CMLL (SAT) 08/12/2017Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico b Fantasy & Último Dragóncito
2) El Coyote, Metálico, Sangre Azteca b Fiero, Oro Jr., Star Jr. Coyote replaced Arkangel
3) Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus b Drone, Fuego, Pegasso
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. b Sagrado [lightning]
5) Johnny Idol, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys
6) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Marco Corleone b Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
A show. The Tuesday Guadalajara results also got posted on Saturday, and they were also just a normal show. Euforia unmasked Diamante Azul in the main event to set up their title match.
In IWRG, Black Dragon unmasked Gallo Frances as expected. Gallo Frances was unmasked as Jerome Motta, 35, 15 years a wrestler from Lyon, France. I couldn’t find any more info on him via cagematch or wrestlingdata, so I guess he must normally wrestle under another name.
This seems similar to the deal DTU has with GCW, which has now led to some DTU shows turning up on SmartMarkVideo. They’re selling the complete June Pachuca & Queretaro shows as one download, and the July Guadalajara & San Luis Potosi in another. Each are $12. These are the only full DTU shows to be released this year – so, while you might not know the Freelance guys (they’re all solid from what I’ve seen), maybe they’ll record shows again when they come in November, or the GCW guys will in September. It shouldn’t really take a US promotion coming to Mexico to bring a camera to these shows to be taped and made available in full, and it’s another instance of Mexican indie promotions being staggeringly behind the rest of the world, but beggers can’t be choosers. These deals are good news for fans of DTU.
CMLL (SAT) 08/19/2017Arena Coliseo
1) Sangre Imperial & Sonic vs Grako & Yago
2) Flyer, Príncipe Diamante, Sensei vs Akuma, Artillero, Espanto Jr.
3) Eléctrico, Shockercito, Stukita vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pierrothito
4) Rey Cometa vs Virus [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
6) Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven vs Hechicero, Pierroth, Shocker
Pierroth and Shocker are heavyweights and Shocker speaks English so CMLL thinks they’re swell opponents for Robinson and Taven. This is not a savvy judgement call.
IWRG (SUN) 08/20/2017Arena Naucalpan
1) Climax vs Lunatic Xtreme
2) Látigo & Shaolin vs Harry The Sick & Taylor Wolf
3) Hijo del Alebrije vs Villano III Jr., Imposible, Danny Casas, Villano V Jr., Diablo Jr., Hijo del Pantera, Hijo De Dos Caras, Eterno, Relámpago, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly, Cerebro Negro, Aramis, Trauma I, Golden Magic, Pantera I, Acero, Trauma II, Internacional Pantera, Gallo Frances, Alas de Acero, Warrior Jr., Bombero Infernal, Emperador Azteca, Veneno, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Freelance, El Hijo del Diablo, Herodes Jr. [Gran Cruzada]
This 30 man battle royal gives someone a title shot in their weight division for winning. It could be anyone, but it’s IWRG, so it’s probably a big guy.
CMLL (FRI) 08/11/2017Arena 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.
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.
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,
CMLL (FRI) 08/18/2017Arena 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.
Dragón Lee, Mistico, Niebla Rojabeat Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Último Guerrero (10:45, 1/2 DQ, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
this was insane
Niebla Roja and Gran Guerrero feuded heavily during their match, with Gran Guerrero unmasking Niebla Roja for the straight fall loss. Gran Guerrero and Niebla Roja agreed to sign contracts for a mask match next week before Gran Guerrero unmasked Niebla Roja again.
Princesa Sugehit & Zeuxis also agreed on a mask match, though they set no date. Zeuxis picked up the win this week with a mask pull, after both earlier so destroyed each other’s masks that they had to take an unofficial time out to fix them.
Sam Adonis hit Carístico with his flagpole to set up a Cavernario win in the fourth match. Cavernario didn’t seem happen with Adonis and threw down the USA flag post match. Adonis attacked Cavernario, Negro Casas attacked Adonis and got the flag pole and everyone ended up stomping down Adonis. This was possibly a Carístico/Adonis tease for Japan, since both they and Diamante will be in AJPW by this time next week.
Rush was pinned cleanly by Diamante Azul – well, he was yelling at Edgar and didn’t see Azul coming to grab him for a German suplex, that’s close enough. No challenges were made after the match, though Rush suggested the possible of an Anniversary match on commentary.
Juice Robinson and Matt Taven were announced as appearing next week.
Thoughts:
when you have one thing that’s working, just keep running with it until someone stops you
An overall good show. I had couple matches rated OK, but the show in it’s enterity was enjoyable and went by well. It was better than it looked as a lineup.
