[2000-03-31-CMLL] Villano III & Shocker & Bestia Salvaje vs Perro Aguayo & Rayo de Jalisco Jr & Atlantis

[soup23]

One of the biggest accomplishments of WWE current day is not falling into What Now? territory following WrestleMania. They have presented the Raw after Mania in such a way that some people look forward to it more than the big show. CMLL was following the tremendous 3/17 PPV and kind of has to find its bearing again. This match sort of bears it out. It starts and people are brawling and it is fine but doesn't have the same zip as the stuff we have seen in the first three months of the promotion. Then Villano and Shocker start arguing and the focus takes more shape. This match overall is less about the action and more about that storyline as the match as a whole gets waved off. This did get me interested to see Villano and Shocker continue to have a feud. **1/4

[Tim Evans]

It's weird to see them turn Villano 3 tecnico just soon after the mask loss. I guess it makes sense given that was such a big match and it's hard to boo him. Shocker and Bestia were great in this attacking the tecnicos and bullying Villano. Perro Sr bleeds for some reason early in the match. Los Capos interfere in the third fall and attack the tecnicos. CMLL seems to know what the next 6 months of feuds will be based on this match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Coming off an all-time great apuesta match and a strong PPV overall, the question now is whether CMLL can maintain its momentum. This was a storyline match with Villano Tercero refusing to engage in rudoism and frustrating his partners. In typical CMLL fashion, it looks as though they'll draw things out for another couple of Fridays. Less typical of the serious and stable CMLL was the Los Capos run-in. Not exactlly lucha crash TV but I'm not sure it sat that well with all of the CMLL brass. In fact, the situation reminds me of 1990 and the Pena driven changes to the conservative CMLL booking. As far as segments go it was fairly uninspiring but let's see whether the Perrro vs. Capos and VIllano Tercero turns can escalate into feuds worthy of the benchmarks CMLL have put forward this season.