Invasors seize Puebla, En Busca de un Idolo qualifying cibernetico, Dark Angel

Monday’s Mephisto versus Volador Puebla main event ended with the rarest of all possible CMLL finishes – no finish! The Invasors upset the Guerreros in the rudo versus rudos semifinal, then ran in and attacked Volador after what had been a brief match. The Invasors attacked Mephisto as well, and the Guerreros had to make the save.

Some CMLL nights are obviously important, like Friday night’s show. (By the way, our friends at wrestlingdata.com are going with 13,400 as attendance for that show, by the way, which would be far ahead of Terrible/Rush, actually beats the raging inferno that is AAA and Rey de Reyes, and throws into question how important Televisa TV for at least big shows, and now this paragraph really needs a restart.)

Some CMLL nights are obviously important, like Friday night’s show. Some nights are sneakily important. Today is a sneakily important day. Tonight’s show has a Gen14 vs Various Other People cibernetico, where the final eight luchadors advance to strangely important En Busca de Un Idolo tournament. CMLL holds a lot of tournaments which don’t mean anything for the winner, even Tanahashi winning the Universal tournament is not going to mean anything except being listed in a name of winners – we won’t much hear about the incredible pairs tournament for 11 months, they aren’t bring the Gran Alternativa up much. The En Busca de un Idolo has been different treated like the tournament that matters. Most (though not all) got a short term boost of interest just by being in the tournament. Making the field matters, and tonight’s ciberentico determines who makes the field.

The teams are the CMLL Segunda All Stars (name not official) of Canelo Casas, Cavernario, Guerrero Negro Jr., Herodes Jr., Metálico, Oro Jr., Soberano Jr., and Súper Halcón Jr. versus the Generacion 14 team Black Panther, Cachorro, Dragon Lee, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Hechicero, and Star Jr. CMLL’s preview of the event says “the final 8” advance into the the En Busca de Un Idolo tournament. It’s not impossible that this stipulation is mean to mean the winning team gets in, but it seems more like it’s just whoever happens to be the final eight moves on (and the match continues to the final, probably to tease an En Busca de un Idolo result.)

CMLL hasn’t been hinting at anything here, so the only way to draw conclusions on what will happen are guessing on usual biases. Canelo Casas, Black Panther, Cachorro, Dragon Lee, Flyer are all related to people high in the CMLL hierachy, and Dragon Lee and Canelo Casas were feuding for a couple of weeks. Herodes Jr., Cavernario are being treated as important people, and Super Halcon Jr. and Soberano are treated as somewhat important people. CMLL may have a different set of criteria for this tournament, but picking eight of those nine would be the closest thing to safe bet in a very unsure situation.

The eight which I’d like to see make the final, without regard to a rudo/tecnico mix, are Cavernario, Metálico, Oro Jr., Soberano Jr., El Rebelde, Hechicero, Black Panther and Cachorro (with Espiritu Negro as the toughest cut), but there are other people who would also make for an entertaining couple of months.

It bears repeating: if Hechicero is in En Busca de un Idolo and CMLL does not dramatically alter the way they run the tournament, Hechicero will advance to the final. The ultimate winner is a CMLL decision, but Hechicero will easily win the judges voting and easily win the fan voting under the system they’ve used the last two years. (CMLL’s changes in how they’ve run their website might mean that fan voting will change, but the judging marks might be alone enough to advance him a long way.) If Hechicero is part of the final 8 and nothing changes, then it’s really seven guys going for the other spot. That’s not a bad thing: Hechicero is skilled enough to be one of CMLL’s guys, but the only part he’s missing are the fans knowing who he is. Two months of spotlighted matches can take care of that.

None of this should be a surprise to CMLL; the people on the inside should know Hechicero will do well, so there’s no reason to include him even this far if that wasn’t the plan. Still, after last Friday, there’s a concern that CMLL is going to make an unpopular decision and going to make it worse for themselves by the timing of the decision. Hechicero being eliminated early by Super Halcon would get a lot of groans now. It would look even dumber a month from now when Hechicero continues to tear it up in trios while young guys have rookie type matches with each other in the tournament.

Today is also the CMLL debuts of Sanson and El Cuatrero, Cien Caras’s sons. Their first match is in Guadalajara and it’s unclear if they’re meant to just be Arena Coliseo Guadalajara or are joining the mass of Mexico City luchadors who’ve debuted since the start of the year

Primera Curerda (via SuperLuchas) says Dark Angel participated in a WWE tryout at NXT back in December. They also claim her recent trip to Chicago included a backstage trip to Raw, which from WWE wrestler Victoria introduced her to various people. They say she was complimented for all the obvious reasons, and for her ability to speak English, Spanish and French, but Dark Angel is still working for the time being. The report says she may get another tryout or a contract.

