CMLL Line - 10/27/02 (57)

Thanks to: Robert Ortega for the original format, Krisz for the results archive, and Joe Gagne for the place to talk about it.

Notes: Odd that we get this matchup - must've had time to kill. I think everything I've heard about Ringo Mendoza has been less than nice but I haven't seen enough of him to dislike him myself. Dr. X has a nice yellow mask. 

Looks like it'll be Arkangel and Ringo to start, as they exchange strikes while their teammates are standing around. Eventually, everyone else leaves the ring - wait, now they're switching to Safari vs Halcon. Lockup, battling for leverage, Halcon pushes Safari in the ropes and open hand slaps him. Backing off now. Safari looks to the fans. Circle. Lockup, Safari with an arm bar, takedown into a Fujiwara, twisting the wrist for more pain. Now rolling him over into a cover one two no (I guess), we didn't see the ref making the cover. Halcon reverses to a grapevine, sitting on Safari's back. Safari eventually gets out, into a front facelock. Halcon trips him up, but gets headscissors from the mat. Standoff. Crowd shot. Lockup, Halcon with a waistlock takedown, but Safari armdrags him from the mat. Standoff. Circle, again. Wristlock for a lockup - Halcon eventually gets a hammerlock. Safari does not give up. Back elbowing to begin escape, and a jumping snap mare to get all the way out. Halcon up, there’s the legsweep cover for zero and Safari gets his turn to do the same. Standoff. Tag. Arkangel and Ringo in now. Arkangel - tags to Dr. X. No, Arkangel will take this. Lockup - armdrag and Ringo takes him out on that. Standoff outside the ring, but Arkangel looks at the fans, then slaps at Ringo. Ring ducks some and hits some not good looking strikes of his own. Now they're back in, and Arkangel tags in Dr. X for real this time. Olimpico in for the tecnicos, and looking a little more energetic than this match. Maybe I’m just not used to all of this mat wrestling. Lockup, break. Lockup, Dr. X with an armbar into a hipblock takedown. Circle. Lockup, Olimpico with armbar, back leg trip, rolling DR. X to his feet so he can drag him down by the arm. Circle. Lockup, Dr. X. with a waistlock takedown, goes to pick him up and gets armdragged. Standoff. Circle. Lockup - no Olimpico with a single leg takedown, single leg grapevine, Arkangel is in to break it up, and Olimpico is out to yell at Arkangel. Olimpico back in - he's going circle again. Armbar, Olimpico steps over and armdrags the other arm, taking X out. Arkangel and Ringo again. Ark with a single leg, off the ropes, over, misses with a clothesline, Ringo misses with a clothesline, Ark waved by and Ringo finally hits a hiptoss. Ark up, open hand slap hits, charge is ducked and Ark goes out. Ringo teases dive but Ark moves out of the way and Ringo just does a celebratory roll. Halcon in, clotheslining Safari as he comes in. Whip, Safari takes a delayed flapjack. Exchange of strikes - Safari blocks, grabs the wristlock for the obligatory goofy Safari move, but as he runs to the ropes, Halcon plants his feet and doesn't move. Safari is annoyed, and proceeds to stomp on Halcon's foot. That breaks up his footing - now Safari can hit a Mexican armdrag. Halcon rolls out, so Safari nails him with a baseball slide dropkick. Back in the ring, it's Olimpico and Dr. X - Olimpico runs, over, under, roll over a monkey flip and a armdrag for Dr. X, with a dropkick taking him out. Halcon in with a clothesline to take care of Olimpico - slam, and he's going up - but Olimpico is up to fast and after a second try, armdrags him off the second rope. Ark in, but he gets backdropped. Olimpico sets him up on the top rope, chops him, but Halcon slips under Olimpico’s legs- Doomsday Device! Dr. X with a top rope splash! one two three (8:00) Safari was still outside and Ringo was just slow to make the save. An eight minute fall? It felt that way. Replays

