CMLL Super Viernes: Night of the Flying Mije
It never ends! It hasn't yet been 24 hours since the first FantasticaMania show to be streamed and CMLL was already at it again with their usual Super Viernes show, a show that, by the looks of things, was going to come nowhere close to matching the greatness we all saw at 4:30 in the morning. That was indeed the case; fortunately CMLL is hotter than Yvonne Strahovski right now, which means this show was fun anyway, particularly when matches three and four got going. I'm still not sure what to do in a world where CMLL is putting on consistently fun shows, but hey; I'll take it. So let's not waste any more time, mostly because I'm still dead tired and need some sleep. To the Lucha Mobile (Batman music plays).
Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro defeated Fantasy & Último Dragóncito two falls to one
I’ll give Mercurio and Pequeño Nitro this much; they were trying harder in this match than they have in the past year. I guess they watched FantasticaMania and concluded a) they had to step it up and b) that they should dress together to be a tag team. No why idea why they decided on the second point but hey; you guys do you. Unfortunately, the tag look and the new effort wasn’t enough to make this anything more than the typical CMLL opener. Maybe if Nitro and Mercurio actually had decent move sets to go along with their energy, or if their opponents were guys that didn’t depend on a Spanish Fly or…what is it that Último Dragóncito does again? Oh yeah; nothing. I applaud the effort, but this was a serious drag. We couldn’t have put Stukita in this shindig instead?
Lady Maravilla, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit defeated Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis two falls to one
There was a point in fall one where I was thinking that CMLL may have had something with this match. Then they dedicated a good portion of the rest of the match to showcasing Tiffany; TIFFANY! Of all the luchadoras in the match, naturally CMLL had to settle on the slowest one to both sell and dish out the offense. Mistake, especially when you consider it robbed the returning Zeuxis of having an opportunity to show off. The Queen of Lucha Libre was still her usual excellent self (when she was allowed to be) and frankly her just being back is a victory in my eyes. But come on; you don’t bring her back just so she can be a supporting player, you bring her back so she can run rough shot and knee people’s faces off. That didn’t happen nearly enough here, and aside from Lady Maravilla, every luchadora here was either given nothing to do, was on autopilot or was Tiffany. What a shame, and you’d think that CMLL would’ve known better than to give Tiffany the bulk of the work. Instead, they doubled down and allowed the only thing that could hold this match from being good to hold this match back from being good. Classic CMLL. No wonder Zeuxis hasn’t been around as much recently.
Raziel, Sagrado, Tiger defeated Esfinge, Rey Cometa, Tritón two falls to one
You’ll never believe this, but the obvious candidate to turn this show around turned the show around. Who knew?! The only question is whether or not this match topped out at very good or possibly great. On the one hand, I can see points being taken off because Tritón actually messed up his double jump springboard rana spot, the first time he’s done that in…Grodd only knows how long. On the other hand, that was the only screw up of the match and Tritón and Sagrado absolutely nailed the rope walk rana off the apron yet again, so can we really hold that against them? What am I saying; this is the internet and we’re wrestling fans.
Anyways, even aside from Tritón and Sagrado doing work (and my goodness, CMLL needs to put them in a singles match together ASAP), this was a lot of fun. I’m not one of those people who think Raziel mails it in 99% of the time, but there’s no question he was trying harder tonight than most nights, rattling off great sequences with all three technicos, doing some great basing and dishing out exciting moves of his own, like that slingshot splash to the floor towards the end. Rey Cometa continues to find the right balance of playing it safe while still delivering exciting moves and I thought this was the best performance e had seen from him in awhile. Esfinge didn’t get in the way, and at times was fun. And aside from Sagrado and Tritón, I thought Tiger was the star of the match and by far the guy who kept things stable while everyone else went nuts. Again, it’s up to greater minds than I to determine how good this match was. What I can tell you is that it was a lot of fun and definitely continued the recent trend of CMLL having one match per show you should go out of your way to see. Imagine if Tritón had actually hit that double jump rana too like he always does; I don’t think there’d be any question about this match’s merits if that happened.
