CMLL Martes: 2018-09-04 

dueling tornillos

Recapped: 09/12/2018

Matches: 

Apocalipsis & Camorra beat Sangre Imperial & Sonic  
(11:45 [5:28, 3:22, 2:55], 1/3, n/r, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr. beat Akuma, Espanto Jr., Espíritu Negro
(13:32 [7:31, 2:04, 3:57], 2/3, n/r, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit beat Amapola, La Comandante, Metálica
(13:41 [6:09, 3:02, 4:30], 1/3, n/r, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Tiger beat Rey Cometa in a lightning match
(8:03, backcracker, good, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Felino, Rey Bucanero, Shocker beat Ángel de Oro, Guerrero Maya Jr., Niebla Roja  
(12:40 [3:29, 3:03, 6:08], 1/3, n/r, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Diamante Azul, Valiente, Volador Jr. beat Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
(8:31 [2:32, 2:05, 3:54] , 2/3 DQ, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

gif: 5306/6410

What happened: 

Volador and Cavernario feuded, or more Cavernario feuded with Volador and Volador was amused. The finish saw Tirantes get turned around in the corner, Volador dropkick Tirantes, then Volador fake a foul for the DQ.

The opener is Camorra’s first streaming appearance in nearly a year and a half. He’s gotten heavy and wore a football jersey to hide his weight gain. Apocalipsis fouls Sangre Imperial for no reason.

Thoughts: 

anti-headscissors powerbomb

Tiger and Rey Cometa went for in their lightning match, the only notable thing on this show. It was really nothing except big moves and energy. Those things are in short supply on this show, so it sticks out positively. Cometa’s tornillo was really good, Tiger’s sequences went well, and the crowd got into it. They weren’t telling a story, they didn’t really need to.

CMLL Martes: 2018-08-28 

Audaz steals a dive

Recapped: 09/11/2018

Matches:

Bengala & Sonic beat Inquisidor & Yago
(13:12 [4:57, 2:20, 5:55], 1/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Amapola, Metálica, Tiffany beat La Maligna, Mistique, Sanely
(11:48 [6:19, 2:42, 2:47], 2/3, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLLgif: 5855

Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., El Audaz beat Kawato, Okumura, Virus
(11:10 [2:32, 3:45, 4:53], 2/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Ephesto, Hechicero, Shocker beat Kráneo, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr.
(14:06 [5:51, 3:38, 4:37], 1/3, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Mephisto © beat Titán for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship
(16:11, 1/3, great,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

  1. Mephisto powerbomb (2:13)

  2. Titan figure four (1:20)

  3. Mephisto La Rosa (12:38)

Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero beat Atlantis, Mistico, Volador Jr.
(1:59 [0:49, 1:10], 1/2 DQ, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

Yago and friends

Mr. Niebla is in no condition to perform in his match. He may be drunk, though no one’s specifically admitted to that even after. It’s apparent to everyone involved by the time Niebla falls off the top rope as part of his entrance, though the announcers do their best to ignore it. Volador immediately unties Niebla’s mask after the whistle, then goes in the ring to get quickly beat by Negro Casas after a snap mare. Bucanero immediately sets up the Zacarias 619 spot to start the match to give the crowd something to cheer. Volador comes in right after to face Negro Casas, but tells him to bring in Volador so he can finish the match. Volador visibly calls spots to Bucanero and Niebla, gets whipped into a handspring on Bucanero, Niebla swings at him and misses, and Volador unmasked Niebla. It seems like Niebla was in the wrong spot to take handspring, but it might have been Volador’s planned to keep him from taking a bump to unmask him quicker. Volador immediately walks out of the ring, only stopping to say something to a fan and look at the ring one time. Crowd seems to be surprised the show is over and starts booing loudly as the announcers wrap up their portion and they realize they’ve gotten nothing of a main evnet.

Titan’s left hand is heavily wrapped going into the title match. He’d hurt in Puebla the day before at the very end of the match, though he was unaware it’s was a fracture until a few days later. The hand is visibly bugging him past the first fall, though he’s able to grip with it. Mephisto goes after it a bit to start the third fall to explain why Titan’s selling, though it doesn’t become the focus of the match. Sonic and Ephesto are the seconds.

Mistique hurts her ankle in her first spot of her match – jumping into the ring for an armdrag on Tiffany, who’s out of position – and is done at that point. Tecnicas quickly win that fall, then lose the next two.

