What happened: Volador beat La Sombra to keep the NWA Welterweight Championship, taking the second fall by DQ and the third fall by Guillotine Deprepedador (a new official name for the Volador Spiral.) Sombra wanted to give credit to Volador for the win, Mascara & Rush didn’t, and Rush & Sombra nearly fought over it. Super Comando and The Panther continued to feud in the second match, though the finish involved Esfinge & Raziel.
What was good: aThe main event was at the usual standard of Sombra/Volador matches. The minis opener was the only other worth watching.
Where can I watch it: You can’t. This was an live only iPPV. The top two matches will air on Lucha Azteca on 11/14
The first of CMLL’s two Dia de Muertos shows takes place today. Luchadors and edecanes will dress in makeup and costume to fit in with the traditional Mexican celebration of the dead. The entire arena will have a special look for the next couple of days. And, they’ll also be having wrestling matches – Volador versus Sombra once again, this time for the NWA Welterweight Championship
This will be the 24th known Volador/Sombra match since they started feuding in 2010. Volador leads 11-10 with two ties. It’ll be the 21st to air on a TV show. It’s their third match this year: Volador won in April in Arena Mexico and August in Arena Puebla. Volador has won the last five matchups. He’s coming in as champion and seems likely to win again. This is the signature feud of this last decade of CMLL. I wish CMLL had gone with something fresh for an iPPV, but if only hardcore fans are going to buy this (and only some hardcore fans are going to buy this), then maybe you go with the one match you know will work for those fans.
The rest of the show has, at best, middle chapters of ongoing feuds. The semimain is Maximo, Valiente, and Super Parka versus Rush, La Mascara and Marco Corleone. CMLL’s preview teases Rush and Super Parka may continue feuding. The fourth match was scheduled to have Ultimo Guerrero versus Thunder, but Ultimo Guerrero is out of action (and believed to be injured). It’ll instead just be a random trios match with Thunder, Boby Z, and Dragon Rojo facing Euforia, Gran Guerrero and Mr. Niebla. The best undercard match of the night will probably be The Panther, Esfinge, and Oro Jr. versus Super Comando, Raziel and Skandalo, continuing the Panther/Comando feud.
The show is on iPPV for a listed price of $6 USD. It was actually $7.62 when they added in fees for me this morning. If you did not change your clock for daylight savings this past week (if you live in the US or Japan), the show will start one hour later than usual. It’ll start at 10:30pm in New York. You can find the time where you live here.
I haven’t checked this out thoroughly, but I believe today’s iPPV is the only wrestling one where the winners will go to a heavenly paradise and the losers will be dragged to hell.
Speaking of hell, there’s no update on the Alberto situation. The Monterrey (Sunday) and Reynosa (Monday) promoters continue to advertise Alberto on the show. If AAA sent an updated lineup to Juarez, they probably also have one for these shows – or maybe not, if they really believe (believed?) Alberto is working those shows.
Random German TV segment on lucha libre includes the host trying to learn lucha libre from Guerrero Maya, though it’s mostly him getting beat and falling badly. There’s a few trainees with masks I’ve never seen and Canelo Casas turns up as a mask maker.
AAA MM (THU) 11/05/2015 Gimnasio Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco
1) Dinastía & Mascarita Sagrada vs Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Charly Manson
2) Goya Kong & Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba & Sexy Star
3) Angélico, Australian Suicide, Jack Evans vs Daga, Joe Lider, Taurus
4) Fénix & La Parka vs Cibernético & Pentagón Jr.
CMLL has a iPPV tomorrow! You may have heard. It’s $6. It’s also starting an hour late because of daylight time (which will also affect all the Mexican based shows on Saturday.)
AAA is the taping after Myzteziz left but before Alberto left. It also has what looks like a really good first two matches.
I believe Claro Sports (the TV channel) is ending up with the Tuesday lucha and the Sunday lucha is getting orphaned. I’m not 100% sure that starts this week and it may be a while before everything settles into place. Plus, I don’t get Claro Sports so I might not be able to tell for a while. (And the show seems to be bumped to Friday & Sundays now?)
