Tag: CMLL Marca

Recapped: 12/17/2019

Matches:

Akuma & Yago beat Retro & Robin
(10:51 [3:54, 2:49, 4:08], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Pegasso, Príncipe Diamante, Stigma beat Disturbio, Nitro, Virus
(13:37 [5:52, 3:02, 4:43], 2/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa beat Kawato San, Okumura, Tiger
(8:58 [2:53, 6:05], 1/2 DQ, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Felino beat Stuka Jr. in a lightning match
(6:30, powerbomb, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Gran Guerrero beat Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja
(13:53 [5:33, 3:14, 5:06], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Carístico, Negro Casas, Valiente beat Euforia, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero in a relevos increíbles match
(12:37 [5:30, 2:34, 4:33], 2/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

The cameras miss it, but Zacarias takes a bad fall off the apron thanks to a Soberano Jr. kick in the first fall. Zacarias ends up stretchered away.

Kawato San attacked Dulce Gardenia from behind to start the match and fouled him to end it. Hair match promos followed.

Yago & Akuma had friendly fire problems during the match, playing off their mask match earlier this year.

Thoughts:

The main event was a regular match on a regular show. The crowd reacted to this a lot but didn’t come off as anything different despite the different sides. They did enough to give the crowd a happy match while not deviating much from the rest. Casas seemed not in a lot, though the chop fight with Ultimo Guerrero was good. Casas is the among most cheered guys and should just be a tecnico all the time, but he seems to prefer the other way. Soberano did a good job taking La Mistica.

Diamante Azul looks a lot like how he left, a man frequently pulling down his shirt to make sure his gut doesn’t get exposed. He seemed tired at the end of the match but that’s nothing new. Neither was the rest of the match.

Stuka got in a lot of dives, then climbed up to the rope to get powerbombed to a dumb loss. He hit the mat badly too, so all around a bad time. Felino pinning Stuka should set up a title match but it probably won’t and that’s OK.

Rey Cometa worked the tercera like he was the man headed to an apuesta match. He and Tiger remain some of the better watches in the midcard division and out-shined Dulce & Kawato too. They were good as far as building emotion for their apuesta match, but they’re not actually doing a lot beyond that. It will be an achievement if they have a great hair match, it does not feel a certainty.

Principe Diamante having a pending apuesta match didn’t affect a normal segunda. He didn’t take a pin and he did look good in his run but wasn’t really spotlighted. Nitro barely wanted to say down for three for him at the end.

The opener was mostly an exhibition for the tecnicos, who were fine if unspectacular. Akuma really threw himself into a belly to belly suplex for Retro. The call back to the previous feud was a nice touch.

Recapped: 12/20-21/2019

Matches:

Mercurio & Pierrothito beat Shockercito & Último Dragóncito
(9:56 [3:55, 2:01, 4:00], 1/3, ok, 00:00:00)

Drone, Fuego, Stigma beat Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
(11:25 [7:20, 4:05], 1/2, ok, 00:16:27)

Hechicero, Pólvora, Vangellys beat Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa
(13:08 [5:41, 4:11, 3:16], 1/3, ok, 00:35:04)

Templario beat Audaz in a lightning match
(8:56, Templario spin out powerbomb, good, 00:58:42)

Cuatrero, Felino, Forastero beat Ángel de Oro, Titán, Valiente
(14:26 [4:21, 4:36, 5:29], 1/3, 01:12:26)

Carístico, Diamante Azul, Volador Jr. beat Gilbert el Boricua, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
(11:38 [4:07, 3:15, 4:16], 2/3, ok, 01:37:00)

What happened:

Felino and Angel de Oro feuded in the semi-final, though it was played down and didn’t factor into the finish.

JCR mentioned the possibility of Cancerbero & Raziel winning an upcoming tag team tournament for the Arena Coliseo tag belts. That suggests CMLL hasn’t forgotten those belts (last held by Esfinge & the departed Triton), though there was no indication of when that tournament might be held.

