CMLL (FRI) 06/13/2014 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Black Panther & Starman b Akuma & Espiritu Negro 
Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito b Acero, Astral, Eléctrico
Rudos took 2/3 in a usual minis match.
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión b Blue Panther, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr.
Rudos took 2/3 in a good match.
4) Cavernario b Dragon Lee [En Busca de un Idolo]
Cavernario won with a cavernaria after some subtle cheating. Judges were Rush, Ultimo Guerrero, Shocker, Tirantes. Cavernario scored a 1, 10, 10, 7, with Rush criticizing Cavernario for playing too much to the audience as a rudo. Dragon Lee scored a 6, 9, 10, 9 with Rush criticizing Dragon Lee for training with Negro Casas instead of him and Sombra.
5) Hechicero b Cachorro [En Busca de un Idolo]
Hechicero beat Cachorro with a fujiwara. Hechicero scored a 1, 8, 9 and 10, with Rush calling Hechicero boring. Cachorro scored a 4, 10, 9, 10 with Rush saying Cachorro should be be training with the Panthers and not Casas. Casas grabbed the microphone to accuse Rush of ripping the participants to hold them back. Rush and Casas fought, with Rush getting the better of it.
6) Atlantis, Máximo, Super Porky b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Tecnicos took 2/3.
7) Negro Casas & Shocker b La Máscara & Rush © [CMLL TAG]
Rush & La Mascara won the first, but got themselves DQed in the second and Casas & Shocker took the third fall to win the match. Casas & Shocker are 37th Champions. Casas has won the belt for the 6th time, Shocker the third. Rush & La Mascara fall on second defense.
The finish suggests they’re moving close to Rush/Casas – Rush needed to get a win, and appears to have gotten a clean one here – but Rush & Shocker challenged for a double apuesta match suggests they’re all still fooling around. The new promo for Juicio Final airing last night did push the idea of past big apuesta matches, but still assume a cage until told different.
Shocker and Negro Casas were very happy after the main event. Rush, not so much. Mascara should be very concerned, Sombra & Rush don’t really need him now.
En Busca de un Idolo (or “the best Japanese junior heavyweight tournament of 2014”) Week 3 Standings
219 Hechicero – clinched
166 Dragon Lee
—-
162 Cavernario
158 Cachorro
There’s a bit of a problem – Cavernario should’ve gotten 21 points for last week’s fan polling results, but someone typed in 11. That’s the difference between him making it or not. CMLL did appear to correct a mistake with Cachorro’s fan poll earlier, but did not clear up other typos. That 10 points would put Cavernario ahead of Dragon Lee by 6 points.
Cachorro would probably be advancing had he won. Dragon Lee would probably be advancing had he won. Cavernario won, which suggests he’s the guy CMLL would like to advance – but the way they’ve done it, it’s really completely up to the fan poll. If Dragon Lee or Cavernario finish the top of this trio, they’re advancing. It’ll come down to how they give out points for fan votes (which is very inconsistent) if Cachorro comes out ahead. Unless someone runs away with the poll, we – and CMLL! – will not be sure who’s in the final until Wednesday. That means they may not also decide who’s actually winning this whole thing until then – unless it’s already Hechicero. I believed Hechicero was going to make the final since the qualifying cibernetico was announced, but after last night’s results, I think he might actually win this thing.
+LuchaTV also interviewed Hechicero about his match with Caifan on the LuchaMania show, Rush calling him boring and the changes in his style. Also, Rey Escorpion mocks Delta & Maya and Dragon Rojo analyzes the Mexico National Team.
Segunda Caida reviews last night’s matches.
Tickets for TripleMania will run from 144 to 1920 Mexican Pesos ($11 to $147.50). No matches are listed, just La Parka, “Myztezis” (sic), Cibernetico, Psycho Clown and Texano Jr. The description also calls it a “macroevento”, a term I like.
