AAA TV (FRI) 05/26/2017Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Charly Madrid & Tigger vs Dalton & Joe Lider
2) Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba
3) Drago vs Aerostar, Bengala, Australian Suicide, Lanzeloth, Máscara de Bronce, Raptor, Venum
4) El Mesías & Pagano vs Monsther Clown & Murder Clown
5) La Parka & Ricky Marvin vs Chessman & Súper Fly Argenis and Averno will be seconds
6) Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker
Air Date: this is after 3 tapings which have yet to air (Tijuana, Tlaxcala, and the yet to be taped Pachuca), so I’m going to write June 17th and June 24th here but who knows what will happen between now and seven weeks.
We know that things have changes. The original schedule form back in January had AAA in Queretaro on this day, and in Contla on 05/20. They’re now going to Pachuca on the 16th, and presumably promoting this show themselves on the 26th. The Contla show was still listed as recently as this week’s TV, but hadn’t been promoted online much and may have been off for a while. We’ve never gotten a look at the full schedule at the start of the year before (and AAA might have had anything close to one before this year), so it’s hard to tell if this is a lot of change or the usual amount.
We also know the lineup may change, because it’s changed every show. Though, to my eye, this looks like the sort of lineup AAA might end up with after the usual changes, because it does follow the issues they’re actually building. I wouldn’t rule out the card actually being close to being correct, though I suspect no one knows if it’ll be this show for sure three weeks out.
Even if it does change, it’s AAA advertising a show in Mexico City with Poder del Norte as the main event rudos. I have no idea how that’s going to at the ticket window. Half of the Tlaxcala TV will have aired by then; perhaps AAA will air the trios title change the first week to help build interest in the match, but they’re unproven as draws so far and it didn’t seem like their opponents took them all that seriously this past week on TV either.
It’s AAA’s first show here since Guerra de Titanes, first time back without Pentagon, first time back since The Crash didn’t meet expectations (on a harder day of the work) – there’s going to be all sorts of comparisons and judgments to make whatever way this turns out.
Raptor is a new name – there’s a Mexico City luchador using the name Raptor, but I’d guess it’ll be someone new. If the all tecnico match stays as it is, they should just call Alas de Oro and give someone wings. Tigger (probably The Tiger), Charly Madrid & Dalton are all from the most recent round of La Llave de la Gloria; no one outside of AAA understands how that’s supposed to work but being in a match with Joe Lider seems like a true challenge.
AAA has literally nothing left to announce until the June 19th lineup, and no show to run until May 16th. It should be a quite week or so, so I’m excited to find out what else will accidentally be announced.
CMLL (TUE) 05/02/2017Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Martes de Glamour]
1) Cancerbero, Difunto, Raziel b Leono, Magnum, Sensei rudos took 1/3
2) Disturbio, Puma, Tiger b Flyer, Magnus, Pegasso Rudos took 1/3.
3) El Gallito & Microman b El Perico Zakarias & Mije One fall. Money thrown in.
4) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto b Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Titán Rudos took 1/3.
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Carístico, Máximo Sexy, Mistico Rudos took 1/3. Euforia snuck in a foul on Maximo.
Main event sets up Euforia/Maximo next week.
CMLL’s show today is low on excitement compared to recent weeks. The main event reverts to the unappealing spring feud between Diamante Azul & Pierroth, with Los Ingobernables facing Caristico & Marco Corleone. The semimain is stuck in Niebla Roja’s slow split from Guerreros Laguneros, with him teaming once again with Euforia & Niebla Roja to face Dragon Lee, Stuka and Titan. The lightning match is a OK Ripper versus Angel de Oro match. Arkangel de la Muerte will be there to bring down the not great to begin with opener (with Oro & Starman & Espiritu Negro.)
The fourth match, Los Revolucionarios versus Esfinge, Soberano Jr., and Guerrero Maya, is the best chance for a good match. The women’s match, with Marcela on the opposite sides of Zeuxis & Dalys after their failed team last week and with Princes Sugehit back involved. Estrellita and Amapola round out the trios.
The much more exciting show tonight is happening in Tijuana, as the Crash returns to their homebase. The Young Bucks take on Penta 0M & Rey Fenix (maybe as The King), a match that’s gone well when they’ve had it before in PWG. Daga versus Zack Sabre Jr. is the semimain, part of the unofficial Daga versus the English speaking stars tour. Tijuana is not a usual strong place for maestro style matches; the Hechicero/Caifan match from earlier this year was good but didn’t seem like it got over great. The Crash audience seems to have a lot of people who are just into seeming the indie names and may give them some leeway on this. The semimain is a tag match of high flyers, Mr. 450 & Sammy Guevera against Ricochet & Flip Gordon (who probably is finishing up here after signing with ROH.) The third match is Garza, Jack Evans and Ultimo Ninja against Bestia, Hijo del Pirata Morgan and Jeff Cobb. The opening matches include outside wrestlers like Diamante & Famous B and a lot of locals. There’s no Blue Demon or Rey Mysterio or Alberto on this show that would appeal to a more casual group of fans; this is as indie focused as any show they’ve run since the new direction and an interesting test of how well it’s working.
