CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2013-11-02

appeared to be an armdrag

recap

not totally sure what this was.

taped 2013-10-22 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Black Metal, Esfinge, Leo vs Espectrum, Hooligan, Nitro: In a world where CMLL was actually bringing Leo to Mexico City soon (instead of just something invented by the announcers to kill time), why would you air a match where Leo is so bad? CMLL airs hours and hours of TV, but they also have hours and hours more – why is picking the good stuff hard? Leo did look bad, but Nitro was also not in a mood to help him out at all. Everyone else was in shouting distance of alright but nothing memorable.

no one gets destroyed like Namajague

taped 2013-10-27 @ Arena Mexico
Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Namajague, Puma, Tiger: Very good, borderline great. A really fun trios match for something only two falls and note exceedingly long.) Under the circumstances, they actually built stronger to a Namajague/Maya singles match than the actual tag match, but both are good ideas. Atlantis was surprisingly good working against Tiger and Puma and Delta were good as well. There were definitely places that could’ve been cleaned up – not sure what the German suplex near the end was supposed to be – but overall a pretty fun time.

 

Mistico always goes straight up on backcrackers.

Mistico, Rush, Titán vs Averno, Mephisto, Volador Jr.: Good booking for next week, although Mephisto and Titan actually had more rough spots than every other combination. Still, Titan looked very strong in the end here; someone’s working hard to make him look good. The surprise sudden turnaround is done too much (because there’s three falls), but the dropkick a seated guy off the apron bit that set it up here in the second fall is also way over exposed and never looks that good. It doesn’t seem like an easier bump, and it’s not really a more impressive one at this point.

AAA on UTDN: 2013-10-31

recap

taped 2013-10-18 @ Gimnasio Miguel Hidalgo de Puebla

Mesias uses the hit stick on Fenix

El Mesías vs Monsther Clown and Silver King and Fénix in a Copa Antonio Pena semifinal: This was less than expected. Monster Clown wasn’t part of it long, which seemed like a good thing, only not so much since some of the other guys weren’t in it. Silver King and Mesías were bad together, awful for guys who are thought of individually as good wrestlers. The sunset flip spot sticks out but they were on different pages the whole way thru. Fenix and Silver should’ve also been stronger to finish it but it was just okay.

 

Mesias does not use the jump button

Octagón vs Hijo del Fantasma, Daga, Axel in a Copa Antonio Pena semifinal: Got better as it went along, and the lesser people went out. Octagon has nothing to offer, but Axel was much better than his last appearance. He still isn’t good, or even OK, but not embarrassing is a nice change. Could’ve used a lot more Daga & Fantasma at the end. Fantasma probably needs to work on the non-ramp finisher thing, but a casita works perfectly fine (and feels like a Consejo winning maneuver.) What’s the point of the second referee on the outside when no interference gets stopped?

 

Mascara 2000 Jr. attempts to fly

La Parka vs Parka Negra II, Electroshock, Máscara Año 2000 Jr. in a Copa Antonio Pena semifinal: The Mascara Ano 2000/Electroshock you never knew you wanted. Wait, you probably didn’t want this. This was really weirdly the Electroshock showcase, as he was the center of action for most of the match. La Parka was barely in, and spent most of the time in staring at Zorro (who seemed to specifically have no point in being here other than putting him back into circulation.) The big Parka/Parka Negra fight turned out to be so slight, it seemed like a possible blow off to that and maybe even the Parka Negra character. Three for three on run-ins.

Cibernético vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo and Psicosis and Chessman in a Copa Antonio Pena semifinal: Not really much of a match; when you cut out the interference and stalling in these matches (none of which has added anything), they’re not much more than CMLL tournament matches. Perro & Cibernético’s elimination made no sense in the context of the match – they were apparently disqualified for someone attacking them. They need to stop putting these guys in tournament matches if they have to come up with increasingly ludicrous ways to get them out of tournaments without ever jobbing. (Much less them coming out after the match to show how stupid it is for them not to able to continue – that had to be Perro doing it on his own.) Four for four on interference setting up eliminations.

 

Fantasma learns about Parka’s bad arm.

Fénix vs Hijo del Fantasma, La Parka, Chessman for the Copa Antonio Pena: Whoever decided these matches needed a referee outside the ring must hate the AAA referees and want them to come off all as morons. Four straight matches of the interfering people getting right past the outside referee, and one match of the outside referee watching as Fantasma gives Fenix the most illegal move in lucha libre and doing nothing about it. If your spot requires the inside the ring ref to be distracted, maybe you should also think about the guy outside? This was so dumb. This tournament didn’t work at all – it’s tough to make any tournament built around a 2013 La Parka, but this was a 2013 La Parka who really had little to offer. Parka, for whatever reason (and there are obvious ones), did not seem interested in any of his matches and it really dragged everything down. Fantasma laughable ends his debut show by getting stretcher out from an armbar or all things. This was a bad tournament.

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-10-26

Herb Dean would’ve stopped it

recap

taped 2013-10-18 @ Arena Mexico
Super Porky vs Rey Escorpión for the hair in super libre plus: I have this as Good and not great – though this is an incredibly weird match to rate. It did really feel like a different match than usual (like the submission match), where the spots they’d normally do in a match (the plancha!) felt wildly out of place and made the match seem more goofy than they were otherwise going for. Same thing with the three falls. There was a case for them, because they got over the holds as finishes in the first two falls and played off them in the third fall, but it seemed really silly to have Escorpion choke out Porky in under two minutes and then the match just keep going like Porky just wasn’t unconscious. When they did play it serious, there were some really serious moments. The punches near the end were really good, but all the brawling just came off as more violent. The finish was kind of in between – it made sense for Máximo to break it up but, if they’re playing fake MMA, it didn’t make sense for the referee not to stop it. Maybe I didn’t understand the rules, but I don’t think I’m the only one who thought that. This was still good more than bad, but I think it was too all of the over the place to be great. It’s one still worth checking out.

