CMLL Puebla: Volador-Cavernario V
I came into tonight’s CMLL excited to see if Volador and Cavernario could continue their trend of great matches in Arena Puebla. I came out of this show still believing they could, only I didn’t get the chance to see it because CMLL’s booking tonight was stranger than Stranger Things. Indeed, all three main matches ended in fuck finishes designed to build to something later on, only they’re not going to build to a show with three big singles matches so…who knows what they’re doing. At least we got some cool stuff in the undercard though, and you now get to read this review while Texas is the Reason jams in the background. Good stuff. LET’S WRITE!
Fuerza Chicana & King Jaguar defeated Black Tiger & Meyer two falls to one
What a whole lot of yawn-a-roonie this match was! Then again what did you expect with the likes of Black Tiger, Fuerza Chicana and King Jaguar involved? Aside from Chicana breaking out a decent sitout Outsider’s Edge and Meyer trying (to no avail) this was the usual CMLL opener; long, boring and did I mention long? At 10:15: I thought the match should be over; ten minutes later fall three started! How this match got extra time but Cavernario and Volador couldn’t will mystify me from this day till the ending of the world. Seriously CMLL; if you’re going to give me a boring ass Puebla opener with the regulars, at least throw Astro or Centella Roja in there. The former will provide at least one good moment while I always get a kick out of Roja trying to remain young and failing miserably.
Akuma & Espanto Jr. defeated Rey Samuray Jr. & Tigre Rojo Jr. two falls to one
The only thing anyone cared about going into this match was whether Rey Samuray would have the balls to try his Brillo 450 again this week when he just missed hitting last week against Templario. As it turns out, he did indeed have the balls and then some; not only did Samuray try it again, but he tried it on Espanto Jr. on all people. In other words, he tried it on a guy who later in the match was so far away from Samuray that the technico had to turn an attempted springboard rana into a weak one foot dropkick. That’s living dangerously, which makes it all the more impressive that Samuray pulled it off!
Indeed, this time Samuray got the full rotation on the 450 to hit the move! Not perfectly mind you; the 450 looked more towards the Pegasso end of the spectrum than say, Tritón. Even still, he did hit the move and once more he has to be commended for even trying this; when have you ever seen someone do something like this? Bravo to Samuray and I bet he hits the move flush one of the next few times he tries it. Unfortunately for everyone else in this match, Samuray going for that move was the only thing of note. Tigre Rojo had some good moments but overall got little to do thanks to a rushed third fall, while Akuma got to do his usual solid basing and Espanto did, well, Espanto things. In other words he bombed like The Last Airbender at the box office. Replace him with Templario, give them a few more minutes and this match might’ve been super fun. Instead it was just fine, with Samuray stealing the show.
Audaz, Stigma, Tritón defeated El Malayo, Puma, Tiger two falls to one
In the most predictable twist since Miranda Tate was revealed as Talia al Guhl, this match was super fun! If you couldn’t tell that from who was in it then there’s no hope for you. There were times I did wish that Stigma and Malayo had been replaced with more exciting luchadors, but both ended up being fine, with Stigma showing some nice late match energy and Malayo…alright he pretty much just stayed out of the way, but that’s just fine in this case. All that allowed Audaz, Tritón, Puma and Tiger to take the spotlight, and aside from Tritón slipping on an ambitious hurricanrana everything went down smooth and everything worked like a charm. Hell even that blown spot worked out as Tritón and Tiger managed to transition it into an arm drag because, shocker of all shockers, those two are fucking awesome at lucha libre. Who knew? Your mileage will vary on how good this was, but I think we can all agree this match was a success and I’d argue it was the best trios match we’ve seen from Puebla since…hot damn it’s been a long time. I think Ripper was still around then. Speaking of Ripper and his known associates…
Hechicero, Kráneo, Stuka Jr. defeated Johnny Idol, Sam Adonis, Titán two falls to one
Your classic cool down match following the fun thrills the last bout provided. It did actually get better as it went along and Hechicero was allowed to do stuff, but for the most part this was an exhibition in Kráneo doing comedy, Titán doing his best rudo impression (it was frightening how well he fit in with the foreign rudos) and Idol and Sam doing their best to play off Kráneo. Oh, and Stuka Jr. was also there, while Hechicero got too little to do. Such is life; sometimes the trade off for fun matches like the previous bout is that the next one is one used to build to something else. In any event, this was fine if uneventful, though I will applaud it if it leads to Kráneo vs. Sam in the next few weeks. That’s a match with potential for laughs and some surprisingly decent action.
Bestia del Ring (Pierroth), Mistico, Rush defeated Diamante Azul, Euforia, Mr. Niebla two falls to one
If the last match was a cool down, this match was Mr. Freeze icing us down until he could find a cure for our terminal illness. Hot damn was this a waste of time. We got a lot of brawling, one cool Mr. Niebla second rope senton, a few minutes of Rush giving a damn and then Niebla getting DQ’d by low blowing Rush for the second straight low blow DQ.
I know; I don’t get it either. Well I sort of get it; Rush vs. Niebla may be set up and that’s a match I wouldn’t mind seeing too much, provided Niebla is sober. But the way they went about it…no dice. For one, we just had a match end with a low blow DQ; doing that again in the next match is a booking no-no up there with not having a dude win via finger poke. And that’s under any circumstance; it’s even worse when you see this match had little to no action, yet another repeat of the last match. I guess CMLL was trying to keep the crowd from being burnt out between the entertaining trios match and the main event, but this was a case where they perhaps should’ve added a bit more meat. Alas.
Cavernario defeated Volador Jr. two falls to none
Well…this was unexpected, and not in a good way. I wasn’t sure that Volador-Cavernario, Episode V, Episode V would turn out to be as good as issues I-IV, but I had hopes that it could at least be in the conversation. NOPE! As it turns out this was less of a match and more of an angle to set up Volador-Cavernario, Episode VI; it began with Cavernario dominating Volador to an easy fall one victory and pretty much stayed that way until the end, with Volador briefly getting momentum before Cavernario hit a distracted Tirantes, tricking the ref into giving him a DQ win because of course Tirantes thought it was Volador who hit him. Guess that means we can use Volador-Cavernario, Episode V: Tirantes Strikes Back as the full title.
Now look, I’ve beaten a dead horse with this point already but I’m going to do it again now. I understand that CMLL is looking to build up matches and their go to move is the DQ. I also get that they wanted to set up Cavernario challenging Volador (yet again) for the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship and this was the way to go to do so. But hot damn; three straight lame duck matches with identical finishes? Not a good move CMLL. I could live with one, but going with three, and three straight no less, is tiresome and reeks of the general laziness we see from CMLL all the time. It doesn’t help that Tirantes was involved after his brutal performance last week made me want to send the torches and pitchforks brigade after him. So yeah; this was pretty lame on the whole. I’m sure I’ll forgive it next week when Volador and Cavernario have a pretty good match, but for now all it does is annoy me. And just you wait; if by some chance Volador-Cavernario VI isn’t on the cards next week, I may just have to do another open letter to Paco Alonso. And you don’t want that Paco. It’s one thing to ask for Valiente to wear pants again; it’s another thing with what I’m prepared to ask.
That’s game sports fans. I’ll see you tomorrow for the Tuesday show review. Till then, THIS!
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