LATV may get Negro Casas versus Titan, a great looking lightning match which hasn’t turned up yet. I don’t get LATV either – we’ve reached the point where there’s (only!) four hours of CMLL on normal TV stations and I can only get two hours, the hours which are already aired live on the internet.
I hope everyone wears scary robes for the Castle of Terror IWRG match. Not even kidding.
AAA TV (SUN) 11/15/2015Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
1) Aéreo, Dragón, Latino vs Centinela, Mr. Alfa, Pagano probably a locals dark match
2) Dinastía vs Mini Abismo Negro [AAA MINI] Dinastia’s 7th defense (5 on TV, 2 unofficially on spot shows) and first since June.
3) Australian Suicide & Speedball vs Daga & Steve Pain
4) Garza Jr., Monsther Clown, Murder Clown vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro
5) Blue Demon, Electroshock, La Parka vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Parka Negra, Taurus
6) ?, Psycho Clown, Rey Misterio Jr. vs Averno, Chessman, Cibernético
Poster here. The silhouette appears to be Myzteziz, but I’m 95% sure they just blacked him out becauase he was already in that spot in the original promo and it won’t him in the match.
Every match but the local match has been changed with Myzteziz and Alberto (and for reasons less clear but perfectly fine with me, Joe Lider) all off the show. This is not the last card to change; Wrestling Observer earlier reported Alberto el Patron is expected to go to RAW on Monday and not Nuevo Laredo. That leaves Guerra de Titanes as the only TV date Alberto could working, but that seems incredibly doubtful at this point.
Whatever’s going to happen to handle that will happen on Monday, and this will be the peaceful aftermath and/or a frantic attempt to put together a new card for Guerra de Titanes. On that note, it might be important that it’s the trios champions together in the main event in a non-title match – or it might not, since Misterio is probably going to be involved with the title and/or Johnny Mundo.
Averno is now booked in Juarez and Monterrey at the same exact time. Can’t do both. Everyone expects him to jump to Caristico’s side, to the point where I think people may be wanting to will it into happening, but Averno’s been super professional in the past about giving notice about leaving.
This is overall a much better card than the original one. A bonus title match with Dinastia is always welcome, and a much better prospect than the Taurus/Electroshock match. Electroshock instead faces off against ex-friend Hijo del Pirata, which works better for him. The Daga/Steve Pain vs Suicide/Speedball match plays off the Suicide/Daga feud – maybe they have the singles match in December, but I’d be perfectly fine getting that tag match repeatedly.
Important discussion topic: what if Zorro is the guy stalking La Secta? That seems like something Zorro would do. Zorro versus Garza Jr. seems correct in general.
AAA TV (SUN) 11/15/2015Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
1) Aéreo, Dragón, Latino vs Centinela, Mr. Alfa, Pagano probably a locals dark match
2) Dinastía & Mascarita Sagrada vs Mini Charly Manson & Mini Psycho Clown
3) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Daga, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Steve Pain
4) Electroshock vs Taurus [bull terrier]
5) Blue Demon & La Parka vs Joe Lider & Parka Negra
6) El Patrón Alberto & Rey Misterio Jr. vs Averno & Myzteziz
Air Date: 11/21 (very iffy that far out.)
Pagano’s working the opener, so Pagano shared the card. (It doesn’t look like the “official” AAA card because the text on the bottom looked edited to include the Ciudad Juarez locals match, but that’s actually more helpful for us.) This taping is out of order and who knows when AAA will officially release it on their own – when AAA can’t issue a statement about Myzteziz after three days, it’s probably not a great idea to count on them sending out their lineups.
Myzteziz himself is listed in the main event, so this’ll change. That match had little chance of it happening anyway; whatever happened between Alberto & Myzteziz didn’t appear to be resolved and it would’ve been tough to get them in the same ring. (That’s issue is more likely to be a reason why Myzteziz left AAA than ‘they were going to have him drop his mask at TripleMania’. AAA doesn’t have the power over it’s luchadors that WWE has over theirs and Myzteziz wasn’t going to lose his mask unless he was happy doing so.) It might have been something where AAA still tried make it happen the day of the show and only changed things then, but it doesn’t really matter now.
