CMLL Tuesday: Titán-Mephisto Rules!
You know how some lucha libre fans like myself continue to watch CMLL’s Tuesday show week after week, despite it generally being at best a decent house show? Look no further than tonight! With less than a day till National Lucha Libre Day would be celebrated for the first time, CMLL kicked off the holiday with an exceptional show, thanks in a large part to a certain CMLL World Welterweight Title match that exceeded the hype built up around it. But why build this show up even more when you can read all about it now?! Moses, meme time!
Eléctrico & Shockercito defeated Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito two falls to one
If you were to look up the word serviceable in the dictionary you’d find a picture from this match. There wasn’t anything out of this world from this opener, but aside from a couple bad Eléctrico moments it was just fine with no sore spots. And yes, once more Shockercito was the star, out running, out gunning and arm barring the hell out of anyone who came his way. The only thing he was missing was that cool Cobra Clutch/Romero Special hybrid submission that Eléctrico broke out to win the match. There’s always the next time I suppose.
Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. defeated Disturbio, Sangre Azteca, Skándalo two falls to one
The only thing shocking about this match was the fact that Disturbio ditched his Super Saiyan costume in favor of dressing up like a roadie for Ozzfest (remember Ozzfest?). Beyond that this was exactly what you’d expect; the match worked best when the rudos were involved and was a whole lot of clunky when the rudos were on offense. And that’s despite Skándalo being limited and Sangre Azteca having a few good moments, including a sequence where he slapped Guerrero Maya in the chest like his life depended on it. Still this belonged to the technicos, with Maya and Bala looking extra crisp while Fuego did enough of his usual routine to be effective. All things considered you can’t ask for more, especially since the technicos won. Funny how Tuesday is always the show that seems to reward the good guys. Must be Paco’s off day!
Máximo Sexy, Rey Cometa, Valiente Luciferno, Mr. Niebla, Vangellys two falls to one
This match is going to get lost in the amazingness that was the final two matches, which is a shame because I was highly entertained here. We got a first fall that was pretty much all comedy, with Máximo breaking out his psychological warfare often against poor Luciferno while Mr. Niebla ran into the stands and hid behind fans in order to avoid a beat down. This probably would’ve gotten old after awhile, only Cometa and Valiente made sure it didn’t by picking up the pace at the end of the first fall and keeping it during the second, with the others following suit. I would’ve liked to have seen the third fall go on a little longer, but overall the first two falls were good enough that this served as a nice entertaining appetizer for the main course later on. Also, we really need to start putting Valiente in big time matches. Ever since that slight bomb of a Lightning Match with Felino a few weeks ago the buffest luchador has caught fire again and was by far the MVP of this match. This man needs a push already! The people want Valiente; THE PEOPLE NEED VALIENTE!
Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely defeated Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis two falls to one
Talk about a match that was all over the place. This one started off great with Dalys putting on a master class performance with Sanely. I’m not joking; they clicked really well together and Dalys looked more like the woman who’s second only to Zeuxis in the entire division. After that however the match took a bit of a down turn, with Estrellita looking really sloppy, Princesa Sugehit and Zeuxis being limited to brawling away from the main action and did I mention that Estrellita was sloppy? Seriously, she nearly messed up a spot in the first fall that Dalys saved because she’s a flat out Rockstar and then proceeded to both several more moves at the start of the second fall that nearly derailed the match. It was looking like the second match of the night, only this time the rudas were the ones who made everything look great and the technicas made you feel like that dog cartoon in the middle of the burning house.
