Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Universo 2000 Jr. beat Drone, Star Jr., Stigma (9:10 [4:49, 1:54, 2:27], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Tigerbeat Disturbioin a lightning match (7:40, jumping spinning DDT, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Dragón Lee, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. beat Hechicero, Máscara Año 2000, Pólvora (14:21 [3:39, 5:07, 5:35], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Carístico, Diamante Azul, Kráneo beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero (12:45 [6:02, 1:37, 5:06], 2/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Hechicero & Stuka agreed to a match next week.
Thoughts:
One way to catch a tope
This didn’t have the smoothest main event. I could not believe the Guerreros tried the super press slam bit on Kraneo. It wasn’t much of a press. Somehow, the chokeslam on Carístico went even worse. The second fall was delayed by Último Guerrero going into the crowd, seemingly to point out someone who had thrown something at him. It was that kind of energy. Carístico and Euforia messed up a headscissors in an impossible fashion. They did give us a Kraneo and Último Guerrero doing sumo spots, and perhaps that’s all we need.
Stuka/Hechicero looks like it’ll be solid if not spectacular, a lot like the semimain. This match was a bit all over the place, to the point where I couldn’t tell if they were doing some Blue Panther level weirdness or if just not totally paying attention. The Mascara/Hechicero midmatch fight might have meant to have some payoff that Stuka interrupted, but the countout to end the second fall felt more like they lost track of who was captain. Dragon Lee did a lot of exciting stuff, surprisingly breaking out the diving headscissors off the apron on a Tuesday show. He also used a Boston crab as a finish.
another way to catch a tope
Tiger/Disturbio was better than the average rudo/rudo lightning match, though maybe only a good by the sliding Tuesday scale. Disturbio does both big (faking the injury again) and little (repeatedly finding a limb to put on the ropes to make Tiger have to cover again) things to make it feel like something’s actually happening. It also allowed Tiger to play técnico, and his dives and moves worked well in that context. The new spinning DDT needs a bit more speed so it’s not so obvious the rudo is carrying him around, but it’s an interesting idea.
They didn’t go long in the tercera, which at least meant they went faster. It was more of a Misterioso “look how stupid the rudos are” more than a Sagrado “look at the rudos actually doing something” match. They made the most out of the rudos dumbness and Drone had a nice tope.
Hechicero, Mr. Niebla, Shocker beat Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. (17:34 [5:21, 7:03, 5:10], 2/3 COR, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Flyer, Mistico, Volador Jr. beat Carístico, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero in a relevos increíbles match (14:57 [4:28, 2:24, 8:05], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Volador wrestled in Último Guerrero’s kilt for a while for fun. He also unmasked and cradled Carístico for similar reasons, setting up a singles match next week.
Thoughts:
that’s probably not how that was supposed to go
It’s still strange Volador & Mistico are the evildoers against Carístico, but they did a good job of being stooges for the Guerreros and Carisitco. The crowd delights at chanting Mistico Pirata and believe in it, so they might as well get to it. The action itself was about usual b-show main event level.
Soberano and Hechicero have some elegant exchange in otherwise to form match. Niebla isn’t doing a lot but is engaging in what he’s doing. Shocker’s jaw issues aren’t the reason he’s walking from spot to spot. Pompin nearly got run over by Niebla Roja at one point, then backed into by him later. He’s got to stay fast enough to get out of the way. The ending, with the técnicos getting beat no more than usual for a brawl outside the ring this time leading to a countout, came off as strange. It was definitely a planned finish by the way everyone was reacted, but not a credible plan.
I guess this is tougher than it looks
The tercera guys weren’t doing any special match but still got the crowd well into the match by the time the dives came around in the second fall. The third fall cooled it off considerably; maybe there’s nothing more to see after Tirantes almost gets kicked low. This was not a Templario dong cool stuff with flyers match, so what’s the point.
Minis matches in Puebla are enjoyable with the right secondary guys (Astro, Asturiano), and when the CMLL rudos try. Mercurio gave a good effort here, and Shockercito’s offense was flashy enough to keep the crowd’s attention. They worked the match at a fast pace than usual for a Puebla undercard match, which helped a lot too. I still wouldn’t recommend the match, there wasn’t so much to it, but it was nothing something you need to speed past either.
Just as I was finishing up, Black Terry Jr. posted that Picudo passed away. Picudo was an AAA luchador from virtually day one, a key undercard figure in those early days, and someone who was still around recently as one of Devil Rocker. I’ll try to have more to say about him tomorrow.
