taped 2012-10-09 @ Arena Mexico
Aereo & Último Dragoncito vs Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia: not a long match and not a particular good one. Aereo was off a bunch and the rudos were moving at primera speed. Dragoncito tried but it wasn’t much and I’m not sure it was meant to be much (no dives.)
Ángel Azteca Jr., Metatrón, Molotov vs Artillero, Hijo del Signo, Súper Comando: Better than expected given the very fringe and ordinary group of técnicos. The ending sequences of the first fall and the last were most exciting. The insides of the falls were less so – this is a very generic tecnico trio and the rudos substituted combo moves for aggressively stomping people down – but I thought I might be bored out of my mind and wasn’t really. Signo showed more life when teaming with camouflage brothers. Metatron is not the worst luchador I’ve ever seen, but isn’t improving and I’m surprised he still gets to come to DF.
Ángel de Oro, La Máscara, Rey Cometa vs Black Warrior, Niebla Roja, Puma King: These guys made good use of the time they had! Fun if not long match. Puma and Cometa were their usual good stuff (outside Cometa almost dying; possible no coincidence he’s had the next week off) and Oro & Roja worked well against the others and eventually against each other. Mascara and Warrior were fine but seemed kind of in their own match at times. This was another good weekly TV match.
La Sombra vs Volador Jr. in a lightning match: a match made lesser by the format; they were going to the big moves eight minutes, which didn’t let the match build enough to make the big moves mean enough, and meant they were selling exhaustion less than three minutes into the match. Match had to end when it did because they ran out of their spots! Plus, it devolved into the least interesting of CMLL matches, “your turn, rest, my turn, rest”. Finish looked better in pictures than in real life, where Volador took a nap for about twenty seconds as to not cover Sombra too soon, then sprung back to life in time to be late. Even not knowing more Sombra/Volador is coming, this one is skipable.
Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Shocker vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis: there might have actually been a good match here if they had time, but they clearly did not. Everyone seemed to be hurrying even in the first fall, and that’s before the second call was abbreviated for the rarely seen “six seconds in the ring” rule that Tirantes happened to make up on the spot. Third fall was better, but there was a point where guys seemed lost about what they were still going to get down with the time they had left, and it never stopped feeling rushed. Hope next week is better.
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“Metatron is not the worst luchador I’ve ever seen”
FALSE! But I will say this was the best he’s looked in any TV match. Though if that is his best there are about 500 wrestlers in Mexico City who deserve his spot more.
Your complaints about Sombra/Volador are valid but I think you were a bit harsh. We’ve seen other lightning matches where guys have sold exhaustion 3 minutes in and done a lot less before getting there. At least these guys did high impact stuff. Also, they skipped the generic matwork for the sake of doing matwork that eat up 3/4 minutes of these matches. I’d prefer to see more matches like this where guys work faster/do big moves sooner rather than working the first 3 minutes like they’re doing a 30 minute classic and the last 5-7 minutes as if they just passed the 30 minute mark.
@Rob: under normal circumstances, doing more big moves early would make sense, but if the story of the match is going to be “we need more than 10 minutes to truly have this match”, then they shouldn’t be getting in all of their usual big match spots in 10 minutes.
Thinking about it now, the match really shouldn’t have ended on a near fall. It should’ve ended on a near high spot – like Volador about to do the spanish fly, but the clock runs out.