Tonight’s the start of a special CMLL weekend, though what is being celebrate may be depend on your perspective. Officially, it’s a Dia Los Muertes weekend. CMLL will open a haunted house in an Arena Mexico basement for about 45 before each show and luchadors (rudos) will have special one time only scary costumes. Unofficially, it’s Ultimo Guerrero weekend, as he faces Rush in a main event on Friday night and Atlantis on Sunday. UG was getting singles wins prior to the Anniversary show to build him up for that match, and UG looks to be getting singles wins after the Anniversary to rebuild him. Tonight’s match against Rush seems like a lock for an Ultimo Guerrero win, and he stands a good chance on Sunday to redeem himself against Atlantis as well. Tonight’s semimain has Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas and Thunder vs Atlantis, Volador and Diamante Azul. Azul is back from Los Angeles after working the Lucha Va Voom shows the last two nights.
Remember, if you’re outside of Mexico and Daylight Savings Time hasn’t started yet, the CMLL show will start one hour later than usual – 9:30pm CT, wrapping up after midnight.
On last night’s MLW VIP show, Konnan told Rob that Aerostar vs Super Fly, mask vs mask, was indeed happening at Guerra de Titanes. This is what everyone figured (and what Konnan had actually said was the plan months ago.) Konnan told Rob to not write it on his blog. Since I am not Rob and Rob does not write for this site, I think I’m good.
Alberto el Patron appeared on WrestleTalkTV to promote his upcoming UK appearance. He talks about his unhappiness with WWE and his plans to go to Lucha Underground. Alberto says he’ll be in Lucha Underground next year, which appears fairly set now – it’s just a question if he’ll have to wait the full year of his WWE no-compete (next September) or if he’ll be able to appear earlier than that.
The Daylight savings issue last thru Saturday night. (This is much better than Spring.) That primarily means that the Juarez C3 feed will not be showing lucha libre – it’s on US time and just does weird things when Mexico City is on a different clock.
Well, they only got three matches left, so the minis, Suicide/Jack vs Apache/Lider and Mesias/Myzteziz vs Averno/Fantasma vs the Rain (unless another dark match appears.) Also, I think I’ve figured out they’re “dark match” not because the cameras are dark, but they want to keep the internet in the dark so Rob doesn’t bug AAA to upload them to YouTube.
== Lucha Underground ==
Titled Los Demonios, the show has Mundo/Puma vs Castro/Cisco (the two non-Zeke guys who ran in at the end), Chavo/Sexy vs Havoc/Ivelisse (debut) and Demon vs the promised man of a 1000 deaths.
== CMLL ==
FOX2: Assuming it airs at a rational time, Guerreros vs Ingobernables again, TRT vs Valiente/Volador/Titan and Maximo/Rey Escorpion
Azteca: Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi, Thunder does Thunder things, and Guerreros vs Ingobernables
52MX: The last TV match of Makoto & Narumiya (who didn’t wrestle in Puebla for whatever reason), Dragon Lee/Dorada/Valinete vs Zavala/Malefico/Polvor and Azul/Mascara/Rush vs Cavernario/Terrible/Vangellys
Claro: Amapola vs Makoto
C3: Angel de Oro vs Rey Escorpion and no opener.
TVC Deportes (Puebla): In a first time ever matchup, Volador vs La Sombra.
Terra Sunday: Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero, Peste Negra vs Ingobernables for the titles, wacky costumes.
The details of the title match make it sound really good as well. LAS TV scheduling has been awful of late – lots of repeated baseball, and IWRG being a two hour show where they only really have one hour slots for this type of programming are the two big issues – but I hope things other than the main event make it thru.
