CMLL on Galavision Workrate Report, 8/11/12

1. Ultimo Guerrero/Dragon Rojo Jr. vs. Atlantis/Diamante Azul

I really like the opening section with Atlantis and Rojo. As many of you know, a major problem with CMLL main events the last couple years has been them rushing through the first two falls in 3 total minutes to get to a your move/my move 3rd. But here the first fall gets some good time with Azul pairing off with UG and Atlantis pairing with Rojo. I *loved* the Atlantis/Rojo pairing getting to work some nice engaging mat segments. Rest of the match was OK. I liked Azul more when he was Metro. He was a youngish tecnico that would bust out some cool spots, and now it seems like they have him working more as veteran maestro...but he isn't a veteran maestro. So now he's just kinda more boring. UG and Atlantis always match up great (I don't think anybody makes Atlantis' rolling monkey flip look better than UG. His bumps to the floor are always majestic), and Atlantis just owns the 3rd. He has a couple minute run that is just pure awesome and shows yet another luchador who should own a "Life Begins at 50" shirt. 50 years old and he starts with a rad low and fast crossbody, and then rolls through a few different roll-up combos that look really cool, smooth, fluid, graceful, etc. Match did not blow me away but had plenty of cool moments and was fine for a big tag main event.

2. Ephesto/Mephisto/Euforia vs. Mistico/Valiente/Angel de Oro

So this is the debut of Dragon Lee as the new Mistico. The results were...mixed. The crowd actually seemed way into him, so that is a plus. I do not follow much lucha "news", as in attendance or booking decisions, or that kind of thing. Why was this done? Why did CMLL resurrect a supremely popular character a few years after his peak? Do they pass him off as the original? Do they play it off like a guy getting to play James Bond for the first time? In 20 years will people have their favorite Misticos? I go back and forth on my favorite Bonds all the time. Rachel likes some combination of the aloofness of Roger Moore and and look of Connery, I like all Bonds but Brosnan, with an odd fondness for Dalton.

The easy Dragon Lee/Mistico joke to make is that they needed someone who would accurately replace Mistico, so went with a guy who would blow a couple complicated armdrags and botch a springboard move per match. That being said, I like the choice of Lee as Mistico. I still need all the intentions explained to me as to WHY they resurrected Mistico, but he seems like a good choice. He's a risky flier who takes a lot of chances, and because of that will blow some spots. But when he spots hit holy GOD can they look fucking killer. In this match he hits an unreal rana to the floor that had me rewinding over and over again. Euforia was on the floor, Lee bounced off the opposite ropes, ran up the ropes and came vaulting over the top into a rana. It looked insane. Euforia jumped up a lot in my rankings as well by catching that rana like it was nothing. Later in the match Lee hit a springboard shooting star press to the floor. Nuts. Valiente and Ephesto are two of my favorites, so seeing them working all fast and reckless is always a treat, and Oro is a guy who has grown on me a lot over the last couple years. This match was all sorts of fun and the crowd seemed pretty hot for the debut. It had some botchy moments but so what, I would recommend watching it (even if you just fast forward looking for the rana spot!).