CMLL on Marca: 2018-12-28 

Recapped: 01/02/2019

Matches:

Arkalis & Oro Jr. beat El Coyote & Grako
(13:12 [5:41, 3:11, 4:20], 2/3, good,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Estrellita, Lluvia, Marcela beat Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
(13:35 [6:54, 3:08, 3:33], 1/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Audaz, Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr. beat Kawato, Okumura, Vangellys
(12:24 [4:53, 2:01, 5:30], 1/3, good,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Titán beat Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
(6:29 [3:44, 2:45], 1/2 COR, below average, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Dragón Lee, Místico, Volador Jr. beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(14:36 [2:47, 3:16, 8:33], 2/3, good,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Carístico beat Penta 0M
(13:25 [2:43, 2:32, 8:10], 1/3 DQ, great,VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

Carístico won the only clean finish to a fall in the first with a Canadian Destroyer. Penta kicked out of a second one in the third fall. Penta threw his mask to Carístico to draw the second fall DQ, and Carístico did the same in the third fall to get the deciding win.

Diamante Azul is out with a groin injury after his show. He appeared to pull it a couple minutes into the second fall. It’s either on the monkey flip he gives to Rey Bucanero or his usual misaimed spinning backbreaker run to Terrible. While the rudos are doing a usual regroup outside, Atlantis gets the referee to quick count them out to end the match as usual. Rey Bucanero dives in right at 20, expecting to break the count, but that’s it. Everyone besides Atlantis is confused and the rudos eventually just attack the referee and técnicos.

Thoughts: 

Penta and Caristico brought the best emotions of the night by a good distance, even if others had more spectacular moves. The crowd came in wanting to see this match and they gave them a great back and forth performance. They both looked sharp and took the crowd along with them the whole way. Carístico showed a willingness to take Penta’s more fearsome looking moves and Penta sold big for Carístico (and accidentally kicked someone in the face while jumping in the crowd on a dive.) The lack of a third fall pinfall is going to be a turnoff, but it is a fair idea in CMLL’s técnico revenge psychology. Carístico proved he could outsmart Penta even if he couldn’t get La Mistica on him.

The semimain was a strong showcase, though at times for the wrong guy. Doing the standard Místico showcase match didn’t make a whole lot of sense when the crowd reacted huge for Dragon Lee coming out there and when the crowd was going to have a lot of people who see him as replacing their hero, but CMLL is weird that way. Dragon Lee looked sharper and more into this match than his return a few days earlier, a lot closer to the level he was at before the reality show. Volador was relegated to the third most important guy on his team (or maybe fourth behind Monito), which is weird for him. The match wasn’t much about NGD but they did well as foils. This wasn’t far off great for me.

The fourth match is bizarre. It must’ve been even more so live. Knowing Diamante Azul was hurt explains a bit after and it was heading to a two fall finish anyway. Still, there are more elegant ways to end a match that a panicked countout, and they’re usually willing to continue the match while the injured person gets checked on. It didn’t even seem to be that serious at the moment. Atlantis and the referee should’ve handled it better. At least they didn’t ruin what seemed to be a good match.

The tercera was a borderline match – I’d have the opener ahead of it – but the energy of the crowd and a solid performance from a few of the wrestlers was enough for me to recommend it as watchable. It’s standard CMLL tercera lucha with no surprises but well executed. Flyer had a better match than his last notable time out, taking an impressive bump from Okumura’s reverse spinning DDT. Having Kawato be the guy catching for an Audaz dive seems like a high risk move but it went fine. Kawato is very OK right now, which is a high compliment from where he’s been. I’d like to see him add stuff now that he doesn’t seem overwhelmed – he’s still doing the NJPW trainee standard issue German suplex as a big move and pretty much everything he came into CMLL doing. Though, just doing the same moves forever fits in fine enough here.

Estrellita gets the crowd to care about these matches, even if she isn’t what you’d call good. The women’s match was more heated than usual with Estrellita & Dalys inventing a random feud, the sort of thing easily imaged as an apuesta match down the road with Estrellita’s increasingly reduced schedule. The generally excited crowd helped a lot too. The match peaked in that first fall and became very ordinary CMLL women’s match the rest of the way, though they tried a little more than usual with the finishes.

Coyote & Grako are on shows a lot lately. Maybe too much, maybe just a bit because some of the other opening match rudos are wrapped up in the garbage feud. They did demonstrate why it is helpful to have some young rudos around for these opening matches; the Inquisidor and Principe Odin types are probably not taking springboard headscissors to the floor from Oro Junior. They came off better here than their next match three days later, looking smooth and moving the match along. There was even the slightest flash of a personality. Oro did better than Arkalis, who is still doing the rookie bit where he doesn’t start getting in position for a move until it is actually time to do it, leaving the rudo to freeze for an embarrassing period. He got more on track later in the match, but it does seem like something that happens in Puebla a lot.