The internet reaction to the first Lucha Underground show is generally positive. Maybe not people falling over themselves, but likign the show and interested in enough to keep checking it out. (Or wishing they had El Rey so they could see it now.) People really liked the Prince Puma/Johnny Mundo main event and the one hour length to the show. The reaction to feel of the show is a bit all over the place – some people liked it being different, some people want wrestling to just be wrestling without adding movie aspects and some just didn’t like these particular skits. The thing we can take from the production, which we kind of already knew, is this this is a TV show doing wrestling first, not a wrestling show with cameras set up. That was clear from the opening swoop in on the location and logo from the show (as seen on every reality show) to ending the show with credits over the action. There were also complains – like the size of the crowd and the noise and the lack of authentic luchadors – that appeared to have been already fixed during the course of the production.
Internet buzz is not necessarily an indicator of financial success – go look at WWE’s numbers this morning – but good buzz is good buzz and Lucha Underground had that. It appeared the show went from a low amount of talk to exploding as they show came on the air and continuing strong thru the east coast showing. There are recaps over on Wrestling Observer and PWTorch, and Rob posted his take. Lucha Underground people on Twitter seemed happy with the show and the reaction to it.
Fighting Spirit Magazine has a great interview with Alberto el Patron. You should go buy the magazine and read the whole thing, it’s available digitally on iOS and Android. When the WWE tour came and went without Alberto saying anything to the press, I started to assume Alberto and WWE had made some deal where he’d stay quiet about WWE in exchange WWE dropping the restrictions on Alberto working in the US. That’s clearly not the case: Alberto openly talked about dealing with racist incidents in WWE regularly, not just the one which led to his firing.
Alberto explained it was both people in management and in other roles who would say those sorts of things. He would not put up with it from people below him on the food chain, but kind of had to tolerate that from management for political reasons. Alberto says the man who called him up to fire him was one of those people who would make racial comments. He avoided using the name of the person in this interview, but Alberto has said repeatedly said elsewhere it was HHH who called to fire him. (Ricardo Rodriguez has made similar comments towards HHH.) Alberto also complained heavily about the pay in WWE. He would constantly fight for better payoffs, because he knew what he was worth in other promoters and could threaten to go back there if WWE wasn’t going to pay him much, but feels the young guys are getting totally taken advantage of under the current system. Alberto had no desire to stick with WWE when his contract was over given the current situation.
Of note more directly related to lucha libre, Alberto mentioned talking to Myzteziz about his (much higher) Mexico’s pay. That suggests those two are on much better terms then was suggested previously. Alberto states his offer from AAA (Dorian) includes money for working the Mexico promotion and Lucha Underground. That sounds like he’s been signed by Lucha Underground – something they’ve denied but everyone believes is happening the moment he’s legally allowed to be there – but it’s also possible Alberto is getting that part of his contract until the non-compete is cleaned up. Alberto says he took the offer to Paco Alonso and Paco told him he couldn’t match and Alberto should sign with AAA. Alberto mentioned vague plans for a Dos Caras Sr. retirement show in the first half of 2015, and a desire to get his close friend Drew Galloway (ex-WWE Drew McIntyre) in to AAA in 2015. It’s a UK magazine, it’s always a good idea to mention how much you like a UK wrestler, but Galloway was considered vastly underutilized in WWE.
Tercera Caida had footage of the ChilangaMask show and sit down interviews with Rayo de Jalisco and LA Park. The big news is Bernado Guzman, who’s been cohost of the show since episode 1, is leaving the show. Bernardo and Jose Manuel have been doing the show for eight years and came up with the concept of the show. Bernardo will still be helping with +LuchaTV.
Lucha 2000 746 has the All Elite show teaser on the cover. I think All Elite is another name for “Lucha 2000 promotions.” (Either that or one is sponsoring the other pretty heavily.)
AAA TV (FRI) 11/28/2014Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) ? & Faby Apache vs Sexy Star & Taya Valkyrie
2) Aerostar & Dinastía vs Mini Charly Manson & Súper Fly
3) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Averno, Chessman, Cibernético
4) Fénix & Myzteziz vs Pentagón Jr. & Zema Ion
5) El Patrón Alberto vs Texano Jr. [street]
Air Date: 12/06 and 12/13. There’s only five matches, but I still expect it to be a two taping show. Either a match will be added or there just won’t be much new wrestling on one of these shows.
