CMLL on Televisa: 1995-12-16

Recapped: 2020-07-30

Matches:

Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Emilio Charles Jr., Felino, Negro Casas, El Dandy, Pantera, Silver King, Texano
(Arena México @ 12/15, 28:16, great, Roy Lucier CMLL)

• 11:53 Texano rolled through plancha Felino
• 15:33 Wagner powerbomb Pantera
• 18:17 Dandy casita Negro Casas
• 23:41 Emilio Charles legs crossed wristlock Texano
• 25:53 Dr. Wagner spinning crucifix drop El Dandy
• 27:05 Silver King crucifix cradle Emilio Charles
• 28:16 Dr. Wagner sit down powerbomb Silver King

What Happened: This match is overly “let’s put eight of our best technical guys in a match.” It’s billed as Alto Rendimiento, but they mean that as high quality than win by rendering people via holds.

This is an amazing match for the first twelve minutes or so, before slowing down a bit after the Felino elimination. It’s still very good, with a couple of hitches, but that first section is worked an impressive pace and skill. It completely lives up to the promise of eight of the best guys going at full speed in great combinations. The later Negro Casas/Silver King pairing comes off as the best among a lot of good match ups. Pantera doesn’t seem to be treated at this high of a level most of his CMLL time; he absolutely fits in here. This Emilio Charles is much more an all-around great guy than he’d become (and the Terrible comparisons come through strong here.) Wagner is maybe the weakest link, but he’s not at bad or out of the place.

There’s a couple of smudges in the match. Bad CMLL refereeing exists in 1995. Referee Rafael el Maya eliminates Felino when he gets a shoulder up in plenty of time. (It’s the far shoulder, but Maya should’ve been able to see it.) Negro Casas slips off the second rope in embarrassing fashion, though they go with it as much as they can. The match would’ve been better with some time cut from the middle, but can’t complain too much about getting match time after how badly edited those spring episodes had been. This is worth watching easily.

Shocker beat Kahoz for the mask
(Arena México @ 12/15/1995, 10:04, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

1. Kahoz Gori Special (3:44)
2. Shocker over the shocker quebradora (1:17)
3. Shocker reverse bow and arrow (5:03)

The apuesta match goes well with Kahoz is knocking around Shocker. The problem is it is two falls of Shocker taking almost all the control despite having an unimpressive offense. He’s unrefined, not close to what he’d become later. Shocker also rips Kahoz’ mask so deeply that he’s unable to wrestle without fixing it, making the last stretch of the match a bit of a struggle. Kahoz comes off well, selling a lot even when Shocker isn’t giving much to him, and moves a lot better than most “old guys” in this type of mask match. He looks younger than 45 when they unmask him too.

Apolo Dantés © beat Vampiro for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
(Arena México @ 12/15, 26:40, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)

1. Vampiro sit down powerbomb (6:59)
2. Apolo Dantes fisherman’s buster (5:47)
3. Apolo Dantes figure four (13:54)

A big issue with this one is they’re trying to get a sympathetic reaction for Vampiro, except the crowd decided they hate Vampiro from the start. The reaction takes by the end, though it a lot of attacking Vampiro’s right knee and exposing the knee brace on it, but it would’ve worked much better two years before. It’s a struggle to get there. Vampiro isn’t the perfect guy for this spot; he shifts randomly between selling the knee injury as crippling and something he can just easily limp around with slight discomfort with little reason. He’s back to being fine by the end of the match. Vampiro has figured out moves to do on offense but hasn’t figured out any particular order to do them, which means poor Dantes takes some big suplexes that go nowhere in the first fall. It’s generally Vampiro working something like a Japanese style for a disinterested Mexican audience. Apolo does well as the rudo; this might be the best singles match I’ve seen of him. The third fall is too long, especially since that length caused them to slip away from the knee injury storyline that played into the finish. This is still better than I expected from looking at the match up.

Héctor Garza beat Satánico for the hair
(Arena México @ 12/15, 9:44 [0:31, 6:29, 2:44], 1/3, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)

Satanico puts over Garza huge in what’s effectively an uncompetitive match. Garza has so surpassed Satanico that it only takes one well applied hold to beat the veteran in the first fall. Satanico grinds out a second fall win with every legal punishing he can do, but gives Garza one opening in the third fall and it’s over like that. Garza comes off like a big star, even bigger than he did in April, and that’s a credit to Satanico for giving him much more than a veteran normally would in this spot.