FMLL (SUN) 06/10/2012 Arena Guatemala Mexico [FMLL]
***Arena Guatemala Mexico 22nd Anniversary***
1) Destroyer & Javy Antony b Huracan Diaz & Principe Negro
2) Action Man, El Musical, Starman Sr. b Brujo, Fobia Infernal, Torando I
3) Kamikaze Rojo & Terminator b Angel Negro & Violencia
4) Rayo De Oro, Slayer, Starman Jr. b Big Ban, El Aspirante, Punisher
60 wins in a row for Rayo de Oro.
5) El Padrino L Atlantis and Voltron and Último Guerrero [mask]
El Padrino – not the guy from AAA – lost his mask to Atlantis via the Atlantida. Padrino is Rolando Villalta, from Guatemala City. Challenges all around after the match.

Amapola and Lady Apache will be in on 07/15 for the 78th anniversary of wrestling in Guatemala.

CMLL (TUE) 06/12/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Informador]
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush b Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Águila, Último Guerrero
Tecnicos took 2/3. Maximo kissed UG, and Marco powerbombed captain Guerrero while Maximo kept everyone else out with a dive. This sets up a tag title match for next week.

AAA held a mass for Antonio Pena yesterday. It was the sixth anniversary of his death.

Terra.com announced they’d live stream three matches from Sunday Arena Coliseo & Arena Mexico shows, starting this Sunday and for the rest of the year. That’s about an hour and half more of CMLL available, increasing the weekly total to 9 hours and 30 minutes. Crazy. The only DF matches not making air are openers (and only some of them) and those mysterious lightning matches. The lineup Terra lists skips the lightning match and includes the fourth match, which is usually a 52MX match. Either the shows will be airing the same matches or 52MX will be down to two matches, but there’s got to be a reason those lightning matches aren’t airing on any of the TV shows (and the most sensible reason is they’re airing somewhere that CMLL’s never got around to mentioning – perhaps back on Televisa Deportes Network?)

It’s possible this is a Mexico only feed. Televisa usually does that with it’s web stuff, though the video Terra has up now does not seem country restricted. They’re running boxing shows on Saturday in the same format, so that may be a good time to figure it out. The matches this Sunday…

Metálico & Sensei vs Camorra & Inquisidor
Aereo, Fantasy, Pequeño Halcón vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Warrior
Ángel de Oro, Shocker, Super Porky vs Averno, Ephesto, Olímpico

…is not the most appealing lineup. (Again, Hijo del Fantasma vs Polvora is not listed as airing on Terra’s schedule. Not sure if they’ll move it around, or if it’ll air, or if they will just turn the feed off for a while.) Maybe having matches I’m not too worried about missing will make it less stressful to figure out how to record the thing. Though I guess they could just put the matches on their site after the fact, who knows.

This continues CMLL’s problems of oversaturing a cold product, selling off every little bit of TV they can to make up the money they’re not getting from people going to the shows. Still, streaming a few undercard matches is not going to hurt CMLL’s business any more than the other outlets already have. On YouTube, 5,000 people seeing an ordinary lucha video within a week is a big deal, and I expect less than 10% of that will be checking out this stream. Maybe a few more good matches will sneak out. Don’t expect this to be on the weekly recap rotation.

MedioTiempo has an interview with Consejo about their so far successful invasion. I love this line: “El Consejo, grupo formado por ex miembros de una de las empresas que compite con la AAA”, especially since Toscano just says “CMLL” in the next paragraph. Mascara Ano 2000 Jr., current trios champion, says he’s not interested in the trios championship. He just wants Dr. Wagner. Silver King apparently told Texano that he’s not experienced enough to use that name, and Texano fires back here that Silver King shouldn’t be wearing that mask. Argos says he invited Argenis to also be in El Consejo (he belong as much as Mascara), which is not quite the way I remember it. Texano says Consejo will be on TripleMania, or they’re cause chaos and ruin the show.

Saturday in San Diego, Hijo de Rey Misterio (II) & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. face Damian 666 & Bestia 666.

Valiente, Lady Apache, Amapola, Laredo Kid, Histeria (II), and others are wrestling in Austin, Texas this Saturday and Sunday.

Rob has highlights of 10/27/94 AAA and mid August 98 AAA.

