CMLL on Marca: 2019-08-16

Microman

Recapped: 08/16/2019

Matches:

Cancerbero & Raziel beat Robin & Star Jr.
(13:35 [5:23, 3:09, 5:03], 1/3, ok)

Átomo, Gallito, Microman beat Chamuel, Guapito, Perico Zacarías
(13:26 [6:12, 1:54, 5:20], 2/3 DQ, good)

Atlantis Jr., Flyer, Titan beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(13:49 [3:51, 4:10, 5:48], 1/3, ok)

Dalys beat Metálica in the CMLL Universal de Amazonas final
(8:28, suplex, below average)

Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Diamante Azul beat Cuatrero, Gilbert el Boricua, Sansón
(14:29 [5:31, 3:36, 5:22], 2/3, ok)

Volador Jr. beat Forastero
(12:20, 1/3, good)

  1. Forastero armscissors (1:22)
  2. Volador torito (2:38)
  3. Volador top rope huracanrana (8:20)

Dragón Lee, Místico, Último Guerrero beat Carístico, Ciber the Main Man, Valiente in a relevos increíbles match
(14:19 [4:05, 3:53, 6:21], 1/3 DQ, ok)

What happened:

Atlantis

UG faked a foul at the end of the main event. Ciber covered UG, Edgar counted, then stopped to call the foul. Ciber became the first person to suggest the hair match at the Aniversario show but wanted a title match (again) prior.

After all the weeks of Forastero cheating to win, he never tried to cheat to win in the singles match. Volador just won clean.

CMLL production, as they are prone to do, turned down the arena sound for an ad and forgot to turn it back up again until the match was in progress. This meant there was no introductions for the Universal tournament final. Those watching on the stream missed an announcement that it was a one-fall match. Metalica apparently suffered an injury getting caught in the ropes on a tope, which caused that one fall to end early. Panico presented the new belt to Dalys.

Chamuel fouled Microman to end the micros match. Microman asked for a rematch, which got him attacked by Chamuel. Chamuel had earlier ripped up Microman’s mask. Guapito took Gallito’s mask as well.

Thoughts:

teamwork!

The main event I imagined a main event of Ciber & UG darting in and out while the other four were mostly in the ring. What we got instead was Ciber & Ultimo Guerrero being closer to the ring as the other four brawled around the arena. That was unexpected. More expected was Mistico versus Caristico being a lot more over than Ultimo Guerrero. The match itself did better with less time in the ring for both and the crowd seems to be talking themselves into cheering for UG but this isn’t good.

Volador tonight was better than Volador in Puebla. Forastero wasn’t as good as Dragon Lee in Puebla. The product was a match that was smoother than that recent title match if also feeling a lot like other Volador title matches. Forastero did better than his chance with Soberano but still isn’t a compelling singles wrestler. The idea here seemed to make Forastero a bigger deal prior to the Gran Prix and I’m not sure if it really took.

The undercard got shuffled around to give us another Diamante Azul & Mesias match up prior to them running each other at the Gran Prix. Those two were marginally better than usual, though the better work was around them. The Dinamitas controlled a lot of the action, Mesias was set up to look good, and the Chavez were smooth.

life in the opener

Metalica looked nervous trying her tope, didn’t land it, and that was that for the match. Dalys can do nothing but follow her script and her script was for a lot of moves dropping Metalica on the floor when rest might have helped. Metalica didn’t even have the energy for a proper cover by the time she got in the ring. Dalys winning with a basic suplex was very overwhelming but also probably a merciful end. The sound issues really contributed to the flat ending, because no one on watching the stream knew it was one fall, there was no reason to expect it to be. The announcers (and Dalys backstage) hyped about how easy the win was; this was a pretty terrible night for Metalica. It wasn’t any great win for Dalys either.

The tercera was fine, with the Hijos del Infierno seemingly a little better than usual. The tecnicos just didn’t show much out of the ordinary. Atlantis’s new dive looks impressive and every thing else was the usual.

Microman had the highspots, but I think the micros match was the best Chamuel performance so far. He was the start of the night. Chamuel was a great base as always, getting the best out of the tecnicos. His big improvement was being a figure of menace, just tearing into the tecnicos and taking well-timed cheap shots when he had the opportunity. Chamuel came off as mean, not just a comic foil. If CMLL is going with this feud as much as it looks like, it’s going to workout well.

I was intensely distracted during portions of the opener but it seemed like a sloppier version of the usual opening. Robin and the rudos were not working smoothly together at the end of the first fall. It did get better and we got actual third fall dives in an opener.