Thoughts:

One of the great mysteries is how Ultimo Guerrero was able to reversal La Mistica into a cradle in the first fall but not the third. Or maybe it’s not really that interesting. Gilbert looked better than had in the past, maybe because Diamante Azul was there as a comparison. Volador held parts of the third fall together, but this was a normal main event on an unremarkable Friday night.

CMLL turning the volume down on the Angel de Oro & Felino feud made for an odd semi-final. That remained the pivot point for the match, but the intensity wasn’t there. They also seemed to lean into Angel de Oro as rudo and Felino as tecnico, but that just resulted in Felino seeming extra grumpy (doing no comedy) and Angel de Oro being more chicken. Titan looked superb, with cool mat stuff against Forastero matching his usual rope flip craziness in the third fall. NGD didn’t really come alive until it was time to win.

Audaz versus Templario was expected to be a matchup of new moves. It just wasn’t Templario who was expected to do them. Audaz stuck to most of the moves he’s doing in trios matches while Templario pulled out a new crazy power move to take him out. It didn’t look like Templario did enough of the work to make it happen, but that makes it the most interesting flip Audaz did in the match. Templario took a flip on Audaz’s tiejeras reversal which nearly as impressive and generally controlled most of the match. This was a fun match because their regular offense and time is plenty enough to be entertaining, it was just also a chance for Audaz to show if he had more he’s not been able to do in trios match. He didn’t show it here.

The third match didn’t totally come together overall but had its moments. Not sure why Esfinge decided to destroy himself with a missed dive in this match but it did look like it sucked. Esfinge trapping Vangellys in holds in the first fall was more surprising. Rey Cometa & Hechicero weren’t smooth all match, but they ended the first and third fall well.

I question how tuned in I was to this show because I was very confused when there wasn’t a third fall in the segunda, only to realize the tecnicos had indeed won the first two. What I did notice were the rudos being pretty well-coordinated as always and the tecnicos coming off better as a result. It’s unclear when Virus can’t just team with Cancerbero and Raziel all the time because they seem to get the best out of each other and CMLL could away sue more rudo teams. This was enjoyable while it lasted.

The return of Mercurio adds another person to the seemingly long list of people doing piledrivers as finishes here. He was generally fine for not being around a lot, shaky taking Shockericto’s big move to end the second fall but not a huge problem otherwise. The tecnicos wanted to do things, as much as the first match of a CMLL show will allow. It wasn’t far off from working, and maybe one of the better minis matches here in a while.

Recapped: 12/06/2019

Matches:

Ricky Boy, Skayde, Súper Muñeco beat Gallego, Mr. Cóndor, Rocky Santana
(14:01 [5:44, 3:06, 5:11], 1/3, ok, )

Atlantis Jr., El Audaz, Star Jr. beat Hechicero, Misterioso, Sagrado
(19:41 [8:01, 4:22, 7:18], 1/3, good, )

Blue Panther, Negro Casas, Virus beat Mano Negra, Negro Navarro, Súper Astro
(13:17 [6:40, 5:00, 1:37], 2/3, below average)

Satánico beat Solar I
(11:29, nudo, ok)

El Bandido, Valiente, Volador Jr. beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Último Guerrero
(14:02 [6:47, 2:21, 4:54], 2/3, good)

Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Tinieblas Jr., Villano IV beat Canek, Fuerza Guerrera, Máscara Año 2000
(15:28 [8:30, 3:13, 3:45], 1/3 DQ, below average,

What happened:

Canek fouled Rayo to end the main event.

Mano Negra was honored after his match for his Arena Mexico retirement. Panico gave him a plaque. Mano Negra unmasked as posed with his family.

Skayde also unmasked after the opener. Mascara 2000 was unmasked during his match.

Thoughts:

Booking Tinieblas Jr. for this show was a work of genius. He wasn’t any good, but he brought Alushe and the Fuerza/Alushe spots saved the main event from being rejected this year. The furry mascot got a better reaction than the immobile legends – Rayo got a decent reaction but Canek didn’t seem to get one on the stream, and no one much cared about their foul finish. If Fuerza is really retiring in April 2021, then next year’s version of this show has to be the last one off with this group. This wasn’t much without him.

