IWRG (THU) 11/07/2013Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), IWRG]
1) Zurdog b Sky Ángel
2) Araña de Plata, Atomic Star, Electro Boy b Alfa, Hip Hop Man, Omega Atomic Star & Electro Boy (I think) are wearing matching masks and Eterno t-shirts, so they may have formed a tag team.
3) Dragón Celestial, Mr. Leo, Seiya DQ Douki, Fulgor I, Fulgor II Anubis Black made his debut replacing Fulgor I. Douki pulled Leo’s mask for the DQ.
4) Chico Che, Golden Magic, Relámpago b Canis Lupus, Imposible, Saruman Golden beat Lupus, asked for a shot at his title.
5) Alan Extreme, Eterno, X-Fly b Dr. Cerebro, Toscano, Veneno X-Fly used the ropes to beat Toscano.
Toscano lost to X-Fly! Toscano’s got to reevaluate things.
Canis Lupus’ title is the Welterweight one. Golden Magic and Dinamic Black went to a draw for that belt which should’ve set up a rematch, Dinamic Black left town, and Canis Lupus won the vacant title match which didn’t involve Golden Magic. He’s got a good claim there.
Whichever guys are wearing the Eterno shirts – I still struggle matching names with masks for the IWRG new guys – has been wearing them for a while. Not sure if trainees or related.
Tonight’s Arena Mexico has one built up big one match and one which might turn out to be big. The tag team title match promised last month might more or less happen tonight, with La Mascara & Rush facing off against Tama Tonga & Terrible. Tonga & Terrible make more sense as champions, but there might not be enough time to set up another title match before Tonga’s stint ends. In the lightning match, the last match which will air on Terra, Maximo takes on Rey Escorpion. That’s also a belated follow up to the 10/18 show, where Maximo challenged Rey Escorpion to a match after Escorpion took Brazo de Plata’s hair in their super libre plus match. CMLL should make it clear tonight if Maximo/Rey Escorpion is a possibility for the year end match. If not, then the main event may set up Rush/Tonga. Both happening in singles matches seem unlikely, though a tag apuesta match is not impossible.
Marisela Pena says the TV shows for the year are just the ones previously announced: 11/15 Queretaro, 11/22 in Aguascalientes, 12/07 in Tepic (Guerra de Titanes) and 11/14 in Puerto Vallarta. The Guerra de Titanes actual date is confusing – Marisela and Konnan have said the 7th, Dorian said the 8th and they announced the 8th at the last taping. Maybe they’ll run a promo on TV this week and make clear. That schedule means they only have 2 tapings before Guerra de Titanes and much of the card is a mystery. Like Heroes Inmortales, this is not going to be a big deal show.
Mr. Iguana is upset with Culican lucha libre – the local government took away their venue, the luchadors are not training near enough, and the promoters have stopped putting on shows.
Azteca America starts airing a lucha libre program this weekend, Saturday at 2pm CT. It’s listed as “Lucha Azteca” (though it was listed “Lucha Libre” at first; may want to double check you’re still getting it if you previously set it to record.) It appears to be CMLL and my hunch it’s recycled Fox Sports shows. No one’s said anything for sure, so that’s all of a preview I can do.
I will be trying to record/upload this show. However, Azteca America and my DVR do not get along well – it’s as if the channel is a badly buffering web feed which occasionally causes my DVR just to freak out and reboot – so it’s not a sure thing I’ll get it up here. The good thing is, if I’m right about it being just stuff we’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter all that much.
== AAA ==
AAA-Televisa: Part 1 from Tonala. AAA says the AJ/Mesias match will not air until next week, so the trios main event will air for sure, and I’m guessing the Secta/Circus trios match. Women’s trios goes to UTDN in that situation.
== CMLL ==
FOX: Thru daylight savings time mishaps (for real), I know the plan was to air the top 3 matches from last week – the Terra main event (with a questionable shocker), Roja/UG/Volador vs Sombra/Mascara/Mistico, and Tama Tonga vs Rush.
52MX: Should be the two title matches. This would be a good week to skip the GDL match.
C3: Dorada, Mistico, Titan vs Aguila, Niebla and Namajague. Probably another bad show?
TVC Deportes (Puebla): Atlantis & Sombra vs UG & Volador
En Busca de un Idolo: Maybe this week they’ll air the final? This is listed as airing twice on Saturday, I just hope they manage once.
Terra Friday: Maximo vs Rey Escorpion is the friday main event with a promising tercera.