Thoughts:

Mephisto making life hard for Titan

Titan got a lot Mephisto in their title match, pushing him farther in the most in Mephisto’s standard title match structure and producing some moments where the crowd truly believed in the title match. This was more very well executed than innovate, with Titan taking tremendous punishment in moments like the apron bomb, and showing a lot of heart in fighting thru obvious pain. Titan can do incredible athletic things, but his ability to show how much pain he’s in and keep going wins over sympathy better than most CMLL luchadors in these singles matches. Knowing the hand issue, with Mephisto going after it at times, adds to the drama of the match significantly. It would’ve been better if that played directly into the finish, but it comes up plenty when titan just didn’t have enough left to pull off adequate covers, row hen Mephisto’s over-eagerness to take advantage of it nearly gets him beat. This is a strong performance.

Black Panther stealing his brother’s dive, and then watching as his brother was tapped out by Virus, was great comedy. Not sure Black Panther would’ve done better but the musclehead Panther was easily outsmarted by Virus. That would be a nice sequence in a match where the rudos were interested in doing more than kicking around the técnicos for a couple minutes. The técnicos weren’t much more excited to be here outside the finishes. Kawato got thru a sequence with Audaz fine, which was nice to see. They also had both Black Panther and Okumura to make sure Audaz was caught in case Kawato couldn’t do it, so not everything is progressing.

The 2v2 is normal opener fare with a normal crazy Yago entrance. Yago isn’t only an entrance only as Metálico, but they don’t give him much to do here. They had the rookies work with the vets a lot, and the veterans aren’t doing a lot. They mixed it up in the third fall but it didn’t help this become any interesting. Sonic was either doing better selling than usual for an opener or his right knee was bugging him by the end of the match, causing a planned double team to go wrong.

CMLL Martes: 2018-08-21 

Rey Cometa tornillo

Recapped: 08/27/2018

Matches:

Bengala & Leono beat Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
(
11:56 [4:35, 3:17, 4:04], 1/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Espanto Jr., Hijo del Signo, Metálico beat Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr.
(16:11 [7:27, 4:06, 4:38], 2/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Amapola beat La Jarochita in a lightning match
(8:02, Devil’s Wings, ok, via
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura, Pólvora beat Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa  
(15:09 [5:36, 2:13, 7:20], 2/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(9:31 [0:54, 3:03, 5:34], 1/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Atlantis, Mistico, Soberano Jr. beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(10:34 [2:29, 3:08, 4:57], 2/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

Titan beating Mephisto set up a title match.

Villano III was honored after the third match. The fourth match has no entrances. Dragon Rojo brings his gun anyway. He blasts it after everyone’s introduced, frightening everyone in the ring.

Thoughts: 

good work everyone

Everything on this show – at least the matches I bothered to watch – was fine if not spectacular. This was probably slightly the best, though it had its own slight falls. Atlantis can only wrestle one match, and he’s wrestling it a lot. Soberano got lost badly in the third fall, but the rudos worked better to get him on track than those in the second match with something similar happened. The NGD otherwise were doing their B match, and they did it fine enough for a Tuesday.

Titan/Mephisto should be good but some of the other people in the semi-main should be good, but the trios match wasn’t really. The tecnicos were fine, but Ephesto & Luciferno had some painfully bad moments. There’s some record low efforts on dive catches in the fall for the rudos. It was like their arms weren’t working. It was amazing the tecnicos went for the second round of dives, but at least it went better.

The fourth match didn’t interest me a lot early, but it did pick up a lot in the long third fall. It’s one of those matches where just one fall could’ve been plenty because there wasn’t much you had to see from the first couple. Cometa looked good, and I liked Dragon Rojo being sneaky and ready to finish off Bleu Panther at the end.

The women’s lightning match was one of those low ceiling/high floor matches that seem to be done in the lesser divisions. Everything was ok and nothing went wrong, but that’s mostly because Jarochita didn’t try anything difficult. That match was successful if not interesting. It’s good to give Jarochita chances, but I’m not sure if this really counted as one.

