MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-7 and A-8: Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Satanico and Averno

Hey! So I almost covered a match I had already covered, which would be a great way to start the second year, right? Thankfully, I didn't, but I am still going to post a link to it here because it lets people watch one of these matches, in sequence, even though it's not on the comp.

Here's the link where the match is posted. I looked at this way back last August. It's blurry but still fun. I only remembered I'd seen it once they ripped up Averno's mask. So that's B-7.

And here's some additional viewing.

As promised, this is Rencor Latino (who I looked at briefly on Monday) turned into Averno and it's just as awesome as you'd expect with magic lightning and everything.

So next up is A-8. Watching lucha from an honest to goodness comp is great. The only problem is that I can't always figure out dates. Friday's match, which is Satanico and Shocker vs GdI from Monterrey is pretty easy since there's only one of those on Cubsfan's match finder. The pairing of Averno and Satanico vs GdI happened a lot though and this match had an inconclusive ending.

I think this could be From 7-26, in Arena Isabel, Cuernavaca, Morelos. It could also be from 8-03, but then that would be after the next match on the set. Really, it's amazing our information is as good as it is for most of this when you think about it. It's in that gap period after we have easy online access to Wrestling Observers but before Cubsfan had started the modern version of his blog. There were other resources once upon the time but the internet ate them up.

This is fun and heated and it gives a very good look (with the match I wrote up before) of the feud at the time. They must have been having fun matches week in and week out. Let's get some notes out of the way to start. Instead of Tecnicos/Rudos they listed U.Guerrero and Satanico on the screen to note who had what falls. Poor Rey Bucanero. Averno had this weird mask that I think was supposed to be half of Rey's old mask and half of Ultimo Guerrero's but I have no real idea. Mascara Magica was outside. Or so we were led to believe. When Tarzan Boy was injured earlier in the year, he rounded out the team. His look was really out of place for GdI. Mephisto was on the outside with his arm in a sling. This is presumably for the titles.

What I saw in both this and the other Averno/Satanico vs GdI match was that Rey and UG were presented as having the superior teamwork and generally used that to isolate their opponents and keep control. Here, they took over by Rey doing one of the things he does best, being a total chickenshit heel. Rey kept interfering anytime that Satanico or Averno had an advantage on UG and Satanico would charge after him. The second or third time this happened, he had the ref get between them and layed in a cheapshot on Satanico, crushing him on the post. They kept the pressure on, did the double lift up/sit down choke slam, the armflips and the foot chokes on Averno followed by the double crab on Satanico.

In between falls, we got to see Averno and Satanico, in a flashback, tearing the Infernales colors off of Rey and UG to help set this up. I wish we had more of it alone, more of the trios and some of the big matches (for instance the Juicio Final 2001 match of Satanico/Shocker/Black Warrior vs UG, Rey, and Tarzan Boy), because it all seems great.

Anyway, the segunda was brief, with a quick double clothesline into one another and everything breaking down ending with Rey missing a corner charge and sailing over the top rope so as to eata dive by Averno. This let Satanico hit a backslide (which was one of his favorite things to do in this period) on UG as the other two were counted out.

The tercera was pretty interesting, actually, in that after some good action (though with varying execution), it ended with a surprise and some contention. First Mascara Magica interfered, allowing for GdI to double pin Satanico. Then they ran that spot where Rey gets rolled up during the double facebuster as UG had already turned around to gloat. It's not a bad spot but I'd worry that they overused it now that I've seen it twice. Once it became Averno vs UG, it really broke down, with Mascara Magica interfering again and Satanico brazenly coming in while UG had Averno up in a Muscle Buster position (which I'd never seen him do before) to foul UG. One ref counted it anyway. The other DQed them. There was pandemonium.

And then, right at the end, Mascara Magica pulled his mask and shirt off to reveal that he was a returned Tarzan Boy, which did feel like a big moment, especially for one involving Tarzan Boy. In a bubble, this was a lot of fun, but it would have definitely resonated more if I was watching this feud in greater detail.