[7.0] "Atmospherically epic and special, but I can't help but feel like the high rating is due to it being the first CMLL match for most viewers on this site and cagematch because of Team AEW. I thought it was really silly that Sydal was the captain like why in kayfabe did that decision happen unless the thinking was to make BCC look cowardly which works kinda. Okay I sound like a hater but this was a very fun match and I need more Rudo Moxley & Claudio in Arena Mexico. ***1/2"
[10.0] "What an amazing match! It was chaotic, fun, and full of energy. Arena México just can't be beaten, the crowd was electric and incredibly loud, you could feel the energy right inside your home! BCC & Sydal's offense was on another level, delivering every kind of attack you could imagine. With such a dominant showing, you almost started to crave a response from the Mexican team, and man, I popped hard when they finally countered. Seeing Último Guerrero perform at his age is exciting, Blue Panther pulled off the most intelligent moves of the night, and Volador and Místico were as great as always. The "Extranjeros" delivered in every way. I loved every bit of it, personally, I think Claudio's performance was perfect, but obviously, all of them did their job with excellence. I was so invested that I didn't want it to end, and I was actually a little sad when it did. Thankfully, the post-match segment was great and the interaction between Bryan and Panther was so cool and had me hyped for their singles match. Outstanding performances all around from all eight participants!"
[10.0] "This felt like a dream man. So perfect, so incredible. Everything made here looked so great, so special, I don't even know how to rank this only using words. The action of Bryan/Panther was great, the action of Volador/Claudio was great, the action between Mistico/Sydal was incredible and the best one, UG/Moxley, felt so real and so special. This arena, this crowd, this country, I don't know, they had something special related with that sport, THEY are the sport. Impossible to beat that. One of the best lucha libre matches I ever saw in my life and without a doubt in my words, this is a FUCKING five stars match. Everything was beautiful. Like, everything. That's how a healthy partnership looks like, nerds. For now I'm typing this, the best match from the partnership."
[9.0] "It's awesome that you're so into Lucha Libre and a fan of Moxley, Bryan, and the whole Blackpool Combat Club crew! I hear you--this match was definitely memorable, but it's understandable to have sky-high expectations with such a stacked lineup. What was it about this one that didn't quite hit the mark for you? And since you're a BCC fan, any other matches from them that stand out as all-time faves?"
[10.0] "[4.75*] By involving AEW stars, I already knew this match was going to have ignorant comments of people who do not know shit about the culture. They will complain about the fast count, the fast pace, the supposed silliness or whatsoever, but when you are into a new culture, YOU are the one who need to adapt. Lucha Libre is different than Pro Wrestling, deal with that. So, this match had one of the best atmospheres I have ever seen. Hogan/Rock, Misawa/Kawada and Joe/Kobashi are the only ones I can think of that had the same aura. It just felt like a dream, I watched it with a huge smile on my face from start to finish, I actually felt like a child watching wrestling for the first time in a very long time. This is my happiest match of the year, maybe of the decade, and I just did not want it to end. Talking purely about in-ring, I would have made other BCC guy eliminated before Sydal just for the match to go longer because it indeed could have reached the 20-min mark, or they could have restarted it on a 3-vs-3, but it was still perfect inside my heart the way it was. Wrestling is supposed to make you feel emotions, and the emotion I felt there is just bigger than any star-rating or in-ring analysis. It is so deeper than a grade system, and the only number possible for it is 10/10. I just want to live it again for the first time. EDIT 2025: Just rewatched the match with way more knowledge about the history of Lucha Libre. After watching a couple of 80's/90's lucha tags, I can see now even more than before how brilliant this match really is. BCC incorporated the Rudos role with perfection, something that requires a lot of study, not only talent. Claudio played the perfect base for Volador and Mistico, everything was flawless. The heel work from the Rudos before the big comeback from the Tecnicos was astonishing. The pairings of Bryan/Panther, Mox/UG (that chop battle was INCREDIBLE), Claudio/Volador and Sydal/Mistico were on point too, as each opponent had the best characteristics to match the pair. Incredibly well put together bout, my 2nd MOTY of 2024."
