March 17, 2019 – luchablog

Lucha Brothers win then lose the tag team titles, Aerostar Rey de Reyes, Garza/Crash

March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 thecubsfan 9 Comments

AAA TV (SAT) 03/16/2019 Acropolis, Puebla, Puebla [AAA, Lucha Central, MedioTiempo, MedioTiempo (Main), Notimex, R de Rudo, SuperLuchas, thecubsfan, Voices of Wrestling]
1) Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa © b Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. [AAA MIXED TAG]
9:10. Hamburguesa pinned Villano III Jr. but disagreed with Mami over Maravilla. He carried Maravilla to the back after the match.
2) Lady Shani © b La Hiedra, Keyra, Chik Tormenta [Reina De Reinas, street]
7:52. Shani pinned Hiedra after a powerbomb onto chairs. Faby confronted Shani, Keyra and Hijo del Tirantes after the match. Hijo del Tirantes attacked Faby, Keyra & Tormenta joined in, and Shani & Taya made the save.
3) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana b Daga, Joe Lider, Taya
12:14. Daga hit Joe Lider with a chair and gave him a DVD thru a ladder to set up the Poder del Norte win. PdN put Lider thru a table after the match. Tormenta & Keyra attacked Taya, with Faby making the save.
4) Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly b Drago, Pagano, Puma King
14:04. Averno beat Drago with a Super Devil’s Wings in a match where Super Fly, Pagano and Chessman all appeared to be injured (but were said to be fine.)
5) Mamba, Máximo, Psycho Clown b Jeff Jarrett, Killer Kross, La Máscara [cage]
19:02. Order of escape: Jeff Jarrett, Psycho Clown (who then went back in), Mamba, Killer Kross, Maximo and Psycho Clown again. La Mascara took Psycho Clown to try to prevent him from escaping, but Maximo threw in a second mask and Psycho put Mascara thru a table.
6) Aerostar b Laredo Kid, Hijo Del Vikingo, Jack Evans, Sammy Guevara, Eclipse Vengador Jr., Taurus, Golden Magic, Myzteziz [Rey de Reyes]
26:24. Earlier, Cody Rhodes appeared to tease Kenny Omega & Chris Jericho coming in, and to offer Hugo a job as the Spanish voice of AEW. He was interrupted by Konnan and eventually speared by Taurus before Psycho Clown led tecnicos out to make the save. Elimintions in this match: Eclipse Vengador Jr. (Lanzelot in a new outfit by Taurus), Myzteziz Jr. (Taurus), Golden Magic (Taurus), Jack Evans (Hijo del Vikingo), Sammy Guevara (Laredo Kid), Taurus (Aerosar), Vikingo (Aerostar), Laredo Kid (Aerostar) leaving Aerostar as the winner.
7) Fénix & Pentagón Jr. b Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. [AAA TAG]
7:55. Fenix & Pentagon did their spike package piledriver on Texano. Konnan confronted them after the match, the lights went out, and the Young Bucks appeared.
8) Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson b Fénix & Pentagón Jr. © [AAA TAG]
7:08. Impromptu match. Lucha Brothers superkicked Konnan before the match, but he recovered to celebrate with the Jacksons as they won the tag titles. Konnan had been anti-AEW earlier and was pro-AEW here.

This was a good show. It was not as much better than Homenaje a Dos Leyendas as I expected, though I think the best match on this AAA show (the Rey de Reyes match) was better than the best match on CMLL’s show. There was also nothing as bad as the CMLL main event; even the cage match went better than that. The AAA show was also much longer (they’ve got a lot of sponsor breaks right now) and, much to the opposite of CMLL, there’s almost too much stuff going on. Joe Lider getting put thru a table at the same time as Taya & Faby were doing a dramatic handshake was the peak of so many things happened that nothing was sinking in.

The Taya/Faby stuff was so heavy early on that I was thinking either the initial angle after the women’s match didn’t go right and they needed a redo, or that AAA knows Taya isn’t going to be back around for a while so they had to rush thru a bunch of weeks of angles in the course of an hour.

If the Young Bucks showing up unannounced and unexplained to beat the Lucha Brothers leads to a rematch on TripleMania, following a few months of AAA explaining why people should care, then this was an awkward first step that may be worthwhile in the end. History has shown AAA running so many big angles that never get paid off – let’s use MAD here – that it is safer to assume AAA’s main event turned into an angle for AEW’s show and it’ll never be explained again.

