Reaction to the title match was very positive. Crowd appeared to be growing for this shows, or at least up for the main event.
Dragon Lee double stomp on Sagrado
CMLL (SUN) 01/04/2015Arena México [CMLL]
1) Flyer & Robin b Camorra & El Rebelde OK. Flyer and Rebelde repeated the Destroyer spot in the second fall
2) La Comandante, La Seductora, Tiffany b Lluvia, Marcela, Skadi OK. Long. Rudas took 2/3, Comadante counting the double stomp and putting Marcela in an inverted campana for the win.
3) Dragon Lee, Guerrero Maya Jr., The Panther b Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre, Sagrado Great. Tecnicos took 2/3, Dragon Lee finishing off Sagrado with a tree of woe double stomp.
4) Rey Cometa b Niebla Roja [lightning] 7″46, middle rope Furia Roja.
5) Ángel de Oro, Stuka Jr., Titán b Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Pólvora OK
6) Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero b Atlantis, Máximo, Valiente OK, but possibly least match of the night. Negro usesda casita and the ropes to beat Maximo. Maximo wants a hair vs hair match. Negro tricked Maximo, kicked Maximo and walked away.
Fourth match was a really fun match worth checking out. Niebla Roja/Rey Cometa went smoother than last time. Main event felt like they were setting up Negro Casas/Maximo while everyone else was on time.
Rebelde and Flyer are going to repeat that spot on every show they work together until they get put in different matches.
El Patron Alberto debuted last night in Ring of Honor. He won his debut match against Christopher Daniels and appears to be programmed against Jay Lethal to feud for the TV title. That match will probably happen on their 03/01 PPV. Alberto was very enthusiastic about his appearance on Twitter afterwards. It doesn’t sound like he was presented as AAA Heavyweight Champion, and it also doesn’t seem like he’s likely to lose before that title match.
There’s a lot of video from the Salon Citali show on Saturday, though not full results as of yet. Click the little filmstrip icons for +LuchaTV and Black Terry Jr.
3) Corsario Negro Jr. vs Wotan
4) Arceus & Rayo Star vs Freelance & Suicida
5) Trauma II vs Rey Hechicero
(It suddenly occurs to me I could create custom icons for each YouTube channel, if I were more graphically inclined.)
CMLL (FRI) 01/09/2015Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Tapatío & Índigo vs Gitano & Relampago
2) El Divino & Explosivo vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno
3) Sky Kid & Smaker vs El Cuatrero & Sansón
4) Leo, Magnum, Omar Brunetti vs Exterminador, Maléfico, Niebla Roja
5) Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Satánico, Último Guerrero
With no explanation, Satanico’s back. The programmer is going to owe him a favor to come out of retirement (and team with two of his proteges.) Rayo/Cien seems to have ended without the feud, but a) maybe the theme here is going to be old legends intermixing in with new guys and b) maybe Satanico is going to feud with Panther or Rojo to give this building a program while other people are unavailable.
CMLL (SAT) 01/10/2015Arena Coliseo
1) Flyer vs El Rebelde
2) Molotov vs Disturbio
3) Esfinge vs Boby Zavala
4) Blue Panther Jr. vs Sangre Azteca
5) Marcela vs Dalys
6) Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Misterioso Jr. & Sagrado
7) Euforia, Rey Bucanero, Terrible vs Blue Panther, Dragón Rojo Jr., Máximo
No one’s here who’s also on the FantasticaMania shows, so they must be leaving sometime Saturday. Fourth match is a recent lightning match. There’s no ramp for Flyer and Rebelde in Coliseo, don’t think they had those in the 30s.
CMLL (SUN) 01/11/2015Arena México
1) Angelito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Soberano Jr., Star Jr., Starman vs Cholo, Metálico, Ramstein
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dragon Lee, The Panther vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
4) Blue Panther, Fuego, Super Porky vs Kráneo, Morphosis, Olímpico
5) Máximo vs Negro Casas
6) La Máscara, Titán, Valiente vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Shocker
Maximo and Casas can’t get a main event? (Might work out better, since they could easier do a 12 minute match as a semimain.) The guys missing starts to show a bit more here, with that odd fourth match and the interesting third. Second is the first unmasked match for two people, and opener is Angelito’s return from getting CMLL a YouTube strike.
