(originally posted by Joe on

(originally posted by Joe on 01/07/03)

1/5/03 CMLL thoughts

Various CMLL folks wish us happy holidays.

First match finds Silva/Porky/Ring vs. Emilio/Scorpio/Masada/Nosawa. Quite an, uh, interesting array of talent. I guess Silva’s back to being a good guy. Nosawa throws three of the worst stomps in recorded human history. Porky was getting beaten up and it didn’t look like Silva was helping, so I figured maybe they were still going for a heel
turn. Silva does eventually come in and clean house with the forearms of DOOM. Gawd, Scorpio’s bacne is disgusting. A Ringo/Emilio segment is surprisingly not bad. We get a super contrived setup for Porky’s bronco buster. Porky ends his night by hitting a tope, and a pretty nice one at that. Top rope Silva splash finishes the Japanese. Porky and Silva do the indie hug afterwards. Porky eyes that blue duck thing, probably wondering if he’d go better with fish or salad. Match was perversely entertaining, which is all you can ask for in these situations.

We see Virus/Volador/Tony R. vs. Arkangel/Mephisto/Averno. Yay! But it’s only the tercera caida. Boo! Averno tries a flap jack on Volador, but Volador actually puts his feet on Averno’s shoulders and backflips off of him. Damn. Mephisto has a great evil laugh, although nowhere near his boss’. He and Virus end up outside the ring and Virus actually runs up the ringpost to do an elaborate armdrag in a nutty spot. Tony
comes in but is the lesser of his team, as he frequently is. We’ll zip ahead as Volador hits Tony with a tope by mistake and the rudos triple powerbomb Virus for the win. Short but fun.

Then we’ve got Ricky Marvin/Mascara Magica/Apolo vs. Juvie/Zumbido/Taemura. Curiously, we have Ricky teaming with Guapo mentor Mascara against fellow Guapo trainee Zumbido. Primera caida is all about the matwork, and it’s really beautiful and graceful like all good lucha matwork is. They stick Takemura and Apolo together for this, which was probably a good move. Ricky pulls out the cross armbreaker again for a submission on Takemura. Segunda caida moves at about a trillion miles an hour to start, then slows down as the rudos take over. Juvie gives Ricky this Torture Rack into a powerbomb that Batista should totally steal. Rudos win with a triple powerbomb on Mascara, which must be the rudo special this week. Takemura hits an outta control elbow on Apolo to win the fall. Tercera caida is a bit of a mess but there’s some good work going on, mainly with Ricky. Some dives and Apolo hits a Northern Lights suplex on Juvie out of nowhere for the win. Fun match.

TWO Porky matches? That’s what happens when the GdI are off in Japan. Porky’s at least wearing a better outfit here (even though he had “sexy” written on his butt). Anyway, he teams with Atlantis & Niebla vs. Blue Panther & Black Tiger & Tarzan Boy. You basic “tecnicos start strong, rudos turn the tide, tecnicos come back” match. It’s nice to see TB back, even though his knees are still obviously killing him. He still bumps like a superball for Porky, though. Funny bit as Niebla legit kicks Tiger in the nuts trying a dropkick but doesn’t get DQ’d. Well, Tiger probably didn’t think it was funny. Maybe that’s why he murdered Niebla with a baseball slide. Atlantis hooks the Atliantida on TB for the win, then makes “I want the belt” motions. I forget which belt Tarzan has. Not an epic match but fun enough.

Joe