Month: June 2013

CMLL (FRI) 06/21/2013 Arena Mexico
1) Sensei & Soberano Jr. b Akuma & Apocalipsis
tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Dalis la Caribeña, Dark Angel, Marcela b Amapola, La Seductora, Princesa Blanca
Dark Angel submitted Amapola to a reinera.
3) Niebla Roja, Olímpico, Psicosis b Diamante, Rey Cometa, Tritón
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Vangelis b Fuego [En Busca de un Idolo]
Vangelis with a Northern Lights Suplex. As soon as Fuego lost, Rush ran to the ring, attacked Fuego, and attacked Negro Casas at ringside. Shocker ran out to make the save and they brawled until Rush left. Judges were very high on Vangelis, giving him a 9, 9, 9, and 10 for 39.
5) Valiente b Stuka Jr. [En Busca de un Idolo]
Valiente Buster for the win. Stuka worsened his current injury problems and they had a sloppier match than usual. Still, judges gave them high scores – 9/8/8/8 (33) for Valiente, 8/8/10/8 for Stuka (34).
6) Blue Panther, Rush, Super Porky DQ Averno, Negro Casas, Rey Escorpión
Averno fouled Blue Panther, and everyone challenged everyone.
7) Mr. Águila, Terrible, Volador Jr. b La Sombra, Máximo, Shocker
Rudos won in straight falls.

Volador made the title challenge, and Sombra will defend the IWGP IC championship next Friday. That (iteration of that) feud will start and end before the hair match challenges go anywhere.

The Rush bit did not feel like the normal bit of Rush hating everyone and everything, but the start of a genuine rudo switch. It may not have meant to be that way or actually turn out that direction, but Rush going after Fuego is a lot different than Rush going after Negro Casas. It may just be that Shocker is meant to be the tecnico coach going forward, but we haven’t seen much coaching so far. They’ve dropped the behind the scenes episodes after the first one. Rush vs Shocker would be an interesting hair match, if they could get Shocker to agree to it.

It’s clear the judges are just going to be using the 8, 9, and 10 paddles from this point on. Stuka & Valiente might not have broken 20 if they had that match in week 1 or 2 (and if Stuka hadn’t been hurt.) Dr. Lucha says the judges have been ordered not to trash the luchadors they’re trying to turn into stars. I’m still doubtful that having matches that are only mentioned on a website are going to turn people into stars no matter what’s set about them. (See: much of US indy wrestling.)

TxT cranks back into action tonight with a four team ruleta de la muerte. Teams are Rayo de Jalisco & Universo 2000, Canek & Mascara Ano 2000 Jr., LA Park & Super Parka, and Pirata Morgan & Villano IV. Any of the unmasked guys are more than capable of losing this, but only Super Parka’s recent issues suggest it’s going to be him. Demon & Santo will face – and almost surely defeat – Zumbi & Karoui for the PWR Tag Team titles. The other title match, for the WWA Trios titles between Trio Fantastia and Black Terry, Shu el Guerrero & Scorpio Jr., has a less certain result – but the outcome is surely a Shu el Guerrero/Super Muneco mask match.

CMLL is back on LATV. It’s listed as airing 1 AM ET tonight/early Sunday. It’s a 2 hour slot, so I suspect it’s the C3 episodes which previously aired on this network a few years ago – the same exact ones, not new ones. I’ve gotten a three YouTube copyright notices about an LATV episode this past week, and that might be related to them running the shows again.

DTU says their 07/06 Arena Lopez Mateos show will also air on TVC Deportes. The 07/05 show in Arena Queretaro was previously announced as a TVCD taping, and it seems like they’re getting the IWRG spot for now.

Bill has lots of Guadalajara highlights: 12/18/12, 01/18/13, 01/22/13 & 29/13, 02/05 & 02/19/13, 02/26/13, and 03/15/13.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Ultimo Guerrero talks about Atlantis, Gran Guerrero, Mistico and Hector Garza.

