Lucha Libre (AAA/CMLL)

CMLL Roundup: Titan and Barbaro Cavernario advance to the Torneo Increible de Parejas finale

By Manolo Has Pizzazz Apr 17, 2019, 7:45pm EDT

Welcome to the CMLL Roundup. Let’s get caught up on all the news and action from the past week. The Torneo Increible de Parejas was the feature event of the week. Who doesn’t love tournaments? Who doesn’t love good guys and bad guys being forced to team together in tag action? Let’s waste no time and get to it.

Stage one of the Torneo Increible de Parejas 2019

The tournament of incredible pairs, mixing tecnicos with rudos, was underway on Friday’s (April 12) show from Arena Mexico in Mexico City. The teams for stage one were as follows: Caristico & Mephisto, Angel de Oro & La Bestia del Ring, Soberano Jr. & Sanson, Titan & Barbaro Cavernario, Blue Panther & Mascara 2000, Flyer & Forastero, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Euphoria, and Triton & Rey Bucanero.

You can watch the entire show on CMLL’s YouTube channel. The tournament portion is about an hour and ten minutes long, beginning at the 58 minute mark.

This will be my first time witnessing a Torneo Increible de Parejas in CMLL. I’m so excited. In the immortal words of Al Bundy, “Let’s rock.”

Stage one kicked off with a tecnico battle royal to determine the matchups. The participants were Guerrero Maya Jr., Triton, Flyer, Blue Panther, Soberano Jr., Titan, Angel de Oro, and Caristico. The bout lasted about five minutes.

The elimination order was:

1 & 2. Caristico and Flyer (Caristico clotheslined Flyer and also eliminated himself)
3. Guerrero Maya Jr. (by Blue Panther)
4. Angel de Oro (by Soberano Jr.)
5. Blue Panther (by Triton)
6. Titan (by Triton)
7. Triton (self-elimination via tope con hilo)
Winner: Soberano Jr.

Yes, Triton eliminating himself seems idiotic at first, but there was no advantage between the runner-up and the winner. As it turned out, the matchups made from the battle royal didn’t make much sense. A tournament format usually starts with the best against the worst and seeds from there. On this occasion, CMLL matched up the matches by who was eliminated 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6, and 7 & 8. Logic should have dictated 1 vs 8 and so on. Eh, whatever. Lucha libre is going to lucha libre.

The first round bouts were all about five minutes each in duration, not including entrance time. Let’s hit these rapid fire.

Flyer & Forastero vs Caristico & Mephisto

The move of the match was a springboard moonsault by Flyer to the outside. Flyer injured his leg, so that gave away his team was going to lose. Seconds later, Caristico slapped on his whirling armbreaker to Forastero to win.

Guerrero Maya Jr. & Euphoria vs Angel de Oro & La Bestia del Ring

Rivals Angel de Oro and La Bestia del Ring had communication problems when accidentally (?) hitting each other, so Bestia decided to beat up his own partner whenever Angel was thrown out of the ring.

The move of the match was an awesome winning finisher by Guerrero Maya Jr. I’ve never seen it before and am not sure how to describe it. It was some sort of neck/shoulderbreaker. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go.

Blue Panther & Mascara 2000 vs Titan & Barbaro Cavernario

This bout was young versus old. Blue Panther is 58 years old and Mascara 2000 is 61, while Titan is 28 and Barbaro Cavernario is 25. Titan and Cavernario were the only team to wear matching outfits. Both had Cavernario one-strap caveman tops with Titan blue trunk bottoms and wristbands. Foreshadowing?

The move of the match was tandem suicide dives by Titan and Cavernario.

For the finish, Titan submitted Blue Panther with a leg lock and Cavernario submitted Mascara 2000 with a shoulder/back submission.

Side note: I didn’t realize both members had to be eliminated. The first match threw me off with Flyer’s injury. In the second match, I thought the referee stopped a submission because La Bestia del Ring wasn’t the legal man.

Triton & Rey Bucanero vs Soberano Jr. & Sanson

This was the best bout of round one. The moves of the match were simultaneous springboard splashes by the opposing tecnicos, Triton and Soberano Jr. Those two also had matching moonsaults to the outside. The finish was a double pin win by Soberano and Sanson. Soberano hit a springboard moonsault to Rey Bucanero, who was hung up in the ropes, and Sanson hit Triton with a powerbomb backbreaker.

Shit, give me a lightning match between Triton and Soberano Jr. post haste, please. The way they mirrored each others moves makes me think a rivalry could be brewing.

