03/30 CMLL Dos Leyendas Preview

CMLL (FRI) 03/30 Arena Mexico
1) Dark Angel, Lady Apache, Marcela vs Amapola, Hiroka, Mima Shimoda
2) Leono, Sagrado, Volador Jr. vs Black Warrior, Misterioso II, Tarzan Boy
3) Atlantis, Olímpico, Sangre Azteca vs Damián 666, Halloween, Mr. Águila
4) Dos Caras Jr., Lizmark Jr., Rey Bucanero vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto
5) Místico & Último Guerrero vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo & Héctor Garza [ri]
6) Marco Corelone vs Universo 2000 [hair]

News(-ish) Previews
– La Presna
– Notimex
– ESTO
– Ovaciones, of course.

In the ESTO interview, Universo says he has no idea if his brothers will interfere in the main event, because we they talk, lucha libre never comes up. I have no trouble believing they never talk about lucha. (And I’m sure they’ll run in.)

If Marco were to lose his hair, wouldn’t that be a fraud? When some random guy in some random promotion loses his hair twice in such a short time, I’d think it’s a pretty big rip off of the fans and a sign of some quite bad business practices. This is exactly what CMLL is proposing with this lineup – You May Get Ripped Off.

You know, I know, the rudo bellringer knows, Marco’s winning this match and he would be winning this match even if hadn’t just lost his hair. I still think even suggesting the possibility of a fraud is a bad idea, and Universo’s hair isn’t even close to be worth it.

My theory is CMLL got a bind. They were planning on doing Universo/Marco for hair at some point during this year, but not this soon. However, when they started getting close to Mistico/Perro, they realized they didn’t have a finish because of Mistico’s uncertain status, and had to do something else.

The actual problem is the “something else” – they’ve not really bothered to build up feuds in the last three months, and with Perro/Mistico out, the only possible thing that could main event was Marco/Universo, because those are the only two big feuds in the entire promotion. Park/Wagner got attention for about a week or two, and then died again (maybe the suspension was to cover another falling out?) They’re starting to do something with Averno/Mephisto/Ephesto but that’s not near far along now and I’m not sure them vs the Perros for the trios is a big main event. The feud they seem to be working hardest is El Hijo del Santo vs Paco Alonso, but that’s not going to have a good payoff for anyone.

CMLL, at least at the main event level, has been going downhill since Black Warrior yanked off Mistico’s mask one too many times after the mask match. This PPV lineup is lame. They skipped the major New Year card entirely, because they never left Arena Mexico (but still did Arena Coliseo cards.) The Year End PPV was lame. Even the Annviersary show was just okay. There’s a spark missing, a good feud that’s memorable some way, and CMLL hasn’t seemed to have in six months. Maybe getting pass this card and this feud will open up some new, better possibilities.

Match by Match:

1: 7-8 minute women’s opener to get the crowd (what of it in the building) going. I tend to overbook in these previews and would look for something like Mima beating Lady Apache to start the next title feud, but it’s a lot more likely the tecnicas win just to start the show on a happy note.

2: First of three straight matches which seem to exist just to get people onto the show. Will Tarzan Boy show? I’d figure the rudos take this one, just because as odd as it is for Black Warrior to be a segunda, it’d be too odd for him to be losing in a segunda.

3: The very loose idea here is Sangre’s contiyning tryout with the major league team. Guerreros didn’t win last week, so they gotta this week, or this bit is going nowhere.

4: Averno and company should keep rolling, and maybe they’ll start playing out a Lizmark Jr. turn in the ring, as opposed to the magazines. If they’re doing Perros/Triad of Terror down the road, they should’ve switched them to face off in these matches and had the Guerreros face the tecnicos. I think it would’ve worked better.

5: Mistico & Ultimo teaming for the first time ever is supposed to be a make good for not doing the hair/mask match, but I don’t know if it works out that way – you’re just waiting for something to go wrong with them, Ultimo to decide he dislikes Mistico more than the Perros at the moment, and foul him or pull of his mask or something. Maybe it won’t even happen till after the match, but I can’t see them playing the straight and the point is for them not to play is straight. This match is all about what angle they do, and not much about the finish.

6: Yea, Marco’s going over, but is he going to do it clean? This might turn into an AAA match with the runins (and counter runins.) If Marco to be the big new star, he ought to be getting a clean win here, but I doubt it’ll happen.

When this lineup was announced, someone said they were planning to go to the beach this weekend instead of going to the show. That’s the wise move – if I had that choice, I’d do that too. (Though it’s raining and in the 50s right now, so that may not work as well here.) If I was in Mexico, since it’s going to be on TV anyway, and it’s almost a normal TV card but the hair stip (and an extra “star” match), I doubt I’d buy it on PPV.

If I spot some live results on a message board, I’ll post them tonight, but I’m not going to look that hard. There’s nothing here that I can’t wait till the morning to find out about.