Lucha Azteca7 Elite: 2016-11-19

new champ
new champ

Recapped: 11/22/2016

What happened: Carístico won the Liga Elite tournament when Rey Escorpión decided to listen to Cibernetico’s music instead of covering Carístico. Bandido won the new welterweight title with a partially botched spot. Willie Mack got flown all the way out to Mexico City for a forgettable match.

What was good: Nothing. Nothing was good. All the matches were disappointing and most were badly booked. This is somewhat historically important – either it’s the first season finale or it’s the last episode – but there’s no reason to watch the show otherwise.

Where can I watch it: It’s on the Liga Elite channel.

This is the last Season 1 Elite show (with the idea that they’ll be back for a season 2 at some unclear point.) They’ve skipped a week of tapings to show the last episode they’ve taped. There’s no highlight package of an undercard match and it’s a slightly shorter episode than usual as a result. The second season idea does come up in a Rey Escorpión promo but isn’t particularly pushed in the show beyond the concept of this being the Liga Elite final. There’s no hint of when they’ll be back. Read More

CMLL bodybuilding contest, Friday preview

CMLL
CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 11/22/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Metatrón & Smaker b Exterminador & Maléfico
tecnicos took 1/3
2) Flyer, Magnus, Vaquero Jr. b Akuma, Artillero, Mr. Apolo
Mr. Apolo replaced Joker. Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Pegasso, Stigma, The Panther b Cancerbero, Disturbio, Raziel
Tecnicos took 1/3
4) Blue Panther, Johnny Idol, Valiente b Bobby Z, Sam Adonis, Vangellys
Tecnicos took 1/3 (fourth straight)
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Mistico DQ Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas
Diamante Azul replaced Atlantis. Rudos took 2/3, Casas fouled Caristico.

Caristico, who did an interview saying he’d like a feud with just about anyone in CMLL, at least has one with Casas in Guadalajara. Caristico is also in the CMLL main event tonight, teaming with Valiente and Volador Jr. versus Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, and Niebla Roja. Caristico brought up the idea of feuding with pretty much everyone on both teams, maybe he’ll get his wish and something will happen.

The interesting match is the Torneo de Dinasitas, with the Casas (Negro Casas, Puma, Tiger), Panther (Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., the Panther), Dinamtias (Mascara 2000, Sanson, Cuatrero) and Munoz (Pierroth, Dragon Lee and Mistico.) Dragon Lee & Mistico are normally in spotlight matches, but it’s a rare chance for the younger wrestlers on the other teams, and maybe they’ll be able to make an impression in limited time.

The lightning match is an odd rudo/rudo battle with Hechicero & La Mascara. A women’s trio has Princesa Sugehit, Sanely, Lluvia versus Zeuxis, Dallys, Amapola. Guerrero Maya, Fuego, Drone take on Ripper, Sagrado and Misterioso in the second. CMLL’s opener is supposed to be Demus 3:16 & Mercurio vs Electrico & Astral, though it sounds like Astral will be replaced by Aereo.

The show starts at 8:30 on Clarosports & NJPW World. It’s go well past 11:30 if they gave every match the normal amount of time; that won’t work, so expect some of these matches to go much shorter than usual.

CMLL’s bodybuilding contest was held on Wednesday. Principe Diamante won the overall Mr. CMLL title. Principe Diamante was in CMLL’s minis division for a few matches, but has actually appeared more on Elite’s shows than anywhere else this year. He hasn’t been seen wrestling anywhere since July, but maybe he’ll be back in CMLL.

The official group standings:
Trainees: Killer Rock (1st), Angel del Amor, Principe Lemus
Beginner: Sanson, Forastero, Robin
Intermediate: Principe Diamante, Dragon Rojo, Titan
Women: Dalys, Sanely, Jarochita
Advanced: Valiente, Cuatrero, Blue Panther Jr.
Special Recognition: Zacarias el Perico

A new masked woman, Anubis, debuted in the women’s competition. Sangre Imperial, Coyote and CMLL photographer Alexis Salazar were among those in the training exhibition before the bodybuilding. I couldn’t find a single match Killer Rock has been in.

IWRG will have a 54th anniversary of lucha libre in Mexico State (as promoted by the Moreno family) show on 12/04. IWRG usually has a few anniversary shows in December and January.

On Wednesday, Mexican legislator Carlos Sarabia of the PRI party held a press conference to push for social security and health benefits for luchadors. This push seems to come up every few months but hasn’t seemed to make any progress. During the press conference, it was mentioned Babe Richard (who usually referees the semimain match on Fridays in CMLL) has surgery on Tuesday and Brazo de Plata (who’s had a leg injury that’s kept him out of CMLL rings) is also in the hospital.

Vice Mexico has a nice story about the various people who work in and around Arena Mexico who aren’t luchadors

+Lucha has a new edition of their podcast and an interview with Mil Mascaras.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

CultIcon reviews this week’s Lucha Underground.

Lineups

ELITE LLyP (FRI) 12/16/2016 Centro Civico Nueva Aragon, Ecatepec, Estado de México
1) Ciclón Infernal, Ironía, Príncipe Mexica vs Dragosth, Guerrero Aéreo, Ranferi
2) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Mr. Leo vs Fresero Jr. & Samoano
3) Rossy Moreno vs Muñeca De Plata, Lady Maravilla, Diosa Quetzal [Copa Radikal Radio]
4) El Bandido & Metaleón vs Argos & Dr. Karonte Jr. [Ladder, Copa LLyP]
5) Rey Escorpión vs Carístico, Cibernético [ELITE MIDDLE]

This show is listed as an Elite show, but I believe it’s a Lucha Libre y Passion show and they’re just using the Elite logo. The main event is listed as for Caristico’s Elite Light Heavyweight championship, but the title he won is a middleweight one. At least they’re getting work, though it could be another long Friday for Caistico.

como estaz 4×8: November catch up

Rob and I return to talk about Elite, CMLL, AAA and Lucha Underground. We did this last night, I spend a few hours trying to get the audio to not suck, and now I don’t even recall exactly what talked about now. A lot of frustration with the current state of stuff, but we tried to point out stuff we liked too.

right click download/rss

The audio, though – I think recorder program grabbed my laptop mic instead of the nice one, and I really regret not stopping to see how it was going early on. It’s not good but I think it’s still listenable. I’ll try something else next time.