A day for Los Bucaneros

Pirata Morgan, Jerry Estrada & Hombre Bala v Rayo De Jalisco Jr, Atlantis & Alfonso Dantes (EMLL, February 1987)

The original Bucaneros! I almost forgot about Jerry Estrada running around wearing an eye patch. I've watched a couple amazing Pirata Morgan/Jerry Estrada rudo shows in the last week and this was another one, with Hombre Bala matching them every step, especially in the tercera. They mugged the tecnicos in the primera and Morgan was directing the whole thing, a lunatic Tarantino with a fetish for blading his own eye socket rather than putting other people's feet in his mouth. In the second caida we got a taste of how ridiculous the rudos were going to be in the tercera - some comedy, some clowning, the tecnico comeback with Rayo running circles around everyone. Alfonso Dantes looks old even by lucha standards here but still has amazing whip on his arm wringer takedowns, and of course Atlantis hitting his running moonsault out the corner looks amazing by any standard. And then there's the tercera, which was basically one extended reel of rudo horse shit and miscommunication spots. Sequences where one, two, sometimes all three of them are made to look foolish, some where they end up running face-first into each other, some where one will dropkick the other into the third man who will then be accidentally be speared by the first. There was one sequence that ended with Estrada taking a Fuerza bump to the floor and dropkicking both of his partners in the face, and I wish I could do the whole thing justice but it would be impossible with mere words. There's an unfortunate jump in the tape, or maybe a commercial break, but we miss what seemed to be the start of Los Bucaneros making their comeback. When they wrestle back control they hit stereo running dropkicks to a kneeling Atlantis, and right at the very second the move connects two people in the crowd fire off a fucking cap gun! Pirata Morgan is top 30 ever. Jerry Estrada might be top 3.