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Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza y Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, MS-1 y Espectro Jr. (9/28/84)


Phil Schneider

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm glad we get to see the original Infernales lineup together one last time on this set. This is more of a traditional trios match than the last one we saw them in. It's pretty good too although not quite the devastating spectacle the last one was. We get more of the Atlantis vs Satanico match up in this one. Satanico looks like such a force in these exchanges and Atlantis ends up getting hurt. Atlantis trying to will himself back into this match ends up being one of the important stories in this match. It alternately places him in the role of face in peril and AJPW style injured partner trying to make the save. Mendoza and Salazar hold down the fort pretty well. I've said it every other time I've seen him on this set but Tony Salazar is someone I want to see more of. He just feels like a badass oldschool babyface. I love his punches and it was pretty cool to see him bust out more takedowns and flying moves this time around. I really dug all of his exchanges with Espectro. MS-1, similar to the trios match almost a year earlier, just wants to get in everyone's face and that makes for a good rudo character. Back to Atlantis vs Satanico, I noticed the way Atlantis was kept out of the finish of the first two falls and I just knew he'd have to be involved in the third fall finish. We ended up getting another mask removal finish, which as far as BS finishes go is pretty good but not as great as a foul. The mask ripping didn't turn up until late in the match so it didn't feel as satisfying as Santo's mask getting ripped off on the last disc but it didn't take away from the match either. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Los Infernales are all wearing green and black gear, I guess to match Espectro Jr.'s atrocious/nightmare-inducing mask. Satanico begs off Atlantis costing his team una caida. Segunda is over in a flash. Dig Satanico sliding on his knees to backdrop Tony. This is pretty standard trios fare; I expected there to be more hate considering both MS-1 and Tony were sans most of their caballera. End came out of nowhere. Yeah, this going low.

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I like the green from the rudo team here. MS-1 was real sharp in this match. He took a couple of great tumbles to the floor and had some awesome exchanges with Mendoza. Satanico’s fast paced exchange with Atlantis in the first was the highlight as they just went balls to the wall. It was really impressive stuff. The entire first fall was made up of fun exchanges. The second fall has a great beat down on Salazar with the rudos doing some cool triple teaming and working great together to put him away. They take out Mendoza afterwards to tie up the falls. The third fall is good but it was a little too disconnected at times as it was just one guy getting beat down followed by another guy coming in to beat the previous aggressor down etc. It was too repetitive for my tastes even if the exchanges were good. The tecnicos get the win on a triple sunset flip pinfall but Satanico is pissed and rips Atlantis’s mask off.

I liked the rudos in this a lot. I had some issues with this structurally and this also didn’t feel on the same level as previous trios matches on the set. With that said, this is still a very good match and falls in the three and a half star range. I think it’s probably somewhere between a B- and a solid B. Very good match. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Atlantis/Ringo Mendoza/Tony Salazar vs. Los Infernales (Espectro Jr./MS-1/Satanico) (October 1984)Everyone worked hard here and the Infernales looked great as a trio showing great teamwork. Atlantis looked like one of the best in the world here with Satanico hanging right with him and their exchanges was tons of fun. The others held their own here as well and I dug the Salazar/MS-1 exchanges also. All in all a really solid trios match.

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To me the Infernales are sort of a cross between Kevin Sullivan's Florida posse and the Four Horsemen. The MS-1 hiptoss fest was great. And the Salazar/MS-1 exchange was really good too. Satanico being pissed off when Atlantis comes in to match him was a fun little bit of character. The entire first fall was really masterful.

The infernales' kneeling back body drops are cool. I love all the tandem offense, but I kind of wish we had more of it to end the second fall. We just had a taste, really, though I'm sure at the time it was probably out there. After two falls, this is really sound and really fun.

The third fall has a spot I loved with the Atlantis insane billy robinson backbreaker followed by a submission, with the Infernales break up turned IMMEDIATELY into a Satanico submission. That was just really smooth all around. One of the othertechnicos comes in and breaks it up, to keep it parallel, but then it starts breaking down a little. It's a bit chaotic, but Salazar coming in with the huge KO Punch and then the two crazy over the shoulder flapjack throw things was neat. It's almost disjointed enough here that there's a form to it. I love the finish only because they did the cool ass RnR "body block to stop your partner from hitting the turnbuckle" first.

I could watch stuff like this all day.

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I was concerned Matt might be the turd in the punch bowl of this lucha set, so I am really happy to see guys like him and Jerry who came in to this stuff totally new, being so into it.

