Blue Panther/Shu vs. Villano III/Black Terry (N/A - 2004)

Blue Panther & Shu El Guerrero vs Villano III & Black Terry (said to be late 2004)

I'm kind of shocked this hasn't been nominated. This was 30 minutes of quite fantastic technical lucha at it's finest. I don't recall many matches where Villano III gets to show of his mat skills like here, which is a shame because he was fantastic. Everyone else was working like mad as well. They cycle through all the possible match ups, and each one is a killer. Terry is great during his opening sections with Shu, trying to disable Shus massive size advantage. Shu just catching him with a leg scissor was an excellent spot. I've seen people critique Panther as just being a wrestling robot with a bigger database of holds to do than everyone else, which is so blatantly stupid I don't even know where to begin. He was using really basic holds like wristlocks or leg stretches in a really grinding manner and when Terry answered with a wrist takedown of his own it was almost like a carny folk Han moment. Their work together may have been the highlight of the match and up there with anything you've seen in World of Sport etc. I also liked that Panther worked in some subtle heelish tendencies, such as tagging in Shu after Terry got the advantage, or holding on to the ropes for a brief moment. Shu was great as well acting like a beast. Occasionally he would get frustrated and throw out these surprise dropkicks. It builds to a pretty intricate finishing run with Terry and Villano III trying to overcome the odds, and eventually they do the Star spot. Normally I am opposed to these kind of multiman spots, but the way they executed it here was just great. That they had a match this long, this compelling, with no restholds or downtime, without any big bumps, dives or stiffness is a testament to the greatness of this style of lucha libre.