[2022-05-06-CMLL] Ultimo Guerrero vs Averno

[corwo]

The first fall established Averno's dominance. Averno jumps Guerrero on the ramp, whipping him with his jacket. Guerrero monkey flips Averno into the ring and follows up with a quick flurry of offense, but Averno takes the fight outside and whips him into the barricade. Back inside, Averno shuts down Guerrero with a double underhook facebuster, following up with a cross arm breaker to submit Ultimo.

Picking up where he left off, Averno targets his opponent's arm. Averno is a wonderfully slimy rudo, snapping Guerrero's bum limb across the ropes, putting the boots to him, and chopping his chest into raw meat. Averno revels in the boos of the crowd, almost as if he's mocking them at points. Guerrero fights back, but his temper gets the better of him, causing the referee to separate the two and allowing Averno to take a cheapshot. A missed splash in the corner allowed Guerrero to hit two consecutive Sentons de la Muerte, and he picked up the second fall.

Averno begs off to start the third fall, signaling to the crowd for a timeout. Guerrero heads out after him, but it's another ploy, as Averno uses the diversion as an opportunity to kick Último. Guerrero fires up and hits a low dropkick off the apron, sending Averno crashing to the floor. Guerrero is the consummate técnico, high-fiving fans after diving across the barricade and onto Averno. Showing a bit of learned psychology from the previous fall, Averno counters the Senton de la Muerte by booting Guerrero in the chest. A simple counter, sure, but an effective one nonetheless. Guerrero attempts a moonsault, but Averno is there to yank him off the apron again. Everything builds to a crescendo, with Guerrero's dive off the top rope to the outside feeling monumental.

The match admittedly starts to lose a bit of steam in the final act. The cascade of top-rope moves followed by near falls is long-winded, and they take their sweet time getting to the finish after Guerrero's dive, which feels like the apex of the match. But the atmosphere was enough to carry even the weaker portions of the contest. Averno hits a cross armbreaker off the top, but Guerrero narrowly escapes. Averno attempted a moonsault, but Guerrero recovered in time to hit a reverse superplex for the victory. Post-match, Guerrero calls out Averno for a hair match.

They may no longer be spring chickens, but Guerrero and Averno delivered a bout that projected the feeling of importance more than almost anything I've seen all year. It wasn't flashy, but it didn't need to be. The raw emotion of Guerrero fighting valiantly to defend himself and a hot crowd wanting to see the villain get his comeuppance were enough on this night. I can only hope some younger luchadores come away from this match with the lesson that less is more.