Month: July 2015

LI (TUE) 07/21/2015 Arena Querétaro [Aqui La Lucha, Diario de Queretaro]
1) El Rojo & Silver Fish b Angel King & Nieto Del Halcon Negro
2) Black Fury & Medussa b Casandra & Tania La Guerrillera
Medussa replaced Yuca (temporary retirement?)
3) César & Picudo b Brujo Maya & Perro Del Ring
4) Fuerza Guerrera & Máscara Año 2000 b Heavy Metal & Solar I [super libre]
Fuerza pulled Solar’s mask and Mascara fouled Heavy to give the rudos the win.
5) As Charro, Dos Caras Sr., El Fantasma DQ Canek, Hechicero (CMLL), Negro Navarro
Hechicero fouled Fantasma for the DQ, then asked for a title shot.

This was the show honoring Carlos Maynez. Hechicero’s a smart guy, but that doesn’t seem like how you get a title shot. (I kinda of want to see Hechicero versus Fantasma, especially if it involves Hijo del Fantasma rooting his dad on from the front row.)

Octagon seems to be gone from this promotion for a while, with Solar replacing him. When even the Old Guy Promotion won’t use you…

Yuca posted on Facebook that she’s not wrestling for a while due to unspecified injuries. It looks like she was wrestling as recently as Sunday.

Ingobernables prove to be a little governable

Sombra & Rush appear to be suspended from CMLL, in addition to their Guadalajara suspension following their fight with fans on Tuesday. It may not be as long but, for now, they’re off the lineups for Friday and Sunday. Sombra is currently listed on CMLL’s website for Puebla’s show on Monday, but that sometimes doesn’t get updated. We have no idea how long they’re off or if this would affect potential NJPW bookings. Suspensions by one Box Y Lucha commission generally are limited only to that area; the ban in Jalisco wouldn’t normally affect Sombra & Rush’s ability to wrestle in Mexico unless CMLL themselves also suspended them.

CMLL now lists La Mascara as facing Volador tonight in Arena Mexico, with Marco taking Rush’s place in the main event. Marco was already in Sunday’s main event, so it’ll be La Mascara & Super Porky replacing Rush & Sombra on that match. It’s unknown if it’s related but Pierroth – Rush’s father – is also now off next Tuesday’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara show with Kamaitachi taking his place. That was Pierroth’s only announced CMLL match at the moment.

La Sombra versus Volador Jr. was the main draw for tonight’s show. La Mascara & Volador Jr. have turned on each other matches roughly 50 times since the Ingobernables have started and it that should be a big deal match, but La Mascara isn’t taken as seriously and no one but few people will even know it’s happening and it hasn’t been built up at all. The actual main event is now Diamante Azul, Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero versus Rey Escorpion, Thunder and Marco Corleone in an incredible partners match. The hair match is the main reason for the match, but UG versus Thunder and Rush vs Azul seemed like other big issues. (An ESTO interview with Azul posted yesterday talked about the latter.) It’s probably not a great sign for Rush if Marco heavily feuds with Azul instead.

(Meanwhile, Netflix is launching a Spanish language drama called “Ingobernable”, focused on the fictional wife of a Mexican president.)

CMLL will air at least the first four matches on Terra, including the Esfinge, Guerrero Maya, Negro Casas versus Bobby Zavala, Disturbio, Virus trios match for the En Busca de un Idolo tournament. No points are on the line, but this is typically one of the better matches of the tournament. The En Busca de un Idolo group (minus Delta) appeared on a TV show, doing the “TV hosts try to learn wrestling and find out it’s very tough” bit.

AAA’s missing YouTube shows

AAA’s TV show has not been posted publicly on their YouTube channel for a number of weeks. It was uploaded as an unlisted video for a few weeks, but only found by a link on AAA’s website. It had not been posted as all the last couple weeks on YouTube.

It has been posted elsewhere. TelevisaDeports website now appears to have put up video of the matches from the last few weeks. (Here’s Mini Psycho/Dinastia. There appears to be no central location, just scattered in their video section, but the lucha libre tag helps.) I can’t actually watch the video, the loading circle just spins and spins, but the duration indicates it’s a couple minutes of clips. Televisa region blocks many of their video from being seen outside of Mexico, this may be the same issue. To my recollection, Televisa Deportes did not previously post video of AAA on that page; it was simply a (barely updated) listed of articles.

Televisa Deportes would hold the right to air the AAA show. Perhaps they also own the rights for the internet, and have decided to exercise those rights for – reasons?? – and so the YouTube channel is out and the videos are going on Televisa’s site instead. I don’t know if this is the actual reason, but I do know the presentation on Televisa Deportes is much worse than it was on the YouTube site. Any region blocking would also harm the chances of the US PPV being a success; few are going to find those videos and no one’s going to be able to watch it. (AAA US may have to create their own videos for this to work.)

Again, I’m not sure this situation – AAA no longer being able to post the show to YouTube due to Televisa – is the actual correct story. I’m just connecting dots (and sometimes I end up with the wrong picture.) Even if it’s for toher reasons, the AAA show disappearing from their YouTube channel is not good.