The semi-main was enjoyable, even if it could’ve gone smoother. Both the first fall and second fall had bits go wrong right before the finish. Bandido didn’t get pinned, but he did do a dive outside instead of getting a big pinfall to win the match. He did get a chance to show off his 21-Plex and Miguel Linares hyped it as a big deal, though he otherwise didn’t stand out above Valiente & Volador (who were very on.) The entire match felt like Bandido being plugged into Mistico’s spot in a typical CMLL match, the underdog who fights back to win after a lot of punishment. Maybe just a straight-up exhibition of his big spots would’ve been better.

Satanico/Solar was not for me. The mat wrestling was usually effective if emotionless. They struggled a lot as they sped it up. The spear (maybe?) spot near the end, but the (maybe?) legsweep spot before it where Satanico gave up trying to put on an octopus and they just stood up and tried something else looked unprofessional. They tried their best at a Solar match, which also felt like missing out on some of the best parts of Satanico – he’s a wrestler great at showing emotion, but all he did here was look frustrated. This probably gave people looking for this match exactly what they wanted, but it was hurt by a surprisingly vocal amount of people in Arnea Mexico having no time for it.

It’s a good thing this was Mano Negra’s match last Arena Mexico. He was iceberg slow and couldn’t take a bump. He seemed aware of his limitations but there was nothing to be done to hide them. Super Astro and Negro Navarro were not a lot better. Astro wrestling is a problem because he feels obligated to do a highspot and it doesn’t appear safe for him to do them anymore. Navarro can just lay on the mat and have Virus pull at various limbs to be reversed to seem like his old self, though he’s clearly not the same guy he was a few years ago. Virus taking that bump at the end was nuts.

The segunda got an unusual amount of time, perhaps figuring some of the later bouts were going to be shorter.  (It didn’t really work that way.) That, and maybe a guess at what would work for this crowd, led to a lot of working of holds and working more methodically. It wasn’t slow, but they took their time to make stuff stick out more. Star Jr. & Hechicero especially were in there to start for a while. Hechicero was the standout of his side, though Sagrado & Misterioso were doing a lot more than usual. The crowd has no time for the tecnicos and their flips, but they were pretty solid. Star Jr. benefited most from working with Hechicero. Atlantis tried hard to win over a crowd who decided to pick on him specifically. The ending was a usual run of dives and it needed something more special to really stand out, but it was still pretty good.

The opener was saved by by Los Diabolicos willingness to sell and stooge big for everything. The match was actually good when it was them and Skayde in, especially in the third fall. The match was salvageable when Muneco was in only because the rudos were working so hard to make him look good. It is hard to imagine how Muneco must look the rest of the time without this sort of help. Ricky Boy owes a great Christmas gift to whichever buddy got him this spot. He showed nothing.

Recapped: 11/29/2019

Matches:

El Coyote & Espanto Jr. beat Oro Jr. & Sonic
(9:36 [4:28, 1:57, 3:11], 1/3, ok)

Chamuel, Microman, Perico Zakarías beat Átomo, Gallito, Guapito in a relevos increíbles match
(11:52 [7:48, 4:04], 1/2, ok)

Dulce Gardenia, Star Jr., Stuka Jr. beat Kawato San, Vangellys, Virus
(8:47 [2:57, 5:50], 1/2 DQ, ok)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Místico, Titán, Valiente
(14:18 [4:27, 4:14, 5:37], 1/3, good)

Soberano Jr. © beat Negro Casas for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship
(12:53, 2/3, good)

1. Negro Casas casita (3:10)
2. Soberano casita (1:07)
3. Soberano guillotine moonsault (8:36)

Carístico, Felino, Último Guerrero vs Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(10:49 [3:11, 2:13, 5:25], 2/3, ok)

What happened:

Angel de Oro and Felino continue to feud, though no challenges in front of the crowd tonight. Soberano kept his title over Negro Casas.

Bandido was introduced as a new CMLL signing after the fourth match. He had a brief skirmish with NGD. This was the most interesting thing of the night easily.

Kawato fouled Dulce Gardenia for the DQ, then challenged Dulce to a hair versus hair match. Dulce Gardenia accepts in between brawls.

