Month: August 2018

IWRG (THU) 08/16/2018 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Death Metal & Lunatic Xtreme b Mexica & Toto
Toto replaced Mexica.
2) Diablo Jr. & Dragón Bane b Black Dragón & Zatura
money thrown in
3) Diva Salvaje, Pasion Cristal, Soy Raymunda DQ El Hijo del Diablo, Hantar, Kronoz
Fantasma de la Opera ran in to attack Pasion Cristal, giving the exoticos the win.
4) Ciclón Ramírez, Emperador Azteca, Relámpago b Alas de Acero, Freelance, Hijo del Alebrije
money thrown in
5) Hechicero, Imposible, Último Gladiador b Aramis, Dr. Cerebro, Xtreme Tiger
Hechicero beat Xtreme Tiger with a mask pull, teasing a singles match.
6) Rush b Penta 0M, Carístico
Lots of fouls. Caristico pulled Penta’s mask but Rush was the one who pinned Penta. Penta challenged Caristico to an IWRG title match (!!) & Caristico wanted a mask match.

Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is main evented by a rematch of last week’s main event. It’s Volador, Matt Taven, and Caristico (as a Rey Fenix replacement) taking on once again La Bestia del Ring, Rush, and Cavernario. Last week’s match teased Cavernario/Taven and Volador/Rush. This all started off as a tease for Rush/Terrible vs Volador/Cavernario, only Terrible was hurt before it could happen. Terrible is back in the ring on indie shows but hasn’t shown up on any CMLL lineups for next week as of yet. He could appear here.

I’m tired of speculating on what the main event of the Anniversario show is at this point. I think I’m not alone there. I just would like an answer. I’m a little concerned that Rush & Volador feuded two weeks ago, feuded last week, and maybe the singles match that seems to be coming isn’t next week, but on 09/14. Rush & Volador could have a great match, but the Anniversario show would be a terrible place for it. Rush versus anyone who is not LA Park is going to get rejected hard. They’d be better off having Caristico & Volador break up once again tonight and do that match rather than put Rush into anything. A cage still seems the most likely of ideas because it’s the easiest idea.

Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas, and Okada take on Diamante Azul, Valiente, and Mistico in the semimain. That should be fine. Audaz and Forastero have a very interesting lightning match. Forastero hasn’t had a televised singles match in a year (a very good one with Rey Cometa). Audaz is Audaz. With the extra international attention, this show will get, they could go bonkers in this match to make a name for themselves.

The rest of the card is just matches to have matches, though some could turn out good. Old partners Atlantis & Guerrero Maya team up with Kraneo to face Euforia, Gran Guerrero, and Rey Bucanero. Revolucionarios Dragon Rojo & Polvora team up with Okumura (on every show despite having a wrapped midsection) to fight Esfinge, Rey Cometa, and Blue Panther Jr. Whatever happened to the Revolucionarios finding a third member? Did Templario just say no and they stopped looking? My favorite serial killer Yago will probably engage in some silliness with Disturbio as they wrestle Super Astro & Oro.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show.

The show will air at 8:30pm CT on Marca and Facebook. I am slightly concerned about my ability to stream the show on YouTube but I’ll probably figure something out.

A non-match thing to watch tonight: if CMLL wants to slide the Universal tournament in before the Anniversario show, it must begin next week. (That’d be blocks on 08/24 & 08/31, final on 09/07.) The ‘next Friday’ ad usually plays after the fourth match and will mention the tournament if it’s happening. If it’s not, it may be starting the week after the Anniversario instead.

The local Ford dealership posted a highlight video of this week’s Arena Puebla show.

Disturbio revealed he named himself after the band.

AAA tapes tomorrow night in Valle de Chalco, Mexico State. That’s about an hour south-east of Mexico City. The show is listed at 6:00 pm, which typically means a 6:30pm first match on Twitch.

The full card is here. Fantasma & Psycho take on Wagner & Park, which will either be changed or end up with everyone beating up Psycho Clown. Aerostar, Drago & Pagano take on the OGTs in a match which doesn’t fit the current situation of the OGTs being tecnicos. Maximo finally fills out the exoticos trio in a match against Rey Escorpion, Texano, and Hijo de LA Park. Jack Evans & Puma King were partners last time we saw them both, and now are opponents in an almost Elite vs Elite match. Lady Shani & Faby Apache meet one last time before TripleMania, with Arez & Vikingo as partners – that should be pretty good. So should the four way opener, with Black Danger, Ultimo Maldito, Arkangel Divino and Angelikal. This looks like an inconsequential taping, but AAA has the talent to make for exciting shows even when nothing much is actually happening.

