CMLL (TUE) 04/14/2015 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo b Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Hijo del Signo, Nitro b Magnus, Robin, Sensei
3) Cancerbero, Raziel, Sangre Azteca b Hombre Bala Jr., Soberano Jr., Star Jr.
4) Fuego b Virus [lightning] 
Flashina cradle beat Virus in 6:15.
5) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther DQ Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sagrado
straight falls, last by DQ for excessive violence
6) Atlantis, Dragon Lee, La Máscara b Kamaitachi, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
A show. Fuego/Virus is said to be good.
national commission press conference
Baja California senator, Marco Antonio Velazquez, repeated his proposal for new legislation at a press conference on Monday. He’d previously come up in these stories as someone pushing for a national lucha commission to replace state and city ones. He’s now proposing new oversight for all sports in the entire country. It’s a mixed message, because they were talking about all sports (in terms of licensing, insurance, health care, and drug testing) but also were specifically talking about lucha libre in some areas and citing Perro Aguayo Jr.’s death as the start of this discussion. El Fantasma and Hijo del Santo were there specifically as lucha libre representatives. No representative from AAA, CMLL, or any other lucha libre promotion was reported as being in attendance, and no full time luchador was there. The director of the boxing comission, boxer Edgar Sosa, the head of the WBC council, and the president of the Box/Lucha/MMA commission in Tijuana. Five other sentaors from various parties were present, including Olympic medalist Ana Guevara, and the idea would be taking this into legislation discussion next Thursday.
SuperLuchas cited six main points the senator pushed
– a code of ethics for athletes and agencies focusing on good performances and good conditions to work in
– a national wrestling commission to apply the same rules everywhere
– a system of records
– regulated national annual licenses for sports
– standardizing commissions in every state
– a licensing exam and medical insurance for high risk sports
After the press conference, Hijo del Santo demanded AAA & CMLL work together and said both companies said they weren’t interested in participating.
(Sources: ESPN, Notimex, R de Rudo, sispe
The pictures of this press conference remind me of parts of the US Congressional investigation into steroids in baseball, a supposed serious look that descended into photo ops and autograph opportunities at times. (Those wearing medals at a serious meeting and looking to be photographed with Santo or the boxer are pretty much the same.) It’s possibly, maybe even likely, this goes nowhere. This is the fourth or fifth public press event like this in the near month since Perro Aguayo Jr. died, and none have moved passed the public call for attention stage. All plans require funding, which may or may not come. This one seems father along the others.
The last person to be taking a leading position in regulating lucha libre in 2015 is El Hijo del Santo. He’s man living in a prior era, completely and purposefully out of touch with the present reality of lucha libre and seemingly only involved in to boost his own legacy and to settle old scores. He’s completely exiled from all major lucha libre promotions. Yet, Hijo del Santo is also a nationally famous name who carries extraordinary weight with people who are casually familiar with lucha libre, and so exactly has the power to influence things. That Santo is still walking around saying things like “lucha libre needs to be off of TV” is eyerolling given his own TV show; that people are actually taking him seriously is concerning.
It is discouraging how little CMLL and AAA have engaged on this topic. CMLL did one interview saying everything they did was perfect and ignored the world around them (as they always do), which will come back to haunt them (as it already does.) CMLL’s makes so many bad public facing decisions that it’d be weird to see them do something right. AAA’s statement emphasized Perro’s death wasn’t at one of their shows and then seemingly moved on. If it’s really an poorly padded ring in Tijuana which caused Perro’s death, the least AAA could say is “we’re not allowing anyone under contract back into Tijuana until that ring gets fixed and we’ll pull people from other places if there’s similar problems with the ring.” And maybe they’ve said quietly behind the scenes (there is no AAA guys in Tijuana any time soon correction: AAA wrestlers are working a The Crash show on 05/08), and maybe they also know this press conference is actually garbage and they don’t want to drum up more attention for it. But, for a company who strongly wanted attention as world wide leaders in professional wrestling not two months ago, AAA’s not taken much of a leadership role on this issue. Everyone can be wrong at the same time.
