For those who thought CMLL’s week ended with another titanic edition of the CMLL Bodybuilding Contest, NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! Turns out the best promotion of 2024 (you’re gorram right I said it) has a few more tricks up it’s sleeve before November pulls the curtain up. That includes tomorrow’s Arena Coliseo show, where Ultimo Guerrero and Blue Panther will duke it out for the first time in awhile, and tonight’s Super Viernes in Arena Mexico, headlined by Mistico and Hechicero battling for the Leyenda de Azul trophy. Shocker of all shockers, that match delivered, and the rest of the show delivered as well, even featuring a pretty big angle. I’d say more, but I’m actually saving that for five to ten paragraphs from now, give or take. Let’s review!

Astral & Legendario defeated Alom & Hunter after Legendario pinned Alom following a 450 Splash and Astral submitted Hunter with a Half Crab variation. Everything’s coming up Astral right now. When we last saw him Wednesday, he was being crowned Mr. CMLL yet again, solidifying himself as the Derek Jeter of the CMLL Bodybuilding Contest. And now, here he is winning matches on Friday nights. On top of that, he was pretty good! An underrated thing about Astral is that, while he’s really good at bodybuilding, he’s also a solid luchador and at times can reach even higher than that. This was one of those times where he did reach higher, albeit just a tad; it’s not like he was breaking out Dragonrana’s or that headstand flip out of the ring and into a rana that he used to do. Regardless, he looked good, Legendario arguably looked even better, and Hunter and Alom were both solid bases, even if there were times Alom was lumbering worse than Hangman Page and Jay White selling the leg. Really, the only downside of this match was the first few minutes, when these guys tried mat work. There’s a time and a place for that in lucha libre, and the time and place doesn’t involve Astral, Legendario, Alom, and Hunter. Stick to the flips dudes. *** ¼

Captain Suicida, Futuro, Max Star defeated Crixus, Infarto, Okumura two falls to one after Futuro pinned Okumura following, I shit you not, a splash off the shoulders of Max Star and Suicida, who also just happened to be standing on the second rope when this occurred! In terms of finishes, I’d rank this somewhere between the ending of The Great Silence and Apocalypse Now, minus, you know, the extreme bleakness. 

Fortunately, the rest of the match was pretty sick too, which is saying something because I was originally going to open my review of this bout questioning why Okumura is still a thing. Fortunately, he did very little, and the little he did was just fine enough that I spared him that fate. Frankly, the rudos altogether had little to do in this match other than sell and base; their only real offensive spurt came at the end of the second fall/beginning of the third fall, and felt like it lasted, at most, two minutes. The rest of the match was the Suicida/Futuro/Max Star show, with the trio trying to one up each other with craziness that included a second fall Dragonrana from Suicida, an insane triple dive sequence in the third fall, and, of course, the finish. And that’s not even counting the tamer stuff they did in fall one, which was also really exciting! Perhaps I’ll be the high man here, but I thought this was tremendous fun. No, I can’t believe I just said this about an Okumura match either, and yes, I’m deathly afraid it’s just going to lead to him having even more matches in MLW, who’s world, I hear, never stops moving. ****

Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II defeated Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo de Blue Panther two falls to one after one of the Gemelo’s pinned Dark Panther following a Sitout Powerbomb. This was a controversial finish, as Hijo de Blue Panther had earlier pinned one of the Gemelos with a splash, and it appeared that was the same Gemelo who then pinned Dark Panther to win the match. Either way, Metallico wasn’t having any of the Panther‘s protests, so the result stood. Lucha refs; the only people more untrustworthy is NFL refs!  Jokes aside, this was a tough one for me, as I watched the match while I was on the phone with my mother! Even with my attention split though, I felt this was really well done. The match had that distinct flavor all matches involving the Panthers have, and also featured some decent creativity from the technicos, Akuma, and even the Gemelos, who I honestly didn’t expect a whole lot from. They came to play though, and that, coupled with the structure, those awesome Dark Panther suicidas, and the improving Hijo de Blue Panther (he may already be better than Junior!) made this come off very enjoyable. Frankly, I may have found it even better if not for everything else going on. *** 1/2

