MLJ: Los Guerreros Flashback: Los Nuevos Infernales vs Villanos IV & V/IWRG Mr. Niebla

2000/05/04 - Los Nuevos Infernales (Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero) vs. Villanos IV & V/IWRG Mr. Niebla

I decided that before moving on to the big title match between Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero, I really should go back and watch a couple of older matches. This is the sort of rabbit hole that I can go down and never come out of, so we're going to limit this. One Nuevo Infernales match. One match where Ultimo and Rey are pitted against Satanico and that's it. I'm tempted to hit something from the few years after, a title match maybe, when the GdI were thought to be one of the best teams in the world, but there's only so much time, and depending on how much we have of that, I'd actually love to give it a real look later.

I really like Satanico, and more than that, I love that his fingerprints are still all over CMLL, even into this last year. Los Guerreros and Hijos del Averno are both his legacy, and while Averno's gone now, they're all over the place in the 2000s, really. On top of that, he trained a ton of different luchadors. He was incredibly versatile, able to shift from stooging to blood feuds, from true evil to comedic evil, skilled in trios and title matches. If I could watch a thousand Satanico matches I would. Here, he was great, directing traffic with his two young partners and looking like he was having the time of his life.

So, then there's the other side: I need to see more of the Villanos. That goes without saying. I haven't really found the footage to latch on to yet, but I'm sure I will at some point. IWRG Niebla was, of course, not the Niebla we're used to, but the version created due to a legal dispute, or lack there of. I've seen the mask match between the two Nieblas and enjoyed it and I'm glad guy stuck around, because really lucha needs more guys with ridiculous physiques. He was slimmer and pretty agile here, but didn't stand out at all personality-wise. The Villanos looked great, but I couldn't really tell one from the other. That's my own failing, I'm sure, though the VQ didn't help. Apparently this was on ESPN 2 at some point?

Structurally, this was a sort of weird rudos vs rudos match. I have no context, no idea what the story was here or really what role either team played in IWRG at the time, or the nature of the TV show, or anything at all. This was at least a number of months into the Nuevo Infernales run and probably at least a few before they rebelled against Satanico and picked up Tarzan Boy. It was worked with Villanos and Niebla as the de facto tecnicos, actually, getting swept under in the primera, coming back in the segunda, getting swept back under at the start of the tecera, only to come back again to lead to the finish. Thanks to cut aways to the ring girl, I'm not even sure how some of this worked. When we really get into the action, Los Infernales are already taking the advantage. When we come back after the segunda, it's pretty much the same thing, but it's not a cut so much as the camera amusingly looking the other way.

We'll chalk it up to superior teamwork, because Satanico and company had that in a big way. That was the story of the primera. Like I said, he's directing traffic and he seemed like he was having a blast doing it. The three of them worked well in unison, hitting corner charges (including a lesser form of UG's corner seated senton), and even Los Guerreros' triple alley oop body splash onto the dangling back of their held opponent. I hadn't realized that was a move with so much history for the group. They did the catapult into a shot too, and finished with a couple of triple submissions, one following a triple wheelbarrow facebuster. It kept on into the segunda too, as they did these cute little flips as a team before corner charges, until Rey, who, by the way, looked a bit more goth than pirate here, as if he was trying to capitalize on Vampiro or something, was dodged by a Villano, allowing the other side to take over.

As I said, the Villanos' side ended up working rather tecnico by default. That included the Villano getting some revenge on UG (who had worked on his mask in the primera), by undoing his mask a bit, and then keeping the advantage as UG desperately tried to keep it on, but more pointedly, a bunch of arm drags and hip throws and agile reversals and what not, with Los Infernales feeding them by bumping around the ring, and in Satanico's case stooging, making them look good. I liked Niebla's back headbutts (topes sans the suicida) around the ring and sort of wish people used them more now. They took the fall with a dive and a windy submission and a powerbomb on Satanico. After some back and forth in the tecera, it looked like it was about to end the same way, with captain Niebla getting the better of captain Satanico, but UG, clever and deft, tossed his mask of in the midst of a quebrada, and Los Infernales pick up the well timed DQ win. I actually had to go back and see it again because I was focused on Satanico and missed it completely.

This was a fun look back. Satanico and the two young, flashy guys, made for a nice trio. I don't think Rey entirely had it yet as he looked choppy or unsure at times, but it's easy to see why he got better quickly. It's sort of a shame that there was only a year or so of this version of Los Infernales and not more than that. Hopefully there's a lot more footage out there for me to catch at some point.