Lucha Underground 3×31: The Cup Runneth Over

Puma KO

Matches

Prince Puma beat Fenix (10:27, 630 senton, great)
Pentagon Dark beat Mil Muertes (7:29, top rope double stomp, good)

Developments

It’s a week before the Cueto Cup Final (and, though it’s not mentioned yet, six weeks before Ultima Lucha 3 begins), and the tension exploded in the last moments of this episode. A lot of pieces were moved around to get there.

Fenix figured out a counter to this chain!

Pentagon Dark and Prince Puma appeared to be the two favorites coming into the tournament, and were successful in reaching the final of the tournament. Prince Puma got past Fenix, thanks in part to Marty going after Melissa. Fenix moonsaulted onto Marty, but never got in another move in what had been an even battle with Puma to that point. Vampiro strongly rooted for Puma, when he was talking at all.

Pentagon benefited from some help even before the match. Cartina, following on her promise to get the Cage from the gauntlet, tried talking him into giving it up at the start of show. Cage declined violently, attempting to spinning back hand Catrina’s head off. Catrina’s a ghost, so she just vanished to escape it. Cage wasn’t done, attacking Mil Muertes with a heavy bar bell weight. Catrina used the power of the stone to wake Mil back up and Mil fought Pentagon, but was weakened by a rib injury from the attack and Pentagon was eventually able to cut him down.

Prince Puma versus Pentagon Dark joins Rey Mysterio versus Johnny Mundo for the Lucha Underground championship next week. There will also be a third match: Sexy Star versus Veneno in a mask vs mask match. Joey Ryan found out Veneno is actually Cortez Castro some how off screen, and Dario made the match figuring Sexy Star would make short work of him and Reyes would be exposed. Hopefully we find out why Veneno would be dumb enough to do this match next week.

so many flips

That set the stage for non-wrestling main event, Rey Mysterio versus Johnny Mundo brought face to face by Dario Cueto before their title match. The segment started in predicable fashion: Johnny taunting Rey, Rey trying to get at him, Johnny’s security holding back Rey and not him, and Worldwide Underground showing up to help Johnny. It diverted from there: Dragon Azteca, The Mack and Sexy Star ran out to help Rey and attack Worldwide Underground, turning the segment into a wild brawl. Rey was still out numbered until Prince Puma also ran in – but Pentagon Dark came in right behind him. The two finalists and the two title match participants faced off in the ring, started fighting, and then Puma started attacking Rey too.

The locker room emptied from there. Mil Muertes attacked both Puma and Pentagon. Cage attacked Mil in the ring (though not with the gauntlet.) Marty came out to watch only for Fenix to send him tumbling down the stairs. Mariposa saved her brother only for Jeremiah Crane to attack her while passing thru. Dante Fox tried to chill out watching it from upstairs only for Killshot to violently go after him. The Rabbit Tribe was a little bit more successful at hanging out and watching, but everyone was fighting everyone else – Vinnie Massaro was trying to rip Joey Ryan’s eye out at one point, and Puma took out everyone with a 630 to the floor. Rey and Mundo being left along in the ring was a return to more predicable bits, with Rey taking out Mundo as the last moment on the show.

Thoughts

this looked like a murder

Lucha Underground can’t be rated by matches alone; the other stuff matters too much to not be factored in at all. This week, it wasn’t the backstage skits that mattered so much (both were fine) but the big brawl at the end that really added a lot to the show. These kind of bits aren’t unusual – AAA did one a few months ago in Tlaxaca – but this one felt more out of control and violent than when these are usually done. They did a good job of highlighting the big rivalries of the moment while throwing in some unexpected moments (Puma going after Rey). It also felt like they took something that was probably more like 10-12 minutes live and cut it together into a crazy 5 minutes; there was no slowing down, and it was clear there was even more going on than they could keep showing. This was the setup to next week and the start of the end, and both came across strong.