This is not a promising lineup as is. That semifinal is very unappetizing. There’s no obvious reason for the bull terrier match (except our new friend Taurus is a bull.) The notAnarkia versus Psycho Circus match probably won’t be the best way to get the new rudo act over, though I think they’re likely to actually win. The minis match should be good, but it’s no sure thing to air. Maybe the main event will be good with the right replacement, but this looks like a skippable taping for the dedicated fan. This is also possibly the last taping before Guerra de Titanes and there’s no obvious clues on what will main event that show.
We haven’t yet seen the 11/06 Xalapa show prior to this, but that figures to turn up from Xalapa people on Facebook soon enough.
What happened:Cavernario kept the welterweight championship over Triton. Negro Casas fouled Mistico in the main event, which doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.
What was good:The Triton/Cavernario match is either the best great match or the least excellent match of the year. The rest of the show was Tuesday filler.
Where can I watch it:It’s on TKD’s YouTube channel.
CMLL PUMA (WED) 10/28/2015Arena México
1) Atlantis, Dragon Lee, Volador Jr. ?? Kamaitachi, Negro Casas, Shocker
2) Mistico b Mephisto exhibtion match. F1 Driver Lewis Hamilton watched from the apron, tagged in once, kicked Mistico and knocked him down with a running plancha. Mephisto celebrated with Hamilton, but eventually lost to La Mistica.
CMLL occasionally does sponsored shows. We normally don’t hear about them. This one went viral. Puma (the shoe company) had a press event at Arena Mexico centered around driver Lewis Hamilton prior to the upcoming F1 race in Mexico City. They had a few wrestling matches, the last one including Hamilton getting in a doing just enough to make for a good video clip. This got picked up everywhere, which was the idea.
IWRG (WED) 10/28/2015Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Bambio, Canario, Fly Tiger b Gafe, Kabra Kan, Skanda
2) Charly Boy, Sexy Girl, Vardeus b Ángel De La Muerte I, Ángel De La Muerte II, Guerrero 2000
3) Acero, Blue Monsther, Macho b Fireman, Rey Flecha, Shadow Boy
4) Picudo Jr., Troll, Violencia Jr. b Galaxy, Rocker Rojo, Vengador
5) Ángel Dorado, Ángel Dorado Jr., Cruz Del Silencio, Emeprador Sayri, Hades, René Rocks, Toro Machine b Alas de Acero, Aramis, Black Drago, Dragón Fly, Hijo del Alebrije, Kanon, Power Bull [Copa Higher Power] Torneo FILL XLVI; Gym FILL versus Gym SCW. Match came down to Latigo & Rene Rocks, with the outsider getting the win. Eterno blamed the loss on Black Terry and vowed revenge.
Usual FILL show.
Is Averno out of AAA? The WON reported he told AAA he was staying back around October 11th and he’s done interviews since indicating the same. However, his name now appears on the FULL 11/15 Arena Jose Sulaiman card, teaming with Toscano & Heavy Metal versus Caristico, Mistico and Zumbi. (That’d also be the first time the two Misticos have teamed.) The promotion is billing it as an AAA vs CMLL match, but neither of those promotions are likely to allow the match if Averno is still working in AAA. Averno leaving AAA has been rumored since the moment Caristico was spotted in Arena Mexico, but again he’s said previously he wasn’t doing it. Could be something to watch out for on Friday’s Arena Mexico show.
Alberto confirmed on Twitter that he’s on WWE’s European tour next week. WWE’s website lists him on those events. That means he’s off the 11/07 ZZinc show. The last show of the tour is 11/14 in England; it’s physically possible for him to get Juarez in time for the AAA TV taping the next day, but it seems unlikely he’d be excited to do that. There are some AAA/ZZInc dates after that where WWE isn’t running (because they’re giving everyone time off after the European tour and before the PPV), but the best bet is Alberto’s just not working any more AAA shows after the next two. Alberto may work on Sunday in Monterrey, Alberto may wrestle in Reynosa on Monday and that’s probably it. Both those promoters are claiming nothing is changing about their cards. AAA still hasn’t said anything about the situation outside of the one Dorian Twitter post – if they knew he was making those shows, it would make sense for AAA to say so, but AAA doesn’t say much.
