Video link to the match over at Youtube,

Part 1 (Mostly entrances) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndrhWJ3zhow



Part 2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e3eEiZPq6Q



Cagematch page for this match/event.

Who’s Who?

Abismo Negro

Abismo Negro made his debut in 1987, though he wouldn’t really get wide recognition until arriving in AAA in 1992. Where he was a popular tecnico early on using the name Winners, working the first 3 Triplemania’s, the third being the biggest where he was featured on all 3 shows they ran for that years Triplemania. 2-5 were all multi night affairs over two or three nights each.

In 1997 when he would adopt his rudo persona Abismo Negro. Whose signature entrance saw him blowing flames with an aerosol can. Despite being popular as Winners in the early 1990′s AAA, he never held a gold in the company. That would change as Abismo Negro, gaining the Mexican National Middleweight Champion and the Mexican National Tag Team Champion (with Electroshock as Los Vipers). The latter of which he was holding for a second time at the time of this match, Electroshock of course is also in this match.

It also should be noted, that while he lost his mask as Winners, at this time he was 1-0-0 as Abismo Negro shaving Tha Panther(not the same young man who works in CMLL now and was probably a child at the time in 200).

Sadly Abismo Negro’s life was cut short in 2009 when his body was found in a river near the town of El Rosario, Sinaloa. Reportedly, he was on a bus and demanded to be let off at 1 a.m. in the morning and was found the next morning having apparently drowned. He was only 37 at the time and was survived by his wife and four children. AAA paid tribute to him in the months following his death.

Cibernetico

Cibernetico made his debut in 1992 in UWA before that promotion shuttered in 1995, he used the names Espiritu Negro and Urko. After that he made his way to AAA where he worked under the name Cibernetico primarily until 2015 when he left the company and went to CMLL for a short stint in 2016 where he would be featured in their Incredible Pairs Tournament going so far as to make it to the finals where he teamed with Caristico vs Mistico/Mephisto. Since then he has been working mostly independent dates in Mexico.

Cibernetico has been in many teams over his years in AAA both when he was masked and after. It’s too many to really cover here, but as mentioned he was in Los Vipers at the time and tag team champions with Abismo Negro.

Cibernetico had also held a number of singles titles by this point ; WWA World Heavyweight Championship, Mexican National Heavyweight Championship and the AAA Campeon de Campeones Championship. The last of which he was holding for a 2nd time. It’s a bit of a forgotten belt that was the precursor from 1996-2005 to AAA’s current Mega Championship. The original AAA Campeon de Campeones though never getting as big of a shake. Only having 7 reigns and 3 of those were Cibernetico. At this point he had won no Luchas de Apuestas and would end up losing his mask in one a few years later. At this point still wearing his black gear and mask.

Electroshock

Making his debut in 1992, he would initially work for CMLL under the name Ultimatum before making the jump to AAA in 1997 where he would start as Schizophrenia until in September he would make his debut as Electroshock in the Hannibal Lecter like mask.

At this point Electroshock had only held 1 belt, the Mexican National Tag Titles twice with Abismo Negro as Los Vipers which all three of these AAA talents were in together. Ciima being the odd man out in this Atomicos team.

Like Abismo Negro, Electrico at this point won one Luchas de Apuestas when in 1997 he shaved the head of Danny Boy. He wouldn’t have much luck in his career when it came to Luchas de Apuestas.

While more common for Puro talents, Electro shock is one of few luchadors who dabbled in MMA, but this was before he tried his hand in that in 2003. He would continue to work in AAA until in 2015, since then he has been mostly in IWRG and past that he has been in other indies too.

CIMA

Junior to all the talents featured CIMA made his debut in 1997 just a few years prior to this match. The promotion he would be most well known for didn’t even exist in 2000 and that of course would be Dragon Gate. He did work for the precursor companies though Toryumon Mexico and Toryumon Japan. As the last one to hold the Último Dragón Gym Championship, CIMA was also chosen to be the first Open the Dream Gate Champion when that company launched in 2004. Where he has worked primarily since, being a pillar for that promotion.

