My Lucha Journey: Valiente Interlude 4: Valiente vs Mephisto

aired 2014-05-10
taped 2014-04-29 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara

Mephisto vs Valiente for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship


Sometimes wrestling provides. I was just saying in my last post how I really wanted to see more Mephisto as well as Valiente in another title match and, through pure luck, what aired this last week but Mephisto vs Valiente for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight title? Again, this wasn't from 2013 which was the target period I was most curious about, but it hit a lot of other marks, so I dove in.

It actually followed the Casas match to a good degree, to the point where I'm willing to make some comparisons and conclusions. In the Casas match, the primera caida had some pretty good mat work. A lot of the best stuff wasn't overly complicated but character based. Here, they again didn't get very complicated. Instead, there's a very crisp set up where one would get the other in a move/pin attempt, but it would ultimately fail and leave him open for a reversal or counter or new move/pin attempt. This was very steady and had a pretty good sense of struggle. In the Casas match, Valiente switched gears and hit a reverse press off the ropes, allowing him to lock in a move to finish the fall. In the Mephisto match, he pretty much did the same thing, just less effectively since it was a less of a callback. The submission itself was more interesting though.

Both matches had very slight second falls, which seems to be an unfortunate trademark of modern CMLL. Here, it was a bit more built up than the Casas match at least, with Mephisto taking over after a missed charge in the corner and launching a bunch of kicks off the ropes. He does just enough that it passes "repetitive" into "effective", but it's only a minute or two before he ties up Valiente in a submission for the fall.

While the tercera caida in the Negro Casas match lacked broad selling, I thought it was actually better than the action-fest that was the Mephisto match's tercera caida. The fall is full of excitement, highlighted by a really nasty dropping Demon Drop, two giant dives by Valiente, a Demon Drop off the top, and two of Valiente's super goofy facecracker finishes. It's exciting, but it's all a bit much, especially when the thing ends with a barely hit dropkick off the ropes. In general, I think that Valiente pops up a bit too much in general. He doesn't seem big on the late match, full body selling I've seen in other lucha matches. It was pretty bad here, though I do like how it kind of led to the finish, wherein he popped up, tossed Mephisto into a corner, and celebrated, not realizing that Mephisto had flipped about and was ascending the ropes. In general, I could have used a title match tercera caida with a bit less candy and a bit more nuance.

The verdict I have on Valiente after seeing what I have is that he can be very effective in trios matches where he can rouse the crowd, play a role and hit his spots and dives, or serve as a powerhouse in the match either for tecnico dominance (he can bully people around and his matwork is pretty good) or in a comeback or to end a fall as he can hit his convoluted but visually effective finisher very quickly. In these situations, he doesn't have to carry the brunt of the narrative, which I do not think is a strong point for him. I do wonder if he might not be a bit overrated in general because of his ability to hit flashy dives and the general level of excitement he can bring.