Month: January 2015

CMLL (FRI) 01/09/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara[Fuego en el Ring]
1) El Tapatío & Índigo DQ Gitano (Jalisco) & Relampago
Tecnicos took 2/3, Relampago took Tapatio. Gitano’s debut.
2) Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno b El Divino & Explosivo
3) El Cuatrero & Sansón b Sky Kid & Smaker
4) Exterminador, Maléfico, Niebla Roja b Leo, Magnum, Omar Brunetti
Rudos took 1/3. Leo and Exterminador continue to feud.
5) Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. DQEuforia, Satánico, Último Guerrero
Satanico fouled Blue Panther, setting up a singles match the next week.

Friday results on Wednesday are much better than Friday results on never-day. Sky Kid & Smaker are tag team champions, losing should set up a title match but I have well found doubts since they’re not on this Friday’s cards.

CMLL (TUE) 01/13/2015 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Angelito & Stukita b Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Canelo Casas, Disturbio, Metálico b Flyer, Magnus, Oro Jr.
Rudos took 1/3
3) Raziel b Súper Halcón Jr. [lightning]
Super Halcon Jr. replaced Soberano Jr. on Monday.
4) La Comandante, La Seductora, Zeuxis b La Vaquerita, Lluvia, Marcela
Rudas took 2/3.
5) Blue Panther, Super Porky, Titán b Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sagrado
Tecnicos took 2/3. Comando Caribeno are 0-2 as a trio since getting a name.
6) Kráneo, Olímpico, Rey Bucanero b Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Valiente
Rudos took 2/3.

Olimpico winning Arena Mexico main events in 2015 while the new trio can’t get a win. CMLL! No sign of the lightning match on YouTube.

CMLL (WED) 01/14/2015 Takamatsu-city General Gymnasium, Kagawa, Japan [NJPW]
***FantasticaMania 2015, Day 2***
1) Okumura & YOSHI-HASHI b Ángel de Oro & Kushida
9:06. Mima Shimoda, who appears to be on this tour to help translate, was with the rudos. Okumura won with a foul kick and a Michinoku Driver on Angel de Oro.
2) Jushin Liger & Stuka Jr. b Gedo & Mephisto
11:00. Liger beat Gedo.
3) Bárbaro Cavernario & Mr. Niebla b Sho Tanaka & Stigma
7:38. Sho Tanaka replaced Rey Cometa (right knee injury) Cavernaria on Stigma for the win.
4) Kazuchika Okada & Pólvora b Mistico & Tritón
9:53. Okada Red Ink on Triton. Triton did complete his dive today.
5) Gran Guerrero, Shinsuke Nakamura, Último Guerrero b Atlantis, Captain New Japan, Volador Jr.
11:04. Nakamura Bomb Ye on Captain New Japan.
6) La Sombra, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tetsuya Naito b Hiroshi Tanahashi, Máscara Dorada, Tiger Mask
13:49. Naito beat Tiger Mask with a Stardust press. Sombra continued to attack Dorada after the match. Naito & Sombra thanked the fans.

This is the first FantasticaMania show in Kagawa and the sole show which is not being taped. They’re building up Sombra vs Dorada as something big.

RealHero on DailyMotion has all of Day 1’s matches up. I’ve only watched the opener so far. Mr. Niebla misaimed his top rope splash and came down badly on Triton’s knee, which caused his knee injury. He tried to keep going, but that was a bad idea. Triton came up way short on a tope and was done for the match, which wrapped up quickly after. Triton posted a photo of his knee in ice pack, but did a promo for CMLL before this show today saying he was feeling better. Rey Cometa seemed to finish the same match fine, and it’s very surprising to see him miss today’s match.

Among the many, many pieces of merchandise being sold at these shows are Barbaro Cavernario plastic bones and clubs for 4000 Yen. That’s $34 USD or 500 Mexican Pesos. I saw at least one person on Twitter mention they bought one. The real money on this tour is made not by the attendance, but off the merchandise. (Kushida, who posted that blog, also seems greatly entertained by Mistico out of the ring.)

