CMLL on NJPW World: 2019-01-25 

Recapped: 01/27/2019

This is the 12/30 show, airing on 01/25 on NJPW World.

Matches:

Nitro, Sangre Azteca, Virus beat Black Panther, Drone, Magnus
(12:24 [5:23, 2:18, 4:43], 1/3, ok, 00:05:26)

Titán  beat Felino in a lightning match
(5:59, casita, ok, 00:26:23)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Atlantis, Shocker, Valiente
(11:14 [2:18, 4:28, 4:28], 1/3, ok, 00:46:18)

Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. beat Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero
(12:24 [6:02, 2:11, 4:11], 2/3 DQ, good, 00:57:57)

What happened: 

Último Guerrero unmasked Carístico for main event DQ.

Shocker is a fill-in on the técnico side for Diamante Azul in the semi-main. He fights the NGD but doesn’t get along with his partners. Atlantis actually hiptosses Shocker in the third fall, Shocker attacks Atlantis, and Sansón immediately cradles Atlantis for the win. Valiente gets punched in the face too.

Thoughts: 

The main event was wrestled at Friday level, with Místico breaking out more big spots than expected on a big show. Carístico and Último Guererro feuded – to build up a match that CMLL never got around to happening – and do fine doing it. The other four show more, with Templario & Gran Guerrero doing some of the fun teamwork spots. The crowd is into this the whole way and Templario being in with the top guys and not looking the slightest bit out of place is nice to see.

Titan/Felino is a lot of the stuff seen with them in trios matches for the first four minutes – Felino & Zacarias dance, Zacarias gets blown up by a Titan dropkick. It escalates with a nice sunset flip powerbomb and Felino is trying a lot harder than usual in the last few minutes. That stage isn’t long enough to develop into anything big but it felt more worth your time than it would indicate on name alone.

Someone I don’t know mentioned the tercera here was a good match. I’m not sure if I would go that far, but it was better than usual. The second and third falls finished up strong, with especially a lot going on to end the match. There was a tease of the Black Panther/Virus mat exchanges that have disappeared in the last year, and Drone’s sunset flip set up to the Panther boomerang kick was a good idea that needs slightly better timing. Sangre Azteca & Nitro hold no surprises but this was about as good as match gets with them involved at this point.