MLJ: Atlantida Rising 6: Relevos Super-Increibles! Último Dragón, Great Muta y Último Guerrero vs. Atlantis, Hijo del Perro Aguayo y Dr. Wagner Jr.

DRAGONMANIA I
2006-05-13 @ Arena Mexico
(Toryumon Mexico)

This match wasn't very good. I have to lead with that and it hurts me to do so, far more than you know. Sometimes a match can be well worth watching, even essential to watch, but it's really, truly, absolutely not good. There can be good things about it. There can be good efforts and performances and ideas and crowd heat and a thousand other things, but the parts just don't add up. They don't here, and it's a shame, because they could, maybe, if things were just a little different. Still, watch it.

So, this was from Dragonmania which was run by Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon promotion, of which I know very little about. There was a sense of celebration at the end of the show, so this was probably a big deal to him. I would have missed it completely but I was trying to fill in gaps using cagematch, since I have very few Guerreros matches I've found online for May and June of 06. It was a Relevos Super-Increibles match, which is something I haven't looked at yet. This was one-fall, with mixed affiliation partners.

So, I've said that it's both not very good and pretty much a can't miss. The reason why, put simply, is the dedication these wrestlers have in playing to their characters. The match was Ultimo Dragon and five insane people, basically. You get the sense that he put himself right in the center of this crazy storm, and it's hugely entertaining. Just watching these wrestlers interact with each other is hugely entertaining.

Let me break it down a bit. On one side you had Ultimo Guerrero, Perro Aguayo, Jr., and Dr. Wagner, Jr., two rudos and a tecnico. Now I've been mostly avoiding Perro since the footage we have with Perros Del Mal seems a little spotty for 2006 and I've been able to look at los Guerreros without really having it bleed over, but the imperssion I get is that his stable was feuding throughout the year with both various tecnicos AND with los Guerreros. He's charismatic and intense, so I'll come back to him at some point later in my watching. Ultimo's usually sane, if a bit over the top. Wagner's usually over the top, if at least somewhat sane. On the other side there was Ultimo Dragon, of course, Atlantis, and Muta. Muta, here, was in 2006 mode, with the spikey red mask. He generally moved around the ring like some sort of alien monster who did not fully understand where he was or what he was doing there but that found all of this very strange and interesting.

It was all about the interactions, though. Perro and Wagner had a reluctant alliance, one that was tested by two miscommunication spots, the second being a missed kick on the ramp that sent Perro into the seats as part of an amazing sell job. Atlantis and UG started out with a sportsmanlike demonstration of chain wrestling, applauding each other at every point, until their partners rebelled against them. Later on, they would outright work together to maul Dragon. Dragon spent part of the match acting as Muta's handler, trying to keep him from terrorizing poor women and children in the crowd. Wagner, on the other hand, seemed to find Muta fascinating and postured and posed around him in some attempt to communicate, especially after his attempts to hurt him seemed to fail completely.

There was entertaining stuff. Wagner eating Muta's offense was tons of fun, especially how he sold the leg on the dragon screw. He even did a dragon screw of his own late in the match. Atlantis oscillating between cheering on UG and Dragon (who was his actual partner) was a lot of fun. Really, all of his reactions were just far less dignified than you'd expect. He seemed like he was having a blast. Wagner got to do his big sommersault dive off the stage. All of the luchadors got to have some well-worked exchanges with each other, and hey, it was engaging just watching the other five try to make sense of Muta's lumbering around the ring and blowing of mist.

The thing just never comes together. All of the character work is there without purpose. It's just these absurd characters tossed into a hotel with the power cut and the roads blocked by snow and you have to watch them interact with each other while there's a murderer (in this case Muta) in the house. There's no Poirot to come in at the end and make sense of it all. The Perro/Wagner alliance never breaks down into dissention even though they more than teased it. By the end, they just get everyone out of the ring with dives so Muta can mist Wagner off the top rope and pick up the win with the shining wizard. It doesn't work at all, but it's still compelling. If some indy tried to pull this off, it wouldn't be. Instead, however, you had these iconic characters in the ring playing against each other and that's what makes it worth watching. I'm glad I found it.