The Crash is listed at 8:30pm local time, which is 10:30 CT, but it’ll probably start even later than that. There’s nothing been said about the show being streamed or put VOD anywhere. There might be stuff on Twitter or Facebook, because those things seem easy to for fans to do, but probably nothing official. This week’s WON has the usual “The Crash is working to get streaming done real soon!” but they’ve been saying that all year and it’s May and there’s no sign of progress from the outside; The Crash isn’t even talking about it as a plan or a roadmap publicly, which makes it seem like they’re not actually trying even as people behind the scenes insist they are. An indie show with the Young Bucks and Pentagon and Fenix in 2017 is the easiest show to sell in on the internet in 2017 and this show can sort of be chalked up as a failure even before it happens if it’s not being recorded.
Today’s also Cinco de Mayo, an essentially US holiday of Mexican culture (and a battle in Puebla). There are many outdoor festival which include lucha libre shows in places like San Diego and St. Louis and Chicago and across the US. There’s also a few Lucha Va Voom style shows running tonight that tend to appeal to Americans, from the original group running this weekend in Los Angeles to others inspired by them like the group running in Detroit (where the Traumas are scheduled to make a US appearance.) There’s nothing much going on in Mexico; usually there’s at least a few shows in Puebla, the location of the famous battle this day is remembered for, but no one seems to be running anything special. Last weekend swallowed up all the shows, I guess – CMLL’s lineup is regular, AAA is not running a TV taping. The Crash is running, but that seems more like it’s just the day where all their guys are free than anything else. The Chavez/Canelo boxing match does seem to be getting a lot of attention (it’s even kcidis cartoon of the week), but that wouldn’t stop people from running lucha libre shows if it was worth their time.
CMLL has no hopes or aspirations (me too), but if AAA still believes they’re going to make a incursion into the US with a live show someday, this is obviously the day the should aim for – a AAA or Lucha Underground or some cross promoted show with Impact would get some added attention and some casual fans checking out if they could get into the US on these days.
Today does start Lucha Underground’s third season airing on Canada’s TLN. They’re airing two episodes every Friday, which would catch them up by August (or something will happen, as something usually does.)
DTU G21 (SUN) 06/04/2017 Gym Municipal, Irapuato, Guanajuato
1) Billy, Hardy Boy, Masizito vs Erwing, Irving, Luigi
2) Sirius & Toto vs Astro Latino & Drolux
3) Camuflaje vs Flayer Boy, Pardux, Destello
4) Jimmy & Kevin vs Kastigador & Vengador and Chica Ye-Ye & Lokillo
5) Cíclope & Miedo Extremo vs D. Pólux Jr. & Ovett
6) Jason Cade & Trey Miguel vs Drastik Boy & Moria and Cobre & Crazy Boy
DTU’s starting to announce it’s late May/June shows, with this one in Guanajuato. Cobre seems to be a prospect of the moment based on where he’s been slotted of late.
Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Pantherbeat Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys(14:24 [6:56, 3:02, 4:26], 2/3, ok)
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
Dragón Lee vs Niebla Roja(14:12 [2:40, 2:26, 9:06], great)
Video: VideosOficialesCMLL
Dragon Lee Spanish Fly (2:40)
Niebla Roja Furia Roja (2:26)
Niebla Roja inverted huracanrana (9:05)
Atlantis, Rey Cometa, Valientebeat Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla(7:46 [0:52, 1:57, 4:57], 2/3, ok) What Happened:
Niebla Roja defeated Dragon Lee cleanly in something close to a tecnico versus tecnico match. And that’s all.
Review:
Dragon Lee takes a lot on this
I liked the Dragon Lee/Niebla Roja more on the rewatch. The first time thru, the reverse huracanrana doesn’t feel like the right finish, not being a move that’s usually a finish for Niebla Roja (or anyone here despite being a Big Move) and being the rudo winning cleanly. It kind of works better when you factor in what each man had already done to each other, and Niebla Roja just escaping Dragon Lee’s emergency finish. Dragon Lee did get spiked pretty well, part of his pledge to land on his head in every match. The speed here was a little slower than Dragon Lee’s bigger matches and risk tasking was more one sided, but they did play off each other well and pulled out a few things playing off their previous spots. Niebla Roja came off as a guy very good in CMLL singles match style, but my expectations were for him to show more things I wasn’t expecting and he didn’t quite do that. Still worth watching.
The main event was the usual easy match following a big singles match that makes you wish they had just done the singles match last. Peste Negra got over as easy as usual but the effort wasn’t quite there; this is a Valiente match without a dive, amazingly enough.
Dragon Lee is underrated strong
The usual bit of unexpected finishes in a Panther match, though it doesn’t seem to ever amount to as much it could be, and the surprise of the roll ups at the end mitigates the big Terrible/Panther ending they seemed like they were head towards. It’s kind of a teaching match, don’t expect everything to be wrapped up nicely, but it doesn’t make for this to be much of a match. The Panther stands out much more than his brother, who had little presence in this match.
Drone looked great, so then Canelo Casas beat him to win the tercera and everyone was sad. I’m not sure how I feel yet about Drone’s new shoulder tattoo. This match really was one more positive wrestler away from being good match but what can you do. Forastero is a useful luchador even outside of his trio, which is nice to see.
bad times for Star Jr.
We saw most of the opener, which appeared to be the usual minis match and maybe unnecessary to see. Stukita was super charismatic as always, Eléctrico had good moves with odd hesitations as always. Pequeño Violencia wouldn’t be wearing the Ingobernables logo if La Sombra was still alive.
