CMLL Roundup: Caristico title match, luchadora debut, Police Man

By Manolo Has Pizzazz Oct 9, 2018, 7:30pm EDT

Welcome to the CMLL Roundup. Let’s get caught up on the past week’s news and wrestling action. Since most news was the buildup to and results of the Grand Prix 2018, I’m going to begin with match recommendations first in case you still haven’t watched the Grand Prix.

Match recommendations

The pick of the week is the 2018 Grand Prix match itself. Read about the match and the winner here. It was about an hour long and full of action, as one would expect in an 18-luchador elimination tag match.

Monday’s show (Oct. 1) featured two big bouts; Michael Elgin, Diamante Azul, and Kraneo against Sanson, Cuatrero, and Dark Magic as well as LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, and Volador Jr. versus El Terrible, Cavernario, and La Bestia del Ring. I didn’t watch them in their entirety, but I saw a couple of moments. I think it is safe to say they were decent.

Tuesday’s show (Oct. 2) was highlighted by a championship main event in Caristico against Gran Guerrero. This one was a bit of a letdown. It did not live up to the hype I created in my own mind. I was expecting power vs speed, but it felt more like a slower house show match playing to the crowd.

The Grand Prix 2018 (Oct. 5) had a handful of undercard fights in addition to the namesake match. They were all fine. None struck me as amazing nor boring.

The debut of Avispa Dorada

CMLL introduced a new luchadora at the Grand Prix 2018 event. Avispa Dorada comes from Seattle, Washington. You can see some of her moves in this short promo.

I thought Avispa Dorada did a-okay. She even picked up a pin on Dalys, albeit with a little confusion. Avispa’s foot was under the rope, so the ref stopped counting. Both luchadoras assisted in repositioning, so the ref could resume his count. I didn’t know that rule, so we both learned something. Avispa also had a nice flying attack.

With a little more experience, I can see Avispa Dorada fitting in nicely.

On to the recap and reaction of the matches I watched from last week’s action.

Monday Arena Puebla (Oct. 1, 2018)

You can watch the entire event on YouTube. I only had time for one match from this show. A luchador called Police Man caught my attention. Well, I mean his name did. He was teaming with someone going by the moniker El Perverso. How could I pass up a cop tagging with a pervert?

Arkalis, Astral, & Magnus defeated El Perverso, Espanto Jr., & Police Man, 2-1 (at 28:30)

In the long line of in-ring law enforcement personas, such as the Big Boss Man and the Mountie, I introduce to you, Police Man.

I was disappointed Police Man wasn’t wearing police sunglasses. There wasn’t much to report about Police Man in this match. He was a rudo.

El Perverso lived up to his name a little bit with a dastardly move. He was dishing out one of those common leg/knee rest hold maneuvers and punched his competitor’s knee a couple of times.

Fall 1 went to the bad guys. Espanto Jr. pinned Astral off a back cracker. Fall 2 was captain revenge as Astral submitted Espanto. It looked like a figure four leg lock, except Espanto was on his stomach.

Fall 3 and victory went to the good guys. Astral connected on a spinning sitdown slam to pin Police Man, while Magnus finished with a running double knee into the corner on Perverso.

Cavernario challenged Volador Jr.

I zipped through the main event just to see if anything went down in the aftermath. Good thing I did. Cavernario’s trios team won after he submitted Volador Jr. Cavernario issued a challenge for Volador’s NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship. Volador accepted and that match took place last night, if you care to watch right now. I’ll be reporting on that in next week’s CMLL Roundup.

Tuesday Arena Mexico (Oct. 2, 2018)

I skipped straight to the top for a title match showdown. You can watch the entire event on YouTube.

Caristico defeated Gran Guerrero, 2-1 (at 1:55), to retain the NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship

I was pumped for this bout, but it was a bit of a letdown. It was a plodding affair with plenty of playing to the crowd. Surprising to me, Gran Guerrero seemed to have lots of fan support as a rudo. I would even give him the edge from the split crowd.

Fall 1 was a fancy pin by Caristico. He had a spurt of momentum after having his butt kicked most of the match to that point. In Fall 2, Caristico did have a nifty flying crossbody to the outside. However, he couldn’t pull a sweep. Gran Guerrero earned the second fall via submission.

Fall 3 had some high spots in the end. Guerrero put his boot up on Caristico’s moonsault. That got a two count. I was sucked in a little for that one. Guerrero also had two counts after a suplex and a face slam, both off the middle corner. Caristico had a two count of his own on a super hurricanrana. That led to the final finish when Caristico used his patented whirling head scissors transition into an arm breaker for the win.

Grand Prix 2018 (Oct. 5, 2018)

I skipped the opener. Michael Elgin won the main event. You can read the recap here.

Marcela, Jarochita, & Avispa Dorada defeated Dalys, Metalica, & Reina Isis, 2-1

This was my first time seeing Marcela. She had a couple of nifty moves with a double underhook backbreaker and also taking to the air outside.

The first two falls were on the captains. Dalys lost Fall 1 after an Avispa Dorada drop toe hold followed by a running double knee to the back by Jarochita.

Fall 2 was a submission to Marcela. A running leg drop by Reina Isis and a running back splash by Metalica set up Dalys to slap on a sharpshooter to Marcela. To add insult to injury, Dalys gave a bicep flex at the same time.

Fall 3 went to the tecnicos. Avispa took down Dalys with a flying attack to the outside. In the ring, Marcela pinned Isis with a sitdown slam and Jarochita submitted Metalica with a Muta Lock.

Lightning Match: Gran Guerrero defeated El Valiente

It was chain wrestling for the first two minutes. Action picked up with two suicide dives by El Valiente. They showed the replay of the first so many times that I didn’t realize the second was live. Valiente mostly pinned on normal maneuvers, while Gran Guerrero used his pins for more powerful attacks, such as a big slam and a chokeslam.

The move of the match was Valiente with a rope bouncing moonsault to the outside.

The finish came at 9:07 of the ten minute time limit. Guerrero demolished Valiente with a fireman’s carry front slam off the top rope.

Mistico, LA Park, & Hijo de LA Park defeated Cavernario, Ciber the Main Man, & The Chris, 2-1

LA Park wore a dark turquoise outfit. It looked weird. In a funny moment, Ciber the Main Man was chopping Park. Park more or less told him to lay it in. Chop him with gusto. The Chris came in to lay the smack down with a loud slap. Park stopped Ciber so he could personally thank Chris for the effort.

Fall 1 to the good guys. Hijo de LA Park hit a Spanish Fly on Chris, while Mistico executed his whirlybird arm breaker on Cavernario. Fall 2 to the bad guys with a leg submission to Park from Ciber and Chris, and Cavernario connected on a springboard splash to Hijo.

Fall 3 was the best action of the bunch. There was a double stage leap from Hijo and Mistico. Mistico also used the ramp to step off the top of the ring post to fly down onto Cavernario.

That led to Hijo executing a codebreaker to Chris, who was hung up in the corner. Park finished the game with a clubbing clothesline to pin Ciber.

That wraps up another week of CMLL action. Two big matches this week. Monday’s (yesterday) championship bout was between Volador Jr. and Cavernario. Viernes Espectacular (Oct. 12) will feature Michael Elgin going one-on-one against Ultimo Guerrero, in a rematch of sorts as the final two competitors in the Grand Prix match.