CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-10-26

Herb Dean would’ve stopped it

recap

taped 2013-10-18 @ Arena Mexico
Super Porky vs Rey Escorpión for the hair in super libre plus: I have this as Good and not great – though this is an incredibly weird match to rate. It did really feel like a different match than usual (like the submission match), where the spots they’d normally do in a match (the plancha!) felt wildly out of place and made the match seem more goofy than they were otherwise going for. Same thing with the three falls. There was a case for them, because they got over the holds as finishes in the first two falls and played off them in the third fall, but it seemed really silly to have Escorpion choke out Porky in under two minutes and then the match just keep going like Porky just wasn’t unconscious. When they did play it serious, there were some really serious moments. The punches near the end were really good, but all the brawling just came off as more violent. The finish was kind of in between – it made sense for Máximo to break it up but, if they’re playing fake MMA, it didn’t make sense for the referee not to stop it. Maybe I didn’t understand the rules, but I don’t think I’m the only one who thought that. This was still good more than bad, but I think it was too all of the over the place to be great. It’s one still worth checking out.

Maximo’s boxing skills. (Note Zavala deciding to stay as far out of range as possible.)

Tama Tonga & Terrible vs La Máscara & Rush: Not good, disappointing. La Mascara was not into the match at all, moving half speed and having no energy. I’m not sure if his mind was just elsewhere because of the circumstances, but it turned out to be a poor performance. He and Tama Tonga were so slow in the first fall, as if building to a much longer match than was happening, and the match only picked when Rush was involved. They really could’ve used a much hotter start to distract from the lackluster title change. It didn’t help that they turned the sound way down – probably because of some negative reactions to the bait and switch. It sounded like no one cared, and it was tough to find a reason to care in the match itself at all. I’m very much not excited for the inevitable title rematch.

best thing Mascara did all match was mostly Tonga’s work