Lightning Match
Kráneo defeated Hechicero
In a week loaded with great CMLL matches, this one will be remembered as the most entertaining. The story of the match was Hechicero being better than Kráneo in every possible way…except Kráneo had Mije, who was so involved in this match I’m wondering if it was actually a Handicap Lightning Match. We saw Mije get kicked, attempt a tope, break up a Hechicero submission with a senton splash, take a splash from Kráneo while being held by Hechicero; hell I think he even crotched Hechi on the second rope towards the end of it. I can’t remember though as I had been reduced to just laughing hysterically by that point. I’m sure some will grumble because it wasn’t “pure lucha”, but those people are no fun and you should ignore them. Besides, there was some great lucha in this match courtesy of Hechicero. I’m pretty sure you could stick him with Pierroth at this point and he could deliver, judging by how he transitioned from world class technician to high flyer to bully with ease throughout the course of this match. It’ll be forgotten in the FantasticaMania fog, but this was the second Lightning Match of the week Hechicero had that you could categorize as highly watchable, with the latter being the complete opposite of his classic with Guerrero Maya on Monday. Well done to him, and well done to Kráneo and Mije for doing what they do best to create a very fun nine minutes. Now if only Kráneo was in the Light Heavyweight Division so we could do a rematch!
Euforia, Felino, Mr. Niebla defeated Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente two falls to one
Honestly, the only major flaw I saw in this match was that it followed Kráneo-Hechicero, which was something this match was never going to top on an entertainment scale. Otherwise I thought this was fun, if a little too brief to really get going. There were some out of the box ideas, like Valiente Monkey Flipping Stuka off the ramp to the floor and especially Euforia leapfrogging Niebla and Felino to splash Stuka and Valiente, a spot that I was sure would place all five men in a future Botchamania episode. Huge credit to those guys for making that work, and for overall giving a nice effort in a match that wasn’t going to catch on due to the circumstances. I bet if CMLL had given this a few more minute and switched this with the main event, it probably would’ve rolled off the tongue better for most.
Carístico, Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone defeated Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys two falls to one
Pretty much your standard main event that’s building to a bigger match down the road; the rudos controlled the action early, the technicos rallied in the second fall, Terrible avoided Diamante Azul in fall three for as long as he could and finally Azul prevailed to give us Terrible-Azul next week for what I presume is the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship. There wasn’t anything bad about it and, even on autopilot, it’s hard not to be entertained by guys of Carístico and Terrible’s stature. But there was nothing special about it at all, and the fact that it’s leading to Diamante Azul-Terrible, a match featuring a guy a lot of people hate for reasons I still don’t understand, probably doesn’t leave a good taste in most mouths either. Hey, it could be worse sports fans; next week’s match could merely be a prelude to CMLL setting up Diamante Azul vs. Terrible at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas in a mask vs. hair match. You know, the match they totally teased in the post match tonight. Let’s go live to lucha twitter’s reaction to a possible Azul-Terrible headliner at H2L.
Would CMLL actually do that match? I think the fact that they’re doing a title match next week confirms that it’s probably not in the cards, but even if it is…so what? No one will argue that Diamante Azul vs. Pierroth last year was a terrible idea, but it was a terrible idea because Pierroth has the talent of the 2017-18 Buffalo Sabres. Diamante Azul has his flaws, but he’s by no means the terrible worker so many think and, even if you don’t trust him, Terrible is an exceptional worker who I’m pretty sure can carry the match if needs be. So for those of you dreading next week’s main event, don’t. Terrible and Diamante Azul will do just fine and I’d venture to guess next week will be the end of their issues, unless the finish is of the screwy variety. I will say this though; we’re a lot closer to Homenaje a Dos Leyendas than it seems and whatever the headliner for that show is should start to gain some traction soon. I’d look to next week to be the start, regardless of if it involves Terrible and Azul or not. Let’s just hope the rest of the card continues the trend of fun, easy to watch shows!
That’s game sports fans. I’m off to sleep because I only got four combined hours last night thanks to FantasticaMania. It ain’t easy living the lucha life. Till next time, THIS!
