Day: December 24, 2015

This promo is on CMLL’s YouTube channel, though it’s partially hidden at the moment.

In case you can’t see it, they’re advertising Super Parka versus Negro Casas and Kamaitachi versus Maximo in hair matches. (They’re two separate hair matches.) These matches have been built up over the last few weeks and one or both were expected to take place on the 01/01 show for a while. I also had a feeling that it would be an iPPV – that seems like the plan for all big Friday night shows going forward – and this confirms it. Maximo has come thru in all of his big matches in 2015, and I expect he’ll start off 2016 the same way with Kamaitachi. I have no such hope for Negro Casas versus Super Parka, which has been poor at every turn.

CMLL’s issued a press release hyping these matches, and giving an explanation for the missing Thunder/Ultimo Guerrero match. The story is both men did sign the contract for the match, but Thunder asked CMLL for more time to “prepare better” for the match and CMLL postponed the match to an indeterminate match in the future. Ultimo Guerrero would seem to have a sizable problem with this, but there’s no comment for him.

(In reality, why would they put Thunder in the match and then only figure out at the last second that he’s not good enough to have it? It’s not like he’s just now not been any good. It also seems incredibly doubtful he’ll be any good later. It does appear to be the Dos Leyendas match, which is a waste of an even bigger show.)

I believe the info on this iPPV wasn’t originally supposed to be out yet. The iPPV page lists it as canceled (with no price) and the video is now unlisted on YouTube. Announcing a show on next Friday on iPPV where there’s two apuesta matches makes it pretty hard to sell this Friday’s iPPV. The two losers on New Year’s Day will be a bigger names than whoever loses on Christmas Day, as well.

If you just want to see all the CMLL you can see, or don’t really mind paying $10 for an average show, or if you’re someone who’s life decisions has led them to writing about lucha libre on a daily basis, buying tomorrow’s iPPV is for you. If you just want to see a cage match, then maybe you’re better off skipping Friday’s show and watching the cage match on Monday. If you just want to see a big apuesta match, you’re better off waiting a week and watching a much better one. The only draw on Friday is to find of it’s Super Comando who gets unmasked or if it’s someone random.

CMLL (TUE) 12/22/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Capitan Cobra, Magia Blanca, Robin b Cholo, Mercenario, Mr. Apolo
2) Estrellita, Lluvia, Silueta b Dalys, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis
Tecnicos took 1/3, with Lluvia submitting Zeuxis. Lluvia wants a title shot. Zeuxis accepted for next week and told Lluvia to prepare well.
3) Boby Z, Kamaitachi, Skándalo b Delta, Esfinge, Rey Cometa
4) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Kráneo, Ripper
Blue Panther submitted Kraneo after Kraneo accidentally splashed Ripper.
5) Marco Corleone b Último Guerrero
Ultimo won the first fall by using the ropes. Marco rallied back to win fall two, then beat UG with his own trick to win the match.

The recap says the main event was Ultimo’s last challenge prior to facing Thunder in the hair vs mask match. So maybe it’s happening – but it’s also in the Guadalajara recap so they possible have no more idea than we do (and no one would’ve thought to cut it out.)

No shows today due to it being Christmas Eve. There never is – the idea is everyone’s going to spend tonight with their families and/or in church, so it’s not a great idea to run. (I think I’m spending the night watching Elite handheld videos by myself, which is nearly the same thing.) Tomorrow is far busier.

Angelico’s been off a few AAA shows of late, including being replaced by Fireball in Tepic over the weekend. He explained the situation on Facebook: he’s out of action with an injury, and will not be able to wrestle for six weeks. (MedioTiempo pointed this out first.) Six weeks would take him into February – past the rescheduled Guerra de Titanes, and past the last six tapings for season 2 of Lucha Underground.

Angelico was involved in Lucha Underground storylines. There’s an obvious way to extract him from them immediately if needed, though it requires finding things to do for people and changing some planned outcomes. They could also try to work around it. Ivelisse did finish out the first season of Lucha Underground with a bad injury, but she was also out for months after that. (She did a great altruistic act, but it seems unfair to hold everyone to that standard.) At least they’ve got a couple weeks to figure this out.

In AAA, Angelico’s also in the middle of things, tag team champion with Jack Evans. They were scheduled to defending the tag titles against Pentagon Jr. & Joe Lider and Averno & Chessman at the first attempt at Guerra de Titanes. It’s unknown what will be on the January version of that card, but it probably wasn’t going to be the same anyway: Pentagon and Drago were previously booked to appear in the UK that weekend, so they can’t be in Mexico City unless those bookings are canceled. AAA’s reluctant to advance storylines outside of major shows, so that tag title match will probably be kicked down to Rey de Reyes in March.

