few trios in the Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy feud

El Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Tarzan Boy/Olimpico/Antifaz (CMLL 1/14/00)
Pretty awesome, mostly out of control trio. I was gonna watch the Tarzan Boy vs. Rey Bucanero match I remember loving but it was actually taped in 1999 so I won’t count it for 2000. Luckily, I also remember this being a winner and yes it absolutely was. Most of the first fall is the rudo team bullying Tarzan Boy and repeatedly grabbing him by the hair while keeping the other two out. They had a great Pack of Dogs energy to them if a pack of dogs were more interested in torture than food. Felt like they had the plan from the beginning but it was also too wild not to be called on the fly. Tarzan Boy was never the most memorable guy to me but he made for an effective defiant main man tecnico; had moments like trying to swing kicks at Satanico while Bucanero held him (by the hair of course). The comeback came quickly near the end of fall two and I love Ultimo Guerrero’s reaction to being pinned like there was no way he assumed that lead could have been blown. Tarzan Boy only really gets one dive in (even then he looks wiped doing it) so he gets a little fireball of a moment in the third fall standing up to Satanico after being thrown around which was cool, even if not really feeling like the highlight it could. He gets some proper offense in in the ring not long later but we still have a few matches to go to get the big one so none of this needs to feel like a payoff (the finish was perfect I thought in this regard too). I actually really liked the dive train near the end too, which is rare, felt very frantic and almost unsafe with barely any time in between the dives.


El Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Tarzan Boy/El Felino/Antifaz (CMLL 1/21/00)
I wasn’t surprised to see the rudo team get the jump again, but I was surprised to see Tarzan Boy bloody before the video graphics during the introductions even seemed to be over. They tie him to the ropes and don’t give one shit about being disqualified for the first fall. They just keep rabidly going at him, only stopping to take out Antifaz or Felino when either attempts to break it up. They’re like the Shield if the Shield were lead by a fifty year old violent psycho who solves problems by chewing on foreheads. I liked the tecnico comeback more in this one than the previous tag, if only because it had more heat and Tarzan Boy was more outwardly chaotic from the get-go of it, especially helped by him already bleeding. It was the kind of comeback that could end a match this hot, which was needed because of the actual finish. We get a nice Ultimo vs. Antifaz and Felino vs. Bucanero set of 1v1s and the dives to lay them out until the main course arrives again. And then it arrives cold and with a hair in it when Tarzan Boy looks great for a moment until a low blow dqs the rudo team again. But I pull the hair out and eat it cold because if there’s anything I’ve learned binge watching 80s WWF it’s that I really do not dislike dq finishes in lead-in matches. Sometimes they properly underline how out of control something or someone is and work ideally as a bit of build itself. And ultimately, while Tarzan Boy vs. Satanico was the main course of this match, the entire match is still an entrée to what’s coming up. A great, BONKERS trio.


El Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Tarzan Boy/Olimpico/Tony Rivera (CMLL 1/28/00)
Tarzan tries to make this one go different by sprinting in after Satamnico right away, and bless him for the effort, but he barely gets anywhere as he still feels like a gazelle running in to kick a single hyena out of three. The hyenas take it more to the outside than in the previous weeks’ matches which made for an awesome bit of escalation, and then even ramp up the insane indidivual moments as Bucanero and Guerrero lift up Olimpico and straight up dump him on his FUCKING head right on one of the attendance seats. It did not look like anyone, whether executing the move or taking it, paid attention to the fact the man had a spine. When they get Tarzan Boy in the ring, the two of them wrap some kind of rope around his neck and arms and hold it out almost like he’s being crucified so Satanico can openly punch him in the head. They get dq’ed and the camera turns to Tony Rivera whose leg is stuck in the gap in one of the seats, which obviously gives one of the rudos free reign on him as well. Everything is just falling apart for the tecnico team and it's crazy to watch. There’s unfortunately an ad break between where we return to Olimpico on offense (would have liked to see some transition) but it didn’t matter either way as Satanico comes back with a bottle and smashes it on Tarzan’s head, ending the match. A very short match (though who knows the actual length with the ad break + potential clipping) but utter chaos and I may have to give it a spot on my top 25 of the year just for what it was. CMLL ran and absolutely tremendous trio of trios these three weeks with this feud. My only potential negative is I wonder how the hair match can live up to the tension they’ve built.

