CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-08-25 

Drone lived

Recapped: 08/25/2017

Matches:

Robin & Star Jr. beat Akuma & Espanto Jr.
(11:06 [4:17, 3:44, 3:05], 1/3, ok)

Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado beat Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso
(17:20 [7:29, 3:56, 5:55], 2/3, ok)

La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely beat Amapola, La Comandante, Zeuxis
(8:29 [3:07, 5:22], DQ 1/2, good)

Soberano Jr. beat Cavernario in a lightning match
(9:13, powerbomb, good)

Dragón Lee, Mistico, Niebla Roja beat Gran Guerrero, Shocker, Terrible
(11:04 [2:22, 2:05, 6:37], 2/3 DQ, ok)

Juice Robinson, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin beat Diamante Azul, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(13:10 [3:53, 2:33, 6:44], 1/3, good)

What happened:

Cavernario tornillo

The foreigners are now wrestling completely as rudos, with Juice being an over the top heel. Johnny Idol came down the aisle in the third fall, distracting Tirantes from a Matt Taven foul on Ultimo Guerrero. The foreigners beat up Guerrero post match, taunted the fans, and swore they would win the Gran Prix next week.

Gran Guerrero fouled and unmasked Niebla Roja to end the semifinal, then shoved Edgar down too. That felt like the only time they got a reaction.

Robin’s highlight of 2017

Tirantes prematurely counted the three count in the lightning match. Cavernario obviously kicked out of the powerbomb, which the announcers pointed out on the replay. Both Cavernario and Soberano argued the finish and went to their planned finish (a Fire Driver) but Tirantes refused to count.

Sanely replaced Silueta in a women’s match. Zeuxis pulled of Sanely’s mask on purpose in the first fall. The rudas ripped that up, but Sugehit quickly had a backup mask handed to her – so Zeuxis took that one right away and ripped it up too. Sugehit left, to the back, and got a third mask. Sugehit returned and went right after Zeuxis and her mask. The two brawled far into the crowd, and Sugehit ultimately won by unmasking Zeuxis on a cradle.

Thoughts:

Mistico & Dragon Lee dives

The main event flowed better than last week, with both teams showing more familiarity with each other and with their opponents. It really wasn’t much about the action, but the cartoonish evil performance of the rudos. I don’t want to say they weren’t taking it seriously, but Elgin, Taven and Robinson were clearly having a lot of fun playing broad uncomplicated evil foreigners. It was almost like something you’d see on a kid’s show version of wrestling – or maybe Peste Negra at their ‘best’, when they’re so charismatic rudos that the crowd ends up rooting for them. There’s no danger of the crowd rooting for the International team here, and they still built up the importance of next week’s Gran Prix well. I’d hope that one is going to be a little more serious, but just as fun.

The semifinal was fine, bordering on good. Dragon Lee worked hard and pulled out some new stuff. Shocker is moving a little bit better and looks like he lost some weight. He’s still not good, but it’s progress I had pretty much given up on. The Gran Guerrero/Niebla Roja feud was shockingly not over, even compared to normal – there was no reactions until a brief one for the reaction. Both guys want it to be good but they don’t have any ideas on how to make themselves stick out and feel important. This match would be in trouble on a b-show. Maybe, in a weird way, they’re helped out by being on the Anniversary show because people will still get into it because of the importance of that show.

Soberano stage tornillo

Soberano & Cavernario was an exciting match, though one where it only seemed to scratch the surface what they could do. They were hitting their head on the ten minute ceiling with their planned finish, and the proximity to being a draw is probably the reason why Tirantes counted a three count early. There’s no explanation for why Tirantes slow counted a pin earlier. A championship match between these two could be superb. Cavernario tornillo felt like came out from nowhere, a much less contrived set up than Soberano’s (obviously still) beautiful stage dive tornillo. Soberano had a great run late in the match, but it was really set up by Cavernario keeping him down for an extended portion of time instead of going back and forth.

