Recapped: 05/18/2017
Matches:
All matches aired live from Arena Mexico.
Apocalipsis & Artillero beat Bengala & Magia Blanca (11:55 [4:48, 3:06, 4:01], 2/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, ok)
Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico beat Aéreo, Eléctrico, Fantasy (12:47 [6:16, 2:40, 3:51], 2/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, ok)
Drone, Fuego, Star Jr. defeat Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
(15:02 [7:20, 4:07, 3:35], 1/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, ok)
Felino, Ripper, Sam Adonis defeat Blue Panther Jr., Soberano Jr., The Panther (11:55 [0:36, 6:07], 2/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, good)
Rey Cometa beat Cavernario (16:53, 2/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, great)
- Rey Cometa standing Spanish Fly (1:14)
- Barbaro Cavernario Rosa suplex (1:56)
- DQ Cavernario foul (14:03)
Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Titán beat Hechicero, Kráneo, Mr. Niebla (10:37 [2:50, 2:13, 5:34], 2/3, via VideosOficialesCMLL, ok)
What Happened:
Cavernario fouled Cometa to end their singles match. It seemed more out of frustration in his inability to win than trying to cheat.
Blue Panther & Ripper feuded!
There’s no sound for the first two falls of the main event; they turned it down for the commercial and didn’t remember to turn it back up.
That’s about it.
Review:
The singles match is the match to watch, a match near the level of their most recent Tuesday title match and a step above the Cometa/Soberano title match. It’s tense match feeling more like a fight with a lot at stake, and Cavernario brings the aggressiveness that’s not normally found in a tecnico/tecnico match. This was more about trying to win than the show off match on Friday. It felt like Cometa was barely getting in anything against his savage opponent, and Cavernario was increasingly frustrated at not being able to put Cometa away until he broke. The finish worked well for the context even if it is a let down from what the match could be. I suspect they just didn’t want Cometa to lose two singles matches in a week, and I hope they didn’t beat Cavenrario either because he’s going after Soberano next. That’s going to be similarly great when it happens, and helpful for Soberano to keep growing.
The tercera trios match was the best of the rest of the matches. The quick first fall actually worked here, giving the match an energy boost compared to the slow starting the rest of the night. (AAA almost always has hot starts, CMLL almost always has cold starts, both could use more mixing.) They kept up good pace and had some good action thru the match. Blue Panther Jr. looked better than usual, and Ripper & Panther bringing back the feud CMLL’s bookers forgot was a nice nod in a promotion where most of those things just get dropped after three weeks. This wasn’t the best match I’ve seen or anything, but we’d be a lot happier if this kind of match was the baseline instead of the B-show exception.
Everyone hit their marks in the main. There’s rarely any sloppiness in the show ending matches and there wasn’t really in this one either, but they can’t help but feel more like a choreographed action adventure stage show with no weight too it. It’s less a fight, more Marvel Heroes doing one of their three shows a day at Six Flags. It’s good for their target audience, it’s just disappointing not to be the target.
Bengala seemed excited in the opener. He was the only one. Of all the possible highspots in the second match, Pequeno Nitro doing a plancha to the floor would not have been my pick. Hechicero claimed Virus knew more holds than him when talking about the tercera. Hechicero has done fine in his first times as guest commentator the last couple of weeks; he tends to speak in paragraphs as always, but he comes off like he knows he what he’s talking about and is interested in the action.
