Recapped: 02/18/2018
Matches:
Policeman & Saurón beat París & Vega
(11:42 [7:03, 3:18, 1:21], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Joker & Pierrothito beat Astro & Último Dragóncito
(8:57 [3:42, 2:34, 2:41], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Lestat, Starman, Tigre Rojo Jr. beat El Perverso, Hijo del Signo, Rey Apocalipsis
(14:04 [5:22, 3:48, 4:54], 2/3, n/r, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Stigma beat Tiger in a lightning match
(7:57, two Stigmaticas, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Dragón Lee, Soberano Jr., Titán beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(16:24 [3:11, 5:56, 7:17], 1/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Atlantis, Pierroth, Rush beat Gran Guerrero, Marco Corleone, Último Guerrero in a relevos increíbles match
(6:24 [3:31, 2:53], 1/2 DQ, n/r, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Último Guerrero fouled Atlantis for the DQ, though he seemed to miss on the first try. This sets up a singles match next week.
Soberano beating Mephisto in the third fall is setting up a singles program, though it’s not obvious at this point.
Starman and Signo continue to feud. Rey Apocalispis’ new mohawk is looking cool.
Thoughts:
The semimain was a modern CMLL style done very well. Soberano, Dragon Lee and Titan did some of their usual offense for a crowd very into seeing them as a team. They were just three young técnicos flying all over the place and the crowd got into it. The rudos kept up with them better than they have in the past, and the match peaked well with the triple dive spot. The third fall is clunky, with at least two times the fans think the fall is over, and at least one time the técnicos seem to think so leading to confusion. They still got it back for the conclusion. Dragon Lee took a flip bump off a kick to the stomach. Dragon Lee is a special man.
Tiger & Stigma tried to do more story and a bigger spots than usual for a lightning, coming off Tiger cheating for the win last week. They had some ideas – stringing two Stigmaticas was definitely different – but it just didn’t really come together. Stigma can do individual spots fine, but sometimes get lost stringing them together. There’s a section around an enziguri early were the rhythm of the match is off for a while. They went back and forth constantly, which probably didn’t help with the rhythm of the match. I would’ve thought Tiger kicking out of Stigmatica would get a strong reaction, or any reaction. As much as Stigma has been built up as a local star, this day’s crowd wasn’t particularly into him, and they needed that for this match. This was at least a little different.
Joker & Astro worked very hard in their match, trying to make something of what’s becoming a rarer opportunity for them as of late. Not everything went right and Pierrothito & Dragoncito weren’t nearly as into this, so this had stretches of being interesting among some ordinary stuff in a short span. You won’t be too disappointed if you’re just looking for the local guys.
Vega looked good in the opener, which would be meaningful if he could ever escape the openers. There has to be 50 better luchadors in Puebla than Saurón at the minimum, and Paris is just lucky he didn’t get dumped on his head at the end.
