[1997-04-18-CMLL] El Hijo del Santo & Felino & Black Warrior & Silver King & Dr Wagner Jr & Satanico & Kevin Quinn & Scorpio Jr vs Ultimo Dragon & Atlantis & Negro Casas & El Dandy & Shocker & Mascara Magica & La Fiera & Brazo de Oro (Torneo Cibernetico)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

What an adrenaline rush this match is. 45+ minutes of some of the top stars in lucha libre doing their thing and going all out. Negro Casas has had some great performances in his time, and this one ranks near the top. The Santo/Casas brawl and rivalry furthering is the highlight of this. Performances from Felino and Silver King are big standouts as well. I'm not really sure of Felino's standing in the promotion before this match, but this has to have been a huge moment for him. I feel like I should say more, but the explanation of what made this match work is ultimately pretty simple.

[Bix]

What an adrenaline rush this match is. 45+ minutes of some of the top stars in lucha libre

What, no "(and Kevin Quinn)" joke?

[Loss]

I don't know enough about Kevin Quinn to make Kevin Quinn jokes. Fill me in.

[Childs]

This made for an interesting contrast to the March cibernetico, because they built it more like a traditional match, with lots of early matwork and a clear sense of rivalry between the teams. Casas-Santo provided the thread that ran through most of the match, and their interactions all stood out. I kind of wished they were part of the finish, though I understood why that wasn't the case. All kinds of cool match-ups and moments here, with Shocker's tope and Silver King's performance standing out. I wasn't in love with Felino running the gauntlet at the end, because it seemed to come out of nowhere and unfolded a little too easily. But it was certainly memorable. Hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this.

[soup23]

Ok watched this once really early on in my wrestling watching and enjoyed it but didn't appreciate lucha nearly as much as I do now.

 

I agree with Loss that while this is a long match, its kind of tough to describe in review match form. Especially for a match that is my #3 match of the year. All of the performances were very good and the match never let up. While that would probably put it on par or maybe having a slight edge over the March Cibernetico. The thing that ties all this together for me is the Santo vs. Casas hate and the emergence of Felino in a huge spot. Can someone more lucha versed explain to me how established Felino was previous to this? Shocker was the big standout to me as I had only watched his post mask run and he was bumping like a loon and had some nifty mat work to. Ultimo fit in and we get a neat encounter with him vs. Santo. Just 50 minutes of awesome wrestling.

[ohtani's jacket]

Felino was well established at this point as an upper midcarder. The win here was more about giving him momentum leading into his summer feud against Santo, I think.

[Kevin Ridge]

No confusing battle royal to start off as we go right to match. And they start off with Casas and Santo! What a collection of talent in match. Ultimo’s corner post headstand fits in much better in Lucha. Casas/Santo brawling leads to them getting the boot. Felino goes on a huge elimination winning streak to end match. I don’t know if he should be beating that many guys. I liked them using the podium at the end for the trophy celebration. Real entertaining match overall.

[PeteF3]

I have no idea who Kevin Quinn is, but apparently he was a Windy City Wrestling dude who ended up doing spots in Mexico for...who knows what reason. He acquits himself fine here even though he has about 60 seconds of ring time. He's clearly the least of the guys in the match but that's because everyone else looks so good. This builds and builds from a slow start to a blitzing finish, much like a traditional match, as Childs alludes to. Fiera may have been my favorite guy in the match--I dig how he still carries himself as a cocky rudo but just happens to be on the technico side at this stage. And of course it wouldn't be a Fiera match without a loony back body drop bump, and we get one here. Casas and Santo further their rivalry, with the crowd seemingly on Santo's side judging by the crowd chants. Both gets get disqualified as their fight gets out of control, as has happened in so many Survivor Series matches. Eventually this comes down to Felino, a rudo, overcoming 5-on-1 odds to win the whole thing, which may have been a *little* over the top, but if they're going somewhere with it, then okay. Still, Felino's big victory doesn't seem to come off as monumental as I think they were hoping for, and that will hold this back from being a true MOTYC to being "just" a fringe top-10/top-15 contender.

[Zenjo]

 

 

Lucha classica. Santo vs Negro got things off to a perfect start. It was electric whenever those two were in there. Everyone else paired off as well initially. With 16 men the workrate was non-stop for 45m. The quality of wrestling over such a sustained period was outstanding. Obviously there was variation in the standard. You couldn't find 15 other Luchadors to perform like El Dandy did here. Nobody hurt the match. Kevin Quinn was the weak link on paper but hardly featured and was first man down. Something that stood out to me was how different it was to the previous Cibernetico. They used the additional time to add in matwork. Beautiful, fast paced, flowing matwork. Also the teams were Tecnicos vs Rudos so you had a rivalry.

 

There was a great variety of moves utilised to that the action didn't become repetitive. The finishes could've done with more planning however. I love La Majistal but how many falls? The eliminations were well spaced out and there were plenty of near falls. It seemed to be heading towards a Santo vs Casas final showdown before they got double DQ'd. That left Felino facing a 1 vs 5 deficit, which he miraculously overcame. Ultimo was the last man to fall. A great moment in the cats career. It was also the catalyst for him turning Tecnico in the following weeks and joining his brother on the good side. The booking for the latter stages wasn't bad, but could've been a fair bit better. The match peaked in the middle rather than at the end. Still a MOTYC and amongst my all time CMLL favourites.

[JKWebb]

http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-50-1/

 

#42

 

I loved this. It's worked with a sense of urgency, and everything is hit with such precision. This seemed really stiff too. Casas, Santo, and Satanico really stood out. Those knees from Santo to Casas were tremendous towards the end. The beginning didn't feel slow to me... I guess because I felt like everything was hit with high impact. ****1/2

[...TG]

Dear Lord, this was fun, even better than the March Cibernetico, probably because the battle royale portion was either not shown or didn't happen. My favorite parts were:

• The El Dandy-Black Warrior matchups, especially their first one, with the ultra-quick, smooth matwork.
• Dr. Wagner Jr. being amazing, my favorite being when Santo had Negro Casas in a tapiata pin attempt, only to have Wagner drag Casas by the hair to the floor and beat him down
• Negro Casas and Santo getting DQ'd seemingly for hating each other too much

I don't keep track, or even rate matches all that much, but this is my MOTY for 97 so far.