Negro Casas shaves Sam Adonis, Pagano out three months, IWRG cage match show

CMLL (MON) 01/01/2018 Arena México [Claro, CMLL, Culticon, ESTO, Ovaciones, thecubsfan, Wrestling With GIFs]
1) Eléctrico & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico 
12:03. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Oro Jr., Star Jr., Starman DQ Cancerbero, Hijo del Signo, Raziel 
11:42. Signo and Starman feuded. Starman was DQed for fouling Signo in the second, and Signo unmasked Starman in the third.
3) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther b Nitro, Sagrado, Virus 
14:35. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Mr. Niebla, Shocker, Vangellys b Drone, Esfinge, Titán 
10:36. Rudos took 1/3. Drone replaced Vailente (moved up.)
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón 
13:17. Valiente replaced Carsitico (on Monday) Tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Negro Casas b Sam Adonis [hair] 
12:37. Negro Casas took falls 1/3 to win Adonis’ hair.

This was a one match show like last week, but a much better one match. Crowd seemed a lot better than last week, but they never did big crowd shots. It didn’t seem close to last year’s Panther/Adonis match visually, but maybe along the range of a decent Friday night show.

Mephisto kept the CMLL welterweight championship over Caristico in Puebla. It’s said to be a “polemica” finish, so a foul or a mask pull or something along those lines.

IWRG (MON) 01/01/2018 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) X-Corpio L Diablo Jr., Dragón Bane, Ram El Carnero, Fulgor II, Guerrero 2000, Motocross, Chicanito, Cadillac, Lunatik Extreme [mask, hair, cage]
Student apuesta match, names were not announced ahead of time. Diablo Jr., Dragon Bane, Fulgor, Guerrero 2000, Cadillac put their masks on the line, Ram el Carnero, X-Corpio, Motorcross, Chicanito, Lunatik Extrem put their hair on the line, X-Corpio lost his hair to Lunatik Extreme.
2) Aramis b Fly Warrior, Black Dragón, Emperador Azteca, Dinamic Black, Alas de Acero, Freelance, Séptimo Rayo [IWRG Reyes del Aire, cage]
Wrestlers will leave the cage after they’re eliminated, last one left is winner. Aramis beat freelance for the win.
3) Chico Che b Ovett [hair, cage]
4) Trauma I & Trauma II b Rokambole Jr. & Villano V Jr. and Danny Casas & Veneno and Capo Del Norte & Capo Del Sur [cage, #1 Contenders, IWRG IC TAG]
wrestlers will leave the cage after they’re eliminated, last team left gets a tag title shot (Black Warrior and son are champs.) The match came down to Rokambole vs Los Traumas, with Trauma I being beat before Truama II beat Rokambole. Rokambole Jr. challenged Trauma II to a mask match. Trauma told him they’d talk when Rokambole was actually good enough to beat the FILL students.
5) Imposible © b Dr. Cerebro [IWRG Rey de Ring, cage, Ladder]
4th defense. The two will have to fight for ten minutes, then a ladder will be added to the cage. You had to grab the belt and escape with it to win. Imposible retained his title.

This show seems dumb, but I do hope it turns up so I can see exactly how dumb it is.

TSW (MON) 01/01/2018 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México [+LuchaTV, R de Rudo]
1) Aerodinamic b Kalibus, Shura
2) Thunder Storm b Baby Star Jr.
3) Toro Negro Jr. b Heddi Karaoui
The mystery French man with Heddi Karaoui attacked Toro after the match.
4) Black Warrior Jr. b Toxin
Toxin replaced Thunder Storm
5) Oro Jr. & Starman b Lokillus & Yoruba
Starman replaced Templario (Puebla). Lokillus and Yoruba buried the match in a back stage post match promo as the CMLL guys doing nothing and challenged each other to a match.
6) Golden Magic b Sagrado
Sagrado want a rematch in vale todo rules (!?!)
7) Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther (CMLL) b Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Emperador Azteca
Matematico was honored.
8) El Bandido b Niebla Roja
a bit of a upset, but Niebla Roja had his foot on the ropes on the pin

Really just wanted to post this because the indie guys burying the CMLL guys was amusing. Attendance didn’t see much: it doesn’t seem like you can throw CMLL guys (at least these ones) against indie guys with nothing going on and have people care enough to turn out.

DTU (MON) 01/01/2018 Arena Aficion [DTU]
1) Angelito Mágico & Irving El Travieso Montiel b Centella De La Muerte & The Black Jr.
2) Devitt Rodríguez & Hard Boy b Águila Mágica & Brook Duncan
Brook Dunch replaced Fly Star.
3) Pasion Kristal & Yuriko b Cámuflaje & El Exótico
Exotico replaced Junior. Kristal/Yuriko want a NEXO tag title shot.
4) Draztick Boy b Steel Dragón, Jimmy
5) Cíclope & Miedo Extremo b Billy Gamer & Toto Gamer
6) Crazy King b Paranoiko
DTU champ beats winner of the cage match on the anniversary show.

if DTU is nice enough to post results, then I can post them too

Guerrero Mixtico lost his hair in the Neza cage match.

