MLJ: Blue Panther Lightning Matches 5: Blue Panther vs Ephesto

Aired: 2014-06-28
taped:  2014-06-22 @ Arena Coliseo
Blue Panther vs Ephesto in a lightning match

This has opening credits, which is interesting in and of itself to CMLL Titanes del Ring on Claro Sports. I know that some people reading this watch the TV, but a lot of us just follow through what cubs posts, and we never really get the tv experience the way that it's supposed to be. That's especially true when we're plucking at older matches. Of course, this is CMLL, so the "intention" probably is given less thought than what Hijo del Gladiador is going to have for lunch, but in general medium and presentation matters in how we view this stuff. Just, maybe not all that much.

The credits are sort of interesting, with statues turning into wrestlers. Shocker's the first guy focused upon, which is telling for a show from a year ago, or so. Then came Rush, and it ended with Marco and Sombra and then bodies crashing into each other.

For the amount that something like WWE openings are micromanaged, again, this is CMLL, and no one should probably even start to think about the logic or hierarchy behind any of this. Let's just move on.

So, Blue Panther vs Ephesto is not nearly as exciting as Blue Panther vs Virus or Blue Panther vs Casas. According to Wiki, Ephesto had just turned 49 a week or two before this match and he does not sup from Casas' fountain of youth. Nor is the the sort of mat wizard that Virus is. That said, they tried. They kept things well within limits, and it was all sound, even if not super exciting.

Thankfully, I'm the one guy not in to the lucha to necessarily be excited. What they did give us was sound and well built. the first three minutes were built around full nelson attempts, and it was done well, with various counters and reversals, and served as a feeling out period, culminating with Panther creating distance and thet wo fo them standing off.

The second segment had them go down to the mat, with Panther taking an early advantage, but Ephesto reversing with a headscissors. Panther used a headstand to break out and moved into a cross armbreaker, with Ephesto reversing it into a head-assisted half crab and then a very fun cross-leg submission and a pin attempt.

That brought them into the last third of the match, where Ephesto had a distinct advantage. He really kept the submissions coming, quickly cutting of Panther whenever he tried to do anything at all. He had a nice shoulder breaker in here too, and a few very minor cut offs.

There wasn't really a comeback so much as Panther just getting a few shots in during the finishing stretch. At one point, he just hit a slam and they moved on towards the end, which was fine, with Ephesto getting a nice nearfall off of a complex roll up before Panther locked in the fujiawara arm bar out of nowhere.

There was nothing wrong with this and I liked the way it advanced for the most part, with the work being more than solid. It just lacked that narrative oomph of a come-back moment, when it could have inserted it in due to Ephesto's mini-heat advantage. Ultimately, it was a solid but meaningful match that didn't have the intensity or the oneupsmanship of the Casas matches or the wizardry of the Virus one.