AAA 5/11/95 in Xalapa:
Los Powers Raiders vs Angel Mortal/Marabunta/Mr. Condor/Karloff Lagarde Jr./Perro Silva: Standard Power Rangers match with them showing off some cool stuff before heading into the eliminations portion of the match. Loved the spot where Venum ran up all his partners to do a plancha but got caught. Someone needs to do that into a regular dive some day! Lasser/Skayde had some real neat tag spots in this one. No dives. Power Rangers continue their winning ways. Kind of amazing Karloff Lagarde Jr. ended up here. He was so plain that even Antonio Pena couldn't figure out some weird gimmick to give him. He was a perfect fit for the dull CMLL midcards.
Latin Lover/Super Calo/Winners vs Jerry Estrada/Heavy Metal/Picudo: A seemingly random trios but booked to set up matches for a future TV! The rudos were the "rocker" group which made sense. They reunited over a year later when Super Crazy showed up and in between a couple of Heavy Metal tecnico runs. Super Calo looked real good here, obviously on a high heading into the biggest month of his career. Rudos went over with Jerry beating Latin Lover to earn a title shot & the leftovers would do a straight tag match on the road to Triplemania! Logical trios match building in AAA!
Octagon/Rey Misterio Jr./Super Muneco vs Pentagon/Juventud Guerrera/Fuerza Guerrera: This was actually the debut of Pentagon - ex-Santo Negro. He had revealed the new name already in the press but this was his TV debut under the gimmick with a new nemesis in his path. Tons of heat for his showdown with Octagon including an epic chase from the ring to the back at one point. Fans actually took swings at Pentagon! I bet Santo was re-thinking the family decision to scrap the Santo/Santo Negro feud since that would have been a good money feud. My little takeaway from this, as a hardcore Rey Jr fan, is how well he worked with Pentagon since they had history together working well in trios (when he was Espanto Jr.). First guy Rey did the Dragon Rana with in Mexico! Muneco was largely a non-entity here. Rey/Juvy traded some cool suplexes. Tecs won by countout when Pentagon ran away. This was good stuff.
Perro Aguayo vs Mascara Ano 2000 (IWC Heavyweight Title): All things considered not a bad match. Another super heated match, a lot thanks to the extra bonus of Octagon/Pentagon as seconds. Octagon even got in a bullet tope at one point! The big storyline was the Pepsi bottle attack 2 weeks earlier which Perro was still recovering from. So naturally at the finish MA2K produced another bottle (I don't think it was Pepsi) & hit Perro with it but this time it didn't break. It did get him the win though.
One of the classic AAA TV shows that got passed around all the traders back in the day since it had all the names that would attract you to an AAA event. Probably a must-see just based on the totality & of course it being the debut of a gimmick that still is in existence to this very day although obviously modified.
(The Get Go - "Target")
Music Video
CMLL 5/11/07
A full Friday night show airing in full in 2007!!! Ahhhhhhh... but there's a catch! It was a 3 match show! The torneo went an hour so if you add in entrances that's one TV show right there. Instead they chose to cut it down, skip entrances, air a pointless semi-main & a random Arena Coliseo match. (No, not the one with Ultimo Dragon/Jushin Liger opposite each other) But on the bright side this meant the only leftover Friday match was the rare opener which got bumped to one of the weekend shows. A super rare and happy occurence.
Brillante Jr./Leono/Stuka Jr. vs Euforia/Nosferatu/Virus: This was the new Infernales lineup with Satanico taking a secondary role as Virus had just turned rudo a week earlier. So this was mostly a showcase match for them busting out a bunch of cool double and triple team moves. (Yes, week-to-week CMLL booking existed back in 2007) I can't recall if this was Brillante's debut TV appearence or if he had done one of the weekend shows already but either way it was one of the first chances to see him in action in Arena Mexico. He looked great. DUH. So did Stuka. Leono was a heavily pushed guy at this point for his position on the card but was clearly a guy in way over his head which would become evident in time. Loved the spear on the ramp by Nosferatu!
Felino/Heavy Metal/Negro Casas vs Black Warrior/Averno/Mephisto: Okay now this is hilarious. You may not get it unless you were around as a fan in 2007 but the basic idea is this match went sub 10 minutes with the first fall going like 1 minute or so. I remember the press completely shitting on it when they recapped it the following day. Like it was a joke you could do a trios match in under 10 minutes and to be honest they weren't wrong. This match wasn't very good and it felt like everyone had somewhere else to be (results don't show anyone going anywhere else afterwards). They were even pushing a Heavy Metal/Black Warrior feud which made it even funnier when the post-match challenges went almost as long as the match itself. Of course reading this with a 2020 viewpoint you probably don't get it since MANY matches go sub 10 minutes these days and if the Tuesday main doesn't you often wonder if they messed up. But this was an entire different world. Rudos went over when Black Warrior cheated to beat Metal. BAD.
