This, the first CMLL show since March, was sponsored by Ministry of Culture and taped about a week advance in Arena Mexico. The matches took place in a mostly empty Arena Mexico. The only presentation differences were a Susan Distanica photo being used during replays. The announcers called the match from the front row, though no attention was drawn to it.
Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Star Jr.beatGran Guerrero, Templario, Terrible
(14:26 [3:46, 4:25, 6:15], 2/3, ok, luchablogvault)
It was impossible to ignore the differences between now and five months ago. Many (though not all) wrestlers and all referees were wearing face masks, there was no crowd (though some noise) and luchadors looked rusty. The style of the show otherwise was indistinguishable from any other Tuesday/Sunday show CMLL may have run in the last five years. It was an attempt at normalcy in an abnormal time.
Like most of those Tuesday/Sunday Arena Mexico shows, the matches themselves weren’t notable at all. This is a show where a critical review is nearly pointless: you’re watching this show for the comfort of having CMLL back in your life. Nothing notable happened, and that was sort of the point.
The main event was the strongest of the three matches presented. Templario couldn’t resist some flashy offense, a contrast to his teammates who were keeping it rather simple. Caristico couldn’t help but play to the 10,000 person crowd which always exists in his mind, and his match was otherwise solid. It went a little long but it wasn’t a struggle to match.
The other two matches were a notch below at least. The rust was more evident. Vangellys & Okumura are a bad fit for the lots of moves style Maya & Stuka wanted to do. Vangellys is too slow and Okumura just can’t take some moves at this point. The Sacrifica Maya finish looked particularly bad, probably because Okumura can’t take it the normal way with his neck. (It’s more on Maya for not picking another move.) The women didn’t do much interesting and came off as over-rehearsed as always. It feels too staged, where the only real moments come when something goes wrong.
I’m working out the rust and trying to figure out a new normal too. I attempted to stream this show on YouTube on got a takedown from CMLL about 10 minutes in. (It’s possible the falls graphics now automatically trigger a violation, but it felt like CMLL just saw the link and knocked it down.) That’ll be the last time I stream CMLL on YouTube. I’ll be on Twitch as long as that works. I’m also once again dealing with an issue where the video and sound drift apart the longer I have a video playing, and I have no more idea how to permanently fix it than I did when it started a year ago. The links above come off Capital 21’s Periscope airing and shouldn’t have that issue.
Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Emilio Charles Jr., Felino, Negro Casas, El Dandy, Pantera, Silver King, Texano
(Arena México @ 12/15, 28:16, great, Roy Lucier CMLL)
11:53 Texano rolled through plancha Felino
15:33 Wagner powerbomb Pantera
18:17 Dandy casita Negro Casas
23:41 Emilio Charles legs crossed wristlock Texano
25:53 Dr. Wagner spinning crucifix drop El Dandy
27:05 Silver King crucifix cradle Emilio Charles
28:16 Dr. Wagner sit down powerbomb Silver King
What Happened: This match is overly “let’s put eight of our best technical guys in a match.” It’s billed as Alto Rendimiento, but they mean that as high quality than win by rendering people via holds.
This is an amazing match for the first twelve minutes or so, before slowing down a bit after the Felino elimination. It’s still very good, with a couple of hitches, but that first section is worked an impressive pace and skill. It completely lives up to the promise of eight of the best guys going at full speed in great combinations. The later Negro Casas/Silver King pairing comes off as the best among a lot of good match ups. Pantera doesn’t seem to be treated at this high of a level most of his CMLL time; he absolutely fits in here. This Emilio Charles is much more an all-around great guy than he’d become (and the Terrible comparisons come through strong here.) Wagner is maybe the weakest link, but he’s not at bad or out of the place.
There’s a couple of smudges in the match. Bad CMLL refereeing exists in 1995. Referee Rafael el Maya eliminates Felino when he gets a shoulder up in plenty of time. (It’s the far shoulder, but Maya should’ve been able to see it.) Negro Casas slips off the second rope in embarrassing fashion, though they go with it as much as they can. The match would’ve been better with some time cut from the middle, but can’t complain too much about getting match time after how badly edited those spring episodes had been. This is worth watching easily.
