May 4, 2019 – luchablog

CMLL (FRI) 05/03/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Marca, thecubsfan]
1) Magnus & Oro Jr. b Akuma & Grako
12:28. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Avispa Dorada, Kaho Kobayashi, La Jarochita b Amapola, Dalys, Reina Isis
15:01. Tecnicas took 1/3. Kaho beat Amapola as they continued to feud, though no mask match was made.
3) Soberano Jr. b Mephisto [lightning]
6:33. Soberano defeated Mephisto
4) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja b Adam Brooks & Mecha Wolf 450
22:58. The Crash vs CMLL special (with the announced playing it as The World vs Mexico). CMLL team took 2/3, Oro rallying back 1 on 2 to win.
5) Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
11:43. Dinamitas took 1/3. Mascara snuck in a foul on UG. Guerrero wanted a hair match, Mascara offered a rematch. NGD took the Guerreros mask.
6) Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. b La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible
12:22. Tecnicos took 1/3 in a clean match.

Promos: Soberano talks about his win, Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja are happy to defend CMLL, Adam Brooks & Mecha Wolf say they’ll win next time, Dinamitas and Ultimo Guerrero talk about their feud and los tecnicos.

This was a good show. The guys in the CMLL/Crash match wanted it to be memorable and it was. Mascara 2000 seems to have moved his feud from Niebla Roja to Ultimo Guerrero. Maybe CMLL is heading for a double hair match show with UG/Mascara and Kaho/Amapola, but there’s no obvious date coming up for it.

CMLL did a show for children at the facilities for the Club America football team.

AAA TV (FRI) 05/03/2019 Centro de Usos Multiples, Los Mochis, Sinaloa [AAA, Linea Directa Deporte, Lucha Central]
1) Arez & Lady Maravilla b Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa
Mami & Hamburguesa had problems leading to an Arez foul on Hamburguesa and a Maravilla win.
2) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana b Mamba, Máximo, Myzteziz Jr.
Cota splashed Mamba. PdN attacked Myzteziz after until Vikingo made the save. Trios title challenges were repeated again.
3) Chik Tormenta, Keyra, Monsther Clown b Drago, Faby Apache, Golden Magic
Hijo del Tirantes and Faby Apache feuded. Hijo del Tirantes was the only referee on this show (possibly why Keyra ended up moving up and Tirantes didn’t wrestle as the mystery person.) Monster Clown beat Golden Magic.
4) Chessman & Taurus b Flamita & Hijo Del Vikingo
No La Mascara on this show. Taurus beat Vikingo with the Rodeo Driver.
5) Rey Escorpión b Psycho Clown [lumberjack]
No straps for the lumberjacks, but they did get involved in the later stages. Rey Escorpion actually won clean with a package piledriver, though there were plenty of distractions prior.
6) Blue Demon Jr. & Texano Jr. b Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pagano
Demon back to being total rudo. Wagner bled a lot. Demon blinded Wagner with powder that didn’t come that close to him.

I haven’t seen much of this yet, but the card sounds like it was good. Just not as good as last weekend. All rudo wins and a bit of a stale main event. Again, Demon/Wagner seems a cinch to draw but the build-up has moments of boredom. I guess it’s better them becoming tag partners and defeating Poder del Norte like the Wagner/Psycho year.

The local promoter said the show was a success and is hoping to bring them back in October.

AAA is back on Sunday evening from Hermosillo. The lineup again does not seem super exciting but is likely to change and it doesn’t seem worth going match by match for that weekend. Brian Cage is listed as working the semi-main, but it is possible he has the weekend off after being hurt in Impact this past week. Aramis is scheduled to be on the show (and also be in Naucalpan, which seems like the one he’ll skip.) Myzteziz is off and back in Torreon working a show. You’ll get a weekend off from AAA after this.

