Recapped: 09/11/2018
Matches:
Bengala & Sonic beat Inquisidor & Yago
(13:12 [4:57, 2:20, 5:55], 1/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)
Amapola, Metálica, Tiffany beat La Maligna, Mistique, Sanely
(11:48 [6:19, 2:42, 2:47], 2/3, n/r,VideosOficialesCMLLgif: 5855
Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., El Audaz beat Kawato, Okumura, Virus
(11:10 [2:32, 3:45, 4:53], 2/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)
Ephesto, Hechicero, Shocker beat Kráneo, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr.
(14:06 [5:51, 3:38, 4:37], 1/3, n/r,VideosOficialesCMLL)
Mephisto © beat Titán for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship
(16:11, 1/3, great,VideosOficialesCMLL)
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Mephisto powerbomb (2:13)
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Titan figure four (1:20)
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Mephisto La Rosa (12:38)
Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero beat Atlantis, Mistico, Volador Jr.
(1:59 [0:49, 1:10], 1/2 DQ, n/r,VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Mr. Niebla is in no condition to perform in his match. He may be drunk, though no one’s specifically admitted to that even after. It’s apparent to everyone involved by the time Niebla falls off the top rope as part of his entrance, though the announcers do their best to ignore it. Volador immediately unties Niebla’s mask after the whistle, then goes in the ring to get quickly beat by Negro Casas after a snap mare. Bucanero immediately sets up the Zacarias 619 spot to start the match to give the crowd something to cheer. Volador comes in right after to face Negro Casas, but tells him to bring in Volador so he can finish the match. Volador visibly calls spots to Bucanero and Niebla, gets whipped into a handspring on Bucanero, Niebla swings at him and misses, and Volador unmasked Niebla. It seems like Niebla was in the wrong spot to take handspring, but it might have been Volador’s planned to keep him from taking a bump to unmask him quicker. Volador immediately walks out of the ring, only stopping to say something to a fan and look at the ring one time. Crowd seems to be surprised the show is over and starts booing loudly as the announcers wrap up their portion and they realize they’ve gotten nothing of a main evnet.
Titan’s left hand is heavily wrapped going into the title match. He’d hurt in Puebla the day before at the very end of the match, though he was unaware it’s was a fracture until a few days later. The hand is visibly bugging him past the first fall, though he’s able to grip with it. Mephisto goes after it a bit to start the third fall to explain why Titan’s selling, though it doesn’t become the focus of the match. Sonic and Ephesto are the seconds.
Mistique hurts her ankle in her first spot of her match – jumping into the ring for an armdrag on Tiffany, who’s out of position – and is done at that point. Tecnicas quickly win that fall, then lose the next two.
Thoughts:
Titan got a lot Mephisto in their title match, pushing him farther in the most in Mephisto’s standard title match structure and producing some moments where the crowd truly believed in the title match. This was more very well executed than innovate, with Titan taking tremendous punishment in moments like the apron bomb, and showing a lot of heart in fighting thru obvious pain. Titan can do incredible athletic things, but his ability to show how much pain he’s in and keep going wins over sympathy better than most CMLL luchadors in these singles matches. Knowing the hand issue, with Mephisto going after it at times, adds to the drama of the match significantly. It would’ve been better if that played directly into the finish, but it comes up plenty when titan just didn’t have enough left to pull off adequate covers, row hen Mephisto’s over-eagerness to take advantage of it nearly gets him beat. This is a strong performance.
Black Panther stealing his brother’s dive, and then watching as his brother was tapped out by Virus, was great comedy. Not sure Black Panther would’ve done better but the musclehead Panther was easily outsmarted by Virus. That would be a nice sequence in a match where the rudos were interested in doing more than kicking around the técnicos for a couple minutes. The técnicos weren’t much more excited to be here outside the finishes. Kawato got thru a sequence with Audaz fine, which was nice to see. They also had both Black Panther and Okumura to make sure Audaz was caught in case Kawato couldn’t do it, so not everything is progressing.
The 2v2 is normal opener fare with a normal crazy Yago entrance. Yago isn’t only an entrance only as Metálico, but they don’t give him much to do here. They had the rookies work with the vets a lot, and the veterans aren’t doing a lot. They mixed it up in the third fall but it didn’t help this become any interesting. Sonic was either doing better selling than usual for an opener or his right knee was bugging him by the end of the match, causing a planned double team to go wrong.