[2001-01-12-CMLL] Atlantis & Mr Niebla & Tony Rivera vs Dr Wagner Jr & Shocker & El Satanico

[Sean Liska]

Talk about it here.

[ohtani's jacket]

Stone the crows, we got to see this in full. That meant we got to see the early matwork and watch the match actually build. And it was a good thing too as they decided to create a beef out of nowhere between Wagner and Atlantis. Like any great beef, there was some wonderful supporting work from Satanico and Rivera and Shocker and Niebla, but all eyes were on the two guys tearing each other's masks. You read a lot of talk about Atlantis as a worker. Regardless of how you feel about him, this was inspired Atlantis. He looked fantastic and his work with Wagner was inspired. It's to his credit that as a tecnico he knew how to work a beef without coming across like a dick. And of course, Wagner was a larger than life rudo in every sense of the term. If you're going to watch any CMLL TV match from this era this is the one to watch as they gave them carte blanche without the shitty TV editing.  

[soup23]

Short run for the IWRG match as best lucha match of the year. This is where CMLL excels. They can have multiple weeks of nothing involving some of the best wrestlers of all time. Then all of a sudden, a trios suddenly has a ton of heat and feels like a big time feud has emerged. That happened here with Wagner vs Atlantis. They went after each other viciously with mask pulling and a ton of angst. Satanico is always a delight and seeing him team with his new amigos felt refreshing too and the Shocker pairing in particular feels like a great match. Overall, I hope we see more Atlantis vs Wagner interactions moving forward. ***3/4 (7.5)

[AstroBoy]

Every pairing here offered something and that's on full display in the first fall, where they really get a chance to get some stuff going and establish stuff for the match.  I really liked Shocker here a lot.  The Wagner vs Atlantis stuff was clearly a highlight and this has an ending with some oomph too.

***1/2