Recapped: 03/30/2019
Matches:
Akuma & Disturbio beat Pegasso & Stigma
Pegasso & Stigma beat Akuma & Disturbio
(13:22 [6:04, 3:21, 3:57], 2/3, ok, 00:01:40)
Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Drone beat Kawato San, Tiger, Virus
(12:27 [5:43, 3:02, 3:42], 1/3, good, 00:22:22)
Felino, Rey Bucanero, Templario beat Esfinge, Flyer, Tritón
(13:57 [5:05, 2:46, 6:06], 1/3, ok, 00:44:53)
Dragón Lee, Místico, Titán beat Cuatrero, Negro Casas, Sansón
(14:29 [3:55, 2:39, 7:55], 2/3, good, 01:09:35)
Cavernario © beat Forastero to retain Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship
(20:57, 2/3, good, 01:37:17)
- Forastero triangle armbar (2:27)
- Cavernario plancha neanderthal (2:48)
- Cavernario cavernaria (15:42)
Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. beat Naito, Rush, Terrible in a relevos increíbles match
(10:18 [5:00, 5:18], 1/2 DQ, ok, 02:08:16)
What happened:
Rush fouled Volador for the straight fall loss, then Los Ingobernables unmasked Carístico & Valiente.
Thoughts:
The main event was fun in an exhibition fashion, with Naito having fun hanging out with Terrible & Rush when not getting crushed by a Valiente tope. He was into the spirit of things and did more than his partners. Rush seemed pleased with himself on the foul (and the stealing of Bandido’s bit) but was more into posing then coming close on dropkicks. Carístico was good, everyone else was just kind of there. This feels better than last year’s version but it is also only notable for Naito’s cameo.
So. About the title match. Cavernario is very good and the CMLL crowd loved him in this match. Cavernario’s eagerness to throw himself in and out of the ring made this match what it was. Cavernario hit all the big highspots from his match with Titan a month ago and played off last week’s finish, and this still wasn’t close to that match. Forastero just couldn’t put together much of anything compelling in this match, didn’t show the presence of his cousins in big matches. Forastero was just a guy who occasionally doing moves at a slow pace. The first two falls of not much didn’t help, but there was a lack of aggression and urgency here. A rudo/rudo match and a challenger who didn’t have much of a chance to win made this an uphill challenge but Forastero didn’t really rise to the challenge. Anyone else could’ve been put in his spot to get largely the same match.
It is so great to have Negro Casas back. The fourth match reminded me how Casas had a career making matches with Dragon Lee and Titan and probably could have one with Místico if they ever put him in a big singles match. He had the best sequences with each guy here, even if most of the ones with Místico were owning him. I think he and Dragon Lee would put each other out for a month if they had that singles match now but I still want to see it. NGD were OK if only really impressive when powerbombing the técnicos in the first fall, but they were good at being in the right spots for Dragon Lee & Mistico’s big headscissors. I only really liked the third fall but I really liked it a lot and it was much more than I was expecting.
The técnicos had a lot of ideas for group spots – there’s enough here that you could see Flyer replacing Titan in the trio, though that would also come with them moving down the cards – but it didn’t really come together as an interesting match. Tossing Flyer outside the ring to pull him back in for the finish was also weird and a flat way to end the match. Templario wasn’t bad but he’s had stronger appearances. Rey Bucanero did a piledriver on the apron for no reason.
The extra energy shown by both sides made a difference in the segunda. The técnicos were throwing themselves into moves and the rudos looked better than usual. I think the only one who wasn’t trying to do something crazy was Mije (so hopefully he’s the one who goes to Japan.) Black Panther’s tope at the end looked good. Kawato didn’t have anything seriously go wrong, always a small victory.
The opener was depressing in an unusual way for CMLL opener. They were definitely trying to have a good match, it was just not really happening for them. Stigma and Akuma just weren’t all that tight with the big spots they were doing. Akuma took a big bump to the floor of a headscissors that wasn’t much around the head. Disturbio and Pegasso didn’t actually do all that much. I’m not sure they’re capable of having a better match than this.