[5.0] "Matches like this hinge more on the sentimental aspect and my fondness for those on team CMLL is not at the level required to think this match is anything more than decent. Panther and Guerrero are limited in what they can do, especially Guerrero as at least Panther manages his way through some quite impressive sequences for someone his age. The majority of offense is carried by Volador and Mistico, most of which are just varieties of Hurricanrana or arm drag. I also don't understand why BCC are allowed to be in the ring at all times beating on someone in the corner while the other team is just standing waiting at the ropes for a tag. This happened often enough that it looked strange considering a great portion of this match had everyone in with no consequence anyway."
[9.0] "Outstanding match and an even better atmosphere. Arena Mexico is packed and red hot for this whole thing. Credit to the AEW guys for embracing it all and going full rudo mode. The Mistico/Bryan standoff with the crowd is very memorable."
"10.0 This is PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING. AEW wrestlers coming in to CMLL house at Arena Mexico and the match RULED. The aura off in this match was ridiculous. This is what wrestling should be. Everyone had something to do. This is Wrestling. The fans were the BEST. The vibes were immaculate."
[9.0] "Fantastic work from all eight wrestlers. The AEW striking early and trying to turn the match into a brawl and the CMLL crews big comeback combined with a vocal crowd to make a MOTYC."
[9.0] "Probably the most fun match of the year, what an atmosphere, the crowd was incredibly loud and hot, Arena Mexico is really special, and it was definitely pretty special to watch some top-tier AEW superstars wrestling there and blowing the roof off... what a time to be a wrestling fan, incredible stuff. CMLL chose some legendary luchadores to face the BCC, including Blue Panther, who was a childhood hero for Bryan Danielson, so the dynamic of him facing his idol was pretty cool, and Danielson absolutely carried the psychology of the match, doing the YES! chant several times, and an awesome duel with Místico. The vibes in this one are unmatched, and I can't believe the match only had 16 minutes, there must be a mistake, so many things happened, it's unreal. Post-match angle was incredible too... and I truly believe this could reach 5-star level if it was less showcase and setup for Dragon vs Blue Panther and more long, epic and dramatic. But still an awesome experience and one of the best vibes possible - {****1/2}"
[10.0] "The in ring performance of each man in this match is fantastic but it isn't quite the star of the show. The atmosphere, the pageantry, the role each man played, that's what push this match so far and so high up the rating system for me. Absolutely unbelievable display of Professional Wrestling. *****"
[8.0] "I don't know how else to describe this but cool as hell. The atmosphere was incredible, nearly matching that of Sting's retirement a few weeks ago. The Danielson/Mistico, Danielson/Panther and Mox/Guerrero match ups were pitch perfect, Claudio looked like the all time great that he is all in front of a crowd that was literally shaking Arena Mexico."
[10.0] "This is the most fun I had watching a match this year. The atmosphere was amazing. The fact that Ultimo Guerrero almost died for the love of the game, promotion, and country is amazing. There are so many moments that you can pick out and just smile at the absurdity of it all. Blue Panther senton to Claudio. Moxley and Guerrero chopfest. Sydal and Volador high flying. Mistico and Dragon having an aura off. Just amazing."
[9.0] "This match was amazing. I love that Danielson and Blue Panther that started the match. It was cool seeing them interact every time it happened in this match. We even got a funny spot where Mistico was doing the "Yes" chant and Danielson did the "No" chant. Everyone on both teams got some shine. There was a ton of chaos which should be expected in a match with so many guys in the match."