(I’m mentioning this all now because there probably won’t be a news update tomorrow and I’m not sure if it’ll be around on Twitter.)

TripleMania, happening a week from tomorrow, is up to five (5) matches

• Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma vs LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. in a four-way mask match
• Lady Shani vs Faby Apache in a mask versus hair match
• Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Brian Cage vs Rich Swann vs Fenix for the AAA Heavyweight Championship
• Pagano, Joe Lider, Murder Clown vs Texano Jr., La Mascara, Rey Escorpion in a street fight
• Averno, Super Fly, Chessman vs Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, Juventud Guerrera in a lumberjack match

They announced the Texano match on last night’s Sin Mascara stream. Eventually. Texano was on the stream talking to fans with the lure of his match being announced. About a half hour in, they got to the match, with someone reading it to him off-screen. Helpfully, they also put a graphic for the match. Less helpfully, it was a graphic for the OGT vs Elite match, not the one they were actually announcing last night. Texano was confused, as was everyone else. AAA’s only acknowledged the Texano match so far.

Sometime between early this week, when AAA 100% did not have a TripleMania card (I believe), and yesterday, when AAA suddenly started announcing matches, AAA figured out what matches they were running on their biggest show of the year. A round of applause for everyone involved. Expect more matches to trickle out.

Not a big round of applause those because these aren’t great matches for the biggest show of the year. if the idea of adding Cage & Swann to the title match was to make it actually good, that idea would’ve been nice to continue in the trios matches. Pagano/Lider/Clown was explained to be a trio going forward, which is not great. It seems a waste of Texano & Rey Escorpion to be in there with them and makes all the time spent on Mascara & Maximo’s split a bit of a waste if they’re not facing off in some fashion at TripleMania. It’s just the same sort of random trios match on a normal TV show (or a CMLL show.) OGT versus Elite at least has some story behind it, but the story sure seemed to involve people like Vampiro & Konnan, who are surely not going to be standing outside as lumberjack goofs. Lumberjack rules in AAA are one of many stipulation types which actively make their matches worse but serve a purpose here to squeeze a few more people onto the card who aren’t getting a match.

The TV/streaming picture for TripleMania is also slowly being announced. Just like every other AAA TV taping, you’ll be able to see the show live on AAA’s Twitch channel and on VOD if you subscribe. (It’s TripleMania, so there will also be a thousand bootleg versions after the fact.) For normal people, Leo Riano’s Record column announced Televisa Canal 5 will air the show starting at 11:00pm. That’s about 3 hours after the listed start time, so they’ll only get the top matches, and maybe just the four-way mask match if it’s scheduled to go long. Televisa Canal 5 aired Psycho/Wagner (on a couple minute delay) to huge ratings last year, though it had the advantage of following the massive Mayweather/McGregor fight.

Space (Mexico) will also be airing the show live, but it’s unclear if they’re airing the full Twitch broadcast or picking up later like Televisa. An English version of the Twitch stream is still expected to happen, but there’s been no official word about it so far. They might not talk about until Tuesday.

The teased on 08/31 show with Arena Naucalpan and Lucha Memes looks like it includes at least 9 promotions, forming a super alliance promotion called PALL. Promotions tend not to get along for long periods of time. After the havoc that was that 08/04 weekend with promotions running against each other in crazy fashion, promoters getting along would be a nice change of pace. I’d assume a lineup comes out soon because that date isn’t far away.

Progress Wrestling announced Mexablood (Flamita & Bandido) will defend their tag team championship on their 09/30 show. That’s a big arena show in London, which means Bandido is amazingly working two big indie arena shows in the same month.

Puma King & Barby’s weekly video came out on Thursday this week. They have a good reason to be late: they’ve moved to San Diego. That’s something they probably couldn’t have done had Puma stayed in CMLL.

Circo, Maroma y Máscara, a 17 minute documentary about lucha libre with filming at Arena el Jaguar in Monterrey, will be shown at the Monterrey Film Festival a couple times this week.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Segunda Caida talks about some June 2018.

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

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 08/21/2018 Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr. vs Espanto Jr., Hijo del Signo, Metálico
3) Amapola vs La Jarochita [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura, Pólvora
5) Blue Panther, Titán, Valiente vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
6) Atlantis, Mistico, Soberano Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón

Mephisto & Titan are matched up again, so that’s probably an actual feud. Amapola/Jarochita doesn’t seem like it’s going to be good but is the sort of chance Jarochita needs to get if she’s going to develop.

