Month: October 2017

CMLL (FRI) 10/27/2017 Arena México [CMLL, luchablog, Wrestling with GIFs]
1) Starman & Stigma b Metálico & Nitro 
15:58. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis b La Jarochita, La Vaquerita, Marcela 
13:09. Rudas took 2/3.
3) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., The Panther 
14:34. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Soberano Jr. b Mephisto [lightning] 
9:17. Soberano top rope tornillo got the win, though he was shaken up after teh match.
5) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Niebla Roja b Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys 
10:44. Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. 
12:28. Rudos took 1/3.

Main event was great with a matchup we haven’t seen a lot this year. 3 & 4 were good in ways that have been seen more often.

Pretty much everything I have to write for Saturday is either out of date now, or will be just as in date Sunday. So I’ll wait until Sunday. I’m thinking of playing around with another way of doing this, or at least making it a lot smaller, while I’m in Mexico. The idea is to make the vacation actually a vacation, which I’m not so great at doing. Maybe I’ll get around to trying that idea this week; watch this space.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 11/03/2017 Arena México
1) Astral & Robin vs Artillero & Espanto Jr.
2) Drone, Esfinge, Rey Cometa vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
3) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Shocker
4) Dalys © vs Marcela [CMLL WOMEN]
13th defense, 6th against Marcela
5) Diamante Azul vs Mistico, Soberano Jr., Valiente, Cuatrero, Forastero, Hechicero, Sansón [Rey del Inframundo]
6) Carístico, Rush, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

Imagine being in charge of CMLL. You apparently have freedom to do whatever you please, as long as you get people their correct amount of bookings. Your boss may check in with you a couple times of year, but mostly you’ve got not oversight: you’re free to try whatever nonsense you want with a wrestling promotion. And mostly what they’ve been trying in 2017 is nonsense. At this point, I do not believe the people in charge of deciding wrestling matches in CMLL really like or care about wrestling matches so much.

CMLL hinted towards three title matches on Friday. The title match actually happening is, uh, Dalys defending Marcela. That was set up by, uh, Reina Isis beating Marcela. It’s not like this title match was sprung on them, CMLL books in advance and planned Marcela getting the title shot when they also decided she’d lose last week. Meanwhile, CMLL’s went thru the effort of creating for (and paying for) a new title belt – for a match that will not sell a single extra ticket because it happens to be for this new belt. And it won’t sell an extra ticket next year either, because they’ve positioned it as the semimain thing, not really that important, with the real important people having a bigger match. Dalys/Marsela will probably be pretty good. The cibernetico definitely will. None of this makes any sense as a wrestling promotion.

I think people in charge like putting on a show, and this will be a big production. This will also probably be one of the better turnouts of the year. Not a single complaint about how a poor job they’ve done here (and most of the year) really is going to matter to them. We should still take a step back every so often and note that CMLL is complete nonsense.

Negro Casas & Shocker are the tag team champs, something goes wrong every single time they team, but Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja would make totally obvious challengers and it’s something CMLL should’ve done as soon as Niebla Roja turned if they cared about the Anniversary turnout – but they clearly did not.

I’m going back and forth about staying home to watch this one, or going to AAW and finding some way to watch this on a bus or plane trip the next couple of weeks. I should see a good show either way. As down as I am about the creative “effort” in CMLL, these matches should still be a thing. There’s even a non-zero chance of something big happening in the main event given that totally combustible tecnico side.

CMLL hypes tonight’s show around the Sky Team being back together. They’ve been broken up because, uh, CMLL just hasn’t bothered to put them in the same matches. This is their first match as a trio in Arena Mexico since Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, and that’s all for 2017 Arena Mexico matches for the top tecnico trio. It’s also their only top trio of the year. CMLL did a lot of Mistico, Valiente and Volador against the Guerreros and other trios teams, and has backed away from it this year. We know they won’t be doing a title match next week, because Mistico & Volador are announced as being in the Rey del Inframundo tournament, it’s just likely a one week match to come up with something in between tournaments.