AAA TV (THU) 08/02/2018 Palenque de la Feria Nacional De San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes [AAA, Lucha Central, thecubsfan]
1) Príncipe Seir, Titan Xtreme, Xtreme X ?? Corazón Forajido, Dark Finder, Discovery dark match
2) Arkángel Divino, Black Destiny, Genio del Aire b Black Danger, Mirage, Último Maldito 5:30. Arkangel Divino high speed Mistica on Ultimo Maldito
3) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana b Angelikal, Astrolux, Hijo Del Vikingo 11:12. Mocho Cota Jr. pinned Astrolux after an overhead belly to belly suplex.
4) Aerostar & Vanilla b Chik Tormenta & Parka Negra 9:48. Changed due to Drago being injured and Flamita & Bandido being moved to a three way. Aerostar beat Parka Negra with a complicated frontcracker.
5) Hijo de LA Park, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown b Argenis, La Máscara, Máximo 11:03. La Mascara & Maximo broke up again – but shockingly Murder Clown turned on his parnters too, and got the win by splashing both La Mascara & Hijo de LA Park.
6) Fénix b Flamita, Bandido 14:14. Fenix made a surprise appearance on the show and was confronted by Konnan, demanding Fenix make a decision about joining MAD. Fenix faked joining the group, then took out Juventud and Taurus (maybe in MAD, maybe just out to take some offense from Fenix.) Vampiro offered Fenix a three-way match with Bandido and Flamtia, where the winner would get to make their own make for TripleMania. Fenix declared he’d challenge Jeff Jarrett if he won. (Bandido & Flamita never made declarations.) Fenix beat Bandido with his valagueza powerbomb to advance to TripleMania.
7) Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly DQ Juventud Guerrera, Killer Kross, Taurus 9:17. Kross seemingly was enroute to winning when he lost his mind and attacked referee Piero. Copetes ran in to call the DQ and was attacked as well. MAD destroyed OGT.
8) LA Park & Pentagón Jr. b Pagano & Psycho Clown 11:48. LA Park declared before the match that he didn’t want to team with Pentagon or anyone else. Park attacked Pentagon with a chair as he was about to break Psycho Clown’s arm, but also attacked Psycho Clown. Pentagon pinned Psycho after a mask pull.
This was a good show, with better wrestling and more interesting than the Sunday one. If you have a Twitch subscription or some other way to watch this show you should watch the Flamita/Baniddo/Fenix match for sure. Nothing on this was bad, though there were matches that could’ve gone a lot smoother. The Fenix stuff was telegraphed (though apparently not telegraphed enough for AAA to get a proper shot of Fenix surprise attacking MAD) and tecnico Murder Clown is weird, but at least it felt like things were progressing towards TripleMania.
TripleMania right now is:
LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. vs Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma in a mask match
Lady Shani vs Faby Apache in a mask versus hair match
Fenix vs Jeff Jarrett (c) for the AAA Mega Heavyweight Championship
Alberto vs ?? – ???
AAA did a sprawling and unfiltered pre-show before the wrestling started, eventually settling down on the two announce crews sitting around and talking about what’s going on in AAA. I didn’t watch all of it, but I did notice Jose Manuel Guillen going over the lineup and mentioning “El Patron” having a match, and Leo Riano responding that the only Patron he can think of is Dorian Roldan. It’s always possible this is a joke that went straight over my head, but I have no idea right now if Alberto is still wrestling on this show. I guess we’ll know Monday or whenever it takes place.
The other AAA bit from last night was Australian Suicide posting a video of him doing a double moonsault onto foam as a practice run, and complaining about being in exotico matches while (ex) Crash guys get the chances. This seemed like an angle designed to get suckers like me to RT it, but I stayed strong and am only mentioning it here where no one will actually read it. Every TripleMania, the cruiserweight champion gets shuffled into a multiman match, and I suspect the same will befall Suicide whenever this year’s lineup comes out. It’ll probably include some of those Crash guys, so maybe this is a build up to that.
AAA’s next TV taping is a week from today in Veracruz. That means CMLL & AAA will be going head to head next week. This week, they’re going one after another, which allows some people to work both.
big CMLL show tonight
About three weeks ago, I wrote something along the lines that CMLL had to do something big on the Atlantis Anniversary show, because the extra crowd coming to the building for that show probably won’t think about coming back to Arena Mexico before the Anniversary show. I could not have been more wrong. Tonight’s Negro Casas 40th Anniversary show has become one of the biggest shows of the year, and maybe the biggest when it’s all done. Lower level tickets were almost gone yesterday, something that doesn’t always happen with Anniversary shows. It helps a great deal that CMLL did not dramatically raise the prices for this show, and it helps that they’re drawing a lot of different crowds. Volador in a title match is an attraction to the modern CMLL fan, the Negro Casas anniversary match is going to bring back older ones, indie fans have LA Park, Penta & Fenix in a big match, and those who are fans of non-Mexico wrestling get to see the Briscoes in their first Mexico appearance along with Matt Taven. This is a well put together card from both match quality and match variety, it might be better than the actual Anniversario show.
