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.
HANDWERK 