CMLL completed a press conference announcing the full lineup up for it’s annual biggest show of the year. Outside of the main event, it doesn’t feel like one.
CMLL (FRI) 09/14/2018 Arena México
1) La Jarochita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, La Maligna, Reyna Isis
2) Ángel de Oro, Audaz, Niebla Roja vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
3) Atlantis, Mistico, Soberano Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
4) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Ciber the Main Man, Scharly Rockstar, The Chris [CMLL TRIOS]
first defense
5) Carístico, Hijo de LA Park, LA Park vs Diamante Azul, King Phoenix, Penta El Zero M
6) Matt Taven & Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Rush [hair]
two hairs on the line
The main event should be good. There was heated back and forth, especially when Taven’s heel promo bits were translated a little harshly into Spanish. They teased fighting in front of the press, and Rush was angry with the idea of even having to sign a contract, feeling his word was good enough.
It’s still not LA Park versus Rush. Like yesterday with AAA & Alberto originally, CMLL just didn’t talk about the problem and hoped no one else would bring it up either. LA Park’s name only came up when JCR quickly ran thru the rest of the card. The main event and the trios title matches were the only ones highlights. LA Park is still on the card, but in a random trios match. (Fenix & Penta are still booked. Dragon Lee is not. I suspect Audaz got on the card due to people being moved around to replace Lee.) The press were not allowed to ask questions about the main event during the portions that were streamed, so we won’t know what excuse CMLL came up until later.
The card is at best alright. Only the main event feels like something special. Give credit to Klan Kaoz for somehow continuing to get booked despite having bad performances in most of their matches. The rest of this card has matches which seem like they could be seen any other day or matches no one is in any hurry to see anyway. It’ll be better the day of the show, but the Casas Anniversario show was better than this, and it’s likely other cards will be as well. I feel sorry for anyone who bought Anniversario tickets already – I think it’ll be good but CMLL was promising better.
It’s a safe assumption that the main event would’ve been Rush & Terrible versus Taven & Volador had Terrible not been injured.
There was oddly no mention of how this show will be aired. They’ve done iPPV in various forms in recent years, so maybe expect that. The only thing CMLL cares about, to the extent they care about anything at all, is tickets so that’s what they pushed. Tickets were moving well when fans thought Park/Rush was happening.
There were plenty of other announcements on the show:
Next Friday, August 31st, Los Ingobernables del Japon will come to Arena Mexico. It was treated as a one night only event. Naito, BUSHI, and EVIL will take on Volador Jr., LA Park, and Diamante Azul. Naito & BUSHI (as Bushiroad!) have appeared in Arena Mexico plenty of times before, and this is EVIL’s debut.
The annual minis anniversary match will be on 09/23, a Sunday. That usually means a cibernetico, sometimes setting up a title match the following week
Mistique & La Malgina will head to Japan on 09/28 and be there until the end of the year. They’re announced as working for REINA (announced it was back from the dead & may not even be a thing still) and J@ST (where Isis & Jarochita actually ended up working last time.)
Kaho Kobayashi will return to CMLL on 10/05 for an indefinite amount of time.
The annual Gran Prix will also take place on 10/05 (a Friday.) Four international names have been announced: David Finlay from NJPW, Jay & Mark Briscoe from ROH, and Dark Magic from – I don’t know where from, though JCR seemed to think he had WWE and ROH experience. Maybe as an extra? You may vaguely remember Dark Magic from seeing him a few times in IWRG in late April. His Facebook mentions he’s getting a work visa and shows him training with Ultimo Guerrero – he’s might be a totally different wrestler, but this seems like a similar situation to Johnny Idol. Expect Magic to turn up as a regular either starting with this match or earlier. Hope he’s good, expecting him to be a work in progress.
The other four spots will be announced on Informa today, though only after a lot of ticket giveways. Okumura and Kawato seem likely. Christopher Daniels teased a return after his appearance. I’m under the impression at least one more NJPW name will be involved, which would make 8. That’s right near the end of a NJPW tour, so it may not be a big name.
What’s your take Cubs on the AAA 4-way mask match? I’m thinking L.A. Park agreed to lose at the Aniversario in CMLL, but was counter-offered a better sum by AAA. CMLL hoped he’d back out, but L.A. Park never did (and probably just said “we’ll see”), and CMLL was left to scramble for another main event. The thing is I don’t think L.A. Park is losing (I think we all know who is…), so why would he back out of CMLL’s offer, if he very likely isn’t losing?
So let’s say Park is losing at Triplemania, and L.A. Park still told CMLL he’d be willing to lose his hair. Or the other sceneraio is he told CMLL “I’m not losing my hair so quickly … Rush is”. Maybe Rush didn’t want that result. CMLL would also not want to give AAA any advertisement for their Triplemania event by mentioning his impending mask match, and that it could turn into a Hair vs. Hair match, depending on that match’s outcome. What’s everyone’s thoughts? Other than this Aniversario kinda sucks….
Don’t get me wrong, that hair match should be really good, as well as maybe the semi-main but as you said, the undercard, especially the trios title match are under whelming.