One last Friday night for CMLL until Aniversario. CMLL has a couple of matches moving towards next week and maybe a good lightning match.
Six of the seven men in the cage match are in the semi-main. Big Daddy returns to team with Ultimo Guerrero & Gilbert el Boricua, taking on Ciber, Volador and Cavernario. That’s a match built to fall apart, not to be good in itself. The one man left, Negro Casas, is in a seemingly irrelevant main event. He teams with Euforia & Gran Guerrero against Caristico, Mistico and Valiente. The tecnicos will challenge for the national trios title next week.
Soberano and Templario have had great matches in the US by unloading most of their arsenals against each other. It’s unclear if they’ll get the time to do so in a lightning match. They should have enough for highlights even in an under ten-minute match. Dulce Gardenia, Flyer and Atlantis Jr. take on Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III and Felino. That’s a match that would normally include Atlantis but it seems like CMLL realizes how hurt he is right now. Not that it’ll stop them from booking Atlantis, but they just won’t do it on a Friday because someone might notice.
The micros meet once again before the Chamuel/Microman mask match. The recent matches have ended with Chamuel pulling Microman’s mask and either getting DQed or the cradle win. Mije is listed for what would be his first Arena Mexico match since April, though he’s been listed and replaced recently. Super Astro Jr. & Sonic start the show against Espiritu Negro & Grako.
CMLL airs on Marca’s YouTube at 8:30 CT. I may try to stream this from the line but no promises it’ll work or stay up.
Lucha Central has a preview of the show.
The CMLL Aniversario show will not air live as anticipated. The Gran Prix foretold the plans for the Aniversario show in many ways. CMLL will announce their plans at a later date. I assume this will be the same early morning VOD release as the Gran Prix. If I was in charge of CMLL and the Televisa TV deal was important to me, I’d wait until the matches aired on that show Saturday afternoon before putting it up on YouTube. That doesn’t really help me as a CMLL fan not living in Mexico though.
On Informa, Dragon Rojo said he expects to be back in two months after undergoing surgery for a torn ACL back in January. Princesa Sugehit revealed she had been diagnosed with a cerebral concussion back in June and it’d taken three months for her to be cleared to return to the ring. Caristico also was surprisingly honest about the lack of excitement for the Aniversario and the post-match celebrations being a self-aware bit.
An addition to the Mascara 2000 story: a longer version of his quotes about moving from wrestling to focusing on singing mentions the limited wrestling dates he plans on taking will be as an independent, for big shows only. That doesn’t rule out CMLL but it reads like another person who has decided to wrestle outside of Arena Mexico going forward.
Impact tonight has The Rascalz vs Australian Suicide, Arez, and Toxin. I think they may be finishing up the Mexico City tapings tonight.
I’m in Los Angeles for PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles. The first night was pretty good. Fenix & Penta versus Flamita & Bandido was the best match of the night. There was a noticeable difference between it and the Dragon Lee/Rey Horus match. I thought Lee/Horus was still good, but you were getting mostly the same stuff you’ve seen from Dragon Lee, while the guys in the tag match were pushing themselves farther in creativity to try something more. Those attempts don’t always work – I thought it was too much of a problem in the GCW match, which had amazing spots and really obvious flaws like an IWRG undercard match – but just doing what you’re used to doing isn’t enough in on a PWG show. Black Taurus/Darby Allin felt like the best match in terms of setting an in-match dynamic. It was so great that it’s too bad Darby is going to AEW and they can’t just keep going around doing rematches; they were underwhelming in NY but came off as perfect opposites in this one.
Tonight’s show includes Bandido vs Puma King, Penta vs Tony Deppen, and Aramis vs Rey Fenix. Aramis has picked up a bit off attention going into this tournament. This is this first match in a promotion like PWG, this is his first time traveling outside of Mexico entirely, so I’m sure there’s some nerves. Aramis is good enough to have a great match with Fenix, and I hope it comes together.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported the AAA show is believed to have done around sixty (60) buys on conventional PPV. This would not include any purchases on FITE. The show wasn’t expected to do well on PPV – AAA shows are generally free, a WWE show was the same night, and what promotion AAA did was generally about selling tickets – but 60 is still a stunningly low number. It doesn’t appear to have affected future plans at the moment; the AAA in LA show is at listed on FITE for $30 again. I do not know if it’ll be on conventional PPV. I don’t think there’s a reason to bother – the first show does have good word of mouth, but also people realizing it was going to be given away for free a few days later – so I guess it says how cheap it is to do, or how necessary someone feels the status of being on PPV is part of the package.