I bet we have a really short fall coming up. Rudo beatdown starts just before the fall - Ark decides he'd rather beat up Olimpico on the floor and it all goes downhill from there. X with a second rope punch for Ringo. Safari in but Halcon hits questionably low punch on him. Rudo team doesn't seem to have any particular chemistry. Halcon pulls of the "pulling from the top rope" version of the reverse crucifix bomb on Olimpico. Safari gets a double boot. Ringo gets a double second rope axhandle to the midsection. Olimpico's being held for a while, and then they switch from holding him in the middle of the ropes to the corner. Corner charge is hit by Ark, hit by Halcon, and hit by Dr. X - I was sure they moved him to set up the comeback. Safari's back in and fighting but the numbers are too much. Ringo tries to make the save and gets stopped by Halcon. Dr. X and Ark oddly (but smartly) actually go for the win here, with a double abdominal stretch on Safari, but Olimpico's up and breaking it u. And just like that, it's all turned around, with brawling the other way. Arkangel does a nice job of begging off. Safari's setting up something with Dr. X. Actually, he just kinda beat Dr. X up and over the turnbuckle. Ark takes a double backdrop. Olimpico nails him with a somersault plancha. Safari and Ringo work together on a sunset flip/clothesline combination, then we head to the finishes - Safari with the small package on Halcon (3:53) and Ringo with a grounded Octopus on Dr. X. (3:55) Replays.

Captains start the final fall - Olimpico misses a dropkick on Ark and Ark makes him pay with chops and kicks. Ark has "Epic" on his tights. Whip, reversed, Olimpico charges in and monkey flips Ark out. Monkey flip again is shoved away, Olimpico trips him up, off the ropes, spinning armdrag. Olimpico teases a dive but not this time. Tag to Safari - Dr. X in for the other side, and he wants a handshake. We look at a fat guy in the crowd and miss whatever happened - Safari is getting a one two no when we come back. Safari with a small package one two no. Dropkick and Dr. X is out - Halcon in to hit that clothesline again. Halcon celebrates hitting his one more and Ringo drops kick out - Safari pescado Ring with a dropkick on Dr. X to get him back again - Ringo plancha. Ark and Olimpico and Olimpico misses that dropkick but so does Ark. Olimpico off the ropes, bodyscissors is blocked, so Olimpico switches to a small package one two three. (1:54) Replay of the dropkick that took Halcon out, Safari's dive, Ring's dropkick on Dr. X and dive, and the final fall.

Vignette: Shocker and Magica introduce us to their new partner and 11 soon to be losers. Not sure which is which right now, but we get faces to go with the names Mr. Power (no), Centella De Oro (no), Genetico (maybe), Tony Rivera (eh). More of the guys at some other point, I'd assume.

Notes: Of note (or not), neither Veneno nor Commando Girl is with the group. The midgets are there, though. Oh this seems like a really bad idea. Pierroth has a long discussion before the match - maybe they're trying to remind Silva that he's a guy from Brazil so he could join them. It doesn't appear to work. Silva makes the usual mistake of going to the apron, because that ensures the refs will keep him there while the rudos beat up everyone else. Long beatdown on the two guys who aren't really tall. Silva gets the tag and it takes a Boricuas meeting to decide what's gonna happen next. Pierroth waves his teammates on and offers to go one on one. That works about as well as you might think. Nice big boot. Elbow drop and he's dead. Silva splash and finally the rest are into break it up. They stomp Silva for like thirty seconds to go back to beating the other two up. Good lord Markus with an ugly 'rana. That must've been a bet. Markus goes in control, then tags in Cien to mix it up with Bulldog. Cien gets a bit of Pierroth too, but before that goes any further, the Boricuas are back in. They take Cien out to beat him, and eventually Silva has enough and run to that side of the ring to get something. Pierroth teases a goozle on the outside, but just brings Pierroth back in. Pierroth begs off. It's broken down outside with Markus using the flagpole on some Boricuas member. That ends up in the ring, with Silva using it on Pierroth's back a couple times for no DQ, and finally smashing it. Pierroth teases a second rope splash on Pierroth, but takes so long Killer just comes in and pulls him away, and Silva just stands other on the second rope waiting for something to happen. Violencia and Killer get lined up to take that place - and there's the second rope splash. One two three. (8:41) Cien and Markus get Pierroth to tap out to a double abdominal strech in the meantime. Bulldog pulls his team to safety later, though Markus starts asking for the hair/hair match again. Replays, and as the fight restars on the outside, we go to break. 

