Festival de las Mascaras, Volador defeats Tiger, AAA seminar in San Jose, Tanahashi & Ishii to CMLL

indy (SUN) 08/11/2013 Arena Ichiban, Jardines de Morelos, Estado de México [Estrellas del Ring]
1) Hibrido & Mr. Felino b Cobra Infernal & Infierno Negro
2) Antar Jr. & Destello De Fuego b Guerrero De Fuego & Rey Aventura
3) Black Metal (Mexico City), Star Moon, Vortiz b Aresus, Panterita, Stukita
4) Ares (Aficion), Corsario Negro, Cronos b Black Abyss, Epidemia, Heavy Boy
5) El Alebrije I & Volador Jr. b Extreme Tiger & Rush

Main event sounds like it was good. Extreme Tiger was wrestling as independent, not with CMLL. Stukita still exists!

IWRG (SUN) 08/11/2013 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), IWRG]
***Festival de las Mascaras, 2013***
1) Centvrión, Freelance, Golden Magic b Alan Extreme, Imposible, Saruman
Golden Magic got another victory on Imposible leading up to their title match. Money was thrown in after the match.
2) Chico Che, Fresero Jr., Pantera b Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
Fresero Jr. replaced Horuz. Avisman & Diablo wrestled masked. (Pantera did as well, but always does.)
3) Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Súper Nova b Bobby Lee Jr., Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Trauma II
Hijo de Pirata Morgan wore his old mask for part of the match. Nova & Trauma feuded.
4) Eterno & X-Fly b Negro Navarro & Trauma I [IWRG IC TAG]
Eterno & X-Fly won the titles. Navarros fall on their eighth defense.
5) Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Solar I, Veneno b Pirata Morgan, Universo 2000, Villano IV
Pierroth was honored prior to the match. He doesn’t seem to have recovered much since the last he was seen. Universo 2000 and Veneno wore their masks. Rayo snuck in a foul on Universo.

Pierroth did do a Pierroth promo, but Rostro Oculto’s point about remembering to honor people while they still can enjoy it is right on. Black Terry Jr. has highlights of the opener, which did not air on TV.

The tag title change appears to mean Eterno will both challenge Hijo del Pirata for the middleweight title and defend the tag team titles on the same show Thursday (which is also one night before he’s on an AAA TV taping in Queretaro.) Maybe they’ll make a change?

NJPW put dates to the previous announced Tanahashi visit to CMLL. He’ll be in 08/21 to 09/08, short of the Anniversary show (I was wrong about that) but long enough to be in the final of the anniversary show. Also, Tomohiro Ishii will come in right after, from 09/11 to TBA (maybe a month?)

I don’t really understand why Tanahashi & Lyger won the CMLL Tag Team championship if Lyger wasn’t coming to Mexico. Maybe Lyger’s coming later, but this is surely Tanahashi’s only trip. The next tag title change is happening in Japan, possibly not until FantasticaMania ’14.

Ishii was on the two of the FantasticaMania shows. In ’11, he was in the horrible La Mascara tag match and had an also not good mask match with Tiger Mask IV. Neither seemed to be much his fault. In ’13, he won a 12 man cibernetico, but did not get in the ring until every single CMLL guy was eliminated. Every single CMLL guy being eliminated well before the end of a CMLL style match on what’s supposed to be a CMLL special attraction show annoyed me far more than Ishii winning, but there’s a lot of unfortunate history here. He’s been great in NJPW, especially of late, but his style does not seem like a natural fit with CMLL. Rush and Ishii could just hit each other hard and it could work out, but Rush makes everything better.

AAA, Pro Wrestling Revolution, and Masked Republic announced they’ll be holding a seminar & tryout on 09/14 in San Jose. $125 fee ($100 if you get in early), with Konnan leading the seminar and scouting for talent. One person on the show will be brought to Mexico for a couple of spot shows. AAA partnered with a group in Canada earlier to do this same bit (and the winner was listed for shows in Mexico.) Even for the people who don’t win, it’s a chance to get in front of AAA before they start running in the US.

Arena Puebla and IWL essentially had their timeslots flipped on TVC Deportes this week; CMLL was on Sunday and early Monday, IWL is on Monday afternoon. Puebla aired the Espiritu/Stigma mask match, but I didn’t realize it was on until too late. Hope someone else got it. Not sure if it’s a one week thing or not.

Volador says he’s going to retire Sombra.

Atlantis says Ultimo Guerrero should count down the minutes until their match.

Octagoncito says it’s important to be friendly with the fans.

WWL has a poster for their Monterrey show.

Yo Soy Luchador interviews Mamba.

Lineup

CMLL (SUN) 08/18/2013 Arena Mexico
1) Molotov & Oro Jr. vs Cholo & Zayco
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Magnus, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Canelo Casas, Nosferatu
3) Ángel de Oro, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Felino, Puma, Tiger
4) Diamante Azul vs Euforia [lightning]
5) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Niebla, Pólvora
6) La Máscara, Rush, Titán vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys [MEX TRIOS]
first defense for Rush, Titan and La Mascara

Estetas del Aire together in the semimain, suplexes in the lightning match. Tiger’s back to teaming with his father and brother. Canelo Casas appeared in Puebla in March and Guadalajara in April, but has been missing for long enough that I just took him off the active list a week ago. There’s been very few DF debuts this year; no sign of a Gen13 unless Canelo Casas is the first member of it.