CMLL Line - 04/23/02 (31)

I totally forgot about the Lucha this weekend. Not doing good with that, alas. (Probably wouldn't have taped anyway since I had a 3/4 tape left in the VCR for some dumb reason.) Anyway, it sounds like they might be moving the show permanently to that time slot, so I'd keep an eye on the listings.

Thanks to: Robert Ortega for the original format.

Thanks to: Stuart of http://www.puroresufan.com for educating me on the NJPW guys.

Hey, you've got puroresu in my lucha! I've got lucha in your puroresu! It's fairly confusing. 

Vignette: Los Tailabanes look around the park in fast forward) for Emilio. Then he's standing right there and they can't find find him. Talking They've improved their outfits - you can't go wrong with capes.

Notes: Rudo beatdown first fall, beating through the break till Fiera starts the comeback right when the whistle blows. Faces dominate one on one in the second fall, with the rudos taking their time. Demon gets a nice suicide tope. We get the beginning of the third fall cut out, never hearing an opening whistle and coming back with action (still babyface dominated) already in progress. Bestia hit a low blow that was so blatant, both referees saw it and that's the end of this. Fiera's kicks were good. Replays from different angles show just how blatant it was. 

Notes: The story here, and later on in a similar match, is that  rivals have put aside their differences to defend Mexico - so you get quite an interesting mix here. The sides are listed as Mexico and Japon (Spanish spelling) and the CMLL guys have individual entrances - Negro Casas's fireworks surprise him. In case you've forgotten, Black Tiger is from Japan (despite a remarkable similarity to our good friend Silver King.) They spelled Takemura right this week, good for them. Kuronkeo stands as manager for all the Japanese guys. Rudo beatdown to start, but Ultimo realizes he's not a tecinco and can fight back, quickly procuring the comeback. We end up with Black Warrior vs Black Tiger and we've seen this before - always good and lots of floating DDTs before the big suicide tope, Warrior hitting so hard his legs flew up in the air on impact. Rudos quickly take control but the tide is turned - and we've got the quick pins for the end of the fall. Celebration and replays. Captains start the second fall, and Casas starts with the advantage. When Casas looks on an armbar trying for the win, the other two Japanese teammates are in to break it up. Masada and Warrior work a sequence - Warrior sliding out to the wrong side but managing, and then a transparent looking missed dropkick through the ropes allows him to hit a slingshot guillotine legdrop, before hitting the swinging dropkick himself. Takemura and Ultimo, thought we tale a long look at Masada. Takemura with strikes, Ultimo with strikes. Takemura is a little slow, a little lost - you can imagine him thinking "oh no, what am I supposed to do here" at one point, but he still does fine. He hits a tope, but it's no Warrior tope. Tiger and Casas again, and Tiger hits a swell "Tiger Mask tope fake out spin into a kick in Casas' face." He stands over Casas, taking his time, while Masada and Warrior do their sequence to set up that pinfall, then resumes where he left off. Doctors have to come in to check on Casas because the DVD is just that devastating. Replays - that kick was quite awesome looking.  Warrior and Takemura start the third fall, with Warrior having early control - then losing it on a shoulderblock. Takemura covers after a shoulderblock and gets two, how about that. Warrior with a whip, drop toe hold, then a dropkick to the face. Cover one two no. Both men pump up, then hit each other with the clotheslines that don't know each other down. Again. They act like they're going to do it again and both try to sneak in a big boot, knocking each other out. Cute. Masada and Ultimo. Ultimo's staying pretty try to his rudo roots (subtly), though he's in babyface situations. Big powerbomb but the count is slow (or off screen) and Tiger breaks it up with a dropkick. Tiger has a nice powerslam followed by a nice forward flip legdrop. Tiger charges, drop toe hold in the corner. Ultimo goes fro another powerbomb but Tiger hits the face slam - one two Warrior breaks it up. Crowd shots breaking up the action here. Warrior with a slam and he's goes for the quick second rope moonsault - and a second - and a third? Knees! Ultimo tries to get him self going but he's tired - going up and he's caught with a dropkick. Both men are down and if this was a US match this would be the race to the hot tag. Replay from a better angle makes the dropkick look great. Chops by Tiger, whip, reverses Casas sneaks in a boot (I guess Ultimo isn't the only one thinking rudo here) from the outside and gets the tag (or at least comes in) - kick, swinging neckbreaker taunt to NJ. Masada takes the bait and they exchange chops till Masada takes the short cut - really ugly looking "you standing behind me, I pull you over me by the arm" as Casas doesn't land right (maybe not his fault?) Casas blocks the cop, hits a kick and hooks in a double underhook submission which doesn't last long enough for me to ID - Takemura breaks it up. Takemura also tries for a powerbomb (nearly not getting Casas up enough and dropping him on the head, but they got it all sorted out) holds for a pin, lets go before a count can be made, then goes for a normal pin. Abdominal stretch but Ultimo in with a big boot - Tiger in but Warrior clotheslines him. Warrior and Ultimo work out a plan  as they boot Takemura our - double corner whip, but Tiger ducks out of the way of the Ultimo charge and charges at Warrior. Warrior tries for the floatover DDT but it doesn't work so he whips Tiger back at Ultimo, who catches Tiger and puts him on the top rope. Warrior has already stepped back and is getting steam, and Ultimo boosts him up in the air - top rope 'rana! Warrior holds down Tiger and tells Ultimo to go up to finish him off, but Masada is back in and knocking Ultimo off before such a thing can happen. Warrior clotheslines Masada hard from behind, knocking him out of the ring, while Casas is back in and bouncing off both ropes - dropkick to the knee doesn't even come close to hitting (Tiger selling it too soon?) and there's La Majistral. Meanwhile, Takemura has Warrior in a sleeper - but Warrior reverses it into a Stunner (!) and helps cover Tiger - one two three. Casas and Kuronkeo have a stare off post match. I was really digging the last fall - did you notice? Replays, and Warrior takes the announcer microphone to challenge Tiger to a mask vs mask match - Tiger doesn't necessarily accept.