Notes: No entrances. It takes me forever to realize that's Negro Casas with a buzz cut - I think this might be the first time we've seen him since he lost that hair match to Tarzan Boy. HSN looked really good. Felino looked better than usual. Emilio hurt his neck on a Felino apron dive forward headscissors. Tailban's beatdown is less than exciting. Beatdown extends to fall 3. Comeback is so dramatic that I miss it. Casas hits the apron dive Thesz Press but we miss it. Funny to see Felino using the Trailer Hitch, but is Noble ain't. (1:58) HSN gets a pin on Bestia after it stops mattering. I don't talk much about this match because we have a lot to go and this is just okay.

Vignette: Oh no, Rey' changing out in that scary hallway again. But it seems like he's over it - he doesn't jump when Ultimo sneaks up on him. Lots of talk about Vampiro. I think there's more talk abou the scary ghost but we miss it.  

Notes: No entrances here either.

Vampiro and Rey almost start off, but then all the tecnicos come in and there's a discussion. Okay, Niebla. Niebla must be stoked to be in a match of this caliber for once. Rey circles - then goes after Vampiro on the apron with a right and kicks. To the floor, where Rey gets in more punches, an sets up Vampiro for a clothesline from behind by Tiger. Boot to the face! Tiger posts Lizmark while he's at it, and I'd assume Ultimo did something to Niebla but we don't get a good look at it. Rudos pose rather than following up. Vampiro recover enough to chase Rey up the ramp - looks like he doesn't want a face to face encounter with Vampiro. Everyone heads back to the ring - Ultimo and Niebla to start. Replay of the boot. We come back to see Ultimo chopping Niebla. More chops. Whips, leapfrog, Niebla slides under, double wristlock, Ultimo goes for the monkey flip but Niebla lands on his feet, Ultimo misses a clothesline, Ultimo and Niebla do the Ultimo Shocker bit (I'm gonna say "reverse bodyscissors into an armdrag") and out Ultimo goes. Lizmark and Tiger in, exchanging open hand slaps. Lizmark of course gets the better - off the ropes, shoulderblock, but Tiger kips up. Tiger misses a clothesline but hits a spin kick as Lizmark charges him. Tiger shouldn't celebrate because it's time for Lizmark to do his Spinaroonie -- there's a superkick to finish it. Lizmark charges Tiger but gets drop to holded into the bottom corner buckle. Tiger off the ropes, cross body is caught and there's the Sudden Impact one two no love for the D'Lo Nation. Lizmark teases another run off the ropes, but we switch (clip here?) to Vampiro and Rey. Well, actually, more of Rey running away from Vampiro up the ramp again. They face off on the ramp, till Vampiro goads Rey to coming back. Ultimo gives him a high ten. Rey - gets kicked. Vampiro with a slam, Rey with a go behind, Vampiro quickly with a back elbow to escape, hard forearms to the head. Vamp off the ropes, right into a Rey big boot. Vamp goes to one knee, Rey off the ropes, clothesline misses but Vampiro hits his spinning kick to the midsection.  Rey goes out, but he pulls Vamp with him - another open hand slap battle end with Rey misses and gets leveled with a superkick. Vamp yells at him to get up, but from the expression on Rey's face, he wants no more  of the Thunder Bay native. Back in the ring, Ultimo rushes Niebla with a back elbow. Niebla held in the tecnico corner for kicks - Tiger over to help and smack Lizmark when he's there. Whip, corner clothesline, and Ultimo boots Tiger for a high corner dropkick. Ultimo whips Niebla the other way, charge into boots, Niebla charges out into a monkey flip, but uses it to launch into Black Tiger with a tope (neat spot) one two three. (5:38) Elsewhere, Lizmark is in and we catch the tail end of his moonsault bodyblock on Ultimo one two three. (5:41) Rey again opts to run rather than meet with Vampiro. Niebla brawls some more with Tiger after the fall. While backing away from amp, Rey bumps into Niebla but Niebla is too surprised to do anything, I guess. Replays. 

Vignette: More Possible New Guapos - Ricky Marvin (duh), Loco Max (no), Alex Steel (no), Terrible (maybe).