They also mention Heddi Karoui was also at the tryout and may be offered a spot to work on WWE’s new Cruiserweight-only show. This is where the report seems to fall apart: during a podcast just yesterday, Bryan Alvarez asked someone in WWE if there was a new Cruiserweight-only show in the works and was very definitively told no.

CMLL has not utilized Dark Angel as much as they could the last few years (definitely since she got her own deal in Japan, but arguably even farther back), and it would probably be an easy choice to go to WWE if offered. If she goes, the only surprise is how long it took WWE to figure out she’d be a good addition.

Euforia replaces Gran Guerrero in Friday’s title match. That’s for the best.

Maria del Angel is in poor shape after suffering a stroke, according to Lola Gonzalez.

Terra’s said they’ll be broadcasting Sunday’s show – and Friday’s show. No one’s explained what happened last Friday, and the bigger CMLL Friday night shows may end up on Terra in the future, but it may not be a good idea to count on them being there.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and this week’s PosterMania.

Rush says that after he takes care of Negro Casas, he’d like an important mask – and why not Sombra? (There are many reasons why not Sombra.)

AAA started an Instagram account over the weekend.

CMLL posted video from Dos Leyendas: the second dance number.

Volador led Mascara & Mistico defeated the Guerreros in Arena Neza. Rush, Atlantis, and Super Aguila beats Mr. Niebla, Nitro, and Negro Casas in Oaxaca.

Juventud Guerrera versus A Hijo del Rey Misterio will take place April 26th in London, Ontario. Super Crazy will take on Little Guido on the same show.

Lineups

CMLL (SUN) 03/30/2014 Arena Coliseo
1) Pequeño Halcón & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Goya Kong, Lluvia, Skadi vs Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
Skadi’s debut, and Lluvia’s first match in DF since July.
3) Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr., Tritón vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
4) Fuego vs Ephesto [lightning]
5) Diamante Azul, La Máscara, Titán vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys
6) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Máximo vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Rey Escorpión

Skadi (or Skaði, a spelling which would never make it correctly onto a lucha libre poster) is a Norse goddess “associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter and mountains.” Sounds fun! The luchadora’s names are more creative in general, or at least the ones which make it to CMLL. Skadi’s just turned up in results since January, so either she’s very new or everyone was spelling it a different way. Lluvia is more familiar, but it’s taken her multiple knee surgeries to get back to this point.

03/22-23 lucha videos

My TiVo died again Sunday, so I wasn’t able to record anything that aired on TV that day. At this point, it’s up to Comcast as to when I’ll be able to record again.

I instead attempted to record Multimedios and IWRG via their web feed. Multimedios failed, but I was able to screen record the AYM feed Sunday night. Like last time I tried this, I somehow got the video but not the sound. (The first and last matches had aired previously during the week, so they have sound and possibly better picture.) The SLP show has repeating during the week, and I’ll double up with that if I get the chance.

There were unrelated issues with the Puebla feed; I barely ended up with any of that, and will try to get the replay on Thursday. And Terra did not air on Friday and only aired about two matches on Sunday.

Due to another Fox/AAA overlap, we’re missing the AAA opener. We do have the missing AAA matches from the last couple weekends, off the UTDN feed.

YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYyNnOBGWP7RQnrAFh_C6G1uK_rzYJo9Z

03/22 WWC: http://www.sendspace.com/file/64dzs4

AAA on Televisa: 2014-03-08
taped 2014-02-21 @ Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Intro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hch0t9
1) Drago, Faby Apache, Jennifer Blake vs Pentagón Jr., Sexy Star, Taya Valkyrie
http://sendspace.com/file/s63r7o
2) Crazy Boy, Fénix, Joe Lider vs Daga, Juventud Guerrera, Steve Pain
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mtp87c
3) Cibernético, Electroshock, Jack Evans, La Parka vs Chessman, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Jeff Jarrett, Zorro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3q4vdt

