Rush/UG set up in Puebla, Tuesday preview

CMLL (MON) 11/27/2017 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Efekto10]
1) Espíritu Maligno, Meyer, Vega b Joker, King Jaguar, Sombra Diabólika 
2) Black Tiger, Oro Jr., Robin b Arkángel de la Muerte, Policeman, Rey Apocalipsis 
3) El Malayo, Felino, Misterioso Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Rey Samuray, The Panther 
4) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Pierroth b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente 
5) Carístico, Mistico, Rush b Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero 
Mr. Niebla replaced Negro Casas. Straight falls. Rush pinned Ultimo Guerrero and then challenged him to a title match because he likes fighting him. Rush teased making it a hair match later on, which UG was enthusiastic about.

Not much talk about this show. The main event marked Mascara 2000’s 40th year as a wrestler, which CMLL uses a lead in to promote Thursday’s Universo 2000’s benefit show. I guessed CMLL would just make UG/Rush non-title to avoid the silliness about them both being way over the weight limit (and it’s not likely the title would be changing hands anyway), but CMLL’s not bothered by that silliness all that much.

Not a lot going on with Tuesday’s card. CMLL’s preview has Misterioso and Sagrado as the main photo. (They team with Tiger face the Panthers & Drone.) It’s strange Misterioso, the guy who’s been unmasking tecnicos after most every match for months, isn’t yet part of the upcoming cage match. Misterioso seems to have been trying to make his own thing happen, but CMLL could at least take advantage and throw him and The Panther in there.

The main event is Mistico, Rush and Volador versus Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero and Negro Casas. That sounds good, but Tuesday main events are rather quick. Johnny Idol, Stuka and Valiente face Ephesto, Luciferno and Okumura in the semimain. Last week, Ephesto fouled Stuka. They’re matched up again this week. That might be a feud they’re building, though Stuka & Ephesto rarely get singles matches without a bigger star also being involved.

Polvora vs Vangellys is an odd lightning match. The segunda has Templario & Magia Blanca making an appearance. Sonic is in the opener. The show will air on YouTube on 7:30pm.

Dragon Rojo is off the shows this week, after being injured in Friday’s match. He wrote on twitter that he doesn’t know how long he’ll be out. Sanson, the runner up in the Copa Junior Nuevo Valores, has been added to the Copa Junior VIP. Shocker takes Dragon Rojo’s place on Sunday.

Entry to CMLL’s bodybuilding contest will be free on Wednesday (with identification.) There’s usually a “bring a ticket stub” sort of deal, but they’re not even doing that much. They haven’t mentioned if it’ll be streaming. I assume it will be, but it jumped out to me that they aren’t moving Informa from 4pm, and they’d normally do that if they’re streaming something earlier.

There’s been a lack of CMLL hype for the bodybuilding contest this year compared to the past ones, which would be the 11th one since they restarted them. There was one article on the website and occasionally mentions, but not treated like a major event as it sometimes has been. Every so often this year, I’ll see a stray reference to new or different people running CMLL – Dr. Alfonso Morales said something along those lines in a usual How Can We Fix CMLL column (answer: get decent TV) – but no one ever really says what those differences are (Sofia Alonso?) and the finished product hasn’t changed all that much. CMLL playing down the bodybuilding contest would be a notable change.

Squared Circle Siren reports Lucha Underground officials will be at the RISE wrestling shows this weekend, scouting for female wrestlers for the Season 4. People with the show have told the story of going to Stardom US shows prior to Season 2, and offering deals to many women they saw wrestle at those shows. No idea if it’ll be that numerous this time, but it’s make sense if someone from those shows ended up getting signed (and we might find out what they’re actually promising about Season 4 and contracts.)

Tickets for AAA’s 12/09 benefit show are on sale; they’re running from 185 to 597MX ($10-$32US)

Sexy Dulce and Diosa Quetzal’s match from nine days ago is suddenly getting noticed, because a video showing Quetzal kneeing Dulce in the face and Sexy fighting back went viral. It’s one clip from a longer match (the guy who originally posted it put up in four parts because why make things easy to watch), where Dulce had been hitting Quetzal hard and Quetzal’s knee was more fighting back.

I’m not up for another cycle of “Dulce Garcia: worst person ever or angel from heaven persecuted by meanies” – this thing has been around for a couple days but I ignored it till it reached Twitter. Even then I completely regret paying any attention to it. This is a match on a show with no TV, in a promotion that irregularity runs, the person everyone thought was crazy is still thought to be crazy. There’s nothing new here except car crash video to gawk at, and the people who enable here are going to keep on doing it.

The difference between now and AAA is she’s still pretty popular in Monterrey but completely be irrelevant outside it. She’ll be back booked everywhere again eventually, because wrestling people can’t help themselves when it comes to people they believe are stars, and no amount of social media anger about what she’s doing now is going to change that. People there say Sexy Star was acting unprofessional, and she definitely was if this wasn’t the plan, but I think acting unprofessional at times is also her implicit gimmick at this point – she’s some Mexican warped boxing version of a Japanese wrestler who’s building her name by shooting on people in matches to prove she’s the real legit one. Maybe one days he’ll pay this off by doing the MMA match she’s occasionally teasing, but she’s right now a highly paid oddity on the fringes of lucha libre who’s not worthy of any of the attention people are giving her today. Save your anger for when she’s inevitably booked by the big promotions again.

(The only real lesson here is Diosa Quetzal seems to end up in situations that get attention; she was one of the dozens of anonymous luchadoras in Mexico City just a couple years ago, and now is getting put in singles matches with Diosa Quetzal because people have been convinced she’s a star. I don’t think she’s good, I know that people will rush to tell you that she’s definitely not good at wrestling whenever she comes up, but she’s getting booked around the country because she marketed herself well and got herself on a TV show. Convincing people, be it fans or promoters, that you’re Actually A Big Deal is as important part of a wrestling career as what you do in in the ring, but most people don’t seem to put much effort in it.)

In an interview in Mazatlan, Mistico says he won’t put up his name against Caristico – he’s feels he’s the rightful Mistico right now anyway, why should he have to give it up – but would be open to a singles match.

Maxilar in Tijuana will have Alberto vs Dr. Wagner on 12/15.

+LuchaTV’s 50th podcast has Ciberentico as a guest.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania and the latest Lucha Report.

The Global Revolucion podcast talks some CMLL & IWRG matches and I will link to any podcast that goes down the IWRG rabbit hole.

Lineups

IWRG FILL (WED) 11/29/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Crimen, Dragón, Sumed vs Dianmico, Dranzer, Pumita
2) Celestial, Fly Tiger, Voltar vs Black Puma, Chicanito, Guerrero 2000
3) Dragón Orus, Haziel, Orión vs Adrenalina, Keshin Black, Power Bull
4) Hijo Del Bombero, Kanon, Súper Brazo Jr. vs Atomic Star, Leroy, Toxin
5) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Eterno, Lunatik Xtreme, Ovett, Skanda
6) Alas de Acero, Ángel Oriental, Aramis, Avisman, Black Dragón, Demonio Infernal, Diablo Jr., Shadow Boy vs Ángel Drago, Atomic Fly, Cadilac, Cremosito, Death Metal, Marduk, Mr. Snake, Taurino [Copa High Power]
Black Terry students vs Oficial 911 students

There is a Wednesday show, a trainee one. They posted it over the weekend and I missed it.