FantasticaMania Day 3, La Justicia, Maximo/Bucanero

Puma

LLDLJ (SUN) 01/17/2016 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México[+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (highlights),Estrellas del Ring]
1) Ludark Shaitan b Keira, Adelita
Batillon del Muerte’s Adelita was added to the match and actually beat Keira before Ludark beat her.
2) Arez & Impulso b Metaleón & Mr. Leo
3) Brole Extrem & Prayer b Emperador Azteca & Golden Magic
Azteca gave the Puebla rudos credit for the win while Golden Magic stormed over.
4) Mini Multifacético DCOR Belial Liga de la Justicia-Belial VS Mini Multifacetico (posted by RUDO VISION)
money thrown in
5) Stigma DQ Skándalo Liga de la Justicia-Skándalo VS Stigma (posted by RUDO VISION)
Skandalo unmasked Stigma for the DQ, then asked for a rematch.
6) Jeque & Judas el Traidor b Bobby Jack & Toro Bill Jr. Liga de la Justicia-Judas El Traidor y El Jeque VS Toro Bill Jr. y Bobby Jack (posted by RUDO VISION)
7) Herodes Jr. DQ Siki Osama [bull terrier] Liga de la Justicia-Herodes Jr. VS Siky Osama (Bull Terry match) (posted by RUDO VISION)
Siki replaced Misterioso for a bloody chain match. Herodes won by grabbing Siki’s leg to foul the referee, who then pulled Siki away from the fourth corner to give Herodes the win by DQ.

They didn’t do as well as ChilangaMask/Lucha Memes in the same venue and had a lot of inconclusive finishes for the first show in a new place, but the main event sounds like it was interesting.

CMLL (TUE) 01/19/2016 Arena México [thecubsfan, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Fantasy & Stukita b Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
13:30. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Cancerbero, Nitro, Raziel b Oro Jr., Soberano Jr., Star Jr.
18:48. Rudos took 2/3.
3) Amapola, La Comandante, Reyna Isis b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta
15:50. Rudas took 1/3.
4) Esfinge b Puma [Copa Jr., final]
11:11/ Esfinge took 1/3, the last with nudo Egipico for the pinfall, to with the Copa Junior.
5) Blue Panther, Pegasso, Rey Cometa b Pierroth, Pólvora, Vangellys
12:24. Tecnicos took 2/3, though Terror Chino blew the count on the finish (or thought it wasn’t supposed to be the finish.)
6) Felino, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero b Máximo Sexy, Super Porky, Valiente
6:27, straight falls for the rudos. Bucanero snuck in a foul on Maximo, then challenged him for a heavyweight title match.

This was streamed live and is still up on YouTube if you missed it. The Copa Junior final was fun. There’s really nothing else on the show you need to see, but there was nothing horrible. Tuesday shows haven’t changed back since Cadena3 went away.

Bucanero challenged Maximo for the heavyweight title, though it was a Sabado Retros show so almost no one saw it. They have so much experience working against each other that they probably could figure out a good title match again. After Monday’s match, Maximo said he’d be willing to give Vangellys a rematch too.

It’s still unclear if this was a one time thing for Copa Junior, the start of a weekly thing, or a possible replacement for Friday shows thing. Maybe they’ll explain more on Informa, but my guess is one time thing.

CMLL NJPW (WED) 01/20/2016 Osaka Prefectual Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan [NJPW, PuroLove]
Attendance: 1025
1) Jushin Liger & Stuka Jr. b Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
8:33. Stuka beat Komatsu with the torpedo splash. Stuka said he’d like to team with Tanaka & Komatsu in Mexico.
2) Boby Zavala b The Panther
8:14. Zavala beat Panther with a spinning powerbomb.
3) Okumura b Guerrero Maya Jr.
8:12. Okumura won with the hanging DDT, officially splitting the singles matches between the two tag teams at 2-2.
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Gedo, Hechicero, YOSHI-HASHI b Jay White, Kushida, Ryusuke Taguchi, Titán
9:43. Cavernario submitted Jay White.
5) Bushi, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito b Atlantis, Fuego, Máscara Dorada
11:01. For the third straight show, Los Ingobernables de Japon cheated to win (Naito foul on Fuego to set up Out of Control) and unmasked the tecnicos after the match.
6) Mephisto, Shinsuke Nakamura, Último Guerrero b Juice Robinson, Mistico, Volador Jr.
13:02. Nakamura pinned Robinson with a cross armbreaker (which was noted in post match interviews as a Nakamura beating a former WWE trainee.)
7) Dragon Lee & Hiroshi Tanahashi b Okada & Virus
15:47. Dragon Lee beat Virus with Patos en el Pecho (a new name for the the hanging double stomp.) Dragon Lee played air guitar with the lightweight title belt in the post match.

