CMLL announcing the Anniversario for weeks from now leaves this interim as not exactly interesting. Everyone knows the big matches, and there’s not a lot that can change with them in between now and the Anniversario (unless you’re a true believer that the match is going to be changed after TripleMania.) CMLL’s handled this period of time by running the Universal tournament but isn’t doing that this week. Naito & BUSHI (and maybe just those two) will make it interesting next week, but there’s still a couple of other Friday nights to get thru.
Tonight’s main event will be a build-up match for the double hair match, a rematch of Rush, La Bestia del Ring, and Cavernario taking on Volador, Matt Taven, and Caristico. They’re going to be challenged to sell their apuesta match to a crowd that may have already made up their mind about it. It’s going to be tougher with LA Park in the building. There was reasonable belief Park would get pulled from this show by saying CMLL was lying about why the Rush/Park match was happening. I think he probably shouldn’t have been booked in the first place. Park being in CMLL alone is enough to get people upset about Park and Rush not fighting. I like seeing Park and I do not want him to disappear, but CMLL probably should’ve made him disappear while they’re pushing another match.
Anyway. With Volador scheduled to face LIJ next week, I suspect Matt Taven is going to face either Rush & Cavernario in a singles match to give him something to do and to give the card something different. Maybe they’ll set it up here.
The Guerreros and LA Park face Klan Kaoz in a match that’ll definitely exist. Hijo de LA Park’s mandatory appearance teams him with cousin Flyer & Soberano against Hechicero, Mephisto, and Negro Casas in a more promising match. Angel de Oro and Titan meet in a singles match for the first in seven years, back when Titan was still Palacio Negro. Both can fall back into a formula match, and it’ll be interesting to see if having a tecnico/tecnico match brings anything different out of them.
The second match is worthwhile to see if Audaz, Triton, Templario, and Virus can have a good segunda despite having Esfinge & Kawato involved. Angelito makes a rare Friday night appearance, teaming with Ultimo Dragonicto against Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro.
Lucha Central has a preview. The show starts at 8:30pm on Marca and Facebook, though there’s no link to the later. I think I’m streaming.
NJPW’s press release on Los Ingobernables de Japon coming to CMLL next week only mentions Naito & BUSHI. CMLL had said EVIL was coming as well. I guess we’ll find out in that lineup.
Mistique & La Maligna will wrestle on a 10/02 REINA show and another show on 10/26. These luchadora tours of Japan seem to involve once about every three weeks, less than in Mexico. It doesn’t make sense to me how that can work from a money standpoint but it’s not my money and I’m not sure I want to know.
One of the most interesting meta questions about this year’s Lucha Underground: will the typical ratings bounce for a wedding episode apply even to this show? We find out next week. “Til Death Due Us Part” doesn’t seem like a great sign for how this one’s going to go. It’s an LU wedding so the chances of it going off without a table spot are low anyway,
I’m not sure if AAA on Space will have a new episode this week, or what that’ll due to the YouTube schedule as a result. Their schedule weird lists no AAA at all; perhaps only Mexico is getting TripleMania live. Space will air the documentary on TripleMania that’s been posted on YouTube at 7 before leading to the broadcast. I’m pretty sure airing a Poder del Norte squash on AAA on Gala isn’t a great way to hype TripleMania but they don’t pay me to make those decisions. They probably shouldn’t pay me either.
Mephisto/Titan should be good, again on Tuesday. I don’t have great hopes for Joker/Shockercito in Puebla.
CMLL announced the full International Team for the 10/05 Gran Prix.
David Finlay (NJPW)
Mark Briscoe (NJPW)
Jay Briscoe (NJPW)
Dark Magic
Flip Gordon (ROH)
Michael Elgin (NJPW)
Okumura
Gilbert el Boricua (El Mesias/Ricky Banderas)
The CMLL team will be announced a later time.
Gilbert got a long vignette talking about this being his return to CMLL after many years and choosing this name because AAA wasn’t letting him use Ricky Banderas or El Mesias. CMLL was bringing in Puerto Rican wrestlers often in the late 90s, so Gilbert probably worked then, we’re just missing the record of it.
