Negro Casas beat Volador Jr. with an unseen foul. That was the concept anyway. Metalico turned around too soon and was looking at when it happened, and did not call the disqualification.
Stigma fouled Rey Cometa
Thoughts:
Astro coming thru
Forastero doesn’t fight singles matches with any particular creativity. He’s not hard-hitting or fast. He does interact with the crowd but doesn’t show a lot of emotion. (That led Caristico to make Edgar a bigger part of the match, to make sure the crowd would react to someone, and Edgar’s a big enough ham to go full into it in non-serious/stable ways.) Forastero’s shown impressive athletic ability in trios matches but it never really comes out on his own. He also doesn’t really make the tecnicos look any better for working him. Forastero’s not hopeless; there was an armdrag into a tricky cradle that looked good and he’s established a few signature spots. He’s just been shown to be vanilla on his own and hasn’t shown much improvement in this singles match series. This main event was fine but doesn’t add anything that hasn’t been seen in the previous versions of this match.
The mixed trios tried a story of Stigma trying to play clean but snapping on Rey Cometa in the end. It’s very Puebla to build a feud around Stigma, but at least it was some sort of story. The action was the normal level up to the finish.
CMLL ran a memorable incredible pairs tournament in early 2010. It wasn’t the winning team or the final (Atlantis & Mascara Dorada defeating La Mascara & Negro Casas) which stood out. It was a second-round match which made the most news. Volador & Terrible faced Averno & Mistico. The latter two were long-time rivals but, instead of not getting along, Mistico embraced the chance to wrestle as a rudo for the first time ever. The match was heated, Volador nearly beat Mistico with La Misitica, and Mistico instead fouled Volador to win. The two had a singles match a week later, where Volador both escaped La Mistica (something rarely done) and then beat Mistico with his own hold (something never done.) Volador had been wrestling in main events for the last year, was part of a successful tag team with La Sombra, but was seen by the Arena Mexico diehards as a talented wrestler CMLL just wouldn’t go all the way with. Fans sentiment was Voladorw as the better wrestler than Mistico but CMLL would never let someone surpass their golden goose – and then Volador did completely cleanly. Mistico & Volador had a rematch a week later and Volador won again, though not at all cleanly. Mistico still came off as the rudo in the end.
It was incredibly bold booking. It was also something CMLL quickly worked to undo; Mistico’s heel turn was dropped in a month. Nothing was done to resolve the issue between the two, with CMLL sort of keeping it going in the background but dropping it from the Friday night show. (They rematched on a Sunday show where Volador won again after a failed attempt by Mistico to cheat, but it’s not as well remembered.) Volador sort of remained in limbo until his rudo turn later in the year and Mistico lost to Volador one more time before leaving the company. CMLL groped around for new top tecnicos for a couple of years before finally accepting Volador was the only choice the fans hadn’t rejected, and he’s been the top face of CMLL since that point. Mistico, as Caristico, returned to in late 2015. He and Volador have faced off plenty since then, with Volador winning most of them. They’ve teamed too, though there seems to be hard to disguise disdain between them.
Volador & Caristico started the decade going at each other, they even started the year against each at FantasticaMania, and they’ll end it facing again in a singles match. It’s a coincidence, not a plan. CMLL talks a lot about history but doesn’t book with an appreciation of its own recent history that much. It is just the two names who happened to come up out of the small group of people CMLL trusts in main events in 2019. I’m not sure if this is the biggest CMLL rivalry of the decade or if either man is the CMLL biggest star of the last ten years – that feels like Ultimo Guerrero – but is an appropriate way to close it out.
The last CMLL card of the year, tonight in Arena Puebla, looks to be a quick one. There are only five matches, one of them is a lightning match, and none of them look like they should go long. Caristico/Volador is the main event. Angel de Oro & Felino meet once again in the semi-main, which may or may even mean anything at this point. CMLL currently has few ways it builds rivalries. It doesn’t seem to be a real feud unless there’s a rudo getting DQed for something and no one’s getting DQed between Angel de Oro & Felino lately.
Rey Cometa & Stigma are getting those DQs and meet in a lightning match. It seems fairly likely Cometa & Stigma are headed to a bigger match as soon as next week. Arkalis, Drone and Super Astro are a fun tecnico team against a non-fun rudo team of Malayo, Perverso and Toro Bill Jr. Asturiano & Rey Samuray team up with Millenium against Policeman, Fuerza Chicana and Black Tiger in the opener. It’s a normal 9 pm start on YouTube for this one.
01/11 MLW
Aerostar vs Alex Hammerstone for the MLW Openweight Championship
Drago & Puma King vs Taurus & Hijo de LA Park vs Jordan Oliver & Kotto Brazil
Diaro Basta has an interview with Titan. He says he got into lucha libre following Mistico and they point out he probably should’ve been Mistico II – the winner of the En Busca de Un Idolo tournament should’ve gotten it and maybe was intended to get it. Titan won instead of (then) Dragon Lee as CMLL planned, so they gave it to third place finisher instead.
