CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-12-21

recap

taped 2013-12-13 @ Arena Mexico
Blue Panther vs Negro Casas in a lightning match: way more cut down on TV than I noticed (until I saw the clock at the end) – about three minutes loped off. Still a good match for the time, but the Terra match is the version you’d want. Finish still seems abrupt to me, it’s odd to see Panther lose so simply. It may be a coincidence, but it also looks like CMLL knew what they were doing with Negro the next few weeks (a plan!), as he gets a big win here going into the Leyenda de Plata and Volador feud. It may just be wonderful randomness too, but CMLL feels like someone’s thinking big picture lately. It’s so weird.

La Máscara, Rush, Valiente vs Tama Tonga, Terrible, Vangellys: By the numbers trios except for the Rush/Terrible segments. They didn’t start off well. Rush losing the first fall to a totally unconvincing Terrible dropkick was strange; I would think Rush actually got hurt, but Terrible hooks the leg like a real end of fall. They were much better together in the third fall, and their fights going away is the biggest downside to Rush ever turning rudo. (Terrible as a técnico seems doubtful.) This is the end of Tama Tonga’s 2013 run; he seemed a stronger rudo this time, but the feuds didn’t click as well as they should have. CMLL had two years of Lyger fall/winter visits and now two years of Tonga fall/winter visits; maybe it’ll be a new person in 2014, or maybe it’ll finally be the hair match.

Mistico, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Niebla Roja, Reapper, Último Guerrero: The effort to make Ripper look like a threat continues. It’s not helped when he screws up the big comeback spot and has to play random dead, and it’s not helped when it takes a mysterious second Ripper (never to be seen or explained) to give him the win, but I guess that’s the idea. Ripper’s crazy senton off the stage came out of nowhere. He needs to talk to Volador about timing those better, since he knows to wait in between falls to make sure nothing his happening. The other four guys were involved even less than the other four guys in the last match; there was one good Titan/Niebla Roja sequence and hopefully there’s more of that in 2014.