MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 7: Ángel de Oro, Dragon Lee, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Aired: 2015-02-28
Taped: 2015-02-17 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Ángel de Oro, Dragon Lee, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Same idea as the last match, with Dragon Lee and Negro Casas subbed in. This is a good thing since, of course, I'll want to check out their Leyenda de Plata final at some point and getting a look at the two of them together can only help in that. Also, I haven't seen a ton of Dragon Lee against opponents other than Kamaitachi, and he's as close to a "next big thing" as CMLL has in some ways. I'm not super enthused so far, to be honest, but I know I'm in the minority there. I wasn't as enthused with Titan before really taking a look at him. I think he's come out of this "series" looking pretty good, with the great 2014 titles match and being the one to hold together that match that Blue Panther, Jr. flubbed to death.

This was also my second look at Oro in close succession and I thought he came off well. He worked the mat strongly against Negro Casas here and maybe that's not hard but they did some very fun stuff with dueling holds (including Oro getting out of a few Casas Crippler Crossfaces) that ended with leg selling from both. He was also good in the comeback and picking up speed in the tecera with Felino. My comparison point there would be a Mascara Dorada maybe? That could just be my subconscious conflating their names though. The one thing I didn't like much out of him was when he was in a chop off with Felino. Don't do it if you can't make it look good. Compared to some of the things I've seen recently (including just about everything Cavernario does) it wasn't good. What was great, however, was how effortlessly he hit a moonsault from the second rope (having climbed it from the apron) to finish clearing the ring for the end of the match.

Dragon Lee accounted well for himself. He had a great exchange with Casas to start out the tecera and I'm excited to see their singles match now. I love Casas' spinning back king. It's got such zing to it. Once they picked up the speed the quality continued and that specific exchange with Lee moving to the apron quicker than I could process and leaping off with a rana to the outside. We didn't get to see much of him in the primera since it was his exchange with Felino that was cut short for the start of the beat down. It should be noted that Cavernario got to rip his match a bit which is exactly what I want out of him.

Structurally, this was straightforward. They ran the opening exchanges up until Dragon Lee was ambushed. Felino directed Cavernario to drop Oro exactly where he wanted him to set up the second rope elbow drop and take the fall. The comeback hinged on rudo miscommunication and another Titan Asai Moonsault. I'm not sure how I feel about Dragon Lee's corner hang double stomp. The set up was very contrived here. I could see it working better if he had a partner that helped get his opponent in position. That ended the fall though. Then they were pretty even in the tercera, with the good Dragon Lee vs Casas stuff. That ultimately ended with Casas reversing a back suplex and locking in the Casita and Cavernario leaping to the second rope in one quick motion as a whip reversal and hitting a missile dropkick and then the Cavernario Vader Bomb on Titan.

There wasn't a ton to this match but what we got was good. I came out of it more impressed with Dragon Lee than how I came in, certainly.