Michael Elgin is a thorny mess. Elgin was accused last year of covering up a sexual assault and has countersued the accuser. Elgin and the accuser were also in a relationship, though there’s disagreement about the nature of the relationship. It is ugly, public, and continues to be unresolved. Elgin has wrestled in the US sparingly since, with promoters being afraid to use him after attempts to “bring him back in the fold” after a few months away were met with strong negative reactions. Elgin continues to wrestle in Japan, but NJPW hasn’t used him in the US. Their bet seems to be US fans will reactive negative but the Japanese fans don’t know anything about it and wouldn’t care. Mexican fans are even less likely to know this story and tend to heavily separate the work of the wrestler with what that person did. (It’s been jarring but not unexpected this week to read Mexican sources praise Chris Benoit in his feud with Villano III without mentioning anything else about Benoit.) Mexican promoters are likely to care even less. Elgin seemed beloved by CMLL in his previous trips and it’s not a big surprise he’s been asked back. I’m not sure he’d be coming back to Mexico if he could find more work in the US.
There had been strong rumors for months that the Zack Sabre Jr. anti-Mexico comments from earlier this year was going to lead to him coming to CMLL as part of the Gran Prix card. I assumed that’s why CMLL had Hechicero on Informa yesterday, since that’s the teased match people want to see. Instead, CMLL really just had Hechicero on for no real reason except to vaguely suggest title matches.
I typed Kawato in that list in a Twitter post, corrected it, and then everyone kept RT-ing the original one. I think I was not good at Twitter yesterday. Kawato is having a no good time in CMLL, since CMLL picked a guy who has yet to have a match in the promotion for this match over him.
The CMLL heavyweight championship is now vacant. Marco Corleone’s last match in CMLL was March 23rd, and he was written out with a shoulder injury. Marco has since indicated on social media that he’s moved back to the US. CMLL said they weren’t sure if Marco was going to the return. My impression is he’s not planning to come back to wrestling, but he’s a wrestler so he always may change his mind, and he left on good terms with CMLL so the door remains open.
There were no immediate plans to fill the heavyweight championship, and this seemed more to get people to stop asking questions about it. The CMLL heavyweight title has not gone well lately: Marco’s retired, Maximo’s been fired, Hector Garza gave the title back when he quit the title. Terrible is the only recent champion to lose the belt in the ring. I’m not sure CMLL cares, because they could’ve had Marco (or Hector) drop the title in the ring if that was important to them. Ultimo Guerrero losing one singles title means he’s the most likely guy to win this one.
CMLL also gave an explanation for why Rush versus LA Park isn’t happening. And then gave another one. And then gave another one. The ones I’ve picked up so far
Originally, the idea was the real fans in Arena Mexico wanted Volador/Taven vs Rush/Cavernario and it was simply the haters on social media who were stuck on LA Park/Rush.
For what it’s worth, Konnan told people who asked on Twitter that he didn’t know for sure, but did not believe AAA was legally preventing the Rush/Park mask match.
Also for what it’s worth, the Mexican Trademark search shows LA Park owns the “LA Park” name, but “L.A. Park” is owned by AAA (or more specifically “Joaquin Roldan Sanchez”). AAA filed for the trademark in 2005, so it’s possible it was transferred someone way to Park without the database showing it.
This is a lot like yesterday’s Alberto/Dorian Roldan story, where there’s probably a bit of truth in each side of the story and also more lies, and I’m not if it’s really worth going a deep thru it to figure it out. Rush/LA Park is still not happening on 09/14 and all we’ve learned is no one should buy tickets to see that match in the future unless it’s specifically announced.
It is Thursday, there’s not a lot of news, so I guess I can go on a little bit. Here’s what I believe
LA Park versus Rush would be happening in CMLL this year if CMLL wanted it to happen. CMLL did not want it to happen.
CMLL was delusional enough to believe they could roll out Taven/Volador vs Rush/Terrible (and later Cavernario) without any significant pushback. I think they were surprised and completely unprepared for people questioning LA Park/Rush not happening. They’ve given multiple and contradictory answers is because there was no discussion about what they were going to say, simply believing they wouldn’t have to say anything. I also believe CMLL now had zero plans to do LA Park versus Rush this year.
CMLL could’ve put tickets on sale and announced main event whenever they wanted. The “we couldn’t be sure LA Park is losing at TripleMania” line doesn’t fly. They could’ve waited until next week to put tickets on sale if that was the real issue and those tickets still would’ve gone fast. CMLL also could’ve dropped this feud back as soon as LA Park on TripleMania was announced on 06/05, or they could’ve immediately made it clear the match wouldn’t be happening because of TripleMania. Instead, they continued to tease the match as late as the night before the Anniversario tickets were on sale.
