May 20, 2017 – luchablog

La Mascara & Maximo have been fired from CMLL for their roles in destroying Ultimo Guerrero’s car on Friday morning in incident captured by video, according to SuperLuchas. (I was told the same this morning, but was unable to confirm it.) Maximo is currently the CMLL heavyweight champion. La Mascara is CMLL’s current CMLL Light Heavyweight champion. Neither of those belts mean all that much. Both are free agents and would be obvious signings by AAA, but pending civil and criminal lawsuits may stand in the way. CMLL has made no public statement on this situation as of Saturday afternoon (and may not until Monday).

Mascara is still being advertised for tonight’s show in Arena Coliseo, but will not work that or any other shows for CMLL. Maximo is additionally advertised as being on the annual DragonMania show next Saturday, a tag match with Marco opposite Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero of all people, but probably will not work that show either. AAA has a previously scheduled TV taping on Friday in Mexico City, and they theoretically would be free to work that show.

This all stems from the death of Brazo de Oro and the future of the CMLL in house union. While the organization is usually quickly referred to as a wrestler’s union, it’s kind of not either: SuperLuchas points out it technically represents a different group of people and the head of the union is led by someone appointed by CMLL head Paco Alonso (instead of actually controlled by the people who work there, like a normal union.) Brazo de Oro had run the union for the last couple decades, and there had always been quiet rumors of corruption and favoritism, but no one wanting to speak publicly about it for fear of reprisal. Those who disagreed with the union felt it supported management more than the wrestlers, took bribes to get around drug tests, and generally stole from the wrestlers, but there was nothing they could really do about it.

Nitro is currently technically head of the union – he had a role with the group and was next in succession when Brazo de Oro passed. La Mascara wanted to take over his father’s role in the union, fitting the dissenter’s sense that the union was more a Alvarado family business than something representing them. There was a meeting on Thursday where the future of the union was talked about, and Ultimo Guerrero said negative things about Brazo de Oro, maybe voicing some of those complaints, and possibly said some negative things about La Mascara replacing him. La Mascara and Maximo were there. The Alvarados were angry, and smashed up Ultimo Guerrero’s car.

It’s not clear Ultimo Guerrero even wanted to be head of the union himself, but saying negative things about the union and paying a price was the reason everyone had stayed quiet about it until now. In the end, it’s still Paco Alonso who gets to decide who’s head of this union and it’s not clear who he’ll pick. It’s also Paco Alonso who gets to pick who’s working for CMLL, and he’s decided La Mascara and Maximo will no longer work there.

Ultimo Guerrero indicated on Facebook he’s going to press charges. That’s a fair response to what happened, but also complicates the next step for La Mascara & Maximo. AAA is absolutely going to want to sign them. They desperately want names. Latin Lover revealed he was contacted by Vampiro about coming back a few weeks ago, and it’s been clear they’ve been looking to bring in starts this year to offset the losses with not a lot of success. It would be perfect timing for Maximo & Mascara to debut this coming Friday on their Mexico City taping, but would risk very bad press given this situation. It’s unclear if AAA is really worried about bad press at this point. (There were also rumors of WWE being interested in La Mascara last year. That might be something he’ll be looking into again.) Psycho Clown may also be facing legal charges since he was part of the incident.

CMLL owns the trademarks to La Mascara, Maximo Sexy and Los Ingobernables. They were in a protracted fight for simply “Maximo” with a non wrestling business, did not get it, and that’s why Maximo Sexy had the awkward name change. He could make another change, and La Mascara had already suggested changing his name to something Brazo de Oro related.

This situation may end up sucking in a lot more than these three people. He’s not been identified because he’s not as big a name as his cousins, but I’ve been told Robin was part of this as well. He may be fired, or he may just quit to go along with his family (that sort of jump worked out a lot for Argenis & a little bit for Argos.) Brazo de Plata is unlikely to return to CMLL, as had been his plan – he’s going to stay loyal to his family. You can keep spiraling it from there – how does this affect La Mascara’s great friend Rush? The rest of Rush’s family? Negro Casas with his son in law involved? Two main event CMLL luchadors being fired would be big in itself, but this has the potential to really change the landscape of lucha libre.

