CMLL (FRI) 03/21/2014 Arena México [@apolovaldez, @furiatitanes, @jokerman81, @terceracaida, CMLL, MT (Cien Caras), MT (final), MT (rest), Terra,Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys b Stuka Jr., Super Porky, Titán
2) Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas b Blue Panther, La Sombra, Volador Jr.
Thunder was announced, but replaced by Blue Panther on Tuesday. Straight falls for the rudos. In a repeat of last week, Volador and Sombra again had problems, and again challenged each other to a mask versus hair match. They fought a little this week but no real match.
3) Atlantis & Euforia b Máximo & Rey Escorpión [natl pi, final]
Atlantis’ third win in the four years of this tournament. Escorpion & Maximo could not get along and lost in straight falls.
4) Marcela b Dalys [hair]
Marcela took 2/3, the last apparently with the Michinoku Driver, to win the match. Multipke mentioned this was a stiff match, at least from Marcela to Dalys. Marcela is 8-0 in known hair matches, Dalys loses her first ever apuesta match. Dalys demanded a title match, Marcela did not answer.
5) Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero b Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente
Guerreros challenged for the trios titles.
6) Rush b Shocker [hair]
Shocker took the first with the Dos Caras Clutch, Rush did the same in a quick second, and Rush won with a Rush Driver (after flattening Shocker’s face with a corner dropkick.) Shocker loses his first hair match after winning 14 (going to 18-2 overall in apuestas.) Rush has won all four hair matches he’s been in so far. Shocker gave Rush credit for the win, and asked for a rematch. Rush wants Negro Casas next.
Cien Caras, accompanied by his brothers and soon to be debuting sons, was honored about the fourth match. That’s the same way CMLL introduced Black Panther & Cachorro. As jokerman points out, since Panico was in the ring shaking hands, it was a meeting of CMLL Hombre de Negro (Panico) and AAA Hombre de Negro (Mascara Ano 2000)!
Fuego joined the edecanes for a show opening dance; the edecanes did a second performance later on in the night.
Crowd totally hated Rush and was not happy with him for winning yet again.
Attendance looks great in some shots, but others reveal CMLL didn’t seat much of the blue seats. It looks like it was more people than CMLL drew for the last big Rush hair match (versus Terrible) and maybe the first 10K+ turnout.
There’s not a lot of surprises on the show to talk about, so let’s talk about the internet surprise. Friday’s show did not air on Terra at all. CMLL snuck in a mention of the show not airing on Facebook about 60 minutes before the show started. Alan posted the message below in the comments, and I thought I was just misreading things because the comment about the show not airing live was such a throw away. CMLL’s been airing matches from Friday night shows since August 30th, it’s been taken for granted that something would air even when not promoted. That was not the case, and probably should not be assumed to be the case going forward.
This struck me as TripleMania redux. The obvious problem with TripleMania was the feed not working, but the complicating problem was poor communication. There was little information about the feed problem while it was happening, and their last big status announcement was saying they were going to explain something at a press conference no one who ordered the feed was going to be able to watch. They didn’t deliver the product and they didn’t deliver timely useful information about why they weren’t deliveing the product. AAA’s gotten much better in this area, and I think AAA would handle the same situation much better now. (Let’s hope we never find out.)
CMLL’s completely in their right not to air their shows. There are many reasons why it might have made sense to air last night’s show, but CMLL might have found better reasons not to do so. Their problem was equal poor communication. It seemed to be as much internal as external. It seems pretty obvious that someone’s plan was not to air the show all week, since Terra never promoted it on their website, but even a broadcaster did not appear to find this out until just before the show started.
I don’t know if it’s the case, but it’s even possible the press department couldn’t let people know what was going on until an hour before the show because they themselves weren’t told. It fits with CMLL’s lack of internal communication, though it doesn’t really excuse them. Plenty of people were asking CMLL what was going on, and CMLL could’ve given anyone an answer. They choose not to.
All it would’ve taken is one Twitter message or one Facebook message to let people know the show wouldn’t be airing any time earlier in the week. About five seconds of someone’s time. for common courtesy. People wouldn’t have been happy, but they would’ve known and made plans accordingly. CMLL felt the people on the internet were not worth those five seconds.
indy (FRI) 03/21/2014 Arena Querétaro [Estrellas del Ring]
1) Angel Rebelde, Golden King, Gremlin b Dark Crazy, Speed Demon, Star Boy
2) Chica Ye-Ye, Drabek I, Rey Centella b Castigador, Fuego Latino, Sangre De Dragon
3) Broken Clown, Dave The Clown, Rothen Clown b Dance Boy, El Lince, Soldado Diablico
4) Black Terry, Negro Navarro, Shu el Guerrero b Dragon De Oriente I, Dragon De Oriente II, El Atomico
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Veneno b LA Park & Pantera
Veneno replaced Black Warrior. Wagner took falls 1/3, the last via foul on Park.
Looks like a really good turnout here.
Today’s the fifth anniversary of Abismo Negro’s death.
Rob has highlights of 01/17/14 AAA.
LuchaWorld has a recap of this week’s Tercera Caida.
Eric R @ Segunda Caida reviews Uprising: Lucha Libre 03/09/14.
Steve Pain wants a rematch with the Mexican Powers. I dunno, AAA repeating a match? Seems like a stretch.
Fuerza Guerrera wants revenge on…Toscano.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 03/25/2014 Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Inquisidor
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Molotov, Sensei vs Artillero, Espanto Jr., Súper Comando
3) Pegasso, Stigma, Stuka Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Sangre Azteca, Virus
4) Canelo Casas, Cavernario, Guerrero Negro Jr., Herodes Jr., Metálico, Oro Jr., Soberano Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Black Panther, Cachorro, Dragon Lee, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Hechicero, Star Jr. [cibernetico]
Busca de un Idolo determination match.
5) Máximo, Mistico, Super Porky vs Averno, Ephesto, Tiger
Tercera could be a lot of fun, but I’m less sure what gets aired here thanks to the cibernetico.
I believe the idea of the semifinal is it’s a normal cibernetico going to a single survivor, but the final eight survivors will advance to En Busca de un Idolo next month. CMLL should reaffirm or clarify that with their preview this week.
Is Tiger feuding with Super Porky? Is that a setup to a Mistico & Averno title match?
IWRG (WED) 03/26/2014 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sky Ángel vs Power Bull
2) Ángel Del Amor & Seiya vs Atomic Star & Electro Boy
3) Centvrión, Emperador Azteca, Metaleon vs Broken Clown, Dave The Clown, Rothen Clown
4) Máscara Púrpura, Relámpago, Súper Nova vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo [super libre]
5) Chico Che, Niño Hamburguesa, Veneno vs Eterno, Trauma I, Trauma II
They got the wrong stipulation in the semifinal. Quite the tecnico trio in the main event.
CMLL (FRI) 03/28/2014 Arena México
1) Magnus & Robin vs Akuma & Guerrero Negro Jr.
2) Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Boby Zavala, Misterioso Jr., Puma
3) Dark Angel, Estrellita, Marcela vs Dalys, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit
4) La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Negro Casas, Ripper, Shocker
5) Volador Jr. vs La Sombra
no time limit this time.
6) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero [CMLL TRIOS]
Estetas are champions. 6th defense.
Main event has a decent chance of a title chance; much more likely if they did this match yesterday.
Also, as much as some of us would like Volador to turn rudo again, I’m not sure how he could actually get a heel reaction facing Sombra. Volador wins, no matter how, he’ll get cheered.
What is Ripper doing in the fourth match?
CMLL (FRI)