Month: May 2015

CMLL (FRI) 05/01/2015 Arena México [Estrellas del Ring, R de Rudo]
1) Stukita & Último Dragoncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Boby Zavala, Pierroth, Vangellys b Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther
Vangellys replaced Sagrado. Rudos took 2/3. Carlos Maynez was honored after the match.
3) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush DQ Euforia, Thunder, Último Guerrero
Ultimo Guerrero fouled Rush for the DQ.
4) La Sombra b Ángel de Oro, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragon Lee, Stuka Jr., Tritón,Fuego, Niebla Roja, Gran Guerrero, Bárbaro Cavernario, Kamaitachi, Misterioso Jr.,Virus, Tiger, Puma [Reyes del Aire]
Battle royal set teams. Eliminations: Triton (Tiger), Guerrero Maya (Puma), Fuego (Virus), Puma (Angel de Oro), Delta (Kamaitachi), Tiger (Dragon Lee), Dragon Lee & Kamaitachi eliminate each other, Misterioso (surprise pin as usual, Stuka), Virus (Niebla Roja), Angel de Oro (Gran Guerrero), Gran Guerrero (Cavernario), Niebla Roja (Sombra), Cavernario (Stuka), Stuka (Sombra after a Rush distraction). Stuka & Sombra were on the same side but faced off for the win. Sombra’s second Reyes del Aire win. He celebrated by stealing Stuka’s mask to wipe his boot and breaking the trophy.
5) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto DQ Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr.
Mephisto faked a foul from Volador.

Strange outcomes for a Kid’s Day show – last four matches are rudos winning, DQ, interference leading to the evil guy winning, undeserved DQ. Even better: little of this is going anywhere next week.

Crowd was up but not up a lot (and not up as much as Sunday, for sure.)

Cavernario seemed concerned about his lingering right knee injury after the show. He was limping badly in the clip they have on the website. Not sure what happens to Sunday’s title match if he’s out.

Fourth match highlights show Pierroth hilariously unable to get out of the ring at the right moment. He wins anyway because life is unfair.

Looks like there’s a sponsored private show at Arena Mexico this afternoon.

AULL (FRI) 05/01/2015 Arena Lopez Mateos [Estrellas del Ring]
2) Pegazuz, Sky Fly, Spider Boy b Ave Negra, Discordia, Ironía
3) Cerebro Maligno, Jose El Caporal, Leviatham b Rey Krystal, Terry 2000, Yakuza
Leviatham used the ropes to beat Terry 2000.
4) Hijo De Dos Caras, Pantera, Solar I b Decadante, Dr. Cerebro, Sádico
Decadante replaced Negro Navarro. Solar worked against Dr. Cerbero instead and Solar’s team took 1/3.
5) Dr. Wagner Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Silver King DQ Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Navarro
Negro Navarro replaced Negro Casas. Wagner and Niebla feuded, with Niebla bleeding. Wagner took 1/3, the last when Niebla pulled his mask for the DQ. Niebla asked for a title match (any title), while Wagner asked for mask vs mask. Niebla laughed at that and left.

This was a TV taping and should air starting next week on Efekto.

AAA has it’s second taping of the weekend tonight at 6:30 in Pachuca. The main event is another Cage/Alberto focused match, this time teaming with Fenix & El Mesias. The undercard has two significant matches: Blue Demon Jr. finally challenges Chessman for the Latin American championship and Averno, Zorro and Psycho Clown face off for the last spot on Mexico Team 2.

No Twitter message from Blue Demon Jr. confirming he’s actually made it to Pachuca this time, so cross your fingers. He’s not going to lose, and the only chance of Chessman keeping the title is if there’s a DQ to set something else up. The Mexico Team 2 will be set by the time his match happens, so perhaps Demon will reveal some info on the Mexico Team 3 during the show. One half of this event will air the day prior to the Lucha World Cup and the TV show itself will be pushing that show, so maybe this is the day do to an angle setting something up for it.

Psycho Circus were in town to talk about the show and Perro Aguayo Jr.