Terra Sunday: Estetas reunite to face Gran Guerrero, Ultimo Guerrero and Mr. Niebla
== Other ==
IWRG-AYM Sports: Which show? Who knows! Maybe tonights. Programming listings have updated a week late to indicate the show airing early
Noches de Coliseo: whatever they did last Sunday and probably even more repeats of the WWL show.
IWL: Unsure, since they ended the last taping and could go to any one of them and didn’t air last week.
DTU: There’s no preview this week. Maybe there’s no new show this week? (It’s moved to 2AM, so you have a wait ahead of you.)
I’ve broken down each luchador’s appearances by shows for this year. I’m counting events appeared on, not matches. (Luchadors are counted once per show, no matter how many matches they’re in.) I’ve only included at least people who’ve appeared on 10 shows. This includes the announced cards for the next week. Table is sorted by total appearances.
Green means more than half of their matches are on that day. Red means less than 10%. The averages are 32.4% of appearances on Sunday, 33.2% on Tuesday and 34.4% on Fridays (I wish there was a way to create a lot of pie graphs quickly.)
The five guys who haven’t appeared on Friday night shows: Genesis, Ramstein, Nosferatu, Zayco, Metatron. That’s who we would expect to see – fringe guys who are still booked a little.
Tuesday is the worst night to be on – bad payoffs to guys CMLL still uses but doesn’t have many plans (or they’d be on a better day.) It’s the night you want to be on the least, and you can tell by the names who get stuck on those shows at the highest rate of their matches: Génesis, Morphosis, Ramstein, Cholo, Zayco, Último Dragoncito, Olímpico, Pequeño Halcón, (poor) Sagrado, Fantasy, Robin, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito, Akuma, Zeuxis, Apocalipsis, Metatrón. Lots of minis, lots of opener people, and fringe Invasors. Meanwhile, Rush and Mistico have appeared rarely.
The person who has the highest percentage of matches on Friday nights is La Silueta. She’s had 17 matches, 12 on Friday, 2 on Sunday and 3 on Tuesday. Maybe she’s not around much because she’s busy on non-Fridays? Seductora is right behind her at 67% by virtue of having 1 more match, on a Sunday. The rest are more traditional top guys.
Magnus has had 3/4ths of his matches this year on Sundays. Camorra, Stigma, Signo and Metalico are high on that list due to their day of the week feuds.
Guerrero Maya has made the most appearances on Sunday (24), Delta has been on the most Tuesdays (24), and Rush (35) is the Friday night star.
CMLL and NJPW announced the list of wrestlers for FantasticaMania. The tour’s being hyped around the in-ring NJPW debut of Mistico (who was on last year’s tour but hurt) and the first appearance here of unmasked Volador Jr. In addition, returning CMLL luchadors Rush, La Sombra, Mascara Dorada, Titan, Maximo, Ultimo Guerrero, Mephisto, Rey Escorpion and Okumura are joined by FantasticaMania debuts Stuka Jr., Rey Cometa, Fuego (Tanahashi’s favorite), Vangellys and Niebla Roja. Those 16 guys will make up an all CMLL show on 01/17 and team/fight the NJPW guys on the other four shows. Namajague is not announced because he’s NJPW, but should be on this tour and be fighting his usual Cometa/Stuka/Fuego rivals. Matches won’t be announced for a while longer. Sombra, Mephisto, and Rey Escorpion are currently singles champions and would figure to defend their titles on the tour. (The Titan/Mephisto seems like a strong possibility for the tour.) If I’m understanding the NJPW translation correctly, both ring announcer Ivan and edecan Ana will also be going – CMLL didn’t mention them, but Ivan’s a regular and CMLL sent Bruni last year.
That’s a big chunk of CMLL luchadors, which is going to leave for some shallow cards back in Mexico that week, especially on the tecnico side. There’s still plenty of quality luchadors who are sticking around, but it would take more creativity than usual to make it work and that’s not something to expect out of CMLL. More likely more minis/womens matches than usual, and an extremely week Tuesday show.
Marisela Pena told a fan on Twitter AAA will tape on 12/14 in Puerto Vallarta. That looks like the year ending show (which doesn’t air until after the 3 weeks of Best Of content; it’d start airing on 01/18 ), but it’s a week or so earlier than usual. So is Guerra de Titanes, and it may just be the way they’re doing things this year. You can tell who won’t be on that taping by looking at Pasion Kristal’s lineup for the same day – La Secta, Toscano, Drago and the exoticos are among those on that show.
