Month: November 2017

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.

IWRG (SUN) 11/26/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Dragón Orus b New Warrior
2) Demonio Infernal b Keiser Drago
listed as Toxin & Mosca, the rare double no show.
3) Mike & Teelo b Máquina Infernal & Tackle
straight falls
4) Demonio Infernal, Dr. Cerebro, Fresero Jr. b Eterno, Heddi Karaoui, Lunatik Extreme
Fresero and Lunatik were added to the match.
5) Liderk, Rayan, Spector b Black Dragón, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly
straight falls for the Comando Elite. The Tortuga Ninjas challenged them to a mask match.
6) Black Warrior & Warrior Jr. © DQ Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan Jr. [IWRG IC TAG]
2nd defense. Warrior faked a chair shot from Pirata to draw a DQ.
7) Mr. Electro, Trauma I, Trauma II b Fandango, Villano IV, Villano V Jr.
Straight falls. Electro gave a Villano V Jr. a martinete, and fouled V4 to win, then threatened Villano V Sr.. Fandango’s IWRG debut.

AroLucha announced it’s card for their debut show on 12/10:

AroLucha (SUN) 12/10/2017 Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
1) Willie Mack vs Mr. 450
2) Demus vs Máscarita Dorada
3) Keyra & Lacey Lane vs Taya & Vanilla Vargas
4) MVP vs Sammy Guevara
5) Hurricane Helms, Jack Evans, Máximo vs Daga, Garza Jr., La Máscara
6) Pentagon & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs John Morrison & Rush

That’s basically a The Crash show with a few US additions of note instead of the opening match Tijuana guys. Mr. 450/Mack is even a The Crash feud of the moment. It’s not actually a The Crash show though; that promotion hasn’t mentioned this one, and seems to have it’s own plans to run in the US in 2018. Both groups are, at least at the moment, using the same wrestlers and same main creative person behind the scenes, and it’s going to be tough for both of them to enter the market successfully at the same time.

The press release makes no mention of it being a TV taping, but it is listed as one on the ticket website. Most of the matches have someone in them who is currently contracted to Lucha Underground. Either LU’s been really permissive and swift in allowing their guys to work for other promotions when they’re not running, or another show is going to drop. Johnny Mundo seems like he would be one of the very last people to leave abandon Lucha Underground, so this is probably more these guys believe they’re allowed to work this show rather than trying to get out of their LU deals. Still, that press release using the trademarked names “Pentagon” and “John Morrison”, so it’s not a group that has all their legal ducks in a row.

There’s still no mention of when, where or how this show will air. There’s also been almost no promotion of the event before today. I saw many of these guys in The Crash in Mexico, where what they drew varied a lot by the market. I also recall the first few Lucha Underground tapings, with some of these same people, struggled to fill the Temple with free tickets. I don’t know what AroLucha needs to look good on TV (because it’s unlikely they’ll be turning a profit just with any amount of turnout with $10 tickets), but I do they probably need to work on hyping the show locally the next couple weeks.

It’s a weird wrestling word when Johnny Mundo is AAA champion and working a TV taping for Konnan, a guy AAA hates last we knew. It suggests he and Taya would probably be working some The Crash shows if they were legally able to, and might in the future when they are. Taya hasn’t been back to AAA in months, but both sides have been careful to say she’s taking a break, not that she’s out of AAA. I wonder if that might be not long from changing. Angelico has similarly stopped working matches for AAA but said he was done on 01/01; perhaps the foreigner’s deals end at the start of the year? (Then again, AAA doesn’t seem to have any urgency about getting the title from Mundo to anyone else, so he’s got to be around for a while longer. Then again again, it’s AAA so Mundo leaving without ever losing the title would not surprise any outside of AAA.)

There’s nothing great on tonight’s Arena Puebla show. Last week’s started a Rush/Ultimo Guerrero feud, they’re back tonight with Caristico, Mistico, Mascara 2000 and Negro Casas, but they’re still a week or two before the singles match. The semimain has some good people and Pierroth, the tercera looks like the best chance for a good match (Rey Samuray higher than usual) but this looks like an easy to miss show. It’ll air 9pm on CMLL’s YouTube show.

Lineups

CMLL (SAT) 12/02/2017 Arena Coliseo
1) Sangre Imperial & Sensei vs Apocalipsis & El Coyote
2) Fiero, Magnus, Robin vs Camorra, Inquisidor, Maquiavelo
3) Oro Jr., Star Jr., Starman vs Hijo del Signo, Metálico, Nitro
4) Eléctrico © vs Pequeño Nitro [MEX LIGHT]
Fourth defense.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Titán
6) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto

Top matches could be good. Pequeno Nitro’s best chance of winning is it really doesn’t matter who holds that title so it might as well be him. Signo/Starman in the tercera, so that’s a cage match build (and Oro, Star and Nitro are possibilities.)

CMLL (SUN) 12/03/2017 Arena Coliseo
1) Magia Blanca & Retro vs Cholo & El Coyote
2) Fiero, Pegasso, Starman vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Templario
3) Blue Panther Jr., Johnny Idol, The Panther vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
4) Niebla Roja, Titán, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura, Pólvora
5) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

The usual Arena Mexico Sunday show is being pushed out by the international finals of a rap battle, so they go in Coliseo instead. Expect more mask ripping in the second match.

IWRG (SUN) 12/03/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Demonio Infernal vs Skanda, Lunatic Xtreme, Alas de Acero, Atomic Star
2) Diosa Atenea, Dulce Luna, Lady Cat vs ?, Lili Dark, Ludark Shaitan
3) Aramis, Freelance, Imposible vs Dr. Cerebro, Fandango, Toxin
4) Diablo Jr., Dinamic Black, Emperador Azteca vs Centvrión, Fly Warrior, Séptimo Rayo
5) Sharly Rockstar, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Rokambole Jr., Villano IV, Villano V Jr.
6) Spector & Teelo vs Black Dragón & Rayan and Liderk & Mike [relevos suicidas]
losers face off in a mask/mask match on 12/17
7) Mr. Electro vs Ray Mendoza Jr. [hair]

This is definitely an IWRG show. Main event is Ray Mendoza/Villano V’s first match since that TripleMania match in 2015. That itself was a return out of retirement in 2013, where he ran his own retirement show and said he lost lots of money, and so had to come back out of retirement. The angle certainly suggests someone in the Villano family is avenging Mr. Electro, but it may not be Villano V.

The semimain is only disappointing in that I wish they were doing a trios Comando Elite apuesta match instead of spreading out the (likely) three mask loses over some time.

There’s was a 1999-2000 Rokambole Jr., and my database is going with the idea this is the same guy. It’s probably not the same guy.

Matches 1, 3, and 4 all look good, are all highly unlikely to make TV.

I was going to write “are the women’s matches in IWRG going anywhere?” but it’s IWRG so no one can possibly answer that question.

IWRG Sunday lineup on Monday = no Wednesday show or this is a Wednesday show andI  missed the lineup..