CMLL on Marca: 2019-11-15

Recapped: 11/25/2019

Matches:

Espanto Jr. & Hijo del Signo beat Retro & Sonic
(11:27 [4:47, 3:13, 3:27], 2/3, ok)

Dalys, Reyna Isis, Tiffany beat La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit, Shoko Nakajima
(13:48 [7:46, 2:44, 3:18], 2/3, ok)

Hechicero, Kawato, Okumura beat Atlantis Jr., Audaz, Dulce Gardenia
(17:18 [7:45, 2:47, 6:46], 1/3, good)

Ángel de Oro beat Felino in a lightning match
(6:38, Angel de Oro cradle w/ropes, ok)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Star Jr., Stuka Jr., Titán
(17:27 [5:30, 6:16, 5:41], 2/3, good)

Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero beat Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr.
(9:32 [5:30, 4:02], 1/2, ok)

What happened:

Negro Casas snuck in a foul on Soberano to set up the straight falls win in the main event. Volador wanted a rematch and/or an additional fall. Ultimo Guerrero accepted, was stopped by Edgar, and decided to leave.

Tiger Hattori was honored with a plaque after the tercera match. Both Chavo Lutteroth’s were part of the presentation, in their first public appearance since taking over the promotion. Sofia Alonso was in the building, did not appear.

Felino gave Angel de Oro a sunset flip powerbomb in the ring, and casually grabbed the bottom rope behind him. The referee stopped the spotted it and stopped the count. Felino complained, stalled, then gave Angel de Oro a crucifix powerbomb. Felino blatantly grabbed the bottom rope and the count was stopped again. Felino argued, Angel de Oro cradled him and used the rope to win. Felino attacked him after, then angel de Oro challenged Felino to a hair match. Felino seemed to accept. Angel de Oro came off as the rudo in the exchange, including hugging the referee.

Thoughts:

The main event seemed to be heading to a hot, if by the numbers, finale. Instead, it just ended abruptly. Soberano looked good while it lasted, Místico did a couple of things, there’s no need to see this with next week theoretically being more of a full match.

The semi-main got a lot of time. A lot of it went to NGD, which is at least what they seem to prefer to do. They looked great on offense, though these matches aren’t going to reach a higher level of excitement without the tecnicos getting a bigger run than they did here. Titan had an incredible rope bounce headscissors and generally remains good in his return from NJPW. It’s being wasted with nothing to dig into on these shows.

Felino and Angel de Oro had a perfectly ordinary lightning match, notable only for how short it was for a Friday one, until the weird finish. This was a great simulation of a CMLL botched ending, up until they started doing promos to build a hair match. Angel de Oro cheating to beat Felino to set up the feud is strange, unless CMLL’s decided to go with the crowd and switch him to being a rudo. There was no great chemistry to suggest these two should have a feud and it does seem like another match being built up solely to give an older roster member a payoff. Maybe Felino has some great reserves for a big fight that he doesn’t show most weeks.

Hechicero generally works hard and took it to another level with NJPW people there. He caught all the tricky dives from Audaz and Hechicero, pulled off the trickiest sequences, and carried it for his side. Hechicero was out there taking missed sentons on the apron just to prove his point. Atlantis and Audaz look good in the spots they’re given, though they don’t really go far beyond those set moments. Kawato looked fine, which was better than he was for almost all of last stint.

Nakajima worked well with Isis and didn’t work much with anyone else. Jarochita keeps getting matched up with Dalys and Dalys isn’t interested in giving her all that much, so it’s hard to know if she’s any good. Silueta’s defining personality trait is “red hair”, so Tiffany going to red is an odd choice.

The opener wasn’t worth the effort to think about it. Sonic has looked promising in other matches. Not as much with this crew. I couldn’t tell if the finish was a dramatic bump or Espanto Jr. messing up the grab. History is not on Espanto’s side. By history, that means parts of the rest of the match.