CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2018-04-27

ups and downs

Recapped: 04/27/2018

Matches:

Drone, El Audaz, Tritón beat Okumura, Tiger, Virus
(12:31 [4:45, 3:47, 3:59], 1/3, good)

Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Titán beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(13:58 [6:10, 4:08, 3:40], 2/3, good)

Princesa Sugehit beat La Seductora, hair vs hair
(17:53, 1/3, ok)

  1. Princesaa Sugehit La Regia (3:52)
  2. Seductora seated armbar (2:07)
  3. Princesa Sugehit Michinoku Driver (11:54)

Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible beat Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja
(14:33 [6:21, 2:33, 5:39], 1/3, ok)

Kráneo beat Rush
(9:07 [2:49, 6:18], 1 DQ/2, good)

Atlantis, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
(7:27 [2:16, 1:41, 3:30], 2/3, ok, via)

What happened: 

this was smart

La Seductora lost her hair for the first time in her career, to Princesa Sugehit.

Kraneo beat Rush in straight falls. Rush got himself disqualified in the first fall for an intentional mask pull. After the referee was taken out in the second fall, Kraneo fouled Rush and splashed him for the win.

Thoughts:

The main event was sped thru, really short for even a b-level main event. I’d assume their time go cut when the hair post match took so much time. They were good enough in the time they had that it could’ve developed into something memorable, but instead we got about 15 seconds of Último Guerrero and Volador and quick finishes. The surest sign this was a big show was the crowd booing Mistico every time he did something.

Terrible gets caught

Kraneo almost dying on an ill-advised tope was not a great moment, but Rush made the most of it by selling that Kraneo’s weight landed on his ankle. The entire match was that way – not filled with errors, but making the most of what they had to work with. Rush is a great bully and jerk, more thrilled to rip off Kraneo’s mask in the first fall than to win the fall. Kraneo looked competitive against rush before getting the win, and they did enough that they could come back for a rematch.

The fourth match suffered from following the hair match; it would’ve taken an exceptionally good match to follow that one. This was instead an ordinary match with a few cool spots. They did enough to eventually get the crowd back into it in the third fall – they responded best to Angel de Oro – but felt like they just kept on going a little past their peak.

 

The big apuesta match was probably the best match of La Seductora’s career. She made a good effort, and they tried to shape the match in a way that could work for her. They just didn’t go far enough with it. The brawling they did early got the crowd into it, similar to the Zeuxis/Sugehit match. They even did the drink spots, at random time, just to see if they could get the same reaction. The fans were less interested when they did wrestling spots, because they weren’t nearly as good as that previous match or the matches on this show. They did care enough about the outcome to react to the near falls, but the pace of the match slowed down greatly in the third fall the longer it went. They would’ve been better off just sticking with the brawling, even if that meant they went a lot shorter. I think people who were into this feud or are fans of Princesa Sugehit would be satisfied with the mach but I wasn’t that interested in it.

The two teams in the segunda meshed well, only lacking a little more time. The finish the did was inventive if also disappointing because it felt like the match could’ve gone three or four minutes. The rudos got a nice win out of it, and the técnicos looked smooth up that point. One day, some one in CMLL will come up with a way to set up the dive off the stage in a way where it’s not totally obvious that a dive off the stage is coming.

Frequently, CMLL midcarders shuffled to the opener end up working hard than usual on these big shows. That didn’t seem to be the case here. The opener was fine but not the all out match it could’ve been. Triton looked good on his técnico run, but Audaz and Tiger didn’t work as well together. The match picked up nicely in the third fall, thoughi t still felt a little short of where it could be. Virus/Audaz having little time together was odd.