Month: April 2018

CMLL (SAT) 04/14/2018 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Violencia b Acero & Aéreo
rudos took 1/3.
2) Estrellita, La Guerrera, La Maligna b La Comandante, Metálica, Tiffany
La Guerrera debut match. Tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Astral, El Audaz, Stigma b Cancerbero, Disturbio, Raziel  
Disturbio replaced Arkangel. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Drone b Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. b Hechicero, Luciferno, Okumura
tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Felino, Kráneo, Último Guerrero b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Niebla Roja
Felino replaced Rey Bucanero on Tuesday. Kraneo got along with his teammates enough for them to win. Rudos took 1/3, UG sneaking in a foul on Niebla Roja to set up a title match next week.

Kraneo working as a normal rudo menas whoever booked this show didn’t know they were turning him eight days ago. La Guerrera introduces herself in a promo, and there are also some from Drone, Hechicero, Blue Panther, Kraneo, and Niebla Roja.

CMLL (SUN) 04/15/2018 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Magnus & Retro b Apocalipsis & El Coyote
tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus b Magia Blanca, Pegasso, Star Jr.
Rudos took 2/3.
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Pólvora b Blue Panther Jr., Drone, The Panther
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Blue Panther DCOR Rey Cometa [lightning]
another lightning match draw, this time both being counted out after a Cometa dive.
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
tecnicos took 2/3, then challenged for the national trios titles. NGD accepted.
6) Atlantis, Dragón Lee, Volador Jr. b Luciferno, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero
Lucifierno replaced Ephesto. Tecnicos took 2/3.

Post match promos from this show are Magia Blanca, Blue Panther, and the team of Soberano, Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja. Do you think the people in charge of making matches for CMLL realize they’re running the same basic feud on Sunday and Monday, just with Soberano swapped out for Dragon Lee? I think they might know but don’t actually care. Better question is why they’re setting up matches for the 22nd when they have a big show on the 29th.

The draws in the lightning matches are probably related to doing only same band matches.

CMLL’s Ticketmaster says the 62nd Arena Mexico Anniversary show tickets run from 612 to 173 MXN. ($34 USD to $9.50). That figures to be Seductora/Sugehit but we’ll find out Wednesday.

The Crash (SAT) 04/14/2018 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [+LuchaTV, Lucha Central, TJ Sports, Zona Ruda]
1) Búfalo Ayala & Último Maldito b Antar & Kronoz
Toruk was replaced by Antar, an old partner of Kronoz.
2) Black Danger, Black Taurus, Lacey Lane, Lady Flammer b Christi Jaynes, Keyra, Luke Hawx, Rayo Star
Christi Jaynes took the pin, but challenged Lacey Lane to a title match.
3) ACH & Willie Mack b Extreme Tiger & Rey Horus and El Bandido & Flamita
Tiger left the match with an arm injury. Willie beat Bandido, but the tag title weren’t on the line.
4) Mr. 450 b Daga, Arkángel Divino, Jimmy Jacobs
Mr. 450 pinned Daga with help from Lacey Lnae.
5) Garza Jr. b Bestia 666, Penta Zero M  
The Rebelion Amarilla teammates worked together for most of the match. Garza won via foul. Daga tried to make the save post match but was helped back by security, and they teased Bestia/Garza vs Penta/Daga in an apuesta match.
6) LA Park b The King  
Good match. Rey Fenix (The King) praised LA Park after the match, and LA Park told him to tell his brother (Penta) that he wants a mask vs mask match.

A female fan got taken out during the Park/Fenix crowd brawling. It doesn’t sound like it was serious. The match went well otherwise. Odd that Bandido & Flamita win the tag titles on the last show and then took the pin on this one, but it’s a lucha promotion so titles aren’t going to make much sense.

The Crash announced their next show will be on May 19th and will include a tribute to Hector Garza. Mesias & Caristico will appear on the show.

Diario.MX has an article on actress Andrea Escarlona, who will soon be appearing in a telenovela as an AAA luchadora. This is not the show AAA has been working with Space. It’s instead a different show called “Y Mañana Será Otro Día… Mejor” for Televisa that’ll be 70 episodes long. Escarlona plays “Lydia ‘Estrella Fugaz, La Quebranta Corazones.'” It reads that show has wrestling scenes – she’s been training with Latin Lover – but that may all be a subplot in a show that’s not specifically wrestling focused.  The show starts on Monday but you can’t get me to watch this one.

Ace Austin beat Lokillo to win the DTU Alto Impacto title tonight in Acapulco. Draztick Boy seems to have missed the entire tour.

