MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 31: La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

Aired: 2012-05-05 

taped: 2012-04-29 @ Arena Mexico 

La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

I took some time off after hitting the two year mark. I'm hoping to keep up a 2x a week posting schedule on lucha and other things now, including the DVDVR 80s Puerto Rico set. Here, I'm going to try to push forward on the Sombra spotlight. It's been a bit, so I wanted a match to catch up before hitting the Dragon Rojo title matches. I was hoping for some Rojo/Sombra interaction too, but Volador was here so it wasn't meant to be.

This was lucha libre comfort food, a Guerreros match with a beatdown to start, heat, some comeback, and exchanges to finish it out. Matches like these are tough to watch as part of a larger show (especially if you're watching live on Friday, Monday, AND Tuesday) but in a bubble I really enjoy them. They're pure, distilled CMLL and as such, so much depends on how the rudos interact with one another (especially if there's a cog out of place, like Volador), how charismatic the tecnicos are in hope moments, how imaginatively they're cut off, and just how they manage the comeback. Finishing stretches are finishing stretches, of course, but that payoff means a lot less without a solid build.

And this was all solid. Volador fit right in with the Guerreros. I'll take him in a trios match over a singles match anyday, especially as a rudo. He's in and out, works well with his partners, and is a sufficient dick to his opponents. In a singles match, they probably wouldn't use his corner headscissors into a Canadian destroyer until the tercera, and then probably as a near fall to set up the finish. It's such a game-ender, though, that I like it here a lot more as the finishing move as the primera. The finish was perfect as Sombra and Volador did a bunch of that built-to rope bounce posing, only for Volador to rip his mask right off and deny the fans another heated athletic exchange.

Marco was used really effectively here. He still had a little more gas in his tank so he was able to supplement the great punches and size discrepancy spots with a few big dives and more frenetic exchanges. He had the comeback with a bunch of leapfrogs and a twisting top rope move. And I especially liked this exchange (which cuts off right before his clothesline doesn't look all that great. 

I could have used just a little more Sombra vs Volador here as it's endlessly more tolerable in a trios match, but the whole point was to put heat on Volador by denying it, and it was ultimately effective, so I was happy with what this was.