Recapped: 10/24/2017
Matches:
Disturbio & Sangre Azteca beat Oro Jr. & Star Jr.
(12:42 seen, 2/3, not rated, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Misterioso Jr., Pólvora, Sagrado beat Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Rey Cometa
(13:26 [5:49, 2:45, 4:52], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.
(18:25 [5:32, 3:22, 9:31], 1/3, great, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero, Terrible beat Pierroth, Rush, Sam Adonis in a relevos increíbles match
(8:59 [1:38, 7:21], 1/2, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Último Guerrero beat Diamante Azul, Mistico, Valiente
(9:50 [3:05, 2:12, 4:33], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Volador Jr. beat Carístico in a CMLL’s Leyenda de Plata Tournament match
(23:40 [3:04, 2:13, 18:23], 1/3, great, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
-
Volador backcracker (3:04)
-
Mistico torito (2:13)
-
Volador top rope huracanrana (18:23)
What happened:
Carístico made a point of handingVolador the plaque himself and kneeling and bowing in front of him after the man event. Volador, who worked slight rudo during the match, kind of blew him off. Carístico seemed to be waiting for Volador to give him a handshake or something and Volador just left to go hang out with the fans. CMLL weirdly switched to playing Caristico’s music and the fans react to something. If it was Volador acknowledging Carístico, we were never shown it.
Sam Adonis taped Negro Casas to the ropes in the first fall, and shoved Tirantes for the first fall DQ. Adonis tried faking a foul in the second, but was caught and disqualified.
Thoughts:
This was the Volador big spot match, but with the opposite crowd of usual. There definitely was a vocal part of the audience back to see their Mistico in a big match, they cheered their guy (outcheering the Volador fans early, 50/50 later) and Volador went a touch rudo. It wasn’t totally a peak Mistico match, Volador got his own stuff in and didn’t feed Carístico in an Averno like fashion, but it did feel a like throwback to an earlier time in moments. Both men took advantage of the emotion to deliver a strong performance. It got a little shaky late, but only after they had been given a lot. The fans desperately cared about who would win or lose this match, which is not something true about most CMLL matches. (The tournaments are too much, but those finals are the most often produced that emotion this year.) I got sucked in more by this match even though the work wasn’t as spectacular as the NGD trios, and I’d put it easily ahead of that match for me.
The semimain was alright, but lacked some sort of excitement outside of the diehards in for the main event booing Mistico. Classic match where everything was performed generally well but I can’t imagine remembering much about it a week from now. Diamante Azul being strong enough to toss the Guerreros around around and then not strong enough to properly toss Mistico for his headscissors was odd.
The Negro Casas/Sam Adonis feud needs something to liven it up. It’ll do fine, just like this match was fine. This just feels like a repetition of what Adonis has been doing for months with a different legend. It feels like they’ve cut down the Trump/patriotism aspect of the rivalry, where Blue Panther being defending the honor of the Mexican people was part of what drove the public reaction in the first feud. This match had some production issues near the end. Terrible had a great tope and Rey Bucanero flew in the crowd and we only saw only about half of either.
NGD and the Angels had an another exciting athletic match. The match was lifted by the spectacular técnico spots, but it really felt like the young rudos were holding it together at part. Soberano had some shaky moments while also pulling off crazy high spots. He’s the right mix of wildness to Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja’s predictability. Soberano’s tornillo is looking better every time, and the triple dive spot was nicely done. The breakup via move sequence was also pretty inventive. The big NGD matches tend to have more sequences and team spots than the most trios matches; not sure if that’s them, or if they’re such a focus that people are helping them include it, but it gives the matches a bigger feel. This was spectacular enough that it was worth a watch, though close to the borderline.
The segunda match was the normal second/third match with this group, plus some comedy. Sagrado is the tannest man alive. Others are as tan, but no one could be more than that he looked here. Cometa missing his sunset flip and crawling back was hilarious. So was Misterioso and Guerrero Maya going to do the star and then realizing they were on opposite teams. This match wasn’t anything special but it still was enjoyable.
The opener is missing a fall. The stream was not working on Friday, and that’s probably a result of CMLL trying to restart it to get it working. The video jumps about 9:48 but the same people stay in the ring so it’s not totally apparent anything’s missing until the next fall starts with the third fall sign. What we saw of the match was missing any excitement and sometimes sloppy. Everyone seems to mess up a spot right before the finish. This probably would’ve gotten a weak grade if aired in full.