Show will air live/complete on terra.com and may/may not air on Azteca in Mexico (but probably will eventually air in the US on Azteca.)
The title match appeared intended to be a trios title match last week – not only did they have the sides set up, but they had the tag teams occupied in Puebla – and then things went sideways somewhere during the week. The other rudos who would’ve been in that trios title match, Mr. Niebla and Felino, found spots on the card. It meant they had to back track on a match they very clearly announced as a opening tag match, but CMLL found them spots. They did not find Sombra a spot.
I like Euforia, I like Valiente, I don’t like Thunder, and none of them should be on this card ahead of Sombra. Pretty much no one on this card should be on this card ahead of Sombra, to be honest. Something’s up. I don’t know what it is, but something’s up. He may just have annoyed the wrong person and be relegated to seconding Mascara & Rush, but something happened.
Thunder being on this card is another example of decisions here not being made on merit or business sense. Thunder’s the last guy (or second to last – hey Pierroth) you’d want to work with those three tecnicos. If you had to plan this in advance, which is something people occasionally try to when telling stories, you’d probably have Thunder do the run in on this show to build to wherever they’re going. Assuming they’re going anywhere with this.
Opener should be good though I’d be more excited for it in the original form, to be honest. Mascara & Rush vs Shocker & Casas was good last time. Cometa and Cavernario could be out of the world, and they’re the biggest benefactors of only six matches on this card. Atlantis versus Ultimo Guerrero will be much better for the people who don’t watch much CMLL. That’s most of their audience these days, so it’ll work. The Copa seems like it’ll have the most variance – there’s people who they could leave into the end who would make it very entertaining, and their are other people, and it all depends on how they book that one. Should be a good show.
CMLL (FRI) 09/05/2014Arena México [CMLL]
1) Hombre Bala Jr., Pegasso, Súper Halcón Jr. b Artillero, Canelo Casas, Súper Comando
2) Dark Angel, Estrellita, Goya Kong b La Comandante, Tiffany, Zeuxis Sexy Team took falls 1/3.
3) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys b Fuego, Stuka Jr., Super Porky TRT actually won, taking falls 1/3.
4) Rey Cometa TLDRAW Cavernario [lightning] No winner after 10 minutes. Cometa challenged Cavernario to a hair match, and Cavernario agreed – for the anniversary show.
5) Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. DQ Gran Guerrero, Rey Escorpión, Último Guerrero Tecnicos took 1/3, the last when Thunder inexplicably returned as a rudo, attacking Atlantis for the DQ. Thunder is now working with Ultimo Guerrero (part of the Guerreros), and sent Volador out on a stretcher.
6) La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush b Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas Ingobernables won in straight falls. Rush issued a challenge for a TAG title match.
Not sure if Rush screwed up or CMLL reported it wrong or CMLL just makes no sense. (Update: CMLL makes no sense, see the lineups.)
Thunder coming back is pretty random. Our good friend Los Colisenos, in his usual vague way, suggests this is an Ultimo Guerrero concept. All I know is I remember the years of talk of Rush not being able to switch to the rudo side because people weren’t sure he could handle the requirements of taking tecnico offense, and they’ve put the far less capable Thunder in that position now. Perhaps it’ll be a short term deal; the best use of Thunder is someone, anyone beating for him mask. (The worse use of him might be having him get anywhere close to Atlantis 14 days out from his mask match; I’d prefer to put Atlantis in a glass case for the next two weeks to make sure nothing kills the show.)
Someone asked CMLL Informa if Thunder was done with CMLL a while back and JCR said he was back healing up an injury. That seemed just like a story, but maybe not. Not sure if this means Thunder will be on the Anniversary show, but I’m sure those who have worked there all year should be all sorts of angry if he got that payoff and they didn’t. (Those people are probably also powerless to do much about it.)
As first reported by @kishin_claRens, Rey Cometa vs Cavernario in a hair versus hair match is actually happening. Maybe they’ll finally put the Cometa/Cavernario feud on TV now? The strangest build to that match – it’ll be a good match and possibly the best match on the show, but they haven’t given it enough attention for where it’ll actually mean much to the gate. I hope the fans who are coming in just for the one show give a chance, instead of just disregarding it as something featuring non-stars they don’t know.
Just in case you don’t follow these things: there’s no apparent storyline behind Terrible & TRT losing all these times and then finally winning here. It’s just a thing that happens.