The main event has LA Park & Rush on the opposite sides of a trios match, their first meeting in Arena Mexico since Rush was knocked out by LA Park at the end of their singles match. LA Park teams with Fenix & Penta, while Rush teams with Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe, in for one show only. This seems certain to be a crazy brawl. It’s less certain where it’s going: most of the press previews of this show still think Rush/Park is happening, though most people who saw those ticket prices yesterday think something else is occurring. Again, this seems like the time to make a match clear – tickets go on sale tomorrow – but CMLL could also be super sneaky and let people think they’re getting Rush/LA Park without saying it. Whatever happens, LA Park is supposed to be in AAA next Friday, and so won’t be back in Arena Mexico for a couple of weeks.
Matt Taven won the NWA Welterweight Championship from Volador Jr. in March. It was a giant surprise. It was a surprise to people who follow CMLL, since Volador had held that belt for about forever (three and a half years) and made it into the most valuable championship in the promotion. It seems to be a surprise to Taven’s home promotion of Ring of Honor, who did not acknowledge the title change for quite a while and has only used it on screen as an occasional weapon for Taven to use in other matches. Taven has not defended the title in the US. Normally, there’d be a reason you would make that title change. Five months later, I’m not sure if there was one. If Volador wins the title back tonight, it definitely feels like a title change just to have a title change. If Taven holds on, maybe this is just reintroducing him before going onto more success in the Universal tournament. I liked the last Taven/Volador match, and maybe Volador in singles matches will be better when CMLL’s not doing them every two weeks.
Negro Casas bringing in legends to team with would probably be enough to main event most shows. (It’s sort of what they did for the Arena Coliseo anniversary show.) Tonight, it’s fourth from the top. Casas will team with Atlantis & Blue Panther versus Fuerza Guerrera, Octagon, and Solar. This is billed as teams arranged by Casas himself, who was actually the chief match arranger in CMLL long ago. It also happens to be the CMLL guys against the outsiders. It also puts Fuerza opposite Atlantis, the rumored Anniversario match of July. Nothing much happened with them last time out, though CMLL seems to be starting feuds the second time an outsider (or outside team) comes in. If nothing happens at all, this should be amusing enough for Fuerza & Octagon attempting to get along.
That’s the important stuff. The non-important stuff is pretty good too. NGD take on the unlikely trio of Caristico, Mistico and Hijo de LA Park. Caristico & Mistico were able to get along enough to win the last time they teamed, so maybe they will here. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja partner with Blue Panther Jr. (who was back wrestling this weekend after his pratfall) against the Hijos del Infierno, which should be the usual solid match for the crew. The show opens with Audaz & Fuego against Templario & Virus, which should be at least good and possibly amazing if they take the handcuffs off the opener guys since it’s loaded show.
The show will stream at 8:30pm on Marca and Facebook. I will likely also stream the show on YouTube. It’ll be up on CMLL’s YouTube after the show.
Fuego promises there will be cake tonight. He and Audaz partnering tonight is a team of the two most famous CMLL wrestlers from the state of Oaxaca. Fuego says they grew up about an hour away from each other, and he asks Audaz to bring him things from home when he goes to visit.
The Crash is running tonight in Tijuana, with a lot of CMLL & WWE NXT UK wrestlers coming in, would aboslutely be the show everyone would be talking about on a normal Friday. It’s possible it might have the better matches when it’s all done. The main event seems like a one time only three-way match between Pete Dunne, Daga, and Dragon Lee. Bandido & Flamita, fresh off appearing in AAA last night, are in a three-way with Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos and Stuka & Soberano. Tyler Bate and Trent Seven take on Bestia & Mr. 450. Rey Horus versus Titan is the second match on the card, that could main event a lot places. Like all The Crash shows, there’s no streaming available – and this card might not be happening if it was available. I suspect YouTube will be flooded with handhelds this weekend, and we can only hope they don’t clip up the matches.
