My Lucha Journey: La Sombra, Mistico, Tritón vs. Averno, Mephisto, Puma

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-04-05
taped 2014-04-01 @ Arena México
La Sombra, Mistico, Tritón vs Averno, Mephisto, Puma

I've seen a decent amount of Averno lately, but I had no idea that he was mystically turned to he dark side by Satanico until I did some research. He's Bob Roop/Maya Singh. That's pretty awesome. I have no idea what his shirt means. Anyway, from what I've seen so far, he's a rudo's rudo, just a real nasty bad guy who revels in being a jerk without getting the crowd behind him like Negro Casas does. Mephisto's his buddy (also a Satanico-transformed good guy?) and Puma is Felino's kid. I've seen him and his brother round out trios as sort of athletic upstart underlings. Triton has a cool mask that reminds me of Matthew Lesko's infomercial question mark jacket for some reason. Sombra I've seen once or twice and he did pretty well in the title match I saw him beat Negro Casas in. Mistico is Mistico, of course. I really want to go back and see the original at some point. He's got a great theme/look/entrance/aura, successor or not.

I'm pretty sure this match is to set up a title defense for Mistico vs Averno the following week by having the rudos go over strong and by enraging both Mistico and the fans against Averno to heat things up. So the rudos go over in two straight caidas, ripping the hell out of Mistico's mask in the process. This prompts Averno to taunt Mistico who is definitely ready to defend his belt later on but also wants to make a challenge right then and there. Averno accepts but it's both a tease and a prodding as he rips the mask off the rest of the way and Mistico has to cover up. Revenge and emotional satisfaction will have to be deferred until the title match. Money will be spent.

The match itself is really enjoyable, at least to me who hasn't seen much of this stuff. Averno's team dominates throughout, ambushing the tecnicos even to the point where the ring girls have to scatter which I haven't seen nearly as much as you'd think. Puma swings Triton into the guardrail beautifully and the rudos don't look back. They put on a clinic of rudo bullying tactics. I'm sure a lot of this stuff is just commonplace, but a good deal is new to me. I imagine someone watching a Southern tag for the first time and being wowed by all the heel positioning and ref distractions and how it ramped up the heat. It might not even be the best execution of the theme, but just seeing it is special in its own way. I get that feeling all the time when watching lucha, especially when I feel like I'm tapping into some primal trope or story that I just hadn't seen before. Here it's all about controlling the numbers game.

As best as I can tell, lucha really is all about momentum shifts, building the anticipation of them and then paying them off in a satisfying way. For the first fall and a half, the rudos do a great job of making you want to see the tecnicos come back. They beat them down, cut off any attempt of offense, and just control the ring, the ref, and their opponents at all points.They weave in all the little tricks, offering a handshake so that your partner can nail you from behind, one tecnico in a standoff with two rudos only to get ambushed by the third, that sort of thing. I'm not going to say it's flawless in execution. There's one sort of embarrassing mistimed spot where Puma isn't there in time get a punch in while Mephisto has one of their opponents up. All in all, though, it's effective, with high points being the bumps over the guardrails that all three tecnicos take and the nasty posting of Mistico between caidas.

The very best part is the mask work, since that carries the general story of the match. All three rudos take turns working on Mistico's mask on the turnbuckles, with each one distracting the ref so the next can take over. By the end of it, the mask is a mess and Mistico is out of action long enough for Puma and Mephisto to take down Sombra and Titan with big moves for the fall. They continue to crunch down on the tecnicos in the segunda caida, including a really nice doubleteam slingshot toss on Sombra. It all goes back to the mask, though. After almost getting it off, Averno leads his team in a taunting fake dive. This allows the tecnicos to come back with a flurry of offense and some huge dives of their own. Ultimately, it doesn't feel that satisfying though, and it shouldn't since this is all to set up a future match. The technicos don't get their real payoff revenge, not even when it ends up Averno and Mistico in the ring. Mistico's mask is in such shambles that you can pretty blatantly see his face and he's white hot fury, but ultimately makes a mistake (maybe due to the emotion) and Averno scores the fall.

Add in the post match mic barrages and the brief tease of a match where Averno grabs the mask and runs, and I sure want to see the title match between the two. If that was the goal here, then this was really effective. Obviously, it wasn't as satisfying or complete as a match where the rudos get their full comeuppance and there is more of a definitive tercera caida, but I thought it was a very strong showing of rudo dominance to generate an emotional response and build heat to a big match.