CMLL Redux Line - 08/18/02  (-1, Originally 08/28/01)

Thanks to: Robert Ortega for the original format.

This is the first of many weeks where we'd get a CMLL highlights montage (the same one always) in almost every segment to pad out the show for some reason - I'm guessing something was up with AAA around here, as in the process, the shows went over 2 hours long.

The first set of matches on the show were part of "Torneo La Gran Alternative" - the Grand Alternative Tournament. A "star" teams with an "up and comer" in this three round single elimination tag team tournament. All matches are one fall. Despite having that extra time, the first round matches were clipped, so here is how the brackets looked going into the semi-finals:

Quarterfinal            Semifinal            Final

Blue Panther/Virus---
                     |--Panther/Virus-------
Mr. Niebla/Alan Stone                       |
                                            |------------
Olimpico/Psicodelico-                       |            |
                     |--Olimpico/Psicodelico             |
Gran Markus Jr./Dr. X                                    |
                                                         |----------
Atlantis/Volador Jr.-                                    |
                     |--Atlantis/Volador Jr.             |
Mascara Ano 2000/Enemigo Publico            |            |
                                            |-------------
Black Warrior/Sangre Azteca                 |
                     |--Warrior/Azteca------
Black Tiger/Tiger Blanco

Notes: Blue Panther has a long argument with a front row woman on the way to the ring. Olimpico and Psicodelico (the 'cos!) run to the ring and right into a beatdown. Virus with big boots for Psicodelico (who I'll henceforth shorten to 'delico to safe me some keystrokes) as he gets in, and Panther stomps 'delico into the mat. Virus is going for the mask, but he lets go - double whip, Virus with a back elbow on Olimpico. Panther holds him for a Virus slap. Double whip, Panther whipped in and hits a clothesline. Olimpico rolls to the floor so 'delico is worked over. Slam by Panther, Virus with a falling splash from the top rope (almost tripping) one two kickout. Double open hand slap takes 'delico out. Look at the fans. We look back, and Olimpico is hitting a springboard (outside to inside) dropkick on Panther one two no. Virus has disappeared. Slam by Olimpico, and he's going up - taking too long, double stomp misses but he rolls up Panther anyway one two no. Now I see Virus - he's standing outside of the ring, so he must've been eliminated during the part we didn't get to see. Olimpico misses a corner charge, Panther charges in after him, Olimpico with a reverse bodyscissors cradle into a sunset flip one Blue Panther reverse it and blatantly grabs the ropes to stay in control. 'delico notices (from outside - guess he got beat too) and so do the refs. Panther argues, and Olimpico dropkicks him out. Olimpico tope! Now Virus and 'delico are back in, so forget what I said before. 'delico misses a running cross body, Virus hits a clothesline, running senton one two NO. Chop, chop, whip, reversed, Virus with a bodyscissors roll up one two NO. Double leg takedown and Virus is going for the figure four - but 'delico small packages him one two NO. Virus up first and hitting a clothesline off the ropes, clothesline caught, Virus with a hammerlock neck submission - that'll do it. (3:27) The referees figure that they ought to start counting out Panther and Olimpico at some point - Olimpico must've stumbled to his feet and Panther tripped him down, but Panther is still down and 'delico helps Olimpico in. Here's the ten count (CO 3:50) and the tecnicos move on to the final. Celebration.

