La Llave a La Gloria semifinal, CMLL continues towards Anniversario, Canada preferred LU country

CMLL (FRI) 08/11/2017 Arena México [CMLL, Culticon, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio & Pierrothito b Shockercito & Stukita 
13:44. rudos took 1/3.
2) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, The Panther b Disturbio, Puma, Tiger 
13:59. tecnicos took 1/3
3) Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis b Lady Maravilla, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta 
13:36. Rudas took 2/3. Zeuxis pulled Sugehit’s mask to win, and they agreed to a mask match.
4) Cavernario, Negro Casas, Sam Adonis b Carístico, Soberano Jr., Valiente 
15:11. Rudos took 2/3 after Adonis hit Caristico with the flagpole from outside. Cavernario argued with Adonis over the flag and Adonis attacked him, which eventually led to everyone beating up Adonis.
5) Diamante Azul b Rush 
10:56. Azul took 2/3. Rush was DQed for smashing a piece of plasterboard over Diamante Azul’s head. Azul pinned him clean in the third.
6) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Niebla Roja b Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Último Guerrero 
10:45. Straight falls, Gran DQed for unmasking Niebla Roja. They agreed to a mask match after.

CMLL continued on to it’s apuesta matches matches. They’re very clear that Gran Guerrero/Niebla Roja is happening on 09/16, and what else happens still doesn’t seem to be clear. Even as sure as Roja/GG is as happening, they’re not bringing up it being the main event, just on the show.

Azul/Rush seemed like a test to see if it would work on the Anniversary show rather than specifically building towards it. They were working like something important was on the line, and not like it was a Tuesday show they couldn’t get done quickly enough. It looks like the 09/16 possibilities are Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero in the main and Zeuxis & Sugehit in the fourth match, or Diamante Azul/Rush in the main and Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero in the fourth. I think the first possibility are better matches but the fans are likely to be more accepting of the second one.

The Adonis thing was probably to set up a united Mexico versus the World leading into the Gran Prix next week.

AAA held the semifinals of it’s La Llave a la Gloria tournament today. They held twelve matches, and all of them are watchable on their Facebook page. On his Facebook page, Vampiro said there were 72 people trying out. I haven’t gone back and counted, but that seems about right – and means that a couple dozen people got in outside of tryouts.

AAA says the winners will be announced on Wednesday in Record. We still don’t know what the winners exactly will be. AAA announced various things at the press conference, mostly pointing towards either one winner or one winner in each category, but they do need opponents to face. My guess is it’ll be actually six winners (two men, two women and two men as minis) for a trios match, but no one knows.

Roshfrans posted a La Llave a la Gloria recap video on YouTube. It’s nice, but it has a whole 19 views and I think at least 3 of them are mine.

TLN in Canada is now ahead of El Rey on airing Lucha Underground episodes. TLN had been airing up to 3 episodes a night of Season 3, since starting the season in May. Apparently, El Rey/LU must’ve sent them the full 40 episodes, because they’re airing the episodes before El Rey gets them on air. That’s usually not permitted in these sort of international syndication deals, and this is probably a simple goof up, but LU simple goof ups have a way of not getting fixed. I’ve looked around and haven’t seen the episodes which aired last night – the semifinals and finals of the Cueto Cup – probably because not many people thought to look for them to be airing. I suspect later episodes will turn up TLN continues airing in advance.

Lucha Underground did post a video of Marty Elias explaining the rules, which are helpful to know 90 episodes into a wrestling series

This is a quiet weekend of lucha shows

Saturday

• Arena Coliseo is running a normal show with Caristico, Dragon Lee, and Marco vs Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero and Terrible. Last week was Marco’s title defense so onto something else,
• Generacion 21 has one of their busy shows in Irapuato, with a Black Terry & Negro Navarro vs Hechicero & Solar I semimain. These shows usually turn up on +LuchaTV.
• Pro Wrestling Blitz has a loaded show with lots of Lucha Underground people tonight in Romeoville (Chicago), Illinois. It’ll air on Fite.TV for $10. They’ve been heavily pushing this on social media for months, and I hope it does well, but it might be a show with maybe too many people.

Sunday

• Arena Mexico has the Marcela/Zeuxis REINA title match. As always, this is a match which should be taped and put up someplace, even for sale. It’ll probably just get the 90 second highlight treatment.
• IWRG features a Black Dragon vs Gallo Frances mask match, where the foreigner is decided underdog. There’s also an Emperador Azteca vs Hijo del Pantera match.
• Arena Coliseo Guadalajara has Esfinge, Magnum & Vaquero Jr. vs Exterminador, Malefico, Rafaga.

Kcids draws Gran Guerrero vs Niebla Roja.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 08/18/2017 Arena México
1) Astral & Robin vs Cholo & Espíritu Negro
2) Esfinge, Fuego, Stigma vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Universo 2000 Jr.
3) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs La Metálica, Tiffany, Zeuxis
4) Stuka Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr. [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. vs Ephesto, Gran Guerrero, Mephisto
6) Diamante Azul, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven

Main event is listed as tecnicos vs tecnicos. Taven was a tecnico last time we saw, but it’s also more of a Mexico vs the World thing. Juice is probably so beat up by NJPW’s G1 that he may be on vacation mode here.

The other feuds continues on in the 5th and 3rd matches. Cholo’s still around after losing his hair.