I'm still warming to the style and figuring it all out. There are times where I'm watching stuff on the set and I have to stop and just throw my arms up and go "What the hell's going on!" I also can't analyze most of this stuff the way I usually do for the life of me as of yet. Part of that is just not knowing who I'm looking at. If I watch this match again, for instance, I'll remember that Salazar had the long pants and Ringo had the short pants, or vice versa, whatever it was.That said, after the first few matches (and I do quite like the Andre Princess Bride match. I just wish there was a little less of it), the set has been way tighter than I was expecting it to be, despite your claims to that effect. It's one extremely solid match after the next. I will honestly say that I can't rank these things yet and that I can't even tell you if most of the trios or team matches are generally what I generally consider "good." but I can say that they're universally and undeniably fun. Most of the title matches aren't as disjointed as I was expecting from what I'd been able to scrap together and learning more about the background (like how they literally HAD to be wrestled clean at one point due to the commission) helps a ton.I'm one of those guys who just wants his wrestling to make sense and people to do things that make sense and tell a great story. Blood, spots, innovation, matwork, selling, bumping and everything else just serve that story. They're all tools. I also don't always agree with some that violence and things like biting the head automatically leads to this, but more often than not, there's a logical element to hate-filled wrestling, especially when guys are selling and making things have resonance and matter and I think there's a huge element of that to at least the 80s lucha I've seen so far. Others are very big on "building to big moments" and I think lucha has a lot of that. I'm not going to say the matches on the set are all about build, but that's part of the nature of late match (or caida) dives and or the two out of three falls format and there have been a lot of callbacks within matches which I love. Some of this has just been me letting go and enjoying stuff without analyzing too heavily. That said, it's extremely obvious just how good a lot of this stuff is, how much logic and emotion and skill and workmanship was put into these matches and just how good a lot of the wrestlers were. Still, I'm not 100% sure I can do a ballot unless I go through everything again.The AWA stuff, though all new to me, was at least familiar territory. I could figure out who Buck Zuhmoff was fairly quickly or whatever. I could jump right in. Here I'm learning a lot and encountering new wrestlers and just enjoying myself. I will say that I'm excited to hear that the upcoming discs are as stacked as they sound. I'll also say that I've really enjoyed you and Kris on the podcasts since you add a lot of background and context to what I'm seeing. That really does matter.
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  • 1 month later...

Solid match. Was fun to see the Infernales doing their thing early on with the bumping all over the place and later the brawling/dominating the tecnicos. Ringo was the weak link of the tecnico team as he didn't seem to be into doing anything. Resentment of Atlantis being the center of attention? I wonder. Atlantis & Salazar were great though to cover up for their partner. Saw the finish coming a mile away which kinda dampered my mood watching the end play out. Another one of those matches where I can't help but think wouldn't have made this set if more footage was available.

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  • 1 month later...

I thought Atlantis was pretty weak on the tecnico team.  I didn't perceive the early injury issue.  I just thought he kept getting distracted and one-upped by Satanico each time they faced off, early on in the match.  It made Atlantis seem kind of useless.  I thought Ringo was much more effective offensively, especially early on, like when he dropkicked MS-1 off the top turnbuckle as MS-1 was perched up there.  I also liked Salazar's suplexes that turned into tosses in the third fall.  However, I didn't get it when Salazar came in the ring and just kind of stood next to Atlantis as Satanico was trying to remove Atlantis's mask.  Salazar didn't even touch Satanico.  Not sure what was up there.  The match felt a bit disjointed, even though it was easy to see the animosity between certain wrestlers in this match.  This is bottom-half material for me.

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  • 4 months later...

This was good to see the Infernales and Satanico vs. Atlantis is again a pairing that I probably dig more than any other commenters. Perferctly good trios match but in a set filled with this much depth. I have it sitting in my bottom five and fully expect it to be in my bottom 15 overall. Ringo continues to be a guy I am fairly tepid on and he hasnt been able to find the extra gear that others like even Salazar have found. (***1/4)

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  • 3 months later...

This was pretty fun but likely not to come out of my bottom 25. This was pretty much all Satanico for me. The repeated handshake attempts that continued to sucker the faces all the way into the 3rd fall, faking that he was fouled by Atlantis, countering a sunset flip by pulling off Atlantis' mask. Yea, Satanico is the ace of this set for me so far.

 

I also dug Tony Salazar walking into the ring, looking Espectro Jr. in the eyes and then punching him right in the face to break Espectro's hold on Ringo but that's just about all that stood out to me from the 5 guys not named Satanico in this one.

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