La Mascara foils Caristico again, more aimless challenges on Elite shows

3a02[1]
Fujin & Raijin/CMLL
CMLL Elite (SUN) 02/07/2016 Arena México [+LuchaTV, CMLL, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Artillero & Cholo b Centvrión & Fly Warrior
2) Amapola & Dalys b La Jarochita & Rossy Moreno
Rudas took 2/3.
3) Fujin, Heddi Karaoui, Raijin b Dinamic Black, Fuego, Metaleón
Foreigners took 2/3. Fujin & Raijin win in their Arena Mexico debut when Karoui submitted Fuego.
4) Puma & Tiger b Golden Magic & Tritón
Cats took 1/3. Tiger still wants a shot at Golden Magic’s IWRG Juniors championship (which he’s now challenged for in two other promotions – here in Elite and in CaraLucha.)
5) Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas b Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy, Volador Jr.
Peste Negra took 2/3. Volador beat Negro, but Casas snuck back in to help his team win. The hair matches challenges were made, as usual.
6) Cibernético, La Máscara, Mephisto DQ Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Máscara Dorada
Caristico had Mascara beat in La Mistica, but Mascara’s mask came off in the process and Tirantes DQed Caristico. Caristico wants a singles match with La Mascara, and proposed a new Sky Team trio with himself, Angel de Oro and Dorada.

With Elite, Mascara/Caristico has a 50/50 chance of happening.  That’s better than usual, because it doesn’t involve an apuesta challenge. This was an all rudo night. Here’s a list of every result Caristico has had in Arena Mexico this year:

01/01: [CMLL] lost when he accidentally fouled Rush
01/03: [ELITE] lost when Negro Casas pulled his mask
01/08: [CMLL] lost when Rush turned on him
01/10: [ELITE] WON on the Canek return show
01/15: [CMLL] lost when La Mascara helped Rush cheat to win
01/17: [ELITE] lost when La Mascara helped Rush cheat to win
01/24: [ELITE] WON but only because La Mascara fouled and pulled his mask for the DQ
01/31: [ELITE] WON but only because the Ingobernables were DQed for excessive violence

That is a little weird. That is a long way to go for a singles win over La Mascara. The whole empty challenge thing seems like part standard lucha libre behavior and part Elite actually wanting to do some of these matches but still holding out up hope for TV before moving forward. The booking of expected lead draw Caristico remains hard to figure.

Hijo del Lizmark is said to be debuting next week. Not a big surprise he’s being used after his father was named as the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas honoree.

Fujin and Raijin had masks to show off, as if they were designed to originally be worn by them for this character. It’s strange they ended up masked. Namajague and Kamaitachi had success as masked luchadors and it gave CMLL an easy midcard apuesta match to tack onto a big show. The difference for those two prior characters is they were unseen by CMLL eyes before they came to Mexico. Neither man wrestled on the FantasticaMania tour, while Komatsu & Tanaka were going to be booked for every show (and their new names were listed in the press release mentioning those matches.)

No Coliseo results on Sunday because of boxing.

Black Terry Jr. has highlights of Saturday’s Arena Lopez Mateos show: Hechicero & Maximo vs Caifan & Dr. Cerebro, Golden Magic, Terry 2000, Alas de Oro vs Arez, Sadico, Yoruba and Freelance vs Pegasuz vs Ironia vs Alastor.

Negro Casas says he will fight Volador Jr. in a hair match, but only under his conditions. He doesn’t specify his conditions.

El Pancracio and MedioTiempo has more details about Hijo del Santo’s statements the other day. Santo says he’s in perfect health, might have a retirement tour, doesn’t want to retire until his son is ready to wrestle, and doesn’t know when that will be (but wants his son to finish college first.) El Pancracio quotes Santo as saying there’s been talks about him returning to Arena Mexico (not just him bringing it up out of the blue), but also has him saying “if the public want it and I get a good deal” he’s do it. The good deal part has usually been the problem.

Ayako Hamada and Sharlie Rockstar are announced for the 02/19 DTU show in Tulancingo. No full results from their show in Poza Rica tonight, but DTU does mention Kevin, Jimmy and Lady Maravilla defeated Rocky Lobo, Lanzelot and Zuzu Divine, setting up the Nerds for a tag title shot versus Lobo & Lanzelot in the near future. This show was Black Fire’s last in DTU before heading to Germany. Speaking of: Kim Ray is DTU Alto Impacto champion again, defeating The Rotation in Germany’s WXW. Black Fire figures to challenge for the championship while he’s there.

Wrestling Eye Podcast starts a look at the next Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame candidates with a podcast on Mistico/Sin Cara/Myzteziz/Caristico.

LuchaWorld has a recap of Friday’s Arena Mexico show.

The Toronto Star writes about Lucha TO. LA Park mentions he has no plans of retiring, noting Mil Mascaras is still going at 70.

Lady Lee beat Keira in the main event of the Evolution Lucha Libre in Tijuana.

Kcidis draws the anatomy of a tecnico.

