Felino defeats Valiente in Guadalajara, Pinocho vs Terry, Lucha Underground

CMLL (TUE) 02/10/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) El Divino, Metatrón, Robin b Infierno, Ráfaga, Súper Comando
2) Dark Angel, Marcela, Silueta b La Seductora, Tiffany, Zeuxis
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. b Puma, Tiger, Virus
said to be a very good match, Delta & Stuka beating Puma & Tiger.
4) Felino b Valiente
Felino took 1/3, the last when Zacarias distracted the referee and Felino snuck in a foul on Valiente.
5) Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible b La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Máximo
Rudos took 2/3. Marco & Mascara weren’t helping Maximo much, then got beat at the end.

Booooo Zacarias.

Mistico, talking about his injury, rehabilitation and trios title match, (again) mentions the doctors came close to amputating his foot and he thought his career was over. He says the Sky Team will have to fly a lot to beat the Guerreros.

The Wrestling Observer reported people inside Lucha Underground were pushing for Vince Russo to get an interview to join the writing team when he visits Los Angeles this weeke. Producer Eric Van Wagenen is cited as specifically pushing to bring Vince Russo in. Van Wagenen went on Twitter to say the story is false. Meltzer explained the story a bit more on his podcast. He says he was told three different stories by different people: 1) Russo is definitely coming to LA for an interview, 2) Russo is coming for an interview but everyone will deny it because he’s Vince Russo, and 3) Russo is not officially coming for an interview but everyone figures there will at least be an informal one since he’s there. Meltzer frames this – and discussion of bringing in names like Torrie Wilson and Victoria – as part of a larger ideological debate inside the group: there’s people who want to stay the course and there’s those who would like to load up on more ex-WWE names and start touring right way. (Meltzer is highly dismissive of the later strategy, pointing to TNA’s failure.)

Vince Russo had announced going to Los Angeles for an autograph signing, a Q&A and a podcast with Melissa Santos for his website. Russo’s pay site launched last year has reinvented him as a weird artifact of a previous age, with a few people still interested in him car accident style and many more still holding him in utter disdain. (Even this story existing at all has people in uproar.) Russo hasn’t been part of a successful wrestling writing time in decades, but has successfully managed to keep the the myth of his success and his role into it very strong despite many subsequent years of failures.

I don’t think there’s anything to this, but then I could be blinded by own dislike for Vince Russo and it’s clear some people inside wrestling feel positive about him for whatever reason. I just wrote a long thing about the trust I have in the people who are running Lucha Underground now, but that doesn’t extend to a project with Vince Russo. (They’d likely keep it as quiet as possible if he did get involved because of the tremendous negative stigma, but it’d become obvious in the product just like it did last time with TNA.)

And maybe it’s all moot. As of right now, Lucha Underground still hasn’t officially been picked up for a second season. They’ve got 24 hours taped, they’ll have 4 more done this weekend. It appears they have a lot of stuff mapped out for the last 11 of the 39 episodes agreed to for season 1, so any affect any new writer would be minimal at this point – even if they blew things up, it’d be really late to start a new direction and get it to far enough along to mean something. Any change would make more sense to start season two, and we still don’t know that there is a season two.

The Wrestling Observer also reported that Flamita may end up being the mystery guy in Queretaro. That’s the rumor I’ve been hearing as well, but everyone’s still in the same position they were back in September: Flamita likes working in Dragon Gate and wants to stay there full time, AAA wants him to come there full time. AAA could use Flamita just when he happens to be in Mexico, but that’s not often on a Dragon Gate schedule. The other thing is, and this is mostly my speculation, but AAA doesn’t want to be a treated as a second choice promotion. It’s fine with Alberto, because Alberto’s getting pulled in a bunch of directions at once and AAA figures Alberto will have a relationship with AAA for the long term even if he’s not there all the time right now. Flamita’s not Alberto and AAA probably feels they’re a bigger deal than Dragon Gate (especially for a Mexican) and Flamita should be thrilled to work for the big hometown promotion. (I don’t know if they are or are not bigger – I don’t know how you actually measure that.) It may just be a generational thing, or the legacy of the Promo Azteca guys going to Nitro, but I see interviews with all sorts of luchadors who usually they feel that the biggest accomplishment possible is to wrestle internationally. It’s very rarely about being on top in one of the two Mexican promotions, which must be a quite different viewpoint than if you’re one of the people involved in running those promotions.

Kronoz, who’s the unnamed guy allied with Hijo del Pirata & Electroshock in AAA, is listed as using that name on an AAA show next month.

+LuchaTV has a clip of Averno talking about Luciferno and the renamed Hijos del Infierno.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and Alfredo reviewing the big matches from the All Elite show.

