My Lucha Journey: Atlantida Rising 1: Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Tarzan Boy vs Dr. Wagner, Jr. Mistico, El Hijo Del Santo

taped 2005-9-30 @ Arena Mexico
Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Tarzan Boy vs Dr. Wagner, Jr. Mistico, El Hijo Del Santo

I'm looking at this match as sort of a bridge into 2006 and the small army of Los Guerreros del Atlantida matches i'm going to be watching. I just saw Santo vs two of the rudos in this match, and while those encounters took place a month or two later, this is all part of the larger whole. I also saw a match with Wagner and Mistico (and a pretty boring iteration of Negro Casas) vs Pierroth, Halloween, and Damian that was definitely enjoyable for Wagner and Mistico's big dog/little dog routine, but I have to draw the line somewhere, and this is where I'm drawing it.

This was actually a hell of a Trios. I really wanted to start in 2006 because it felt cleaner, and I look to have almost weekly matches from April into the summer which seemed like a nice little project. This dropped on the youtube search, though, and I just couldn't pass it up. It had both Wagner and Santo in it as well as an Atlantida trio with both UG and Atlantis. I'm glad I stopped to take a look.

First, let me say some things, of which I reserve the right to completely change my opinion on later. Remember, I'm still trying to find my way with all of this and I've come to some conclusions that relate to this match.

This isn't true for every match or even every trios match, but so much of what I think to be the best lucha is based on anticipation and paying off that anticipation. That could be anticipation of a dive, of the loss of a mask or a hair, of the two captains to square off deep into the tercera caida, or in its simplest, most primal form, anticipation of the tecnicos turning the tide after being dominated, of the rudos getting their comeuppance for what they've done either earlier in the match or in earlier matches. 

This match had that in spades, both the anticipation, well-executed, and the payoff. The only real problem with the thing was that the key moment of transition was a complete and utter mess. That hurt it just as much as you'd think, but not so much that it completely invalidated the rest of the match. 

There are different formula on how a match like this could go. This one had the rudos dominate from the get go, in the most brutal fashion possible, to the point of getting themselves disqualified. This is actually a pretty useful narrative device because it lets the tecnicos go up a fall while further delaying that moment of gratification that comes with the tecnico comeback. They're running two-three falls matches in front of the same crowds every week, so changing things up as much as possible is necessary. Anyway, the rudos got themselves disqualified but maintained the advantage. Finally, the tecnicos mounted a comeback based on a big moment, getting a fairly well paralleled revenge for most of the slights afflicted upon them, and they ended up paired off on a near reset (though one that did not invalidate all that had happened) in order to set up the finish. 

Really, though, the devil's in the details, and the details here were great. The level of anticipation for the comeback is directly proportional to how good the beatdown is. I think that's a fairly safe equation of lucha. The initial beatdown of the tecnicos had such a chaotic feel, with every wrestler from Mistico to the rudo mascot playing their role well. Mistico, I've found from watching matches from this era, was an amazing pinball. The guy could take offense and his opponents seemed more than willing to make the most of that, be it due to hazing or just knowing what they had as a tool. The height he'd get on a pancake toss was nuts and no one gets chucked out of the ring with quite as much gusto. He was a good size to take things like UG's spinning press slam from the apron to the inside, which was probably the coolest thing I've seen all week. He also ate both the triple team Guerreros alley-oop jump on the rampway and a downright crazy Atlantis powerbomb rocket launcher. If these all sound like complicated things, they sort of were, but none of them felt contrived. The only thing you remember was Mistico constantly landing on his face. He did garner sympathy throughout all of this, between just what he'd take and his size and yes, his selling, but almost anyone would, getting beat up to that degree. 

They shared the wealth too, with Wagner eating the humiliating attacks of Ultimonito, including both a splash off the apron and a dropkick foul on the ramp. Just to be clear, Ultimonito was the evil monkey mascot, the enemy of Que Monito or Ke-Monito, who was the good monkey mascot. He eventually became Zacarias, a personal hero. I was pretty damn confused because I saw Ultimo beat up a mascot in one of the Santo singles matches, and I didn't realize the difference. Now I do. Ultimonito is sporting an Atlantis mask (which is, by the by, still white at this point. He wasn't wearing the black rudo mask here). All the tecnicos got their masks ripped pretty severely, including a great moment where Wagner lays his leg over Mistico's head to prevent the rudos from getting to his mask, even as both of them get swarmed. 

Everything was going great until the transition point. I'm not even sure what it was supposed to be. Mistico was on the top, seated there by the rudos. UG and Atlantis looked to give him some sort of double superplex, but then Wagner and Santo came in get under them in electric chairs. So far, so good. Tarzan Boy rushed up, bounded on to the top and then everything sort of froze in confusion. We ended up with a leaning tower of stupid, and it all just sort of paused until Mistico haphazardly toppled it. Time froze. That happened. The tecnicos took over.

At least they took over with flair, with the second half of the match full of revenge spots and visceral satisfaction. The tecnicos had a go at the rudos' masks. Atlantis got dragged down the ramp. Wagner got full revenge on Ultimonito, which led to the rudos starting to fight back (which is one thing that happens quite a bit when tecnicos go too far). In this case, Mistico was about to come off the top onto the mascot but he got nailed from the apron by the surviving rudos. This led to the finishing resets, with Wagner pairing off with UG. He's so much fun to watch when he's hamming it up, kicking out the hyper-chops and this huge tornado DDT while whole families wearing his mask in the crowd pose. He capped it all with an awesome dive from the inside to the ramp and then, after basking in the glory of it, another one from the ramp to the floor. Then we had Mistico with a nice little exchange with Tarzan Boy, ending with a huge plancha from the top, the ripped mask making the whole thing feel more visually spectacular somehow. 

Speaking of formula, falls in trios matches usually follow one pretty tightly. Most of the time it seems like either the captain gets pinned (before or after they're left alone) or the other two get pinned instead of the captain. It feels fairly rare in modern lucha for one person to get eliminated and then the captain to eat a fall, especially if there isn't some level of balance, but that's what happened here. They reset again to Atlantis vs Santo and after a caballo tease, Atlantis submitted him with the Atlantida. In the midst of the chaos, while the refs were distracted by what was going on outside, UG rolled right in and hit probably the world's greatest foul, launching Atlantis over his head and mule kicking him on the way down for the pin. It was a really satisfying end to a very good match. If only they hadn't botched the transition. I don't follow the Segunda Caida Grading Conventions, in part, because they're all relative to one another and I just haven't seen enough yet, but relative to all the modern lucha I HAVE seen, this was an Epic match. I imagine it's at least a Must See relative to everything out there and I'm definitely excited to roll on in to 2006.