July 28, 2017 – luchablog

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-07-28

July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 thecubsfan

Recapped: 07/28/2017

Matches:

Eléctrico & Stukita beat Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
(16:42 [4:44, 2:46, 9:12], 1/3, ok)

Esfinge, Fuego, Pegasso beat Puma, Raziel, Tiger
(16:23 [6:20, 3:36, 6:27], 2/3, good)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Drone, Soberano Jr., Titán
(16:06 [5:03, 3:35, 7:28], 1/3, great)

Hechicero beat Stuka Jr. in a lightning match
(7:15, conjuro, good)

Blue Panther, Diamante Azul, Valiente vs Pierroth, Rush, Sam Adonis
(7:06 [1:38, 2:57, 2:31], 1/3, ok)

Carístico, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Último Guerrero
(11:49 [2:43, 3:27, 5:39], 2/3, good)

What Happened:

Niebla Roja beat Gran Guerrero in the main event and took his mask post match, further teasing a mask match between the two.

The first fall (Adonis) and the second fall (Panther) of the semimain both ended with someone shoving referee Edgar down. Blue Panther submitted Sam Adonis clean to the nudo lagunero in the third. Hype promos for next week followed.

Thoughts:

The main event was solid, with Mistico really carrying it thru with big spots. (Carístico had a La Mistica issue in the second fall, and there was a nearly as awkward spot where he was standing on the apron forever waiting for the careta to be set up.) They’re trying so hard to make Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero that it very slightly worked here but I think people would be disappointed with it as the Anniversario main event. It’s being forced to be something bigger than it is (a midcard match on the same lines of Adonis/Panther) and Niebla Roja is just not catching on. CMLL is so far behind this that it seems unlikely they’ll pull a detour, but it’s not a great path to be going down.

The semimain doesn’t fit the traditional good match description but it was a riot. Crowd keeps getting more into Sam Adonis; they’d be silly to have him lose right now, and the signs are he’s not. The disqualifications made the falls not be much but stirred up the emotion even more. The other four didn’t really fit in beyond having more people, but Diamante Azul third fall clothesline was really well timed and Rush played along with this well.

The lightning match wasn’t quite as good as some of the undercard, but it would’ve stood out on a lesser day. The early match work in this match was totally smooth. The rest of the match was more their ordinary bits, but done well. Maybe everyone in CMLL should stop going for moonsaults, they don’t work out for anyone.

The tercera looked like a show stealer on paper and lived up to it. The NGD as trios champs make sense because they come off as the possibly the best trio in Mexico. Their team work is great, their stomping the heck out of people to get boos is also great. The técnicos meshed together really well, with Drone stepping up level for the match and fitting in. There were some wild spots and some out of control moments: the triple corner dive looked like the end of them, btu they kept it together. There’s still room to improve with the NGD, they have moves that don’t come off as crisp or as impactful as they’d like. It’s crazy to think how much better they could end up getting.

The second match was good action the whole way thru. Fuego and these rudos have good chemistry, and Puma & Tiger push the pace really well. The match also randomly included a lot of hard running forearms to the face. Raziel looked a lot better than usual, with good people to push him to do more. All the lesser considers guys hit their spots and didn’t feel like they were lesser guys.

The opener looked like it was gong to be a pretty fun match, and actually was for a fall or two. They did a lot of good spots in the first fall and the rudos fought back with double teams nicely in the second. The crowd didn’t really give them a chance because it was an opener, but it was still watching until a lengthy and boring third fall. The rudos seemed to run out of things to do as they maintained control of the match, then técnicos comeback wasn’t all that exciting, and then the match just kept going and going for no particular reason. Match lost me by the end.