Chamuel and Microman had issues during their match. Chamuel stole the pin from Microman in the first. Microman headscissors Chamuel when he seemed to be doing the same in the ring. The rudos attacked the tecnicos after the match.

Thoughts:

The mixed sides main event was a cover to flip Angel de Oro and Felino, at least for one night. The problem was the fans cared not at all about Angel de Oro & Felino tonight and focusing the match around them made for a dead atmosphere. The crowd wasn’t into the main event all that much after what had been an interesting show to that point. It was fine, it just wasn’t much.

Negro Casas and Soberano had a slightly better version of the same title match they’ve had before. The finishing run was more interesting, with Casas coming close a lot of times on cradles instead of just the casita spot. Casas took a big impact at the end. The crowd was no more sold on cheering Soberano over Casas but that’s never going to happen. This wasn’t so much better than other matches that you need to see all of them but it was still good.

NGD didn’t do the first fall attack outside of the ring this week. It did end about the same way, though that was expected after the NGD/Bandido angle. The flow of the match was changed around a bit in between, feeling a bit fresher than usual. The underlining problems of the NGD taking most of the match are still there, but this was better than the recent matches.

Kawato San & Dulce Gardenia bringing their rivalry to Tuesday was the only real remit to the tercera. They did a good job of getting over Kawato’s agrees and Dulce’s willingness to fight back in a short time. The other tecnicos got a lot of time and did well with it. Star Jr. going over where most people go under Stuka Jr. was a neat variation.

The Micros match at least got through a whole Microman/Chamuel story in the course of the match and it was something different than they had done before. It wasn’t particularly interesting outside of the finishing spots, going too long of the story they had to tell.

A bit better opener than usual, with three people having good moments. Oro Jr.’s headscissors was a bigger spot than usual for an opener. Coyote’s willing to take big moves. Espanto is at his worst when it comes to taking moves from others. He struggled with Sonic’s finish in the second fall and it was no coincidence Sonic’s better moments came all with Espanto. Sonic was a tope from going full-on signature Santo spot.

Recapped: 11/09/2019

Matches:

Magnus & Príncipe Diamante beat El Coyote & Hijo del Signo
(12:00 [4:56, 3:25, 3:39], 2/3, ok, 00:00:00)

Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis beat La Jarochita, Sanely, Shoko Nakajima
(14:17 [9:23, 1:53, 3:01], 2/3, ok, 00:18:43)

Audaz and Hijo del Villano III went to a draw in a lightning match
(3:04, DCOR, below average, 00:42:33)

Dulce Gardenia, Fugaz, Star Jr. beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(17:24 [6:16, 3:19, 7:49], 1/3 DQ, ok, 00:50:49)

Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero beat Soberano Jr., Titán, Valiente
(13:39 [7:04, 2:29, 4:06], 1/3, ok, 01:18:20)

Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(16:50 [3:08, 6:14, 7:28], 2/3, ok, 01:42:26)

What happened:

The lightning match ended early while both men were fighting outside. A dive spot looked bad to start it, they did a lot more to make up for it, and doing a lot more kept them around 30 seconds.

Thoughts:

This show came across as a boring spectacle, all the matches featuring the usual people doing their usual matches with no extra thought or intensity put into them. There were a couple of flawed matches, but the problems were more with the repetitive nature of the matchups. This was people clocking into their shift, making the required wrestling product, and moving on with their lives. Just yet another CMLL show where there’s no reason to go back and watch it if you missed it.

The main event exemplified that, the same NGD/?Sky Team? match seen many times over. It did seem at a slower speed, perhaps trying to length out what had been a very short show to that point. The second fall felt like a lot of stalling. NGD could’ve done something interest, and instead, sort of did their usual spots at a lackadaisical speed. That set up the tecnicos doing their exact same comeback as always at a normal speed. They picked up the energy in the third fall but the moves weren’t special and it was hard to care about following two hours of nothing.

The semi-main had some hints of good matchups – mostly involving Cavernario – but didn’t really progress to anything interesting. The long first fall had some back and forth holds, but also seemed to eat up most of the time. This was forgettable if not terrible.

