Guerreros new CMLL trios champions, Dragon Lee keeps his title

new champs/photo by CMLL

CMLL (SAT) 06/30/2018 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Violencia b Acero & Aéreo
2) Cancerbero, Metálico, Sangre Azteca b Robin, Star Jr., Starman
Rudos took 1/3. Metalico was almost immediately DQed in the second fall for hitting Starman with the fall card.
3) Blue Panther, Drone, Stuka Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Universo 2000 Jr.
tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Dragón Lee © b Luciferno [CMLL SL]
Dragon Lee took 1/3 to defeat Luciferno. 6th defense, first in over a year..
5) Forastero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero b Kráneo, Valiente, Volador Jr.

Dragon Lee said this was a good defense in the only video promo from this show.

CMLL (SUN) 07/01/2018 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Arkalis & Leono DQ Espíritu Negro & Grako
Tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Grako was DQed for a kick the referee ruled was a foul (but may have not been intended to be.)
2) Lluvia, Maligna, Princesa Sugehit b La Seductora, Metálica, Tiffany
Metalica replaced Comandante. Tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. b Felino, Puma, Tiger
Panthers took 2/3.
4) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Kráneo b Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
Kraneo replaced Diamante Azul. Tecnicos took 2/3, but Caristico and Dragon Lee fought post-match.
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. © [CMLL TRIOS]
Guerreros took 2/3 to win the titles. Champs fall on their 11th defense, 5th versus some combination of the Guerreros, first in Arena Mexico in 16 months. Guerreros are the 28th champions, UG holds this belt for the 3rd time, Euforia is the 2nd time, Gran Guerrero for the 1st.

Promos: LluviaPanthers (against the Felinos), and Los Guerreros Laguneros (proud of this title victory). The post-match promos include footage from the show. It was recorded and produced as usual, but it’s not posted online because who knows.

This puts CMLL at 18 champions, two over the amount for the Universal tournament. CMLL can make up the rules as they go along and they’ve skipped champions from their tournament of champions before, but title changes this time year are usually done with that magic number of 16 in mind. It may not be actually 18 at the moment – Marco Corleone doesn’t seem to coming back to CMLL soon, if ever – but they’ll still be two over their number unless someone who’s already champion picks up that title. The other solution is just not running a single elimination tournament where all your champions but one lose when the non-tournament stuff you’ve been doing has proven to be far more popular. A company recording title changes and not showing more than 10 seconds of them probably isn’t that forward thinking.

The oddity here is the Sky Team was expected to fall apart multiple times, with Volador not always getting along well with Mistico, and they may finally be going their separate ways now that it doesn’t seem as important. (It’d be a mistake if they didn’t do a round of rematches, of course.) Los Guerreros getting the trios titles and facing Klan Kaoz on Friday is suddenly suspicious. The feud for King Phoenix started the second week he was in, and it could be the same here.

The debut of Tovar Promotions in Arena Lopez Mateos was also possibly the last show for the promotion. They had Caristico & Argos vs Sanson & Cuatrero on top, but didn’t get to see it – the promoters left before the show was over and without having paid anyone. Not many other people saw it, because the show drew poorly for an indie show in that venue.

Dish Network & SlingTV have dropped all Univision networks, including El Rey for the moment. It’s the usual disagreement about how much Univision can get from Dish for their networks, and those stations will be back as soon as they can agree on the number. It might not happen in time for Wednesday’s Lucha Underground show. Fubo.TV is also offering El Rey and still has a 7 day free trial, if you’re looking for temporary options. The shows are still on iTunes and Amazon the next day

70’s/80s luchador Chicano Power passed away on Saturday.

Dragon Lee versus Ryusuke Taguchi is a first round match in Friday’s King of Indies tournament. I saw it mentioned this show would air on Fite.TV but I don’t see it listed on their site. Maybe it’ll be on PWR’s Twitch channel?

Lucha Underground posted a Johnny Mundo promo, hyping the feud with the Reptile Tribe.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report, including summaries of Friday’s post-match promos.