CMLL Line - 12/18/04 (#162)
Typed: 12/18/04
Welcome To The Show Vignette: el Hijo del Pierroth. He doesn't lack for energy. the captioning transcribes his laugh as "ja-ja-ja"
Interrupting the Opening Hype: This is now a regular spot. Dr. Wagner Jr. Wagner's going to win tonight. POSE.
Match 1: Nitro, Dr. X (c), Sangre Azteca vs Neutron, Virus (c), Tony Rivera
Arena Mexico, 10/15/04
Winner: Rudos (2-1)
Match Time: 5:12 shown
Approx Rating: 66
Other Match Notes: Joined in progress, with a helpful indicator of who's in this.
Rudos are beating down tecnicos as we join, despite the tecnicos having taken the last fall. Rudos won the first. Virus is getting worked over by Nitro and Sangre in the ring. Double whip, double back elbow. Double whip, and Dr. X shows up to hit the dropkick. Neutron's turn to get back. Double corner whip, corner splash by Nitro, Dr. X whips Sangre in - but Neutron moves. Here we go - clothesline for Dr. X, open hand slap for Nitro. Tony Rivera - hair died light and cut Shocker style now (still recovering from the hair match?) - works over Sangre in the ring as the other four fight on the ring. Virus loads Dr. X up on his shoulder, and rushes him into the corner. Tony tries to take off Sangre's mask, and when that doesn't work, works him over in the corner with punches and a big slap. Tony, who's obviously been watching too many tapes, actually walks over and tags Neutron in before his partner helps out - forearm to the back by Neutron. Neutron with a whip, tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Neutron looks at the crowd while Sangre gets up, then rushes and knocks him over with the "I'm not HsN, really!" running tope to the side. Neutron sidesteps the next one and faceslams Neutron in the process. Taunt, off the ropes, dropkick to the head is avoided and Neutron just covers him one two no. Sangre slaps Neutron in the chest, and it takes him down to one knee. Neutron is steamed, but gets up, and slaps Sangre in the chest. Sangre, trying to out win the overselling competition going on, goes to one knee, bent over in excruciating pain. Slap back, and Neutron sells it slightly less so he can get in a shoulderblock. Off the ropes, tripped up by Sangre. Sangre sets up la tapatia, but as he's going to hook the arms, Tony Rivera is in and sunset flipping him out of the hold! It's made less neat when Sangre rolls thru and clotheslines Tony after he kips up, but it's still sorta neat. Sangre misses a wheel kick, Tony connects a bodyscissors bulldog. La Majistral - no, took too long and Dr. X broke that up with a kick. X helps his partner out, then gets dropped by a Rivera legsweep. Jacknife cover, one two NO. Tony's not happy. Whip, reversed, blown spot. Tony thought Dr. X was going for an armbar takedown, and I think Dr. X was trying for a drop toe hold. Tony took the face first bump and it wasn't clear why. Dr. X tries to clean up by quickly stomping on him, but slips about and takes a bit of a header into the top rope. X tries to shake this mess off, goes off the far ropes, and comes back for a headscissors rollup, but Tony blocks that and hangs Dr. X upside down in the ropes. Virus makes the blind tag while Tony holds X upside down and hanging - running dropkick to knock him up and back into the ring. Standing half crab on Dr. X looks about ready to do it, Nitro tries to make the save, and Virus makes like Benoit, letting go from one submission right in time to grab another, a fujiwara armbar on Nitro. Nitro's got the leverage to get the ropes, though. Virus tries a corner whip, it's reversed, and Nitro smashes him with a lariat. Corner whip, reverses again, Nitro goes in chest first and Virus sandwiches him with a clothesline. Virus turns Nitro around and they fight as we look at a replay of the dropkick on Dr. X Virus hit him square on the face. Back live, Nitro and Virus are fighting it out on the apron, and Nitro wins when Virus charges into a hiptoss. Neutron evens it up by dropkicking Nitro to the floor as well, and sidesteps Dr. X coming in with a dropkick. Problem is, Neutron's dropkick sucks, and allows Dr. X to get another charge. Dr. X goes to Neutron's shoulders, Neutron blocks him from doing more, Tony comes off the top with a cross body, but Dr. X completes the headscissors roll just in time, and Tony flies to the mat alone. Dr. X gets the one two three (5:10), and Sangre (after doing a top rope frog splash, which we don't see till the replays) covers Tony for his own two three. (5:12) That was more time than I thought we'd be getting. Neat.
