CMLL on Marca: 2019-06-14

Recapped: 06/14/2019

Matches:

Magia Blanca & Star Jr. beat Akuma & Espanto Jr.
(10:25 [3:50, 2:25, 4:10], 2/3, ok, 00:01:35)

Esfinge, Rey Cometa, Tritón beat Kawato San, Pólvora, Tiger
(10:52 [3:46, 7:06], 1/2 DQ, good, 00:19:02)

Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Valiente beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Hijo del Villano III
(14:09 [3:58, 4:10, 6:01], 1/3, good, 00:39:45)

Euforia beat Rey Bucanero in a lightning match
(8:47, inside cradle, below average, 01:04:02)

The dumb battle royal lasted 1:24

Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja beat Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero in a Copa Dinastia quarterfinal
(5:51, ok, 01:24:02)

Dragón Lee & Místico beat Máscara Año 2000 & Sansón in a Copa Dinastia quarterfinal
(4:40, ok, 01:32:55)

Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja beat Dragón Lee & Místico in a Copa Dinastia semifinal
(12:35, good, 01:40:15)

Austin Theory, Carístico, Volador Jr beat Cavernario, Negro Casas, Rush
(9:32 [2:06, 3:29, 3:57], 2/3, ok, 01:57:25)

What happened:

Austin Theory won in his CMLL debut.

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja advanced to the finals of Copa Dinastia. They will face Rush & La Bestia del Ring next week.

Tiger pulled Triton’s mask for a DQ in the second match. He then took Triton’s replacement mask too.

In post-match promos, Dragon Lee announced he was vacating the CMLL Lightweight Championship.

Thoughts:

This was a better show than the lineup suggested. Copa Dinastia was much better and the midcard matches delivered more than expected.

Austin Theory’s debut went well. He got in a few impressive moves, he got some air on his dropkicks and he stood out. This would’ve been the nice start to a month or two run, though I’m still skeptical we’ll even see him in CMLL again. Maybe it’ll encourage CMLL to continue to bring people in from The Crash. The match itself was definitely on the short side. It was for the best, a long match wouldn’t have worked as well after a length show and a heated match prior.

The Copa Dinastia seems to have been ill constructed. The Dragon Lee/Mistico vs Angel de Oro/Niebla Roja match came off as a worthy final, only instead the Chavez brothers are moving onto face the lesser Munoz team next week. Much like Soberano/Euforia last week, the Guerreros were ushered out in shockingly quick fashion. At least they lost to a better team. Mascara 2000 did not fit in at all in his match, making it a 2 on 1 often even before he was eliminated. Perhaps CMLL didn’t want to beat the Sanson/Cuatrero team (though the teams they did pin are just as protected), but sticking in Forastero or even Universo 2000 Jr. would’ve been an improvement.

The Chavez vs Munoz block final stood out enough that it’s worth a watch even outside of the context of the tournament. They attempted to wrestle tecnico/tecnico style, though the crowd surprisingly turned again the Chavez brothers a bit. Mistico & Dragon Lee again appeared to be a promising team when given a chance to wrestle as a pair. Both teams kept up the action thru a long match by tournament standards. Even if this couldn’t be the final for whatever they’re setting up next week, this would’ve been better as the first week of the tournament. Knowing Dragon Lee & Mistico couldn’t advance (because CMLL’s not going to book them against their father) hurt the drama tremendously for me. It didn’t seem to bug the crowd as much. They were into the show all night long, strongest during this match.

Euforia/Bucanero was a mistake on paper that proved to be a bad idea in the ring. Rey Bucanero heroically did his semi-annual crazy dive early on to make this work. It was crazy and it also seemed to exhaust him for the rest of the match. Nothing went seriously wrong, this just moved at a snail’s pace compared to the rest of the show and felt like it lasted forever. I suspect this match was done to get both closer to their promised amount of bookings for a month, not because anyone thought it would be good. It just shows the problems of CMLL’s setup.

The reaction I saw on Twitter was a lot more enthusiastic about the tercera than I came away with it, so maybe I’m just off. I’m still not particularly impressed by the rookies and Valiente didn’t have an especially good night. Still, Soberano was great and this match came together as more of a group effort than anything else. This trios got significantly more time than the matches underneath it (and the ones after it) and squeezed in a lot more highspots for that time.

Tiger & Triton gave the segunda much more of a direction, unexpected as it was. (It was also a relief, given Kawato & Esfinge interacting a lot earlier in the match. I don’t rule that out totally.) Tiger continues to be in great form in this matches when give a chance to do something, though maybe he should be aiming higher than his post-show challenge for the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship. CMLL seemed to take the restrictions off the second match guys on this show. Cometa’s running Spanish Fly to the was nutty, even more so since Kawato was the guy taking it. Kawato’s kicks are looking good. Hope his knee is as well after that landing.

Espanto Jr. crotched himself on the finish of the opener, so business as usual there. The rest of the match had some good spots and slow speed into and out of them. The other three wrestlers all still show promise but don’t seem like they have any chance of developing here. Magia Blanca could really use a good indie booking for us to find out if he can do more than he’s shown in CMLL since returning from injury.