August 17, 2019 – luchablog

CMLL (FRI) 08/16/2019 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Lucha Central, Marca, thecubsfan]
1) Cancerbero & Raziel b Robin & Star Jr.
13:35. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Átomo, Gallito, Microman DQ Chamuel, Guapito, Perico Zacarías
13:26. Tecnicos took 2/3. Guapito replaced Mije. Chamuel fouled Microman, who demanded a rematch.
3) Atlantis Jr., Flyer, Titan ~~Soberano Jr.~~ b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
13:49. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Dalys b Metálica [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, final]
8:28, Dalys winning on a basic suplex. Dalys is the first winner of this tournament and gets a title match with Marcela at some future date.
5) Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja b Cuatrero, Gilbert el Boricua, Sansón
14:29. Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Volador Jr. b Forastero
12:20. Volador took 1/3, winning cleanly.
7) Dragón Lee, Místico, Último Guerrero DQ Carístico, Ciber the Main Man, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
14:49. Team UG took 2/3, the last when UG faked a foul and Ciber was (eventually) DQed for it. UG still wants the hair match, while Ciber wants a title match first but is willing to have the hair match.

Promos: Micro tecnicos, Micro rudos, Dalys, Volador Jr., Ultimo Guerrero, Caristico, Ciber and Valiente.

I’m super pressed for time today, so this might be missing things. The highpoints from last night’s show:

Ciber vs UG remains in that murky ground where it has to be happening but Ciber won’t commit to it happening
Chamuel vs Microman is building to something
The Aniversario date still hasn’t been said (all hype on the Gran Prix)
Dalys vs Metalica was underwhelming, both in the match and the presentation.
- Metalica left on a stretcher, either getting hurt or getting gassed after a botched dive. Commentary a bit buried her for being an easy opponent.
It was a pretty good vacation turnout.

Diamante Azul’s injury was a groin herina. That explains his weird year: he says he kept taking time off to rest it in hopes it would heal, but he’d keep reinjuring it and that led him to surgery to fix it. He couldn’t do anything while recovering and gained 10 kg (22 lb), but he’s in the gym to get back in shape. This is a light at the end of the tunnel of bad 2019 Diamante Azul matches.

Matt Taven defends the Ring of Honor title against Volador Jr. on 09/07 in Chicago. They’re playing off their CMLL feud (where they’re 1-1 in singles matches; Volador noted last night in post-match promos that he – and not Cavernario or Rush – had beaten Taven before) and likely hoping to draw the lucha fans who have gone to other promotions in the area. Hope they can reach them.

Dalys & Marcela are headed to REINA on 09/12, which means they won’t be on the 09/13 show (Aniversario or not.) I guess it’s possible they could just do the title match in Japan.

ESPN says Cain Velasquez has been signed for the AAA US cards. It’s looked like it’s headed this way for a while and may have just taken AAA being sure they’re running those shows to be official. With Wagner/Demon + Cain booked, something like Aerostar/Monsther Clown would be at best third from the top. Maybe even behind the women’s title match. It may not make to run that as a midcard match, assuming Monsther Clown gets a visa.

On the Friday Impact tapings, Dr. Wagner announced he and other AAA stars would appear on the 10/20 Impact Bound for Glory PPV in Chicago. That’s a week after the AAA LA show. MedioTiempo has full results from both shows, including missing results from the first show.

AAA announced the New York venue change at 7:49 pm on Friday night. With AAA coming here a month later anyway on the Impact show, I’m probably not bothering to go to New York. (Gonna need a ticket giveaway contest.) I also suspect that AAA guys appearing on Impact is a tradeoff for significant Impact people on the AAA US shows, beyond Taya & Tessa. Tommy Dreamer having his first AAA match in 24 years seems about right.

(On the other hand, a strange about the LAX saying farewell to Impact bit is the reporters in attendance seemed to come away with the impression it was not just Ortiz & Santana saying goodbye but Konnan as well.)

I’d normally plug indie shows here but no time. The one you should check out, if you’re within driving distance of San Diego, is this weekend’s ExpoLucha shows.

An interview with Felino has him state his first name was actually Tropicum, and credits Antonio Pena with the Felino gimmick.

