[2000-08-04-CMLL] Carnival De La Muerte

[soup23]

This match completely blew me away. The battle royal was fun and quick but then we get to the meat which is the Cibernetico. I love Ciberneticos in general and this was one of the best I have ever seen. Solar and Panther start immediately with a jaw dropping sequence straight out of their classic 1994 match. The rest of the pairings are also effective. I enjoyed the delight each competitor had when they secured a victory and knew their mask was safe. The first half of the match really is built around Panther and it is fabulous as he gains an arm submission but the referee says no. This frustrates him to no end and he ends up getting pinned based on that frustration. Finally, he locks on the arm submission on Solar and is able to gain a victory to save his mask. The second half of the match also has some great eliminations from the pin that Solar secures that I have never seen, to a great double countout tease, to the final threesome in the ring and the two rudos not listening to the referee and ending up being DQ’d. Eventually, we have Hijo Del Gladiator and Rancor as the final two. This segment is also excellent as Gladiator bleeds buckets and Rancor uses his speed to be effective. There is a distinct old vs new vibe here. The submissions and nearfalls are really dramatics and Rancor winning felt like a big moment for him. Gladiator is a carpenter type worker we haven’t seen much of at all in chronicling the 90’s but this led me to a lot of research and I saw he was a 29 year veteran at this point so this was a big deal with him losing the hood. In one final carny moment, Gladiator announces his last name as Ramirez to keep the gimmick alive even though that was untrue. I expected a fun match from this but got a surprise MOTYC. ****1/2 (9.2)

[AstroBoy]

I'm probably not the best person to expand on all the intricacies and great moments in this but this was absolutely fantastic. Blue Panther and Solar were amazing here and not just when paired off with each other. Solar in particular was a total blast in every single pairing that he had and pulled off a ton of fancy stuff flawlessly. Some crazy dives here including a ridiculous headscissors off the top from the apron to the floor at one point. It really is a drama-laden final segment with blood, grit, and near finishes before the culmination. I will cop to not knowing the ins and outs of the rules as this started but it became pretty clear and easy as it transpired and the building sense of stake is just palpable and great. One of the best matches I've seen in the project.

 

****1/2

[ohtani's jacket]

If your image of lucha libre is based on Santo, Blue Demon, and classical masked luchadores from movie posters and lucha mags then you'll appreciate the grandeur of this match. If 2000 has proven anything it's that there's something to be said for the power of the mask match. This was probably the second best CMLL match of the year. The battle royal was perfunctory but the Cibernetico was outstanding. Panther vs. Solar was amazing. Superlatives don't do it justice. They put on two of the most breathtaking exchanges in the history of Ciberneticos let alone in the year to date. I may forget the details of this match in the years to come but I won't forget that Solar and Panther were amazing. But they weren't the only ones that pulled out the stops. Almost everyone was on point here and the final pairing put on a fight worthy of an apuesta match. Hijo del Gladiator has never been a guy who's left much of an impression on me but when his time came to drop the match he followed the time-honored tradition of busting his ass. In many ways, this was the complete opposite of Atlantis vs. Villano, which was a long apuesta feud. This was a sudden stipulation match. But the power of the wager was the same and produced another piece of magic in 2000.

[Tim Evans]

It took me a while to realise this was a loser advances match. I agree with the rest of you that this was awesome. Especially Solar/Panther and the finish. Gladiador does a HOF worthy bladejob. He bleeds so much that he can barely stand for the mask reveal. Is this the same guy that is part of the backstage power group in CMLL these days? He really brought it in the finish which is refreshing to see. Another highlight was Pantea bumping on the floor on a dive and no one catching him.