MLJ: Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Felino, Puma, Tiger

2015-11-22 @ Arena México (Elite)
Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Felino, Puma, Tiger

I'm playing catch up from Thanksgiving here. I have more Sombra for later in the week, including a really fun trios match that I need to watch the end of and the start of his singles matches against Felino, the first of which I can't watch the end of because it's not online. I think they'll give a good look at his development over the years, however.

This was from last week's Elite show. I know we get fancams pretty quickly on these from one of my favorite uploaders but the vantage isn't always the best. This, on the other hand, is a pretty nice shot of it all. Unfortunately, I still can't tell the Traumas apart. Them matched up against Puma and Tiger is absolutely ideal though, and Felino, while having devolved into a body humor-centric comedy act over the years, can still go in short bursts making him a great potential Navarro foil. And this was a blast. I think I liked it more than what we saw of the Panthers vs Navarros match from a few weeks ago, as while the initial matwork between Navarro and Felino wasn't as good as what he did with Panther, everything else was just a lot of fun.

I'd say the weakest part of the match was the primera. There wasn't quite the sense of struggle that I look for in matwork on the level that this should have been at. There was a lot of showmanship, first between Felino and Navarro and then between the kids, and I even think there was an escalation balanced by some timely working of the crowd to help make things matter, but the weight just wasn't there. They cycled through a couple of times before escalating into an awesome spot where Tiger dropkicked a Trauma on the way out for a dive and Puma powerbomb position lawn-darted him into the guardrail.

Felino locked in the reverse figure four on Navarro shortly thereafter and it felt secondhand earned because his kids pulled off something so devastating.

I'm not a big spot guy but there is a joy in watching Puma and Tiger, and it's enhanced somehow when they get their dad into the act. Felino's much more enjoyable with them than he is with Niebla and his brother. Case in point, this spot during the cats' momentum holding into the segunda:

There was a lot of that sort of thing in a short period of time, including Puma and Tiger's usual shtick with superkicks and dragonball posing. We have a few cuts in the match, but just a few. You still get the sense of what's going on and where the transitions are. Here after a sense of superior teamwork from the cats to keep control, one of the Traumas put a hand up to stop Puma so he could posture (and thus stop beating on them). I'd like to say this was deep psychology centered around their need to play to the crowd, but that's a bit of a reach. Anyway, the other Trauma grabbed his leg which let the Navarros come back (with Negro Navarro winning with am STF to make for the parallel structure).

The tercera was pretty much what you'd want for a low stakes, high action match like this. They cycled through with guys going in and out, with spots and cutoffs and playing to the crowd and the Traumas taking it with tandem submissions. The best part about the end was Navarro's pride. It's more fun than great but I'm glad that we have it to watch even though it was on an Elite show.