lucha TV preview for weekend of January 26th, 2018

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Back to normal this week. Well, a heavyweight title defense on Claro isn’t normal. But some of the people on are more normal. If you come here for the obscure stats, here’s one. Since that heavyweight title went to AAA just about when that promotion formed, and went indie after, it’s been a long time since it’s been defended on a Friday night. The most recent EMLL Friday night known defense in 1985. We’re surely missing some. It’s still be a long while

AAA has the match to determine the referee for a match which will have already taken before the match. AAA live and AAA TV are just two different worlds.

IWRG is a pretty busy show, if it really airs.

Sahori passes away, Drone, Rebelion Amarilla, Kawato & Kobayashi debuts announced

Lady Ludxor unmasked as Sahori

Sahori passed away today. SuperLuchas reports she had a long battle with cancer. She also wrestled as Lady Ludxor and La Novia de la Parka in AAA, and was part of the wave of luchadoras who joined CMLL when they restarted their division in 2005. She wrestled there thru 2009, including a couple trips to REINA in Japan. Sahori suffered a knee injury, and then wrestled infrequently on the indies thru 2015. Superluchas bio mentioned Sahori left AAA when she was pregnant with twin sons of Octagon. Those must be the sons we saw at one of Octagon’s press conferences last year.

On his Facebook, Drone posted a message addressing his out of sorts performance on FantasticaMania. Drone’s explanation was that he did not wrestle drunk, but that he was having trouble sleeping in Japan the entire tour, took some medication to help, and it left him in a bad shape the next day. He was apologetic about what had happened, though he also still ended with a hashtag. The post was either deleted or hidden to friends only within an hour; there’s a screen cap here.

I’m skeptical about this story; it feels like something Drone made up once he got home and everyone started asking him about it. Drone was able to post a selfie on Facebook from Japan after that bad match, and yet think to write anything about his “illness” until much latter. It comes off as a guy who thought maybe he got away with a bad day, didn’t realize until later how he didn’t really get away with it, and scrambled to make something up. And, really, whether it was alcohol or strong medicine or something else entirely, Drone still screwed up.

(Other people screwed up too. Most of the responsibility is on Drone. Some of it’s on the people who thought he was OK to get in the ring when he clearly wasn’t. It’s fortunate that it just was foolish instead of dangerous. It probably would’ve been very tough to tell Puma or Disturbio that they would have to sit out of a match in Korakuen Hall because of Drone’s screw up. It’s also what NJPW or CMLL should’ve done. Even after the fact – how did someone not grab Drone and escort him past the interview set so he didn’t embarrass himself and the promotion any more? Even if he somehow hid his condition before the match, it was pretty clear by the end of it. I know the instinct is to let Drone expose himself for his mistakes, it just wasn’t the best thing for CMLL.)

Drone’s performance has now made it all the way to Record and is being picked up by Mexican news sources today. CMLL’s pretty good at ignoring the rest of the world, so it’s far from certain that anything will come of all of this.

Satoshi Kojima will be out months after being suffering an ACL tear. The injury was not announced until after the FantasticaMania tour. Jushin Lyger says Satoshi actually hurt his knee on the Toyama show on the 17th, and just found a way to keep going to get to that match with Rush. The LIJ went after Kojima’s knee on the first NJPW’s show, probably as a way to cover up for the injury. It’s amazing he did as much as he did considering the situation (and it might explain why did things like the chair shot to the head to try get thru that match.)

On CMLL Informa, Mephisto mentioned he’ll be teaming with Mistico in the Parajes Increibles tournament. 15 more teams to go.

The Tijuana Box, Lucha and MMA commission ruled on the Rebelion Amarilla last night. All members of the group (except Black Taurus, who wasn’t there) had been suspended for a year. The official explanation for why they were suspended was for interfering in matches, antagonizing fans and being rude to officials (or, you know, being rudos.) The one year suspension has been reduced to an apology, a $400 USD fine which will be used to give children free tickets, and they have to work an opener on the next The Crash show.  That’s some reduction. Garza’s already posted an apology and The Crash says they’ll work on the rest of the issues for their 02/14 show.

The prelim match is now announced: Garza, MechaWolf and Bestia will face Astrolux, Black Boy and Arkangel Divino in what really should be a fun match. This could be a good way to make those young guys seem like bigger deals. I hope Garza takes the match not seriously and gets nearly beat for it about a dozen times.

Vampiro was on Zona Ruda. It was a lot talk about Vampiro and not a lot of build for Guerra de Titanes. Vampiro was insistent he’s going to call the Mundo/Wagner match right down the middle. The latest “why Taya lost the title” story appeared to be she went too long without defending the title. That’s a hard way for Big Mami, Nino Hamburguesa and Mini Psycho Clown to find out they’ve been stripped of their championships, since they haven’t defended them in six months (and no defenses are coming) but I’m sure AAA will be totally consistent on this ruling. This and the Sexy Star stuff also asked about are also really a dead issue at this point, and they can probably stop asking Dorian & Vampiro every time because there’s nothing that’s going to make the situation better.

Flamita will be at WrestleCon at WrestleMania. I think I actually have to book a flight and a hotel and go now, because either Fenix/Flamita is either going to be happen or I can be mad in person at people for Fenix/Flamita not happening. I don’t like this any better than you.

Rey Escorpion says he’s not scared of being in a chain match for the first time in his career.

Mr. Iguana talks about getting booked on the Lucha Memes show.

MedioTiempo writes about Guerra de Titanes title change.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 01/30/2018 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
2) Flyer, Magia Blanca, Magnus vs Espanto Jr., Hijo del Signo, Sangre Azteca
3) Audaz, Fuego, Tritón vs Cancerbero, Kawato San, Raziel
4) Disturbio vs Tiger [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Pólvora
6) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Rush vs Cuatrero, Shocker, Terrible

Rush again on the actual tecnico side again. Kawato came off like he’d be a good tecnico, but instead starts on the rudo side against some tricky tecnicos.

CMLL (TUE) 01/30/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Rielero & Magnum vs Frezzer & Furia Roja
2) Kaho Kobayshi, La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Drone, Esfinge, Rey Cometa vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
4) Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr., Titán vs Forastero, Sansón, Universo 2000 Jr.
5) Blue Panther, Carístico, Valiente vs Johnny Idol, Okumura, Sam Adonis

Kaho Kobayashi also starts on the same day. If she’s any good – and the indication is she is – she’ll be a very welcome addition to the women’s division. (Note that match is usually not televised, and that television show doesn’t air for several days, so we’ll probably not see her until later.)

Lucha Memes (MON) 02/05/2018 Arena Naucalpan
1) 19 Y Medio, Gato De Ecatepec, Manchitas vs Luis Cirio, Manny Cirio, Tony Cirio
2) Arez, Belial, Impulso vs Ángel o Demonio, León Rojo, Ovett
3) Keyra & Ricky Marvin vs Psique & Sky Man and Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako
4) Cavernario vs Mr. Iguana
5) Fresero Jr., Súper Mega, Último Vampiro vs Diva Salvaje, Mr. Niebla, Zoy Raymunda
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Alas de Acero, Aramis, Iron Kid [MEX Trios]
second defense
7) Hechicero vs Satánico
winner gets the Infernal name

The semimain and the Iguana/Cavernario matches are pretty good. I suspect Satanico isn’t losing the Los Infernales group name but it’ll be interesting to see how Hechicero gets to that point.