Recapped: 1/18/2019
Matches:
Audaz, Jushin Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Templario
(6:32, Audaz tornado armbar Templario, ok)
Ángel de Oro & Titán beat Forastero & Okumura
(8:41, Titan figure four leg underhook pin Forastero, good)
Fujin, Raijin, Satoshi Kojima, Toa Henare beat Bushi, Shingo Takagi, Terrible, Tetsuya Naito
(11:48, Kojima Western Lariat Terrible, ok)
Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero beat Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.
(11:47, Gran Guerrero package piledriver into a powerbomb, ok)
Carístico & Namajague beat Flyer & Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(9:49, La Mistica on Flyer, ok)
Bárbaro Cavernario beat Soberano Jr.
(15:40, cavernaria, excellent)
Dragón Lee & Místico beat Cuatrero & Sansón in the finals of the 2019 CMLL Family Tournament
(14:07, Dragon Lee powerbomb Sansón, great)
What happened:
Dragon Lee & Místico advance to face Último Guerrero & Gran Guerrero on Sunday.
The tercera was the annual Black Cat memorial. Black Cat’s widow took a photo with the técnico side before the match.
Thoughts:
The main event would’ve been the standout match on most any other CMLL show. It was closer in experience than those grades really indicate, and it’d be understandable if people saw it better. This match had great coordination between two teams, with a lot of four men interacting at about the same time. It was leaning towards a Mistico/Dragon Lee showcase, with NGD being able to fight off the loss for a while but only rarely coming close to winning. Still, they handled the big match spotlight in a foreign country exceedingly well and showed off a lot of what people have come to like about them in Mexico. This came off like a big match, not just the final of a random tournament, and the win felt like it was big deal. I would’ve liked them to give Dragon Lee & Místico more than a few seconds to celebrate it before sending the Guerreros out, but I guess they had time issues. This is well worth watching.
Cavernario & Soberano were young men interested in doing crazy things for about fifteen minutes. It was a match where Cavernario’s splash to the floor wasn’t even the most insane spot. That spike whatever move was and looked incredibly painful. Soberano’s had some shaky moments in Japan when wrestling on NJPW shows, but did well here in something under the CMLL manner. The differences between him and a guy like Flyer were stark watching them back to back, with Soberano smoothly hitting his moves, keeping the pace high after taking a great beating. Cavernario always delivers in big matches and did it again, coming off as dangerous even while playing to the crowd. (He’s learned a lot from hanging around Negro Casas all these years.) There is a limitation that the only way these guys can seem to have an outstanding match is one of all crazy moves and we’ve seen how that can cause diminishing returns for other CMLL wrestlers over the long term. For now, Cavernario’s had two memorable matches already this year and this was the better one.
Flyer’s gotten bigger name opponents than he has in Mexico this tour and it hasn’t worked out great. He looked nervous again here, coming close to a bad accident on his first dive, crawling to make a tag when he wasn’t supposed to later, and not landing his near fall cleanly. It wasn’t a terrible performance but one that showed his flaws more than what he did well. Volador & Carístico faceoffs were fun, both during and after the match when Volador refused to look at him. I think they’ll have no problem getting the crowd into that main event.
A bad thing for Atlantis teaming with his son is he looks even older every time they do stereo moves together. Atlantis Jr. going full speed on a tope and Atlantis going something less was not a beneficial comparison. Maybe Papa Atlantis was just going full speed for him, he’s looked slower as this tour has gone on. Eight matches in eleven days is a schedule he might not do the rest of the year, and for good reason. Atlantis Jr. was fine and the Guerreros did well in this match. I can’t recall ever seeing Gran Guerrero pull off a package piledriver into a powerbomb before.
I can’t blame the wrestlers for being disinterested in the LIJ tags if I am also disinterested in the LIJ tags. This served its purpose, though Kojima getting his win over Terrible before the singles match was a bit of a surprise. Fujin & Raijin have worn open eye masks since the opener; I wonder if they were having trouble seeing thru the mesh. If only that could’ve been fixed years ago, maybe that might have been the missing factor in CMLL.
Fantastica Mania got to Tokyo and Titan woke up. Being in a straight lucha match instead of a luchador added to a NJPW focused match definitely helped; he and Forastero seemed to get most of the match instead of being relegated to bit players. Titan looked energized getting to show more than he had in those previous matches and stood out over everyone else here. Okumura and Angel de Oro had one off sequence, but otherwise Oro went thru his usual trios offense fine.
The opener followed the usual “early dive + ending sequence” minimal participation for the CMLL wrestlers. The ending sequence even seemed shorter less than past matches. Templario & Audaz looked good in what they got to do, but this isn’t a match to see them. A lot of focus on Taguchi and Ishimori instead.
