May (actual or air date) lucha matches . . .
Dragon Lee, Fuego & Triton vs. Virus, Puma & Tiger (CMLL)
May 2nd (taped April 21st)
Very enjoyable television trios. With a rudo team like that, it was going to be difficult for this match not to at least be very fun. Virus was a machine in this one, working with a bit more intensity than usual. He was great on his feet and running the ropes, with a couple of really stiff drop kicks standing out. Dragon Lee took a great half spin bump off of a Puma super kick for a great cut off spot. There was one minor hiccup involving Triton where they momentarily got their signals all tied up, but otherwise this one of those really solid and super easy to watch CMLL television trios. Virus picked up the win on Dragon Lee in the third fall which hopefully means a title re-match at some point.
Atlantis, Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Negro Casas, Felino & Mr. Niebla © for the Mexican National Trios championship (CMLL)
May 2nd (taped April 26th)
A totally uninteresting title change match. The quality of the match was largely dictated by which Peste Negra member was in the ring. When Casas was wrestling, most everything was good. When Felino was in the ring, it was boring. When Niebla was working, there was far more bad than good. Watching Mr. Niebla slowly work through the monkey flip to body scissors to arm drag spot with Delta, you could just tell it wasn’t going to end very well. Sure enough, Niebla failed – well he would have failed had he actually tried – to catch Delta on the arm drag and then just sort of moved on. Delta and Guerrero Maya Jr.’s stereo topes were the highlight of an otherwise totally mundane match.
Herejía © vs Judas el Traidor for the AULL Heavyweight Championship (AULL)
May 3rd (taped April 19th)
This is from the second AULL television show covering the Caravana De Campeones event where every single AULL championship was on the line. Herejia & Judas had their moments – a couple of nice submissions mainly – but that was about it. Judas el Traidor has one of the best names in all of wrestling but this wasn’t his finest moment. The match only went about eight minutes and still felt a couple of minutes long. No real hook at all here; just two guys very much going through the motions.
Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano Garcia © vs Dante, Euro, Filder for the AULL Trios Championship (AULL)
May 3rd (taped April 19th)
Euro, Filder, and Dante had an entertaining match opposite the Neza Kings back in March that got me interested in seeing more of them. The work in that match was perfect, but they had a some nice triple teams and I love the Villano-esque pink gear. This match was far more well-rounded than the Neza Kings one, thanks in large part to Rocky Santana and company having a better idea on how to bridge the gaps between team moves and the high spots. Those guys have been around forever (all three worked for UWA and then migrated over to AAA in the early/mid-90’s) and it showed in a good way. All three guys could still move reasonably well, which is a start, and they gave their opponents a lot. Very fun and about on par with the May 2nd CMLL trios for me.
Dragon Lee vs. El Barbaro Cavernario vs. Kamaitachi vs. La Mascara vs. La Sombra vs. Marco Corleone vs. Morphosis vs. Polvora vs. Ripper vs. Titan in a Cibernetico match (CMLL)
May 2nd (taped April 26th)
The main event of the Arena Mexico Anniversary show. A good cibernetico; perhaps my favorite since the 2014 En Busca qualifier (though don’t hold me to that). Kamaitachi was excellent. He brought the comedy by inserting himself into the hip swivel showdown between Marco and La Mascara. He stooged big time for everyone, took great bumps off of Marco’s quality punches, and looked good on offense (too bad New Japan doesn’t always use ramps because the over the top rope ramp drop kick he does always looks awesome). Dragon Lee did the fence hop hurricanrana to the outside. Sombra killed a couple of guys with knees and both he & Titan hit very solid topes. Cavernario worked in the corner tope. Lots of high quality spots and non-stop action, plus good heat (especially for Maraco) from the larger-than-normal Arena Mexico crowd.
Titan vs. Gran Guerrero in a lightning match (CMLL)
May 5th
Solid lightning match. Titan usually has fun lightning matches. He’s put on a little weight (or at least, this batch of matches is the first time I’ve noticed) but hasn’t seemed to slow him down in any way. The half mask with one black/white side looked really cool. Gran Guerrero isn’t anything special, but he has shown the ability o be a decent base and did so again versus Titan.
