[2000-01-14-CMLL] Atlantis & Negro Casas & Mr Niebla vs Dr Wagner Jr & Villano III & Pierroth Jr

[soup23]

We are firmly embedded in the Atlantis and Villano feud as they pair off at the big brawl and Villano starts going after the mask ripping it. Atlantis mask is a mess as he is having to use his hands to cover up. Due to the mask ripping, the tecnicos win the first fall. Segunda starts with more of the same and Atlantis is wrestling this match maskless which is a pretty impressive feat that he is able to guard his identity. Villano doesn’t give a shit about anything and keeps slinging him into the chairs. Tecnicos make a big comeback with Atlantis getting a back up mask for him to use. They really start attacking Villano and Atlantis is all fired up. The tecnicos end up getting DQ’d in an interesting reversal when the rudo ref says they didn’t respond to his commands. Great receipt with Villano going head first into the chairs and then Atlantis picking them up and slinging them down. I love seeing Atlantis show this kind of fire. Pierroth is favoring his leg so of course Casas attacks that locking in a half crab. Atlantis and Villano come back for an inside the ring sequence with Atlantis rolling through his offense. Pierroth and Casas do a good job as a secondary feud showing some hate against each other as well. Niebla and Wagner get in on the fun with a nice sequence and a big Niebla tope. This leaves Villano and Atlantis back at it and Villano gets the submission win clean as a whistle. Wow, what a great finish and they cut to crowd members who are pretty stunned. This was an excellent hype piece and a I can’t wait to watch the build to the apuestas match. ***3/4

[Loss]

The beatdown of Atlantis to start this off is among the most convincing I've ever seen in CMLL. They basically mug him and leave him for dead while holding Casas and Niebla at bay. Atlantis is unmasked and uses his hands to cover his face in quite the emotional scene. We start the second fall with Negro Casas trying to split his time between defending himself and helping protect Atlantis' identity and having a great deal of trouble balancing the two. Atlantis is literally being tossed around Arena Coliseo with his hands over his face while the rudos bend Casas and Niebla in pretzels in the ring. When Atlantis manages to re-secure his mask, he so recaptures his ability to fight and immediately comes back hard with a vengeance, going for Villano's mask and attacking him in a fit of rage. The technicos isolate Villano III so Atlantis can give him a dose of his own medicine. Interesting atypical finishes to the first two falls with the rudos getting DQ'd in the first fall for overreach in their hatred and thus refusal to listen to the refs, and the technicos meeting the same fate in the second fall. Still, the technicos begin the third fall with momentum on their side, the highlight of which was Atlantis picking up an entire row of seats and hurling it directly at Villano in an awesome visual. We finally get some semblance of normalcy in the last five minutes and the other pairings -- Casas-Pierroth and Wagner-Niebla -- get some spotlight, with Wagner-Niebla in particular being fun for the showmanship from both and Niebla's big dive to the floor. Casas works his character to the very end, showing a little hesitation here even during all the violence, but it does bring the match down just a little only because everyone else seems a bit fired up. The finish to all of this was great, with Villano III scoring a clean submission win over Atlantis to begin the road to March 17. Great match, easily the best trios so far, and it looks like we have a hot feud on our hands. ****1/4

[Grimmas]

This was glorious. Atlantis and Villano III's feud was even more heated then I remember. The beat down with a DQ for ripping off the mask was just bad ass. The second fall Atlantis tries to fight back, while covering his face was one of my favourite moments I've seen in a long while. Of course he gets his mask back and kicks ass, and the tecnicos get DQ'ed.

 

Then in the final fall, the great feud continued, but also Casas & Wagner Jr. were doing 6/9/95 tribute spots and Mr. Niebla was crazy good and Casas was all fire. I LOVED this match.

 

**** 1/4

[Tim Evans]

Fresh off beating Super Astro for his mask on Christmas day 1999, Villano III is on fire here. Just destroying Atlantis's mask Vilano, Wagner and Pierroth are one bad ass rudo team. Wagner is getting better after his New Japan tour and Pierroth is turning into brawling Pierroth. Atlantis comeback in the 2nd was nice. But this was all about the rudos which seems to be a theme in these cmll main event matches. One of the rare matches where Negro Casas was overshadowed. I don't think I've seen Arena Coliseo as hot and bothered as they were here. Looked like a crash scene afterwards. Fun brawl.

