Recapped: 10/14/2016
What happened: Valiente – yes, Valiente – won Block A of the Universal tournament. Mascara 2000 fouled Marco Corleone, which may be a feud for some reason.
What was good: Mascara Dorada and friends had an outstanding match.
The ‘main event’, the block final between Ultimo Guerrero and Valiente, was a good match that the crowd was fighting thru the finish.
Where can I watch it: If you’re in Japan, you can watch it on NJPW World right now. I’ll have it up sooner or later.
Match 1: Astral & Eléctrico vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Violencia
Arena México, 10/14/2016
- rudos
- Pequeño Nitro frontcracker Astral (4:33)
- Pequeño Violencia nudo lagunero Eléctrico (5:02)
- técnicos
- Eléctrico springboard elbow drop Pequeño Violencia (3:44)
- Astral & Eléctrico springboard splash Pequeño Nitro (4:14)
- técnicos
- Astral kneeling cristo Peuqneo Nitro (3:53)
- Eléctrico straight jacket camel clutch Pequeño Violencia (4:14)
Winner: técnicos (2/3)
Match Time: 13:30
Review: [below average] There’s been a lot of Astral & Eléctrico tag matches, and most of them were better than this. This wasn’t technically bad, but it was uninteresting outside of a stretch in the second fall. Pequeño Violencia remains not much good, but the other three guys didn’t bring a whole lot either, and the sameness of the CMLL minis matches contributes to make this quickly forgettable.
Match 2: La Vaquerita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
Arena México, 10/14/2016
- rudas
- Dalys corner dropkick Marcela (6:19)
- tecnicas
- Vaqueirta middle elbow drop Tiffany (2:54)
- Princesa Sugehit Mistica Amapola (3:10)
- rudas
- Tiffany reinera Vaquerita (2:53)
- Amapola Devil’s Wings Princesa Sugehit (3:23)
Winner: rudas (1/3)
Match Time: 12:52
Review: [below average] I mentally checked out about this match after Sugehit’s horrible headscissors in the first fall. It did seem to get better from this, though really never a lot better than the opener. I’ve given up on Vaquerita; she’s slow, not very effective with her moves outside the elbow drop, and hasn’t seemed to get better. It’s too bad, because there’s an opportunity here for a single good wrestler.
Match 3: Dragón Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr., Máscara Dorada vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja
Arena México, 10/14/2016
- Guerreros
- W Guerrero (4:58)
- técnicos
- Mascara Dorada ramp torito Euforia (2:32)
- Guerrero
- Triple submission (9:10)
Winner: Guerreros (1/3)
Match Time: 16:40
Review: [great] this had the craziest dive ever and also some other really good stuff that I kind of forget after the craziest dive ever. And then they just kept on going anyway, as if that was going to be topped. They should’ve taken a bow and just gone to the back after that. It’s no slight against the rest of the match, which was pretty active and featured some spots which would’ve been the biggest of the night on other nights (the topes, Gran Guerrero taking the bump to the floor even when he couldn’t hold onto the headscissors.) Dragon Lee & Guerrero Maya were great too, but special recognition should go to the rudos. The Guerreros went with everything, and held on during some dangerous looking moves. That dive doesn’t work without Euforia – or someone like him, but there’s few who could do it as well as he did. We know Dorada can be spectacular without his usual CMLL bases, because he’s done in WWE (and NJPW), but it’s a shame a guy like Euforia isn’t going with him to take it even higher. The Guerreros transitions into their triple submission were really slow and there weren’t really near falls and I really wanted the técnicos to win, but that all feels like nitpicking. This outshined everything else on the card easily.
Match 4: Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 vs Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Stuka Jr.
Arena México, 10/14/2016
- técnicos
- Marco Corleone Aero Italia Universo 2000 & Mascara Ano 2000 (5:52)
- técnicos
- DQ Mascara Ano 2000 [foul to Marco Corleone] (5:53)
Winner: técnicos (1/2)
Match Time: 11:45
Review: [below average] This was predictably poor, though not nearly as bad as the 09/16 match. The regular CMLL team carried the match completely, bringing it close to respectability. Stuka had to nerf his big spots – this would’ve been a bad time to moonsault to the floor – but Marco and Atlantis did most of what they normally do, and the Dinamtias stumbled around well enough to not look totally embarrassing this time out. This wasn’t good by any means, and was the third trios match which was below standard, but it wasn’t a worst match of the year candidate. CMLL was lucky to get this much out of them, and running an angle to set up a big match with these guys is completely absurd.
Match 5: Mistico vs Último Guerrero, Negro Casas, Máximo Sexy, Valiente, Rey Cometa, Mephisto, Shocker for the CMLL Universal Championship and in a seeding battle royal match
Arena México, 10/14/2016
- Rey Cometa thrown out
- Máximo thrown out
- Negro Casas thrown out
- Valiente thrown out
- Mistico thrown out
- Ultimo Guerrero thrown out
Winner: Mephisto & Shocker
Match Time: 2:49
CMLL Universal Block A
6:Máximo Sexy defeated Rey Cometa (3:19, powerbomb)
7:Valiente defeated Negro Casas (2:23, tapatia)
8:Último Guerrero defeated Mistico (5:37, Guerrero Special)
9:Shocker defeated Mephisto (3:07, Dos Caras Clutch)
10:Valiente defeated Máximo Sexy (1:41, Indian Deathlock)
11:Último Guerrero defeated Shocker (2:50, Guerrero Special)
12:Valiente defeated Último Guerrero (10:17, Valiente Buster)
Review: Ultimo Guerrero/Mistico had a little bit to it, but Valiente/Ultimo Guerrero was the only real match of the main event. It’s one that’ll probably be better out of context; in the moment, it seemed obvious Ultimo Guerrero was going to win, and win after about an hour of underwhelming action. It also had Valiente trying to get the crowd to rally behind him, but the crowd totally into Ultimo Guerrero instead. It was hard to understand why Valiente was trying to work so hard to turn the crowd back towards him until he hit two Valiente Busters and won the whole thing. (That he didn’t use them should’ve been a tipoff.) Valiente even defeated the guy who keeps beating him in title matches, though that story didn’t seem to be brought up at all by the announcers.
This was intended to be the story of Valiente shockingly making it to the final. They didn’t help him with the match ups. His first two matches both appeared as if he was only advancing because his opponent was hurt. Negro Casas took an easy exit from the battle royal and Valiente was noticeably light with him (to the point of getting boos) in their quick matches. Máximo, seemingly because he gave no effort to be in a good position, got a busted lip on a Rey Cometa tope in the first match. Valiente’s win came off as something quick to allow Máximo to get out of there (and he clearly wanted to be anywhere else.) The crowd always cheers Ultimo Guerrero, and putting him in the final against Valiente was going to ensure the fans were going to root for the ‘wrong’ guy. Mephisto would’ve been a better choice, but even then it might have not gone the right way – Valiente’s current look and gimmick is not helping him out with this audience. It’s hard to figure who he could face in two weeks which would mean a lot and a guy few people believe is the top guy in the promotion getting to the final doesn’t help the credibility of this (already flimsy) tournament. Maybe the Dia Del Muertos staging will be the draw anyway.
