CMLL (FRI) 05/15/2015 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Hombre Bala Jr. & Súper Halcón Jr. b Akuma & Espiritu Negro
2) Estrellita & Marcela b Dalys & Tiffany
3) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Máximo b Felino, Negro Casas, Thunder
4) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
Ultimo kicked the middle rope to foul Rey Escorpion as he stepped thru them, and got away with it for the win.
5) Dragon Lee b Mistico, Volador Jr., Titán, The Panther, Fuego, Mephisto, Niebla Roja, Bárbaro Cavernario, Virus, Luciferno, Kamaitachi [Leyenda de Plata]
sides were rudos vs tecnicos. Elimination order: Fuego, The Panther, Niebla Roja, Volador & Mephisto (double elimination?), Kamaitachi, Titan, Cavernario, and Luciferno, leaving brothers Mistico & Dragon Lee versus Virus. Virus upset Mistico by submitting him to a motocicleta, but Dragon Lee got the last win (and beat Virus again) by German suplexing Virus three times. He faces Negro Casas next week.
There’s a balcony fan cam of the main event up here.
For the few people who pay attention to CMLL results, Dragon Lee winning this tournament is absolutely fascinating. Dragon Lee was not a favorite because CMLL usually likes to spread out the wins (among their vast roster), but Dragon Lee’s now won a mask, a title and is on the verge of winning a major tournament all in the space of about 10 weeks. CMLL hasn’t gotten this behind someone since – I’m not sure, maybe when Mascara Dorada had four belts at once? That’d be remarkable all alone, but their recap says Dragon Lee succeeded where older brother Mistico failed. Dragon Lee II is a much better luchador than the ex-Dragon Lee I at this moment in time, but CMLL’s devotion to the Mistico gimmick has meant that character is treated like one of the best wrestlers in the promotion while Dragon Lee is treated like someone who will get there in the future. The future was last night – or maybe next Friday. This programming of Mistico is the most psychofrenic aspect of a generally inconsistent promotion, so he could just the be booked as the Anniversary main event. That finish at least suggests some people know better. Virus, normally one of the first guys out, is also pretty astounding. Seeing talent and effort rewarded is strange and disorienting.
Unless next week’s match completely falls apart, Dragon Lee is also going to be the 2015 Luchador Of The Year (Thru Five Months). The Kamaitachi mask match, the lightning match earlier, the match with Virus, this match, and various great trios appearances add up to a resume no one’s approached. It’s a kind of meaningless so far, since all the lucha events people will end up remember happening will be taking place in the next four months, but Dragon Lee’s got a big lead. And he’s doing all this while working thru an apparent injury. (Protip: if someone is worried about Cavernario not having a long career and doesn’t say anything about the guy who’s had a leg bandaged since his mask match and makes it look like he falls on his head every match, then that’s a person who’s not actually watching much CMLL.)
Fuego en el Ring has an interview with Dragon Lee about his early career so far. The highlight is Dragon Lee’s brief boxing career. He had done amateur wrestling growing up so, when he got into his first boxing clinch, he instinctively suplexed his opponent. It was that moment Dragon Lee realized he should be a luchador.
Dragon Lee winning Leyenda de Plata not the biggest story in the family. A story broke yesterday in Reforma (subscriber only, but it was reprinted elsewhere) that Rush is under investigation for attacking a security worker in Arena Mexico. The attack took place back on April 7th. Rush has not been charged with anything at this point, but they’re looking into an assault charge (which would include jail time at the maximum level, but they haven’t even charged him with anything yet so there’s no telling.)
The alleged victim’s story is he stopped a woman from entering Arena Mexico on that Tuesday via the entrance in the parking lot. That woman was Rush’s wife, but the security guard – Julio Cesar Juarez Najera – said he was told only to let people in who were on an approved list and Rush’s wife was not on that list. Someone called Rush, and the security guard agreed to make an exception to let his wife thru.
A few minutes later, the security guard claims Rush confronted the security guard and berated him for giving his wife trouble> (The Rush quotes the security guard gives – “you’ve always been a [expletive expletive]”) – suggest there’s some history between them beyond this one experience.) The guard says he was struck in the head by Rush and lost consciousness. Arturo Beristan – Hijo del Gladiador, CMLL trainer – is said to have stopped Rush from doing any more.
There’s more to this story than the attack. The security guard’s boss took him to a hospital affiliated with CMLL. (CMLL boated of having agreements with two local hospitals after Perro died, this was one of them.) The doctor there said the security guard only needed some pain medication and hot compresses and he’d be fine. The security guard also met with CMLL bosses Salvador (Chavo) Lutteroth and Francisco (Paco) Alonso the next day, who promised to punish Rush if the security guard would not press charges and not visit another hospital. The guard was still hurting two days later and went to a different hospital, and those doctors diagnosed the guard to also have a concussion, cervical sprain and a possible fracture. Rush is the only one mentioned as being charged, but the guard Juarez is also alleging a (botched) coverup conspiracy between CMLL and their hospital. That part would actually worry me a bit if I was a CMLL wrestler.
CMLL & Rush haven’t commented. They probably won’t, because they never do on anything, but this story did get picked up in enough places that someone might feel comfortable asking them about it. Rush did appear to be suspended for about 3 weeks in April. He disappeared from CMLL cards starting with the 11th, 4 days after the alleged attack. (Rush wasn’t on the actual April 7th card, though he could’ve been there for other reasons – his brother was in the main event.) That’s about as close to a public admission Rush did something bad – whether it was something that leads to a criminal case is unknown at this point. It may not also go anywhere; this story coming out six weeks after the attack (and five weeks after the guard realized something was wrong) suggests a hope the publicity will spur someone onto action. I dunno if that’s a bigger/better payoff from CMLL & Rush or an advancement in the case by the police.
Rush did not have a match last night, but is scheduled back in action in Arena Coliseo tonight. teaming with Mascara & Sombra versus TRT in a bigger than usual star power Sabado Retros main event. He’s also among many people booked twice on Sunday, in Arena Mexico and Arena Neza.
ChilangaMask has a loaded show tonight in Arena Roberto Paz in Guadalajara. The spotlight match is a first time ever (maybe only time ever?) Rey Horus vs Aeroboy match. There’s also a Black Terry vs Caifan vs Satanico triangle match and local standout Saturno taking out DF standout Impulso. Black Terry Jr. mentioned he was traveling to this show, so he will likely have those matches for sale. The promotion moves to Coacalco on Sunday, with Rey Horus taking on Flamita on that show while Aeroboy switches over to face Caifan. Ciudad Juarez standout flyer Aereo is on both shows, the second with Puebla rudo Rey Apocalispis against local Alas de Acero & Impulso.
The ex-AAA show is also today.
This week’s AAA TV is already up.
All Elite announced they’ll be back at Arena Mexico on June 14th, another Sunday. Matches announced so far are Hernandez & Heddi Karoui (back in Mexico) versus Marco Corleone & La Mascara and Atlantis & Octagon teaming up against Fuerza Guerrera & Ultimo Guerrero. On the last Arena Mexico All Elite show, that matches featuring indy talent were cut out of the TV version of the show but there were plenty of fan cams of the show on YouTube.
Hijo del Santo explained he’ll never do the mask match with Blue Demon Jr. because everyone would be too sad about one of them losing. A hero.
SuperLuchas looks back at the shows of May 15, 1988.
DJ Spectro has the third part of the bio on Alberto Munoz, writes about Dr. Wagner & El Halcon vs Los Gemelos Diablos and posts video on Solar II vs Enfemero Jr.
AYM writes about Rene Guajarado.
Wikipuebla has a story on the history of Arena Puebla, including talking to trainees (listed by real first name).
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 05/22/2015 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16 & Pequeño Violencia
2) Pegasso, Stigma, Tritón vs Artillero, Disturbio, Súper Comando
3) Goya Kong, Lluvia, Silueta vs Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora
4) Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Niebla Roja vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
5) Negro Casas vs Dragon Lee [Leyenda de Plata, final]
6) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Thunder, Último Guerrero
The finish of last night’s match was UG messing with Rey Escorpion, so now they’re doing a rudos vs rudos match without Ultimo Guerrero even with Ultimo Guerrero on the card. I’m not advocating for Gran Guerrero, but couldn’t they have done the same finish with him if UG just had to be in the main event? Presumably Rey Escorpion will be making multiple appearances on the night.
You know if I didn’t know CMLL better, I’d say they were setting up Mistico Dos to turn on his brother.
Or Dragon Lee joining the Ingobernables group. Then Mistico vs Ingobernables, so people will finally cheer for Mistico again.
They probably still would not cheer Dos-stico. Dragon Lee developed more organically without being jumped to the head of the line.
The crowd was pretty happy to see Mistico lose last night. Or any time really. He’s not any good and even the average fan knows it.
Whoever decided the elimination order last night should probably be fired though. What did they think would happen with Virus against two brothers? He turned into the automatic tecnico when they kept doing double teams on him and he kept kicking out of their moves while they kept saving each other. Silly.
Really good match though even though the handheld cuts out certain stuff. Aside from Titan’s slip everything was hit perfect. The wacky elimination order kept things more interesting than your average Torneo where guys are dropping like flies in order of position on the card.
I wonder if Virus could be Dragon Lee’s “Averno”, the opponent that make him look like a billion pesos and helps make him a top name? Although Kamaitachi seems to play that role well too. Cannot wait to see what he can do against Negro Casas.
And it was a very fun, well executed cibernetico Volador/Maximo out about mid way through really signaled that this would not just be the “same old”, which I appreciated.
Hmmm Mephisto takes Volador Jr’s hair over the summer, Dragon Lee takes Mephisto’s mask at the Anniversario?
Wait, did Negro Casas win something? Why is DL facing him?
Negro Casas won the previous Leyenda de Plata, and so gets to defend it against at Dragon Lee.
@Radioactiveman I would think Mistico joining the Ingobernales would make him the single most hated unit in Mexico,