Atlantis Jr. has shown a lot of improvement in his one year in CMLL. His rival Hijo del Villano hasn’t grown. Usually, it’s a lack of offense. This time it was carelessness. Not being ready for Audaz’s dive was spiraled into trying to do a lot to make up for it, and forgetting there was a referee making a count. CMLL referees make mistakes all the time but the wrestlers were the ones who made the referee look bad this time.

The women’s match featured Dalys taking the tecnicas’ best shots, then getting up to give them some offense. She did not get beat in the one fall the tecnicas won. Nakajima seemed like she was going Dinastia speed compared to the usual CMLL women, which also makes it hard to imagine any here working well with her. She didn’t get to show much.

The opener was around the usual level. The rudos didn’t mess up anything, which should be celebrated. Principe Diamante is hesitant and not as fast as some of the other flyers but he did appear to be trying. Everything Magnus did wen fine but he just felt like he was going thru his usual motions with no excitement.

Recapped: 11/22/2019

Matches:

Angelito & Último Dragóncito beat Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pierrothito
(9:29 [4:10, 2:58, 2:21], 2/3 DQ, ok, 00:00:00)

Kawato San, Okumura, Virus beat Blue Panther Jr., Drone, Stigma
(18:45 [5:59, 6:14, 6:32], 2/3, ok, 00:17:24)

Black Panther went to a time limit draw with Esfinge in a lightning match
(10:00, ok, 00:45:10)

Audaz, Kráneo, Star Jr. beat Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Templario
(19:56 [7:13, 4:27, 8:16], 2/3, good, 01:00:06)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente
(17:47 [6:56, 3:35, 7:16], 1/3, ok, 01:30:53)

Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero beat Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr.
(10:22 [5:43, 4:39], 1/2, ok, 01:59:00)

What happened:

Negro Casas beat Soberano again to set up a title match.

Black Panther was vaguely rudo in the lightning match.

Pierrothito unmasked Dragoncito for no particular reason.

There are typically six edecanes for a Friday night. There were only four here. Maybe a cutback, maybe a random deal.

Thoughts:

The main event felt shorter than it was, maybe because it just moved really good. They packed in a lot in two falls, it moved at a fast pace, and the crowd was into these wrestlers more than anyone else. There’s a lot of Tuesday matches like this; this was a bit better, though they didn’t anything they don’t normally do. Soberano and Negro Casas probably don’t need to happen a third time and it’d be really great if they came up with a reason to make this one a single fall match.

The NGD win on this show was a lot like the NGD wins on the last three shows. Maybe this one was slightly better; the Titan sequences in the last fall were good. It just wasn’t all that different, they followed the same pattern and the NGD aren’t changing much up week to week. The tecnicos did cool dives in the third fall. The match was fine but very samey.

The fourth match was worked really hard, they got plenty of time to let it develop, they built to a big finish, and they have a fun dive train. It just didn’t get much of any reaction from the crowd, at least on the live broadcast. The lack of crowd noise was noticeable all show, especially so here because of how hard they were working. There was a little lack of creativity, but the Hechicero/Templario sequences were so smooth that it made up for it. Templario and Audaz haven’t gotten to work a lot together, it was easy to forget how good they are as opponents. This is worth watching, even despite the reaction.

They tried in the lighting match. There were more ideas than usual, and dives when they didn’t have ideas. Panther as a pseudo-rudo was more varied in his attacks, though he fell back on his big moves early. The pre-match attack was a good way to establish Panther as the rudo. He couldn’t really keep up the aggression, and that’s something he’d need to improve on if he’s going to be booked on that side going forward. Esfinge is a vanilla guy to try this against, and the match predictably struggled to get a reaction. The last dive probably should’ve been cut out for more near fall teases.

Blue Panther Jr. needs his brother to help him be exciting, perhaps. The segunda instead had a spot where Panther Jr. knocked Drone of the apron while not paying attention. The work was fine but typically forgettable, with the third fall feeling interminable.

Angelito did a few good things and I was mostly distracted by stream issues in the opening match. Let’s just say it was OK. Ultimo Dragoncito is a very bald man, and doing a DQ in the opener is a bit strange but it’s an opener.