This might be the last week of Sunday Mexico shows – maybe one more? I wonder if Saturday Coliseo season will end when Sunday Coliseo resumes; Saturday Coliseo was promoted as a limited run, but things have changed with that project.
CMLL (FRI) 01/02/2015Arena México [CMLL, Notimex]
1) Disturbio & Metálico b Magnus & Starman Magnus was in a bad car accident on Thursday, still wrestled here.
2) Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis b La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi Skadi replaced Dark Angel (not in the country – flight issues?) Rudas took 2/3.
3) Okumura, Pierroth, Sangre Azteca b Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Tritón Rudos took 1/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Máximo, Super Porky b Ephesto, Kráneo, Mephisto Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Atlantis, La Máscara, Volador Jr. b Euforia, Mr. Niebla, Terrible Tecnicos took 2/3, with Mascara & Volador not costing each other the match this time.
6) Máscara Dorada b Negro Casas [CMLL WELTER, final] final for Mistico’s vacant title. Dorada previously beat Casas in 2010 to win this title. Dorada took falls 1/3 to win the title, the last with a casita. Crowd cheered Casas.
Dorada becomes the 29th champion and holds this title for the third time. Dorada winning the title logically sets up a FantasticaMania title match – maybe with Polvora, Mephsito, Cavernario or even a rematch against Volador. (But I keep expecting logical things which don’t occur.) Those lineups may be out this time tomorrow, but the hint now is it might wait until after the 01/05 NJPW show.
CMLL (FRI) 01/02/2015Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook (1), Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook (2), Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook (3), Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook (4), Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook (5)]
1) Meteoro & Reycko b El Yaqui & Satara
2) El Chakal, Jocker, Sádico b Javier Cruz Jr., Sky Kid, Smaker
3) Esfinge, Gallo, Magnum b Exterminador, Maléfico, Ráfaga Exterminador replaced Demonio Maya and is back to being a rudo. Magnum replaced Omar and beat Malefico (who bled in this match.)
4) Dragon Lee, Titán, Valiente b Felino, Pólvora, Sagrado
5) Blue Panther, Brazo de Oro, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. DQ Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 Brazo de Oro replaced Super Porky. Tecnicos took 1/3. Rayo tried for a martinete on Cien, referee broke it up, Cien fouled Rayo and was caught for the DQ. Rayo vs Cien or Rayo vs Universo was teased.
Crowd looked good and it does seem like they’re doing the Rayo singles match. Malefico was on Super Libre declaring himself the best Occidente champion (and complaining the other titles haven’t been defended much), so he might have talked himself into a title program.
Titan and Cavernario meet tonight in Arena Coliseo. They had one of the best matches of last year, they’ll likely have one of the best matches of this year again. Titan’s National Welterweight championship is on the line, but it’s unlikely to change hands on a non-televised show. Even if they wanted to do it to promote interest in these shows, no one’s really writing about them.
Lucha Underground sent out information about their January tapings. They’ll be taping on the 17th & 18th and 24th & 25th (Saturdays and Sundays) and all shows will be four hour tapings to cover two weeks of TV. They’re only releasing info month by month for now. I’ve read Ricochet is booked on 02/15 but don’t know if Underground is taping that weekend. Hope not.
The 01/14 Lucha Underground episode details completely give away the result of this Wednesday’s Aztec Warfare, so maybe be careful reading Lucha Underground stuff the next few days if you don’t want to be spoiled. Usually TV shows try to hide those sort of plot developments a bit more, and this is a little more surprisingly given how concerned they were about spoilers getting out.
Today’s AAA show isn’t airing until 6:30pm for some reason. 52MX appears to have also changed their schedule; the first airing of Guerreros del Ring is now 2pm CT.
