CMLL on Marca: 2019-07-12

that kind of night

Recapped: 07/12/2019

Matches:

El Coyote & Grako beat Halcón Suriano Jr. & Príncipe Diamante
(14:28 [5:26, 4:14, 4:48], 1/3, ok, 00:00:00)

Átomo, Gallito Tapatío, Microman beat Chamuel, Guapito, Zacarias el Perico
(11:45 [4:34, 1:19, 5:52], 2/3, ok, 00:22:00)

Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Stuka Jr. beat Ephesto, Hijo del Villano III, Hechicero
(9:42 [5:02, 4:40], 1/2 DQ, ok, 00:44:13)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Titán, Valiente, Volador Jr.
(13:47 [3:32, 4:29, 5:46], 2/3, ok, 01:04:40)

Dragón Lee, Místico, Rush beat Gilbert el Boricua, Mr. Niebla, The Chris
(13:02 [2:13, 2:41, 8:08], 2/3, ok, 01:25:23)

Último Guerrero beat Ciber the Main Man
(8:22, 2/3 DQ, below average, 01:50:59)

  1. Ciber spear (1:56)
  2. UG pulpo guerrero (2:39)
  3. DQ Ciber for ref attack (3:47)

What happened:

so many moonsaults

Ciber took out referee Edgar with an accidental charge in the third fall of the main event, then fouled Ultimo Guerrero and put him in a crab submission. Edgar recovered and tapped Ciber on the shoulder. Ciber was sure it was to indicate a win. It, of course, was instead a DQ. Ciber harshly shoved Edgar down and out of the ring.

Paco Alonso was remembered prior to the fourth match.

Villano III Jr. unmasked Atlantis Jr. for the DQ in their match.

Thoughts:

This card didn’t look highly promising on paper and didn’t surprise in reality. I kind of just want to write the whole thing off as a group of wrestlers still dealing with the shock and depression of their well-liked boss suddenly passing away. The hardest working people on the show were the Munoz, who was specifically doing it as a tribute. Most everyone else seemed to just be muddling their way thru their state of mind. The Monday and Tuesdays show wasn’t great but they rarely are, it might have had a more noticeable effect here. Next week, with Liger and LA Park around, should be a lot better.

I want to write this show off for me too after spending the first hour of this show trying to figure out why my computer won’t play the audio and sound in sync from YouTube anymore, but I don’t think I get that.

Stuka smooth into the ‘rana

Ciber and Ultimo Guerrero was a boring match devoid of many highlights or entertainment. It was a slog. The very square peg of Ciber didn’t really fit into Ultimo Guerrero’s round hole of a match formula, even the cut down simplified version they did here. UG wasn’t at his best either, slipping on his big leap over the barricade. Ciber was game to take the superbomb, but it wasn’t his night and it’s hard to believe this is going to ever work. The crowd was into this feud only as much as they always like cheering Ultimo Guerrero; there’s no steam in Ciber and the weak finish didn’t help him either. This didn’t work, but it hasn’t worked any time in the last three years. CMLL just can’t let it go for unclear reasons.

The semimain was probably the most fun match of the show, with Mistico, Dragon Lee and Rush enjoying getting to be a team. Their opponents didn’t really add much. Niebla seemed to spend most of the match on the apron while Gilbert and Sharly wrestled as less mobile Hijos del Infierno. This was very much matching making based on trying to get people their promised amount of bookings rather than trying to put together something good and it showed. The one silver lining is Gilbert looked better knocking around Mistico than he has in most of his time in CMLL. He may be still successful as a heavyweight bullying small guys – you know, exactly what he did with Fenix – but that’s not a dynamic CMLL pursues often. The heavyweight battles they want for him aren’t working.

The Volador/NGD trios followed right out of the Paco Alonso tribute. I’m probably projecting things that aren’t really there, but it came off like a purposefully easy match to get the crowd back in. NGD did a new bit of chaining some of their solo finishing moves in series to close out a fall, but most of this was a house main event stuff. They did a “star with a tapatia” fall ending to start and another one that ended directly after the dives, this wasn’t particularly deep. It was fine for what it was.

Atlantis Jr.’s team got beat up and came back to win the first fall of the tercera, which is always a sign the match is probably going two falls. There’s no point in going in so heavy with Hijo del Villano III and Atlantis Jr. at this point, they’re both not completely ready for it and it’d be a tragedy to have them do an actual 1v1 mask match any time soon. CMLL just can’t resist nostalgia in general, and second general rivalries are irresistible nostalgia stuff. Hechicero & Stuka had some good moments. Atlantis continues to struggle to move around.

down he goes

Microman & Chamuel were really good in the micros match, even with Chamuel not doing a lot to hide how much he was helping at the times. The other four didn’t add a whole lot and occasionally took some away. The match was fine, there are just bigger problems here. The first micro matches showed some progression and growth from the wrestlers. That’s not there anymore, and this match felt like some of them were getting worse. It’s one match but the micros could use a positive sign in general.

Halcon Suriano Jr. seems like a guy who would keep doing moonsaults forever if the situation allowed it, and the situation here just about did. I was most distracted during this match, which seemed like a not great night out of the rudos and about a usual one for the tecnicos. Miguel Linares was very excited to refer to Suriano’s submission as La Lanza de Halcon so I’ll note it as well.