AAA ended their year by crowning El Patron Alberto as champion, ending the two year reign of Texano Jr. That match and Aerostar unmasking Super Fly were the biggest and best matches on the show, both delivering on the stories they’d told to that point to the crowd’s approval. The undercard was more of a preview for 2015: Pentagon Jr. & Joe Lider won the tag team titles to set up Myzteziz & Fenix as challengers, the women continue to have pull apart brawls, and an unexplained angle led to Cibernetico showing up about 3 minutes after his match ended. (His team did not win.) TripleMania was arguably the best AAA show of the year, but Guerra de Titanes was not far behind. AAA’s TV backlog means this won’t air until January, though it did air on PPV (but not iPPV.)
CMLL did not run a Year End Show in 2013. CMLL ran a Year End Show in 2014, an Infierno en el Ring cage match. 2013 was better. Felino lost his hair to Rey Bucanero in a finish that was not surprising, not interesting, and not any good. CMLL’s year end shows have been notoriously poor in recent years (the last good one was in 2009), but this was still bad by any standard. Bucanero was immediately thrust into a feud with Volador Jr., who could mean in an unimpressive match in 2015.
Octagon, who earlier said he quit AAA to go his own way, is now claiming he was unfairly fired by AAA and is suing for back pay. Octagon is not suing for his own name, saying he owns it and AAA tried to take it away from him. (AAA’s continued to make merchandise deals with an Octagon like figure on it, but have said they’re Octagoncito items.) Octagon has gone to every gossip show who will have him to talk about this the last couple of weeks, while AAA has said nothing.
CMLL’s not done much on it’s Friday night shows, but has put together much better main events on it’s less attended Tuesday shows. Virus kept his lightweight title over Dragon Lee, and Guerrero Maya & Delta kept their tag team titles over Cavernario & Hechicero. Both are reported to be great matches, but it’s unclear why these matches are happening on Tuesday while CMLL’s bigger shows are not good. (It’s totally unclear why CMLL does anything.)
Lucha Underground continued to produce very good shows to a small audience. They’re taping in January, though they’re also not announcing the tape dates until January.
El Patron Alberto added ROH matches to the wide array of promotions he’ll be working for in 2014. There are reports he’s been contacted by Bellator as well. Alberto’s said to have not actually signed with Lucha Underground yet, but is still expected to be there in January.
CMLL announced they’d run shows of young wrestlers and trainees on Saturdays in Arena Coliseo. CMLL announced the debut show, which had the same people CMLL books on pretty much every show. No explanation.
CMLL moved their Sunday Guadalajara shows to Fridays. They did not announce this – the cards were just listed as Friday suddenly, with people who were actually already booked in Arena Mexico. CMLL then threw together an unimpressive card with people actually available to work a Friday card (the move was appeared to be a surprise to the people who book these shows) but actually did OK attendance because it was a holiday. There’s been no explanation of the move nor any particular promotion for it
Ramstein & Cholo, masked rudos who’ve been stuck in the opening match forever, are now feuding with rising stars Star Jr. & Soberano Junior. CMLL’s held an apuesta match with opening match wrestlers in January the last few years, and these four may be this year’s finish.
Marco Corleone was knocked silly when the top rope snapped and hit him hard in the back of the head. It looked bad, and ended his singles match with Terrible, but he was fine and wrestling again the next day.
Syuri won CMLL’s Women’s Title from Marcela in Japan.
Aeroboy’s first Alto Impacto title reign, and the third title change of the year (Jinzo->Septimo Dragon->Drastick Boy->Aeroboy) Tercera Caida has a lot of highlights of the DTU show and this should air there (though maybe it’ll take a week to catch up.)
I think Black Fire & Slayer Pack are winning the DTU NEXO tag team titles, and where else are you going to get DTU title match predictions.
All tecnico wins. Semimain sounds really good, as expected. It seems to take everyone two tries to win the titles and it would not be a surprise to see Cavernario & Hechicero get another shot come this spring. Meanwhile, Guerrero Maya is doing a wonderful job of building up a match in CMLL that only ChilangaMask will actually book.
Today’s Lucha Underground has pretty much everyone in action. There will be two 10 person matches, an elimination match and a battle royal, and Lucha Underground has just enough people to fill out those matches. (They appeared to be surprises on the show, but they’ve been advertising them all week so it doesn’t feel spoiler-ish.) Blue Demon is not back, but the guys who Mil Muertes obliterated do return. There’s a teaser up – it appears to be the elimination match even though there’s a battle royal graphic.
