Recapped: 20201-01-10
Matches:
Fantasy & Shockercito beat Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
(13:11 [5:29, 3:05, 4:37], 1/3, ok, 00:00:00)
Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit beat Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany
(13:04 [7:24, 2:14, 3:26], 2/3, ok, 00:19:29)
Esfinge beat Universo 2000 Jr. in a lightning match
(7:20, nudo egipica, ok, 00:40:47)
Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. beat Ephesto, Felino, Vangellys
(19:15 [5:06, 5:31, 8:38], 2/3 DQ, ok, 00:52:40)
Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Valiente beat Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Templario
(17:29 [7:04, 2:26, 7:59], 2/3, great, 01:22:57)
Gran Guerrero, Shocker, Terrible beat Diamante Azul, Místico, Volador Jr.
(8:45 [4:36, 4:09], 1/2 DQ, ok, 01:50:39)
What happened:
Gran Guerrero tossed his mask while taking a headscissors to draw the DQ. It wasn’t clear it was intentional until a replay and seemed to set up a singles match with Místico.
Ephesto hit the ropes and came up short on his normal tope in the fourth match. He seemed wobbly to start the second fall but was allowed to continue and did get better as the match progressed. Vangellys, already eliminated in the third fall, came back into foul Blue Panther Sr. to end that match in a DQ.
Universo’s knee may have gone but after taking the nudo egipica. He submitted before Edgar could make the full three count and was getting medical assistance as CMLL pulled away.
Thoughts:
Diamante Azul spent about a minute and a half kneeling on the stage, doing nothing but waiting for his comeback spot. It felt right for this match, which had a nice dive catch by Gran Guerrero that didn’t get paid off in any way and not a lot else. The fight felt improvised, with not a lot of thought before getting to the key spots at the end. Gran Guerrero’s mask removal was so confusing it seemed accidental – the tecnicos continuing the match more than normal contributed – but it ended up just being strange.
Rey Bucanero, Hechicero and Templario wrestled the semi-final as if they’d been a permanent team for years. It really clicked at the end of the first fall, when this rudos had more sequenced spots than most of the regular units. Hechicero & Templario have quietly been a great pair and Bucanero stepped up his game; turning Hechicero’s reverse monkey flip into a front cracker was the smartest bit anyone’s done with it. Star Jr. and Atlantis Jr. stepped up to match them. Star Jr.’s maybe doing the superman punch a bit but the comedy bit he did to set up the first one showed some great personality. Atlantis has become better the farther he’s gotten from mimicking his father’s moves. (The Atlantida will be back someday, but it’s been ages since we’ve seen it.) It’s tough to figure out where to rate this; so much more thought was put into it than most of the recent CMLL matches that it really stands out, but it might get too much credit for the context. It’s on the line; Valiente wasn’t as into the match as everyone else and Bucanero was literally hit or miss. Still, if you are looking for CMLL to watch, this is one to go out of your way to watch.
The fourth match had some ups and downs. Ephesto crashing and burning on his tope derailed things pretty good. The second fall was a lot of stalling to allow him to get his wits back but the Panthers made an unlikely and quick comeback to win the fall got the fans pretty excited. It did not seem to carry over to the third fall at all, where some of the usual Panther tricks received a surprisingly small reaction. It was a long way to go to get a foul after all of that.
The Esfinge/Universo match seemed like it was peaking for a finish around the five-minute mask, which was fine. Universo instead broke up Esfinge’s sequence to keep it going for a couple of minutes. It added another dive and not a lot more. Nothing Esfinge did was memorable but the crowd did get into it. Universo still seems clumsy.
Marcela and no Dalys means a tecnica win. This lineup meant a weak match. It was the same as usual for the women, with some clunky sequences sticking out.
Mercurio has done well since returning, but he showed he can still mail it in when there’s not much hope of the match being good. There wasn’t much here, so we got one cool Shockercito multiple rotation headscissors spot and not much. Pequeno Violencia is not much help at this point and Fantasy remains just there.