09/07 The Crash lineup

Recapped: 08/16/2019

Matches:

Cancerbero & Raziel beat Robin & Star Jr.
(13:35 [5:23, 3:09, 5:03], 1/3, ok)

Átomo, Gallito, Microman beat Chamuel, Guapito, Perico Zacarías
(13:26 [6:12, 1:54, 5:20], 2/3 DQ, good)

Atlantis Jr., Flyer, Titan beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(13:49 [3:51, 4:10, 5:48], 1/3, ok)

Dalys beat Metálica in the CMLL Universal de Amazonas final
(8:28, suplex, below average)

Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Diamante Azul beat Cuatrero, Gilbert el Boricua, Sansón
(14:29 [5:31, 3:36, 5:22], 2/3, ok)

Volador Jr. beat Forastero
(12:20, 1/3, good)

Forastero armscissors (1:22)
Volador torito (2:38)
Volador top rope huracanrana (8:20)

Dragón Lee, Místico, Último Guerrero beat Carístico, Ciber the Main Man, Valiente in a relevos increíbles match
(14:19 [4:05, 3:53, 6:21], 1/3 DQ, ok)

What happened:

UG faked a foul at the end of the main event. Ciber covered UG, Edgar counted, then stopped to call the foul. Ciber became the first person to suggest the hair match at the Aniversario show but wanted a title match (again) prior.

After all the weeks of Forastero cheating to win, he never tried to cheat to win in the singles match. Volador just won clean.

CMLL production, as they are prone to do, turned down the arena sound for an ad and forgot to turn it back up again until the match was in progress. This meant there was no introductions for the Universal tournament final. Those watching on the stream missed an announcement that it was a one-fall match. Metalica apparently suffered an injury getting caught in the ropes on a tope, which caused that one fall to end early. Panico presented the new belt to Dalys.

Chamuel fouled Microman to end the micros match. Microman asked for a rematch, which got him attacked by Chamuel. Chamuel had earlier ripped up Microman’s mask. Guapito took Gallito’s mask as well.

Thoughts:

The main event I imagined a main event of Ciber & UG darting in and out while the other four were mostly in the ring. What we got instead was Ciber & Ultimo Guerrero being closer to the ring as the other four brawled around the arena. That was unexpected. More expected was Mistico versus Caristico being a lot more over than Ultimo Guerrero. The match itself did better with less time in the ring for both and the crowd seems to be talking themselves into cheering for UG but this isn’t good.

Volador tonight was better than Volador in Puebla. Forastero wasn’t as good as Dragon Lee in Puebla. The product was a match that was smoother than that recent title match if also feeling a lot like other Volador title matches. Forastero did better than his chance with Soberano but still isn’t a compelling singles wrestler. The idea here seemed to make Forastero a bigger deal prior to the Gran Prix and I’m not sure if it really took.

The undercard got shuffled around to give us another Diamante Azul & Mesias match up prior to them running each other at the Gran Prix. Those two were marginally better than usual, though the better work was around them. The Dinamitas controlled a lot of the action, Mesias was set up to look good, and the Chavez were smooth.

Metalica looked nervous trying her tope, didn’t land it, and that was that for the match. Dalys can do nothing but follow her script and her script was for a lot of moves dropping Metalica on the floor when rest might have helped. Metalica didn’t even have the energy for a proper cover by the time she got in the ring. Dalys winning with a basic suplex was very overwhelming but also probably a merciful end. The sound issues really contributed to the flat ending, because no one on watching the stream knew it was one fall, there was no reason to expect it to be. The announcers (and Dalys backstage) hyped about how easy the win was; this was a pretty terrible night for Metalica. It wasn’t any great win for Dalys either.

The tercera was fine, with the Hijos del Infierno seemingly a little better than usual. The tecnicos just didn’t show much out of the ordinary. Atlantis’s new dive looks impressive and every thing else was the usual.

Microman had the highspots, but I think the micros match was the best Chamuel performance so far. He was the start of the night. Chamuel was a great base as always, getting the best out of the tecnicos. His big improvement was being a figure of menace, just tearing into the tecnicos and taking well-timed cheap shots when he had the opportunity. Chamuel came off as mean, not just a comic foil. If CMLL is going with this feud as much as it looks like, it’s going to workout well.

I was intensely distracted during portions of the opener but it seemed like a sloppier version of the usual opening. Robin and the rudos were not working smoothly together at the end of the first fall. It did get better and we got actual third fall dives in an opener.

Day: August 17, 2019

Micro/Chamuel & UG/Ciber in CMLL, Cain on AAA US shows, AAA on Impact’s next PPV

CMLL on Marca: 2019-08-16