Notes: We join this one in progress - they play Atlantis's music and the opening whistle during the lead-in graphic to create the impression that we just missed his entrance but it seems like they've been going for a bit. As we come in, Sangre has just taken Volador Jr. out of the ring and Warrior hits a dangerously low blow headbutt on Atlantis. Sangre with a chop to Atlantis, whip, split legged spinebuster. Warrior with a right, and Atlantis rolls out. Volador is dragged into the middle of the ring, fighting it but not really being able to stop them. Double whip, double clothesline. Whip, Warrior clothesline. Warrior with a slam onto Sangre's leg for a gutbuster. Volador grabs his midsection and rolls out, and now Atlantis is in, asking that hey enforce the tag rules and make this one on one. Warrior and Atlantis in, and appealing to the crowd a little bit. Atlantis with a headlock, off the ropes, Sangre gets in a cheap shot from the outside. Atlantis is down for a bit and Warrior is busy with something else to follow up. Now Atlantis is up and swinging at Sangre. Sangre ducks, holds him , Warrior with the clothesline but Sangre gets it. Hiptoss for Warrior, Sangre's hamstring kicked into his partner (kinda hitting Warrior with a dropkick), tilt-a-whirl back breaker for Sangre. Atlantis tags in Volador - charge, shoulderblock takes Volador out. Volador back up to the apron - Sangre right is blocked and caught, and Volador uses the arm for balance as he jumps to the top rope, slingshot headscissors. Now off the ropes and 'rana - Sangre goes out so Volador hits the Asai Moonsault. Quick look at the fans, and we look back to see Atlantis down at the hands of Warrior, though we don't know how. Open hand slap, corner whip, Warrior charges in with a dropkick, Atlantis side steps, Warrior manages to hit the corner and yet land on his feet - Atlantis charges and monkey flips Warrior out of the corner. Atlantis with a spinning 'rana, then a whip, hamstring kick to knock Warrior into the ropes at the odd angle, but Warrior again manages to recover and land on his feet. Atlantis with a clothesline, Warrior catches the arm - forward roll cradle into his own neck submission. (3:49) Warrior gets up, Volador tries to hit him with a moonsault (I think), and Warrior casually keeps on walking, so Volador gets nothing but mat. Warrior waves Sangre in - face first crucifix powerbomb one two three. (4:12) Post match, Atlantis actually shakes hands with his opponents. Looks like they're just gonna stay in the ring to await their final opponents.  

Notes: I don't know if we joined in progress here or not - we hear the Ann cements during the full screen match description graphic but they might have been dubbed in later - the action we pick up on doesn't make it clear one way or another. Heels start with the beatdown. Sangre with a whip and dropkick for Olimpico, taking him out. 'Delico gets a double whip, drop toe hold, dropkick to the head. He starts to roll out but he's grabbed by Warrior and slammed - top rope splash. One two PULLED UP. Warrior seems okay with that, maybe even having encouraged it. Whip, 'delico gets a kick to the midsection and roll out. Olimpico in - Warrior's content to stand back and let Sangre handle him. Well, until Olimpico catches a kick, then Warrior's over to attack from behind with a kick of his own. Holding for a slap by Sangre. Double whip, double boot. Double suplex. Double corner whip - corner splash by Warrior but Olimpico moves! Dropkick for Sangre. 'Delico in with a kick for Warrior, as Olimpico takes Sangre out of the ring. Now a double whip on Warrior - double back elbow. The tecnicos are pumped. Rolling Warrior to his feet - double whip, double backdrop. Warrior gets up, so he gets a double dropkick. He's out of the ring. Sangre in with a dropkick to try to catch them by surprise but it's avoided. Double whip, double running elbow smash. Rolled up to his feet, double armbar, crossing over and a double double chop. High ten. 'delico actually goes to his corner to leave Olimpico to take care of Sangre - crucifix powerbomb, one two Warrior breaks it. Sangre rolls out, and we've got the two starts facing off. Well, first they'll milk the crowd a little bit. Exchange of chops. Warrior misses one and Olimpico is off the ropes with a clothesline. Olimpico off the ropes, clothesline takes Warrior out. Olimpico getting speed - slingshot somersault plancha! 'delico and Sangre in - 'delico ducks a clothesline, Sangre comes back with a 'rana but 'delico rolls through one two three. (4:19) 'delico again goes out to urge Olimpico in - another countout win? Yes. (4:35) Tecnicos celebrate. The ringside doctor is checking on Warrior to make it look bigger but it doesn't help all them look any greater; while they won, they didn't look especially impressive doing so. Replays and then they get trophies.

Olimpico and 'delico get mic time after - 'delico would get to be in the semi-mains for a couple weeks for winning this tournament, and in the process ggreatly confuse me when I did my first recap two episodes down the line. I came this close to calling him Cibernetico, actually. 

Notes: Shocker (with a wonderful white fur coat) punks out Lizmark before he even get his robe off - must be unauthorized use of Metallica! Lars would be pleased. Forearm, corner whip, corner clothesline, thrown down. Not quite a bulldog to finish it. There's the bell, and Shocker is choking him with his own robe. Shocker goes to the second rope - yell, hand raise, flying elbow drop. Teasing the pose - there we go. Stomp. Lizmark is finally free of his robe. Whip, spinebuster. You know, every time the lucha guys do a spinebuster, they tease a low blow knee lift - I don't know if it's because they way they're taught (a little hitch to allow the victim plenty of time to tuck their head in) but it always sticks out to me. Corkscrew elbow drop! Shocker's proud of himself and not really following up. Hair pull monkey flip. Now he's dancing. Crowd shot. Long. Shocker hit Lizmark with something (couldn't tell) and now he's got a chinlock. Now switching to a Dragon sleeper - not the best, though he finnaly gets it in - there's the Eye of the Hurricane - er, Inverted Facelock Into An Elbow Drop. Yell. Corner whip, charge in but Lizmark meets him half way - flapjack onto the top turnbuckle. Right. Right. Whip, shoulderblock. Rotation powerbomb one two three. (2:58) Well, he pulled that out of nowhere. Lets look at replays.