Black Terry Jr. has photos of the Saturday a Super Astro show, where Pierroth was honored.

Lucha Sorpresa has recent match recommendations.

Lineup

Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 04/28/2018 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Danger & Sádico vs Demasiado & Luz Clarita and Leo & Rafy
2) Star Fire vs Keyra
3) Aramis vs Astrolux © [The Crash JUNIOR]
4) Centurion vs Trauma II
match has a time limit (but it’s not clear what it is)
5) Golden Boy & Símbolo (Nuevo Leon) vs Corsario Negro & Drako
6) Fly Star vs Toxin [super libre]
7) Arez vs Metaleón vs The Tiger vs El Bandido

Again, lots of good matches in Mexa Wrestling and I hope there are people there to see it. The DTU show didn’t do well here either.

CMLL (FRI) 04/13/2018 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Lucha Central, Marca, thecubsfan]
1) Flyer & Oro Jr. b Espanto Jr. & Templario 
10:03. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora b Lady Maravilla, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit 
12:35. Rudas took 1/3, the last with Seductora using the ropes to beat Sugehit. The two agreed to a mask match after.
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón b Dragón Rojo Jr., Kawato San, Okumura 
15:13. Tecnicos took 2/3. Dragon Rojo replaced Johnny Idol on Tuesday
4) Negro Casas TLDRAW Soberano Jr. [lightning] 
Time limit draw, the third of these this year already. Neither man was especially close to winning when time ran out (Casas covering Soberano but Soberano kicking out.) Soberano replaced Sam Adonis on Tuesday.
5) Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Euforia, Mephisto, Último Guerrero 
11:02. Tecnicos took 1/3. Caristico & Volador had no problems.
6) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Kráneo DQ La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles] 
11:15. Kraneo’s debut as a tecnico, winning in straight falls when Los Ingobernables pulled off his mask.

CMLL has brief post match words from Kraneo, Negro Casas, Soberano (wants a rematch), Triton, Titan & Esfinge, La Seductora, and Princesa Sugehit.

A good show. It was shorter than usual for Friday, but none of the match desperately needed the time. (It wasn’t an accident it was shorter; they were cutting off entrance music a lot earlier than normal.) 3/4/5 are worth watching.

Seductora/Sugehit is definitely happening and probably the 04/27 Arena Mexico Anniversary match. Perhaps Rush/Kraneo, the focus of the main event, is actually the Kid’s Day 04/29 main event? That sort of thematically fits. We’ll know more Wednesday.

Lucha Central reports AAA & the Lucha Brothers agreed to a deal where AAA will allow them appear on other TV shows as long as they wrestle as AAA’s Pentagon Jr. & Fenix on those shows. AAA will be allowed to license and market those names, and will not be suing over the other names. The Lucha Brothers will continue to use the Rey Fenix and Penta el Zero M names on non-TV shows.

AAA officially announced Verano de Escandalo will take place June 3rd in Plaza de Toros La Monumental in Monterrey, and will include Rey Mysterio Junior. AAA says more details will be announced later.

Mysterio last wrestled for AAA in 2006 at the special Tokyo Star Battle show. It was one of a handful of matches he worked for AAA on big shows that year, mostly Lucha Underground related. This too is a big show, the bullring likely being the second biggest building AAA will run all year. AAA could use people the level of Mysterio to sell tickets for this June show, since they don’t appear to have anything planned the level of the Fantasma/Texano match from March. This does not appear to be a full time return for Mysterio, just a selected dates. It does not drastically affect Mysterio’s chances of returning to WWE; he’s wanted a part time deal there all along so he could work occasional outside dates like these, and this shows he hasn’t changed his mind on that yet. Likewise, it does not prevent Rey Mysterio from working for the Crash, except he’ll probably still be working only a limited out of dates and picking up a few from AAA means doing less elsewhere.

I’ve been thinking back about this Tweet from about a month ago

Fue un GRAN DIA HOY…PRONTO TODOS LOS AFICIONADOS DE LA LUCHA SABRAN PORQUE…LUCHA LIBRE…MI VIDA….DE REGRESO…

For Lucha fans today was a great day..Soon u will know why…#ProjectResurrection

— Konnan (@Konnan5150) March 17, 2018

Konnan didn’t explain what he meant, and it didn’t appear connected to Aro Lucha or any of his other known projects. I’ve got an idea or two.

