12/22 Arena Mexico Preview

CMLL (FRI) 12/22 Arena Mexico
1) Molotov & Sombra de Plata vs Artillero & Super Comando
2) Fabian el Gitano, Leono, Tony Rivera vs Arkangel, Loco Max, Okumura
3) Felino, Heavy Metal, Texano Jr. vs Black Warrior, Olimpico, Takemura
4) Mistico, Negro Casas, Sagrado vs Damian 666, Halloween, Mr. Aguila
5) Averno vs Volador Jr. [CMLL MIDDLE]
6) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Ultimo Guerrero

Fabian el Gitano, Leono, Arkangel and Loco Max in a segunda. Who would’ve ever guessed such a thing?

You know, they could’ve easily swapped Texano and Sagrado and made even a tiny deal out of the Texano/Negro team in Japan. They’re not.

I think the tecnicos win in the main event, and they setup a low key trios title defense sometime during this down period. We usually get one or two title matches with a week or two build, and that would make as much sense as any.

The title match is obviously the event of night. It’s got the rare combo of no clear winner, a meaningful outcome and a likely really good match. Averno’s started to establish himself as a singles star besides his matches with Mistico. Volador’s once again in the spot of nearly breaking thru and needing a signature moment to do it. They’ve worked with each other before and worked well. This is a big moment for them; Volador’s only been in single matches in Arena Mexico during tournaments (2005 La Copa Jr., Super Light finals) and not this high on the card. Averno’s been high on the card for singles matches, but only when facing a guy like Santo or Mistico. This is their chance to prove they can be more than Mistico’s rudo foil and Mistico’s lesser tecnico friend.

The best possible outcome is this match gives the feud legs and it becomes something they can carry on well into 2007. (Judging from some early lineups for Janurary, they will keep meeting on spot show, but they have been meeting before, so I’m not sure if that means anything.) If they want to keep this going, I’m guessing Averno holds onto the title here, allowing them to do rematches around the country for a few months, and then Volador finally wins it in the undercard of some match in March. But I’m not sure about this finish at all.

The other drama here is hoping this show will air. Shocker, Universo, Corelone, Kenzo, Perro and Hector all being gone isn’t going to hurt the match quality here. Everything has the ablitiy to be a good match (though, in the case of that segunda, one I’ve see way too much of the last few weeks.) After the 09/29 PPV, they showed the big matches from the PPV on TV following, instead of that week’s (10/06) Arena Mexico show. The main event turned up on CAN52MX, and while I wouldn’t mind seeing that match, that’d leave the title match unaired. It could air in future weeks if they do Best Of shows, but we don’t know if they’re doing those since they’ll be running Arena Mexico as normal. If they really want to air it, they can find a spot to air it, but it’s tough to tell how much CMLL wants these things.

historical irony: the last time Averno dropped a singles title, it was on a ‘Friday’ taping and never aired because they were doing Best Ofs.

FWIW: I’m running a normal schedule this weekend. If you’re not, I hope you enjoy it!