taped @ Arena Mexico, 03/25/2011 and 04/01/2011
I don’t really have specific thoughts on every match, but some general stuff tends to repeat. So, first are the links
Diamante & La Sombra vs Hijo del Signo & Mr. Niebla
Escorpion & Último Guerrero vs Mortiz & Terrible
Escorpion & Último Guerrero vs Diamante & La Sombra
Dragon Lee & Volador Jr. vs Máscara Dorada & Metal Blanco
Negro Casas & Puma King vs Averno & Palacio Negro
Máscara Dorada & Metal Blanco vs Averno & Palacio Negro
Generally, everyone was trying really hard, but the crowd didn’t seem to be into most of the matches both nights. Both semifinals were long enough to draw the fans into rooting for the tecnicos, but it didn’t feel like any one new was coming off a star in the making. (A lot more should’ve been made about Escorpion beating Sombra, but little was.)
I can not believe Tirantes is still in this promotion. He’s great at what he does, but what he does is not what this promotion is geared towards. It’s tough to tell any other story when Tirantes is cheating the tecnicos. If CMLL can’t trust Sombra, Ultimo Guerrero, Avenro and Mascara Dorada to keep the fans interested in their matches without someone making fast and slow counts, then – I dunno, they need to some trust building exercises or something, because that’s kind of silly. Tirantes seems to be only working Friday nights, which means I haven’t been seeing him on the shows I usually recap, and probably indicates whoever is in charge of this show feels a lot stronger about what Tirantes adds than everyone else.
Palacio Negro could not have cared any less about losing his dream of winning the Gran Alternativa. More to the point, Palacio Negro appeared to have been instructed not to care, and was sort of explaining it to fan. It’s one thing for Averno to lose by DQ – it’s not his tournament, he’s more concerned with embarrassing Dorada – but if people in the tournament don’t even care when they’ve been cheating out of winning, why should anyone watching care? It was a horrible act by Averno that no one found that interesting. CMLL paradoxically expects their tournaments to be meaningful while treating the matches as meaningless. (Ultimo Guerrero & Escorpion having a near fight over the same finish in the next tournament was quite the opposite – I don’t think they learned as much as different people booking different tournaments.)