CMLL/NJPW FantatiscaMania 2014 lineups announced

Lineups went up at earlier tonight.

As best I can tell, none of the shows will be on iPPV. The first four will air on SamuraiTV (01/14 and 01/18 live), the last on TV Ashai. There’s no NJPW titles on the line; there’s really less CMLL titles on the line even though it’s a much longer tour.

CMLL NJPW (TUE) 01/14/2014 Body Maker Coloseum, Osaka, Japan
***CMLL NJPW FantasticaMania 2014***
1) Bushiroad & Titán vs Taichi & Taka Michinoku
2) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Niebla Roja, Shigeo Okumura, Vangellys
3) Jushin Liger & Máximo vs Gedo & Jado
4) Naito & Volador Jr. vs Kushida & Máscara Dorada
5) La Sombra & Rush vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Último Guerrero
6) El Desesperado, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Mistico vs Mephisto, Okada, Rey Escorpión

As mentioned, El Deseperado is our old friend Namajague and seemed to be big player out of the gate here.

Volador and Dorada are consistently booked against each other on this tour. In the past, they’ve portrayed Volador as one of the aces of CMLL and Dorada as a guy trying to get there, which may hint as to the story they’re telling.

There’s some confusion on TAKA’s status here, but he’s listed on all the cards as if nothing is up, so we’ll go with that. Tiger Mask is also listed on some shows, but just missed the 01/04 show with an appendicitis. NJPW subbed in a rookie for him and would likely do the same if either if those two missed these shows. They do have a lot of unbooked wrestlers to use. Many of the native veterans (Goto, Tenzan, Kojima) are off and some (Yujiro, Yano) are just making a couple appearances. It’s Naito, Nakamura, Tanahashi and Okada carrying the load with a bunch of juniors.

CMLL NJPW (WED) 01/15/2014 KBS Hall, Kyoto, Japan
***CMLL NJPW FantasticaMania 2014***
1) Bushiroad & Titán vs Gedo & Jado
2) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Rey Escorpión, Shigeo Okumura, Vangellys
3) Jushin Liger & Máximo vs Taichi & Taka Michinoku
4) Kushida & Volador Jr. vs Máscara Dorada & Naito
5) Mistico & Rush vs Mephisto & Shinsuke Nakamura
6) El Desesperado, Hiroshi Tanahashi, La Sombra vs Niebla Roja, Okada, Último Guerrero

Brothers team up in the semimain, building to two singles matches later.

Fuego, Rey Cometa, and Stuka get to make the trip, but they’re pretty much limited to second match trios matches against Vangelis, Okumura and which ever other rudo is free most of the way. They’ll be good ones, and it’s great to see my concern about Cometa’s injury was unnecessary.

CMLL (FRI) 01/17/2014 Shinkiba 1st Ring, Tokyo, Japan
***CMLL NJPW FantasticaMania 2014***
1) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Shigeo Okumura, Taichi, Taka Michinoku
2) Máscara Dorada & Titán vs Mephisto & Vangellys
3) Rey Escorpión vs Máximo [CMLL LH]
Rey Escorpion is champion. Sixth defense.
4) Mistico & Rush vs Niebla Roja & Último Guerrero
5) La Sombra vs Volador Jr. [lightning]

TAKA & Taichi on the all CMLL show! BOOOOOOOOO. BOOOOOOO. BOOO.

Rey Escorpion/Maximo should have a better title match than their last one. Meanwhile, the last time Sombra & Volador had a lightning match, it went to a 10 minute draw and there’s no reason to believe this would be different. Sombra and Volador having their first match – their first interaction! – since Volador’s tecnico turn in a 290 seat building sounds like a real CMLL decision so this all checks out.

CMLL NJPW (SAT) 01/18/2014 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
***CMLL NJPW FantasticaMania 2014***
1) Máximo vs Taichi vs Jado
2) Rey Cometa & Stuka Jr. vs Shigeo Okumura & Yujiro
3) Fuego, Kushida, Tiger Mask, Titán vs Niebla Roja, Rey Escorpión, Vangellys, YOSHI-HASHI
4) Bushiroad & Volador Jr. vs El Desesperado & Máscara Dorada
5) Rush vs Shinsuke Nakamura
6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, La Sombra, Naito vs Ishii, Okada, Último Guerrero
7) Mephisto vs Mistico [MEX LH]
Mephisto is champion.

If Mistico is still in one piece by this point, he’s going to be a hilariously undersized light heavyweight champion. (Other Mistico, who’s contract will be up around this day, also held that title.)

Rush vs Nakamura was really great and a good starting point for the year of Crazed Mad Man Rush. So this should work again.

Titan’s another guy who doesn’t a highlight match on this tour, but this might be a good shot for him with Escorpion, Roja and Vangellys on the other side.

CMLL NJPW (SUN) 01/19/2014 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
***CMLL NJPW FantasticaMania 2014***
1) Mascara Don & Máximo vs Taichi & Taka Michinoku
2) Rey Cometa & Stuka Jr. vs Shigeo Okumura & YOSHI-HASHI
3) Bushiroad, El Desesperado, Fuego, Tiger Mask, Titán vs Gedo, Jado, Niebla Roja, Vangellys, Yano
4) Naito & Rush vs Ishii & Rey Escorpión
5) La Sombra vs Último Guerrero
6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Mistico vs Mephisto, Shinsuke Nakamura, Yujiro
7) Volador Jr. vs Máscara Dorada

Volador and Mascara Dorada is a rare match, and one that won’t be happening again any time soon with both of them on the tecnico side.

Semimain is probably the Black Cat memorial trios; they like to team up Tanahashi with the big CMLL star of the tour and the NJPW junior heavyweight of the moment for that every year.

Ultimo Guerrero has this match here, and the tag match on 01/14, as possibly interesting matches if Ultimo Guerrero feels like making them interesting. (Mitigating factor: the stuff that seems very old hat to us won’t to the crowd who hasn’t seen him in a long while.)

Rey Escorpion vs Rush at least year’s FantasticaMania was the first in a long line of really good Rey Escorpion singles matches last year. They combine with the Naito/Ishii isue.

Tercera is a cibernetico. Last year, that came down to NJPW guys and I’d kind of expect the same here with how Desperado is being set up. Waiting for the CMLL guys to come to town to debut him may work out pretty well.

I have no idea who Mascara Don is, but I would bet on Dino being up to something. (Edit: NJPW’s preview says “it’s a mask man derived from [Manabu] Nakanishi land”, which may or may not help.)