12/20-22 lucha times

box.

TxT is back this week, maybe. DTU is off – there’s an IWL repeat in their spot.

LAS aired the Apolo/Cerebro hair match at least five time this week. They only have 1 airing of IWRG next week.

Tercera Caida will air on Sunday with matches from the EvoLucha show.

== AAA ==

AAA-Televisa: Part 2 of Guerra de Titanes. Angelico/Fenix/Jack vs Juvi/Pentagon/Pain on UTDN, Demon vs Electroshock & the main event on Televisa. Though maybe they could swap the first two.

== CMLL ==

FOX: more Reapper/Volador trios

52MX: they announced a four match show, with Solar/Navarro, the lightning match and the top 2.

C3: Rey Escorpion vs Maximo

TVC Deportes (Puebla): Averno vs Blue Panther

Lucha Azteca: Invasors vs Mistico/Valiente/Volador

Terra Friday: maybe the Leyenda de Plata semifinal, definitely Fuego/Maya/Sagrado vs Zavala/Misterio/Puma

Terra Sunday: Volador Jr. vs Negro Casas

== Other ==

IWRG-AYM Sports: Maybe the Sunday show with the return of CMLL guys? Maybe the Thursday show with the apuesta match.

Noches de Coliseo: Cibernetico & Jack vs Ozz & Scoria

IWL: New episode?

TxT: listed as 2 hours, so it could be most of the show, or some other show, but I’m guessing just the ruleta de la muerte.

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2013-11-16

Double stomp slam

recap

taped 2013-11-12 @ Arena Mexico
Metatrón & Sensei vs Akuma & Guerrero Negro Jr.: a formula opener. At least they did enough to give me a gif, and Akuma and Metatron didn’t do anything embarrassing this time. I wonder if Guerrero Negro was told not to use the Canadian Destroyer or just decided himself not to do it. I’d expect the later.

 

(this looks like Seductora’s fault)

Bam Bam, Fantasy, Último Dragoncito vs Pequeño Violencia, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito: Match weirdly built around Pequeño Black Warrior and Bam Bam feuding, only Bam Bam and Pequeño Warrior either couldn’t work with each other or couldn’t get along. I don’t know what was supposed to happen in the first fall or the last fall, only that Warrior was really unhappy with what did happen. Match had other problems too, but maybe this is why Bam Bam disappeared again.

falling down clothesline celebration

Estrellita, Goya Kong, Marcela vs Amapola, La Seductora, Princesa Blanca: The first hour of this show is the least interesting hour of lucha libre to watch on a weekly basis, especially with the increase of women’s and mini’s matches. This was the usual Goya Kong trios, with Goya doing her spots and everyone else working in the spaces around here. Estrellita was not much good, does not much matter.

 

Sonora Jam

Ángel de Oro, Super Porky, Thunder vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión: Short match. The Brazo de Plata/Rey Escorpion feud came back, but not at the level of the building up to the hair mask. There was the brawling, but it was not far off usual Porky stuff by the end. Seemed like it existed to give the happy result, not to continue the issue.

Estetas del AireMáscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Volador Jr.: Best match on the show, though that’s not saying a lot. It was okay. Volador pinned both guys to set up the title match, same as Titan’s been doing, so maybe that’s a thing now. You wouldn’t really know Volador and Dorada were meant to be feuding until after the match. Olímpico as a main eventer – as guy on the roster, mostly – exposes the weakness in depth on this show. Tecnicos being treated as a rudos when they’re against Volador doesn’t really help anyone. Dorada didn’t work well with it here.

IWL, IWRG/CMLL, Mistico II hurt, Mistico I contract, Coco Blanco

photo by Black Terry Jr.

IWL (TUE) 12/17/2013 Arena Aficion [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring]
3) Dinamic Black & Fresero Jr. b Arkanos, Kilvan, Shadow, Yoruba [IWL TAG]
Fresero Jr. & Dinamic Black are champions. Second defense?
4) Cerebro Negro b Pantera I, Fantasma de la Ópera, Mike Segura
Was supposed to be an IWL Junior Championship defense by Carta Brava, but no Carta and no title.
5) Ángel o Demonio, León Rojo, Ovett b ATM Metal, ATM Red, ATM Silver and Aero Boy, Demente Extreme, Violento Jack [IWL TRIOS]
Announced as Porros defending, but the not-officially-DTU trio won the titles in Tampico (no full results ever reported.) This was made a three way trios. Team ATM went out first, then the champs beat the Porros. Angel o Demonio turned on Leon Rojo after the match, apparently splitting up the Porros (or uniting them in matches against each other, depending on how you look at it.)
6) Black Terry b Último Vampiro, Radge
Announced as Black Terry vs Virus, but no Virus and a three way match instead.
7) Villano IV b Pirata Morgan and Hijo de Pirata Morgan [#1 Contenders, INDY WL HEAVY]
Originally supposed to be a direct title match, but turned out to be a #1 contenders match. Rey Escorpion and Mr. Niebla were announced and did not appear (and it doesn’t seem like they told the crowd, so you were out of lucky if you were waiting hours to see that match.) Pirata family replaced them.
8) Canek b Villano IV [INDY WL HEAVY]
first defense?

Hormiga won the IWL Internet title on the Tampico show and appears to have defended it here based on the pictures.

Attendance was very bad, scarcely more than the usual Tuesday night shows with mostly young kids and their trainees. The crowd also did not seem to be having a good time and was unhappy with the name no-shows. The Estrellas del Ring recap goes as far as calling it fraud.

