IWRG (SUN) 06/17/2012Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Alan Extreme & The Mummy b Dragón Celestial & Johnny Rivera
2) Douki & Eita b Centvrión & Charly Madrid
3) Chicano, Multifacético, Suicida b Dark Dragon, Espíritu, Tito Santana II rematch from last week. Straight fall win for team IWRG when Espiritu fouled Dark Dragon by mistake.
4) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown b Head Hunter, Súper Nova, X-Fly Match was supposed to be for the FdT’s IWRG trios titles. However, Damian did not show, sending Super Nova in his place. (Damian may have been in the US.) The commission declared the championship vacant, with a tournament to come. Clowns take 1/3. Murder Clown beat Head Hunter with a plancha.
5) Oficial 911 b Trauma II and Shadow Phoenix [losers advance] Three way match, where the first two pinned would meet in a single fall mask match. Rudos worked together and went after Trauma II’s shoulder. Shadow submitted Trauma II, then 911 outsmarted Shadow to beat him and escape.
6) Trauma II b Shadow Phoenix [mask] 911 stuck around to help Shadow Phoenix, who continued going after Trauma’s shoulder. Trauma I, despite his hurt knee, got involved to counter the Oficial. Trauma II caught Shadow Phoenix in a head and arm submission for the win. Shadow Phoenix was unmasked as Ahihiko Inoue, from Tokyo, a 10 year vet. Oficial 911 warned the Traumas that the Oficials would yet get their masks.
Damian stuck around in AAA to drop their Trios titles and I think he’s still going to be in IWRG, so this is probably just an unfortunate miss. Still, I’m hyped for, like, an 64 team IWRG trios tournament to see what they’d come up with. Every school in Mexico gets their own team! (The actual ruling appears to be the Psycho Circus will face the winners of a tournament, keeping the title shot until opponents are determined.)
The Traumas are just two good old boys, a bit old school in their tastes, always staying just one step ahead of the law…that sounds familiar. Unfortunately, Angelico is Daisy Duke in that metaphor.
CMLL (SUN) 06/24/2012Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala & Camaleón vs Camorra & Zayco
2) Aereo, Niño de Acero, Pequeño Halcón vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Violencia
3) Diamante, Dragon Lee, Triton vs Cancerbero, Niebla Roja, Raziel
4) Blue Panther, Super Porky, Sagrado vs Averno, Pólvora, Vangelis
5) Terrible vs Yujiro [CMLL HEAVY]
6) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis
Terrible and Yujiro are fighting for CMLL’s heavyweight championship, which is not as important as the trio with a horrible win/loss record going against the trios champs. CMLL!
Valiente was originally in the fourth match, but they subbed in Sagrado about an hour later.
Tercera looks fun, will air on Terra.
The last time, Nino de Acero came in as a rudo, switched to the tecnico side without any explanation, was hurt trying a high risk move in Puebla, and didn’t wrestle again for three years. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but Nino de Acero has reappeared as a rudo and switched to the tecnico side without any explanation. Do not book this man in Arena Puebla!
CMLL (SUN) 06/24/2012Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Brillante vs Acertijo
2) Halcon de Plata & Sky Kid vs Espectrum & Infierno
3) Esfinge, Javier Cruz, Smaker vs Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Taurus
4) Javier Cruz Jr. vs Leo, Barbaro Cavernario [hair]
5) Diamante Azul & Valiente vs Rey Escorpion & Último Guerrero
Shocker was in the main event here, but they moved Valiente into his place.
Semimain is three of the four guys in the hair match (Sadico lost last time), and they’re in the mood to do many hair matches on Sundays of late.
Taurus is the only DF undercard guy working the GDL underdcard this week, and UG happens to be in the main event.
AAA TV (SAT) 06/30/2012 Plaza de Toros La Concordia de Orizaba, Veracruz
1) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Argos, Texano Jr., Toscano
2) Jack Evans vs Teddy Hart
3) Cuervo & Ozz vs Abyss & Chessman
4) Extreme Tiger & Juventud Guerrera vs ? & Halloween Perros del Mal surprise
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Máscara Año 2000 Jr. Dr. Wagner Jr. will have Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. as his second, while Mascara Ano 2000 will be his son’s second.
