Leyenda de Plata, AAA TV lineups for Querétaro & Ciudad Juárez, Dulce Garcia’s return match

Today is CMLL’s Leyenda de Plata. It’s got the strangest of the semi-regular tournaments CMLL holds. Traditionally, the winner of the previous edition faces the winner of a cibernetico to determine the new champion. (Last year’s winner is usually defeated by this year’s winner.) It’s not going to work that way this year, as last year’s winner was La Mascara, and he’s not around any more. Instead, tonight’s main event will be a 16 man cibernetico, where the final two will advance to a singles match next week.

Another tradition of the Leyenda de Plata tournament, named in honor of el Santo, is CMLL tending to pick the guys who are seen as the best in-ring luchadors in the promotion. It’s not strictly the top 16 workers, but definitely the last half of the field are more guys who are very skilled as opposed to guys who normally main event. That last six in particular – Forastero, Guerrero Maya Jr., Virus, Puma, The Panther, Tiger – are guys who are not even the top of b-shows even though most people who regularly watch CMLL would have them among their favorites. It’s tough for one match match to change impressions to the people in CMLL, but this is one night where those guys might get more attention than usual.

The “last two advance” rule makes it very hard to figure out exactly who’s going to next week’s match. CMLL would want a good match, but it’s the person who’s ultimately winning, and they can always stick it in as semimain if they don’t believe both people are big enough stars. The first seven on the list are the list of favorites: Carístico, Mephisto, Mistico, Cavernario, Volador Jr., Negro Casas, and Dragón Lee. Cavernario might be scratches from that list because he’s already got a feud with Niebla Roja, but CMLL’s shown a willingness to book the same guy in multiple singles matches just because. Dragon Lee hasn’t gotten much to do this year, he’d be the guy of the favorites I’d like to see. But he’s also faced all those rudos before, and a tecnico/tecnico match seem unlikely. The best possible outcome might be one of those last six sneaking into the final, just to create some new matches.

(Last two advance also means they’re likely to do a “last three people fight among themselves even tough it makes no sense at all” lengthy sequence at the end.)

The rest of the card can be skipped without missing too much. There’s no reason for a mixed team match in the semifinal, but of course there is one because CMLL’s made that the routine. Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, and Kraneo take on Euforia, Rush and Ultimo Guerrero. That could touch on Marco & Rush’s title match on Monday, but CMLL doesn’t really build matches for other venues. Pierroth is in a lightning match against Valiente for reasons which defy comprehension. Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero’s feud is busted down to the segunda this week, with Angel de Oro, Stuka, Lucifierno and Rey Bucanero drawn from the hat to face them. Cancerbero & Raziel take on Drone & Esfinge in the opener.

CultIcon also previews this show. It airs at 8:30pm on ClaroSports and on Facebook, and will be up on CMLL’s YouTube channel after 11.

CMLL has a new partnership with Spotify Mexico. Various luchadors are posting workout playlists in Mexico, while CMLL itself is posting a playlist of all that playlists. They ought to do a playlist of the entrance music. Maybe they have and I don’t know because I’m not on Spotify.

Olimpico replaces Misterioso on Saturday in Arena Coliseo.

German Sanchez is running his charity show in Guadalajara today. The lineup is here. Also, Rey Mysterio headlines a lucha libre show in Idaho, which I’m mentioning mostly because when else am I going to be able to mention a lucha libre shore win Idaho.

Bernardo Guzman’s column on the Lucha World Cup says they plan to move the tournament to “another country with a lucha libre tradition” in 2018, and bring back the women’s tournament. I guess that’s the US, there’s not any other place they haven’t gone where they might go.

AAA drew well last night in Tepic, though at least one fan says the conditions were terrible: bad lights and worsex ring.

My favorite shady lucha thing of the morning is KDNA trying (badly) to photoshop their show into the AAA TV Upcoming Events list, as if their show was going to be a TV taping. It is not.

LA Park has accepted an apuesta match – against a child, who challenged him while interviewing X-Fly and Los Porros. DTU is also bringing the kid (Aleta de Tiburon – Shark Fin) to their upcoming show.

+LuchaTV put up the full Soberano Jr. vs Bandido match from Lucha Memes.

AAA put up this week’s Zona Ruda, an interview with Texano.

