Recapped: 04/19/2017
Matches:
All matches aired live from Arena Mexico on April 18, 2017
- Akuma, Hijo del Signo, Inquisidor defeated Bengala, Príncipe Diamante, Sensei (13:16 [5:44, 2:52, 4:40], 1/3, below average)
- Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pierrothito beat Eléctrico, Fantasy, Último Dragóncito (12:39 [5:20, 3:00, 4:19], 1/3, OK)
- Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Tiger beat Pegasso, Soberano Jr., Starman (11:15 [3:53, 2:41, 4:41], 1/3, ok)
- Virus beat Fuego in a lightning match (4:16, Gori Bomb, good)
- Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero beat Dragón Lee, Marco Corleone, Mistico (10:07 [3:54, 1:39, 4:34], 1/3, ok)
- Máximo Sexy defeated Terrible to retain the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship (12:47 [2:48, 0:44, 9:15], 1/3, great)
What happened:
Máximo kept the CMLL Heavyweight Championship over Terrible.
Niebla Roja didn’t get along with his team, was friendly with the técnicos, and won anyway.
Misterioso ran from Soberano early in their match, beat him quickly in the first fall. Soberano rallied to be both Sagrado & Misterioso in the second fall, and wasn’t involved in the third fall finish.
Thoughts:
The main event got a lot of positive talk live and I didn’t really see it as I was watching early on. They did Último Guerrero style early falls and it was feeling like a routine match for a while; Máximo faking being tired to lure Terrible into a second dive was smart but it didn’t feel like anything much overall. They just kept on going though, and that’s the Máximo formula for his title matches: lots of big moves, lots of back and forth at a good pace, and lot of convincing moments where it can end. Máximo mostly wins with his kiss (which Terrible may have been immune to after a decade of exposure) but can and does win matches in plenty of other ways, which makes those near falls feel more weighty. Terrible too has a bunch of possible finishers they ran thru, and no problem going thru all of them. Máximo title matches are good for some bit of psychology, and they got a random hold over just by using it to win an early fall and teasing it again as the finish. This match didn’t rise any higher level than, say, his title match with Euforia and it’s not the epic heavyweight title matches of other promotions, but it was plenty satisfactory for what CMLL is offering. This is an easy watch and easy recommendation.
The semimain was overtaken by Niebla Roja’s turn, like Friday’s match. He’s entertaining at the sabotage, and Último Guerrero is great at doing a slow burn at this idiot who’s going to have to murder soon, but the matches are never really that good during this sort of angle and this was hurt just the same. The finishing kick was the best part, and Niebla Roja & Dragon Lee continue to have exchanges which make me frustrated we’re never going to actually get that singles match.
Short lightning matches usually don’t work, but this one did. Fuego coming out hot worked to get the fast pace this match needed, and from a logical strategy standpoint: you’re not going to win a mat battle with Virus, might as well cut it off before it can happen. Fuego kept the action going with Virus stopping him only a few times, and the finish looked devastating. There’s not a lot to this one because there isn’t the time, but it definitely worked and is a good alternative idea for this lightning matches.
Soberano continues to look outstanding in his recent matches, and continued on his feud with Misterioso nicely in the third match. I’m not convinced it’s going anywhere – it could use more focus on one show if it was meant to be, and it could be they just went with it because CMLL’s random match generator put them together this week – but they’ve got the roles well. Soberano was just as good if not better with the secondary rudos in this. Second fall ending minute was the best portion of this match and this was significantly better than the matches prior to it despite being about the same grade.
The rudos were more aggressive in the minis match, but nothing done that doesn’t feel like the same thing we’ve seen out of this decision for the last five years. There were small tweaks to the usual match – Mercurio getting in a hanging double stomp to the apron, and a failed attempt to mirror that in the ring only for Pierrothito to not take the right bump – but there’s more than small tweaks needed. Even when the luchadors put in more effort, there’s no great effort being put on the people who organize these matches and it limits how high they can go. This was good on the curve but nothing that would stand by normal standards.
I was never much into the opener and tuned out as soon as they badly blew Inquisidor’s front cracker spot