Tag: recap

Recapped: 2020-01-16

Matches:

Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Douki & Namajague
(7:22, Fuego casadora cradle Douki, good)

El Audaz & Guerrero Maya Jr. beat Kanemaru & Luciferno
(10:17, Audaz pin Luciferno, ok)

Bushi, EVIL, Takagi beat Dulce Gardenia, Flyer, Hiroshi Tanahashi
(11:00, Takagi pumping bomber Dulce, ok)

Forastero & Okumura beat Stuka Jr. & Titán
(9:07, Forastero armbar Okumura, ok)

Bárbaro Cavernario & Último Guerrero beat Carístico & Kojima
(13:05, Cavernario cavernaria Caristico, ok)

Cuatrero & Sansón beat Euforia & Soberano Jr. in a CMLL FAMILY semifinal
(9:30, Cuatrero inverted bear hug Soberano, good)

Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja beat Negro Casas & Tiger in a CMLL FAMILY semifinal
(12:52, inverted campana, good)

What happened:

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja meat Sanson & Cuatrero in the Family tag team final. They exchanged words after the main event.

Thoughts:

The main event was the best match of the night, the two teams meshing well and no big errors. Casas was having a lot of fun laying in shots in the main event. He made more of the match than Tiger. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja were smooth and got overdoing their act. There’s nothing on this show that needs to be seen but the last match was the most pleasant watch.

The opening family tag match was more enjoyable than most of the matches on the show, though it felt less than their best. I appreciate Soberano figuring out a way to force in a stage dive in Korakuen Hall, and Soberano jumping into the finish was well done. The crowd seemed less receptive to the match, and most matches, then in the past. Euforia playing against his usual style didn’t work as well here too, probably because they’re not using to seeing Euforia at all. Cuatrero rebounded from a tough start.

When the Caristico match turns into dueling posing early on, it suggests it’s not going to be the hardest working match. That tag match was some exhibition, some build to the singles match, nothing particularly shocking. All of these matches feel long to me, but it is just a one fall match and my CMLL brain is used to shorter periods. Work wasn’t really great near the finish.

A lot of the undercard seemed like b-level matches, but it also may be personal. Titan & Stuka should’ve had a better match than they did in the fourth but there really wasn’t much the rudo were adding to it. It was a basic showcase match of the big spots but one easy to skip.

The Gardenia trios were fine, despite the noticeable botch at the end. Gardenia taking the pin doesn’t really matter as much Gardenia surviving stuff earlier; he’s elegant but also tough. I didn’t think much about Flyer in this match which is alright by for him.

Japan has brought us many amazing things. The second match brought us Luciferno wrestling without a shirt. He did get a new top that matched his gear. The match didn’t flow great together, Audaz doing some spectacular things but not really getting into the flow of the match. I’m not sure there was a flow to the match at all and it ended with Luciferno seemingly kicking out of the finish.

Fuego & Taguchi are good for amusing openers and were good at it here. They did a lot more comedy than Fuego usually does alone, but it works well with Taguchi as the opposite. Namajague fits in these wells too. DOUKI didn’t get to do as much but that’s not really his role for these.

Recapped: 2020-01-10

Matches:

Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Douki & Kanemaru
(7:52, Fuego La Guelaguetza Douki, ok)

El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Uemura vs Euforia, Luciferno, Namajague
(8:34, German suplex, ok)

Flyer & Soberano Jr. beat Negro Casas & Tiger
(6:27, Soberano springboard legdrop Tiger, ok)

Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Titán beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(10:09, Angel de Oro campana Cuatrero, good)

Bushi, Hiromu Takahashi, Naito beat Dulce Gardenia, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tsuji
(10:08, Takahashi crab Tsuji, ok)

Bárbaro Cavernario, Okumura, Último Guerrero beat Carístico, Kojima, Stuka Jr.
(11:27, Okumura cutter Stuka, ok)

What happened:

Nothing important. This is the annual tour kickoff show with slight builds towards later matches and no English commentary.

Thoughts:

The finish came abruptly in the main event, which happened a couple of times on this show. The only difference here is this was a mostly CMLL match with a non-quite CMLL feeling ending. The action leading up to it was fine. Kojima taking the UG front superplex on a show like this surprised me, and it may have been more than anyone else watched. This match, like the rest, was fitting of a current CMLL b-show.

The semi-main was Dulce Gardenia plugged into a NJPW house show match and worked just that hard. I think Naito tagged in but I’m not entirely sure. There were brief moments of triple submission fun and nothing was blown, but it is entirely skippable.

A lot of the CMLL matches on this show seemed a little bit slower than usual. It may be the environment or the Japanese wrestlers just working at a different pace. The NGD match felt the same way for a while but picked up a lot during the comeback. It did follow the usual NGD pattern – Titan got triple-teamed on the outside to start the beatdown – but the work was sharp. Titan looked great on the rope flip spot. Cuatrero may have handled a bit more of the action near the end but Sanson didn’t stick out as greatly limited by his injury. They’ve got better in them but this was a good start towards the title match.

Soberano diving to nowhere on tour shows in Osaka is not recommended. A plus for effort though. Not sure if that threw off the rest of the match, but it felt short and got the end quickly. Flyer looked smoother here than he has in Mexico, which is a nice start. 

The segunda was not an authentic CMLL presentation because the rudos managed to perform La Careta without someone jumping into headscissors the rudo posing on top. Audaz & Namajague had good chemistry early and less so during the beatdown. The Mexican tecnicos could’ve got more, but this was a set up to Namajague beating the young lion and that part went fine.

FantasicaMania is lucha tag rules, but the opener was building all to a hot tag – where there was no for Fuego to hit. They eventually got his offense going a bit, though still not as much as you would’ve thought. The rudos took a lot of this. Douki’s transition to the Gori Special set up looked smooth at least.