Recapped: 12/27-28/2015
What happened: Ultimo Guerrero got his win back over Atlantis. King Jaguar won a cibernetico when Skandalo & Stigma both lost their minds. Casas & Mascara set up a match next week
What was good: The main event title match exceeded expectations and the first two matches were fun as well.
Where can I watch it: It’s on CMLL’s YouTube channel.
Match 1: Black Tiger, Meyer, Paris vs Ares, Fuerza Chicana, Guerrero Espacial
Arena Puebla, 12/21/2015
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
- tecnicos
- Paris tope con giro Guerrero Espacial (4:52)
- Meyer ropeflip splash Fuerza Chicana (5:11)
- rudos
- Ares leg trap armbar Black Tiger (2:05)
- Fuerza Chicana inverted powerslam Paris (3:01)
- tecnicos
- Meyer upraised feet Ares (5:37)
- Meyer top rope splash Fuerza Chicana (6:09)
Winner: tecnicos (2-1)
Match Time: 14:21
Black Tiger was a fill in for Astro, who moved up a match.
Review: [good] solid opener. These Puebla openers make much more sense as a setup than the DF ones. The idea should be to have some green but promising youngsters (Meyer & Paris looked OK, had some iffy moments) with some veterans who can carry them thru. Black Tiger sometimes bores me, but he was definitely keeping it together for the tecnicos, directing them to spots at times. The DF version is a lot of guys who appear to only be around because of tenure, and really don’t help in this way. Maybe the difference is it’s a lot harder to get on the card as a Puebla guy and so you’ve got to try a bit harder.
Match 2: Astro, Eléctrico, Shockercito vs Demus 3:16, Mini Joker, Saurón
Arena Puebla, 12/21/2015
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
- tecnicos
- Electrico springboard elbow drop Mini Joker (6:10)
- Shockercito reinera Sauron (6:13)
- rudos
- Sauron motocicleta Shockercito (2:59)
- Mini Joker top rope splash Astro (3:11)
- tecnicos
- Electrico straight jacket cavernaria Sauron (5:53)
- Shockercito flipping fujiwara armbar Demus 3:16 (6:27)
Winner: tecnicos (2-1)
Match Time: 15:51
Notes: Astro replaced Asturiano.
Review: [good] maybe I just enjoy Puebla shows if I watch them six days later? This was the usual Demus/Shockercito show with the other four guys bringing energy as best they can. Joker’s got to work on his catching, but he’s got some promise for the few times he appears here. Sauron seems way too big to be in minis matches. Astro’s alright. The 3:16 family has an unlimited amount of novelty “69” shirts.
Match 3: King Jaguar vs Stigma, Skándalo, Policeman, Rey Cometa, Okumura, Disturbio, Espíritu Maligno, Fuego, Canelo Casas in a cibernetico match
Arena Puebla, 12/21/2015
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
- Fuego huracanrana Canelo Casas (5:18)
- Okumura drapping DDT Fuego (6:35)
- Espiritu Maligno double pin (8:30)
- Disturbio double pin (8:30)
- Rey Cometa huracanrana Okumura (9:48)
- Skandalo inside cradle Rey Cometa (9:57)
- Skandalo pin Stigma (11:53)
- COR Skandalo (14:30)
- King Jaguar pulpo Policeman (15:10)
Winner: King Jaguar
Match Time: 15:10
Notes: The two sides nearly brawl before the match on the ramp and Tirantes, in classic form, just calmly watches from the ring. He’s not on the clock until the whistle blows. Sides are rudos vs the strange alliance.
Match falls apart in the closing minutes. Policeman slams Stigma and goes up to the middle rope for a move. Skandalo covers Stigma instead. Stigma clearly kicks out at two, but Tirantes counts three anyway. Stigma and Skandalo try to continue, only for Tirantes to get in the middle and attempt to restrain Stigma from fighting. Stigma and Skandalo decide to brawl outside instead, and continue brawling for a while. This is massively confusing for Policeman and King Jaguar, who appear to need Skandalo for either what’s coming next or the finish. King Jaguar wanders over to the brawl, fights well telling Skandalo something, and heads back to the ring. Skandalo ignores it and keeps fighting Stigma. Policeman comes over and gets involved in a three way brawl, perhaps trying to fight them both towards the ring. (King Jaguar goes back and forth between the fight and the ring once more during this, giving a shrug as he walks back.) The brawl sort of moves towards the ring, except Skandalo still doesn’t get in, and Tirantes is counting everyone out this point. King Jaguar makes it back in, and Policeman sneaks in just in time. They do a finish quickly, with Stigma and Skandalo taking their fight back in the ring as the other two are finishing up, then going to the ramp. Canelo, Okumura and Disturbio run back out to help their teammates. Fuego, Rey Cometa and Espiritu are out after them, with Cometa pointendly ramming into Skandalo and Stigma to break up their fight. (Disturbio is trying to pull Stigma away, and Cometa’s shove helps.)