This is very much a non-entity show in terms of ongoing rivalries. Negro Casas & Sam Adonis have the week off and there’s nothing else going on. It’s a lot of random trios matches, like a Tuesday card. The NGD match is usually good, and they’ve got Guerrero Maya, T. Panther and Esfinge to work with. The only singles match on the show is Soberano getting his first match with notable enemy of flying tecnicos Mephisto. Soberano’s the one with the momentum, but beating Mephisto one on one would still be an upset for him at this point. The semimain is sort of a heavyweight title preview with Diamante Azul & Terrible on opposite sides of a trios match, but they didn’t butild that much up on Monday’s show and this will probably be no different. Marco, Niebla Roja, Rey Bucanero and Vangellys fill out the spots in the match. The opening matches are Starman & Stigma vs Metalico & Nitro, and Jarochita, Vaquerita, and Marcela against Amapola, Dalys and Reyna Isis, neither of which sounds that promising. The show starts at 8:30pm CT on Claro, but this might be one worth turning in just in time for the main event or skipping entirely.

Last Saturday’s Ultimo Guerrero/Gran Guerrero vs Diamatne Azul/Caristico main event, had a tiny turnout.

Lucha Brothers versus Ultimo Ninja & Mecha Wolf in Brownsville, Texas had a really big turnout. That’s a credit to the local promoters (3 BAT), who seemed to get about 1,500 people in the building.

Alberto el Patron announced a 11/21 show in Mexico City, to raise money for earthquake victims. It’s basically a FULL show (Alberto, Dos Caras, Tinieblas vs Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Psicosis main event) with cheap tickets to try to raise a lot of money.

Diamante Azul is dedicating his title match to Hector Garza.

Argenis was the guest on this week’s AAA Zona Ruda.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Lucha Libre VOZ is running a show at taco festival in Lafayette, Louisiana. There were a lot of taco festivals with lucha libre this year in the US this year; I hardly mention them because the details on the lucha rarely go more in depth than “there will be the lucha libre!”. (This preview is amusingly over the top.) It’s probably a pretty decent gig for the people who can those spots. It feels like a market LU definitely should’ve been in, or AAA should be aiming it, but it’s also a situation where the name value we might ascribe doesn’t resonate to the people putting these shows together. It’s all lucha libre to them.

Lineups

The Crash (THU) 12/21/2017 Plaza de Toros La Bien Paga, Tapachula, Chiapas
1) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
2) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
3) Flamita vs Jack Evans
4) Gallo Sureño Jr. & M-ximo vs Gallo Traidor & Pierroth
5) Daga & The King vs Bestia 666 & Garza Jr.
6) Penta Zero M & Rey Misterio 619 vs La Máscara & Rush

I don’t know how many people in Chiapas are reading this, so this lineup is probably not really useful except to let you know Flamita vs Jack Evans is happening and you aren’t going to see it. It does seem help clarify The Crash schedule: a long tour in early November, a shorter late November/early December run (with LA Park & maybe Ricochet), and another mid?/late? December group of shows. They are scaling up.

IWRG FILL (WED) 10/25/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Bambino, Dinámico, Dranzer b Dragón, Kraken, Satán X
2) Chicanito, Keiser Drago, Power Bull b Dragón hOrus, Haziel, Odín
3) Celestial Boy, Hijo Del Bombero, Shadow Boy b Charly Boy, Guerrero 2000, Rayado
4) Adrenalina, Dr. Maligno, Skanda DCOR Ángel Oriental, Full Contac, Orión Plus
5) Black Dragón, Leo, Mike b Lunatic Xtreme, New Warrior, Toxin
6) Arez & King Strong L Black Terry & Warrior Jr. and Cometa & Yakuza and Cadilac & Oficial 911 and Mara Salvatrucha & Súper Pinocho and Dr. Cerebro & Motocross and Balak & Guerrero Mixtico and Dragón Bane & Fantasma de la Ópera and Robin Maravilla & X-Corpio and Hip Hop Man & La Mosca and Internacional Pantera & Silver Dragón
Rules of the match were each maestro started the match, then would be replaced by their student when they escaped the match. The last student left would lose their mask or hair. Teams were Indy Nation (Arez & King Strong), Arena Lopez Mateos (Yakuza & Cometa), Gym Zeus (Oficial 911 & Cadilac), Gym Metropolitano (Super Pinocho & Mara Salvatrucha), Gym FILL (Black Terry & Warrior Jr.), Gym Cerbero (Dr. Cerbero & Motocross), Grm Rivera (Guerrero Mixtico & Balack), Gym LLBoom (Fantasma de la Opera & Dragon Bane), Gym Pista Pebellon (Robin Marvilla & X-Corpio) & Gym Argentina (Hip Hop Man & La Mosca) and Gym Queretaro (Internacional Pantera, Silver Dragon). Match ended with Warrior Jr. defeating King Strong, who was announced as Hugo Sanchez, 19, from Mexico City. Arez, upset about Indy Nation losing, challenged Lunatic Extreme to a hair match.