Goya Kong promo for next week’s REINA show.

Lourdes Gorbet talks about lucha libre and her photo book.

DJ Spectro looks back at the EMLL year ending show of 1985.

Abogado del Diablo, who lost a leg in a car accident, is trying to return to lucha libre.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 06/28/2013 Arena Mexico
1) Hombre Bala Jr. & Súper Halcón Jr. vs Artillero & Súper Comando
2) Pegasso, Starman, Tritón vs Namajague, Shigeo Okumura, Virus
3) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Titán vs Averno, Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Niebla
4) Stuka Jr. vs Vangellys [En Busca de un Idolo]
5) Valiente vs Fuego [En Busca de un Idolo]
6) Negro Casas, Shocker, Terrible vs Máximo, Rey Escorpión, Rush [Relevos Increíbles]
7) La Sombra vs Volador Jr. [IWGP IC]
La Sombra is champion, first defense.

Rey Escorpion is the strangest possible Marco Corleone.

IWRG (SUN) 06/30/2013 Arena Naucalpan
1) Cristal, Dama de Hierro, Saruman vs Diosa Maya, Fulgor, La Chola
2) Acero, Golden Magic, Veneno vs Canis Lupus, Carta Brava Jr., Zafiro (IWRG)
3) Astro Rey Jr. vs Eita, Dragón Celestial, Fulgore II, Seiya, Imposible, Galaxy, Sky Ángel [IWRG IC Light]
vacant championship, last champion was Chicano (left IWRG, injury caused retirement.)
4) Dinamic Black, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Solar I vs Heddi Karaoui, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Negro Navarro

Negro Navarro seems to get more rudo whenever Solar turns up. Must be allergic.

Lightweight match is likely an one night eight luchador tournament. Eita returns (or returns to the ring instead of sitting in the back row watching the show), but Imposible seems like the favorite.

This Thursday’s show here is an sponsored AAA show, not a taping.

IWRG (THU) 06/20/2013 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), IWRG]
1) Fulgor b Sky Ángel
2) Imposible & Picudo Jr. b Ángel Del Amor & Saruman
Imposible keeps his momentum from winning Copa High Power
3) Centvrión, Golden Magic, Veneno DQ Canis Lupus, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
Veneno faked a foul from Canis Lupus for the DQ.
4) Chico Che, Trauma I, Trauma II b Decnnis, el Ángel, Scorpio Jr.
2/3 for the tecnicos. Trauma I beat Decnnis in the third.
5) Dinamic Black DQ Oficial 911 [IWRG Rey del Ring]
Champion Oficial 911 submitted challenger Dinamic Black in the first. Dinamic Black tied it up with a Code Red. Fierro & Golden Magic (seconds) interfered in the third, referee dealt with them, and 911 smacked Dinamic Black with a chair. 911 got the pin, but the commissioner overturned the finish, ruling a DQ. Titles change hand on DQ, so Dinamic Black won the title. IWRG’s recap says it would’ve been one of the best of the year if not for the finish. Oficial 911 falls in first defense. Dinamic Black is now a triple champion, already holding the IWRG and WWS Welterweight championships.

I can exclusively (?) report Dinamic Black and Los Traumas beat the Oficials this past Sunday via DQ. Rudos fouled Dinamic Black in the build up for this. Maybe they should try beating him next time, fouling seems not to have worked.  (Match aired on AYM but not LAS because that network is so weird.)

Looks like BT Jr. may have recorded Thursday’s title match; he’d promising a highlight video to come. That also means no TV.

The top match on CMLL’s show tonight pushes the Volador vs Sombra issue, but the top couple matches are filled with guys who might be in a cage hair match. No one, not the luchadors or CMLL, have said the world “jaula” yet. It’s about time if they’re going to be doing it before the anniversary show. Speaking of people involved, Blue Panther is dismissive of Rey Escorpion – “that boy thinks he knows everything, but I’ve been in lucha libre for 35 years and I’m still learning.” If Escorpion thinks he’s building his career on beating Blue Panther, Panther dares him to try it. Panther has faced many better and will not lose sleep over Rey Escorpion.