[6.0] "Neither CMLL's matches or BCC's matches do much for me these days, so this was never going to be anything that appealed to me very strongly, but it was still quite good. What it had going for it was action, since this was obviously one of those 'exhibition' work-rate matches where all the guys involved got plenty of time to show off their stuff one after the other. One of the few things I outright rolled my eyes at here was Panther (and to a lesser extent also Guerrero) getting those moments of not just clearly keeping up with or even momentarily getting the better of his opponents -- given he's in his 60s AND clearly looks it too -- but also the moments of him withstanding, surviving, or even taking out the BCC on his own. I get this is a lucha legend and that the crowd popped for it, but I do prefer some logic in my wrestling and not just cheap pops and unbelievable fairytale moments for the sake of it, and those moments were hard to swallow. Aside from that, this was a typically fun, mindless lucha match that did well mixing with the equally mindless AEW tag style. Danielson did well his his aggressive and intense striking, though at times he was annoyingly lost in the fray as BCC as a whole did their gang-ups and run-ins. Claudio looked really motivated here, going back to some of his lucha-style roots as he played an exciting freight-train powerhouse just running through dude while also acting as a really strong base for his high-flying opponents. Sydal, the replacement for the unavailable Yuta, was good as the token high-flyer for the BCC team. He obviously didn't at all have the character to fit in with them, but seeing him direct his high-flying spots in a more heelish light and then mix up with his equivalents on the CMLL team was pretty fun. A good portion of Moxley's performance was the other 'thing' after Panther's (and to a lesser extent Guerroro's) strong booking that I couldn't take seriously, since he was in that mode where he was selling/emoting in a really unhinged way, walking around quite unnaturally, and delivering a lot of pretty messy or soft-looking attacks, which undercut the other 50% of his performance where he was typically trying to act like a badass bruiser. I'd prefer if he'd cut the theatrics while 'playing tough guy' and instead just tried to play a cold, hardened street brawler who straight up clobbered guys, rather than only lightly going after them whenever he's meant to be punishing them. Mistico is basically just a signature-moves guy, hitting all the same spots in basically the exact same ways from match to match, failing to impress in any other way... but damn is he still impressive with those spots all the same, since he always gets great speed and looks incredibly crisp whenever he flys or twirls in the air, so I couldn't complain too much with him. Volador was someone who was sadly restrained for ages until his brief run-in where he took BCC out with all his explosive and flashy spots, reminding me of exactly why he's probably my favourite CMLL wrestler from the last few years. It would've been great to see more of him, since even with this being a "everyone gets time" match, it didn't feel like he got as much as the others here, despite arguably being the most impressive pure "work-rate" guy in the ring. It definitely felt like a waste having these apparent elimination rules only for there to be a single elimination before the match-deciding elimination as captain Sydal was eliminated, and it didn't help that those eliminations happened so quickly after each other. Sydal being the BCC team's captain was a bad enough telegraphing job, but it also just didn't make sense that BCC dominated many portions of this match for so long but only got a single elimination right before the end. I mean, why do these 'elimination' and 'captain' rules if you're not going to use them to make the match feel more significant by having more eliminations and thus adding more drama as the numbers whittle down? There's also the obviously questionable logic in why the BCC team would handicap themselves by elected Sydal, the kayfabe weakest member, as their captain. Anyways, my issues with the booking, Panther/Guerroro, and Moxley aside, this was dumb fun. ***1/4"
[6.0] "I am so happy to everyone who loved this and I am entirely aware there is a cultural difference in Lucha Libre wrestling that May not translate to everyone, but even with CMLLs rules I could just never get behind how insane the rules were in this and how much it broke internal logic. Bryce seemingly being a heel didnt work for me, and neither did the finish. Good work, insanely hot crowd, but completely all over the place"
[10.0] "God I fucking love pro wrestling. Four of Mexico's best ever against four guys who came up in the 00s indie scene and got themselves to a place where they can main event Arena Mexico and be just as known and over as their opponents. This is just nonstop fun with great pacing, great sequences (I'll be able to remember nearly the entire match down the line, there's just nothing dull here), an insanely hot crowd, and two things that you just LOVE to see: the GOAT base Claudio basing for guys like Mistico & Volador, and the all-time GOAT Danielson working on the mat with luchadors on the caliber of these four (particularly Blue Panther of course, a guy Bryan's wanted to work with forever). Claudio just carrying Mistico like a child up to the stage only for the assisted run-up vaulting rana to Claudio later, UG taunting to get the crowd to power him up during a 4v1 heat segment, the crowd going nuts just for Bryan & Panther to work on the mat, the crowd chanting YES & NO for Danielson but switching to SI for Mistico. This match is just fucking magic. My only complaint at all is that there has never been a more telegraphed ending to a match than having Sydal be named the Captain of the AEW team in a Captain's Fall match when he was a substitute for Yuta (and a second choice at that given Mox wanted to fly in Shooter), but that might just be my Americanized wrestling IQ. Few matches so far this year have made me smile quite like this one, one of the others being Sting's retirement, and that's quite the bar to be closing in on. ****3/4"
[10.0] "I love modern wrestling sometimes, matches that would have been basically unimaginable 10 years ago now happen on a regular basis... it was tremendous to see the BCC walk into Arena Mexico, especially Mox entering through the crowd. Fans were packed and absolutely bananas for this, loving every bit. You have your great lucha sequences, you have Claudio being the world's greatest base, Danielson itching to mix it up with the legend Blue Panther on the mat, incredible flying, some harsh brawling, and the best part of all was just the atmosphere. Vaguely surreal still that it happened at all, just the whole vibe of the match had me floating and the fantastic crowd reactions just heightened it all. Glad Bryan is not done in CMLL, can't wait to see more and I hope the AEW partnership only deepens. In my top 10 for the year so far."