LV has reviews of this week’s AAA and last week’s CMLL.

SuperLuchas has a report from the Decnnis benefit show, and interview with Myzteziz and Santo winning a mask on a past February 11.

Those Lucha Libre London shows are July 9th to 11th.

There’s a crowdfunding campaign for a dramatic series on the origins of lucha libre in El Paso/Juarez.

Texano Jr. doesn’t think anyone else in his Rey de Reyes group is at his level. He’s probably right.

Estrellita wants to take Tiffany’s hair.

Maximo is happy to be champion.

DJ Spectro has the second part of his Bobby Lee bio.

Lineups

IWRG FILL (WED) 02/18/2015 Arena Naucalpan
1) Adrenalina, Black Niko, Lady Drago vs Magnum 44, Sexy Girl, Último Caballero
2) Chicanito, Marduk, Zumba vs Guerrero 2000, Payaso Extremo, Vampiro Metálico
3) Black Angel vs Dragon Black, Voltar, Alas de Acero, Aramis
4) Blue Monsther, Galaxy, Golden Magic vs Anubis Black, Araña de Plata, Picudo Jr.
5) Alfa, Atomic Star, Avisman, Electro Boy, Imposible, Metaleón, Power Bull, Sky Ángel vs Manchas, Mara Salvatrucha, Mr. Tatuaje, Mr. Zebra, Super Pinocho 3000, Tigre Americano, Tigre Nahuatl, Vengador Galactico [Copa Higher Power]
Black Terry vs Super Pinocho rematch.

Super Pinocho’s kids won the match last month by DQ (Super Pinocho over Metaleon.) These FILL shows haven’t been airing on TV of late.

CHILANGA MASK (SAT) 02/28/2015 Arena Coliseo San Ramón, Puebla, Puebla
1) Oficial AK47 vs Policeman
2) Fly Star & Toxin Boy vs Arkalis & King Jaguar
3) Psico Kid vs Tonak
4) Arez & Belial vs Guerrero Espacial & Pequeno Joker
5) Impulso vs Rey Apocalipsis
6) Freelance & Mike Segura vs Asturiano & Pegasso

Chilanga did well in Puebla a month ago so they’re back again quick. Rey Apocalipsis, who was really good in a few appearances late last year on Puebla TV makes his debut with this group. Cool to see Asturiano in a big match as well. Opener is Police vs Police!

There’s also an introduction to the foreigners coming in for next month’s ChilangaMask show.

Lucha Underground 1×14: Open Mic Night

always have to be on alert for headkicks on this show

the results

Fenix b Argenis (5:32; “Fire Driver” sit down piledriver)

Johnny Mundo b Son of Havoc (8:46; Fin de Mundo)

Pentagon Jr. b Ricky Mandell (3:41; armbreaker)

the developments

Catrina watched the Fenix match, then licked Argenis. Fenix looked as confused as everyone else. Mil Muertes was upset about this and choke lifted Katrina when she tried to explain it to here. (Catrina didn’t seem to be threatened or unnerved.) Muertes stormed away, and happened on Chavo. Chavo failed to run away, faced off against Muertes, and Muertes beat him into the wall. Muertes said Chavo would get his punishment for taking Demon away from him next week.

Big Ryck, in a confessional booth, told a priest he was coming for the Crew, an “eye for an eye.” Ryck now has an eye patch over the burned eye.

this looked great, too bad it missed

Havoc and Ivelisse were back together. Havoc had a few chances to win, and might have won with his top rope SSP but took way too long and Johnny got his knees up, then hit the Fin de Mundo to win. Cuerno attacked Mundo after the match, dropping him with the Thrill of the Hunt.

Pentagon broke Ricky’s arm, and dedicated it as another sacrifice for his master.

Alberto convinced Dario to give him an opportunity to talk to the crowd. Alberto was introduced as AAA champion and had the belt with him. He spoke of his family and being successful in the US until he was stabbed in the back and disrespected. (A transcript of the interview is here.) Alberto was happy to be with the Lucha Underground fans. Before Alberto could finish his speech, Texano (Jr.) came out of nowhere and attacked Alberto, knocking him down and whipping him with the lasso. Texano declared the championship would be back with him soon.

thoughts

Catrina couldn’t have been that concerned about Mil Muertes finding out if she went out of her way to flirt with Fenix just a week later. It’s really unclear what’s going on her head in this situation – is she’s really interested in Fenix, is she trying to do motivate Mil Muertes? Fenix is unnerved, Mil Muertes is aggravated, but Catrina’s unphased even when she’s being choked off the ground. She’s the one who needs the backstory vignette now, because she’s operating on a different plane.

another broken arm

Mundo & Havoc was the best match of the week (and the mostly likely one to end up as the YouTube free match.) Havoc got to have a much more complete match than his previous matches – it was really a spotlight for him, with the story of him just screwing it up in the end to keep his losing streak going. There was less story going on with Argenis, but it was likewise a match where the loser got a lot in before the stronger pushed luchador got the win. Argenis hasn’t had many long singles matches himself; even this sub six minute one might have been the biggest.

