CMLL singles match head to head records

Negro Casas and Atlantis have been together in CMLL for over 20 years, usually on opposite sides and usually around the top of the card. They’ve faced each other in trios matches countless times. It wasn’t until last month that they had their first ever singles match last month in Puebla last month, as best I can figure.

Atlantis hasn’t had singles match with Rey Escorpion, Rush or Terrible. Averno has never faces Valiente. Valiente hasn’t gotten a lot of singles chances. Sombra hasn’t faced Rey Escorpion. La Mascara hasn’t faced Negro Casas. Blue Panther hasn’t faced Mephisto. And on and on.

CMLL is a tag/trios promotion where singles matches are the gimmick match at the end of feuds, and CMLL doesn’t like to overuse gimmick matches. CMLL does not openly promote matches as different weight group, but it typically only does feuds between wrestlers between similar sizes. Luchadors may be in the same promotion but be quietly classified into separate groups. It’s possible to be in the same company a long time without having a singles match. That’s the complete opposite of US promotions and quite different from Japan groups (where the annual league tournaments causes at least the top guys to face off.) The only major group who probably runs less singles matches is AAA, who run a less feuds in number and a lot less shows.

Rob suggested a while back to put together a list of CMLL wrestlers to see how people had done each other against and which matches had actually happened. He suggested to pick 10 names. Somehow, I came up with 22. These things happen.

We’ve seen CMLL change style a little bit in the last few months, and maybe more singles matches are coming. Right now, this is where they’re at:

cmllsingle

(click to enlarge)

Records are thru 02/07 and never complete. The U number indicated matches which were announced but no results were ever found. Tournament matches are not included unless they’re finals. Singles matches in any location are included.

My big takeaway is Valiente needs to get a singles title and just start defending it against everyone. He’s had some singles matches, but not many against the top guys included here. I knew Marco had not had a lot of singles matches, but I was surprised to see that for him.

It’s also amazing to realize Rush is 0-3 against Rey Bucanero. One of the teased (but not really delivered) El Luchador storylines was Bucanero trying to hold off the young guys coming after him – young guys like Rush. Guess he did that! Rush really doesn’t have the strong W/L record you’d expect – he’s beaten Terrible a bunch but is 50/50 against everyone else.

It’s worth remembering that these numbers are interesting but totally irrelevant to anything they program or even how they hype the matches they program. I knew Dorada had lost to Volador before their FantasticaMania match, but I didn’t realize he had never beaten Volador until I saw this list. It’s going to be a long time before he gets another chance to get that first W too.