And then, somehow, the tide turned again and Estrellita suddenly found her footing starting in the middle of the second fall. I’d still say she was somewhat clunky but I’ll take that over whatever the hell that was in the first fall and a quarter. Even better was that Sanely looked the best she’s ever looked in her CMLL tenure, not only keeping up with Dalys but later Zeuxis as well with some nice moves of her own. In short, this match got quite good by the third fall and that was despite Amapola being a limited supporting character and Zeuxis and Sugehit not getting to do a whole lot besides their normal spots. Even still the comeback of Estrellita, Dalys’ great work and Sanely’s improvement helped immensely and this wound up going from a good match to a bad match to a good one again. That said, maybe CMLL would be wise not to do a Estrellita-Dalys match. They seem to be setting up that bout with Estrellita getting the win here and if she’s the same woman from the last half of the match then I’m alright with it. I just don’t see the consistency there and would much prefer Sanely get the shot. At least we know she’ll hang with Dalys all the way through.
CMLL World Welterweight Championship Match
Mephisto (c) defeated Titán two falls to one
Sometimes you just know that a match is going to be special. I knew this one was the moment Titán’s epic music hit and the match didn’t disappoint. This was nonstop, practically flawless action (aside from one suicide dive where Mephisto was too far away from Titán) that was at times so good some followers of mine on Twitter joked they may have a heart attack. I can tell you first hand it never got that tense for me, although I did nearly pull my arm out celebrating an awe inspiring sequence where Titán hit that pitch perfect moonsault of his with little or no time to spare. I haven’t seen something that good since my friend Roland brought me those two cans of Surge last week. And now I’m getting misty eyed over that moment again!
Back to the match! If you’re a fan of lucha libre or really any form of wrestling you would do well to go out of your way to see this match. It was fantastic from open to close and legitimately made me believe that either guy could win at any point of the match. I’d say this was a star making performance for Titán, but many (including myself) already thought that anyway. Perhaps we’ll call it a star affirming match; either way he was absolutely brilliant with everything, from his dives to his mat work to his great bumping that made Mephisto look amazing. Frankly though Mephisto would’ve looked amazing anyway and it’s a shame he’ll probably get overlooked a bit here. The veteran certainly can’t keep up with Titán’s pace (although I thought he did look quicker than most thought), but he made up for it by being absolutely vicious with his move selection. You truly believed that Mephisto didn’t just want to beat Titán but wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth with the moves he hit, which included two excellent sit out powerbombs (one on the ringside floor), another powerbomb on the ramp, an excellent DDT and a boot to the face reversal of a Titán moonsault that made me think he had knocked Titán out. It’s hard to say who gets the most credit for those things, so I’ll just split the difference and give credit to both men. This was one hell of a match and was right up there with some of the best stuff from the Anniversary Show. It was special, just like the two luchadors who made it so.
Diamante Azul, Dragón Lee, Volador Jr. defeated Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero two falls to one
Let the record show that I stand behind my initial view that this match should’ve been the semi-main event while Titán-Mephisto closed the show. Let the record also show that this match exceeded my expectations greatly. I anticipated these six would mail it in and not even try to compete with the preceding match. Instead they gave great effort and ended up producing a very fun trios match that any other show would’ve been worthy of closing. Honestly the only guy I could’ve done without was Niebla Roja, who just looked so sloppy compared to the rest of the guys. Beyond him everyone else was superb. I’m still not sure why Diamante Azul gets a bad rap from people, as he was excellent here with great displays of strength, an excellent running senton off the stage and those gorram Monkey Flips of his that he does so well. He was damn good, and even still he was overshadowed by his teammates Lee and Volador (flying around with reckless abandon as always), the UG and especially Euforia. The funny thing is that compared to the others Euforia didn’t do much, yet he owned this match because he bumped like a madman for everyone. I think in the span of two minutes he took two awesome hurricanrana’ s on the floor and then took a Super Hurricanrana from Volador at the end of the match; all three spots looked tremendous and he played such a big part of that. Above all else that stood out to me in a really fun end to a really fun evening, even if it should’ve gone second to last instead of last. But we’re just nitpicking at this point!
That’s it folks! I’m off till tomorrow, when I will bring you yet another fine Lucha Underground review. Till then, some Jack Bauer for the soul.
