Month: April 2015

Karatekas beat Ninjas, Wagner 3 hurt, All Elite

thecubsfan

UWE (WED) 04/01/2015 Arena Lopez Mateos [Estrellas del Ring, TerceraCaida]
1) Gato Montes, Kaving, Rey Infierno vs Robin Maravilla Jr., Shibata, Sky Fly
Kaving replaced Rey de Oros
2) Star Fire © b Sexy Girl [WWS CHAMP]
Star Fire heads to Japan still champion.
3) Donatelo, Leonardo, Miguel Angel, Rafael b Leo (IWRG), Mike, Rafy, Teelo
in the Ninja (IWRG) vs Karateka (AULL) battle, Rafy and Rafael ended up switching masks. Leo, Mike and Teelo were confused enough to attack Rafy, giving the AULL team the win. The IWRG turtles demanded a rematch.
4) Epitafio, Leviatham, Samael, Tormento b Gallego, Judas el Traidor, Rocky Santana, Romano Garcia
Judas el Traidor replaced Cosmonauta, was attacked by his partners for the loss.
5) Hijo De Dos Caras & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. © b Aeroboy & Violento Jack [UWE TAG]
Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. suffered a severe arm injury in the third fall: he clotheslined Violento Jack with his right arm, fell to his knees delivering it, put his left arm down to brace himself and dislocated his elbow on impact with the mat. Match was quickly stopped and stayed that way until Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. could be walked to the back. Dos won anyway, but offered Aero & Violento a TLC match for the tag titles at some future date.
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pirata Morgan b LA Park & Negro Navarro
Park pulled Wagner’s mask, Wagner beat him anyway.

Strong turnout for this building, especially mid week. This week is a holiday vacation week for many Mexicans, which is why this took place on a Wednesday and probably why AAA’s running TV tapings this week.

Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.’s injury got some extra attention since it was the first graphic injury caught on video since Perro Aguayo Jr.’s death. Everyone did seem much quicker than usual to take him out of the match, but there was no way to mistake it for selling because of the freak way it happened. Dr. Wagner Jr. said his son is doing OK. Wagner also says he’s being wrongly billed on the 04/30 DTU branded show.

All Elite (Ernesto Santillian listed as president + Karlo Colin) and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara’s Daniel Cruz held a press conference to talk about the 03/19 All Elite show in that building. No more matches announeced than the two which have already been said – Rush vs Dr. Wagner Jr. and Negro Casas & Octagon vs Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera – but Volador Jr., LA Park, Gallo and Esfinge were all announced as appearing on the six match show. The last two are part of a locals focued tournaments. The full card will be announced next week. The other announced All Elite shows are 05/03 in Monterrey and TBD in Queretaro.

CMLL Informa was mostly hyping this Saturday’s 72nd Arena Coliseo Anniversary show. Mistico/Ripper isn’t really much of a main event, but CMLL’s fans tend to get sucked in by annual events and it should be the biggest crowd since CMLL started this concept. This week was more Sabado Retros focused than usual for those reasons, but it’s very strange to see how much CMLL focuses on the smallest show it runs a week. (They don’t go match by match on Friday’s show on Informa.) The show itself had a good interview with Tony Salazar about CMLL’s training program, which probably not enough is written about given it’s importance.

+LuchaTV has interviews with the Traumas & Eterno as a group and the Ingobernables, plus clips of their match.

ChilangaMask added Iron Kid & Aramis vs Arez & Belial to it’s 04/12 show, and says The Ninjas & Rico Rodriguez are off their upcoming shows.

CMLL has part 2 and part 3 of it’s Arena Coliseo history piece, which appears to be a repeat from the round number anniversary a couple years ago.

Crazy Boy will be teaching a seminar today in Veracruz.

Cavernario, Astral and Pierroth are listed as wrestling in Washington DC on 05/02. The fourth luchador has Mr. Aguila’s bio, but Mr. Aguila is not the man pictured or named, so there may be something funny going on here (or maybe just confusion.)

Missed this last week: Puerto Rico’s WWL shut down on March 23rd. They had a relationship with AAA at one point and was bringing in Laredo Kid and the Caras/Mascaras family most recently.

SuperLuchas looks back at Vampiro’s 2005 return to AAA.

Claro Lucha talks to Dos Caras.

