CMLL Super Viernes: Out of the Wreckage
What a night last night was sports fans. It began with tonight’s CMLL Super Viernes looking like the most forgettable event this side of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. By the end of the show it had legit become Rise of the Planet of the Apes; something no one thought they could care about that turned out to be one of the more entertaining things of the year. And all of it happened while a massive scandal involving Máximo, La Máscara, Último Guerrero, Último Guerrero’s car, Psycho Clown and a whole lot of lucha libre politics started to break. But we’ll deal with that later today; for now let’s just review what was a really entertaining show with an awesome crowd. Moses, just meme it!
Magnus & Sensei defeated Espiritu Negro & Akuma two falls to one
If you did a match with Sensei, Espiritu Negro and Akuma 100 times, 99 of those matches would likely be worse than the Star Wars Holiday Special. Luckily for us we got the one time the match didn’t suck tonight, and it was all because of the fourth man in this match. Who was he? Observe!
Yes, CMLL inexplicably made the right call to book Magnus in this match and boy did he help elevate it. He was active early in the first fall, dominating both Espiritu and Akuma on the way to taking a 1-0 lead continued to do well in the second fall and then closed the third fall with a top rope Spanish Fly that had the CMLL bookers acting like their cards had just been totaled. He did more stuff too; I sadly don’t remember it though because I was too busy typing “MAGNUS” in big bold letters every time he did something cool. Can you tell I like this guy? In any event, his performance was one of those that helped elevate the entire match and the guys around him. Sensei seemed to feed off him and actually gave a pretty decent effort himself, while Espiritu and Akuma…well they didn’t screw anything up, so points for that. Put it all together and you have a much better opener than we’re used to with CMLL. Thank you Magnus! If only CMLL would love you like the rest of us do and make you a main eventer like your cousin, who will be talking about soon!
La Jarochita, Silueta, Princesa Sugehit defeated Dalys, Zeuxis, Amapola two falls to one
This Monday in Arena Puebla, you’ll see Marcela, Princesa Sugehit and Sanely take on Amapola, Tiffany and Reyna Isis. That’s a match that fails three talented luchadoras in Marcela, Sugehit and Amapola and also makes it easier to see why the luchadoras division in CMLL sucks so bad. Tonight’s match was the exact opposite of what that match will be. All six women tried hard, the crowd was into this match, nothing was botched (take notes Estrellita) and people who don’t normally look good ended up looking like good wrestlers for a change. Dalys has seemed off the past few months; not tonight, as she was delivering moves with confidence and even managed to make her “knees to the kidneys” spot look good on two occasions. Jarochita, who has shown next to nothing since coming to CMLL, worked with great pace, looked athletic as hell and came across as someone who actually has a future in the division. I don’t think you would’ve gotten those two looking as good as they did if you put them in with a group that didn’t feature Silueta, Sugehit, Zeuxis and Amapola. Those four are as pro as they come and they showed it here, making those two look good and making themselves look good. Zeuxis and Sugehit are magic together at this point and I reckon their mask match is going to blow everything they’ve done out of the water to this point. And good Grodd Silueta; how CMLL can book Sanely week after week but will forget about Silueta, an actually talented luchadora, for weeks on end is just mind boggling. Matches with her are always better than expected, and with the additional elements here this was no different. The DQ finish aside, we had six women giving great efforts, delivering above average performances and actually getting the crowd into the match. This is what the CMLL Luchadoras division should be, which makes it even more frustrating that we’ll be reverting to the status quo come Monday. My rant is done; I will now resume being a dork.
Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. defeated Sagrado, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora two falls to one
If not for a second straight DQ finish, this match might’ve laid claim to being the best of the night. I’m telling you, it was that good, especially the third fall. Alas we ended up with Pólvora kicking Stuka in the nads and unmasking him for the Arena Mexico finish, thus preventing it from toppling Cavernario-Titán (more on that in a moment). I will confess though that I did chuckle at the finish, mostly because Stuka was charging right towards Pólvora and the rudo put his hands up like he needed a timeout before doing the evil deed. Highest of comedy. It was the Arena Mexico finish, MC Hammer edition.
Like I said though, prior to that this match was money. The first two falls weren’t the most exciting in the world, but they were as well worked as you’d expect from these six and built quite nicely to the third wall, where everyone then cut loose and delivered the goods. I still wish Drone would hit that extra gear he seems to be hiding, but he was solid as usual flying around and doing those unique things only he does, while Stuka looked faster than ever and Guerrero Maya did Guerrero Maya stuff, like that tope con hilo of his through the second rope. The key to this match’s success however was the Revolucionarios and Sagrado. They controlled a good portion of the match and managed to not fall into the trap most rudos do on the Monday and Tuesday shows. No moment was wasted, everything was precise and crisp and the teamwork seemed effortless between the three. It was like Bobby V was there, only he was dressed as Sagrado and was sweeping the leg. I don’t know if this was a onetime thing or not, but if I were Pólvora and “El General”, I’d be recruiting Sagrado to be the fourth member of Los Revolucionarios immediately. They make a great team and were the MVP’s of this match, which again was one low blow away from being the best thing on this show. Quite the accomplishment considering how much this show rocked.
