shocking Pikachu loss, Mr. Niebla back, Sombra/Atlantis thoughts

photo by Black Terry Jr.

CMLL (TUE) 08/18/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Gallo, Magnum, Vaquero Jr. b Furia Roja, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
2) Canelo Casas, Disturbio, Metálico b Hombre Bala Jr., Omar Brunetti, Súper Halcón Jr.
Omar wiped out Metalico with a tope, but Disturbio & Canelo beat Halcon & Bala.
3) Amapola, La Seductora, Zeuxis b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta
Rudas took 2/3
4) Atlantis b Ripper
Atlantis won clean in the third
5) Mr. Niebla, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero b Dragon Lee, La Máscara, Volador Jr.
The returning Niebla beat Volador via foul. La Mascara replaced Mistico (TV appearance?), Niebla Roja replaced Negro Casas (still injured).

Mr. Niebla’s ‘break’ was just two weeks this time. Mistico was posting photos of him on a TV show, so that might have been the reason he missed on Tuesday. Omar & Metalico are matched up again next week so they’re still feuding despite not being involved in the finish.

Negro Casas is listed in Arena Mexico tomorrow and in Puebla on Monday, but he said he’s out one more week.

IWRG FILL (WED) 08/19/2015 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Estrellas del Ring, Mano a Mano, The Gladiatores]
1) Diosa Atenea & Sexy Girl vs Lady Drago & Lilith Dark
2) Acero, Adrenalina, Guerrero 2000 b Blue Monsther, Omega, Voltar
3) Aramis b Yoruba, Aeroman, Enigma, Voraz
Aramis beat Aeroman. Good match.
4) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Araña de Plata, Chapulin, Fresero Jr., Kanon, Shadow Boy, Sniper b Atomic Fly, Espada De Plata, Fly Star, Galaxy, Keiser Drago, Marduck Jr., Salchichita, Toxin Boy[Copa Higher Power]
FILL (Alas de Acero) vs ZEUS (Toxin Boy). Aramis is listed as working twice. Arena de Plata beat Toxin Boy with a legdrop, though team Zeus claimed Toxin Boy kicked out before three.
5) Black Terry, Dr. Cerebro, Eternus b Atomic Star, Canis Lupus, Eterno and Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Pikachu [losers advance]
Debut of Eternus. Eterno was annoyed by someone using something so close to his own name and went after him the match, but it was Eternu’s team which escaped the match
6) Atomic Star, Canis Lupus, Eterno b Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Pikachu [mask, capitans mask]
Atomic Star and Pikachu were drawn as captains. Both teams were brawling outside and almost all got counted out, but Eterno sent Atomic Star in the ring just in time. Pikachu was unmasked as Marco Antonio Guillen Soto, 30 years old, 8 years a wrestler, from Naucalpan. He’s the same Pikachu who was wrestling here as that name and Guizmo from 2009-2012.

Pickahu was a cult favorite back when he was a regular. It’s likely he’s been working as some other character; that’s been the trend for mask losses on the lesser Naucalpan shows.

There’s not a lot of follow up to the mask/match match announcement. It seems to have caught everyone by surprise. There no sign of any plan of this match happening this year until August 5th, when CMLL totally changed a Friday night main event and put Atlantis & Sombra together in what would end up as the first build towards this match. CMLL seemed content to stick with Thunder and Ultimo Guerrero in the main event until that point, and were even still building towards that match on the same week as Sombra/Atlantis started

Three theories

  1. Thunder is unable to wrestle for longer than they expected and they needed something else. No one’s explained what’s going on, but he’s still not back in the ring and still not scheduled on anything (except the one Guadalajara card a month from now, but that can be changed.) At the same time, there are always other options CMLL can come up with which aren’t Sombra or Atlantis losing their masks. They wouldn’t do well, but Thunder/UG wasn’t going to do super.
  2. Either Atlantis or La Sombra is leaving CMLL immediately. Atlantis has more than earned a retirement (and has said in the past that he’d retire if he was unmasked.) La Sombra had a WWE tryout in the past, and wouldn’t need to keep this mask before going there. There’s no news about any new association with him and WWE, this is just examining every possibility, and Atlantis seems like the type not to suddenly announce he was retiring.
  3. CMLL either wants or needs the gigantic gate they’ve gotten from the last two Anniversary show. Atlantis/Sombra might be the only match they have right now which could do that gate (Maybe some combination with Rush.) CMLL making decisions because they want to make the most money possible does not seem like CMLL, and it doesn’t explain why they only decided to do that at the last second – it’s not like they just figured out Thunder/UG wasn’t going to be big, I’d hope – but having that one big night pays for a lot of 10% turnout Tuesday shows.

The third possibility fits with the sudden return of LA Park & Dr. Wagner Junior. If CMLL and those guys can continue doing business, that’s two more gigantic gates down the road. Good business really the only reason to bring them back. Businesses making decisions to create better business should seem like normal operations, but this is unusual for the home of low overhead and long lived grudges. Maybe they’ll return AAA’s calls after Park & Wagner are done.

I’m going to be the angriest person ever if they change this match.

CMLL posted video of the press conference here.  It seems like all their livestreams are now just getting quickly archived on the website soon after they’re completed. LuchaWorld has a recap.

KronoSport has a photo of the mask versus mask contract. It looks like a contract!

LA Park said on CMLL Informa that he would debut next Friday, the same day as Wagner. Announcing their returns at a press conference made the most sense, but it would’ve been hilarious if next week’s poster just showed up on the website with Wagner & Park’s names on it. We would’ve been confused for days. LA Park said there was a betting poll on when he’d leave CMLL last time.

AAA announced another Ring & RockstAAArs Hard Rock Hotel show for September 13 in Riviera Maya. These have been TV tapings in the past; it’s not explicitly said this one will be, but I’d imagine so. It’d fit in as the 09/19 TV. Hopefully only one week, because it’s usually only four matches and the shows are packed with filler when they run them over two weeks.

Tornado Negro II took Chico Che’s hair in Tijuana.

Black Terry Jr. has footage of Trauma I being stitched back together after his match with Pagano.

RobViper has a music video of 04/03/15 AAA.

Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground episode 37.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

SuperLuchas look back at shows on August 19th has a great confusing story. On August 19, 1956, Monterrey’s Rolando Vera defeated El Santo for the NWA Middleweight Championship in something that reads like a career making win. Except, a few days later, the Mexico City commission invalidated the title change, declaring Santo was too tired from defending the title three times that month and Vera had previously lost in two previous challenges so he shouldn’t have gotten a third. They tried to give the title back to Santo, but Santo said no. They held a rematch in Mexico City two months later, where Vera won the title officially. I need to know more about that, but it reads like a ‘Dusty finish’ decades before Dusty.

Drago is doing an autograph signing on August 29th in Los Angeles, adjacent to his appearance in PWG

Aero Boy is headed to Chicago on September 13th.

Super Comando shows off his La Bazooka hold.

Nino Hamburugesa talks about his match in Puebla.

Rayo de Jalisco said his fellow wrestlers told him he should go for 25 years of wrestling and then retire. He notes he’s still around after 40. I think they were right.

A short film on SLP’s Rayo de Plata won an award.

ChilangaMask says it’s going to start using movie themes for shows. (They might have been kidding.)

Lady Apache will be named Queen of the Firefighters. Lucha libre is weird.