6) Cibernético, Electroshock, LA Park vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Héctor Garza, Psicosis
Let’s work out the math here, because I think I had it wrong yesterday:
06/17 & 06/24: Veracruz
07/01 & 07/08: Teziutlan
07/15 & 07/22: Orizaba?
which would mean just one more taping to be announced before TripleMania for 07/29 and 08/04 (same night as TripleMania.) I haven’t seen AAA’s TV from this week yet, they might have announced that date already. AAA could still setup stuff at that show, but this lineup is close to it, 47 days ahead of time.
AAA could really just run one taping in all of July if they wanted, though they might want to run two to avoid having to tape the week after TripleMania.
With that in mind, the Ozz & Cuervo vs Abyss & Chessman match could be a setup for TripleMania. AAA’s talked about Chessman demanding top competition, so maybe not.
Consejo and the Psycho Clowns all the way down in the opener is weird to see, but Jack vs Teddy is a storyline that’s actually going to TripleMania and Abyss is their big TNA star, so neither of those should be the opener. Consejo has to be on the card somewhere because they’re getting involved in the semimain (and they may not be alone) and AAA doesn’t pay people just to show up and not be in a match.
Fourth match sure looks like Daga is getting a Perros del Mal shirt.
A bit of a surprise. The inclusion of Oficial 911 was an interesting feint. Shadow Phoenix has been treated like a big deal since he came back in last month and they were originally setting up Trauma I vs Phoenix. (Maybe their was a plan of Traumas vs Phoenix/911?)
Both Traumas have picked up big wins in the last six months. If they’re really as disinterested in CMLL as they say (and AAA oddly hasn’t seemed to make a move), then they’re going to be top young IWRG (and overall indy) guys for the forseeable future. It’s good to see them get some big wins to go with the performances.
DTU (SAT) 06/16/2012 Salón Renault, Poza Rica, Veracruz [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring] 1) El Falcón & Power Ranger b King Lion & Magneto 2) Lucky Boy & Niño b Íkaro & Jhonki and Kenosis & Muerte Nocturna 3) Keira, Pequeno Cobra, Rocky Loco b Black Rose, Kaleth, Lanzelot 4) Eita b Flamita, Eterno, Chikano said to be best match of the night 5) Relampago L Black Terry, Araña de Plata Jr. Black Terry got the first pinfall, then Arana de Plata Jr. pinned Relampago after a foul from Pequeno Cobra. 6) Rey Capricornio L Príncipe Halcón, Hormiga match stared Halcon vs Hormiga, Halcon looking nervous. Capricornio ran out and asked in the match. Hormiga got the first pinfall to escape the match (?), leaving the two locals. Halcon powerbombed Rey thru a table. Flamita ran out to both congraluate Halcon and challenge him to a singles match next time they come to Poza Rica. 7) Ciclope b Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera, Drastik Boy, X-Fly X-Fly was a surprise entrant. Ciclope jumped off a scaffold onto light tubes on top of Drastick Boy for the win.
Relampago is mentioned as debuting as independent here. There was something about that earlier on Facebook earlier in this week that Relampago had left AAA. It’s understandable, because he’s barely used by AAA even on the spots shows – his last known booking was the mid April run of sponsored shows, and the Relampago who lives in Sinola was turning up more often in my results – but he does happen to finally be back on shows later this month and earlier next month. Maybe he didn’t feel like holding out any longer, maybe those or phantom AAA show listings.
Phantom Attack (photo by Alexis Salazar/CMLL)
CMLL (SUN) 06/17/2012Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Metálico & Sensei b Camorra & Inquisidor Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Aereo, Fantasy, Pequeño Halcón DQ Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Warrior Tecnicos took 1/3. Nitro fouled Aereo, ref counted three, then awarded the DQ.
3) Ángel de Oro, Shocker, Super Porky b Averno, Ephesto, Olímpico Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Hijo del Fantasma b Pólvora [lightning] Moved to the fourth match, which will probably be standard as long as they’re airing the first three on Terra but not this match. Phantom attack in 7:34 for the win.
5) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger b Kráneo, Namajague, Yujiro Yujiro’s team took 1/3. He again challenged Terrible for the title and Terrible again accepted. This time, Terrible was strechered out after a tope from Yujiro, though he was able to come back in for the finish.
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b Diamante Azul, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada Dragon Rojo submitted Sombra in the third.
In addition to having all eight edecanes, Estrellita, Tiffany, Lluvia (with a knee brace), Dalis, Luna and Lady Afrodita appeared to take photos before the show and dance during the show (much like the men for Mother’s Day, though the men weren’t all feuding.)
