CMLL Tuesday Preview: Ride the Lightning II (Hechicero-Maya)
Holy quick turnaround Batman! Yes I’m back already my good readers and with good reason considering Bound for Glory got in the way of my usual CMLL preview schedule. We’re all caught up now though. My review of BFG is in the bag, my preview of tonight’s CMLL show in Puebla is on newsstands now and now we’re about to dive into my CMLL Tuesday preview. And much like Puebla, this show also has a must see match crammed in between a bunch of intriguing bouts and some that you may want to skip. It gets that ugly potentially folks. But don’t just take my word for it…wait you should because this is my preview I’m reading. This is what happens when you write too many columns in a row dear reader! But let’s recount my flaws later and predict some lucha now. Moses, you know what to do.
Bengala & Leono vs. Akuma & Cammora
What to Expect: I mean…at least Leono is here? Yeah I’ve got nothing. This will be at best your typical CMLL opener and at worst the equivalent of watching Oz: The Great and Powerful without the help of recreational drugs. Skip it and watch the MLB Wild Card games instead. Also, don’t use recreational drugs. Alright maybe just pot, but nothing else!
Winners: The rudos. Again, stick to the baseball.
Oro Jr., Starman, Stigma vs. Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
What to Expect: If you’re not keeping the baseball games on during this match then you may be lost. Holy balls this is going to be UGLY. As best I can tell Stigma is the only guy in this match worth a damn unless Cancerbero and Raziel decide to give an effort; chances are they won’t and without anyone to work with Stigma will probably just fade. The only hope here is that Starman disappears, potentially takes Oro Jr. with him and is replaced by Soberano and Star Jr. Otherwise you best be cheering against the Mets around this time. You’re damn right I’m pulling for the Giants; I’d rather see those even year bastards go up against my Cubs then those diabolical haters that eliminated us last year. Then again Daniel Murphy and his Satanic powers are gone so maybe the Mets would be the best option…what am I saying?! Avoid the Mets Cubs, avoid them!
Winners: Technicos. Thank goodness the sun starts shining from this point forward.
Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs. Bobby Z, Vangellys, Virus
What to Expect: There’s a light over at the Frankenstein place! Sorry, got a little excited here and so should you. All three Panthers reunite here, which generally means good things. Even better is that their opponents feature a really good up and comer who’s on fire right now (Bobby Z), the M. Bison cosplayer of the year (Vangellys) and one of the best technical luchadors on the planet Earth (Virus). Better yet there may be something to set up here; remember, Virus and Junior had a Lightning Match last week that ended with Virus unmasking the youngster to cause a DQ finish. Now they’re facing each other here again? That can’t be a coincidence. You never know with CMLL, but I’m hopeful this means this match sets up a Junior-Virus match, or either his brother or father steps in to set up a match with Virus in defense of Junior. Both avenues work for me, and this match should be really good to boot with all the talent involved.
Winners: The rudos will win when Virus sneaks in a foul behind the ref’s back and pins Junior in fall three. Junior will then make a challenge for a match next week against the veteran…and Virus will say no.
Why will he say no? Simply put it looks like CMLL has plans to set up another big one on one match later in this card, and there’s no way they’re running two singles matches on next Tuesday’s show. So instead CMLL will have Virus reject the challenge here to set up another trios match next week, where we’ll see Junior get the pin and set up Virus-Junior to happen two weeks from now. At least that’s how I’d do it. Hire me Paco! I’m already hired!
Lightning Match
Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Hechicero
What to Expect: Not that the card falls off the cliff after this match, but in my eyes this is the main event of the show. Then again, any Hechicero singles match is main event caliber because it gives us all a chance to take in one of the best rudos of this era who could make me look like Negro Casas in his prime if I were to take him on. Thankfully he doesn’t have that much of a load to carry in this match because his opponent, Guerrero Maya Jr., is pretty damn good. In fact I’d dare say he’s one of the most underrated luchadors around, sadly hidden away in numerous trios matches because CMLL is a strange ass place. He’ll get his chance here though and I expect he and Hechicero will combine to make this the Match of the Evening. It’s just a question of whether this can match the amazing Hechicero-Soberano Jr. Lightning Match over a month ago. Maya is a great performer and capable of some excellent high flying, but I’m not sure he has the electricity that Soberano has to jump off the screen at all times when he gets going. I doubt he’s reading this, but on the off chance he is I challenge Maya to take the gloves off and show CMLL what exactly they’re missing. He has the right opponent to do it with; let’s see now if he can.