That’s a long description. You’ll be shocked to know that “King Strong” doesn’t show up in my database for any matches before this show. I’m disappointed in Arez.

The Aroluxe lucha libre pilot is scheduled to tape on December 9 to 11 in Nashville, according to the WON. Alfredo of Lucha World noticed one of the Harris brothers, who work for Aroluxe, at the House of (Steve) Pain show last weekend. That’s surely for talent scouting, and Steve Pain himself would make since for any lucha promotion if Pindar’s death means he’s no longer under LU contract. The story again mentions they’re hoping to pick up people from Lucha Underground if/when the show get canceled. I think it’s unlikely to happen by those dates: El Rey’s deadline will surely have passed by then, but MGM & Lucha Libre FMV might still be shopping the show around other networks.

Terrible says he considered retiring due to injuries, but is feeling better now and feels like he’s looking better and getting better opportunities with the heavyweight title match on Sunday.

Polvora says he and Dragon Rojo still want a tag title shot against Negro Casas & Shocker. I’ve always credited his bodybuilding win as the moment that broke him out from first/second match purgatory, but Polvora here credits the 2012 En Busca de un Idol (where he finished last!) as his big moment.

Lucha de Barrio held a press conference this week this week. What you need to know is this is going to be a every other week show being posted to YouTube for free, starting on November 3rd, on . It appears to be something that’s already been filmed, based on the clips and featuring some of the South American wrestlers who were around during summer. The Facebook page lists Argos, La Mosca (Argentina), El Pibe, Anarky (Arizona), Black Taurus, Zumbi, Harry the Sick (Chile), Taylor Wolf (Chile), Yoruba, Pakal (Arizona), Kumo, Gran Fenuk, Gallo Frances (France). Ludark is on the promotional material, and Aramis was at this press conference. Enrique Yniesta & Javier Cardoso appear to be the announcers. The big concept is people from different barrios (both in Mexico and the rest of the world) fighting each other, with reality show aspects. That’s not that far off from one of the original pitches for Lucha Underground.

This feels a Lucha Underground-ish in other ways, in that it seems to be matches taped in front of either a studio audience or no one at all based on the video teasers they posted. It seems to be something that’s for TV first with the hope of running live episodes off the concept, which is the opposite of everything else in Mexico. I have no idea if this is actually going to be Good – the talent roster is OK but not over the top great, it’s impossible to tell based on what they’ve shown – but it does sound like people trying new ideas and I’m always interested in that. I don’t want to get too excited for this, because we really know nothing about it, but it’s interesting enough that I want to know something about it. The 11/03 debut is the day before I leave, so I have no idea when I’ll watch it, but I’m going to try to do a recap for at least the first one to see if there’s anything there.

An interview with Diamante from almost two months ago, before his AJPW trip, mentions that he’s married to a person in the Andrade familiy. I believe it’s a sister of La Sombra; it’s been talked about before but I’m not sure it’s been mentioned in an interview. That played a role in Diamante leaving CMLL and wrestling around Torreon instead for a while, so he could be closer to her.

Dragon Rojo, who’s not wrestling much due to a show he’s working with TV Azteca, is also working on a YouTube/Facebook show that’ll air Tuesdays at 9 according to Leo Riano.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update, including a recap of Volador in Informa

The latest episode of LuchaTalk is off.

Wrestling With GIFs watched the latest LA Park/Dr. Wagner match, which +Lucha put up in full.

DTU has a playlist on Spotify.

Rey Escorpion promo for the AAA Queretaro TV taping.

AAA has it’s traditional Dia de Muertos offering.