Attendance was visibly weaker than last year. It was probably not as bad as it looked at times – the camera shots were directly shooting the lower skyboxes, which aren’t always sold for events like this – but you could see plenty of other sections that looked pretty empty. There wasn’t the Konnan tweet hyping the attendance like usual. I’m not sure announcing the Young Bucks appearing would’ve helped because the reaction to them wasn’t strong, but it definitely couldn’t have hurt. The bigger thing is last year’s show in the same building had a hair match and they probably needed one on this one. If AAA is planning to have La Mascara or Maximo lose their hair, they probably should’ve done it on this show instead where it would’ve meant more than being second or third from the top on TripleMania. Because Psycho Clown was involved, it was the match the crowd saw as the biggest deal by far and it seemed like a missed opportunity that they didn’t go more with it.

Australian Suicide missed the show due to injury.

AAA follows up this by being off until April 5, for the TV taping in Tijuana.

AAA (SAT) 03/16/2019 Foro Sol, Iztacalco, Distrito Federal [Record]
1) La Hiedra & Vanilla b Keyra & Starfire
2) Chessman & Tiger Boy b Golden Magic & Lanzelot
3) Dinastía b Mini Psycho Clown ©, La Parkita Negra, La Parkita, Mini Murder Clown, Mini Monster Clown [AAA MINI]
Mini Psycho Clown falls on his 3rd defense. Dinastia is the 7th champion.
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown b Argenis, Bengala, Máscara de Bronce

AAA (SUN) 03/17/2019 Foro Sol, Iztacalco, Distrito Federal [El Universal, MedioTiempo, Pasala]
1) Niño Hamburguesa & Solaris vs Chicano & La Parka Negra
2) Hijo Del Vikingo & Lady Shani b Faby Apache & Villano III Jr.
3) Myzteziz Jr. & Psycho Clown b Averno & Hijo del Fantasma
4) La Parka b Pagano, Texano Jr. [Vive Latino CHAMP]

There are two shows from the Vive Latino festival. This doesn’t show up much at my radar because it’s a wrestling show at a music festival, I’m mildly surprised we even got video. Still, it is wrestling shows at a heavily attended music festival – a lot of people saw these shows in person this weekend. They reworked the Saturday card to get the people to Rey de Reyes on time, giving us the odd Chessman & Tiger Boy pairing.

Dinastia losing the title way back when seemed to be part of getting him on of the minis division and closing the mini division down. The minis division is back, but my guess is this is still more a bit to do a title change for the sake of doing it rather than for sure sending Dinastia back out of the main division.

Fantasma was wrestling on Saturday, so he didn’t miss Rey de Reyes due to injury. AAA had a role for Jeff Jarrett but not for Hijo del Fantasma. Fantasma has said that all is fine between him and AAA over the Lucha Underground lawsuit. He’s not on the next taping either.

Fenix & Penta missed the Mucha Lucha show tonight.

CMLL (SAT) 03/16/2019 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Acero & Aéreo DQ Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia
tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Violencia unmasked Acero
2) Kaho Kobayashi, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit b La Comandante, La Seductora, Tiffany
tecnicas took took 1/3
3) Black Panther, El Audaz, Fuego b Kawato San, Metálico, Misterioso Jr.
tecnicos took 1/3
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. b Luciferno [lightning]
Maya beat Luciferno despite losing his mask on the finish (which seems to be a problem around here)
5) Kráneo, Soberano Jr., Volcano b Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Vangellys
tecnicos took 1/3
6) Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero b Diamante Azul, Valiente, Volador Jr.
Rudos took 2/3

Guerrero Maya wants big matches that probably aren’t happening. Not much going on these CMLL shows this weekend, though they throw in a slight tease for a tag title match coming out of the main event.

CMLL (SUN) 03/17/2019 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Príncipe Odín Jr. & Yago b Príncipe Diamante & Star Black
Rudos took 1/3. Star Black’s Arena Mexico debut.
2) Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito b Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito
rudos took 2/3.
3) Olímpico, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr. b Blue Panther, Drone, Rey Cometa
Olimpico’s first match here in 10 months (Okumura replacement?). Rudos took 2/3.
4) Hechicero b Flyer [lightning]
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Stuka Jr. b Dark Magic, Felino, Negro Casas
tecnicos took 2/3, Atlantis Jr. pinning Negro Casas in the third.
6) Diamante Azul, Místico, Niebla Roja b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
tecnicos took 2/3.

