2018 Ongoing MOTY List: PARK Invades the Cathedral

41. LA Park/Volador Jr./Flyer vs. Rush/Terrible/Bestia del Ring CMLL 5/25/18

ER: This match left me weirdly flat. It wasn't really what I was expecting from the first big Park/Rush showdown in CMLL. I think the match went way, way too long. It felt like the longest non-mask match CMLL main event I've seen in years. And I think it would have been far more effective to have both teams go in there, tear it down for 8 minutes, DQs all around, get things started off nice and rabid. This went on for so long that it left me feeling as if I'd already seen way too much of the feud. After one long match, I'm already not very excited to see more of them. That's not good. It's still recoverable, but a lot of this match felt really uninspired and lazy, tons of guys just walking around casually past guys on the other team, with nobody reaching out to attack. This thing meandered, and really should have been half this length. Leave them wanting more, you know?

I thought Rush looked fantastic in this. He brought the magnetism and came off like a megastar. I loved that big bump he took into the front row after a Park dive in the primera, and the match energy seemed to hinge on whatever he was doing at the time. Most of the Park/Rush stuff was great, especially the tercera. The others seemed to be holding back. We've seen Terrible be sadistic in other matches, and there were prime opportunities for him and Bestia to really bully and mess up Flyer, but that didn't happen. The big Rush/Park moments all landed, though. Park beats Rush with a rolling suitcase (why have I not seen that done before 2018, and why have I now seen that twice? Brad Attitude is an innovator), Rush rips Park's mask and soccer ball kicks his head into the stands, Park absolutely squashes him with a fantastic crossbody off the top to the floor (filmed amazingly, really looked like Park flew 15 feet), but even then I didn't love how Rush was right back in the ring on offense after he just got flattened by the fattest skeleton. I liked Volador resorting to a chairshot for the finish, but overall the tecnicos didn't really looked fired up, and the rudos didn't look mean enough. These men wrestled like it wasn't a very special occurrence, like it was just another Friday night main event. An inauspicious start to the feud, but I think it can be recovered. Perhaps I went in with hopes too high, and I just expect more from these guys. I'm sure if this was a trios with 6 guys I like less, I would have been a higher vote. Park and Rush got a lot of time across each other, and that's almost always going to land on a list.

PAS: I liked this much more then Eric did, although I am probably still a bit of a low voter. I agree that these matches are better off as quick 10-13 minute brawls, there was no reason to watch Flyer and Bestia Del Ring exchange armdrags. I get why this went so long, this was a big shift in CMLL modus operandi and was clearly a big draw.  There was a lot to love about this match though, I really like the Ingobernables coming from the crowd to jump the technicos from behind, while sporting awesome letterman jackets. The others in this match didn't deliver much, but Park vs. Rush is why we are here, and their stuff was great. I loved the rolling bag stuff, especially when it broke open and someones undies ended up all over the filthy floor.  That top rope plancha was incredible, Park is so graceful for an old fat man, and he always lands with such a thud. His spear on Rush was an all time great spear, it was the kind of thing that pre-CTE would have been a highlight shown on every Inside the NFL show. As an opening to the feud I thought this did it's job for sure, and I am looking forward to weekly wars and an all time apuestas match.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK