Toryumon Mexico (SAT) 05/23/2015 Arena México [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
Dragonmania X
1) Maquiavelico b ?
Neither recap catches the name of the loser, but both note he suffered a leg injury.
2) Daisuke Hanaoka & Douki b Fiero & Imposible
15 minute time limit
3) Keisuke Okuda b Eddy French
10 minute time limit
4) Diosa Atenea, Io Shirai, Mayu Iwatani, Mima Shimoda b India Mazahua, India Sioux, Maligna, Xena
20 minute time limit. Diosa Atenea replaced Kairi Hijo.
5) Super Ciudadano b Patan, Principe Orion, Hijo de Kendo, El Hijo del Medico Asesino, Hijo del Signo, Epydemius, Pantera I, Magnus, Piel Roja, O.t. Navarro, J.c. Fernandez [dragon rumble]
Ciudadano defeated usual rival Patan.
6) Akebono & Máximo b Arkángel de la Muerte, Hijo del Signo, Nitro
45 minute time limit. Hijo del Signo replaced Skandalo.
7) Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero b Atlantis, La Máscara, Marco Corleone
45 minute time limit
8) Último Dragón b Tiger Ali [mask, hair]
60 minute time limit. Ultimo Dragon won, of course. Arkange. OT Fernandez, JC Navarro all got involved to try and cost Dragon the match, but Marco and Akebono made the save. Tiger Ali tried to get away with his hair, but could not.
A typical DragonMania show. The thing that got the most talk wasn’t any of the matches, but Magnus wearing face paint and imitating Pentagon Jr. Pentagon, Fenix and Taya made note of it, accusing it being a(nother) instance of CMLL ripping off AAA. Magnus said it was a homage. Plenty of people jumped in on Magnus on Instagram, but Magnus also looked like he didn’t care all that much.
This has been normally a noon show and that’s what I had stuck in my head, but it was an afternoon start. No idea how they all got over to the Lucha Fan Fest.
CMLL (SAT) 05/23/2015 Arena Coliseo
1) Camorra b Bengala
2) Robin DQ El Rebelde
Rebelde foul for the DQ.
3) Cancerbero b Oro Jr.
4) Tritón b Okumura
Triton put an end to Okumura’s winning streak.
5) Tiger b Blue Panther Jr.
6) Ephesto & Luciferno b Ángel de Oro & Fuego
7) Kamaitachi, Pólvora, Terrible DQ Mistico, The Panther, Titán
Polvora replaced Shocker on Monday. The Panther replaced Titan (injury in Puebla.) Kamaitachi pulled Dragon Lee’s mask for the DQ.
Just another Saturday show.
CMLL (SUN) 05/24/2015 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Astral & Eléctrico b Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus b Hombre Bala Jr., Soberano Jr., Súper Halcón Jr.
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther b Felino, Puma, Tiger
4) Dragon Lee, Mistico, Valiente b Dragón Rojo Jr., Kamaitachi, Pólvora
Polvora & Dragon Rojo replaced Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero on Monday.
5) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Último Guerrero b La Máscara, Máximo, Naito
Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero replaced Dragon Rojo & Shocker on Monday. UG snuck in a foul on Naito for the win.
6) Negro Casas b Volador Jr.
Casas picks up his second singles in three days, beating Volador with his own backcracker to set up a title match next week.
CMLL pushed this as being a great show. Volador and Sobreano did stage dives. It is kind of problematic if it takes the other promotion having a big show for everyone here too work harder than usual, just reenforces the belief that nothing is going happen here if they’re left to their own devices. Attendance looked typically bad.
AAA TV (SUN) 05/24/2015 Palacio de los Deportes, Distrito Federal [AAA]
Lucha World Cup
1) Alberto el Patrón, Myzteziz, Rey Mysterio Jr. b Atsushi Kotoge, Taiji Ishimori, Takayama [quarterfinal]
Mistica on Ishimori
2) ACH, Brian Cage, Moose b Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown, Texano Jr. [quarterfinal]
finish went awry here, with it appearing ROH-LU had won (Cage powerbomb on Texano), AAA had won (Texano beating Cage) and a time limit draw all within the same ten seconds. They evetually ruled time limit draw, with Cage and Texano replaying the last minutes of the match in a quick overtime, won by Cage.
3) Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Solar I b Kenzo Suzuki, Masamune, Tiger Mask III [quarterfinal]
Demon submitted Masamune.
4) Johnny Mundo, Ken Anderson, Matt Hardy b Angélico, Drew Galloway, El Mesías [quarterfinal]
Another time limit draw, with Mundo beating Galloway with a slightly misaimed Fin de Mundo in the first OT. Fans were toughest on this match, since there was no Mexican team, but the luchadors got them into it by the end
5) Alberto el Patrón, Myzteziz, Rey Mysterio Jr. b ACH, Brian Cage, Moose [semifinal]
Alberto was stuck in the ring with the ROH-LU guys for a long time near the end, but eventually submitted Moose to the armbar with about 40 seconds left.
6) Johnny Mundo, Ken Anderson, Matt Hardy b Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Solar I
shortest match of the tournament, with Mundo beating solar.
7) ACH, Brian Cage, Moose b Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Solar I [third place]
They jumped straight to OT rules; show was well over 3 hours by this point. ACH nearly beat Demon with a 450 splash but time ran out in OT1. Cage beat Wagner clean in OT2, and Wagner was stretchered out with a neck injury.
8) Alberto el Patrón, Myzteziz, Rey Mysterio Jr. b Johnny Mundo, Ken Anderson, Matt Hardy [final]
time limit draw, then OT draws with Myteziz/Anderson and Alberto/Matt. Rey Misterio Jr. won it by beating Mundo via top rope headscissors roll with about 20 seconds left. Rey dedicated the win to Perro Aguayo Jr.