AAA on Televisa: 2014-03-15
taped 2014-03-03 @ Lienzo Charro Ignacio Leon Ornelas, Irapuato, Guanajuato
Intro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/cxul0s
1) Drago, Faby Apache, Jennifer Blake vs Sexy Lady, Sexy Star, Steve Pain
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ebtngt
2) Angélico, Australian Suicide, Jack Evans vs Daga, Pentagón Jr., Psicosis
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1fh7dz
3) Axel, Electroshock, Gronda vs Chessman, Hijo del Fantasma, Silver King
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xz6pbq
4) Cibernético, La Parka, Psycho Clown vs Parka Negra, Texano, Zorro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yylter

AAA on Televisa: 2014-03-22
taped 2014-03-16 @ Plaza de Toros La Monumental, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Daga vs Argenis, Australian Suicide, Súper Fly for the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship   (to be posted next week)
2) Fénix vs Crazy Boy, Joe Lider, Niño Hamburguesa, Ultimo Gladiador, Pentagón Jr., Steve Pain, Eterno in a domed cage match
http://www.sendspace.com/file/h9hych
3) Cibernético, Electroshock, Psycho Clown vs Jeff Jarrett, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Texano Jr.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bb367n

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2014-03-22
Full Show: https://mega.co.nz/#!584zyCiL!2DCZd_8AxxiJWKpRqWPLyMbNae2cGn-UHm5Ab_oJMgM
taped 2014-03-11 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Sky Kid & Smaker vs Artillero & Súper Comando for the Occidente Tag Team Championship
http://www.sendspace.com/file/dktfr6
taped 2014-03-16 @ Arena México
2) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Kráneo, Negro Casas, Niebla Roja
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7rchnv
3) Volador Jr. vs Ripper
http://www.sendspace.com/file/99jqbs

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-03-22
taped 2014-03-18 @ Arena México
Intro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fachfr
1) Angelito, Astral, Stukita vs Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pierrothito
http://www.sendspace.com/file/odjnm8
2) Dragon Lee, Pegasso, Star Jr. vs Canelo Casas, Hechicero, Puma
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fc4p30
Stellar Moments
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8b57ju
3) Diamante Azul, Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Boby Zavala, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8wen8z
4) Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla vs Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., La Máscara
http://www.sendspace.com/file/de3fgt
Ending
http://www.sendspace.com/file/12dyqp

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2014-03-22
taped 2014-03-14 @ Arena Mexico
Intro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jd8yfm
1) Atlantis & Euforia vs Niebla Roja & Stuka Jr. in a Parejas Increible eightfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/c3k92h
2) Marco Corleone & Terrible vs Máscara Dorada & Mephisto in a Parejas Increible eightfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/nnwszd
3) Blue Panther & Negro Casas vs Delta & Mr. Águila in a Parejas Increible eightfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/s8ehjh
4) Diamante Azul & Rey Bucanero vs Kráneo & Super Porky in a Parejas Increible eightfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9n1v72
5) Atlantis & Euforia vs Marco Corleone & Terrible in a Parejas Increible quarterfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/x4mfdr
6) Diamante Azul & Rey Bucanero vs Blue Panther & Negro Casas in a Parejas Increible quarterfinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sywml1
7) Atlantis & Euforia vs Diamante Azul & Rey Bucanero in a Parejas Increible semifinal
http://www.sendspace.com/file/j32lxh

Lucha Azteca (CMLL): 2014-03-22
taped 2014-03-07 @ Arena México
Parejas Increible, Block A
http://www.sendspace.com/file/frsomp

CMLL on Terra: 2014-03-23
taped 2014-03-23 @ Arena Coliseo
4) Sagrado vs Virus in a lightning match
http://www.sendspace.com/file/os7734
 – only the last couple of minutes (and the between match interview)
5) La Sombra, Super Porky, Valiente vs Felino, Olímpico, Ripper
http://www.sendspace.com/file/r3ptlw
6) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Máximo vs Averno, Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fn184x

IWRG Zona XXI: 2014-03-23
taped 2014-03-19 @ Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Multifacetico & Mini Rey Cometa vs Oficialito AK47 & Oficialito Fierro
http://www.sendspace.com/file/17tnt0
2) Centvrión, Metaleon, Mr. Leo vs Douki, Freyser, Hanaoka
http://www.sendspace.com/file/f2xaa4 – no sound
3) Chico Che, Golden Magic, Veneno vs Broken Clown, Dave The Clown, Rothen Clown
http://www.sendspace.com/file/tfaxmd – no sound
4) Máscara Púrpura, Relámpago, Súper Nova vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7doilb

CMLL Puebla: 2014-03-23
taped 2014-03-10 @ Arena Puebla
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Euforia, Shocker, Último Guerrero
http://www.sendspace.com/file/t5gdqq