CMLL tonight, Alberto in Monterrey, Negro Navarro MMA, Santo 100th

July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 thecubsfan

MDA (SUN) 07/23/2017 Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon [+LuchaTV, LuchaMania Monterrey]
1) Androide & Vasco Jr. b Babe Fox & Última Sombra
2) Panthro & Vaquero Romo b Furor & Galactar
3) Antifaz, Caifan, Toscano b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Máximo, Rey Escorpión (Indie)
Toscano & Pirata were added to the match. Pirata snuck in a foul on Antifaz. Pirata challenged Antifaz to an apuesta match (noting Pirata Sr. once lost his hair to Antifaz.)
4) Dos Caras Sr. & Hijo De Dos Caras DRAW Charles Lucero & Hijo de LA Park
Charles Lucero replaced Super Parka. The fans didn’t like the draw finish but threw money in.
5) Alberto el Patrón b Cibernético, LA Park, La Máscara
LA Park was the most over of the bunch, though Alberto was still well cheered. La Mascara fouled LA Park, Cibernetico fouled La Mascara, Alberto submitted Cibernetico. Challenges followed, with Alberto making fun of people for always making post match challenges that never happen (which got some brief booing.)

The last we saw of Alberto and LA Park, they were the two making the big challenge which never happened (which Alberto might have been hinting at it there.) Building looks about 80-85% full, though they discounted tickets to get that much. MDA says they’ll air a TV show in Monterrey on TV Azteca Norte (7.2) at 10pm on Saturday, so this show might turn up – but there doesn’t appear to be an internet feed for me to record.

Today’s CMLL show is the quiet before a big couple months. It’s a show with some promising matches, but the bigger news shows are happening in August and September.

Right now, we’re still in the processing of guessing what’ll be on the big show on 09/16. CMLL again will present Niebla Roja against the Guerreros, which appears to be the best candidate because nothing else has been offered. Niebla Roja teams with Mistico & Caristico this week against Gran Guerrero, Ultimo Guerrero and Mephisto. It is about time they pick a direction, but there’s no sure sign they will.

The semimain has a clear direction: it’s Blue Panther & Sam Adonis meeting for the last time before their hair match. Rush & Pierroth will team with the only person hated more than them, and face Diamatne Azul and Valiente.

The rest of the card is just regular matches. Panther/Adonis should do OK on it’s own, but a second important match would help and perhaps something will emerge tonight. Hechicero faces Stuka in the lightning match. Drone, Soberano and Titan meet the new Mexican National Trios champs (and the still Occidente Trios champs) in the tercera. Puma & Tiger team with invincible Raziel to face Esfinge, Fuego and Pegasso. The show opens with an Electrico & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro minis match, which is one of the better minis matches CMLL can do if Mercurio & Nitro aren’t fooling around. I wonder if Pequeno Nitro is going to have to become Pequeno Consejo? (CMLL did briefly tease a mask feud with him and Fantasy.)

CultIcon also previews this show. It’ll air at 8:30pm on Claro and on Facebook. CMLL will have it on their YouTube channel about 20 minutes after it airs.

Negro Navarro, Solar Jr. and Canek Jr. will in having MMA bouts for Lutador MMA tonight. This was just announced a couple days ago and it seems awful quick to have those kind of matches (which may mean they’re not actually those kind of matches.) It’s so last minute that they’re not on the only fight card I can find. Solar Jr. and Canek Jr. will face each other, while Navarro faces Jean Montanez. They’re using CMLL edecanes as well, trying to pull in a lucha libre audience.

Mexico City’s government held a special celebration of the El Santo’s 100th birthday Thursday, with photographs and important people. They announced the Santo outdoor photo exhibition will now be extended to September 6th. They did not say anything about Hijo del Santo’s plan to run a show in the Zocalo in September, though it did at least coming up in passing. This seems like a function where that sort of announcement would be made if it was locked in to happening, but there’s still time left to figure it out.

Lucha Memes says they’re going to run the day after the Anniversary show. I think more people will be in town that day than the day after Gran Prix, but I think a lot more people will be running shows.

Sensacional de Luchador has an interview with Black Terry about his trip to Japan. Black Terry Jr. is going too, so perhaps we’ll end up seeing some videos of this trip.

The Crash promoter Nacho de la O told media at a press conference in Mexicali that The Crash would be on TV by the end of 2017. They had previously said they would be on TV by July. Nacho said they actually had two TV offers right now – which must not be that good, because otherwise they would’ve taken one or the other already. The Crash should probably avoid saying anything specifically about TV until they have something to firm to announce.

The Crash is coming to Guadalajara at some point. Mark all the days on your calendar.