We come back from break to find Ultimo holding Vampiro for a clothesline on the ramp, but that goes as well as it ever does. Rey slowly backs away one more time. After the whistle, we check out Niebla and Tiger exchanging a bow, then Niebla hitting a Niebla slap on Tiger. Niebla with a headlock, shot off the ropes, back, over, thrown by, handspring into an armdrag. Tiger with an open hand slap, but that just causes Niebla to do his rapid kip ups. Tiger goes for a running plancha but Niebla drops down and Tiger takes himself out. Niebla's really like Rayo in some ways. Niebla teases dive, slides out when Tiger has ducked down and there's another super slap for him. Tiger is posted. Meantime, Rey has taken advantage of the distraction on the floor to attack Vampiro form behind again, knocking him off the apron, then into the post. Kicks and right hand as Rey beats Vampiro around the ring. He kicks the back of Vampiro's left knee to take him down, then kicks him hard when he's there. Vamp is down on the floor, which means he's missing the beatdown on the other two no. Lizmark gets a double whip, double drop toe hold, double elbow drop. Tiger dropkicks him to the rope, and GdI hit the elevated running sit on the back. Niebla brought in, Ultimo with the spinebuster lift and Tiger dropkicks him (could've been better). Next, Ultimo holds onto the legs for a slingshot into Tiger's clothesline, which was kinda cool. Tiger pushes Niebla back so he's stuck over Ultimo's knees, and Rey goes up - corkscrew moonsault! Tiger with a dropkick to the face to finish him but I don't see a count being made. Niebla is allowed to roll out, as Rey is working on Vampiro again. Vamp pulled in - double whip, double back elbow by Ultimo and Tiger. Triple wheelbarrow suplex and that'll do it - one two three. (2:27) Replays.

Third fall starts with Tiger slamming Lizmark. One more time. Tiger decides now is as good time as any for the triple second rope moonsaults, one two NO. That's shocking, kinda. Corner whip for Lizmark, Lizmark kips up and out, Reverse rollup, but Ultimo is there to clothesline Lizmark out of it. Niebla in to dropkick Ultimo to of the the ring, but Tiger is on him with a chop. Corner whip, Lizmark boots him into a kip, and Niebla headscissors him out. Rey in to charger Niebla, but Niebla leapfrogs, Lizmark with a tilt-a-whirl, Rey lands on his feet, shot for Lizmark and clotheslines from either side on Niebla! That was painful looking. Ultimo came into help - now Vampiro's in, kick for Rey, kick for Ultimo - Vamp's going for that Stunner on one guy/DDT on the other combo, but I think GdI suplexed out of it into a double flapjack. Wasn't as clean as they probably hopped. Anyway, double back elbow for Lizmark, double elbow drop for Vampiro, Double clothesline to take Lizmark out and double dropkick to take Vampiro out. Ultimo with a no fear rope assisted somersault plancha, landing on his back - I assume we miss Rey doing something similar on Vampiro, because he's on the outside now. Niebla and Tiger in the ring - Niebla charges, gets a drop toe hold, Tiger off the ropes - 022! One two NO. Tiger goes for the crucifix powerbomb (although I suddenly remember I should be calling it the Black Tiger Bomb) but Niebla slips free. Tiger seems awful clam about it - and doesn't know Niebla's behind till too late - slap to the face, tying him up - Nelbina. (2:03) On the outside, though, Rey is having his way with Vampiro - chinlock, then elbows to the back. I guess Niebla is too busy getting his hand raised to see this, but it's surely not over between those two. Replay of Ultimo's tope - short, and Lizmark is worse than most at adjusting. Ultimo seemed to land on right on a shoulder. Rey wasn't much better on his, landing more or his back. There's the finish.

Spectacular Moments - Blue Demon with a nice tope - right to Magica's head (and landing right into a chair.) Lizmark's press into a powerslam doesn't look as cool as Johnny Stamboli's, but that's because Lizmark takes so long with the press. Stones tope two people with no fear for anyone's safety - that guy taking it went three rows deep in to the crowd, wow. There's Halloween getting his knee trashed from last week. 

Vignette: Mephisto and Averno play some weird game of cards. I have no idea. Satanico uses his power of evils to magically appear tat the table. Satanico resets the plan - since they can't get the trios titles back with Halloween hurt, they'll just have to kill the other two to get even. Seems about right. Damien 666 is first. This camera man is really seasick. 

