CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-11-22

recap

taped 2014-11-18 @ Arena México

Shockercito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro: [GREAT] Well done minis match. Shockercito remains sharp, Pequeño Nitro & Mercurio are one of the best tag teams around and Stukita is the most pure fun luchador CMLL has. He comes off as super talented but also entertaining while wrestling (or making calls before top rope splashes?) This match was strong from start to finish. It’s unfair to compare this to usual primera because these guys both try and have skill and the usual guys often have problems with at least one of those. This deserved a bigger spotlight but I’m glad it snuck onto TV. This is the closest CMLL comes to an AAA action opener. May be either overrating this or under rating everything else but I’d watch it again

Hombre Bala Jr., Star Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Canelo Casas, El Rebelde, Nitro: [GOOD] A surprisingly good match. Just assuming we haven’t seen Rebelde in a while because he was locked in an insane asylum but the doctors eventually gave up on curing him so he’s back and loco as ever. The second fall finish was perfect Rebelde and he matches up well with the Gen2011 pair, solely missing a partner to feud with them endlessly. Neither Canelo nor Nitro normally fit that bill but they were better than usual this match, though it’s offputting to hear Nitro hyped as a maestro in the same match where he’s the 200th and latest person to use a package piledriver. The rudos had their teamwork together stronger than the técnicos, which is unusual with the crew and meant we got more of this than it looked like.

 

Dragon Lee, Fuego, Tritón vs Cancerbero, Okumura, Raziel: [OK] A busy match, but one with a random unearned ending. Cancerbero & Raziel dealt with the problem of teaming with Okumura by doing a lot of their tag team spots without him, which made for a better match. Técnicos all performed will, though Triton and Dragon Lee were the highlights. Triton is all in on running up the rope for his moves now and having no problems with it; he’s going to have a good week if he can do that in Japan as well. Dragon Lee in a yellow mask feels strange and I didn’t recognize him at first.

Estrellita vs Zeuxis in a lightning match: [below average] I keep wanting to see the title match in this feud so that whatever is going to happen happens, but maybe it’s a good thing it actually still hasn’t taken place. If it was like this match, maybe neither of them would live thru it. The surprisingly good spots were outweighed by the surprisingly bad ones, starting as early as Estrellita’s bad top tope outside. It was Zeuxis as much as Estrellita, both just having a rough time in many moments. They tried to do a move heavy match and could not pull off the moves in an good way.

Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre: [OK] Routine trios match done well. A lot of the usual spots (as you’d expect with Angel de Oro there), but done relatively well. Hechicero’s been kept facing a lot of the same people, so it’s still novel to see him against a Dragon Rojo – how would that title match work? He also broke out the armbar bit he hasn’t used really since the en of En Busca de un Idolo. Annoying giant graphic blocked out one of the finishes. It’s been years of that, you’d think someone would consider fixing that problem. Stuka acted like Tiger Hispano screwed up his pinfall count in the second fall, but it didn’t appear that way based on how the rest of the match played out. Tigre Hispano in the clear for once!

La Máscara, Super Porky, Titán vs Euforia, Negro Casas, Niebla Roja: [OK] Regular match. La Mascara has worked really hard to get in his current shape and CMLL has put him on top, so it’s seems very pointless to see him treated as a clown in these matches. He was totally clowned by Casas in fall 1. And then they bipolarly treat Mascara as serious the next two falls, or at least seriously angry about how the first fall turned out, leading to the finish. It worked as a story for this match, but it’s far from the only time Mascara has come off as a goof (and that’s the biggest problem with him being an Ingobernable). This is much more his match than a Super Porky one, though there’s always a lot of Porky.