Lighting Match
Cavernario defeated Titán
I must admit I was worried about this match early one when these two were on the mat; not that I mind that sort of thing, but with Titán being in a little bit of a rut recently, I thought it would be best if these two came out swinging. Luckily that mat sequence lasted a minute and after that they were off to the races, with Cavernario controlling most of the match and Titán fighting from underneath with as much high flying offense as he could. The result; an excellent Lightning Match and something you’d expect from two talented guys like this. Cavernario continues to be one of the most versatile and dependable luchadors in CMLL (keep in mind, this guy just had an outstanding match with Rey Cometa this past Tuesday), while Titán wrestled like a guy who just got booked in the US a few months from now. You know, because he actually did! After seeing him step up tonight I’m even gladder that New Japan is bringing him to Long Beach and hopefully this means we’re in for a string of awesome Titán performances for the rest of the year. If not, at least we had him and Cavernario tearing the house down tonight for one of the better matches of the year; although I’m still not sure it beat the tour de force that was Guerrero Maya vs. Virus. I’m still in the process of writing sonnets about the finish to that one!
Ángel de Oro, Valiente, Atlantis defeated Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero two falls to none
Up until the post match activities, the only way to describe this match was that of a car wreck you can’t look away from. I mean let’s be real; Atlantis and Valiente, two of CMLL’s biggest stars, were practically bodies in this match, their partner Ángel de Oro only mattered because his brother was the main focus of the match, and that focus was once again placed on Niebla Roja slowly turning on UG and Gran Guerrero while UG looked as Roja like he just destroyed his property. This wasn’t even close to the matches the Guerreros have been having during this split and it seemed like this was destined to be an overbooked mess that existed only to prolong this story another week before CMLL finally pulled the trigger. Then out of nowhere Roja super kicked UG to prevent him from doing a barricade dive on his brother (Ángel de Oro), Gran Guerrero stepped in and magic happened. It was like Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2, if those movies were actually interesting.
Even now I still can’t believe how well this all came out, especially after the first few minutes of this match were such an eye roller. And yet it did, for a myriad of reasons. For one, Último Guerrero sold all this like he was legit pissed off, probably because he was after the terrible day he had. Secondly, Ángel de Oro ended up being the perfect defender for Niebla Roja, partially because he’s his brother and partially because CMLL has amazingly made him credible after giving him the CMLL Middleweight Championship and the Reyes del Aire trophy in the past few months. And third, whether it was by design or sheer dumb luck (I’ll go with the latter), the long build to this moment ended up making the pay off feel even bigger, especially with Arena Mexico being as invested as a crowd could be in the outcome. Maybe in a few days I’ll look back on this and wonder what the hell I was thinking believing this was gold. All I know is that in the moment this angle was awesome, UG looked like a megastar and Niebla Roja was able to look somewhat good; you know, for a guy who had looked more like an annoying rudo instead of a the respectful technico he was trying to portray. I don’t know where we go from here and honestly I don’t think CMLL knows. Who cares? Let’s just enjoy tonight and deal with the wreck later.
Marco Corleone, Carístico, Mistico defeated Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas two falls to one
After two matches that were better than expected, two matches that were as good as expected and an angle that went far better than expected, it’s only fitting that the main event of this show end by, you guessed it, being better than expected. Pretty sure I can’t use that phrase for another five columns now! Anyways, despite a slow start this match ended up being quite fun, largely thanks to a great third fall and (once more) the Arena Mexico crowd being super into this match. I’m still not sure what had these people so stoked but thank Grodd they were because it made this match feel far more important than it should’ve been and brought out a better effort from the guys than usual. I have to especially give big ups to Marco and Carístico here. The former was put in a difficult situation taking Máximo’s spot in this match and while he mostly stuck to his routine, he looked great doing it and his stuff with Negro Casas would’ve been the high point if Carístico didn’t steal the show from him. That man…my goodness did he have some sequences in that third fall that were so good I thought he had traveled back to 2006. It was especially impressive when you consider Carístico immediately traveled to Arena Naucalpan to wrestle another match this evening. The guy could’ve taken it easy and instead gave a great effort, pulled out some stuff he hadn’t done before and helped make this match a fun close to the show. My hats off to him, and to the rest of the guys. Mistico, Mephisto and Ephesto may not have shined like Carístico and Marco did, but they all had moments (Mephisto and Ephesto in particular based quite well) and Mistico had a performance that would’ve really shone through on a normal night. What else is there to say? This wasn’t a Match of the Year contender by any means, but it was super fun, it had a great crowd and it was an excellent ending to a show that I never thought would entertain me as much as it did.
That’s it for me sports fans. I’m off till tomorrow, where I will be talking about the controversial events surrounding tonight’s show that only seem to get more interesting the more I hear about it. Till then, THIS!
