MLJ: Atlantida Rising 4: Hijo del Lizmark, Místico, Último Dragón vs Olímpico, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

Aired 2006-04-29
Taped 2006-04-23 @ Arena Coliseo
Hijo del Lizmark, Místico, Último Dragón vs Olímpico, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

This probably would fall more on the fun side of things, at it was fairly disposable from a structural standpoint. It did have a pretty snappy tercera caida though. Frankly, I think all of these Guerreros del Atlantida matches have been at least worth watching and I've enjoyed them in sequence as well. It's not even that there's an ongoing story from week to week (though there are some trhoughlines), but it's fun to just watch these guys in front of the same audience with slightly different variations in the make-up of the trios having to keep things interesting.

The way they chose to do so here was to have an outright rudo ambush to begin, run with a very short segunda caida comeback, and then reset for a tercera with a lot of action and some shtick. It was fairly effective, but ultimately sort of slight, especially compared to the last few matches which felt like they had a bit more substance. There were some nice moves and very solid dives and some character work that stood out, especially in the third fall, but it all came off as a little forgettable.

Everyone did get to show off at one point or another. The Guerreros had that bandit mentality like usual, with Ultimo's huddle with the fans really king-sized this time out. The ambush was believable and effective with two press slams (one onto Olimpico's knee and the other to the outside) and a brutal triple team spot involving a stun gun and being tossed across the ring on Mistico. They took the primera caida with three corner attacks on Lizmark and a nice looking double lift set-up springboard dropkick by Olimpico onto Dragon. Their triple pin after this was great. In general, I think Olimpico was a very useful addition to most matches he was in as he made for a great visual discrepancy and an effective foil for the tecnicos. In the tercera caida, the character work was fun as some miscommunication had Tarzan Boy and Olimpico at each other's throats until UG played peacemaker and they managed a goonish reconciliation, avoiding a misstep and recovering to double chop Lizmark.

The tecnicos were pretty fiery, as these three were sort of variations of the same. They didn't get to show much during the comeback (which consisted of Lizmark, Jr. ducking a double clothesline and Mistico flying in with a springboard dropkick out of nowhere, followed by a diving over the top 'rana to UG and the finishes), but I do like both Lizmark and Dragon's finishes. I think Dragon's looked a little goofy in the states but it seemed to fit in better here. During the tercera, Dragon and UG had a nice sequence and Lizmark and Dragon set up the rudo miscommunication well. Everyone played to the crowd which was definitely into this and very much behind the tecnicos.

The end played up the ongoing Mistico vs UG storyline where Mistico keeps getting closer and closer to beating him with La Mistica. After Dragon took everyone out with the Asai Moonsault (which still felt like something special) and it came down to the captains, Mistico got shrugged off on his La Mistica attempt and UG immediately went for the foul. There's an undercurrent in these matches that he can't beat him one-on-one which allowed for a pretty easy and effective narrative tool. Fun match, but better as part of a greater whole.