(this got too long: if you don’t want to read, just click here.)
The discussion of Mysterious Luchador Underground Luchador In A White Hoodie continued this morning on Twitter. Chris DeJoseph, as he does from time to time, gave us a clue.
We all assumed the guy Dragon Azteca saved in that season opening fight was the not-yet-Prince Puma. We all may have assumed wrong.
Right here, I’d like to point you to a legal video of the first episode to take a look at it yourself. I can’t. I know of no way to actually check out episode 1. The Lucha Underground YouTube show has matches and highlights (like a clipped version of that opening fight), but no full episodes. The full Unimas shows are on uvideos, but not all of them and not episode 1. Last time this came up, when Black Lotus first met Dragon Azteca, I snuck the clip on YouTube so people could rewatch it. I could do that again, but I’m sure it’s not the only moment from the past that’ll be referenced on Ultima Lucha, and there’s just no way to catch up with many old episodes you’ve missed. This is not really my problem, and this is definitely not really DeJoseph’s responsibility (and I’m not meaning to throw this back at him, it’s just an easy example), but it’s an issue.
DeJoseph – I think it was on the Like Father, Like Son podcast- mentioned the show was written with the idea of being binge-watching friendly. Binge watching allows you to do something like wait 8 months for a whole bunch of episodes to air, jump in first episode, and watch them all. There are seasons of TV shows sitting on my DVR just waiting for me to do that, and I think it’d work just as well with this one. Unfortunately, El Rey is not doing a marathon of Lucha Underground episodes to allow people to do that leading to the final. (I asked, in typical annoying fashion, and they didn’t reply.) This seems a shame to me. I hold nothing against the other programming they have, but nothing which airs on that channel couldn’t be skipped for the day and a half it’d take to run all thirty eight hours so far. (In a perfect world, it’s nothing but The Lucha Underground Channel from now until Wednesday.) Instead, they’ll only air the prior two episodes – and then who knows if/when it airs again the week after. The 37 episodes in 37 minutes video is really good, but it’s most useful as a reminder for people who saw most of it already. There’s not as much for people who’ve jumped in; the announcers will definitely tell you what’s happened, but it’s not as good as seeing it.
You really shouldn’t ask people to do things you’re not willing to do yourself. I am willing to run a marathon of Lucha Underground, but no one has entrusted me with the programming department of a cable station quite yet. However, the DMCA hasn’t yet to justifiably take away my internet access, so there are still other methods of getting things done.
I’m running a Lucha Underground marathon here on Taima.TV. It’s been running for a few days just to see if it works (and it seems like it does as long as someone’s in the channel.) I’m going to restart it at the first episode in a few minutes, and it’ll go thru all the other episodes (and repeat) from now until Ultima Lucha part 2. Maybe you’ll watch it all, maybe you’ll just pop in for a few minutes of random episode, but it’ll be there if you want it. The total run time is about 28 hours, so it’ll repeat quite a few times between now and then.
The feed runs until Ultima Lucha starts again, or until the takedown notice. As soon as it goes down, it’s really going down: I’m disappearing the videos once this is over. You still need to watch the show and buy the DVDs when/if they come out, this isn’t meant to compete with any of that. It’s just an opportunity you take one more look back until it all it comes to an end.
This is not the perfect solution for catching up either – it’s a lot closer to being a silly Marty the Moth solution than a Pentagon Jr. killer app – but people who want to see specific episodes might want to try clicking on the episode names. Whatever you’ve watched or will watch, I hope you’re excited for UltimaLucha by the time it airs by next Wednesday. I’m sure it’ll be worth your time.
Air Date: live, on PPV in Mexico, United States and Canada and on iPPV at http://internetvluchalibreaaa.com/. It should make up the 08/22 and 08/29 TV shows, though that seems a little fast. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if they were bumped back a week.
The lineup was officially announced at a press conference today, though the English site had posted the full card before they got started. They started the press conference by announcing one match would be a cage match, but then never announced which one. Alberto & Cage weren’t at the press conference, but it seems like that would be the match to have a cage. It’d play off the roughly five billion different interference and referee spots in their last match, not that people don’t get involve in cage matches all the time in AAA. The press conference also announced Hijo del Perro Aguayo would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, with his family there to honor him.
The noteworthy moment of the press conference was a Rey & Myzteziz back and forth, with both guys getting testy as their match draws nears. Myzteziz said he would have no problem drawing from his ‘dark side’ to beat Rey, while Rey said he’d show who was the original and who was the copy. AAA has an imbalance of tecnicos and rudos on top. They need to elevate someone or turn someone, and it doesn’t look like they’re elevating all those guys in the segunda. The next ten days are going to include a fair bit of speculation of a Myzteziz rudo turn.
As it turns out, the Alberto/Cage match is the only matches built off TV matches. Rey/Myzteziz have the face to face interviews. Villanos and Clowns have those just for the internet. Everything else is just made up on the spot. It feels like there were multiple, sometimes very different TripleMania cards and they didn’t decide which one would be used until late. Something with Jarrett seemed to have been planned, then unplanned. Just as recently as last week, Dr. Wagner Jr. versus Blue Demon Jr. was thought to be happening on this card. (The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions this match too.) It’s a show that should do well if they do a lot of press for the main event. The World Cup was similarly disconnected from everything else going on and it did well because they got people to buy in to the concept too, and this is an easier concept.