Round two bouts were also about five minutes each in duration.

Caristico & Mephisto vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & Euphoria

Caristico had devil horns on his mask. I noticed it earlier but didn’t put it together until I saw Titan and Cavernario’s matching outfits. That little touch by Caristico was kind of cool as a shout out to his partner, Mephisto. The name Mephisto is described by Wikipedia as, “One of the chief demons of German literary tradition.”

The move of the match was a flying crossbody by Caristico to the outside. A super arm drag by Guerrero Maya Jr. eliminated Mephisto. A whirling armbreaker by Caristico eliminated Euphoria. Caristico won the bout with a double knee back smash to Guerrero Maya Jr. off a springboard trust fall.

Boo! I was rooting for Guerrero Maya Jr. and Euphoria. Caristico is a butthead.

Titan & Barbaro Cavernario vs Soberano Jr. & Sanson

This was the best bout so far by far with physicality and maneuvers aplenty. The move of the match was Sanson catching Titan on a running hurricanrana attempt off the apron for a powerbomb on top of the fan barrier. Soberano Jr. also had a sweet spinning corkscrew crossbody to the outside.

For the finish, Titan and Barbaro Cavernario hooked up simultaneous pretzel octopus submissions to their foes then rolled over for pinning predicaments that Soberano and Sanson could not escape.

The stage one final was over ten minutes in duration.

Titan & Barbaro Cavernario vs Caristico & Mephisto

Titan and Barbaro Cavernario remained in the ring as Caristico and Mephisto ran up for an ambush. Caristico also tried to remove Titan’s mask. I told you Caristico was a butthead.

This was a pretty good back and forth bout. The moment of the match was Caristico giving a split-legged double boot to a charging Cavernario and Titan to send them both into Cavernario’s patented worm move across the ring. That was cool to see Titan channel his partner’s mojo. Titan wasn’t very good at it, but at least he tried.

The moves of the match were a double underhook super slam by Mephisto to Titan out of the corner and tandem splashes by Cavernario and Titan down to their opponents on the floor.

For the finishing sequence, Caristico and Mephisto kicked out on pin attempts following those splashes. Caristico and Mephisto then hit dual powerbombs and used the ropes to cheat on the pin, but the referee caught them and stopped the count.

In the end, Titan used a whirling armbreaker to transition into a successful pin on Mephisto, and Cavernario made Caristico tap by using Caristico’s own finisher, the whirling armbreaker.

Titan and Barbaro Cavernario will advance to the Torneo Increible de Parejas grand finale on Friday, April 26, 2019. That duo is a good choice as the winners of stage one. They are both exciting and also have enough name value to win the whole thing as credible underdogs.

As a first time watcher of CMLL’s Torneo Increible de Parejas, that was a wild hour+ of action. I wasn’t sure what to expect. To answer the questions I asked earlier, I love tournaments and I love good guys and bad guys being forced to team together in tag action. Needless to say, I enjoyed every second.

I would give the standout award to Guerrero Maya Jr. I don’t remember being impressed much the first time I saw him wrestle. This time, however, he was pulling off cool moves left and right. That neck/shoulderbreaker on Angel de Oro was mighty fine. Titan and Soberano Jr. also caught my attention. They were flashy and functional.

The Torneo Increible de Parejas will continue with stage two this Friday (April 19).

The teams for the second stage will be:

Mistico & Cuatrero
Rush & Vangellys
Atlantis & Negro Casas
Hechicero & Stuka Jr.
Volador Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero
Niebla Roja & El Terrible
El Valiente & Gran Guerrero
Templario & El Audaz

Rush and Vangellys is a weird pairing. I’m not sure who is who in terms of tecnicos and rudos. Vangellys was a rudo in Puebla the first time I saw him when challenging Ultimo Guerrero for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship last month. But, it was in Puebla. Tecnico and rudo alignments seem to be in their own world in that city.

Atlantis and Negra Casas take up the old guy mantle. Atlantis is 56 years old, and Negro Casas is 59. Much like Angel de Oro and La Bestia del Ring, we have bitter rivals in Niebla Roja and El Terrible teaming up. I wouldn’t expect much success out of that team either, especially since Los Ingobernables pride themselves on wins and losses not mattering.

Volador Jr. and Ultimo Guerrero seem like heavy favorites to win stage two and the entire tournament as well. That team has major star power. Volador possesses the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship, while Ultimo Guerrero is the CMLL World Heavyweight champ and one-third of the CMLL World Trios champions with Gran Guerrero and Euphoria.

