CMLL held a press conference today to announce the card for their 83rd Anniversario show.
CMLL (FRI) 09/02/2016 Arena México
1) Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis vs Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit
2) Ephesto, Mephisto, Shocker vs Marco Corleone, Máximo, Stuka Jr.
3) Súper Crazy vs Rey Bucanero [hair]
4) Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas vs Atlantis, Carístico, Máscara Dorada
5) Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [CMLL TRIOS]
7th defense
6) Dragón Lee vs La Máscara [mask]
Tickets go on sale tomorrow. As of now, there’s no price listing on Ticketmaster.
At the press conference, they noted La Mascara would be the first Alvardo to headline an Anniversary show and Dragon Lee would become the youngest ever to be in any apuesta match on these shows (younger than Puma in 2012, which was only an undercard match.)
The trios match is the only big addition we did not previous, and should be a stellar match. The overall card is not at the star power of recent years. It was going to be impossible without another Atlantis mask match, but this is much close to the level of the Terrible/Rush main event prior to it, and arguably less than that.
Rush is very noticeably not included on the card. He could’ve fit into the segunda, but it’d been hard for CMLL to explain him on the tecnicos side after he turned on Maximo & Marco earlier in the year. (Rush would’ve been better than Ephesto as a rudo though.)
The Anniversary show will NOT be transmitted live via PPV, but instead be put up on demand the next day on YouTube. The plan is for it to be up Saturday at 8AM. No price was announced. That’s not nearly as fun and ruins the community aspect of watching a show, but at least it should go up complete. It does indicate CMLL considers the Sunday VOD show successful if they’re trying it again. This show not being as big a deal as years past takes away the sting – the results are obvious or unimportant, I’m more interested in how they get there – but it does stink not having an official live option. People are just going to end up watching iffy Periscope streams instead.
It does appear this will not be the only major show in September. JCR ended the press conference by mentioning other surprises and festivities planned for the month, and announced a September 7th press conference to discuss those. That happens to be the same day as the Lucha Underground Season 3 debut; their trailer also dropped today.
A few other items were mentioned
- Matt Taven will come to CMLL as a ROH representative on 09/09. It wasn’t if it was meant to be the start of a few week run like the NJPW guys, or a one night thing. JCR hyped CMLL, and speculated about someday having a NJPW/CMLL/ROH super show, but that seemed to be just his speculation. JCR hyped Taven’s title wins in ROH, but it’s worth noting he’s suffered a knee injury in December, has not returned to wrestling, and has no real specific role since his tag partner and manager left the promotion right after the injury. (It’s a odd first person to send – it feels like AAA sending Argos to TNA because they didn’t have any plans for him, only Taven should bebetter than Argos.)
- Fantasy vs Electrico in Guadalajara next Tuesday is the Minis Anniversary celebration
- Coliseo shows were officially said to no longer be “Sabado Retros”. They haven’t been for over a month. Caristico was interviewed to talk about wrestling there this Saturday for the first time in years. (He was there earlier this year, but for Elite.)
- CMLL announced a photo exhibit at Liverpool stores from 08/25 to 09/23.