CMLL Tuesday: Kingdom of Volador
Breaking news into the control room; strong looking CMLL show turns out to be…a strong CMLL show. Who could’ve guessed? Even with a couple of matches that looked a tad sketchy, CMLL overall delivered a good experience tonight with a better than expected woman’s match, a super fun fourth match, a fifth match that set up a strong match up for the weeks to come and a main event that exceeded every expectation. I’d dare say it was the best Tuesday show since…good Grodd it’s been awhile. Or maybe it hasn’t and I’ve just forgotten about all the other good Tuesday show’s recently. Who knows and who has the time to figure it out when I’ve got reviewing to do?! Moses, meme me in.
Apocalipsis & Inquisidor defeated Bengala & Metatrón two falls to one
I must confess; I was too busy eating pizza and getting up to get more slices of pizza while this match was going. Basically I missed a good chunk of the action, and judging from the little I saw I didn’t miss much. There wasn’t anything that terrible, but there wasn’t anything interesting either. Your typical CMLL opener everyone! The good news is that almost everything was okay to very good from here on in, and I got to enjoy pizza. Can’t go wrong with either of those scenarios.
Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Starman defeated Canelo Casas, Espanto Jr., Hijo del Signo two falls to one
It seemed like they had something going in the first fall when Oro Jr. was busy making Canelo Casas look like a half decent luchador. Then Diamante and Espanto had a rough sequence in the second fall and it seemed like the technicos had very little to do after that. Well aside from Starman, but who paid to see Starman? It is nice to see Oro Jr. looking pretty good most weeks now; I don’t know if AC/DC’s “TNT” playing over his entrance has helped, but he’s been more consistent and more confident. Maybe that’ll rub off on Diamante now that he’s finally gotten a victory. Sure he didn’t actually contribute anything to Starman pinning Casas for the victory and seemingly disappeared after the second fall but…a win is a win? Honestly the only reason I’m counting it as a win for him is because his luck has been that bad and I feel like throwing him a bone. I reckon by next week we’ll all forget about this triumph and this will go down as the Chad Fortune moment of Diamante’s reverse Goldberg. How much you want to bet no one gets that last reference?
Princesa Sugehit, Sanely, Skadi defeated Reyna Isis, Tiffany, Zeuxis two falls to one
I’m very confused here sports fans. Last week if you had told me that Reyna Isis and Tiffany had been involved in two consecutive semi-decent matches where neither sucked, I would’ve assumed Zeuxis was involved and did all the work while Tiffany and Isis stood on the apron. And yet here we are and, while Zeuxis definitely did carry the load tonight, both times both have come out looking like luchadoras who don’t deserve to join Pierroth in being locked out of Arena Mexico. I don’t know what this sorcery is, but I’m intending to launch a full scale investigation into figuring it out. Hell for all we know Reyna Isis and Tiffany have switched places with look alikes. Hell for all we know Reyna Isis is now actually Dark Angel, working incognito so WWE doesn’t find out. Have you ever seen the two of them together at the same time? These are questions you need to be asking yourself.
Besides those two, everything else worked in this match just fine. Zeuxis was in prime form, working great with Princesa Sugehit in order to build up their Saturday Night match, hitting Sanely with a running knee attack that must’ve broken every bone in Sanely’s body and even taking the time to hit Skadi with a top rope Spanish Fly that I actually doubted she could pull off. And yes I immediately scolded myself for doubting the Queen. It definitely helped that all three technicas came to play, with Sanely doing well with everything aside from running the ropes and Skadi really impressing. Maybe I’m misremembering her, but I never recalled her being this athletic in the past. I don’t know if she’s gotten better in recent months or if my memory is going the way of Matthew Perry’s career, but she had some really good moments tonight (mostly with Zeuxis) and most importantly tried really hard. If she’s going to give that effort more often I’d like to see her get more shots. If nothing else they should let her and Zeuxis go at it again, just so we can see Zeuxis do more Spanish Fly’s on her. Yes it was that awesome and you should go view it now!
Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stigma defeated Puma, Sansón, Tiger two falls to one
This was an absolute barnburner from beginning to end. Everyone came to play, any questions people had about Sansón clicking with Puma and Tiger were immediately answered and there were at least five times during this match I put my hands on my head as if my favorite sports team had just blown a massive lead (apologies to my Atlanta readers). The only thing I might’ve changed was a little quickening of the pace in the third fall, where things slowed from ludicrous speed to ridiculous speed. That short nitpick aside this was super fun, supremely well worked and is exactly the kind of match all six of these guys should be having weekly. The best news of all (aside from that sick ending where Rey Cometa turned an attempted top Alabama Slam attempt into a Super Rana) is that Sansón really stood out without Cuatrero and Forastero around. We’ve seen him work really well with those two but we hadn’t gotten the chance to see much of him without them around. Some may prefer they stick together all the time, but I liked that he got a chance to shine by himself here and I thought he was exceptional clicking with Tiger and Puma. Let’s hope they get more chances to work together soon so there’s more matches like this one, which may be one of the best Tuesday matches we see in all of 2017.
Máximo Sexy, Mistico, Titán defeated Cavernario, Mephisto, Negro Casas two falls to none
This was just getting going when Cavernario unmasked Mistico to cause a DQ in the second fall. What a pity because another fall and I think this match would’ve been on par with the fourth match and the main event. It took them a few minutes to get into top gear (mostly because Máximo was gimmicking it up), but once they did there were a lot of fun moments, particularly the Titán/Negro Casas sequences that made me want to see them feud immediately. Sadly that won’t come to pass, but at least we will be getting what could be a fantastic match between Mistico and Cavernario out of it. The two had an encounter in Arena Puebla in the middle of last year that was decent, but you could tell neither guy was truly going all out. I expect a match between the two in Arena Mexico would feature more effort, more spots and a chance to truly be something. It’s just a question of whether we’ll see it next week, or if CMLL wants one more week of build before we get to see Cavernario try to kill himself yet again.
NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship
Volador Jr. (c) defeated Ephesto two falls to one
You can have as many preconceived thoughts about something as you want sports fans; the truth is that until something happens, you never know for sure just how it’ll play out. Volador vs. Ephesto is living proof of that. I never had any doubt it would be okay, but I wasn’t expecting Ephesto to have the skill or Volador to bring the effort that would make this a really good match. I was wrong; this match was really good, and you could maybe even talk me into saying it was great if I had a few 7-Ups in me. As far as pleasant surprises go, this ranks right up there with CMLL announcing Atlantis vs. Rush is the main event for Homenaje a Dos Leyendas tomorrow.
So what made this match better than expected? For one they did the opposite of the Volador-Mephisto match from late last year and treated it like a big match. The first two falls actually got a decent amount of time, Ephesto did some moves he didn’t usually do, Volador worked on the ground the way he usually doesn’t, so on and so forth. Ultimately though this all comes down to Volador. That’s not to take anything away from Ephesto; he was really good here, managing to keep up with Volador, expand his range and not mess anything up along the way. But even if he did that with someone else, it would’ve have worked the same way it did here with Volador honed in and on his game. It’s sad that isn’t always the case but when it is, Volador is untouchable and tonight he was. He gave us four dives when he didn’t need too, worked fast, worked crisp, made Ephesto look like a million bucks and ultimately came out of this looking like a guy who is arguably the best luchador in the world. You’d have to be to get this kind of effort out Ephesto. So props to Volador and props to Ephesto for hanging in there. I don’t think this will go down as a Match of the Year contender when it’s all said and done (there is only so much Ephesto can do), and I still wish someone else had gotten Ephesto’s spot in this match. But for what I expected, this was really strong and a great close to a really good show.
We have reached the end sports fans. I’m off to play some TEW and watch some Buffy, and I may just do that all of tomorrow before coming back to preview the Friday show on Thursday. We’ll see! Till whenever, embrace the RUPERT G!