Recapped: 02/02/2018
Matches:
El Coyote & Templario beat Astral & Eléctrico
(11:37 [5:40, 4:28, 1:29], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL )
Audaz, Pegasso, Rey Cometa beat Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Virus
(14:19 [3:10, 5:13, 5:56], 1/3 DQ, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
dumb battle royal occurred
(2:08)
Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja beat Blue Panther & Sam Adonis in Parejas Increible Tournament eighthfinal
(5:17, ok)
Mephisto & Mistico beat Hechicero & Soberano Jr. in a Parejas Increible eighthfinal
(6:01, ok)
Último Guerrero & Volador Jr. beat Cavernario & Titán in a Parejas Increible eighthfinal
(4:36, ok)
Diamante Azul & Pierroth beat Rey Bucanero & Valiente in a Parejas Increible eighthfinal
(2:45, below average)
Mephisto & Mistico beat Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja in a Parejas Increible quarterfinal
(5:57, ok)
Último Guerrero & Volador Jr. beat Diamante Azul & Pierroth in a Parejas Increible quarterfinal
(4:33, ok)
Último Guerrero & Volador Jr. beat Mephisto & Mistico in a Parejas Increible semifinal
(7:41, ok)
Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Carístico beat Cuatrero, Euforia, Sansón
(9:30 [4:18, 5:12], 1/2 DQ, ok)
What happened:
ELITE is back to running Sundays, as they did when they started working with CMLL. They start a week from Sunday, with the usual names advertised.
Cuatrero unmasked Angel de Oro to end the main event. Angel de Oro challenged him to a mask match, and that certainly seems to be the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event right now.
Volador & Último Guerrero advanced to the 02/16 tournament final.
Blue Panther & Sam Adonis broke up during the match. Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja beat them, then broke up themselves in their next match.
Kawato made his CMLL debut. Virus fouled Audaz.
Eléctrico smashed his head into Templario’s on a springboard splash, and didn’t finish the match. He needed a trip to the hospital for dental work and sticheds.
Thoughts:
CMLL tournament lucha libre is back! It’s not any good. This show was dominated and dragged down by this block. They felt into every cliché of how these things go. Volador & Ultimo Guerrero winning the block like the right decision by fan reaction, but the rest of the matches were just lazy booking doing nothing interesting with the teams. I started handwaving the matches when they quickly weren’t worth paying attention to, and couldn’t get back into it when they were trying a bit more in the block final or even the trios main event after. This is a regression from where they’ve been in the past, and has never worked well.
The main event was successful in it’s purpose of making sure people went away thinking about Cuatrero & Angel de Oro and the action was alright too. They’re not hiding Atlantis as much as they should be.
Kawato did well when it was simply him doing moves to people. It was tougher when he had to interact and work with people in more complicated manners. He’s been around for one whole day, so there’s no surprise in that and he did enough that you can see why people are interested in him. Virus & Audaz continue to have good chemistry and should have a fun singles match whenever it occurs. I fear we may have to wait a while with the tournament taking up so much space though. It’ll be good whenever it goes down.
Eléctrico & Astral of course looked a lot better in the opener then they had the week before. It’s no surprise – even Coyote looked a better because Templario was there to help him too. There’s no way Astral could’ve pulled off the same headscissors spot he did here with Nitro & Arkangel. This opener was cruising to good status until Eléctrico got hurt. They pretty much didn’t have a third fall as a result. It seems a bit of an injustice Audaz got to move up and Templario did not.