CMLL (MON) 01/12/2015 Arena Puebla [Periodico Enfoque, Periodico Enfoque (fotos)]
1) Demus 3:16, Espíritu Maligno, Saurón b Astral, Astro, Asturiano
Astro took the Demus Driver and was stretchered out.
2) Cancerbero, Raziel, Toro Bill Jr. b Hombre Bala Jr., Pegasso, Súper Halcón Jr.
Toro Bill beat Pegasso (in for Starman, who’s missing a few.)
3) Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis b Dark Angel, Estrellita, Marcela
Dark Angel did return. Zeuxis beat Estrellita, demanded she finally get that title match.
4) Blue Panther, La Máscara, Titán vs Ephesto, Kráneo, Pierroth
Mascara submitted Ephesto to the campana.
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Valiente DQ Euforia, Niebla Roja, Shocker
Shocker fouled Maximo.
The picture page isn’t quite working right now for whatever reason.
CMLL (TUE) 01/13/2015 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan [NJPW]
***Fantasica Mania 2015 (Day 1)***
1) Rey Cometa & Tritón b Bárbaro Cavernario & Mr. Niebla
5:59. Triton and Cometa went for a double tope con giro, but Triton caught his feet on the ropes on the way over and landed badly. He was strechered out. Rey Cometa still beat Cavernario with a 450 splash.
2) Ángel de Oro TLDRAW Okumura [lightning]
10:00. Okumura 20th Anniversary/10 Years in CMLL match. The two men were chopping each other as time ran out.
3) Gedo & Pólvora b Jushin Liger & Mistico
10:09. Polvora caught Mistico with the Polvora Driver.
4) Stigma, Stuka Jr., Tiger Mask b Mephisto, Shinsuke Nakamura, YOSHI-HASHI
11:39. Rudos ripped up Stuka’s gear. Stuka Jr. top rope splash on Mephisto.
5) Capitan New Japan, Kushida, Máscara Dorada b La Sombra, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tetsuya Naito
10:16. Sombra showed up in a suit, Taguchi in a Pharoah mask (??) and Naito in a mask with a wide eye. Naito beat Capitan New Japan with his Puma Blanca submission.
6) Atlantis, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Kazuchika Okada, Último Guerrero
17:31. Ultimo Guerrero tried wearing his mask, but it was pulled off. He ran into Atlantida in the end.
No word on Triton; hopefully it’s just a scare. A lot of decisions designed to set up the Korakuen Hall shows later on, as you’d expect. Mistico sounds like he was still wrestling like Mistico in the match recap, but it’s tough to tell for that.
This show aired live on SamuraiTV. Tomorrow’s show, in Kagawa, is the sole non-televised show of the tour.
I wrote a preview/explainer for the tour over on Voices of Wrestling, because there’s just not enough of my writing on the internet. They actually edited and fixed sentences, so it’s probably much better than what you’re used to reading.
Today’s Arena Mexico show has Delta, Guerrero Maya and Valiente vs Kraneo, Rey Bucanero and Olimpico. It’s a least a different main event in this low period, but it’s a bit low on the star power even for Tuesday. Not sure why CMLL isn’t more serious about new guys on Monday and finding ways to move up newer rudos instead of just those who’ve been wrestling since the early 90s. Super Halcon replaced Sobreano in the lightning match against Raziel.
Guadalajara has a more conventional main event of La Mascara, Marco Corleone, Maximo vs Euforia, Negro Casas and Shocker. Undercard has a Tiger, Puma, Virus vs Dragon Lee, Esfinge and Pegasso match which looks promising. It’s possible that’ll see a sub in for Pegasso after he’s been a sub himself the last couple of days.
Monterrey’s Las Noches de Coliseo, soon to return with new episodes, will move to Sundays at 11pm. (Elsehwere on the LyC site, it appears they’re still keeping some of the old time slots.) They’ve also been saying they’ll be airing the Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Silver King versus Hijo del Ninja, Ultimo Ninja, and their partner’s whose name I forgot and 15 minutes of looking could not help me find.
Arena Coliseo San Luis Potosi, closed forever and ever last month, may be running another show on 02/15. The old promoter of this building has actually been running another building and calling it Arena Coliseo San Luis Potosi, but this seems like a return to the original building.
Myzteziz says 2015 will be his year. It is going to be so many people’s years! There’s no mention of the upcoming tapings in this interview; maybe they don’t have a lineup yet because it was a late decision?
Black Terry Jr. has highlights of Judas el Traidor vs Belial, Impulso vs Arez, and Black Terry vs Trauma II. That last one reminds me that Traumas have not been back to IWRG in over a month, since Terry & Navarro beat them in straight falls and Trauma II tearfully gave Terry his mask. Could just be IWRG weirdness.
Taya won AAA’s Luchadora of the Year voting. Scandalous reports suggest Jennifer Blake might have been ahead in the polling, but it’s year end polling so why does anyone care. Voting is dumb, up with the monarchy!
Lucha Underground has Fenix vs Prince Puma tomorrow. They accurately note that it’s going to be a match right of a video game, and tease it with a video game select screen.
