Tigre Rojo Jr. unmasks Blue Center, Titan versus Cavernario, Hijo del Fantasma

CMLL (MON) 07/28/2014 Arena Puebla [Periodico Enfoque]
1) El Rebelde & Fuerza Chicana b Black Tiger & Meyer
Rudos took 2/3.
2) Astral & Eléctrico DQ Demus 3:16 & Espíritu Maligno
Tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Espiritu fouled Electrico. They agreed to a rematch for next week.
3) Dragon Lee, Hombre Bala Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. b Cancerbero, Raziel, Siki Ozama Jr.
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Ephesto, Pólvora, Rey Escorpión b Dragón Rojo Jr., Stigma, Valiente
Escorpion beat Dragon Rojo.
5) Tigre Rojo Jr. b Blue Center [mask]
Blue Center attacked Tigre Rojo Jr. before the match and took the first fall. Rojo tied it up with a hurracarrana, then the third with a bridging pin. Blue Center was unmasked as Rodolfo Contreras, 40 years old, 25 years a wrestler.
6) La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush b Mr. Niebla, Shocker, Último Guerrero
Ultimo Guerrero replaced Negro Casas. Ingobernables took 1/3, sneaking in a foul on UG in the third.

Tonight’s the big Titan versus Cavernario national welterweight title match. Cavernario’s getting this shot because of En Busca de un Idolo, but the two have feuded the last week building up to this match They’re getting the main event slot and should have as much time and freedom to do whatever they want, and it should make for a pretty great match. The undercard includes Sagrado and Angel de Oro teaming again, after they had issues on Sunday.

Guadalajara has Rush/Casas (in trios) and Sugehit/Blanca (in a lightning match) as a preview for Juicio Final show, which no one in Guadalajara will likely be able to see live.

I did get to listen to the Hijo del Fantasma podcast and took notes. So many notes. Too many notes. The interview was from a month ago – between the Puebla and Queretaro shows – but most everything is still current. Some of it was covered in Spanish in his Tercera Caida interview – like the cold shoulder he got from CMLL when he was trying to tell them why he was leaving. (His impression is CMLL had no idea why he was leaving, but mistakenly blamed him for getting Sombra, Averno and Volador WWE tryouts – Fantasma says he had nothing to with that, only himself got a tryout himself thru Antonio Inoki’s daughter, thought it went great and was very surprised not to get a deal.) There’s a lot of new stuff, or maybe just stuff I missed last time.

Fantasma gives a lot of credit to Konnan for helping mentor him and turn his career around. They were talking a lot before Fantasma decided to jump, and it was Konnan telling Fantasma that he looked fat that was enough to shock Fantasma into changing things. (Texano Jr., who works out at the gym Fantasma owns, worked hard on getting Fantasma to jump as well.) Fantasma says he was depressed  by the end of his CMLL run, and very nervous when he had to wrestle multiple matches in a six sided ring for his AAA debut. Fantasma feels he’s in much better shape now – they agree he’s got the best body in AAA at the moment – and Fantasma’s rebuilt his confidence in this past year and feels like he’s wrestling better than ever.

One of the big mysteries to us, far far on the outside, is why Fantasma is so much happier in AAA. Fantasma hasn’t been a big part of the storylines in AAA since jumping – Konnan even notes Fantasma hasn’t gotten an angle, but will get one soon – but he’s clearly having a lot more fun since leaving Arena Mexico. Fantasma’s not directly asked this, but does explain it: Fantasma was really bummed out by being slotted in the segunda and tercera in CMLL and being left off the big shows. He could tell he was no longer a Golden Boy. Fantasma might have not been given an angle in AAA yet, but he’s always used in one of the top matches. Fantasma says he dressed by himself in CMLL and no one really talked to each other much before or after the matches. Everyone in AAA hangs out together, cracking jokes on each other and helping each other improve. Both Konnan and Fantasma rave about Hard Rock Hotel experience, noting it’s basically a paid vacation. Konnan, talking about the free stuff the luchadors get: “Free hotel rooms, free food, they gave you a fruit basket and wine – that’s why Toscano won’t be going back [both guys laugh].”

