With a project like this, I think it's really right to start off in watching order. I want to start off with the stuff I already found good.
Before Corwo had sent me this, this was the first match I started off with, as I know that this is what another friend of mine believes to be the greatest match ever.
Quite frankly, both of these two people are not wrong to include this in the conversation. Not only is it a beautiful apuestas, but, at the very least, I do believe as of right now (within my admittedly limited exposure which I am oh-so-desperately trying to fix) that it is, at the very least, a top 3 apuestas ever. It's just one of those things that is so consistently gripping the entire time that it's just hard to ever dislike.
And, well, fuck. I just get higher on this one each and every time I watch it.
If you're here, I already assume that you know about this match, or at least have been into wrestling and discussing it long enough to at least run into the match once.
The sheer energy that Arena Mexico carries, the continual showcases of the crowd split into pro-Villano III and pro-Atlantis waves, with both adults and children united in these waves, it's hard to compare it to anything except a superhero battle. When they cheer, they cheer. When both participants bleed, they bleed in such a way that is reminiscent of an artist painting tears.
If thousands of people were there to watch me get soaked in spirit, passion, my own blood in the sake of protecting my own identity. I'd dream for this presentation too.
Of course, this style is much more modern compared to some of the other lucha classics I've seen, and doesn't contain the spirit of the famed beauty of the brawl, which is not a detriment, but rather what makes this match so beautiful in the first place. It's purposely structured in order to not be this rapid-pace gunshot, but rather this desperate sense of panic, not exactly Chono vs. Hase from the 1993 G1 Climax semi-finals, but the sense that grows harder and harder.
This match is even harder to describe on its own back, because it's equatable to so many things, yet none of them feel correct, because there's no metaphor that could fit this.
The only correct one is that it's Atlantis vs. Villano III. Something so passionate, something so intense, something so moving, that it's one of those matches that just spiritually defines professional wrestling. Especially once you get to the brutal, infamous headbutt.
The best part is that it just picks up after that, everything is just so frantic, so panicky, especially once you get to the trade of holds.
Until Atlantis kneels on La Atlantida.
Out of anything, as I currently stand, this is just near perfect. I hand the edge to a few other matches, but this is just a necessity.