Soberano Jr. vs. Templario, CMLL Domingos Arena Mexico (10/6/2019)

This was for Soberano Jr’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

As this is a title match, it’s a little different from the sprint two nights prior.

Beyond just that it’s three falls now — and three falls in the modern CMLL way where like 80%+ of the stuff that matters comes in the deciding fall, with the first two feeling borderline rushed through — it also builds a little more. Rather than going right into a gorgeous lights show, they trade some more holds here than they did then, gaining their standard fall apiece like that way, before escalating with a little more care. To their credit, on top of the more widespread institutional differences between these two types of matches, they also choose enough different offense in the final fall that it not only feels like its own match and not a retread, but also something of a little more importance, necessitating different offense.

Each approach has its benefits.

The escalation here and sense of stakes is always nice. If the match was three or four minutes longer, hit closer to twenty than fifteen, the first two falls also might seem less rushed, and so generally, the title match tends to be better. However, something about the one fall match, the honesty of the approach as they immediately got to it and began unloading the heavy stuff, I’m always going to appreciate a match that’s forthcoming about what they really care about, which is less so the case here, at least in the first half of the match. That match also has an actual finish, which isn’t exactly make or break, but it sure doesn’t hurt.

All the same, there is some really cool shit here.

Soberano Jr. and Templario not only have some different stuff from the match two days prior, but also build on it in small ways. Things don’t work like they did and there are small little shifts and counters. Likewise, they also do the thing I love in matches like this (pure offensive showcases), where things are blocked and/or countered early on and hit later (or vice-versa), resulting in small little feeling of accomplishment for more minor parts of the whole.

Unfortunately, rather than end a quality fireworks show with the most sensational thing possible, they instead opt to keep the thing going (not a horrible call, they obviously should have had 400 matches together and may have at this point). Pretty abruptly, the match shifts back to the mat and go into a double pin finish when Templario slides Soberano Jr. onto his shoulders in a surfboard.

Not ideal, and probably worse than the single fall match as a result, but yeah man, I don’t know. Something about these two together just really works. Combine a certain chemistry with all that they choose to do with it, and “kick the can down the road with a double pinfall result” is a whole lot less than it would take for me not to like yet another one of these.

three boy adjacent

Rey Cometa vs. Soberano Jr., CMLL Super Viernes (5/12/2017)

This was for Cometa’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

As previously stated on this blog, I’ve always felt a sort of odd affinity for Rey Cometa. I just kind of like the guy, generally speaking, but there is also a kind of specific way he does things that I can point to as well.

Cometa does a lot of stuff in the ring that I like, and charmingly, he always seems like half a decade minimum behind the times, relative to like, state of the art offense, or whatever other jerk off phrase you want to use. He does cool stuff, but it’s cool for like 2010, and I find something about that so likeable. More than that though, it’s how he does the things. I like how he always sells the force of landing on his dives, when he crashes into the railing or the floor. I think it’s a real underutilized thing wrestlers can do to get these sorts of attacks over, showing the toll they take. It’s not like he’s selling his back all match, but a moment here or a moment there to show that there’s a price on the other end makes his dives feel especially powerful to me.

The main thing with Cometa is not that he does all these things, but that he always looks like there’s a real effort and struggle to do all of these fancy maneuvers.

I love that shit.

You then have the exact opposite across the ring from him in young Soberano Jr.

This match offers an outstanding case study here, as Soberano Jr. does a lot of cool stuff, but without a lot of charm or effort, repeating a few tricks such as his like five or six corkscrew crossbodies or the Canadian Destroyer. The former is something that he does very well but as a result of repetition and maybe being TOO clean in his execution, it’s something he does far less memorably than Cometa. The latter, despite being the move that wins him the match, is done easier and with a lazier set up, and that’s basically the entire difference.

Soberano Jr. gets the belt in a match that is clearly about him topping Cometa with a lot of the same moves done faster and easier, which winds up just kind of crystallizing for me exactly why it is that I like Cometa so much, especially in comparison.

Not quite a great match, but certainly another great showing from and a case study of one of my weird little favorites.

Rey Cometa vs. El Barbaro Cavernario, CMLL Martes Arena Mexico (3/14/2017)

This was for Cometa’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

Yet again, when given a reasonable amount of time (comfortably twenty plus minutes including time for replay/rest time in between falls) and a good opponent, an El Barbaro Cavernario title challenge more than delivers on its promise.

Rey Cometa fulfills the latter part of that real well. He’s one of my favorites out of CMLL’s endless array of mid-level or just above replacement level high flying babyfaces. Unlike so many of his peers, Cometa has a way of making his spots feel like they take a lot more effort to do, and it’s the sort of thing that mixes really well with an offensive arsenal that is almost charmingly anachronistic at this point, having not evolved all that much since like 2008. Sometimes you can see the effort to that, like ending the third fall with a well thought out set up that made a Canadian Destroyer both feel like a big deal and set up more organically than usual. Sometimes, it just feels like a sort of thing that happens as a result of him being older or less of an athletic marvel than others, as seen with his dives or something like his primera ending Spanish Fly that feels less natural and heavier and therefore better than almost everybody else’s.

