Turtles unmasked, All Elite, Lucha Underground

IWRG (WED) 11/12/2014 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), IWRG]
1) Power Bull b Black Niko
2) Anubis Black & Araña de Plata b Alfa & Omega
3) Black Terry, Dragón Celestial, Saruman b Liderk, Rayan, Spartan
4) Golden Magic, Metaleon, Relámpago b Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, Electro Boy
Electro Boy was wearing Gringo-themed gear. Apolo faked a foul in the second, but the tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo DQ Chicano, Eterno, Imposible, Spector
Eterno & Spector replaced Canis Lupus & X-Fly. Tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Eterno fouled Rafy and Spector took Leo’s mask.

wait, those turtle heads are masks???? No X-Fly versus the Turtles, a sad day.

Today’s the first All Elite shows. Chavo and Hernandez have both mentioned they’re on their way to Mexico; it’s always kind of an iffy thing when unknown Mexican indies promote bringing in guys from other countries because the track record there is not so great, but this one seems on the level (and bodes well for the rest of the card.)

It’s still going to be a strange situation with Chavo very much a part of AAA’s Lucha Underground and facing two of the most marketable guys from CMLL on these shows –  Volador today in Arena Puebla and Sombra on Saturday in Arena Coliseo – while teaming with Ultimo Guerrero, who’s said to have at least some role in programming CMLL. Chavo’s role in Lucha Underground is around the same as Konnan, and there’s no way in a million years CMLL would approve of their guys being in a match with (a healthy) Konnan. There’s a lot of history there with Konnan that’s not there with Chavo, obviously, but the original CMLL beef with Konnan was he was recruiting guys to go to AAA and Chavo’s definitely in a position to do exactly the same if he so desires.

The difference there is the other promotion was forming in Mexico, which meant both direct competition and that it was all happening nearby physically and easier to find out about. Lucha Underground is happening in another country and you’d need to make a moderate effort to find out about it, especially in Mexico. CMLL doesn’t make even a slight effort to learn about things outside of them, both among the wrestlers and even more so among the front office. I think it’s very possible CMLL is not objecting to Chavo on these shows because the key people have no idea there is a Lucha Underground and Chavo’s involved in it. Perhaps they’ll know a bit more after this weekend. The All Elite shows should have good matches but this an interesting story in itself.

Lucha Underground people have been pretty consistent and insistent that some of the spoilers out are wrong. Nothing makes me want to pick up my laptop and throw it at a wall more than having an incorrect result on this site, so I’ve been very curious as to what this could be. I’m 3 for 3 with match results so far, but I’m beginning to think that’s not what they mean. The Chavo promo segment last night was redone – live, he did his anti-Demon promo in the ring after the match, but we saw an edited interview with Vampiro last night. While the matches results have been correct so far, there’s plenty of room in between the matches to change things around and a TV company would see those as more meaningful changes than wrestling fans.

That’s one of the differences here: wrestling promotions may take a few takes to shoot something, but once it’s done it’s done and once a show is finished taping it’s not reopened. Lucha Underground seems to be shooting segments, editing segments, and then bringing back people again if they feel like they need to make something better. That’s why Pentagon and others have mentioned heading back to Los Angeles even after the tapings – they’re doing some press work, but they’re also still shooting things (and reshooting them for Unimas, which is being said not to have started until they finished up everything else.) Even though they’re not taping matches for the public, they’re still actively working on this show. This is a good sign.

This is going to be a bit harder once there’s a quicker turn around between when shows tape and when they air, but they probably won’t need as much time to get episode 15 right as episode 3 because they’ll have figured it out a bit.

Speculating aside, here’s the preview for episode four: “Thrill of the Hunt”

Sexy Star returns to fight Ivelisse; Cueto confronts Drago; Konnan warns Puma against interfering with Mundo’s fight against Big Ryck; Sexy Star seeks vengeance on Chavo.

This will be Hijo del Fantasma’s debut episode: he’s doing a hunter gimmick, so that’s where the title comes from.

Rob posted his thoughts on the show.

Porra Fresa has an article about Arena Coliseo San Ramon, the new Puebla arena where a lot of the locals luchadors from the Arena Puebla shows are now also wrestling. The promotion is centered around the Tigre Rojo/Toro Bill feud that’s gone on for years – they’re doing a mask vs hair match with the dads this weekend – and it’s cool to see them get a venue of their own after being limited to street shows and rare TV appearances for years. They look like they’re drawing a pretty decent crowd for a weekly show, though it’s only been running for a month. (Yes, Rey Apocalipsis worked the first show. No, I don’t have video.)

Tercera Caida had Dos Caras as a guest last night, and they went a half hour more after the show.

CMLL Informa continues to get more pointless. The final segment included the Ingobernables mocking the questions and the show – they were doing it as heels, but they weren’t exactly wrong, which kind of makes it worse. It’s interesting to hear Rush repeatedly say he has no interest in a hair match – and definitely not interest in a hair match with Ultimo Guerrero – when it’s reasonable to suspect that’ll be in a cage match for hairs with Ultimo Guerrero in the very near future.

Rey Cometa suffered a bad cut thanks to Puma; photo of the stitches are here, and CMLL tries to build it up as reigniting their feud. There’s no reason to believe CMLL will actually go anywhere with a midcard feud especially if there’s no title, hair, or mask to be put on the line. I wasn’t exactly beating down the door to see Angel de Oro versus Sagrado, but they couldn’t even bother to do a lightning match for that. (That said, more trios matches with them would be fun.)

SuperLuchas reprints a great interview with Teddy Baños: luchador, referee and historian. Teddy kept a journal of every match he was in (same as Corazon de Leon!) and developed a box score for lucha libre as part of his record keeping. As someone who has struggled to do the same, I’d be interested in seeing what he came up with. Teddy mentions one of his big goals is to get every lineup from a specific decade, with the hope that other people might be doing the same for other decades and they’d have a complete list. This is a great hope.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

AAA will be holding matches as part of Morbido Fest this Friday in Mexico City.

Kcidis draws a Lucha-Door.

Polvora says he’s prepared many surprises to take the welterweight title from Titan. Hope it’s the snake in a can bit.

Amapola claims she’s not invincible. I don’t buy it.

ChilangaMask has added Extreme Tiger, Impulso and Belial versus Dragon Lee, Stuka Jr., and Star Jr. to it’s 11/23 show. That’s the 7th match and it’s about 10 days away, so it might be about it.

Angelico is still trying to meet Ronaldinho. Someone please help this man.