Tonight’s CMLL Friday night Arena Mexico show is pretty much a reset to where things were before the incredible pairs tournament invaded all our lives for three weeks. The CMLL preview pushes as Rush versus his three biggest rivals (Terrible yes, not sure how UG is bigger than Shocker or Negro Casas), but it’s really about the Marco versus Rush feud resuming. La Mascara & Rush team up tonight with Rey Escorpion, who seems like the replacement for Thunder (and it seems like CMLL isn’t crazy enough to put Pierroth in main events, yet.) The Rush/Marco issue was pushed hard before as if they were going to do the match soon, but there’s no obvious date for a match now that the Arena Mexico anniversary show has happened.
The semimain continues the Rey Cometa and Barbaro Cavernario feud. Cometa teams up with Volador & Vailente to take on Negro Casas, Felino and Cavernario. Some sort of singles match between Cometa & Cavernario appears to be happening soon. A title match would be easier to pull off, but they’ve been talk about a hair match rematch as well. The rest of the card looks OK. Titan gets a singles match with Rey Bucanero. Fujin & Rajin and the Panthers return their unofficial series of matches. The opener is an all Generacion 2011 tag match, though that doesn’t mean good things for Hombre Bala.
The show airs at 8:30 pm on ClaroSports. I will NOT be recording it; I’m heading to AAW out near Chicago and have no way to record this show this time. Other people have been, so it will probably still turn up.
AAA’s also busy in the Mexico City area, running a spot show in Arena Naucalpan. The original listed main event is La Parka, Electroshock, and Octagon Jr. versus Pagano, Chessman and Taurus. That’s not going to happen. However, AAA’s site actually has the new lineup, which I can’t ever remember happening before. Bengala & Drago replace Electroshock & Octagon in the main event.
The Elite show will also air tonight at 11:30pm. (There’s no sign of a Muy Thai broadcast on the feed instead of wrestling tonight, so the normal feeds should work this week.) Negro Casas versus Rush and Atlantis versus LA Park are the two big singles matches.
Torito – Mascarita Dorada – was released by WWE today as part of mass cutting. WWE’s inability to use Dorada well was both bad and predictable. CMLL has gotten so much mileage out of Zacarias and Mije and KeMonito, it should’ve been easy for WWE to do the same with Torito. Or they could’ve simply hired another lucha mini for him to work with forever. They didn’t do either, and Dorada spent a lot of time sitting backstage at wrestling shows (if he was even being flown in.)
Mascarita was US based even before he went to WWE, which might mean he’d be unlikely to appear regularly in other promotions. He’s a name, so I’m sure he’ll be in ELITE soon enough. He had a pretty good regular gig working US lucha shows and I’d suspect he’ll be doing those.
MLW says they’ve confirmed Lucha World Cup won’t be on conventional PPV, though iPPV is still a possibility. The difference between the two doesn’t make much a difference for people who read this site (iPPVs do tend to have more technological problems, but so did AAA’s normal PPV), but it does mean there’s likely to be a lot less promotion for the show.
Mephisto & Mistico said they’d like a shot at the tag team titles on CMLL Informa. Negro Casas says he’d be fine with that.
Dragon Lee & Titan represented CMLL at the 60th anniversary celebration for a Mexico City skyscraper, since it’s just as old as Arena Mexico.
Hernandez & Herodes Jr. are also listed on an AAA show on 05/15 in Coahuila.
Psycho Clown talks about his match with Pagano in Orizaba. The split face photo is cool.
SuperLuchas talks to Psicosis Jr. about his career and his identity. Ripper/Psicosis II gave him permission for the name, which sounds like it helps him in someway but anyone with TV won’t use him to avoid trouble with AAA.
AAA posted it’s second part of it’s remembrance of Perro Aguayo Jr.
LuchaWorld has the latest edition of their podcast.
RobViper has highlights of 10/06 & 10/13/15 CMLL and 09/29/06 CMLL.
Super Comando took a shot at Argos.
Florencio Rodriguez, a fixture outside Arena Puebla making the cities’ famous cemitas sandwiches, passed away earlier this week.
Volador’s BOSJ schedule
05/22: Beretta
05/23: Tiger Mask
05/27: Jushin Liger
05/30: Bobby Fish
06/02: Nick Jackson
06/05: Ricochet
06/06: Will Ospreay
Volador has some interesting trios matches, but those weren’t posted to NJPW World regularly last year.
Ricochet and Ospreay figure to be in the mix to win the block, which means Volador will have big matches to end the competition if he’s in or out of it himself. CMLL saying he’ll be back on the 7th seems a pretty big hint Volador’s not winning, since the winner is probably cashing in their title shot on the June 19th show.
Volador has never been beaten in a singles match by anyone in his group! (He’s just 1-0 versus Liger, beating him in a Leyenda de Plata in 2011.)
Lineups
Lucha Memes (SUN) 05/15/2016 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Tequilita vs Eterno
2) Princesa Maya vs Marcela
3) Alberto Dos Rios & Silver Star vs Trauma I & Trauma II
4) Caifan vs Dr. Cerebro
5) Hechicero vs Virus
Full card for Lucha Memes’ DF vs Monterrey show. It’s a small card than usual, but the top two matches sell the show easily enough.
ELITE MDA (SUN) 05/15/2016 Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) Larry Miranda & Mini Hator vs Erika Sotelo & Mini Difunto
2) Epydemius, Galactar, Obsesión vs Chamaco Gurrola, Gallardo, Golden Boy
3) Extreme Boy & Quinto Elemnto vs Psicótico & The Beast II
4) Laredo Kid, Ninja Jr., Último Ninja vs Flamita, Golden Magic, Metaleón
5) Carístico, Hijo De Rey Misterio, Negro Casas vs Fuerza Guerrera, Mr. Elektro, Rush
Mr. Elektro is Electroshock’s new name. AAA owns the Electroshock name. He went with just Electro last time, Mr. Elektro is an improvement. Your guess is as good as mine on which Misterio that is.
Semimain, a north versus DF battle, looks superb.
CARALUCHA (SAT) 05/21/2016 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Templario & Wasson vs ? & Fiero
2) Centvrión & Fly Warrior vs ? & ??
mystery luchadors are from CMLL
3) Magnífico II, Rayo Star, Sky Man vs Astral, Eléctrico, Tiago
4) Bestia 666 & Black Terry vs Cavernario & Hechicero
5) Toro Negro Jr. vs Látigo [mask]
6) Flamita vs Máscara Dorada
This is their 2nd Anniversary. CaraLucha released a card last night, then changed it up this morning to make the mask match. Toro Negro and Latigo have been feuding since late last year and it was a little bit of a surprise they weren’t doing the mask match on this show (thought maybe they’d save it for September), but it ended up on this card after all. Flamita versus Mascara Dorada should be outstanding and the rest of the card should be pretty good too.
Tiago is the new name for the ex-Mini Charly Manson. He’s teamed up with CMLL guys, and he’d be a nice addition to their roster. Anyone new would be a nice addition to their minis roster. Tiago successfully picked a name no one else is using, so he’s already one step ahead of the game.