Links

• CMLL wrestlers were in Ciudad Juarez for a PRI-sponsored show.
• And some were in Mexico City for another PRI show. Atlantis, among those there, noted he’d been with PAN candidates in previous years and wasn’t even sure he’d be voting PRI, but they paid CMLL to have them there so they were there. Sounds like there’s more of these today and the rest of the weekend.
• EricR at Segunda Caida writes about 05/12/2012 CMLL on Galavision. I can’t believe I’m slower than Segunda Caida. Such shame.
• There’s a Clowns vs Luchadors soccer match in Juarez this Sunday.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 06/19/2012 Arena Mexico
1) Freesbe & Soberano Jr. vs Cholo & Ramstein
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado, Valiente vs Hijo del Signo, Sangre Azteca, Vangelis
4) Ángel de Oro vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger vs Namajague, Shigeo Okumura, Yujiro
6) Máscara Dorada, Shocker, Super Porky vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Mr. Niebla

Very much just a show. The TRT vs Fiebre Amarillo feud is bouncing around to a lot of different shows. Angel de Oro should come back from Japan with a win here, not that anyone will see it.

CMLL (TUE) 06/12/2012 Arena Mexico [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Apocalipsis & Zayco b Leono & Tigre Blanco
Tigre Blanco first match since March 23rd, having missed a few in between. Tecnicos took 2/3. Zayco has a new mask.
2) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Violencia b Astral, Niño de Acero, Pequeño Halcón
Astral replaced the frequently missing Bam Bam. Unsure if Nino de Acero has permanently joined the tecnicos. Rudos won in straight falls, Olimpico cheating Astral to win.
3) Fuego, Sagrado, Stuka Jr. b Misterioso Jr., Pólvora, Virus
Tecnicos took 1/3, Sagrado escaping the Polvora Driver and defeating him with a ‘rana.
4) Valiente b Sangre Azteca [lightning]
Valiente won in just over 7 minutes with the layout gutbuster.
5) La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Shocker b Namajague, Shigeo Okumura, Yujiro
Mexicans took 2/3, Mascara & Shocker getting Namajague & Okumura in their usual submissions. Japanese wanted a rematch.
6) Atlantis, Blue Panther, La Sombra b Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis
Atlantis replaced Diamante Azul. Tecnicos took 2/3, Panther & Atlantis beating Olimpico & Psicosis.

The Stuka, Sagrado, Fuego trio really needs a name. Besides “Purgatory”. Pictures on CMLL.com show a very empty crowd, though there’s pictures on Kaiser Sports that look about usual. Maybe it depends on which side you were looking at, or which side the video cameras were looking at. Though even that’s better looking picture is not a good turnout. The show was running against Mexico vs El Salvador in World Cup qualifying; Mexico won the game they were supposed to win, unlike some countries.

While we’re on the subject: the Mexico national team has it’s next qualifying game on September 7th, a Friday. It’s an early evening game that wouldn’t run against the Arena Mexico show, but it’s probably a week to avoid running an Anniversary show.

On this week’s NotiAAA, Konnan, Dorian and Joaquin were all asked what match they’d like to see for TripleMania.

Konnan: Extreme Tiger vs Halloween, mask vs hair
Joaquin: Joe Lider vs Psicosis, hair vs hair
Dorian: Jack Evans vs Teddy Hart, hair vs hair

It’d be really rough for Psicosis to leave his hair. He’d surely be so embarrassed he’d want to wear a mask and a wig to cover it up. (Ahem.) Konnan justified Tiger vs Halloween by saying Tiger was a traitor and it was an intra-Tijuana battle. Dorian just thought Teddy is awesome. Given AAA’s past practices, the strong favorite is…all three matches combined together for a six way, the same guys who’ve been fighting each for years continue to fight each other in slightly different combinations. Juvi is notable not included; if they’re really doing a six way, then I’d expect Juvi gets to face a TNA guy.

Black Warrior says he was just waiting for the right time to rejoin the rudos, and the hair loss seemed like it. Warrior says he still will not be friends with Rey Escorpion, who should be kneeling at his feet and had to use a martinete to beat him. Warrior says he’s after the CMLL Trios titles, perhaps being mistaken on which ones Atlantis & Delta hold, and is looking for partners. Warrior is still looking for partners: he wants them to be from Comarca Lagunera and have “a strong desire to be someone important.” Warrior is okay with teaming with a youngster (Niebla Roja mentioned here), feeling mixing youth with experience makes for a good mix. Warrior cites this working before when he was in Poder Mexica with Dragon Rojo, he saw that Dragon Rojo had the drive to make it to the next level and did, and implies other people in that group (Sangre Azteca) did not have that drive and so Black Warrior had no interest in the group going forward. Hmm. In reality, Black Warrior flaked out on Poder Mexica long before Dragon Rojo left to join the Guerreros, though Warrior did leave to be ‘important’ (and lose his hair to Yujiro.)

DTU announced yesterday they’re ending their co-promotion with IWL. The Crazy Boy-led Tulancingo group wished IWL luck in their future endeavors, but said they’d agreed on three shows together, ran those three shows, and were moving on. IWL hasn’t said anything, but did adjust it’s card for their show on June 30th. Flamita is now off the show, but Aeroboy was added to his place and Violento Jack is still in the main event, both core DTU guys, despite it sounding like they would no longer appear. Putting aside the IWL/DTU stuff for a sec: what’s up with Flamita? I assumed him vacating the AULL Lightweight title was something between him and the promotion, but now he’s skipping on this show too. Injury? A start date in CMLL? He was in Arkangel’s class at one point, winning the battle royal on the Arkangel Arena Coliseo show last year. Not sure.