He had won the Distrito Federal Trios Champion(with Judo Suwa & Sumo Fuji) and the IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Champion at this point in Mexico both as Shiima Nobunaga though he had dropped both those at this point. He would go on to become one of the most decorated people in Dragon Gate if not the most. He would even hold the UWA World Trios titles which were used by Toryumon from 2001-2005 and are still used by the WRESTLE-1 Promotion.

Dragon Gate is famous for it’s factions and at this time Cima was in his 1st of the 10 he’s been in over his career there which was called Crazy Max. I won’t pretend to know all that much about it, but it seemed like it was worth noting. He’d go on in Dragon Gate to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship 12 times, so is more than decorated as a team wrestler as well as a singles star.

Beings so influenced by Lucha Libre it’s no surprise that Cima actually does have a Luchas de Apuestas record, but in 2000 he had not yet been in a lucha de Apuestas match.

Hector Garza

Making his debut in 1992, where he worked briefly for CMLL then made the jump to WCW in 1997 until in late 1999 he made his way to Mexico to work for AAA. This would have been fairly early in his AAA career, about 20 matches or so into working for the company. Then he’d go back to CMLL in 2005-2011, working his final year 2012 in AAA before he passed away in 2013 at the young age of 43, from lung cancer. His nephew continues to wrestler as Garza Jr.

At this point Garza had captured the UWA World Middleweight Championship, CMLL World Trios Championship, and was literally days away from capturing the Mexican National Tag Team Championship with Perro Aguayo Jr. I realize Hector Garza comes out with belts here, but I don’t really know what belts they are so I apologize for that.

Unlike everyone else thus far Hector Garza had a fairly impressive Luchas de Apuestas record 6-0-0 which was a who’s who of Lucha Libre like El Brazo, El Satánico(x2), Bestia Salvaje, MA-1 & Pirata Morgan. So all 3 OG Los Infernales members and both El Brazo and Bestia Salvaje. I really don’t think any of those names listed could be considered less than legends even when he took their scalps throughout the 1990′s.

Latin Lover

Making his debut in 1992(I’m sensing a theme here), initially working breifly for CMLL/UWA before making the jump to AAA. He’d work AAA until 2010 and would sue them with some other talents over the use of the name Latin Lover. With the talents case being that since they worked as these names for more than a decade they should be able to use them outside of AAA. He then worked outside of AAA for a year or two as just Latino before retiring.

When he briefly retired due to injury in 2006 it was due to having to have an eighth knee surgery since his debut in 1992. This would also correlate with his 2005 win in a the inaugural Bailando por un Sueño a reality TV dancing show that is a tournament format. He won that billed as Latin Lover since he was a minor celebrity thanks to his wrestling career. He has since been in a few television shows having supporting roles in both Que Bonito Amor and La Tempestad since retiring fully in 2012. I’m not going to go down a Spanish Television wormhole, but if you want to this might be a good starting point.

Latin Lover was more of a 1990′s competitor with the 2000′s being more of his wind down. At this point Latin Lover had been Mexican National Tag Team Champion twice, then Mexican National Light Heavyweight and AAA Campeon de Campeones and lastly the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship which he was holding at this time and was his last title

Latin lovers luchas de apuestas record was 8-1-0 with an additional 6 wins that didn’t have a date so may have been before or after this. One of these wins being a hair vs hair with Winners, who was now known as Abismo Negro back when he was a handsome babyface as well.

Octagon

Octagon made his debut in 1981 working mostly with EMLL as well. He didn’t become the Octagon character until the late 1980′s though when Octagon came to EMLL booker Antonio Pena with the idea of incorporating his legit martial arts training into a character. Octagon was the name based on the Chuck Norris film of the same name. This character took off and become a big hit. Octagon being in a couple of movies in the early 90′s which had become rare as the height of luchador movies had ended in the 70′s. Octagon was also of course sorta a proven gimmick as both Kung Fu and Kato Kung Lee had success, but most would agree that in the 30 years since Octagon debutted, that he has eclipsed both men’s success with his take on the gimmick.

