps him delivering retribution. And Morgan would take advantage and go right back to mounting offense. 

When Dandy finally sees daylight and is able to string some offense together and take the second fall, it feels so extremely earned. Because of the obstacles that were how imposing Morgan was and overcoming a questionable referee. And Dandy’s selling plays a huge role. El Dandy is one of the greatest professional wrestlers to ever live. In my eyes, at his best, he may even be the best I’ve ever watched. He’s one of the best bleeding tecnicos you’ll ever see and he also does a great job of generating sympathy and understanding the timing needed to make everything so much more meaningful.

For as much as I love to see Dandy struggle as a babyface and figure his way through a problem, he’s a nasty motherfucker in his own right. As soon as the tide moves in his favor and he evens up the falls, he’s driven by one thing: revenge. 

Dandy is pummeling Morgan with the same fervor that Morgan had with beating him down. That feeling is palpable with every punch that’s landing and every attempt that Dandy makes to ensure that his teeth break through Morgan’s skin. He even spits out Morgan’s blood, albeit creating a far less cool visual than when Morgan did it earlier. But the goal is revenge. And Dandy continues to deliver his brand of justice, but he gets too greedy and goes for one too many headbutts and that gives Morgan the opening to get back into the fight. 

Earlier in the match it was the ref impeding Dandy’s success. In this section it’s all self-induced. He abandons the intensity he had initially and opts for higher risk offense that doesn’t pay off. Including a diving splash off the top rope that Morgan counters, leading to Morgan hitting a splash of his own. Just when it felt like Dandy had the match in the palm of his hands, he’s once again fighting from underneath. 

At some point Dandy launches Morgan from the ring to the floor and follows it with an absolutely spectacular tope over the top rope. All of his failing to hit the higher risk offense led to that specific moment where he hits the biggest and most important move of the match. Not just because it’s the most dazzling or the coolest, but because of how hard he had to work to get it. The finish follows not too long after and following a small package pin that Dandy catches Morgan in, he’s declared the winner of this hair vs hair encounter.

Sangre Chicana vs MS-1: 9/23/83

There’s two places I feel pressure from when trying to write about this match. 

The first one is that I have friends who are much better writers than myself who have already covered this in the past. On top of that, this is one of most famous matches of all time, at least in the sphere of fandom that myself and the people reading this likely occupy. What’s there left to say about this match that wasn’t already said in essays, books and forum posts 10 years ago?

Secondly, how do I do justice to a match that shifted my mind and the way I view wrestling forever? Being 18 and becoming aware of Pro Wrestling Only and then learning about the Greatest Wrestler Ever project of 2016, it opened me up to wrestling I would never have experienced if it wasn’t for the people actively engaging with that process. This match being one of those things. 

All I can do is say anything that has ever been written and said about this match is not only true, but it’s even more than that.

The video starts with MS-1 with his blonde hair and jewel covered jacket standing in the ring, instantly feeling like someone I would love to see get punched in the face. The match then cuts to a previously recorded promo segment and as soon as we’re back to the live feed, MS-1 has jumped Sangre Chicana before he even can get in the ring. Sangre Chicana is instantly covered in blood and can barely stand, as MS-1 revels in what he’s done.

Lucha de apuestas matches of the 1980s are often defined by early sneak tactics by rudos, plenty of blood and lots of punches. So, what makes this match so special? What makes this one of the five greatest wrestling matches of all time and not just a really good one?

It’s the selling of blood loss. As soon as Sangre Chicana’s skin is opened up, the look of discombobulation etched on his face is so clear. He can barely stand and walking is even harder. A woman from the audience is wiping away Chicana’s blood until she’s told to sit back down. The commentary and camera person hone in on Chicana’s mother being in attendance for this. The longer the blood flows and drips from his face to his chest, the more you resonate with Chicana’s race against the clock. Not just for survival, but also pride.

This match is the main event of EMLL’s 50th anniversary show. Chicana already lost his mask years prior to this in 1977, he already felt that sting that losing a Lucha de apuestas does to a person’s pride. But so has MS-1, he lost his mask just a year prior to this encounter. Neither man can afford to lose here and more than 99% of wrestling matches that have or will ever exist, this match conveys that willingness to fight as hard as it takes to keep your pride intact 

MS-1’s beating of a bloodied Sangre Chicana reeks of a man who’s urgent and purposeful in his motives. Yeah, he takes some time to antagonize the audience, but he never comes across as anything other than driven. He takes a resounding 1-0 lead after winning the first fall. All while Sangre Chicana is hanging on by the thinnest thread imaginable, punching himself in the head to keep himself from succumbing to the human body’s natural reaction to losing too much blood: to shut down.

But he fights on, because he has to. And when he finds the strength, he throws punches that absolutely rock MS-1 and reduces him to begging off and asking for mercy. He blasts MS-1 with a tope suicida that keeps MS-1 from being able to answer the referee’s count and like that we’re tied 1-1 heading into the third fall.

Chicana doesn’t shy away from paying back MS-1’s cruelty. He’s adjusted to his body’s current conditions enough and fueled by enough hate to start to deliver that same punishment back. So for every drop of blood Chicana spilt that night, MS-1 shed even more. His face is entirely covered in blood and soon stains most of his upper body.

These two men, who’s disdain for each other led them to the main event of EMLL 50th anniversary, are both fighting against their mortality to keep their pride intact. The selling from both of them at this stage is phenomenal and at any moment it feels like either of them could just collapse. Chicana is still punching himself and hitting his head on the ring trying to keep his body from failing. The punches are being thrown with less power, trying to stand feels impossible, there’s barely any strength left to kick out or find a way back to their feet. It feels like a race against the clock.