Every single teased Panther singles match sounds so much more exciting than the cage match. They can still do the singles match as building it up.

Today’s CMLL show picks up the En Busca de un Idolo tournament in the second round. Stuka and Valiente meet in what may be a preview of the final, while Fuego faces Vangelis where the winner will have the best chance of disrupting the favorites. Terra has been starting the feed early, so there’s a good chance to see the women’s and men’s trios taking place prior.

If you missed it last night, I noticed CMLL has disappeared from Galavision’s schedule and may have been dropped by the network. Again, lucha libre has disappeared from Galavision from short periods before and returned, so there’s some hope here. It just doesn’t look like very promising.

CMLL still has TV in the US on 52MX, but that’s a station restricted to (expensive) Spanish language channel packages and has no more reach than the IWRG show or Noches de Coliseo. Maybe less so than Noches, since it’s available over the air near Monterrey. It’s weird I (and anyone with an internet connection) can see the complete B-tapings shows on Sunday, but CMLL’s main show is not shared in anyway. It’d be great if CMLL would follow AAA’s lead* and post at least their main show on YouTube.

* – hahahaha.

I didn’t put this together until Rob did, but the WWL show in Monterrey is July 7th, the same day AAA’s announced for a taping in Ecatepec. Lots of top AAA wrestlers – Mesias, La Parka, Wagner, Demon among others – are scheduled for that show, which means they can’t be on the AAA show. There’s plenty of people left to tape a Fusion-level taping and Ecatepec is the sort of location Fusion tapes in, so maybe that’s the deal. That would also mean there’s probably two weeks of TripleMania airing to stretch everything out.

One more AAA TV taping: 07/19 in Arena Xalapa, at least according to Arena Xalapa’s Facebook. I’d guess that would be an Evolucion taping, since it’s a smaller building than AAA usually runs for it’s main tapings and it’s too far from Mexico City to be Fusion. Wait and see, I guess.

Speaking of AAA and TV: the iPPV itself was a disaster, I’ve covered that part pretty well. However, if the greater point of the iPPV was to expose new audiences to AAA, they may have succeed after all. This is not the first time AAA’s posted a major show or even TripleMania itself onto YouTube, but the attention AAA got after their iPPV failure and make good of sharing the whole show for free seems to be causing far more people to check out the show than people have in past years. People might have not thought about the show after it if not for the iPPV issues, but it was really putting the show out there as quickly as possible that gained them advantage out of the bad situation. AAA turned some lemons into lemonade. They still have work to do to convince people to buy their shows, especially since the people just checking it out now were not previously interested in paying for the show.

By the way, you should have your uStream refund by now if you ordered the show. I know people were seeing it turn up on their credit card accounts on Thursday.

La Parka, talking about this TripleMania match, crowed about how the legends of lucha libre were no match for Team AAA. He says the rivalry between the two sides hasn’t ended, and he’d like a singles match with V4. The interview also includes a explanation of why Dorian was with the legends at TripleMania, saying Dorain had brought in the Legends but didn’t trust them to get the job done themselves. That’s not the way I remember it happening – Canek and Villano IV showed up during the period where Dorian and Konnan were fired from the company, and Konnan was the one weirdly taking credit for the indy guys at the press conference – but maybe there’s something I’m missing.

LA Park is on twitter at @laparktapia. There’s another LA Park Twitter account that turned up earlier this week, but LA Park said @laparktapia was his real one on his Facebook account. He’s posting what you’d expect of LA Park. (Santo’s already blocked him.) I try to keep track of (probably) real luchador Twitter accounts with a list on Twitter, though I’m sure I’m missing plenty. And the list itself turns into 100 Hijo del Santo tweets because he refuses to reply correctly.

