There’s four matches on this show, but the only one worth talking about is the main event. I’m writing this nearly a month after this episode aired, so it’s lot easier for me to point out in hindsight – as much as Mephisto has his matches, CMLL totally should’ve sent Ephesto to NJPW for the last match. Both guys worked with Sombra in title matches in a short period of time, and Ephesto’s match blew this one away. There was actually a sense of drama, suspense and rising tension level. This was 14 minutes of move, pin, kickout, no one cares because no one believes the match is going to be done yet.
If you’re going to do a final fall as long as this one (nearly 18 minutes on TV, and these shows don’t seem to have much clipping), you can’t just settle for alternating near falls the whole way. After about five minutes of that bit, everyone figures out it’s not going to end until someone tries a usual finish, or a finish from one of the first two falls. The match can’t end before then, because the match never ends until they get to those bits – years of watching wrestling has taught even the most casual fan that. Meanwhile, you’re just doing a whole bunch of stuff that’s immediately irrelevant.
It works better in tag and trios matches, because you can do different combination of guys and build towards the climax there. Here, it was just the same guys, doing the same spots we see in every singles match until they hit the time limit they had in their minds. Near falls are exciting, but not in excess.