[gordi]

I'm a pretty casual viewer of the Mexican Pro Wrestling but there are a handful of matches that I dearly love and have watched more than once. That famous cybernetico that Felino won, for example, or that legendary three-way with Casas and Dandy after The Heel Turn, When Worlds Collide... You know, exactly what you'd expect people in the early days of tape trading to remember.

 

There were two Atlantis matches, also: v Blue Panther and v Villano III. The Villano III match, along with some Rey-or-Benoit-in-Mexico type stuff was what I'd show friends who had never seen Real Mexican Wrestling before. The WWF Guy Working the Lucha Style stuff was an obvious gateway... but really Atlantis v Villano III was the best way I have found to get wrestling fans I know to watch some lucha.

 

Why? It's such a heated, bloody brawl.and those guys just obviously hated each other so much... Anyone can "get it"

 

I love that match. I had no idea the build up to it was so heated, so good, and so long-term! Makes sense, considering the match, but it's new information to me.

 

It's one of the things I have learned already by participating in the PWO2K project. Amazing stuff, and really enlightening for a casual fan like me.

[Laney]

This was great. A very heated trios match that is a great build to an eventual apuestas match. Both teams essentially throw away the first two falls by getting DQ'ed and they just don't give a shit. Atlantis plays a great role of just being pissed off and being out for blood after Villano. I loved it when Atlantis threw Villano in the crowd and then dumped a section of 4 chairs on top of him. The third fall is an actual match and a good one to boot. This does a great job of building the Atlantis - Villano feud.

 

****

[ohtani's jacket]

This was another strong lead-in match. I'm not a huge fan of trios matches where the wrestlers rip each other's masks off but it wouldn't be much of an apuesta feud if they didn't do it. And to their credit, they didn't spend an eternity doing it. Villano looked badass in his alternative strip and I liked how he used Atlantis' mask to clean the dirt off his boots. Atlantis' comeback was good and he got plenty of mileage out of throwing Villano into a row of chairs and dropping a section on him. The only thing that held this back was that there didn't seem to be much of a personal issue between Casas and Pierroth or Wagner and Niebla and the best trios matches usually have that second and third string story to contrast and illuminate the main feud. The kind of role that an Emilio Charles Jr. or La Fiera played to perfection. The rudos were fairly united but Casas and Niebla felt like they were making up the numbers while we waited for Atlantis and Villano to go at it again. Mind you, it's pretty hard for Casas to play second string to anyone and Pierroth was badly broken down compared with his glory days of '90-92. I haven't checked the match listings but it'll be interesting to see whether they plug anyone better in there.

[cramerjason87]

The intensity between Villano III and Atlantis was awesome. In fifteen seconds you knew that they hated each other. The brief period in the 3rd fall where things calmed down were fun too. Can't wait to see the rest of the build up.

[AstroBoy]

Villano's punches to the helpless Atlantis looked so devastating and believable. That portion of the match is a testament to the storytelling power that wrestling can have. Atlantis being ragdolled around the arena while desperately trying to cover his face was awesome and added so much fuel to his comeback. Of course it culminates with him throwing the row of seats at his bitter rival and it's great. The deflating clean win by Villano at the end is another big moment. The possibility of wrestling to take away the air and belief from a frantic crowd while building to an even bigger payoff. Truly pumped to watch the rest of the feud progress. Very good match.

[Childs]

I don't generally think of Atlantis as a fiery wrestler, but he brought the fury after Villano III beat him down and stole his mask in the primera caida. Their interactions were the highlights here, though Casas and Pierroth also delivered a few fierce exchanges. As with the other trios we saw from this card, they did a great job of creating a wild atmosphere and wetting the appetite for bigger things to come. The tercera didn't feel fully fleshed out but again, it wasn't really supposed to. Exciting times in CMLL.

[WingedEagle]

Arena Coliseo is very quickly becoming one of my favorite buildings. Love the look of the place. The initial beatdown on Atlantis was terrific. Perhaps it was too great, as the comeback and ensuing action never clicked with that same intensity. The layout and ideas were all there, but after that frenzied start I didn't feel hatred and violence at a level that others seemed to identify.

 

***

[Moonsault Marvin]

Good match. This was basically all Atlantis and Villano III as the others faded into the background. Poor Atlantis didn't seem like he was ever going to get his mask back. The way he got rammed into the chairs was a great visual. Atlantis and Villano III put on a good back and forth brawl to intensify their feud.