Shocker beat Kahozfor the mask
(Arena México @ 12/15/1995, 10:04, 2/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Kahoz Gori Special (3:44)
Shocker over the shocker quebradora (1:17)
Shocker reverse bow and arrow (5:03)
The apuesta match goes well with Kahoz is knocking around Shocker. The problem is it is two falls of Shocker taking almost all the control despite having an unimpressive offense. He’s unrefined, not close to what he’d become later. Shocker also rips Kahoz’ mask so deeply that he’s unable to wrestle without fixing it, making the last stretch of the match a bit of a struggle. Kahoz comes off well, selling a lot even when Shocker isn’t giving much to him, and moves a lot better than most “old guys” in this type of mask match. He looks younger than 45 when they unmask him too.
A big issue with this one is they’re trying to get a sympathetic reaction for Vampiro, except the crowd decided they hate Vampiro from the start. The reaction takes by the end, though it a lot of attacking Vampiro’s right knee and exposing the knee brace on it, but it would’ve worked much better two years before. It’s a struggle to get there. Vampiro isn’t the perfect guy for this spot; he shifts randomly between selling the knee injury as crippling and something he can just easily limp around with slight discomfort with little reason. He’s back to being fine by the end of the match. Vampiro has figured out moves to do on offense but hasn’t figured out any particular order to do them, which means poor Dantes takes some big suplexes that go nowhere in the first fall. It’s generally Vampiro working something like a Japanese style for a disinterested Mexican audience. Apolo does well as the rudo; this might be the best singles match I’ve seen of him. The third fall is too long, especially since that length caused them to slip away from the knee injury storyline that played into the finish. This is still better than I expected from looking at the match up.
Héctor Garza beat Satánicofor the hair
(Arena México @ 12/15, 9:44 [0:31, 6:29, 2:44], 1/3, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Satanico puts over Garza huge in what’s effectively an uncompetitive match. Garza has so surpassed Satanico that it only takes one well applied hold to beat the veteran in the first fall. Satanico grinds out a second fall win with every legal punishing he can do, but gives Garza one opening in the third fall and it’s over like that. Garza comes off like a big star, even bigger than he did in April, and that’s a credit to Satanico for giving him much more than a veteran normally would in this spot.
These recaps exist to tell you not to actually watch these shows for the matches. The March editing issues are worse in April, turning most of these matches into just intros and finishes. There’s a few matches of historical importance, so it’s nice to see them at all, but the action is frustrating for how little we get to see of it. These shows feel like they’re produced by someone who wasn’t really much a fan of wrestling.
This is also the last batch of spring CMLL TV we have. There are a few matches here and there for the rest of the year before some full episodes late in the year. Those last few episodes are much better.
The April 1st show:
El Fierito, Felinito, Ultratumbita beat Cicloncito Ramírez, Máscarita Magica, Último Dragóncito
(Arena Coliseo @ 03/28, 4:41, 1/2 DQ, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
What Happened: Ultratumbita and Mascarita Magica set up a mask match next week with a lot mask ripping. Ultratumbita fakes a foul in the second fall.
Review: Just a brief heat building exercise and not much of a match. The first fall may have been edited a bit but there’s not a lot here. Dragoncito’s dive looked great.
The minis match leads into a summary of the Gran Alternativa league, the first I’ve noticed it being mentioned. It’s apparently been going for weeks since many of the participants have finished their matches. The concept is twenty young/undercard wrestlers split up into four groups, with round-robin matches in each group. The top two in each group are seeded into more familiar Gran Alternativa eight-team single-elimination tournament. The league matches are happening in Pista Arena Revolucion and Arena Coliseo, during a point where we rarely have information from those two arenas.
I’ve got El Dandy, Héctor Garza, La Fiera beating MS-1, Pirata Morgan, Satánico listed here, but it’s really just about two minutes of intros, one minute of match shown, and then post-match promos. They too have a mask match next week.
This editing proves to be more a production choice than a time limitation: they roll next into a repeat of the March 21th Salvador Lutteroth cibernetico highlight package. That eats up 8 minutes of TV. They also repeat some of a couple of matches from trios tournament, though not all of them or the relevant final. It’s just there to eat up space, which could’ve been used to show any of the new matches.
The main event of this week is the Brazos triangle match. The three-way match doesn’t exist in CMLL, at least this point, so it is a bit different. The concept instead is each Brazo will toss a coin and the two who match will start a singles match. The winner of the match will face the third brother in a single match. The loser of the first singles match faces the loser of the second match in a three fall match. Someone’s going to lose twice and lose their hair. Of course, these are all edited too; the second match has the most obvious jump cut.