So did Puma & Fenix. They’ve both changed in early season one. That was a more high flying attempt at toping each other, with a rope walking bit at the end that didn’t come off just right. This was a different feeling match, harder hitting and more about both guys just clubbing each other very hard. They still flew when they needed to, but it was a great showcase for how much they’ve changed over the last couple years (and that was more than a year ago now.) I liked Dante/Puma a little bit more and I’m not sure this would’ve beat it even if it had stayed clean, but it still was pretty great and I hope we get to see it again for even longer

those stairs aren’t soft

Pentagon & Mil wasn’t on that level, but it worked for the story they were trying to tell. They’re as concerned about Mil losing his invulnerability as everyone else, so they kind of took it away from him before the match even started to give him an excuse for losing here (and had him come back and destroy people later.) Pentagon using the strategy that almost worked for Paul London – chopping Mil down with superkicks until he stays down – was a nice use of the tournament structure. Pentagon hasn’t had the most impressive wins – one win over forever loser Argenis, one win over Texano when interference back fired, one win over a hurting Muertes, only the win over Dragon as a clean win over an important person – but he’s come back from both arms broken to advance all the way to the final, and I hope they play that up stronger next week.

The spider backstory justifies Sexy Star getting the mask match, but I’d like to see just about anyone else get that match. At least they’re not even pretending we should take it seriously. The other two matches look very serious. The more time for them, the better.

 

Sugehit/Zeuxis & Roja/Guerrero mask matches set for 9/16, TripleMania maybe on Twitch?, assault accusations

Puma & Drone

CMLL (TUE) 08/15/2017 Arena México [CMLl, CultIcon]
1) Apocalipsis & Inquisidor b Fiero & Retro LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Rudos took 1/3
2) Canelo Casas, Nitro, Sangre Azteca b Metatrón, Oro Jr., Star Jr. LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
rudos took 2/3. Metatron first match here since Spring.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Johnny Idol, Rey Cometa b Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
tecnicos took 1/3
4) Drone b Puma [lightningLUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Drone won with a quebrada in 7:45
5) Blue Panther, Carístico, Titán b Luciferno, Mr. Niebla, Pierroth LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
tecnicos took 2/3
6) Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero b Mistico, Rush, Valiente LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 15 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
rudos took straight falls. UG unmasked Mistico and pinned him to win the second fall. They agreed to a singles match next week.

Drone and Puma looks pretty good.

Mistico wore a Los Ingobernables jersey, which started another round of “is [X] going to be the third Ingobernable?” It would definitely mean that in another promotion. In CMLL, people just wear shirts and gear of other units for the sake of doing it and it very rarely means anything. Maybe this is the one exception but I wouldn’t count on it.

Rush, Pierroth and Vangellys accused of assault 

A violent incident involving Rush, Pierroth and Vangellys two years ago was revealed in the press yesterday. The family of Adrian Enrique Lopez says he was beaten badly by the three wrestlers early in the morning on July 22, 2015 and now is confined to life in a wheel chair. He tried to intervene after they were harassing women and attacking a security guard. The luchadors say both the security guard and Enrique Lopez attacked them by throwing rocks and they were defending themselves. The story appears on the Mural website and appeared on the cover of the Guadalajara version of the Metro newspaper yesterday. La Sombra was also with the three, but he was not charged by the police and does not appear involved, but he’s mentioned in the article the same. The article does not talk to the luchadors at all (and they’re privately claiming there’s video evidence that proves their story is correct.)

The family is looking for money for Enrique Lopez and some sort of punishment for being attacked. The wrestlers apparently were required to put down a deposit to pay Enrique Lopez, but that money never go to the family and that’s why they’re taking this public.

MedioTiempo points out this incident the night after Sombra and Rush got into a fight with fans in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara and were suspended for a few weeks. SuperLuchas said they had heard rumors of this incident for a while, though those rumors were even more severe (that someone had died) and had been trying to confirm it. Rush now has a history of incidents, previously having trouble with a security guard and SuperLuchas’ article completely believes the victim’s story (and then throws in more accusation of other crimes at the end.) I would just point out the original article appears completely written from one side; it’s likely the luchadors wouldn’t have commented anyway, but there’s no indication they were given that opportunity.

Still, even in the most favorable version of the story, the wrestlers did break one guy’s nose and left another in a wheelchair and it does not appear they paid any real price for it. This is a two year old incident, so if CMLL was going to do anything about it, they probably would’ve already. It’ll just be a wait and see if this is one of the many stories that just fades away, or if the article stirs up some legal interest to do something about it.

Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero and Zeuxis vs Princesa Sugehit are the CMLL Anniversary matches

CMLL’s press conference today announced those two matches for 09/16, having them both sign contracts for the big show show next month. CMLL additionally said both the 09/01 Gran Prix and the 09/16 Anniversario would be PPV – which I take to mean iPPVs – and would air live. No price was announced.