A running argument (between me and people who have common sense) is if Electrico will be in this year’s Universal tournament. I believe in Electrico will be in it. Most people do not. Electrico is the most recent national lightweight champion. JCR brings up the title in commentary but the belt has not been seen and he has not defended it since graduating to the ‘main’ division. With Marco out, CMLL needs Electrico to get to 16 – but they also bring in a champion from elsewhere and count them, like they’ve done in the past. It doesn’t feel like Electrico really got a promotion to the main division if he still gets treated like someone who’s not important – but he’s been facing the dregs of Metalico, Signo and Espanto all year, so he clearly hasn’t been that important so far.

CMLL (TUE) 08/21/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Neutrón, Star Black, Vaquero Jr. vs Carlo Roggi, Gran Kenut, Ráfaga
2) Lluvia, Mistique, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
3) Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Shocker
4) Flyer, Matt Taven, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush
5) Último Guerrero © vs Carístico [NWA MIDDLE]
16th defense

Caristico winning this title is another route CMLL could use to bump out Electrico form the Universal tournament. Ultimo Guerrero would still be a world trios champion and be in the tournament. Ultimo Guerrero just doesn’t lose singles title matches often. 16 title defenses is only the third best he’s had with a title. (32 with the light heavyweight title, 20 with the heavyweight.)

Matt Taven is still around. Maybe he’s working thru Friday because CMLL’s planning Cavernario/Taven or the tag title match next week, but he’s gone before Sunday? Maybe Taven is just in Mexico forever.

DTU (TUE) 08/14/2018 Arena Aficion [Cuadrilatero TV, Funcion Estelar]
1) John Sniper, Little Ricky, Luigui, Mini Flash b Ángel Negro, Hard Boy, Hector Perfecto, Hermes
2) Camuflaje b Lokillo, Mr. Grim
3) Cobre, Jitsu, Pesadilla b Aj Gray, El Exótico, Tiburón
4) Mary Apache, Miranda Alize, Shotzi Blackheart b Diva Salvaje, El Exótico, Jessy Ventura and Douki, Kevin, Príncipe Cometa
Women defeated exoticos and men
5) Shlak b Paranoiko, Mr. Cóndor, Tiburón
6) Ace Austin b Aero Boy, Jimmy [DTU AI]
Austin started on the tour with this show after missing the first couple (Impact tapings.) Jimmy challenged Austin to a direct singles match.
7) Crazy King © b Nick Gage, Jimmy Lloyd [DTU]
money thrown in. Referee may have helped Crazy win.

Seems like a decently attended show. I don’t spot any particular cameras at this taping but it figured to be the one show most likely to turn up on Powerbomb.

IWRG tonight has Penta vs Rush vs Caristico. This would be a good night to stream the show, like two different people were doing before. I have no idea if that’s happening.

AAA TripleMania on 08/25 is now up to three (3) matches, nine day away

• Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma vs LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. in a four way mask match
• Lady Shani vs Faby Apache in a mask versus hair match
• Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Brian Cage vs Rich Swann vs Fenix for the AAA Heavyweight Championship

When Fenix earned a shot at Jeff Jarrett back in Aguscalientes, it was certainly presented as if it was going to be a singles match. Cage & Swann are added with no explanation. Cage was at least around as part of MAD (& maybe Elite) on the AAA/ELITE show, though it’s not exceptionally clear why he’d be challenging his ally for the title. Swann has not existed before in AAA.

The reality is Jeff Jarrett versus Fenix would’ve been bad (Jeff Jarrett versus anyone would’ve been bad) and so Jeff Jarrett is going to stall outside for 90% of the match while the other three do highspots, and then maybe try to steal a pin. This is perhaps the problem with having Jeff Jarrett as your champion in 2018. Current Konnan AAA is going to go for “good match” over “makes any sense”. It’d be nice if AAA could have both, but it is an improvement from the Vampiro era of bad matches that didn’t make any sense. I don’t know if we’ll get the rest of the card before the TripleMania press conference next Tuesday.

Something else I don’t know what’s happening with is AAA’s TV plans. They’re still on Televisa. They may go off Televisa at some point in the intermediate future, but AAA’s shows are airing on both Space and Televisa and there’s no solid indication either are about to change. Space is still getting the episodes 1 week earlier (and with a different announce crew) than Televisa, and only 1 new episode is airing week. AAA is currently taping 2 TV episodes a week and airing 1 episode of a week. Neither of those things seems to be changing, despite them not making sense together. Here is the upcoming airing schedule on Televisa & YouTube, the places were most people who watch AAA will actually see the show.