The website promoting the AAA @ MSG show is now up. The press release lists these wrestlers as appearing:

Aerostar, Averno, Blue Demon Jr., Daga, Dinastía, Drago, Fenix, Golden Magic, Hijo del Tirantes, Hijo del Vikingo, Konnan, La Hiedra, La Parkita, Lady Maravilla, Lady Shani, Mamba, Máximo, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa, Pagano, Pentagon Jr., Piero, Pimpinela Escarlata, Puma King, Taya, Tessa and Villano III Jr

The promotional art for the show included Mascarita Sagrada, Psycho Clown, and La Parka, who are all not booked. There are other obvious big names, who’ve worked in the US, who are not included. AAA is a promotion who releases cards a month ahead of time and sometimes changes every match on the card, so I’m not sure any of this list should be taken seriously. It is hard to even put together a sensible lineup with the people announced. It is strange though, that if AAA was simply throwing out a list of names they aspired to have on the card, that they would include Golden Magic & Villano III Jr. but not Psycho Clown.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Sunday. We’ll have a better idea of how well this is going to do then. I’m still surprised the ticket prices are what they are, but it made more sense when I realized that $30-300 was the same price scale as the ROH/NJPW show. That was not a family and kids looking for something fun to do on a holiday though, that was a lot of 18-45 years olds who had a strong affinity for those brands.

Puma King’s latest video talks about last week’s AAA shows.

The Crash runs tonight in Tijuana with a stacked card. The main event is scheduled to be Bandido & Flamita versus Penta & Fenix for The Crash Tag Team championship. The underlining story is AAA may be expecting Penta & Fenix to finish up with The Crash tonight. The Lucha Brothers are working elsewhere beside AAA this weekend, Flamita worked last night for AAA and is working tomorrow for AAA. It’s not a long trip to Tijuana but I wonder if AAA might have also attempted to convince Flamita to finish up with The Crash or skip this show. AAA would generally prefer The Crash not be a thing and draining them of talent is one way to do it.

The rest of The Crash show has Guerreros vs Rebelion Amarillo, a couple of promising four-way matches and some trios matches with locals. As far as I know, it is not streaming anywhere.

RIOT is running Saturday night as well. Full card

RIOT (SAT) 05/04/2019 Arena Femenil, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Erick Ortiz vs Sayrus
2) Muerte Extrema vs Golden Boy, Hijo Del Espectro Jr.
3) Madness vs Low Rider
4) Fresero Jr. & Mr. Iguana vs Kaientai & Lord Byron
5) Black Terry vs Símbolo
6) Arez vs Kratoz, Látigo, Iron Kid (Estado de México), Aramis (Estado de México)

The main event should be a lot of fun, though Arez is going to be logging the airport time this weekend. This show will make it to their Pivotshare channel eventually.

Other notable shows this weekend include the Disturbio/Metalico hair match in Arena Coliseo. That fits the CMLL pattern of a younger guy beating someone in his last few years, but I’m not totally confident in Disturbio. Rush versus Volador takes place Sunday in Arena Mexico. Saturday in Arena Lopez Mateos has a Rush & Bestia teaming up with Fantasma against Hechicero, Mr. Aguila and Mr. Electro, while Neza has a Guerrero Maya 15th Anniversary show.

SuperLuchas has the latest ratings update (735K AAA, 210 CMLL) and an explanation of why all TV viewership in Mexico is so much less than we’d expect.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia, the new Pachuca based promotion, finishes up their planned four week run this Sunday. It must’ve gone well for them because they’re already announcing a return on 06/02 with a Los Macizos 10 Year Anniversary show honoring Miedo Extremo & Ciclope. Halloween, Draztick Boy, Puma King, and Aerostar are also announced.

MDA 06/02 at Arena Naucalpan

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 05/10/2019 Arena México
1) Magia Blanca & Stigma vs Espanto Jr. & Hijo del Signo
2) Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kawato San, Pólvora, Vangellys
3) Kaho Kobayashi vs Amapola [lightning]
4) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero, Villano IV
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
6) Dragón Lee, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

I think someone doing enough travel planning could get from Mexico City to Tokyo by the afternoon of the 12th. (The 13th is the first day of the BOSJ tournament, but the 12th is the press conference with all the participants.) It is unclear why Dragon Lee should do that. He has a meaningless role in the main event and would be taking two cross-Pacific flights for it. The ROH crew who are headed to BOSJ are done with their shows on May 8th. I don’t think this main event is happening, I think people in CMLL know better than that, and I don’t think people in CMLL should want to put this sort of travel strain on Dragon Lee. It is aggressively dumb.

Mascara & Ultimo Guerrero continue to feud while Kaho & Amapola have their lightning match. With how quick CMLL runs their feuds of late, those hair matches could happen even as soon as May 17th. Feel like there ought to be a press conference first.