Aereo (Ciudad Juarez) & Rey Apocalipsis taked on Alas de Acero & Impulso on the 05/17 Chilanga Mask show. That should be a breakout match for both non-DF guys.

Princesa Sujei will head to REINA on 05/05 to face Narumiya in a rematch of the title change, though this one seems listed as non-title.

El Hijo del Santo’s column today is about the greatness of his vanity title belt.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

DJ Spectro writes about Lizmark vs Gran Markus.

El Popular includes Blue Panther Jr.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 05/08/2015 Arena México
1) Robin & Sensei vs Akuma & Metálico
2) Esfinge, Starman, Tritón vs Boby Zavala, Okumura, Sangre Azteca
3) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Luciferno
4) Dragón Rojo Jr., La Máscara, La Sombra vs Pólvora, Rey Escorpión, Último Guerrero
5) Volador Jr. vs Mephisto
6) Atlantis, Mistico, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Thunder

Main event looks to break down into Rush/Thunder, Atlantis/Niebla, Mistico/Casas feuds. It’s the first team up of Mistico & Rush since they’ve both been back; the last time we actually saw them together was the Ingobernables stomping down Mistico and friends early on in the group’s history.

Semimain is a three falls match, not a lightning. Probably can call every move ahead of time with those two. That’s another feud popping up out of nowhere.

Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Escorpion are teaming again. That won’t go well, but the other team figures not to get along either.

Triton handles the video promo

IWRG FILL (THU) 04/30/2015Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Mano A Mano]
Torneo FILL XLI
1) Canario & Vardeus b Skanda & Soldado De La Muerte
2) Argus, Borego, Chicanito bCharly Boy, Desgarrador,Guerrero 2000
3) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Black Dragon b Black Angel, Magnum 44, Vampiro Metálico
4) Galaxy, Kanon, Picudo Jr. bBlue Monsther, Fresero Jr.,Marduk Jr.
5) Atomic Fly, Espada de Plata, Fly Star, Kaiser Drago, Komachi,Mini Zumbido, Skiller, Toxin BoyDQ Araña de Plata, Atomic Star,Dragón Celestial, Dragon Fly, Electro Boy, Imposible, Power Bull, Shadow Boy [Copa High Power]
FILL (Black Terry) vs Gym Zeuz (Oficial 911), sort of rematch after the cage match on the last FILL show. Match came down to Toxin Boy catching Atomic Star with a chair shot on a dive. Atomic rallied back to take out Toxin Boy with a martinete when he though the ref was knocked out. Ref did see it and DQed Atomic Boy, giving Gym Zeuz the win. Toxin Boy was stretcherd out while Atomic Boy challenged him to a singles match. 911 angrily hit Atomic Boy with a chair, sparking a fight. Eterno got involved in this, wanting to challenge both gyms (Eterno has a training crew?), while Oficial 911 threatened to end Black Terry’s career.

Seems kind of wrong that Oficial 911 is training the Kriminal Boys (Toxin Boy, Fly Star), but 911 is not be the straight laced police officer.

Yesterday was Kid’s Day, but really the entire weekend is full of shows with discounted tickets and high flying tecnicos for youngsters. Tonight’s CMLL Arena Mexico show fits that bill, with the Sky Team defending the trios titles facing Hijos del Infierno and the annual Reyes del Aire.Tickets are marked down to 10 pesos for kids (10 or younger, from the 10th row back.)

Sky Team are almost certainly going to keep their titles, edit: because the title aren’t on the line, the match only taking place so they can get a spectacular win in front of children who might bug their parents to come back another time. (This would be a good time for a two fall win, actually.) Reyes del Aire is more up in the air:

No Chance

• Delta
• Guerrero Maya Jr.
• Stuka Jr. – last year’s winner
• Tritón
• Fuego
• Niebla Roja
• Gran Guerrero
• Misterioso Jr.
• Virus
• Tiger
• Puma

Slight Chance

• Ángel de Oro – a two time winner, for some reason
• Bárbaro Cavernario – doesn’t fit the image, is very good
• Kamaitachi – is very, probably belongs in previous category after being first out on Sunday’s cibernetico

Best Chance

• Dragon Lee – would been an optimum time to continue his 2015 roll
• La Sombra – is La Sombra.

