Results
La Jarochita & Lluvia beat Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer
(12:49 [6:08, 2:01, 4:40], 1/3, ok)
Angel de Oro won Copa Junior
(2:07 battle royal + 46:23 elimination match, ok)
Order of elimination
- 12:20 Stuka Jr. beat Mephisto (torpedo splash)
- 15:10 Mistico beat Felino (casita)
- 21:31 Caristico beat Star Jr. (armbar)
- 24:15 Negro Casas beat Stuka Jr. (lariat)
- 26:52 Atlantis Jr. beat Soberano (Atlantida)
- 28:41 Dragon Rojo beat Negro Casas (grounded octopus)
- 30:19 Mistico beat Felino Jr. (double underhook facebuster)
- 31:43 Angel de Oro beat Atlantis Jr. (campana)
- 34:53 Mistico was disqualified (Dragon Rojo mask removal)
- 35:59 Caristico beat Dragon Rojo (inside cradle)
- 46:23 Angel de Oro beat Caristico (La Mistica)
Nueva Generacion Dinamita (Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón) defeated Los Guerreros Laguneros (Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero) to win the CMLL World Trios Championship
(26:02 [11:18, 5:20, 9:24], 1/3, ok)
Volador Jr. © defeated El Bandido to retain the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship
(28:43 [4:24, 1:50, 22:29], 2/3, excellent)
happenings
Atlantis appeared halfway through the card. He spoke of Kid’s Day being one of his favorite traditions and announced he would return to the ring on the 04/26 CMLL PPV to celebrate Kid’s Day this year. This would be Atlantis’ first match since November 2019 due to knee issues.
Volador beat Bandido to keep the NWA Historic Welterweight Championship.
NGD defeated Los Guerreros to become CMLL World Trios Champions, the first team to those belts, the national titles, and the Occidente titles at the same time. (Typically, winning the world title means swiftly relinquishing the national ones; no indication has been made as of yet.) Ultimo Guerrero took the pin from Sanson. Los Guerreros had a couple of small issues during the match. Euforia blamed UG for the loss and quit the group, which had been teased back in the fall before the winter lockdown.
Angel de Oro won Copa Junior, cleanly defeating Caristio with La Mistica. Mistico’s DQ seemed unplanned; Dragon Rojo’s mask came off and Edgar had no real choice but to call it. Dragon Rojo distracted himself by yelling at Angel de Oro so Caristico could cradle him for three. Some of the wrestlers wore tribute gear for family members; Caristico wore a Dr. Karonte homage mask for his father. Mistico wrestled in a half Septiembre Negro mask, for his uncle who passed away in November. Soberano wore a Euforia styled mask and gear. That turned out to be a story point in the trios match; Euforia’s gear matched his son, not his trios partners, foreshadowing the breakup.
Jarochita & Lluvia won cleanly and asked for a team to step up and challenge for the tag titles.
thoughts
Copa Junior looked like a one-match card, ended up a one-match card. There were redeeming moments in the other matches, but none of them were going to come close to the main event anyway. Volador & Bandido had the best match in Mexico not taking place in a mysterious empty building in Nuevo Leon. If there’s a better match in CMLL in 2021, it means crowds are back in a big way and everything went right – and they still might not get there. The failed attempt to go for an insane spot near the end shouldn’t take away from how strong the rest of the match was; it’d be on most people’s list of best matches of the year if most people could actually see it. So it goes.
It’s no big deal that the rest of the show didn’t impress, but also it didn’t impress. There was some glimmer of hope if you’re looking. The women were better than usual, and there was genuine effort to try new ideas in the first half of the Copa Junior. The polish wasn’t there, with many understandably looking rusty given the ragged schedule.
The trios match was the low moment on the show. Not as much badly worked as completely boring and unoriginal. It’s going to be a surprise if we get another NGD match that’s good because of anything they do. They’ve completely given up caring and giving them a third championship will just confirm to them they’re doing everything right. Euforia splitting off on his own is an interesting new direction and Angel de Oro winning the Copa strong is a sensible decision, it’s just not an exciting one.
It’s nice that Dragon Rojo is back. He’s back with exactly the level of knees you’d expect him to have after years of injuries. It’ll work out OK if the stuff with Mistico was to set up a mask match when fans come back. If it was just typical cibernetico interaction and Dragon Rojo’s just back without a purpose, it seems like a poor idea.
They don’t really need a direction, though. The novelty of Atlantis is going to sell to CMLL’s audience – assuming the fans of Atlantis can get their nephews or nieces to buy the PPV for them.
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Will this card ever be posted, or at least the Volador Jr/Bandido match?
Side note, was Banidido’s 3 matches on Friday [1 CMLL, 2 ROH] a first to American fans?
I was higher than you on the Copa Junior? Wow. I think I just gave them bonus points because you don’t see that match length any more these days & early on many of the guys were showing they put some thought into their movements instead of just waiting to do the dives and finishes. The first half was much superior than the second half for sure.
I can’t picture any combo of CMLL guys being able to better Bandido/Volador for CMLL MOTY. The key thing was Bandido was going to work his ass off so Volador wasn’t about to be outshined. He doesn’t have that mentality with the rest of the CMLL roster since he’s faced them so many times and nobody there is going to push him unless it’s like last year’s Anniversary where Templario got bumped into Bandido’s spot for a first-time ever match. Maybe if Andrade returns for a one-off and works Volador with fans they could equal it…
My thoughts on the show:-
[1] Women’s match far better than expectations, some really innovative stuff (by CMLL standards). Daly loosing was refreshing even if it took two people to submit her.
[2] Really enjoyed this match right up until Felino Jr was eliminated. The first half was full of guys working hard, Star Jr, Soberano, Atlantis Jr and Felino Jr. in particular for me put a real shift in. I also enjoyed watching them work with guys they’d never get the chance to be in the ring with. There were the odd bits up until this point which went a bit astray when the technico’s tried something a bit too complicated or Dragon Rojo was just exposed for not being in the ring for 2 years. After Felino Jr was eliminated (after taking some pretty big bumps) it went downhill, Atlantis Jr was on a real roll – he popped me when he lifted Angel de Oro up for his finish and I thought this might have been the actual second generation guy to be getting the push… then he dropped him and was eliminated and it just carried on going wrong. Nobody seemed in position or really to knew what was happening. Mistico being DQ’d and then pinned is classic CMLL shithousery. Angel de Oro and Caristico didn’t get me back, they did some cool stuff but it was too slow without a crowd and just dragged.
[3] Both teams have a formula, they’re not the only guys in the world to do so but they need flashy technico’s to make it worth while not another rudo team. The finish was horrendous and could have been done a million different ways.
Atlantis returning should be fun, his son has become a star since he’s been injured, hopefully if they pair them together they give them some decent opponents and not another old timer from the 90s who can barely walk around.
[4] Loved the main event. They paced it really well, Bandido is another level and Volador kept up with him and showed that his real talent. Some fantastic creativity, that kept building and building. They owe it to themselves to do this in front of a packed Arena Mexico (or ROH) and hopefully it gets ran again later this year. Its a shame they couldn’t get the final spot to execute but it sort of worked at the same time. Worth the price of the show and some.
As always CMLL is its own worst enemy, they have some real talent, it’s a shame that some don’t even get on the big shows (Templario, Titan) and some can barely get B level show (Electrico, Super Astro Jr, Virus, Hechicero, Fugaz).
I will not be posting the Bandido/Volador match any time soon. People paid to see it and it feels like cheating them to give it away for free.
(I may revisit this position at the end of the year, but even then I’m not sure.)