Atlantis, El Dandy y Popitekus vs. Gran Markus Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ulises (5/26/89)

[Phil Schneider]

Atlantis, El Dandy y Popitekus vs. Gran Markus Jr., Pirata Morgan y Ulises (5/26/89) 

[tim.]

Fun sportsmanship kind of trios.  This is all clean action with each guy pairing up uniquely each fall.  I didn't really think any of it was exceptional, moreso that it was all consistently nice looking, expertly performed work that was fun to watch.  Actually, more than anything else I found this match very relaxing to watch.  Nice to see Popitekus who I remember liking from the El Dandy set, he just about kills Ulises off a cross body in this one.  Ulises also hits a cool looking sort-of death valley driver on El Dandy in the first fall.  Good, fast paced home stretch.  Very enjoyable stuff though it probably won't knock your socks off.

[Graham Crackers]

This match has two big fat fucks doing athletic lucha spots so it's definitely staying in the top half. You rarely get to see David vs Goliath stuff in lucha so watching the smaller guys taking down the big boys with all kinds of cool armdrags and flying techniques (including Morgan hitting the best tope en reversa) was pretty cool. One of the most fun matches on the set.

[Curt McGirt]

Popitekus is indeed one big bastard as I've heard. I was expecting someone masked and of a more Porky-esque stature, but he's built more like a brick shithouse instead. His name is also one of the most linguistically pleasing both spelled and spoken that I've yet to encounter in wrestling. 

 

Despite that pseudo-Death Valley Driver the first fall ends pretty flat with flubs from both big men. After the enormous levels of hate on this set seeing something that is so "good clean fun" involving someone like Pirata Morgan is strange to the point of off-putting. Atlantis is flashy as usual but it doesn't really matter much. Right when you think tercera caida is going to pick up with some big dives it just ends and everyone has a love-fest. Going towards the bottom half for me. 

[DouglasC]

I guess I found this one more interesting than spectacular. Mainly because I was so used to seeing matches where Gran Markus Jr. looked like he was working during his third trimester, that seeing him looking simply solid as opposed to unhealthy was a highlight. Everything here was fine, but I can't see this one moving out of my lower quarter simply because there was really nothing mind blowing about the match. It is the type of match that you'd be happy if this was the best match on the show, but you'd wishing you'd waited and gone to next week's show at Coliseo instead.

[Lee B.]

The good sportsmanship throughout wasn't super-compelling for me either, although I did like Popitekus going to the floor to help Morgan up after he took a rough tumble down.  I did also notice the flub at the end of the first fall when Atlantis is submitted.  Dandy's roll-up of his opponent to end the second fall is pretty cool-looking.  Dandy and Morgan have a very smooth sequence at the beginning of the third fall.  Popitekus has some awkwardness in the corner during the third fall, but his flip over the top turnbuckle to the floor is impressive.  I don't know why I'm always surprised to see Atlantis lose a third fall.  This match had smooth work from Atlantis and Dandy and some nice moments from Popitekus and Morgan, but overall it was mostly just OK due to the lack of heat.  It will end up a little lower than mid-range for me. 

[goc]

I found this to be a very refreshing change of pace, even if the finish was slightly disappointing. I kept expecting the totally clean match was building to to Pirata Morgan's team cheating to win but I guess this was tecnicos vs tecnicos? But I really liked how structured everything was and they didn't do a lot of the trios stuff that turns me off like totally ignoring tag rules for seemingly entire falls. And for once the backwards tope doesn't bother me as Pirata Morgan's looks really good at the end of the first fall.

 

Popitekus' botches were hilariously endearing and I thought even with those he still pulled off some pretty impressive stuff. I also thought Ulises looked really good here and Atlantis had some pretty impressive stuff. The idea of Ulises surprising Atlantis as he's setting up to dive and catching him for the win is a good idea in theory but was a pretty big letdown and left the finish feeling flat. Still should easily finish in my top half, probably in the top 3rd, as this is a trios match that stands out from the pack IMO.