Tercera Caida has launched an IWRG.TV YouTube channel with video of Castillo del Terror. I hope this means good things for the TVC Deportes/IWRG relationship (though it’s all the same to me if it’s on YouTube.) Alan Extreme & Golden Magic also discuss the match on Estrellas del Ring.
IWRG (SUN) 11/10/2013Arena Naucalpan
1) Emperador Azteca & Sky Ángel vs Matrix Jr. & Zurdog
2) Alfa & Omega vs Fulgor I & Fulgor II and Atomic Star & Electro Boy
3) Astro Rey Jr., Chico Che, Dragón Celestial vs Imposible, Min Rod, Oficial 911
4) X-Fly vs Veneno, El Hijo del Diablo, Golden Magic, Apolo Estrada Jr., Trauma II, Douki, Spartan, Anubis Black, Picudo Jr., Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Danny Casas, Trauma I, Alan Extreme, Bombero Infernal, Eterno, Saruman, Tony Rivera, Dr. Cerebro, Oficial AK47 [Guerra Revolucionaria, #1 Contenders, Rey del Ring]
Main event is an elimination match where the losers become lumberjacks. Last one left gets a shot at the Rey del Ring title (Oficial 911). Min Rod is probably Nimrod but I’m just going to leave that there. Anubis Black is a new name.
DTU (SUN) 11/10/2013 Academia DTU, Tulancingo, Hidalgo 1) Corazon Latino & Zuzu Divine vs JC MaClean & Jhonky 2) ?, Chica Ye-Ye, Crazy Boy vs ??, Dement Extrem, Kalibus 3) Ángel del Misterio vs Kaleth, Black Fire, Hacker, ??? 4) ??, Pequeno Cobra, Skayde vs ??, Paranoiko, Slayer Pack
Graduation show for a three day seminar; all the mystery people will be trainees. Info about the seminar here – Crazy Boy is teaching the ring psychology class, Skayde is teaching the international wrestling one.
indy (SUN) 11/10/2013Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1) Aereo Kid & Tequlita vs Mini Androide & Miniator 2) Lady Flammer & Naomi vs Katari & Reina De Corazones 3) Muerte Guerrera, Sexi Piscis, Sexy Maciel vs Pequeno Flamer, Red Flamer, Red Flamer Jr. 4) Black Metal (Monterrey) & Euforia vs Ciber Payaso & Mortifero [hair, mask] 5) Darling Boy, Gato Fantasma, Heddi Karaoui vs Bengali, Difunto, Genocida
The card is a usual Monterrey card, but the poster is an amazing disaster. I think someone got paid per font. They still did a better job of highlighting the date and location than other posters I’ve seen.
DTU (SAT) 11/16/2013 Polideportivo Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, Puebla, Puebla 1) ? vs ??, ???, ???? best four wrestlers from the adjacent DTU seminar 2) Optimius vs Kalibus, Lanzeloth, Artikus 3) Black Fire, Hacker, Slayer Pack vs ?, Cíclope, Miedo Extremo 4) Aero Boy & Keira vs Silvie Silver & Violento Jack 5) Ángel del Misterio & Jinzo vs Drastik Boy & Kaleth and ? & Rey Celestial DTU Puebla surprise
This is part of the lucha libre expo they’re holding in Puebla. DTU Puebla Surprise is surely Lucky Boy, and they may just be unsure of what they name they can use or if they’re allowed to reveal who is who yet. My hunch has been Lucky Boy = Venum, but can’t confirm that.
AAA KDNA (SUN) 11/17/2013Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) ? vs ?? [ruleta de la muerte]
4) Pimpinela Escarlata vs Orquídea Negra, ? mystery exotico from AAA
5) Argos & Texano Jr. vs Corazón de Barrio & Hator
6) Daga & el Hijo del Perro Aguayo vs Dark Ozz & Dark Scoria
Hijo del Fantasma appeared on Tercera Caida, talking about his move from CMLL to AAA. The on TV interview was more about the circumstances of his move (he tried to talk to Paco Alonso but was not allowed to do more than send an email, the matchmakers made no attempt to keep him), an after the show conversation posted to YouTube focused more on the poor conditions in CMLL: people in charge of shows leave early, those in charge don’t watch the matches, there’s a lot of obvious favoritism and nepotism, and CMLL lets people go the ring drunk or high. Fantasma was also very excited by the people he now gets to work with in AAA. The conversation was talked a lot about on the internet, but doesn’t seem to have gotten mainstream press attention and CMLL predictably has no reaction.