El Hijo del Villano III, Valiente, Villano III Jr. defeated Neon, Star Jr., Titan two falls to one after Valiente pinned Titan with the Valiente Driver and Villano III Jr. pinned Star Jr. with the Springboard Split Legged Moonsault. This match looked good on paper…and then the first fall ended with Valiente CRUSHING Star Jr. with a tope suicida, Hijo del Villano III spearing Neon in midair, and Villano III Jr. hitting Star Jr. with a Piledriver out of La Atlantida. It was then the match ceased looking good on paper and became a cross between the Casa Cristo 5000 scene in Speed Racer and the final four tracks of American Idiot. This was everything one could ask for; the Villanos creativity, Valiente seamlessly meshing with them, Neon’s death defying wackiness (minus the double jump moonsault), and Titan continuing to be one of the most complete performers in the globe. Even Star Jr.’s lack of dynamic, original offense wasn’t that much of a problem. In fact, the only problem, other than the crowd not being into the Villanos (a stark contract from the Flip Gordon match) I can find with this match is that there wasn’t enough of it. It felt like we could’ve used five more minutes of craziness, with Neon hitting his dive, and the Villanos perhaps pulling out one more crazy idea, for this to be considered a stone cold classic. Alas, it’ll have to settle for being great.  **** ¼ 

Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rocky Romero defeated Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. two falls to none after Romero submitted Volador Jr. with a Rolling Armbar. WHERE TO BEGIN?! The main story of this match was Volador and Templario continuing to not get along, following last week where, you may recall, they also didn’t get along. Then there was KeMalito and KeMonito continuing their rivalry. Then there was Rocky and Flip beefing. Then there was Angel de Oro and Niebla Roja…watching this all, I guess. All this culminated in the post-match with Volador (seemingly) turning rudo, as he declined Templario‘s challenge for a match, then proceeded, alongside, KeMalito, Rocky, Roja, and Oro to attack KeMonito, Templario, and Flip, complete with some unmaskings. I apologize if I missed some details; as I said, MANY THINGS HAPPENED HERE! I’ve honestly seen episodes of Twin Peaks that didn’t have as much going on as this match did.

So if we’re judging this from match quality, there really wasn’t much to it; Flip did some cool things, Oro and Roja worked hard, and there otherwise wasn’t anything noteworthy. That was, of course, the point, as the focus was always destined to be on the post-match, and the post-match was excellent. I’m not sure how Volador turning rudo (if this was a true turn tonight) affects his match with the also rudo PAC in a few weeks, but it’s a turn that was probably overdue, especially since his lackeys Rugido, Magnus, and Magia Blanca are all rudos. It also creates a very interesting feud with Templario, and an even more interesting partnership with Rocky after all the years of Rocky and Volador feuding. From that standpoint alone, the angle was a success, and that’s before you get into the continued KeMalito/KeMonito feud (which rules), and the set up for Flip vs. Rocky, which will probably be great. CMLL had to accomplish a lot here, and it sure seemed to me like they succeeded. Match: ***. Angle: **** ¾

Mistico defeated Hechicero to win the Leyenda de Azul tournament. The finish came after Mistico locked on La Mistica and, after being unable to submit Hechicero, managed to lock up Hechicero’s arms with his legs, Bryan Danielson style, in order to get the tap out. That’s right; you are now living in a world where Mistico outworked Hechicero on the mat. WE ARE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS HERE PEOPLE!

Let’s get my one “knock,” if you can even call it that, out of the way first; the crowd. To be clear, Arena Mexico was lively for this one, making noise the whole way through. But it wasn’t the prototypical Arena Mexico response, I think because fans were just so split between Mistico and Hechicero. As a result, when either was in control, you got just as many boos as you did cheers, creating an atmosphere that had a lot less roars than usual. But really, that’s the only downside for the match was otherwise phenomenal. And it was largely phenomenal because it gave us a chance to see Mistico out of his comfort zone, and thankfully not in a Chris Jericho kind of way. While Mistico absolutely got to play his hits, this was a Hechicero match across the board, full of mat work, counters (the most breathtaking, in my opinion, being Hechicero turning a Mistico moonsault into a submission), a slow building pace, and the occasional high spot. It required a new side of Mistico to come out, and if there was any doubt that CMLL’s top man can adapt, those doubts are over. He may not have been at Hechicero’s level (who is?), but Mistico was not far off either, hanging in there the whole way and delivering, by far, his best individual in-ring performance of the year. As for Hechicero, this performance would normally be the best of his year, except this is the year he wrestled Zack Sabre Jr. and had, arguably, the greatest CMLL Aniversario match ever. As such, tonight’s classic bout will have to settle for the bronze in Hechicero‘s 2024 hierarchy, which shouldn’t keep you from seeking out this match immediately.. **** ½

Game over dudes, game over! Time for me to put on some Person of Interest to fall asleep to. I’ll see you around. TILL THEN!

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