[8.0] "A wonderful set up to Blue Panther vs Bryan Danielson - a genuine dream match in a world full of pretend ones. The smarkish Arena Mexico crowd go nuts for the imports but have a lot of love for their guys too. The match starts off chaotic with brawling on the floor, many men in the ring at once. Atomico rules go out of the window and the foreigners establish themselves as the rudos of the match. BCC dominate the match with their strength and disregard for the rules, while the Luchadores have to deal with small chances. The match settles down once everyone gets on the apron, and the match doesnt feel the same from there but there is no taking away from the appeal of the match and the atmosphere. The match started out great and ended okay, so I cant say its a classic but its something different that you dont say. It was pretty cool. ***3/4"
[10.0] "This is my current match of the year. Everyone was at their best possible here and the crowd was INSANE. The atmosphere was so electric I was smiling hard while sitting in my living room. Volador Jr and Claudio Castagnoli were the standouts in this match for me and Claudio may go down as the greatest base for a luchador ever. It was insanely fun with great action and crowd heat you barely see anymore. Plus is set up Bryan Danielson's dream match in Blue Panther which is happening Friday (At the time of writing this). *****"
[10.0] "Well thank the wrestling gods this happened, especially after the damp squib that was CMLL vs BCC in AEW. It was plain WILD the whole way with the kind of crowd wrestlers must dream of working in front of ****3/4"
[8.0] "8.5/10. One of those matches that makes you wonder why people don't like pro wrestling. An electric atmosphere played up by wrestling legends. Could've been a proper classic if it was allowed more time to breathe, but as a main event and as a set-up for Danielson-Blue Panther, what more can you ask for?"
[8.0] "If you ever need a better example of the stranglehold wrestling legends can have on people, and the effect of crowd work, look no further than this match. A genuine fun time, a match where the quality of wrestling is nothing more than happenstance, and a match where you just want to see all the guys go at it. Unfortunately, with Sydal being named the captain, the ending was telegraphed and a little awkward, but like I said, how much does the actual wrestling matter anyway? 4.25 Stars."
[10.0] "I was in attendance for this, and it was my first time at a CMLL show. I also have not watched back the recording. Which is to say this is a very skewed rating, but it was very close to the greatest thing I've ever seen. I pray that CMLL takes some good lessons from this and continues to find way to reach out to a wider (anglo) audience while staying true to their unique nature and history."
