Angel de Oro wins Reyes del Aire, Copa Junior begins next week

I thought Niebla Roja was saving his brother until he started to move him into positionCMLL (FRI) 04/07/2017 Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon, thecubsfan]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro 2017-04-07 CMLL Viernes (Reyes del Aire 2017) (posted by thecubsfan)
14:46. Rudos took 2/3.
2) Princesa Sugehit, Silueta, Skadi b Dalys, Metálica, Reyna Isis 2017-04-07 CMLL Viernes (Reyes del Aire 2017) (posted by thecubsfan)
14:42. Tecnias took 1/3.
3) Sam Adonis b Rey Cometa [lightning] 2017-04-07 CMLL Viernes (Reyes del Aire 2017) (posted by thecubsfan)
Added on Monday. 9:10, Adonis beat Cometa with a powerbomb and his feet on the ropes.
4) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr. b Kráneo, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero 2017-04-07 CMLL Viernes (Reyes del Aire 2017) (posted by thecubsfan)
9:03. Tecnicos took 2/3. Atlantis challenged UG to a title match for this week.
5) Ángel de Oro b Carístico, Cavernario, Mistico, La Máscara, Volador Jr., Mephisto, Máximo Sexy, Euforia, Valiente, Luciferno, Niebla Roja, Dragón Lee, Hechicero, Titán, Gran Guerrero [Reyes del Aire] 2017-04-07 CMLL Viernes (Reyes del Aire 2017) (posted by thecubsfan)
29:44. Lucifierno replaced Ephesto on Monday. Tecnicos vs rudos. Eliminations: Luciferno (Volador), Titan (Cavernario), Gran Guerrero (Maximo), Dragon Lee & Mephisto at the same time (Hechicero & Volador), Valiente (La Mascara), Cavernario (Mistico), Maximo (Hechicero), Mascara (Caristico), Hechicero (Volador), Caristico (Euforia), Mistico (Niebla Roja), Niebla Roja (Volador), Volador (Euforia) and Euforia (Angel de Oro) seconds later. This is Angel de Oro’s third Reyes del Aire win. Caristico & Volador attacked each other during the match, with Mistico playing peacemaker. Niebla Roja generally got along with his partners.

Reyes del Aire was really good when a lot of people were involved. Like last year, it slowed down during an extended three way portion near the end (though at least this time we got a winner.) Angel de Oro was about the 12th or 13th most impressive guy in the match and it’s hard to grasp why CMLL is so strong behind him. He’s now ended Dragon Rojo’s title reign and won this competition in a short period of time. Perhaps they’re building to something – maybe a reunion with his brother – but Cavernario winning this last year really didn’t set up anything. Regardless of the finish, you’ll want to see this match.

Atlantis/UG came out of nowhere and seemed shoehorned in for no obvious reason. Not sure we need a second Ultimo Guerrero title match in about four weeks when there’s so many people they could choose for. It may be in service of whatever they’re doing with Niebla Roja. That breakup was not played up much last night – the Guerreros came out together, but Niebla Roja was hanging back from the other two.

The idea of a Zeuxis/Sugehit mask match as the big event on a 04/28 Arena Mexico anniversary show seems to be off. The Copa Junior Nuevo Valores final will take place on that date instead, and CMLL typically does not have two midcard singles matches on the same show. It’s not impossible CMLL could’ve moved it to the 04/30 Kid’s Day show – that’s gotten all the attention with no mention of an Arena Mexico anniversary show – but it doesn’t appear to be happening on a Friday night any time soon. (In possibly related news, WWE’s Women’s tournament was announced as “sometime in quarter two or three”, which suggests it may not take place until deep into the summer.) They’re the lightning match on Tuesday, so it hasn’t been totally dropped, but it looks like plans changed.

CMLL changed Tuesday’s title match. The Panther will now team with his father Blue Panther Sr., instead of his brother, to face Negro Navarro & Black Terry for the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championships. Not sure if it’s an injury or other reasons; Blue Jr. hasn’t been listed on any show since Tuesday.

Last week’s AAA episode is off their official YouTube channel because of a copyright violation notice from El Rey. If you own the rights to a video, you can ask YouTube to block (or monetize) any other video uploaded to the service which matches your video. In this case, the scenes from the Lucha Underground Netflix commercial matched up with El Rey’s video and an automated program took down AAA’s video. This probably can and will be cleared up (though it’s obviously not going a priority), and it’s more about the flaws in YouTube’s content blocking situation than anything AAA or LU did. It still looks bad and probably is frustrating for everyone involved.  It also may delay or prevent AAA from posting shows on that channel for the time being.

