Recapped: 11/24/2017
Matches:
Hijo del Signo & Nitro beat Star Jr. & Starman
(7:55 [4:35, 3:20], 1/2, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys beat Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma
(11:05 [4:49, 3:41, 2:35], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
Hechicero, Okumura, Terrible beat Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr., Titán
(16:26 [5:50, 5:46, 4:50], 2/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
Virus beat Solar I
(14:13, arm trap half crab, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
The dumb battle royal went 0:54
Dragón Lee, Mistico, Pierroth beat Felino, Puma, Tiger in a Copa Dinastia semifinal
(5:56, Pierroth senton Felino, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther in a Copa Dinastia semifinal
(8:16, Forastero small package Blue Panther, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Dragón Lee, Mistico, Pierroth in the Copa Dinastia final
(11:25, DQ for Rush interference, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )
Mephisto, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero beat Rush, Sam Adonis, Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(8:59 [3:42, 5:17], 1/2, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Negro Casas challenged Sam Adonis to a hair vs hair match. Sam didn’t agree quite yet. Volador & Rush got along perfectly for the whole match, as if they had already agreed to be a tag team (but that doesn’t appear to have been the case.)
In the final of the Copa Dinastia, Sansón had Pierroth up in his finish when Rush came to the ring. Pierroth escaped via distracted and stole Sanson’s mask, but Rush came in join his family in stomping down the Dinamitas before Pierroth could even consider going for a cradle. The Munoz family had attacked NGD early and generally behaved like rudos. The Dinamitas eventually got their trophy despite the Munoz preventing it for a moment.
The second match appeared to be cut short when Dragon Rojo suffered an (groin?) injury in the third fall. They finished it less than a minute later.
Signo & Starman have randomly decided to feud. There’s usual an undercard mask match on the New Year’s Day show, and they’re the obvious favorite. Starman is disqualified after ripping up Signo’s mask. It came off as if it was accidental to rip it up that much, but probably wasn’t given the length of the rest of the show.
Thoughts:
The main event existed to continue to push towards the Adonis/Casas and to have Volador/Rush acting like new allies without confirming anything in either. It did a good job of acting like something was about to happen without actually happening. It was not particularly great at anything else. Mephisto was quiet out of place – Volador & Rush spent the match going after UG and could not have less time for him. The finish seemed like someone wasn’t in the right place at the right time, and only highlighted by Tirantes wanting to get the pop for shoving Sam down but Sam not going.
The tournament final had a really odd dynamic of the Munoz family working as rudos against guys who are already rudos. This match also kept Pierroth involved in the action a lot more, and so the action was a lot less, and dragged during large parts of the first two thirds. It got better near the end, though the match was best symbolized by the excitement of Dragon Lee and Mistico doing big moves followed by the realization that it would mean more Pierroth.
The NGD/Panther match got a lot of time, as far as these tournament matches go, and they really got to develop the comeback. I don’t think the NGD were as sharp as they can be, but were plenty solid enough to make this work. Blue Sr. knows how to bait the crowd into caring. Panther Jr. is strong, but not at all graceful about it. His struggling to finish moves really made it more dramatic at times.
The Munoz/Casas trios match worked as long as the four young guys were in the ring. Puma fit better with Dragon Lee than Tiger and Mistico (though there was a bad Mistico/Puma headscissors late.) There’s little chance we’re seeing that tag match any time soon, but the tease of it here was good. Pierroth was in for about 20 seconds of this match.
The Solar/Virus match was everything you’d expect it to be: a heavy technical match where they didn’t hit the ropes until late in the match, and one that part of the crowd was not into at all. I think the whistling lasted half as long as the match. This felt short of great for me: Solar is slow now, and getting into holds and maintaining them is very for him to do. Virus got dropped on his head on one escape, and this was the slowest match he’s worked of this style. If nothing else, it was good to see this match because there’s no telling how much longer we’ll get to see it.
The tercera had a bit of the excitement you’d expect from these técnicos, though it fell short of the all out matches you’d hope for. The crowd didn’t seem greatly into it until the super triple dive spot in the third fall. They exploded on that one. Okumura is rusty from his long break, with the neat DDT spot at the end not looking neat As always, Terrible does well in the anti-flyer matches and should be used in more of them. Soberano looked great but Cometa & Titan weren’t far behind; Cometa kicks were well timed.
The second match might have been a better match on another day, but it was going short and then just ended quick after Dragon Rojo went down. Hope he’s fine, because most of this will be forgotten anyway. Stigma’s thru the ropes tope armdrag was nice.
The opener just existed to get the Signo/Starman feud over. That makes sense on it’s own, but it probably didn’t stick in most fan’s minds by being the first match of a long night. Signo is showing nothing in the ring and this is simply CMLL paying tribute to a legacy instead of trying to give a feud to someone who might make something out of it. Star Jr. got to do a cool dive.