CMLL on CadenaTres: 2015-02-07

recap

taped 2015-02-03 @ Arena México

Dark Angel, Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Tiffany, Zeuxis: [ok] chops, armdrags, headscissors and not a lot more. They did a surprise outcome in the first fall, which meant a ‘surprise’ outcome in the second fall. Sugehit being shorter than usual was never played up as a ruda but very much as a tecnica, with surprise roll ups wins even besides the occasional Misticoa. I don’t know what the deal was the finish – Tiffany just breaking her way out of waistlock and then standing a foot away as Dark Angel beat Dalys with a clothesline made no sense.

Fuego, Pegasso, Tritón vs Luciferno, Morphosis, Pólvora: [ok] ordinary match that picked up a little bit near the end. Any 2015 Triton match which doesn’t end with him injured is a victory. I understand they wanted to build up the lightning match (which didn’t end up happening), but maybe you can just give the ‘new’ guy a win. No one’s thinking about it this way, but putting a debut Luciferno as a great new character by teaming him with great new character Morphosis (who quickly gave up on the new character) does not seem like the strongest message. Not that there’s a lot of hope for Luciferno. I came to the conclusion here that I like Pegasso as a person/horse, but I’m actively rooting against him to win falls because his 450 splash is so bad. (The headscissors small package is much better.)

Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., La Máscara vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Terrible: [ok] Match was built around La Mascara versus Terrible, which is not an optimum situation. They played their roles fine enough, but it didn’t give me much of the exchanges I would’ve liked to see; Maya & Cavernario have a minute or two together in the third fall but that’s about it. Delta & Gran Guerrero had a very fake looking exchange in the third fall. I’m not sure if there was a second whistle in the crowd or if they were weirdly looping sound during the match, but it was very distracting.

Dragón Rojo Jr. © vs Niebla Roja for the CMLL World Middleweight Championship: [good] Three very different falls: the first was all mat holds, the second was a quick DQ, and the third was a big move showcase. Lightning matches usually just paste the first and three falls together and they could’ve done that here without missing much. The unmasking in the second fall was so random, coming out of nowhere in a match where they hadn’t been ripping at each other’s mask. It reduced the fall to almost nothing. It was so ill fitting that it could’ve passed for as accidental had the participants tried to play it that way. (There was no attempt for that.) The mat wrestling was a good attempt at broadening the match but felt like a beat slow. The third fall had that lightning fall mix of dives and near falls. Crowd didn’t really know these guys or their finishes, so the big finisher kick outs didn’t get much reaction; a different crowd may have cheered when Dragon Rojo kicked out of Niebla Roja’s finisher twice, but this one didn’t care. They were definitely working hard, though there were very noticeable moments where they were not able to pull off what they wanted to do. This was better than the other match on the show, but it’s very mild ‘good’.