Star Black introduced himself, Dark Magic did an English speaking promo for people who don’t speak English, Olimpico is happy to be back, Hechicero talks about his win, and Negro Casas praises Atlantis Jr.

Garza Jr., via Zona Ruda, has said the upcoming The Crash show on 03/23 is his final one with the promotion. Nothing has been officially announced, but the only thing standing between Garza Jr. and a WWE NXT development deal prior was his shoulder injury and he no longer has a shoulder injury.

LuchaWorld has a Lucha Report for Saturday and Sunday.

AAA Rey de Reyes: 2019-03-16

March 17, 2019March 28, 2019 thecubsfan 2 Comments

Recapped: 03/16/2019

All matches aired live from the Acropolis in Puebla on 03/16/2019

Matches:

Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa © beat Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship
(9:10, Hamburguesa splash Maravilla, good, 00:20:12)

Lady Shani © beat La Hiedra, Keyra, Chik Tormenta to keep AAA’s Reina de Reinas championship
(7:52, Lady Shani powerbomb on to chairs La Hiedra, good, 00:53:20)

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Daga, Joe Lider, Taya
(12:14, Cota double stomp low blow with chair Joe Lider, ok, 01:15:55)

Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Drago, Pagano, Puma King
(14:04, Averno super Devil’s Wings Drago, ok, 01:37:51)

Mamba, Máximo, Psycho Clown beat Jeff Jarrett, Killer Kross, La Máscara in a cage match
(19:02, ok,02:10:52)

07:50 Jeff Jarrett escapes
08:33 Psycho Clown out
09:19 Psycho Clown back in
09:43 Mamba out
11:57 Killer Kross out
13:43 Máximo out
19:02 Psycho Clown out

Aerostar beat Laredo Kid, Hijo Del Vikingo, Jack Evans, Sammy Guevara, Australian Suicide, Taurus, Golden Magic, Myzteziz to win the AAA’s Rey de Reyes
(26:24, great, 02:54:07)

00:00 Vikingo & Myzteziz start
01:00 Eclipse Vengador Jr. enters
04:23 Taurus enters
05:41 Laredo Kid enters
07:08 Sammy Guevara
08:30 Jack Evans enters
08:30 Golden Magic enters
08:46 Taurus Rodeo Driver Eclipse Vengador
09:30 Aerostar enters
13:55 Taurus Rodeo Driver Myzteziz Jr.
14:16 Taurus Rodeo Driver Golden Magic
16:10 Hijo del Vikingo reverse 450 splash Jack Evans
17:37 Laredo Kid 450 splash Sammy Guevera
19:33 Aerostar super plancha Taurus
22:17 Aerostar splash Vikingo
26:24 Aerostar springboard rolling cutter Laredo Kid

Fénix & Pentagón Jr. beat Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. to win the AAA World Tag Team Championship
(7:55, Fenix double stomp/Pentagon package piledriver Texano, good, 03:25:27)

Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson beat Fénix & Pentagón Jr. © for the AAA World Tag Team Championship
(7:08, Meltzer Driver on Pentagon, good, 03:42:30)

What happened:

So much happened.

the chair is a shield but Keyra still gets a foot thru

A chaotic main event sequence saw the tag team titles change hands twice and end up on the waists of the Young Bucks. Pentagon & Fenix defeated Los Mercenarios to first win the titles in a match that was obviously shorter than usual for reasons. As Texano & Escorpión disappeared into the ether, Konnan confronted Fenix & Pentagon for their refusal to join him. This was a distraction for the lights to go out and the Young Bucks to show up in the ring. Fenix & Penta superkicked Konnan, and a match spontaneously started. (It was only clear it was meant to be a match because Piero stayed in the ring, there was no announcement or signal a new match was starting.) The Bucks dominated the early portion of the match, the Lucha Brothers made a comeback to their usual finishing sequence, and the Bucks kicked out. Fenix took an Indytaker on the floor and Penta was eventually defeated 2 on 1 after a Meltzer Driver.

The crowd did not react to the Young Bucks as they might in the US or Japan. They did eventually get into the match during the Lucha Brothers comeback, but it was probably the quietest crowd the Bucks have been in front of in a long time. Earlier in the night, Konnan had been an anti-AEW heel against face Cody Rhodes, so anyone following this angle had to be confused about it.

