CMLL Best of 2018 card (with never before seen matches) tonight, Atlantis Jr.

CMLL has run a “best of the previous year’ show on the first Friday of the year for the last few years. Today’s show is titled the same – Las Mejor Luchas del 2018 – though it’s a bit different than past ones. The rematches of matches that we never really really seen.

The main, a trios title match, took place on April 22 and was called by the promotion at the time as one of the matches of the year. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday match and never was streamed. It is a similar story with Dragon Lee versus Cavernario, which took place on February 4th and March 4th on untelevised Sunday shows. Maybe those matches will be a good as they were those times we didn’t see them, but perhaps people would be more excited for the rematches if they saw the original match.

Los Ingobernables versus Atlantis, Kraneo, and Volcano (in for Diamante Azul) is a rematch from the Rush/Kraneo feud that set up Kraneo on the tecnico side. They had matches on the 04/13, 04/20 and 05/18 show. None of the matches were good, but getting Kraneo (& Volcano) over as fan favorites had been an emphasis of 2018.

Caristico, Volador Jr. & Valiente versus Ultimo Guerrero, Mephisto, Euforia also took place on 04/13, a good match I do not remember. Titan vs Triton is another Sunday match – same 04/22 show as the trios title match. (It sure looks like CMLL “Best of 2018” was restricted to plucking things off a few months of shows.) The opener, Templario, Gran Guerrero, Ephesto versus Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, and Stuka, is the sole match which is not a repeat.

This should be a great card. Maybe it’ll actually be better than the previous shows. The matches on those shows tended to be close to but still a little short of the original matches. There are not the same memories to live up to when these “repeat” matches are actually new to the pretty much everyone who doesn’t work with CMLL. Dragon Lee versus Cavernario is one of the best singles matches CMLL has to offer among full-time wrestlers, matches similar to the trios title match has often been quite good, and the undercard has a lot of quality wrestlers. There’s no reason to suspect the Ingobenable/Kraneo match will be good by conventional standards but there’s plenty here for an entertaining show.

The show starts at 8:30 pm on Marca (currently Mexico only) and Facebook (open for everyone). I plan on streaming on YouTube unless I fall into a deep sleep. Lucha Central has a preview.

This will be the last Friday night show with the full CMLL roster for a couple of weeks. FantasticaMania kicks off a week from today. CMLL will give us a first look at what things will look like in Mexico when they announce the names for next week and when the card comes out later Saturday. It will probably not be pretty.

Fantastica Mania lineups are due out this weekend. I think the usual pattern has them out Saturday night around 11 pm, but I could be a day early. I expect a lot of title matches.

CMLL’s Wednesday press interviews included Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., and La Metalica. The Metalica articles don’t really hhve anything new. The Atlantis Jr. interview was crashed by Nueva Generacion Dinamita, who were upset about Atlantis Jr. already saying he’s going to be one of the best. I hope Atlantis Jr. is one of the best because we’re stuck with him in a for a long time either way and probably in a top role at least for the short term. Atlantis Jr. himself noted he’s already gotten the Villanos and the Dinamtias after him and figured he’ll have to deal with the Guerreros and Mano Negra’s family too. Sanely is fearsome.

Longtime Monterrey referee El Yaqui (Marcelino Sánchez Martínez) passed away yesterday. Azteca 7 says it was due to complications from cancer. He started as luchador Mecanico, then retired from the ring due to injuries. He returned as a referee in 2001 and stood out for his blond hair.

Draztick Boy says his goal for 2019 are trips to Japan, the UK, Germany or some other country. He says he didn’t travel much in 2018 to build up his name in Mexico, which led to those AAA dates.

There will be a DTU vs bodybuilders soccer game in Tulancingo on Sunday.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.