February 23, 2019 – luchablog

CMLL (FRI) 02/22/2019 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, LuchaCentral, Marca, Ovaciones, thecubsfan]
1) Hijo del Signo & Metálico b Arkalis & Magnus
12:24. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus b Drone, Fuego, Pegasso
10:43. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Felino, Hechicero, Shocker b Kráneo, Stuka Jr., Volcano
11:55. Rudos too 2/3.
4) Titán b Cavernario
24:08. Titan took falls 2/3 (15:05)
5) Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja b Gilbert el Boricua, La Bestia Del Ring, Terrible
8:11. Straight falls. Rudos DQed in the first for excessive violence/too long in the ring. Angel de Oro was eliminated in the second fall but snuck in a foul on Terrible to help Niebla Roja win.
6) Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
12:09. Tecnicos took 1/3 and were calling themselves the Dream Team after the match. The top two matches got slight pyrotechnics and may be airing on Televisa.

CMLL promos have Titan and Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja talking their wins. Pressroom interviews – with a new Televisa background – include Cavernario, Titan, and the Dream Team.

Titan/Cavernario is a must-see match. The main event was good but not as good as it could’ve been. Top two matches for special entrances like they’re meant to be the matches on TV, though I really don’t know why they had Titan & Cavernario do that level of match if they weren’t planning on airing it. We really don’t even exactly know how long the show is going to be at this point, so maybe everything fits.

I probably should’ve mentioned this last night: I’m headed to PWG (and The Crash) next weekend, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be streaming next Friday’s show. I’ll set it up to go, but I may be driving a rental car thru Los Angeles at the exact moment the show starts. I’ll do my best but be prepared to go it on your own.

AAA’s Monterrey promoters KDNA are teasing the idea of Lucha Capital taking place in Monterrey. It may just be local shows and not something streamed on Facebook; they’re vague about it at the moment. It would be odd to call it Lucha Capital if it took place in Monterrey.

The former Sexy Star took photos at Arena Mexico yesterday. This set off a whole bunch of talk she had signed to wrestle for CMLL, which had been bubbling up since Tiffany did a video promo challenging Dulce Gacia to come to Arena Mexico as part of the feud they’ve been having for Monterrey’s Kaos promotion. What this is, at least for the moment, is just promotion for Kaos. They are not officially allied with CMLL but have strong connections with people in the promotion, as evidenced by the amount of CMLL people who end up working their shows, and that lets them come into Arena Mexico to shoot photos. Mr. Iguana & Fresero Jr. did this same bit last month and have not wrestled in CMLL so far. Sexy Dulce did not appear on the show, though she was in the crowd as she’s been a number of times in the past.

The difference in this situation is CMLL may see ex-Sexy Star as being similar to a Fenix or a Ciber the Main Man, a notable person from the outside who might be able to help draw if brought in. I’m skeptical of Dulce Garcia actually being a draw, but there’s at least an argument for it and she obviously still has people who will vouch for it. Sexy Star to CMLL has not happened yet, but it is something that could happen down the line. (AAA, at least check, still wanted her back and this also might motivate them to make a better offer.) Sexy Dulce also has an MMA fight that she probably needs to be training for, so there may not be much time for wrestling in the immediate future.

In things that have happened but I haven’t mentioned because the promotion and no one else posted news on this show for nearly a full week, Zorro & Sharlie Rockstar made a surprise appearance at Sunday’s Kaos show. This is important, if only because Kaos & Zorro have gone from breaking up and posting legal warnings to each other to running an invasion angle in five months to try and create buzz for the promotion. Kaos has teased plans to run a lot of non-Monterrey cities in 2019, which will do about as well as those Crash ones did – if there is good local promotion and the fans care about the names on the show, they’ll do well, but the name of the promotion means nothing outside of their home area right now.

In most recent indie news, the main event of that return to Arena Coliseo Acapulco show was scheduled to be Blue Demon Jr. & Flamita versus the Lucha Brothers. It ended being Flamita & Mistico vs the Lucha Brothers. (Match is very much a house show match.) Blue Demon posted a message a few hours before the show that the promoter (Acapulco’s Mercurio) never sent a security deposit. Something doesn’t add up, it seems unlikely Mistico just happened to be in the area. People on the promotion’s Facebook page says signs were posted outside.

There’s no AAA on Twitch show this weekend. Other shows of note:

MexaWrestling runs their New Idols show in Arena San Juan, with Garza Jr./Metaleon listed as the main event. The show includes Flamita/Dragon Bane among other interesting matches. MexaWrestling has talked about starting their own YouTube channel, so maybe this will be turning up officially somewhere besides +LuchaTV
Alberto el Patron wrestles in the Mexico City area for the first time since his charity show a year ago. (Haven’t heard much about that charity since come to think of it.) Alberto, his brother and a mystery wrestler face Cibernetico, Zorro and Sharlie Rockstar in Arena Lopez Mateos for UWE. There’s no buzz for the show, which seems at least partially a product of how interest in Alberto has gone down the last couple of years.
Pro Wrestling Revolution in San Hose has Dragon Lee vs Rey Horuz vs Caristico. They’ve streamed shows on Twitch in the past, but it sounds like this one won’t be going online until later.
IWRG has a tag title match following up from last week’s rookie/vet tournament.
Arena Coliseo has Diamante Azul versus Sanson. Arena Mexico has nothing special.