Diamante Azul & Rush were part of the press conference as part of a Gran Prix presentation, but no match with them was announced.

CMLL also announced Flip Gordon of Ring of Honor would debut on the 09/16 show. Flip had appeared in the March & May The Crash shows in Tijuana. It’s possible this came about because of CMLL’s instance that ROH wrestlers stop working for The Crash; at least CMLL is booking them.

Strangely, CMLL didn’t livestream this as they had others, and will instead put it up as part of Informa later.

AAA & TripleMania plans & US TV

Leo Riano said some stuff. Some of it may come true, but it’s Leo Riano and it’s AAA so plans could change at any moment and it’s not really official until someone in AAA publicly confirms it. Here’s what he’s got:

  • they are planning for Psycho & Wagner and possibly other matches to air LIVE on Televisa Canal 5 after the Mayweather/McGregor fight. The fight is expected to be done by 11pm (though it’s a fight so it could be done much earlier.) It sounds like AAA people hinted Copa TripleMania will air as well elsewhere, but Riano says he doesn’t know what will air beyond the mask match. In past years, AAA sticks to card order (which would mean Pagano/Psycho aired.)
  • AAA & Twitch are nearing a deal (which Riano makes sure to note is not actually done) where AAA would air on the streaming video platform for free. The platform has recently started opening up it’s broadcasts from only video game streaming, and Austin, Texas based WrestleCircus used it to stream it’s last couple events.
  • TripleMania will also eventually air on UTDN in Mexico
  • …and eventually in the US. Riano says “Univision”, which I find tremendously hard to believe even while not totally believing the rest. Something like the US version of UTDN makes more sense. Riano says this will begin regular airings of AAA in the US.

That last one has some dominoes to. AAA has been unable to get it’s show in the US because first Galavision didn’t want to air it any longer, and then because they appeared to sell exclusive rights to the market to Lucha Underground as part of getting it going. There’s more options in the Univision family now so it makes sense someone would want to take the show on, but the LU block should still be there. This might be a worrisome about the future of Lucha Underground, or it might be another instance of what were once the rules about what was allowed with Lucha Underground are changing. (It also might just be nothing if Riano is wrong.)

It looks like TripleMania will air in Japan on September 15, and the CMLL Anniversary show on September 30, both on Samurai TV.

Lucha Underground

Lucha Underground has episode 3×31 tonight, “The Cup Runneth Over”. There are 10 episodes left. The matches

  • Pentagon Dark vs Mil Muertes in a Cueto Cup semifinal
  • Fenix vs Prince Puma in the other Cueto Cup semifinal

The preview says Rey Mysterio & Johnny Mundo have a confrontation (before their title match next week) and Catrina sets her sights on Cage’s gauntlet (following the bit at the end of last week’s show.)

Pro Wrestling Sheet announced Bael/B-Boy has gotten his release from Lucah Underground. Bael was killed off during season one but says he was still under the same initial seven year contract as anyone. LU has reused some characters who were killed off in early seasons under different roles, and he wrestled dark matches in Season 2 with a pirate character, but did not appear to be around in Season 3. I had been assuming that anyone not used for an entire season were no longer under contract, but that’s apparently not the case (and so guys like Super Fly and Delavar Davarai probably still are under a deal.) The Pro Wrestling Sheet article makes it sound like it was a no hassle situation to get out of the contract, so maybe it’s just a technicality for the people who aren’t being used but I didn’t realize how that worked.

There’s only 10 episodes left. I still think they’re not going to get renewed until after the season is over, but I’d like to be proven wrong on that.

Other Things

AAA says the announcement of the La Llave A La Gloria winners will be tomorrow instead. Weirdly, Record back on Saturday said it was coming out Thursday, and then went back and deleted the tweet when everyone else was saying Wednesday. Maybe something got crossed up.

The Crash announced a lot of things for their 09/02 Tijuana show. It’s now listed as being taped for Impact Wrestling/GFW. I assumed it will eventually air as one of their PPV specials, but they hype it as a TV show for what it’s worth. Oraculo and Black Danger will have their mask match on this show and the main event will be Carlito & Daga vs Garza Jr. & La Mascara vs Maximo & Rey Escorpion match. It’s supposed to be an incredible partners match, but it looks on paper like five rudos (Carlito’s been a rudo when he’s been used here in the past) and one Daga. Maybe they’ll do something to get the Inogber Indies and Rebellion Yellow feuding too.

