Dragon Lee, Hijo del Signo, Hombre Bala Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Rayo Tapatío II, Semental: Okay, but I got into last week’s match better. (2000 people in Coliseo is still a lot better than 2000 in Mexico.) Apocalispis is not very good, and him mixing with not very good rookies produces some badness. This match was more about Hombre Bala than Dragon Lee, flipped from elsewhere. Bala is more interesting, usually.
Hirooki Goto, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Strong Man, Super Porky: I guess they’re heading into doing something noteworthy with Goto on Friday, because it’s pretty much been a waste of time elsewhere. This was actually a fun comedy match, but I’d like to see him in something substantial. Warrior too, I guess – the buzz on his return seems to have died .
CMLL (MON) 04/18/2011 Arena Puebla [Porra Fresa]
1) Lestat & Stigma b Centauro de Fuego & Siki Ozama Jr. Lestat had a great dive on Centauro de Fuego to eliminated him in the final fall. Tecs took falls 1 and 3.
2) Bam Bam, Fantasy, Último Dragoncito b Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito Tecs took falls 2 and 3, Dragoncito beating Pierrothito in the third, despite Tirantes refereeing.
3) Fuego b Ángel de Plata [Forjando un Idolo] Fuego [3] submitted Angel de Plata [0] for his first win.
4) Magnus b Pólvora [Forjando un Idolo] Mangus [3] looked better than last time here and the crowd was behind him. He dominated the match, but got distracted by Tirantes slow count and was rolled up by Polvora [6] for the pin.
5) Rush, Sagrado, Valiente b Shigeo Okumura, Virus, Yoshihashi Tecnicos took 1 and 3, Sagrado beating Virus after Rush and Valiente dives.
6) Blue Panther, Máximo, Strong Man b Héctor Garza, Hirooki Goto, Último Guerrero Maximo had an absurdly huge cape. Tecnicos took the first, and Goto and Guerrero had problems leading to the second fall loss (straight falls for the tecnicos.) Goto and UG fought after the match, with UG demanding a singles match.
CMLL (TUE) 04/19/2011 Arena Mexico [Record, CMLL]
1) Bronco & Inquisidor b Leono & Molotov
2) Sensei, Fuego, Metatrón DQ Dr. X, Loco Max, Nitro Dr. X unmasked Fuego for the DQ.
3) Diamante b Hijo del Signo [Forjando un Idolo] Diamante [6] pretty much clinches advancement. Signo is stuck on 3.
4) Hombre Bala Jr. b Puma King [Forjando un Idolo] Puma [0] loses again, Hombre Bala picks up his first 3 points.
5) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano b Delta, Metal Blanco, Valiente Rey Bucanero wore a Doble T shirt and the rudos had a bulldog with them for no apparent reason. Ideas! Dog = win.
6) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas b Blue Panther, Rush, Super Porky Rudos took the first, tecnicos the second and the third.
Espiritu, who’s bald most of the time, grew enough hair to lose in an Nuevo Laredo cage match. Hombre sin Miedo was the winner.
Weather report for Pachuca: Partly sunny with a show or thunderstorm the afternoon. (Also, about 50 degrees warming then here.) AAA should get the taping in this time!
Shocker says he’ll be back in action at the end of May. He’s been out since December after tearing his pattelar tendon.
Taguchi defends his CMLL World Welterweight Championship versus Taichi on 04/29 at Hiroshima Green Arena. Also, Hirooki Goto rejoins NJPW on 05/03, so if CMLL is really doing the Ultimo Guerrero vs Goto singles match they’re teasing, it’s gotta be next Friday.
Links
Supreme talks about the broken promises made to him by the promoter of GLC.
Mi Lucha Libre reminds us La Parka & Cibernetico have issues. Did anyone see their skit on this past week’s show (in Mexico, taped in Leon)? What was the deal with the chickens? I understood about 2% of it.
GALLI has a show this Saturday. I may go to this, we’ll see. Soul Touchaz are always good.
Lineups
LFF (SUN) 05/15/2011 Arena Naucalpan
1) Dr. Macabro, Dr. Mascara, Dr. OBorman vs Exito Cruz, Legendario Extreme, Oso Paul
2) Black Fire, Chapuline Negro, Multifacetico, Oficial 911, Peligro vs Crazy Sid, Daisuke Hanaoka, Low Rider, Veneno, XL [cibernetico]
3) Chica Tormenta & Mike Segura vs Io Shirai & Nosawa
4) Super Crazy vs ? [hardcore]
5) Canek, Dos Caras Sr., Mil Mascaras vs Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown
Annual Lucha Fan Fest, this year held at Arena Naucalpan. The cibernetico is Mexico vs the world. That main event will be a struggle.
Perro Aguayo Jr. was in intensive care after having a tumor the size of a golf ball removed from his stomach. Ten days later, it is not known (or has been told) if the tumor was cancerous, or when (if?) he might return to the ring. Perro is out of the hospital, but has made no public statement himself – all information has been coming from Damian 666.
AAA’s taping on Sunday, their only real activity during this cycle, was canceled due to heavy rain. It was rescheduled to today in a different arena. AAA has hyped a big surprise for this show, which appears to be the return of the Gronda character.