Aerostar won the Rey de Reyes, defeating Laredo Kid in what turned out to be an elimination match with timed entries. Both Vampiro & Jesus Zuniga said there were 11 people in the match, which was odd because 9 people were announced and only 9 people ended up being in the match. (The best guess is this was supposed to tease the Young Bucks being in that match instead, though it didn’t seem to work.) The 9 people weren’t the original 9 anyway, as Australian Suicide was missing for unexplained reasons and replaced by “Sombra Vengador Jr.”, a character from the “Por La Mascara” TV show on Space. He was portrayed by Lanzelot on this occasion.

Psycho Clown won a six-man escape the cage match after putting La Mascara thru a table. Brazo de Plata was at ringside for the Brazo family fight and gave Jeff Jarrett a mighty chop. This seemed a pretty definite win that should end the road to a hair match (though the hair match is still probably happening.)

The OGTs versus Puma, Pagano and Drago match had a few severe moments which appeared to be serious injuries and were later said not to have been them. Puma King attempted to give Super Fly a high-velocity sunset flip powerbomb thru a table to the outside, but the table was not correctly positioned and Super Fly’s head smacked on the edge of the table instead. A Pagano/Chessman backward plunge off the top rope thru a table seemed to go as dangerously as planned, though Chessman’s fist punched a hole thru the table on impact instead of it being broken. Chessman was checking his hand like it was broken, but AAA insisted he and Super Fly were OK.

Daga betrayed Joe Lider in the closing moments of the Perros del Mal reunion match, giving Poder del Norte the win. Daga told the announcers, Perros del Mal was done, they needed him but he didn’t need them. Poder del Norte put Joe Lider thru a table during the post-match, in something that was mostly in a small window while other things were happening.

This post-match also played into an earlier bit in the women’s match. Faby Apache confronted Lady Shani (wanted a rematch), Keyra (want her to close her mouth) and Hijo del Tirantes (want him to leave her alone) after Shani retained her title. This just got Faby attacked first by Hijo del Tirantes, then Keyra & Tormenta. Tormenta seemed to be Keyra’s new ally, at least for this night. Shani & Taya surprisingly made the save for Faby, who didn’t want much to do with them then. Later, when Keyra & Tormenta again attacked Taya after the Perros del Mal match, Faby returned the favor with a save and was friendly towards Taya. This seemed to be setting up a Faby/Shani/Taya vs Keyra/Tormenta/someone else (Maravilla? Tirantes?) direction.

Cody appeared in an in-ring segment with Hugo Savonvich to talk about the partnership between the two companies. Cody teased the idea of Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega coming to AAA and offered Hugo a spot as working on the Spanish media. Hugo accepted. They were interrupted by Konnan, with Taurus, Escorpión, and Texano. Konnan demanded that everything in Mexico run thru him, while Cody pointed out that Konnan was now just an employee in AAA and not an executive like him. This escalated into a fight, with Cody taking out Los Mercenarios (long night for them) until Taurus speared him. Psycho Clown led a group of AAA técnicos – Taya, Shani, Aerostar, Drago – in running off the rudos and then posing for photos.

Lady Maravilla continues to have Niño Hamburguesa under her spell. Hamburguesa would not hurt her and stopped Big Mami from doing the same a couple of times. The champions managed to get it together enough to beat Villano III Jr., but there were more problems after the match when Hamburguesa carried Maravilla off to the back.

Blue Demon appeared. It was unclear why.

Thoughts:

The “double” main event sacrificed both matches to get to the storyline. Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. versus Pentagon & Fenix came off as a match rushing to fit in on TV time. There were a few the highpoints of a Lucha Brothers match. It was also very obviously off in some ways, and Rey Escorpion wasn’t having a good match. The Young Bucks match had more of a story to it, and more offense to the Lucha Brothers than I had felt the first time I saw it. It’s a weird compromise of a situation: they would’ve had more time for everyone if Texano & Escorpión weren’t treated as equals to the other teams and not just disposable people in the way of the match they really wanted to do, but they also clearly didn’t want to give away a ‘real’ Lucha Brothers versus Young Bucks match two months out from Double or Nothing. What we got was something that’ll probably be sufficient as a highlight package but wasn’t alone enough to get the Young Bucks over to a very unfamiliar AAA audience, and didn’t really satisfy anyone who came into the show believing Los Mercenarios versus Lucha Brothers were the main event. (The match got little reaction, so maybe there weren’t many of those people to begin with.) This AAA match was sacrificed to get AEW’s big match over. If it’s the start of a well-told story that gets a rematch over for TripleMania, it’ll be worth it. It’s tough to give scattershot AAA that much faith.