Notes: Wow is there a lot of wrestling on this show this week. Entrances here. Satanico out first even though he's kinda the tecnico in this situation. After a moment (enough to let Satanico get a solo crowd shot to the ring), Averno and Mephisto are indeed out with him. Nicho is out by himself to do his Lowrider walk. Ah, he's got something to say. I think he's saying Damien isn't actually here, but what he really does is distract the Infernales so they miss Damien running in from the crowd an getting the jump on Satanico. The rest of the Inferalses are held back - only one gets to stay, since there's only one Nicho. I think Averno is the odd man out. Damien with a whip, back elbow, and now working in a chinlock. Stomping. Right to the head, then a shoulderblock to take him down. I'm surprised Satanico isn't already bleeding. Elbow drop to the inside of the left leg, and a a swipe at Mephisto on the outside. Choke on the ropes. Damien has a nice blue/back color scheme going with his facepaint. Shoulder to the midsection, shot to the head. Boot to the had. Satanico has yet to get anything in. Choke on the ropes. Leg choke on the ropes - Nicho distracts the referee and gets in a headbutt from the outside. Damien works elbows to the head. Right to the face. Elbow to the back of the neck. Foot to the bad. Foot to the head. Satanico is trying to rally back but he's being kicked hard in the chest. Now he's up and angry - big right - and Damien hits a spear to take him down. Damien with right hands on the mat. Slam, and Damien is saying this is it. Going up (near Nicho) top rope senton comes up empty! Satanico yells in anger. Damien begs off but it ain't happening - Satanico with punches, then ripping at the hair as Mephisto distracts to prevent the ref from seeing the hairpull (I think) - unfortunately, that allows Nicho to slip in and hits a superkick. Damien covers - slow to count, one two NO. Replay of that kick, straight on. Damien pinning after some move with his feet on the bottom rope, one two no. Damien with right hands and elbows. Satanico gets in a right, so Damien hits three move. Eye poke, but Satanico back with rights. Damien gets knocked to his knees, so he just head butts Satanico in the midsection. More punches and elbows. Nicho grabs a leg to hold Satanico in the corner as Damien beats him. Slam, and Damien's gonna keep trying for a top rope move till he hits one. Top rope moonsault comes up empty. Satanico doesn't have chance to get up before Nicho is on the apron and kicking him down. This time, Mephisto catches up to him - pulled down hard form the apron! Clothesline! The ringside CMLL commissioner has a word for Mephisto about attacking the other corner person, which gives Nicho enough time to pull of part of the stage and throw it to Damien while the referee is looking at Mephisto. Mephisto takes off after Nicho again, and they're up the ramp. Damien tries for the foreign object shot, but Satanico drops his head and spinebusters Damien! Elbow drop! One two NO he should've hooked the leg. Damien goes for a low blow uppercut but Satanico turns his body (accident?) and it misses. The ref says he saw the attempt but can't DQ him because it didn't actually work, I think. Satanico takes advantage of the discussion to hit a punch, whip, clothesline but he's not going down. Damien clothesline again but he's not going down. A third time, Damien tries a low blow kick, Satanico side steps it, then the ref warned Damien again. This time, it's Satanico who's distracted, and Damien who get in a slap. Whip, hiptoss is blocked - Satanico backslide one two three. (5:09) Nicho ran to the ring to try and make the save but came up short. 

Post match (and a break), we get that hair/hair challenge again. Damien and Nicho walk up through the crowd without answering, then he comes back - I'm not sure if he accepts or not. Satanico doesn't seem to be happy with the answer. While now leaving through the ramp, Nicho steps on the piece of the ramp that he removed (and was later put back by staff, I assume), but it's not in tight and he slips and fall. Fans have a laugh, and Nicho angrily throws the piece of ramp at the Infernales. 

Another break. Replays of the finish. 

No next week.

Rating: Bases on the quality of the finish, ring work, internal/external storyline, consistency and my whims. Also, various other (random) factors that I can't think of right now. 0-100 for matches.

Closing Notes: 

1. It didn't occur to me till I was I added everything up that the whole show was tecnico over rudo
2. It did occur to me that we didn't have a DQ finish the whole night. That was nice.
3. Damien vs Satanico has great promises for being a really good brawl.
4. Rey vs Vampiro could be a very good kick fest.
5. Boricuas vs anyone will likely suck.