Angelico was awarded the best dive of the night for his over the ringpost tope con giro. The Dream Team trio won best trio, and Rey Mysterio won MVP. (There was no announcement of hold of the night.) The top three teams all got medals.
Show ran over 4 hours, around 4 hours 20 minutes with the award presentations. The English language feed seemed to end before those awards. I had hope for a non-tournament match getting some other AAA wrestlers on this show, but it would’ve been a bad move to make it any longer. As it was, it could’ve used some time taken out if it. Almost all of the matches went to the time limit or close to it. Some of the five minute overtime periods felt like they were resting for two minutes to build up three minutes of near falls – maybe just make them 3 minutes next time? (The one OT which didn’t feel that way was Cage/Texano, but that one was obviously an improv thing – Konnan’s only appearance on the show was to rush out and fix everything after the original finish had gone wrong.) This was pushed as the first in an annual event, but it was also an experiment and they’re going surely going to refine it they keep going.
Upper regions of the Palacio looked empty in parts, but it still felt like a huge crowd. (Maybe 15K?) There was ton of Victoria promotion; hope they got their money’s worth.
ROH-LU’s matches versus MEX AAA and the Dream Team were among the best matches. Rest of the World vs TNA was good as well, and the main event had all the drama. Crowd went nuts for Rey Mysterio winning and everyone really seemed to buy into the ceremony and the pageantry of the show. Everything they did made it come off like a big important event and the wrestlers (some of whom had really long nights) seemed impressed by the occasion. Mundo & Cage are already coming back, with ACH and Galloway standing out as well. Wagner might have earned himself a return appearance at TripleMania by agreeing to the clean loss. (Wagner’s injury was a clear sympathy move – poor Striker had to scramble to cover when the slow motion replay exposed how Wagner didn’t take the trauma they were selling.)
I stuck with the English language feed for 99% of the telecast. There were early problems with both sets of announcers being audible on that feed, which were solved by the start of the first match. They never did get the crowd turned up as much as it was on the Spanish feed, and the ring announce and backstage interviews were inaudible. There were a couple of short video drops, but nothing major – it was slightly better than Rey de Reyes. (I did see scattered reports of other people having problems with the feed, especially when it came to switching to the Spanish language, but most people seemed to be OK.)
Striker and Vampiro were about what you’d expect, with an unedited and unfiltered Vampiro going to some strange places over a four hour program. The Vampiro highlight of the night was dropping some strong language ripping Piero after Piero decided to count the clock down instead of a final pinfall in the Rest of the World/TNA-ROH match. (Vampiro also did the Monsoon bit of repeatedly ripping the wrestlers for not doing things he surely would’ve done, which only seems to get over the announcer.) Striker did his research and is probably as adept at handling Vampiro as anyone could be. Jeff Jarrett joined the announcers for the semifinal. He also did his homework, but the broadcast turned into distracting promo for GFW for a while. They also did a very brief Jarrett/Alberto incident, but went nowhere with it here. Leo Riano, Adolfo Morales and Hugo Savinovich were the Spanish language announcers, with Jesus Zuniga moved to ring announcer/master of ceremony duty for the night and Arturo Rivera put in the jury of luchadors voting on the awards. I’m told Leo Riano repeated his previous racist behavior when ACH & Moose were in the ring. I’m sure he’ll apologize for it, then do it again the next time.
AAA could’ve gone towards using this tournament to build up their big matches this summer, or they could’ve gone towards building up this tournament as something meaningful itself. They went with the latter, and the Lucha World Cup came off as a big event that you’d like to see every year. There were little things (like Cage taking out Wagner and Rey & Mundo) clearly fitting in with where AAA’s headed, but it came off more as if the idea is to build the Lucha World Cup as a new tentpole event for AAA. And to that end, it seemed very sucessful – they got the big happy finish people will remember, they got fans and media treating it like a big event, and the international wrestlers all took it seriously. This seems like a very good night for AAA.
ChilangaMask Virus vs Caifan for their 06/21 Coacalco show.
There was a new +LuchaTV show this week.
Rob Viper has highlights of 01/30/2015 AAA
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.
Segunda Caida has 2 CMLL matches worth watching from February and March.
Makabre and Rayman won the Jalisco tag team championship in Arena Roberto Paz.
Lucha Libre in Japan
05/23 NJPW: Ryusuke Taguchi [1-1] beat Barbaro Cavernario [1-1] in the Best of Super Juniors. You don’t need to go out of your way to watch this one.
Lineups
CMLL (SUN) 05/31/2015 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia
2) Oro Jr., Súper Halcón Jr., Tritón vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Okumura, Virus
3) Blue Panther, Super Porky, Titán vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Ripper
4) Dragon Lee, Mistico, Valiente vs Ephesto, Kamaitachi, Mephisto
5) La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Naito vs Euforia, Thunder, Último Guerrero
6) Volador Jr. © vs Negro Casas [NWA WELTER]
Volador’s 3rd defense.
Hey, if you missed this afternoon’s show, you get the same show next week. That’s nice of them.
CMLL (SUN) 05/31/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Alteño & Explosivo vs El Yaqui & Gran Kenut
2) Frezzer & Star Black vs El Chakal & Thunder Boy
3) El Divino, Flash II, Virgo vs Furia Roja, Infierno, Rey Trueno
4) Silueta vs Chik Tormenta [super libre]
5) Esfinge, Forastero, Gallo, Magnum vs El Cuatrero, Espectrum, Ráfaga, Sansón
You can tell this is being booked locally because a) the women’s singles match has a rematch and b) there’s an atomicos match.