New CMLL

CMLL 2015/11/06

Astral & Electrico vs. Demus 3:16 & Pequeno Olimpico

Good minis match, but nothing more. Demus was awesome, Olimpico was serviceable, Electrico was… there, and Astral was good, but his execution still makes your brain hurt (many 50+ year olds hit those armdrags much faster). Also, Demus lost twice in a row by DCO. Didn’t care for that. Good shit that could’ve been so much better.

***1/4

Arena Mexico 10/16

CMLL 2015/10/16

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Shockercito vs. Demus 3:16

Great apuesta match, as one could expect. Primera was bombastic and made sense, which is awesome because too often short primeras don’t look very compelling. Not here, though. Segunda had Demus putting his shit together and finally molesting Shockercito properly via heavy chops and nasty mini-powerhouse moves and combos. Tercera had that one great stretch of nifty back-and-forth with Shockercito executing his glorious signature moves, but all the time he was mostly focused on Demus’ shoulder as the ultimate endgame plan. It made the finish much better and emotionally engaging. Awesome little hair match, with both guys playing their characters masterfully, every fall had great finishes, and the crowd reacted amazingly on Shockercito’s key spots. Big thumbs up for this one!

****1/4

CMLL Ketchup

CMLL 2015/08/14

Magnus & Soberano Jr. vs. Cancerbero & Raziel

Very good match, almost great, there was a lot of smart tag team wrestling, you could totally tell Cancerbero and Raziel are Virus’ pals. There was a lot of structure and pacing changes, the tecnico duo made few great hope spots and they got cutoff many times. Cancerbero is just an awesome bruiser. Some really innovative double team shot as well, pretty nice match.

***3/4

Newish CMLL

CMLL 2015/5/29

Ingobernables (Rush, Sombra, Tetsuya Naito) vs. Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Thunder

Naito el Ingobernable is fantastic, and if he carries over that attitude to New Japan, it might end up being epic. He slaps people around, steals UG’s signature hand gesture, constantly does the obnoxious eye thing, his offense is stripped down, just in general he looks and acts mean. And then when it’s time for bumping for tecnicos or doing highspots, he does it perfectly, he’s simply an outstanding rudo invader from Japon. This trio brawl was excellent, the first two falls got plenty of time for developing plots and stories, I was positively surprised to see the segunda getting WAAAY more time than your typical CMLL segunda caida. Ingobernables slapping the Guerreros and Thunder around and decimating them was wonderful, the comeback was well done, and then we got UG and Thunder developing/accelerating their own beef by stealing falls on Rush from each other. Needless to say, they were noth involved in some heavy smackfests with Toro Blanco, and it was great. You know what, I’d totally like to see them doing a 3-way apuesta clash, would be radical! And to cap off this entire thing, we got an awesome post-match tussle, pure chaos and beatdowns everywhere. Excellent match!

****1/4

Virus/Demus in a Hair Match

CMLL 2011/3/11

Cabellera vs. Cabellera: Virus vs. Demus 3:16

Such a slick, smooth and suave little hair match. In some other era this would’ve been a gruesome bloodbath, but waddaya gonna do, they still did their best to smack each other hard. It’s so refreshing to watch a Virus match without any matwork whatsoever, this was all about “hit & run”, there was a constant movement and both guys displayed lots of amazing little tricks. Not a high-end Virus classic, but still a great and enjoyable match.

****