MLJ: 2015 Volador, Jr! Wrestler of the Year? Still Sort of Crummy? 5: Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

Aired: 2015-03-21
Taped: 2015-03-06 @ Arena México
Rey Bucanero & Volador Jr. vs Máximo & Terrible in a National Parejas Increible Tournament match

I thought about skipping this, and really skipping everything up to the hair match. I had for the title trios after all, but A) the hair match was a bigger main event so I should try to catch some of the build and B) I'm a sucker for the parejas increibles stuff, especially with this line up. The matches aren't conventionally good and if you're watching them in sequence, a whole bunch at once, they're a lot of the same. Thankfully, I'm not, and because of that, I can catch some fun character stuff and not be overwhelmed by crummy tournament lucha.

I mention this pairing because three out of the four guys, being Maximo, Terrible, and yeah, Bucanero, are really solid with their shtick. I like Rey best when he's being a dickish, chickenshit heel. Terrible's sort of a gruff straight man but he's had a thousand matches with Maximo and they do their stuff well together. Maximo is talked about so little, but he does what he does so well. I think part of the problem is that exoticos in the past probably do tower above him, but likewise, he towers above a lot of the tecnico roster. He hits his stuff cleanly, makes things matter within the context of the match, but most of all, is actually over with any crowd he gets in front of for being a good guy (albeit an exotico one) when most of the tecnicos aren't over at all.

So the Leyenda match was already set, putting an odd spin on this. Were it not for that, you'd expect the rudos to care more about who won. As it was, what mattered was getting one over on their upcoming opponents. It was hair match upcoming after all and that's serious business. This started with Volador vs Maximo, with some quick-paced matwork and I actually liked it a lot. It felt more organic and natural than usual for Volador. Some of that was the bits of routine Maximo was tossing in and Volador having to respond to them in a way that he doesn't usually have to. I liked it though. It's always a bit of a novelty, whether in a match like this or in a cibernetico to see tecnico vs tecnico and both this, and when they did it again later in the match, was fun.

Of course, when Terrible and Bucanero faced off, they refused to wrestle and immediately attacked the tecnicos, and in this, both here, and later in the match when they teased it again but instead hugged, I thought that the match very much served its purpose in building to the apuestas main event at the bigger show. Almost every other match I've seen like this eventually has the rudos break down and dissent. This didn't and their solidarity was very welcome. I'm not going to say it put into question the result of the Leyenda match, because that was never in question, but if CMLL's booking was better (or existent) in general, it might well have, just through the ringwork alone. In fact, the back half of the match had Terrible and Bucanero trying to give each other the win with the partners breaking it up, like so:

including a very funny moment of Rey hitting a foul and then dropping down himself so that he could let Terrible pin him.

Shortly thereafter, after a Commandante leg pull, Rey interfered again, distracting Volador and letting Terrible pick up the win. I thought this was a bit of a mess, but really quite fun given expectations, and it set up the rudos as being absolutely on the same page for their upcoming match, which was a worthwhile idea on paper at least.