This weekend has big shows from DTU (Saturday) and ChilangaMask (Sunday). I hope they both go great in ring and draw better than this IWL show. It may not be totally their fault – if the main promotions are cold (and they’re cold right now), fans are less likely to go to any lucha libre show. IWL in particular seems to have dropped greatly the last few months, though even in September they were running buildings a lot bigger than they needed.

Coco Blanco, Manuel Balderas Martinez, passed away. He was 45 and had been wrestling for 27 years, Coco Blanco was part of the IWRG trios of Payasos/Clowns, using the Mexico flag colors. He wrestled in IWRG under that name from at least 2001 thru 2007 and bounced around the indys in recent years; he was most recently on a show in November in Arena Neza. Blanco wrestled as a karate turtle prior to clown character. He’s also mentioned as listed as using the name “Burak”, and I’m sure there’s more given the length of his career.

On his biweekly podcast, Dr. Lucha mentioned Mistico I’s contract ends at the strike of midnight on January 11. I’ve made a helpful countdown so you can plan your life accordingly. It’s possible there’s a no-compete – usually 30 90 days – though I’m not sure it applies since it’s a contract ending and not a termination. Plus, it may just be a US TV ban, which wouldn’t apply to AAA for months. January is not a great time for a big reappearance but maybe it’ll happen sometime in the first quarter of 2014.

Mistico II hurt his left shoulder on Tuesday in Guadalajara. The shoulder went out in the third fall of the trios title match. Mistico tried to rejoin the match once, was unable, and sat out until he came back into the finish. There are pictures of him protecting his arm after the match, but he also let that arm be raised.

It’s a pre-existing injury – I believe it’s the one he hurt last year around this time, and he appeared to be having trouble with the same shoulder on multiple occasions on this week’s TV show. He kept working after those TV matches so I suppose he’ll keep working now (and FantasticaMania isn’t in danger), but not being able to rejoin the match until the finish is a bit concerning. It’s obviously a chronic physical problem that hasn’t been fixed. It’s also a technical one; other people can explain this better than me, but Mistico has unsafe form on his headscissors and is banging that shoulder into the mat in the process. It’s a technical issue which should’ve been fixed, especially given it’s Mistico, but never has. Maybe if the people in charge stuck around to watch the end of shows…

IWRG and CMLL appear to  be back on good terms. IWRG posted Sunday’s lineup, which matches what was printed in Box Y Lucha. The poster itself lists this as “a new season of CMLL”, so it’s not a one off oddity or another promotion using CMLL names. Toscano & Eterno are the only AAA guys who’s been around IWRG much the last few months; Eterno was there before he got picked up, and Toscano might be making the deal on his own because AAA isn’t giving him much work. Naucalpan is probably more important to AAA as a loud taping venue, and IWRG’s deal with CMLL may prevent that going forward.

Negro Casas is one of the CMLL guys on this first show. Negro Casas was the IWRG middleweight champion, but could never return to defend the title because of the CMLL/IWRG breakup and had to vacate it. Hijo del Pirata Morgan is the current middleweight championship and is at least occasionally working for AAA. Hope history doesn’t repeat.

Aereo and Pagano will have their mask versus hair match on Christmas Day. That has been a big local feud in Ciudad Juarez this year. Likewise, Drabek II and Dragon de Oriente I have a hair vs mask match on the same day in Arena Queretaro, another local regular feud.

Black Terry Jr. has highlights of Los Fulgors vs Alfa & Omega.

Rob has highlights of 04/26/13 CMLL.

Zorro explains that even though even though Konnan, Jeff Jarrett and the Sociedad treated him horribly, they did it out of love and were the only people who ever cared about him so it only makes sense he’s back with them.

Belial wants to show his skill to the maximum, which is why he liked his match against Ricky Marvin the last show and also the upcoming match against Suicida & Freelance.

Cibernetico & Jack beat Ozz & Escoria in Monterrey. The Aerostar & Super Fly tag match was changed to a trios with locals added.

Fenix & Jennifer Blake will be teaching a seminar in Ontario on 01/11/2014.

R de Rudo has a list of lost masks this year.

Cronicas y Leyendas looks back at Lobo Rubio vs Matematico.

Hijo del Santo gets a column out of his holiday vacation in France.

Press conference for the AAA/Wagner Promocions (Silver King) show in Torreon on 12/28. Newspaper doesn’t know the difference between Consejo & CMLL (which is the idea.)

Interview with Piloto 2000, who says he trained Mercurio and Relampago.

Interviews for the WWS vs DTU luchadora match this Saturday.

Luchadora Kamillion, out of the ring a year due to injury, is working on a clothing line.

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2013-11-16

recap

weird how the rudos always try to Shocker after his stunner and it never works

taped 2013-11-05 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
La Máscara, Rush, Shocker vs Tama Tonga, Terrible, Vangellys:  Build up trios, maybe a little less than a usual Sunday main event. Terrible and Rush should be fun if they air here, but there was nothing special for it in this match. It’s good that Shocker’s already over.

worst faked foul

taped 2013-11-10 @ Arena Coliseo
Atlantis, Blue Panther, Super Porky vs Niebla Roja, Pierroth, Tama Tonga:  a Super Porky special, with everyone else taking it very easy. Crowd was happy with this match but it was not much on Terra or when it aired on TV. Mephisto exerted more energy in the post match promo than in the match.

 

Valiente Special

Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Gran Guerrero, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero: These matches were not interesting matches when they aired on the internet and didn’t become more interesting with a 52MX channel bug. Routine matches, in that they did (part of) their routines and got out. Very tedious show to get thru; no one produces more shows than CMLL, and no one produces more boring ones.