Match 5: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rush
Nakamura has joined the Prince Devitt Body Paint Party because…I don't know. Rush came out looking like an adult sized el Torito (Sorry El Torito, you're an adult, too), who I keep accidentally calling El Dorito.
Nakamura removed his mask before the match started to reveal some super creepy face paint to go with his ab-tastic body paint.
Fairly slow paced match, at least in comparison to the previous matches. Is Rush a face or heel? I cant tell. He said "cabron" to Nakamura, so I guess heel, but he interacts with the crowd like a face would. Maybe he's both face and heel, maybe he's a FEEL. You're welcome. Either way, Nakamura beat Rush clean with Bomaye. Good match, but nothing special. The crowd was a bit crap during this one.
Semi Main is up next. This show felt like it was flying by.
Match 6: Tetsuya Naito/Hiroshi Tanahashi/La Sombra vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Kazuchika Okada/Ultimo Guerrero
Tanahashi nearly stacked it climbing down from the top turnbuckle early on in the match. It looked like he might have tweaked his leg in doing so. Hopefully not. It didn't seem to bother him later on in the match so he's probably fine.
Okada and La Sombra had a nice little get-into-the-ring off. Okada won. They also had some nice let's-do-each-others-signature-styles/gestures moments. Okada was especially great. Guerrero's Senton de la Muerte move in the corner is a good thing. Ultimo Guerrero looked strong in this match. I haven't seen much of his work before, but I liked what I saw tonight.
Ishii did a nice delayed, real Michael Elgin style Superplex to Tanahashi off the second rope. Strong guy. Naito took a nasty bump when he didn't flip over all the way and landed on the back of his head after getting clotheslined by Ishii. Looked uncomfortable. He seemed fine though. La Sombra and Ultimo Guerrero had some good high impact spots together. It seemed like everyone was paired off with a particular opponent for this match; Sombra and Guerrero, Naito and Ishii, Tanahashi and Okada. They didn't stray far from each other during this match.
La Sombra did a nice Florida Keys for a pin attempt. Guerrero picked up the win with a Reverse Suplex off the middle turnbuckle to La Sombra. Probably the match of the night, but not the match of my heart. That will forever go to Maximo. After the match, Guerrero said some words in Spanish to La Sombra, who listened to the words in Spanish. I understood some them. He may have said perro.
Also, Naito and Ishii had a short post match head-butting contest. There was no winner.
Match 7 Main Event: Mistico vs. Mephisto
This version of Mistico is good, but is lacking something that the original had. Mephisto’s mask is pretty great. It's got teeth. I think Mephisto's singlet says that he is the King of Hell.
Lots of quick pin attempts by Mistico early on. None successful. Obviously. Mistico has a golden "M" on the front of his tights. I thought he was sponsored by Mcdonald's for a moment. Holy Shooting Star Press, Batman! Misty hit a terrifying Springboard Shooting Star Press to the outside onto Mephisto. I thought he was going to die.
Match ended with Mephisto hitting a second rope Devil Wings (sounds delicious) for the win. Again pretty fun stuff. Mistico is super athletic, he just needs a bit of that OG Mistico charisma. The King of Hell was a pretty nice guy to Mistico post match. That makes me happy.
Great Show! Well worth the 15 bucks. Lots of fast paced action and exciting highflying spots.