Recapped: 05/03/2019

Matches:

Magnus & Oro Jr. beat Akuma & Grako
(12:28 [4:59, 2:49, 4:40], 2/3, ok, 00:01:13)

Avispa Dorada, Kaho Kobayashi, La Jarochita beat Amapola, Dalys, Reina Isis
(15:01 [6:59, 2:39, 5:23], 1/3, good, 00:21:23)

Soberano Jr. beat Mephisto in a lightning match
(6:33, guillotine moonsault, ok, 00:45:28)

Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja beat Adam Brooks & Mecha Wolf 450
(22:58 [8:16, 3:14, 11:28], 2/3, great, 00:57:10)

Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
(11:43 [4:48, 2:45, 4:10], 1/3, good, 01:30:50)

Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. beat La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible
(12:22 [3:13, 1:53, 7:16], 1/3, good, 01:57:19)

What happened:

Mascara got away with a foul on Último Guerrero. UG wants a hair match, but he and his partners were unmasked by the técnicos.

Terrible & Bestia are bald again for whatever reason. Los Ingobernables took a rare clean loss.

The fourth match was a The Crash vs CMLL special tag match.

Thoughts:

The main event seemed set up to be a quick match with a typically screwy Los Ingobernables finish. Instead, the rudos worked surprisingly hard in the third fall. Rush had a great sequence with Volador, Terrible does the giant swing much better than Vangellys, and La Bestia del Ring did nothing La Bestia-like. They let the técnicos look great too. This was close to something you might expect with the flyers and Los Guerreros than Los Ingobernables. I have no idea why they did it this way, but it worked.

The latest edition of the flying Guerreros was fun until Euforia’s misaimed tope ended the party. I prefer to see Euforia catching people rather than being caught, but this was one of the better matches of their matches playing against type. The NGD worked well with them and Mascara 2000 seems motivated by the decision to give him another feud. This was about as good as this match up could be. Mascara/UG seems not a good use of anyone’s time to me but they got the crowd to care.

The CMLL versus The Crash guys may have been the names people were hoping for but it was the match the show needed. This felt different than normal CMLL, and much different than what a normal fourth match in this position. It was the best or cleanest match. The first fall was a bit dry and there were moments where Brooks and his opponents (and occasionally his partner) didn’t seem familiar enough with each other to be on the same page. It got a lot better over the last two falls, with the effort from guest wrestlers once again driving the CMLL wrestlers to raise their own game to match them. This had the Canadian Destroyer on the apron level of violence not usually seen in Arena Mexico (at least when Dragon Lee isn’t around.) It also had something as basic as a tease of a countout and someone sliding back in 19 to keep fighting, something that’s so routine to be a cliché elsewhere and totally unheard of here. (Earlier in the night, the 20 count was taken so much for granted that the opener was treated like it was over while the referee was still counting. That made this bit seem even more surprising.) I liked Adam Brooks more than I had after seeing him in PWG and this was a really good night for MechaWolf. CMLL teased the idea of this being the beginning of a series of matches. It is tough to believe them – The Crash doesn’t lose the first match if there are real plans – but this demonstrated the reason to do to this sort of thing. It may not necessarily need to be these two guys, but adding people on short term basis has frequently helped CMLL to be better over the last few years.

Soberano went his whole match without doing a tornillo but Mephisto went his whole match without doing much of anything so it worked out. Soberano looked great with everything else, though it felt flat because it was one-sided. Mephisto’s big spot was a powerbomb on the floor that was more about Soberano’s flip and a Canadian Destroyer that was also about Soberano’s flip. He did a lot of flips.

The women’s match didn’t totally work for me but still felt like one of the better ones of this year. Kaho was moving faster than any woman in CMLL in recent memory and hitting her spots well. She seems very into this feud, and Amapola looked the best so far in this feud. Avispa’s new dive looked great and I was amazed it was caught well. Dalys wiped out Jarochita too, and this match moved pretty well. The action just doesn’t impress me as much as other matches but the effort was there.

Opener seemed like it could be good at full intensity. It had something less than that. It wasn’t actively bad but they moved around as if it was the rehearsal match rather than the normal one at times. Rudos too a lot of the match in uninteresting ways as well, with only the Oro headscissors at the end sticking out.

Day: May 4, 2019

CMLL defeats the Crash, AAA in Los Mochis, The Crash tonight

CMLL on Marca: 2019-05-03