MLJ: Cavernario vs Titan 9: Titán © vs Bárbaro Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship (2015)

Aired: 2015-05-09
Taped: 2015-05-03 @ Arena México
Titán © vs Bárbaro Cavernario for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship

I griped at first that I was imposing a delay upon myself before watching this match as I wanted go get through as much as the "series" as I could. Really, though. I caught this less than three weeks after it aired, so I shouldn't complain too much. In short, it was great. It took a lot that I loved about their first title match and made it better. In fact, I'm not entirely sure how they get away with what they do. Does CMLL impose the short segundas on wrestlers? Is it cutting that I just haven't been able to work out? Actually, maybe there is something to that. I know this had a lot of time because they cut out another match (Niebla's and I'm not sure why). I know matches get cut but I rarely seem to notice. I really don't think that's the cause of short segundas in title matches. I kind of blame Ultimo Guerrero for it, which is probably unfair but his matches seem to have it more than most and it detracts from all of them. Regardless, this had all the room it needed to build and breathe and payoff.

I thought there was a great sense of build in the primera. They worked holds and jockeyed for positions and whether intentional or not, they presented a very tangible element of evenness. I never had a sense of one wrestler leading another or moving the other around. I don't think the work was overly complex, but it was executed extremely well. The build came from Cavernario getting a slight advantage and Titan deciding to pick up the pace. In doing so, however, he was the first to blink and the first to make a mistake. Cavernario capitalized on it, catching Titan with a dropkick as he was flying in with a springboard. He followed it up with a border toss and a Caveman Bomb splash. It could have probably gone a minute or two more on the mat or with the rope running but in the context of the match as a whole it worked well.

The segunda had all the room it needed to breathe with a beatdown and a comeback which was more than you can usually hope for in these matches. The best part of Cavernario's work is how much of his character he diffuses into it. The second best part is how compelling he is on offense. Some of that is the character and his body language, but he does a decent amount of different stuff, paces and times it well, knows when to play to the crowd, and it all looks credible. I think some of those elements are more important than others, but it's worth noting that he brings all of them to the table. He put in legdrops, shots to the guardrail, mask pulling, stomps, running kicks, a few yanks and holds, and celebrated once with the worm. It never felt gratuitous either. Titan, to his credit, sold well, even if it was sort of a "going limp" sort of selling. That was all it took to draw the heat, though.

Just one gif here because it was a great running double stomp in the corner:

I should note that they're already layering in moves. Cavernario hits a second border toss (running splash mountain throw? I don't know what to call that other than border toss) to the corner in the midst of the beatdown and I thought the transition might have happened there, but no. Instead it was on a second Caveman Bomb Splash attempt off the ropes that Titan got his feet up and started his comeback. I couldn't tell if he was selling on it or just posing but it was good and spirited and Cavernario tried to fight back which made everything more interesting. They layered in the first attempt at a moonsault (this one split-legged) but Cavernario moved. He also blocked a shot that led to a spinning kick (which is one of Titan's favorite things to do) and this great dive:

Titan plancha-ed back in and then flipped around with the Mistica as a takedown and turned it into his scrunched up roll up for the pin.

People talked up the tercera of their 2014 match and I don't think that this one was necessarily more exciting than that one. I do think it was better in all other ways though. They continued to tease signature moves, including Cavernario cutting off another moonsault before Titan was able to hit it, finally, at the end. Titan also hit his Titanics but only for two. Likewise with a huge Cavernario running power bomb. Cavernario also ate a huge power bomb reversal from Titan when it looked like he was going for a flying rana off the ropes (which made sense in the context of the match). Probably my favorite part was when they both went for leg-submissions, and Cavernario's selling, first his emotive facial expressions when in the hold and then his limping about afterwards. I tend not to hold dropped limb selling against lucha since it's not a huge trapping of the genre, but when it shows up, I definitely give extra points, and I thought he did a very good job here. He also had a great wrap around submission, and an equally great wrap around suplex.

The big moment of the match was a real sign of the familiarity between the two wrestlers and it led perfectly to the finish. After Cavernario hit the running powerbomb and a subsequent superkick, he went up to the top. Titan pushed him off and then climbed up, hitting Cavernario's own top rope to the floor death splash. It felt like one of the big moments of the year to me. Within the confines of the match, however, it was a sign of Titan being both desperate and overreaching all at once. Cavernario eventually made it back into the ring and Titan went for La Cavernaria. He couldn't lock it on correctly though and Cavernario was able to roll back and lock on his own for the win.

Great finish. Great match. Great pairing. It's really striking how young these two are and, barring disaster, how many great years we'll have out of them to come.