02/06 AAA TV Results (Cuautitlán)

AAA TV (SAT) 02/06/2016 Auditorio Bentio Juárez, Cuautitlán, Estado de México [AAA]
1) Lanzeloth, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Psycho Clown b Dinastía, Mascarita Sagrada, Octagoncito
Lanzeloth filled in for Mini Abismo. Charly beat Sagrada with a package piledriver.
2) Australian Suicide & Fireball DQ Parka Negra & Súper Fly
Parka Negra replaced Daga. Tecnicos won by DQ when Daga ran in anyway and threw a chair at Suicide’s head, cutting him open.
3) Aerostar, Drago, Fénix b Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro
Tecnicos won and asked for a trios title shot. Zorro said no (no no)
4) Daga & Taya b Bengala & Faby Apache and Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Lady Shani [AAA MIXED TAG, #1 Contenders]
In a segment at the start of the show, Daga announced he’d be replacing Fantasma (injury). Pentagon interrupted, unhappy fellow Perros del Mal were coming for his title and promising not to take it easy on them should they won. They did: Faby beat Shani, and Daga submitted Bengala to the metaleon for the win. They face Pentagon & Sexy Star (at least that’s how AAA announced it) on 02/19.
5) Averno & Chessman b Joe Lider & Pentagón Jr.
In a surprise, Averno & Chessman defeated Pentagon. Pentagon & Lider had problems after the match.
6) Blue Demon Jr. b Dr. Wagner Jr., Garza Jr., Taurus [Rey de Reyes, semifinal]
Wagner appeared in the opening segment to take issue with Pentagon Jr’s claim he’d win Rey de Reyes. Psycho Clown interrupted him, not to talk about Rey de Reyes, but to demand a singles match with Wagner tonight after Wagner cost them the match in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera. Wagner declined, saying he already had this match. Psycho Clown joined the announcers for this match instead. Taurus eliminated Garza Jr., Wagner beat Taurus, and Blue Demon Jr. beat Wagner after Wagner hit everyone with a chair, Psycho hit Wagner with a chair, and Demon gave Wagner Devil’s Wings for the win.

Air Date: 02/13 & 02/20

Blue Demon’s back, so Blue Demon wins. The finish sounds a lot like the finish on Guerra de Titanes, where Dr. Wagner gets the certain visual win before losing the match. It’s the finishes that happen when you bring in Dr. Wagner. It’s the problem with this Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner feud they’re trying – either Psycho will just lose the Latin American title to Wagner, or Wagner will lose in a way that won’t mean much. It’s what’s he’s been doing for a decade. Demon’s pretty much the same, and Taurus taking his first pinfall to one of them illustrates the change in philosophies happening right now.

Anyway, it does start to give us a Rey de Reyes card.

03/11 Tampico

  • Texano Jr. vs Mesias for the AAA Heavyweight Championship – lock
  • Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Psycho Clown for the AAA Latin American Championship – likely, maybe actual main event
  • Aerostar, Drago, Fenix vs Zorro, Cuervo, Scoria for the AAA Trios championship – likely
  • Rey de Reyes final (Demon vs other 3 block winners) – lock
  • probably something with Suicide and Daga
  • probably a mixed match

That’s six, so it might be it. The recap implies the trios title challenge is a follow up of that same trio winning the CHIKARA King of Trios back in September. That match sounded like it went well last night and should be good on the show.

It doesn’t look the tag title match is on at the moment with Lider & Pentagon losing and having issues. It’s not exactly my favorite use of Pentagon to have him losing in those matches, but anything that pulls him away from Lider can’t be all bad.

Suicide got sliced open in the head by Daga’s chair shot, which looked a bit reckless on video. You don’t need to throw the chair that hard from that close.

Taya & Daga were announced as facing Pentagon & Sexy Star at the Queretaro show, so either that’s still the plan or they haven’t coming up with a new one. When all the stuff was going on with Sexy Star giving up her title, Taya posted a message of five laughing emojis. That’s another Twitter post that’s been deleted. It sure seems like Sexy Star was told she was losing the tag titles to Taya and her partner and was very unhappy about it. (It may be about Taya, but it also may just be Sexy not liking the idea of losing to anyone – like Demon & Wagner, that’s not something she’s done a lot.) Whatever it is, AAA’s still advertising the match – though they were still advertising Fantasma at this show and didn’t say anything until it started.

PW Insider says Konnan was at the taping.  It’s strange he wasn’t in the Sociedad segment to start the show, which had a hole without Fantasma being around. (Maybe the story they’re telling is the breakup happened because Fantasma and Konnan weren’t around to fix it?) Konnan hasn’t said anything on Twitter since promising that press conference. The creative changes without him are being more apparent – the signature booking trope of the prior era, strong giant rudo stables, seem to be going away. La Sociedad lost three members on the first taping, this tapings had two different moments suggesting the Perros del Mal were breaking up. They’ve gone down the road and turned around before  – the last time Lanzeloth made TV also had Joquin Roldan ending La Sociedad forever three years ago – but everything else makes it feel like it may take this time.

That PWInsider article brings up the Mysterio situation and more money issues. The reports says AAA wrestlers who worked in Lucha Underground were paid thru AAA, with AAA taking a cut of their money. (This is similar to how AAA works with most outside promoters.) PWInsider says AAA was taking a “sizable” cut. For season 2, Lucha Underground started paying the AAA luchadors directly, but AAA has been pressuring those luchadors to kickback the same cut to AAA. The AAA/LU crew see it as their money they shouldn’t have to give back. It’s enough that those affected are thinking of leaving AAA, only the concern is they’d lose their Lucha Underground spots – everyone loves Lucha Underground, there’s no problem there.

The report doesn’t say those leaving AAA would go to Elite, but Elite’s been going after everyone in AAA already and are the obvious alternative location.

PWInsider says AAA has ownership points in Lucha Underground, but not creative control. That seems apparent from the different products they present, but it does appear AAA has at least some input over who gets brought in from their side; there’s people debuting in season 2 who are only doing so after agreeing to work with AAA. AAA’s not going to be able to job someone out in LU for not paying them, but the concern about not being able to work LU without AAA seems very legitimate.

It does feel a bit like something’s going to break soon – but if you hadn’t know there was drama behind the scenes, last night’s taping seems a normal build to a PPV.