Niebla Roja injuried?, Diamante Azul off cards, Ayako/Shani for Reinas title

tonight (mostly)

CMLL (TUE) 09/05/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Martes de Glamour]
1) Guerrero de la Muerte & Ráfaga b El Divino & Explosivo
rudos took 2/3
2) Flyer, Magnum, Príncipe Diamante b Artillero, Difunto, Metálico
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta b La Comandante, La Seductora, Metálica
Comandante replaced Zeuxis. Tecnicas took 1/3.
4) Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
Team Rush took falls 1/3.
5) Marco Corleone, Valiente, Volador Jr. DQ Euforia, Kojima, Último Guerrero
Tecnicos took 2/3. Euforia fouled UG.

Marco/Euforia title match here probably. A 09/16 mask match participant missing a show is nothing new (see section below), and not anything to be concerned about unless it happens again. Zeuxis’ next match is Saturday in Arena Coliseo.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports Niebla Roja has been out of action due to injury. Ernesto Ocampo of SuperLuchas confirms the story. Where they differ is the WON report believes Roja will wrestle his mask vs mask match on the Anniversary show but not be 100%, while Ocampo believes Niebla Roja may not be able to wrestle on the Anniversary show. (The sentiment from others is Roja will wrestle.) The specific injury is not mentioned in any report, with Ocampo only saying it happened on apron spot with Gran Guerrero.

The last streamed match we saw Niebla Roja in was the Friday August 25th show and he did not appear to suffer an injury in that match. However, Niebla Roja also wrestled in the main event on the next night on a private sponsor show (DHL) which only the people in the building saw and would’ve seen an injury. He hasn’t wrestled since. Niebla Roja appeared on CMLL Informa this past week, surely in response to people noticing he was missing matches, but didn’t directly address the situation. The WON says he’s expected to do something with Gran Guerrero tonight to hype the match.

I can’t write about this any more without addressing the elephant in the room, so if you really don’t want a major spoiler, maybe you need to skip the rest of this and check out for a week. Niebla Roja, as best as any one knows, has been long planned to be the loser of the mask match. Mexico people are probably going to be upset about me pointing this out, but Roja himself gave the game away on Informa. He mentioned the original plan for a Dragon Lee/Niebla Roja match before it switched it to Gran Guerrero (and you can go back and look to see that happening, with Niebla Roja oddly pinning Dragon Lee a couple times in singles matches right before and as the Roja turn stared.) Maybe you could believe him beating Gran Guerrero, but he wasn’t ever going to take Dragon Lee’s mask. And that’s why this is a potentially a gigantic problem – CMLL can’t just put someone else in Niebla Roja’s place, because they would need someone who’s specifically willing to lose their mask right now with no build. Angel de Oro would make a bit of sense as Niebla Roja’s brother sticking up for him, but would he want to give up his entire future masked career on short notice? The simplest solution for CMLL is to be quiet about this as possible, put Niebla Roja out there to have match, and just not worry about the quality. That’s what they’ve done so far, and it a lot easier than getting someone agreeable to replacing Niebla Roja.

(Moving the match down doesn’t seem a great solution; Gran Guerrero’s the other half of this because he’s the guy CMLL picked to elevate as a top guy, and being bumped down to the fourth match would send the message he’s not a top guy. But the chances of Sugehit & Zeuxis blowing away the main event, causing more people to be upset they weren’t in the main event, and CMLL being goaded into giving the luchadoras more of a chance going forward seem to have gone up.)

Another possible replacement for Niebla Roja might have been Diamante Azul, according to Ocampo. And, as you likely recall, CMLL did briefly throw out the idea of Diamante Azul versus Rush on 09/16. That didn’t happen, and Diamante Azul on the Anniversario show at all isn’t going happen. Yesterday, CMLL on Facebook mentioned Diamante Azul was off all weekend cards, announcing a bunch of replacements. This is unusual but welcome behavior for CMLL, who don’t announce lots of replacements. CMLL claimed Diamante Azul was off because he had a family emergency in France. La Aficion reported late last night Diamante Azul had declined to participate on the Anniversario show too. They didn’t specify France as the reason, and phrased it in a way as if Diamante Azul had rejected appearing on that show, not that he was suddenly unable to appear on them. The trip home to France might be all there is to it, I don’t know that there’s necessarily anything more to it. However, with CMLL being shady about the Niebla Roja situation, it’s easy to wonder if there might be a bigger story here too.

