lucha TV preview for weekend of December 23rd

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AAA is probably best of material, though we’re not sure yet. It’s also going to run a strange time. Televisa airs the NFL, the NFL games are largely moved to Saturdays this week, and AAA won’t come on until whatever random time the late NFL games end.

CMLL’s Sunday show should air on YouTube, though they seem to be not advertising it to prevent it from hurting ticket sales.

IWRG‘s anniversary should air, because the Sunday show is a Chairo show which won’t be taped. They didn’t air both IWRG’s tapings last week, so at least only one show improves the odds.

Killer Jr. unmasked, Mascara 2000 Jr. loses his hair in IWRG, CMLL cage match to be streamed, LU S4

Pantera I won, Killer Jr. lost; photo by Black Terry Jr.

IWRG (WED) 12/21/2016 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Estrellas del Ring]
39th Arena Naucalpan
1) Aramis, Black Dragón, Dragón Fly b Araña de Plata, Demonio Infernal, Skanda
2) Leo, Mike, Rafy © b Cerebro Negro, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro [EdM Trios]
Cerebro Negro, who was in a title match on this show at one point, replaced Oficial 911. Fourth defense. Oficial Fierro’s first match here since June.
4) Danny Casas, Mr. Electro, Veneno b Eterno, Heddi Karaoui, Trauma I
Before the match, Trauma I received an award for being IWRG luchador of the year as voted on Facebook. Mr. Electro, who beat Trauma I on Sunday, was upset. He said, back in his day, you won prizes in the ring and not on Facebook. Trauma I and Electro feuded during the match, with Electro challenging for an Electro/Sharlie vs Traumas apuesta match.
5) Pirata Morgan b Máscara Año 2000 Jr. [hair]
Pirata won with help from Pirata Morgan Junior. Pirata snuck in a foul to win the second and used the ropes in the third.
6) Killer Jr. & Pantera I L Golden Magic & Pirata Morgan Jr. and Imposible & Relámpago [relevos suicidas]
Started out as Magic/Pirata vs Killer/Pantera. Killer no-showed on Sunday, so they changed it to Magic/Pirata vs Imposible/Relampago (who were scheduled for a singles match which would now be Pantera I vs Dr. Cerebro.) Killer resurfaced before Wednesday, so the match was changed back to the original with Imposible & Relampago having their singles match. However, Imposible insisted on staying in the mask match, so they main event was changed yet again to a three way tag match. Killer & Pantera lost, and immediately had their mask match.
7) Pantera I b Killer Jr. [mask]
A one fall bloody match. Pantera I won, and Killer Jr. was announced as Julian Hernandez Quiroz, 25 years a wrestler, originally from Calexico, California and living for the last 20 years in Jalisco.

Neither Pirata losing is a big upset, but mostly driven by Killer Jr. coming back after all. IWRG building a big show to Killer Jr. losing his mask is very IWRG. Killer Jr.’s first matches seem to be in 2008, so he was wrestling under some other name before picking up the Junior name (and wasn’t actually Killer’s son.) “The Killer” evil foreigner, so it probably was important for him to mention he was originally from California. His full name is probably Ricardo Julian Hernandez Quiroz, judging from this Facebook and this one.

If Mascara 2000 Jr. was willing to lose his hair, I would’ve rather see him than his father (or “father”) in CMLL. The last singles hair match win for Pirata Morgan appears to be 2007, though there’s some ones in between on small shows with no finishes.  Mascara beat Pirata for his hair three years ago. I don’t quite understand why this match was a thing, but it is a very IWRG thing.

There’s a false story going around that Mocho Cota has passed away. He is still alive at last word. He has been in the hospital the last few days after suffering what’s been described as either head injury or an aneurysm and the situation is serious enough to make the rumors plausible, but not true. Edit: Mocho Cota has passed away this afternoon.

The very end of Informa confirmed Sunday’s CMLL show will be streamed. They’re possibly not making a big deal of because tickets are pretty expensive: 672 MX ($32 USD) highest ticket compared to 470 MX ($23 USD) for Friday’s show. Most Sunday shows are much cheaper than Friday shows, and CMLL is pricing this like it’s a special event. I guess that’s the idea, but they haven’t made it feel like one. It’ll will be a hard sell against LigaMX. (I’m not sure what the thinking is here.) Metalica, Jarochita and Sanely talk about being in the CMLL cage for the first time.

This week’s WON says Lucha Underground wrestlers were told the plan was to start filming Season 4 in October. This is a change from even a few weeks ago, when people in charge were saying they were filming in the spring. The new episodes wouldn’t start airing until 2018, which means this would be about the same break as between season 1 and season 2 if it happens.

Rey Mysterio Jr. says he’s considering opening a wrestling school. Rey would like to train his son for wrestling, he’s thought about a school before, and maybe will open a school if that’s just the easier way to train his son.

TKD and CultIcon reviews this week’s Lucha Underground.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Martinez Promociones in Texas has Ronnie Mendoza vs Zack Sabre Jr. and Taya vs Chik Tormenta on 0/14

The Crash announced Cage and AR Fox for their 01/21 show.

Pentagon and Fenix are headed to Peru sometime in March.

There’s a children’s toy drive in Matamoros, which is great. The luchador leading it (Guerrero Celestial) is either passing himself off as Mistico or the newspaper person is very confused, which is not great.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 12/27/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Mágico & Vaquero Jr. vs Carlo Roggi & Linterna
2) Magnum, Marvel, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Joker, Raziel
3) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, Pegasso vs El Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
4) Drone, Stuka Jr., Tritón vs Kráneo, Pólvora, Ripper
5) Carístico, Marco Corleone, Volador Jr. vs La Máscara, Shocker, Terrible

Nothing special for the Holiday show here either.

CMLL ACG (WED) 01/04/2017 Expoferia Arandas, Arandas, Jalisco
1) Sky Kid & Smaker vs Joker & Sádico
2) Mágico, Magnum, Vaquero Jr. vs Évola, Exterminador, Ráfaga
3) Estrellita, Sanely, Silueta vs Chik Tormenta, La Pantera, Zeuxis
4) Esfinge, Gallo, Star Black vs El Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón © [OCCIDENTE TRIOS]
5) Atlantis & Último Guerrero vs Blue Panther & Satánico
6) Carístico & Máximo vs Mr. Niebla & X-Fly

A special Jalisco show show at a winter fair. Wikiepdia tells me Arandas is about two hours east of Guadalajara. I think they might have the wrong match in the main event. There’s a press conference today which might be related to this show.