Tuesday’s boring CMLL, Aztec Warfare 3, Máscara Año 2000 in CMLL

photo by Alexis Salazar/CMLL
photo by Alexis Salazar/CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 11/15/2016 Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico b Acero & Aéreo
2) Grako, Metálico, Nitro b Magia Blanca, Metatrón, Robin
Magia Blanca’s first match here since the March Gran Alternativa. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Pegasso b Disturbio [lightning]
4) Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Sagrado b Soberano Jr., Star Jr., Stigma
Rudos took 2/3.
5) Olímpico, Ripper, Vangellys b Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Rey Cometa
Rudos took 1/3.
6) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto b Mistico, Titán, Volador Jr.
Straight falls in a nothing main event. Sets up a Mephisto/Volador title match

I didn’t watch the show. It did not sound good, with the main event rushed thru just to get it done. It’s also quite a dispiriting show, as the older veterans (and usually the least interesting teams) won every single match. Whoever is putting together this show, theoretically the new star, seems to aggressively dislike new stars and young people. This was a failure of a show but it’s also an overwhelming failure of a concept.

Olimpico is wearing a half Olimpico face, though the straps are numerous enough that it covers up a decent portion of his unmasked phase. Felino was doing something like that for a while and it was dumb when he was doing it. Felino at least had a cat look, Olimpico’s mask was neither distinctive or memorable or really adds to his act at all.

Today is Lucha Underground 3×11, “Aztec Warfare 3” Matches on the show:

  • Aztec Warfare (the third one)
  • that’s it

I worked out what we ‘know’ yesterday – Drago is 1, Matanza is 20, Johnny Mundo’s number is revealed in this video – but the elephant in the room is a lot of people know the result. The outcome of Aztec Warfare has been the most spoiled discussed in advance airing story development of the season, probably in the history of the show. Congratulations if you’ve made it this far without knowing. It’s only one (very important) detail that’s been focused on; I’ve seen the some of the context incorrectly misconstrued and other (not as big) plot details mentioned once and quickly forgotten. There’s other stuff on this show that people are going to talk about, but the clear overarching idea tonight is get people talk about the show in general.

I have very definite thoughts about the decision and there’s stuff we can not talk about in bigger picture topics too. The Aztec Warfares have been among Lucha Underground’s biggest shows, but I’m honestly more interested in the reaction to the show than the show itself tonight; I don’t think my opinion on the creative direction itself is going to change, but I’m less sure how much everyone else will care.

CultIcon previews this show.

El Rey’s officially announced the Thanksgiving Lucha Underground marathon.

Rey Fenix says his shoulder still isn’t good and he’ll be in San Diego this weekend, so no Cara Lucha for him. It’s good he’s taking care of himself, but I hope doesn’t over extend himself again.

Brian Cage has a busy weekend coming up. He’s wrestling for New Era Wrestling in El Paso on Friday, for WrestleCircus in Austin on Saturday, for WrestleCircus in Arlington on Sunday, and in Ciudad Juarez on Sunday. Those last two seem tricky and I initially assumed that he was off the Juarez show when he was on the WrestleCircus show. Cage says he’s working both. WrestlingCircus starts at 3pm, AAA is maybe around 6pm – but really 7pm, because it’s a different time zone. I’m terrible at Texas geography, so I had to Google this, and Arlington and Ciudad Juarez are not particularly close. It’s an 8 hour drive, but I don’t think he’s driving. There are a few flights which could get Cage from Dallas to El Paso (and then he’s got thru the border) while the AAA show is ongoing. It’s possible, it doesn’t seem like a great idea because so many things could go wrong, but it’s also not that far off from what AAA & Alberto said they were doing with Heroes Inmortales. (And again, that didn’t go so well.) I hope it works if that’s what Cage is doing, but I also hope AAA has a backup plan ready to go and would just stop trying these things.

HEX Promotions in San Diego has a long Facebook post explaining why Maximo didn’t make their show. The short version is they claim Maximo took their plane ticket as a way to get to Tijuana to party, and then just made up an excuse not work the show.