The same is true about the legal issues. My hunch is that what Julio Cesar Rivera said was a true story, but it was a true story about Alebrije/Kraneo, Psicosis/Ripper, and Histeria/Morphosis years ago, used to cover up another situation. The idea that CMLL can’t run apuesta matches with AAA owned names did not stop CMLL from running hair matches with both Tiffany and Estrellita. Perhaps mask matches are somehow different, but this is flimsy is best.
The “our television providers are getting legal notices!” also seems like something held over from 2010, when CMLL had big TV and AAA could go to a Televisa or a Cadena3. CMLL is now on low watched television stations that mostly deal with rerun programming and pay CMLL a very small amount. If those stations got legal letters about CMLL, they’d probably already have dropped them because CMLL isn’t worth the trouble.
I also believe CMLL does have a legitimate concern about putting more AAA names on-screen, just based on “The Chris” and “Ciber the Main Man.” CMLL has also, at the start of this month, filed for new trademarks on “Chris Oro” (new name for The Chris?), “Charly Manson”, “Estrellita”, “Tiffany” and “Juan Sin Miedo”. Perhaps Penta 0M is too close for CMLL’s taste? AAA already holds trademarks on Manson, Estrellita, and Tiffany. None of the current Klan Kaoz names have been trademarked.
CMLL’s over position here is AAA is an evil company for holding people hostage by trademarking their name. Maybe they are! Maybe CMLL is as well: in June, CMLL trademarked “Hijo de LA Park” among others. That’s not a name they came up with, and not a name they reasonable should claim to own. They’re going to do the same thing when they can.
Everything Else
I know I wrote in the lineup that TripleMania lineup that Australian Suicide was defending his title in a 10 way. That was a blind guess and a limitation of the way I run my database. (It’s quicker to delete people than add them later on.) The WON reports Shane Strickland, ACH and Sammy Guevera are on TripleMania, and I’ve been told they’ll all face Suicide in a four-way in a pre-show match. That entire concept is crazy: it’ll be a great match that no one knows it is happening and only the most hardcore will care. I’d guess Suicide is losing the title, as he’s made a point on social media of saying how unhappy he is in AAA, but I can’t imagine Guevera, ACH or Strickland being around much to defend it.
Impact’s tapings will have room for about 2,000 people, according to the WON. Impact are currently expecting to use Fenix and Pentagon on 09/14, which would mean them working both for Impact and CMLL on the same night. Meltzer thinks Impact did not know CMLL was running the Anniversario show on 09/14 when they made the date. CMLL had announced 09/14 as their Anniversario months ago.
The Penta/Fenix story to WWE has gone from Lucha Underground not being mentioned at all to “they can’t go anywhere until six months after their last episode.” Six months would mean Penta & Fenix could not sign until May 7, 2019. It was three months for Ricochet, which would mean February 7, 2019. Meltzer is convinced something is up becuase Penta & Fenix are not taking bookings for next year, but it seems like they’d have to take bookings into 2019 unless they want to sit at home for a long time.
Sanely said she wants to defeat Dalys and Metalica. She blames Metalica for her knee injury.
Pentagon Dark beat Cage in a last man standing to keep the Lucha Underground Championship
(14:20, 10 count following curb stomp thru concrete/block match, great)
Status Check
Champion: Pentagon Dark (4 defenses)
Gift of the Gods: Dragon Azteca (2 defenses)
Trios Champions: Reptile Tribe (Kobra Moon, Daga, Jeremiah Snake) (0 defenses)
Died This Season (12): Jeremiah Crane (casket)*, Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed), Cortez Castro (sacrificed), Máscarita Sagrada (murdered by Rabbits), Vinnie Massaro (sacrificed), Pizza Guy (sacrificed), Vibora (beheaded), Mala Suerte (sacrificed) , Saltador (sacrificed), Benji the Agent (murdered by Ricky), Angelico (implied to have been murdered by Ricky)
Resurrected (1): Jeremiah Crane/Snake
Developments
seconds into the match, it was clear the Mack was in deep trouble
This was a strong episode of Lucha Underground. In that, some people won very strong, and also there was a Jake Strong.
Pentagon Dark got a definitive win over Cage in the main event. Cage was slicing Penta with a beer bottle in the opening moments, and then weapon usage only continued thru them. Many tables paid the price to decide a champion. Unlike most last man standing matches, the action never seemed to slow for a count. If the other luchador could move, they were prepping for their next move should their opponent get up before 10. The ten counts seemed reasonable fast until the final one. Penta survived a Drill Claw, Cage survived a destroyer thru a table. Cage was not easy to finish: Penta had to snap to both arms, and then still curb stomped a concrete block on Cage’s head to keep him down for the count.