Niebla Roja talks about his career in hyping this match in ESTO.

SuperLuchas has a great obit for Carlos Maynez. (The ‘z’ spelling appears to be the correct spelling.) Maynez promoted his first show at the age of 15 and would continue to do so for 56 years. While Flores was the one running the shows in Torero, Maynez was in charge of the loop of arenas supporting the shows, in Queretaro, Neza (both arenas he owned), Puebla and other locations. Flores died in 1989, and Maynez was put in charge – but so were Canek, Karloff Lagarde, and Flores’ cousin Esperanza Flores, and the combination was not successful. The promotion maintained it’s high level for a few more years, even as it’s talent agreements with NJPW and WWF went away, but CMLL getting on Televisa in 1991 turned it’s luchadors into celebrities and LLI/UWA couldn’t compete. Many wrestlers jumped ship, and the promotion left Toreo to only run Neza as it continued to spiral down. Maynez was kidnapped at one point, then later decided to sell Arena Neza, later sold the rights to name “UWA” to Ultimo Dragon, and was the promoter only in Queretaro from then on.

The whole piece is worth reading. There’s a great only in Mexico story about how what was then called Promociones Mora got the rights to run shows in Toreo de Cuatro Caminos (no contract was signed.) More so, it’s just rare to read long pieces about that promotion and period of time the farther in the past it goes. It’s even more distant without Maynez.

La Mascara & Canek talked about Maynez to +LuchaTV.

Johnny Mundo, Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Eric Van Wagenen appeared on Roddy Piper’s podcast, talking about Lucha Underground among other things. Chavo claimed the original plan was for Unimas just to air a subtitled Lucha Underground on Saturday mornings, but the Unimas people were so blown away after attending the first taping that they insisted on getting a Spanish language version and they had to go back to retape things. (That could explain why the show was suddenly delayed three weeks.) Erik, who again said a second season is not confirmed but felt good about the possibility, described the show this way:

We’re not trying to be a wrestling promotion, we’re trying to be a television show first and foremost […] We’re not building to PPVs, we’re not building to tours, we don’t have to fill 20,000 seat arenas, we’re a TV show, and our attitude is every week you’ve got to give them something.

Chavo added on

Our show is not trying to upsell you – just watch next week, watch next week, that’s all we’re doing.

You can see that come thru with the pacing of the show; there’s no holding back matches because it has to take place on the monthly major show or repeating match ups with slightly different stips because they’ve got 12 shows to fill up. Matches happen when they happen.

Erik also described the brief meeting with the El Rey Standards and Practices officials, something that’s usually a lengthy and detailed meeting with networks

[It was a] 30 second call, where the guy basically says ‘well, just let us know if you want to say ‘fuck”

Everyone laughed about El Rey not saying it was banned, but just wanting a heads up if they were going to use it.

Masked Republic is selling an official licensed Hijo del Perro Aguayo tribute t-shirt thru Pro Wrestling Tees. Hope they can get the standard Perros del Mal t-shirt too. Masked Republic seems like the only ones who’ve figured out how to get official lucha libre t-shirts to sell international on the internet; their own store has Rey Horus, LA Park and Familia de Tijuana merchandise.

CMLL’s subbed out the women’s match on Tuesday for a minis match.

It looks like Vice Mexico is doing a lucha libre series as a tie up with Victoria ad campaign this summer. It uses the same hashtag.

Teelo seems to be off the Cara Lucha show after suffering a nose injury on the Chilanga Mask show last weekend.

+LuchaTV talked to Guerrero Maya & Delta about winning the national trios titles again.

Segunda Caida reviews 04/25 PWR and the Infernales vs Infernales cage match.

LV has a recap of this week’s Lucha Underground.

SuperLuchas looks back at shows 20 years ago yesterday, including Perro Aguayo Jr.’s first appearance.

Seattle Globalist has a story on the local Lucha Libre Volcanica wrestling promotion.

AJPW’s site has a quick note on Kenso in the Lucha World Cup.

DJ Spectro has a obit for Rudy Reyna.