AAA held it’s first post-Heroes Inmortales taping in Tonala, where the match on the show that got the most attention was actually one for TNA. AJ Styles defended his heavyweight title against Mesias, despite the rudos interfering. La Secta were involved all over the card, again, setting up a hair match among the women and challenging the Psycho Circus to a trios title match. (Both matches seem like they’ll take place at Guerra de Titanes, which is weird because half of La Secta were announced to be in going on AJPW tour and would miss that AAA show. AAA hasn’t mentioned the AJPW trip and it doesn’t seem like there’s an angle coming to write them out.) Two new trios – Juvi’s la Anaraquia and Aerostar’s new Cadetes del Espacio – debuted with wins.
Delta & Guerrero Maya won the Arena Coliseo Tag Team titles Sunday in a very good match. Namajague & Okumura had held the titles for the last few months, and Namajague losing means he’s just about done in CMLL. The main event was a Mephisto/Titan title match, which was derailed by a Mephisto injury and ended in a draw.
CMLL TV starts this Saturday on the Azteca America network (local affiliates across the US.) It’s an hour of some lucha libre, but no idea which building or which day will air. CMLL has not mentioned the existence of this show, as usual, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll have much of an impact.
Talented young rudo Alan Xtreme surprisingly lost his mask in IWRG’s annual Castillo del Terror. Golden Magic won the mask, his second win in this cage match in three years.
CMLL’s main Friday night feud continues to be Tama Tonga versus Rush. Tonga defeated Rush in straight falls last Friday to finally set up the much delayed tag team title match this Friday.
CMLL had two fan/wrestler fights in two days: Namajague hit a fan on Sunday, and Rush had an incident on Monday. There doesn’t appear to be any fallout.
Arena Coliseo Acapulco, formerly a regular CMLL stop, will be torn down.
CMLL held it’s annual mass to honor Oro, who died 20 years ago.
Nuevo Laredo’s Los Podersos won the IWRG trios titles from the Pirata Morgan family.
Fuego won the Occidente (local Guadalajara) Middleweight championship in a bit of a surprise.
A bunch of CMLL luchadoras (Zeuxis, La Vaquerita, Dark Angel) all lost Japanese titles in Japan, in what just happened to be all their last matches in Japan for the time being.
TxT announced a year end show on 11/30, with a midcard hair/mask tournament.
Halcon 2000 lost his mask and Dinamic Black & Fresero won the tag team titles in IWL
CMLL Cantu (MON) 11/04/2013Arena Cuatro Caminos de Nuevo Laredo [Tercera Caida]
3) Hombre Sin Miedo, Kendor Jr., Sobredosis b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan [IWRG IC TRIOS] Piratas came in as champions, but lose to the Los Poderosos in their fifth defense.
It’s always a big surprise when an IWRG team loses IWRG titles outside of IWRG to a team not in IWRG. Maybe there’s a bigger story here, not really sure.
photo by Alexis Salazar
CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2013Arena Mexico [CMLL, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Bengala & Camaleón b Cholo & Espanto Jr.
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Hooligan, Nitro b Oro Jr., Pegasso, Soberano Jr. Arkangel had his new title from Chile.
3) Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany DQ Estrellita, Goya Kong, Marcela DQ for Amapola excessive violence on Marcela.
4) Tritón b Boby Zavala [lightning] Triton surprised Zavala with a cradle. Zavala fouled Triton after the match.
5) Máximo, Super Porky, Thunder b Averno, Ephesto, Shigeo Okumura Mephisto was announced, Misterioso was listed for him on Monday due to the injury Mephisto suffered on Sunday and Okumura ended up in the spot in the end. Maximo kissed Averno for the pin.
6) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Titán DQ Mr. Águila, Mr. Niebla, Namajague Namajague replaced Negro Casas. Niebla unmasked Mistico for the DQ.
On the bottom of a lot of lucha cards, it says card subject to change. It also says missing luchadors will be replaced by other luchadors of the same level. I love Namajague, you love Namajague, we all love Namajague, Namajague is not on the same level as Negro Casas. Not sure what happened here; CMLL will often move other people up when they have lesser replacements so it’s not quite a drop down (which would’ve meant Averno in the main event and Namajague in the semimain.) CMLL also seems to be much more lax on Tuesday shows – we’ve seen both Terrible and Mr. Aguila join in the main event after the match has already started. It seems possible to me CMLL was just expecting Negro Casas to show up and sent Namajague – who didn’t have his facepaint on – out as a last second sub.
CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2013Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) El Hippie I & El Hippie II b Évola & Sádico Hippes took 2/3
2) Guerrero Negro Jr., Inquisidor, Súper Comando b Black Metal, Esfinge, Leo Rudos took 2/3.
3) Dalys, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit b Lady Afrodita, Luna Mágica, Silueta Afrodita’s return (from unknown injury? from more training?) Rudas took 2/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Blue Panther b Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) La Máscara, Rush, Shocker b Tama Tonga, Terrible, Vangellys Tecnicos took 2/3, Rush submitting Terrible in the third. Rush challenged Terrible to a title match next week.
Meanwhile, Shocker’s made all his matches this week.
IWL (TUE) 11/05/2013Arena Aficion [Funcion Estelar] 1) Aspid, Medics III, Sacristan Del Diablo b Gotita de Plata, Jhonky, Kronica Medics III replaced Medics I and Kid Jaguar was missing. 2) ATM, ATM 1, ATM Gold, ATM Super b Arceus, Fly Metalik, Fly Warrior, Flyer and Arkanos, Medics 3, Quimico, Shadow Teams besides ATM are not specified (so it’s unlikely Medics III worked twice.) 3) Dinamic Black & Fresero Jr. b Mascara Jr. & Último Vampiro [IWL TAG] It was announced that Ultimo Gladiador had recently vacated his half of the tag team titles, so this was now a battle for the vacant titles. Mascara Jr. (wrestling in the arena where he lost his mask) replaced Gladiador, and lost to Black and Fresero. 4) Ángel o Demonio, León Rojo, Ovett, Perico b Aero Boy, Demente Extreme, Hormiga, Violento Jack [IWL ATOMICOS] Los Porros were trios champions, became Atomicos champions at same unknown point (seemingly just to differentiate from the WWA trios titles and for the purposes of this feud). They retained the titles here, money thrown in after. 5) Halcón 2000 L Ninja de Fuego, Cerebro Negro, Zumbido, Carta Brava Jr. (IWL), Fantasma de la Ópera, Loco Max, Tony Rivera, Freelance, Súper Muñeco, Súper Pinocho, Súper Ratón, Suicida, Pantera I [cage, hair, mask] Pantera I was first out. Halcon 2000 was unmasked as Arturo Baleriano, from Mexico City, 10 years a luchador.
Halcon 2000 was the obvious loser. Dinamic Black ends up with a new title; he’s a tough champion to beat. I have no idea why I’m obsessed with the Mascara Jr. thing.
Porra Fresa’s recap of Puebla show seems to say it was Rush who shoved a fan on Monday night, not the other way around.
NJPW 11/06: Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov [O] b Valiente [X] & BUSHI [Super Junior Tag Team Tournament, SF]
Completely forgot this was today. Valiente and BUSHI had nice matching gear anyway.
Lineup
CMLL (MON) 11/11/2013Arena Puebla
1) Meyer, Tigre Rojo, Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Artillero, Inquisidor, Súper Comando
2) Metatrón, Starman, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Camorra, Siki Ozama Jr., Toro Bill Jr.
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Boby Zavala, Misterioso Jr., Virus
4) Blue Panther, Diamante Azul, La Sombra vs Averno, Mephisto, Mr. Niebla
5) Negro Casas vs Rush vs Shocker
Three way matches are very rare in CMLL because they usually don’t end up as three ways and instead are a series of single matches. They’ve done a couple psuedo three way matches at the end of ciberneticos this year so maybe they’ll actually do it here.
Diamante Azul returns, on the day he said he would long in advance.
CMLL (TUE) 11/12/2013Arena Mexico
1) Metatrón & Sensei vs Akuma & Guerrero Negro Jr.
2) Bam Bam, Fantasy, Último Dragoncito vs Pequeño Violencia, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
3) Estrellita, Goya Kong, Marcela vs Amapola, La Seductora, Princesa Blanca
4) Rey Cometa vs Raziel [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Super Porky, Thunder vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
6) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Volador Jr.
Estetas versus Invasors (though Aguila is busy.) Lightning match could be good but Tuesdays are iffy.
They’re running two minis matches on the same day; if a rudo no-shows, weird things could happen
CMLL (TUE) 11/12/2013Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Sky Kid & Smaker vs Exterminador & Maléfico
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Shockercito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico
3) Fuego, Pegasso, Sagrado vs Boby Zavala, Sangre Azteca, Virus
4) Atlantis, La Sombra, Titán vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
5) Terrible vs Rush [CMLL HEAVY] Terrible is champ. Eigth defense.