Rey Mysterio’s post-WWE work usually involves Konnan. Konnan is also close with the Lucha Brothers. He worked with all three in AAA, in Lucha Underground, in The Crash and had them in the Arolucha TV pilot. In the past, Konnan’s tried to make a deal with AAA to end the legal threats and allow Penta & Fenix to work freely. We now know a has been made. The Crash cut ties with Konnan because they believed that deal was actually part of Konnan negotiating with AAA about returning to the promotion. Konnan’s denied it in the past.

If Konnan was coming back to AAA now, getting Rey to come in and making things right with the Lucha Brothers feel like a few things near the top of the to do list in a Konnan return. I’m sure Rey is getting paid a nice amount of money. Penta & Fenix will enjoy not having legal nuisances and being able to work a couple extra TV shows, but there didn’t seem to be any urgency for them to make deals with AAA until now, all about the same time.

From the other side, we know Rey de Reyes had major issues, the blame fell on Vampiro, and the blame for problems with AAA have been falling on Vampiro for the last year. It would make sense if AAA was at the point of making a change. They usually go with big names they know. They’re willing to move past bad experiences of the past if they think it’s worth it; Psicosis and Histeria sued the promotion for years and now are back on their TV. Vampiro not working out seems to prove you can’t just put anyone in that spot, and AAA’s had the most success with Konnan in that head creative role.

This week is going to be an interesting week. That TV taping on Friday is Tijuana. If what I think is happening is actually happening, it may be hard to keep it quiet even that long.

Saturday’s shows

• The Crash returns to it’s homebase for a show, with LA Park versus Rey Fenix, and Bestia vs Penta vs Garza. With Garza potentially on the way to WWE, this might be time to start setting up his exit (which still would seem to be many months off.)
• Angel de Oro, Dragon Lee, and Niebla Roja face Felino, Ultimo Guerrero and Kraneo (?) in the main event of Arena Coliseo. La Guerrera is scheduled to debut in the undercard.
• There’s a rare CMLL focused card in Plaza de Toros Torreon.
• DTU has Amapola & Lady Maravilla in as guests on it’s Cuautla stop.
• Arena Neza celebrates Heavy Metal’s 30 years of wrestling.
• Monterrey extreme promotion NGX runs a show for the first time this year with the Hooligans vs Core & Psicotico, plus Ricky Marvin vs ultimo Ninja vs Jack Parnell.

Sunday

• Revolucha (and show sponsor Impuls) have a loaded show in Monterrey. Alberto makes his first post-Impact appearance teaming with Carisitco & Rey Mysterio against Carlito, Garza and Nicho. This promotion is headed to a big show later this year and might start running angles to set that up.
• CMLL’s main event is Atlantis, Dragon Lee and Volador vs Ephesto, Rey Bucaneor and Ultimo Guerrero
• The Crash has a second show in Mexciali with a lot of the same names.
• IWRG has it’s annual Guerra del Golfo three stage cage match with a bunch of people who could possibly lose their masks.
• DTU is in Acapulco with a Lokillo/Ace Austin title match.

R de Rudo’s El Hacker says the new IWRG Hijo de Canis Lupus is Pachuca luchador Ram el Carnero, who’s identifiable by his tattoos.

LuchaWorld has the latest edition of the podcast.

+Lucha has a 40 minute interview with Mesias/Mil Muertes.

This week’s Zona Ruda remembered Joaquin Roldan.

La Parka writes about recently deceased AAA backstage worker Lucio, who was around wrestling since the days of El Toreo.

Mistico wants to main event the anniversary show this year.

El Sol del Zacatecas writes about local lucahdor/cook Azrael.

El Sol de Tampico writes about retired luchador Dinamita Ramirez.

El Sol del Hermosillo interviews luchador Signo Azteca, who has many big claims: his 25 year career included stints in CMLL and AAA, he almost went to WWE but they couldn’t agree on money, he had a big feud with Hijo del Santo in Tijuana but the mask match didn’t happen because the promoters were protecting Santo, his cousin is Rey Mysterio Jr.

Pushing Upwards reviews Caristico & LA Park vs Penta Zero M & Rey Fenix.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 04/20/2018 Arena México
1) Astral & Oro Jr. vs Espanto Jr. & Yago
2) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther vs Puma, Templario, Tiger
3) Kaho Kobayashi, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora
4) Carístico vs Dragón Lee [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
6) La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible vs Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Kráneo

Doing Carsitico versus Dragon Lee out of nowhere for no reason is nearly as wasteful as doing Caristico versus Mistico in Puebla. It should be good, and the result should at least be interesting. Besides the usual feuds, the second match looks promising. Opener is Yago’s first non-tournament streaming appearance since February.