Shocker spends the break outside. Now he's in and wanting a handshake - he gets a double leg takedown. Lizmark runs back to the corner, Shocker runs at him and then does a drop down when Lizmark starts running. (I watched that three times to figure out what Shocker could have wanted to accomplish by doing besides "setting up Lizmark's next spot" but I'm still not sure.) This gives Lizmark a good chance to work in his flip and cartwheel, then a leapfrog a charging Shocker. Run to the corner, Shocker catches up to him only to get a spinning headscissors. Tilt-a-whirl back breaker, tilt-a-whirl backbreaker! If Lizmark still didn't have to do the Spinaroonie, this match could be over right now. Instead, he talks to the fans. Camel clutch but it's not locked in well. Shocker has his arms free, and then goes onto bite Lizmark's fingers - well, it works to get free. Ref lets it go. Open hand slap. Hard open hand slap. Turnbuckle smash - running to the opposite corner for one. Again. Again! Lizmark collapses in ring, and Shocker's tired himself. To the apron - slingshot elbow drop! One two pulling him up! Shocker's playing with fire. Ripping the mask! Lizmark gets the enlarged eye hole treatment. Hair pull monkey flip. Dropkick to the neck! Slam, and now he's going up. Not fooling around - top rope elbow drop. One two PULLED HIM UP. Okay, maybe he is fooling around. Setting up for the Russian legsweep, Shocker gets in a pretty obvious mule kick - the fans go nuts, especially a group of ladies in the front row  - but somehow Shocker directed the referee's attention away at the vital moment. Arm and neck submission to do it. (3:22) Everyone's ticked at Shocker but he pleads his innocence to the referee. The referee says he didn't see it, and Shocker starts doing a familiar strut. The referee talks to individual fans from the ring trying to ask what happened. Shocker is back to stomping Lizmark as we go to replays.

We come back and see Shocker posting Lizmark, but first a break. Now we're back, pretty much where we left off. Shocker's kicking Lizmark in the chest outside the ring, and taunting the ringside fans. I think he just told someone to talk to the hand - nah. Lizmark thrown in, Shocker with a front facelock - into the Eye of the Hurricane again. Have another! There's a weak "Shocker!" chant from the rudo fans - Shocker encourages it. Shocker looks at Lizmark and raises an arm to see if he's still there - it stays up, so Shocker punches him. Lizmark chant now. Open hand slap by Shocker. Now a corner choke, the referee trying to break up but Shocker shielding him away. Shocker Special! Shocker talks to the camera but we really can't hear him. Right. Corner whip, charge but Lizmark's moved out of the way - spin kick, bulldog out! Lizmark toss Shocker around by his head twice, then superkicks him out of the ring - Asai Moonsault! Both men are down on the ramp. One of the rudo fans gets up, and helps Shocker up and to the ring! That's awesome - security immediate has a word with him but he's not thrown out. Lizmark makes it to the apron on his own power - Shocker catches him with a punch. Suplex - is blocked. Shocker tries again, and again it's blocked. Lizmark with a shoulder to the midsection, sunset flip in, Shocker just grabs the ropes and sits down one two well the referee would've had to be blind or stupid to miss that. Shocker's hands are kicked off, Lizmark completes the move one two NO. Shocker argues the kick and even spits at the mat - now Lizmark with over, bodyscissors roll up is reverse to a face first powerbomb! STF! Lizmark is doing what would be considered to be "tapping out" elsewhere, but I guess here he's just trying to assure the referee he does not give in, waving off his question. Shocker keeps it in for a while, while the announcers inside that Lizmark will not surrender - Lizmark finnaly gets it moving a little bit. The ropes are still an arms length is away - he's moving, he's got them. Shocker takes a full four count to let go of the hold, but it looks like Lizmark is spent. Shocker argues with the referee instead of following up - now Lizmark is up - clothesline is ducked and Lizmark hits his. That's it - powerbomb! One two PULLED HIM UP! What the heck, man? Whip, over the shoulder into a side slam. No count here, he wants to go up. The fans are urging him to do anything but go up, so Lizmark listens to them (!!) - legdrop, one two NO. Corner whip, reversed, Lizmark goes for the kip up and Shocker sneaks in the low blow punch. Fans saw it but the ref didn't - clothesline, senton, no count? I guess he did see it this time. Shocker pushes him away and that clinches it. (DQ 7:00) This was a fun little match. Shocker is ticked at this incompetent referring.