CMLL Martes: 2018-08-14

Stuka splash

Recapped: 08/16/2018

Matches: 

Pequeño Nitro & Pierrothito beat Acero & Aéreo  
(12:52 [4:14, 4:10, 4:28], 1/3, ok, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Pegasso, Star Jr., Stigma beat Espíritu Negro, Hijo del Signo, Nitro
(11:58 [6:35, 1:32, 3:51], 2/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Black Panther, El Audaz, Tritón beat Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Universo 2000 Jr.
(14:53 [6:01, 4:32, 4:20], 1/3, good,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Blue Panther, Soberano Jr., Titán beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(11:46 [6:35, 5:11], 1/2, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Stuka Jr. beat Hechicero ©  for the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship
(17:49, 2/3, great,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

  1. Hechicero magia negra (4:56)

  2. Stuka Jr. casita (0:55)

  3. Stuka Jr. torpedo splash (11:58)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Ángel de Oro, Kráneo, Niebla Roja  
(14:11 [3:34, 4:21, 6:16], 1/3, good,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

Hechicero weighed in at 94 KG and did not have a second. Stuka weighed in at 93 KG and had Black Panther as a second. Stuka won the title.

Thoughts:

Magia Negra

NGD, Angel de Oro and Niebla Roja can have good trios matches in their sleep by now. This wasn’t sleepwalking. This was a lot more energy than normal for any Tuesday main event, much less one following a really strong title match. This felt more like an even battle than the NGD just running thru offense, with the tecnicos being on the edge of winning before Angel de Oro’s tope went wrong. Kraneo being the big bruiser the NGD can’t quite overpower makes for an interesting counterpoint to them always throwing around the little guy. This was a welldone match that would’ve been the standout match on most Tuesday shows.

Hechicero/Stuka over delivered, with a deeper and more creative match than expected. It was surprising from the start, with Hechicero finding a delightfully complicated way of getting in to his Magia Negra submission. (He tried it a different way later; maybe finding unexpected ways to get into his pretzel hold is a new thing.) Hechicero had to figure out how that would work before he did it, and the whole match seemed like it had more thought than even the average title match. Stuka pulled out all sorts of head/neck attacks, some of which he doesn’t do regularly. It all built well to the back superplex and the piledriver he only pulls out for big matches. It made it a totally sensible outcome even if the title change was still unexpected; Stuka just outsmarted Hechicero on this night. This had the same amount of really big spots as other title matches – this is a big month for Hechicero’s springboard moonsault to the floor – but it also had the small touches not in other title matches. Hechicero rolling away from the first torpedo splash attempt before Stuka could try it was a finish tease which isn’t done in CMLL much. It also perfectly set up Hechicero rolling out of the way later, only to roll right in position for Stuka doing the crazy splash on the ramp instead. This was a really well done match. I’m not sure what it was missing for me to rate it higher, but they got the crowd that was there for this match to care a lot about it.

Hechicero sault

The fourth match was the most Blue Panther of weird Blue Panther led trios match. The first fall was a match itself, with the técnicos making two different comebacks over about seven minutes of action. The second fall was dominated by the rudos, they eliminated Soberano, and then they passed up chances to defeat Panther & Titan until Mephisto finally pulled Titan’s mask. It made for exciting moments at times but the match didn’t feel like it had a great flow to it because of all the weird shifts. Soberano & Titan looked good in what they did and the crowd is always on Panther’s side but I would’ve liked something a little bit more traditional, or at least coherent.

Audaz being Audaz took the tercera up a bit, but it wasn’t him alone. The rudos did far more work than usual. Sagrado remains underutilized as a base for flashy técnicos, but Misterioso and Universo were with him for fun team offense you usually don’t get to see out of them. Enough went smoothly to push the técnicos to do more and was a fun stretch to the finish. This was a standout match for a Tuesday show.

knee->conjuro

The técnicos in the second match had a hot stretch to finish out the third fall. The rest of the match was plain. The rudos didn’t sabotage the técnicos this time but there wasn’t much to their sections.

The opener was a borderline good match, something you wouldn’t mind watching if you were already watching the show. Both teams seemed to have a lot more energetic than usual, and less prone to holding someone and yelling at the crowd for moments. They strayed from the usually scripted sequences, though some of it (like Aereo’s flip over the double clothesline) looked less than sharp because of it. I think Acero got defeated twice in the third fall, which was a little odd. That can happen when you actually try to do spots in the third fall and that part was nice. This was definitely better if not exciting.

CMLL Martes de Nuevo Valores: 2018-08-07 

Hechiceor elbow smash

Recapped: 08/08/2018

Matches:

Acero & Angelito beat Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
(13:23 [5:36, 3:17, 4:30], 1/3, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Cancerbero, Disturbio, Nitro beat Astral, Eléctrico, Súper Astro Jr.
(14:07 [6:19, 4:42, 3:06], 2/3, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. beat Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Virus
(13:20 [3:31, 3:23, 6:26], 1/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

El Audaz beat Luciferno in a lightning match
(7:25, mask pull disqualification, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. beat Ephesto, Hechicero, Mr. Niebla
(11:38 [4:21, 3:08, 4:09], 2/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Kráneo beat Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
(11:00 [3:57, 1:46, 5:17], 2/3, n/r,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

Stuka beat Hechicero to set up a title match next week. This time for sure.