Brazo de Plata beat El Brazo
(Arena México @ 03/31, 1:32, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Brazo de Oro beat Brazo de Plata
(Arena México @ 03/31, 3:32, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
El Brazo beat Brazo de Orofor the hair
(Arena México @ 03/31, 5:37, 1/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
This whole thing feels like it was ten times better in person, and it’s a downer to get it cut down so much. Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata can still very much go at this point, but we only get to see a little of it. What we see doesn’t quite come through well either. The second fall ends with Brazo begging off to trick his brother into a cradle, only the cameras miss the trick. The crowd for the final reacts slightly for the near falls and comes across quiet in between. This might have been memorable in person, but it feels underachieving on TV.
The April 8th show starts with a mask match. Or part of it.
Ultratumbita beat Máscarita Magicafor the mask
(Arena Coliseo @ 04/04, 4:13, ok for what was seen, rnrwrasslin)
The insane Mascara Magica dive was cool. This was still just a glimpse of the match and not really something worth rating against other matches.
There’s still plenty of time to fill: the cibernetico airs again here, and then the same tournament matches. Then onto another clipped tournament: the Gran Alternativa finals. All eight-team meet in the ring for an explanation of the seeding and tiebreaker rules. There’s no battle royal; the league finishes decides who faces whom.
Astro Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Guerrero De La Muerte & Mocho Cotain a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 1:55, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Atlantico & Atlantis beat MS-1 & MS-1 Jr.in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 0:56, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Bestia Salvaje & Corazón Salvaje beat Emilio Charles Jr. & Halcón Negroin a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 1:55, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Shocker & Silver King beat Chicago Express & Pierroth Jr.in a CMLL Gran Alternativa quarterfinal (Arena México @ 04/07, 1:16, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Astro Rey Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Atlantico & Atlantisin a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal (Arena México @ 04/07, 2:52, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
Shocker & Silver King beat Bestia Salvaje & Corazón Salvajein a CMLL Gran Alternativa semifinal
(Arena México @ 04/07, 0:34+0:40, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
What Happened: Shocker & Corazon Salvaje each pin the veterans, then go to a double pin draw. That’s a bit of a problem in a single-elimination tournament. The ring announcer actually announced before the matches started what would happen in the unlikely case of a draw: the two rookies face off in a singles match. It doesn’t go well. Corazon stumbles on a spot, Shocker puts him in a hold for the winning submission, Silver King comes in to celebrate but the referees never actually called the submission, and the Shocker improvises a German suplex to get the three count. Corazon Salvaje is down for a while on the mat, while the others fight to distract from the messed up finish.
Shocker & Silver King beat Astro Rey Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr.in a CMLL Gran Alternativa final
(Arena México @ 04/07, 8:52, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
The best part of the final, and the whole tournament, is the giant faceplant Dr. Wagner takes about five minutes in. It’s otherwise just a standard match with the crowd reacting nicely for team Shocker’s win. The work is fine, but there’s no great drama to it. The moment means more to the fans, who got to see a lot more in this tournament than we did. I’m still fascinated by how far Wagner & Mephisto (Astro Rey) are from being the people they’d become. Shocker has a ways to go but it’s possible to see the evolution coming, and obviously CMLL’s way into him at this point to have him win this tournament. There’s no obvious line for those other two.
Héctor Garza beat Satánicofor the hair
(Arena México @ 04/07, 2:13, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
It’s two minutes. It’s a good two minutes, highlighted by Humberto Garza running to ringside to cheerlead for his son and nearly getting arrested for it. (I think it was a planned bit but not one they clued in security about; announcers recognize him immediately.) It’s still just two minutes. CMLL is so different in 1995 than 2020 that it is actually not a terrible issue: these two run the same match back in December, which is up complete.
Atlantis, Negro Casas, Vampiro beat Emilio Charles Jr., Jason The Terrible, Pierroth Jr.
(03/14 @ Arena Coliseo, 9:04, 1/2 DQ, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
What Happened: In the intro, Miguel Linares says Jason the Terrible is Australian! The match is joined with the two teams fighting prior to getting to the ring.
Review: Everyone looks fine but this one doesn’t really pick up before it ends. It’s an abrupt ending, Emilio fouling Vampiro to send this to a straight falls finish in a match where they hadn’t feuded much. 1995 Vampiro likes to take flip bumps out off of clotheslines. He often seems like he’s wrestling his own match, unaware of what is going on around him. He keeps wrestling Jason the Terrible in the first fall long after his partners have ended the fall.
