Sombra & Mistico, new AAA champs, Perros

CMLL (FRI) 07/02 Arena Mexico [@cmllmagazine, SuperLuchas]
1) Metálico & Tigre Blanco b Disturbio & Semental
2) Fabián el Gitano, Molotov, Sensei b Arkangel de la Muerte, Puma King, Tiger Kid
3) Fuego b Cancerbero [lighting]
4) Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sujei b Lady Apache, Luna Mágica, Marcela
5) La Máscara, Máximo, Toscano b Jushin Lyger, Shigeo Okumura, Yoshihashi
6) La Sombra, Místico, Shocker DQ Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Shocker & Mistico where wearing matching outfits. At least they were, until Mr. Niebla pulled Sombra’s mask for the DQ. Two straight weeks with those two in the finish, which should indicate next week’s main event. (It doesn’t, different direction.) The Mistico/Sombra best buddies bit is the programming equivalent of Chessman’s moonsault. There’s no teasing it, there’s no letting the fans anticipate the union, they just jumped ahead to being friends in such a way to make it mean less.

Semimain tecnico win is a slight upset.

Second match was a sweep for the tecnicos. Rudos ripped up masks in the first, but got pinned there and the second. This week, they were setting up a Fabian/Sensei vs Puma/Tiger mask match, just days after trying to get a Angel de Oro/Puma King feud over in press release. This feud is the opposite, all tease and no action. It’s like a booking version of Golidlocks and the Three Bears, except we don’t get that bed that’s just right too often.

Masked Warriors: the Lucha Libre USA group on MTV2 will be taping in the 18,000 seat Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on 08/07. Tickets are in the usual range, $20 at the cheapest, $58 for the closest. Since both tapings had everyone move closer to the ring, and neither of those tapings cracked 300 people (1/60th of capacity of this building), I’m thinking you should buy the cheap tickets.

The TV is going to have to be a huge, dramatic success for this show to work. AAA did not do well in similar size buildings, and they were coming in with more recognizable names. The other two tapings proved that just putting lucha libre on the billboard wasn’t enough to draw. This is all reliant on the TV show being something people really want to see live. The promotion and/or the network doesn’t seem that excited about the TV taped so far, or they wouldn’t have shown so little of it and so much of the AAA footage. I’d like to see everyone do well, but this is ridiculousness.

By my count, Masked Warriors doesn’t actually have enough tapings to make it to this 08/07 taping. At 3 episodes a taping, they’re out of footage by 07/27. There’s been no mention of a July taping and it sounds like there won’t be one.

Friday night AAA TV: It looks like neither Dos de Tres or AAA’s website made the trip to Carmen for the taping. When Dorian Roldan wasn’t busy arguing with Rob – I am not making that up – he did mention Alex & Christina won the mixed tag titles. There was talk in a recent Wrestling Observer about AAA being unhappy with Rain and Von Eerie likely getting her spot, and that seems to be the deal there. I’ve thought Blade was the lesser of the two Gringas Locas, but Rain has seemed to slip of late. Also, Halloween & Damian beat Jack & Rocky, as expected. I’ll do a separate post with full results if/when they come in.

I’d like to pretend that Dorian handed his phone off to someone, and actually did have better things to do during an AAA TV taping than to go back and forth with Rob on Aerostar. There’s surely dead time to do to tweet during an AAA show (that’s when I return emails), but you’d hope the guy who supposed to be running the place has his focus elsewhere. Maybe I’ve made a false assumption in this paragraph. I will say, it was a nice change of pace from Dorian’s normally quite boring twitter posts of complaining about travel and chatting back and forth with girls.

Ras de Lona did not have much news. Dragon Rojo’s injury is to his lower back. They played Mistico’s challenge to Lyger for a title match in Guadalajara, so that may actually be happening.

Perros del Mal hyped Heddi Karou (unknown guy from France, presumably a different group than the one Sangre Azteca works with), Naruto (Brazilian, I think, based on the phone number they left on the picture for who knows what reason; tough to research a guy with that name), Ragde and Pesdailla for the Lucha Libre Expo show. That sounds like a tag amtch.