The Rey de Reyes delivered on lots and lots of crazy spots, and actually tried to get people over in the booking too. Taurus had his best night since his return by far, with the interaction earlier with Cody and beating people one after another impressively. It would help if there was some follow up from this, but it was a good start. Once Taurus was out, this seemed like Vikingo’s match to win. He did well with the time (except for the tough landing on Jack Evans) but really didn’t get any special focus before he was out. The Aerostar win was helped by it being over Laredo Kid, the guy who meant to most coming in. It did sort of feel like it came down to people everyone likes but no one’s quite sure if they’re meant to be a top star; it was a better field than Aerostar’s long ago Copa Antonio Pena win but it also was a bit of a self-contained universe. The big positive here is they had enough time to give everyone a moment, including Sammy & Jack further establishing their team (without Suicide for whatever reason.) It wasn’t perfect but it was a lot of fun.

The AAA cage match was very much an AAA cage. It coalesced into something coherent after they got rid of half the field and had enough space (physical, mental) to actually tell some story beyond people wandering around a small space and hitting each other. The Brazos story was the only thing that mattered here. They got a lot out of Brazo de Plata at ringside. La Mascara seemed to actually try and got laid out at the end. They don’t really need to do more with the La Mascara versus his family feud after this, but it’s also obviously going to keep going.

This will always be the match where Averno wrestled in a Batman outfit for no particular reason and Super Fly went the back of the head into the corner of a table on a powerbomb. The match was alright, hitting the usual high spots with these guys, but most of it was immediately flush from my mind. I had to go back and watch it later to figure out how Averno actually won. They didn’t do a bad job but it is not a match I’d want to rewatch.

The Perros del Mal was a solid action match that wasn’t really sinking in with me until the angle at the end, and then five hundred things happened at once. Poder del Norte wasn’t at all the focus here but did well taking the Perros offense and making an impression with the time they got. AAA did a good job of selling the importance of the Perros del Mal with the pre-match video and the shirts, though the turn still came off as a bit random. Daga seemed motivated to have a good night and was a lot better than in Monterrey. Borderline match, could’ve gone OK or good on it.

The four-way women matches make up for some of the limitations of the women by just speeding up the action and not giving a moment to think about what just happened. They did it more so here, with the weapons added just to give more craziness. Not everything came out smooth, especially early on, but it became quite a spectacle by the end. Also, the chair might have saved Chik Tormenta’s life from the Keyra corner dropkick. The Spanish Fly spot to the outside looked impressive, relatively safe, and kept Keyra out of the ring at the finish. This also was an effective win for Lady Shani, who could’ve used one. The angles after the match seem to be only clear in that we’re never getting any of the singles matches that are being set up, but it did feel like something was happening.

The opener wasn’t as crazy as some of their multi-team defenses. It is a lot to ask the técnicos to carry the speed of the action by themselves, but they still had some impressive moments. The match actually more one-sided than I would’ve figured, with Maravilla and Villano’s involvement being more about the storyline than anything they showed on. The storyline moved on, so I liked it.

CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas: 2019-03-15

March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 thecubsfan

Recapped: 03/16/2019

Matches:

Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Vangellys beat Audaz, Esfinge, Tritón
(10:58 [3:10, 3:47, 4:01], 2/3, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Átomo, El Gallito, Microman beat Chamuel, Mije, Zacarias el Perico
(14:03 [5:05, 4:05, 4:53], 1/3, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Titán beat Ephesto, Mephisto, Templario
(8:02 [2:19, 5:43], 1/2, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Bárbaro Cavernario, Gilbert el Boricua, Negro Casas
(16:35 [5:47, 3:56, 6:52], 2/3, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero © beat Carístico, Dragón Lee, Volador Jr. to retain the CMLL World Trios Championship
(17:16 [4:09, 2:20, 10:47], 1/3, great, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja beat La Bestia Del Ring & Terrible in a hair match
(21:03 [3:59, 2:30, 14:34], 1 DQ/3, below average, VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

Los Ingobernables were Dqed for using belts in the first fall. Terrible’s right shoulder goes out trying to catch an Angel de Oro dive right after La Bestia del Ring has been eliminated. Both Bestia and Tirantes try to pop the arm back into the socket, but neither has much success. Commissioner Rambo teases ejecting La Comandante to buy the doctor some time to work with on Terrible, but it clearly Terrible still can’t do anything. Angel de Oro and Terrible talk in the ring, and Oro quickly beats him with a sharpshooter he’s never used before (because the campana needs Terrible’s arms.)

