[2000-02-12-CMLL Japan] Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras & Alexander Otsuka vs Apolo Dantes & Violencia & Ikuto Hidaka

[soup23]

Probably the oddest match on paper we may see throughout 2000. Mascaras gets the big welcome which I expected. After the other four guys pair off with some rudimentary stuff, Mascaras and Dantes come in. I was actually shocked at the effectiveness of what Mascaras was doing in his late 50’s. His spinning head scissors wasn’t the prettiest thing I have ever seen but were still impressive to me. Dos Caras is also spunky on the outside. Hidaka and Otsuka is the feature workrate pairing and they look good enough here but I think it was just the shear shock at Dos and Mil looking competent that they got overshadowed. Mascaras has another good sequence with Violenca that is followed up with Caras and Hidaka. Caras busts out a surfboard. They move into triple team spots including the row boat and rana and the middle routine which didn’t look good. Finish comes with Caras and Mil double headbutt Dantes and Mil finishes him off with a crossbody. A showcase legends mass for sure but one that had a lot of energy and fun to it. ***1/2

[Loss]

What a fun match! I agree that Mil looked really good. There were a couple of moments where he and Caras showed their age just slightly, but they were working opposite Violencia, who is kind of the perfect guy to take on the road for matches like this. He can shine up just about anything based on what we've seen from him so far. I was shocked to see Otsuka can work a high flying style. He was excellent at it, but I'm not sure I like that. This was also maybe the first time I've seen Apolo Dantes front and center in a match, even though I've seen quite a few matches of which he has been a part. As a match itself, not so hot in terms of layout or drama and the rudos team got almost no offense, but for high quality exchanges and trivia, this was as good as it gets. ***1/2

[Tim Evans]

When you go into the Mil mascaras japan matches, the layout is usually the same. The rudos bump a lot for Mascaras and his brother and Mil will get the win with the body press from the top. It's up to the rudos if it's going to be a good match or not. This was fine. Dos could still go and had some nice dives. Dantes and Violencia played their roles right and made the brothers look good. The best part of the match was Hidaka vs Otsuka. I love when Otsuka does lucha. It's rare like when Hogan used to come to Japan and actually chain wrestle. He's awesome at it but you wouldn't know it if you watched most of his matches. He has a great dive on Hidaka mid way in the match.Fun match.

[cramerjason87]

Outside of the fact that most of the match felt like it was in slow motion this was entertaining. Mascaras looked more mobile than I would have expected.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This felt like more of an exhibition than a competitive match, but it was fun. Violencia getting the crowd to cheer for him was humorous. Mil and Dos both looked good for their age, and Dantes did a good job of selling by grunting in his exchanges with Mascaras.