The time also helps them so much. With even just an extra five to ten minutes beyond what a midcard CMLL title match might get, they’re able to flesh everything out so much more. It’s not to say they imbue everything with some extra special meaning now that they have time, it’s still a largely back and forth fireworks display as these matches often are, but everything has a lot more room to breathe now and so it unfolds in a way that seems far more natural and organic.

When presented with these perfect conditions, you KNOW Barb kills it again.

Everything he does is just so cool. Perfect pinpoint accuracy dropkicks, the apron through the turnbuckles Tope Suicida, all sorts of sick bumps and unbelievable looking offense, even the way he gets into position for things is constantly getting better. It’s not to say that this is an entirely seamless match, as a match like this makes that a very hard quality for a match to have, but of what Barb is responsible for, there are very few to lay eyes upon. He’s once again this perfect sort of wrestler, great at everything and endlessly fascinating to watch doing just about anything.

He is one of the most watchable wrestlers in the entire world and of the decade itself, which is why he naturally once again loses a big title match in CMLL, as part of a longstanding initiative to make the program as unwatchable as possible, as if true psychos like you or I will ever flinch.

Result aside, this one rocks once again. Barb and Cometa need more help to fail than to succeed, and when such help fails to come, they’re given twenty minutes and largely left alone to have their match their way, the easiest possible thing happens. It’s automatic between these two, and this match isn’t one to make an exception.

***

Titan vs. El Barbaro Cavernario, CMLL Titanes del Ring (5/3/2015)

This was for Titan’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

It’s good. It’s a really good match.

They take it a little long for a match that’s primarily back and forth move trading, at some twenty five plus minutes. As a result, it sometimes grows a little tiring, especially as the trecera gets the lions share of the time as some sort of holdover from always rushing three fall matches otherwise. All the same, they do some really spectacular and gorgeous stuff in this, and Cavernario is once again one of the most purely watchable wrestlers in the entire world. Even with a classic “this could be 90 other people and the match would look the same” wrestler like Titan, it’s all just exceedingly fun.

If never quite great.

A better highlight reel than a match, but not one I have anything outright negative to say about it. Barb is just the best.

Titan vs. Virus, CMLL on CadenaTres (1/28/2014)

This was for Titan’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

Once more, Virus is absolutely breathtaking. The holds, the smoothness, the meanness. He’s perfect. Not every Virus match is great, but I rarely leave a Virus match with a negative thing to say about his performance. There’s always some cool thing, usually more like ten to twenty. He’s a magnetic sort of wrestler, for whom every match of his winds up on a watchlist Google Doc. One of the very best.

Unfortunately, Titan was also in this match.

Polvora vs. Titan, CMLL on CadenaTres (9/4/2012)

this was good

they did a lot of really cool moves

i liked it

three byoy

Talisman vs. America Rocca, EMLL (3/29/1985)

This was for Talisman’s Mexican National Welterweight Title.

This is a lot of fun. I’m familiar with Rocca because of the Mocho Cota series, and he’s against another ultra charismatic technically gifted rudo. Talisman isn’t so much of a scumbag as he is a delightful braggart, repeatedly smiling and trying to show off. When he’s able to get the second fall, he goes out and celebrates with a few rudo fans outside, even raising the hand of one of his male fans and applauding both the fan and also probably himself for being cheered. He’s still a shithead, but an overly celebratory braggart is different than a cagey goatee heel. Before any of that can unfold, the first fall is all focused on very cool things that they trade back and forth, getting over a theme as efficiently as possible. Very fancy takedowns, counters, escapes, all of that. Talisman becomes frustrated and Rocca wraps him up in a very fancy rolling clutch. Rocca turns it up big time in response and does even fancier things than Rocca could. He gets him up in an inverted Gory Special sort of Backbreaker Rack, adding in a leg-cross to make it impossible to get out of, making the second fall one of the quickest I’ve seen yet.

The final fall luckily has much more time to breathe, and as tends to happen, is about as long as the previous two falls combined. A lot of very cool holds and pins, with each man knowing just enough to keep escaping the fancier things. It comes down to technique and arsenal because the entire match has been about Rocca knowing more things than Talisman. Talisman was able to get nasty for the second fall, and at the end, Rocca goes there and competes at Talisman’s level, which feels like the right choice if Talisman is to lose the title. Rocca traps Talisman down in a Tequila Sunrise type of move, with a far nastier crank on the crab portion, tying up Talisman in an even nastier way. Talisman tries to hang on, but without a counter, he waves his submission and surrenders the title. Not particularly deep, but a really good little scientific match that I can’t imagine anyone actually disliking.

***