[TravJ1979]

I watched the 3/17 match years ago completely blind and thought it was fantastic. Now watching the buildup I have a feeling I'll enjoy it even more. I loved this.

[AlmostNinjaLike]

Fantastic, heated match. A great start to this feud.

[Matt Franklin]

Yeah this was awesome. The rudos laying waste to Atlantis at the very start and taking his mask was a great way to build heat on the feud and I loved Atlantis getting some revenge later in the match. The rest of the work was fine and there were some other fun exchanges, but this was all about Atlantis and Villano III and setting the table for their match in March.

***3/4

[Sean Liska]

Simple effective Arena Coliseo match designed to build up Atlantis/Villano. The first two falls are brawling and mask ripping between the two, with things picking up as Atlantis throws Villano into the crowd and picks up a row of chairs to him him with. Things escalate in the tercera, we get to see Negro try to get something interesting out of Pierroth, he did his best.. Good match.

[aethelred]

Super match. The finish actually took me a bit by surprise, coming a bit earlier than I expected. But it really worked. Looking forward to seeing more of this going forward, as a complete lucha dunce.

[Stiva]

Pretty fantastic, intense 15 minutes or so here. The build-up to Atlantis/Villano is set up pretty impeccably here with some fantastic moments; the mirrored DQs, the submission finish, Atlantis picking up the entire front row and dropping it on Villano's head. Around the edges, there was good heeling, a good tope and some long-term selling that helped flesh things out without taking away from the main focus. Can't wait to see this progress going forward.

[drew wardlaw]

Some great setup work for the upcoming mask match between Villano and Atlantis. Ive never seen that match before but I know about its reputation, so this got me more stoked for it. The beatdown and mask stealing of Atlantis were great and I Villano shining his boots with the mask was sublime. I found the brawl/beatdown on the outside especially captivating, just to see how Atlantis was able to hide his face. Really excited about the big singles match.

[tbrett]

At this point I feel like I have given Lucha a good shot and I just cannot get into it. I guess it is just not my thing but it is too bad because I read these reviews and so many people love the style.

[klhare]

Yeah, this was great. I loved how the Atlantis beatdown started off very unassuming, as they other guys were all brawling, too, but then suddenly became the number 1 focus. The beatdown was captivating and the image of Atlantis covering his face while getting destroyed was awesome. Great build for what is to come later.

 

****

[Chess Knight]

Never seen a single match that builds up to the legendary Atlantis/Villano apuestas and based on this I may have made several mistakes. Villano and crew tear off Atlantis mask early while punching him in the face and Villano mocks Atlantis by shining his boots with the mask and chucking it away so a ref has to fetch it later. Atlantis still getting beat on and sent to the outside while covering his face the whole time was something else. Once he gets the mask back he clobbers all three rudos (who have Casas and Niebla tied up) and then goes completely ham on Villano. It's pretty rare seeing Atlantis act completely unrelenting like he seriously wants to injure someone but I now wish we got it ore often. He came off frigging furious. Throw in Casas getting a little time act like Casas and you could be forgiven for thinking they were the rudo team out of context. The match didn't slow down very much from the third fall starting and there was just hostility everywhere. No bones about interrupting pins, coming in illegally, double-teaming. Nobody gave a damn and this match ruled. Shout out to Pierroth taking chops "like a man" or something until asking for one only for Casas to dropkick him right there in the chest.

[corwo]

The rudos jump start things with a brawl at the beginning. They beat down on Atlantis, unmasking him to give the tecnicos the first fall. I loved the visual of Villano III wiping his boots with Atlantis' mask. Atlantis fires back up, breaking a double submission on Casas and Niebla, and swinging wildly on Villano III, who gets his comeuppance when the tecnicos triple-team him. That leads to a DQ, taking us into the third fall. Things became a little more orderly in the third fall, but everyone was still out to inflict as much punishment on each other as possible. Villano III took some time to jaw-jack with the fans and ate a row of chairs for his troubles thanks to Atlantis. The crowd is molten when it comes back down to Atlantis and Villano III, and all of their exchanges are electric. Villano III eventually locks in the Cristo on Atlantis to get the win. Wild, action-packed 15 minutes or so with plenty of hatred to go around.