That’s not the dates we had before, but the previously announced Apizaco taping is no longer on AAA’s website schedule. They must’ve decided they had too much TV. (This is at least the third TV taping which has been advertised and then canceled.) This will put Guerra de Titanes on the air before/after Chrismas and mean they’re likely to air three weeks of Best of Material as usual.
More directly, that means the only two tapings left prior to Guerra de Titanes are the show in Leon and this one. It’s still four weeks of TV (and Heroes Inmortales, who’s purpose was to be two more weeks of build to this show), but it’s another quick turnaround. The Aerostar Fan Club mentioned Aerostar/Super Fly might be officially announced in a GdT mask match tonight; that doesn’t seem to have happened, but that sort of match announcement prior to seeing on TV seems likely given how little TV they have to work with.
Main event is a street fight right before the title match. AAA’s directly said Texano won at Heroes Inmortales because he didn’t have enough credibility, so I’d expect Texano to keep winning – especially in a match which allows a unlimited interference.
Today’s Wrestling Observer says the “idea” is for Fenix & Myzteziz & a TBD to form an a trio (an AAA Super Sky Team, more or less.) Like all AAA ideas, it might or might not happen but it would explain them teaming up again here. The WON also confirms Ion is coming to Mexico on his own and talked his way into a good AAA spot. If TNA falls apart, maybe Tigre Uno can talk him back into a better spot than he left.
Hell Brothers and Psycho Circus are matched up for the third straight taping. It’s probably going to be a fourth and a title match in Zapopan for Guerra de Titanes.
Aerostar & Super Fly are matched up again and Suicide and Pentagon are not, which may tell us something about what’s going down. Dinastia and Charly being on opposite sides might also signal the mini championship match.
No clues on the mystery woman. Ivellise coming in from Lucha Underground makes some sense. Konnan hyped signing “the best women’s wrestler in the world” on a recent MLW radio show, so maybe that’s whoever it would be. (There may also be people in the match who feel they are the best in the world.)
Next taping is 12/07 in Zapopan for Guerra de Titanes. Note the first half of this show will air only 1 day before the show. If anything’s going to happen to sell tickets, it ought to happen on 11/17 in Leon. And we’ve got no more AAA taping news until then.
That’s enough for one night. I’m going to save the allegations of systematic racism (elsewhere, not in AAA) for tomorrow.
taped 2014-09-06 @ Lucha Underground Temple, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
Blue Demon Jr. submits Chavo Guerrero Jr. [5:15, sharpshooter w/armbar, OK] Son of Havoc pins Sexy Star [1:32, front backbreaker “with tights pulled”, TOO SHORT TO BE RATED] Johnny Mundo pins Prince Puma [12:31, “Fin de Mundo” rope flip moonsault tornillo , GOOD]
Son of Havoc clearly didn’t pull the tights, but the backbreaker was good
This format will have to change, because this show’s format doesn’t really fit the Mexico model. There’s a lot more to talk about then the matches with this one.
The vignettes were kind of the stars of this show. The Sexy Star one in particular was great in getting over her character on the show. The Prince Puma introduction was a bit goofy: they’re asking you to swallow a lot of mythology at once (and the “his name is Prince Puma because his spirit animal is a Jaguar” line was so very goofy), but they and the Dario Cueto stuff felt like Hollywood presentations. They’re quite a few steps up from the set that travels from show to show elsewhere. The production quality of the out of the ring segments was a big point of emphasis going in to the show and they delivered on the first show.
Mundo parquer
The match production probably needs to be improved. Some of that is probably going to happen naturally as more episodes roll out: the crowd felt small here and the noise felt fake at times, but there looked to be a lot more people by the end of the tapings. (I hope the not-so-subtle shots of fans giving thumbs down get dropped.) The overhead camera looks good for the start of the match shot but not so useful other times. The matches were edited. I’m guessing Sexy/Cross might have been for quality issues, but it’s going to be interesting to see how that works on shows where all three matches get time and not just the main event. This is a show that probably works a lot better on the DVR, where the commercial break->2 minute skit->commercial break bit doesn’t stick out as bad. It’s the tradeoff for having an unbroken main event, which definitely seemed to be the right call. If there’s one thing I could change, it’s less pointless shots of the announcers.