Terrible is taking quickly to the back to get his arm looked at, with the Chavez fighting it with Bestia del Ring to stall before his hair cut starts. Terrible comes back, in discomfort and seemingly unable to move his right arm, still cutting his own hair before attacking the rudos. The rudos only get their hair cut in the ring, and shaved later backstage.

Negro Casas made his return from injury in the fourth match, though they played off the knee injury in the finish.

Ephesto & Mephisto were wearing Blue Demon themed version of their normal masks. Diamante Azul, who was designed with the idea of being a modern Blue Demon, was wearing a lot less blue than normal (though it may have part of a bigger plan since Soberano was also mostly wearing white.)

With Mr. Niebla back, Zacarias is back to painting Niebla’s chest tattoo on his own body. MicroAngel was the referee.

Blue Demon was remembered after the second match. The actor who portrayed Blue Demon (on the Televisa produced show) was part of the ceremony. Sofia Alonso was announced as commercial director of CMLL, which is a promotion (or a reveal.) This bit got some loud whistles and not the usual big round of applause. Live reports suggest the crowd noise (loud boos) was turned way down.

Thoughts:

The main event wasn’t much. It was easily the worst match of the night. At last part of it is because whatever they were going to do for the finishing stretch (or maybe just the finish) went out the window with Terrible’s shoulder. The obvious problems going into the match were not solved prior. They built this match around Los Ingobernables offense for two falls, which is not the best of ideas for this team. There’s a lot of two-man spots where Terrible looks to be doing 80% of the work. On the other hand, Bestia del Ring attempting to take bumps for the Chavez offense was also bad. Bestia trying to do Rush bits were a good reminder about how much more charisma Rush has. CMLL’s refusal to show Bestia going into the crowd or the announce desk was a good reminder of CMLL’s own limitations. I don’t know that this really did anything for anyone, but people still showed up for it and I didn’t really understand that either, so maybe I’m missing the whole picture.

The title match was the extended long play of the Guerreros versus a random assortment of técnicos match they’ve run many times before. If you were hoping for something in the match that would explain why these three flyers were teaming, you went home disappointed. If you wanted them to see them run thru every big match spot, you did at least get that. They built to the most spectacular spots at the end, and played off Caristico going for La Mistica too many times. It’d be for the best if something else got cycled in as the big action match, this match does not benefit from being used in the same space so often.

The NGD/Casas match was a little bit better than I was expecting. Gilbert looked better than has in weeks, and much better with NGD than Diamante Azul last week. The NGD guys were fired up for the big show and broke out a few new spots. Sansón losing his mask on his own finish but keeping it together enough cover up while covering Negro Casas was something. Forastero nailed his ramp running dropkick. Casas playing off the leg work and his own knee injury as part of the finishing bit is something only he does around here.

The tercera was much shorter than usual, without the long fall that usually goes with a two fall match. (CMLL was time conscious on the whole show, sending people out quicker for entrances from the start.) They made up for it by going at a quick pace from the start, with even Mephisto & Ephesto moving around a lot faster than they had in the past. Titan & Soberano looked spectacular on their dives. Diamante Azul was fine until the end, when he struggled oddly with a press slam and weirdly won on his deep armdrag. Not the first time where Azul seemed like he ran out of lifting power by the end of the match.

The micros match was fun, though it felt a little bit sloppier than usual. Maybe the last camera shot centered on Chamuel’s shoulder being up for the final pin is just sticking in my head. There were other moments where people seemed to be in the wrong position or oddly paused during the match. Atomo tripping twice to cradle Mije in the first fall was a sight. Microman did have some cool moments, they got Atomo a moment of his own with his big splash on everyone, and the crowd seemed to genuinely like the match.

The opener was obviously better than what CMLL throws out as openers, but it was also one on the verge of getting very good and never quite getting there. It had the highlights of a spectacle match, with Triton getting in a few big moments, but the drama wasn’t really there. The fans treated this like a big show by booing the first slip they saw. I think Vangellys’ wheel kick is now a big match only move. I can’t recall him doing in the even Último Guerrero series and he used to work that in to every match. Villano III Jr. blended in better, though the decision to have him do a dive and not Audaz was odd. It was also funny when he decided to celebrate his team winning while the match was still going on behind him.