MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno A-4: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Mr. Niebla & Villano IV

Taped 2000-08-04 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Mr. Niebla & Villano IV [CMLL Tag Titles?]

I had notes. I lost them, so we'll wing this one. (Yeah, I take minor notes while watching, just to keep track of things. Someday I'll post them instead of a review.) So, this was the match at the PPV and as I said last time, with Charles injured (and limping down to the ring to explain said injury), the initial tournament was over and GdI won by forfeit. It wasn't so easy for them, though, as they were made to immediately defend against Niebla and makeshift partner Villano IV. They complained (well Satanico did) and then, like good rudos, they took the belts and ambushed the tecnicos and the match was on.

I liked this a lot, especially the tercera which was absolutely action packed. I know I've said this before but it bears repeating: just seeing a well-defined tag team in this setting that I've come to really enjoy is both different and nice. I really need to go and watch more of those matches with Tramua I and Trauma II and the Caifan Rockero tags too. It's something we take for granted in the States, but in the land of trios matches that generally lead to singles matches, it all feels a little novel.

All that said, the structure here was a little weird, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's a title match so you'd expect a feeling out process to begin (or maybe a bit of Shine), followed by a flash victory, the reversal in a short segunda, and then them hitting a lot of bombs and near-falls and near-submissions in the tercera, not unlike the Marco/Rush title challenge we reviewed on Monday. Instead, they did the extended ambush-driven beat down for the primera, a comeback in the segunda which led not to an immediate pin and reset, but instead the rudos driven from the ring. Usually when you see a comeback that doesn't lead to an immediate fall, that's a sign that a match is only going to go two caidas. Instead, they looped around and did some tecnico shine before rolling into the tecnicos picking up the fall. From there, the tercera started with some tecnicos vs the world, had an endless dive train in the middle, and finished up with some really smart moments and GdI going over.

Maybe it'll get old (and maybe it'd especially have gotten old watching it week to week for three or four years), but it's still a joy to watch the rudos do their things. They brought back the double press chokeslam thing, though more impactful than the last time I saw it as they didn't sit down with it, and it led into that crazy crossed arm double choke submission. Likewise, they did the same with the roll back/forward double crab. That's how they took the primera.

I thought both major transitions were great. Really, there were four definitive moments like that, and they were all good, which means so much to a match being better than average and memorable. The first was the belt shots at the start. The second was the old GdI staple, the alley oop body splash. I'd never seen them do it quite like this though. Here, UG placed Niebla in the corner, horizontally over the top ropes. Then he let Rey charge in and lifted him up so that they did it in the corner. When they tried to repeat it, however, the tecnico moved, starting the comeback. It's such a good spot for them because they're always going to try to repeat it and it can always either hit or make for a quick and easy but character-driven and believable transition. They also have the assisted flip corner clothesline avoidance to use instead when they want to switch it up. In the tercera, at the end of the dive train, the rudos dove away causing one tecnico to crash into the other and heralding the end.

Finally, during the finish, they did a repeated spot with a reversal that came off quite well. This was the double (wheelbarrow and head-grab) facebuster, which took out one opponent. When GdI went for it again, however, UG started it and then turned to celebrate on the top and Rey ended up rolled up. That's one of my favorite things about lucha, repeated spots to lead to reversals/transitions and this one was well done. It was all futile though because one Guerrero Special later and the GdI had both the belts and the big win under their belt. Despite the injury to Charles it was definitely a good start to their reign.