This was the first show where the first three matches were streamed live on Terra.com.mx. I didn’t get to watch the video as much as I would’ve liked (because trying to record it distracted me – we’ll get to that), but the quality of the video was great. Nearly TV quality, about as good as we’ll see next week when this airs on 52MX and without the aspect ratio goofiness. The announcers were the usual 52MX broadcast team – Julio Cesar Rivera, Juan Carlos Castellanos and Miguel Linares – doing the commentary live. They used basic graphics, but had replays and overall looked better than most iPPVs. It greatly helps that they’re doing this from Arena Mexico, and not a building being used for a taping for the first time, but it was impressive how it looked little different from a normal TV show, just on the internet and live.
The stream itself was impressive, though not in a way which helps up. It’s not just video being shot to the web, but a stream with a security mechanism. I’m not an expert on this (and couldn’t figure out what token my stream software needed to work), but it already seemed like something very secure and hard to pass around the link if they wanted to restrict it to logged in users. It seemed like something which would very much be usable for, say, steaming Anniversario on the internet. We don’t know if CMLL or Terra would want to, and we don’t know if CMLL’s myriad TV deals allow them to do such a thing (it’s instructive that they didn’t or couldn’t air matches set for 52MX tonight), but they have the tool to do so.
AAA’s TV announced a three way tag match for TripleMania. Three broken up teams – Hart Foundation 2.0 (Jack Evans & Teddy Hart), Familia de Tijuna (Extreme Tiger & Halloween) and Hermandad 187 (Psicosis & Joe Lider) – will face off with the losing team immediately going into a hair vs hair or hair vs mask match. My guess is we’ll end up with an obvious explanation of why Halloween didn’t end up leaving with Damian and X-Fly after all, and the other two feuds continue on thru the second half of the year.
Rob has highlights of 09/12/11 CMLL Puebla, 10/21/11 CMLL and AAA 05/06/12. In the last one, Rob warns Cuervo that the Fabi romance didn’t go well for Billy’s career – but has anyone seen Oscar Sevilla since? What about poor Brandon? Maximo’s not the one with the kiss of death.
Taichi, fresh off a losing challenge for the IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles, challenged Prince Devitt for a shot for the (CMLL) NWA Historic Middleweight Championship. Devitt seemed to accept, though wanted some time recover a bit from his injuries. It could take place on the 07/01 AJPW/NJPW show or the following tour, and doesn’t seem a strong chance to be a title change.
IWRG (THU) 06/21/2012Arena Naucalpan
1) Templario vs Guerrero Mixtico
2) Dinamic Black & Golden Magic vs Alan Extreme & Imposible
3) Chicano, Dr. Cerebro, Trauma II vs Heddi Karaoui, Pete Powers, Shadow Phoenix
4) Danny Casas, Pantera, Veneno vs Bestia 666, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Súper Nova
5) Head Hunter vs Cien Caras Jr. [IWRG IC HEAVY] Head Hunter is the champion
There are a lot of heavyweights on this show. Not good heavyweights, but definitely heavyweights. Semimain has rudos who are feuding, so go to Vegas and bet heavily on Pantera’s team.
AAA TV (SAT) 06/16/2012Plaza de Toros El Pinal, Teziutlan, Puebla [AAA]
1) Aerostar, Argenis, Atomic Boy b Gran Apache, Semental, Tito Santana Semental did not want to wrestle in a match without El Consejo, but Joaquin Roldan made a new ruling that everyone has to team up with whoever AAA says they have team up with that day. Texano & Mascara ran out after the match to take the tecnicos masks and taunt the Wagners, who ran them off.
2) Joe Lider b Psicosis Lider won with a knee to the head. Psicosis was strechered away.
3) Dark Dragon, Halloween, Pete Powers b Daga, Extreme Tiger, Juventud Guerrera Pete Powers made his debut, replacing a MIA Teddy Hart. The AAA recap avoids mentioning the rudo team. Daga turned on Juvi, explaining he grew up thinking Juvi is great and knows he’s not go much left any more. Daga said he was the best luchador of the moment.
4) Máscara Año 2000 Jr. & Texano Jr. b Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King Consejo won via help from Hombre de Negro again. This time, Hombre de Negro was revealed to be Mascara Ano 2000 Sr.
5) Chessman, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Héctor Garza b Cibernético, Electroshock, Zorro Cibernetico bled so much that he had to leave the ring. Dorian attacked him after the match, then challenged Joaquin to a seconds hair match where they’d both pick teams to represent them. Lights went out, came back on, and Vampiro made his 500th surprise return to AAA, attacking Chessman.
