[2001-03-13-CMLL] Atlantis vs Dr Wagner Jr

[ohtani's jacket]

This is another tremendous Atlantis vs. Wagner match. Now, I'm not going to say that these Atlantis/Wagner matches are Lucha Libre classics but I will say this -- they're extremely satisfying Wagner vs. Atlantis matches, they're brilliant mano a mano matches, and they're forgotten Atlantis singles matches. When people try to dissect Atlantis' career and start asking questions like "well, what has he really done?" to me these matches are better than a lot of his other singles matches. They're much better than the Mano Negra feud, for example, and Mano Negra is a guy who I love and whose post unmaking work I thought was a blast. Atlantis and Wagner simply had this chemistry the same way that Atlantis and Panther had chemistry. There is no doubt in my mind that if the stars had aligned and these two had faced off in a mask vs. mask match that it would be one of the classics of Lucha Libre. That never happened but they did provide us with some of the best stuff from the early part of 2001. 

And as a small side note, Wagner's mask came off twice during this match, exposing his face to the crowd. It's strange to think about it now after his actual unmasking but the resemblance between Wagner and Silver King was striking during this time and that's obviously a little bit more poignant with what happened this month.