Updated CMLL participation on the Ring of Honor/UK cards (via Hashtag Wrestling)

08/18: Titan vs KUSHIDA (c) [ROH TV], Dalton Castle, Boy 1, Boy 2 (c) vs Jushin Liger, Delirious, Misticio [ROH TRIOS], Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero

08/19 (iPPV): Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero vs Mistico & Titan

08/20: Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero vs Mark Briscoe & Jay Briscoe, Mistico & Titan matches still TBA

What we can learn from this is ROH still believes Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero are a tag team (or that their ROH fans will want to see them that way, which might be correct.) I’m going to guess that the 08/18 title match was going to be Mistico/Kushida originally, with the original idea doing a Masked Legends Trio to challenge for those belts.

LuchaWorld has a news update, a new edition of the podcast, and an interview with Tiger.

Segunda Caida reviews Black Terry & Diablo Jr. vs Los Traumas.

Kcidis draws some advice.

Lineups

IWRG (WED) 08/02/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Celestial Boy vs Tentáculo
2) Climax Jr. & Shaolin vs Atomic Star & Lunatic Xtreme
3) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Kanon vs Kempo Jr., Monaguillo, Warrior Jr.
4) Demasiado, Diva Salvaje, Miss Gaviota vs Acero, Demonio Infernal, Picudo Jr. [lumberjack]
5) Black Dragón, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly vs Diablo Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Imposible

The tecnicos are going by the Dynamic Dragons. I don’t know why the semimain is a lumberjack match and neither do you.

CMLL (TUE) 08/01/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Black Sugar & Vaquero Jr. vs Pitbull I & Ráfaga
2) Fiero, Magnum, Retro vs Grako, Maléfico, Templario
3) Astral, Blue Panther, Esfinge vs Disturbio, Sagrado, Virus
4) Johnny Idol, Niebla Roja, Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Sam Adonis
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Terrible, Último Guerrero

The CMLL rookies advance in Guadalajara in mass. They must be setting up something else to have Niebla Roja not be in a main event against Ultimo Guerrero, but who knows what.

07/27/2017 AAA TV results from Aguascalientes (final main taping before TripleMania)

July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 thecubsfan

AAA TV (THU) 07/27/2017 Palenque de la Fiera Nacional De San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes [AAA]
1) Angélico b Joe Lider
dark match. Angelico won via crucifix powerbomb.
2) Bengala b Australian Suicide, Venum, Máscara de Bronce, Niño Hamburguesa, Murder Clown, Monsther Clown [battle royal]
Probably start of Part 1. Winner gets a spot in the Copa TripleMania (others may not be involved in it.) Order of elimination: Mascara de Bronce, Venum, Australian Suicide, Nino Hamburguesa, Murder Clown, Murder Clown, leaving Bengala as the winner.
3) Argenis, La Parka, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin b Averno, Chessman, Pirata Morgan, Súper Fly
Averno fouled Pirata, and Lanzelot picked up the pin.
4) Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. b Johnny Mundo & Kevin Kross
Fantasma pinned Mundo after Texano was put thru a table. Vampiro confronted Mundo after the match.
5) Discovery (Aguascalientes) b Xtreme-X [hair, mask]
Discovery kept his mask, took Xtreme-X’s hair.
6) Lady Shani b Big Mami, Goya Kong, La Hiedra [Reina De Reinas, #1 Contenders]
Lady Shani beat La Hiedra to get the title shot at TripleMania.
7) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker b Aerostar, Drago, Raptor
Match went only about a minute. Raptor did a springboard plancha onto one of the other rudos before the match started, but the other two came thru the crowd and took out the tecnicos. Raptor was taken out (and said to be taken to the hospital) after a move in the aisle, and Drago was quickly double teamed and beat. The tecnicos lead the series 2-1.
8) Pagano & Psycho Clown b Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Mesías
Psycho won, but Wagner once again left him unmasked.

Air Date: 08/26 (hours before TripleMania) and 09/02.

You know what? This is going to come off as cruel and maybe even small minded, but it’s a busy day for me and this is a simple way to hack thru it. Let’s make this a “what’s AAA did wrong in this match” post to be quick about.