CultIcon starts a series of reviewing a LU Season 4 episodes which could be.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 10/29/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Shadow Boy vs Power Bull
2) Príncipe Omi vs Demonio Infernal
3) Súper Brazo Jr. & Voltar vs King Strong & Lunatic Extreme
4) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Black Dragón, Dinamic Black vs Liderk, Rayan, Spartan, Spector
5) Dragón Fly © vs La Mosca [AIWA ARGENTINA CRUISER]
3rd defense?
6) Bombero Infernal, Hijo De Dos Caras, Veneno vs Hip Hop Man, Pleitto Castillo, Séptimo Rayo
7) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Capo Del Norte & Capo Del Sur

All Capos, all the time. Hip Hop Man is letting his partner get back the Argentina title, which suggest he’s going for something else – and Bombero is champ.

CMLL (TUE) 10/31/2017 Arena México
1) Flyer & Magia Blanca vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Eléctrico, Shockercito, Stukita vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) Lady Maravilla vs Zeuxis [lightning]
4) Blue Panther Jr., Johnny Idol, The Panther vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado
5) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys
6) Ángel de Oro, Marco Corleone, Niebla Roja vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto

Pretty much the usual stuff – going to be awkward when Misterioso tries to steal Johnny Idol! – though the lightning match is at least new/interesting. Zeuxis/Maravilla is a first time match. Maravilla looked very good in her debut, has stood out a little less since then. She hasn’t been given good people to work with, and will have someone good here. Most of Zeuxis’ lightning matches have been setting up title matches and Zeuxis is Reina International Junior champion, so it’s possible this could be a two week program to give the show something for next Tuesday’s Dia de Muertos show.

(Though, women’s matches next week’s are problematic: men dragging away screaming women probably needs to be more comedic than it’s been in past years. Or maybe they can get women demons.)

CMLL (TUE) 10/31/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Mágico & Neutrón vs Frezzer & Maléfico
2) Magnus, Omar Brunetti, Sensei vs Guerrero de la Muerte, Inquisidor, Metálico
3) Drone, Fuego, Stigma vs Felino, Puma, Tiger
4) Pierroth, Rush, Sam Adonis vs Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr., Valiente
5) Volador Jr. vs Último Guerrero

Volador/UG is definitely not a first time match. No title on the line actually makes it a lot harder to figure than usual. UG actually hasn’t pinned Volador to win a singles match since 2014, but he’s gotten a couple of DQ victories.

CMLL (TUE) 10/24/2017 Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon, Wresrtling with GIFs]
1) Artillero & Inquisidor b Bengala & Sensei 
2) Akuma, Cancerbero, Raziel b Astral, Magnus, Star Jr. 
rudos took 1/3
3) Blue Panther Jr., Fuego, Pegasso b Puma, Sagrado, Tiger 
4) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Johnny Idol b Hechicero, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora 
Misterioso replaced Dragon Rojo on Thursday. Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush b Felino, Máscara Año 2000, Negro Casas [Relevos Increíbles] 
Mascara 2000 replaced Mr. Niebla earlier in the day.
6) Niebla Roja © b Cavernario [CMLL LH] 
Roja took falls 1/3 for his second defense.

Title match was good, though unsurprisingly not as good as Soberano/Cavernario. Niebla Roja looks more comfortable without his mask, and he sticks out among the CMLL luchadors more that away. He still seems short of interesting offense to carry long matches, and the CMLL style of tecnicos doing a ton of dives doesn’t really help him.

Star Jr. say he found out he was going to FantasticaMania when fans started sending him screen shots of him being on the list. I’m pretty sure NJPW picks the people who are going from a list CMLL provides, but these reactions make it sound as if NJPW doesn’t tell CMLL who they’re picking until the same time they tell everyone. Which is a little weird.

The Mexico City lucha libre commission held a press conference to announce luchadors would be able to sell merchandise at the Metro Guerrero station in the city. This is the train station that already has a tribute to lucha libre inside, which appears to have been a successful attraction and they’re building off that by having actual luchadors there every Saturday from 12 to 4. Interested luchadors from any company can sign up for few spots they’ll have each week, and Coco Rojo will be in charge of determining who gets the spots. (In a remarkable coincidence, Coco Rojo has been assigned a spot the first week.)

While there, Fantasma was asked about the situation with the national heavyweight title. He said he had no problem with CMLL using the title, and says the belt they’re using is a new replica (with the original staying with the Garza family.) He was also asked about the other championships which have been inactive for years, and Fantasma said there’d be a meeting to discuss what to do with all the titles. He still feels those belts are more important than the promotion (CMLL/AAA) belts because they’re not restricted to one group. It’s hard for me to see them that way when they’ve been ignored and minimized. All have great potential, but the usage of belts in Mexico is usually vanity or pointlessness, and I don’t want to see more of either.

