CMLL (FRI) 08/25/2017 Arena México [CMLL, luchablog]
1) Robin & Star Jr. b Akuma & Espanto Jr. 
11:06. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado b Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso
17:20. Rudos won 2/3.
3) La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely b Amapola, La Comandante, Zeuxis
8:29. Sanely replaced Silueta. Straight falls. Zeuxis purposefully unmasked Sugehit for the DQ in the first, and Sugehit got away with a mask pull on Zeuxis in the second.
4) Soberano Jr. b Cavernario [lightning]
9:13. Soberano won via powerbomb, though it was a clear screw up. Tirantes counted Cavernario down when he kicked out. Both wrestlers argued the count, continued to their planned finish, but Tirantes refused to count again.
5) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Niebla Roja DQ Gran Guerrero, Shocker, Terrible
11:04. Tecnicos took 2/3, the last by DQ when Gran Guerrero unmasked Niebla Roja.
6) Juice Robinson, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin b Diamante Azul, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
13:10. Tecnicos took 1/3. Foreigners worked as total rudos. Johnny Idol came to ringside to distract Ultimo Guerrero and Matt Taven snuck in a foul for the win.
Like last week, there was nothing great on the show but it was not a bad use of time. Cavernario & Soberano clearly could have a great match if they were given the chance, though we may have to wait until NJPW wants to do it since CMLL doesn’t appear to be giving it any run. After playing tecnico/tecnico last week, the foreigners are working more simply rudo without Marco around to keep them in line.
Sugehit/Zeuxis was easily more over than Gran Guerrero/Niebla Roja. I’m not sure if that would be the case if the roles were reversed, because some of the non-reaction has to be displeasure about that match being the mask match and having more spotlight on the women wouldn’t actually help them. The best thing for the women is to continue getting more over than the men, stealing the show on 09/16, and forcing CMLL to take them more seriously going forward. They’d seem to get more out of that then a one night “we screwed up so, here’s this” main event. I’m not sure if there is a best thing for Roja/GG, but I expect they’ll continue to muddle thru their generic build to their generic match, it’ll be decently good, and then we’ll all just move on.
TripleMania is today. You can watch the show for free on Twitch, in English (Kevin Gill, Gabriel Ramirez) and Spanish. The schedule, in Central Time
- ongoing-7pm: best of TripleMania marathon
- 7:00-7:40: preshow, previewing the card
- 7:40-8:00: La Llave a La Gloria finals
- 8:00-???: main TripleMania card
- after the Mayweather/McGregor: Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner
That match is airing after the fight on Televisa, as it’s been advertised on Televisa for months. I guess there’s always a change things could get screwed up and Televisa would air on some delay, but I believe the plan is still for it to air live.
I’m curious on how ads are going to work on Twitch. There will be some, but they’re airing about every 15 minutes on the best of stream, hopefully they’ll be timed to be in between matches when they actually go live.
My plan is mostly to write updates on Twitter and try to aggregate them on the website, then post a recap later. But my website will die with a swift breeze so Twitter’s probably the best bet.
Outside the main event, there’s not a lot of news going on with the matches. For the people not in matches, the answer is a lot of maybes.
- Taya’s tweeting happily with other ex-AAA people and doesn’t seem like she’s about to work TripleMania.
- AAA probably wants Alberto to be the mystery man in Torneo TripleMania and there’s a reported he’s headed to a feud with Jeff Jarrett that’ll start here. The one bit certain to be true from what Alberto said the other day is he’s not going to be working this match unless he’s gotten paid in advance.
- LA Park isn’t listed as working any shows today. He’s also insisted many times he won’t be working this show.
- Same with La Mascara and Maximo, though Maximo had previously said he was taking a booking on this day elsewhere.
I checked Mexico’s trademark search to see if there was any movement on “El Patron Alberto”, since AAA trademarking it was said to be an existing source of strife between them. Nothing’s changed, but AAA did officially file for “Lanzelot” about 10 days ago.
AAA had a press conference yesterday, but it was mostly inconsequential. They just had Dorian & the CEO of Roshfrans interview both Psycho Clown and Dr. Wagner about this match. Dr. Wagner was teasing like this could be it for him, which is probably the way to go regardless of the outcome. No one else appeared, though+LuchaTV got brief promos with Crazy Boy, DJZ, and Intocable and Scorpio Jr. There’s also a Vamprio interview which might be from a previous press conference – it’s so tough to tell when anything is from on +LuchaTV – but I could only make it about two minutes before I needed to move on.
CultIcon previews TripleMania.
Konnan said The Crash will have an announcement tomorrow. Konnan managed to post that exactly at 11:59pm local time, so your guess is as good as mind if he meant Saturday or Sunday. TV is the what people want the answer to be, but I’m skeptical it’ll be that. The Crash & Rush rumors are getting another run and Rush is hinting at surprises on his Facebook.
Coliseo has Juice Robinson vs Shocker, which will be weird. CMLL’s had the foreigners win every match and that would not be a time to change it. DTU is running the car wash with a Hormiga/Camuflaje Alto Impacto title match. Sunday has Euforia vs Matt Taven.
La Aficion has a complimentary profile of Rush, which might not be coincidentally coming after the not complimentary article.
El Hijo del Santo writes about the time he and Negro Casas were thrown out of a match for going out of control with brawling. It’s this match. Santo says they were suspended from Arena Mexico 60 days. They wrestled in Arena Mexico less than a month later.
Lucha Underground posted a Mariposa promo. She makes a point of mentioning that Marty is her half-brother and not of full blood, and that she’d rather Marty was going after her than Melissa.
LuchaWorld has the latest edition of their podcast.
CMLL edecanes are featured in the latest H Para Hombres magazine.
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 09/01/2017 Arena México
1) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
2) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta vs Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis
3) Carístico, Mistico, Soberano Jr. vs Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas
4) Diamante Azul, Dragón Lee, Euforia, Mephisto, Rush, Último Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Johnny Idol, Juice Robinson, Kenny King, Kojima, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin, Sam Adonis [Gran Prix]
It’s the Gran Prix, so a four match show. Surprisingly, we’re free of Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero for a week, though Sugehit and Zeuxis are back again.
Mascara 2000 hasn’t wrestled in CMLL since they used him for the Sanson/Cuatrero vs Navarro/Terry feud, and hasn’t wrestled in Arena Mexico since June when they ran this exact same match. There’s no reason for him to be involved on this show but it helps to be friends with the people in charge.