As a fan, I wish the third and fourth matches weren’t happening. The Parka/Demon/Mesias/Electro crew will work hard because of the show, but everyone’s going to work hard for this show and there’s better matches which could’ve been made. I’d be happy if the Villanos/Psycho Circus match is only bad, I’m more concerned it’ll be sad. They’ll be allowed to wear their masks, so that’ll help. The WON revealed Villano III’s recent health problem was a stroke and he’s not expected to be able to do much in this match. Hopefully they go short enough that no one notices, but it’s also a situation where the Psycho Circus should win and no one is going to want to see the Villanos lose. (Maybe Villano V defeats Psycho Clown to continue that issue.) Both of these matches are also really going to be tough for casual people checking on the show on PPV.
I like the other matches on this show. Rey Mysterio Jr. versus Myzteziz is going to be an incredible moment that’ll transcend the match itself, and the match itself could be pretty good. Cage versus Alberto should get the crowd and have some good moments, and maybe they’ll learn from what didn’t work in their last match. It’d be cool if the midcard guys got actual storyline at TripleMania, and if Cibernetico got trapped in the a closet, but the guys in the trios match will not let it be anything less than great. And the opener has a pretty good lineup for that sort of thing; it’s great to see Daga instead of other people who could’ve gotten that spot, Sexy Star will play off Goya well, and Dinastia and Mamba will both do crazy things on an opener.
I totally forgot about Sexy Star possibly being the woman to face Goya Kong in the opener. Mostly it’s because she hasn’t been around – this is her first AAA TV match since Verano de Escandalo. She’s hasn’t been working house shows much either; the London show was her first known match in two months. The WON mentions she’s not going to be working with AAA as much going forward and AAA will be trying out more women because they feel they need new faces. (That doesn’t sound particularly promising for Sexy Lady and La Jarochita, who work many house shows but are never used on TV.)
The WON also mentions Dave Meltzer himself was asked to do the English language PPV but turned it down. He thinks Striker or Mike Tenay would’ve done a better job, but isn’t sure if Tenay was asked (might have not bothered since his TNA deal would’ve made it impossible.)
I’ll be at this show and will have more on it before and after it takes place.
CMLL (TUE) 07/28/2015Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Joker & Relampago b Explosivo & Nautilius
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Disturbio, Maléfico b Flyer, Furia Roja, Oro Jr. Furia Roja replaced Magnum, but that didn’t work out at all. Rudos took 2/3.
3) Hijo del Signo, Nitro, Okumura b Magnum, Magnus, Tritón Magnum replaced Esfinge. Nitro’s first match in Guadalajara since Christmas 2013.
4) Blue Panther Jr., Gallo, Super Porky b Kamaitachi, Morphosis, Olímpico Kamaitachi replaced Pierroth on Friday. Gallo replaced Blue Panther on the day of the show. Blue Panther Jr. is apparently fine after whatever caused him to miss his last En Busca de un Idolo match.
5) Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible b Blue Panther, Mistico, Volador Jr. Rey Bucanero replaced Vangellys, Blue Panther replaced Diamante Azul. Shocker beat Mistico using the ropes.
So many subs. No one who worked last week’s main event ended up working this week’s show.
IWRG FILL (WED) 07/29/2015Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Blue Metal, Canario, Vaderus b Demonio Imperial, Sexy Girl, Skanda
2) Charly Boy, Guerrero 2000, Magnum 44 bChicanito, Vampiro Metálico, Voltar No word on how Chicanito feels about Chicano disappearing back to Chihuahua again.
3) Adrenalina, Centella Oriental, Hijo del Alebrije b Estrella Oriental, Matrix Jr., Pluma Negra
4) Acero, Aeroman, Black Drago b Power Bull, Royer Boy, Troll Estrellas del Ring lists Trolly in the match, but it was sadly only Troll (replacing Rey Tercero Jr.)
5) Draego, El Brujo, Omega (Jalisco), Principe, Rayman, Roberto Paz Jr., Rudy Santana,Smaker b Alas de Acero, Aramis, Araña de Plata, Atomic Star, Chapulin, Electro Boy, Fresero Jr., Kanon [Copa Higher Power] FILL (Eterno’s class) versus Arena Jalisco (All Carrillo). Rayman won with a foul on Fresero Jr. when Carrillo distracted the referee. Eterno said he was willing to go to Guadalajara for revenge and both teams fought after the match.
Black Terry has been working occasional shows in Arena Jalisco, so Eterno’s threat of revenge is probably an already planned date. It sounds like there’s another FILL show next week.
CMLL Informa didn’t really have much in the way of news (as usual!) but did announce the show would be moving from Terra to YouTube. The YouTube stream has worked without issue the last two weeks and it appears to have been CMLL doing it themselves. Terra requires their people to come to the venue (and apparently satellite and weird delays some weeks.) The only reason to stay with Terra is if Terra had been paying for the show and this seems like a pretty good sign they were not presently.
En Busca de un Idolo remains on Terra. It seems a safe guess all CMLL live programming will end up on YouTube, but their may be issues. Some luchadors were using different music in Puebla than they do in Arena Mexico, which could be a music rights issue and they might not want to change it elsewhere. It could also just be Puebla not having the right music on hand.
Rey Cometa returns to the Arena Mexico ring for the first time this year on Friday. Cometa says his right knee injury was to a ligament and a meniscus. Cometa says he suffered the injury while training on FantasticaMania tour, not in the ring. That must’ve been a chaotic tour, with Cometa, Triton and Mr. Niebla all having issues. Cometa is going to start teaching lucha classes in Arena Queretaro during the week.
Guanajuato luchador Electrolisis broke his knee in a match when the fans threw rocks into the ring and he slipped on one trying to perform a move.
King Jaguar feels his win over Lestat this past week in a trios match proves the whole thing with him losing his mask was a total fluke. Sound reasoning, maybe they should give him back his mask.
