NJPW/CMLL
Shin-Kiba 1st Ring (Tokyo, Japan)
The January 17th FantasticaMania card was the only card on the tour that just had CMLL wrestlers. New Japan played it safe and booked Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Toyko, which is a venue with a capacity of only 300. The size of the venue also impacted the arena set up. A small entrance ramp was utilized which allowed the luchadores to dive to and from the ramp like in Arena Mexico (a good thing) but it also necessitated the use of what appeared to be a smaller ring (not a good thing). Whether it was the ring, the small crowd, or whatever, most of the CMLL wrestlers were a bit off on this show.
This tag match – the second to last match on the card – was easily the best match on the show. Although that is caveated by the fact that the only version of the Volador Jr/La Sombra lightning match main event to appear online is missing the bulk of the match after the first couple of minutes.
All four wrestlers looked good, although the brother duo of Rush and Mistico were given more of an opportunity to shine. Mistico pulled out a half-dozen dives and flying moves. He hit all of them with relative ease. Rush got his signature spots in as well, including the running drop kick into his seated opponent in the corner and the Rush Driver for the win. The small crowd was split between chanting for Mistico and Ultimo Guerrero. Guerrero was over on pretty much every stop of the tour.
The tag match was more than watchable and like I mentioned earlier, the best thing on this particular card, but it would not necessarily stand out amongst a “normal” week of CMLL matches in Mexico. The bigger reason to watch would just be the intrigue of seeing a standalone CMLL show in front of a very small Japanese crowd.
High-Flying | Common | Intrigue