Puma SSP
The main event was obviously meant as a statement as to the kind of wrestling they’re going to present. As with the other matches, it was all in one unbroken segment, but it was many steps above. It didn’t totally click for me: maybe because it was the second tecnico/tecnico battle of the night with no clear reason to exist, maybe it felt a little bit false when the announcers were raving it as one of the best matches of the year five minutes in and the crowd was chanting for people they didn’t know existed an hour ago – there was excitement, but it felt artificial. The match itself was super athletic with both guys getting to show off what they could do, but also seemed like they’ll be able to do a lot more together once they run into each other a few more times.
450 whiff
Announcing was much better than I feared. I had thoughts this might be a worst of the year quality team, but they were out of the way and didn’t overpower the match. Vamp and Striker occasionally said a goofy thing and Vamp made the presentation of Konnan a bit confused (Konnan was presented as a tecnico elsewhere but Vamp treated him like a heel), but they didn’t detract from the matches and that’s all I’m asking for in 2014.
“fin de mundo”
The announcing sounded like they it was redone after the show was originally taped, but a lot of the sound had that artificial quality. (Obviously, that was on purpose with Son of Havoc.) They did manage to get shots of Fenix, Pentagon and Drago in the show – they didn’t just tape something and stick it on a disk for a few weeks, this felt like a project where they tried to refine what they could after the fact and that’s a good sign going forward. That’s really what I’m taking out of this episode: it was a good starting point and now they’ve got to build from there.
post match didn’t do much for me, but this move was cool
EDIT: I’m typing before I’m thinking tonight, so I wanted to jump back in the post to point out it was kind of silly to do big introductions for both Sexy Star and Prince Puma and then have them both lose. They worked hard to put over Puma despite the loss and it doesn’t concern me as much since I know what’s coming, but most people don’t. Treat your stars like stars.
Lucha Underground debuts tonight on the El Rey Network. The show will air at 8pm ET and repeat later in the night. The matches scheduled for the show are Blue Demon Jr. vs Chavo Guerrero Jr., Son of Havoc vs Sexy Star and Johnny Mundo vs Prince Puma, though the general feel of the show is likely to be as much a topic of discussion as any the matches. It’s an introduction episode – “Welcome to the Temple” – and we’ll all have a much better idea of how this is going to work by 9pm ET.
AAA’s worked a long time to get to this one hour of TV. The first we heard even hints about this show was a January 2013 announcing AAA’s partnership with Factory Made – the press release didn’t mention specifically TV show, but it did mention El Rey. (The fourth paragraph in that post, tho’.) AAA’s been working to get to the US a lot longer than that – since the failed tour in 2009, since the LLL shows in Texas in 2002, since they fell out with WCW, since they fell out with IWC, since Antonio Pena held that founding press conference (and probably about a half dozen trips into the US I’ve forgotten.) You could look at that as a list of AAA setbacks but I see it as a persistence to make “AAA in the US” work (again.) I’m not sure if Lucha Underground will definitely be the effort that takes, but I know it won’t be a setback for a lack of effort. Even getting this far is an accomplishment – the companion show that was supposed to launch at the same time, Cutting Crew, hasn’t been mentioned by El Rey in months. Everyone involved should celebrate getting Lucha Underground on the air, regardless of what happens next.
I understand El Rey is looking at ratings numbers, but I’m not sure what would be the benchmarks there (and I can’t find any rating source for what ratings numbers El Rey gets normally.) El Rey is so new and little known that the bar should be pretty low: we’ll probably see all 39 scheduled episodes and likely a renewal for a second season as long as there’s no major problems. Both shows El Rey’s this year have been renewed a couple months after they’ve aired. It could be different here since they’re committing to a lot of episodes – they’re running 9 months of Wednesday and then taking the summer off, so perhaps El Rey will want to wait a little longer before committing to all of that. Renewal is a good start here, but the TV show is just a start. The real sign of success is if turns into a launching pad for other deals.