That video out there changes everything. It’s no surprised it got passed around and leaked after it was taken, but it was taken in the first place. I made a mistake yesterday – CMLL’s parking garage is public, but there are private restricted areas in there, and that’s where the incident looks to be taking place. Whoever took that video probably had a good idea it was going to happen, and wanted it on film for their own reasons. This is just a story, maybe even an urban legend without that video.

CMLL (FRI) 05/19/2017 Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon, thecubsfan]
1) Magnus & Sensei b Akuma & Espíritu Negro
11:05. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta DQ Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis
14:47. Tecnicas took 2/3, the last by DQ when Zeuxis unmasked Princesa Sugehit
3) Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Sagrado
15:52. Tecnicos took 2/3, the last by DQ when Polvora fouled and unmasked Stuka. Sagrado replaced Bobby Villa.
4) Cavernario b Titán [lightning]
9:17. Cavernario submitted Titan to a cavernaria.
5) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Valiente b Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
7:22. Tecnicos took the match in straight falls. Niebla Roja tripped up UG to cost him the first fall, then superkicked UG in the second fall. The Guerreros were rolled up while beating up Niebla Roja. Angel de Oro helped his brother. UG kicked out Roja out of the group and demanded the mask back. Roja dared UG to take it, and UG attacked and took the mask. Roja ended up wearing an Angel de Oro mask.
6) Carístico, Marco Corleone, Mistico b Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas
11:16. Tecnicos took 2/3. Marco Corleone replaced Maximo.

This show was good. I’m so not going to remember this show from this weekend.

FULL’s tour started in Puebla, though it started more than an hour and half late. They posted some results and some videos from the show, but seemed cautious to avoid crowd shows. The floor seats seemed reasonable full as Alberto and Jack Swagger (wrestling in something like basketball shorts and looking in less than great shape) brawled thru them. A photo about an hour after it was supposed to start (and 40 minutes before it did) showed the building around 10-15% full. It must’ve gotten better, but I suspect it didn’t get a lot better the way they were showing it. FULL tries their luck in Toluca tonight, and has the biggest show of the tour in Mexico City on Sunday.

Diosa Quetzal lost her mask to Keira in their mask match last night.

Vampiro, in a since deleted Facebook post, mentioned he was really unhappy and loud with unnamed wrestlers at the TV taping in Pachuca.

Besides the Coliseo show, RIOT has a show in Arena LLF in Monterrey with Ultimo Ninja vs Flamita.

Silver King & Santo Jr. are in Guatemala, and teased a fight at the press conference to build up the match.

Mr. Niebla still wants Atlantis’ mask on the Anniversary show.

Kcidis draws luchadors’s wants for the Anniversary show.

RobViper has a music video of 10/28/16 ELITE.

+LuchaTV put up the Rush/Masada cage match from MDA complete.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 05/26/2017 Arena México
1) Flyer & Oro Jr. vs Cancerbero & Raziel
2) Fuego, Star Jr., Stigma vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
3) Blue Panther Jr., Rey Cometa, The Panther vs Puma, Sam Adonis, Tiger
4) Stuka Jr. vs Pólvora [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
6) Carístico, Marco Corleone, Valiente vs Mr. Niebla, Pierroth, Rush

Niebla Roja is still listed on the rudo side the rest of the week, but starts as a tecnico here. Mr. Niebla being the fill in for someone missing the show is weird.

Recapped: 05/19/2017

Matches:

All matches aired live from Arena Mexico and can be seen on YouTube. My feed was iffy for the start of third match, and I had to restart the stream.