And there’s still a 50/50 chance we hear about any of this again and I’ve wasted everyone’s time writing about it. Maybe even less, since I’m working under the impression I have half a clue about how a bill becomes a law in Mexico (and how a law becomes something that’s actually enforced – it’s not like there’s not already all sorts of laws covering most of those bullet points in Mexico.) This may be a lot of nothing. There’s just a small change that it’s something status quo breaking that makes it hard to ignore.
Moving on to something more tangible…
Lucha Underground
Today’s Lucha Underground episode is called Fire in the Cosmos. Matches taped for the show
- Cage, King Cuerno, Texano vs Hernandez, Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma in the Lucha Underground Trios Tournament
- a match involving the winners of the first match and the two other teams who’ve already advanced.
- Aerostar vs Drago in the finals of their best of five series.
There’s also a Pentagon Jr. segment.
The Aerostar/Drago main event was great live, and should translate the same way to TV. The joy of Lucha Underground is they’re able to pivot the show to focus on any wrestler or feud on any episode. Prince Puma, the champion and the only guy with a t-shirt, is even on this week’s episode but it’s still an Aerostar & Drago episode. There are vignettes with Dario and Aerostar and Dario and Drago prior to the match. At the taping, Dario announced the details of his Unique Opportunity after the match. They’ve taken out little bits the last couple of weeks (Pentagon more overtly telling Sexy Star & Super Fly he was coming for them, the unmasking being interrupted by the debuting Marty Martinez), but I’d assume that’s still how this show is going to end.
Other News
Metaleon was not badly hurt from his accidental dive onto cement, but he’s still in need of money to pay medical bills and is auctioning off a mask to raise money.
CaraLucha announced a Resistancia vs Kriminal Boys vs Neza Kings vs Sky Stars match for their 05/02 show, but oddly in that the Kriminal Boys and Sky Star are only listed with 2 members and the other teams have 3.
ChilangaMask has announced Aeroboy vs Caifan as the first match on their 05/17 show, and there’s an Aero Boy promo on it.
LuchaWorld has a recap of +LuchaTV.
RobViper has highlights of 12/16/14 CMLL.
+LuchaTV has highlights of Arez & Belial vs Iron Kid & Aramis. Arez & Belial praised their opponents. Iron Kid & Aramis thanked them for the match. There’s also video of Keira vs Impulso, with words from both Keira and Impulso after the match.
Segunda Caida has reviews of Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs Mr. Niebla & Emilio Charles Jr. and Los Thundercats vs Super Muneco, Robocop and Gran Houdini.
Jennifer Blake is not back in Mexico, but she’s turned up in AIW’s JT Lightning tournament next month.
SuperLuchas has a good interview with Rossy Moreno about her career and looks back to Harley Race in Arena Mexico.
Pentagon Jr. defeated Drago in Mortal Kombat X, 3-0, as part of a promotional event for the game’s release in Mexico City.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 04/21/2015 Arena México
1) Acero & Fantasy vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Flyer, Leono, Metatrón vs Cancerbero, Metálico, Raziel
3) Hombre Bala Jr. vs Disturbio [lightning]
4) Goya Kong, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi vs Amapola, La Seductora, Narumiya
5) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Marco Corleone vs Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
6) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Stuka Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Negro Casas, Shocker
CMLL intermixes Peste Negra and TGR for no obvious reason. Maybe there will be some quick tag title match next week (Shocker & Casas vs Atlantis & Panther).
Two videos of the lightning match, one supposes.
CMLL (TUE) 04/21/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Frezzer & Reycko vs Évola & Exterminador
2) Flash II, Star Jr., Stigma vs Canelo Casas, Hijo del Signo, Sádico
3) Dragon Lee, Fuego, Tritón vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
4) Ángel de Oro, La Máscara, Super Porky vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Main event is a rematch, which sets up the title match for 04/28.
