MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-13: Atlantis, Satánico, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

2002-02-01 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Satánico, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy, Último Guerrero

This match was 11 minutes or so of awesome. I almost missed it in going through the GdI comp and I'm so glad I didn't. It's got two things going for it most of all: atmopshere and character. The crowd was super hot. The tecnicos were intense. Shocker was downright gallant. The rudos were evil. Tarzan Boy was as chickenshit as chickenshit comes. And this was true for the beginning, the middle, and the end. Even Satanico seemed to revel in being on the tecnico side.

That's a bit peculiar. He was still with Averno and Mephisto and this was at Arena Mexico so it wasn't like it was some local thing where he got to cross the line. During this period, when placed against GdI in a trios, sometimes he was with tecnicos and when he was, he had that standing. The week after this he might have faced off against Atlantis. It's actually true for Shocker as well, I think. Satanico was there to fight GdI and Shocker was there to fight Tarzan Boy.

That was the main story of the match. The tecnicos (and de facto tecnicos) charged right in to start. Even Atlantis was whipping Ultimo Guerrero around ringside with his jacket. Shocker and Tarzan Boy were captains. Tarzan Boy immediately tried to ambush Shocker, but was held back by the tecnicos. Shocker, however, wanted to face him in a fair fight and told them to let him go, which the crowd loved. A moment later, however, in a bounce off the ropes, the rudos kick Shocker in the back from the outside and start to swarm. That brought the heat in a huge way. It was a great start to the match. Shocker looked noble. Tarzan Boy looked like scum. Maybe best of all, the tecnicos kept fighting even as they were swarmed. This wasn't a case of one guy just standing around as his partners get destroyed. The rudos made sure that no one could make a save.

There were some specifically fun spots too, like this crazy wheelbarrow:

and this great triple pin:

and a double corner clothesline which I swear in my years and years of watching wrestling, I'd never seen before(bonus awesome UG suplex included):

That lead to a double diving headbutt and the end of the fall. GdI were so cool and so sleek and so dickish. This was just a few minutes but it was an awesome few minutes of rudos gang warfare, smooth, brutal, and violent. Tremendously effective and they got all the heat they deserved for it.

As (almost) always, I wish there was just a bit more heat to the segunda, but it's okay here, because the primera was so definitive and because when the comeback happens, the fans want it and it actually means something. That said, I just think of how much more it could have been a minute or two later. Here, they went right to the heart of the match. Shocker's the one who fights back, who ducks a corner attack and causes some heel miscommunication. He stood tall allowing his partners to rush back in. Instead of immediately going to the fall and resetting for the tercera, they ran "tecnicos vs the world" here. That had everything to do with the stunted third fall but it made for an interesting formula. I liked it a lot actually since it began with the sense that maybe Shocker wouldn't be able to maintain the comeback. He had to fight off all the rudos, and when he finally ended up out of the ring (after being ambushed again by Tarzan Boy, a sign that the match was really on focus), Satanico came in and fought them off. The crowd was behind him and he seemed elated in his role. First, Rey Bucanero kept taking this crazy knee first bump for Satanico's back body drops, and then Ultimo Guerrero ate his stuff like a king. Atlantis was in next and maybe he was a half step behind what had just happened but made up for it by innovating awesomely with this spot, which I loved:

He followed it up with a tope which led to a Satanico backslide on UG and Shocker finally getting his hands on Tarzan Boy with the world's hugest bulldog on the floor(it's even better not sped up but I can't get any other gifmaker to work here. Just trust me):

They started the tecera with what seemed to be the payoff, resetting to Tarzan Boy vs Shocker. The former tried to assert himself like the jerk that he was but the latter was just too much. They delayed the ultimate payoff though as Shocker was overzealous and missed a senton, letting Tarzan Boy escape to the outside. This let them close off the other pairings, with Satanico hitting a big plancha from the top to the outside on Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis rocket launching Rey and then locking him in a rolling submission.

This brought us back to Shocker vs Tarzan Boy and Shocker mercilessly tossed his rival across the ring twice with "urinages." He went in for the kill but Tarzan Boy, hugely desperate, tried for a mule kick foul. Shocker caught it though. This led to an even more desperate kick to the head by TB, followed immediately by him pretending he was fouled. The ref was having none of it though and dq'd the rudos.

The tecnicos got to win. The rudos got to be vile and heelish and chickenshit, but didn't lose so definitively that the crowd wouldn't want to see Shocker get even more revenge last time. Great, functional match, especially in the time it was given.