Day: April 10, 2015

Tonight’s CMLL show is quietly a big one (though it can’t be that big if it’s this quiet.) La Sombra and Volador Jr. resume the feud of their generation with another singles main event. The biggest problem with the Ingobernables has been them constantly facing rudos while wrestling like rudos themselves. That’s not a problem with tonight’s match, and perhaps it’ll led in to the natural feud between the Ingobernables and the Sky Team.

The undercard includes Syuri’s title defense against Marcela. It’s Syuri’s last match in Mexico. CMLL’s usual patterns suggest Marcela is a heavy favorite, but there’s still a chance Syuri goes back to Japan with the CMLL women’s title. The show also has the TGR trio teaming again in the semifinal, and Rey Escorpion teaming with the Guerreros again because old feuds just fade away.

Mistico says it was a month after he returned to the ring when he finally felt 100%. He has looked improved compared to FantasticaMania.

Mr. Niebla says he wants to train like he’s going to the Olympics, and be healthy enough to be in the Mr. CMLL bodybuilding contest – he’s joking, but he wants to prove he can still go with the youngsters. This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter expands on the story about why Mr. Niebla missed the last half of FantasticaMania: he didn’t show up for the bus, they found him passed out on the floor, NJPW took him to the hospital and angrily made CMLL pay the bill. It’s not mentioned there, but I was told CMLL wants Niebla to repay them. I wonder if the reason he’s back is to work off that debt.

CaraLucha announced they’re holding a new talent tournament (Bestiario), resembling CMLL’s En Busca de un Idolo. Luchadors are invited to send in their info, they’ll choose 16 to have a session with a trainer, and 8 of those will advance to a single elimination tournament. Luchadors will not advance by winning, but by getting a higher score from a panel of five judges (a referee, a luchador, a media member, a CaraLucha staff member and a fan.) The final will be on 05/30, with the winner also getting to face Flamita on the same show. The loser will get a special singles match on another show, and those final two will become be booked by CaraLucha going forward.

On the surface, I have the same problem with this as the En Busca de Un Idolo tournament: lucha libre is interesting as a fake sport, but not as fake performance art that’s graded within the context of the show. We can do here because we’re not part of the show, but doing it on the show breaks it’s own reality. Instead of having a judging panel declare who’s better after the match, it seems easier and less fake to have the person in charge actually decide who’s better before the match and then just do a match where the better person wins. That seems like a crazy old school thought but I’m sticking with it.

This particular format seems to cause bigger problems than the CMLL one: En Busca de un Idolo has a luchador face a variety of luchadors so any one specific opponent doesn’t have a big influence. In Bestiario, a luchador’s chance of advancing is entirely depending on looking better than the person they’re working with. If your Caralucha, you’re trusting that everyone will be super professional and not try to sabotage others to help themselves advance. (CMLL hasn’t seemed to have that issue because everyone in En Busca de un Idolo is still in CMLL the next day and has to go back to that locker room. If a luchador knows they won’t be brought back to CaraLucha if they lose, there’s a lot less peer pressure to do the right thing.) Of course I’m thinking cynically when there are just as many possible problems on the other extreme – this could be seven matches of diving off the balcony if they think it’ll get over with the judges.

This week’s WON mentioned a dark match on the SmackDown with the Matadors against two unknowns that went well, with one of the local competitors mentioned as flying around a lot. This turns out to be Sammy Guervara & “Tony Guevara”, where Tony was actually an unmasked Laredo Kid. (It doesn’t appear that’s not his real name or that he’s related to other guy, just the name he was using on the name.) I’d assumed Laredo was the one flying around, but it’s Sammy who has a picture on Facebook of him doing a 450 splash so perhaps that’s a bad assumption. Laredo’s unmasked pictures are there as well, but I’m not going to link to them.

Black Terry responds to Psico Kid’s challenge to a match on a ChilangaMask show. All the wrestlers on the internet should find the +LuchaTV cameras and cut promos on Black Terry just to see if they can pull it off.

Recall when Jim Ross was saying he hadn’t talked to Lucha Underground (but it was mostly clear his representatives had)? Now he’s said he talked to Lucha Underground, but they couldn’t make the schedules work. Ross says he was going to be involved in the finale taped next week. I was skeptical of Ross as a full time announcer for that sort of product, but bringing him in for a season finale would’ve definitely worked.

Hours after All Elite announced their final card for 04/19 show, they announced Satanico will replace Blue Panther.

RobViper has a music video of 12/19/14 CMLL.

The La Bulla lucha libre art showcase (with a wrestling card) takes place tomorrow in Los Angeles.

CMLL’s Alexis posted first person video of Magnus walking to the ring, plus clips of what Angel de Oro and Soberano‘s dive look like from ringside.

LV and Voices of Wrestling’s Lawrence O’Brien  review this week’s Lucha Underground

Segunda Caida’s Matt D reviews Bucanero & Guerrero vs Mr. Niebla & Villano IV.

+LuchaTV has quick words from LA Park and Dr. Wagner Jr. on the Ingobernables.

Corsario Negro talks about his match against Wotan on the WMC show this weekend.

Psicosis II’s in the Chicago area for a match he’s having with Discovery on Sunday and is demanding an ambulance to the show, because he’s going to put Discovery in it. That show has Valiente & Solar and other people I’m not that interested in.

Blue Demon Jr. is an endorsing political candidates.

Carolina de la Torre, who was the IWRG ringside interviewer for a period in 2013 and 2014, posed for photos in Playboy Mexico. (That link does not take you to the pictures.)

Lineups

AULL (SUN) 04/19/2015 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Sky Fly & Super Terry vs Kain & Rey Inmortal
2) Holkan © vs Ironía [AULL Light]
Holkan’s first defense. He won the title back in 2013.
3) Ángel Del Amor © vs Yakuza [AULL WELTER]
Angel del Amor’s first defense.
4) Leviatham © vs Terry 2000 [AULL LH]
Leviatham’s first defense.
5) Herejía © vs Judas el Traidor [AULL HEAVY]
Herejia’s first defense.
6) Samael & Tormento © vs Decadente & Psicópata [AULL TAG]
Second defense (though Epitafio filled in for Samael on the first one)
7) Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano Garcia © vs Dante, Euro, Filder [AULL TRIOS]
Diabolicos 3rd defense.

All championship show. In an upset, there appears to be no phantom title changes.