CMLL on LATV Workrate Report 6/22/14

No idea what happened last week with their weird 6 month flashback, but these matches all took place on the 6/1 Arena Coliseo show so they didn't skip a week, they're now just three weeks behind instead of two. Weird.

Virus, Skandalo & Tiger vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Fuego & Delta

Really fun match featuring a few guys I haven't seen in awhile. Primera gets some fun mat pairings, as Maya (one of the guys I haven't seen in awhile) and Skandalo (that would be the other) do a bunch of cool stuff, like a sweet kneebar rolled into a snug side headlock, and a cool headscissors from Maya that started on the mat and worked itself up to standing in a neat way. Virus and Fuego come in and try to top them and pretty much do, as Virus is an expert at working mat stuff with guys like Fuego. Virus knows when to lay it in and knows when to let the other guy breathe and pepper in little armdrag or speed comebacks. Fuego is a guy with cool armdrags and speed comebacks, so it's a natural and fun match. Virus also has a freshly shorn mullet so I assume this whole weekend was just coming up Virus.  Rest is really good too as Delta does some silly and crazy stuff like his handstand headscissors to Tiger and a giant moonsault to the floor from the turnbuckles. Tiger continues to be one of the nicest surprises of the year, Virus wrestles exactly as you'd hope Virus to wrestle, Fuego hits a big crossbody to the floor on Virus. This was all good stuff.

Titan vs. Niebla Roja

Damn, I thought this was pretty great, and it was kind of unexpectedly so. Not an insult to each guy, but I wasn't too excited for this one on paper, but they shut my face up. Roja is a guy I find fine in trios but I couldn't tell you much about him. He doesn't stay in the old memory banks too long. I don't think I've ever had a problem with him in a trios, but I've never come away telling Phil he needs to check out some Niebla Roja. Titan is a guy who can be alternately impressive and frustrating in trios, often one within seconds of the other. So the thought of them having a long title match just brought up bad memories of awful Volador singles matches. But I thought this was awesome. Even with all of the great Busca matches happening this year, a lot of CMLL singles matches have been lacking a certain drama, and I thought this match had that in spades. Nearfalls were actually used great, with the most engaging submission tease I remember seeing in lucha in ages. We get some snug matwork to start which I wasn't really expecting, especially cool was Roja forcing Titan to the mat by holding his wrist and stepping down on his arm. Once they went into "big spot" mode I fully expected it to devolve into awful "Big move -> 2.9 count -> Lie on mat breathing heavy -> Repeat" that so many lucha title matches have fallen victim to, but it never did. Drama kicked in and there weren't just meaningless pinfalls, it really felt like both guys pulling out all the stops to try and win the Mexican Welterweight title. Titan has some beautiful ranas and headscissors and he breaks one out from apron to floor that was a real beauty. They work in a convincing knee injury spot and honestly I can't remember the last time any sort of "work the limb" spots in lucha ended up actually going anywhere. But this comes up as a theme throughout the whole match. Roja flapjacks Titan and kicks him on the way down, in a spot that both make look great. Roja does it again right after, and Titan catches the kick on the way down and snaps off a nasty dragon screw. Roja's knee keeps coming into play for the rest of the match, leading to some cool submission attempts from Titan. Titan ramping up the tightness of knee submissions trying to break Roja was one of my favorite wrestling moments of the year. He starts with a cool roll through knee bar, but Roja makes the ropes. He pulls him to the center, locks on a modified figure four, Roja doesn't give. Titan just keeps adjusting the submission, moving into more painful and painful submissions, and it's awesome. There are plenty of impressive dives and flips, and Roja is great at playing off Titan's occasional silliness with rudo tactics. At one point when Titan is doing a bunch of "here hold my hand while I bounce on the ropes a bunch", Roja just lets go and leaves Titan standing on the middle of the top rope. They pause and Roja does a funny "well get on with it!" and Titan ranas him. On the down side the match did peak a little too early and went a couple minutes too long. If it had ended with the submission attempts it would have been better, but they worked through those and ended a little flat moments later. Still, not only did this more than exceed my expectations, I thought it was a great match.

Negro Casas, Ripper & Felino vs. La Sombra, Marco Corleone & La Mascara

Short weird match. Sombra's team worked as rudos the who time, Casas' team worked as tecnico's, but they were billed as opposite. I'm not really sure what the long term plan is for all this. Once you start going shades of grey for all these characters then it's really hard to put that genie back in the bottle. It already feels like things are starting to spiral. Several months ago you had Rush as a tecnico working as a rudo. There were always legends who would jump back and forth depending on the match situation. But here now we have Marco working as a rudo with Felino working sly tecnico speed spots. One you just start flipping the switch like this I have to imagine it will make it mean absolutely nothing. Corleone did have some amusing heel work, and I'd love to see the choke/pushup be a regular spot. Felino continues to be maddening, as he worked a real cool quick segment with Sombra, doing some real fast rope running into a cool dropkick…and then moments later we get more awful armpit licking schtick. Match was short and pretty inconsequential, and maybe I'm way off base on this rudo/tecnico stuff. Maybe it's just me personally who's starting to think that nobody is seeming special here.