Angelico doesn’t say when the injury took place. He worked the 12/19 (Saturday) LU taping but didn’t appear on the Sunday show. He hasn’t wrestled on a show since. He wasn’t the person everyone was worried about getting hurt on those tapings (and that person is said to be good to go when they start up again) and it could’ve just as easily happened on a small show we didn’t hear about sometime after.

Another person who might not be on Guerra de Titanes card is Rey Mysterio Jr. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Rey’s contract expires at the end of the year, and he’s planning on working in AAA a lot less in 2015. AAA is hoping to get him in for the big shows, but even that’s not a sure thing. Mysterio is said to be focusing on Lucha Underground going forward, trying to stay home more and stay healthy. It’s unclear where this leaves the heavyweight championship or future plans; as recently as the Juarez TV shows, AAA was still strongly hinting towards Rey vs Mundo in a mask vs hair match, which likely was (and may still be) the plan for 2016 TripleMania main event.

It’s notable that the three big names AAA brought in over the prior year – Rey Mysterio, Myzteziz and Alberto el Patron – all were not resigned or weren’t offered a contract. That seems to mark the period as some level of failure: if people on both sides felt like it was working out, it’d still be happening. Now, guys like Fenix and Psycho Clown who had little to do in 2016 are pretty much now the lead faces. The Observer pushes the idea that the big feuds now are Mesias/Fenix, Daga/Suicide and Jack/Pentagon, which matches what they’ve done on screen but also leaves guys like Mundo and Cage without an obvious enemy. Maybe Mundo’s scaled back to only come in when Rey does as well.

The Observer says AAA is hoping to get Speedball Mike Bailey, Willie Mack and Mr. 450 in again next year. I’ve heard from other sources that Bailey is not expecting to work much more AAA going forward.

For what it’s worth, Arena Naucalpan is advertising renting out it’s arena and says it has room for 1900 people. That’s a little smaller capacity than we’ve had previously.

PWInsider says Lucha Underground wrestlers are being told they may need to get out (or rearrange) their WrestleMania weekend bookings to be free to work Lucha Underground shows instead. That would be the first non-Temple shows for the promotion. The report is clear that no shows have been set yet but that this is a plan LU is working on. Lucha Underground running WrestleMania in Texas made sense from the moment WWE announced they were going to be there a couple of years ago, but getting a venue anywhere near WWE’s seems to require the indie groups a year of lead time. Putting something together in four months or less, as their first outside shows, is going to be a challenge. I’m a bit skeptical of this coming together, but, when it comes to Lucha Underground, that usually means it’s going to happen.

The one thing that might be in Lucha Underground’s favor is they did have some conversation and work about moving the entire show to Texas during the period before Season 2 was greenlit. Maybe they’ve just got a spreadsheet somewhere with all the numbers on where they’d run and how much it’d cost and decided they might as well use the info.

(This might be the thing that’d actually get me to go to WrestleMania.)

In an interview with some of the cage match participants, the Panther says he’s staying in the cage as long as Super Comando does, not wanting to miss his change to get his rival’s mask. Super Comando plans on leaving The Panther totally decimated. Fuego also says he’ll put up his hair in Puebla should he lose his mask on Christmas Day. I wonder what happened with Lestat that he didn’t end up in the Puebla cage match instead of Fuego working two of them.

Keira notes most people can’t imagine a independent luchadora winning a CMLL championship, but feels that’s mostly because it’s rare a CMLL luchador would actually put a title on the line outside of CMLL. Keira points out she’s faces Marcela before and actually defeated here, so she’s not intimidated going into tomorrow’s title match on the Chairo II show. In another interview, Keira says she hopes to join CMLL and wrestle in Arena Mexico in 2016. (They haven’t used indie luchadoras on the Elite shows, but she’d be an obvious pick if they do.) She’s also looking to face Io Shirai, Star Fire and Magnifica.

This is from weeks ago, but I’m just noticing now: 126F had an interview with Santo Jr. (Nieto el Santo), who says he’s currently 178 cm and 94 kg. (5′ 10″/207 lb.) He feels that size will cause him to wrestle as a heavyweight, and he expects to start doing that in 2016. He feels his style will more resemble the original El Santo than his father.

DTU says they’ll be back in Arena Aficion on New Year’s Day, with a Violento Jack versus Miedo Extremo #1 contenders match. Miedo Extremo says he never thought he’d lose his mask on the DTU Anniversary show.

Pagano says a 12/27 show at Ciudad Juarez’s Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos (with a Juarez vs CMLL/Laguna theme) is canceled, but they’ll be running a free show at a different venue instead.

RobViper has highlights of 06/28 AAA

Segunda Caida has random CMLL reviews.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Pagano and Nicho will have a match on 01/17 that they’re teasing will be career versus career.

Apolo Valdes looks back at the year of lucha libre.