Recapped: 06/09/2017
Matches:
Metálico & Tiger beat Príncipe Diamante & Robin (16:07 [7:50, 3:19, 4:58], 1/3, ok)
Estrellita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit beat Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis (15:12 [7:54, 7:18], 1/2 DQ, ok)
Guerrero Maya Jr. went to a double countout with Misterioso Jr. in a lightning match (5:40, no rating due to stream issues)
Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero beat Atlantis, Dragón Lee, Mistico (5:21+, 5:21 [?:??, 1:45, 3:36], good from what we saw)
Soberano Jr. & Oro Jr. won the dumb battle royal (5:16)
Canelo Casas & Negro Casas beat Astral & Valiente in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal (4:45, below average)
Akuma & Pierroth beat Drone & Niebla Roja in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal (8:07, ok)
Flyer & Volador Jr. beat Mephisto & Raziel in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal (6:53, good)
Carístico & Soberano Jr. beat Ángel de Oro & Oro Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal (7:58, good)
Canelo Casas & Negro Casas advanced over Akuma & Pierroth in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal (forfeit due to injury)
Carístico & Soberano Jr. beat Flyer & Volador Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal (8:28)
Carístico & Soberano Jr. beat Canelo Casas & Negro Casas in a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal (6:37, ok)
What happened:
Soberano & Carístico advanced to the final of the Gran Alternativa next week, to face Último Guerrero & Sansón. It was a strange tournament with unusual matches and outcomes.
Pierroth & Akuma surprisingly beat Nieba Roja & Drone, with Pierroth getting the win mostly by himself: a modified piledriver on Drone, and a mask pull and a foul on Niebla Roja. However, Pierroth & Akuma did not wrestle any more in the tournament, because Vangellys came out of the crowd and beat Pierroth with a bat. Vangellys also slammed the barricade gate into Pierroth’s shoulder many times. Pierroth & Akuma came out for their next match against Canelo Casas & Negro Casas, but the comission refused to let Pierroth wrestle with his injury and gave the Casas team the win by forfeit. Vangellys declared he was going after the Ingobernables for humilating him last week and done with TGR too.
The bottom half of the bracket saw Carístico & Soberano defeat Angel de Oro & Oro Jr., then Volador & Flyer in matches which were longer than usual for a CMLL tournament. They defeated the Casas family to advance to the final, which will repeat the Sansón/Soberano Jr. final from the Copa Junior.
Vangellys/Pierroth wasn’t the only feud on this show. Zeuxis’ team lost in straight falls when she was eliminated from the match but returned to attack Sugehit (who was about to win anyway.) Zeuxis left Sugehit unmasked as their issue continues. The lightning match ended in a rare draw, when Misterioso & Guerrero Maya were counted out while brawling outside. Referee Edgar tried to stop them, only for Misterioso to chop him and throw the referee into the barricade.
Tiger made an unusual opening match appearance, replacing Arkangel. Tiger noted it was an emergency situation, and CMLL was caught off guard enough to play Arkangel’s music.
Marca/Claro changed the video player, and maybe the underlining streaming technology. It was a failure: the feed died early and often in the first half of the show, and streamed in poor quality when it was working. I have video of the matches, but it doesn’t look good. Hopefully it’ll be better next week.
Thoughts:
It was just too bad the stream wasn’t good this week, because people were clealry giving up on this after an hour of problems (and it never got any better.) I hope CMLL’s getting good money not to just put these up on YouTube.
This was one of the better tournament block shows CMLL’s done in recent memory. It was about half giving these matches a reasonable about of time, and half grouping the best teams all in the same half of the bracket. Flyer/Volador vs Mephisto/Raziel was good in the usual Flyer fashion, Angel de Oro/Oro Jr. vs Carístico/Soberano had unexpected chemistry and Flyer/Volador vs Carístico/Soberano was everyone just unloading what they had in the case. Soberano is great and, while it would be strange for him to win two straight of these, I don’t think anyone would object to the super push at this point. The night really belonged to Flyer, who was pulling of the Mistico end of the Mistico/Volador spots as a team and looked just as good as the winner. It’s probably back to the early matches for Flyer after this, but he showed he could do a lot more if he ever gets a chance again.
The tournament was far from all good. Canelo Casas was the worst luchador on this show. He looked bad in both his matches, and somehow managed to look bad even in the stupid battle royal. Falling was a problem for him. I don’t know if it was nerves, because he’s always having problems, but it was noticeable how much they were avoiding doing anything with him in the main event, a cold ending to a run off good matches. Canelo had the same shot as Flyer to prove CMLL’s been missing something with him, and he went the exact other way with it.
The Guerreros/tecnicos match was the usual good match from them, though that was the one most hampered for me by stream issues. Maya/Misterioso was fun too, and the crowd was loudly into most everything all night.
The Vangellys/Pierroth bit is an actual feud now, one that’s probably going to occupy space on a regular basis and end in a hair match. That’s not good for any CMLL card coming up soon. Pierroth has his obvious problems but Vangellys is also a weird guy to invest this much time in – unless he was the guy who agreed to lose his hair and that got him the spot.
The Maya/Misterioso thing felt like a random finish which won’t mean anything. Zeuxis/Sugehit felt like slightly moving on that angle, but it was time for a post match challenge and there wasn’t any. That match might be better than I’m giving credit for, but it’s tough to enjoy people looking like blurry blocks. Tiger looked worlds better than the técnicos in the opener.