The main event getting 15 minutes sounds pretty good. Natio versus Atlantis for the Anniversary main event!

This is the last non-NJPWWorld show of the run. They take a day off and the first streaming show airs early Friday morning in Central Time. These three previous shows outside of Tokyo do not air live; Kochi’s show will air tomorrow on SamuraiTV, with Kyoto (Tuesday) and Osaka (Thursday) not airing until after the Korauken Hall shows are over.

Since we’ll be able to see the rest of the show, this is a good moment for my annual reminder that one of my favorite parts of the NJPW tour is their results page for each show. They give me an “O” next to who won, a “X” next to who lost, and I can just rifle thru them if I’d like. No reading a couple paragraphs to decipher the finish needed, no reading an (always appreciated) indie recap to see “the tecnicos won” without having any idea which side is the tecnicos, just the kind of facts a person (bizarrely) building a lucha libre database needs. I like the detail page with match details and the post match interviews, but the detail page makes it so much quicker to figure out who won. No fear of mistranslating a verb tense!

On this week’s MLW Radio, Konnan mentioned Angelico’s knee injury will keep out until the end of February. The injury is not severe, but there’s concern of it becoming much worse if he doesn’t rest. Angelico won’t be back for long, because he’s headed to Europe for all of March to visit family.

Konnan specifically said Angelico won’t be on Rey de Reyes, which means the title shot they’re setting up on Friday won’t be cashed in for months. AAA rarely holds title matches away from their big shows, so it may be a January match building to one to June or later. My guess is they could also have Friday’s winning team defend the title shot itself against Joe Lider & Pentagon, in a sort of interim champion way. (Aerostar & Fenix would make more sense as winners on Friday in that scenario.)

Konnan’s general thought on the Guerra de Titanes card is it’s not as strong as it could be, but “it’s the same problem any other booker has: if you’re not the owner, you don’t have the last word.” A emailer asked if Ishimori might return, and Konnan explained he hasn’t been back because “AAA is very disorganized”, but believed he and the NOAH guys would probably be back for the World Cup.

Konnan said he believes Caristico is the booker for Elite. That’d be surprising, since Caristico loses all the time in Elite and that’s uncommon for bookers. It’s does feel a safe bet Caristico’s picking at least some of the talent that gets used.

Today’s the last week of El Rey’s mini Lucha Underground marathon. They’ll be showing the final five episodes of season 1 (including the two hour Ultima Lucha final) starting at 7pm. They’ve also been giving out a prize pack during the show; I think it’s a “tweet this secret word” kind of deal. The entire series will air this weekend.

Lucha Underground will appear on the late night (Los Angeles) SportsCenter next week. A segment was taped last night with Rey Misterio Jr., King Cuerno, Johnny Mundo, Joey Ryan and Melissa Santos and others. It’s airing either Monday or Tuesday night to promote the season two premiere.

RobViper has highlights of 07/10/15 Puebla.

Kayfabe Today has a review of this week’s AAA TV show.

WWS says they’ll be sending their champion, whoever it is at the time, to the May Stardom shows in Europe.

Caristico, Dr. Karonte, and Tony Salazar will have their hand prints in cement this Friday.

La Jarochita talks about her move to Elite, doesn’t say anything too interesting.

Texano Jr. plans to get the heavyweight title back.  Psycho Clown hypes Guerra de Titanes.

Furia de Titanes has a column about Wotan, and another piece arguing the wrestling celebrity stunt shows done in Monterrey are actually fine for lucha libre (because the real point is for people to go to a show and have fun)

Segunda Caida writes about Los Brazos vs Villanos & Santo

Match After Match has a review of Bestia Salvaje, Hijo del Santo, Scorpio Jr. vs el Dandy, Hector Garza, Negro Casas.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 01/26/2016 Arena México
1) Angelito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
2) Estrellita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany
3) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, Pegasso vs Disturbio, Sangre Azteca, Skándalo
4) Delta vs Felino [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Rey Cometa vs Gran Guerrero, Hechicero, Vangellys
6) Atlantis, Máximo Sexy, Stuka Jr. vs Boby Z, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

The FantasticaMania cew start to filter back in. Bucanero & Maximo waits at least one more week. Angelito & Stukita is a fun team of small people.

CMLL (TUE) 01/26/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo & Star Black vs Carlos Rogi & Furia Roja
2) Magnum, Magnus, Oro Jr. vs Canelo Casas, Metálico, Ráfaga
3) Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., The Panther vs El Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
4) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Kráneo, Thunder

Kraneo & Thunder are polar opposites. Forastero makes the jump to Tuesday shows, which suggests he’s not far behind from joining his cousins in Mexico City.