Magnus & Sensei defeat Akuma & Espíritu Negro (11:05 [4:12, 3:06, 3:47], winning falls 1/3, good)

La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta defeat Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis (14:47 [6:54, 3:09, 4:44], 2/3 DQ, good)

Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. defeat Sagrado, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora
(15:52 [4:02, 2:44, 9:06], 2/3, good)

Cavernario defeated Titán in a lightning match (9:17, cavernaria, good)

Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Valiente defeat Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
(7:22 [4:55, 2:27], 1/2, ok)

Carístico, Marco Corlone, Mistico defeated Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas
(11:16 [4:51, 2:06, 4:19], 2/3, good)

What Happened:

Niebla Roja and Los Guerreros finally split. Niebla Roja had been refusing to participate in rudo tactics and wanting to wrestle only cleanly since March 28^th. On this show, Niebla Roja would not fight his brother Angel de Oro, and tripped up Último Guerrero to cost him the first fall. The Guerreros confronted Niebla Roja, who still refused to work with his partners and cut off Último Guerrero with a superkick as he was going for his over the barricade elbow smash. Gran Guerrero immediately attacked Niebla Roja. The Guerreros brought Roja back to the ring to rip his mask off, but were cradled for the straight fall win.

Angel de Oro saved his brother after the match, and the two sets of brothers faced off. Último Guerrero kicked Niebla Roja out of the group, and demanded Roja return the mask and make his own name if he truly believed he was good enough to go on his own. Roja dared UG to take the mask and UG did, storming in the ring and ripping it off Niebla Roja in a scrum. Roja ended up wearing an extra Angel de Oro mask.

The big outside the ring storyline saw Marco Corleone replaced Máximo, following the incident between the Alvardos and Último Guerrero’s car earlier in the day. CMLL made no statements about the incident and Último Guerrero passed on the usual post match interview.

Sagrado also replaced Bobby Villa.

The second and third matches both ended in mask pulls. Zeuxis unmasked Princesa Sugehit in their continuing rivalry, while Pólvora fouled and unmasked Stuka for no particular reason.

Review:

The crowd was well into the main event, but it felt like it pushed the guys into it to do more than just coasting on. Carístico was moving really well and had a smooth match. Casas had fun playing opposite of Marco Corleone. Mistico looked super. It was just a better version of the usual show closing match, but it came off as definitely a better verison.

It really didn’t matter how good the semimain was, it was just great to finally have Niebla Roja (apparently, hopefully) broken up with the Guerreros. What they did here was good, and would’ve been more appreciated if it didn’t take so long to get there. They had a good brothers versus brother direction to come out of it, they know what they’re doing, it’s just been a little bit slower

The lightning match was a fun match with the old rivals breaking out a lot of the usual tricks but doing it well. It was the best of the group of good matches to me. They pushed the time limit pretty far while keeping in a pace, and it felt more creative than the usual lightning match. Titan’s timing on his moonsault was incredible and needed Cavernario to be ready for him. Cavernario is really good and I hope he gets moved onto Soberano sometime this year.

The tercera was pretty fun until the finish, which didn’t make any real sense in the context of the match or with it having just happened about the same way in the last match. Sagrado was at his best being a jerk to everyone and the getting kicked in his head. All the big dive spots got over, and the técnicos generally had a lot of good offense. Dragon Rojo seemed to almost take himself out with a double stomp but everything else went ok. I like all the first three matches about the same and can’t decide if that means they’re all good or all OK.

The segunda one of the better women’s matches in a while, with the six women working well together. Silueta had a really good match, asked to cary a lot of action and doing it smoother than usual. Zeuxis was very good as always, the dropkick was as awesome as always and her partners did well. Jarochita wasn’t a big presence but her dive went well and she’s willing to get killed by big moves. Sugehit had some odd moments but was overall positive.

The opener was a bit better than usual. Espíritu & Magnus aren’t around much and were fresh. Espíritu does enough weird things – the flip bump especially – that he sticks out in these. Maybe I wouldn’t feel that way if he didn’t disappear for six months a time. Magnus was sharp. He’s also much thicker than he used to be – not out of shape, but he’s put on weight without it hurting his flying, bigger than most of the técnicos (especially at this level.) Third key to this match was it was under 12 minutes; I’d much prefer time limits than move limits on these, just to force them to go at a good pace. They don’t all need to go 15.

Day: May 20, 2017

Maximo & La Mascara fired by CMLL for smashing Ultimo Guerrero’s car

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-05-19