CMLL continues the Universal tournament tonight, with eight luchadors meeting in unsatisfying matches to determine who gets to face Ultimo Guerrero next week. Valiente & Ephesto have no shot. There are interesting stories to be told if Mephsito, Maximo or Mistico make the final, but all are unlikely. The second finalists is one of Atlantis, Volador or Negro Casas, in order of likelihood, though circumstances suggest Atlantis is the heavy favorite.
CMLL’s preview says the Shockercito/Demus hair match will take place next week, along with the Universal final. (Maybe they mentioned this on Informa?) This happens to be a day before WWE comes to town, which might also be the explanation of why they held this tournament off so long. Atlantis is CMLL’s go to guy to draw a big crowd, so he’s likely facing Ultimo Guerrero next week. This week, Shockercito teams with Stukita against Pequeno Nitro & Demus. Other matches on the show include the Ingoberanbles facing the strange team of Super Parka, Angel de Oro and Brazo de Plata and Heddi Karaoui making his debut in the tercera.
CMLL will continue to air on clarorsports.com, but they’re saying it will only be viewable in Mexico; everyone else will be blocked like last week. We’ve had some success with the HolaVPN app to get around that block in past times. It did not work last week, but there are other apps and other ways of doing it. (I know people had success with Tunnelbear last week, but the free version didn’t include a Mexico option when I tried it last Friday. You may want to try something else.)
All Elite announced their 10/25 Arena Mexico show will include Damian 666, Bestia 666 and Halloween. They also say they’ll have a big announcement on a ex-WWE luchador appearing on the show which will be made immediately after CMLL’s show ends tonight. That sort of implies someone new is showing up, but it may also just be a counter-WWE thing.
AAA is also busy tonight, running their annual taping at the fair in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo. Taping is listed as starting at 9. The main event is Alberto, Fenix, Psycho Clown versus Mesias, Pentagon Jr. and Texano Junior. Alberto isn’t on the next couple of tapings, so maybe they’ll set up a Guerra de Titanes direction while they have him, or maybe he’ll just be a bit in the background. There’s more interviews talking up Fenix versus Mesias; it does seem like a match they might do on Guerra de Titanes. It doesn’t seem like they’d be going in this direction if not for Lucha Underground.
This show continues the run of shows with a lot of mystery people. The mystery people in the opener are probably Lady Shani (teaming with Argos & Mamba) versus Maravilla (teaming with Pimpinela and Hamburguesa.) The mystery man in the semimain – teaming with Lider & Fantasma against Angelico, Jack & Drago – is not totally certain. It’s likely Taurus, but it wasn’t completely clear if Taurus was meant to be a tecnico or a rudo. He was just a victorious bull guy. I’ve got a pretty good guess about who Taurus’ might have been in a previous life; he stayed away from doing any trademark spots in the battle royal, but he’ll probably reveal himself a little more in this match if he’s the one in it.
AAA’s Twitter announced a list of upcoming tapings earlier this week. It didn’t include Nuevo Laredo on the 19th. It turns out it didn’t include Nuevo Laredo because the taping has been moved to 11/02. Why AAA didn’t just say that remains a mystery. The local Cantu promotion had stopped pushed the tickets the last week, so this may have been something in the works for a little while. Nuevo Laredo was the third day of a three show tour; rescheduling it makes the show more costly to run, so there must’ve been something significant going on to change it. The card is still listed as the same, but moving a card back two weeks usually messes with the availability for someone. It’ll still air in the same order on TV; they were going to be way far ahead and now will be less so.
The Ciudad Juarez promoter says the AAA TV taping on 11/15 will have Alberto & Misterio versus Myzteziz & Averno in the main event. That seems like a big match to randomly have on a TV taping, though a good one to test to see if fans will cross the border in large numbers to see an AAA show. It also seems like one that can only happen if Alberto and Myzteziz have worked out whatever it was that ticked off Alberto a few weeks back. There’s been no public sign that they have (and that’s one where making a show of getting along would be a great way to get people to stop talking about it.) We’ll see.
The other big issue with that as a main event is Lucha Underground is supposed to start taping that weekend and at least some of those guys would be expected to be in Los Angeles. It could be that they’ll juggle around the matches to get what they need on Saturday. It could be there just won’t be matches or any open taping to the public. On his podcast Wednesday, Court Bauer said the November shows were pre-production work (not live events). Season 1 Lucha Underground seemed to take care off all the backstage & vignettes in the couple of days prior to the tapings or during that weekend if needed, but never brought in people for a weekend without running shows. Still, if there’s no ticket announcement for November, that’s what is going on. It also kind of sounded like there was only going to be that one trip to LA in November, so the first new episodes in front of a live crowd might not be until December. Bauer also said he heard the plan was for less episodes this year (39 last), with a big picture idea of having a shorter break between ‘seasons’.
ChilangaMask announced Toscano & Decnnis (w/Guapito) versus Arez & Impulso for the 10/25 ChilangaMask show in Coacalco. This might be Arez’ best chance at getting thru a mask without his knee taking him out.
El Pancracio has many interviews from the Todo x el Todo show, including Heavy Metal saying he’s been waiting for a match with Hijo del Santo for 20 years and Cielito explains he was named after the song.
Police have decided Guerrero Negro Jr. was shot because he owed the wrong person money on a gambling debt.
Yo Deportes interviews Chicago luchadors Astro Sound and Vengador del Futuro.
Lucha Libre in Japan
Silueta & Syuri won the REINA tag team titles on their show earlier today.
Lineups
TXT (SAT) 10/17/2015 Gimnasio Miguel Hidalgo, Puebla, Puebla
1) Limbo & Templario vs Coloso & Principe Christian
2) Rossy Moreno vs Lady Apache
3) Cien Caras Jr. & Rayman vs Cielito & Huracan Ramirez
4) Angel Blanco Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs El Hijo Del Santo & LA Park
Listed as a TV taping, no idea where. Santo and Blanco are going to have one match while the other chaos goes on. Only four matches, and 600 pesos for ringside.
It’s completely obvious who Taurus was before because there is just one AAA wrestler and former CMLL wrestler who has such a big mole on his chest. ;)