The show, on 08/17, actually is the same night as WWE’s SummerSlam. WWE is still on traditional PPV in Mexico and those companies aren’t going to want to put a second PPV on the same night so TripleMania will probably not be broadcast live. AAA could always try iPPV, but Konnan saying they were working on it earlier this year went absolutely nowhere and it probably doesn’t make any sense for that date for the same reasons traditional PPV would be a struggle. The show will instead air over a number of weeks on TV, which means AAA will not need to tape TV for a few weeks after TripleMania, which means that’s the ideal time to decamp to Los Angeles and tape the US show. We’ll see if it happens.
AAA’s posted the dark matches from Celaya: Cadetes vs Juniors and Reina de Reinas title shot match. Today’s AAA TV will include the relevos AAA, Mexican Powers vs Anarquia and Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr.
Psycho Clown wants Texano’s hair. It was a couple years ago when AAA (Dorian) talked about focusing more on the championships than the apuesta matches, with the idea that titles were easier to manage. They’ve gone a bit 180 on that.
CMLL on Fox aired two matches, so Volador vs Sombra should’ve gotten a great deal of time. CMLL on 52MX went the other way, again trying to force in four matches. Intro for Negro Casas & Rush started at 52 minutes after the hour; it didn’t go long.
Tomorrow is the show honoring Mini Chessman
CMLL has brought back their Top 10 of the week, which is more the biggest 10 newsmakers than a ranking. Sombra was #1 last week (it’s right there in his song.)
Sangre Azteca has a solar panel installation business.
Mundo Nuestro visits Arena Puebla.
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 06/20/2014 Arena México
1) Hombre Bala Jr. & Tritón vs Kamaitachi & Shigeo Okumura
2) Dark Angel, Goya Kong, Princesa Sugheit vs La Seductora, Princesa Blanca, Tiffany
3) Hechicero vs ? [En Busca de un Idolo, final]
4) Atlantis vs La Sombra, Rush, Mr. Niebla, Super Porky, La Máscara, Máximo, Valiente, Shocker, Terrible, Último Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Rey Escorpión, Vangellys [Leyenda de Azul]
Four match show. No slowing down for the World Cup (which Blue Demon has gone to, leaving him unable to complain about his least favorite CMLL tournament.)
past Leyenda de Azul winners 2000-10-27: Blue Panther 2003-08-08: Tarzan Boy 2004-10-08: Universo 2000 2005-07-15: Hijo de Lizmark 2006-11-03: Rey Bucanero 2011-07-29: Mr. Niebla 2012-10-12: Diamante Azul
It’s been two year since CMLL last ran this, two years since CMLL so delighted by having the fake Blue Demon win the Blue Demon tournament. There’s no obvious reason Azul isn’t in this one. Note Mr. Niebla is listed with the tecnicos (but then, so are Rush, La Mascara & Sombra.) This was a single elimination tournament in 2005 & 06 and a cibernetico the other years. It’s not said which way they’re going here, but those tournament years also had were “four” match shows and the cibernetico shows had five shows. Expect a night of a five minute matches.
Still no Mascara Dorada. My favorite completely false theory of the moment is NJPW accidentally switched the travel itinerary of Dorada & BUSHI and that’s why BUSHI was hanging out wearing a sombrero in the Zocalo yesterday. (Poor Dorada sadly eating rice in the NJPW dojo.) My least favorite possibly true theory is there was some sort of injury that hasn’t been reported. And the best completely random idea is someone should be checking to see if anyone happens to be filming intro vignettes in Los Angeles, just to be sure.
BUSHI not being used by CMLL is kind of strange, but it seems consistent with a change in the relationship between NJPW and CMLL. It may not be the result of some grand falling out – NJPW is working to get a foothold in the US and you can only fight wars on some fronts at the same time – but they’re not sharing talent as they have the last year. An expanded FantasticMania appeared to be success, but only Dorada has been invited back and that’s just mostly to round out the numbers for the juniors. NJPW will announce the G1 participants soon and I’d be surprised if anyone in CMLL was included. Kamaitachi has been in CMLL all year (and done fine), but the one month stints by regular NJPW talent have ended. I’d be surprised if Tanahashi or anyone else is back for the Universal tournament.