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.