• taped 07/21 Mexico City will air 08/11 & 08/18
  (LA Park’s return to AAA will not air until one week before TripleMania)
• taped 07/29 Ecatepec will air 08/25 & 09/01
  (Hijo del Fantasma’s rudo turn will not air until the day of TripleMania, or a week after)
• taped 08/02 Aguascalientes will air 09/08 & 09/15
  (Fenix earning his TripleMania title match will not air until three weeks after TripleMania)
• taped 08/10 Veracruz will air 09/22 & 09/29
• taped 08/18 Chalco will air 10/06 & 10/13
• taped 08/25 Mexico City/TripleMania will air 10/20 & 10/27 (and also maybe live)
• taped 09/02 Monterrey will air 11/03 & 11/10
• taped 09/07 Cancun will air 11/17 & 11/24
• taped 09/09 Merida will air 12/01 & 12/08
• taped 10/03 SLP? will air 12/15 & 12/22
• and that’s probably it for the year! 12/29 & 01/05 & 01/12 are usually recap shows.

(If you are a person who gets Space, subtract one week.)

That means, as it stands right now, Heroes Inmortales and anything else taped in the last three months of 2018 will not air 2019. Maybe well into 2019. AAA, by their own volition, has put themselves in a place where they can not really use their own TV show to build up stories, because their TV is so far behind the shows they’re trying to promote. They may have realized this and decided to do less things on these tapings and at a slower pace because it takes so long to get seen, but it doesn’t explain why they didn’t chance course and cut back these shows.

Something’s gone wrong, something was supposed to change and did not, and they’re still running as if they expect that change to happen. It’s the weirdest thing. If you are a lucha libre fan who likes to watch all you can, this is a good situation with AAA streaming a whole bunch of matches they do not seem to need to run and giving more people chances to be seen. This seems like a big issue in the long run. Maybe that TripleMania press conference happens and AAA announced Space is doubling the length of their show going forward and it all makes sense – it has to be something like that for any of this make sense.

Yesterday’s CMLL Informa introduced the sensation new character find of 2018 (maybe): Vulcano. Vulcano is Kraneo’s new ally in the Gorillas del Ring group he’s putting together. Vulcano explained he’s a fan of firefighters, likes to visit fire stations and watch documentaries, so he’s wearing a fireman themed outfit to honor them. Bombero is the usually Spanish word for firefighter, so it’s unclear why he ended up named Vulcano instead. (Edit: apparently, the firefighter chief is called Jefe Vulcano)

Long time lucha libre fans remember that Vulcano was a well working midcard rudo, one-third of Los Destructores with Tony Arce and Rocco Valente. Vulcano hasn’t been active in lucha libre since 2000 (at least under that name), and I’m not sure where he is now. Other people have used the Vulcano name since – there’s one around Tijuana who worked the last EMW show – and there people upset that CMLL is once again taking a name from the past and reusing it. My guess is this Vulcano is actually Warrior Steel Jr., as the size matches up and there’s not that many other guys that size around CMLL.

ESPN has one of what seems like a monthly profile piece on a CMLL wrestler, this time on Audaz. Audaz was both a luchador and a soccer player, a defender for the LigaMX (and since defunct) Jaguars de Chiapas when his father told him to pick one or the other. Audaz picked lucha lire and is very happy with his choice, though his family originally didn’t like the idea of him going to Mexico City to learn and thought he’d get mixed up in drugs and alcohol. He credits Arkangel, Ultimo Guerrero, and Virus as his CMLL trainees and started sketching out ideas for moves in a notebook. Aerostar has talked about (and occasionally posted on twitter) a secret list of ideas he has for offense. That seemed like it was a text list, while Audaz is said to have actually drawn the ring and his movements in it to work out what he could try next. Audaz says she’s received called from the US, Japan, and Central America to wrestle there, but wants to stay loyal to CMLL for giving him this chance.

Penta says he wants to destroy the fake illusion of Psycho Clown, calling him just a creation of AAA. He’s happy to be on both TripleMania & Anniversario, and has no idea what match will be on CMLL’s show.

Escape Viajeros’s Instagram says this year’s Ring & Rockstars trip will happen September 7 to the 9th. That’s the weekend with the Cancun & Merida TV tapings, so it fits. AAA usually pushes this vacation trip big. They haven’t mentioned it yet this year.

Lucha Talk has a new episode up.

Valiente & Pantera Blanca Jr. are wrestling in Victoria, Texas this Saturday.