[2000-03-17-CMLL-El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2000] Mascara Ano 2000 & Scorpio Jr & Shocker vs Rayo de Jalisco Jr & Perro Aguayo & Tarzan Boy

[soup23]

Shocker’s outfit is pretty magnificent. Huge pop for the tecnicos and Perro coming out. I thought this was the best we have seen Shocker look as he looked poised to be a big star and finishes off the first fall with a great elbow drop onto Perro. So much for your homecoming. Tarzan Boy still is getting a good bit of heat from the Arena Mexico faithful and a rudo turn is possibly needed in his future with him getting the Roman Reigns reaction. Perro still is kind at doing the mano y mano strikes exchange as he has a strong one with Scorpio in the ring and then an even better one with Ano outside the ring. While all of this happened, Tarzan Boy picked up the second fall win which feels like an afterthought. Third fall has some good comedy stuff and then culminates in Ano and Perro again going after each other in the ring. This is a heated callback to their AAA feud and Perro taking his mask. I thought TB looks good here and him and Shocker is an interesting pairing and crowd reaction. Rayo even has a big dive to the outside which was a big move for him. That leaves our main pairing of Perro and Ano and we get a quick foul and pin to spoil the big return of Perro. Excellent. This again wasn’t great in the ring but really helped progress stuff at the future and had just enough memorable moments to make it a solid addition to the undercard of this show. ***

[Loss]

A lot of this match didn't feel as special as it should have considering it was a PPV and not TV, but Perro Aguayo's presence created a super hot crowd, especially when he went out into the crowd with Mascara Ano Dos Mil. Interesting how Tarzan Boy plays into the boos, which suggests it won't be long until he turns. This had its moments, but I thought it was a disappointing match overall.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was such a wonderful Arena Mexico crowd. The reverse angle shot of people packed to the rafters made it seem like one of the last truly old-school Arena Mexico crowds, In fact, this entire event feels like the closing chapter of the period of lucha that ran from Atlantis' debut in 1983 through to March 2000, the only real historical period we have footage from and consequently my favourite era of lucha. The match was simple and formulaic but the crowd heat was a treat. Perro was such a beloved legend that all the rudos really had to do was mug for the audience, which I thought they did really well. Tarzan Boy kind of suck (let's be honest), but at least Shocker showed him up wonderfully. I always enjoy it when rudos get the better of chump tecnicos. It makes it seem as though there's a natural balance. Perro's comeback was fun and I loved the throwback to the MA2K match. Best of all, we got to see a complete match for a change which made this seem much more special than the regular Televisa bouts. Nice bout. Arguably the best trios match of the year thus far.

[Tim Evans]

The rudos coming out to Sabu's music never not makes me laugh. This match would have sucked without the crowd. I know Arena Mexico crowds usually hate all the big name tecnicos during big shows like Mistico, Shocker and others. But Man do they HATE Tarzan boy. When he's in there with Shocker, the crowd goes Roman on him. Then he tries a dive to the outside and Shocker sandbags him. Shocker does the same thing with Rayo.The Finish was nice but man it made Rayo looks like either a fool or a rudo. Stands there like a dummy when the ref counts 3. Fun match thanks to the crowd and shocker.

[Sean Liska]

I really enjoyed this a lot. Perro getting a cool storyline for the big show drew me in. I enjoyed the contrast of Perro's gritty old man offense and Tarzan Boy's high flying. Shocker was a fun bumper back in the day. Didn't expect to see Tarzan miss that dive at the end. Really good, they had me the whole way, and the finish gives them somewhere to to after the big show.