Disturbio, Harley, Hijo Del Eclipse, Lumino beatPatriarca, Pekador, Shura, Sindrome (11:07, Canadain Destroyer, ok, 00:08:08)
Aramis, Dinastía, OctagoncitobeatArez, Mini Psycho Clown, Parkita Negra (9:48, Dinastia standing shooting star press Mini Psycho Clown, great, 00:47:41)
Máscarita Dorada, Mr. Iguana, Niño HamburguesabeatDemus, Látigo, Villano III Jr. (7:58, Mascarita Dorada armdrag into a cradle Demus, good, 01:14:34)
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santanabeat Faby Apache, Octagón Jr., Taya and Abismo Negro Jr., Ayako Hamada, Keyrain a lumberjack rules match (11:32, Mocho Cota Jr. frogsplash Faby Apache, good, 01:36:08)
Chessman, Killer Kross, Taurus, Texano Jr.beat Willie Mack, Murder Clown, Pagano, Puma King in a TLC match (13:04, Killer Kross back suplex Willie Mack, ok, 02:00:23)
Big MamibeatLady Maravillafor the hair (16:30, splash, excellent, 03:02:37)
Dr. Wagner Jr., Drago, Psycho Clown vs Blue Demon Jr., Rey Escorpion, Rush Toro Blanco (18:28, Rush powerbomb thru a table Psycho Clown, ok, 03:35:37)
What happened:
who needs flat surfaces
LA Park got involved in the main event, helping put Psycho Clown through a table. He attacked and unmasked both Drago and Blue Demon. Rush announced a new Faccion Ingobernable with himself, LA Park, Killer Kross, La Bestia del Ring (not there) and Konnan to end the year.
Keyra, Villano III Jr. and Hijo del Tirantes all tried to help Lady Maravilla. Nino Hamburguesa helped out Big Mami, who got the win. Maravilla got most of her hair cut in the ring. Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa reconciled and Hamburguesa brought in Strippers Big to help celebrate the win.
Sin Cara made the save for Pagano after the TLC match and announced he’d be back in 2020. Those two may be teaming.
Tirantes fast counted Faby Apache after refusing to count for her moments earlier. The usual.
Thoughts:
Dinasita being tricky
There was nothing that could follow the emotion of the apuesta match, but it wasn’t the main event. It was logical for it to be the Rush given the group introduction, but it also didn’t need to go twenty minutes to get there. This was just a set up for angle, and getting there in half the time would’ve been better.
The Big Mami & Lady Maravilla match absolutely delivered. The story deserved a dramatic final and it got one. Even the AAA tropes – tons of interference and an evil referee – worked in giving Mami more overcome in a match she actually does overcome. Mami was asked to do a lot physically, in probably her longest ever singles match, and came thru well. Lady Maravilla was a total professional, willing to play totally rudo and lose without problem in the end. Hamburguesa was used well, not attacking Maravilla until she did something to him and not doing so much that it took the moment away from Mami. The post-match celebration was great, and a pure happy moment with no attacks so uncommon in AAA. This was perfect.
The tag match was the fast paced match expected from those names. Horus made a great first impression with some good spots, though it didn’t feel like he was a big part of the story by the end of the show. Vikingo and Mytzeziz were really good, Myzteziz didn’t feel like he had been gone for long. Wish Suicide showed more than piledrivers; he was the obvious guy getting pinned, but it was a moment for him to show he belonged in this mix rather than the openers he’s been this year, and it didn’t really happen. This wasn’t peak Fenix & Penta but they were putting in good effort. The three-way aspect kept it from a big ending – Myzteziz & Vikingo essentially eliminated themselves to clear out of the way for the finish.
this seems unfair
The TLC match was fine for whatever it was. It had a lot of tables broken if you wanted that but didn’t seem to be building to anything in particular. A million weapon spots led to a suplex winning the match over a guy who’s not a regular. Everything that happened here was forgotten as soon as Sin Cara showed up, so it’s another good reason for them not to have done much.
The lumberjack match was built around throwing people out to get strapped until the referee got strapped, same as every other lumberjack match. The ending was more Tirantes/Faby stuff, same as always. There was better than expected in between, with AAA taking advantage of having so many people for the crazy Octagon Jr. headscissors spot. He had the best match, with Abismo Negro Jr. looking the best since taking over the gimmick. Ayako did better here than she’s done of late; they did an unexpectedly good job of managing all the different people involved in this. It wasn’t a mess and that’s a remarkable achievement.
The tecnico trio in the second match of Hamburguesa, Dorada and Iguana fit together well as a fun crew. Iguana did the one doll spot this time and flew around a lot more. He got tossed around a bit too, a bit by Hamburguesa, who was asked only to hit his biggest spots. Villano looked good and didn’t kill himself, which is a step up from usual. Dorada & Demus pulling off five rotations in the headscissors was impressive.
Demus pulled off Dorada’s mask during the match, which somehow was missed for a DQ. A child jumped the rail and gave him his mask, which just happened to be a professional Mascarita Sagrada mask.
The true opener was a high-speed match in the way the Dinastia + other tecnicos have been. He’s so quick and AAA’s found people who can actually keep up. The Aramis/Arez tope caught into the Spanish fly was incredible and the rest of the match met that level.
It was nice to get to see the locals opener on the twitch stream for once but there was really nothing much to them. They did a lot of stuff that didn’t look good and went longer than an opener like this needs o go. Sending eight people out there doesn’t help.
