taped @ Arena Mexico, 05/13/2011
Tag: CMLL Gala recap
CMLL on Televisa #1026 (04/30/2011)
taped @ Arena Mexico, 04/22/2011
Taped @ Arena Mexico, 04/22/2011
Escorpion vs Rey Cometa: Links go to the CMLL Official ones because that seems the way to go. Most action in the smallest amount of time. They packed a lot in a short match, and it still felt like they could’ve added another five on top of a normal speed match. Really hope they give this match another chance sometime down the road.
Ángel de Oro vs Palacio Negro Ultimo Guerrero got the great group. This was a battle all the way to the end. Friday night crowds have been harder on these matches (as they are on all young guys any one who ever messes up), but these two got them into this match. Great back and forth action, feeling like anything could be the finish near the end. Most exciting match I’ve seen so far in this.
Héctor Garza, Hirooki Goto, Volador Jr. vs Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero: finish didn’t come off well and Goto seems more like a cunning challenger than one that’s puts UG in as much danger as they’re pretending. (Maybe that’s because we really haven’t seen him much before this.) Next week’s match may be good but this really wasn’t
Blue Panther, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto: pretty good usual match between the two teams. It feels like they’re going someplace with Mascara and Averno, maybe even some place big, but they’ve lost those direction before.
CMLL on Televisa #1025 (04/23/2011)
taped @ Arena Mexico, 04/15/2011
Metal Blanco vs Guerrero Maya Jr.: For two guys who really have been around about the same time, Guerrero Maya is so much more complete wrestler. I think it helps which guys you work with and which guys train you. This was pretty consistent. I’d pay large amounts of money to see Shocker’s notes.
Delta vs Dragon Lee (and part 2): Dragon Lee is a guy who can do exciting flips, but has no idea when he should be doing them. It’s neat to do the standing SSP in the opening kickout at zero, it’s effective if he saved it for a late fall. This was better than it should’ve been, and I guess that has to go to Delta’s credit.
CMLL on Televisa #1024 (04/16/2011)
taped @ Arena Mexico, 04/08/2011
Metro, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Misterioso Jr., Pólvora, Shigeo Okumura: Usual match with these sides, right down to Stuka once again jumping to the top rope, right in position for Misterioso’s finish. It’s about time for something different than that.
La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man vs Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas: Brave Hirooki Goto deciding he was going to stand up to that bully Rush (or, alternatively, Rush finding someone who can hit him harder) was interesting, but otherwise this was mostly a Strong Man man match.
Escorpion & Último Guerrero vs Máscara Dorada & Metal Blanco in the CMLL Gran Alternativa Tournament final: Technically spectacular but lacking when it comes to story? The rudos took a lot of moves, kept kicking out, and then just decided they were going to hit their moves and win. And they did! There usually should be something that happens in between. It was also a lot of guys doing individual moves (or plugging guys into the usual spots), and no sense that these two teams had been working or training together, which is sort of the idea.
CMLL on Televisa #1023 (04/09/2011)
taped @ Arena Mexico, 03/25/2011 and 04/01/2011
I don’t really have specific thoughts on every match, but some general stuff tends to repeat. So, first are the links
Diamante & La Sombra vs Hijo del Signo & Mr. Niebla
Escorpion & Último Guerrero vs Mortiz & Terrible
Escorpion & Último Guerrero vs Diamante & La Sombra
Dragon Lee & Volador Jr. vs Máscara Dorada & Metal Blanco
Negro Casas & Puma King vs Averno & Palacio Negro
Máscara Dorada & Metal Blanco vs Averno & Palacio Negro
Generally, everyone was trying really hard, but the crowd didn’t seem to be into most of the matches both nights. Both semifinals were long enough to draw the fans into rooting for the tecnicos, but it didn’t feel like any one new was coming off a star in the making. (A lot more should’ve been made about Escorpion beating Sombra, but little was.)
I can not believe Tirantes is still in this promotion. He’s great at what he does, but what he does is not what this promotion is geared towards. It’s tough to tell any other story when Tirantes is cheating the tecnicos. If CMLL can’t trust Sombra, Ultimo Guerrero, Avenro and Mascara Dorada to keep the fans interested in their matches without someone making fast and slow counts, then – I dunno, they need to some trust building exercises or something, because that’s kind of silly. Tirantes seems to be only working Friday nights, which means I haven’t been seeing him on the shows I usually recap, and probably indicates whoever is in charge of this show feels a lot stronger about what Tirantes adds than everyone else.
Palacio Negro could not have cared any less about losing his dream of winning the Gran Alternativa. More to the point, Palacio Negro appeared to have been instructed not to care, and was sort of explaining it to fan. It’s one thing for Averno to lose by DQ – it’s not his tournament, he’s more concerned with embarrassing Dorada – but if people in the tournament don’t even care when they’ve been cheating out of winning, why should anyone watching care? It was a horrible act by Averno that no one found that interesting. CMLL paradoxically expects their tournaments to be meaningful while treating the matches as meaningless. (Ultimo Guerrero & Escorpion having a near fight over the same finish in the next tournament was quite the opposite – I don’t think they learned as much as different people booking different tournaments.)