Post match, the refree explains his decision, and Shocker doesn't understand why he did that was a foul. It's obviously biased refering. Shocker sounds like he has a higher voice the normal. Maybe because it's post-match instead of pre-match. Anyway, he remains guapo, and he doesn't like Emilio Charles. He also mentions San Diego but I don't get the context.

Notes: This is probably one of the better Boricua combinations but still, I'm not doing play by play for it. Lots of stalling to start the first fall. Felino and Poder set up forever to do a spot and then Felino decides to forget it and just does a corner sunset flip. I don't know if he really got him for three but they just counted it anyway. Antifaz's legs clubbed Veneno on the way down, and I'm not totally sure what move he was going for. Safari rolls up Violencia with a bodyscissors cradle so they can do a triple pose. Boricuas regroup on the outside before fall two. Veneno and Antifaz have a pose off which works as well as you might think. You know, with this trio, you wonder who's going to do the most outrageously overblown move. Antifaz takes an early lead with a springboard headscissors. Then we switch to a beatdown on Felino to end that for now. Beatdown goes on for a while and features a minimum of moves. Fireman's carry slam for Antifaz so Veneno can hits a slingshot senton on him. Another senton. Another senton. How about covering him? Everyone else does one two three. The referee counts (to 20) very loudly, and Felino takes his time coming in for this. He get a running powerslam for Poder and that's that. Replays. Beatdown continues to fall three. Safari takes an overblown bump on a turnbuckle smash, but that's not an offensive move. Antifaz's turn tog et bat up - double suplex. Stomped out of the ring. Felino's turn - a double whip on Felino, but he's stopped by his parents, who all come in to turn it around. Felino rips Poder's mask to shreds - the top half half of his face is fully exposed, and it's like he's wearing a bandana. Veneno and Violencia momentarily turn the side towards their own, only to get double backdropped out of the ring (did Violencia crack his shoulder on the apron the way down?) and nailed with somersault planchas. Poder goes up again in the ring - Felino gets the top rope armdrag (don't think that's what he was looking for before) and there's a top rope elbow but not good enough? Surprising. Poder with a clothesline, front slam, senton, one he pulled him up! What's with that today? Now he's destroying Felino's mask - it's completely ripped off and the match is over. (DQ 3:08)  

Spectacular Moments - Clothesline almost takes some guy head off. Veneno with a running slingshot somersault plancha. Volador gets hung for a drop kick to the head. Virus with a painful looking somersault plancha - just turning it at the last second. Rayo III and Santo's double dive from last week

Vignette: Emilio and his girl go out on a date. She just hast one black jacket, I think. 

Notes: Shocker shows up with the second team (using his Rock DJ music) to taunt Emilio. And since he's hear, why not hit on Emilio's girl. He kisses her hand, which gets him kicked by Emilio. The fight breaks out on the floor - I think Emilio scurries to the safety of the ramp, and then backstage. Brawling beatdown by Guapos for the first fall - Apolo gets an Emilio missile dropkick (!) leading to his finish. Second fall is JIP with the comeback already in progress. Bestia gets a top rope splash from Apolo and Scorpio get the double armbar from the other two in lighting time. Emilio and the Guapos attempt to walk out before fall three but is brought back. Apolo gets in his tope. This being match 6 of 7, and expecting a Shocker screwjob, I'm not too excite for it, but Averno looks good too - doesn't get the normal height on the somersault plancha though. It comes down the captains, as it typically does. Emilio's low blow kick looks so bad from the angle we get it, I thought Satanico was faking it the first time. 

Vignette: Nueveos Infernals (GdI) play pool and discuss their upcoming match. 

