CMLL
Arena Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
After a couple of weeks of acting like rudos but not abandoning the tecnico camp completely, Rush, La Sombra, and La Mascara did battle with a trio of fellow tecnicos for the first time. As previously mentioned, this is a shift in booking philosphy for CMLL who historically shies away from running tecnico vs. tecnico (or rudo vs. rudo) matches. An argument could be made that this match contained the six best young (under 40 years old) tecnicos currently on the promotion’s roster (La Mascara over Titan being the one glaring exception).
While the match had the makings to be a memorable Sunday main event, the actual intent of the match was not to put on a classic but rather to shine a further spotlight on the suddenly nasty attitudes of the La Sombra/Rush/La Mascara trio. Those three luchadores cheated, tripled teamed their opponents, and taunted the crowd for more or less the entirety of the three fall contest.
If the end game of this match was to get the fans to react negatively towards the one group of tecnicos, it was not necessarily a failure but it might be a stretch to label it a success. The Arena Mexico crowd – who has been jeering Rush for so long that it is old hat at this point – reacted negatively towards that particular trio but not even close to any extreme. It was far more muted reaction than the promotion and luchadores were certainly hoping for.
The de-facto rudo side took the first fall and then dropped the second when they unmasked both Valiente and Mascara Dorada. The two scurried to the back with their faces covered by their hands before re-emerging for the third fall in new masks (poor Valiente was not able to find another blue masks so he wrestled the third fall while committing the lucha libre fashion faux pas of a non-match tights and mask combo). Most of the action – in terms of wrestling – takes place during the third fall but even then the focus is squarely on Rush, La Mascara, and La Sombra being bad people.
The third fall ends with La Mascara drawing the attention of Tirantes so that Rush and Sombra could foul Volador. They do, Tirantes misses the illegal activity, and the Volador gets rolled up for the pin.
The idea of running technico versus tecnico matches where one side cheats and behaves as badly as any group of rudos is lost on me. This match failed to come off as special as it could have although perhaps it is part of a longer term goal, although given CMLL’s tendency to fall into start & stop booking I would not necessarily count on that being the case.
It would be surprising if all three made full rudo turns at some point. Perhaps this is simply a transition period where CMLL is trying to hammer home the trios rudo tendencies before having them settle into more of an in-between role where they can face rudos and technicos. The second outcome would appear to be the preferred and more beneficial one. In any event, hopefully the current happenings are the setup for some sort of payoff otherwise the current booking – while certainly different – is not necessarily leading to positive results.
Diagnostics
Lucha Trios | Common | Booking & Angles