If you don’t have El Rey, it appears you’re out of luck for tonight. The show will air in Unimas on Saturday, and repeat a few times on El Rey (including right before next week’s episode.) There doesn’t appear to be any stream. El Rey and Lucha Underground haven’t announced any plans to put the show up, but they might surprise us yet.
My general plan is to overload Twitter with live comments and then somehow post a recap later that night. We’ll see.
CHILANGA MASK (SUN) 10/26/2014 Arena Solidaridad [@terceracaida, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), LuchaMania Monterrey] 1) Draego b Alberto Dos Rios, Keira, Hormiga, Hijo De Centurion Negro, Furia Azteca, Tornado (DF) Upset win? Draego beat Hormiga with a Spanish Fly. 2) Erik Oritz & Kratoz b Astro Rey Jr. & Psico Kid and Fulgor I & Fulgor II One of the Fulgors was wrestling significantly hurt after being injured on the Coacalco show. Only match won by a local (though Ortiz is actually from Reynosa.) Psico Kid and Astro Rey want a shot at Fulgor’s title. Fulgor suggested there were better possible challengers in the opener match 3) Marcela b Chik Tormenta, Hija de Karonte good match 4) Bestia 666 & Herodes Jr. DQ Comandante Pierroth & Sagrado Bonus CMLL/Indy match. Pierroth & Sagrado were working Monterrey this weekend. This replaced the Tony Rodriguez/Herodes match. They were DQed for excessive violence. Sagrado (best guy in the match) declared he didn’t want to face indy guys (like Bestia) but Herodes challenged both CMLL guys for a triangle match. 5) Arez, Belial, Impulso b Dralion, Rey Orion, Xtreme Dragon Indystrongtibles won clean, who were clearly the better team. 6) Rey Hechicero DCOR Black Terry Started out as a technical match, but devolved into a brawl as they got annoyed with each other. They fought to the outside, trapped each other’s legs in the front row wood chairs, then neither could free themselves to get back in before 20. 7) Dr. Cerebro b Caifan Easily best match on the show – not because the others were bad, but because this was incredibly good. Money thrown in after the match. 8) Masada (CZW), Trauma I, Trauma II b Aero Boy, Kaientai, Makabre [super libre] Billed as super libre, but the only really hardcore spot was Masada stabbing people in the head with his sticks. Fans there for the hardcore aspect were disappointed but it was an otherwise good match.
People are raving about Caifan/Cerbero and Black Terry Jr. put together highlights. They’re now tied 1-1, as Caifan won a 2012 match between them.
Angel de Oro, new champion photo by Alexis Salazar/CMLL
Angel de Oro was meant to be the new hot star in CMLL around 2012, but hasn’t really accomplished much in recent years, lost a lot of time to injury, and was improbably passed up by his brother. This is a big endorsement for him, even though it’s still reliant on following it up with some good feuds to mean anything. Best case defenses include Rey Escorpion rematch, Hechicero, Mephisto, Ephesto and the like. Worst case is anyone in Sagrado’s trio. Most likely is no defenses…
Rey Escorpion’s career has gone the other way the last few months. Dragon Rojo turning tecnico should not have meant the Revolucionarios were done, but Escorpion and Polvora appear to have been split up instead of given another partner. It might still have worked if Rojo was around to feud with – Escorpion’s next title match is more likely to be for Dragon’s than the one he just lost – but Rojo suffered yet another bad injury and Escorpion’s just been killing time. Rey Escorpion’s previous feud with Maximo also petered out without CMLL bothering to do any particular conclusion (it wasn’t really working, but they coudl’ve still capped it with a non-apuesta three falls singles match and didn’t feel it was worth the effort) Dragon will be back soon (see lineups) so maybe things will get better, but Escorpion right now seems like he’s another talented CMLL guy lost in the mix.
