Recapped: 05/14/2018
Matches:
Acero & Aéreo beat Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
(13:47 [5:24, 3:09, 5:14], 1/3, below average, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Fuego, Pegasso, Stigma beat Cancerbero, Disturbio, Raziel
(17:45 [7:01, 4:49, 5:55], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Pólvora beat Esfinge, Titán, Tritón
(19:03 [8:02, 3:28, 7:33], 1/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Negro Casas beat Soberano Jr.
(9:08, casita, great, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
The dumb battle royal went 3:03
Akuma & Euforia beat Astral & Niebla Roja in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal
(5:52, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Carístico & Star Jr. beat Cavernario & El Coyote in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal
(9:045, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Audaz & Kráneo beat Príncipe Diamante & Valiente in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal
(4:38, ok, via Video: VideosOficialesCMLL)
Templario & Último Guerrero beat Máscara Año 2000 & Universo 2000 Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa eighthfinal
(4:38, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Carístico & Star Jr. beat Akuma & Euforia in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(3:37, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Templario & Último Guerrero beat Audaz & Kráneo in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(3:30, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Templario & Último Guerrero beat Caristico & Star Jr. in a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal
(7:13, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Volador Jr. beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(7:07 [0:22, 2:41, 4:04], 1/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Templario & Ultimo Guerrero advanced to the final of the Gran Alternativa
The no time limit rematch of the ten minute time limit draw between Soberano & Negro Casas went less than ten minutes.
Thoughts:
The main event was a Tuesday style short main event after a very long show, but they tried to get in as much as they could with the time. Only the first fall felt cut short, everything else was just worked at twice the speed as normal, with no time to rest. It was mostly a técnico exhibition and the técnicos looked good – not quite good enough to get the crowd to stop booing Mistico, but good enough.
On this block of the Gran Alternativa
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Star Jr. was having a nice night before the big slip at the end, and it threatens to overshadow the entire run. He’s very close to being very good, but just a little bit off.
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Templario got to do a little bit of everything in his tournament matches and pulled it all off well. I was surprised Carístico was willing to take the gutwrench powerbomb at the end, but that’s a good sign for the rudo. The final should be great for him.
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I wished they switched around the order of the matches to give Audaz more time; he’s got in about 20 seconds of hot spots in the match with Último Guerrero & Templario, but is capable of more than he showed. It’s still surprising they didn’t just do the Templario/Audaz final, and hopefully that means they’re saving his big day for later.
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Akuma has a good tope, nice looking offense and can set up técnicos well enough. I keep thinking there’s more for him than he’ll get to show here.
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Universo and his uncle went with mostly in-ring brawling, which wasn’t the most exciting way of controlling their match but fit with their image. It’s tough to make punches to the gut look dangerous when people are taking super powerbombs, and I don’t think they quite achieved it.
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Principe Diamante working with Audaz didn’t really benefit either of them. They both had to slow down to get a hang of it and it made them look a lot more artificial.
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Coyote’s made a great effort to look a like Cavernario, but couldn’t wrestle at his level tonight. He was shaky with both técnicos, and didn’t stand out on his own.
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Astral seems between weight cuts at the moment, looking more like old Valiente than current Valiente, but it didn’t seem to affect his flying – he seemed less than a robot than usual.
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A modern Negro Casas special: faster pace singles match with some surprisingly big bumps, a fight over a casita, and a finish in under ten minutes. It looked like Soberano was going to be one to take the bigger falls early, but Casas outdid him by receiving that super powerbomb. He was up surprisingly quick after, because they just got to keep matches moving with Casas involved. They got in a lot of Soberano’s trademark spots while making them work in the flow of the match, and this one where he’s not hurt by losing. I thought this was slightly better than the Aramis/Casas match, and you’ll like this if you liked that.
The tercera was a borderline match, with parts really fun and a feud to liven it up. They did a lot with Hechicero & Esfinge, and fans who don’t follow anything but the local arena are probably going to be confused when that feud is never followed up because it got finished in Guadalajara. Crowd went nuts for Titan’s Mistica into a backslide. The Mexican crowds always react well for a tricky technical move done impressively. Titan & Triton had a normal match, but it was solid, which can also be said for the rudos.
The second match was better than usual, even if it wasn’t quite enough to get a higher grade for me. The second fall seemed to be just a long stretch of Pegasso being unable to legally tag Fuego and that’s a big anchor to the rest of the match. Still, Raziel & Cancerbero seem to be more in to the matches when they’re working with good veterans they trust, and Fuego & Pegasso are good veterans. Stigma was also there, at least until Raziel totally missed catching him on the match ending dive.
The opener was exactly the boring match you’d expect from these two teams. They did a lot near falls for a match no one would’ve missed if it was skipped. Mercurio appears to be growing out his hair, even though there’s no minis hair match obviously coming. CMLL is falling in love with the overhead camera at the wrong times; the bump Mercurio took from the tecnico’s doomsday dropkick finish would look a lot more impressive if we could see how far he was falling. Same thing on the package piledriver at the end.
