MLJ: Blue Panther Lightning Matches 1: Blue Panther vs Felino

2011-08-19 @ Arena México
Felino vs Blue Panther [lightning]

I may be a little short on time this week. So, here's one of the back up plans I've held in reserve. Lightning matches. It'd make sense to go after Valiente ones or Dragon Lee ones. I'm not going to do that. Blue Panther is the way to go. Why? Because I think that if anyone can turn a spot-heavy match full of fluff and flash into something that feels meaningful, it's going to be old man Blue Panther.

Match Finder says we have six of these online (with a few we don't have, like vs Puma), so I'll look at least at a few of them. Sometimes they might have been part of a broader feud (For instance, #1 vs Felino from 2011 seems to lead to a hair match a few months later) and maybe I'll revisit the end point of those feuds at a future point, but for now I just want to take a look at the lightning matches and try to pull together some common threads.

Let's start with general expectations for lightning matches. Even with Blue Panther, I'm only mainly looking for a few things in here, a sense of struggle (in matwork and near-falls), a sense of narrative (in that there's some level of build and payoff), and a sense of action (which is not something I usually care much about, but there should be some zing to these). I'd rather not see one at the expense of the others, so if they struggle on the mat for ten minutes but it doesn't really go anywhere or pick up the pace at any point, maybe that's not the best lightning match. Likewise, an all out spotfest (Virus vs Valiente is the post child for that in my mind, but I bet some of the Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi ones would fit).

This first match, which took advantage of the fact it was part of a bigger build, hit all three marks. Felino is the most frustrating talent in CMLL. That's saying a lot in a world of utterly predictable Ultimo Guerrero matches and Mr. Niebla drinking too much, but I think it's true. Felino can go. He just chooses not to most of the time, leading instead with the body humor. It's hard to blame him for it since it's generally over with the Pesta Negra loving crowd and it's the sort of stuff that can prolong a career, but it sure can be frustrating to watch.

There was none of that here. Plenty of character packed into ten minutes? Sure, especially with the finish, but there was no licking or armpit spots or anything like that. It helped that the Arena Mexico crowd felt a little different just four years ago than it does now. I felt like there was more of a tecnico-cheering presence, and they were more into all the stuff that wasn't just shtick.

Panther can't go at quite the same rate as Felino, but he can do short bursts and that played well into what they were trying to do. This one was well built. They started with a lot of matwork and struggle, including some cool stuff like this arm whip:

They built that to Felino ending up outside and eating a tope, which really didn't feel premature in any way. It was also early enough in the match that it served as more of a transition into rope running and pin attempts, faster stuff, which filled a few minutes (again competitively), before culmanating with this great dive from Felino:

That heralded the finishing stretch with Felino locking in a reverse figure four, trying desperately for a standard one, Panther locking in the Fujiwara, only for it to end in a rope break. He complained to the ref. Felino ambushed him causing a ref bump. One foul later, Felino successfully locked on the figure four and they were another step down the road towards their hair match.

Well built and paid off, good action, good struggle. This one hit the marks.