MS-1 takes firm control of the third fall once the action returns back to the ring, but his overzealousness leads him into making decisions that would ultimately backfire. MS-1 goes for a tope suicida, but Chicana somehow had the wherewithal to avoid it and throw MS-1 into the first row of chairs. That gives Chicana the chance he needed to get the match back on his side and he hits another tope suicida of his own. MS-1 gets another chance at control, but chooses to go to the top rope and doesn’t get the desired results on a splash. An exhausted Chicana shoots a half Nelson and tries for a pin and doesn’t get it. 

Time is ticking, neither of them have much more left to give. The canvas is entirely different color than it was at the start of their match. Going from a dingy white to smears and smatterings of scarlet all over it. Whether it is his hubris informing this decision or understanding the stakes of the match and being willing to do whatever it takes to win, MS-1 takes another chance with a top rope maneuver. One last shot at victory and glory. And he misses with a flipping senton. With all the strength he had left to call upon, Chicana traps MS-1 in a submission in the middle of the ring. And with not enough strength to get to the ropes or break free, MS-1 is forced to submit and Chicana is the winner. 

I’ve been a wrestling nerd all my life. I watched WWE for as long as I could remember, I was watching TNA religiously at 8 years old. My aunt’s boyfriend gave me a bag of bootleg wrestling DVDs when I was 11 and that was when I saw ECW and WCW for the first time.  By the time I was 13 I was watching any Jushin Thunder Liger or The Great Muta I could find online and that led to me discovering Japanese wrestling.

That last paragraph might have been a bit boring, but I say it to say that discovering wrestling has been part of my life forever. And despite how many amazing parts of wrestling I’ve been able to uncover and experience, MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana has done more for me and my love of wrestling than probably any wrestling match ever. I didn’t know these two men even existed. I found a pack of the top 20 matches from the DVDVR Lucha 1980s set, not knowing anything about anyone featured on there other than El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas. And there’s amazing stuff in all 20 of those matches (El Dandy vs Pirata Morgan fittingly made the top 20 of the set), but nothing blew me away like MS-1 vs Sangre Chicana. Nothing swept me off my feet and made me fall in love with a genre of wrestling the way this match did. 

Find a Topic

Wrestling can be a lot of different things and has a lot of different functions that people are trying to accomplish. But what speaks to me is struggle and heart. And some people are better at that and have a more authentic feeling than others. I want to feel like the journey was worth it. To buy into someone’s struggles and successes. There’s room for things to be “cool” and to wow me from a physicality perspective. But what sticks with me is how something made me feel. 

The recent dialogue around older wrestling and the idea that a match from 1983 is worse than a match from 2024 really just saddens me. Not because wrestling from the 1980s or other periods is so much better, I will never be a person that says things like that. But it’s sad where it comes from or what the reasoning is. When the foremost wrestling historian pumps out that sort of idea, how can we fight it? Wrestling isn’t always comparable to sports, as much as people may try to make it as if it is. Sports have facts, metrics, and numbers attached to them to quantify arguments. It’s true that professional athletes are in better shape now than in eras prior when livable wages weren’t paid to athletes before the boom as an entertainment phenomenon or when there was rampant use of substances that could affect athletic performance. Today’s pro athletes have more time and resources to become their best selves and reach peak performance.

That’s not wrestling. Wrestling is expression through physicality, but it’s a performance meant to convey stories and generate feelings. In simpler terms, it’s art. And I know that calling wrestling art is one of the most nerdy things a human being could ever do, but I’d much rather do that than compare a professional wrestler to Michael Jordan.

And since it’s more along the lines of art or those mediums of entertainment that fall into the vast scope of what is considered art, it makes it even more nonsensical to claim that the more modern works are better solely because they’re newer. Ari Aster’s films aren’t just automatically better than Akira Kurosawa’s because of the advancements made in technology since Kurosawa’s time as a filmmaker. Judging any artistic medium this way takes the heart away from evaluating them.

Just because stuff is older or “classic”, doesn’t mean that the ideas it pioneered or innovated can’t be improved. I find people with that line of thinking just as annoying as a prisoner of the moment. Rakim and Big Daddy Kane were pivotal to the evolution of rapping. From Rakim’s flow and rhyme structure to the personality and life that Big Daddy Kane brought to his raps, they raised the standard of being an emcee. And because of their contributions, thousands upon thousands grew to want to rap to the level that those men showed was possible, and we saw rap grow into a genre of some of the most profound writing anywhere, in no small part to the influence of Rakim and Big Daddy Kane.

Even in another interest of mine; manga. Gege Akutami, the mangaka of “Jujutsu Kaisen”, is very openly inspired by other famous shounen works like “Bleach, “Hunter x Hunter”, and “Naruto”. And in that inspiration, Gege improves upon some flaws that those series might have had or expands on some ideas those series introduced and creates something special of his own.

Something isn’t better or worse than something because it’s newer or older. I think MIKE is better than Lil Wayne. I think Tatsuki Fujimoto is better than Tite Kubo. Not because they’re newer so they’re more advanced or better, but because of how their work makes me feel. That’s the heart of discussing these things and I pray we don’t keep losing that. Because if we do, I’m not really sure what we’re doing here anymore.

But I don’t know. I feel this way, but then I watch a dude in an eyepatch whip ass or watch a man covered in blood get his head shaved against his will and I feel a little bit better.