Word leaked out that the Lucha Underground announce team is Matt Striker and Vamprio. Matt Striker was unbearable awful by the end of his stint at WWE announcer, Vampiro was impossible worse at TripleMania. Everyone seems to like Matt Striker and Vampiro, so I guess that will be nice for the people who are working on the show. Wish they were more concerned about putting on a good show but I’m clearly asking too much.
A band at the rehearsals, probably a little bit bored at having sit around for all day, posted photos of the set during the day to Instagram. There’s NDAs and gag orders, so they had to delete them later. They didn’t take them down from their Facebook site. Social media is tough! This is going to be the thing, people are going to share stuff from the show, and then someone at Lucha Underground is going to try and close the barn hours after the horses have bolted. They also posted a brief clip of a rehearsal bit: with people (5 stand-ins, same as the number of AAA wrestlers) standing at the back of the ring, a woman danced in the middle of it before a man (another stand-in?) in a briefcase walked in and stole her mic to cut an angry promo.
Alberto rote that he was headed back home to San Antonio, so he’s a safe bet not to be on the Lucha Underground tapings (but may have stopped by to talk to the people in charge about his situation.) Mesias probably is, since he turned up in a photo with Ricky Reyes. That would has some AAA TV implication – there’s a mystery tecnico spot in the semimain of tonight’s show in Pachuca, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be Alberto or Mesias. Dr. Wagner was my guess when the lineup was announced; he’s both said his deal with AAA was just for one match but that he will also respect the rules of the Roldans if he goes back to AAA. Who knows with him. There’s not an obvious person for that spot; it might end up just being one of the other Clowns if plans have changed.
The main event of that show is Perro Aguayo Jr. versus Myzteziz. AAA’s sent out the usual text interviews with both of them and Perro’s trash talked in his newspaper column, but it still feels like a much quieter build to that match than there should be. Given AAA’s reluctance to do anything of note on TV the last nine months, it’s really strange they’re just throwing that huge match out there and getting so little out of it.
Today’s AAA lineup, which should air next weekend and the following Saturday, also includes an Aerostar vs Super Fly in their first ever singles match. They’ve been feuding on and off four years. They should be making mask/mask challenges. The thing to listen for is an actual date for a match.
The final part of TripleMania, with the four way main event and the fun opening match, airs today on Televisa – and it’s up now on YouTube. CMLL has the Sombra/Ultimo Guerrero match (11AM, Fox Sports 2), while the Azteca (America) show gets the second block of that same Universal tournament. TVC Deportes now lists Puebla airing at 7pm on Sunday, and it may also have Sombra/UG. Cadena3 has Mascara Dorada & Titan facing rudo sensation Hechicero in the main event. The full listing of this weekend’s TV probables are here.
AYM/LAS is offering their stream for free for the duration of the Women’s World Cup (of Baseball). You have create a free account at their website and they’ll probably start emailing plugs for their site if you do, but you get access to the live streams as well as the baseball coverage for however long it lasts. AYM, which sometimes has IWRG which doesn’t make it to me, listed IWRG on at 3pm today (but all AYM listings are iffy at best.)
Psycho Clown talks about his win, hypes up tonight’s show in Pachuca.
Lineup
CMLL (FRI) 09/12/2014Arena México
1) Shockercito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
2) Black Panther, Pegasso, Tritón vs Misterioso Jr., Puma, Skándalo
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Cavernario, Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
4) Máscara Dorada, Titán, Valiente vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Niebla Roja
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Marco Corleone, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
6) Diamante Azul, La Máscara, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Shocker
They really are doing the tag team title program! Plans have very visibly changed here; the Puebla tag team tournament is now listed as for the Copa 81 Anniversaro Arena Puebla. It seems to me that plans changed about which title would be on the line on 09/19, but I’m not sure why. The net effect is Shocker is definitely getting on the Anniversary card and Felino & Mr. Niebla are question marks (and poor Marco is denied a title match again!) Note that La Mascara is in this match and not La Sombra, who probably is being shuffled off to whatever match Volador is in. I’d really be surprised if Casas & Shocker keep the tag team titles again.
Diamante Azul demonstrates La Mascara isn’t the most annoying possible Ingobernable.
No Thunder. Lots of good matches. Those things are related. Opener and second should be good. Third and fourth could be exceptional, fifth is a walking DQ.