04/01 AAA TV Results (San Luis Potosí)

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AAA TV (WED) 04/01/2015 Auditorio Miguel Barragan, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí [AAA, ESPN Deportes]
1) Mini Charly Manson & Mini Psycho Clown b Dinastía & Mascarita Sagrada
Mini Psycho Clown beat Dinastia, asked for a title shot.
2) Faby Apache, Niño Hamburguesa, Pasion Kristal b El Apache, Mamba, Mary Apache
Pasion Kristal replaced Pimpinela (injury.) Hamburger Splash on Apache & Mamba.
3) Aerostar, Argenis, Fénix b Carta Brava, Electroshock, Hijo de Pirata Morgan
Fenix replaced Super Nova (shoulder injury) and used a new finishing move (Busca Sueños) to beat Hijo del Pirata. Electroshock threatened the rest of AAA on behalf of his new trio.
4) Daga, Dark Scoria, Súper Fly b Bengala, Drago, Jack Evans
Scoria beat Jack with help from Cuervo. Daga held up a Perro del Mal shirt after the match, which started a huge Perro chant.
5) Dark Cuervo, Pentagón Jr., Texano b Angélico, La Parka, Psycho Clown
Scoria helped Cuervo get the win over Angelico. Psycho Clown was injured by Texano Jr – Psycho ended up with an ugly bruise around his right ankle.
6) El Mesías & Hijo del Fantasma b Blue Demon Jr. & Myzteziz
Changed around after Perro Aguayo’s death. Fenix was originally on the trios side, and Mesias was probably supposed to be a mystery partner. Mesias snuck in a foul on Demon, then landed the top rope splash.
7) Brian Cage b Alberto el Patrón
Added to make up for missing Rey de Reyes. Turned into a street fight, with La Sociedad getting involved. Cage wanted a title match.

Air Date: 04/18 and 04/25 (moved back a week, at least.)

Prior to the start of the show, a tribute was held for Perro Aguayo Jr. The roster came to the ring, and there were flowers and a poster of Perro. Marisela and Konnan are both noted as talking about Perro. All wrestlers wore a tribute shirt, and various wrestlers had other tributes (Fenix wrote Perro on his hand tape.)

Building appeared to be full.

This was a tribute show and Perro Aguayo Jr. was definitely honored as part of it. The opening segment reads very emotional, for the wrestlers and the fans. AAA continued on to also present a normal taping with storyline advancement.

Alberto keeps having the bad luck to be wrestling in San Luis Potosi every time they need him to lose to set another match (he’s now 0-2.) Cuervo & Scoria are messing with Jack & Angelico, so that may be a new feud. Mini Psycho Clown has been very good and makes sense to get a singles match with Dinastia if they’re doing one.

Those are all builds to matches on an upcoming show. It’s a question of when and what show that might be. AAA ran Verano de Escandalo in June last year, but that was the first time they’ve done that in early summer and there’s no telling what they’ll do this year. This week’s TV may give some clues, since all their currently announced tapings will be complete by that point.

Next taping is Friday in Xalapa.

Lucha Underground 1×21: “Uno! Dos! Tres!”

thecubsfan
Johnny Mundo trusts those railings

the matches

Johnny Mundo b Angelico (7:43, Fin de Mundo)
Drago [2] b Aerostar [2] (4:27, cradle)
Big Ryck, Killshot, the Mack b Pentagon Jr., Sexy Star, Super Fly in the Lucha Underground Trios Championship Tournament (10:57, Killshot top rope double stomp on Super Fly)

the developments

There’s a trios tournament. Dario announced it on Twitter earlier in the day. Striker said the tournament would go four weeks, and later said the winners of the main event would adavnce to a three week final in three weeks (04/22). So, six team tournament.

Teams we know:

Drago cradle for the win

1: Big Ryck, Killshot and the Mack – Ryck started the show by inviting himself into Dario’s office with his two new partners. The Mack is Ryck’s cousin, Killshot is Ryck’s friend. Ryck heard a (very correct) rumor that Dario ordered the Crew to take him out. Dario denied, then bought off Ryck by placing his trio in the tournament and (as strongly requested) paying off each member of the trio.

2: Dario wanted to reward Sexy Star for her recent performances by putting her in the trios tournament, but Mascarita and Pimpinela are still out hurt. Dario decided to pick new partners for her: Super Fly and a man who’s been destroying his competition, Pentagon. Sexy Star didn’t say anything (at least on the English version) but didn’t seem totally pleased.

3: Dario called in Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico to express his disappointment with all of them: Angelico lost earlier in the show and last week, Son of Havoc won last week but lost prior, and Ivelisse got dumped. (Ivelisse argued she actually dumped first.) Dario decided to salvage the whole thing by throwing them together as a trios team. They all hated the idea. Dario warned them they’d face a strong team next week.