Zeuxis & Sugehit was an unexpected fun brawl, with the unexpected action in the crowd. They seemed out of control and heated, exactly how you want any mask mask to fill. No one else was out of this world, but the work but other four were solid for this type of match, with the dives coming off well. They’ve made Zeuxis & Sugheit feel like a big deal and they’ve still got weeks to go.

all those empty seats work out after all

The semimain was a little bit disappointing, there wasn’t a lot of life to it for a while. The triple dive spot work people up, but the dives were actually not so great. It was the regular reminder that Sagrado is quite good and should be doing something more, but maybe he shouldn’t be trying to murder Drone with the Buca Storm.

The opener was a very normal prelim match, none of the excitement of the last few matches. Still think Robin has gotten better but would really need him into something bigger to tell. His dive here was super great and that’s enough to carry him into better trios.

Taven dive is actually caught!

TripleMania a day away; Juice/Taven/Elgin in Arena Mexico, LU record rating

Tonight’s the calm before the storm. TripleMania is tomorrow. CMLL’s has two big Friday next shows the next three weeks. This is just the last show before all of those things start.

Most of tonight’s CMLL card continues the three big feuds. The main event is another foreigners versus Mexicans match, where the outsiders seek to continue their perfect record. Juice, Taven and the returning Michael Elgin face three members of the Gran Prix team of Diamatne Azul, Ultimo Guerrero and Volador Junior. Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero are back in the semimain, with Dragon Lee, Mistico, Shocker and Terrible rounding out that match. Sugehit & Zeuxis remain in the third match, this time with Vaqueirita, Silueta, Amapola and Comandante. All these matches are about building interest for the future; if they’re good, it’s going to be a benefit.

The big highlight match is stuck in the middle of the card: the year of Soberano continues with a lightning match against natural rival Cavernario. They’ll only have 10 minutes but they’ll probably do something crazy with that time. Drone, Guerrero Maya and Pegasso versus Disturbio, Misterioso, Sagrado is a good second match. Robin & Star Jr. face Akuma & Espanto Jr. in the opener. I think Robin and Akuma have been (slightly) trending upwards in their performances. CMLL’s seemed to relax it’s limitations in the early matches; maybe we’ll see a

CultIcon previews the show. It’ll air on ClaroSports and Facebook at 8:30pm, and will be up on CMLL’s YouTube channel soon after the show ends.

Johnny Idol posted, then later deleted, the poster for next Friday on his instagram. It appeared there was nothing special on the card beyond the Gran Prix, just the usual filler trios matches (with Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero in the semimain.)

Internet.TV is now offering the combo package for both the Gran Prix and the Anniversario show. (Main page here; direct link may only work if you’ve logged in.) It’ll be $20 for both shows, or $10 for just the Gran Prix and (probably) $15 for the Anniversary. It is significantly cheaper if you buy the shows in Mexican pesos – there’s probably some currency change charge they’re adding into the price but they’re also just rounding it up for the foreigners.

Niebla Roja notes his match with Gran Guerrero is his first big challenge, which is one of the problems with making this the Anniversario main event.

Juice, Taven and Elgin were interviewed by El Sol de Mexico.

TripleMania

GFW/Impact announced DJZ & Andrew Everett will be their reps in the four way tag title match. They should be a really good additions to the match. DJZ is recently fully medically cleared after suffering a horrendous injury in his last appearance in Mexico City, then for The Crash. Andrew Everett also had some health problems earlier this year – a knee issue if I remember right – but has been back the last sets of Impact tapings.

Everett started out really young as a wrestler, and he wrestled under a lucha mask for the first few years of his career. I don’t know the story, but I assume someone just went to Highspots and got a fun looking mask, and he became the Chiva Kid. Los Chiva Rayadas, as soccer playing goat mascots of the Guadalajara team, started in AAA as a masked gimmick for Los Apaches. The odds of Everett ending up wrestling for the promotion where he got his original character from, on their biggest show of the year no less, had to be incredibly low when he first put on that mask. Wrestling is weird sometimes. (There’s also scandalous rumors someone else in the match might have been a soccer playing goat at one time.)

