[2000-11-12-Monterrey] El Dandy & Blue Panther & Zumbido & Mascara Ano 2000 vs Villano III & Atlantis & Mr Niebla & Safari

[soup23]

This was the lucha action I was looking for. Classic pairings with Villano vs Panther, Dandy vs Atlantis and Panther vs Atlantis. We even get Zumbido and Niebla being tremendously entertaining in their dance off. Everything takes time to develop and just melds itself into an extremely satisfactory match. The rudos have been looking impressive throughout this show and pick up another win here. I didn’t think this really developed any blood feuds for the future but for 8 really established lucha stars, they went out and did their best to satisfy the fans and viewers. ***3/4 (7.6)

 

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a nice match. 

At first it looked as though Atlantis and Blue Panther would square off, which had me in 7th heaven since it's one of my favorite lucha pairings, but Dandy stepped in instead. That ended up being just fine as he was in one of those moods where he wants to show that he still has it. We saw the same thing when he squared off against Casas in an earlier Monterrey bout. He tends to save his best for his contemporaries in 2000 but I swear if we saw this Dandy all the time he'd still be among the best workers in Mexico. This was a nice opportunity for Atlantis to get out the working boots too and a match I'd point to as an example of his talent and his capacity to still work at a high level after his prime. And by high level, I don't mean working formulaic CMLL main events but rather working individual exchanges on the level of a Santo, Casas or Panther (to name three highly respected lucha workers among the wider fan community.)

As good as Dandy and Atlantis were they couldn't touch Panther vs. Villano. What a masterclass. These two are the frontrunners for my lucha WOTY -- Villano for his rollercoaster from his unmasking through to his tecnico run and Panther for his work, which may be the best of his career. The pair of them were sensational. I remember seeing them square off on a handheld once and that was just as electric. I've found some of Villano's 80s and 90s work to be overrated at times but watching him tie-up with Panther it was clear that he was keen to measure Panther's reputation against his own and both men came across as bonafide legends. 

Zumbido vs. Niebla and M2K vs. Safari was a huge step down from those highs but tidy enough. The second fall had some hard-hitting, rapid-fire lucha exchanges with Dandy, Atlantis, Panther, and V3 again looking spectacular. We got Panther vs. Atlantis for a brief moment which I appreciated. The tercera caida wasn't the most exciting that you'll see and descended into some bullshit mask pulling but there was enough good stuff to round out a very good trios match. 

You never really know what's going to be good and what's going to be not good when you see lucha match listings (especially from Monterrey.) This was very much in the good category and ought to be cherry-picked by lucha fans casual and hardcore alike.