Recapped: 08/02/2019
Matches:
Sangre Azteca & Dark Magic beat Oro Jr. & Súper Astro Jr.
(15:25 [5:58, 3:43, 5:44], 2/3, below average, 00:00:00)
Chamuel, Guapito, Periko Zacarías beat Átomo, Gallito, Microman
(13:49 [4:31, 2:44, 6:34], 1/3, ok, 00:22:47)
La Metálica beat Tiffany, Sanely, La Infernal, Maligna, La Guerrera, La Seductora, Avispa Dorada, Amapola, Marcela in the semifinal of the CMLL Universal tournament
(21:42, ok, 00:47:40)
- 07:26 Amapola arms tied submission La Infernal
- 09:54 La Seductora rolling hammerlock La Guerrera
- 12:48 Sanely La Soberana La Maligna
- 14:32 Marcela straight jacket cavernaria La Seductora
- 15:50 Tiffany senton Sanely
- 18:49 Amapola double pin Tiffany
- 18:49 Tiffany double pin Amapola
- 20:04 Marcela Michinoku Driver on Avispa Dorada
- 21:42 Metalica senton Marcela
Dragón Lee beat Gran Guerrero in a lightning match
(8:35, suplex powerbomb, good, 01:20:56)
Ciber the Main Man, Rush, Terrible beat Cavernario, Dark Magic, Último Guerrero in a relevos increíbles match
(9:20 [2:37, 2:30, 4:13], 1/3, ok, 01:35:35)
Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr.
(7:23 [1:03, 6:20], 1/2 DQ, ok, 01:54:47)
What happened:
For the second straight week, Forastero cheated to draw a DQ. He faked a foul this time to get Volador disqualified.
Dark Magic wrestled twice on the show. He replaced Akuma & Espanto Jr. in the opener alongside Sangre Azteca, then came back to replace Mr. Niebla in the semi-main. Ciber cleanly defeated UG in the match, then challenged him to a title match. Guerrero accepted but wanted a hair match after. This appears to be the Aniversario main event, though it wasn’t said.
Dark Magic replaced Mr. Niebla. Ciber challenged UG to a title match next week. UG asked for a rematch.
Dragon Lee was clearly supposed to win on a running knee smash. Pompin stopped counting at two despite Gran Guerrero never kicking out. Both Dragon Lee and the crowd were furious. Dragon Lee won with his powerbomb a few moments later and led chants against Pompin.
Metalica beat Marcela to advance in the CMLL Universal tournament. The crowd loudly booed when Marcela eliminated Avispa Dorada three from the end.
Chamuel beat Microman in the third fall, the first time Microman has been defeated in Arena Mexico since debuting.
Thoughts:
This was another disappointing show. The main event was technically fine but not at all what it promised on paper, instead of seven minutes and a second straight week of a bad finish. I’m not sure if I would’ve liked it if it was a normal full match, which they had time to do because the heart was taken out of this show by the semi-main.
Ciber versus Ultimo Guerrero seems like the Aniversario main event. The feud was no more over nor good in the ring than usual on this show, less an attraction than King Jaguar versus Perverso, but there was equally no sign of anyone else being added to the match. The names were there for a cage match but none were teased. I guess the match itself was not awful, though Dark Magic was totally out of place (and weirdly a tecnico after being a rudo earlier.) It was generally a lifeless match for a dispiriting feud.
Gran Guerrero versus Dragon Lee was easily the best match on the show, and even it had a botched finish. The two youngsters just ran thru most of their big moves in no particular order or meaning. Having big cool moves put them ahead of most of the people on this show. It seemed like Dragon Lee was risking doom by waiting until the very last moment to kick out of some pin attempts, so it was surprising when the match went too long instead of too short. Credit to the luchadors for being more professional than referee Pompin in finding a way to make the match still dramatically come to an end. This happens way too often in CMLL and much more than in any major league promotion I see.
The women’s cibernetico made a star. It’s a star CMLL doesn’t seem like they’re going to push, even though she did go much farther in tonight’s match than anyone would’ve expected. Avispa Dorada was the winner of the match, looking leagues ahead of her opponents and teammates, even though Metalica technically got the win. This was the best match of her run in CMLL so far, somehow getting more time for a showcase in a ten women match than normally happens in a trios. Avispa got to work with Metalica a lot, which helped. Metalica makes sense as the pick to make a new star and seems to have been the pick to elevate for a while, but it wasn’t the crowd’s choice. No one else stood out positively, with Maligna having the lowest moment of the match by slipping on a dive attempt. La Guerrera doing the same top rope walk rope spot twice doesn’t show great depth. La Infernal had a nice story but was as forgettable as most women in the match.
Microman & Chamuel were great together, better than usual. The other four guys exist because CMLL sees this as needing to be a trios match, but they’re not on the level. Gallito & Zacarias had moments and were fine in the end, but the other guys were a struggle. The match is worth watching for the Microman & Chamuel parts at least, but there needs to be more.
Before Dark Magic looked out of place in the semi-main, he looked out of place in the opener. Dark Magic seems to exist to prove that’s it really not that easy for foreigners to pick up lucha libre. Or maybe he’s just hanging around until the bodybuilding contest. He probably was thrown into both matches late and didn’t have much time to work thru them, but he still shouldn’t look as lost as he did. Super Astro Jr. seems wasted when he doesn’t have good rudos to work with and there’s almost no good rudos in the openers. Sangre Azteca using a tornado throat drop of the ropes to set up his low blow dropkick was more thought than usual for him.