Early in the show, Angelico impressed the announcers by coming close to beating Johnny Mundo, but lost in the end. Alberto happened upon Mundo after his match, and they had a fake nice conversation back and forth, clearly eyeing each other as potential roadblocks down the line.

getting close to ice dancing, but still cool

Black Lotus (writing in her diary), caught us up on her last month: she would’ve gotten killed by Matanza if not spirited away by the mystery man, the mystery man is Dragon Azteca, Dragon Azteca saw her family killed, and Dragon Azteca is now training her in the art of lucha libe so she can be ready for Matanza. Lucha libre training looked like martial arts training in a 70s film.

Drago fought more aggressive/desperately to stay alive in the best of five. Drago and Aerostar went head to head after the match, their friendship breaking down.

Pentagon addressed his maestro prior to the match, promising to win the trios titles despite his “weak” partners. He didn’t get along with Super Fly & Sexy Star at all, but they all wanted to win and worked together at the end. Still, newcomers The Mack & Killshot beat Super Fly in the end. Pentagon Jr., who had tried to break the Mack’s arm early in the match, tried the same with Super Fly. Sexy Star made the save in time, leaving Pentagon furious.

stray thoughts

A busy show, with a lot of stuff happening – a new title, a new tournament, two new people, and a few feuds teased.

This is the first of the shows I saw live. Angelico/Mundo was as good live (pretty good!) as it was on TV. Drago/Aerostar felt longer in person. The trios main event actually felt shorter live, stunned to see it went over 10 minutes. That was the match they retaped, and it was definitely the second one which ended up being used. The new guys looked good in their debuts, even their opponents kept up with them.

welcome the Mack and Killshot

It was a really good night for Angelico. The Son of Havoc match last week was good, but this was even better. Striekr mentioned his Toryumon (Mexico) background early in the match, and this did feel like a Dragon Gate come to Lucha Underground with the speed and the sequences. The reception to putting Havoc, Ivelisse and Angelico back together is going to be interesting. It’d hard to say much when you know how it turns out already.

The Black Lotus thing was a lot of info dropped in a short time. She’s been so (purposefully) mysterious on this show so far that it’s tough to find a reason to get too invested in her plot, and it sticks out even more when she has a month’s worth of developments dropped into a 30 second vignette. The problem isn’t as much the story (though it’d be better if any of the events were happening on camera) but it’s disconnection from the rest of the plot.

teamwork!

Drago and Aerostar’s matches needed to evolve in some way, and having their friendship break down was the easiest way. This match seemed like a step back from the previous ones, but Lucha Underground like some it’s finales to be big…

The Mundo/Alberto bit didn’t mean a lot in the context of this show, but it was a great tense tease for an encounter down the road. There are still identifiable tecnicos and rudos on the show, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s going to get along when they all want the same thing.

AAA on Televisa: 2015-02-14

thecubsfan

recap.

taped 2015-01-30 @ Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México

All this recaps are done (usually) within a week of airing, even though they turn up on here months later (and the captions don’t get written until now.) I want to leave my thoughts of the matches as they were at the time, but obviously that means there’s going to be some weirdness when it comes to Perro Aguayo Jr.  I’m going to leave my comments as they are for all these matches, but pull me back if I’ve missed something inappropriate.

Read More

great match roundup, week of 2015-02-14

thecubsfan

Good/Great/Excellent matches

AAA on Televisa: 2015-02-14
taped 2015-01-30 @ Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México
Mascarita Sagrada, Mini Drago, Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Psycho Clown: [good]

Bengala, Drago, Faby Apache vs Joe Lider, Súper Fly, Taya Valkyrie: [good]

Fénix, Myzteziz, Psycho Clown vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagón Jr.: [good]

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2015-02-14
taped 2015-02-03 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Dragon Lee, Esfinge, Stigma vs Cancerbero, Okumura, Raziel: [good]

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2015-02-14
taped 2015-02-06 @ Arena México
Negro Casas & Shocker © vs La Máscara & La Sombra for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship: [great]

CMLL Titanes del Ring: 2015-02-14
taped 2015-02-08 @ Arena México
Delta, Dragon Lee (CMLL), Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kamaitachi, Puma (CMLL), Virus: [good]

Shows Watched But Nothing Worthwhile
CMLL on CadenaTres: 2015-02-14
Lucha Underground: 2015-02-18
Leyendas Inmortales: 2015-02-15

Matches To Watch Later

I haven’t watched the actually good All Elite matches.