[8.0] "Super fun match this was. Of course the main thing to note here was the absolutely insane atmosphere of Arena Mexico. It's a very rare kind of electricity that only a select few matches, like Punk/Cena or Joe/Kobashi for example, have managed to achieve in the past. Everyone here got cheered and everything they did got a huge reaction from the crowd, and that's largely what makes this match as good as it is. Of course the in ring work was excellent too, with the AEW guys putting in a typically excellent shift and the CMLL guys, most of whom I'm not too familiar with, putting in an equally amazing performance. I was especially impressed by Volador Jr and his buttery smooth and lightning quick offensive flurries and of course Mistico and his otherworldly feats of agility. Guerrero and Panther also played their part pretty well here too; I loved Panther's dives that he pulled out that looked great despite him being 63 years old and Guerrero's chop battle with Mox was also very entertaining. The finish did leave me a little confused, as the match ended as soon as Sydal got eliminated despite the AEW team getting a pinfall on Guerrero earlier on, but it made sense when I realised that it was because Sydal was the team captain. Although I don't personally see the MOTY arguments that some are making, I still think this is a really great, insanely fun match with a truly one of a kind atmosphere. ****"
[8.0] "Fun as hell. Really loved the in-ring storytelling on this match. I appreciated that the Foreigners were being so disrespectful to the elder talent, grouping up on them and disrespecting their masks. It really smelled of the sneaky foreign menace trying to do whatever they could to win and the homegrown talent trying to win the right way. The ending was bad though, frankly. The first pin was fine, it was hard worked, but that submission on Sydal, delivered quickly and immediately submitted to while his teammates were running to break it up looked like a big star booking concession and I think those things suck."
[10.0] "This was one of the best matches I've seen since COVID-19 hit. Textbook demonstration of how to do a top-level match where you have invading foreign heels going up against domestic stars. This was an old-school classic. Blackpool Combat Club (Sydal/Moxley/Danielson/Claudio) heeled it big time and got the crowd rocking. The crowd was legit one of the best I've seen in wrestling. A jam-packed Arena Mexico just giving the AEW guys a ton of shit. Ultimo Guerrero got ganged up on for most of the match, leading to some really hot tags for Volador Jr, Blue Panther (who had great chemistry with Danielson, no shock there), and Mistico. Mistico got the captain's pinfall on Sydal (people should read up on Lucha Libre rules before rating matches like this), which caused a somewhat abrupt finish but I don't care. This was amazing. Go out of your way to see this. *****"
[9.0] "2024 - Fantastic, such a special feel to it. Absolutely insane crowd eating up every bit of BCC shithousery and comeback spots from the Lucha team. Loved it. ****1/2"
[9.0] "I came into this match pretty much not knowing anything about CMLL, I knew who all the competitors were but I didn't know the rules of this match and I didn't know how the wrestlers win or lose but I had a blast watching this. One of the most entertaining and fun matches that I've seen in quite some time. This was all about good vibes and real fucking graps. Danielson and Blue Panther facing off for the first time was a really cool moment and Panther being Danielson's favourite luchador created a really fun dynamic between the two. Panther and Guerrero, despite being both old, can still go in the ring and really impressed me. Claudio's hatred for CMLL being real made me laugh everytime he was beating out of the luchadors and him "paying tribute" to the original Sin Cara during his entrance was hella funny. Mistico and Danielson's Si/No battle had me bursting into laughs. Sydal, looked super out of place here, but instead looked way better alongside BCC than Yuta ever did. The crowd was wild for this one with chants Panther, yes chants and insults against the AEW wrestlers. The action was very chaotic and messy but fast-paced and super fun with plenty of good moments. Post-match with Danielson ripping the CMLL flag from Mistico's hands and chanting AEW had me dying. Can't wait for next Friday with Danielson vs. Panther, first time ever. 9/10 - 4.5*/5*"
[10.0] "There's a common question that's been asked recently: "why aren't Blackpool Combat Club in the AEW Tag Team Tournament? " And the answer is: "Blackpool Combat Club care naught for your trinkets and they just wanna do cool shit around the world". And really, if you are Tony Khan, sending talent to other promotions to represent AEW, you really cannot go wrong with BCC (hence why, of course, both Mox and Danielson worked Wrestle Kingdom in January too). This clash has been hyped for months and it truly did not disappoint at all. An absolutely boiling hot crowd, some of the best wrestlers in Mexico against some of the best wrestlers in America, impeccable psychology, and amazingly paced to cap off this feud, with the Danielson/Blue Panther epilogue next week already promising to be another possible barnstormer. My only criticism is that it ended too soon, but that criticism would still be true if it went on for an hour. What an absolute belter of a match."
