MLJ: Guerreros del Infierno B-14: Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Último Guerrero b Black Warrior, Satánico, Shocker

2001-05-04 @ Arena México
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Último Guerrero b Black Warrior, Satánico, Shocker

One of the trickiest parts of doing some of these projects of old matches is that people keep posting things. So far as problems go, this is one that I'm glad to have. I meant to take a week to go through a few more matches on my GdI comp before moving back to something more modern but then I spotted a newly posted singles match between Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico. That reminded me that I really hadn't looked for anything BUT matches with both UG and Rey Bucanero in them, and I should broaded my search just to see what was there. This, from the week before, is what I found, so I'm doubling back to do this one and the singles match, and then I'll figure out something related for Friday.

The Shocker/Satanico alliance is a little weird to me, but it was definitely a thing around here and had been for most of the year. It made sense. They were on the verge of debuting Averno but Satanico needed someone to team with against GdI after they turned on him and Shocker carried at least part of the crowd, even as a rudo. They were certainly in the "babyface" role here, with Warrior relatively non-descript but effective enough as a guy in a mask who wasn't going to turn the crowd.

Charles was very good at what he does. He had great punches and was very solid at rudo control segments, just in being in the right place at the right time and laying in suitable punishment. He was also skilled at stooging and eating offense when the time came. Salvaje seemed like he was maybe a step behind from a few years before but this wasn't the sort of match where he had to eat a lot of quick tecnico offense so it was fine.

These matches are well worth watching for the heat and for the hatred between Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico. CMLL got a year or so out of it and it was a year that didn't feel bloated or inflated, from what I can tell. They probably could have gotten two years out of it. This started violent and ended violent and in some ways was the most "Memphis" CMLL match I can remember seeing.

Guerrero and Satanico went right at it to start the primera. Satanico had rushed the ring and that led to a 3 on 1 for a minute before Shocker came out to even the odds. This was a brief but hard hitting couple of minutes, with brawling around the ring. It ended with Shocker snapping the Reinera on Charles and Salvaje getting hung up dangling in the ropes and legdropped by Black Warrior. It seemed a bit early for that spot back in 2001, but they didn't make it feel contrived at all. It's something that works so much better when there are partners to set it up than in singles matches.

There weren't even breaks between caidas here. The brawling just kept on going, with UG's team getting the advantage by playing the numbers, mainly. Charles drove Black Warrior out and then it was three on two for long enough to shift the momentum and start a very solid beat down with Guerrero biting Satanico, Charles ripping at Warrior's mask, a senton de la muerte on Shocker, a double pancake on Black Warrior, and submissions on Warrior and then Satanico (the latter by UG) following this triple dropkick on Warrior:

Again, the violence continued through the caida shift, with the refs trying to break it up. Then, out of nowhere, they start tossing around an illegal object and use it behind the ref's back, passing it aroudn to avoid detection. I've never seen this before in CMLL (though it could be a staple of either Charles or Salvaje as it'd fit them, sort of). It eventually ended up in what seemed to be a pocket of Guerrero's. Despite taht, Satanico's team came back, with Shocker sticking Salvaje's foot in a chair to trap him. Satanico had one of his great babyface flurries (after putting his straps down, all Memphis-y) with two hart attack clotheslines and some real mask tearing. UG pulled out the object though and nailed him with it for the pin, passing it to Charles after the match in order to keep the ref from seeing it.

I could watch Satanico and Guerrero beat the crap out of eachother over another twenty matches and it's too bad we don't have more. We do have their singles match though, and I'll get to that next.