Recapped: 05/28/19
This isn’t a full review of this show, but enough of the matches popped up on this indie watch list that just focusing on it seemed worthwhile.
All matches from Arena Naucalpan, 03/17/2019
Matches:
Freelance vs Audaz
(10:32, good, mluchatv)
Audaz had the shiny gear but Freelance had the shiny wrestling. The tone of the match was established early on, when Audaz tried to do a tricky rope run and fell down, then Freelance did his own and nailed it perfectly. Audaz can do cool spots but was outdone with them in this match by Freelance, who also landed them much more effectively. This match never developed more than an exhibition of those highspots but it flew by and seemed less than the 10 minutes it went.
Súper Nova vs Iron Kid
(11:14, good, mluchatv)
The Super Nova/Iron Kid was a better laid out match then Freelance/Audaz. It just didn’t have the excitement, with Nova doing a professional but relatively sane match for Naucalpan standards. Iron Kid’s out of control dives were the things that woke me up. Super Nova seemed to want to make a point about how they didn’t need to go crazy to have a good match and it was a good match, it just wasn’t a lot more than that.
Sádico vs Hijo de Canis Lupus
(17:23, great, mluchatv)
Hey, it’s the annual Sadico spectacular, somehow not featuring Flamita this year. It’s only March, I guess there’s still time for that. Hijo de Canis makes a worthy substitute in a match that puts everything together. They do some good back and forth on holds early on, it escalates into scray dives, and there’s big moves that keep the match going and going. Sadico messing up his chair dive was sad, but deciding to make it up by going headfirst towards the floor was a solid make good. Lupus matched him when he needed, including the big dive that wiped them out over the barricade, and they made this come off as an important outcome by the end. This match felt better put together than most of the Lupus matches I’ve seen, which seems like a Sadico thing. However it go there, it got to the end really well.
Dragón Bane vs Soberano Jr.
(10:19, ok, mluchatv)
Soberano’s struggles at putting together good matches outside of CMLL (and outside of trios) continues. This was a total empty calories match, full of fireworks dives and absolutely no substance. There’s no story here, and it is unclear either of these guys know there can be a story in matches, just different ways to fall on their head they’ve seen in other matches. The big spots have to be absolutely nailed to make this not feel silly, and the head drops they came back in to do didn’t look so good. I usually try to avoid spoiling direct finishes in these. The finish here is so terrible that it needs to be mentioned. Dragon Bane gives Soberano a head drop, then takes a bump for no reason, and both men carefully position an arm over each other for a totally unconvincing double pin. It is terrible, the kind of finish that must’ve only been approved because the people in charge didn’t want to deal with these guys any longer. There are far worse matches that get the same grade but few were as frustrating at the finish.
Aramis vs Ángel de Oro
(11:52, great, mluchatv)
I was surprised about how much Angel de Oro took from Aramis in their match. That was the smart way to do the match, tease Aramis getting the big upset for as long as possible until Angel de Oro put him away. Aramis landing the spinning torture rack looked super impressive and he didn’t seem to lose anything by Oro surviving time after time. Aramis looked super smooth thru this match. Angel de Oro didn’t do a whole lot but what he did mattered, and he kind of just gave a platform to Aramis to take the fight to the bigger star.
Laredo Kid vs Imposible
(12:55, good, +LuchaTV)
Laredo Kid & Imposible drifted back towards moves just for moves sake. Being the sixth match (of those I’m watching) on this show made that a harder sell than it might’ve been isolated. They had a much better variety of moves than Soberano/Dragon Bane and not a stupid ending, so it wasn’t a big problem. It never got more than surface deep, but Laredo Kid is spectacular enough that they can get by with just some cool spots.