Fantamsa mentions he felt really loyal to CMLL since they gave him his first real start, but never was as anti-AAA as other people because he did work there for a few months (the ’05-’06 middleweight tournament) and Antonio Pena gave him some good advice. His father later told Fantasma that he should’ve made the jump a couple years earlier, but his mom was concerned Fantasma would burn a bridge with Arena Mexico and not fit in with the soap opera/garbage wrestling rep AAA had. Fantasma started watching AAA for about a year before jumping and it convinced him AAA wasn’t really a circus, but a place a lot more focused on details in matches and outside the ring than CMLL.

Hijo del Fantasma tells the great story about how his father ended up with the character. He wanted to be “Top Secret”, had the gear made and got booked in Arena Mexico under that name, but he didn’t have his license yet. He went to the lucha commission office to get it, but the commission rejected the name because they didn’t want anyone using English words as their name. Someone there was reading the paper, pointed at The Phantom comic strip, told not-Top Secret he looked like the lead character, and said he should use that name instead. Not-Top-Secret was willing to accept whatever just so he could get licensed and not lose his booking, and so that’s how he became El Fantasma for the next 30+ years. (This is the most lucha libre commission story ever.) Decades later, not-yet-Hijo-del-Fantasma was offered a (unpaid) booking at a small show. He still had no gimmick at this point, so Fantasma went back to his parents house, took his father’s old unused gear, and became Top Secret for the next couple of years.

Fantasma says he’d like to work with Cibernetico and La Parka. Konnan tries to steer him towards Fenix, saying they have great chemistry (Fantasma [joking]: “Yea, we beat the shit out of each other, that kind of chemistry”) and Fantasma agrees that he has good matches with the ‘Strong Style Division’, but he wants to be a top guy and so he’s got to go against top guys. Cibernetico and Fantamsa might have some interesting matches.

There’s a digression about Loco Max, who visited at the last AAA taping in Puebla. He later wrote Konnan an email about how he had CMLL blinders on all along and finally took them off to see how great AAA is. This sounds like a guy sucking up to get a job, but Konnan reacts like it was totally sincere. It probably explains how Loco Max losing his hair in Xalapa on an AAA spot show happened.

There’s a lot more but I don’t want to steal the entire podcast. Fantasma talks about Myzteziz’s struggles in WWE and how he’s done since returning to AAA (better than expected, a pleasant surprise to Konnan) and compare him to Alberto Del Rio. There’s brief stories about trying out for CMLL and trying out for WWE, which are different experiences but not totally so. There’s name association near the end, where Fantasma names Porky as one of the top five guys he’s worked with. Reactions come so easy to him that you’ve got to learn to work harder to keep up. Konnan disappears to take a phone call from Oscar (the Grouch? Probably not the Grouch) for a while, and I thought MSL did a nice job asking good questions to keep the podcast going despite not knowing as much about Fantasma. Hijo del Fantasma comes across as smart, loyal and motivated. He really looks up to Konnan and really likes being part of AAA and where they’re headed.

AAA released a new poster for TripleMania. The bottom of the poster looks like it’s teasing a Parka/Demon/Electroshock vs Jarrett/Chessman/Averno match, so maybe Averno’s ending up in the cage match too. No Myzteziz on the poster. There’s also updated info on the annual pilgrimage.

Court Bauer on his most recent podcast (around 20:20): “AAA has a project – a lot of question marks about that project right now more than ever, for a variety of reasons.” This was only a tangent on a larger discussion about TNA so there’s no real explaination of what’s behind the question mark.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update, this week’s Poster-Mania, and the start of the 2013 LuchaWorld top 100 countdown.

DTU announced it’s August tour, running from 08/17 to 08/24. B Boy and Willie Mack are being brought in.

ChilangaMask has announced the Traumas, Masada, Aeroboy, Belial, Impulso and Arez for their 09/20 show in Guadalajara.