The WON mentions AAA (Dorian) was told on 10/12 that Alberto was going back to WWE, but dismissed it as another rumor and had no plans to take the Mega title away from him this year. They also say Alberto had been telling people in “recent weeks” he was going back to WWE, but gave the impression it would be in January. Meltzer says one source says the deal was done in mid-September. If that’s correct, Alberto knew he was leaving, could’ve informed AAA and lost the title on Heroes Inmortales before people knew he was going, and decided not to. It’s possible Alberto may still be willing to lose to someone now, but it doesn’t seem like a certain outcome. I talk about AAA tapings where about five different angles happen after once (which usually follow lots where nothing happens), but this is really going to be the busiest taping in quite some time.
Eric Mutter has his picks for who should win the Mega championship. I agree with the #1 pick. Who wins the title is less important to me than how it’s done. We talked about this on the podcast a bit; I’d rather see AAA put the title on the shelf for a few months and come up with a good plan for a next champion than to have some super screwy win because of a need (or requirement) to protect Alberto. AAA is not Japan, where the strength of the heavyweight championship is what drives the company. It’s the star power of the people on top, and no one’s going to become more of a star because an evil referee handed them a belt after eight people ran in. AAA routinely goes months and months between doing anything with the championship – whatever happens in Reynosa, Alberto is going to end up with only two successful title in AAA (both by DQ!) after a near year long reign, and AAA business has apparently been fine. I’d love to see all the titles being defended much more often, because it usually means many more good matches, but AAA’s shown they can go without those title matches for a long time.
The Wrestling Observer also mentions these as the “current taping dates” for Lucha Underground
November: 14, 15, 21, 22
December: 12, 13
January: 9, 10, 16, 17, 30, 31
All shows are Saturdays and Sundays. That’s 12 tapings, so 24 episodes. It’s not clear if that’s the complete season 2, or if there’s more in February/March to come.
Ticket info went out today for the November set of tapings to people who went to the last set of tapings. Check your email immediately if you went to Ultima Lucha. Seats are limited and it looks like they’re inviting back the people who were with them early before letting everyone else in.
The newsletter also mentions Cheerleader Melissa, who worked dark matches near the end of season 1, is currently slated to be Marty the Moth’s sister.
Masked Republic and WWNLive starts four days straight of Viva La Lucha shows this afternoon at 11:30am. (So, probably after you’re reading.) They’re running about the same time on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a similar group of guys but different matches each day. Shows are all $10 for live only and $15 for live + on demand.
A CMLL interview builds up Mr. Niebla versus Thunder, which sounds like some match. There’s no explanation of what’s up with Ultimo Guerrero; the WON says he was hurt in California on Sunday.
Lucha Memes and Arena Pepe Cisneros are co-promoting a show on 11/20 (Friday) in Puebla’s Arena Coliseo San Ramon. Pagano is the first wrestler announced.
Frontera has an interview with Damian 666 about his career.
Cara Lucha (SAT) 11/07/2015Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) ? vs ??
2) Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Centvrión, Fly Warrior, Látigo
3) Aramis, Fly Star, Toxin vs Magnífico I, Magnífico II, Templario
4) Andy Boy, Danger, Guerrero Mixtico vs Drastik Boy, Emperador Azteca, Sensei
5) ? vs ??
6) Carístico vs Flamita, Cavernario, Hechicero
That’s an unusual main event, and subject to change – Flamita’s slated to work the AAA TV the day before working with CMLL people. This is really good card, with every announced match having a chance to be outstanding. People who listened to the podcast last month may recall why the second match is especially interesting.
I’m assuming Sensei here and Espanto on previous shows are part of whatever deal they have with CMLL (you have to give the undercard guys work if you take the main event ones?)
