Recapped: 03/29/2017
All matches aired live on CMLL’s YouTube.
- El Coyote & Grako (1/3) Magia Blanca & Sangre Imperial (11:44 [6:05, 2:34, 3:05], OK)
- Dalys, Metálica, Reyna Isis (2/3) La Vaquerita, Sanely, Silueta (13:52 [5:30, 4:35, 3:47], OK)
- Sagrado, Skándalo, Virus (1/3) Esfinge, Soberano Jr., Tritón (15:03 [6:56, 4:51, 3:16], OK)
- Bobby Villa (counter dropkick) Titán (8:02, good)
- Puma, Terrible, Tiger (2/3) Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Máximo Sexy (12:53 [4:24, 4:22, 4:07], good)
- Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja (1/3) Atlantis, Matt Taven, Valiente (8:37 [2:24, 1:32, 4:41], ok)
What happened:
This was almost a perfect nothing happening CMLL show until the main event. Niebla Roja showed up in a strange mood, refusing to help his partners and messing up their teamwork spots for no apparent reason. After many problems, Gran Guerrero and Euforia justifiably stomped Roja. That unfortunately led to them being cradled by the tecnico to put an end to the main event. It came off more like Niebla Roja was going rudo on his rudo partners, not that he was becoming a tecnico.
Thoughts:
The main event was all about the angle, which originally seemed like the other Guerreros were betraying Niebla Roja, but then quickly become obvious that Roja was screwing with his partners. It’s hurt by being so random and without meaning. I hope Roja is just getting shifted to a different rudo unit, because he just showed a lot against Dragon Lee and flipping him (back) to a tecnico side seems as poor an idea as it was for Dragon Rojo, Misterioso and Sangre Azteca at different times. Some bigger shuffling of the rudo units is overdue, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
The semimain was the best match on the show. It wasn’t quite at the level of last week’s Puma/Tiger match, and didn’t go as far as that one. Maya & Drone fit well with them and Maximo & Terrible got in more spots. This is one where they’re hurt by doing this match every week on TV, unable to keep switching it up every week to make these feel different. It still was enjoyable.
Bobby/Titan was a more story driven lightning match than usual, driven around Titan hurting his left ankle early and Villa going after it often. It didn’t quite play into the finish, unless we go with the idea that Titan was slowed by the injury and got caught because of that slowness. Still, I want to give them credit for trying to do something with this match more than usual, and the story didn’t detract from the better than average action.
The tercera had some good parts if still missing something to some together as a match. Soberano deciding to bring the Fosberry Flop dive in regular rotation to CMLL is fantastic, there’s been no one doing it since Fuego gave it up years ago. Triton’s following the model of his old partner Mascara Dorada, going out of CMLL as strong as possible when he could’ve easily mailed it in the last few months. Virus clowning Esfigne is always approved.
I have a sneaking suspicion Silueta is only getting two matches this week because Estrellita fell down very hard, but she’s been nice to have onboard whatever the reason. She’s was more reliable than her teammates in this match, and her sequences early with Metalica were the best part of the early portion of this match (Metalica/Silueta is the greatest possible not-pushed CMLL women’s matchup.) Her moonsault wasn’t so good, but the rush of near falls on Dalys before her inevitable demise got the crowd. I thought Isis was totally going to miss on her pump splash (because her partners didn’t help her with the position) and she landed it fine, so there’s that.
The opener was more interesting than normal, because it was all rookies and they were better against each other than with they have been with veterans in the segundas. (That seems to be exactly the opposite the point of veterans, but understandable with these vets.) The rookies weren’t smooth or too exciting, it’s an opener after all, and Drako & Magia Blanca royally screwed up a rope flip spot in the third. Still, they pulled out a few new moves and showed more potential in this match than they had before.
