IWRG (WED) 03/29/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Cadilac b Picudo Jr.
2) Black Dragón b Keiser Drago
Black Dragon replaced Omega
3) Kanon & Saruman b Avisman & Skanda
Saruman’s first match here in two years.
4) Shadow Boy b Lunatic Extreme
5) Cerebro Negro, Demonio Infernal, Heddi Karaoui b Baby Camaleón I, Hijo del Alebrije, Pantera I
straight falls. +LuchaTV lists the Camaleon as Baby Camaleon I, while The Gladiatores says it was Kamaleon. Pantera & Demonio feuded.
6) Golden Magic & Veneno b Máscara Año 2000 Jr. & Relámpago
Golden Magic defeated Relampago wants a title shot.
We, today, together, will not be able to solve the mystery of which Camaleon was on this show. It’s OK.
Today’s a double taping day, with AAA taping just outside of the Mexico City limits while CMLL has it’s usual Arena Mexico show.
Tonight’s CMLL show Matt Taven versus Rush II. It’s a odd match to do: CMLL seems to think highly enough of Matt Taven to use him as a main event singles guy, but he’s not got much use in that role if he’s going to lose a third one in a row. It’s not clear if or when Taven is coming back, so a win over Rush wouldn’t necessarily make sense either. Maybe they could do something with Diamante Azul costing Rush the match to move the Pierroth feud int hat direction. The match should be good, their last match went well except for the part where Rush almost let Taven die on a dive, and engaged Rush is always fun.
The other ongoing issue is down in the second match, with Zeuxis & Sugehit on opposite sides of a trios match. The two have made mask match challenges in interviews, but not yet serious ones in front of the crowd. We don’t know for sure that a mask match is happening, just that CMLL usually doesn’t book people against each other this often unless something is up, and they’ve already done the title matches. CMLL’s Arena Mexico anniversary celebration is four Fridays from tonight, so they’re right in the range where a serious mask challenge might be made if it’s coming.
The rest of the card has no particular issues, though there’s some promise in a couple of the matches. Diamante Azul & Pierroth are both on the card, but split up in different matches. Azul teams with Stuka & Valiente to face Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero and Utlimo Guerrero in the semimain. It’ll be the first time the one time greatest tag team in the world Guerrero & Bucanero have teamed up on a Friday night since 2015. Pierroth will drag down a match with Kraneo, Mephisto, Marco, Maximo and Volador. The Panther family teams faces the Dinamitas (Mascara 2000 instead of Forastero), an ongoing repeated matchup. And the show opens with a promising minis match, with Stukita & Ultimo Dragoncito teaming against imaginary planes Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro.
The show kicks off at 8:30pm local, which is still one hour later than usual if you’re in the US. It’s the final CMLL streaming show that’s an hour late until October (unless you’re in Japan.) It will air on ClaroSports, and it’s too early to know if it’ll be region blocked agian.
Formula E drivers got some lucha libre training in Arena Mexico. There’s video here.
Meanwhile, AAA comes back to Neza for it’s first taping post Rey de Reyes. There is a card for this show, but we’ve know AAA cards will be changing as the show goes on. We know there will be one change already: Mesias – well, Mil Muertes – is at WrestleCon and will not be in Neza as billed. AAA’s reaction to being called out for advertising a guy they know won’t be there has been along the lines of “wha? huh? I can’t hear you, I’m going thru a tunnel, my phone’s cutting out”.
The current main event is Murder Clown & Psycho Clown versus Dr. Wagner Jr. & Monster Clown, a match which has no reason to exist at any point, the kind of match lucha promoters put together when they have no ideas about how to continue the feud but feel the need to do something different for the sake of being different. Relevos increibles sides usually make matches worse so I guess the good news here is there’s no combination of these four men which would’ve actually been good anyway. Blow this match up.
The semimain is scheduled to be Fantasma & Texano against Mesias & Pagano, which originally seemed to be the tecnicos picking up a win as Mesias & Pagano destructed, the same thing that happened six weeks ago in Cuautitlan. There’s been changes since then, and it’s unclear if Mesias & Pagano are still having problems, or even what they’ll do with no Mesias around.
Aerostar & Drago versus Cuervo & Scoria was originally a tag title match, then not, then Cuervo & Scoria won a tag title shot anwyay. It seems set up for Vampiro to appear to make it a tag title match (which may be a reason why Vampiro is in Neza and not Orlando). It’s a match much more suited to Cuervo & Scoria than the cage match, and it’s definitely possible for a tag title change if the titles are on the line.
Argenis, Australian Suicide, Hijo de Pirata Morgan and Nino Hamburguesa are part of an arbitrary cruiserweight title match. Suicide’s won a tag team match, but mostly everyone but Argenis hasn’t done much recently and don’t have a strong case for getting a title shot. Argenis versus Johnny Mundo is a weird feud, but so would everything else. There’s enough talent to make for a good match, just Hamburugesa is a weird fit for this match.
The OGT duo of Averno & Chessman take on young luchadors Lanzeloth & Mascara de Bronce. This foreshadows a similar trios match on the next taping, so it’s possibly the start of a new feud. The OGT have had small issues on recent tapings, and this show might make it more certain if they’re building towards a split.
The show opens with a Relevos AAA match, which includes Lady Shani suddenly on the tecnico side, and Estrella Divina’s first AAA TV appearance since 2014. This taping will start airing on April 8th.
The promotion who is not having a show today is Lucha Underground. Many Lucha Underground people are in Orlando today, brought in on their own separate deals, and quasi-representing the promotion on other shows over the weekend, but there’s no official get together. It really struck me, looking thru Twitter this morning, how everyone is there except the brand name. It’s not just the obvious hot indie names like Penta & Fenix & Cage & Ricochet & Angelico & Jack (who seems to have two working legs again.) Striker is there doing podcast. Willie Mack’s come in all the way from California and working a couple shows. Catrina is there, just signing autographs. They’re just about only missing Dario & the logo.
That’s not for a lack of different people trying to put together a show; there were definite and multiple different plans to have a LU live event as part of this weekend, but the deals never got done when it came to it. (There’s also the conflict with this AAA taping today, but they’ve already moved around tapings this year and could’ve done the same with this one.) Yes, there are way too many shows around this year’s WrestleMania and there are going to be some promotions who are going to produce great content while losing lots of money. Lucha Underground would’ve been one of the safer bets to do well. Instead, just as last year, LU is missing out on an easy way to make some money and increase approval for their brand. Failing to make a deal for a show hurts LU more than anything Fenix, Pentagon or any other wrestler has done by moving, and LU people should be disappointed and frustrated they’re missing this chance.
This is not important to anyone else, but NJPW World’s mention of (re) airing Dragon Lee/Niebla Roja on their service got more social media interaction than CMLL’s own tweet mentioning it when it actually happened live. Twitter is more popular in Japan, but it’s not the only thing seemingly more popular in Japan.
This week’s WON mentions plans for a Crash/Impact PPV are off, but they may tape matches for Impact’s secondary Xplosion show. I’m not sure how that would help the Crash at all.
LuchaRama has a list of book and artist activities.
AAA had photos from their WDM awards.
LuchaWorld has the latest news update.
Segunda Caida reviews Herodes & Heddi Karaoui vs Zumbi & Bandido from last year’s Elite.
Super Apuesta Podcast talks about La Sombra vs Atlantis.