1: at least Angelico won? But it’s a dark match. Angelico not being in the plans for TripleMania is sort of fair – it was his choice to go elsewhere for a while, AAA had other things to do – but there’s no real reason he couldn’t have been in the #30 spot battle royal. Or Lider, for that matter. Maybe things will get better after this event cycle, but is only reluctantly using someone who should be an important piece for them.

2: and then the battle royal itself has people who were announced for other matches on TripleMania. Does that mean they’re working Copa TripleMania and working twice? Maybe. Maybe AAA just needed more bodies for a battle royal, but they didn’t use two guys they had. Mascara de Bronce, who’s occasionally teased as challenging for the title in this promotion, is thrown out first. It’s totally going to backfire if AAA puts the titles on Bronce, I like him a lot and do not want to see his career screwed up by a bad creative decision, and I really don’t understand why they haven’t used him stronger to this point.

3: You may remember Pirata Morgan turned on the OGT last time we saw him and had a second mysterious speech to La Parka. You may not remember this, because it hasn’t been followed up in weeks. You may remember that the tecnicos didn’t want anything to do with Ricky Marvin because he abandoned them. It’s unclear if anyone remembers any of this. AAA is doing far more storylines this year, but the week to week consistency is barely existent.

4: Obviously Mundo doesn’t have any big problems if he’s taking pinfalls. The post match was Mundo & Vampiro replaying their bit from Tijuana, where Mundo wants to give up the belts but Vampiro says giving up the belts is disrespectful to lucha libre history and says Hijo del Fantasma & Texano are going to beat him for them. The AAA recap gives the impression that Hijo del Fantasma and Texano stand meekly off camera while this is happening, they are not functional character in their own storyline. On Facebook, Vampiro put over his favorite performer (Vampiro) for his performance. Vampiro is really good at getting himself over with these bits, Vampiro is not really good at getting anyone else over, it’s unclear if this bothers anyone in AAA. (Not just AAA – LU’s Cero Miedo was all about Vampiro being awesome for going thru the flaming table, and Vampiro being awesome for revealing himself as Pentagon’s master. It’s always going to be about Vampiro.)

5: No one should ever call themselves Xtreme-X. I want a national lucha commission just to veto stupid names, and I want to have that job. If you come in with any version of the word Extreme, any Dragon or any Sexy, you are being rejected. There are enough of all those already.

6: Lady Shani is now in line for the title shot at TripleMania. She still may not be the only one getting it; MedioTiempo mentions the possibility of unnamed foreign women being brought into get the shot too. On +LuchaTV’s podcast, Sexy Star made it clear that she was back in AAA to be champion but the actual women in AAA weren’t worth her time. Shani’s the best woman AAA could’ve chosen of those who were there, There’s a possibly really good story that could be told her about Shani avenging her real life friend/mentor Taya to get back the title she never lost, but she’s at best just the opponent for Sexy Star to beat, and possibly will still have only a minor role on TripleMania. AAA needs to be making stars who want to work for the promotion, and will instead be using them as filler.

7: Poder del Norte vs Aerostar, Drago and Raptor seems like the best match on the show, so it goes sub 2 minutes. When I saw this result, I thought the tecnicos were going to get forced into having Match 4 on the same night, battle valiantly but lose to tie the series. Instead, the whole thing goes on hiatus for weeks.

8: Dr. Wagner standing over Psycho Clown is a great visual to set up TripleMania. That match is slotted to air the week after TripleMania. I’d like to have hope that they’ll switch things around, but they haven’t bothered in the past.

The next main taping is August 26th for TripleMania – but AAA is doing La Llave a La Gloria on Saturday in Ceyala and 08/15 in Naucalpan, and I’ve realized those are parts of AAA I’m actually more interested in by right now. So look forward to those.

El Rey at TCAs: Lucha Underground S4 “looks good”, Bushido Battleground

July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 thecubsfan

The semiannual Television Critics Association is taking place. El Rey, the home of Lucha Underground, doesn’t really rate high enough to get it’s own presentation time at this point. They do rate high enough to buy the critics lunch and have a quick conversation with them over the meal, and that’s what happened yesterday.