The Lucha Underground Twitter reminded people they’re off for the year after today’s show, then back for 31 shows. We knew that, but it never occurred me until now that means they’re running all the way to August 5th if things go right. The original schedule had them taking off the summer, but then it got nudged back a little bit and the holidays causing them a skip a couple episodes stretches it out more. The plan is to run 40 episodes a year, and they might have simply a 6-8 weeks before starting up again.
I totally missed this, but go watch this match from IWRG (should start around 6:40). Look way into the background, and then be surprised as AYM does some accidentally good camera work as Toscano starts to attack fans. Nothing seems to come of this.
Pegasso replaces Rey Cometa on the Saturday debut show.
IWRG (SUN) 12/21/2014Arena Naucalpan ***Arena Naucalpan 37th Anniversary***
1) Dragón Celestial & Metaleón vs Araña de Plata & Hip Hop Man
2) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Apolo Estrada Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Electro Boy, Imposible
3) Emperador Azteca, Pantera I, Suicida vs Chicano, Eterno, Oficial 911
4) Black Terry & Negro Navarro vs Trauma I & Trauma II
5) Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs X-Fly, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Máscara Año 2000, Oficial AK47, Máscara Sagrada, Súper Nova, Canis Lupus [cage, hair, mask]
Oficial AK47 and x-Fly seem the favorites to lose, but Pirata Sr. or Mascara Sr. aren’t impossible. Just unlikely.
Terry/Navarro vs Traumas rematch.
CMLL (TUE) 12/23/2014Arena México
1) Bengala & Robin vs Apocalipsis & Camorra
2) Leono, Magnus, Sensei vs Artillero, Canelo Casas, Súper Comando
3) Soberano Jr., Starman, Stigma vs Cholo, Nitro, Raziel
4) Marcela vs Zeuxis [lightning]
5) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Super Porky vs Morphosis, Olímpico, Tiger
6) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Máximo vs Felino, Kráneo, Terrible
Holiday vacations: semimain Morphosis & Olimpico. No Star Jr. or Ramstein in the tercera, but maybe they’ll pop up later.
CMLL (TUE) 12/23/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Reycko & Virgo vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno
2) Astral, Meteoro, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pierrothito
3) Esfinge, Gallo, Tritón vs Hombre sin Nombre, Pierroth, Sagrado
4) Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Boby Zavala, Mr. Águila
5) La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Thunder
Semimain might be good depending on which Mr. Aguila shows up.
The start of a deluge of the usual Christmas Day shows. (Don’t count on anything being taped because there’s a lot of places to be.) Main event should be great, semimain was at least interesting when they met in IWRG. Fourth match is listed as Neza Boys versus Gringos and I think Trauma I needs to wear the big USA flag top hat.
Skyman was supposed to be back in the segunda, but is still not able to return. Three months turned out to be a conservative estimate.
Today is Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Barbaro Cavernario & Hechicero. It should be great. I have no idea who’s going to win. Delta & Maya are the regular team, Cavernario and Hechicero are not in the same group, and, whether by coincidence or plan, these Arena Coliseo Tag Team championships never change hands in Arena Mexico. On the other hand, this feels a lot like Titan’s En Busca de un Idolo year, where he didn’t win the title match he got from the tournament but finished the year by winning a different title because CMLL realized he was actually really good. And CMLL’s definitely realized Cavernario is really good based on how they’ve used him of late. (Hechicero is also not bad.) I’m thinking Maya & Delta probably retain but I’m not sure.
Blue Panther Jr. vs Sangre Azteca are the lightning match, and should be on YouTube sometime around 9pm. Main event is a Rey Cometa, Super Porky, Valiente versus Ephesto, Hombre sin Nombre and Mephisto trios; the preview suggests HsN is a permanent member of the trio but this is first time all three have teamed up in a while. The Cholo/Ramstein vs Soberano/Star Jr. feud has made it’s way over to Tuesdays, and the rudos have won every match in the feud so far. If that mask match is happening on 01/06, a holiday, then they’re about 3 weeks away from it and maybe still too early to announce it.
Guadalajara’s main event is a similiar to Sunday’s Terra one: Atlantis, Marco and Sombra versus REy Bucanero, Shocker and Terrible. Zeuxis versus Princesa Sugehit meet in the lightning match.