There’s a lucha libre photo exhibit open for one week only in Juarez.

Fuego en el Ring has the latest edition of their podcast.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 04/14/2017 Arena México
1) Shockercito, Stukita, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pierrothito
2) Soberano Jr. vs The Panther, Drone, Oro Jr., El Cuatrero, Canelo Casas, Hijo del Signo, Espanto Jr. [La Copa Jr. Nuevo Valores, semifinal]
3) Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas
4) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Mistico vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja
5) Último Guerrero © vs Atlantis [NWA MIDDLE]
11th defense

Atlantis has gotten title shots in Arena Puebla and Arena Coliseo, but not yet in Guadalajara, so this is not the magic fourth chance. (He’s also the Mexican Light Heavyweight champion, which means this title change would have to set up another.)

Semimain teams up Niebla Roja with the other Guerreros, so there’s going to be problems.

There’s a good four (Soberano, Panther, Drone, Cuatrero) and a not as good four (Oro, Canelo, Signo and Espanto) mixed in that Copa Junior. I’d bet on Soberano right now.

Five matches seems short. The eight man cibernetico is probably not going longer than a normal trios match. The main event may go longer, but the semimain may go short. Guessing another match may be added during the week.

AAA’s Joaquin Roldan has passed away

Joaquin Roldan

AAA announced Joaquin Roldan passed away early this morning. He was 63.

Roldan, the brother in law of AAA founder Antonio Peña, had been involved with AAA for about 20 years. He was a lawyer and worked in that role in his first years in the promotion. Roldan took over operation of the promotion when Peña suffered an illness and passed away in 2007 2006. Joaquin, his wife Marisela (Peña’s sister) and their son Dorian became the public face of the promotion in Antonio Peña’s absence. (Joaquin is also survived by a daughter who’s helped with AAA but in a less public role.) It’s believed Marislea was given ownership of AAA by her brother, but Joaquin was person running the promotion due to social norms of Mexico. Joaquin may have had the most power of the family members, but it seemed like the big decisions were things the family made as a unit.

Joaquin Roldan is also one of the people responsible for Lucha Underground existing. He owns some part of the promotion, and is visible sitting in the crowd on the first few tapings.

Joaquin Roldan was also the onscreen face authority figure for many years, feuding with Dorian Roldan & Konnan constantly. The rudos were always kept strong for the perennial blow-off down the line, so Joaquin was often outmaneuvered by his opponents between a few victories. Roldan broke his nose when he was tripped into a turnbuckle at one TripleMania, was tricked into having his head shaved at another TripleMania, vowed La Sociedad would be gone forever from AAA really soon a few times. Roldan didn’t seem comfortable in his role at first, but grew to like it and improved in the role. He appeared much less in that role the last couple years, with AAA dropping the feuding family members after Konnan left the company. Marisela continued to sit in the front row as the face of AAA, and Joaquin appeared to be backstage helping run the TV tapings.

Joaquin had not been seen at AAA events as much in recent months. He was at the Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner contract signing press conference, and was part of the remembrance of Chavo Guerrero Senior. I’m not sure if he had been at the La Llave de la Gloria tryouts or the work AAA did on the movie, but those all fell under the idea of “new projects” that Dorian would be leading on. There was no outward sign something was wrong, but now I look back at Joaquin looking a little thinner and tired at that contract signing and wonder if wasn’t because it was a trying week, but because of health issues. (Plantilla Deportiva says a source has told them Joaquin died of cancer, which would certainly fit. Edit: Arturo Rivera also said it was cancer.) Joaquin was put in AAA’s Hall of Fame last year at TripleMania by Marisela & Dorian, something that seemed a little tone deaf at the time. Maybe they knew, and wanted to make sure he had a moment of recognition.

The Roldans are holding a wake for Joaquin Roldan today at the Capilla de Gayosso funeral home in Mexico City.

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-04-07 – Angel de Oro wins Reyes del Aire

dives everywhere

Recapped: 2017-04-07

Matches:

All matches were taped taped on Arena México at 04/07/2017, and aired on ClaroSports. They’re on my youtube channel.

Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro (2/3) Acero & Aéreo (14:46 [6:45, 3:41, 4:20], ok)

Princesa Sugehit, Skadi, Silueta (1/3) Dalys, Metálica, Reyna Isis (14:43 [7:15, 3:40, 3:48], below average) 

Sam Adonis  defeated  Rey Cometa in a lightning match (9:10, powerbomb w/feet on the ring, good) 

Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr. (2/3)  Kráneo, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero (9:03 [2:29, 2:30, 4:04], OK)

including a GIF strike exchange in Reyes del Aire, I dunno

Angel de Oro won the 2017 Reyes del Aire (29:44, great)
taped on Arena México at 04/07/2017

06:14 Volador backcracker Luciferno
10:15 Cavernario mammoth dropkick Titan
12:01 Máximo rope walking plancha Gran Guerrero
14:32 Hechicero cradle Dragon Lee
14:32 Volador quebrada Mephisto
17:39 La Mascara double knee smash Valiente
18:22 Mistico Mistica on Cavernario
19:57 Hechicero conjuro Maixmo
20:25 Carístico Carsitica La Mascara
21:41 Volador backcracker Hechicero
23:41 Euforia Soberana Carístico
24:15 Niebla Roja middle Furia Roja Mistico
24:47 Volador top rope headscissors Niebla Roja
29:35 Euforia Soberana Volador
29:44 Angel de Oro mecedora Euforia

What Happened:

Titan takes out everyone with the moonsault

Angel de Oro won the 2017 Reyes del Aire. Yes, Angel de Oro. For the third time. He submitted Euforia a second after Euforia submitted Volador.

Carístico and Volador got into a fight with each other during the match, with Mistico trying to play peacemaker. Niebla Roja and the Guerreros didn’t seem to be friendly, but Roja otherwise fought as normal rudo. (The match had been billed as having a battle royal, but they cut it out.)

Atlantis submitted Último Guerrero in the semifinal and challenged for a NWA Middleweight Championship match next week. UG accepted.

Sam Adonis defeated Rey Cometa, using the ropes to get the pin.

CMLL announced a Copa Junior Nuevo Valores would begin next week.

Skadi replaced Sanely in the women’s match.

Thoughts:

Valiente Special

The main event had some incredible stretches of action, sequences as good as they’ve done in any one of these crazy ciberneticos. The pace was incredible most of the way and very compelling; I couldn’t find time to make any notes beyond keeping track of eliminations because I didn’t want to take my eyes of the screen. The lower level of the last five minutes – from Niebla Roja and Volador both nearly landing on their head on the headscissors slip thru the finish – hurts this from being a match of the year contender, and Angel de Oro as the winner also doesn’t help. Still, this is a match you really ought to see just to be amazed. Valiente looked great during his portion, Hechicero got a few big moments, there was a finisher move melody that came off fantastic, all the Misticos and Volador doing dives in a row was cool, and Carístico & Volador was a great touch that works even if they never bother to follow up on it. Endings are overaly important to me, and you may get more out of this if that doesn’t concern you, because there was about 20 minutes of incredible action in this one.

The semimain seemed super rushed, as if CMLL was mostly worried about having enough time for the main event. (They did!) Atlantis and UG is a well trod feud, so it doesn’t really matter they didn’t do all that much to build up a title match here. Diamante Azul stole the match, looking more impressive tossing around Kraneo than anything he did with Pierroth. His ramp dive at the end looked awesome too. It also felt more like build to the Kid’s Day show, with Zacarias & Mije beatup por Monito.

Their were some iffy moments in the lightning match – the Canadian Destroyer didn’t look right, Adonis couldn’t find the ropes with his other foot stood out – but I thought it was still a good effort for the first single’s match they’ve given Adonis. Adonis took most of Cometa’s offense well, had stuff he could do on his own, and the crowd was really into the match. Cometa seems to have a knack to play the heroic Mexican better than most guys in his spot, and comes off sympathetic easily.

he lands on his feet on this, amazing

The women’s match was messy and not up to even the usual level for these things. Metalica & Skadi worked a lot together here it and it was compelling, not always for positive reasons. Some exchanged looked bad, some looked surprisingly OK, and sometimes it looked like Metalica was really getting kicked in the face. It’s strange they trust the people who display the less skills do more dangerous spots in this second match.

The técnicos tried hard to make the opener something noteworthy. It didn’t quite work, but the first fall was pretty good for this position. The rudos did go with the big spots and Pequeño Nitro took a big bump to the floor, but Mercurio also clowned around a bit. This match mostly proved Aereo is much better than Acero and might be useful in an environment where he was allowed to do things. Acero can do things too, but he can only do them slower than average and not as gracefully. This was good on the sliding scale of openers but I think it needed a little more for me.

!!!!!