MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-10: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Negro Casas & El Hijo del Santo [CMLL Tag]

2001-08-31 @ Arena México
El Hijo Del Santo & Negro Casas vs Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero [CMLL Tag]

Alright, I know what match this is. I had my suspicions, but thankfully Rob made a music video of it so I can pin the thing down. Which means that I get to link it for you guys and even grab a gif of a spot, though just one. There are a couple of other good ones in there, but you can give Rob the view and check them out in the video.

This felt like a big deal from the get go. As far as I can tell, this was just another Friday night show, of which the other big attraction would have been Gigante Silva. They do the posing with the belts before hand. Olimpico is seconding the tecnicos (and he had teamed with Niebla and Silva vs Cien Caras, Wagner, Jr., Satanico, and Shocker in the semi main). Both Mascara Magica and Tarzan Boy are out there with the Rudos, but they instantly send Magica away.

I'm not going to go too in depth here in laying out the narrative. I want to focus on things more generally. We don't have the segunda here, which is a shame as this was a really great match. I give myself some credit in figuring it out sooner than not, though, and that's really such a testament to lucha structure and how rigid it is. When watching this, I thought things felt pretty weird and that's because they were pretty weird, but not necessarily in a bad way. The match was good enough that it would have worked, but I'm sure it would have worked better with the middle fall entact.

In brief, tecnicos took the primera off of Santo outfinessing his opponents. I have no idea what happened with the segunda. Early in the tercera (which started with the tecnicos recovering and with a reset), Tarzan Boy grabbed Casas' legs from the outside and I think his dad, referee Pepe Casas, there in an official's role, banned him from ringside. This whole bit got massive heat on the rudos. Things progressed with the tecnicos holding an advantage and some really gripping near falls especially after Santo's flipping rana position sunset flip, but not just that, before the rudos finally had a chance, with Santo up, ready for the Guerrero Special, only to have "Mascara Magica" run out and attack the tecnicos causing a presumed DQ which would have cost GdI the belts. It was really Satanico in disguise though and the match was tossed out. They'd run through the Infernales vs Infernales feud (soon to pay off at the Anniversary cage match) before going back for a rematch.

There's a lot of stuff in here, so I'm actually going to bullet point it. I promise I wont' do this often.

-Part of me kind of loves smiling tecnico Negro Casas who seems to hug Santo at every opportunity.
-I think that Rey, while getting better through working with great talents, just didn't have it on the mat, not to the level that his card placement needed him to be. He could follow along but half the time he'd have great struggle and the other half he'd be putting himself into things too obviously. He and UG were regarded highly at the time, but I really think it was a case where the sum was more than the parts.
-I've been watching too much lucha, because at the point that Santo hit his second diving arm scissors drop onto Rey, and locked in the armlock again, I was thinking "Alright, it's time for UG to run in and rudo it up," and that's exactly waht he did. That lasted a bit until Santo fought back against both of them which culminated with a reversal to the double facebuster that was so, so organic.

and immediately thereafter followed a propelled up dropkick and the tecnicos locking on cabelleras (with Casas' following a low dropkick).

-The dive spot was really goofy. UG and Casas were brawling on the outside, and Rey and Santo went for dives. a ducked clothesline meant that both guys crashed into their own partners though. At first glance it was a bit too cute but I liked it looking back.
-Santo looked great the whole match. He hit this elbow drop just running that was so king-sized and this awesome driving tope off the top into the ring.
-I can't get across how great some of the nearfalls were. The best (which is in the video) was Santo reversing a Splash Mountain into a Rana just as Casas was doing a somersault off of the apron onto UG on the outside.
-Obviously, there was a real sense that a title change was going to happen with both seconds on the rudo side getting sent back. I don't mind these finishes. I know there's something innately horrible about a screwjob non-finish on a title match (which isn't some sort of rudo foul to get heat or what not or the rudo getting his comeuppance), but I would MUCH, MUCH rather CMLL be running little angles and swerves and moments like this than not doing anything ever, which is where they are now.

Ultimately, I really liked this and just wish we had it in full. There are more matches in this feud too, which only makes me happy.