La Sombra & Volador Jr. will face Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis in the main event of their 09/13 80th Anniversary show in a one fall match, where the winning team will immediately face off in a three falls mask match.
CMLL announced this as part of their press conference today. Sombra and Volador had interrupted the press conference to demand to do their mask match on the 09/13 show. Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis interrupted to demand the match themselves, and the four went back and forth on options. Ultimo Guerrero pushed for the relevos suicidas concept and got his way when Panico made the final decision. (Atlantis was against the idea and was the last man to agree.) The twist is these matches usually have the losers advance to the mask match, but this time it’ll be the winners.
CMLL Gaceta has video of the discussion and resolution.
CMLL did a very similar match back in 1999 for the anniversary show. It was Atlantis & Villano III vs Mr. Niebla & Shocker. Villano III vs Atlantis, built around two similar stars who spent most of their career in opposite promotions facing off in the ultimate match, was the bigger deal rivalry. CMLL got two large gates out of the feud by teasing the mask match for September, and waiting to actually do it in March. That’s the best guess what’s happening here…which means La Sombra and Volador would actually happen in a few weeks, and Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero wouldn’t happen until March 2014. (Another option is plans change and it doesn’t happen at all, like with the Mistico/Felino vs La Sombra/Volador Jr. relevos from 2010.)
This is going to be seen as a disappointment. CMLL promoted Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero for five months, hyped it up for years, and may not be giving it to them. Now, even if they do, that would mean a big chunk of people who paid a lot of money hoping to see La Sombra vs Volador Jr. will instead be disappointed. Plenty of people will be happy to see either, but a significant portion of people will be grumbling whatever the outcome. Sombra/Volador is a strong alternate match – seems stronger than Niebla/Shocker, though probably not as much as we’d like to think. Adding people to this match will hurt the turnout, but CMLL seems okay with doing that for this show to get a second big show out of it later.
The reaction to the announcement on Twitter and Facebook seems negative, unhappy about not getting the direct Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero duel especially given the high prices. (CMLL feedback often seems negative, and this is only slightly more than usual.) It surely didn’t help to have the participants talking about what a bad idea it would be to do anything but a singles match when they were not going not have a singles match.
That would been enough for a press conference, but CMLL threw a lot of other news out there.
- Negro Casas & Shocker both challenged Rush for hair matches. Rush accepted. CMLL decided Rush would first face Negro Casas, and then the winner would face Shocker at some date. No date was announced for either match, though TerceraCaida said it would take place during the Anniversary match.
- Blue Panther and Averno also signed for their own hair match. They still wanted it to be submission only, and it’s unclear if it will be. Again, no date announced, though CMLL.com says a date will be announced “in the weeks to come.”
- (It looks like CMLL is setting up a second Anniversary show on 09/27 with at least one of those matches, but this is far from confirmed)
- the 09/13 show will also have the final of the CMLL Universal tournament (with presumed blocks on 08/30 & 09/06). The field is almost already set; Diamante Azul and Vangellys did a face to face segment to promote their title match on Tuesday, and we still expect Hijos del Avenro and Estetas del Aire to have a title match before 08/30, but neither seems likely for a change and that may be it.
- Hiroshi Tanahashi will be back in Mexico on 08/21. He should be in thru 09/13. NJPW has a tour from 09/05 to 09/28, but there’s a big break in the middle and Tanahashi can get back in plenty of time for the second half.
- Tanahashi is CMLL tag team champions with Jushin Lyger, but there’s no mention of Lyger coming in.
- Marco Corleone talked about his return this Friday.
- Taichi wants another hair match with Maximo. Nothing signed here and this just seemed to be a way to remind everyone who Taichi is.
Other news
Arena Naucalpan has a show tonight, but it’s technically not an IWRG show. Instead, it’s a “RCH” show (initials of the promoter), who is using IWRG and AAA luchadors to put on a big show on the usual IWRG day. The main event is a ten man cage match made up of five teams, and it’s actually one of the tougher to figure cage matches in a while.
Participant List
Texano Jr. – not going to lose his hair while world champion
Villano IV – has better places to lose his mask
Chessman – not impossible but seems unlikely for this kind of show
Daga – not impossible but seems unlikely for this kind of show
Eterno – seems more likely, but would he want to lose while he’s getting momentum in AAA?
Súper Nova – not impossible, but would require a whole new character (and/or ignoring this loss elsewhere)
Trauma 1 – probably will happen someday, but on a bigger show
Trauma 2 – probably will happen someday, but on a bigger show
Cien Caras Jr. – probably will happen someday, but on a bigger show
Hijo de Pirata Morgan – seems way too quick after losing his mask
I really don’t know. Maybe Eterno? Maybe X-Fly somehow gets into the cage? The Gladiatores has another promo, this time with the Traumas, to hype the show.
Last night’s TerceraCaida had Daga as the in studio guest.
CMLL’s recap of the first Mexican Lightweight tournament mentions Pequeno Halcon landed on the barricade shins first, and that was what caused him to be strechered out later.
This week’s SuperLuchas mentioned Sin Cara was at Infierno en el Ring with family, and was allowed backstage to say hi to people. Previously, Sin Cara had been banned from the arena, so everyone must be on better terms. If Sin Cara is allowed back, then it seems only fair that the other people (unfairly) blamed for helping him to WWE should be unbanned as well.
On this week’s Bauer & Pollock MLW Radio podcast, Court Bauer says Jeff Jarrett has taken back over talent relations for TNA and wants to bring in more international talent. He specifically says strengthening ties with AAA is a goal.
Rob has highlights of AAA 05/24/13 Tampico and 01/11/13 CMLL.
Bill has highlights of IWL 04/20/13 – yes, a IWL highlight video.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.
Links