MLJ: Dr. Wagner Jr., La Sombra, Rush vs Atlantis, LA Park, Volador Jr.

2015-08-28 @ Arena México
Dr. Wagner Jr., La Sombra, Rush vs Atlantis, LA Park, Volador Jr.

Match here at clarosports

As people who have actually been reading this from the start can attest, when I first got into lucha seriously, one of the things that drew me were the big trios matches of 2006. This felt like those. There you'd have Los Guerreros del Atlantida, with Atlantis as the turncoat veteran, full of attitude up against a combination like Santo, Wagner, Jr., and Mistico. It would go long, be super-heated, full of charisma and star power, and play with the conventions. It was special in a way that's sort of hard to reach with the weekly trios matches we see again and again. That said, I think I had some of that same feeling at the height of the Rush/Negro Casas feud last year. The Ingobernables were just coming together. Shocker was teaming with Casas and looking ten years younger. There was a real fire. It wasn't quite the same though. This, however, was.

Park and Wagner were going to pop a crowd, both here and for the anniversary show. Hell, they probably weren't even entirely needed as Atlantis and Sombra were probably going to pop a crowd just by themselves. The point is that they could have just let this match go and coasted on through or they could have let their egos drive and sold nothing and made their partners do all the work and just waved to the crowd. That wasn't the case at all. This was a hell of a match and it was a hell of a match because it was heated and because it played with conventions, circling the finishing pairing again and again before getting there, but it was a hell of a match, especially, because Park and Wagner added so much to it. The novelty of seeing Los Ingobernables finally face off against tecnicos is nice but the additional of two luchadores with such charisma and experience was a real shot in the arm.

This match had a ton of time and used it well. They started by brawling fairly evenly, including a LA Park headbutt war with Rush, Wagner going for the dragon screw on Volador and failing, and Sombra and Atlantis bee-lining at each other. Ingobernables worked the numbers game and took the advantage, including Wagner taking off Park's belt to use it as a weapon like he's probably done a thosuand times. One thing they did really well here, both in the primera and especially in the tercera, was to logically keep the wrestlers not being focused on/beat on busy. That's a really important thing in trios matches and something that I think, on the CMLL main event level, they're pretty good at doing. You don't usually just get guys standing there waiting or having to be kept out by the ref, not in the really spirited beatdowns. Late in the match they drag Volador in, only to throw him right back out, for instance. Here, he runs in and got beat down. Anyway, Park dodged a CL in a double team, kicked Rush, dove onto Sombra, and let his partners lock in the Atlantida and hit the Backcracker for the first fall.

The segunda started out back and forth. There were, for instance, German Suplex wars between Rush and Park. That's probably my least favorite aspect to Rush's game, but at least he's good at visibly rolling through with them to make it seem like the impact is lessened. There were a few frustrating no-sells in the match, including Volador later on eating a corner move and then running right out with a superkick, but you have to sort of roll with those punches (or suplexes) in something like this. Park especially was going out of his way to make sure he looked strong against Rush, which makes some sense so early intot his feud. Eventually, after they really changed up the pairings (and with Sombra avoiding Atlantis; more on that later), the rudos took over. The heat ramped up here with mask ripping and Wagner beating Volador down the ramp. Rush was great in his role distracting Tirantes while Sombra undid Atlantis' mask. They finished it off with the corner Dropkick on Park and a double suplex on Atlantis.

Then the tercera was frankly nuts. Let me backtrack a bit. In a match that had a lot of great stuff, the best was probably the two bits of anticipation and payoff. The first was pure character stuff. Wagner, the world most charismatic ham, wanted to do his "too sweet" NWO/Bullet Club fingers in hand-touch thing with Rush. This is basically all he wanted in the world in this match. It's the older guy wanting to hang with the kids and Rush wanted to reciprocate. Sombra wanted nothing to do with this, wanting them to stay on task. He broke it up once or twice, and that made the moment where they finally have enough advantage that they get to do it so much better. Then when they really took over in the tercera after hitting a triple dropkick to a kneeling Park in probably my favorite spot of the match, they did the closed fist Ingobernables hands up in the air and it felt iconic.

The other anticipation and payoff was all about Atlantis getting his hands on Sombra. Sombra ambushed him early but after that refused to be part of any real face off. He was left out of the finish of the primera with the Park dive. When the rudos took over, he started ripping at Atlantis' mask but when the tecnicos came back, he absolutely refused to face off with him, rushing out to massive boos and then using his partners to ambush Atlantis to even more massive boos. It's not until the final comeback, deep into the match, (which was set up great by the tecnicos stopping another triple dropkick by pulling their opponents out of the ring), that he finally got his hands on Sombra.

From there, they circled around the finish, to the point that I think everyone watching thought once or twice that it wouldn't even be Sombra and Atlantis at the end of the match. It was just all out action (and this is where Volador's at his best, a cog in a trios machine, especially in a third fall like this). They cycled pairings in and out with false finishes that played with the expectations of people who watch the form week in and week out. It's stuff I probably wouldn't have picked up on two years ago but when you see it so often, like this crowd does, it allows for this sort of deviation from the norm that can really be powerful. That was even cooler to me than some of the specific spots, like Wagner hitting his spotlight ramp dive or the Park/Wagner superplex or Volador's diving rana on Rush.

They even circled one last time for the finish. Rush had pulled Tirantes' leg to break up Atlantis' cross-legged roll up pin (after Atlantis had kicked out of the split legged moonsault, for what it's worth). The very end of the match had Atlantis get Sombra up in the Atlantida, but Tirantes kicked by it. That led to a foul and what looked to be the Finish. Park, however, came out of nowhere to dropkick poor Tirantes to break up the pin (which was a balance with what Rush did before; this match was FULL of such parallels; just brilliant design in that regard by luchadores who really knew what they were doing). With Tirantes still recovering though, Wagner fouled Park and Sombra, in a second burst of heeling, ripped off Atlantis' mask and rolled him up for the win. What a blast of a match. It's going to be a fun month before Park and/or Wagner do something stupid to end it all.