CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-09-14

recap

taped 2013-09-06 @ Arena Mexico

Somehow, his head did not go thru the buckle

Diamante Azul, La Máscara, Shocker vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Pólvora: Standard trios match. Shocker and Diamante Azul didn’t seem like they were in that much, but Mascara was in a lively mood. Mr. Niebla is getting worse at catching his spit. Troubling! (Not really troubling.)

 

Rush demolishes Tanahashi (who has no idea how to catch topes without nearly dying)

Atlantis & La Sombra vs Último Guerrero & Volador Jr.: Straight build up to the individual mask matches, to the point of not having different feuds interact at all except for the finishes. I still feel like this was a big mistake; they didn’t push the idea that Volador & Sombra could definitely win the tag match. This would’ve been the chance, Volador and Sombra could’ve gotten pins over the other guys. The match was all feuding and not much a buildup to the final.

 

Rush will not be stopped by blurry GIFs or clipped spots

Rush vs Hiroshi Tanahashi for the CMLL Universal final match: It really stuck on the rewatch how this was actually a match between two rudos. Tanahashi is here just as a foreign rudo, but the crowd still wasn’t interested in cheering Rush. It made the slow start of the match even slower, because the crowd was waiting for one of them to give them a reason to care while they were trying to slowly ramp up to something big. They were much more receptive once they started bringing out the big spots and finally got behind Rush in the third fall when the match looked like it was in the balance, but CMLL needed to better prepare the fans for this match somehow. The two guys in the match didn’t quite seemed prepared – it felt like they called a lot of the action (especially early) in the ring and weren’t communicating well. It definitely got better in the third fall, but they’re capable of a much better match.

CMLL, strange land of hard face kicks