Glass Hand Dissolving: Los Villanos

Villano I,  Villano IV, & Villano V vs Kung Fu, Mascara Sagrada, Popitekus (EMLL 4/13/1990)

The team of Mascara Sagrada, Popitekus, and Kung Fu is a bit of a mish-mash, but I actually think they form a pretty decent team here. The first fall has a little bit of everything and ends with the technicos getting the first pin. Mascara Sagrada and Villano I work the mat for the majority of the second fall, Kung Fu and Popitekus enter the fray only to get pinned by Villanos, and we are on our way to the third fall. The third fall has its moments, like Mascara Sagrada calling out Villano I or Popitekus doing a tope suicida, but it also has its misses, like Popiteku selling a kick that missed by a foot and a groin shot off a missed leapfrog leading being the finish. Some good, some bad, a pretty decent trios match, all things considered. 

Villano I,  Villano IV, & Villano V vs Los Mercenarios Americanos (Tijuana 7/19/1991)

This is Mask vs Mask, Perro Aguayo is roaming around ringside and attacking Villanos whenever he feels like it, seemingly. Los Mercenarios, thanks to Perro, are all over the Villanos early, ripping masks and giving them the boots. Americanos get the first fall and celebrate with Perro. At that point, Konnan comes out to neutralize Perro, and things get back to even terms. After being beaten down for about ten minutes, the Villanos start punching back. Once the Villanos are on offense, the second fall doesn't last much longer. One of the Villanos hits a top rope splash, rolls out of the way so that one of the Mercenarios splashes his own partner, and then all the Villanos pile on and get the pin. The third fall, as you might expect, is really heated and the crowd is biting on everything. That is the magic of a good Mask vs Mask match, and this match has that. I say that, but I don't really know how good this was. This is a handcam, and the quality isn't great, so you lose something. The crowd is hot, and the brawling is fine, but I can't help but feel that I missed something watching this in a blur. I liked it, but I can't really say how good it was. 

Villano I,  Villano IV, & Villano V vs Gran Hamada, El Texano, & Silver King (UWA 11/7/1992)

The first fall is pretty much all Villanos. Things turn in the next fall as Hamada, Texano, and Silver King work a really good rudo second fall, beating down Villanos and trying to remove Villano V's mask. The basic heuristic for a 2-out-of-3 falls lucha match is that you wait for the Rudo to do something to set the tone for the match, and everything plays out from there. We've got that here in the second fall, with the rudos going for the mask. That should set the tone for the rest of the match. The Villanos do come out more aggressively in the second fall, but aren't brawling yet. We get quite a bit of action, though; everybody gets involved. There are no passengers here. The ending is a bit anticlimactic, with Silver King rolling through a hurricanrana for the pin and the win. This was a very good trio's match, easily the best so far, given my reservations about the previous match. 

Villano III, Villano IV, & Villano V vs Los Payasos (AAA 10/26/1996)

The first fall is pretty good. The Payasos get after the Villanos early, the Villanos come back, things get a bit heated, and the Payasos get DQ'd for pulling off Villano III's mask. A good first fall, and a setup for the next two falls. The second fall starts, and Coco Azul is ripping at the mask again, and the whole second fall is really built around the Payasos going after all of the Villanos' masks. Things don't get as heated as you'd like, given what happened earlier, at points things get a bit prosaic, but the second fall is still pretty good. The Payasos lose the second fall and the match for refusing to stop kicking one of the Villanos in the center of the ring. This was pretty good; it is obviously leading to matches in the future, but this was still solid. 

Villano III, Villano IV, & Villano V vs Los Brazos (IWRG 8/1/2002)

The Villanos took the Brazos masks in 1988; the only Brazo here with a mask is Brazo de Plata's son, and the Villanos go after him right away, busting him open, ripping his mask. They deal with the other Brazos as needed, but they really take it to Brazo de Platino. Eventually, they get DQ'd for their efforts. The first fall was great, building on the history and, hopefully, setting the tone for the next two. The second fall starts like the first one ended, but a few minutes in, Super Proky, who has been somewhat uninvolved, comes into the ring to save his son and turns the match around. That really turns the tide of the match, from there the Brazos take over. Super Porky hits his trademark dive, Brazo de Oro hits a pop-up powerbomb, and The Brazos win. This is good. The ending leads to the teams signing up for another match, so it is anticlimactic on purpose, but yeah, this is what I love about Lucha. 

Verdict

I think lucha trios can be kind of perfunctory; they are often just used to set something else up, and there's some of that here, but this offering of matches was very good. Coming out the Brazos post, I didn't know how I'd feel about Trios teams in general, but this was a very solid set, and has me thinking the Villanos are a very, very good team.