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[1998-04-24-CMLL] Atlantis & Mr Niebla & Negro Casas vs El Hijo del Santo & Black Warrior & Blue Panther


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

Santo is still on the darkside, which is A-OK with me! This is a breath of fresh air in so many ways. It's not often you get a trios match this loaded with great workers, and they definitely deliver something special. This escalates from matwork, to a faster pace with a strong heel-face divide and big drama with more brawling and mask ripping near the end. You get all the pairings you'd hope for as well - Santo/Casas and Atlantis/Panther starting us off with a bang. Black Warrior and Mr. Niebla are guys I haven't seen as much of, but they are great here, more than holding up their end. I like that when Atlantis and Panther brawl, they are such pros that they can't help but go after each other with holds because that's just who they are. I'm starting to love 1998. I literally have no idea when something awesome is going to pop up out of nowhere about which I have never heard much of anything at all. Great match! It kind of limps to an end after a hot start, which downgrades it from MOTYC to mere great match. But I still loved this one.

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The first two caidas were strong technical Lucha. I'd be more than happy to have complete matches like this. Ironically it was Niebla and Warrior who had the best mat exchange. The hatred between Santo and Casas then boiled over and the tercera was more of a fight. That was fine in itself but it became a little unwieldy and ran too long. The mask ripping was an irritation to me but there was still enough decent wrestling going on to be in my good books. Then it ended with a mask removal DQ. You don't have the right to do that! They could have had 5 blown spots in succession, 3 run-ins and a reversed decision and I'd have preferred that as an ending. I don't ever want to see the wrestler unmasked unless he's lost a mask match. Ever. I can tolerate mild damage to the mask, though I don't like to see it. But seeing the face of a masked Luchador is an affront. If I ran a Lucha Fed (slightly unlikely I know) the mask would remain sacred at all times.

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My #2 match of the year and one of the best lucha trios of the decade. I loved the escalation and variety of styles that transpired throughout this match. You had some great wrestling between Panther vs. Atlantis and the Santo vs. Casas feud still feels fresh as ever and an heated event. The third caida breaks down into more of a brawl and I do want to give credit to Niebla and Black Warrior as even though they were my least favorite competitors in this, they still held up their own and had a really good sequence where they faked each other out leading to a dive. Speaking of dives, Santo delivers a beautiful one here. Finish is a mask rip which could feel pretty cheap but fit the storyline here. I loved this break in the yearbook of lucha. (****1/2)

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After the paucity of lucha so far, this was a bunch of fun. As Chad said, it offered a little bit of everything--some beautiful technical wrestling in the early match-ups, fantastic dives from Santo and Niebla, Santo-Casas animosity and Blue Panther ending the match in total dick fashion. I agree it went a little slack instead of peaking in the third fall. But pair this with Ishikawa-Greco and 4/24/98 was a nifty day of wrestling.

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  • 1 year later...

I wish I could give this MOTY consideration, but only the first two falls meet that standard. In the third, Casas eats a cannonball off the top from Black Warrior and sells it like death, to the point where you suspect it's a legit injury or at least a Japanese-style shoot angle. But it's just some very long and drawn-out selling and it sort of kills the flow of the match. The finish didn't bother me, but this didn't quite build to an incredible climax teased by the first two caidas. Too bad because those falls are indeed spectacular--I'm hard-pressed to think of a lucha trios match on these Yearbooks with a better combination of star power and working ability than this. Three major programs are put over and all three rivalries are worked differently--hate between Casas and Santo, beautiful technical exchanges between Atlantis and Panther, and sort of a combination of everything from Warrior and Niebla. Hopefully there's more lucha goodness to come.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 9 months later...

I wish I could give this MOTY consideration, but only the first two falls meet that standard.

 

I honestly though the 3rd fall was the best. Casas spitting on Santo between the 2nd and 3rd falls kicked the match up a notch. Third fall had Santo bringing the aggression and violent looking strikes, great rudoing from Panther and Warrior with great fightbacks from Atlantis and Niebla, big bumps and drama. First 2 falls had beautiful matwork and build. MOTYC. **** 1/4

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  • 11 months later...

CMLL casually throws 4 of wrestlings greatest wrestlers ever in a random TV match and the result is suitably good. What else is new? This starts with a classic opening fall of everyone hittin the mat for 10 minutes. Niebla/Warrior may be the weakest matchup here but was still really good. Some nice athleticism, and Warrior continues to be a bump machine.The Panther/Atlantis section was obviously great (really intricate and fast arm work), but the Casas/Santo battle may have been even better. Just a really great battle of attrition and some nice inventiveness in the holds especially from Casas. The 3rd fall was really intense with Panther and Warrior working a rudo beatdown and Santito having no problem stomping Casas to death and drawing boos. See, old habits die hard. Warrior crushes Casas with a senton which Casas sold like a KO blow and Santito just keeps kicking him in the face. Harrowing. They work a bunch of credible nearfalls and finally a finish that makes you want to see something that probably never happened. Ah well, it's cool that you can pretty much pull out any old CMLL TV with a permutation of these guys and get something fantastic.

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Pretty much a perfect lucha trios, it has everything beautiful and great about lucha libre wrapped up in three caidas. Traditionally primera caidas in lucha matches are battles of skill, and we get some all time great match ups in the first fall. We open up with Niebla and Warrior squaring off, in a match full of all timers, these two are the outliers. They kind of remind me of that lost group of 90s basketball players who seemed poised to take over for Jordan, Barkley and Hakeem but failed to live up to their potential. Niebla vs Black Warrior is basically Shawn Kemp trying to dunk over Derrick Coleman. Really smooth counter wrestling with some real moments of athletic explosion, prime Niebla's movement was pretty breathtaking. The Primera Caida also gives up Blue Panther grappling with Atlantis and Negro Casas and Santo, which are just legendary and both pairings look amazing. Man did I loved the finish of this fall, with Panther doing a Backlund lift on Casas and Santo just blasting him with a top rope dropkick, and Warrior cleaning out Niebla with his awesome tope. Segunda Caida is quick and more high impact and includes a great assisted Niebla tope con hilo. Tercera Caida gets nice and grimy Santo and Panther beat the bricks off of Casas, the running kicks to the face here are as nasty as in their all time classic the year before, and Panther is throwing some brutal punches. It is a Satanico level rudo beatdown from two guys you don't think of as that kind of asskicker (Warrior is around too, but on the periphery.) I loved the fuck off finish of this too, with Panther just ripping off Atlantis mask and parading around with it, totally unconcerned about losing the match. I don't remember ever seeing this match before, and it as an all timer.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1998-04-24-CMLL] Atlantis & Mr Niebla & Negro Casas vs El Hijo del Santo & Black Warrior & Blue Panther

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