Match 2: Zumbido (c), Misterioso Sr., Misterioso Jr. vs Olimpico
(c), Okumura, Mr. Mexico
Arena Mexico, 10/15/04
Winner: rudos
Match Time: 17:15
Approx Rating: 87
writers note: from here, I transition into mostly some notes I had made watching the show (as posted on the blog), rather than the previous move-by-move style. This was an attempt to get the recap done that year, which actually failed. I did make some very small changes, and the whole last match was overhauled.
Other Match Notes: I'm still not with those guys, Misterioso! He comes out wearing his mask here too. Okumura is wearing eyeglasses. Mr. Mexico can still do the Mr. Mexico Face. I bet Olimpico thought turning rudo would get him out of matches like this.
Misterioso is my boy, because he knows I'M NOT WITH THEM. He was pretty cool at the Va Voom shows. I think he may only have one outfit, because he wore the same one here he did for both of those shows.
First fall was more lucha mat work than we usually get on the show, and I'm a fan of that. I appreciated Misterioso and Olimpico doing it a little more aggressively than usual, and going jaw to jaw instead of the standoff.
I expected second fall to quickly end up in a rudo beatdown, so it was a neat switch of pace to see more of a post-comeback "tecnico running thru all the rudos" stage. Okumura obviously has learned from his time here, because he did a fine faked low blow. Beatdown was okay. Acceptable teamwork from a trio I don't believe teams much, if ever. The crotch on the post spot is getting a little overdone, but it was more hurt by the camera work total exposing Zumbido stopping himself well short. The pinfall set up on Misterioso Sr. looked a bit missed up - the rudos didn't know if Okumura was going to do at first, and then Misterioso Sr. though he wasn't getting pinned. Mr. Mexico's powerbomb on Misterioso Jr. looked especially rough (though that may have been more due to Misterioso being out of control in the setup). Good that they got the Mr. Mexico pose pin in. Bad that Zumbido was so unconcerned about his dead teammates, he talked to the announcers. He really need to be turned back.
Third fall beatdown makes me think they needed a flashier rudo on this team. I think all three guys are good guys as solid members of groups, but maybe not good together. Okumura has some good strikes. Misterioso Jr. torture rack neckbreaker on Mr. Mexico looked similar out of control as the powerbomb. They were obviously showcasing him in the ring, and I wish we got better shots of that than going to the outside stuff. Zumbido's botched tope was scary, one of those ones where you're just thankful it only went that bad. (If you didn't see it, he clipped the middle rope with his knee on his way thru the ropes. He luckily stayed horizontal, but he got no forward momentum as a result and flopped to the floor, too short for Okumura to catch; Okumura still managed to get a boot upside the head trying. Shot of him later showed Zumbido busted up from a cut on his head) They were still trying move Olimpico back up here, so the rollup finish off Misterioso Sr. works, though they're really established him as a non-factor in his two appearances this year.
Misterioso Jr. was being stomped down by Okumura on the outside for the last finish and Zumbido hadn't moved since the injury, in case you're wondering what happened there. In retrospect, they were going for the big Olimpico win here, and Zumbido was probably supposed to be pinned - that's why they remembered to do the countout.
17 minutes is an astounding amount of time for this match; the main events weren't even getting that much. A lot of that can be chalked up to this being a two hour show.
Match 3: Universo 2000, Cien Caras, Apolo Dantes
vs el Hijo del Pierroth, Pierroth, Blue Demon Jr.
