Recapped: 07/21/2017
All matches aired live from Arena Mexico
Matches:
Puma & Tiger beat Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther
(12:19 [3:59, 2:23, 5:57], 1/3, good)
Blue Panther went to a draw against Sam Adonis in a lightning match
(10:00, time limit draw, good)
Carístico, Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone beat Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush in a relevos increíbles match
(11:00 [2:12, 3:10, 5:38], 2/3 DQ, good)
Princesa Sugehit, won the first ever Copa Natalia Vazquez (34:21, good)
- La Comandante splash Skadi (11:42)
- La Vaquerita double underhook piledriver Metalica (15:10)
- Lady Maravilla northern lights suplex La Seductora (19:01)
- Dalys senton La Comandante (22:49)
- Sanely bridging headscissors La Vaquerita (24:02)
- Silueta valagueza Lady Maravilla (26:57)
- Marcela Michinoku Driver Sanely (28:26)
- Estrellita bridging cradle Silueta (30:00)
- double pin Marcela (31:13)
- double pin Estrellita (31:13)
- Princes Sugehit spinning headscissors armbar Amapola (32:31)
- Zeuxis inside bridge cradle Dallys (34:26)
- Princesa Sugehit satellite armbar Zeuxis (35:34)
Dragón Lee, Niebla Roja, Volador Jr. beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
(9:16 [2:14, 1:33, 5:29], 2/3 DQ, good)
What happened:
Sam Adonis and Blue Panther agreed to a hair versus hair match on August 4th. They signed contracts to start the show, then brawled to a time limit draw later on.
Princesa Sugehit won the first ever Copa Natalia Vazquez, defeating rival Zeuxis last. No challenges were made post match.
Gran Guerrero unmasked Niebla Roja in the main event after the two had strongly feuded all match. No challenges were made post match (though GG did do the mask challenge in the interview area afterwards.)
Rush fouled and unmasked Carístico in the main event after the two had lightly feuded all match. No challenges were made post match.
Thoughts:
A good overall show even if nothing turned out to be must see. Even with only one match officially announced, there was a fair bit of teasing or building to other matches and it reduced the endings of these matches. Two foul finishes and one time limit draw the show.
The main event seemed to be limited by the rest of the show as much as itself. The crowd was worn down after the cibernetico, took a while to get back up for this, and the long rudo segment didn’t seem to help (though they did react for the triple submission to the end the third fall.) It got hotter at the close, but the story of the Niebla Roja programs continue to be that Gran Guerrero is looking like the much more interesting prospect He’s more confident and more impressive in his performances. Volador and Dragon Lee did well in their third fall runs and Euforia did a great job of carrying on after a Dragon Lee slip in a way to make it seem natural.
The women’s cibernetico was a technically good match without a lot of error and some good spots. It also was extremely long and didn’t have really have the great moments you’d hope for given that time. The length wore on the crowd. You could hear a few people turning on the match about half way thru, and the reaction to the finish was a lot smaller than it expecting given the build up and the Zeuxis/Sugehit feud. I complain about battle royals a lot, but putting those women out there for several more minutes only deeped the problem. Individually, I think Maravilla did well (as expected) in her debut. Sanely had a good night and a cool submission. A lot of people were just fine and they probably needed a more standout performance at the end to make this memorable.
The tercera better than the usual Ingobernables trios match. They were working harder, and Kraneo’s always a great edition for this match. Diamante Azul easily picking up Kraneo was looks impressive. The crowd was fired from the Panther/Adonis pull apart and it carried over well into this. Carístico seemed to be filling it. Rush, like always, didn’t do much but got the crowd enough. This went better than it’d looks on paper.
I was about to write this lightning match off as another clubbering match that was fine being just that because of the reactions they were getting, and then Blue Panther surprised Adonis with a tope to the back and things got crazy. Sam Adonis tried pulling out a Art Barr frog splash and the brawling was a little weird. The referee playing obvious rudo was a bit out for this, but they were effective for where they wanted to go. They sold people on this hair match.
I’m kind of split on the opener. There’s was good action here, but there’s also a crowd who mostly isn’t to it at all, and there’s more sloppiness than normal between these two teams. It’s stuff that would be chalked up to nerves, if there was something to be nervous about a CMLL opening match. The third fall moment with Puma and Panther repeatedly getting confused on what spot they were doing really didn’t look good when they finally had the crowd going a bit. It was exciting when they got rolling and Puma’s ramp running sunset flip powerbomb worked well, but I might be overrating it.