There won’t be much time to relax for the champ. Taya revealed to Johnny Mundo that she talked Dario Cueto into giving him a shot at the title. Taya & Johnny will get married next week, and Johnny will get his title shot the week after.
not the finish
The other big winner on the show went to Mil Muertes, who won the first ever Haunted House match handily. He utterly trashed the Mack. It might not have been a total squash but it felt like Mack got his offense only long enough to get in position for another Muertes death spot.
Mil wasn’t the only member of the team getting a W this week. Catrina, angry Melissa had failed to announcer her name during their entrance. Melissa decided to get physical. This went very poorly for Melissa, eventually knocked out by a flower vase to the back of the head. Catrina still refused to do the post-match lick of death though, as she’s refused since regaining her life.
flying death
Famous B, back in a wheelchair, took over announcing for the rest of the show. Which meant he had the distinct displeasure of introducing the man who crippled him, Jake Strong. Strong got about nothing in against Aerostar for about two minutes. He then got the anklelock, and that was all that mattered. Drago, making his dramatic return after less than one episode of being gone, stopped Strong from breaking his friend’s ankle.
There was a lot going on this episode, which means I’m just getting around to the weekly murder. Taya revealed Mundo’s title shot at their wedding shower. Ricky Mundo appeared not to be invited to the shower. Benji, the Worldwide Underground agent who hasn’t been seen since late season 3 (and didn’t seem to get the usual “previously” reintroduction), was invited but arrived late and was stopped outside. Benji taunted Ricky about everything. That was not a good idea. Only Ricky seemed to hear Rosa’s command to murder Benji, but Ricky definitely heard it, and murdered Benji with a pen. Benji seemed to have some vague narrative purpose about splitting up the Worldwide Underground that went nowhere, and now we’ll never know why he existed at all.
The episode did give us one explanation for something that had not made any sense. A conversation between Dragon Azteca Jr & Melissa Santos revealed Melissa was really broken up by Fenix’s death but had been purposefully hiding it when she’s in front of the crowd. That segment did nothing more than mention that fact, remind us that Melissa had (and was wearing) the half of the amulet given to her by Catrina, and maybe hint at a Dragon Azteca/Melissa relationship.
Thoughts
sure why not
I genuinely liked this episode of Lucha Underground. It was very Lucha Underground, and it also had some great wrestling. It was so over the top that it became more hilarious than serious, but at least it got a positive emotion out of me. It’s not a particularly positive sign that Lucha Underground has to lean so heavily into extreme and deathmatch tropes to have big matches, but that’s not something new.
Feuds ending was definite winners and losers helps a lot, in a wider wrestling world where that’s uncommon. Cage looked really good, pushed Penta far enough where this win felt like it definitely meant something (much more than the previous title match), but Penta was definitely the better man. The Mack was absolutely right to be scared of Mil Muertes, because Mil Muertes came off as a scary and dangerous guy in dominating him. Both guys come off as bigger deals going into the next one. Mil’s destruction (and some of the bumps Mack ended up taking) was impressive. The main event falls count anywhere match was as over the top as Benji’s murder, but it felt like something fully committed to and that would only happen on this show. I’d easily recommend it.
The Jake Strong/Aerostar match didn’t amount to much, but it was entertaining on a meta level. They were so aware of how it’d look on Lucha Underground to have the luchador be used as enhancement talent to the white ex-WWE that they gave Aerostar pretty much the entire match before the finish. It still didn’t work, Strong and Aerostar did not bring out the best in each other. I have no interest in seeing Strong/Drago either. Strong should be in competitive matches by now, and Aerostar and Drago shouldn’t be used easy stepping stones – but most the quick guys to beat have been eliminated now by their own making. Striker did hammer home that Strong is a supposed to be a rudo now, which hasn’t been clear before. Strong still doesn’t feel like he belongs on this show at all.
Jimmy making it to the US would be cool. The Tiburon winning the title here is not the son of Atlantis. He’s a Veracruz luchador who’s been a regular with DTU of late.
CMLL (TUE) 08/21/2018Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, The Gladiatores]
1) Bengala & Leono b Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Espanto Jr., Hijo del Signo, Metálico b Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr. Rudos took 2/3
3) Amapola b La Jarochita [lightning] Amapola won with the Devil’s Wings.
4) Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura, Pólvora b Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa Villano III was honored before the match. Blue Panther replaced Stuka. Rudos took 2/3.
5) Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto Stuka replaced Blue Panther. Tecnicos took 2/3, setting up a Titan/Mephisto title match.
6) Atlantis, Mistico, Soberano Jr. b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón tecnicos took 2/3.
CMLL promos: Amapola talking about her win, Atlantis and Blue Panther giving condolences to the Villano family, and Titan & Mephisto talking about their title match. The Gladaitores also put up a video of Atlantis talking about facing and teaming Villano III. Sounded like the latter matches were watchable.
Caristico versus Ultimo Guerrero will air on YouTube on Saturday assuming the stream says up. It’s Caristico’s first big singles title win since returning to CMLL. It’s seemed last night as much about getting the right numbers and participants in the Universal tournament as anything, but that can’t be happening soon. There’s no space before the Anniversary, and there’s none right after unless they’re going to run the final at the same night as the Gran Prix (which seems unnecessary.) If they’re running on Fridays, they won’t be running it until 10/12 at the soonest.
Hechicero is on CMLL Informa today to talk about losing his title last week. I think it’ll end being something else. This paragraph is annoyingly vague because I can’t confirm anything.
The biggest news coming out of the TripleMania press conference was about Alberto el Patron, who will not be wrestling at TripleMania. Alberto was announced for TripleMania in March. Alberto no-showed a Lucha Underground/Impact show on WrestleMania weekend, and Impact fired him. Alberto has rarely been seen since, though he did wrestle just one week ago in San Luis Potosi on a show honoring Mil Mascaras. As the TripleMania press conference was ending, Alberto’s PR team sent out a message putting the blame on Alberto not appearing totally on AAA, for not paying his agreed upon deposit and not agreeing to his terms. A few minutes later, Dorian Roldan claimed AAA had little communication with Alberto after he no-showed the LU/Impact show, and so no longer included him with TripleMania.
That’s where it was left after the press conference. Alberto was told about Dorian Roldan’s comments and went on an angry media tour. He spoke to at least MedioTiempo and World TV Deportes and probably other places. In MT, Alberto says Roldan told him at first that they couldn’t find an opponent for Alberto, that the guys they were looking at were Rey Mysterio Jr. or a “someone who didn’t want to work for AAA”. (Johnny Mundo?) Alberto also mentioned a plan to team him with Rey against two unnamed opponents, saying Roldan mentioned it to him four weeks ago. His point there is Roldan was still talking to him after the Impact situation, so the idea they weren’t talking after the Impact situation was a lie. Alberto says last year, he was left sitting around at a hotel room on Saturday before TripleMania waiting for a deposit that never came. Alberto said Roldan promised him both that deposit and the rights to his El Patron name (which AAA had trademarked.) He tried calling Roldan as late as 4pm that day, Roldan didn’t pick up, and Alberto decided to go home. Alberto is also still upset about AAA pushing some blame his way for not being able to drop the AAA title in the ring (or at least defend it), which had been the plan when he signed with WWE.
We could probably figure out which side is lying, but it’s a long day and “eh, probably both” is both simpler and also likely true. The real truth is AAA should’ve addressed this situation in advance so the focus after their press conference would be on the people actually on the show, not the one who’s not. The problem is Mexican lucha libre promotions will forever just not talk about issues hoping a complicit press will not ask them either. It works enough for them to keep doing it. As far as Alberto & AAA, they’ve broken up and gotten together so many times that it’s impossible to take any of this seriously. They’ll be back working together down the road if it makes sense for them, and they’ll be pretending none of this ever happened.
The Cruiserweight match will be a four-way, according to Tercera y Definitiva. No names have been announced for it or the Llave a la Gloria match. Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito figure to be in one or the other.
Lucha Underground hits the midway point of the season (!) with the 11th episode of this season, “Last Man or Machine Standing”. Matches on the show:
Pentagon Dark (c) vs Cage in a last man standing match for the Lucha Underground Championship
The Mack vs Mil Muertes in a Haunted House match
A Haunted House match is a cage match with Halloween decreations. August feels way too early for a Halloween match. On the other hand, I was just at the grocery store yesterday and Halloween candy and pumpkin spice items were out, so maybe I’m the wrong one. There’s also a Taya bridal shower. The wedding is coming.
Joker/Shockercito lightning match didn’t convince me on a title match but it’s worth a try anyway. Main event is setting up either a trios title match or Rush/UG.
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) 09/14/2018Arena 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.
