Day: December 19, 2019

CMLL Martes: 2019-12-03

thecubsfan
Espirtiu Negro getting close to Principe Diamante

Recapped: 12/03/2019

Matches:

Pequeño Violencia & Pierrothito beat Fantasy & Último Dragóncito
(13:53 [4:30, 5:05, 4:18], 1/3, ok, 00:00:00)

Cancerbero, Espíritu Negro, Raziel beat Eléctrico, Pegasso, Príncipe Diamante
(10:57 [3:14, 4:53, 2:50], 1/3, ok, 00:20:57)

Guerrero Maya Jr. beat Blue Panther Jr., Drone, Sangre Imperial, Toro Bill Jr., Oro Jr., Hijo del Signo, Leono, Tiger, Yago in a CMLL La Copa Junior semifinal match
(19:53, good, 00:40:47)

  • 7:08 Oro Jr. moonsault Leono
  • 7:42 Hijo de Signo armbar Sangre Imperial
  • 9:08 Drone reverse figure four Toro Bill Jr.
  • 10:12 Tiger casita Yago
  • 11:04 Blue Panther Jr. side slam Hijo del Signo
  • 11:29 Guerrero Maya Sacrifica Maya Oro Jr.
  • 13:03 Tiger powerbomb Drone
  • 14:01 Blue Panther Jr. nudo laugnero Tiger
  • 19:53 Guerrero Maya Tormento Maya Blue Panther Jr.

Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Niebla Roja beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(20:06 [5:22, 7:00, 7:44], 1/3, ok, 01:11:11)

Euforia beat Carístico
(14:48 [4:12, 10:36], 1/2, good, 01:40:25)

What happened:

Euforia both fouled Caristico and pulled off his mask for the win.

The dumb battle royal (2:35) set sides as Drone, Sangre Imperial, Yago, Blue Panther Jr., Oro Jr., and Leono, Tiger, Hijo del Signo, Toro Bill Jr. (CDMX debut) and Guerrero Maya Jr. Late in the match, Blue Panther makes a point of untying Guerrero Maya’s mask, then ramps him into the post on the apron. Maya’s mask clearly comes off – clear to everyone but Pompin, who just counts Maya out as he gets reset on the outside. It felt like that was maybe meant to be a DQ, but they play off it on the next spot and keep going for another minute.

Espiritu Negro bumped into Bestia Negra, fouled Principie Diamante, but was caught before the pin was counted.

Pierrothito grabs the microphone to cut a promo before the match starts. Unfortunately, CMLL has not turned up the sound on the feed at that point.

Thoughts:

Yago might have gotten the worst of this

Mistico/Euforia was a whole different match than Volador/Euforia. It seemed like it was at first a conscious effort to play to a different audience. The casual Tuesday might get more into a match where the rudo cheats a lot instead of doing the power moves more impressive to the weekly Puebla audience. It became clearer as it went along, especially in the second fall, that this was more a chance to give Caristico as much as the offense as possible to make him look as impressive as possible in a match he was going to lose in straight falls. Euforia may not have gotten in a move which wasn’t a counter of a Caristico move for about five minutes straight. There were also bits of Caristico building anger towards the referee to set a finish where the referee cost him the match. It wasn’t at all like a normal CMLL big singles match, and the way it played to Caristico’s ego wasn’t great. It did also play to this crowd really well, getting them very into the last moments of the match. I kinda want to recommend this one because it – like that first Alberto match on Nacion Lucha Libre – is so different from normal that it’s an entertaining change, even though it doesn’t check off many of the boxes usual for good.

The semi-main was the go-home happy match, except weirdly twice as long as it normally is for no particular reason. It wasn’t like they were doing anything that impressive. They went home on the best spot they had, so there’s that, and it got the show to about the normal length, which might be all the reason they needed.

The cibernetico was flawed but entertaining. The stretch of dives early on was a good example, with some fun stuff but also people just falling out of control all the time. The ending stretch had cool moves (including Maya breaking out the Tormento Maya for the first time in a long time) but also Blue Panther Jr. looking sloppy. It did make it really easy to pick someone to root for out of those last two, though that probably wasn’t the intention. No one really raised or lower their stock in the match. Toro Bill Jr. looked better the day prior, and maybe a bit nervous here. The match falling into a four-way late with teammates fighting each other was as weird as always, though they at least took care to make sure a teammate didn’t pin each other here.