Arena Mexico, 10/15/04
Winner: tecnicos
Match Time: 10:43
Approx Rating: 70
Other Match Notes: This match is supposed to be Pierroths and Vampiro, and in a happy moment of competency compared to the Universo unmaking prior, was actually hyped that way in the bumpers, but Blue Demon Jr. is the surprise replacement, building off of his confrontation with Universo at the end of the Cibernetico. Their feud gets dropped after this match, which is sad because it's a great alternative to the Pierroth stuff. I miss any explanation of why Vampiro's isn't here at all - we'll just assume Blue Demon asked him to step aside and this was one of those weeks where Vamp doesn't like Pierroth.
This is el Hijo del Pierroth TV debut. I believe he was identified as Salsero, who's not actually related to Pierroth. He's a small sized guy wearing a stock Pierroth mask and doing a "small guy thinks he's a big shot" gimmick. The point of bringing in (fake) sons for Pierroth seems to be a big mask/hair match, which has yet to materialize.
This was nice in Apolo Dantes got on TV for the first time in a long time.
And Universo wears the CMLL Heavyweight Championship to the ring. Blue Demon's
hanging out with the wrong crew. I just have no interest in anything Pierroth
related, and little interest in anything Capo related. I got he impression that
El Hijo del Pierroth might be entertaining and I like Blue Demon, and I couldn't
find a way to give this much attention. Hate the excessive violence DQ, hate
that Demon didn't care Pierroth unnecessarily cost the team the fall.
The piledriver on Demon was awesome. This was explained to me later as "Universo's
case is his style of piledriver is not the same as the Tombstone, and as a
result the DQ rule should not applied to this style piledriver. The referees
here agree with that stance, the one in the mask match did not. While making
since in that the Wagner Driver seems to have the same iffy status depending on
the referee for a long time, it still feels like taking away the credit behind a
big win from the fans - which is confused by Universo losing his mask being a
good thing or bad thing for the fans each week - this week, they're portraying
it as an unfair screwjob, counter to the previous weeks.
The idea that it's not THE deadly piledriver and shouldn't be punished as such is hurt by Blue Demon being dead and stretchered out - it may be THE deadly move, but since the effect is the same, it's tough to understand why the punishment shouldn't be the same. (It's an awesome sell job by Demon, though.)
Stellar Moments: Super Comando and Ramstein's double team was pretty
Match 4: Terrible, Hector Garza (c), Tarzan Boy vs
Negro Casas, Shocker, Dr. Wagner (c)
Arena Mexico, 10/15/04
Winner: tecnicos (2-1)
Match Time: 16:47
Approx Rating: 87
Other Match Notes:
The whole match is built around Wagner being on the tecnico team. He's definitely not a tecnico - no real storyline reason is given for him being here (though maybe you could claim it as a followup to last week's cibernetico), but I'd guess the actual reason is to juice up what would be a pretty run of the mill trios match and turn it into an interesting main event. Wagner referred to himself as a "professional", an in-between status that's usually on the road on to tecnico.
Like last week, this is another hint of Wagner's upcoming tecnico turn, but he's still fighting it. Contrary to reports at the time, he did not get along at all with his partners. Shocker, Negro and Monitro wanted nothing to do with him, and likewise. When they were beating beat down, he did not help, and vice versa. As two former rudos turned tecnico, you'd think they might have some empathy, but I'm guessing they don't trust him.
The third fall builds to the tecnicos refusing to help Wagner out on a three on one, but Wagner battling and surviving Tarzan's missile dropkick and Garza's powerbomb. Just when he's starting to make the super human comeback, Terrible comes back in the ring and kicks him low. The rudos have their revenge by beating up Wagner after the match, and the tecnicos walk out on Wagner rather than help him out.
It was a pretty good match, but the finish stunk. Seeing as they were building the rudos for the trios titles, they should've gotten a clean win - the finish is a cop out to make sure everyone comes out even.