CHILANGA MASK (SAT) 01/17/2015 Arena Coliseo San Ramón, Puebla, Puebla [Tercera Caida Facebook]
1) Orion DQ Keira
Keira hit the ref for the DQ.
2) Asturiano b Judas el Traidor
3) Arez, Belial, Impulso b Rey Dragon, Rey Fenix, Tonak
Good match, money thrown in.
4) Trauma I & Trauma II b Tigre Rojo Jr. & Toro Bill Jr.
5) Black Terry & Negro Navarro b Tigre Rojo & Toro Bill Sr.
Porra Fresa said it was a pretty good show. It looks like a pretty full building, so maybe they’ll be back. Clips should turn up on +LuchaTV.
CMLL (SAT) 01/17/2015 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Leono b Camorra
Leono plancha to win.
2) Sensei b Hijo del Signo
Signo missed a plancha and Sensei armbared him.
3) Astral b Pequeño Nitro
Astral submitted Nitro.
4) Virus b Star Jr.
Crowd liked Virus, he won with a motocicleta.
5) Zeuxis b Princesa Sugehit
Zeuxis goes into her title match on Monday on a winning streak, winning over Sugehit with the Caballete
6) Niebla Roja & Rey Bucanero b Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr.
First team of Panther & Panther as a pair. Rudos took 2/3, Bucanero helping Niebla Roja beat Panther Jr. after he was already been eliminated.
7) Misterioso Jr., Negro Casas, Sagrado b Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., La Máscara
Mascara did not get along with his partners. Negro pulled Mascara’s mask and pinned him.
so much for the Arena Coliseo Tag Team feud? Virus & Star Jr. was said to be a bueno lucha by a mostly bored onlooker.
CMLL (SUN) 01/18/2015 Arena México [@therealfredo, CMLL]
1) Bengala & Metatrón b El Rebelde & Espanto Jr.
below average bout.
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Súper Halcón Jr. b Akuma, Artillero, Súper Comando
Tecnicos took 1/3. Said to be good. Robin replaced Molotov, who does not appear to exist but continues to be booked on shows.
3) Cancerbero b Pegasso [lightning]
Cancerbero submitted Pegasso to a motocicleta in 8:42. OK.
4) Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Boby Zavala, Sangre Azteca, Virus
Rudos took 2/3. OK. Strange match with a near 15 minute first fall, with Fuego & Sangre Azteca especially going a long way in the opener – seemingly killing time rather than building towards something, then ending with moves the rudos don’t normally use as finishes. Rest of the falls were more normal.
5) Blue Panther, Máximo, Valiente b Ephesto, Hechicero, Niebla Roja
Tecnico took 1/3. Said to be good.
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Marco Corleone, Super Porky b Kráneo, Olímpico, Rey Bucanero
Tecnicos took 2/3 in a heavy comedy main event.
There were no stories coming in or out of this show. Some good TV matches but nothing must see. The fourth match is going to look good based on the time and those involved, but it really was not. I don’t know what was going on but it was clear something was off the rails for quite a while. This show went almost as long as last week’s with no dance numbers or other extra material.
The news from the show was actually the announcers (both on commentary and the ring announcer) heavily pushing the All Elite show. They treated it with the same amount of promotional push they’d give for a Dos Leyendas or a Sin Piedad major CMLL show, and repeatedly mentioned the outsider names (LA Park, Dr. Wagner, Fuerza Guerrera) who wouldn’t be part of any CMLL show. Again, I’m not sure what’s going on here but it’s clear something is going on here. Either All Elite is backing up the truck to pay off CMLL for this promotion, or people in CMLL are weirdly using the All Elite group as a front to book people “CMLL” can’t book. It’s a pretty big leap to get the latter idea, but it’s a weird situation for CMLL to be treating it like it’s own show even when it’s not. Presumably, Toryumon/Dragon’s sponsors pay a fair bit for Arena Mexico every year, but this is not something CMLL does for him.