The Espiritu Negro/Principe Diamante feud is set up for the rudo to destroy Diamante for a long time and Diamante to make a quick comeback. Espiritu is still coming off as much more impressive adjusted for that. Principe Diamante is fine, just not making the same impression and not looking any better than his two nondescript partners. This is surely Espiritu’s one chance to do something, and possibly his last few matches in CMLL, so he’s laying in the dropkicks while he can.

Ultimo Dragoncito may have something to offer, he just moves too fast for the mini rudos (especially Violencia) to keep up with him. Fantasy is closer to their speed, though that’s not great to see.

DTU, Informa, Konnan

thecubsfan

The second of the two DTU 11th Anniversary shows takes place tonight in Arena Aficion. This is a show being taped by +LuchaTV; I think there’s a decent shot it airs live. The Lucha Brothers are scheduled to face Aeroboy & Camuflaje. I was a little concerned Fenix might be skipping out on this, but his Instagram seems to indicate he’s in Mexico.

The semi-main is listed As Aborto, Chaneke vs Fly Star & Crazy Boy vs Hard Boy & Jimmy Lloyd, but Lloyd didn’t appear on the previous DTU show and hasn’t been promoting this one. There’s an international surprise listed as teaming with Exotico, Moria against Mr. Iguana, Kaleth and Calibus which will likely be Skun Skywalker. The show is listed as starting at 8:30 pm, +LuchaTV streams usually start little ways in.

CMLL Informa is on today, with Shocker, Diamante Azul, the micros, and many of the women. Shocker & Azul are there to talk about their returns and the Micros are there to talk about their new belt. Dalys & Marcela talking about their title match would also make sense, but there’s plenty of other women (Sugehit, Jarochita, Mystique, Sanely, Amapola, Seductora, Reyna Isis, and La Comandante) so it’s probably something more than that. Ultimo Guerrero was not on the original list for the show but appears to have added himself.

Mr. Niebla says there will be a benefit show for him on January 4th. No location or wrestlers announced, though he says there will be CMLL participation.

On Twitter, and amidst an argument about the ‘real’ Psicosis, Psicosis II mentions Konnan is not a fan so he does not think he’ll appear on AAA TV as long as Konnan is around. That was the assumption of why he was working AAA spot shows only.

The Masked Republic Minute returned to the Konnan podcast. There’s a part where I get buried. There are also more interesting parts.

  • Konnan acknowledges the criticism towards him being in Los Ingobernables from “smart fans.” It seems like he’s going to explain why he is in the group but they get sidetracked and never get straight to it. Konnan does explain he wants this group to get only a heel reaction – he liked it when Rush told the fans not to cheer him. The thought is left unfinished as the conversation moves in other directions
  • He’s also annoyed at fans being unhappy about AAA putting LA Park and Rush together and not doing a mask match. Kevin Kleinrock brings up a rumor I had not heard of CMLL blocking that from happening somehow, but Konnan shoots that down. Konnan wants everyone to calm down and let it play out.
    • this absolutely comes off as AAA has a plan to do LA Park vs Rush, just not right away. That could mean break up in March, match at TripleMania. That could mean break up at TripleMania, match at next year’s TripleMania Regia. That could mean 2021 or beyond. But it seems like that’s (still) the eventual direction.
  • Konnan would prefer Sin Cara stick with the name Sin Cara. Change the name to Cin Cara or whatever to get around any trademark issue, but Konnan feels that’s the name most fans are going to know him by. Sin Cara mentioned the idea of changing to Cinta de Oro to Konnan. Konnan knows the name, knows the history in Ciudad Juarez, but doesn’t think it has much national awareness and fans won’t really know this guy by that name. Sin Cara’s value decreases the farther he gets away from what people saw on WWE TV.
  • Konnan was thrilled with how the Lady Maravilla/Big Mami match went. Konnan enjoyed it, and how everyone involved ended up became more over by the end of it – even Strippers Big are more over.
  • Everyone discusses how bad an idea it is to do ladder matches when people have seen so many of them that it’s hard to stand out. This is in relation to the WWE TLC show and not the ladder match on the AAA show.
  • It does lead to a discussion of Konnan talking about being sent videos from people looking for work, and they’re always showcasing themselves as (lesser) clones of Fenix or Laredo Kid or the Young Bucks by doing their moves. He has those guys and plenty others like them already. He’s looking for guys like Nino Hamburguesa and Mr. Iguana who are doing something original, not copies of what they already have.