I was sure this was going to be a match I was really going to enjoy. I couldn’t find a way to give a positive grade even coming in wanting to like it. This is very much a match they could’ve done in the Japan or US with two fall breaks wedged in. It’s not bad for that reason but feels out of place on a CMLL card. It feels weird that Jericho’s going to chinlocks to slow down the match to built to an Ultimo Dragon comeback, and the relatively short time for this match doesn’t really allow those pauses. It’s possible they just edited it down, but what we’re left with doesn’t feel great. Jericho is unpolished, with some moments that really don’t go well. (The dropkick counter/moonsault spot they both try for at the end doesn’t come close to working.) This is one which may have worked better in the time – they’re doing all sorts of suplexes and top rope moves which were more novel in 1995. It doesn’t hold up well now.
Sangre Chicana beat La Fierafor the hair
(03/17 @ Arena México, 7:23, good, Roy Lucier CMLL)
This is maybe a bit of a generous grade. They got to the fighting I was hoping for in the third after two relatively forgettable falls. There’s one tope worth seeing too, though the match ends abruptly (and maybe after an edit.) This is not a patch on the 80s Sangre Chicana hair matches but acceptable for this sort of thing.
1995-03-25 matches
Almost every match on this show (full link) is clipped. I just have the tournament matches listed as airing, but there are clips of matches from other shows which last longer. It’s a useless show if you’re just looking for great matches. The conditions don’t allow for any of the matches to come off well, and the focus is on building to matches on future shows. Might as well talk about that instead of the matches.
Non-tournament matches
The 03/21 @ Arena Coliseo Salavador Lutteroth cibernetico from 03/21. Mostly just eliminations shown. Dr. Wagner wins over buddy Pierroth.
The trios main event from the 03/21 Arena Coliseo show. Satanico fouls Hector Garza to continue that issue.
The 02/24 @ Arena Mexico Reyna Jubuki vs Lady Apache CMLL Women’s Championship, ending when Lady Apache was disqualified for refusing to let go of a hair pull. It’s a bad ending. A Lady Apache sit down interview precedes this building to a rematch. In reality, that was Jubuki’s final match in Mexico and she’s left as champion. It’ll take a year and a half for CMLL to come up with a reason to vacate the title (Jubuki appearing in WCW) and get it to Lady Apache. Jubuki leaving with the title appears to end the 80s/90s rebirth era of the women’s division, with CMLL paying little attention to the championship until Dark Angel showed up.
Those matches take place in between rounds of a Salvador Lutteroth trios tournament on 03/24 in Arena Coliseo. This is prior to the era of Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, with CMLL looking for a way to honor their founder in March and not yet having struck on building a show around it. There is a seeding battle royal.
Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazo beat Damián el Guerrero, Guerrero del Futuro, Guerrero Maya in 0:55 shown
Apolo Dantés, Atlantis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. beat Cadáver De Ultratumba, Espectro Jr., Kahoz in 0:54 shown
The rudos fouled Rayo to cost themselves an easy win
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Wagner Jr., El Hijo Del Gladiador, Gran Markus Jr. in 1:26 shown
Dos Caras, El Dandy, Héctor Garza beat MS-1, Pirata Morgan, Satánico in 0:28 shown
Satanico & Hector Garza feuding was the focus
Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazo beat Apolo Dantés, Atlantis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. in 1:43 shown
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Dos Caras, El Dandy, Héctor Garza in 1:28 shown
The final was shown complete, or close to it. It still wasn’t long.
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre Chicana beat Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, El Brazoin a tournament final
(03/24 @ Arena México, straight falls, 5:56, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
The whole tournament was building up to miscommunication between El Brazo and his two brothers, leading to a violent fight after the match. El Brazo had been a rudo since late September 1994; it was more surprising he was getting along with his brothers for one night than that they broke up. This leads to a hair match between them the next week, though a trios tournament comes off as a strange way to set that up. Garza/Satanico, which is two weeks away, is a lot more conventionally built. Bestia Salvaje remains a quiet joy, doing a couple of interesting things in every significant match.
This is 1996, not 1995, because I grabbed the wrong year and didn’t have the time to watch actual 1995 yet. It’s fine, we’ve got time, I may do the whole 90s before there’s another show. This is also a much longer episode than last one, so maybe just one week of TV (and allowing me to stash the next episode for the next time I need to fill in.)