Gran Prix: This was Ultimo Dragon show weekend so that's why Minoru Suzuki was hanging around. Hiroki Goto was on excursion. Marco Corleone was back to being a rudo for the night, as was Alex Koslov. Jushin Liger was of course the big get so you know how this one ends. Mexico team was pretty straight forward with all the top heavyweight stars so no Mistico, Volador Jr. or La Mascara types but you had Lizmark Jr. & Sagrado hanging around. A lot of the early portion was edited off TV so we jumped in with some eliminations. Couple cool moments like Guerrero/Bucanero reuniting to do their dance/pose & Wagner/Liger facing off for the first time in Arena Mexico since their famous 96 singles match. Eliminations went pretty much as you'd expect. I liked Guerrero reversing Marco's Air Italia. A spot they would do often but this was the first so of course you remember it! Naturally it came down to Ultimo Guerrero vs Liger with the expected result. In fact, Guerrero got A LOT here with multiple cool eliminations so it was kind of a swerve - especially with him winning the year before too - but in the end no swerve... he just won... again... over Liger.
Overall a fine show but nothing memorable. Especially for how hot CMLL was in 2007. I feel like people will look at the torneo lineup on paper and hunt this down only to come away very disappointed.
(Unwritten Law - "Up All Night")
Music Video
CMLL 5/11/10:
A FULL TUESDAY SHOW! YAY!
Bengala & Trueno vs Disturbio & Mortiz: Nice treat with a glimpse of four guys who NEVER made TV in these times. We now see Bengala & Disturbio on a regular basis but this was when they were allowed to actually work & show off the cool things they could do. Excellent work by all here with some innovative stuff & crazy bumps. Trueno does the slingshot somersault senton to the floor like it's no big deal. He & Mortiz always had crazy good chemistry. Tecnicos take a super fun match!
Guerrero Maya Jr./Molotov/Starman vs Bronco/Hooligan/Inquisidor: A very comfort food CMLL match. If you don't understand that basically... you had 2 CMLL match structures at the time for the non-Friday shows. Either a first fall where one tecnico would get a big exchange + dive, then the other two tecnicos would get second fall showcases before the rudos took over to get their shit in & a third fall would occur or the opposite pretty much where the rudos would take the first fall out of nowhere & the second fall comeback would have the spectacular tecnicos spots. This was option A. A perfectly fine comfort food match where Maya looked spectacular, Bronco kept up & got to do his cool dive & everyone got in a spot to shine by the end. You cannot even compare the segundas from these days to what they would become 10 years later.
Fabian El Gitano/Pegasso/Rey Cometa vs Euforia/Nosferatu/Dr. X: Another comfort food match although far more spectacular action with higher quality guys. Rey Cometa & Pegasso were working super hard - especially Cometa who got in both the running corkscrew armdrag and double corkscrew over the ringpost! My man! Nosferatu was running on borrowed time here. It's kinda funny we used to think he was one of the weakest wrestlers on the CMLL roster and for 2020 standards he would be a perfectly fine 3ra level guy in a Polvora role. Rudos got the win.
Blue Panther/Toscano/Valiente vs Texano Jr./Polvora/Efesto: More comfort food, less craziness than previous match. Valiente did his dive but otherwise this was a rudo orientated match & of course Panther tossing in his twists & turns. Another pro to 2010 over 2020... up and down the card so far notice the lack of guys who are awful and you have no use of ever seeing again. They just don't exist. These days you can't go a single match with at least one guy involved who just drags everything down.
Hector Garza/Mascara Dorada/Volador Jr. vs Atlantis/Averno/Rey Bucanero: Storyline advancement main event as Hector Garza was in the middle of an extended rudo turn. He declined to participate in the first fall and was having a blast with an old lady at ringside. It was actually super entertaining. The rudos weren't really buying it & stayed on guard just incase. Volador was pissed and kept trying to get Garza to help out. This ended up backfiring at the end when Garza did get involved but chose to lay down and purposely lose the match. C'MON VOLADOR IT WAS SO OBVIOUS WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM THE CHANCE??? Reads like a disappointing match but it wasn't at all! Garza was so evil it was glorious to watch.
Great show! These C3 shows were a blast to watch at the time and still are. Just 2 hours of good lucha. You used to always be able to count on CMLL for that.
(Forever The Sickest Kids - "Take It Slow")
Music Video
CMLL 5/11/12:
Another full CMLL show! May 11 must be a lucky day! Or we keep running into random tournaments!
