Tonight is CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. Angel de Oro and Cuatrero meet in a loser gets unmasked match. The show is not on the usual free services. It will instead be available on iPPV for $10 USD or 100 MXN (about $5.50) if you can convince the purchase screen than you have a Mexican IP address. The show starts at 8:30pm CT local. That’s 9:30 pm in the US – if you switched your clocks last week, it’s an hour later than usual.
I wrote preview of the show over on Voices of Wrestling. To me, this show resembles last year’s Gran Prix, where the show might be good but not important enough to get people to pay money for it. There was even more buzz for the Gran Prix, with the novelty of outsiders having a rare big match in CMLL. Angel de Oro and Cuatrero are well known to CMLL fans but aren’t really known without it, and they’ve never been treated as top guys until this moment. I’m not super excited for this match while still thinking it should be pretty good.
My hunch since this match was first teased was Angel de Oro would be losing his mask. CMLL is as high on the NGD as they’ve been on anyone since the original Mistico push. Angel’s brother Niebla Roja has done well without the mask. So has Volador, and a mix of more unmasked tecnicos makes some business sense.
Angel de Oro told Publimetro that the idea for the Angel de Oro name was inspired by the death of his grandfather a few months before he debuted. The Angel name is honoring him.
Last night in Arena Aficion, Cuatrero unmasked Angel de Oro in the main event trios. That wasn’t a legal unmasking. Tonight’s probably will be.
This card could use a second big match, as the women’s mask match backed up the men’s mask match at the Anniversario. They’re not getting that match. Volador/Valiente versus Terrible/Rey Bucanero is an inescapable lesser version of the Volador/Ultimo Guerrero vs Terrible/Rush tag team final we just saw. They will try to make it work anyway, but it’s not a match people are excited for just because it’s happening. The rest of the card should be at least good, there’s just not that much direction. The unending tournament of the last six weeks has taken all the air out of the room for any other feuds, and not following off that first big tournament outcome (the new Los Ingobernables) on this show is wasted momentum. It’s a big CMLL so it’ll still probably have good matches, but it’s CMLL succeeded despite it’s lackluster programming efforts.
The assistance at the gate they are getting is Mil Mascaras. He’ll be will be honored as the luchador legend on tonight’s show. Mascara is at least one of the ten most important Mexican wrestlers of all time. CMLL usually honors wrestlers by having them simply come to the ring with their music, wave at the fans and get a plaque. There may be more for a someone the stature of Mil Mascaras. Mil doesn’t make many Arena Mexico appearances. He’s usually only coming to shows to wrestle and Ultimo Dragon has used him a couple times. I had a fear CMLL might do the same on this show, and thankfully that didn’t occur. CMLL’s not in the habit of bringing legends to shows outside once or twice a year bits honoring them like this one. I hope Mil Mascaras lives decades more and shows up to Arena Mexico many more times to complain about kids these days not knowing how to really wrestle. The reality of the situation, the thing I think his long time fans and everyone else knows, is they may never get another shot to see Mil Mascaras in his original home arena. That might cause a different fanbase than usual to turn out. The fanbase who comes to the big shows is usually pro rudo and I’m not sure if that’ll be the case this time.
In an interview, Mil Mascaras says he gave himself completely to lucha libre.
SuperLuchas has an article about the 10 important matches in the history of Mil Mascaras. This is good and I wish there were more pieces like this about pre-90 luchadors.
Last Word on Pro Wrestling also has a preview of the show.
DTU was in Xalapa last night.
DTU (THU) 03/15/2018 Arena Xalapa, Xalapa, Veracruz [+LuchaTV, DTU]
1) Mini Flash & Samuray Jr. b Ángel Negro & Hermes
2) Billy Gamer, Devitt Rodríguez, Fly Danger b Anarquía, Rey Volador, Vengador Radioactivo
3) Alfa (Baja California) & Pesadilla b Máscara Aerea (Baja California) & Tiburón
4) Lokillo b Draztick Boy, Jimmy, Moria, Adrenalina, Flayer Boy (Veracruz) 
preview of Lokillo challenging Moria for the ALto Impacto title.
5) Crazy King b Johnny Lloyd
6) Erick Ryan, G-Raver, Kenji Fujimoto b Cíclope, Miedo Extremo, Violento Jack
DTU is in Guadalajara tonight, with Crazy King defending the main title against Halloween and Lokilla and Moria facing off for the Alto Impacto championship.
Tech Dirt has a post on Lucha Underground sending a legal threat to So Cal Uncensored & Pro Wrestling Sheet, noting they’ve never seen any one try this before, saying that LU’s case has no merit, and pointing out that this only served to get more attention towards the people who were sending on spoilers.
The legal threat has not deterred the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from posting results from the last two tapings. It’s right after where he’s reported about that legal letter, and it’s very detailed. I do sense the sites which repost much of the WON content (and sometimes credit the WON) have backed away from writing about Lucha Underground. I’m not sure if it’s fear of getting the same legal letter – it might have just someone doing the math and realizing LU is not worth the headache when they can write about the lowliest person on the WWE roster and get many times the same traffic. The spoilers are still there for people who want to read them and less people are talking about Lucha Underground. I’m not sure that was a great outcome.
AAA in Tijuana on 04/20 AAA TV taping
- OGT vs Los Alvarados.
- Dr. Wagner Jr. & Vampiro vs Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hernandez
- Drago, Aerostar vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria vs Psicosis & Histeria vs Rey Escorpion & Texano
- La Parka vs Pagano vs Mesias vs Parka Negra vs Hijo del Fantasma vs Joe Lider in a TLC match
- Big Mami, Mamba, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Estrella Divina, Ashley, Faby Apache – new
I guess Faby is back in April. And Lady Shani & Hades/Hashatary aren’t expected back. Probably just one more match to go, and then they can tear all of this up and announce something completely different.
+LuchaTV has a sit down with Ricky Marvin. Among other topics, Marvin explains he’s frustrated by his current situation: he was a star in NOAH, but that didn’t transfer at all back home. CMLL says they don’t have a spot for him, and AAA put him under a mask and it didn’t really work. It’s a shame Marvin isn’t CMLL. In his return to the indies, he seems like a veteran who can still go, and CMLL could use a few more of those on the rudo side. Marvin would also be an internationally valuable name for them; he’d create new matches for FantasticaMania and ROH would probably be interested in using him thru CMLL.
Fuerza Guerrera says he’ll take that mask match with Octagon, but he’d really like a mask match with Atlantis. Someone needs to tell Fuerza that he should be saying he’d really like test himself against Psycho Clown & Hijo del Fantasma because the payoff he’s looking for could actually happen that way.
Aqui Esta La Lucha has video clips from the week, including the Lucha Memes show.
Sangre Chicana 7 La Hiedra were the guests on this week’s Zona Ruda.
LuchaWorld has has their latest news update.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 03/20/2018 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia
2) Oro Jr., Sensei, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Universo 2000 Jr.
3) Kaho Kobayashi, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis
4) Rey Bucanero vs Ephesto [lightning]
5) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Johnny Idol, Kawato San, Okumura
6) Mistico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla
Cavernario won’t lose another feud this week. Maybe next week though.
I do not know who wants to see an Ephesto/Rey Bucanero singles match in 2018. I do not think they want to have a singles match in 2018.