WON mentioned a little while back that Alberto and The Crash had stopped working together. Last time, Alberto was in The Crash, he set up a thing with Carlito. I wonder if Alberto was meant to be working this show and that’s why they had Carlito booked, and then they had a falling out but still had Carlito.

Raijin worked the Hip Hop Man show this weekend. There were a lot of foreigners on that show so he could just wanted to work with some friends, but it’s so weird he’s willing to wrestle in Mexico and CMLL is not using him.

Revolucha says they’re going to start streaming their show at 11pm on Saturdays on Facebook Live. That was about the old time for Noches de Coliseo, though it moved around a lot near the end.

Vampiro, in posting daily motivational videos, says he’s preparing for matches soon.

DTU is holding another one of it’s seminars/tryouts on 8/19 in Tampico. They haven’t had one of these in a while, but one of these winners is supposed to get a trip to Dragon Gate at the end.

Lucha Memes on 09/03 in Coliseo Coacalo
1) Keira vs Makabre
2) Silueta vs Diosa Quetzal
3) Drako, Corsario Negro Jr. vs Alas de Acero, Aramis, Iron Kid – new

LuchaWorld has the latest news update, including a better recap of the +LuchaTV podcast than I did.

LuchaTalk has a new episode of their podcast.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 08/22/2017 Arena México
1) Bengala & Sensei vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Starman vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Sangre Azteca
3) Drone, Fuego, Stigma vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
4) Blue Panther Jr., Stuka Jr., The Panther vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
5) Ángel de Oro, Titán, Valiente vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
6) Mistico vs Último Guerrero

It’s been a while since they’ve done that single match, but it’s usually good. So should the middle matches.

CMLL (TUE) 08/22/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Alteño & Micro vs Exterminador & Maléfico
2) Marcela, Sanely, Silueta vs Dalys, La Seductora, Tiffany
3) Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys
4) Blue Panther, Dragón Lee, Niebla Roja vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Diamante Azul, Euforia, Pierroth, Rush, Volador Jr. vs Johnny Idol, Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin [cibernetico]

Elgin starts on the 22nd with a preview Mexico vs the World cibernetico

AAA on Televisa: 2017-08-12

I don’t even know what to call it

Recapped: 08/13/2017

All matches were taped in Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon on 07/16/2017 

Matches: 

Sexy Star defeated Faby ApacheLa HiedraLady ShaniGoya Kong and Big Mami to win the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship
(5:14, Sexy Star pin La Hiedra, below average, Lucha Libre AAA)

Aerostar, Drago, Raptor defeated Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker  in the AAA World Trios Championship best of 5
Aerostar, Drago, and Raptor lead 2-0
(7:46, Aerostar second rope knee springboard frontcracker Carta Brava, 7:46, good, via 
Lucha Libre AAA)

Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. vs Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria © for the AAA World Tag Team Championship
(8:33, Cuervo pin Fantasma, ok, via
Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened: 

the table didn’t help

Shorter version: the last time we saw Kevin Kross, he and Mundo were teasing an imminent breakup so Kross could go after Mundo’s title. This time, Kross is eagerly doing all of doing all of Mundo’s dirty work to help out Mundo. The thing that hasn’t changed is Vampiro is still teasing a match against him, is the only guy who can hurt Kross, and that was treated as a bigger deal than any of the matches currently scheduled for TripleMania.

Sexy Star returned and won the Reina de Reinas championship in a six way match. Sexy Star didn’t receive much of a reaction from the crowd, though ringside fans seemed excited when they finally saw her. (A few people asked me if this was the real Sexy Star when she returned, and I suspect some of the fans were wondering the same thing when the music first played and she was wearing a purple hooded robe that hid her identity.) The match itself was short and designed to give all the woman an equal moment. Sexy did not use a move to get the win, instead stealing Faby Apache’s pin as she went for a moonsault (that she was way too far away to actually land; Goya stopped her anyway.) Sexy Star treated the victory like it was the most surprising and emotional moment of her life. The reaction for Sexy Star winning was shockingly small, and there were audible boos in response.