Main event sets up the get everyone on the card match we were expecting, and probably means Cibernetico hasn’t found his way into the title match quite yet.
Mascara Ano 2000 Sr. was last seen in TxT. I wouldn’t bet on him getting many in-ring matches here, so he’d probably want to keep working with Santo.
Maybe Psicosis can come back as el Salvaje this time?
strong bets for the TripleMania card, based on what we’ve seen and what they’ve been pushing on TV
Mesias (c) vs Perro Aguay Jr. [AAA HEAVY]
Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. (w/Mascara Ano 200 Sr.) [mask vs mask]
LA Park vs Jeff Jarrett [AAA LA?]
Cibernetico/Zorro/Electroshock/Vampiro/??? vs Garza/Chessman/TNA wrestlers?/Consejo?/Ultimo Gladiador? [Joaquin & Dorian’s hairs on the line]
Psicosis vs Joe Lider vs Extreme Tiger vs Halloween vs Jack Evans vs Teddy Hart ? [hair/mask]
Daga vs Juvi, the match they actually set up here
Three different apuesta matches seem like a lot. The unmasking will be a big enough deal, as well the Roldan getting his hair cut, but the six way loser seems like piling on.
Having the six way itself (instead of three singles matches) clears room for some other matches. A women’s match is a sure bet (and I think a TNA woman is supposed to be on the next taping.) Toscano & Texano need to be in a match after how much they’ve been involved here, even if it’s just them & Semental versus the Psycho Circus. It’s possible that the Gran Apache/Atomic Boy feud might even make the card, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
CMLL (FRI) 06/15/2012Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Bobby Zavala & Disturbio b Molotov & Starman
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Hooligan, Skándalo b Ángel Azteca Jr., Fuego, Pegasso Tuareg took falls 2/3. Pegasso finished the match without any major incident reported, but was later reported as taken the hospital for an examination of his neck.
3) Amapola, Dalis la Caribeña, Lady Apache b Dark Angel, Estrellita, Princesa Blanca [Relevos Increíbles] Amapola’s trio worked as rudas and took falls 1/3. They won when Apache pinned Dark Angel with her feet on the ropes. Dark Angel challenged Lady Apache to a hair match. Blanca challenged Dalis.
4) Euforia DQ Dragon Lee [En Busca de un Idolo] Atlantis seconded Dragon Lee and brought along Fray Tormenta, but it was not enough for the win. Ultimo Guerrero was in Euforia’s corner, and tried to start something with Tormenta after the match. Dragon Lee unaccountably would not less go of a cross armbraeker. Euforia had given up, but Lee wouldn’t release by five (he released at six and celebrated like he was unaware he was breaking the rules), and the referee gave the match to Euforia. Euforia scored 32, Dragon Lee 36 (3 10s and a Tirantes 6)
5) Diamante b Titán [En Busca de un Idolo] Diamante debuted as silver and black outfit, looking nothing like his old gear but noticeable about Santo’s. (He still has his old boots with the Diamante symbol, which might be the only to tell he’s Diamante.) Diamante won in 5:40 with a cross armbreaker. Diamante scored a 29 and flowers from Maximo. Titan scored a 33, including a rare 10 from Tirantes (though a 5 from Miguel.)
6) Black Warrior, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. Rudos took falls 1/3. After the rudos won, Warrior challenged for a trios title shot, then attacked the tecnicos and took off their masks before they could respond.
7) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Rush b Rey Escorpion, Último Guerrero, Yujiro Rudos jumped the tecnicos. Tecnicos took falls 2/3. CMLL.com recap does not mention any Escorpion/UG problems.
A few weeks back, there was a Box y Lucha poster talking about Diamante having a new silver outfit that made him look like Santo. Most figured the poster had seen Diamante’s usual silver mask, as he wore in Japan. It instead looks like the poster saw this new Diamante outfit, which looks like a mix between Santo & Axxel. It’s not as much as a clone as Diamante Azul, but it’s unmistakenly based on the Santo look. Diamante looks nothing much like a Diamond; he should have a new name shortly.
Dragon Lee is technically still alive – it’s possible to beat someone by 37 in a poll, and happened to Euforia in round 1. It’s just highly unlikely. The polls will close on Wednesday, but luchablog is projecting a Titan/Euforia final next week. CMLL announced the final will be a single fall with no time limit.