CMLL didn’t say Diamante Azul was pulled from the Anniversary show, because they never officially released the Anniversary show lineup yesterday. While it did appear in a newspaper, CMLL itself never published it as they had told the media would be happening on Thursday. It may be as simple as figuring out who goes in Diamante Azul’s spot, or maybe more will be happening. Ovaciones has a story saying the card will be officially announced today, but it is still not out as of the time I write this.

All that CMLL drama is behind the scenes. Tonight’s show looks pretty drama free in terms of ongoing issues, but those backstage things a bigger deal. The main of Los Guerreros versus Dragon Lee, Mistico and Marco should be pretty good, but what Niebla Roja does or does not do is going to overshadow it. There’s normally not a big difference between Niebla Roja walking out on the ramp to distract Gran Guerrero and Niebla Roja actually getting in the ring to attack him, but those are meaningful differences tonight.

Volador, Valiente and now Caristico (replacing Azul) will take on Kojima, Pierroth and Rush. Titan and Rey Bucanero will have their second ever singles match as tonight’s lightning match; Bucanero won the match they had last year.

The story match of the night is probably the third. Last time Cavernario, Negro Casas and Sam Adonis were a team in Arena Mexico, Sam Adonis ended up running away from a horde of angry Mexicans. Peste Negra and Adonis got along better in Puebla, but Negro Casas is a legend and Sam Adonis says he’s going after Mexican legends, so this might not go well for the rudos. They face Rey Cometa, Soberano and Stuka tonight.

Drone, Fuego and Guerrero Maya face Puma, Tiger and Virus in what should be another good match. Astral & Oro vs Akuma & Canelo Casas probably won’t be as good, but will open the show

This is a free stream; CMLL’s back on ClaroSports this week, and will post the show on their YouTube channel about a half hour after it finishes.

AAA announced Ayako Hamada won a multiwoman match on an Aguascalientes spot show, making her the other participant in the match for the Reina de Reina championship with Lady Shani. Those are the two women who were in the TripleMania match with Sexy Star and Rosemary. They’re probably in the title match again because AAA thinks they’re the more qualified people, but it also is AAA taking clear sides over what happened in that TripleMania match. In Irapuato, it was said that title match would take place at Heroes Inmortales. 3 days later, the date and location is said to be determined.

(Serious question: did AAA drop the #1 title shot briefcase angle? No one – no Kross, not Bronce – has had one at the last three TV tapings. They spent a whole lot of time on that to not at least write it out somehow, and no one cares about AAA storylines because they so often just vanish with no explanation like this. If you start to tell a story, you’re obligated to finish it or no one’s going to want to hear your stories.)

AAA wrestlers are at the EMW show in Tijuana tonight. AAA house shows usually don’t mean anything, but they did announce Vampiro would be there and Vampiro did an angle at the show last night. Maybe they’ll do something more here. Vampiro did post video of him from last night’s Aguascalientes show., but it’s nothing interesting unless you want to see about a few more minutes of Vampiro waiting to the ring, and then four minutes of Vampiro doing stuff before the match starts.

AAA in Japan has announced the eight team concepts for the 10/10 Lucha World Cup

  1. Mexico (AAA)
  2. Mexico (LU)
  3. US (NOAH)
  4. US (LU)
  5. Japan (NOAH)
  6. International (IGF)
  7. International (LU)
  8. UK & New Zealand team

AAA in Mexico still is not acknowledging these shows, even saying they had nothing to announce about them when specifically asked. This lineup seem like someone’s worked all the individuals who are on the teams, but some deal must not be done if AAA is not talking about these shows. They’re nearly a month away, there shouldn’t be any question about everyone being on the same page. I’m not saying they’re not happening, but I’m saying to make sure you can get a refund for anything you spend on these in case they go away.

The WON says Garza Jr. & Ultimo Ninja will be going to NOAH. Ninja replaces Fenix, thanks to AAA “warning” NOAH that the MGM part of LU would come after NOAH for using Fenix. That never made sense, LU/MGM didn’t have a problem with Cage working for NOAH, and Fenix was eventually able to get LU/MGM to send a statement proving they weren’t going to have a problem with Fenix working for NOAH, but NOAH had already moved on.

6 thoughts to “Niebla Roja injuried?, Diamante Azul off cards, Ayako/Shani for Reinas title”

  1. It was fine. It died for a moment before the main event but it was otherwise no different than the other streams.

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