CMLL Heavyweight championship decider announced, RIOT, IWRG

RIOT (SAT) 09/29/2018 Arena Femenil, Monterrey, Nuevo León[LuchaMania Monterrey]
1) Muerte Extrema b Madness
2) Psicótico b Brian Villa
Willy Banderas helped his tag partner Villa.
3) Willy Banderas b PrometoDemonio del AireArezLátigo
best match of the night. Demonio del Aire is the former Baby Extreme. (A good name change!) Banderas beat Demonio with a Michinoku Driver variation.
4) Jack Evans b Kratoz
5) Skayde b Erick Ortiz
money thrown in for a mat based match
6) Kaientai & Lord Byron b Ángel o Demonio & Ovett
Byron wrestled as “Byron 66 1/2” (Damian parody). Dash (a usual Un-Mexican ally who was here as ring announcer) helped the Un-Mexicans win after Demonio shoved him earlier. Challenges for a trios match followed.

This didn’t look like the strongest RIOT card on paper but it reads like it turned out pretty well and they had another strong turnout. The Monterrey indie promotion turned three years old this week and seems like they’ve had steady progress upwards over that time – this appears to be their straight sell out. I think they’d be getting a lot more attention if people outside Monterrey could see their shows, but they seem to be doing fine anyway. RIOT probably has one more show left this year.

There’s a rare (of late) Thursday night show in Arena Naucalpan today, with Texano vs Pagano vs Mr. Electro as the main event.

Sunday’s IWRG main event was announced as Dragon Bane versus Freelance vs Aramis, which seems like an exciting opportunity to give three guys who’ve been having good matches a main event spot. Well, forget that. The new main event is Demonio Infernal & Freelance vs Aramis & Dragon Bane in a relevos suicidas match, where the losing team will have a hair/hair or mask/mask match. Demonio Infernal is good and was on the card already, but has had nothing to do with these three guys recently. (The problems with lack of psychology in lucha libre have much more to do with the programmers than it does with the wrestlers.) The change certainly comes off like Demonio’s there to lose his hair once again, though Freelance is certainly capable of the same.

GALLI put up the Aeroboy vs Rey Fenix match from GALLI a couple weekends ago. It’s worth your time.

In addition to the two lucha libre movies coming out this month, a new lucha libre related show will premiere on Space on October 14th. “Por La Mascara” is about a son following in the wrestling footsteps of his father while also fighting crime in an action/comedy. It reads like they’re leaning towards the El Santo movie direction. Space airs AAA, and previous press releases on this show indicated their will be some sort of co-promotion.

Diamante will be appearing on the AJPW Lucha Fiesta tour.

Lucha Talk has a new episode.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 10/09/2018 Arena México
1) Sangre Imperial & Sonic vs El Coyote & Grako
2) Magnus, Retro, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Metálico, Sangre Azteca
3) Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Tritón vs Sagrado, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Rush vs Último GuerreroDiamante AzulTerribleKráneoShockerVolcanoRey BucaneroBlue Panther Jr.Gran GuerreroValienteEuforia [CMLL HEAVY, cibernetico, #1 Contenders]
final two advance to title match next week
5) Carístico, David Finlay, Flip Gordon vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón

Flip had Guadalajara on his calendar. I was surprised he knew where he was going with CMLL so far in advance. Guess he didn’t. Matt Taven appears to be just in Friday night. He’s not turning up on the shows after like the other outsiders.

CMLL has 16 available champions:

  1. Mephisto (CMLL Middle)
  2. Cuatrero (CMLL Welter, Mex Trios)
  3. Niebla Roja (CMLL LH)
  4. Rush (CMLL Tag)
  5. Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL Trios)
  6. Gran Guerrero (CMLL Trios)
  7. Euforia (CMLL Trios)
  8. Volador Jr. (NWA Welter)
  9. Caristico (NWA Middle)
  10. Stuka Jr. (NWA LH)
  11. Terrible (Mex Heavy, CMLL Tag)
  12. Sanson (Mex Trios)
  13. Forastero (Mex Trios)
  14. Electrico (Mex Light)
  15. Soberano Jr. (Mex Welter)
  16. Atlantis (Mex LH)

Dragon Lee (CML SL) is also champion, but also stuck on an island still. Maybe he bumps Electrico out. The heavyweight championship would make an odd 17 – unless someone who is champion doubles up. It’d be unlikely for Terrible to hold both heavyweight titles. That leaves Rush or the Guerreros. A situation where Ultimo Guerrero lost one singles belt to win another seems plausible.

Those names are usually listed in CMLL internal ranking order, so maybe the big news is Volcano is ahead of a lot of people.

CMLL running this title means the tournament is coming soon. Maybe as soon as starting on 10/19 and the final as the semi-main to a cage match on 11/02.

CMLL (TUE) 10/09/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo, Joker, Tigre Blanco vs Carlo Roggi, El Chakal, Mr. Apolo
2) Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Rielero vs Cholo, Espíritu Negro, Tyson La Bestia
3) Fuego, Rey Cometa, The Panther vs Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Okumura
4) Audaz, Flyer, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Ángel de Oro, Michael Elgin, Niebla Roja vs Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas

Kawato still booked on Tuesday. The question is if “Black Panther” got turned down as a name or if it’s just a typo that returns him back to being “The Panther.”

AAA , EMW (SAT) 10/27/2018 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Lady Shani vs KeyraLady Maravilla
2) Black Boy & Black Danger vs Genio del Aire & Mirage and Arez & Látigo
3) Arkángel Divino, Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid vs Steve Pain, Taurus, Último Maldito
4) Daga & Puma King vs Andrew Everett & DJZ
5) La Máscara & Texano Jr. vs Mamba & Máximo
6) Mr. Águila vs Nicho el MillionarioPaganoJoe LiderMasada (Texas)

Matches 12/3/4 look good. This isn’t a streaming show but it’d be great if turned up somewhere.