CMLL 85th Aniversario
CMLL’s biggest show of the year, the anniversary show, was Friday at Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico.
When the card, particularly the main event, was announced, it was met with some well deserved skepticism. For months, fans have clamored for an LA Park vs Rush mask vs hair match to main event the show. For a number of reasons, that did not happen. Instead, we got a main event of Matt Taven and Volador Jr. vs Rush and Cavernario in a double hair match. The only other notable thing on the card was a Trios Championship match between Los Guerreros Lagunera (Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero and Euforia) and Klan Kaoz (Ciber the Main Man, Scharly Rock Star, and The Chris).
Let’s break this down.
*side note: every match on the show is contested under lucha libre rules. It’s a bit confusing for first time viewers, so click here to find out more*
La Jarochita, Marcela, Princesa Sujey vs Dalys, La Maligna, Reyna Isis
A fine opening match. Dalys and Princesa Sujey had some good exchanges. At some point, the stream died (thanks Honor Club), and I missed the entirety of the second fall.
In the third fall, things broke down so that all six luchadoras were brawling all over the place. In the end, Marcela and Jarochita won the third fall by submission. It was all right, nothing special, but the opener doesn’t need to be.
Angel de Oro, El Audaz, Niebla Roja vs Negro Casas, El Felino, Mephisto
After watching this show, I have deducted that Negro Casas is the greatest wrestler of all time. It’s like watching a Mexican Yuji Nagata in there. The crowd wanted to see him the most, and it seemed like everyone on the other team wanted to wrestle him.
There were a lot of athletic spots in this match, particularly from Audaz. Everyone did big dives, which led to Audaz eventually getting the win for his trio with an armbar.
Atlantis, Mistico, Soberano Jr. vs La Sangre Dinamita (Cuatrero, Forastero, Sanson)
Atlantis is hurting and does not move well at all these days. Thankfully, he was in there with five solid workers who did more than their fair share of good stuff in this match.
If there was ever such a thing as trios fundamentals, Dinamitas has it. They worked to isolate one member of the opposing trio at a time, beat them down, do a bunch of cool triple team moves, and move on to the next person. They won the first fall handily.
In the second fall, it was more of the same, except they started to showboat, which allowed Mistico to get in the ring and hit a super frankensteiner, which sparked a big comeback. The tecnicos took the second fall.
The third fall had a ton of dives by both teams, with Mistico in particular standing out. Eventually, Mistico and Sanson were in the ring, and Sanson hit a top rope argentine powerbomb for the win. Two thumbs up for this one.
Los Guerreros Lagunero vs Klan Kaoz – CMLL World Trios Championship
This sucked. The story of this match was, the Guerreros are awesome and can do anything, and Klan Kaoz are terrible and are just trying to keep up. It was sloppy from beginning to end.
In some ways, it felt like a lot of other matches on this show, as far as certain spots and styles goes, but in this case, it was slower, and sloppier.
The finish sucked, too. Ciber the Main Man took down Ultimo Guerrero and pinned him out of nowhere. They played it up that Ciber got his foot on the ropes for a dirty pin, but his feet were hardly on the ropes so it looked horrible.
If you’re going to watch the replay of this show, skip this match.
LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, Caristico vs King Phoenix, Penta El 0M, Diamante Azul.
In the beginning, it was Phoenix and Hijo going back and forth, with Hijo trying to match Phoenix, but it did not look good.
This whole match was guys doing dives and brawling all over the place. At some points it was overwhelming with how much was going on.
In the context of Arena Mexico and CMLL, this was a star making performance for Phoenix and Penta. They did all sorts of crazy double team moves.
After a muscle-buster to Hijo and a super Pentagon Driver on Caristico, the Lucha Brothers and Azul won.
Matt Taven and Volador Jr. vs Rush and Cavernario – Hair vs Hair
There was uncertainty to how the crowd would react to this match, since it is definitely not the main event a lot of people wanted. Overall, the crowd was receptive.
Rush and Cavernario jumped Taven and Volador before the bell, and ran with that advantage through the early stages of the match. They brawled on the stage, the ramp, and in the crowd.
There were so many big dives in this match I lost count.
The crowd ended up getting super hot towards the finish. Cavernario pinned Taven and Volador pinned Cavernario to bring it down to Rush and Volador, who’ve had a budding rivalry over the last couple of months. They beat the hell out of each other for a short time. Taven tried to come back and hit Rush with a disaster kick, but he hit Volador instead. Rush finished him off with a Jay Driller for the win.
After the match, Taven turned on Volador and tried to leave without getting his head shaved. Volador chased him up the ramp, beat him up a little bit, and brought him back to the ring. Both men had their heads shaved and that was the end of the show
Overall Thoughts
It was a good show, but nothing you couldn’t see on any given Friday night Arena Mexico show. There is obviously some disappointment with the main event, in that it could’ve been the biggest money match in Arena Mexico in a long time.
If you want to see a match with high stakes, then watch the main event. Otherwise, this was a good, but not a must-see, show.
What did you think? Leave a comment down below with your thoughts on tonight’s show!