Octagon says he left AAA in March to work on the indies, then was really confused he wasn’t booked on any of the AAA big shows and was fired in October. I do not understand so many things, and that last sentence is one of them. Octagon says he’s not suing for the name – because he says he owns the name – but he wants back pay, vacation and anything else owed to him by the law. Octagon says he’s taking up the cause for Fuerza Guerrera, Tirantes and the guys who became CMLL’s Invasors – he didn’t seem to be behind that cause until now. Those guys also sued AAA for similar reasons and made it sound like they were going to get something out of it but Histeria, Psicosis and Alebrije all gave up using there name on TV eventually. I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but it does seem clear that Octagon wants to being a lot of attention to it because he’s been doing interviews about it on TV for the last couple of weeks.
Hooligan, who’s definitely the current Hombre sin Nombre, is listed as working in Arena Olimpico Laguna. Which is strange, because Hombre sin Nombre (and Dragon Rojo) are booked on the Saturday debut Arena Coliseo show.
That Dragon/Polvora lightning match on Sunday was not exciting. Maybe the title match will be better.
Lucharama (SUN) 12/28/2014 Deportivo 18 de Marzo, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal 1) Astro Rey Jr., Benji Marverick, Psico Kid vs Fulgor I, Fulgor II, Kastigador 2) Toscano vs Carta Brava Jr. (AAA) WCS promotion match 3) Chica Ye-Ye, Demasiado, Estrella Divina vs Arkanos, Kilvan, Yoruba Fusion Ichiban promotion match 4) Fly Metalik, Terremoto Negro, Wotan vs Arez, Belial, Impulso 5) Guerrero Del Bronx & Rolling Boy vs Gallo Tapado Jr. & Hijo de Clímax and Estrella Blanca Jr. & Hijo De Estrella Blanca and Celta King Jr. & Maquina Infernal Jr. 6) Fly Star, Rayo Star, Sky Man vs Andy Boy, Danger King, Guerrero Mixtico CaraLuchas promotion match 7) Aeroboy & Violento Jack vs Galaxy & Ursus (Queretaro) Haciendo La Lucha (Queretaro) match 8) Power Bull & Psique vs Angel Jr. & Lokillo ILM promotion match 9) Aguila Oriental, Blacky, Brazo Jr., Glaactar vs Chalry Boy, Hermano Muerte Jr., Jorge El Salvaje, Ojo de Tigre Jr. 10) Andy Barrow & Villano III vs Aguila Enmascarado & Último Vampiro 11) Jimmy (DTU), Kevin (DTU), Tony (DTU) vs ?, Black Fire, Slayer Pack DTU promotion match 12) Payaso De Plata & Payaso Extremo vs Aguila Enmascarada & Demente Extreme 13) Donatello (AULL), Miguel (AULL), Rafael (AULL) vs Ave Negra (AULL), Discordia, Ironía (Estado de México) AULL promotion match 14) ? & Master Fly I vs ?? & Master Fly II WMC promotion match 15) Ave De Fuego, Criss Boy, Furier, Látigo, Septimo Rayo vs Arceus, Caballero De Plata, Juventud Venegas, Rudy Venegas, Shadow Futura Lucha Libre promotion match
This is a thing. It’s the Lucharama Expo, with free admission and the usual bit of people selling merchandise at tables along with the matches. I’m not even sure if these are all the matches, they’re just the ones announced so far on their Facebook. There will also be a photo exhibition with the best Black Terry Jr., Zao, and Rostro Oculto photos to battle it out. (There’s a funny skit to set that up.) May go to 11.
La Lucha Se Le Hace was a repeat. TVD Feed wasn’t working for Puebla. Puedo pagar 9 dólares y ver todos los espectáculos NJPW, pero ninguna cantidad de dinero puede conseguir a mí Rush contra Sr. Niebla.
IWRG never aired the Wednesday show. Or they’re going to air it out of order, that’s always possible.
Leyenda Inmortales was also recorded and will go up sometime later.
IWRG (SUN) 12/14/2014Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Galaxy b Shadow Boy Shadow Boy, making his main show debut after appearing on the last two FILL shows, replaced Atomik Star.
2) Hip Hop Man, Liderk, Rayan b Centvrión, Pantera I, Suicida First match here for Pantera I (at least by this name) since January 2000 – though our notes from that far back have a lot of holes. Mike Segura only hasn’t been here since February 2003. In their big return, they lost to two Comando Elite and Hip Hop Man.
3) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo DQ Apolo Estrada Jr., Canis Lupus, Imposible, Oficial AK47
4) Black Terry & Negro Navarro DQ Trauma I & Trauma II Traumas used a chian to take the first, then Terry & Navarro were DQed when they got the chain and used it in the second. This didn’t stop Terry and Navarro from attacking the Traumas after the match.