The main event was the most effective Niebla Roja and Gran Guerrero have been so far. They went after each other hard and Niebla Roja showed more fire (by doing not much more than one move he does well many times.) They were handicapped a little bit doing a bit of crowd brawling after Diamante Azul & Rush did a lot of crowd brawling. The bigger problem is it comes off as the third most important técnico feuding with maybe the third important rudo in every one of these matches. Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero work work as a main event of a lesser show or a lesser match on a main show, but there’s not enough here to make it a main event of the Anniversary show and everyone knows it. They’ve got four more Fridays to find it, but it doesn’t feel like it’s happening.
Diamante Azul versus Rush probably does have enough to be the main event of an Anniversary show, and they were working like this singles match was an audition for this spot. It still wasn’t great, but it was much better than what they’ve delivered before in a watered down version of Rush’s matches with LA Park. It’s weird the much older and much heavier LA Park has a bigger tank than Diamante Azul, and Rush here didn’t put exactly the same effort, but it was better than usual. There wasn’t enough here for me to want to see that match on the big stage but CMLL hasn’t left themselves with a lot of options.
I expect this to happen to me every time I go to Mexico
Something with Adonis seems like the only other option, and the post match set up all sorts of interesting possibilities. The trip to Japan is ill timed to work any of them out, and it seems like it’d be almost too late to do anything by the time he and Carisitco are back, but I guess we’ll see if anything settled by then. The match itself was the weakest of the night for me, btu the post match made it worthwhile.
Zeuxis/Princesa Sugehit is definitely happening and yet still seems unclear. JCR teased it for the Anniversary show and it may be, but not giving a date is another thing that suggests CMLL still didn’t have their plans locked in before tonight. They actually seem to be taking less of the matches as it goes on, but the mask ripping came off serious. Maravilla wrestles impressively, but is clearly meant to be the least important woman on any tecnica trio right now and we may have a long wait before we see her in anything beyond those trios. She’s ready now. Silueta had an iffy night, with things derailing badly at the end of the second. Dalys was all over the place in this match.
The Panthers and the Casas brothers continue to have good matches with whoever they’re teaming with. This wasn’t quite their peak, but it was pretty good. Puma & Tiger have teamed up with Disturbio enough that they’ve adapted their own finishing sequence to work in his double knee smash. Esfinge seemed to disappear on me for long periods of time but looked sharp in the third fall. Blue Panther Jr.’s backbreakers land awfully to me, but he might as well keep doing as long as the multiple ones get a strong reaction.
The minis match was a higher end match for both minis and the opener; the Shockercito monkey flip into a huracanrara was more exciting in 10 seconds than most of these matches are in 15. Mercurio even did a new taunt (even if it was the same Dragon Ball fireball bit people have been doing for a decade.) this warmed up the show well.
Gran getting him up was as impressive as throwing Niebla Roja hard
This was a big building (11K) and they filled a lot of it. Like every other promotion, the photos they sent out were carefully chosen and it wasn’t quite as packed on other sides of the arena, but I’m thinking this might be the biggest attendance they’ve had for a show so far. Tickets were reasonable prices, 100 to 350 pesos.
Today’s CMLL show is one of those times where I’m more preoccupied by what we can learn about CMLL going forward than any of the matches actually happening today. I’m wondering about one of the feuds. It’s not the Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero one, though that’s the main event. It’s not really the Diamante Azul/Rush one, though it plays into it. It’s the Princesa Sugehit versus Zeuxis mask match rivalry, the longest running of all of the and the one where both people have been pointing towards the Anniversary show first. We might find out if they’re actually getting to it tonight.
Last year’s Gran Prix featured both the 8v8 main event, but also an excellent Cavernario versus Rey Cometa hair versus hair match underneath. There probably will be a space for an apuesta match underneath again this year. Only we know it can’t be Diamante Azul vs Rush since they’re in the Gran Prix itself, and it’s not likely to be Gran Guerrero versus Niebla Roja since they’re already getting to talk about the Anniversary show in-ring. (CMLL rule of thumb is none of the backstage promos really matter, but in-ring mentions of a date means it’s actually happening on that date.) That just leaves the women’s match, probably the match of the three most people would like to see on the Anniversary show, maybe happening two weeks early. There’s also really no room on the Anniversary show if both Guerrero/Roja and Azul/Rush are happening. CMLL could (correctly) see Rush putting up his hair as the biggest possible draw on a show that’s otherwise featuring a feud between the formerly third and fourth members of a group and maybe their best shot at drawing a good house this year.