Hijo del Medico Asesino appears to have been cut by WWE today. He’d been working in their developmental FCW promotion as Benicio Salazar. He kept the mask for a while, but wrestled without it on the most recent TV. which finally made it’s way back to Mexico blogs and Facebook accounts this past week. El Martinete strongly defended his decision just a few days ago. I don’t think this will actually hurt his career; Hijo del Medico Asesino was just making it to the more visible indies before he left, he doesn’t personally have a great deal in that identity, and Salazar gets to be the first luchador in a while to get attention by claiming he was treated unfairly by WWE. Plenty of US indy guys have done well off that line. What it is going to do is make it harder for WWE to recruit masked Mexicans to come to WWE; everyone who’s gone has been told they’d be keeping their masks, and that hasn’t exactly panned out to be true. If you’re a mask guy of some significance in a major promotion, you know now you probably have to lose your mask before you make that trip, because there’s no way you can be assured you’re keeping after you get there.

Speaking of people who changed their gimmick to make their promotion happy, Morphosis seems to have disappeared from CMLL. His last CMLL match was May 7th in Puebla, his last DF match was April 22nd. His name (as Histeria II) has turned up in some Houston cards this year – perhaps he’s relocated?

Starting this part Monday, Arena Puebla now has an elevated entrance ramp and lighted entrance area. Previously, the luchadors just entered thru an arena door, walking down an aisle thru the fans. They’re now elevated and separated a little bit. The setup is like CMLL has done in Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. This is really big news for Hijo del Fantasma, Marco Corleone, and Dragon Lee.

Black Terry Jr. posted 1993 matches of Mogur, Misterioso, Volador vs Guerrero del Futuro, Damain el Guerrero and Guerrero Maya.

The first one is interesting, because it doesn’t seem as though it aired on the Galaivison show that week, but it has TV graphics.

LuchaWorld has Valiente, Oficial AK-47, La Mascara, Ultimo Guerrero and Dr. Wagner Jr. in the LuchaWorld 100.

Links

• LA Park, Psicosis (CMLL) and Mascara Dorada are all listed as working an FMLL show in Cudahy, California on June 23rd. Interesting trio.
• DJ Spectro looks at Vampiro’s career.
• Magnus is announced to Puerto Rico’s PWRA on October 27th. That’s the same group Laredo Kid worked for.
• La Bandida & Princesa Maya hype Friday’s LLF show.
• The new Arena Coliseo Monterrey vs Arena Solidaridad feud might be Arena Solidariad getting a new promoter.

Lucha Libre in Japan

Zeuxis (@zeuxiscmll) made her #iceribbon debut today with a win over #gakepro's Miyako Matsumoto #prowrestling #cmll #プロレス

— Ice Ribbon Europe (@IceRibbonEurope) June 13, 2012

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 06/17/2012 Arena Naucalpan
1) Dragón Celestial & Johnny Rivera vs Alan Extreme & The Mummy
2) Centvrión & Charly Madrid vs Douki & Eita
3) Chicano, Multifacético, Suicida vs Dark Dragon, Espíritu, Tito Santana II
rematch from last week
4) Damián 666, Head Hunter, X-Fly vs Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown [IWRG IC TRIOS]
FdT are the champs
5) Trauma II vs Shadow Phoenix, Oficial 911 [mask]

Father’s Day show with cheap ticket deals for fathers coming with their family. Trauma isn’t losing his mask in Arena Traumalpan. I’m not sure what Shadow Phoenix’s status is (he could lose and go back to Japan ignoring it), but 911 would seem to be the favorite.

Is Douki Amigo Suzuki or Kansuke?

CMLL (TUE) 06/19/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Metatrón & Virgo vs Magnum & Thunder Boy
2) Black Metal & Gallo vs Exterminador & Ráfaga
3) Dark Angel & Marcela vs Amapola & Princesa Blanca
4) Delta, Diamante Azul, Guerrero Maya Jr., La Máscara, La Sombra vs Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Olímpico, Psicosis, Volador Jr. [cibernetico]
Cibernetico in honor of the 53rd Anniversary.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Último Guerrero vs Marco Corleone & Máximo [CMLL TAG]
Guerreros are champs. This will be an attempt at their 16th defense (11 of them found.)

That’s a really great card. Main event isn’t everyone’s taste, but the semimain is loaded. The women’s match looks great too.  TNA’s losing interest in it’s Mexican American group has resulted in a lot more Dark Angel in CMLL the last few months, and this should be one of her best matches.