Negro Casas, Lizmark & Olimpico vs Blue Panther, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (CMLL 01/18/00)

I thought this was excellent while it lasted. I could have sworn I'd had my fill of Casas vs. Bestia & Scorpio over the years, but it's been a while and I dug watching Casas and Bestia trade blows. Panther was excellent in this, which isn't always the case when he's the lead guy in a rudo team. I wasn't sure how legit Olimpico's injury was considering how long Panther kept him in the armbar, and the fact that the rudos kept getting their licks in while the doc checked on him, but the replay looked pretty nasty. They could have had the tecnicos take the next fall a man down and given us a few more thrills, but as a TV match, it had a lot of workers I like and was more than passable.

Zumbido, Rencor Latino & Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Ringo Mendoza, Tigre Blanco & Pantera (CMLL 01/18/00)

This was a fun undercard match. You know CMLL is humming when the undercard is good. Arkangel de la Muerte is a favourite of the Segunda Caida crew. I've never really viewed him as an elite-level talent, but he does have a lot of nice looking offense and I was impressed with his stooging here. He made Tigre Blanco look like a million bucks during the finish, and let's face it, Tigre Blanco wasn't the most outstanding tecnico on the CMLL roster. The most impressive tecnico was Pantera, who contributed a beautiful dive, but I couldn't believe that Ringo was still kicking about in Jan 2000. Very Gran Hamada-esque of him. The match was clipped like all of the January TV has been, but it purred nicely.

Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Tigre Blanco (CMLL 01/25/00)

I thought this was a good undercard match. I watched it twice, the first time by itself and the second time after watching the trios that led into it, and I enjoyed it more the second time. The clipping hurt the rhythm of what they were trying to do, but I liked the way that Tigre Blanco picked up where he left off after his strong finish to the trios match and that Arkangel had to draw on his experience to win the segunda caida and take the tercera. Sure, it was a forgettable match in the grand scheme of things, and workers have done better in CMLL in similar positions like Olimpico and Halcon Negro, but I thought this was worth taking the time to watch.

Emilio Charles Jr., Lizmark & Tinieblas Jr. vs. Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr. & Shocker (CMLL 01/11/00)

This was a perfectly fine trios match. I can understand being disappointed with it if you were expecting something special but oftentimes trios matches are more about the workers than the matches themselves. Here I was interested in seeing how Emilio would captain a tecnico team, how effective Scorpio Jr. could remain without a mask, and what, if anything, Lizmark could bring to a match in the year 2000. I expected it to be fairly one-sided, but they gave Lizmark the opportunity to shine here, which I was happy about. I liked Emilio's look here as well. He'd moved away from the Remy-inspired Hunter look to something a bit more suave.

Zumbido, Mr. Mexico & Violencia vs. Solar I, Antifaz del Norte & Pantera (CMLL 01/01/00)

This was all right. In a month that was dominated by rudo beatdowns, I appreciated the fact that they started off with a tecnico fall and worked a rudo comeback. Solar did a decent job of directing traffic. He was a couple of years away from the beginning of his rivalry with Negro Navarro. A rivalry that would reinvent if not revitalise his career. The first match of theirs I've seen is from around 2002. Navarro still has hair and hadn't adopted his asskicker gimmick yet. Zumbido showed some promise here and would go on to play a bigger role in CMLL in 2003-04.