An 08/03 Monterrey show built around LA Park vs Dr. Wagner has kept changing venues, and now is slated to take place in Arena Coliseo Monterrey. (That means it may turn up on TV around 08/10.)

Guerreros Laguneros are #1 on CMLL’s top 10 list.

Lucha Libre in Japan

07/29 NOAH: Hajime Ohara [O] & Kenou b Super Crazy [X] & Matt Striker [JTL]
Crazy/Striker drop to 1-2, are eliminated from advancing. Both they and Rocky Lobo/Jinzo wrap up their tournament on 08/02.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 08/03/2014 Arena Naucalpan
1) Alfa & Omega vs Hijo De La Bestia & Hip Hop Man
2) Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo © vs Emperador Azteca, Imposible, Metaleon [EdM Trios]
Fourth defense for the Gringos.
3) Alan Extreme vs Guerrero Mixtico [hair]
4) Hijo De Dos Caras, Relámpago, Veneno vs Demon Clown, Eterno, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000
5) Oficial 911 & Oficial AK47 © vs Trauma I & Trauma II [IWRG IC TAG]
first defense for the Oficials

Random major IWRG show? Random major IWRG show. All of these feuds have been going on for a while, but there was no indication they were all resolving on the same show (and maybe it’s not such a great idea given how little has been happening on the Wednesday shows, but whatever.) Oficials and Traumas should be an insane brawl because everyone involved may be insane at the right moments.

Mixtico lost his hair here last year (the trios match where no one know who’s hair was on the line until after the match) and Alan Extreme lost his mask last year, so both are looking for a win in this sort of match.

Imposible and Azteca were feuding with each other, then stopped as soon as the trios title program began. They may be restarting again soon.

CMLL (MON) 08/04/2014 Arena Puebla
1) Astral & Eléctrico vs Demus 3:16 & Espíritu Maligno
2) Pegasso & Soberano Jr. vs Cancerbero & Raziel
3) Black Panther, Cachorro, Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Blue Center, Kamaitachi, Okumura
4) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Máscara Dorada, Stigma, Stuka Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Misterioso Jr., Puma, Rey Escorpión, Ripper [Reyes del Aire]
5) La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Shocker

We’ve seen Ingobernables versus that trio quite a few times.

This is the second Reyes del Air of the year. Stuka won the one in April. Mascara Dorada absolutely should win that Reyes del Aire.

07/26-27 lucha videos

It looks like C3 aired the HD version squashed to SD. I think I fixed it. I may have made it worse.

YouTube Playlist:

07/26 WWC: http://ul.to/c5rqyg8f
07/27 WWC: http://ul.to/2kefv2n6

07/27 Sobre el Ring: http://ul.to/2kefv2n6

07/27 La Lucha Se La Hace:  http://ul.to/mhvhdbeh – note ex-CMLL, ex-Chicago luchador Principe Franky has somehow turned up here.
07/27 El Rayo, Vida de Lucha: http://ul.to/7qd3hz9j

07/27 Leyendas de Lucha Libre – Climax: http://ul.to/1m64tpay – I can’t recall I posted this one already, but it recorded so here it is.

AAA on Televisa: 2014-07-26
taped 2014-07-05 @ Hard Rock Hotel, Vallarta, Nayarit
Intro
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ap4di4
1) Jennifer Blake, La Jarochita, Mascarita Sagrada, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Sexy Star, Taya Valkyrie
https://www.sendspace.com/file/0rpyhi
2) Angélico, Australian Suicide, Fénix vs El Apache, Pentagón Jr., Súper Fly
https://www.sendspace.com/file/dy1z9z
3) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma, Silver King, Texano Jr.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ovum3d
4) Cibernético & Myzteziz vs Averno & Chessman
https://www.sendspace.com/file/1kw5ns

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2014-07-26
taped 2014-07-15 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Full Show: http://ul.to/s5dqvqsg
1) Omar Brunetti, Sky Kid, Smaker vs Boby Zavala, Olímpico, Sangre Azteca
https://www.sendspace.com/file/kaie5q
2) Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Super Porky vs Ephesto, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
https://www.sendspace.com/file/faxlgm
3) La Máscara vs Shocker
https://www.sendspace.com/file/shtsfu