Anyway, looking forward to Angel de Oro losing in 150 seconds in next year’s Universal tournament. The bigger news might be Terrible and crew going on a massive two match winning streak. (In Mexico City only, he lost in Guadalajara.)
CMLL (TUE) 10/28/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) Infierno & Ráfaga b El Brillante & Virgo Rudos took 2/3
2) Artillero & Súper Comando b Leo & Sky Kid Rudos took 2/3
3) Estrellita, Goya Kong, Marcela b Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany Tecnicos took 1/3
4) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Cachorro b Kamaitachi, Okumura, Tiger Panthers took 1/3
5) Ephesto, Mephisto, Shocker b Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Rush Rudos took 1/3, Shocker sneaking in a foul on Marco
Shocker is not quite Averno but it worked.
Arena Mexico is literally becoming a haunted house. The press release is only on the CMLL.com website for the moment, but they’re turning a basement into a spooky area and giving tours on Friday and Sunday for 35 pesos a person (though you also need a ticket to the show.) Children are not permitted and people with heart issues are warned not attend. It’s only running for 45 minutes those two days which is shame since they might be able to make more as a haunted house than a wrestling venue on some of these Tuesdays. There’s no truth to the rumor that CMLL’s programming group is actually undead and will be returning to their normal jobs for a week, though I suspect this presentation will be more creative than most of the booking. This paragraph could be a 1000 words of cheap jokes.
CMLL and Turibus held a press conference to announce their tourist bus service to Arena Mexico would now officially expand to running service for Tuesday shows. The service starts next Tuesday, running from the Reforma 222 (mall) stop at 6pm. The service, which is now a year old, picks up people around Mexico City on Friday, gives you a ticket to the show, and takes everyone back home on the way out. (It works as a normal tourist bus the rest of the week.) The Friday shows seem to have done well. Tuesday Arena Mexico shows already seem to be most ultra CMLL fans and tourists looking for something to do on a Tuesday night, so it’s the obvious day to add the bus service. Delta, ATlantis and Guerrero Maya were on hand for the announcement and also did an interview for this weekend’s holiday shows
CMLL Informa and Tercera Caida are both on today, though neither has announced guests just yet.
DTU announced Zema Ion for their 11/28 show. Since he’s announced for AAA early in the month, maybe he’s just around Mexico for all month.
Dinastia wants someone to challenge him to a title match already. He may have said it much nicer than than I translated it. (So, there has to be one coming up or they wouldn’t be sending out this interview? Or maybe there’s way too much down time between TV shows and we’re just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks?)
CMLL (TUE) 11/04/2014Arena México
1) Flyer & Sensei vs Cholo & Espiritu Negro
2) Esfinge, Hombre Bala Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Canelo Casas, Hijo del Signo, Metálico
3) Estrellita, Goya Kong, Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora, Tiffany, Zeuxis
4) Tritón vs Raziel [lightning]
5) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Mephisto
6) Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., La Sombra vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
Last feud over, this is the reset button show – with some missing characters who were missing from the party showing up. This would be Dragon Rojo’s latest return from injury (out two months with leg/knee/temporary paralysis issues.) Espiritu Negro is also back for the first time since August…or he’s just down to getting one match every few months, since he hasn’t been booked regularly since April. Espiritu Negro is just alright, which is enough to be a vast improvement over people who’ve been working the openers on Tuesdays of late.
Look it, Hechicero with Ephesto and Mephisto again. I think it’s getting close to a thing, at least as much as the Pierroth/Sagrado/Misterioso trio is a thing. That match could be superb. Lightning match stands to be really good if Triton is feeling okay, though he’s ended up leaving Raziel feeling not okay the previous time they did that match.
CMLL (TUE) 11/04/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Robin & Sky Kid vs Espanto Jr. & Sádico
2) Smaker, Soberano Jr., Starman vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Guerrero Negro Jr., Ráfaga
3) Ángel de Oro, Gallo, Omar Brunetti vs Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Pierroth
4) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Máximo, Titán, Valiente
5) Marco Corleone vs Shocker