Pagano’s fractured rib turned out to be quite bad: AAA announced Pagano will be out three months. Pagano didn’t have a lot going on screen after the Mesias feud wrapped up but he was one of the busiest wrestlers on AAA live events thru the year and will be tough to replace. On the other hand, Pagano is known for his dangerous stunts and doesn’t always seem to be doing things in the safest way, so it’s a little surprising he made it this long without a serious injury. AAA doesn’t have a lot of top guys left healthy who would normally be thought of as full time main eventers – maybe Psycho, Texano, Fantasma and Parka – but they’ve already been offering main events with guys who don’t feel like main events and it doesn’t seem like local promoters have stopped using them. I would guess that Psycho Clown also going down any time soon would really hurt AAA, but they may just be able to sell AAA shows on being AAA at this point.

On the positive note, Atlantis says he’s ready for FantasticaMania. It does not appear he’ll wrestle in Mexico prior to that tour at this point. That was the same thing that happened with Mistico the year he came back from the motorcycle accident, and he looked far less than 100%. Hope it goes better with Atlantis.

Today’s CMLL show has the NGD against Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja and Caristico. There’s also a Triton vs The Panther match that could be fun, and Maligna debuts in the women’s match. It airs at 7:30pm on YouTube. Guadalajara has Volador/Sam Adonis.

Last night’s Zona Ruda had a gimmick where the show was presenting a TripleMania lineup to Dorian Roldan. They posted it on Twitter. bold type: THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL CARD, THIS IS NOT SOMETHING AAA ANNOUNCED, THIS IS JUST A WHAT IF. Still going to spend too much time talking about it because it is so confounding.

https://twitter.com/ZonaRudaTDN/status/948012641297027072

I had some harsh things to say on Twitter about this concept card. With some time to reflect, it’s still not any good. I don’t know why people would want to the bottom half of the card, most of the big matches are unappealing, and there’s stuff in the middle that makes no sense. (Why are two masked women having a hair match? Why is bald Kevin Cross [sic] and bald Hernandez in a match where the loser could lose their hair or mask?) This is the kind of idea for a card that makes me think either I don’t really understand what people want to see in lucha libre or the people like those who put this together at Zona Ruda don’t really understand what people want to see in lucha libre. They live in Mexico, are paid to talk about lucha libre, so they probably have a better feel for these things and I’m the crazy one, but to my crazy US eyes, it’s a card that’s miles away from being good.

Chris Jericho is there because he’s the big name of the moment. His NJPW deal seems to have gotten enough of buzz that I suspect he’ll be in no hurry to go back to WWE and he’ll end up doing some more stunt appearances like a TripleMania. Probably not specifically a TripleMania. On his podcast, Jericho usually doesn’t say negative things about people still working in wrestling, but he buries Vampiro whenever he comes in conversation (which is not that often.) Maybe AAA could write a big check to help Jericho get past it, but it seems next to impossible he’ll be turning up in AAA.

Zona Ruda will get posted during the week, so you can see if Dorian Roldan disagreed with the lineup more tactfully. I don’t have high hopes for any TripleMania being good, because their goal seems to be something other than to have good matches, but I think they can probably do better than this in reality.

+LuchaTV posted the complete Daga vs Caifan match from Lucha Memes. If Caifan really doesn’t come back, and if his match from Monterrey on the 29th doesn’t turn up, that’d be the last Caifan match to make the internet.

CMLL Guadalajara posted photos and limited results for their 12/17 show today. Turns out, Difunto beat Joker for their Occidente middleweight championship. Shocking that no one cares about these titles when it takes two weeks to note a title change.

Lucha Libre Cancun says they’re opening a wrestling school sometime in 2018. Misterioso Jr. is on their 01/19 show, their first of the year.

El Manana interviews Zarzy Tiger, who is the son of El Zarzy and related to Halcón de Oro, Asterisco, Asterisco Jr, Hijo del Zarzy, Hija del Zarzy, Halcón Negro and Sweety.

Segunda Caida reviews Negro Casas vs Dragon Lee from 2015.

Lineup

CMLL (SUN) 01/07/2018 Arena México
1) Bengala & Sangre Imperial vs Artillero & Grako
2) Pegasso, Stigma, Tritón vs Akuma, Arkángel de la Muerte, Disturbio
3) Esfinge, Soberano Jr., Valiente vs Johnny Idol, Okumura, Sam Adonis
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 Jr.
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

The most exciting thing about this card is there’s a new background texture on the poster. Universo actually gets to team with family members this week; it’d be amusing (if not good) they ran with a Mascara 2000 Sr/Forastero/Universo 2000 Jr. for a couple weeks.

CMLL (SUN) 01/07/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr. & Micro vs Destello & Destructor
2) Tigre Blanco & Yaqui vs Relámpago Azul & Thunder Boy
3) Mágico, Magnum, Metatrón vs Difunto, El Chakal, Ráfaga
4) El Rielero & Vaquero Jr. © vs Joker & Sádico [OCCIDENTE TAG]
second defense
5) Star Black vs Nautilius [mask, hair]

I can’t claim to know what’s going on here but Star Black losing his mask still seems like it would be a surprise.

CMLL (MON) 01/08/2018 Arena Puebla
1) Centella Roja & Vega vs Ares & Guerrero Espacial
2) Flyer, Millenium, Pegasso vs Fuerza Chicana, Hijo del Signo, Policeman
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Hechicero, Pólvora, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Dragón Lee, Soberano Jr., Valiente vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
5) Marco Corleone, Rey Bucanero, Terrible vs Diamante Azul, Gran Guerrero, Pierroth

Main event is a rematch from last week, so something. What happened? I dunno. We could probably ask Marco but it doesn’t seem that important.

Dragon Lee is back. I’m suspicious he’s in Japan like last year for NJPW’s Toyko Dome show and the follow up show. He’d be able to get back in time for this show if that was the case.