Striker & Vampiro were better this week! They’re also self aware and making fun of themselves, with Vampiro doing an extended bit of mistaking Ricky Mandell for Rick Martel and Striker noting “I sometimes like to call that move Tanahashi.” Striker was also dropping a metric ton of history in the first match, most of which was accurate. Texano was a completely unknown to the crowd and probably most of the viewing offense, but the announcers established his background and reason for being there quickly. They also acknowledged the crowd getting behind the rudo Pentagon as he broke another arm – a guy being dominant is going to get cheers, and there’s more of that to come.

Texano lets his lasso talk for him

Alberto’s speech, at least in my recollection, was his best ever English language promo. He was excited to be there and had things he wanted to say. There are a couple shots at WWE at the end which ought to get some attention, but tonight’s not the night where the masses are interested in thinking bad about WWE. The promo quickly established Alberto’s role in the promotion. At a lesser level of importance, so did Big Ryck.

This wasn’t the biggest action packed show, but they moved a lot of pieces around for later.

2015 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas: Maximo & Volador vs Bucanero & Terrible + Kamaitachi vs Dragon Lee

CMLL held a (randomly Egyptian themed) press conference today. There were a lot of announcements, but the biggest were the confirmation of the main matches for this year’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on March 20th

  • Volador Jr. & Maximo versus Rey Bucanero & Terrible, double hair vs double hair
  • Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi, mask vs mask.

Those matches had been indicated at least as far back as the 01/31 show. Kamaitachi, like all NJPW trainees, was always going to have a mask match around this time of year and it was just a matter of figuring out who would oppose him. The craziness of the first Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi match locked that in. Rey Bucanero was marked for a big hair loss the moment he got his big hair win over Felino in December. Somewhere along the way, CMLL decided Bucanero/Volador was not a strong enough match to headline this sort of show and added Maximo & Terrible in.

Both matches have fairly obvious outcomes. Dragon Lee & Kamaitachi could be one of the best CMLL matches of the year. The double hair match will attempt to be a great match, but it’d have to be Rey Bucanero’s first great match in a long time. (Shocker did manage to pull off that trick last year.) I’m skeptical H2L will out draw the All Elite show from this past weekend. Rush versus Shocker appeared to be a hotter feud and drew the same number as All Elite.

CMLL’s other announcements included a couple of returns. Rush will return from his leg injury on 02/20, which is quicker than the had been rumored.  Rush spoke with Sombra & Mascara at his side; the Ingobernable group had been saying they’ll expand to a four man unit when Rush is healthy to still include Marco, and now we’ll get to see if that happens. CMLL’s current women’s champion, REINA’s Syuri, will return on 03/28. Japanese women who’ve won the CMLL title in Japan tend to lose it as soon as they return to Mexico, so it’ll be interesting to see who gets set up as challenger. Probably Marcela.

CMLL also announced the return of the Parejas Increibles tournament, to start on 02/20. Assuming a regular schedule, the final will take place on 03/06. Only three teams were announced: Mistico & Ripper, La Mascara & Mephisto, and Negro Casas & La Sombra. None of them are likely to win – the Ingobernables don’t play nice with others and Ripper is Ripper – but it’s notable Mephisto & Mistico were not teamed up. This has often been a tool to set up the Anniversary main match and that seemed to be a (very early) possibility. Perhaps not. This appearance marked Ripper’s first appearance since August; he and Mistico were a team last year too. That’s also a reasonable mask match, though they couldn’t even pretend it to be an Anniversary main event. CMLL Informa added teams of Niebla Roja & Dragon Rojo (fresh off their feud) and Angel de Oro & Hechicero as two more teams. Rush was also announced as being in the tournament, but no partner was announced.

Volador Jr., Mistico and Valiente were introduced officially as the Sky Team. They’re following the Volador Jr., Mistico I/Myzteziz, and La Sombra trio that was known as the Super Sky Team; I guess the new guys are not as super. Mephisto, Ephesto, and Luiciferno were introduced as Hijo del Infierno. Hopefully someone gives Ephesto a new shirt. It took 10 months for CMLL to get around to replacing Averno.

Some of this will air on tonight’s CMLL Informa. It’s a bit insane CMLL didn’t announce the double hair match in front of the All Elite crowd, but it’s consistently insane.