Ohtani’s Jacket was disappointed by Delta, Fuego y Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Hechicero, Hombre sin Nombre y Virus. There is a downside to just watching random matches; very few matches get hyped from Guadalajara of late, and the almost always dead crowd is something you might pick up if you watch a lot of it. They’re quiet for anything except chanting at each other, or chanting at the pretty girls. The announcers were even sort of burying the crowd by saying this match would’ve been better appreciated in a different building. A good match is one where the crowd should care, but it’s possible the crowd in that building may have been taught to care about other things. (The downside with watching everything is you watch much less interesting stuff than this on a regular basis.)
Lineups
CMLL has pulled Dark Angel from Monday (Skadi replaces) and Tuesday (Princesa Sugehit).
CMLL (FRI) 01/09/2015Arena México
1) Leono & Sensei vs Akuma & Espanto Jr.
2) Esfinge, Pegasso, Tritón vs Okumura, Puma, Sangre Azteca
3) Ángel de Oro, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sagrado
4) Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi [lightning]
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Máximo vs Mr. Águila, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
6) La Máscara, La Sombra, Marco Corleone vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Shocker
One last show for the FantasticaMania crew? Ingobernables vs Peste Negra & Shocker again, which might leave Shocker and Marco to feud while others are busy.
One more time for Dragon Lee & Kamaitachi to kill each other. Last time was memorable, this should be as well.
Something listed as “Lucha Libre” has been airing irreguarlly on TDN (MexicO) the last couple of weeks. No one’s talked about it and I haven’t figured out what it it, but it’s also airing at 3AM a lot so I don’t want anyone to make any effort to watch it and have it turn out to be a cut down version of the AAA show or something. (Attempts to capture it via stream haven’t worked, but AAA is most likely since they’re partnered with UTDN.) If you know anything, feel free to share.
As noted previously, it’s likely Puebla is done on TVC Deportes. Noches de Coliseo is due back with new episodes at some point.
The Lucha Libre Boom show aired previously on AYM. It was listed under IWRG’s program information, and it may pop up again.
== AAA ==
Maybe back to normal and Tuxtla Guiterrez part 1? If I keep guessing this, it’ll be right.
== Lucha Underground ==
Back. You’ll be shocked to find out the name of the episode is Aztec Warfare, a 20 man timed elimination match to determine the champion. If you don’t know, spoilers have long been out on the winner, so maybe don’t look around too much if you want to stay surprised
== CMLL ==
FOX2: Shifts to 11AM this week. Welterweight Cibernetico, which could be great, should air here.
Azteca: Decent chance Bárbaro Cavernario vs Dragón Rojo Jr. airs here even though it didn’t on Fox, as they’ve done it in the past. Bucanero/Volador feud either way.
52MX: Mascara, Dorada, Valiente vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Thunder, w/ Cavernario/Zavala/Aguila vs Panther/Panther/Titan as the semimain.
Claro: Felino/Niebla/Thunder vs Dorada/Valiente/Volador Jr.
C3: final build to double mask match, Volador/Bucanero in the main
Terra Sunday:
== IWRG ==
IWRG (LAS/AYM): New Years Day show with Ninja Turtles
AAA Caralucha (THU) 01/01/2015Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, LLNEI, TerceraCaida]
1) Arceus & Rey Lobo Jr. b Anubis Black & Stripper Rey Lobo Jr. is a new name for Arkanos
2) Kilvan & Yoruba b Andy Boy & Danger Danger is sometimes listed as Danger King (but isn’t the CMLL guy either way.) Money thrown in.
3) Carta Brava Jr., Drago, Súper Fly b Fly Star, Guerrero Mixtico, Rayo Star Super Fly wrestled unmasked. AAA vs Indy match
4) Fénix, Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagón Jr. b Flamita, Hijo del Fishman, Sky Man Great match. Another AAA vs indy match. Flamita and Fenix had issues, maybe beyond storyline. Flamita’s partners (including the returning Skyman) were also said to be terrible, yet the match still got money thrown in.
5) Súper Nova & Texano Jr. DQ Trauma I & Trauma II Super Nova bled a lot. Traumas wanted a double apuesta match.
6) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown NC Broken Clown, Dave The Clown, Rothen Clown Unclear if there was a winner; Psycho had Dave beat when Fantasma, Texano and Pentagon ran in to attack the Circus. Clown Corp were sort of okay with it, but also threw out three masks vs three masks challenges to the Circus.
BT JR. called the fourth “the best match ever”, so that sounds OK. All the AAA teams beat the indy teams (or at least had them beat.)
Flamita’s Open the Brave Gate championship is no longer Flamita’s – Dragon Gate announced the title was vacant and will be filled in a tournament this month. I’d figure Flamita would’ve just lost it if he wasn’t coming back, and I’d be shocked if he wasn’t back in Dragon Gate going forward. Dunno what they’re setting up, but I still think this is a setup to a return angle. All the Mexico indy shows might as well use him while they can. You can see Flamita’s last Dragon Gate match for the moment here.
IWRG (THU) 01/01/2015Arena Naucalpan [IWRG] ***IWRG 18th Anniversary***
1) Freyser & Hip Hop Man b Alfa & Sky Ángel Freyser, seen last week on an ex-IWRG team, returned here to replace Arana de Plata. Straight fall win for the rudos.
2) Douki, Imposible, Tony Rivera b Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Miss Gaviota
3) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo b Apolo Estrada Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Liderk, Oficial AK47
4) Chicano, Danny Casas, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 b Canis Lupus, Eterno, X-Fly straight fall win for the Chicano team. Recap teases Canis/Eterno vs Chicano/Danny.
5) Hijo De Dos Caras, Máscara Sagrada, Pantera I b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Monsther, Pirata Morgan Monsther (II?) replaced Pirata Morgan Jr. Tecnicos took 2/3, with Sagrada sneaking in a revenge foul on Pirata. That’s the feud, but Sagrada also asked for a trios title match with this team vs the Piratas.
Last week’s show, with the promising tag team tournament, never made TV. I believe this one has already started to air.
In no surprise, one of the Gran Markus – “Hijo” – lost his mask in the Arena Neza New Year’s Day cage match. In a bit of a surprise, it was Averno who won, not Wagner or Myzteziz.
PWInsider reported on a list of new Lucha Underground trademark names. (The site also forwarded me to a webpage which tried to download a hijack version of Adobe Flash, so be cautious if you use the link; the list is on the US Trademark site if you look around) There was a line in the first Prince Puma intro video about him being from one of seven tribes and that was meant to be a plot point. It may be a plot point that was dropped (like Cueto buying the guys from AAA), but the original idea was to introduce people from those six other tribes and more. The people behind this spent the time leading up to the start coming up with a lot of character sketches along the lines of Puma than have been seen (though Cuerno was definitely another one of them.) I would suggest not to read much into them, because it may just be a case of locking up names they might use, not that they will.
I’d also point to the recent issues with the Young Bucks as a sign that Lucha Underground may still be in process of signing new people to fill these roles, but obviously the roles are coming before the people if they’ve already done the trademarks and just now are sending out contracts. This is not taking a guy and figuring out a gimmick, but (mostly) writing a character and casting someone for it.
Interesting to note that while many of the Lucha Underground exclusive characters have been trademarked, the AAA gimmicks (Drago, Fenix, Pentagon Jr., Pimpinela, Mascarita Sagrada, Sexy Star) have not been. Also, we all learned how “Beal” is supposed to be spelled, so that’s a win.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter had two AAA notes (that weren’t quite in the AAA section):
GFW/Jarrett will broadcast TripleMania in the US if this weekend’s NJPW show goes well (closer to 10K buys than 5K)
AAA wants Jim Ross as an English announcer for it’s iPPVs; Lucha Underground wants Jim Ross as the lead announcer for it’s shows starting this month.
