El Hijo Del Santo, Octagon, Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis (AAA 6/30/95)

Perhaps it's just me, but I've always considered Santo/Octagon/Mysterio Jr vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Fuerza Guerrera to be the premier trios match-up from this era of AAA. I guess it's because their 3/16/95 match was one of the first tapes that was recommended to me when I was starting out. I can still remember the enjoyment I got from that early taste of lucha libre; and while I've seen many better matches since, I would be remiss in ignoring the role it played in my infatuation with lucha. These days, much of my enjoyment of pro-wrestling comes from discovering new and better matches/workers, which often smacks of revisionism (in so much as one can revise something which has had as little written about it as the wrestling which I presently enjoy); but after watching two more matches from these two teams, I can safely say that their position is unchallenged despite my natural bent towards revisionism. In other words, their matches are still good.

This wasn't a huge, operatic trios, but it was a well worked match, and as I've said many times on this blog I take great heart in watching professionals perform lucha libre well. It was a match where the rudos essentially decided to pick on Rey Misterio Jr; not excessive rudoism, but sometimes the rudos' general demeanour is all it takes to piss off a technico. It was the technicos who started throwing punches in this match with Santo throwing better rights than when he was a rudo. He had some awesome exchanges with Psicosis, who was having one of those nights where his contribution was immeasurable. Their exchanges were wilder, and far better, than anything they ever did against other in singles competition. The real star of the match, however, was Rey Misterio Jr., who had the heat put on him early and rose to the occasion with one of the best performances of his young career. I'm not always impressed by early Rey, but he had wonderful control here and the timing of his moves matched the narrative well. The only downer was the finish, which, while not completely unrelated to what had gone before, was gutless in light of Misterio's strong performance.

Nice body to this match. I recommend checking it out on youtube.