The WON also mentions AAA expects to have the US visas in this week. It’s not attributed to Konnan, but Konnan says word for word the same thing on his podcast, specifying Jorge Flores told Konnan it was happening this past Tuesday. Hopefully, they’re in, but all I thought about when I heard that story is all the times Lucha Underground thought they were getting visas in not – just the fourth season, but back as far as the very first episode – and all the times they didn’t all come in. AAA hasn’t announced a match for Los Angeles yet. I think they know the matches they want to run, and that they haven’t probably meant Tuesday was not the day those visas came in.
Puerto Rico’s Cuervo will return to the ring on 11/11 for World Warriors Wrestling. That’ll be near one year to the day from when he hit in the head with a thrown brick by Angel o Demonio, causing a severe brain injury.
Cain Velasquez says he’s gotten offers from other promotions but he would also like to continue wrestling with AAA thru his career. Velasquez is saying all the right things about working with AAA and seems to be in this more for enjoyment than money, but I still believe he won’t end up working a lot more AAA once the LA show is over.
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.
ROH announced Rush & Dragon Lee vs PCO & Brody King on 09/28 in Las Vegas and Bandido vs Mike Bailey on 10/27 in Bolton. They’ve also released a preview for a Rush action figure.
A history of San Luis Potosi lucha libre exhibit is open in Soledad de Graciano Sanchez.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2019 Arena México
1) Retro & Sangre Imperial vs Cholo & Yago
2) La Jarochita, Maligna, Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Magia Blanca, Pegasso, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Fuego [lightning]
5) Kráneo, Stuka Jr., Volcano vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Templario
6) Atlantis, Carístico, Soberano Jr. vs Felino, Forastero, Mr. Niebla
Caristico replaced Dragon Lee, Felino replaced La Bestia del Ring
Going from booking the Munoz family against each other, then not booking them at all is odd.
CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Cosmos, El Alteño, El Divino vs Demonio Maya, Demonio Rojo, Guerrero de la Muerte
2) Átomo, Gallito, Microman vs Chamuel, Guapito, Perico Zakarías
3) Esfinge, Flyer, Star Black vs Difunto, Okumura, Vangellys
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Titán vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
5) Místico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Cuatrero, Sansón
The main event is almost a preview of the Aniversairo title match, which is probably an accident.
NLL (TUE) 09/24/2019 Gimnasio Municipal Benito Juárez, Cuautitlán, Estado de México
1) Mr. Leo vs Fly Warrior
2) Diosa Quetzal & Lolita Ángel vs Crazy Star & Princesa Azul
3) Antheus & Galeno Del Mal vs Alas de Oro & Alas De Plata
4) Brazo De Oro Jr. vs Súper Nova, Centvrión, Heddi Karaoui
5) Aníbal Jr., Cien Caras Jr., Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 vs Hijo de LA Park, LA Park Jr., Sangre Azteca
6) Hijo De Dos Caras & La Máscara vs El Mesías & Jack Evans
A Tuesday show with about five days of notice and no Alberto or LA Park wrestling doesn’t seem like a great idea but I guess it’s better than not existing at all. This week’s TV show looks to be Alberto talking about future plans and promoting this show. Note all the fly-ins are no longer present.
The Crash (SAT) 10/05/2019 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Ovett Jr. & Torito Negro vs Próximo & Terror Azteca
2) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Marshall Von Erich & Ross Von Erich and MJF & Richard Holliday
3) Arandú, Star Boy, Zarco vs Animal, Demencia, Silver Star
4) Damián 666 & Jimmy Havoc vs Mance Warner & Savio Vega
5) Oráculo vs Minoru Tanaka
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Lee (CMLL), Soberano Jr. vs Brian Pillman Jr., Davey Boy Smith Jr., Teddy Hart
7) Rey Horus © vs Hammerstone [The Crash HEAVY]
8) Bestia 666, LA Park, Mecha Wolf vs Fatu, Josef Samael, Simon Gotch
I haven’t had a good grasp on how this is going to work since this was announced. All I’m sure of now is MLW wants people to know the CMLL matches won’t air. I’m not sure how the Tijuana crowd is going to react to a lot of people they don’t know, or if the show will be long or have short matches to fit eight in (plus whatever non-wrestling segments).
IWRG (WED) 11/20/2019 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ángel Estrella Jr., Arquero, Dragón de Fuego vs Canival, Carnicero, Neza Kid
2) Atomic Star, Brazo De Oro Jr., Manchas vs Ángel Tormenta, Death Metal, Zika
3) Auzter, Jessy Ventura, Puma de Oro vs Ra-Zhata, Shil-Kha, Toshiharu
4) Dinamic Black, Dragón Bane, Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Fly Warrior, Fresero Jr., Toxin
5) Hijo De Dos Caras, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Demonio Infernal, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan
This is a benefit show for the Red Cross that’s announced in full two months ahead of time for some reason?
