Recapped: 03/20/2017
Matches:
Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis beat by DQ Estrellita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit (falls 2/3, 13:09 [6:34, 3:22, 3:13], ok)
Dragón Lee, Stuka Jr., Titán beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja (falls 2/3, 11:52 [3:19, 2:35, 5:58], good)
Kráneo, La Máscara, Rush beat Atlantis, Carístico, Marco Corleone (straight falls, 8:01 [2:03, 5:40], ok)
Último Guerrero beat Matt Taven to keep the NWA World Middleweight Championship (falls 1/3, 16:26 [4:51, 2:11, 9:23], good)
Sky Team (Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr.) defeated Hechicero, Luciferno, Mephisto to keep the CMLL World Trios Championship (falls 2/3, 16:01 [2:31, 1:39, 10:27], good)
Diamante Azul defeated Pierroth in a mask vs mask match (falls 2/3, 12:20 [0:46, 2:16, 9:18], below average])
This was a $3 VOD on CMLL’s YouTube channel. All matches were taped the day of the iPPV in Arena Mexico.
What happened:
Diamante Azul unmasked Pierroth, who was announced as Arturo Munoz, 48. Pierroth took the first fall cleanly, then lost the second by unmasking Diamante Azul. La Mascara tripped Diamante Azul as he ran in the ropes in the third (not that he was any close to winning.) Maximo went after La Mascara, and Marco, Terrible and Rush all got involved in a very brief but intense scrum. Commissioner Rambo, with no help from anyone else, got all five guys to walk to the back. Azul & Pierroth froze to watch this, restarted as they were leaving, and Azul had German suplexed Pierroth for the win before they actually got to the back. Pierroth went after Azul after the match, their feud must continue.
Zeuxis and Princesa Sugehit had issues thru the match, with Zeuxis unmasking Sugehit for the DQ. Zeuxis was wearing a Navarro/Trauma mask and walked out to their music as a tribute to her original maestro. Estrellita slipped climbing the ropes for a dive and fell hard on the floor on her hip (but reported no major injury in the following day.)
Rush stole a pin on Marco Corlone with outside help from La Mascara (not eliminted, but using the ropes.) He and Atlantis had minor issues.
Niebla Roja & Dragon Lee slightly feuded in their match, though you’d have to be looking for it to even notice it was there.
There’s nothing much to note about the title matches, there were no stories or controversy to the results (except the Sky Team briefly forgot Mephisto was the captain.) Fans threw in money after the UG/Taven match. Mephisto dressed in pink, with a pink mask and robe, as a tribute to Villano III.
Villano III was honored prior to the main event, joined by his two sons to accept a plaque. He seemed touched by the fans reaction and his son’s praise, and was moved to tears after removing his mask.
CMLL again cut out the dance segments, showing the Villano III autobiographical interviews instead. We appeared to miss a Pink Panther themed dance before the main event.
Thoughts:
There’s nothing must see here, with the big title matches falling a little short and nothign really surprised it. You’ll miss nothing that’ll show up on anyone’s MOTYC list if you skipped it becuase there was a price attached or because Azul/Pierroth annoyed you.
The main event was not as terrible as it could be, and not as destructive as Volador/Yoshitatsu, but not at the level of Volador/Ephesto in matches that probably shouldn’t have happened. Pierroth’s offense looked as horrible as usual, Pierroth sucked at catching dives as much as usual, and their best attempt at hiding it was doing a shorter version of a normal CMLL main event. It didn’t work, and Diamante Azul wasn’t great shakes either. The fans whistling came thru much louder on the periscopes I was watching than live, and there was a bigger reaction for the finish than I would’ve thought, but it wassn’t close to the level of a big show main event. My favorite part, also clear on the periscopes than the VOD, is how both men missed top rope moves by so much that the other person didn’t really even have to roll out of the way (maybe because they didn’t trust it happening.) The brawling outside the ring came across as much better than anything did in the actual match.
Sky Team vs Hechicero/Mephisto/Luciferno was good, but sloppier than usual. Hechicero & Mistico started off really well together, and then didn’t come finish well with a couple of noticable spots. They haven’t worked a lot together, and the big show fans were all over Mistico for existing. The Sky Team did all sorts of dives, and this was as much an exhibition for them as all the Sky Team matches are on big shows, but there’s now been quite a lot of those and this one didn’t quite meausre up to the intensity of those. They went as far to have Volador eliminated in the third fall to tease the title change, but then rushed the match over so quick that the rudos never even got a near fall before Valiente took the win. They could’ve gotten more of that sequence and of this match. It did mean Valiente got another big win on a big show.
Ultimo Guerrero vs Matt Taven was just Taven plugged into every UG match. The first two falls were not much at all. It picked up in the third fall, with Taven using some offense (headlock DDT, neckbreaker) that’s at least novel in this part, but otherwise looing not quite as impressive as his match with Rush last September. Crowd got into it because they love Ultimo Guerrero and they billed it as a Mexico vs USA thing, but the quality of the match was just average for this type of match. CMLL really needed one or both of these title matches to come up big to make this show worthwile. Both were good, but neither were special.
first two fall really not much, third fall totally the UG special with Taven’s offense plugged in. Taven looked better close to the end, but rarely came close to winning and ddin’t really stand out. Can’t believe they threw monye in, but that’s part of the bit.
The Ingobernales put together a better match for the big show and the crowd reacted to the big moments (mostly Atlantis related), but the match itself wasn’t really all that memorable. Rush was the star of this match, both on offense and selling dramatically for the técnicos before getting the pin. He made Marco look great before stealing the pin. Caristico sliding in a second too late for a countout and complaining about it was a great Caristico moment.
The segunda was both good and disappointing; I didn’t realize it short than usual (and shorter than opener) until adding up the times, but it did feel like they didn’t get to go as far as usual. What they had time for generally went well, though I was surprised to see Euforia help Dragon Lee with his ramp springboard headscissors rather than let him climb or jump himself. Guess they wanted to make sure that didn’t go wrong on a big stage. I wanted more out of Nieba and Dragon Lee, but the big stuff they all did near the end worked well and the dive counters in the third fall. Still, no near falls, they were just doing the normal midcard match. I was not a big fan of the Guerrero fashion. Neon green and Niebla red don’t work well together, and Gran Guerrero going with plain trunks under the battle skirt feels imcomplete.
The effort was up on the women’s match, but the results were not. Amapola & Marclea looked like they’re getting ready for their ROH matches with better work here, and Sugehit & Zeuxis had a fun last minute (especially the smart way they did the mask pull), but Tiffany struggled as usual and Estrellita wasn’t much good before her blown dive at the end of the match. Zeuxis’ mask looked great and I enjoyed the other rudas being totally supportive of Zeuxis’ decision to unmask Sugehit.