Skandalo ends up with the microphone, and back and forth challenges with Cometa (and a little bit of Stigma) lead to a cage match with all ten guys for next week. The rudos accidentally leave Canelo behind to get beat up.
Review: [good] this is an entertaining cibernetico for most of the way that just completely goes off the rails at the end. They fought this cibernetico like they actually hated each other, just everyone slapping each other angrily because they all had real issues at this point – it wasn’t a kill time match before a cage match, it was a change to finally stick it to the guy they didn’t like on the other team. It was the heated brawl it needed to be to set up the cage match.
The problem might have been it was a little too heated? I can’t pretend to know what’s in the minds of Stigma & Skandalo and Tirantes caused the whole problem by screwing up the count, but they were kind of on their own planet at the end of the match and screwing things up for everyone else. It seems doubtful that would’ve been tolerated by anyone by them. It’s not like they were standouts positively before that: their worst moment of the match might have been when Skandalo faked a dive in a completely unconvincing fashion, turned and stopped in front of Stigma’s corner, and only then did Stigma think to climb the corner for his move. They were bad.
Everyone else was pretty good. (Almost everyone, Canelo smacked Fuego in the side of the head with a punch when he thought Fuego was ducking.) Rey Cometa is a wonderful tecnico, and everyone else played their roles well. This was good chaos, intentional and not, to set up next week’s cage match.
Match 4: La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Valiente vs Felino, Negro Casas, Thunder
Arena Puebla, 12/21/2015
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
- Team Mascara
- Marco Corleone punch Thunder (1:40)
- Team Casas
- Felino reverse figure four Valiente (2:03)
- Thunder cradle suplex Marco (2:03)
- Team Mascara
- La Mascara superkick Felino (3:34)
- Negro Casas small package Valiente (3:34)
- DQ Negro Casas [unmasking La Mascara] (4;18)
Winner: Team Mascara
Match Time: 8:01
Notes: Mascara attacked Negro Casas early. Thunder is a replacement for Mr. Niebla and Valiente is in for Maximo. Finish set up a Casas/Mascara match next week.
Review: [below average] Not good at all, with the capable guys taking the night off and leaving the match in the hands of a very incapable guy. They really should’ve put Thunder on the Marco/Mascara side and Valiente on the Casas/Felino side, except I think they thought Thunder/Marco against each other would work out well. It did not work out well. Thunder was inspired to try more strikes for the occasion, and shows off a wide array of terrible elbows and terrible punches. They weirdly built the match all around those two, when Casas (barely in) and La Mascara were the match for next week. That’s a much better option, I don’t really need to see Thunder again. Maybe I can just stop watching Thunder matches in 2016? The match also abruptly goes to the finish, as if they were told they had to end right that moment.
Match 5: Último Guerrero © vs Atlantis for the NWA World Middleweight Championship
Arena Puebla, 12/21/2015
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
- Ultimo Guerrero reversed huracanrana (5:45)
- Atlantis bodyscissors cradle (1:07)
- Ultimo Guerrero front superplex (7:28)
Winner: Ultimo Guerrero (2-1)
Match Time: 14:27
Notes: Rey Cometa and Policeman are seconds. Tirantes is referee.
Review: [good] the best non-major Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero match in some time. It’s not an unbelievable match, but it’s also far better than the truncated matches they’ve done as of late. The first fall was fun mat wrestling at a good pace, with a finish that felt like it fit. It wasn’t straight off what they had been doing, but it was a counter to a move and the match had all been about counters. I’d really have liked the match if they kept at that pace, but of course it’s Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero so the second fall ended in seconds. Third fall was still good, and I’ll take the trade off of not doing a lot of big near falls if it means we don’t have to go thru all of Ultimo Guerrero’s top rope moves. (Or maybe UG just decided to stop killing the old guys, since this was the same finish as the Black Terry match.) This was a perfectly fine title match for a weekly show, at a level they haven’t been delivering of late. Hope to get more of this.