Funcion Estelar visits Paranoiko’s lucha libre school in Tulancingo.

Recapped: 02/22/19

Matches:

Hijo del Signo & Metálico beat Arkalis & Magnus
(12:24 [6:03, 2:40, 3:41], 1/3, below average, 00:00:41)

Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus beat Drone, Fuego, Pegasso
(10:43 [5:33, 2:16, 2:54], 1/3, ok, 00:20:55)

Felino, Hechicero, Shocker beat Kráneo, Stuka Jr., Volcano
(11:55 [3:40, 4:32, 3:43], 2/3, below average, 00:41:40)

Titán beat Cavernario
(24:08, 2/3, excellent, 01:04:59)

Plancha Neanderthal (3:56)
Titanics (4:57)
Titanica (15:15)

Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja beat Gilbert el Boricua, La Bestia Del Ring, Terrible
(8:11 [2:42, 5:29], 1 DQ/2, ok, 01:38:45)

Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(12:09 [2:01, 3:06, 7:02], 1/3, good, 01:58:10)

What happened:

CMLL would like you call Carístico, Místico and Volador the Dream Team.

The semi-main had the first fall end in excessive time in the ring DQ. Angel de Oro and La Bestia del Ring were eliminated in the second fall, but Angel snuck in a foul on Terrible to help Niebla Roja win. Bestia dropkicked Edgar after the match. Niebla Roja said they were going to cheat if Los Ingobernables were also going to cheat.

Thoughts:

CMLL tried to end the show with a showcase match for the técnicos, focusing on all the wild moves they could do. They got some of that, but they got a lot of finishes that didn’t look right. The La Mistica in the first fall and Sansón powerbomb in the first and second falls looked not that far off from normal but not exactly right. The Volador reverse huracanrana for the third fall finish (with a Carístico Mistica) looked bad enough that they really should’ve just done any other spot. The rest of the match was good while lacking intensity, feeling more like a Tuesday send the crowd home match than a big Friday night one. It is also not a great sign for CMLL that a slow series of Canadian Destroyers is seen as an important moment in a big match. This was still the second best match on the show but they’re capable of more.

The semi-main was decent build up to to the big match, though it appeared two of the people appeared to believe the big match was Diamante Azul & Gilbert el Boricua. The crowd didn’t seem that into Chavez brothers and Ingobernables this week, though also it seemed to feature a lot more Bestia and a lot less Terrible. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds but it was still fine going two falls.

I was concerned early on in the Cavernario/Titan match. It did not start as a sprint. They were pacing for a long match and it didn’t seem a certainty the would actually get that sort of time. It was not a concern I needed to have; they got their lightning match time in the first two falls and then nearly twice that in the third. They built and built in a match showcasing their best moments, treating this more like the culmination of a long feud than a random one off match. It felt more like an introduction than an evolution of what they’ve done in the past, though maybe that was the idea – if this match does end up on Televisa, it would be the first time either of them were really featured on that channel, their ascension has come during this period when they’ve been off the network. The slight problem with this match is CMLL tropes dictate Cavernario has to try his caverneria at least once before the match ends, and usually, it instantly ends the match. They subverted that a bit and Titan found a moment to pull out his new most favorite strange cradle. This ranks up there with Cavernario’s best non-apuesta singles matches.

The tercera was terminally boring. Only some inventive stuff by Stuka and Hechicero prevented it from being a total waste, and it was still pretty much nothing. This felt much longer than it probably actually was, but it still wasted time that could’ve gone elsewhere.

The second match was very much to form for the six people involved, down to Drone doing Rey Cometa’s headscissors with him not being around. Fuego seemed excited to be there, which was more than you could say about many of the others. The finish with Virus & Drone looked bad but at least no one got hurt. This wasn’t much but it was still significantly better than the one that preceded it.

The opener was not good in many ways but it was really the clotheslines that Metálico was trying that pushed this from the “I don’t want to think about this, ‘ok’” to “i really hate that I’m spending my time on this, ‘below average’”. Hijo del Signo was carrying the load on the rudo team, which was exactly a bad idea as it seemed to be. Arkalis may be a good wrestler but there’s no way to determine it.

Day: February 23, 2019

Cavernario/Titan classic, Sexy Star in Arena Mexico (but not yet in CMLL), weekend indie shows

CMLL on Marca: 2019-02-22