CMLL (FRI) 11/21/2014 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Blue Panther Jr. & Tritón b Arkángel de la Muerte & Hijo del Signo
The former Black Panther fought as Blue Panther Jr. for the first time. Triton replaced Starman.
2) Dragon Lee, Pegasso, Rey Cometa b Kamaitachi, Okumura, Virus
Pegasso cheated to help Cometa win fall 1. Virus got some revenge and beat Pegasso in the second as Kamaitachi did the same to Dragon Lee. Dragon Lee gave Kamaitachi the spider German suplex in the third for the win.
3) Blue Panther, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. DQ Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Rey Bucanero
Straight falls when Bucanero and Peste Negra reverted to not getting along. Rudos jumped the tecnicos but lost the first fall. Rudos still had the second fall won, but Barbaro would not release his cavernaria on Blue Panther and was DQed. Panther was stretchered out as Bucanero & Felino challenged each other.
4) Ángel de Oro b Mephisto [lightning]
Mecedora. World light heavyweight champ beats national light heavyweight champ.
5) Shocker, Terrible, Vangellys b Máximo, Super Porky, Titán
Super Porky replaced Mascara Dorada. Shocker declared he didn’t want to be in the cage match and wanted to face Maximo in a singles hair match instead. Shocker beat up Maximo and beat up Porky when he tried to make the save.
6) Atlantis, Valiente, Volador Jr. DQ Euforia, Thunder, Último Guerrero
UG fouled Volador.
CMLL has video of the new names for the Panther family.
FantasticaMania
CMLL and NJPW announced the group of luchadors going to Japan for the mid January six show FantasticaMania tour.
Atlantis
Último Guerrero
La Sombra (NWA Historic Middleweight Champion)
Volador Jr. (NWA Historic Welterweight Champion)
Místico
Gran Guerrero
Mr. Niebla
Bárbaro Cavernario
Máscara Dorada
Pólvora
Mephisto (Mexican Light Heavyweight champion)
Okumura
Ángel de Oro (CMLL welterweight championsh)
Stuka Jr.
Rey Cometa
Tritón
Stigma
That’s 17 names for the 15 man tour. Maybe they meant to say Ultimo Guerrero, Barbaro Cavernario and 15 more? About half the announced welterweight tournament field (Triton, Dorada, Cometa, Polvora) is on the tour so it’s a decent chance that title will be involved as well. It’s an unbalanced field of 9 tecnicos, 7 rudos, and 1 whatever Sombra feels like being that day.
Maximo is the big surprise of people not included, since he’s been a important part of these in past years. Fuego’s done well in his visits this year but won’t be back. Neither will Euforia, Valiente, Niebla Roja, Dragon Rojo or La Mascara. Sombra & Mascara being in different countries again suggests there’s no real reason to bring in a replacement Ingobernable (though CMLL’s preview for this Sunday’s show teases Marco as just that.) None of the other En Busca de un Idolo finalsts will be making the trip, which disappoints me.
Mr. Niebla is the biggest surprise to be included. Niebla is currently suspended from CMLL for being in no condition to wrestle on 11/07 and has a history of similiar issues. It’s tougher to send someone home from Tokyo (and it’s odd Niebla would be rewarded.) Mistico is on these cards, which means he’ll be back in action no less than 3 weeks after the title he gave up is decided. That situation makes even less sense now, but now Mistico’s gotten out of actually losing his title and is free to challenge Mephisto in a rematch from last year’s surprising outcome.
Gran Guerrero and Stigma come off strongest as guys making the show mostly on who they’re related to (though it’s not as though as everyone else is a merit based inclusion.) Gran Guerrero is treated as a main eventer in CMLL and they can do the ‘brother’ team as a selling point. Stigma is the only segunda level guy who’s making this trip, with NJPW playing him up as the nephew of Black Cat, who’s honored on the final day of the tour every year. Stigma’s fine, but there’s better people being skipped over for no merit based reason. I’d guess the other luchadors are happy for Stigma but not really happy with the people who make these decisions.
Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis, an Anniversary rematch in Tokyo, seems like a sure thing. Getting some other main events is a bit tougher. Sombra and Volador will be in key positions and whoever has belts will probably be defending them. (No tag or trios.) Other years have had deeper rosters and most of the top guys have already faced each other on these shows, so there’s not as many enticing great matches as previous tours.
AAA TV today will have Australian Suicide & Aerostar vs Super Fly, Pentagon Jr., Psycho Circus vs Hell Brothers and Myzteziz/Fenix vs Angelico/Jack Evans vs Zema Ion/Robbie E. The show goes on their YouTube channel on Monday.
Lucha Underground ratings on El Rey continue to hover around the 17K level. Ratings on Unimas continue are up to 190K level. The week to week increase on Unimas is more than the entire amount of people who watch in El Rey. (I understand if you don’t like Spanish language promos what that have to be subtitle on El Rey, but they absolutely should be doing those promos with those numbers.) The WON had the second episode on Unimas around 250K, a pretty big difference than what the Torch had at the level. They have to either be looking at different demographics or someone was just throwing out an estimate.
An article about celebrities visiting CMLL. Someone must work at recruiting famous people to come to Arena Mexico, because there’s often someone showing up in front of the crowd on Tuesday shows . It doesn’t seem to have any effect on attendance, they’re rarely mentioned on TV and you have to search carefully on Twitter to find out it’s happening so I don’t understand the point, but it’s definitely some internal emphasis.
52MX did air Negro Casas/Maximo. My efforts in trying to find patterns or logic in CMLL TV continue to be dumb.
Rob has a music video of 07/25/14 CMLL.
Faby Apache has no more idea about the mystery women debuting next Friday than the rest of us.
Titan talks about his career to Notimex. There’s a video clip of this as well.
Lucha Libre In Japan
11/22 NJPW: La Sombra & Naito [O] b AJ Styles & Yujiro [X] – Sombra’s team won their first match, hooray.
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 11/28/2014 Arena México
1) Oro Jr. & Starman vs Disturbio & Metálico
2) Estrellita, Goya Kong, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, La Comandante, Tiffany
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Máscara Dorada, Rey Cometa vs Euforia, Negro Casas, Niebla Roja
4) Felino vs Rey Bucanero [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Máximo, Super Porky vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Shocker, Vangellys
6) Atlantis, La Máscara, Volador Jr. vs Terrible, Thunder, Último Guerrero
All kids tickets are $10 pesos, which seems their singular effort at combating the AAA show on the same night. Porky & Vangellys being in the semimani suggests they’ll end up in the cage match after all as last second additions. Tercera loked really good, won’t be on TV. Main event should have the usual La Mascara/Volador problems.