Volador/Casas tonight in Arena Mxico, CMLL & film libraries

tonight

CMLL continues down the road to the Aniversario show, with a few matches continuing towards the big matches on that show. It’s a lineup which has been shuffled around at least twice. Big Daddy being removed was removed from the show, La Bestia del Ring was added, and it took an additional day for CMLL to remember they’re not letting Bestia in the ring with his sons.

The most interesting match to come out of all of this is a Volador/Negro Casas lightning match. The two have faced many times before, including Volador taking Negro Casas’ hair at the 2016 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. Casas can still go in under ten-minute matches. It’s probably the best format for Volador too at this moment. Volador is the only person on the tecnico side involved in this seven-man cage feud, though Casas is always cheered. He probably will be again the crowd favorite tonight. Those who are going to take a big loss at a major show tend to get wins going in, so the outcome of this match may be telling about who will lose their hair.

The actual main event is Cavernario, Ciber and Diamante Azul versus Gilbert, Ultimo Guerrero, and Sanson. It’s a match designed to fall apart, with Gilbert and UG both teaming and feuding. Sanson’s partners will be instead be teaming with Mephisto against Caristico, Dragon Lee and Titan, the best chance for a good trios match on the show. Mephisto’s partners team with La Bestia del Ring – adding him instead of any other rudo really messed with everything – and they face Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, and Atlantis Jr. in the tercera. Disturbio, Sagrado and Tiger take on Dulce Gardenia, Fuego and Esfinge, in Esfinge’s first match in Arena Mexico since his father was apparently removed from power in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. We haven’t seen Akuma in six weeks since he picked up a leg injury. He’s listed as teaming with Espanto Jr. tonight, facing Robin and the always fun Super Astro Junior.

This show streams on Marca and their YouTube channel. I’ll be streaming it on YouTube at well. The show begins on 8:30 pm.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show.

Big Daddy (Yum Yum) is doing a promotional tour today in Texas for a show he’s promoting Saturday, which likely made it very difficult for him to be on this Friday’s Arena Mexico show. I don’t think one Friday night is going to make much of a difference with the CMLL fans perception of him. It does become newsworthy if he’s also not on next Friday’s card.

Arena Queretaro’s 09/17 main event was a trios cage match with Cibernetico, Sharlie Rockstar, Mr. Electro vs Bestia 666, Mecha Wolf and Rey Horus. Ciber is now out and Penta is in. We may never see this show, so it’s meaningful if Ciber disappears from more shows and not so much if Ciber just got pulled to do some advertisements.

Ultimo Guerrero says his plan is to stay in the cage match at the end if Ciber and Gilbert are left, but take off if they’ve already escaped. He’s also considering his shoe choice, wanting to wear something that might give him better grip for climbing.

Planeta Wrestling wrestling has a story that the CMLL/WWE meeting which happened earlier this year were regarding WWE wanting to purchase CMLL’s video library as additional content for their premium tier. PW Insider had mentioned earlier this week that WWE was investigating getting lucha libre content for their network. I got a decent amount of “don’t trust Planeta Wrestling, they may just be speculating” feedback after posting this. Even Planeta’s report says it was a discussion and they don’t know if went any farther than that. I’m getting increasingly leery of posting any WWE related news on Twitter; anything “these two sides had a talk about [X]” instantly gets read and repeated as “it’s definitely happening, it’s the biggest version of the deal possible, and it’s all going down tomorrow” for reasons I don’t have a grasp on. (That’s why there was no WWE in the headline of this post.) You should take this story with a big grain of salt, as a thought experiment about what it would WWE trying to buy the CMLL library would mean rather than something that has any certain chance of happening.

A small shared licensing makes sense for both sides. Ring of Honor & Impact have given permission in the past to WWE for bits of their footage to be used in documentaries. There doesn’t seem like much harm in CMLL letting WWE do the same as long as they’re fairly compensated. A large scale library sell-off would seem bad for CMLL fans; some surprising stuff may squeeze thru, but it’s hard to see WWE having interest in formatting and sharing the vast majority of it. CMLL’s not doing anything with their old footage, but there at least exists a possibility they might do something with it someday. If WWE ever got all of it, most of it would never be seen again. The flip side is CMLL really is doing nothing with that old footage, doesn’t see it as something to make money out of, and seems to be even more profit conscious in this post-Paco era. You normally take the money if someone offers to take give it to you for something you have no interest in, and it’s never seemed like CMLL has that much interest in that old footage. The blue sky perfect world result is CMLL gains some interest once they realize being a revenue source for WWE means it could be one of them as well. The mitigating reality to all of this is no one seems sure what footage CMLL has and how far back it goes; it is possible all footage as recent as the mid-00s is actually Televisa property; that sort of fact-finding is probably what the WWE/CMLL conversation was actually about.

My YouTube channel, which may have broken 100,000 subscribers by the time you read this, is so dead if WWE buys that CMLL library. WWE channels have managed to stay up by carefully including only footage WWE hasn’t put on their network yet. I haven’t been that careful because it’s hasn’t been an issue. Anyway, 100K channels are supposed to get a silver trophy. I think my channel may be more liable to be canceled anyway.

ESPN has a video on Cain Velasquez’s TripleMania experience. It’s in Spanish now and will air in English later. It’s really well done, worth your time, and it’s a great promotional device for Sunday’s AAA show. If that English version airs before the show on Sunday and includes a plug for the PPV, AAA’s probably going to pick up a few extra buys.

Dr. Wagner Jr. is in New York today doing press for that show. I was writing a preview of the show last night and it finally occurred to me that, since Impact is co-producing the show, Josh Mathews is probably the other English announcer. He’s worked shows for AAA before when they were working closely with Impact. Matt Striker, who appears to be the other announcer, looks to be working a boxing show in Las Vegas on Saturday and then flying back to New York to work the AAA show. That’s a hard weekend.

Lucha Va Voom is running tonight in Las Vegas. Puma King, Rey Horus, Mariachi Loco and Lil’ Cholo are among those on the show.

10/05 The Crash in Auditorio de Tijuana

“The WWE might want to buy some lucha libraries” is where The Crash not investing in recording their shows costs them. The Garza & Ultimo Ninja footage might be valuable now.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

A corncob luchador.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 09/17/2019 Arena México
1) Leono & Retro vs Inquisidor & Yago
2) Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
3) Drone, Fuego, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
4) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Misterioso, Sagrado, Tiger
5) Audaz, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
6) Volador Jr. vs Cavernario

A weird CMLL Tuesday card in that it looks good and different. Volador/Cavernario should be interesting, even on a b-show. Semi-main looks good. The fourth match has happened so many times that it should be good. Virus gets to actually team with his partners, who get better people to work with. The minis are not working an opener. Yago is actually working an opener, his first appearance on a stream in two months.

One thought to “Volador/Casas tonight in Arena Mxico, CMLL & film libraries”

  1. LA park going against contra will be the beginning of the hype for their pay per view match

    I could go for park winning the totle if fatu is leaving

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