CMLL started the Forjando un Idolo tournament, featuring 16 young(ish) luchadors. The league stage is half over, with Polvora & Diamante having earned their passes to the playoff.
Escorpion won the Gran Alternativa, teaming with Ultimo Guerrero over Metal Blanco & Mascara Dorada
in what is his last match for the moment, Perro Jr. & Blue Demon lost by DQ to Santo & Rayo in a Guadalajara bull ring. Angel Blanco Jr. attacked Santo for the DQ and to set up a match down the line. Stadium was said to be 40% full.
Multifacetico unmasked Destroyer, who was revealed to be ex-AAA Hilario. Multifactieco also won a multiman match.
Other stories
Benefit shows were held for Hijo de Anibal.
GLC ran a one year anniversary show, where some people who were advertised were never actually contacted, and some who did show weren’t paid
DTU’s latest show included Violento Jack joining the AAA Milica and Mari Apache beating two women to keep her Reina de Reinas title.
Blue Demon’s son and Blue Demon Jr. have argued about the rights to the name, again
Mascara Dorada gave up the CMLL super lightweight title, will get a shot at Lyger’s title, and is in the Best of Super Junior Tournament.
Seuxis and Silueta are headed to Japan for three months.
Hirooki Goto, about to leave CMLL, finally is getting to do something worthwhile: feud with Ultimo Guerrero
people retaining titles: Rush, Ultimo Guerrero, Pierrothito, Valiente, Sombra, Comando Negro, Mari Apache
a group of CMLL wrestlers headed to Brazil for a two days and three shows. Crowd, there as part of a youth festival, seemed very into the action. Terrible won a show closing cibernetico (and a belt of some sort.)
Cholo ripped up his knee, will be out for six months
Masked Warrior skipped their April taping, are advertising a May one.
I’ve got links to the TV versions of the two matches that have aired, but the PPVs are complete. WarriorX2000 has them up, though they may be in his PPV section.
Gran Apache, Mari Apache, Octagoncito, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Hijo de Tirantes, Mini Histeria, Sexy Star, Yuriko: Told the Apache/Tirantes story well, everyone else played their part. Tirantes took the loss but still made the eventually singles match meaningful.
Jack Evans, Joe Lider, La Parka, Nicho el Millionario vs Billy el Malo, Cibernético, Escoria, Nygma: Usually bit of slight of hand to allow Cibernetico to wrestle about 1 minute of a 19 minute match. Not sure if Parka is actually the guy in better shape in the feud (doubtful) or if Cibernetico’s just decided the best thing for this feud is for him to not have to sell much (likely). The whole bit with the fire was reckless but unsurprising.
Dr. Wagner Jr., Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Damián 666, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Halloween, Super Crazy: Again, the same hardcore match they’ve been doing nearly weekly, with a few ‘special’ spots for shock value. (Shocked the cameraman, who missed the table being on fire right in front of him.) If this is end for Perro Jr. for now, he goes out with a clean (as they go here) win over Dr. Wagner; they were clearly building both Wagner/Perro and Perros/Clowns (for the masks) for future matches, and at least one of those is now off.
Zorro vs Charly Manson for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship: Horrid. Back at Guerra de Titanes, I was confused as to why they didn’t let Dr. Wagner and Zorro have any semblance of a match without constant interference. They had much less interference (at least during most of the match) and let these two guys work. These two were just very bad at it. Charly tried, but there’s only so much Charly can do. Zorro – I have no idea what the actual deal with Zorro here was, but he performed a lot like a guy in no condition to perform. The Mr. Aguila/Rey Bucanero match had a crowd that came in only caring about Tirantes and the two guys weren’t good enough to get them when Tirantes left. This crowd was totally willing to get into Zorro & Charly, and that crowd was quiet by midway thru.
Electroshock vs Heavy Metal: announced as a bull terrier match, but it turned out to just be a three falls match. And a three falls match where the first two falls were relatively pointless, so who knows. I think they had a lot of ideas, but did not do the best job of putting them together in a coherent manner (Like: Pepe Casas gets bumped at the end – and then it changes absolutely nothing.) There was a story they were telling with the guitars, but sometimes it was a lethal match ender, and sometimes it was just a bit at the start of matches. This was okay, but didn’t feel like the best match in the series. Seemed like this should’ve built to Metal & Electroshock teaming up from here on out, but Metal might have driven himself out of that spot.
Extreme Tiger vs El Mesías, LA Park, Carlito for the Rey de Reyes Tournament: Piero is pretty patient in starting his countout. The big bump was not big by Mesias crowd brawling standards, but the brawl was good enough to make up for it, and they gave Carlito and Extreme Tiger enough time to get the crowd to start paying attention to them and not the fight they just saw. Tiger’s win was marginalized by Wagner walking out to the ring and essentially cutting his promo for him – TIger at least needed to say a few words, and it was a lot better when they just cut that off in the TV version. Still, if they wanted Tiger to come off as an AAA star, he should’ve beat an AAA star, rather than just a guy passing thru.