Sexy tried to cut a promo post match, but was interrupted by Kevin Kross. Kross grabbed Sexy, yelled at her about the belt, and clotheslined her (or tried to, Sexy went down too early.) The announcers explained Kross was upset about the woman taking away Taya’s belt, mentioning Taya by name in a way they wouldn’t normally do if she was really no longer working for the company. Kross took out each woman, set up a table, and attempted to give Sexy Star the same chokeslam thru a table he gave Mascara de Bronce previously. Faby Apache made the save with a chair shot, which received more of a reaction than Sexy Star had gotten winning the title. Faby celebrated too soon and ended up taking the chokeslam thru the table instead. Kross left, and Sexy Star melodramatically checked on her long time enemy, shaking her head unconscious head around.

loco Aerostar

Lady Shani was revealed to be Sexy Star’s TripleMania challenger in Noti AAA, mentioned the match she won in Aguascalientes (which won’t air for two or three weeks.) She talked about herself in a long interview, threw a couple barbs at Sexy Star, but didn’t come off strongly like a tecnico or a rudo.

The tecnicos are now up 2-0 in the trios title series. Aerostar dove off the entrance set onto everyone during the match.

Fantasma continues to want to be friends with Texano, despite Texano rejecting him a few times. They worked together in their tag title match. Fantasma had Cuervo set up for the Thrill of the Kill when Kross walked into the ring and punched Fantasma. Kross hit Texano too. Referee Copetes saw all of this and did not call for a DQ. Cuervo looked at Kross, concerned he was next, and covered Fantasma when he felt safe to get the win. (That made two of three matches on this show where the winning person just scooped up a pinfall.)

The post match was a dozen things going on. Texano attacked Fantasma for no real reason. Cuervo & Scoria joined in. Fantasma was about to turn it around when Kross hit him as well, then Kross attacked Texano again. Vampiro walked out, went head to head with Kross, did his jacket pull off bit (revealing a Pagano shirt) and tried to clothesline Kross out, only Kross didn’t get over. Vampiro threw Kross out the other side. Fantasma woke up, hit Texano a couple times, and said he’d beat him at TripleMania.

AAA is selling t-shirts – but only at TripleMania. They’ve done this in past years too.

Thoughts: 

Shani/Hiedra teamwork

The tag title match was actually going better than the Mascara de Bronce/Hernandez version of the same match, at least until the quite lame finish. It’s also just following that same concept with these same titles. Texano & Fantasma are doing the same Loony Tunes version of a feud AAA just did with Bengala & Australian Suicide, where they break up hard every match but are back to being possibly friends the next time we see them. It didn’t help with the other guys, it probably won’t help with these guys, but AAA can’t stop doing it.

The idea for this trios series is obviously Lucha Underground, and it’s playing out a lot like the Aerostar/Drago series. Every match is good, I’m left wishing they could go a lot longer, and hopefully they will in the final. Poder del Norte seemed like a much more effective team, controlling the match and keeping the pace going. The Aerostar big dive took an uncomfortable long time to set up (AAA’s gone from bad edits to no edits and there has to be a middle ground), but they did show a lot of replays so it came off more important than usual. Aerostar’s in-ring stuff was more impressive and he came off as the big star of his team.

I did not like the idea of AAA bringing back Sexy Star and I didn’t like the idea of her winning the title back on the first night when it would’ve been easy thing to sell a TripleMania match around. I can still enjoy a good match despite the reasoning around it, but this wasn’t any close to a good match. It was a hurried mess, trying to be nice to give everyone a spot but so rushed that nothing really meant anything. There were a lot of reasons the result didn’t get over, but I think one big one is it was so quick and so inconsequential that most people probably though it was just an elimination and not the total end to the match. Sexy Star stealing a pin was a tremendously flat way to end the match. If AAA believes in Sexy Star enough to do all this stuff to accommodate her, they should’ve put her over so much stronger and made her look like a star of the group. Instead, she was outside selling within 30 seconds of her big reveal so Big Mami & Goya Kong could do spots. This came off like something that was imposed on the people in charge of figuring all this stuff out from above, and they half heartedly carried out their orders while obviously being more interested in the stuff they really care about (Kross). This – the match, the title change, even the post match angle – was a whole lot of drama for no particular benefit.

who needs a rope to springboard off of