WBC President Jose Sulaiman wants El Hijo del Santo to defend their lucha libre championship against a Japanese man at a date to be decided, possibly in September. Sulaiman had no name in mind – he was going to leave “the Japan Association of Lucha Libre” to decide. I have no idea what this is, or why it’s a Japanese man (except they already kind of know who it’ll be – someone from NOAH would make sense.) El Hijo del Santo did not sound thrilled with the idea of the WBC deciding who challenges for (his) WBC title next and wants to be involved in the decision. This was a shared press conference, so I’d guess the disagreement is just for public consumption. They agreed that the title is now a welterweight championship instead of an open weight one.

Fenix says he’s defending the Fusion title on Sunday in Arena Ichiban versus Drago, Pentagon and Aerostar. That sounds like an outstanding match.

NOAH announced the blocks for it’s Junior Tag Team Tournament. The Mexitosos and Pesadilla & Dual Force teams (and the South American team) are all in the same block to set up matches again each other. I finally saw a picture of Dual Force yesterday and I’m certain it’s a not Tempestad/Nieto del Santo, and probably not Mexico unless Oriental has a son who’s wrestling and we don’t know about it.

Nakamura wants to get a rematch with Sombra in July. He’s willing to to come back to Mexico to get it, though NJPW also has an iPPV on 07/20.

CMLL updated the Tuesday Guadalajara results page with a few photos of Mercurio & Bam Bam’s hair match.

Volador Jr. mentions on his Facebook that Mima Shimoda is heading back to Japan.

Rob has highlights of 11/16/12 CMLL.

Lineups

DTU (THU) 07/04/2013 Arena Aficion
1) Yuta vs Kalibus, Mantra, Kaleth, Jhonky, Slayer Pack, Osiris, Factor Miedo, Kyubyu
2) Ángel del Misterio, Jorge Kebrada, Keira vs La Magnifica, Lanzeloth, Rocky Lobo
3) Araña de Plata Jr., Eterno, Pequeno Cobra vs Lucky Boy, Niño de Ébano, Niño Hamburguesa
4) Super Mega vs Black Fire, Paranoiko, Principe Escorpion, Crazy King [chairs]
5) Orion vs Septimo Dragon, Hormiga, Steve Pain, Artikus, Miedo Extremo
6) Crazy Boy & Joe Lider vs Cíclope & Drastik Boy [100 light tubes]
7) Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards vs Aeroboy & Violento Jack and Flamita & Hacker and Jinzo & Príncipe Halcón

Not as many local wrestlers being used as before, though it’s already a packed card. Main event is a bit more conventional, or at least DTU conventional. Current champion Ciclope is very pleased about the return of extreme matches He teams with his brother here, who unmasked him in this arena back in December.