Notes: Fight starts directly after inductions with a rudo beatdown. Rayo and Rey outside the ring, Magica and Casas in one corner and Ultimo Santo in another. Eventually Santo is dumped and everyone comes over to help beat up Casas. Triple boot! Looked good. Ultimo and Magica head out of the ring to beat up on the other two - Ultimo bring back in Santo. Double whip, double back elbow. Santo's held in the ropes, now they're setting up something - there's the assisted jumping sit on the midsection. Casas back in even through it's really Rayo's turn - so he gets thrown around by his hair a few times and then kicked down. Magica and Rey work him over a bit and throw him out. Santo back in - he gets a double whip, long set up into the triple faceslam (not as good at as they'll learn how to do it.) Rayo in, Rayo thrown out. Casas back in - corner clothesline, corner clothesline, corner dropkick. Magica and Ultimo with a double suplex, then roll it into a double armbar - that'll do it. (3:03) Rey, who lifted up Casas' legs to create more pressure, sneaks in a low blow after Casas gives up. Rayo back in - he gets chops from everyone, then thrown in the corner - double clothesline. Rey and Magica go on the apron, on opposite sides of the turnbuckle, Ultimo whips Rayo into that corner and Rey and Magica try to nail him with stereo slingshot kicks (or maybe dropkicks?) but it doesn't look good at all, and I think they even had the best camera angle to hide it. Rayo rolled up - held in face first powerbomb position by Ultimo, Rey and Magica off the ropes and dropkicks to the face! Ultimo ties up the legs while Magica and Rey put on double armbars - that's it for him. (3:38) GdI celebrate. Replays.

As we look at fans banners for the tecnicos, it appears the rudos were trying to kick and stomp the tecnicos when they went to roll in the ring to start this fall, but the tecnicos saw the feet coming, caught them, and are pulling them out. Tide is turned, and the tecnicos are brawling their way to an advantage. Santo gives Magica a knee that knocks him six feet and flips him over, then Santo posts him and Magica almost goes through it. Casas has Ultimo in the ring, and the rest of his teammates help out beating him with kicks. Casa gets in a really big boot. Double whip, backdrop. Triple dropkick! That look good. Rey in - double whip, double shoulderblock by the masked duo, then he's whipped into a Casas big boot. One two three (1:22) Magica in, Rayo ducks the clothesline and hits a reverse neckbreaker. Casas with a clothesline, Rayo flapjacks Santo on top of him, then Santo flips him and puts on the camel clutch. (1:42) Replay allow me to note that Casas is wearing the long tights with "Casas" written on them with the big boots that cover up the last S. They need to plan those things better.

Third fall will be our first one with the normal tag arrangement. Ultimo and Casas start off by exchanging chops. Rayo goes to the head with an eye poke to stop it, temporally stunning Casas, but takes too long following it up and gets a clothesline. Casas runs to the ropes, but Ultimo runs after him and clotheslines him. Chinlock on Casas, and Santo is in to break it up with a running big boot. Whip, reversed, Santo with a spinning armdrag. Rayo and Rey in. Rey off the ropes, somersault over the drop down, under the leapfrog, into the monkey flip. Rayo tries to follow up but is kicked away. Rey yells, charges, and gets a monkey flip to the floor. Rayo III goes for a pescado but Rey grabs the legs and yanks him out. Magica and Casas are quickly in to take over - Magica with an dropkick to the knee, kick, kick, kick is caught and enziguri is ducked. Casas off the ropes and connects with a big boot to take Magica out. Ultimo in - and he gets a really high big boot. Double big boot with Santo coming in to help out. Rey and Magica are in now - Rayo's punched off the aprons, and the others are grabbed - whipped into each other. Santo is whipped towards Casas, Casas backdrops Santo so he can land on the apron. Magica charges the two of them, Casas sidesteps and Santo headbutts Magica, knocking him down. Casas covers, Rey tries to come in with the elbow drop but hits Magica, Santo with a slingshot splash on both of them. Santo up, Magica dropkicked out, Rey clothesline out - SANTO TOPE! A guy in the front row got smushed on that. We see the tail end of Casas hitting the Apron Dive Thesz Press on Rey, too. That leaves Ultimo and Rayo standing for the moment - they exchange chops, Rayo going in with a big kick. Replay of the tope - it was pretty cool. Back in the ring, there's top rope reverse tope and rapid kneeling headbutts - I think Ultimo is counted as pinned during that, which makes no sense since Rayo wasn't actually pinning him (or even consistently touching him for more than split second at a time) but I guess that's it. (2:36) Rayo did cover so he didn't think so either, but a win's a win. Santo hugs him - hands raised. Ultimo gets a snap mare and a dropkick to the back of the head just because they can. Rayo makes the "I want the belt motion" many times. Santo does throw out the tag team belt challenge - not sure who his partner is supposed to be, though Casas takes the microphone next. I think the idea is pick any of the two. Rayo sounds out of breath. Ultimo doesn't sound exactly into that title defense idea. Rey confirms that the Infernals are the still the best.

Next Week: They clip this. So you'll have to tune in and see.