Legend will have a AAA lucha libre fan fest in Mexico City on 11/11.

The Crash says they’re running Salamanca on 11/13, but no card for that one yet.

TKD reviews this week’s Lucha Underground.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

 

Lineups

MDA (SUN) 10/22/2017 Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) Última Sombra vs Vasco Jr.
2) Toscano vs Furor
3) Tiffany vs Dulce Sexy
4) Xtreme Tiger vs Delta
5) Caifan & Caifan II vs Trauma I & Trauma II
6) Bandido (Indie), Esfinge (CMLL), Hijo de LA Park vs Hijo De Dos Caras, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Sam Adonis

The luchadora Sexy Star returns to wrestling against someone she can trust, an old AAA rival in Tiffany. The match will be terrible, but the fans of Sexy Star in Mexico never have been all that concerned about the quality of her matches. The question is how many fans are left: she got booed in Monterrey last time, and Tiffany’s from that area as well. Remember, that happened prior to the TripleMania incident. That’ll affect everything, but I wonder if people had already gotten tired of her act.

The funniest thing is MDA isn’t just booking Esfinge in Guadalajara as favor to the people who book the building, but now flying him to Monterrey.

Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. isn’t long for shows with CMLL people if he’s starting up with AAA. Hijo de LA Park si going to need a new opponent.

Toscano working second on this show is weird.

AAA TV (FRI) 11/03/2017 Auditorio General José María Arteaga, Querétaro, Querétaro
1) Chicano, Hijo Del Vikingo, Lanzelot, Máscara de Bronce vs Ángel Mortal Jr., Angelikal, Tiger Boy, Villano III Jr.
2) Big Mami, Faby Apache, Lady Shani vs ?, Ayako Hamada, La Hiedra
3) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker vs Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
4) Aerostar, Drago, Raptor vs Angélico, Argenis, Australian Suicide
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pagano vs Hernandez & Marty The Moth
6) Texano Jr. vs Rey Escorpión vs Psycho Clown [#1 Contenders, AAA LA]

Last we saw, Texano physically has the Latin American belt, and Psycho Clown and Rey Escorpion are doing their own feud, so Texano should be the one getting the title shot. It’s AAA, so no one may be paying attention.

There are plenty of signs no one’s really paying attention to the details here: Vampiro insisted Marty is now a Shaman but he’s still listed as Moth, Australian Suicide turned rudo in May but he’s still on tecnico sides, Soul Rocker became Tito Santana in June but he’s still Soul Rocker on every poster, Angelikal and Chicano are on the wrong teams, is Ayako a ruda I don’t even know.

(I kind of hope they DO forget Australian Suicide is meant to be a rudo and just have a really good rudo, and then they can go do whatever. If your angles aren’t going to make any sense or get anyone over, can you at least make sure they don’t ruin the matches? Please?)

I think we can all agree that the most hilarious choice for mystery ruda would be Sexy Star. It’s not going to be Sexy Star.

AAA TV (SUN) 11/19/2017 Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
1) Faby Apache vs La HiedraAyako Hamada [Reina De Reinas, #1 Contenders]
2) Aerostar, Angélico, Argenis, Drago vs Averno, Carta Brava Jr., Soul Rocker, Súper Fly
3) La Parka vs Dave The Clown
4) Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Pagano vs Marty The Moth, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown
5) Hijo del Fantasma vs Rey Escorpión
6) Hernandez & Johnny Mundo vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.

Dr. Wagner finally gets his son in here, and in a main event. That seemed almost as unlikely as Johnny Mundo working a non-major show, and as impossible as a La Parka/Dave the Clown match being good.

The semimain suggests Rey Escorpion is winning the #1 contenders match, but this may not be for the title shot and none of this may happen anyway. We can at least assume whoever the mystery woman is in Queretaro is not that important, if they’re not also booked for this show.

Psycho Clown not being listed for an AAA TV taping is strange. A Facebook page hyping this card, which had many of this matches already, said Psycho Clown will be special invitee – maybe that means he’s (currently) scheduled to be on the card but not in a match.

Kevin Kross, who was a focus of AAA TV from March to July, appears to be going from August to November with one TV appearance (next Friday in Metepec.) Joe Lider has vanished after main eventing a show. Minis are back to being missing.