Laredo Kid taught his first class at his wrestling school, with guest instructor Aerostar. Both pitch as something for the kids to do while they’re on summer vacation. Laredo mentions his brothers, also luchadors, will lead the classes when he’s not around. The plural is interesting, since we Oscuridad is the only brother we know of.

Newspaper recap of an AAA show in Durango says the attendance was bad, as was the main event.

LLF canceled their show last night due to Hurricane Alex.

Estrellas del Ring has an interview with returning Morelos area wrestler Starbick.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Lineup

CMLL hasn’t posted their lineups, but Ras de Lona had Friday’s as

CMLL (FRI) 07/09 Areno Mexico
1) Bengala & Horus vs Artillero & Súper Comando
2) Molotov, Molotov, Sensei vs Durango Kid, Puma King, Tiger Kid
3) Mascarita Dorada vs Pierrothito [lighting]
4) Máximo, Sagrado, Valiente vs Shigeo Okumura, Vangelis, Yoshihashi
5) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Averno, Jushin Lyger, Mephisto
6) La Máscara, La Sombra, Volador Jr. vs Héctor Garza, Mr. Águila, Olímpico

Negro vs Lyger, finally. Garza, not with the invaders, teams with the invaders. And Volador is a tecnico unless he’s facing Mistico, unless there’s a turn here.

CMLL (SAT) 08/28 Domo Polideportivo, Zona 13, Guatemala
1) Pegasso & Slayer vs Asesno & Loco Max
2) Ángel de Oro & Ángel de Plata vs Puma King & Tiger Kid
3) Rayo Chapin, Toscano, Voltron vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
4) Hijo del Fantasma & Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr. & Sangre Azteca
5) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Shocker vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano

Retry for this show, which was canceled the first time. Lineup is a little shuffled but basically the same guys.

CMLL (FRI) 07/02 Arena Mexico [@cmllmagazine]
1) Metálico & Tigre Blanco b Disturbio & Semental
2) Fabián el Gitano, Molotov, Sensei b Arkangel de la Muerte, Puma King, Tiger Kid
3) Fuego b Cancerbero [lighting]
4) Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sujei b Lady Apache, Luna Mágica, Marcela
5) La Máscara, Máximo, Toscano b Jushin Lyger, Shigeo Okumura, Yoshihashi
6) La Sombra, Místico, Shocker DQ Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

04/15: new non-champion, Prision Fatal, bad week, CMLL DF lineups,

CMLL.com says Lady Apache has relinquished the Mexican National Women’s Championship. Apache had held the title since 2004, and thru multiple jumps between AAA and CMLL. Before Lady Apache’s first jump, it’d been AAA’s top year-round women’s title. Somewhere along the line, the belt became Lady Apache’s personal championship.

Historically, wrestlers are supposed to drop any National title they hold when they win a World championship in the same division. Lady Apache didn’t, and I presumed it was to guarantee she’d still have a belt when CMLL wanted to move their title onto someone else. Apache dropping the Mexican title would seem to mean she’s not worried about losing the CMLL belt for quite a while. I guess there’s a small chance the commission actually complained about the situation.

(That would also mean it may be a long time before Dark Angel wins a belt, since she wouldn’t be eligible for the Mexican title and would be aced out of the World title.)

CMLL says they’ll run a decision match for the belt in Arena Mexico soon.

According to Ovaciones, today’s IWRG main event is now a La Prision Fatal match, with 10 guys putting up their hair and masks:
– Astro Boy
– Okumura
– Masada
– Fantasma de la Opera
– Kai
– Yamato
– Dr. Cerebro
– Cerebro Negro
– Kraneo
– Esfinge

IWRG’s site is still down.

Ovaciones has a list of Bad Things That Happened This Week
04/07 – Referee El Acapulco died
04/07 – La Parka Jr.’s car accident
04/09 – Loco Max fractured two ribs in Puebla
04/12 – Dos Caras suffered a concussion
04/12 – when a dive goes wrong, Ultimo Dragoncito bruised his testicles
Next Tuesday, Puebla regular Asturiano is undergoing knee surgery.