Hombre Bala Jr. & Super Halcon Jr. vs Bobby Zavala & Disturbio: Generacion '11 leftovers still trying to make it in 2012! These were actually the top four outside of Dragon Lee who one could argue was never really part of the group since he was destined for greatness. Zavala & Disturbio made a perfect team together. Total ass kicking pricks. It was matches like this where I got high on Bobby as the future with his great basing & brutal counter spots. Those dropkicks were VICIOUS! He also showed tons of charisma which made it a lock he would move up eventually but nobody could remotely guess his end story... haha. Bala & Halcon were both promising rookies. Bala was the better of the two, or at least he more spectacular. This was a fun opener to watch and wish the current openers could emulate. These guys actually got the crowd into it & came off as the future is in good hands.
Astral/Fantasy/Ultimo Dragoncito vs Pequeno Nitro/Pequeno Olimpico/Pequeno Violencia: The CMLL mini's division post-Mascarita Dorada wasn't all that bad to be honest. They were going with the bigger guys as was evident by everyone here and the guys generally worked hard like in this match. Lots of neat spots, some cool dives & a great third fall. The division didn't die a death due to effort level, that's for sure. The most memorable thing from this was Astral doing a double springboard rana onto the ramp sending Pequeno Violencia into the crowd. It appeared he was supposed to take the bump to the floor but chose the crowd. If I remember the story correctly he was already on one warning about going into the crowd and this was not a 3 strikes you're out policy. This was an automatic suspension. One of the earliest cases I can remember of unexplained suspensions where you had to investigate a little to find out why a guy was suddenly off all lineups. The ban on going into the crowd totally killed any fun in watching Ultimo Dragoncito wrestle.
Black Warrior/Sagrado/Stuka Jr. vs Rey Escorpion/Misterioso/Okumura: The Black Warrior/Rey Escorpion feud was the focus here and had been for a few weeks. They just kept doing these trios matches with random partners where nobody else would really matter & every finish would revolve around them. This was straight falls (as most matches in the build were) ending with an Escorpion low blow (as most matches in the build did). All that sticks out apart from that is one of the most crisp toritos you will ever see from Sagrado to Misterioso.
Triton vs Niebla Roja: En Busca De Un Idolo Round 1! A couple weeks in now it was pretty clear Triton was determined to do well here. I think the general idea was everyone knew a new Mistico was coming and assumed the winner would get the gimmick which made the winner super obvious but that's a story for another day. The reason I mention it though is because Triton won his first match with La Mistica of all moves & may have soured the office by doing that because he was never intended to win this no matter how great he did... and great he did indeed do! He really didn't have a bad match the entire first round. This had him flying all over the place & Niebla Roja playing a fantastic rudo in the right position every time. Triton took the loss but as we progressed in the tournament it became evident results didn't matter... which became an issue come time for the finals. LOL
Dragon Lee vs Euforia: A match built around Euforia countering all of Dragon Lee's flying except for shorts bursts where Dragon would hit big dives like his springboard SSP. Euforia is amazing. Literally the perfect opponents for a guy like Dragon Lee at this point in his career. The finish clearly sets up a future rematch in the tournament with Euforia putting on his finisher, winning, refusing to let go, getting DQ'ed. Way to telegraph the final! Except... some Titan fans would have something to say about that. :)
Atlantis/Blue Panther/La Mascara vs Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero/Terrible: The show is running long so just get in and do your paint by numbers match... match! Damn run-on sentences. This was what it was. It was fine but you will never remember it again after watching. The perfect match for UG to take a loss in.
Marco Corleone/Maximo/Rush vs Volador Jr./Psicosis/Yujiro: Bufete Del Amor! The most random grouping of guys who totally by accident ended up enjoying teaming with each other & invented their own name so they just kept teaming. That's how you gotta play the office! Or at least could play the office when wrestlers had slightly more control. It was this connection that eventually kept Marco tied to Rush and on the fringes of Los Ingobernables when it eventually formed. Marco always said he never wanted to be a part of that group and enjoyed this group far more. The rudo side was Volador Jr. still being alligned with the Invasores (Psicosis... 2 year invasion and counting) & Yujiro stinking up the point with every appearence. Luckily he was hidden well here. Pretty good match with lots of creativity in the comeback & third fall. Even had a dive sequence! Random rudo team went over because... of course they did.
Really great show! Definitely got your money's worth if you went live (bonus Mother's Day strip show... with Puma King???) & made for some good TV/internet viewing. Definitely reccomended for a rewatch!
(Allister - "Waiting')
Music Video
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