CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas iPPV: 2016-03-18 

Recapped: 03/18/2016

What happened: Volador defeated Negro Casas for his hair in the main event, winning cleanly with no interference from any family members (and Casas even had Mephisto instead of one of his nephews in his corner.) Rush also defeated Máximo for his hair in their match, though he had a little help from Comandante Pierroth. They acknowledged each other as family (though it didn’t seem like Rush outright admitted Pierroth was his father) and suggested they would continue to be together (though again it wasn’t outright said Pierroth would be an Ingobernable.)

The semimain saw friendly fire between Cibernetico and Ultimo Guerrero led to an all out fight. The rudos lost the match, and the two argued their way to a singles match next Friday. It was a rare case of CMLL building to a next week’s show on a major show.

The feed mostly held thru; it died in the main event (just around 11pm local, suggesting there was an automatic setting to cut it off then.) They got it back, but not everyone was able to get it working again. CMLL also quietly offered the show on Playstation’s Live Viewer, and the feed apparently did not come back for people using that service.

The changes to Arena Mexico were slight: new video boards and maybe a new ringside floor were all that were visible. 

What was good: I though both hair matches were excellent and the atomicos was great. The second match was fun and you can skip the rest.

Where can I watch it: You can’t legally right now. Claro Sports will air matches 2, 3, and 5 whenever they air these things, and Azteca will air the two hair matches four weeks from now.

Match 1: Oro Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs El Cuatrero & Sansón
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. rudos
   • Cuatrero super powerbomb Oro Jr. (7:27)
   • Sansón powerbomb backbreaker Soberano Jr. (8:04)
2. técnicos
   • Soberano frog splash Sansón (4:26)
   • Oro springboard tope Cuatrero (4:58)
3. rudos
   • Sansón middle rope knee smash Oro Jr. (7:06)
   • Cuatrero inside springboard knee drop Soberano (8:03)

Winner: rudos (2-1)
Match Time: 21:05

Review: [ok] Disappointing match, though still better than an average opener. Slower pace than expected and one which showed off the youth of everyone involved (except Pompin, who may be older than all of these guys put together.) Soberano went for big spots and didn’t quite get them. Oro went for normal spots and didn’t quite get them. The two teams had individual spots but had no chemistry. The last few spots looked like guys were not in the right position and Soberano ended up hurt, so it ended up being close to a disaster. Everyone but Oro did have good moments but it didn’t add up well. OK might be generous, and it was really mystifying how long they went given how long the rest of the card went. Maybe that was a screwup too. (Not only did the match time went long, but they lost another 3 minuets due to the injury.)

Match 2: Ángel de Oro, Rey Cometa, Titán vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. rudos
   • Mephisto powerbomb Angel de Oro (2:26)
2. tecnicos
   • Angel de Oro campana Mephisto (1:02)
3. rudos
   • Mephisto Rosa Titan (6:59)
   • Ephesto shoulderbreaker Angel de Oro (6:59)

Winner: rudos (2-1)
Match Time: 10:27

Review: [good] really fun match, with everyone working at double speed to make up for the lack of time they had. (Something got messed up there.) Hijos del Infierno worked very hard, Rey Cometa pulled out Brillo Dorada and Angel de Oro & Titan looked usual. This is one undercard matches on big shows should be look. The finish was super creative, but CMLL only employees bad referees and so they had to redo it.

Match 3: Dragón Lee, Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Fujin, Kamaitachi, Okumura, Raijin
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. rudos
   • quadruple submission (4:49)
2. técnicos
   • La Mistica on Kamaitachi (3:18)
3. tecnicos
   • Valiente Buster on Okumura (8:10)
   • Dragon Lee Dragon Driver Fujin (8:31)

Winner: técnicos (2-1)
Match Time: 16:38

Review: [great] Very fun match, with an ending full of crazy high spots. There were plenty of big moves earlier, especially to end the second fall, but the dives – including Mistico bringing back his old Dragon Lee springboard – was superb. Mistico looked great in this match, definitely helped by working a bunch with Kamaitachi. They probably should’ve put those together much sooner, but I guess Kama had better things to do. The second fall Mistica looked great. Kamaitachi and Dragon Lee had some of the greatest hits one more (last?) time. Fujin and Raijin were fine for their experience level but did look green a few times; not sure what happened with the Draogn Lee dive to close the second, and they both missed on catching those big three fall dives. Still, the crowd got way into this match because of the nation versus national setup and that wouldn’t have worked with another group of rudos, and Fujin was game enough to take the Dragon Driver at the end. Definitely worth checking out.

Match 4: Rush vs Máximo Sexy for the hair
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. DQ Rush (0:57)
2. Rush corner dropkick (2:14)
3. Rush Martillo Negro (11:49)

Winner: Rush (2-1)
Match Time: 15:00

Review: [excellent] exactly what the match should’ve been, except for the unexpected random involvement of Pierroth (and Super Porky.) Máximo gave it his best shot, threw himself into dive after dive, pulled out moves he’d never done before, kissed Rush three times (!!!) and it still wasn’t enough. Rush is just way higher than them him, only losing a fall via “I don’t care about losing a fall” DQ, and winning without any help at the end. Máximo got a couple maybe wins taken away from Pierroth distractions, but he didn’t have much of a case. Crowd loved Maximo’s underdog struggle and really believed he was going to win a couple times. The near fall off Pierroth getting escorted out was the best one, but they had them at other times. Hopefully this leads to a title match and not a Porky/Maximo vs Pierroth/Rush tag match.

Match 5: Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Súper Porky vs Cibernético, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. rudos
   • Ultimo Guerrero & Cibernetico double suplex Super Porky (3:11)
   • Pulpo Guerrero on Atlantis (3:21)
2. técnicos
   • Marco Corleone Air Corleone Cibernetico & Mr. Niebla (1:49)
   • Atlantida on Ultimo Guerrero (1:49)
3. técnicos
   • Porky splash UG (2:56)
   • Atlantis cradle Cibernetico (2:56)

Winner: técnicos (2-1)
Match Time: 8:06

Review: [below average] rushed match and not a good one, but at least we got the unexpected Cibernetico/Ultimo Guerrero feud out of it. It seemed at first like a feud for Elite, and perhaps it’ll end that way, but it does suggest UG’s going to do something beside feud with Thunder for the next while and anything’s better than that. Super Porky moved bad and couldn’t use his left arm to throw punches in the last match or even to taunt the rudos in this match. (Mr. Niebla looked fine. Some guys in this match actually looked good.)

Match 6: Volador Jr. vs Negro Casas for the hair
Arena México, 03/18/2016

1. Negro Casas scorpion (0:31)
2. Volador bacckcracker (1:50)
3. Volador reverse huracanrana (14:53)

Winner: Volador Jr.
Match Time: 17:14
Notes: Flyer & Mepisto were seconds.

Review: [excellent] his was an incredible match in terms of what Negro Casas was willing to do – it was the Volador big match, but it was Negro Casas stealing the Volador spots at times and pulling them off nearly as well. The sunset flip powerbomb to the floor was crazy and probably ill advised, but he was also pulling off the Code Red and tried for a top rope headscissors. The Volador match formula can get a little much, but it felt liked a big epic in this situation. Like the other hair match, the crowd bought into the near falls even though it seemed less likely the underdog would actually win. It’s weird, but CMLL normal, that none of the angles they did played into this. (The plot line of CMLL referees being awful did – Tirantes totally screwed up the finish by not moving out of the corner, and the way they just kind of kept going thru it hurt.) This match succeeded by selling the magnitude of the situation even more than it did with big moves, and it’s totally watchable for that reason.