Lucha "Worth" Watching: Cavernario vs. Cometa

Barbaro Cavernario vs. Rey Cometa (CMLL 6/10/16)

So this is kind of a trick, because I really don't think this match is lucha worth watching. I thought it stunk. I thought it was a good Cavernario performance opposite a dull and clueless Cometa performance, with a poor, sloppy finish that I did not buy. But I've seen several people mention this as being a great match, and I hoped it was going to be a great match and actually expected it to be at least very good. But it wasn't. So now whomever hasn't watched it can go ahead and watch it, form their own opinions and see where they land. So it's worth watching in the sense that the dissenting opinions create conversation, and maybe a little understanding.

Cometa was a guy who I genuinely looked forward to a couple years ago, but he just brought nothing to this match outside of a very nicely timed superkick (which was just used to set up a Cavernario worm anyway). He was so awkward getting into position for moves, so lazy doing so, just doing sluggish stuff like ducking before a clothesline was even thrown, walking around Cavernario and slowly pulling him into position for moves, not even giving off any sort of illusion of struggle, just standing around waiting to take a move without bothering to make it look like he was selling, landing all of his offense pillowy soft, just a terrible performance. Barbaro busted his butt, saving Cometa on a tornillo where Cometa's foot caught the ropes, breaking out a couple cool ranas I wasn't expecting, hitting a killer tope from the apron past the turnbuckle (I liked how Cometa flew into the barrier, but then he forced himself slowly over the barrier and into the front row, looking about as unnatural as possible in the process). The primera matwork was floaty and unconvincing, with some of it looking pretty, but none of it looking great due to Cometa loosely gliding into every hold. They even do that dumb mat spot where both guys are holding hands on the mat while lying head to head, on their backs, and the ref counts them down even though nobody is pinning anyone. Segunda was quick, and the tercera was of course long and went immediately to 2 count kickouts. The finish was built to so poorly, with Cavernario taking 85% of the match and hardly any damage, and Cometa taking all sorts of moves and kicking out, then just hitting a backcracker/choke that gets a quick tap. There's no way I was buying Cavernario being this worn down that a limply applied choke gets the tap. Cometa made sure none of Cavernario's moves meant anything, and just did his part to clunk this up as much as possible. Really, really disappointing, and really took away from what was an really nice Cavernario showing.