The advertisements gave the impression this would be the regular 02/08 show – really, they gave the impression this was a CMLL special show subtitled “All Elite” – so it now leans towards it airing on Terra. We probably won’t know until lineups come out for that week, but this is very strange.
I had all sorts of trouble recording the show – long story short, what they’ve done means it’s unlikely the feed will die completely, but means sometimes they’re not even offering the higher quality feeds, which is a problem when you’re trying to record those feeds – so the video links won’t be live until later and will be in lesser video quality than usual. They went way long like last week, only this time it automatically flipped over into another feed instead of losing the show entirely like last week. 7:18 local appeared to be cut off time, for whatever reason.
They’d announced they’d be back in Arena Mexico next week. They’re usually back in Arena Coliseo on in January, but maybe Sabados Retros have changed things.
LI (SUN) 01/18/2015 Auditorio de Santo Tomas Chiconautla, Ecatepec, Estado de México
2) La Hielera & Miss Janeth b Xena & Yuca La Potranquita
Xena replaced Lady Apache.
3) Corsario Negro Jr., Magnifico, Ojo de Tigre Jr. b Brujo Maya, Hijo De Villano III, Villano III Jr.
4) Aguila Solitaria, El Hijo de Aníbal, Solar I b Histeria II, Perro Del Ring, Rambo
Solar challenged Rambo to a singles match.
5) Canek, Heavy Metal, Villano III b Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Jack, Shu el Guerrero
Villano III replaced Fantasma. Mascara brawled with Heavy Metal post match. Heavy demanded a hair match.
The Leyendas Inmortales show is now being produced by the Tercera Caida/+LuchaTV crew. They started with the Arena Aficion show this past week. It’s easy to tell the difference; the show looks much better, the interviews are tighter and better produced, and the matches get some time. I’m so far behind that I haven’t posted recaps of some of the other shows, but the previous versions of the show was not entertaining or effective (I really did not like them); if you’re like me, it’s probably worth your time to give the show another chance.
The last FantasticaMania show is in a few hours, airing live on NJPW World. It’s the best show of the tour on paper. Rey Cometa should be good to go against Barbaro Cavernario and Sombra/Dorada will either be one of the best matches of the year or there are going to be a lot of fantastic matches this year.
There’s no official update on Mr. Niebla’s situation. NJPW’s recap mentioned Rey Cometa’s knee injury when he was out, but did not give a reason for Niebla. I’d like to give Niebla the benefit of the doubt, but his history is not good. NJPW evidently made the decision to take Niebla off both shows before the Korakuen Hall show; Yujiro becoming quick friends with Mephisto was a setup for changes on the upcoming card. Mephisto & Yujiro (instead of Gran Guerrero) now face Stigma & Angel de Oro, while Gran Guerrero moves up to take Niebla place in the semimain atomicos.
(It doesn’t really matter, but Mephisto splitting from Ephesto going with TRT would actually work fine with me. Ephesto and Hombre Sin Nombre can either find another third partner and move down the card, or just become auxiliary Guerreros.)
NJPW photos and report on their annual autograph party with some of the tecnicos
There’s no match announced yet, but Goya Kong and Muneca de Plata are pictured on the 02/15 REINA show so they’re heading back to Japan at some point.
Enrique & Oscar preview AAA’s taping in Naucalpan this Friday.
Cronicas y Leyendas looks back at Mil Mascaras vs TNT.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and the latest edition of the LuchaWorld podcast, where Kurt has actually watched a lot of lucha libre.
Segunda Caida recaps some random CMLL, including the Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi match which kicked off their feud.
SuperLuchas looks back at El Dandy vs Blue Panther in a 1992 title match and an El Torero show from 1982. Somehow I have 12 shows from that day, but that not that or the Arena Naucalpan show that Teddy found. (Bad picture taking, probably.)
Bobby Lee talks about his career and his new book.