CMLL says their bodybuilding contest will take place next Wednesday at 12:00. As in past years, you just need a ticket stub from any recent CMLL show to attend. It’ll be streamed on YouTube like last year.

CMLL luchadoras (Esterllita, Marcela, Zeuxis, Dalys) will be part of BBC Mexico’s 100 Mujeres presentation at the museum of fine arts on 11/21. Their match is happening around 4:40pm.

AAA was recognized from YouTube for reaching 100,000 subscribers.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Alfredo Barreto, the Neutron of Colombia, has passed away. He appeared on 60s version of Argentina’s Titanes en el Ring.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 11/22/2016 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Shockercito vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Estrellita, La Vaquerita, Marcela vs Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Soberano Jr. vs Morphosis, Okumura, Virus
4) Ángel de Oro, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Gran Guerrero, Luciferno
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy, Titán vs Máscara Año 2000, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
6) Volador Jr. © vs Mephisto [NWA WELTER]
Volador 12th defense

Mascara 2000 is booked on a Tuesday, after being booked on a Friday. It appears he’s a regular now. What year is this? Where am I? What is going on? This is absurd.

Mascara was terrible, just outrageously bad, in his first return appearance and only better in the second appearance because it was nigh impossible to reach the abyss of the first match again. He still wasn’t good, he probably isn’t going to start magically being good, he wasn’t a draw in his second appearance, and it’s extremely doubtful people are going to be coming back to see him on a Tuesday after seeing him on Friday. It’s not like CMLL is short on veterans – they’re overwhelmed with veterans who are on the downside of their career, and they decided to add one more. Mascara 2000 being booked on this show will make it worse, and serves no purpose other than friends helping friends at the expense of everyone else or at the expense of putting on shows.

It’s definitely possible CMLL needed a replacement for bookings which were intended for Mr. Niebla. The issue is CMLL has 200 people who work for them, most of whom are going to get less bookings this week than Mascara 2000. Put Disturbio in that spot, maybe people don’t react to Disturbio as a semimain guy – but maybe they do or maybe he gets something out of it. Maybe bring in someone else from outside CMLL who has not recently been awful as his job?

I’ve never heard anything bad about Mascara 2000 and I’m sure there are people who happy to see him getting work. I hope he does great. But everyone should be up in arms about seeing him added to this show and apparently to the full time roster. Last night’s show, and all these shows, prove this isn’t just an isolated case but the standard practice.

Volador and Mephisto have had this title match three times already. Volador won all those times. Volador will win this time. CMLL will do their best not to switch up the top guys (even though putting Gran Guerrero in the spot would change the draw and the outcome little.) It’ll be alright. Volador will do some things.

CMLL (TUE) 11/22/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Metatrón & Smaker vs Exterminador & Maléfico
2) Flyer, Magnus, Vaquero Jr. vs Akuma, Artillero, Joker
3) Pegasso, Stigma, The Panther vs Cancerbero, Disturbio, Raziel
4) Blue Panther, Johnny Idol, Valiente vs Bobby Z, Sam Adonis, Vangellys
5) Atlantis, Carístico, Mistico vs Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Caristico and the rudos repeat the main event from last week, so that’s probably the program.

IWRG (SUN) 11/20/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) Black Dragón & Cadillac vs Skanda & Vampiro Metálico
2) Leo & Mike vs Acero & Demonio Infernal
3) Danny Casas, Emperador Azteca, Freelance vs Picudo Jr., Violencia Jr., Vórtize
4) Chicano, Imposible, Súper Nova vs Diablo Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Relámpago
5) Axel, Golden Magic, Pantera I vs Canis Lupus, Killer Jr., Máscara Año 2000 Jr.

Imposible and the Diablos are partners, on opposite sides. IWRG always has a bunch of interesting trainees, and they’re doing a Pantera I/Killer feud. All lucha libre programming is awful, throw it in the bin.