Aja Kong vs. KAORU (GAEA 2/13/00)
Well this certainly went a different route than I expected halfway through. Similar to Akiyama on Vader a month earlier, Kaoru gets the early jump on Aja, and even though it gets less time and there’s also an easy German suplex, I think I preferred how this was done by quite a lot. Joshi crowd brawling may have been tiresome by now but not the way Aja did it here; partially because it was her best chance to make sure Kaoru couldn’t keep up her assault. Some of those chair shots…weren’t even shots because she threw the chair like an old lady trying to kill a mouse in her kitchen. Speaking of violent foreign objects, unsure I can remember a match where the table actually felt more impactful and even necessary in big spots than this one. Maybe it was all Kaoru’s body language and hurriedness but it really gave the impression that she was doing a lot more damage by laying Kong out with the table than without it. Then the big unexpected moment happens when Kaoru blocks the backfist with the chunk of wood (a part from a table?). I’ve never seen Kong sell the way she sold here and she was exceptional at it. Her screams gave the impression her arm was broken and all of a sudden Kaoru had become the favourite. Not even a surprise backfist from Kong kept Kaoru down very long as a result of all the punishment on the arm. The finish run ruled as a culmination to everything in the match. Kaoru is bloody and in a lot of pain but Aja has a crutch so major that unless she gets one massive move, she’s probably doomed. Watching Aja Kong get what you might call hope spots in, like a backdrop, against a bleeding opponent is something I never figured I’d see in a match. Thought the finish was about what it should have been too. Great match.


Vader/Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama (AJPW 2/20/00)
I was not expecting to think as highly of this as I did. Vader was notoriously physically limited by this point so I really loved how he felt just a little more like late 80s Andre here than just a past his prime fat dude. He hit a better combination of “giant looming threat” and “could collapse at any moment” than I could have assumed he would in the 21st Century. I thought the outburst of offense Akiyama got against him was more compellingly done too; the forearms didn’t knock Vader down right away (and the one that did Vader sold awesomely by facing the side a bit), ducking the punches was great, and as far as I remember he and Kobashi never actually got a German off on him like they attempted to. It was much more interesting to me how they took the leg out from under him, despite how common “go for leg of big guy” is, than it would have been had they gone back to Vader just getting overwhelmed so quickly. The leg was a lil target they could always try to go back to as well and Vader looked about ready to throw in the towel huffing and puffing trying to tag out at one point. Williams working the mat vs. anyone is usually cool even if you sometimes think he should just be bodying ‘anyone,’ and I love how vocal he was on the apron around this time. Vader and Williams isolating Kobashi away from Akiyama near the end was fantastic, and by the end I was a little surprised at how closely they got to resembling a peak King’s Road finishing stretch. I thought Akiyama took a bastard of a chokeslam in his singles match with Vader but Kobashi apparently saw the tape and laughed at it. And that was after the dragon suplex. I know he specifically trained his neck but goddamn Kobashi. Like I said, didn’t expect to come away from this thinking it was pretty great but am I glad to have been wrong.


El Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy, Hair vs. Hair (CMLL 2/25/00)
This had intense drama, great fundamental work and an appropriately good Satanico performance but was a pretty deflating hair match. I was a little worried it would be, but I at least expected the match to be bloody, and expected Satanico to get the real asskicking he deserved after tormenting Tarzan Boy for weeks. Olimpico and Bucanero scrap in the audience between the first and second falls and I asked myself “why are they having a more violent apuestas match than the people in the ring?” I also really have no earthly clue why this needed to both have three falls and also be only like ten minutes long. The first two falls felt essentially meaningless since they were basically even at the beginning of fall 3. Maybe a “good match,” in that the work was actually really good (it is Satanico) and the heat was on, but in context an unfortunately large let down.

Blue Panther/Black Warrior/Mr. Mexico vs. Tony Rivera/Ringo Mendoza/Emilio Charles Jr. (CMLL 3/14/00)
Can’t believe how on-fire CMLL were with these awesome trio sprints in early 2000. I’m losing count of the amount of blood feuds CMLL seem to want around this time but I’m of no complaints – to me the further lucha strays away from this kind of pure anger, the worse were are for it. I don’t know shit all about Mr. Mexico but I found him really impressive; a guy who can capture the eyes of a crowd easily and mix badass confrontation with sprinting cowardice in a way that can easily come off terrible for most. Tony Rivera has never been an exciting worker to me but he has a human forehead that bleeds when you cut it, so he’s got all the tools necessary to be the tecnico starting the rivalry in this or any other trio. I’m not used to Charles as a tecnico but he ruled just as much as he does as a rudo, absolutely loved him unloading on Black Warrior to open the second fall. Speaking of Black Warrior he had an absolutely OUSTANDING plancha in the dive train. Hell all of the dives in succession felt chaotic in a way that most wrestlers would only dream of puling off without actual injury. The frantic low blow endings in lucha have my heart at the moment after watching a lot of the 1990 Satanico/Dandy feud again. I fucking loved this.


Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Takehiro Murahama, 3 minute rounds (Osaka Pro 3/25/00)
Well holy shit this was pretty nuts. Murahama was a pro fighter who came into Osaka Pro in January (debut match was actually against Hoshikawa) and he looks like he treats every exchange here like he’s shooting. He’s bouncing around at all times and throwing little jabs every approach. He’s got a great outsider energy to him and even a level of disrespectful attitude toward the early rounds when he ignores some rope breaks, babyfacing Hoshikawa in the process (to me anyway, who is unfamiliar with any of this). Hoshikawa later says fuck it I’m not breaking either and - likely because Murahama had his guard down expecting the break – delivered a hell of a couple of Germans. Murahama trying his own German only to have Hoshikawa ride the wave and latch onto the arm so he could get a keylock was badass as hell and it especially put over the theme of Hoshikawa knowing holds better. He did almost choke Murahama out a few times on the mat in earlier rounds to. The drama created by the keylock into the cross armbreaker was an incredible uptick and it sounded like the audience actually booed the round ending a bit, probably because they were sure Hoshikawa had it in the bag. The last round has Murahama showing he’s the quicker, more prolific striker and he just fucking WAILS on Hoshikawa and turns up the heat by stomping on him during a down count. I was slightly feeling like the rounds throughout the match were hurting the flow a little but I think it was worth it to get that last one. This really could have been a usual grappler vs. strike match but managed to something that felt unique and captivating.


Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama, 3 minute rounds (Osaka Pro 5/7/00)
Goddamn I thought this was fantastic. More of a classic grappler vs. striker story than Hoshikawa/Murahama but executed excellently. Murahama was getting rocked on the mat with Delfin knowing how to get the best of whatever Murahama tried putting out. I haven’t seen Delfin in forever but I didn’t know he had this in him. He always went into each confrontation with a game plan to get close and deliver just these amazing looking, and varied takedowns that I wasn’t ready for a Michinoku Pro guy to know how to do so well. Looked to me like he would have had the match won in a couple minutes on grappling had there been no rope breaks. Loved the peppering of grounded palm strikes he threw in too, and he made a German look as credible in this setting as you’d ever see it in any shoot style company. I thought the round breaks in this match felt like a better fit than they did in Hoshikawa/Murahama, especially because a frustrated Murahama came out of each one swinging just that little more frantically. He got so burned on the mat in the first round that he knew there was no other way to win than to try to go in with punches. There was one exchange where Delfin droops onto the top rope and Murahama just will not accept a break because he wants to maximise as much as he can from a free set of strikes. The finish was terrific, and the exasperated eye gouge close to the end especially set up a rematch. I know he was a pro fighter but I’m two matches in and Murahama has to be the most impressive rookie in wrestling history. Legitimately could be a top five sub-ten minute match ever.


Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW 5/26/00)
There isn’t much better pro wrestling than Kenta Kobashi selling a limb. The Big Fight Feel in the room is already tremendous during Kobashi’s entrance and the introductions, All Japan just does not here feel like accompany that’s on the brink of getting gutted. Takayama kicking Kobashi in the head worked to keep the atmosphere up, and forced Kobashi to work upward a bit even against a wrestler ranked lower than he was, which was a great way to begin. Takayama wasn’t quite a main event monster yet, though he looked like he was slowly turning into one during this match by refusing rope breaks and using those massive knees which always felt like a momentum killer for Kobashi, and got a big audience reaction. Kobashi’s higher rank kept the match pretty even despite that start, until Takayama focuses on the right arm. Kobashi selling the arm was of course great for his grimacing faces and hurled over body movements and how great his “I’m sick of this shit” aura is, but it also felt a little more unpredictable than most people selling a limb; it looked like he was ready to mount an offense again several times but couldn’t get it done. They kind of worked me in a way that wrestlers work most people in the arena with hope spots. The finish stretch was absurdly good, I feel like these two could have worked against each twice a year in a big match and created endless moments of magic. The lariat with the hurt arm was amazing because of how Kobashi fell clutching the arm, and because it really looked like Takayama just wasn’t expecting Kobashi to bother trying it. Another highlight for me was when Kobashi - having already taken at least one German - was fighting his way out of another German where Takayama had locked both Kobashi’s arms down. So basically, good luck to Kobashi not landing on his head if he doesn’t get out. Then there are the fisticuffs which blew me away tenfold. Their 2004 match has Takayama, near the end of the match, trying to desperately swing at Kobashi to finish him off (which may be the best moment in a match the whole decade) and so seeing these two go apeshit at each other like that here was amazing. And well shit I certainly didn’t remember it happening in this match let me tell you. Kobashi was awesome trying to only use the left arm during the fisticuffs, but then realising whatever further damage he does to his right arm is worth the damage saved done to his head. A lot of this felt like Kobashi taking Takayama off guard to pull the victory through a mix of guts and intelligence and it’s incredible to watch. If this match isn’t a classic then it's of the highest ranks in the tier below it.