CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2014-09-20

recap

taped 2014-09-09 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara

Dragon Lee vs Virus, Olímpico, Smaker, Esfinge, Raziel, Omar Brunetti, Arkángel de la Muerte, Sky Kid, Cancerbero in a cibernetico match: [GOOD] Fun cibernetico and best match in weeks on this show, mostly due to the rudos carrying things and Dragon Lee doing Dragon Lee things. It started off rough, both with the Guadalajara técnicos being on different pages than their opposition and the expert commentary crew being unable to remember half the names of the participants. (How do you confuse Dragon Lee and Sky Kid, Magadan? Tirantes struggles to remember Esfinge’s name for 10 seconds before anyone bails him out.) Another rough bit: those neon green referee shirts. Definitely not the referee’s colors. What worked were the rudos: every time I was sad about someone going out way too soon, someone else great would pop in and work for two minutes. Arkangel’s school boy trip a few seconds before he left the match was neat, Raziel killing people is always great and Virus looked like the smartest wrestler in the world when he finally got his moment. (Not a lot of him in the first half; this was almost 20 minutes and I could’ve happily taken 8-10 more minutes to give some of the guys more time.) The Guadalajara guys had some obvious goofs early and looked better on finishes, but it’s raw crew when Dragon Lee is the grizzled voice of experience on his side. The last few minutes were a great teaser to the Virus/Lee match which has to happen, and ended nicely with Dragon Lee pulling out something new to surprise everyone and win the match. It’s a too rare CMLL guy who’s actively adding stuff and trying to improve, which is why it’s very easy to root for Dragon Lee.

Gallo & Tritón vs Kamaitachi & Okumura: [OK] Triton was so hurt in this match that he won a match with a Boston crab. That’s a first for him. He still did an Asai moonsault because he’s got to keep it real, but it still causes you to rely on Gallo for excitement. That doesn’t work. Match is built to Gallo and Okumura facing off, again, and it’s happening so frequently that I thought there must be another singles match coming up with them that I’ve blocked out. Nope, they just do this. Kamaitachi is the best guy on all of these shows but that double knee drop is going to kill him. He needs at least a second finisher.

Atlantis, Rush, Titán vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero: [GOOD] Good as build to the mask match, which was done better here than anywhere else. It’s not so totally UG/Atlantis this time but the story still is Atlantis trying to get to Guerrero and his teammates helping him keep the advantage. Rush kind of revertered to his personality from a couple years ago, which meant he was not as cranky but not continually hammering Gran Guerrero with hard shots. He and Titan got in moments, but there wasn’t time for more than moments. Guerreros should probably reconsider the ramp running jump sit spot, it seems to be working bad for them every time. (It didn’t work great for Titan and Rush either.)