CMLL 80th Anniversary Preview

Tonight!

1) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ishii, Namajague, Shigeo Okumura

From the main event of Dos Leyendas to the opener of the Anniversary show! At least they made the card. The five guys who aren’t Ishii have had good matches (when Namajague hasn’t been hurt), so this works as long as they can figure out how to get Ishii involved. Or how to just keep him out of the way until the finish, as they did with Taichi. I originally thought Team Japan would win, but now believe the tecnicos will get a good opening victory.

2) Brazo de Plata, Máximo, Titán vs Euforia, Mephisto, Niebla Roja

Comedy match to get easy reactions from the crowd, and get Titan and Niebla Roja in a decent spot. Titan should get in a couple crazy spots and the Brazo family will get the win in the end.

3) Negro Casas, Shocker, Terrible vs Marco Corleone, Rush, Vangelis [Relevos Increíbles]

(We had this lineup wrong in the podcast.) That’s like the Alliance to End Rushamania in one trio. Rush hates a lot of people, but not many more than Negro, Shocker and Terrible. I’m not sure how his teammates will fit in with Rush, but it may not matter. The only person Rush is friends with in this match is Marco, and something where Rush’s team loses and Rush and Marco argue after fits with everything else that’s gone on. I’m picking team Casas in a good match.

4) Blue Panther vs Averno [hair]

The most fitting finish would be Blue Panther winning in 0:12 in a wristlock. That’s not going to happen. The onscreen story, or at least the on the internet story, is Panther ended Rodolfo Ruiz (Averno’s father) career and now Averno will do the same to Panther. That should mean Rodolfo in Averno’s corner and maybe one of Panther’s sons in his. My hunch is the actual seed of this idea comes from the Arena Coliseo anniversary show, where Averno was included in the maestros match, there was push back that Averno wasn’t actually good enough to be in that match, and Averno was actually very good – but also good enough to be spun into a feud with Panther where Averno is actually not a maestro at all. I believe that storyline will fade away a bit in this match. Averno and Blue Panther have always been really good against each other and have unique rules to play with. If the fans get into this, this could actually end up the best match on the show, and they’ll need to believe Blue Panther is really in danger to get into this feud. Still, Panther feels like the pick.

5) Atlantis & Último Guerrero vs La Sombra & Volador Jr. [winners advance]

Back in March, when Atlantis versus Ultimo Guerrero was signed, I argued that while that match was probably the biggest match they could do at the moment, the better matches for the long term would’ve been Sombra/UG or Volador/Atlantis. This is an attempt to do a little of both, but in only the most casual way. There’s been only slight interaction between the four luchadors. CMLL building as two separate mask matches, with this match being minimized into a coin toss to decide which one is happening. CMLL could’ve used this match as a springboard to build speculation into which match will happen and springboard new feuds out of it. So far, it’s just been used as a roadblock.

The match should still be good, with the weirdness of close team work prior to each team facing each other. Both teams nearly breaking up but keeping it together seems right. This match was good in March and probably will be good here, though likely with a lesser amount of time.

I had a hard time believing CMLL would ever really do Sombra vs Volador before the match was actually announced to happen. I still have a hard time believing it will ever happen. Ultimo and Atlantis advance.

6) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión [CMLL TRIOS]

This might be a good match on another day, but it’s one begging to not get much time and likely to get cut farther if the rest of the show goes long. (I imagine that’s why it ended up as the semimain.) This should be an Estetas win and just an opportunity to do their big spots in front of a big crowd. Mistica on Dragon Rojo to finish it.

7) ? vs ?? [mask]

Longer, more extended format of the singles matches Atlantis has done this year. (Except for the first two falls.) A Gran Guerrero switch that gets caught seems likely; they’ve told that “Villanos pulled a switch to beat Panther” enough to try and draw upon it here. This should be a good match turned great by the crowd reactions, and Atlantis wins it with an Atlantida in the middle of the ring.