Maximo’s boxing skills. (Note Zavala deciding to stay as far out of range as possible.)

Tama Tonga & Terrible vs La Máscara & Rush: Not good, disappointing. La Mascara was not into the match at all, moving half speed and having no energy. I’m not sure if his mind was just elsewhere because of the circumstances, but it turned out to be a poor performance. He and Tama Tonga were so slow in the first fall, as if building to a much longer match than was happening, and the match only picked when Rush was involved. They really could’ve used a much hotter start to distract from the lackluster title change. It didn’t help that they turned the sound way down – probably because of some negative reactions to the bait and switch. It sounded like no one cared, and it was tough to find a reason to care in the match itself at all. I’m very much not excited for the inevitable title rematch.

best thing Mascara did all match was mostly Tonga’s work

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2013-10-26

recap

taped 2013-10-22 @ Arena Mexico

Disturbio double knee

Metatrón & Robin vs Disturbio & Zayco: A very formula primera, with the same sequence of events at the same points as all the other openers ever. It was a little bit livelier in the third fall and it was actually one of Robin & Metatron’s better days, but it was so also so incredibly routine and uninspired.

 

[crowd chant here]
Aéreo, Fantasy, Stukita vs Mercurio, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito: Stukita is one of the handful of most exciting minis CMLL has, as he was again here, and it’s a shame we’re not getting to see him more often. Pequeño Warrior is one of the worst (Pequeño Universo holds the crown) and he’s seems to be getting a hair loss payoff in the next few months. He really put as little effort as possible here and built no interest in a match with him and Aereo. Everyone else was okay, but this was the rare two fall match where they actually gave the match less time and it showed.

 

Delta’s rolling over the ropes headscissors

Fuego, Sagrado, Starman vs Namajague, Sangre Azteca, Virus: Didn’t reach the potential of this match but still solid enough. Starman really seemed to enjoy wrestling Namajague and Virus was good, but a lot of the rest of this was the usual bits with the usual guys. An improvement over the last two matches.

 

great Titanics

Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpión, Vangellys: Vangellys has come a long way, but a Vangellys/Atlantis feud and Vangellys actually winning a match over Atlantis is still a pretty shocking sight. Vangellys made it seem not totally absurd. The match itself wasn’t as all out as some of the weekend Maya/Delta exploits but had some good moments.

Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. vs Super Porky, Titán, Valiente: Unusual for a CMLL match building to a hot tag – and then not really getting the técnicos a lot of offense after it. Rudos won pretty quick and easily in the end. Match was fine for a Tuesday main event, but a match with Valiente & Titan where the only guy who did a dive was Super Porky (so totally strange.) Aguila seems to be a Tuesday night star for the time being, but looked decently motivated here.

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2013-10-26

recap

Rudas plan needed some work.

taped 2013-10-15 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Luna Mágica, Marcela, Silueta vs Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit: Only aired because everyone was on auto pilot. Not a good match, not really interesting in anyway. Between the rest of CMLL’s Sunday show and the Guadalajara one, there surely were more interesting matches to be had, but what we had was a lackadaisical luchadora match.

Valiente crushes Ultimo Guerrero

taped 2013-10-20 @ Arena Coliseo
Valiente vs Último Guerrero: Straight up Ultimo Guerrero match, with Valiente plugged into the opponent spot. He did fine and the crowd was into him but it really wasn’t about him. There’s been a lot less singles UG matches of late and it’s been a pleasant change. UG still has no plans of changing how he does singles matches – not even the order of the moves in the third fall – so at least they’re giving chances to other people instead of doing these. This seemed a little longer and little better live, but neither version is worth going out of your way to see.

 

can’t believe this didn’t work!

Atlantis, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto: This seems like a real match live, but was edited down to not be much of one for the first two falls and then total autopilot for most the last two falls. I guess it was enough, but it was also very nothing special.. Crowd cheering more for Mascara than Sombra is feels so wrong but happened here. Unclear if there was a plan for a Mephisto/Mascara match the following week which got scuttled, or if this was just usual a CMLL random finish.

CMLL En Busca de un Idolo: 2013-10-26

teammates!

recap

taped 2013-07-26 @ Arena Mexico

Vangelis is strong, mean

Fuego, Hijo del Fantasma, Negro Casas, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Misterioso Jr., Sangre Azteca, Tiger, Vangellys, Virus in a cibernetico match: Fast paced and exciting cibernetico. They still found time to bury the losers with the in between promos – “here’s why these guys will never be big stars, now watch them on TV every week!” – and Misterioso continued his character of Village Idiot, but there were also some really good sequences in between. Vangellys and Valiente were more protected in their finishes than it seemed in match summary back in the day, though it’s still odd to use this as a lead up match without them being the final two. I really wanted more Virus/Negro near the end; the 90 seconds they showed wasn’t enough for such a unique match. (I could’ve gone for more Valiente/Virus too, but we’re at least likely to get that.)

Zacarias instant haircut