There’s a second Mae Young Classic women with strong Mexico connections, though you probably do not know here unless you’ve been watching a lot of indie wrestling. WWE announced Chile’s Zatara will participate in the upcoming tournament. Zatara’s most high profile match in Mexico was on this year’s DragonMania, teaming with Mima Shimoda & Zatara against Diva Salvaje & fellow Chilean Stephanie Vaquer. I believe she’s also been using the name Xatana Zatara or Xatana in Mexico, but I may be confusing people. She’s a women who’s been on Mexico shows since 2014 from time to time but hasn’t been talked about much. It’s a different story in Chile, where she wrestled in every promotion and won a lot of titles. She was using the name Tiffany in Chile, which wouldn’t work well for Mexico since there’s already one of those.
CMLL (TUE) 08/07/2018Arena México
1) Acero & Angelito vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Súper Astro Jr. vs Cancerbero, Disturbio, Nitro
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Virus
4) El Audaz vs Luciferno [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Mr. Niebla
6) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Kráneo vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
3 & 4 could be good but this a throughly boring card. Hechicero & Stuka agreed to their title match last week, so there’s no real reason to see them in another trios match.
Cancerbero is in the segunda. Raziel has been missing for 56 days. Drone was missing for only 43 days.
Arkángel Divino, Black Destiny, Genio del Airebeat Black Danger, Mirage, Último Maldito (5:30, Arkangel Divino high speed Mistica on Último Maldito, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Angelikal, Astrolux, Hijo Del Vikingo (11:12, Mocho Cota Jr. belly to belly suplex Astrolux, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Aerostar, Vanilla beatChik Tormenta, Parka Negra (9:48, Aerostar walk up the ropes double springboard frontcracker Parka Negra, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo de LA Park, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown beat Argenis, La Máscara, Máximo (11:03, Murder Clown top rope splash La Mascara & Hijo de LA Park, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
LA Park & Pentagón Jr. beat Pagano & Psycho Clown (11:48, Pentagon Jr. mask pull Psycho Clown, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
What happened:
Aerostar at work
Fenix will face Jeff Jarrett at TripleMania. This stemmed from Fenix making a surprise appearance at the start of the show. He was interrupted, after a false start, by Konnan, Juventud Guerrera and Taurus. It appeared Taurus may have been the second person in a week to join MAD off-screen, but he was more specifically there to get beat up by Fenix. Fenix played at joining mad before giving Guerrera a cutter and cleaning house. Vampiro came out to join Fenix, and explained Drago was off the shoulder after fracturing his shoulder back at Verano de Escandalo. (That was June, they’re just acknowledging it now.) Vampiro changed the card around to accommodate that and Fenix being here, and proposed a Fenix vs Bandido vs Flamita three way match where the winner would get to pick their match at TripleMania. Fenix not only quickly agreed, but declared he’d challenge Jeff Jarrett for the Heavyweight Championship when he won. Bandido & Flamita’s ideas for matches were never discussed and were obviously never going to happen the way the segment took place. Fenix won the three-way match to ensure his place on TripleMania.
Pentagon Jr. pinned Psycho Clown in the main event, after the usual run of fouls and referee bumps. LA Park declared he didn’t want to team with any man in this match and proved it by attacking Pentagon late in the match. Penta and Park argued post-match. The result is supposed to make fans concerned Psycho Clown is doomed at TripleMania with everyone beating him, but the Park & Pentagon not getting along (unlike Fantasma & Park previously) gives him a little hope of the rudos fighting among themselves at TripleMania.
this doesn’t seem like the best strategy but it looked cool
Kevin Kross appeared to have Averno defeated via anklelock in that match, and I’m unsure if Averno refused to give up or if Piero refused to call a submission. Either way, Kross went crazy and attacked Piero. Copetes ran in to call a DQ and was attacked again. MAD destroyed the OGTs after the match.
La Mascara & Maximo’s breakup seemed to finally happen, though it wasn’t the only break up to happen. Mascara accidentally superkicked Máximo early on, then was on purpose attacking him for a while. Mascara calmed down until Máximo kissed him again. They argued, with Murder Clown strangely trying to clam it down. Hijo de LA Park & Monster Clown argued with Murder Clown about that, and suddenly Murder Clown was getting into a fight with them. Murder Clown was clearly a técnico by the time the match ended, pinning both Mascara and partner Hijo de LA Park when the match ended. It’s unclear if any if this will stick.
Thoughts:
A much better show than Sunday. If they could’ve combined that crowd with this action, it would’ve been outstanding.
sure, let’s die
A big difference between LA Park vs Rush and LA Park vs Psycho Clown is Psycho is not as good or as willing to go with what the crowd is giving him. For whatever reason, the loudest portion of the Aguascalientes crowd was anti-Psycho every time his name was mentioned. (They were that way when AAA visited Aguascalientes back in February too if I recall right.) Instead of embracing the boos, Psycho worked so hard to get cheers that weren’t coming. It made the match come off strangely, and the same problem is going to exist at TripleMania. The action was fine if not particularly great. There was a lot of brawling, in a tough building to do it with not much room at ringside and a reluctance to go to deep into the crowd. Psycho does the spear into a corner table bit too often, and the tag team version set up here was super convoluted. Pentagon beating Psycho was the finish that needed to happen but was no guarantee to happen in AAA.
