CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-06-16 (Soberano wins Gran Alternativa)

Recapped: 06/16/2016

Matches: 

1. Raziel & Virus beat Magia Blanca & Sangre Imperial (12:31+ [3:50+, 3:23, 5:18], 1/3, ok?)
2. Dragón Rojo Jr., Misterioso Jr., Pólvora  beat Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr.(13:40 [5:48, 3:13, 4:39], 2/3, ok)
3. Shocker, Terrible, Vangellys beat Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush in a relevos increíbles match (16:18 [2:12, 5:36, 8:30], 2/3, bad)
4. Dragón Lee beat Cavernario in a lightning match (9:42, hanging double stomp, good)
5. Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas (5:09 [3:36, 1:33], 1/2 DQ, ok)
6. Carístico & Soberano Jr. beat Sansón & Último Guerrero in a CMLL Gran Alternativa Tournament final (19:39 [4:25, 2:50, 12:24], 2/3, excellent)

What happened: 

Soberano Jr. & Carístico won the 2017 Gran Alternativa, cleanly defeating Sansón & Último Guerrero by taking the last two falls of a spectacular main event.

Gran Guerrero unmasked and humiliated Niebla Roja in the semifinal, at the cost of losing his own match in straight falls. The Guerreros continue to make Niebla Roja pay for his behavior and for wearing the Guerrero mask.

Vangellys fouled Pierroth to defeat him, somewhat getting the best of him two weeks in a row.

CMLL promoted a concert taking place on July 29^th harder than they promote most of their shows (and we’ll probably see the ad for the next six weeks.)

Misterioso is making a low key point of unmasking a técnico after every match now. It doesn’t look like he’s getting that Soberano feud, so he’s going to go after everyone.

Thoughts: 

This looked like a really strong complete show on paper. It turned into a two match show, but those two matches really delivered.

The main event was all about making Soberano. Último Guerrero was the exact perfect opponent for him, working with him as he had with Mistico and Sombra and another Mistico in the past, making each other look brilliant from their first fall exchange on. Guerrero sold it like he was frustrated by this youngster, and bested by him at the end. Carístico was obviously super motivated by both the spotlight and the outcome, trying to keep up with Soberano’s spectacular moves. Sansón wasn’t given as much in this match – the Copa Junior was a better spotlight for him – but he made the most of what he got to do and didn’t feel out of place. Soberano did everything he needed to do as well as he could do it. CMLL’s gotten behind him in a major way, and he’s shown they made the right call.

There’s some shakeyness near the end. Sansón & Soberano have a super complicated sequence when seems to end not how it planned. The actual finish of the match seems a little too soon. It’s enough to make me debate which grade to put on it. The idea behind a scale is that an excellent match is that anyone who has interest in wrestling, not just lucha libre, should check the match out. This match has a few flaws but fits that criteria.

Dragon Lee & Cavernario shouldn’t be overlooked. This was not their best match, due a malfunctioning front cracker spot early on and whatever plans they had for apron insanity going awry, but 85% of what they wanted to do is still pretty exciting. It got better as they want along, and Dragon Lee seems like he’s picked up a few tricks from Japan that he’s just waiting to try out: the rolling slam into a moonsault into a Spanish Fly was new for Arena Mexico. This was oe where the time limit draw would’ve been an acceptable finish, but at least we’ll get a few more minutes of them in upcoming matches.

The rest of the show had some low moments. The semimain just wasn’t much, a hurried match just to re-enforce the storyline. It might have been cut short because other things went long. The Pierroth/Vangellys match very visibly derailed for a while; I think people were out of position for the comeback spot and it took about two minutes of talking and standing around to get them where they wanted. The rest of the match was not good. It’s a testament to how hot the crowd was for the show that this they survived one of the worst matches of the year without really being hurt for the rest of the show. The second match was missing a lot of the usual rhythm and crispness with that group of guys. Only half the opener aired on the stream, but what we saw included Sangre Imperial screwing something up badly and/or Virus sabotaging him, so I don’t think we missed all that much.