The latest update on La Parka Jr., also from Ovaciones, is that he’s in Mexico city, and he’s got multiple fractures in his left arm and shoulder.

CMLL cards for the week

CMLL (TUE) 04/17 Arena Coliseo Lineup
1) Tiger Kid, Molotov vs Polvora, Vaquero
2) Marcela, Sahori, Luna Magica vs Hiroka, Amapola, Mima Shimoda
3) Felino, Maximo, Virus vs Ephesto, Misterioso Jr., Arkangel
4) Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo de Lizmark, Negro vs Halloween, Mr. Aguila, Terrible
5) Alex Koslov vs Atlantis

Big match for Koslov. I don’t think Tiger Kid works a non-IWRG show without Felino. Assuming Tiger Kid is the same guy as Kid Tiger, which may kill me down the road.

CMLL (FRI) 04/20 Arena Mexico
1) Danger & Moltov vs Caligula & Messala
2) Leono, Valiente, Virus vs Euforia, Nosfearatu, Satanico
3) Alex Koslov, Blue Panther, Ultimo Dragon vs Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca, Tarzan Boy
4) Mistico, Negro Casas, Sagrado vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto
5) Marco Corleone, Rey Bucanero, Shocker vs Atlantis, Olimpico, Ultimo Guerrero

This could be an excellent gauge of High Society’s popularity. I figure there will be people leaving after the semimain. It’s Euforia and Nosferatu’s Arena Mexico debuts, and they may make it on CAN52 from here.

CMLL (SUN) 04/22 Arena Mexico – though CMLL doesn’t seem to note this site change on their site, so I dunno. Maybe next week instead?
1) Rayo Tapatio I & Rayo Tapatio II vs Polvora & Vaquero
2) Brillante, Tiger Metalico, Tigre Blanco vs Apocalipsis, Dr. X, Hooligan
3) Diana la Cazadora, Marcela, Sahori vs Amapola, Gatubela, Princesa Sujei
4) Hijo de Lizmark, Maximo, Texano Jr. vs Damian 666, Halloween, Mr. Aguila
5) Mistico, Rey Bucanero, Sagrado vs Atlantis, Black Warrior, Eclipse

That semimain is 5/6th rematch. I think it’s possible they switch Lizmark and Sagrado and go with a title match after the show tonight, but then again, this might be the Kids Show and why have the rudos get the win there? This is actually Diana la Cazadora’s first Arena Coliseo match, she’s worked a handful of Arena Mexico matches. I presume this Gatubela is the same women who was working in Arena Coliseo Monterrey in 2003 (and must’ve changed her name, since I haven’t seen her mentioned since – there’s a male wrestler also using that name.)

Brillante is the same guy as Brilliante Jr. in AOL – is he the same guy as the one in Xalapa? I have no idea of the geography of these things.

CMLL FSE has
04/08 Leono, Stuka Jr., Virus b Dr. X, Jeque, Loco Max
04/08 Damián 666, Halloween, Mr. Águila b Máximo, Satánico, Tigre Metálico

FSE is much quieter than the rest of my channels for some reason.

Accion

CMLL: Tag Team Titles. We get a wide shot of the stage side, and the building does lock packed. Mistico bleeds a bunch here – there’s not a focus on it, but the upper half of his mask is turned red.

AAA: Muerte/Kenzo vs Charly/Chessman – more tag team action than you can shake a stick at. Kenzo’s selling is unusual. Chessman embraces his inner high spot demon and tries a top rope corkscrew moonsault. That fails, and the Legion gets the heat. Konnan gets out of his wheelchair long enough to use a cane to cheat, but the Hell Brothers make a comeback and Charly wins with an inverted figure four on Kenzo.

AAA’s TV tapings start back up tonight with a TV in Veracruz. Note that the main event will obviously have to change with no Parka – maybe Intocable or Octagon in his spot?