[10.0] "Not gonna lie, having Mox and the American Dragon fighting in a CMLL event is cool as fuck. The pace was high and there wasn't a single boring moment, also Danielson's performance was perfect. I would say I wasn't a big fan of the ending since it could have been built better but other than that this was an awesome main-event. ****3/4"
[9.0] "My only real gripe is the predictable la Mistica finish which we all knew was coming when Sydal was very oddly named the AEW captain. Ultimo Guerrero booked himself to be a pretty good tecnico in peril here. Panther and Danielson blew the roof off. Ironic that with their age gap this is how both are heading into retirement, with a huge moment like this and next Friday's match as the cherries on top."
[8.0] "Glorious pageantry. Panther in the mask, the crowds chants, Bryan's partners coming to his rescue every time Panther almost had him in a submission, Mistico hijacking the 'YES' and Bryan bringing back the 'NO', and the post-match promise of more to come. Much fun."
[9.0] "Pure professional wrestling joy from the entrances on. An absolute blast in every way imaginable. Unreal atmosphere, perfect presentation, electric action, this had it all."
[9.0] "The crowd was super hot the whole night, but they nearly registered on the Richter scale for this match. The minute the bell rang with Danielson and Blue Panther facing off, it legit sounded louder than Kobashi vs Misawa in Budokan. The CMLL faithful knew all the AEW wrestlers, even popping big in anticipation for Castagnoli's giant swing. The dueling chants with Mistico and Danielson were awesome. I didn't love Remsburg's incompetence at getting BCC to keep it one-on-one, but the announcers cleverly played into it as him being biased towards AEW. A cool touch to this was a BCC member interfering whenever Danielson and Panther started to wrestle each other for more than a few seconds, really teasing the singles match that they subsequently announced. To no one's surprise, this ended with Mistico tapping out Sydal and the crowd going nuts. ****1/2"
[10.0] "[5.0*] What a magical match, a unique feeling seeing this match live, Lucha Libre and Pro Wrestling legends in a packed arena, passionate and taking photos was an experience like no other. The match started with insane exchanges between Bryan Danielson and Blue Panther, what was just a dream match became reality. BCC brought the American style of using numbers, tricks and playing dirty to get an advantage over the CMLL stars, they did very good teamwork and it was incredible how comfortable Matt Sydal felt. The crowd was reacting to everything they did, the construction of the match was PHENOMENAL, BCC played dirty and attacked in groups at all times, they simply punished the legends Ultimo Guerrero and Blue Panther, which generated great expectations for the team's counter attack. CMLL. Bryan did a special job here, his aura was surreal, his looks and exchanges with Blue Panther (who Bryan has already assumed is his idol) and Místico were special. The Volador sequels were pretty good too. Moxley had some very good exchanges with Guerrero, until he eliminated him with a death rider. Mistico's transition into an Armbar that made Sydal tap out and give his team the victory was spectacular, simply one of the most fun matches I've ever watched."
[10.0] "one of the best environments I've ever heard and possibly the happiest fight of my life, the atmosphere of this match was sensational and the story of the fight was incredible, with BCC dominating the CMLL fighters just like it was when they came to AEW + Bryce Resmburg being a biased judge and letting AEW wrestlers into the ring while CMLL wrestlers couldn't. Volador and Místico were the best of the match for me and showed their smoothness and talent to everyone, Guerrero also did well and Blue Phanter is another one who deserves respect because for a 63 year old guy he did perfect. Claudio, Moxley, Bryan and Sydal also did very well in the fight acting like the foreign Rudos who were disrespecting CMLL. The end of the match took me by surprise but I was already prepared for it if it happened because of the captains rule, and now I'm very excited for next week with Bryan vs. Phanter [5.0*]"
[6.0] "Sometimes hard to follow, because of constant quick camera angles switches and tons of no selling, especially from Ultimo Guerrero. The atmosphere was good though. It helped a lot. I would even add that the action was just fine, nothing memorable, nothing spectacular. Some things felt silly and too forced to keep the crowd engaged"
"Fantastic main event, fantastic atmosphere, great push and pull between team aew/bcc and cmll. Crowd wanted their guys to win but also marveled at team aew."
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