Both MAD and OGT came across much stronger in the semi-main here than in their separate matches in Ecatepec. It’s no great surprise that Averno is going to make Killer Kross seem a lot more impressive. It was as much the work between Super Fly & Juventud Guerrera and the battle of the monsters, Chessman and Taurus, which stuck out to make this match interesting. Some of MAD’s stuff came off as a bit clunky, which worked in the matches favor. OGT should be the better trio machine, they’ve been doing it much longer. The finish didn’t make much sense, but it was more an excuse to have Kross layout a lot of people after. Dropping Vampiro & Konnan on each team is going to change these matches a lot, but at least there’s something interesting at the core.
Flamita DDT
Flamita versus Fenix versus Bandido would be talked about as a match of the year candidate if it happened in front of a few hundred people in a US indie arena instead of a few thousand people in Aguascalientes. This was the same crowd that was solidly behind La Parka in his title match with Dr. Wagner earlier this year; they are loyal to longtime brand names and not interested in people they don’t see as stars on the same level. These three guys worked incredibly hard and Máximo got a bigger reaction than them in the previous match. It does not diminish the work these guys did – they didn’t wrestle it like it was an empty gym, Fenix was killing himself trying to get the crowd into it – but it did affect the experience of what it was like to watch this match. The match itself was amazing, an athletic display of tough spots with great execution. It was a lot of big moves leading to pinfall breakups, but it never felt like two people fighting and one guy sitting out to the side. It was more two guys fighting and one guy laying dead from something huge that happened before. Fenix was the standout of the three, showing incredible balance on his springboard, but Flamita and Bandido weren’t far behind and made a much stronger impression than their last match. As noted with the main event, the tight area didn’t give them a lot of room to maneuver out of the ring, and they ended up keeping it more inside it for the big spots, which also kept the pace going an amazing speed. Fenix is obviously onto bigger things (and was obviously onto them as soon as they only had him out for the segment to set this up), but I do hope they keep finding bigger things for Bandido & Flamita to do in AAA if they’re sticking around. This match was one of the best AAA matches of the year, but I’m struggling at what to do with it because it didn’t connect with the crowd so much.
The Maximo/Mascara match was just another one of their usual not too interesting AAA matches for a while. It made sense Argenis was involved, that’s the right place for him. Then the bizarre Murder Clown happened. It definitely got over, fans wanted to cheer for Murder Clown beating up everyone, and I fear they’re actually heading to the sure to be rough Murder Clown/Kevin Kross match. It also was hilarious that Murder Clown’s turn got much bigger billing than Maximo/Mascara drama that’s been strung along for weeks. I don’t exactly know what you do with Murder Clown as a solo or Monster Clown at all, which makes me strongly suspect this is going nowhere in the long term. At least this match will have value for a curiosity factor.
this was very dumb
Chik Tormenta & Parka Negra were really good opponents for Parka Negra & Vanilla in the tercera. I think Vanilla might be just OK at best, but Tormenta could do enough to keep her offense in tact Parka Negra was right there for Aerostar’s nuttiness. Tormenta & Negra were surprisingly effective as a team in control of the match too. Vanilla has obvious to improve on her dives and her headscissors, but there’s something there to work with. Aerostar had three big spots and nailed them all.
The segunda completely comes down to where you go on missed spots versus spectacular spots. Poder del Norte was off, especially early on. Tito Santana almost ended Hijo del Vikingo with a powerbomb, the powerslam bit with Angelikal went very wrong, and there were other moments didn’t look good. Angelikal might have been hurt on that spot, because he looked off the rest of the way, especially his shooting star press. There’s still a great highlight package, with Vikingo and others doing crazy flying, and thinks like Astrolux’s crazy bump off a dropkick to the floor. This was a bit more even than Sunday’s match, though Poder del Norte still won strong in the end.
The opener was another insane outing from the TJ group, feeling different enough from the last match as not to give the some hope of depth. It also felt about half as long, though that still means they’re packing in twice as many moves as a normal match. Arkangel Divino was more center as the focus this time, with his big moves coming at the highspots spots of the week. The headscissors to the floor might have been the most impressive of all the spots. Genio del Aire flying into the crowd is one way to start a show. This is not at the level of the other match, but it was still pretty worthwhile.