The headline grabber was IGN’s quick interview with Skip Chaissen, who’s technically the Chief Creative Officer for El Rey, but also probably better know to use as the guy who’s in charge of the Lucha Underground vignettes. Chaissen said LU S4 “looks good” and he and Robert Rodriguez love the show, but could not confirm a renewal. This is exact same thing other El Rey/Lucha Underground people have been saying for months, both on the record and behind the scenes, but it feels like news in a vacuum of any information about Season 4. It’s not really anything we didn’t know before, it just may stop people for panicking for a couple weeks before something else triggers it.

(It remains the position of this blog that El Rey wants to bring back Season 4 and would announce it this very moment if they could, but El Rey can not afford to pay for themselves and the hold up is seeing if the other owners – MGM? other mysterious people? – also want to come back for a Season 4. It remains the position of this blog that we’re not going to get a yes or no on Season 4 until Season 3 has finished airing. It also remains the position of this blog that this uncertainty is driving everyone involved insane.)

The actual news in that piece is El Rey is having discussions about “where to place [Lucha Underground] on the schedule going forward.” That means they’re at least considering moving it off Wednesday. It’d probably help a little bit not to be heads up against the “live” airing of NXT, but there’s not many places to move too which doesn’t already have some wrestling programming. Also, my hunch is that the percentage of delayed watching (DVR, Amazon/iTunes, even Netflix) is pretty high for Lucha Underground and a chance of time isn’t going to really affect that either way.

The thing El Rey actually wanted to talk about is it’s next new show, Bushido Battleground. If you’ve ever seen a UFC or MMA or WWE show that follows people behind the scenes training for a big match and then having the big match, that seems to be what this is. It’ll be a ten episode, two hour series (notable because everything else El Rey has done has been one hour.) Lucha Underground and the current El Rey martial arts films are mentioned in the release; this show is supposed to sit along with it.

Probably literally sit along with it. As we know, the reason Season 3 was cleaved in half was because El Rey wanted Lucha Underground to still be running when they had their new series ready, and those series weren’t going to be ready until Summer 2017. That press release for Bushido Battleground does not have even an estimated air date. It took about six months for Rite of Passage & Man at Arms to go from announcement to TV screen. LUS3 ends in the middle of October 2017. Six months from today is February 2018. Expect another significant break between seasons.

The Crash: 2017-04-05

July 28, 2017July 27, 2017 thecubsfan

Recapped: 07/17/2017

All matches took place at Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal on 04/05/2017.

(more GIFs I didn’t use are here.)

Matches:

Arkángel Divino, Black Boy (Baja California), Zumbi beat Astrolux, Black Danger (Baja California), Último Maldito
(8:02, Arkangel super mistica on Ultimo Maldito, great, via +LuchaTV)

They told everyone to go nuts in the opener and they went nuts for a crazy eight minute spot fest. Arkrangel & Último Malidto stuff depends on practicing positioning and good timing, but can look out of this world when it all lines up and this was a really good night for that. Astrolux was part of everything else exciting, whether it was planned ot be one or not. (No one was having a good night at catching dives.) Astrolux is so light that he can do incredible flips and be thrown around easily, and it’s all going to be about how well he can survive the insanity. This was totally insane and he did survive it.

Zumbi makes sure Astrolux didn’t die so he can kill him himself

Keira won the The Crash Women’s Championship in an elimination match
(11:05, via +LuchaTV)

champion Sexy Star abandoned the match with an ankle injury
Keira Devil’s Wings Candy White (6:21)
Lady Maravilla northern lights suplex Laura Van Ness (7:24)
Lady Maravilla spinning side slam Santana Garrett (8:33)
Keira capture cradle suplex Lady Maravilla (11:05)

My philosophy on The Crash shows is to watch all the matches, provided there’s a full length version out there. This is a match I definitely would’ve skipped if was more choosey, and I would’ve missed a fun match. It doesn’t really hit the extra gear until the last couple minutes of usual partners Keira and Maravilla going full out against each other, but it’s still fun as soon as Sexy Star leaves the match. She’s not that bad, it’s just a whole lot of her to get in her time before her worked injury, and the match is just an OK point until Maravilla & Keira start taking everyone out. It’s better usage of random one off foreigners than usual. Garrett and Von Ness do fine, but the match is not really about them, they’re just bodies for the regulars to eliminate. Maravilla had some really impressive moments and still gets eclipse by Keira, a world class wrecking machine who probably should put this performance on some permanent highlight reel. All her offense looks devastating, and she comes off as much more imposing than her size would seem to allow. Keira’s been arguabale the best indie luchadora since 2015, but somehow she’s getting even better.

