Dragon Lee keeps the lightweight title, Metalik & CWC, Alberto & Mexico

CMLL (TUE) 08/30/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Martes de Glamour]
1) Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno b Mágico & Reycko
Rudos took 2/3
2) Forastero, Okumura, Sangre Azteca b Magnus, Soberano Jr., Star Jr.
Forastero replaced Skandalo on Monday. Magnus replaced Oro Jr. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente b Bobby Z, Luciferno, Vangellys
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Dragón Lee © b Negro Casas [CMLL SL]
Soberano (Dragon Lee) & Star Jr. (Negro Casas) were seconds. Dragon Lee took 1/3. Second defense.
5) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Mistico b Ephesto, Euforia, Mephisto
German Sanchez was honored before the match. Tecnicos took 2/3.

I listened to Lee & Casas on the internet radio feed. They were interviewing fans during it, so it was tough to get a total sense of the match, but it seemed to be the usual quick first two falls and a longer third fall. Maybe around 10 minutes total, Dragon Lee winning with the German suplex.

If you recall, La Sombra lost his title to Ultimo Guerrero in Puebla before his mask mask. That seemed totally absurd to me in the moment, but later made more sense when it turned out Sombra was leaving and they were just trying to get his title off him as quietly as they could. If you think Dragon Lee might also be losing his mask on Friday before going to WWE, you should note CMLL passed up the opportunity to do the same with his title.

El Grafico interviews Dragon Lee about the Anniversary show, as does MedioTiempo. Mas Lucha has interviews with both La Mascara and Dragon Lee, on opposite sides of Arena Mexico. The fun thing about these last two weeks is it’s really easy to figure out which newspapers have alliances with which promotions, and which ones just cover everyone.

Dorian Roldan & Hijo del Fantamsa are headed to Colombia today for a panel discussion about lucha libre. AAA had a couple shows in Colombia last year and have said they’d like to do more.

Gran Metalik/Mascara Dorada won his CWC quarterfinal over Akira Tozawa, as shown last night on the WWE Network. He advances to the final to winner of the Zack Sabre Jr. versus Noam Dar match, which has already been taped and will air as part of next week’s broadcast. That semifinal, and the final, will air live on September 14th as part of a two hour final. I’m skeptical Dorada will win – the winner will likely start wrestling full time on RAW the following Monday, and Dorada still getting booked into October suggests he’s not leaving for WWE full time quite yet – but he’s done very well for himself and his match with Tozawa is something you should go out of your way to see.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Lucha Underground has reached out to Alberto el Patron (or an intermediary) about coming back to Season 4, but also says they’ll deny it. I’ve been skeptical they would, so I’m wrong to start, but I’m not sure it’d be a big difference maker. I do think he’d get a big reaction in the Temple, though much more as a heel given the way he left and his public persona since, but it’s not clear he’d be a big factor in the ratings or making deals (he didn’t appear to be last time) above what they already have in Misterio. The return on investment isn’t obvious there. Lucha Underground’s finances also seem heavily illogical from the outside too, so maybe there’s some way it’d make sense to them that just doesn’t make sense to me.

The only way Alberto is not going to AAA, on a schedule similar to what we’ve seen with Rey this year, is if Elite pays him more to go there. If Elite has broken up with CMLL and has top places to fill, then they should obviously be going hard after Alberto. There’s been rumors about Alberto ending up Elite since June (and MLW said that’s when Alberto indicated he was opting out.)

In general, I think Alberto’s best move would be to show up as a surprise somewhere, or with a big angle right away. When people start asking him “What just happened?”, it’d be better for him if they were asking that about a wrestling angle, and not about his suspension or his WWE run entirely.

The WON says Dragon Lee versus Kamaitachi is the plan on the 09/30 PPV. I wish Dragon Lee got a strong introduction before he appears on PPV (and maybe he still will someway), but I also think those guys are capable of getting over cold if they wrestle like they did in CMLL & NJPW.

Also, the Crash is said to be trying to get Ricochet or Flamita as Mascara Dorada’s opponent on their 09/24 show, though no one’s quite sure about the politics of Lucha Underground and CMLL guys on the same show. (Elite seemed to get away with it.) I would also suggest that Fenix is a possibility as well, but there’s probably even more things to work out for that to happen (enough so that they’d probably leave it as an unknown until the match happens if it’s him.) When I saw the match listed as a Dream Match, I thought back to the Fenix interview that LigerFever translated, where Fenix specifically named Mascara Dorada as one of the people he’d pick for a dream match.

It does look like there’s Turiluchas service for the Anniversary show (and I haven’t seen a mention of ticket prices being raised like last year.) I took a peek at the lower bowl tickets yesterday and it didn’t look too great. Check in again tomorrow.

AAA added Melissa Santos to the Hard Rock show.

Lucha Underground revealed Pentagon Dark versus Rey Mysterio will take place on the Season 3 debut show, via video clip of their walkouts.

Mocho Cota & Herodes hype their match talk about the CaraLucha match on 09/03.

WMC 09/16 in Mexico City (probably)
Arez vs Freelance
Fly Star & Felina Metalika vs Belial & Heroina vs Terremoto & Luna Magica vs Anca & Diosa Quetzal
Fly Metalik vs Gran Guerrero vs Canis Lupus vs Demoledor

September 16th will likely be another one of those days overloaded with shows.

DTU now has announced Caristico, Titan, Mascara Dorada and Volador Jr. for their 10/20 international cup.

Segunda Caida writes about Wotan vs Black Terry, which is getting heavily praised everywhere.

Ohtani’s Jacket reviews Black Terry vs Aero Boy.

CultIcon writes about IWRG.

LuchaWorld has this week’s news update.

Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-08-13 

Argos into oblivian
Argos stumbles into oblivion

Recapped: 08/18/2016

What happened: Volador & UG picked up 3 points. I assume, I turned the show off before the scoreboard in annoyance about how little sense it makes. Edgar played into the Rush finish again, which is probably more about one referee doing almost all the Liga Elite matches than a storyline, but I guess we see.

What was good: I liked the Rush/UG main event, and the others just didn’t click for me.

Where can I watch it: Some of it’s on my channel, most of it’s in the unofficial Liga Elite channel. Read More