Todo x El Todo: 2013-05-05/2013-05-12

taped 2013-04-27 @ Gimnasio Juan De La Barrera
Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan Jr. vs Golden Magic & Poseidon (TxT): GOOD. Really strong opener early; Golden Magic and Hijo del Pirata were really fun on the mat and near the end. Poseidon didn’t look as good, but he was sure up for taking whatever crazy move the Piratas want to have. Piratas have terrible moonsault aim. Pirata Jr. was just okay, as usual. Turnaround spot being from a reversed headscissors cradle is at least different, but the tecnicos needed a hotter follow up on it to get the crowd back. The crazy Pirata offense kind of lost the crowd because it went so long, and the tecnicos really didn’t get in much before it was even and then rudo dominated again. Crowd didn’t want to see these guys do a ton of near falls, but did cheer after the finish.

Esther Moreno & Rossy Moreno vs Chik Tormenta & Diosa Maya: OK/GOOD. Much better than than the average CMLL’s women match this year; solid and actually gooda t some points. I haven’t seen a lot of Chik Tormenta and maybe no Diosa Maya, but they were enjoyable in this match. Maya didn’t seem as used to being a ruda as Tormenta, but adapted okay. Morenos really ought to be rudas at this point in their careers, but they wanted to do to tencica spots so they did tecnica spots. You could tell this is a different crowd than AAA or CMLL shows, because they would’ve booed the heck of the match after the missed Rossy Moreno bottom rope springboard spot (and resulting confusing.) TxT fans actually cheered here. This turned into everyone just doing Moves at the end, which is not a complaint I usually have in women’s matches.

Súper Muñeco, Súper Pinocho, Súper Ratón vs Black Terry, Scorpio Jr., Shu el Guerrero: OK? I had trouble staying interested in this. Trio Fantasia in 2013 are hard to take seriously, and Scorpio Jr. and Shu el Guerrero were both slowed by injuries (or life.) I think the crowd would’ve been perfectly happy with the first fall being the entire match, but did still care when it came to the finish. This was also the third straight undercard match with lots of near falls; they belonged more in this match, but I was ready to move on. The finish really didn’t make sense – Super Muneco pins Shu el Guerrero, rudos claim it was a two count, and so this gets them a title match?

Rayman & Saruman vs Dinamic Black & Imposible, Trofeo Angel Blanco tournament semifinal match : only go the last few minutes of this one but it looked exciting, as should be expected with thru (then) IWRG guys who were working together a lot.

Angel Blanco Jr. & Cien Caras Jr. vs Fuerza Guerrera & Pirata Morgan, Trofeo Angel Blanco tournament semifinal match: Fuerza Guerrera and Pirata Morgan as outgunned tecnicos is an odd look. Both have been around for long and thought of killed as so long that they crowd should automatically root for them, but they’re also still some very hateable rudos and this match set up didn’t play to them at all. It would’ve worked better if their comeback at least was them both being old ornery jerks, but instead Pirata did tecnico spots and looked old. This was just a match to establish the Cien/Angel team as more important and definitely did that.

Rayman & Saruman vs Angel Blanco Jr. & Cien Caras Jr., Trofeo Angel Blanco  tournament final match: Both the complete matches still were joined in progress of a fight, which felt odd (and like they didn’t have enough time.) This also felt shorter than the other complete semifinal. The match itself was about 8 minutes of annoying move turn taking – I rarely notice it in tag matches as long as it happened here, but it was non stop taking a move, kickout a two, and giving the other guy a move. It annoyed me, but the TxT crowd is the least jaded audience in Mexico and was totally good with it. Finish felt like it came out of nowhere.

Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo Del Santo, El Hijo del Solitario vs Derek Sanders, Oliver John, Shaun Ricker: I could see this file was listed as 37 minutes before I even started watching it, and I was hoping for a 15 minute commerical break had been left in for some reason. This is actually closer to 30 minutes and actually fine for the time – they just worked a normal trios match slower and longer than usual. It would’ve been completely fine for me if it ended after one fall and La Migra really never got a lot in considering the length, but the the tencicos did get to do everything they could do. You could definitely find matches which would be better per minute but there was nothing wrong with this. Despite doing this long, C3 edited cut out almost all of La Migra attacking the tecnicos after the match, but left all the tecnicos talking post match.