IWL (TUE) 06/18/2013 Arena Aficion [Criterio Hidalgo, Estrellas del Ring]
1) Jhon Terry, Orion, Verbo vs Luminoso Jr., Ojo De Tigre, Sarcistan Del Diablo
2) Carroña, Periko, Terror vs Super Boing, Super Kamikaze, Super Pascula and Chile Peludo, Perfil, Quimico Jr.
3) Aeroboy, Fresero Jr., Lolita b Pasion Kristal, Pentagón Jr., Sexy Lady
4) Medics III b Súper Colt, Shadow, Pequeño Demonio, Atomic Star, Corcel Infernal, Templario [IWL LIGHT]
Local wrestler Medics III won the championship. List of wrestlers is as announced, no participant is announced.
5) Black Terry, Dinamic Black, Dr. Cerebro b Argenis, Drago (AAA), Fenix (AAA) [Copa Criterio, quarterfinal]
Team IWRG beating Team AAA.
6) Carta Brava Jr. (IWL), Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera b Free Lance, Pantera, Suicida [Copa Criterio, quarterfinal]
Team IWL beating Team Naucalpan (not IWRG)
7) Loco Max, Tony Rivera, Zumbido b Bastardo I, Bastrado II, Rocky Santana [Copa Criterio, quarterfinal]
Team ex-CMLL defeating Team AULL. It’s not mentioned which 2 Bastardos were in the match (there are four.)
8) Cíclope, Disturbio, Drastik Boy b Eterno, Peligro, X-Fly [Copa Criterio, quarterfinal]
Team Arena Aficion defeating Team Familia de Tijuana
9) Carta Brava Jr. I, Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera b Black Terry, Dinamic Black, Dr. Cerebro [Copa Criterio, semifinal]
Team IWL defeating Team IWRG.
10) Loco Max, Tony Rivera, Zumbido b Cíclope, Disturbio, Drastik Boy [Copa Criterio, semifinal]
Team Ex-CMLL defeating Team Arena Aficion
11) Loco Max, Tony Rivera, Zumbido b Carta Brava, Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera [Copa Criterio, final]
Team Ex-CMLL defeating team IWL to win the tournament.
12) Ángel o Demonio, León Rojo, Ovett DQ Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown [IWL TRIOS]
Clowns won the titles on the last IWL show thanks to interference from the AULL crew. Total brawl, with weapons including the crutch of a professional soccer player in the crowd being used. Angel o Demonio fouled Psycho Clown, wasn’t caught. Psycho Clown fouled Angel o Demonio, was caught for the loss, and the title changed hands on the DQ.

AAA announced tapings for 07/07 in Ecatepec, Estado de Mexico and 07/15 in Tehuacan, Puebla. There’s no brand or lineup announced. Those shows are a little ways off, hopefully everyone gets to catch up on their sleep. (Me included.) They’re also sticking close to home. That schedule confirms what AAA earlier alluded to, this weekend’s show will be a TripleMania recap, where a fair chuck on the show should air on the UTDN show. The taping from Leon will air 06/29 and 07/06. Those are the first tapings post brand split and we’ll find out how much that matters.

Hijo del Santo says everything is on track for a Dr. Wagner Jr. vs LA Park mask match in September, and he’d like it to be on the Zocalo show on 09/16. That sounds highly unlikely, but Santo might have found a way – he says he’s unsure if the match would be a singles, a three way or a four way. Santo probably can get the match to happen if it’s someone else losing their mask, though there’d be backlash since Park & Wagner have said they’d only do a singles match previously. Dr. Lucha mentioned Dr. Wagner will re-sign his deal with AAA, which was expected when CMLL showed no interest, and that may leave him unavailable for TxT dates like this in the future.

In semirelated Hijo del Santo stories, his column this week starts with a tale about a time where El Santo walked out of EMLL because they were (drastically) underpaying him. Other luchadors joined him, and eventually they found out they did much better for themselves, and this eventually became the LLI/UWA/El Toreo promotion. (There’s something missing here, because he says Santo left in the 50s, and UWA didn’t form until 1975. There definitely were other periods where luchadors left Arena Mexico to work for other touring groups.) Santo brings this around into an attack on AAA. There’s been a lot of luchadors who’ve been billed as working both TxT & AAA of late, to the point where I’ve been wondering if the had been some quiet truce called between the promotions. Santo strongly says it’s the opposite – AAA is raiding TxT talent, convincing them to sign with AAA, and then telling them to no longer work with TxT. Santo also accuses AAA of scheduling TripleMania a week before this TxT show (so Hijo del Santo lives in a bubble and has no idea they announced that date back in March.) Santo is happy AAA is acknowledging the quality of the luchadors who work with him, but is also not so subtly calling for those luchadors to continue working outside of the major promotions.

Rey Escorpion says Blue Panther should stop accepting awards and instead accept his challenge for a hair match. Panther is a legend and a maestro, but Rey Escorpion is almost invincible in hair matches and wants to end the legend of Blue Panther – and Brazo de Plata, and anyone else who gets in his way.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Rob has a thorough review of TripleMania, where I agree with the vast majority of it. Same thing with Dr. Lucha’s podcast yesterday.