Spectacular Moments - a lot from an early card match at the Coliseo. Safari hits a nice tope. 

They hyped that the other Japan/Mexico match would be next but it appears not quite - we get no introduction (but a dancing Gorilla in the crowd) for

Notes: To give you an idea on how old this must be, Markus and Violencia are teaming, but no Pierroth and Zumbido's not wearing his shoulder brace. Markus is actually wearing the same blue outfit we saw him wear last week, so maybe this in the same time frame as that match. Rudo beatdown to start. The graphics seem a little bit old, too. Rudos dominate early in the second fall, Zumbido teases a dive but poses. Violencia is more pudgy then I remember him being. Tecincos start to comeback - Safari messes up a back flip into the ropes and gets all tangled up, which is funny - he tries to make it up with a suicide apron running somersault senton. Niebla's late in the ring, so Violencia has to run around like a goof to explain why he's not breaking up the Olimpico pin. He makes it up with a big top rope suicide reverse tope for the countout. Replays, and Violencia is still on the ground (doctor looking after him) when the falls starts. Tecincos take control early on - Zumbido ends up getting knocked out on the side Violencia is down on by Olimpico, so Olimpico wisely decides not to dive. Now Zumbido's slow up, but I think he's just selling there - Violencia is grabbing his wrist, yet trying squirm to move out of the way of any further action while still on his back. Replay of the Niebla reverse tope to try to see what happened - maybe he landed on that wrist, or maybe Niebla landed on it. His leg doesn't twist at the best angle either. Zumbido's back in when we look in and now Olimpico does get to hit the tope - Violencia isn't over there any more. Niebla (with some help from Markus) manages a 'rana on Markus (not a great one) to end the match a little bit earlier than probably they planned. 

Vignette: the NJ team talks in Japanese (with Spanish subtitles) about how great they are - Wagner's going down, Singh's the real giant, and Shocker's not going to be a champion any more.

Notes: So I started to do this match, and the non-Giant portions of this match aren't bad at all - they're not high spot crazy, but they're very good in the nominal "heels being evil, faces drawing off the crowd, in a match the faces can't afford to lose" sense, getting the crowd (and the people at home watching) into it - if this was just a tag match, or if you had two more capable workers on each side (pulling Tiger and Warrior into this match?), it's a very good 90-ish match. And then I lost the semi-play by play I was doing, and I know the Giant portions are going to drag this down, so I don't want to go back and pick up all up, so let's just see if I can hit the important things. 

One fall to the finish, because it's a Silva match. Everyone gets their own entrance, with the Giants getting fireworks (and of course Silva getting more fireworks than Singh.) Singh, if you haven't seen him before, is more East Indian than Japanese (as the name would reflect) and is built, but doesn't really feature much more skill than Silva - both are here because they're big and not much else. Shocker, in true Shocker fashion, comes out with a traditional Mexican (Azteca? - I think that's what I want to say here) outfit - a headdress, gold, red and green everywhere and valet's similarly dressed. Dr. Wagner opts for his green/red outfit, so we get it quite established that this match is a matter of national pride to the CMLL crew. 

Early on, Kuronkeo repeats the trip of last week and almost gets thrown out, but Singh intercedes and he gets to stick around. Inoue and Shibata do most of the early work, with some nice transitions into submission holds - for Inoue, it's a armdrag reversed into a cross armbreaker on Shocker, for Shibata it's a single leg takedown into a kneebar on Wagner that stays on him for quite a while. Shibata and Inoue are as evil as you want them to be - Shibata performing a running corner forearm variation over Shocker's trademark "corner charge clothesline, bulldog out", then doing Shocker's trademark pose. Shocker and Wagner are appealing to the crowd at every opportunity. It's been mostly domination by the NJ crew, with brief flurries from CMLL.

