CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-01-18

recap

taped 2014-01-14 @ Arena Mexico
Leono & Magnus vs Apocalipsis & Cholo: Bad, one of the worse openers in some time. The end of the first fall was embarrassingly for all involved and the rest didn’t get much better. Comeback was not too smooth and I’m not sure if something got edited in the third fall or if Magnus was supposed to get in no offense before the finish. I don’t have high standards for some of these guys but everyone could’ve done better.

Oro Jr., Robin, Stigma vs Espanto Jr., Herodes Jr., Inquisidor: Congrats to Inquisidor for finding another big set up to do a front cracker. I would fine these guys every time they use a Canadian Destroyer in the first fall of a segunda, but they’re probably not paying them much to begin with. Still, Espanto Jr. can do all sorts of moves but has no idea which ones to do or how to get himself across; Herodes is still greener in the ring but is going to be zooming right past him. Match was wrapping up fine until Tiger Hispano decided not to count three on the third fall planned finish, and everyone runs half lost for two more minutes to come up with a new one. Inquisidor and Robin were better at improvising than Herodes and Stigma.

Hombre Bala Jr., Sagrado, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Cancerbero, Guerrero Negro Jr., Raziel: Bad refereeing night continues with Tirantes completely missing Raziel putting his outside foot on the bottom ropes in the third fall. That was clearly not supposed to be an elimination, because Raziel just kept wrestling and Tirantes did his usual bit of reacting to a loud voice in his earpiece. (The kids in the previous match did a better job of handling it.) Raziel was rather angry about it after the match. The match itself had some good moments and not smooth moments; the first fall mat work had a few weird looking spots which may have not meant to be so weird. There was still good stuff here, they just need a bit more work. Guerrero Negro fit in fine enough; I’d be totally okay with a mask vs hair feud with Sagrado before Guerrero Negro goes off to get the new non-indy-looking gimmick he really needs.

Negro Casas, Puma, Tiger vs Black Panther, Blue Panther, Cachorro: Payoff to all the bad refereeing – one where the referee is supposed to do a bad job! This was much more of a brawl then the previous week’s match, which might have actually worked out better for the young Panthers. They again did surprisingly well, helped by working with the Casas (and a very planned out match) but obviously bringing something to the table themselves. The crowd was really into Negro/Blue specifically, but this is a good feud for everyone. Here’s the “oh, duh” way of telling the Panthers apart – Cachorro means ‘cub’, as in small bear. The guy who’s name implies small is in fact the smaller one. It’s almost like they planned that.

Delta, Super Porky, Valiente vs Boby Zavala, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora: A Super Porky match; I spent way too much of this match trying to figure out if Dragon Rojo had lost weight. (Maybe? I’m not sure, which is why it took so long.) Weird layout with the rudos starting the beatdown, losing the first fall anyway, the rudos continue the beatdown unimpeded, the técnicos make another comeback the end of the second fall, then lose that fall anyway. It was reversals of expectations for the sake of reversing them. Zavala got to work with Delta & Valiente and very little with Brazo de Plata outside of getting a surprise pinfall on Porky. That was a surprise to me, and he handled himself well with two tricky guys. Delta actually landed the moonsault well, another surprise.