Kraneo returns to the tecnico side for the first time in eight years on tonight’s Arena Mexico show. He teams with Atlantis & Diamante Azul against Los Ingobernables (Rush, Terrible and La Bestia), who he turned against last week. It seems like a feud was just a way to move Kraneo to the other side, and we’ll find out if there’s any more to it tonight.

The match where there’s more likely to be something going on is the second match, where Sugehit and Seductora are on opposite sides of the trios match after Seductora stole a win two weeks ago. Seductora is not much important normally and the level of ruda who only gets cheating wins if they’re being set up for a match, and we know there are shows that will need big matches coming. CMLL’s holding a press conference next Wednesday, so tonight’s a good time to making the expected the hair/hair challenges.

The rest of the card are matches which could be good but aren’t sure to be. Caristico, Valiente, and Voaldor take on UG, Euforia & Mephisto in the semimain. Negro Casas faces Soberano, a replacement for an originally announced Casas/Adonis match and a first time ever match. Casas versus a young wrestler is usually one of the best matches of the night. Esfinge, Titan and Triton attempt to rebound from Tuesday’s title match loss against Okumura, Kawato and Dragon Rojo. The show opens with Nuevo Valor finalist Flyer 7 Oro Jr. taking on Templario & Espanto Jr.

CultIcon also previews the show. It starts at 8:30pm on Facebook and MarcaClaro’s site – or at least that’s the plan, they’ve been late starting the feed of late. It’ll be up on CMLL’s YouTube channel.

Reporte Indigo has a brief interview with Seductora, who sells clothes when she’s not wrestling. DTU starts a weekend of show tonight in Arena San Juan Pantitlan.

The main event is an incredible pairs match, with Miedo Extremo teaming Rocky Santana versus Ciclope & Mr. Condor. Ace Austin and Isias Velazquez are the foreigners in for these shows, with Velazquez scheduled to face Draztick Boy on this hosw. DTU in a Neza arena means there will likely be many handhelds of the show up on YouTube over the next couple of days.

Alberto told the Sporting News that he missed the Impact vs Lucha Underground show due to family issues. He’s used that line before; he used it last October when he missed a different show, and has used it often in the past in situations where he wanted people to stop asking questions about why he really was missing a show. Alberto had previously told Impact that he missed the show due to illness, and it doesn’t seem like they believed that story either. Alberto also claimed he was going to retire in 2019, after previously saying he was going to retire in both 2018 and 2020.

LA Park says Universo 2000 is again in the hospital in poor health.

Nieto del Santo is making an increasingly rare wrestling appearance on 04/21 in Pachuca. It feels like the brakes have put on his (and Atlantis Jr.’s) debut in Mexico City, which has gone from “a couple months” to “maybe next year”

Vampiro retirement progression (March 2018 edition)

• 03/22: Vampiro announces he’ll have a big announcement tomorrow about his career in the ring
• 03/23: Vampiro posts a meme instead.
• 03/24: Vampiro says “no more TV” after his match with Xalapa
• 03/25: Vampiro has a “strong feeling” the match in Monterrey will be his last match on TV, but may keep wrestling house shows and hopes to retire at TripleMania
• 03/26: Vampiro wrestles in Monterrey, says his plan is to retire at Verano de Escandalo in Monterrey next time if AAA lets him.
• 03/31: Vampiro says he’ll talk to people before deciding when he’ll have last matches
• 04/09: Vampiro announces he’s had his last match, post medical records of injuries from a couple years ago
• 04/11: Vampiro says he’s wrestling on Puebla on 04/14, but not on 05/16 in San Luis Potosi because he’ll be retired by then for sure.
• 04/12: Vampiro says he’s wrestling on 05/16 in San Luis Potosi – NEW!

In other Vampiro news, there’s apparently a Hijo del Tirantes/Vampiro feud going on. Leo Riano’s column complains that the awful rudo referee was kept off a TV taping and wants revenge. I do not recall Tirantes missing a TV taping, but the idea is Tirantes wants to be a wrestler now to face Vampiro. Hijo del Tirantes and Vampiro had a run-in at an Xalapa show last month in a video now on YouTube; Hijo del Tirantes books shows and wrestlers fairly often in his home city so this might have been his idea. I’m not sure it’s a great idea to be building a rivalry between a referee who wants to be a referee and wrestler who doesn’t want to be a wrestler but it’s AAA and maybe it’d mean no more Tirantes as referee.

+LuchaTV has a new edition of Aqui Esta La Lucha.