As we pick up, Wagner's just escaped form that knee bar and is being worked over in the corner by Inoue and Shibata - a double boot choke to top it off. It's about six minutes into this match and neither Giant has made it into the ring. Both men take time to pose and taunt, and that gives Wagner the opening he knees - big clothesline for Shibata then an exchange of chops with Inoue. Wagner gets a waistlock, release German suplex but Inoue lands on his feet and kicks Wagner down. Inoue goes with the neck submission I saw him use last week, which is apparently called the Triangle Lancer, but can't get it on for long before Shocker's in to dropkick it to pieces. Shibata up and a kick for Shocker, then moves him into the corner for more. Double boot choke for him, and Kuronkeo holds him from moving with a leg on the outside while Singh comes over for an eye rake. Corner whip for Shocker and Inoue charges in with a shoulder, then goes to his knees to Shibata can hit Poetry in Motion (or close enough.) Double suplex and Shibata covers one two NO. They both that thaw as enough. Double whip but Wagner's in place to hold him from coming back and they both hit clotheslines. Celebration and both go for submission moves to end it right now, but Singh in in (8 minutes after the start) to break it up. Press Slam for Wagner and he throws him - but Silva catches his partner (barely.) Silva turns and puts Wagner down in the corner, and here's where every thing turns bad. Singh's strike are so bad the y can't really be hidden by camera tricks. He performs the worst European Uppercut I've ever seen, and a body slam is so bad they turn away from it. Stomps are not bad and the big leg drop is fine, I'll give him that. Unfortunately, this is Mexico and that gets two. Choke's okay, second one not too much. Whip, horrible clothesline, now they're totally lost, and now they've very slow - that kick was okay. Singh either posed or screwed something up because we look away and then he's pinning - one two no. Bad right. Slow whip, Silva with a half way decent clothesline and okay elbow drop. Crowd is happy now. Singh goes for the flying splash to finish him off and it hits! One and Singh kicks out - only one. Replays of the big splash. Battling with strikes, they're not very good maybe because they're not used to using them in a normal way? Singh foes for the Chokeslam on Silva and gets him about an inch in the air. Cover one two and Silva kicks out. Sing with kicks and forearms and then what should be posing but ends up looking like just walking around. Silva comes back with a spear and now he's slowly going up again - this time Singh is getting up too and standing in place for a while - flying cross body. One two kickout again. Both men are winded from their four minutes of work. Silva' punches are showing sings of that. Sing fighting back, chop, chop, windup clothesline takes Silva out of the ring Singh follows. Back in the ring, as they fight and Kuronkeo gets involved, Shibata and Shocker take their time working through holds as not to distract from the fight outside of the ring - but unfortunately the camera's on them and not on the outside of the ring. Shibata hits a jumping second rope enziguri as we finnaly look back to see Singh have Silva down. Wagner and Shocker team up to hit a with dropkick, then take care of Inoue. Wagner hits the semi-illegal Michinoku driver and covers one two three. Circuit Breaker on Inoue and he's giving up too - Mexico wins. (14:14)

But Silva and Singh are still fighting now - Singh has seen what happened and he's back in - Shocker tires top stop him with a chop and that doesn't work - Wagner fairs no better. Both men and whipped and then Shocker gets a chokeslam. Silva slowly comes in after him and Singh slowly leaves; he's happy with what he's done. Shocker is down. Wagner checks on Shocker as the two sides stareoff, NJ on the ramp and CMLL in the ring. Silva deiced to slowly come after Singh, and they have a slow motion chase as Singh flips off the crowd. Here's confetti way late.

More than half of that match was non-Giant, and that was very good.

After we come back from break and the ads for next week (Silva, Shocker, Tarzan Boy, Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Buccanero, Gran Markus, Killer, Apolo Dantes, Poder Boricua and Satanico) we look back in the Arena, Silva is walking backstage finally, replays, and it looks like Shocker is getting stretchered out after that chokeslam. Here's one more replay of the chokeslam and that's that.

Rating: Bases on the quality of the finish, ring work, internal/external storyline, consistency and my whims. Also, various other (random) factors that I can't think of right now. 0-100 for matches.

Closing Notes: 

1. I feel so bad for those people who will see the upcoming NJPW Silva/Singh match - it's not going to be pretty
2. But I also bet it's not longer than 7 minutes, with more stalling than we saw here.
3. Actually I hope it's such a smash hit that Silva can never darken a good match.
4. I wonder why they had Shocker put over the chokeslam like that - I don't think there's another Singh match scheduled.
5. Shocker and Wagner are very good.