Lucha Underground has announced all the matches from today’s show

• (Brian) Cage vs Aerostar vs Argenis vs Angelico in a four way debut match
• Fenix vs Prince Puma – there’s a bit of a vignette of Dario talking to Fenix already up
• Drago vs King Cuerno in a best of three falls match

All the matches look interesting.

This is the first “normal” show since December 10th, and even that had the extra long ladder match. If you’ve missing the outside the ring interactions, I’d think they’ll start to turn up again this week.

CMLL Informa has a lot of people listed for it’s show today: Rush, Dragon Lee, Maximo, Princesa Sugehit and Zeuxis.  I had Negro Casas listed, but it’s actually just Maximo talking about his match with Negro Casas. Plus, people seem to disappear from when they’re announced and when the show happens. Rush’s interview could bring some news: he hasn’t been seen since breaking his leg. The timeline laid out after surgery puts him two to four weeks away from returning now, but it’s been a while since there’s been an update. (Then again, Informa is not so good for explaining when people are returning.)

Mr. Jack beat Canek to win the IWL Heavyweight Championship last night in Arena Aficion. They continue to build towards a mask match between those two, though there’s no hint as to when it might be happen. As much as I mock Leyenda Inmortales, and probably will continue to, they seemed to draw better in this arena than CMLL did last time around.

Titan says his Sabado Retro title match against Cavernario was the best match of his career.

Pentagon Jr. was named AAA 2014 Rudo of The Year. They say it’s because of his votes and achievements but I think AAA was just too scared to give the award to anyone else and face the consequences.

The new management of Arena Coliseo San Luis Potosi says rumors in December that the building was going to be torn down were never true, and the building will reopen for lucha libre on February 15. The new ownership is claiming the old ownership spread the rumor to draw a big gate. They did draw a big gate, though it’s unclear why the new ownership didn’t say something until now. Anyway, new ownership is doing some remodeling and that’s why they’re not running shows now.

Terra’s transcribed Konnan’s comments on Octagon from TV y Noticas, which are exactly what you’d expect – “Octagon has a substance abuse problems, he got fat, and they wanted to get rid of him for many years.”

DoradaFan has a Triton music video.

BxB Fly has a 12/25 Lucha Libre Boom music video.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

ChilangaMask added Keira vs Vaquerita to their 02/15 Coliseo Coacalco, after their post match brawl on this past weekend’s show. They’ve also announced Negro Navarro vs Fulgor I to the 03/22 show, billed as The Final Test. Not sure what Navarro is being tested on. (Oh, wait.)

The Neza Kings talk about their 01/31 match vs the Indystrongibles.

SuperLuchas looks back at shows from January 13th. Current Japanese star Polvora was working the openers with Zayco 9 years ago. Zayco was still working the openers, but he has been seen since July (and might have had an injury?)

Segunda Caida looks back at the 2010 Gran Alternativa final. The answer to Matt’s question is YES, in all caps.

Ohtani’s Jacket reviews some 1994 CMLL and Negro Casas vs Maximo. I also did not have much problem with Maximo not selling the knee later on, mostly because I believe in the power of the magic spray wholeheartedly.

Soberano & Star talk about their mask win.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 01/20/2015 Arena México
1) Metatrón & Robin vs Akuma & Camorra
2) Shockercito, Stukita, Último Dragoncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) Estrellita vs Zeuxis [lightning]
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dragon Lee, The Panther vs Misterioso Jr., Raziel, Sagrado
5) Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Ephesto, Felino, Hombre sin Nombre
6) Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., Titán vs Euforia, Hechicero, Niebla Roja

Still killing time, but in more amusing ways. They’re going to program Estrellita/Zeuxis all week, hoping one of them actually happens. Raziel is the best possible Pierroth. Main event and minis match look promising.

CMLL (TUE) 01/20/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino vs Infierno
2) Flyer, Magnus, Star Jr. vs Demonio Maya, Évola, Ráfaga
3) Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Puma, Tiger, Virus vs Esfinge, Gallo, Leo, Magnum, Omar Brunetti [cibernetico]
DF vs GDL
4) La Máscara, Super Porky, Valiente vs Kráneo, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
5) Marco Corleone vs Shocker

Ah, they’re actually doing the singles match. Cibernetico could be interesting.

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 ?.