Both the finalists lost last night going into the finals, though Euforia got the technical win. I chalked Titan’s loss as a backlash to the strong votes he received in the poll. CMLL’s booked the finishes of the matches as if Titan was not supposed to win, and definitely not supposed to go to the final. The only win Titan got this round was Euforia had Titan in the Nirvanalock for the win (same as happened in their first round match) and Tony Salazar threw in the towel to continue a storyline that hasn’t seemed to pay off. There’s really no business sense in having Diamante win this week when Titan is the one in an important match next week and Titan & Diamante are never going to have a rematch (and Diamante could debut his new costume next week), but this didn’t seem like business sense.
I’ve changed my mind a little bit after seeing the finishes. I still believe there’s a little bit of backlash about the polling, but it may just be more about CMLL trying to make every wrestler and every faction happened. Diamante doesn’t get to advance, but gets a participation award of a win and a new outfit. Dragon Lee doesn’t get to advance (because they don’t want to do Titan vs Dragon Lee as a final?), but he gets to Fray Tormenta and the visual win. Everyone goes home happy win, no one gets enough wins to make them look like a star, and CMLL keeps running in place.
I’m not sure it matters that much; they could’ve had Euforia win every single match and I’m not sure it would’ve changed much for him. This tournament doesn’t seem to matter that much. The YouTube videos are usually viewed less than a 1,000 times. The existence of the tournament is mentioned on every TV show, but only JCR has mentioned the happenings in the tournament, and only when it comes up in conversation about other topics. Miguel, despite being involved, doesn’t talk about it much and the other announcers (on all the shows) don’t appear to be paying attention to it, which means the vast majority of the fans have no idea what’s going on with this tournament. Remember, the Forjando un Idolo matches were part of various TV programs in addition to being uploaded to the internet, which isn’t happening here. There are some interesting matches for hardcores in this tournament, but this is a concept that CMLL has failed to promote.
If Euforia wins next week, and I believe he will, maybe CMLL can get something out of billing him as a prospect so great that he won back to back youth tournaments, but they won’t be advancing him based on anything he did in the tournament itself.
This is all a very big come down from NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, an intricately booked set of matches designed to create both drama thru the final day of the tournament and bigger matches for down the line, while still giving a few important wins for people who didn’t go thru the to the final stage. En Busca de un Idolo did not create drama, did not set up bigger matches down the line, did not make anyone bigger stars, and actually made some earlier. Angel de Oro and Polvora both went 500 in their respective matches, but Angel de Oro got wins over important people and praised by all his opponents as a young great talent, while Polvora was constantly ripped by the judges for what he could not do. One format seems to work much better than the other.
The Mexico State Governor’s press conference/campaign rally was said to be the announcement of a plan to form a new Mexico State boxing and lucha commission, or the actual inaugural meeting of one, depending on which press account you read. ESTO’s article says the first meeting is June 19th, so let’s go with that, though I doubt we’ll hear much about this in regards to lucha. Octagon is quoted in the first article talking about how boxing and lucha libre are good to keep kids off drugs and alcohol. This must be a different Octagon then the one who got a DUI, then tried to get out of serving jail time on it. (And that’s just the story that’s public record.)
Lineup
PdM (THU) 06/21/2012 Estadio Municipal Queretaro, Queretaro
1) Sexy Lady & Taya Valkyrie vs Fabi Apache & Ludark Shaitan
2) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Black Terry, Negro Navarro, Zumbi
3) Máscara Año 2000, Texano, Toscano vs Halloween, Psicosis, Teddy Hart
4) Blue Demon Jr., Cibernético, Dr. Wagner Jr. vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Héctor Garza, LA Park
Mostly notable because Perros del Mal is actually running a show. It’s been a while. This is a free show and a bigger arena they’d normally run, so it’s a campaign rally for some candidate or other. That’s a good business to be in right now.
CMLL (FRI) 06/22/2012Arena Mexico
1) Molotov & Tigre Blanco vs Disturbio & Inquisidor
2) Rey Cometa, Starman, Stuka Jr. vs Puma King, Sangre Azteca, Virus
3) Dark Angel, Estrellita, Goya Kong vs La Seductora, Lady Apache, Princesa Blanca
4) Diamante Azul, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpion, Último Guerrero
5) Titán vs Euforia [En Busca de un Idolo]
6) Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Black Warrior, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. [MEX TRIOS]
Champs are still favorites, but they could be great if the rudos show up.
Goya is back, so perhaps they can move on to whatever the next step is in the women’s feuds.
