IWRG (WED) 02/22/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Fireman b Keiser Drago
2) Shadow Boy b Atomic Star
3) Adrenalina, Araña de Plata, Eterno b Alfa, Black Dragón, Omega
Eterno replaced Hip Hop Man and beat Black Dragon. Dragon wants a rematch.
4) Heddi Karaoui b Cerebro Negro
Karaoui submits Cerebro.
5) Demasiado, Diva Salvaje, Nigma b Leo, Mike, Rafy [EdM Trios]
Title change, Ninja Turtles lose the belts on their fifth defense. Clean match, with the Exoticos offering the Ninja Turtles a rematch.
6) Demonio Infernal, Diablo Jr., Relámpago b Emperador Azteca, Golden Magic, Imposible
CMLL’s recap of yesterday’s press conference doesn’t mention the Hijos del Infierno giving up their trios titles. So they’re still champs.
Lucha Underground Season 3 has turned up on Amazon, though only the episodes which have aired. Season 2 has been up for a while. These are all for buying individual episodes, like iTunes, not the Amazon streaming service. LU hasn’t promoted these and so we have no idea why Season 1 isn’t up. I wonder if it’s a similar things like with Netflix, where they have to add some things to meet Amazon standards, and that’s more work with Season 1 since it’s in two languages. That’s my guess for all video things now, and I suspect we’ll hear more about it once they have all three seasons up.
Lucha Underground also has a new website. They’ve had one for a while, but never mentioned it much and it seemed like it would only get updated during seasons. The site is now updated with videos at least thru the last episodes which have aired, and has a nicer looking store. There’s also an ad for the shirts being at Hot Topic, in case you’re on the show and you want to know.
Mucha Lucha Facebook reposted an interview with Mr. Niebla in El Grafico, where he talks about his battle with alcoholism. He acknowledges that when he’s not around CMLL shows, it’s probably due to him battling those issues instead, but defends himself from critics by says he keeps getting brought back because he generates money for the promotions.
Misterioso Jr. talked about his career with El Siglo de Torreon. He says he got the name when he was working in LA and the original Misterioso thought so highly of him that he gave him the name for free. Misterioso credits Ultimo Guerrero for getting him into CMLL. His story about getting into lucha libre is still the best: he was riding his bike when he was hit by a car. He wasn’t too hurt, and the driver offered to help him out later to make up for it. The driver was Dr. Wagner Sr.
AAA says they’ve sent out appointment information for La Llave a la Gloria for people with appointments this weekend. They must’ve gotten a good number, because they mention others will be having an appointment in March.
Rey de Reyes tickets will run from 100 to 1000 pesos (5 to 51USD). It’s really only the floor seats that are on the high end, everything else is pretty cheap. They should get a good crowd.
Rey de Reyes is in Monterrey. Rey de Reyes has a mystery woman appearing. Sexy Star is from Monterrey, and posted a dramatic photo of herself with a AAA jacket. I’m 99% sure this is a troll and she’s not actually going back to AAA but figured out a clever way to get people to talk about her. I will be very amused if the other 1% happened, so it’s a win either way.
I mentioned it quickly back on the podcast, but I wanted to write that I really like the AAW show (The Art of War) from last Friday. (There’s a highlight video here.) On the lucha note, Hijo del Fatnasma did well in his debut against Low Ki, with the two having a pretty good match before the intermission. Fantasma did well enough to get brought back, and I was told to mention that both he and Rey Fenix were polite gentleman who were really easy to deal with. Fenix won the main event, setting up a title match on March 4th out in LaSalle. I didn’t expect to be going to so many indie shows, but I’m likely going to that one too if I’m free that day. The ones I’ve gone to have been all pretty good.
The other thing I’m way behind on writing about is Powerbomb.TV, which launched just about two weeks ago now. I’ve signed up to that and liked what I’ve seen, though I haven’t had a chance to spend as much time as I’d like. (There was a moment this morning where I saw a notification on my phone that my card got charged for something this morning, spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what it was, and then only realized it must be the Powerbomb subscription when I was thinking about what I was writing about today.) They offer a 10 day free trial if you want to check it out. As far as lucha libre, these are the shows they have up now (all are full shows unless noted, main events listed, links are to my results for full card)
- XMW: 06/21/2014 (Arez/Pentagon), 06/20/2014 (Pagano four way main event, really good tag match), 08/15/2015 (Pagano vs Nicho), 07/31/2016 (Wotan vs Demoledor, good Puma/Tiger vs Centvrion/Latigo tag match)
- Kamikazes del Ring: 08/27/2016 (El Bandido vs Mr. Leo vs Latigo), 10/08/2016 (Extreme Tiger & Mr. Leo vs Freelance & Rey Horuz)
- IAP: 08/07/2016 (Wotan vs As Charro, Mala Hiebra three way), 09/04/2016 (Canek & Hijo del Fishman vs As Charro & Mascara Sagrada Jr., Ninja Turtle four way)
- CaraLucha: 11/06/2016 (The Best tournament first two rounds)
- Go! Mask: 12/20/2015 (Argenis & Drago vs Pentagon & Daga)
- ILLM: 01/17/2016 (Arez vs Fly Warrior vs Sharlie Rockstar)
- Rudos de Neza: 11/14/2015 (six way with Flamita)
Most everything looks like Carxyus videos at this point. Some, but not all, are posted on his Facebook if you dig. This interface is a lot nicer than that and the video quality is really good. Like all these streaming services, it’ll be a better bargin as more footage is added and more features are added – there’s no Chromecast or Roku, but they’ve said they’re working on those things – but there’s hidden gems. Maybe I’ll find time to write about a few those in a bit.
Lineup
IWRG (SUN) 02/26/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Alfa vs Death Rider
2) Shadow Boy vs Atomic Star
3) Black Dragón & Dragón Fly vs Demonio Infernal & Hip Hop Man
4) Relámpago vs Apolo Estrada Jr. [super libre]
5) Chicano & Veneno © vs Black Terry & Diablo Jr. [IWRG IC TAG]
first defense since winning the titles in September
6) Hijo De Dos Caras © vs Herodes Jr. [IWRG JUNIORS]
second defense, first since August
7) Negro Navarro, Pantera, Pirata Morgan, Solar I, Villano IV vs Danny Casas, Imposible, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Mr. Electro, Trauma I [Copa High Power]
Main event is old old veterans versus slightly less old rivals. IWRG’s not done much with either belt, which means they might want to restart with title changes. Or they might be just fine not doing anything with them. Relampago appears to be alive. Death Rider is a new name to me.
RIOT (SAT) 03/04/2017 Arena Femenil, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Psicótico vs Muerte Extrema
2) Dulce Kanela vs Larry Miranda
3) Alas de Acero, Aramis (Estado de México), Iron Kid (Estado de México) vs Erick Ortiz, Kamikaze, Kratoz
4) Kaientai & Lord Byron vs ? & Tony Rodríguez
5) Sammy Guevara vs Jack Evans
6) Low Rider vs Séptimo Dragón
Full card for the show next week. Hijo del Santo hasn’t seemed to get back to Tony Rodriguez about being his partner, there’s still time.