Winner: This is a tough one to call. Hechicero won that match against Soberano and he bested Maya this past Friday in trios action, which leads me to believe Maya will take this one. At the same token CMLL rarely has technicos win these matches and Hechicero seems to be building momentum for something bigger (and rightfully so). So once more we’ll flip the Canadian Dollar for this, Queen is Hechicero, and Moose is Maya. And…it’s Moose! Maya gets the big win and I breathe a sigh of relief that the Canadian Dollar hasn’t failed me yet!
Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Máximo Sexy vs. Rey Bucanero, Sam Adonis, Terrible
What to Expect: Adonis and Idol meet again! I’m now convinced the day Sam Adonis wrestles in a match on a streamed show that doesn’t feature Johnny Idol will ever come, or if it does the Apocalypse will be upon us and probably occur before the match takes place. Alas. Thankfully this match should, as usual, be pretty entertaining. I’m very curious to see if CMLL puts Adonis and Máximo together here; Máximo is a master of getting the crowd to go nuts and Adonis loves getting the crowd involved. They could make things very loud if they cross paths and I hope CMLL takes advantage of that opportunity. Beyond them everything else looks promising. Ángel de Oro is generally more effective in trios action than singles so he should be good here, and you never can go wrong with Idol or Terrible doing their normal thing. Rey Bucanero is the only question mark here, especially since this will be his first non Súper Crazy related even in quite some time. Regardless of what he brings, this match should be fun, even if it never quite matches the levels of the match prior to it.
Winners: If I were booking this, I’d use this match to set up a future Adonis-Máximo CMLL Heavyweight Title match. Am I crazy? Potentially, but with both men being heat magnets it would at least create a white hot title match for the Arena Mexico crowd and more than likely the match would be pretty good (though as of now we have no idea if Adonis and Máximo click together in the ring). My guess however is that CMLL thinks it’s too early for Adonis to challenge, or they’ve already decided to not put him in title match situations ala Marco Corleone. So that won’t happen, meaning you can probably expect the technicos winning a fun match that could’ve led to so much more. Dammit now I’m sad.
Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Titán vs. Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush
What to Expect: This will be all about advancing things that happened last week, which is just fine for me because last week was straight up awesome. I may be the only one alive who loved it but I couldn’t get enough of the Rush-Diamante Azul interactions last week; there was a fire between those two when they were brawling and Diamante in particular looked mighty impressive at times. I expect we’ll get more of the same here to set up a match between the two next week, with the slightest possibility of Pierroth-Diamante being set up instead. Let the record show that if that happens I may wander into traffic and see where life takes me. Pierroth hasn’t been nearly as bad as usual these past few weeks (to the point I’ve wondered if they replaced him or not) but he’s still Pierroth and still someone who shouldn’t be put anywhere near a singles match. If there’s a Cthulhu in the sky, CMLL will stick him with Marco or Titán here, let them carry him as they can and allow Rush and Diamante to go to town to set up the match I want to see.
Winners: Diamante will get his team the win this week in fall three after a German Suplex on Rush, allowing him to issue the challenge for next week that Rush accepts. I will have a big smile on my face and numerous others of my ilk will either be doing the same or will be wishing they had kept watching baseball. I’m still not sure why; what’s wrong with Diamante Azul folks?! Is it the Monkey Flips? Yeah, gotta be the Monkey Flips.
That’ll do kids, that’ll do. I shall now disappear for a few hours before returning to review tonight’s CMLL show, which you should totally watch. Till then, Spidey’s back.