With that fun out of the way, there’s just the matter of the one open spot in Copa TripleMania. The spot may be a mystery not simply because it’s supposed to be a surprise, but because AAA hasn’t locked down the last person. An article on Alberto, who was visiting the CRIT children’s hospital in Mexico City yesterday, mentions near the end that he was still in negotiations about appearing on the show. This was followed up when Alberto visited Record, for no particular reason. He claimed he was in Mexico for other business, had not yet come to terms with AAA about a coming to the show, and was wanting more money than they were offering. He said he’s still show if AAA sent him that amount ahead of time. Alberto would absolutely fit in as the special legend to show up, and his team would be the overwhelming favorite to win should he appear.

Many people seem on their way to Mexico City today (as opposed to waiting until Saturday to come in as AAA’s done some years.) Sexy Star was heading to her flight to Instagram; it strikes me that Sexy’s title win and reintegration into AAA was supposed to be a big press deal, but there’s not been much talk about her participation leading into the show so far.

AAA’s been streaming a best of TripleMania marathon since yesterday afternoon on both Twitch channels yesterday. From what I’ve seen, matches are airing without commentary – I didn’t realize AAA even had those versions of shows. The first run went ten hours, and is being repeated as I type it. It’s also archived on the channel, so there’s a good chance TripleMania will be as well (though I couldn’t get it to work to play when I tried it.)

Psycho Clown is interviewed in La Basta.

You can watch TripleMania at the Chili’s in the Reforma 222 mall on Saturday. That’s the mall we’re always near when we stay in Mexico City, but we’ve never been into that Chili’s. That is not an interesting story but I’m running out of gas this week.

Record has a special TripleMania 25 insert available to download in PDF form. There’s a really helpful face chart of the people in the La Llave a La Gloria competition.  Even they don’t take a stab at figuring out Torneo TripleMania. I think there may be a handful of people who know how that match is supposed to work and I’m not sure the people in the match are included.

ESPN noted that you can buy Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner Jr. masks at the Hard Rock hotel for the upcoming resort show. Except, the hotel was selling cheap pirated versions of their masks among other lucha masks, nothing AAA was involved in.

CultIcon finishes his list of top TripleMania matches ever.

Other Items

Lucha Underground’s Cueto Cup final episode had the highest viewership for the first run of any LU episode so far (177K). That’s more twice as much people as credited to watching the previous week’s episode, and about 20% more than the second most watched episode this season. It would’ve been the most viewers overall, but the repeat was actually about the same as usual, if a little lower.

Lucha Underground starts in India on 09/01.

There’s something going on with Fenix, but I’m not sure exactly what it is. He missed last week’s Martinez Promotion show, and he’s similarly off the Fight Club Pro show in the UK tonight. Both Konnan and Masked Republic have alluded to AAA/Dorian Roldan messing with Fenix recently – I don’t know if this is that, it could be something completely else happening, but he seems iffy at best right now.

Lucha Memes says Demasiado will be debuting for CMLL on 09/02 in Arena Coliseo. Demasiado is an exotico who’s been seen in Memes and IWRG among other places. (She’s not the exotico was around CMLL briefly last year, Bugambilia.) The exotico gimmick was a tourist and foreign press favorite when Maximo was doing it, and CMLL seeing if someone else can fill that role is an obvious move.

TKD reviews last week’s Lucha Underground.

The Crash’s debut in Toluca will be on 11/09.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

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

+LuchaTV has an interview with Rey Mysterio.

The Gladiatores has interviews with Eterno and Princesa Sugehit.

A bio of Hijo de Espectro Jr.

There’s another lucha libre seminar in Mexico City, on 09/14.

Lineups

Lucha Memes (SUN) 09/03/2017 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Quetzal vs Silueta
2) Keyra vs Makabre
3) Avisman vs Judas el Traidor
4) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako vs Alas de Acero, Aramis, Iron Kid
2 v 3
5) Virus vs Aeroboy
6) Kojima vs Hechicero

Kojima versus Hechicero is the big match. Like with all foreigners working these shows (and especially in Coacalco), there’s no telling how motivated they’ll be to work in a small building but it should be a cool time for Hechicero. Virus/Aeroboy sounds fun. I understand Corsario & Drako are much bigger than the Kamikazes but I don’t understand why it’s a handicap match.