MOTW 117: Great Sasuke vs Dos Caras
"M.O.T.W. #117: The Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras" - ink & digital illustration
Feliz Navidad & happy holidays!! This special day brings us up to the 117th edition of our Chris Things Art 'Match of the Week' illustration series! And this week we travel to the wonderful world of mid-90s Michinoku Pro for a 'Lucharesu' classic!
This fantastically unique match took place on August 25th, 1995, on Day 28 of the first ever Michinoku Pro 'Fukumen World League' Masked Man Tournament at the Aomori Prefectural Gymnasium, atop the beautiful Tohoku region of Japan. This was the big tournament final!
So as a big time Sasuke fan, this past week i found myself doing a bit of a deep-dive into the early days of the hugely influential Michi Pro promotion and Sasuke's classics during that time. I'd actually never seen the final to the first ever Fukumen & was quite fascinated by the contrasting styles of one of the all time greats of 90s Japanese Junior Heavyweight Wrestling & a face of Lucha Libre royalty in the legendary Dos Caras. Safe to say, I was very, very pleasantly surprised why what I found!
The Aomori crowd brought a wonderful level of enthusiasm to this tournament final with reverence for the Lucha Legend & total love for their Tohoku hero. The real surprise here for me though was how Sasuke & Dos Caras meshed so well together! There was a really great scrappy, charismatic underdog vs cocky legend dynamic that really made it.
We got some amazing Llaveo exchanges and some breathtaking aerial attacks; flowing back and forth in such a great organic manner. But maybe my favourite part was seeing some of the earliest examples of "crazy Sasuke" - taking some inhuman levels of punishment as we got to the latter stages of this that I don't think anyone expected. This may be the most absolutely nasty series of powerbombs I have ever witnessed!
This whole thing was just really really great & a wonderful surprise in many ways. I think this is officially my favourite Dos Caras match that I've ever seen.
ENJOY!
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Pre-Framed Art Prints (Premium): Printed on 320gsm 'Sihl Masterclass Textured Cotton Rag', French made, Cold Press style textured art paper. High archival rating, printed with 12 colour Canon Lucia EX pigment Inks, expected life over 100 years if displayed correctly. Black or Oak-finish frame (Medium-density fibreboard) w/ double-mat border. 8 x 8" print size / 10 x 10" total frame size. Since I send these out myself, I'll also include a little bonus 'surprise' for you!
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