Recapped: 12/08/17
Matches:
Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico beat Shockercito & Stukita
(12:36 [4:25, 2:42, 5:29], 1/3, ok)
Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus beat Oro Jr., Pegasso, Star Jr.
(12:26 [5:11, 2:12, 5:03], 1/3, ok)
Euforia, Hechicero, Pólvora beat Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa
(14:14 [6:47, 2:37, 4:50], 1/3, ok)
Dragón Lee beat Titán in a lightning match
(8:30, Dragon Driver, good)
Pierroth, Rush, Sam Adonis beat Marco Corleone, Negro Casas, Valiente in a relevos increíbles match
(6:34 [1:49, 1:33, 3:12], 2/3, ok)
Carístico, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero went to a draw against Mistico, Terrible, Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(13:47 [2:22, 2:12, 9:13], Team Mistico won first + Team Carístico won second + double count out of the ring in the third, good)
What happened:
Volador’s team wrestled as rudos, with Mistico going after Caristico’s mask. Carístico was the only person who really tried to get in to beat the 20 count but it was not to be. Último Guerrero and Mistico challenged the opposition to settle things with one more fall, but Terrible wanted a rematch next week.
This was the first Friday night Arena Mexico CMLL show to end in a draw since Negro Casas & Blue Panther went to a draw in the main event of Homenaje a Dos Leyendas in 2012. (A 2016 Elite show also ended in a draw.) The only CMLL Arena Mexico main events I have ending as specifically ending in a double countout of the ring is are a 2004 Santo/Perro Jr. match, and a 1995 El Dandy/Ray Gonzalez title match, but I’m surely missing many.
Adonis was disqualified in the first fall for excessive violence, pinned Casas clean in the second, and snuck in a foul on the third. Adonis hyped the hair match on 1/1 after his win, then fought Casas more.
Mije was with Euforia (so Kraneo was probably booked for his spot at some point.)
Misterioso is hurt in the second fall when Pegasso’s 450 splash lands badly on one of his wrists.
Mercurio challenged Shockercito to a title match next week, which Shockercito accepted.
Thoughts:
The main event could’ve had more technical moments given who was involved, and there definitely were times where wrestlers playing unusual roles for the night had trouble making it work. (Soberano didn’t get as much help here as he might from the Dinamitas.) Still, it was overall an interested and heated match. There was great chaos at the beginning, the silliness of Carístico & Soberano raising the roof for Último Guerrero and big action moments like the dive sequence. It remains weird that the guy CMLL’s picked as the rightful Mistico is the rudo here, even to Carístico calling him a pirated version of Mistico. Still, it’s well established that the crowd is going to pick the original over the replacement, so they might as well go with it. The fans got into that rivalry again, and CMLL’s taking their time going to that match. It could happen in two weeks, and it could be very big whenever it happens.
The semimain was really quick, but it actually accomplished something. That’s ahead of most. Crowd is into the Casas/Adonis stuff and the last run of the match was pretty good. They seem to be working better at this point. I barely even noticed Pierroth was in this match, always a victory.
Dragon Lee/Titan was a really nice change of pace from the undercard, with all the wrestlers involved really wanting to have a great match. It didn’t quite work – the opening exchange had a cross up, Titan slipped later trying an incredible escape, the finish didn’t look right – but there was enough that still went good that it easily interesting. The one thing both guys brought back from Japan over their many trips is a love of hard chop exchange and the occasional stomp to the head. They were brutal to each other at times while still keeping the idea of a técnico/tecnico matchup. This felt like just a small portion of what they could do in a longer match – we didn’t even get a Dragon Lee dive – but it was easily the best of the same style lightning matches that have cropped up in the last few weeks.
The tercera never really hit the heights it looked like it could on paper for any extended period. The ending dives were cool, Hechicero & Maya did some early good mat work, but Maya also was off later during the match. Cometa was unusually a non factor.
The second match was the typically alright match in this spot. Star Jr. & Virus had a really fast exchange, and the match rolled along nicely at times, but it didn’t come together to anything interesting. It was really weird having técnicos who are in the cage match and none of the rudos, and then have those técnico lose. Oro leans on the cutter spot too much.
There didn’t seem to be much juice to the Shockercito/Mercurio issue before the challenge. The opener was worked like an average minis match, and got over just as much as those have of late. The two man pedigree is a pretty heavy finish to be using in the first fall of the first match. On the other hand, the big offense by the rudo was one of the few notable things about the opener. Stukita seems to have been worn down by the CMLL machine a bit.
