10/20/02 CMLL Workrate Report

[Guest Joe_G]

Some sad news (depending on your P.O.V. anyway). I'm moving in a few weeks and it looks like no Galavision where I'm headed. I'll still have a lucha supplier (thank God), but Workrate reports will be on indefinite hiatus.

 

WHAT WORKED

 

Atlantis and Rayo are good friends! That’s what the graphic says, anyway. They run into each other in the hall and talk about their upcoming match (and maybe their families). They don’t like Dr. Wagner, no siree. Good wacky fun.

 

Commando Girl assembles the troops in the parking lot. Pierroth gets a cell phone call from the General (?). He makes a big speech and points out some sort of mark on Commando Girl’s face. Veneno (apparently wearing a garden hose this week) volunteers for something, but gets chewed out for wearing sneakers. This was funny, although it probably would have been a lot funnier if I knew what was going on.

 

Satanico rallies the troops (said troops being Averno and Mephisto) for their rematch against La Familia de Tijuana. Satanico ends the skit by laughing like a madman, so of course this works.

 

Shocker explains how the search for the third Guapo will go via an oddly structured chart. This’ll be interesting if nothing else.

 

Stellar Moments: An unidentified mini hits a nice tope. Mascara Magica and Blue Panther turn the tables on Negro Casas and Black Warrior to win a fall. Mr. Niebla gets clubbed by Takemura’s jumping Kappo kick, but gets his revenge when he hits a crazy dive on Nosawa (who’s prone on the floor). We close things out with Mephisto’s sunset flip powerbomb on Damien from last week. There’s a lot of good action here, but where are the Rammsteins and Tigre Blancos?

 

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

 

Hey, a Black Warrior sighting! We haven’t seen him in a long while. He teams with Atlantis, Rayo, and Lizmark vs. Black Tiger, Dr. Wagner, Emilio Charles, and Bestia Salvaje. Primera caida is a large melee, with the rudos getting the upper hand. Lots of brawling but its very energetic. Warrior and Tiger face off as we approach the 1-year anniversary of their feud. Rudos seem to be declared the winner at a random point until the replay helpfully shows Wagner dropkicking Rayo (and missing pretty badly) and scoring the pin. Segunda caida sees more of the same Wagner gets his mask ripped off for like the 80th week in a row. Atlantis makes the rudos run into each other and the tecnicos soon win the fall (Warrior’s DDT reversal is getting up there with “You can’t powerbomb Kidman!”). Tercera caida sees an extended mask ripping section between Wagner and Rayo. We see an ok Tiger/Lizmark section and then things break down and we’re left with Rayo and Wagner. Rayo hits his blind headbutt but pulls Wagner up at two. Whatta dope. And soon Wagner hits a falta for the pin. Rayo and Wagner exchange words on the stick afterwards, probably challenging each other to a mask vs. mask match. Match itself needed a killer tercera caida but there was too much Rayo for it to work.

 

Ugh, the Capos have these new orange outfits that look like ASS. Seriously, they should rename themselves Team Sherbet. Anyway, it’s Universo Dos Mil, Cien Caras, Mascara Ano Dos Mil (now bald thanks to Pierroth) and Gran Markus vs. Pierroth, Killer, Violencia, and Veneno. Primera caida is the usual boring Commando beatdown. It gets so bad that we flashback to Pierroth accidentally nailing Veneno (hmmm) and falta’ing Mascara Ano Dos Mil to win their hair match). When we come back, Caras has been eliminated and Markus and Mascara soon follow. Segunda caida is more of the same until Team Markus comes back. Pierroth gets whipped with his own belt and Markus splashes a lot of people en route to winning the caida. Tercera caida sees Universo and Markus hit some dives to clear the ring, leaving us with Pierroth and Mascara. Mascara soon blocks a falta and hits one of his own for the pin and the BIG pop. Baby Richard gets harassed afterwards. I liked the booking but the wrestling was uglier than the Capos new outfits.

 

I was looking forward to the Infernales/FdT rematch, but it was all angle and little wrestling. FdT manages to beat down the ex-champs in the primera caida, until Satanico and co. make a comeback. Halloween grabs a Singapore cane and gets his side DQ’d. He goes after Satanico but the veteran grabs the cane and the Infernales destroy Halloween’s leg with it, drawing out the doctors and taking Halloween out of the match. Segunda caida sees the Infernales destroy first Nicho and then Damien with triple teams, until Damien faltas Satanico out of nowhere for the DQ. And that’s that. I think a hair vs. hair challenge is thrown out afterwards. Match was disappointing but at least served a purpose.

 

Skits were good, matches weren't. Ah well.