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-07-26
taped 2014-07-22 @ Arena México
Intro
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ufc2so
1) Angelito, Astral, Eléctrico vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
https://www.sendspace.com/file/b7m9d0
2) Cachorro, Stigma, Tritón vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
https://www.sendspace.com/file/x5xa0g
Dark Angel Fitness Capsule
https://www.sendspace.com/file/4cbscr
3) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Misterioso II
https://www.sendspace.com/file/l68o9q
4) Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
https://www.sendspace.com/file/agkzqa
5) Valiente vs Euforia
https://www.sendspace.com/file/clrexu
Ending
https://www.sendspace.com/file/mq5ota

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2014-07-26
taped 2014-07-18 @ Arena México
Intro
https://www.sendspace.com/file/llc68b
1) Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Pólvora, Rey Escorpión, Último Guerrero
https://www.sendspace.com/file/7o4xng
2) Negro Casas & Shocker © vs La Sombra & Rush for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship
https://www.sendspace.com/file/wpodve

Lucha Azteca (CMLL): 2014-07-26
taped 2014-07-11 @ Arena México
Full Show: http://ul.to/d9p6t5in
1) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
2) Dark Angel, Estrellita, Marcela vs Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Zeuxis
3) La Sombra vs Shocker

CMLL on Terra: 2014-07-27
taped 2014-07-27 @ Arena Coliseo
1) Fantasy, Stukita, Último Dragoncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Universo 2000
http://ul.to/8m1ndy27
2) Black Panther, Soberano Jr., Star Jr. vs Guerrero Negro Jr., Hijo del Signo, Nitro
http://ul.to/5a5ejjxq
3) Dragon Lee, Fuego, Oro Jr. vs Metálico, Skándalo, Virus
http://ul.to/zi8fgihz
4) Silueta vs Zeuxis in a lightning match
http://ul.to/ex27db6c
5) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Sagrado vs Gran Guerrero, Pierroth, Pólvora
http://ul.to/043aopvv
6) Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Stuka Jr. vs Euforia, Felino, Mr. Niebla
http://ul.to/qxu3r6rf

CMLL Puebla: 2014-07-27
taped 2014-07-14 @ Arena Puebla
1) Meyer, Milenium, Tigre Rojo vs Akrón, Espíritu Maligno, King Jaguar
https://www.sendspace.com/file/yeiba9
2) Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora, Princesa Blanca, Tiffany
https://www.sendspace.com/file/1qyyxk
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Blue Center, Boby Zavala, El Cavernario
https://www.sendspace.com/file/lkpita
4) Virus © vs Stigma for the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship
https://www.sendspace.com/file/fo89xz
5) Atlantis, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
https://www.sendspace.com/file/iq42nj

IWRG Zona XXI: 2014-07-27
taped 2014-07-20 @ Arena Naucalpan
1) Alan Extreme & Dragón Celestial vs Guerrero Mixtico & Hip Hop Man
http://ul.to/unu1zaoz
2) Emperador Azteca, Imposible, Metaleon vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
3) Golden Magic, Relámpago, Rey Horus vs Bestia 666, Damián 666, Eterno
http://ul.to/17mu3hbk
4) LA Park vs Máscara Sagrada and Pirata Morgan and Demon Clown and Dr. Wagner Jr. and Hijo De Dos Caras for the IWRG Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship in a ladder match
http://ul.to/5tipe1b0

Noches de Coliseo: 2014-07-27
taped 2014-07-20 @ Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) El Divo, Mr. Nice, Orquídea Negra vs Corazón de Barrio, Memo Valles, Monje Negro Jr.
http://ul.to/dapdxzdo
2) Hator, Jerry, Mario Bezares, Snoopy, Super Parka, Vudu vs Konnan Big
http://ul.to/c9yqylvd
3) Ruby vs NathalyMiss Linares [pillow fight]
https://www.sendspace.com/file/y77qee