CMLL
Arena Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
Judges: Mr. Niebla, Shocker, Tirantes & Dragon Rojo, Jr.
Soberano – the runner up in the prior month’s Gran Alternativa tournament – makes time to pose and play to the crowd in the early going after everything he does, even if what he does is just a couple backflips. Part of the judging criteria is the ability to get connect with the crowd and come off as a star so maybe it is a strategy.
Dragon Lee – the younger brother of both Rush and the current Mistico – hits the first of what will surely being many dives this tournament with a tope con hilo that just flattens poor Soberano. Soberano’s first dive is less successfully executed although admittedly with a higher degree of difficult. He springs onto the middle rope within the ring then backflips to the outside for an attempted moonsault. He comes up a bit short, mainly catcher Lee with his legs. He does make up for it almost immediately with a double rotation corkscrew plancha that would have 1996 Mike Tenay losing his shit.
Moonsault aside, Soberano clearly comes off as the more polished of the two although to be fair Lee is just a kid (19 years old). His age doesn’t preclude him from taking an adult-sized bump on a hip toss over the tope rope. Soberano adds a tope con hilo of his own after the hip toss and will call the tope duel in this match a draw. After a little more back and forth, Dragon Lee counters an attempted top rope move from Soberano with a middle rope German suplex for the pin in about six minutes.
Both wrestlers receive 7 and 8’s from the majority of the judging panel expect for the predictably hard to please Tirantes who gives Lee a 2 and Soberano a 1. That proves to be the margin of difference in the scoring. I thought both guys looked about equal here so no qualms on the final score.
Judges Score: Soberano Jr. – 23; Dragon Lee – 24
En Busca de un Idolo | Common | Quality