Octagon at this point had captured and lost : Mexican National Trios Champion (with Atlantis and Mascara Sagrada), Mexican National Middleweight Champion(x3), AAA World Tag Team Champion (with El Hijo del Santo), and Mexican National Trios Champion (2x) (with Rey Misterio Jr. and Super Muneco).

We covered him unmasking Huracan Ramirez(II) since then he also shaved Bestia Negra I, then La Pareja del Terror(Eddie G and Art Barr) with his tag partner El Hijo del Santo and also unmasked Jaque Mate and Black Shadow II.



Octagon would become the posterboy for leaving EMLL for AAA when that company launched. Antonio Pena walking out to form AAA with Octagon and many talents following him. Octagon is famous for being the hold out. Working strong with AAA even after the peso crashed in 1997 and most people left AAA. Octagon stayed being put in their HoF in 2011. Though strangely Octagon left AAA 2014 and sued them for money owed. Even working with CMLL again in 2017 after leaving the promotion 25 years earlier… a sight literally no one thought we would see.

Jushin Thunder Liger

Made his debut in 1984, Liger and Tiger Mask were both NJPW trying to do lucha and both were successes. Though while Tiger Mask is more a sucess of a gimmick with the 1st being a flash in the NJPW pan. Jushin Thunder Liger would be the Junior ace of NJPW for most the the 1990′s and by a large margin is considered the most successful character of that division and probably the company as a whole. Having an iconic red and white look. Though in this match he is wearing all black which is also a cool look for him.

One of the most decorated talents on the planet. It all started when he held the World Mid-Heavyweight Champion which he held using the ring name Fuji Yamada(which isn’t his real name Keiichi Yamada). That would be only title not using the Liger name he would use most of his career. The over the 90′s(& 1989) Liger would capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship a staggering 11 times the last of which was towards its end when this match happened.

Also in the 90′s he would capture the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship, MPW British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship, War International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship(With El Samurai), War International Junior Heavyweight Championship, Super-J cup 200 in M-Pro and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Championships(with Great Sasuke).

Jushin Thunder Liger unmasked Pegasus Kid and Tiger Mask III at this point both of those happening in the early 1990′s. Liger is a legend and the 1990′s is when he became one so by 2000 and this match happening he was already very much a HoF talent. As mentioned this was the time of his last IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign as he wouldn’t be as much of a main eventer into the 2000′s.

How is the match?

Great, we are on a roll of great matches. I came into this not thinking it would be all that much to write home about. I was pretty wrong though. While I don’t think this was a 5 star match or something I’d call the greatest of all time, I did really enjoy it. The atomicos format is woefully underused in CMLL, even if I do prefer 3 on 3. It’s probably sacreligious to say and I don’t watch enough to probably compare fairly but, this feels sorta like a Dragon Gate match. Maybe if Dragon Gate and AAA or CMLL ran a show with Dragon Gate.

My main complaints with this match isn’t with anything that happens in the ring and is more about the booking. This 4 vs 4 with nothing on the line just doesn’t have the stakes or feuding in it to really feel like a main event of the yearly supercard., even if it is stacked with Hall of Fame level talent. To top that, Jushin Thunder Liger winning seems a little strange when the match has 6 AAA guy’s who could take the rub back to Mexico and AAA.

It’s one of those things where in hindsight of course I’d do it this way or that way. Even back at the time I don’t know how much most fans would be for a 4 vs 4. Triplemania hasn’t been a stranger to multi-man main events, but many of those have a hook like a cage or No DQ or something. It would have been nice to see a title or mask on the line here, but even without this is a fun fast paced match with some cool spots. Even before Dragon Gate shined a light on him, you can see Cima working well here even if he is teamed with and working vs people who aren’t his Toryumon peers.

Fun match all around with the program the teased between Abismo Negro and Jushin Thunder Liger came to fruition. As far as I could tell it didn’t, but there were more matches on this tour so maybe they did something with it in the dates that happened after this Triplemania VIII card.