01/18 The Crash

The first match announced for their next show. This seems like an important one for them; there’s no Penta, Fenix or Horus any more, and The Crash could use a statement about where it fits in for 2020.

CMLL Puebla: 2019-12-02

thecubsfan
Grinch bomb

Recapped: 12/02/2019

Matches:

Hijo de Centella Roja & Meyer beat Fuerza Chicana & Joker
(13:12 [5:50, 2:51, 4:31], 1/3, ok, 00:01:45)

Arkalis, Millenium, Rey Samuray beat Cancerbero, El Malayo, Raziel
(13:46 [8:08, 1:48, 3:50], 2/3, n/r, 00:22:01)

Perverso beat Toro Bill Jr. in a lightning match
(7:51, Gedo clutch, ok, 00:43:48 )

El Audaz, Esfinge, Rey Cometa beat Pólvora, Tiger, Vangellys
(12:39 [4:48, 3:02, 4:49], 2/3, ok, 00:55:40)

Cuatrero, Ephesto, Forastero beat Carístico, Star Jr., Titán
(18:32 [6:20, 4:39, 7:33], 2/3, ok, 01:16:11)

Volador Jr. beat Euforia
(17:27, good, 2/3, 01:44:54)

  1. Euforica Special (3:20)
  2. Volador torito (2:08)
  3. Volador top rope huracanrana (11:59)

What happened:

Caristico had Forastero in La Mistico, but Ephesto distracted Metalico (who didn’t have a great night), Cuatrero ran in and took off Caristico’s mask, and Forastero cradled him for the win.

Thoughts:

a Toro Bill dive

Euforia brought out a more interesting match from Volador than usual of late, though he also did while accidentally squashing him on the second fall finish. That seemed to stall out the match to start the third fall, and it was on the slow side the rest of the way. It also tended towards the usual Volador your move my move sequence to a finish, but it felt more novel since we see a lot from Euforia we don’t normally get. Even if he has his own UG move checklist, it’s not checked off nearly as often as some of the other rudos (which is the strong case for giving more rudos chances to do this match.) Euforia also looks super impressive on some of his power moves here. The reversals from the previous finishes looked thought they may have come too early to be effective; the later tease of the Euforica Special was more subtle but felt like it meant more.

The semi-main generally followed the pattern of all the NGD matches of late, similar falls and outcome, though this was a little screwy. Star & Titan did well even if the focus was more on Caristico. Weirdly, there was more interesting co-ordination on the finish with these guys than usually seen with Sanson involved. Maybe Ephesto is an idea man.

The best part of the fourth match was Rey Cometa slipping on a handspring, limping to the apron, laying there for minutes and being fine after all. He was still moving gingerly but it really would’ve sucked for him to get hurt in a match as perfunctory as that one.

Whoever is in charge of Puebla nowadays seems behind Perverso, though he just comes off as a regular guy who doesn’t have much crowd interest outside of an apuesta match. He and Toro Bill Jr. were ok here, though Toro Bill came off as the more technically sound wrestler. I came across wanting to see more of him I bigger spots, not the guy who couldn’t quite get his finishing cradle to work. The rudo/rudo stuff doesn’t work great, but running more singles matches between the locals might produce something and at least is no duller than the rest of their matches. Singles matches between locals and Mexico City talent would be more of a thing.

The opener was solid, so that’s always good. Fuerza Chicana backdropping Centella Roja into his own partner’s doom was amusing. The Centella Roja son seems better than the father even if we see him about half as much.