Matches:
Bronco (Monterrey), Máscara Mágica, Panterabeat Astro Rey Jr., Cadáver De Ultratumba, Espectro Jr. (03/01 @ Arena Mexico, 14:54, 1/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
This one feels like it’s going to be something in the first fall and then is sleepy the rest of the way. CMLL finds the worst way to shoot the big double corner tope that’s the key to the comeback, though they at least pick it up on replay. Bronco does the softest springboard reverse tope you’ll see in the third fall.
A enjoyable championship match, though one that feels very strange to 2020 eyes at points. No dives in a CMLL title match until deep into the third fall feels like something from a different planet and the match generally takes a long time to really pick up. Damiancito is the future Virus, winning the minis championship here that’d he never actually lose before moving to the main division, and it’s weird to see him pull out more of the acrobatic moves in this match. Mascarita Magica does a bit of flying on his own near the end – there’s a lot of hopping from the second rope to the top rope in this one – but it’s a performance very different from what Virus would become. He does show off llaves early and late and everyone’s pretty accepting of a crazy hold in the end. This one is worth the time.
Arkángel de la Muerte, Chicago Express, Mogur beat Mr. Niebla, Súper Astro, Yoshihiro Tajiriin a super libre match
(02/27 @ Arena Coliseo, 11:47, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
What Happened: This is billed as a super libre rematch from last week, and we do not currently have lineups/results from 02/20. We don’t have complete results from 03/06 either, but it seems like they were setting up a Tajiri/Mogur match (!)
Review: [ok] This isn’t interesting outside of the fact that they’re really setting up Yoshihiro Tajiri versus Mogur, just two guys I’d never consider in a feud. Tajiri showed some good revenge brawling and single-minded focus on trying to kill Mogur, though that distracts everyone else from doing all that much. Super Astros looks the best of everyone else, really connecting on his reverse topes.
Felino, Negro Casas, Rambo beat Brazo de Oro, Dos Caras, Lizmark
(03/01 @ Arena Mexico, 9:57, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
A semi-main level match seemingly of no particular direction until Rambo and Brazo de Oro get into a belt swinging war for a DQ. The action was solid and better than that if you’re into the personalities, but it feels a little just going through the motions for me. The crowd reacted to the finish, which was the point and so I guess it doesn’t matter the rest of the match accomplished little.
I think Emilio was supposed to catch him in the armbar but it’s not clear.
Recapped: 2020-07-16
The in-between February 25th show isn’t currently available. It was probably better than all of this.
Matches:
Cadáver De Ultratumba, Espectro Jr., Kahozbeat Ciclón Ramírez, El Hijo del Solitario, Pantera
(02/14 Arena Coliseo, 2/3, 7:43, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
A short match of no note. The third fall seems like it’s building up to a big tecnico comeback, and then it just ends. Pantera looks great in his second fall run and Espectro & Cadaver do well stooging for him, but that’s more notes to look for them in another match than to see this one.
Canek, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., VampirobeatDr. Wagner Jr., Emilio Charles Jr., Pierroth Jr. (02/17 Arena México, 2/3, 17:06, ok,Roy Lucier CMLL)
Longer but not better. Wagner still hates Vamp, just refuses to go up for a suplex from him. Arena Mexico crowd is much more anti-Vamp than the Arena Coliseo crowd. Vampiro tries to get himself over by taking wild bumps, which more almost gets himself killed. This is a twenty five year old match and yet I feared for his life when he went to take a Doomsday Device. (He felt on his shoulder safely.) The build towards Canek/Wagner isn’t much interesting because 1995 Wagner is not great himself. Skip.
Atlantis, Negro Casas, Último DragónbeatDr. Wagner Jr., Mocho Cota, Pierroth Jr. (03/07 Arena Coliseo, ½ DQ, 13:5, ok,Roy Lucier CMLL)
A sort of interesting first fall turns into a very drowsy second fall. Mocho Cota is a delight, Negro Casas seems unaccustomed to work as a tecnico, Dr. Wagner shows a bit more personality than usual, but this is nothing special.
El Brazo, Jason The Terrible, Satánico beat Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza (03/10 Arena Coliseo, 1/2, 2:30, n/r, Roy Lucier CMLL)
This is highlights, with the rudos winning in straight falls.
Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles Jr., Sangre ChicanabeatCorazón De León, La Fiera, Vampiro (03/10 Arena Coliseo, 11:10, 1/3, ok, Roy Lucier CMLL)
La Fiera & Chicana are fine as the central portion of the feud, but not helped much by the tecnico team. Jericho picks up a minor seeming shoulder injury and looks off the rest of the match. Vampiro is Vampiro. Bestia Salvaje is as good as always.