Fantasma also thinks his son and Texano should have a mask vs hair match. You know, for the lack of anything else going on, that actually might be the way too early leader for next year’s TripleMania. If it was the plan, it sure would explain why it’s taking forever to go anywhere. It’s still a very long way from happening even if it was the plan.

Today’s Lucha Underground episode is non-existent. El Rey will be airing two episodes of Bushido Battleground tonight instead. The first episode of Bushido Battleground, airing right after the LU final, did about 25% of the rating. You can read that as El Rey needing Lucha Underground because nothing else is close, or El Rey not needing Lucha Underground because months of commercials on that show can’t motivate the LU fans to watch something else on their channel. Either way, I’m under the impression we’ll get an answer soon: LU’s Eric Van Wagenen said he thought they’d have an answer this month, and this month is getting close to over.

LuchaMania Monterrey has a recap of the MDA show from Sunday in Monterrey, which seemed to draw well without anyone who would normally be considered a giant name. Hijo de La Park, Bandido and Esfinge (who worked twice) beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Sam Adonis and Hijo de Dos Caras in the main event. In her latest return, Sexy (Star) Dulce went to a double pin draw with Tiffany when the referee ruled both had their shoulders down on a cradle. Dulce did not, and rematches challenges followed. The recap says that match was good, which is hard to believe – not even a Sexy Star thing, but Tiffany has been a struggle to watch in CMLL for a long time now. The best match on the show is said to be Caifans versus Traumas.

Dalys kept the CMLL Women’s Championship over Princesa Sugehit in REINA today. Zeuxis won both her tag match and the match against an actress trying out wrestling (that one in two minutes with a choke.) The show drew 520 fans, which is a pretty good number for REINA.

Mystery promotion of the moment: Lucha de Barrio. They have a website, they have a YouTube channel teasing it as if it was a TV show with familiar indie names (see more on Facebook) that’s already been taped, and a count down to an event that’s apparently taking place next Friday afternoon (?), but no location or any other info. The video must’ve been taped a while back, since Argentina’s El Pibe is included and he isn’t around Mexico now. I have no idea what’s going on here.

All shows in Torreon for this weekend were almost canceled. The local lucha commission is upset that at least 70% of the wrestlers have not gotten their wrestling license renewed and aren’t going to let them wrestle, the luchadors don’t want to pay for licenses because they just see it as as a tax with no benefit, and the promoters are sort of stuck in between. The commission ended up giving the wrestlers an extension so the promoters can run shows for the moment.

Lucha Memes 11/20 Arena Naucalpan (Chairo 11) matches)

• Trauma II vs Charles Lucero
• Bandido, Aramis, Alas de Acero vs Eterno, Fresero Jr., Rey Apocalipsis – new

Bandido is the sort of replacement Kamikaze with Iron Boy in Macau. The poster has a CMLL logo, so someone(s) from there will end up on this show.

MDA says they’ll be back in Arena Coliseo Monterrey sometime in November, with Mistico vs Caristico in some form, and more Tiffany vs Dulce Sexy in a setup to an apuesta match.

DTU announced they’d have their 10th Anniversario show in December in Arena Aficion, where they usually hold their big shows.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

Periodico La Voz talks to Mije, Gallito, Chico Temido and Guapito about wrestling.

Segunda Caida watches some Negro Casas.

Lineup

CMLL (MON) 10/30/2017 Arena Puebla
1) Millenium & París vs El Perverso & King Jaguar
2) Espíritu Maligno & Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Cancerbero & Raziel
3) Astral vs Virus [lightning]
4) Blue Panther Jr., Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Olímpico, Pólvora, Sagrado
5) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Soberano Jr. vs Hechicero, Kráneo, Rey Bucanero
6) Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Ephesto, Mephisto

The Sky Team back together here. Cavernario fouled Volador last week, so that’s probably the program. Virus is a dangerous opponent for Astral, he could be at risk for a muscle tear before the bodybuilding contest. (I’ve determined the one Good outcome of this year’s bodybuilding contest would be Sagrado winning something and actually getting pushed.)