I didn’t think Azul/Rush was happening before last week, and I’m still not sure it is – they could easily just be screwing around for the sake of something to fill out August, or to build tension on the Mexico team before the foreigners start to arrive (and they may start to arrive next Friday, that’s probably why the King Haku news came out this week.) And the women have been pretty consistent at saying they want their match at the Anniversary show for months; you’d think someone would’ve given them the heads up by now if that’s not happening. We’ll have more information by the end of the night. If Zeuxis & Sugehit make in-ring mask challenges but don’t mention a date, and if Rush & Diamante Azul looks like it could keep going, then you can start to put next month’s show.
The card itself is a lot of matches that could be good but nothing that really jumps out as speical. Dragon Lee & Mistico are Niebla Roja’s partners of the night against the Guerreros (with Mephisto in for Euforia.) Diamante Azul and Rush will have a singles match, which has been no good every time they’ve had it. Caristico is in a fourth match, rare for him, teaming with Soberano and Valiente against Sam Adonis, Negro Casas and Cavernario. It’s a weird fit unless Caristico is the next Adonis rival. Zeuxis teams with Amapola & Dalys against Sugehit, Silueta and Maravilla in what should be one of the better CMLL women’s trios matches. The Panther brothers & Esfinge face Puma, Tiger and Disturbio, and Shockercito & Stukita versus Mercurio & Pierrothito open the show at 8:30pm.
Besides the foreigners possibly coming in, Mistico, Titan, Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero will be going out, off next weekend for those ROH UK shows.
Tickets for the CMLL 09/01 Gran Prix are on sale, will run from 185 to 830 pesos including service charges. That’s the scale CMLL seems to for it’s lesser big shows; it’s the same range they ran back in December 2014 for a cage match with a bunch off upper level guys and Felino losing his hair.
AAA’s La Llave de la Gloria tryout will finish up Saturday. (I’d suspect the next news update won’t come until after it concludes.) AAA will select winners, who will get to work the opener of TripleMania in a couple weeks. We’re not sure how they’ll choose, how many they’ll choose, or even really who exactly they’ll choose from, but parts of the event will likely be streamed on AAA’s Facebook.
Part of me hasn’t liked this contest, because I liked logic and consistency in things and the logic of this tournament has been kept well hidden if it exists. On the other hand, you can’t turn over a rock in Mexico without finding a guy who can do a cool headscissors you’ve never heard of in your life, and it’s interesting to see people out of nowhere who are really great at what they’re doing. AAA’s track record of utilizing talent contest winners is sketchy, but a lot of the people who want far in the Quien Pinta Por La Corona contest years ago ended up getting noticed and used by indie promotions too. It’s worth watching to see who uses this to break out everywhere, and who’s worth scouring random YouTube channels to find a little bit more.
Dr. Wagner Jr. was doing a press tour yesterday to promote the TripleMania mask match. Here’s a clip from ESPN. There doesn’t seem to have been any news, but they’re pushing the show hard locally and I’d suspect Psycho Clown will make the same sort of rounds next week.
The Gladiatores has a recap of a local Tijuana show. Hope everyone had a good time but the finishes sound awful: no finish because a faction ran in, no finish because both teams broke up, a clean finish!, that same faction wins via cheating but then kicks one person out and adds another, and a main event where a team lost because they broke up by the end. Indie lucha libre trying to be creative makes for some dreadful sounding shows; they’re twenty years behind the times on these finishes.
Lucha Memes started announcing matches for 09/03 in Coliseo Coacalo
1) Keira vs Makabre
Earlier, Fantasma tried to talk Vampiro into doing the three way title match. Vampiro explains he already made Texano & Mundo for the title tonight and he can’t change it, but he can make Fantasma referee. Later, Mundo berates Vampiro only to find out Vampiro stripped Taya of the Reina de Reinas title belt. Vampiro threatens to do the same to Mundo, and Mundo threatens lawyers. Vampiro says it won’t matter because “next week”, Texano will beat him for the titles anyway. Mundo isn’t concerned because he has Kevin Kross on his side. Vampiro points out Kross is fighting #1 briefcase now and might be coming for Mundo at any time. (Hilariously, we can see the #1 briefcase sitting on a table nearby.) In the graphics, AAA’s stopped referring to the individual titles and are simply calling Mundo the “Tri Champion”. Vampiro shows up before the match to announce Hijo del Fantasma as special referee.
