MLJ: Atlantida Rising 3: Dr. Wagner Jr., Heavy Metal, Místico vs Olímpico, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

Aired 2006-04-22
Taped 2006-04-16 @ Arena Coliseo
Dr. Wagner Jr., Heavy Metal, Místico vs Olímpico, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

We're back to having at least one of the Atlantida leaders in on this match as Ultimo Guerrero was captain for his side. Mistico was captain for his and though he'd serve as a well-glorified punching bag again, he had come quite a ways in the half a year since my last match with him. He came down to the ring with two belts and was presented as something more of a force with the big anticipation being him squaring off in the ring alone with UG. The Guerreros struck a fun balance. Coming out, there was a feeling of them being almost locally beloved bandits or what not, with UG doing the huddle with fans and Rey cheesing it up with the girls. In the match itself, however, the tecnicos were pretty universally over, especially after an early moment from Wagner.

I try not to do play by play in these for various reasons, one of which being that it really doesn't fit Segunda Caida's style of review. I really liked how the primera caida played out though, so I'm going to run through it with more detail than usual. I thought it was pretty smart and not at all lazy, which is not to say that utilization of the usual tropes is lazy, but this teased them and then took another twist and turn to get where it was going. To point, usually, from what I've seen, a primera caida in a standard trios (neither a huge brawl or a title match) goes one of two ways: either they square off until the tecnicos use their superior skill and speed to gain a huge advantage or the rudos find a way to swarm and divide and conquer. Here, they did a very good job of teasing the latter, and then, finally only after teasing the former, was it fully realized.

The match began with Heavy Metal and Olimpico. I haven't seen much of Metal yet. He's Casas and Felino's younger brother, of course. Here he was about 36, had a great look with his hair falling over his face, and had a lot of zing, especially in the tercera caida where he got to have a short sequence vs. the world. They tried to cut him off from the outside in with a shot off the ropes, which in a normal primera might lead to him charging the rudo corner and getting swarmed. Here, he pushed Olimpico over instead, which led to the lucha equivalent of a bench clearing brawl (which ended with Mistico springboarding in with a rana of course). They hit the floor for a quite literal Mexican standoff, and Wagner got his big early moment, putting his arms around his partners' shoulders in a sign of solidarity. It almost became a Jets vs Sharks' snap off here, but didn't quite topple over that line.

Back in the ring, they teased Ultimo vs Mistico for the first time before going with Rey vs. Wagner. After a short sequence, Rey hit a jumping back brain (shoulder?) kick and the rudos swarmed Wagner, which in another match would have spelled the beginning of the rudo control beatdown. Here, though, Wagner got up, dragged Rey over to his corner and the tecnicos did a paralleled beat down. It was all a lot of fun. We got another tease of Mistico vs UG, this time with Mistico taking another shot to the back off the ropes, which didn't lead immediately to the beatdown, but instead enraged him enough that he got careless and went for an rope-climbing armdrag right in the rudo corner. They held on to his legs and tossed him to the mat, finally jumping the other tecnicos and forcing them out so that they could really take over.

What followed was a pretty solid beatdown. Mistico, despite how far he came belts wise, still ate a bit pancake and then a UG press slam into the top turnbuckle. Then, they called Olimipco (who was slamming Wagner back on the apron) back in so they could do this triple powerbomb with a twist at the last moment that dropped Mistico right on his face. UG press slammed him to the floor and they did a quick flurry of high-precision team moves to pin Metal (Sprinboard kick from a bearhug position, catapult into a clothesline, castigo) and Wagner (draping him over the rope and having Olimpico spring off Ultimo's back to land on him there) to take the caida. It was a really nice fall and I think what made it so nice is that they don't do it every day. It'd get sort of old quickly if they kept trying to twist the formula so much but every one of these matches does something out of the norm and here it was the primera caida and it worked great.

The rest of the match had more highs than lows, including a great finish. The tecnico comeback was definitely effective, save for one little knock. After squashing Metal in the corner to start the segunda caida (including UG's handstand corner senton, which works so much better in trios matchse with his partners to hold the guy), they set up Wagner for an assisted leapfrog right onto his back. All well and good except for the fact that Wagner was hamming it up the whole way, playing to the crowd with the Hogan ear thing. I like how Wagner shows SO much personality in his matches; it's engaging and pops the crowd huge, but here it took me completely out of the match. If he doesn't give a damn about the beating he's about to get, then why should I? Casas did something similar in a previous match, but that was more spitting in the face of the beating he was about to get. This was very different, especially as it led right to the transition. They went to try it again on Mistico but the other tecnicos made it back in to break it up and they turned the tables, doing it to Olimpico. Things broke down from there with Mistico finally getting his hands on UG. He started immediately to undo the mask, which almost always feels like an act of hubris when the tecnico does it without proper provocation. Eventually they went into a sequence, which included the spot Mistico does when he holds his opponent's hands and jumps up backwards for a twisting rana that always looks way too collaborative for my tastes. It led to a really amazing corkscrew plancha though so I guess I can't complain too much. With Mistico and UG out of the ring, the tecnicos made short work of the rudos with a roll up/power bomb to take the segunda caida. It was a good comeback and set up the finish well.

The tercera caida allowed Metal to show his mettle a bit, had one really solid dive exchange of sorts, and then bled into the finish. I think the structuralist in me prefers when you get this sort of tecnico sequence in the primera caida as opposed to after a restart at the end, but it was still good to see here. It made me want to see more of Metal certainly. The sequence ended with the dive sequence with Metal doing a Hamrick-bump style dropkick through the ropes, getting kicked out face first on the apron by Rey who then landed on him with a sliding splash across the apron to the floor, and Wagner finishing it with a huge somersault senton off the apron, that bowled Rey over. This left Mistico and UG in there and after a moment of hype, they immediately went at each other. Mistico almost instantly hit La Mistica, but the mask he worked on earlier in the match went flying off and UG picked up the DQ win. Good finish that built off of how heated Mistico was earlier in the match. He really made for a great foil for rudos to play against, but I'm almost amazed he was so over with the crowd considering his Scrappy Doo antics. Very good match with a great primera. I just wish Wagner had dialed it down a bit once or twice.