5) Chicano, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, X-Fly b Hijo De Dos Caras, Relámpago, Toscano
6) Danny Casas DQ Oficial 911 [hair] Seconds were Apolo Estrada (Danny) and X-Fly in an Team America jersey and funny wig (911). 911 took the first fall quick. Casas used a casita for the second. Both bled in the third fall. X-Fly had the bright idea to throw powder at Danny Casas in the third, ref saw it and called the DQ. Oficial 911 was not thrilled with X-Fly for that one and fought him before getting his hair shaved. AK-47 showed up to attack X-Fly too.
Arena Puebla tonight has the Negro Casas & Shocker vs Maximo & La Mascara title match. A title change would be a significant surprise.
Just a reminder because people are likely to freak out about it this week: this Wednesday’s Lucha Underground is the last before a break for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. It’s off both El Rey and Unimas. (El Rey will air a marathon of episodes on New Years Eve; Unimas will just go back to movies.) This break was planned before the first episode aired, and had nothing to do with whatever they’re doing in the ratings. Lucha Underground has four more episodes taped which will air after that break, and are expected to start taping in January (though there are hints the start date might have shifted a week or so.)
CMLL (FRI) 12/12/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Domingos Familiares]
1) Dr. Frezzer & Explosivo b El Yaqui & Furia Nazi Straight falls. Yaqui suffered an injury on a fall.
2) El Chakal, Jocker, Sádico b El Divino, Javier Cruz Jr., Virgo Rudos took 2/3. Idolo Jr. was listed as debuting, but replaced by Virgo.
3) Esfinge, Exterminador, Magnum b Maléfico, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno Esfinge submitted Malefico. Exterminador was annoyed because he wanted the win.
4) Pitbull I, Pitbull II, Satánico b Flash I, Flash II, Solar I Originally a Zavala/Olimpico appearance against locals, then a trios with El Dandy, then a trios with Satanico. Rudos took 2/3.
5) Oro Jr., Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr. b Canelo Casas, Hijo del Signo, Mr. Águila
Even with the late day change, attendance looked to be about normal.
CMLL (SUN) 12/14/2014Arena México [CMLL]
1) Akuma & Inquisidor b Bengala & Sensei Rudos took 2/3.
2) Dark Angel, Lluvia, Marcela b Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora Tecnicas took 2/3.
3) Ángel de Oro, Rey Cometa, Titán b Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sagrado Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Pólvora b Dragón Rojo Jr. [lightning] Polvora won via walking Polvora Driver in 7:10, a slight upset.
5) Máscara Dorada, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Vangellys Tecnicos took 1/3. Valiente had an ad for Omega Lab on his mask.
6) Atlantis, La Sombra, Marco Corleone DQ Negro Casas, Shocker, Thunder Sombra & Marco did not get along with Atlantis early. Tecnicos took 2/3, Thunder choosing to foul Marco when he could’ve just fouled him.
Imposible/Metaleon should be good, Canis Lupus/Eterno will probably end up a brawl, but I have no idea how that main event is going to go.
CMLL (FRI) 12/19/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Tapatío & Explosivo vs Relampago & Thunder Boy
2) Dr. Frezzer & Virgo vs El Chakal & Furia Nazi
3) Leo & Omar Brunetti vs Évola & Ráfaga
4) Gallo, Hombre Bala Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Maléfico, Okumura
5) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Super Porky vs Ephesto, Kráneo, Mephisto
With an extra week to prepare, the Friday night shows have actual main event wrestlers. Or what passes for main event wrestlers in CMLL at the moment. CMLL’s roster is deep enough that they should have enough for two quality main events every Friday – it’s kind of what they’re trying to do on Tuesdays. It’s going to be tricker on those rare occasions someone in Tijuana uses CMLL wrestlers.
The Okumura/Gallo feud will not die. For some reason.
Dragon Rojo Jr. replaces Mascara Dorada on the start of Saturday Coliseo shows. Those show start at 7:30pm local, so people going to them will be wandering out into a bad neighborhood around 10pm at night. Cheap tickets though, gives you more reason not to bring much money.
CMLL (SUN) 12/21/2014Arena México
1) Molotov & Robin vs Akuma & Inquisidor Molotov’s first appeareance since August 26
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Starman, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Hijo del Signo, Metálico, Nitro
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Boby Zavala, Puma, Tiger
4) Fuego vs Pólvora [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hombre sin Nombre, Vangellys
6) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Thunder vs Máscara Dorada, Valiente, Volador Jr.
No sign of any program here during the holiday season (The Cholo/Ramstein vs Star Jr./Soberano Jr. one seems permanently moved to Tuesdays.) At least the tercera and fourth should be good.