[2000-05-25-IWRG] Villano III & Villano IV & Villano V vs Shocker & Scorpio Jr & Bestia Salvaje

[soup23]

Well these six had a MOTYC last time so can they top it here? This starts off much more restrained than the previous six man and you get traditional pair offs in the first caida. This culminates in Shocker and Villano III. Look at how much they milk the test of strength here including a wonderful celebration from the rudos when Shocker takest he advantage. Things pick up after that exchange and the Villanos end up taking the first fall right after the 10 minute mark. Classic lucha here. Second fall opens up with a really cool moment where Villano IV and Shocker square off and both throw a dropkick at same time. As soon as Shocker gets up, he gets punched in the face. Second fall is much quicker but the Guapos trios brings a lot more viciousness in this one and put away the brothers quickly. Bestia has a good looking swantom and elbow drop. LOL at Bestia ripping up a sign before the third fall praising the Villano’s as guapo. Villano is working the left leg injury like a pro and honestly he may be the wrestler of the year now. He can brawl, he can wrestle, he can portray a rudo and tecnico. Just a great versatile year so far. Villano has Scorpio backing into the corner and limping like a wounded soldier. Scorpio goes right for kill and then locks in a submission that has Villano writhing in pain. Shocker trying to get the foul called gets me every time and he is in contention with Satanico as the best with that spot. Villano IV and utilizes his cutter as a death move throughout the match and is able to get pins on Shocker and Scorpio to win it for his hermanos. Not as visceral as the previous match, but another great entry and some fabulous wrestling/storytelling. ****

[Tim Evans]

I was expecting this to be more of a brawl but it was worked title match style which I guess makes sense. Rudos attack Villano 3's knee and Villano 4 does the RKO better than Orton. Shocker is having a hell of a month in May. Good match.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a slow burner that had a nice tercera caida. There was plenty of chemistry between the teams and Shocker vs. Villano III is shaping up nicely. 2000 was clearly an important year in the career of Villano III and arguably the most relevant he had been in the lucha scene since the very early 90s. He continued to have the fire in his belly here whether it was grievances with the ref or his rage at having his knee worked over. but what was nice to see was his wrestling skills in the early exchanges with Shocker, especially when they butt heads during the test of strength. One thing that struck me truly the lively tercera caida was that even though this was far removed from the golden era of trios team, 2000 has at least four solid trios teams in the Villanos, Los Guapos, Los Capos and the Infernales. We're lucky that IWRG had this ESPN deal at the time to show us some longer form trios bouts. The other thing I liked about this was the kids getting in the ring at the end. That used to be a staple of lucha libre but it's something you don't see a lot of these days. Check out the kid trying to take bumps and some of the others jumping off the top rope and trying to run the ropes. That coupled with the autograph signing at the start makes this seem like retro lucha libre.

[Laney]

Pretty good stuff here. A slower paced first fall in this one with some pretty good exchanges. Shocker and Villano III do a particularly good job here in the 1st fall as they don't do much, but they get a lot of mileage with it. The second fall is very short and seems like a bit of a throwaway, but it puts the rudos in control going into the third fall. The third fall here is very good as it gets more heated and there is some very nice work on Villano III's knee. Some good wrestling here, but this seems more like a back-to-basics match compared to some of the very heated encounters that these guys have had earlier in the year.

 

***3/4