CMLL on Marca: 2019-05-31 (Juicio Final)

Recapped:05/31/2019

Matches:

Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Rey Cometa beat Disturbio, Kawato, Misterioso Jr.
(9:25 [5:30, 3:55], 1/2 DQ, good)

Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(12:19 [3:47, 2:50, 5:42], 2/3, ok)

Virus beat Metálico in a loser must retire
(20:25, motocicleta, excellent)

Amapola beat Kaho Kobayashi in a hair vs hair match
(9:58, 1/3, good)

1. Amapola sort of Skayde Special (1:01)
2. Kaho Kobayashi headscissors cradle (0:51)
3. Amapola Devil’s Wings (8:06)

Euforia & Gran Guerrero beat Diamante Azul & Valiente © for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship
(13:24 [4:26, 1:56, 7:02], 2/3, ok)

Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. beat Bárbaro Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
(7:06 [1:23, 1:34, 4:09], 2/3, good)

Último Guerrero beat Máscara Año 2000, hair vs hair
(10:05 [0:47, 0:56, 8:22], 2/3, ok)

1. DQ Mascara faked foul (0:47)
2. Último Guerrero senton de la muerte (0:56)
3. Último Guerrero inside cradle (8:23)

What happened:

Disturbio interfered often to help Mascara Año 2000 as his second, including breaking up a Pulpo Guerrero with referee Edgar turned around. Gran Guerrero got into a fight with Disturbio after that one, causing both of them to be thrown out. A few moments later, all of the Dinamitas (Sansón, Cuatrero, Forastero, Universo 2000 Jr., and Hijo de Mascara Año 2000) came out as a referee distraction. Mascara Año 2000 tried to sneak in a foul kick, but Guerrero blocked it and easily cradled him for the win. The Dinamitas stormed the ring and attacked Guerrero. Security quickly got involved.

Gran Guerrero & Euforia won the tag titles from Diamante Azul & Valiente.

Kaho Kobayashi lost her hair to Amapola, than sat in the ring and got her hair cut.

Metalico’s career came to an end by losing to Virus.

Thoughts:

Many people on this card showed a lot more than was expected of them going in. Mascara Año 2000 was not one of them. The main event had tons of smoke and mirrors by CMLL standards, with Disturbio being as active as the guy he was seconding. Último Guerrero still forced in a few of his usual moves. Mascara 2000 tried, he just didn’t have much to add. This crowd was into everything, which kept this from ever feeling sad, but it wasn’t ever anything great. The post match seemed to tease a lot more to come, which would all have to be better than this match.

The semimain was unnecessary and rushed, but it was the easy fun match it was meant to be. The técnicos did their usual bits but looked sharp doing them. The crowd loved cheering for the rudos and booing Místico. It didn’t hit the peaks of other versions of this match, but it also never really had the time to do so.

Gran Guerrero & Euforia winning the tag team titles won’t be remembered as much, though it is a lot better to see them with the championships. Diamante Azul gave the effort of a man who was not happy to be losing the titles, and Valiente topes couldn’t make the match alone. Los Guerreros showed their usual good team work but didn’t have much to work with here. There’s potential for them to have a lot better opponents down the line. Most opponents will be better than this.

Amapola delivered her best performance in years in the hair match. The match wasn’t perfect – the first two falls seemed cut down as if a consequence of the long-running show. There were times where they seemed to be running out of gas; the battle to get the superplex stuck out. The superplex did look great when they got it to work, and the match had more exciting moments than it seemed like it would at first. The casual crowd wanted to boo Kaho, assuming the foreigner was the evil one as usual, but she kept winning them over with her offense and by coming close to a win. Kaho kept fighting back, even when she got demolished by Amapola’s toe con giro, and the image of her stoically taking the hair cut was memorable.

Virus & Metálico exceeded all expectations. The crowd completely bought into the gravity of the match from go, and both men lived up to the atmosphere. This might have been Metalico’s best match of his career and it goes right along the classics Virus has had. They took this very seriously, hitting each other very hard (and playing off the idea that there’s no way this was ending with a cheap DQ, so punches and questionably low shots were in play.) Virus had his usual bit of stunning reversals, while Metálico went deep in to playbook to pull out moves from him that we haven’t seen since he and Tigre Blanco were still a team. Both men seemed to slow down after the really hot first ten minutes, but they came back strong during the last moments of the match. I really liked Virus killing Metálico with big move after big move until it was finally enough, something completely different than how CMLL usually handles big matches. A lot of this felt different than the big CMLL matches and it;ll be reminded a lot longer for that reason.

The segunda had some cool spots, with the second fall finish coming off well. It lacked the urgency of the opener and felt more like people going thru the usual offense than doing something bigger. Soberano insisting on taking a destroyer in every match is actually good because we’ll be able to easily identify him actually learning something about wrestling when he finally stops doing it.

The opener was worked at a pace suggesting they had no time to mess around. I wish they always had no time to mess around because it produced a heavy action match. This was fully big show effort at work, with Kawato pulling out a dive as impressive as Misterioso actually doing the ring post spear spot to set up a Cometa one. The effort paid off well though, and they got the most out of this time. Kawato & Black Panther is definitely an idea, it remains to be seen if it is a good one.