Thoughts:

nope

This show was full with matches where the crowd reacted nicely and I had a hard time caring. This particular match was a safe build to next week’s title match, with Stuka getting his tights ripped up but coming back to win anyway. They didn’t work against each other as much as normal for that situation. Angel de Oro & Hechicero worked the torture rack escape armdrag they failed at last time I saw them together, so that’s good.

Audaz & Luciferno essentially tried for the Dragon Lee & Luciferno tournament match in the lightning match. The difference is Audaz doesn’t have as deadly offense as Dragon Lee does yet, and they’re not ready to give Audaz this win yet. The general principle of the old bumping rudo making the young guy look good was there, though there are moments where it’s clear Luciferno would’ve been better at this a couple years ago. Audaz pulling him off the top rope with a headscissors didn’t quite go smoothly, and he stayed away from the fancier spots in this one. It’s still a good opponent for Audaz on the way up, a match-up worth going back to later even if this wasn’t a superb match on its own.

neat double underhook backbreaker

Trios was a simple Panther match, with a surprise submission finish and the crowd reacting to the older Panther’s every move. I’m not sure this would work as well if he was still masked: every tourist understanding that there’s an older man in this fight makes a difference and lets them get more out of little bits. This wasn’t really all that much.

The opener gets off early by not being interesting enough to bother with a negative rating. The segunda too. They were both poor but no one cares.

CMLL Martes de Nuevo Valores: 2018-07-31

this is two different tries at this

Recapped: 08/1/2018

Matches:

Apocalipsis & Inquisidor beat Retro & Sangre Imperial
(11:49 [4:54, 3:20, 3:35], 2/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Amapola, Metálica, Tiffany beat Estrellita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit
(12:12 [5:22, 3:06, 3:44], 2/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Universo 2000 Jr. beat Drone, Star Jr., Stigma
(9:10 [4:49, 1:54, 2:27], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Tiger beat Disturbio in a lightning match
(7:40, jumping spinning DDT, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Dragón Lee, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. beat Hechicero, Máscara Año 2000, Pólvora
(14:21 [3:39, 5:07, 5:35], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Carístico, Diamante Azul, Kráneo beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
(12:45 [6:02, 1:37, 5:06], 2/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

Hechicero & Stuka agreed to a match next week.

Thoughts:

One way to catch a tope

This didn’t have the smoothest main event. I could not believe the Guerreros tried the super press slam bit on Kraneo. It wasn’t much of a press. Somehow, the chokeslam on Carístico went even worse. The second fall was delayed by Último Guerrero going into the crowd, seemingly to point out someone who had thrown something at him. It was that kind of energy. Carístico and Euforia messed up a headscissors in an impossible fashion. They did give us a Kraneo and Último Guerrero doing sumo spots, and perhaps that’s all we need.

Stuka/Hechicero looks like it’ll be solid if not spectacular, a lot like the semimain. This match was a bit all over the place, to the point where I couldn’t tell if they were doing some Blue Panther level weirdness or if just not totally paying attention. The Mascara/Hechicero midmatch fight might have meant to have some payoff that Stuka interrupted, but the countout to end the second fall felt more like they lost track of who was captain. Dragon Lee did a lot of exciting stuff, surprisingly breaking out the diving headscissors off the apron on a Tuesday show. He also used a Boston crab as a finish.

another way to catch a tope

Tiger/Disturbio was better than the average rudo/rudo lightning match, though maybe only a good by the sliding Tuesday scale. Disturbio does both big (faking the injury again) and little (repeatedly finding a limb to put on the ropes to make Tiger have to cover again) things to make it feel like something’s actually happening. It also allowed Tiger to play técnico, and his dives and moves worked well in that context. The new spinning DDT needs a bit more speed so it’s not so obvious the rudo is carrying him around, but it’s an interesting idea.

They didn’t go long in the tercera, which at least meant they went faster. It was more of a Misterioso “look how stupid the rudos are” more than a Sagrado “look at the rudos actually doing something” match. They made the most out of the rudos dumbness and Drone had a nice tope.

perhaps not a great idea