My pick for stage two is Volador Jr. and Ultimo Guerrero, but I’ll be rooting for the tercer edad (third age, i.e. old people) citizens, Atlantis & Negro Casas. If you are a betting person, I’d keep my eye open for whoever has matching gear. Both stage one finalists shared clothing motifs.

CMLL’s week in the ring

This week’s focus was on the Torneo Increible de Parejas, so I didn’t fully watch other matches from last week. Let’s hit the story points that did occur.

Monday from Puebla (Apr. 8, 2019)

In the main event (full show), Ultimo Guerrero, Caristico, and La Bestia del Ring defeated Diamante Azul, El Valiente, and Mephisto in trios action. After the match, Ultimo Guerrero ripped Valiente’s mask then got on the mic to ask for a tag team title bout with Bestia as his partner. Diamante Azul and Valiente are currently in possession of the CMLL World Tag Team championships.

Diamante accepted for next week then yelled for a mask vs hair challenge right now. The four threw fists for a minute, but the masks of Diamante and Valiente were ripped off in short order.

Apparently, Diamante Azul was injured the next night. I tried to observe but didn’t notice any clear instance of pain on Tuesday’s (April 8) show. He was taken out on a stretcher for neck pain or back pain or shoulder pain or groin pain or all of it at the same time. I couldn’t tell. Each of those possibilities looked in play when he was ushered away.

In Diamante Azul’s absence, Ultimo Guerrero defended his CMLL World Heavyweight Championship in singles action against El Valiente on April 15. As of this moment, the April 15 is not available on CMLL’s YouTube channel. According to the informative Lucha Blog, “The show was blocked overnight due to an SME copyright claim.” Darn those pesky copyright claims.

Tuesday from Mexico City (Apr. 9, 2019)

In the main event (full show), Sanson, Cuatrero, and Forastero defended their Mexican National Trios Championships against Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, and Soberano Jr. This was about a thirty minute match.

Fall 1 had a pretty cool finish. The challengers all climbed the same corner on different sides and jumped off at the same time in different directions. Angel de Oro and Niebla Rojas both did moonsaults to the outside, while Soberano did a flying corkscrew crossbody to pin Sanson in the ring.

For the finish to Fall 2, the champs took the action outside. They pummeled the tecnicos and picked apart Niebla Roja. Niebla was pinned after a powerbomb variation.

Fall 3 had lots of near falls. Soberano was pinned on a backbreaker by Sanson. Soberano felt he kicked out in time, but the referee wasn’t having it. Forastero was eliminated next after a rocking submission into a pendulum submission by Angel de Oro. Next pin wins. Cuatrero broke out of that same submission by Angel then crushed him with a Razor’s Edge setup into a sitdown powerbomb. The champs retained.

Friday from Mexico City (Apr. 12, 2019)

The main event (full show) for Super Viernes was Volador Jr. vs Gilbert el Boricua. Volador revved up the excitement with a suicide dive to knock Gilbert over the fan barrier. Volador won Fall 1 via backcracker. Gilbert scored Fall 2 by jumping off the second rope for a Mexican Destroyer. On the pin, Gilbert grabbed the bottom rope for leverage.

Fall 3 was highlighted by a tope con hilo from Volador, Gilbert catching Volador with a cutter off a springboard maneuver, and a springboard leg drop by Volador. For the finish, Gilbert almost clotheslined the referee by accident, but he stopped short. The ref cowered in fear, which allowed Volador to fake being hit in the nuts.

The referee issued an automatic disqualification to Gilbert.

The match was okay, although, the finish was lame. It felt unsatisfying. Sure, it was poetic payback after Gilbert used that same tactic to defeat Volador’s team in trios action last Friday, but CMLL’s two week feuds usually have clear finishes. We’ll see if this rivalry continues in the near future.

The bout also suffered from being after the Torneo Increible de Parejas. Even though Volador’s mask is Charlotte Flair approved, my fan energy was spent after the excitement of eight important matches in seventy minutes.

This was a rousing week of CMLL action. The Torneo Increible de Parejas is a good time if you are inclined to watch, and I recommend doing so. Tournaments are always exciting. It was also a nice showcase for wrestlers to shine through.

What is your opinion about Titan and Cavernario Barbaro winning stage one of the Torneo Increible de Parejas? Who do you think will win stage two? Who will you be rooting for?