CMLL Worth Watching 8/10/14, 8/31/14 & 9/14/14

Decided to change the name of this from CMLL Workrate Round-Up to CMLL Worth Watching, as really the only CMLL stuff I write up now is stuff that I think is worth watching. Why beat around the bush? I watch the CMLL, I spend time writing about the stuff I think is worth writing about, so let's just say that.

1. Mascara contra Mascara: Oro Jr. vs. Metalico (8/10/14)

This was not great, and not nearly as fun as the few trios matches used to build it up, and that is mainly because Oro Jr. just isn't really that good. The build to this match was pretty lopsided, with almost every part of the trios matches being Metalico walloping Oro and cutting off every single thing he attempted to do. Now obviously the big stipulation singles match couldn't be worked like that, unless it was the weirdest mask match in lucha history. Obviously there was going to be some sort of back and forth, which meant there was going to have to be Oro offense, and Oro is not very good at offense. He can bump well enough and he's flexible so he's good at being twisted into knots by rudos, and he can hit a dive, but his move and submission execution are really, really lacking. Every time he would lock on a flippy arm submission he would end up flipping Metalico close to the ropes. That was fine when the plan was for Metalico to break a hold, but when it was something he had to tap to or create drama, Metalico would have to subtly move himself farther away from the ropes. Oro is just kind of stumbly and clunky. Metalico, on the other hand, continues to impress me and if anything this feud has given me a new cool guy to look for. Metalico has a cool southern heel vibe to him that I've never ever picked up on before this feud, doing great stuff like sneaky little punches and probably my favorite knee lift in current wrestling (depending on whether or not you count Brock Lesnar's sternum-caving knees). At one point in the tercera he drags Oro out of the corner and just blasts him with a bunch of consecutive knees, to the stomach and face. They all looked great. He also locks on a bunch of cool subs that would rank up with any maestro. Metalico's mom also kept getting shown in the crowd rooting him on and that's something that would get me more into everything. So yeah. Match was about what I expected, but overall I'm excited to see where Metalico takes things from here.

2. Felino, Misterioso Jr & Bobby Zavala vs. Stuka Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. & Delta (8/31/14)

Man fuck Felino. It's so much better to have never have experienced love than to love and have lost. Felino is an asshole who is actually a good worker who just chooses to act like the worst worker in lucha 85% of the time. Here he runs ropes faster than anybody in the match (even showing off by bouncing off the bottom rope when he does it), does these really great drop downs, fast dropkick sequences, just a totally different guy than you get most of the time. and why? What's he proving in this match that he doesn't feel the need to prove when working with his brother? Delta hits a wild moonsault to the floor, Stuka always tosses in a couple nice dives or splashes, Zavala is always an amusing low rent Rush, Misterioso is a pro and then there's fucking Felino outworking them all, being the most frustrating guy in lucha.

3. Terrible, Vangellys & Rey Bucanero vs. La Mascara, Titan & Volador Jr. (9/14/14)

I really wasn't expecting much from this on paper but the execution was nice. This became apparent just a minute into the match when Titan took a wild sideways bump into the ring barrier and Terrible decked Volador with a mean right and a hard headbutt. The Volador involvement was limited for most of this, with Terrible always cutting him off with face punching. Volador getting regularly punched in the face is enough to make me recommend a match. There was a story within the match of Mascara naturally not caring about his team, but Volador and Titan trying to make him feel welcome and almost try to recruit him back from the lawless side. That kind of thing can drag a match down but I think it helped this one. It worked because Mascara kept interrupting Titan and Volador's worst offense to just get to the fucking point and finish things. So it was actually a quite clever way to capitalize on guys having to stand around selling while Titan does his little handstand. Titan walks off on his hands and while Terrible is focusing on him for reasons, Mascara just runs in and rolls him into a pendulum sub. It does kind of blow up how silly some of Titan's stuff can be, but I already knew that so thought this worked incredibly well within the existing universe.