Maravilla makes Candy White look like she has a rubber upperbody

Rey Horuz won a #1 contenders match for The Crash Cruiserweight championship over Laredo Kid, Mr. 450, Séptimo Dragón, Último Ninja, and DJZ
(13:50 Rey Horuz super casadora bomb on DJZ, good, via +LuchaTV)

The six way contenders match is the one where DJZ suffered an injury (on the Laredo Kid stacked up 450 splash) that would led to him nearly dying in the hospital a few hours later. The injury is not at all graphic or even really identifiable: if you knew DJZ got hurt but didn’t know when, you might think it happened on the finish instead. Still, I have trouble enjoying or recommending a match where people suffer near fatal injuries and this one didn’t come together in a way to change my mind. It felt like they peaked early on and couldn’t get the match going to that level again, though that finish did look huge. eptimo Dragon looked better here than he has in other Crash matches, Último Ninja a little bit worse. DJZ fit in with these guys outside of the nearly dying that thing and would be a welcome addition if he ever heads back to Mexico.

Jack Evans, Máscarita Dorada, Willie Mack defeated ACH, Bestia 666, Black Tauro (Elite) (15:49, The Mack Chocolate Thunder Driver Bestia, good, via LuchaTime)

I think a comedy match was a good change of pace in the fourth match but it still was kind of a goofy comedy match that probably won’t play well outside of that context. Highlight was Black Taurus asking his friend ACH if he would like to also beat up the small person. ACH declined. Action was fine, but not at the level of the other matches, and watching on the different camera made it a little less appealing. (They did pretty well for a fancam though.) It did get more serious as they went along and Jack looked really sharp in this match. Mack winning is really quite random given where they were going. ACH always gets over when he comes to Mexico and seems like he’d do exceptionally well in Mexico but he’d also probably get bored with the limitations of the format. A Mexican promotion bringing him for three weeks every few months would work well, but doesn’t seem realistic.

Daga beat Extreme Tiger
(5:24, backcracker, ok, via +LuchaTV)

I don’t know what happened with the Tiger/Daga match, but the result was disappointing given the names. It was simply a five minute match with a chinlock and Daga not doing that much. If you hadn’t seen him before, he looked like a random guy who happened to be facing Extreme Tiger. A slower match on a match with lot of crazy matches has to be something special to stand out, and this was nothing special at all.

Bobby Lashley, Carlito, Jeff Cobb beat Blue Demon, Brian Cage, Garza Jr. (9:21, Lashely foul Garza, ok, via LuchaTime)

If you want a long time spent watching Carlito trying to unmask Blue Demon away from the camera, this semimain is the match for you. This match is a waste of some entertaining people and also Carlito. Brian Cage nearly ends himself on a bad dive and that was the moment where it was clear nothing good was coming of this match. This was a baffling finish, Garza coming off like a good by ripping off his pants and immediately getting fouled. They seemed headed to Lashley/Garza at this point so it kind of made sense, but Garza as a tecnico didn’t seem to win a whole lot.

Penta Zero M, Rey Fénix, Rey Mysterio 619 beat Cody Rhodes, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Sami Callihan
(17:27, Rey Mysterio frogsplash Sami Callihan, good, via +LuchaTV)

The main event was better than the couple matches that preceded it, but it felt more like guys doing a B main even than the higher energy matches we had seen before. Some of it’s the length, with them slowing way down (a chinlock!) to stretch it out a bit. Nakajima seemed to disappear for about half this match, but he was fine while he was in, and I liked him better than Cody. It picked up at the end and wasn’t a waste of time, but it seemed more fun live on Periscope than on the rewatch months later.

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