Texano is more técnico in this match, though he and Fantasma have problems with Fantasma accidentally gets in his way on a dive. Mundo kicks out of both of Texano’s finishing moves on fair counts. Mundo crawls out and brings in a chair, Texano kicks him and grabs it, Fantasma stops Texano from using that chair and pulls it away, and Mundo fouls and cradles Texano while Fantasma is throwing out the chair. Fantasma counts the pin, also missing a tights pull. Mundo makes Fantasma raise his arm after the fact. Texano attacks Fantasma for costing him the match, but Fantasma takes him out. Kevin Kross urns in for no obvious reason, and that’s enough to get Fantasma and Texano stop fighting. Kross still gets with a double clothesline. Mundo comes in to congratulate Kross on a job well done, but Kross gets in his face. (No one has a briefcase here.) Hernandez walks out to argue with Kross, and Mascara de Bronce follows behind to springboard into a dropkick on both Hernandez and Kross. Mundo gets his turn to slam Bronce, then Texano and Fantasma attack Mundo. Neither Kross nor Hernandez make the save, watching from the outside. Mundo’s held in the middle for a lasso shot. Hernandez, Mundo and Kross all leave together even though they were about to fight. Texano and Fantasma argue in the ring and Bronce mostly disappears.
Psycho tope
Announcers discuss the Alvarado’s terrible history in apuesta matches. This time, Mesias’ played nine minutes in, but Mesias actually came out – he came thru the crowd and attacked Pagano. From behind. Psycho just watched as Mesias hit Pagano with the barbed wire bat, then decided to make the save. Wagner runs out, and Psycho Clown stands around doing nothing until Wagner gets there and hits him with a chair. It’s dumb. Both Psycho and Pagano end up bleeding, Pagano bleeding a lot. Pagano should win by DQ for Mesias’ attack, but no decision is ever called. Medics come into take the técnicos away without doing anything to stop the rudos, and get attacked. The técnicos are repeatedly pulled off the backboards and attacked viscously for a while; this is the same bit as in Juarez, but goes on for longer and feels heavier.
Jesus Zuniga announced this match as the semifinal. Even live, it’s not the semifinal – but it was on the poster so I guess he was looking at that. Dr. Wagner is totally a técnico thru the match. Pagano’s music starts to play seven minute in. Pagano is never seen, but Mesias stops fighting to look for him, waits about twenty seconds, and then is easily beat because of the distraction.
La Llave de la Gloria and the annual AAA pilgrimage are talked about in the Noti AAA. They also talk about the Mesias/Pagano rivalry.
Thoughts:
excessive dive GIFs are the refuge of someone with no good ideas
This wasn’t the greatest advertisement for TripleMania. None of the three singles matches came across as a big deal as expected, and all the matches had underwhelming endings if they even had endings. These matches were supposed to be TripleMania level, but they weren’t as good as Suicide/Bengala last week and it didn’t feel like a big show was coming. The post match attack after the second match was at least a little bit effective, but the title match picture has so many different agendas and none of them are really clicking.
The main event was fine, I guess, and maybe I’m underrating it, but it felt underwhelming considering the guys involved. They working slow wand less impressively than you’d expect with the similar match on Lucha Underground. This was the one of these matches where someone actually trying the moves that actually win matches, only the crowd didn’t seem to care all that much and it never felt the intensity of a big title match. All the different subplots and extraneous aren’t helping the match they’re building at Triplemania; the three way doesn’t feel like the big title match, but the minor one that’s killing time for a PPV cycle before they get to the really important matches (Kross/Mundo? Fantasma/Texano?)
Pagano & Psycho Clown tried to have a straight technical match and it was OK at best. It’s not what either man does well, and looked slow and clunky at times. The crowd wasn’t all that into it, not reacting much to the near falls they were doing. They seemed to like the characters but weren’t much interested in the outcome, or they knew there was not going to be an ending until a finisher or a foul. That turned out right, since this was just a set up to have the TripleMania rudos destroy the TripleMania técnicos, and they cared much more about. The angle was effective but the match itself wasn’t worth seeing.
The opener was a casual singles match that was just doing the safe but not so interesting stuff, and then had the always terrible music finish. Pagano never even actually appearing made Mesias look even dumber, but it’s still a dumb finish. Given that ending, they wisely didn’t seem like it was that important to do all that much in the match. Wagner showed more than Mesias, but this wasn’t a shadow of the TripleMania fight they were redoing here.
Lucha Underground also mentions Catrina making a move on Cage’s gauntlet, and Rey Mysterio & Johnny Mundo meeting before their title match the following week.
AAA will have the first taping from Monterrey, if I’m right this time. I’m just too excited to see Sexy Star back.