Lucha Underground as Video Game Wrestling reminds Konnan touched on the idea of Jim Ross coming into Lucha Underground as announcer on this past weekend’s MLW Radio. He didn’t seem to exactly know if/how talks were progressing, but believed the concept would be to either do a three man booth or rotate Striker, Vampiro and JR in a two man booth. There wasn’t much talk about him being used in AAA for TripleMania; that still seems like it’d be totally a GFW/Jarrett call based on how the NJPW Tokyo Dome show did, and there’s still no word on that.
I listened to that after heading Jim Ross on the Wrestling Observer podcast, where he talked a lot about working the NJPW show; Ross felt he got better as the show went on, because he got more comfortable, because the show became one on one, and because there was more selling in the matches. Ross wasn’t critical of the opener, but he (and the hosts) noted there were so many spots that the announcers didn’t have time to get any of them over and most of them were quickly forgotten. I’m not arguing with that opinion, but that opinion makes it hard to figure how Ross would like the Lucha Underground product since that’s exactly what it’s trying to be. AAA’s not exactly the same, but it’s a very much selling is optional promotion.
I think Ross would still do fine because he’s a professional, some of the main event stuff would be more his style, and everyone would work together to make it work, but listening to him, it felt neither were great with his beliefs with on the in-ring product should be done best. Ross interviewed Chris DeJoseph for his podcast a while back and it’s airing something next month, so perhaps that’ll be the venue where one or both could explain Jim Ross calling that show would actually work well. On the surface, it seemed like AAA & Lucha Underground going for a big name who may not be a great fit. (That said, no idea who IS a good fit. I bring no solutions here.)
SuperLuchas looks back at Satoru Sayama match in Arena Coliseo, 36 years ago. The main event of that show ended in a draw, a finish which has really died out in the intervening years.
Rob has a music video of 09/23/14 CMLL
The correct link to DoradaFan’s music video is here.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update, this week’s Poster-Mania, and a recap of this past week’s Lucha Underground.
Segunda Caida reviews Dragon Lee vs Virus.
+LuchaTV has Super Nova talking title match with Canis Lupus, Canis Lupus talking mask match with Super Nova, Hijo de Dos talking about his WWL loss and Hijo de Dos Caras and Hijo de Mascara 2000 challenging each other.
LV reviews this past Sunday’s CMLL on Terra show.
CMLL posted highlights of the 01/09 show. Dragon Lee and Kamiatachi do violent things to each other. CMLL also has Soberano & Star Jr. as #1 on their top 10. Mr. Aguila is #10.
Lineups
IWRG (SUN) 01/18/2015 Arena Naucalpan
1) Galaxy & Vampiro Metálico vs Anubis Black & Atomic Star
2) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Araña de Plata, Dowki, Hip Hop Man, Imposible
3) Emperador Azteca, Metaleón, Relámpago vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
4) Golden Magic, Pantera I, Veneno vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Rayan
5) Hijo De Dos Caras & Súper Nova vs Chicano & Danny Casas and Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 & Universo 2000 Jr. and Canis Lupus & Eterno
Looks like no midweek show again (and maybe not the week after since AAA is here.) Main combines the two separate feuds into an exciting new direction, or maybe just more of the same.
What a collection of rudos to take on the Ninja Turtles this week: the Messi of lucha libre, the Jamaican-Mexican (heir to Dory Dixon?), the sort of masked Japanese guy, and one member of the Insanity (a team which has a name but not yet many wins.) Leo’s team is the normal, run of the mill, turtle group.
CMLL (MON) 01/19/2015 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger & Lestat vs Fuerza Chicana & King Jaguar
2) Astral, Asturiano, Eléctrico vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Nitro, Saurón
3) Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Hombre sin Nombre, Morphosis, Olímpico
4) Estrellita © vs Zeuxis [MEX WOMEN]
Estrellita’s 6th defense, but the third try at it – this match has been advertised and canceled twice prior.
5) Blue Panther, La Máscara, Super Porky vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Thunder
6) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Valiente vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Shocker
Maximo/Shocker feud continues up top. Semimain seems very challenging. I was pretty sure Zeuxis was going to win this title the first time they advertised the match, and I’m not sure if that’s still true.
DTU (SUN) 01/25/2015 Autolavado VM, Tulancingo, Hidalgo
1) ? vs ??
2) Amo de la Noche vs Sombra De La Noche
3) Black Fire & Slayer Pack vs Génesis & Paranoiko and ? & ??
4) Artikus & Rocky Lobo vs Ángel o Demonio & Ovett
5) Flamita vs Lanzeloth, Drastik Boy
6) Cíclope, Crazy King, Miedo Extremo vs El Chato, El Junior, El Nene
7) Jimmy, Kevin, Tony vs Aero Boy, Pesadilla, Violento Jack
Main event is based on factions, though setting the Nerds and their bully rivals with different opponents to start 2015.
No full lineup yet, but Mamba will be holding a 10 year anniversary show on 02/06 with Angel del Miserio defending the Ichiban championship against Ricky Marvin, Yoruba, Flamita, Emperador Azteca, and ?.