I haven’t been around much the last few days – you may have noticed – but I was kind of surprised more people haven’t thought about that last one. Jim Ross is broadcasting with Matt Striker on the NJPW show. Lucha Underground wants to replace Striker with Jim Ross. Awkward. I’d assume it actually means Striker moves one chair over, making the English announce team JR & Striker and the Spanish Hugo & Vamp. It’s hard to figure how LU could afford JR while giving the Young Bucks a low ball offer, but as seen with other possible deals (Alberto), they have one rate for stars and one rate for everyone else and the Young Bucks are (somewhat surprisingly) in the everyone else category. It should definitely be noted that, at least as it comes off in the newsletter, Meltzer expects WWE to make Jim Ross an offer good enough to keep him from working for competing promotions, and it’s possible nothing comes from this.
Lucha Underground is still pretty to catch up on: the entire history is about 8 episodes, 12 by the time the next tapings start. AAA & TripleMania’s going to be tougher to do. It’s a lot different than NJPW or WWE, and there’s not as many people who are that knowledgeable about it to bring people up to speed. You can’t really go to Dave Meltzer or John Pollock on that one – people may follow the big shows but you have to go to places like this for the thorough AAA news. And as this last week has shown, I’m a half-intelligible goofball so this entire enterprise would rest on RobViper’s shoulders. (I guess Konnan counts, but for all Konnan’s good points, “remembering past storylines” is not one of them. I’ve heard Dr. Lucha is retired so no go there.) Not knowing the product was a definite problem last year, one AAA supposedly didn’t help much with, and I’d hate to see it happen again. I’m sure Ross would work on very hard, it’s just much harder to get the source material.
(Thank you for your support, by the way. I don’t think anyone quite got what I was saying but people saying they appreciate the effort is always appreciated. I’ve rewritten the post five times in my head.)
The great difference in the two products is also a reason why it’s so odd they’re being tied together for GFW’s purposes. I can sort of see it as “if one niche product fails, maybe it’s not worth trying others”, but there’s very little cross over between those two audiences. NJPW is 100x more popular among the online diehard wrestling fan base, but AAA should appeal to a more casual fan base and they already have US TV (Lucha Underground) to at least run advertisements for the show: there’s decent reason to believe TripleMania might actually do better than AAA.
It’s also random and weird. If you were going to buy the NJPW PPV, I’d say great and go do it, but I wouldn’t go out of your way to just to inflate the numbers for TripleMania being on in the US – too many things can happen. (Also, you’d be voting with your dollars for a Jeff Jarrett TripleMania match, think about it.)
Meanwhile, CMLL posted a Facebook photo of a contract signing for Tuesday’s mask match. Ramstein signed on Wednesday, we’re told. Cholo talked about how the Principe Azuls have nothing and he’s a real luchador. They’re doing the standard “young guys in search of a big win vs tough experienced veteran” bit here, only the reality is Star Jr. and Soberano Jr. have more big wins than Ramstein and Cholo (especially Cholo!) and are actually already much higher than the rudos. The rudos are actually vast underdogs by any way you look at it. I’m not sure it matters much but some forethought would’ve fixed that.
Your entire Friday night preview, hidden down where no one will find it: Mascara Dorada’s beating Negro Casas for the title. The card update for next Friday is interesting – will the FantasticaMania guys be gone? Will Mistico get in his one match before heading to Japan?
CMLL Informa did air on New Year’s Eve, in onetwothreefourfive parts covering the end of the year. Even if they wanted to put out Titan/Cavernario after the fact, they’d have to find a way to split in half to actually upload it. Most views is about 1200 on the last one.
SuperLuchas has the looks back at past shows on 12/31, 01/01 and 01/02, but I haven’t gotten a chance to dive in them. So I’ll point them out today, and then probably again in about 14 hours.
Los Colisenos examines lucha libre while repeatedly declaring it’s been dead for 8 years (so it was dead in 2007?) and concluding that the current form of lucha libre will never be successful. The talking point, in those articles as always, that adding recent major events is a determent to all the other shows, seems less and less valid the more I look thru older results. EMLL was building to major events going for decades before they came up with names; it was just “the last show before it heads back to Arena Coliseo for a while” instead of “Sin Piedad”. I like to think the fans figured it out without needing the branding. (The problem isn’t those 4 shows, it’s the other 152.)