Bill has highlights of 05/26/13 CMLL.

Lineups

• Negro Casas, Felino and Terrible beat Atlantis, Maximo and Diamante Azul (replacing Rush) in Queretaro.
• Cronicas Y Leyendas looks back at Rayo de Jalisco & Atlantis’s team, Ultraman unmasking America Salvaje, CMLL’s 61st Anniersario, and the shortest reigning UWA Heavyweight Champion.
• Dark Angel is listed as working Stardom’s 5STAR GP tournament, so she’s probably not sticking around Mexico too long.
• SuperLuchas says issue #504, the return from hiatus, will be on sale July 1st.
• This week’s Tercera Caida is up, along with the usual behind the scenes extra.
• Imposter took Siniestro’s mask in Tulancingo.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 06/23/2013 Arena Naucalpan
1) Acero (IWRG) & Seiya vs Dragón Celestial & Epidemia
2) Dragoncito De Oro, Mini Multifacetico, Voladorcito vs Bracito De Plata, Mini Canis Lupus, Super Bracito
3) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Eterno & Súper Nova
4) Hijo de Pirata Morgan vs Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 [IWRG IC MIDDLE]
Hijo de Pirata Morgan is champion. First defense.
5) X-Fly vs Dr. Cerebro [cage, hair]

A cage match just between two luchadors is a rarity in lucha libre. It probably won’t end up being just two with Eterno & Super Nova hanging out from earlier. Either man is capable of winning (because either man is capable of losing.)

DTU (FRI) 07/05/2013 Arena Queretaro
1) Artikus, Jhonky, Kaleth, Kalibus, Miedo Extremo, Slayer Pack vs Benji, Gremlin, Kastigador, Maverick, Morfeo, Sangre De Dragon, Vengador [Torneo Altro Remdiento Aereo]
2) Keira, Lucky Boy, Niño de Ébano, Niño Hamburguesa vs Crazy King, La Magnifica, Principe Escorpion, Yuta
Crazy King is from NWG.
3) Demente Extreme, Paranoiko, Septimo Dragon vs ?, Mr. Rebelde, Ursus
chair match. Ursus team is a trio of Queretaro luchadors (including the name to be announced.)
4) Hacker vs Steve Pain, Tomahawk T.T., Principe Orion, Hormiga, Jinzo, Príncipe Halcón [Torneo Alto Impacto International]
5) Aero Boy & Violento Jack vs Drabek I & Drabek II and Cíclope & Perro Mocho Jr. and Dragon De Oriente I & Dragon De Oriente II
6) Fenix (AAA) vs Drastik Boy, Daga, Flamita [AAA FUSION]
Fenix is champion. Third defense.
7) Crazy Boy, Davey Richards, Mary Apache vs Eddie Edwards, Faby Apache, Joe Lider

A real main event. That’s such a weird main event. DTU says the show will be taped for TVC Deportes, and it sounds more like a TV show than just Tercera Caida clips. They’ve got two more lineups to announce.

CMLL (TUE) 06/25/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Metatrón & Sky Kid vs Demonio Maya & Évola
2) Astral, Bam Bam, Eléctrico vs Pequeño Violencia, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
3) Super Porky vs Kráneo
4) Blue Panther & Valiente vs Negro Casas & Virus
5) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Shocker vs Comandante Pierroth, Mr. Águila, Terrible

Semimain looks superb. Tercera looks to be short. Actually, because I want to see everyone get a chance to have a big match, I was thinking the other day how Kraneo vs Terrible would be a totally fun 12 minute heavyweight title match on some random Tuesday. Super Porky is probably not going to work out as well, though Super Porky vs Kraneo would be a pretty even apuesta match if they ever went that route.