Other Notes

AAA announced Blue Demon would have a special match on TripleMania in celebration of his 30th wrestling anniversary. AAA is said to be announcing the card some time day. (You probably would not be reading this paragraph if it already happened.)

ChilangaMask announced Dr. Cebrero vs Virus and Caifan & Avsiman versus Ultimo Guerrero & Hechicero for it’s 08/16 ChilangaMask show in Arena Naucalpan. Those are both really good matches. The second match was set up by Caifan challenging long time rival “Rey Hechicero, Hechicero, or whatever he’s calling himself” on a recent show, and Hechicero accepting. There’s also a promo with Epydemius & Ultimo Ninja challenging the Neza Kings, so maybe that match is coming soon too.

+LuchaTV also has highlights of Caifan vs Aero Boy vs Ultimo Ninja and an interview with Japan bound Violento Jack & Ciclope.

TKD writes about the Lucha Mutante debut show.

Segunda Caida continues it’s Sky Team look back, correctly notes it’s impossible to find recaps of old shows on this site.

LuchaWorld has a recap of Tuesday’s En Busca de un Idolo matches, reminds me to go back and watch Disturbio versus Boby Zavala. (Is that the best first round match?) They also have KrisZ’s news update.

Shocker appeared at the debut of a lucha libre documentary called “Lucha Mexico”. There sure seems to be a lot of lucha libre documentaries. Gigante Bernard and Fabian el Gitano are briefly shown in the trailer, which suggests they’ve been working on this for quite some time.

SuperLuchas looks back to a El Jalisco & MS-1 draw in a hair match, believed at the time to be the first one to ever happen where both men lost their hair. Also, the time La Sombra lost his mask.

Long time Arena Aficion regular Colmillo Blanco lost his hair to unknown masked man Payaso Pretextos on Tuesday.

The Sunday Arena Coliseo Monterrey show set up a Valdez vs Felino/Tiger/Puma trios match.

AAA luchadors visited a children’s hospital.

Mini Scoria will start a city sponsored lucha libre class in Nogales.

A photo of lucha libre promoters, from around 1980.

CMLL (TUE) 07/21/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) El Chakal & Sádico b Frezzer & Virgo
2) Gallo, Hombre Bala Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. b Cancerbero, Ráfaga, Raziel
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sangre Azteca DQ Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, The Panther
Blue Panther Jr. back (so if he was hurt on Friday, he was fine enough to go here.) Rudos took 1/3, the last when Esfinge unintentionally unmasked Sangre Azteca on a monkey flip.
4) Diamante Azul, Super Porky, Titán b Kráneo, Ripper, Vangellys
Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Mephisto, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero b La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush
Rudos took 2/3. CMLL describes the third fall as the fans cheering for the rudos and distracting the Ingobernables into a loss. In reality, there was an incident between the Ingobernables and the fans. Security tried to pull all the luchadors away after the match and got them halfway up the ramp before Sombra broke free and went after the fans, kicking at some who had approached the ring. Rush followed, throwing back an umbrella. Police eventually got involved.

Cancha has a story and cell phone video on the incident between Sombra, Rush & the fans. The video starts after the initial incident, but before Sombra & Rush go back towards the fans again.

In the first fall, Mr. Niebla took a glass of beer from the fans and threw in the face of Rush. In the third fall, Rush got beer himself, tried to throw it at Niebla, and instead soaked the front row. (The article is unclear if this was Rush’s actual intention.) Those same fans, believed to be drunk, started throwing beer at the luchadors. The article says the luchadors attacked the fans after that. Ultimo Guerrero beat Mascara to end the match and security tried to pull Sombra, Rush, and Niebla away. That’s where the video picks up. Those same fans said or did something that enraged Sombra. He broke free, and Sombra kicked at them from the ring while they were standing next to the apron. Rush came in as support and threw theumbrella back at the fans. Niebla also came back in the ring and police had to get involved to break it up.

The president of the local box y lucha commission, Guillermo Sandoval, was at the Tuesday show. He told Cancha on Wednesday that Rush & Sombra are suspended from wrestling in Jalisco for three months. That’d last thru October 22nd. Since CMLL DF talent are only working Tuesdays, their first show back would be October 27th. Arena Coliseo and it’s management will also be punished in an unspecified way.

There probably should be something done about the security, which appeared to be insufficient for the incident, and should’ve been throwing people out as soon as they started thrown drinks at the luchadors. Maybe the outcome will be barrier are put up between the fans and the ring, like in Arena Mexico. That change seemed to occur in response to an incident between drunk fans and wrestlers too. It would require re-configuring seats to free up enough room, which would come at some cost. The easiest fix is Arena Coliseo Guadalajara being a lot more picker about who they allow to set in that front row on the opposite side of the entrances; there’s a group of about 10 seats which the luchadors end up diving in to or brawling near, and it frequently seems like the fans in those seats are drunk or otherwise unaware of what is going on. It occasionally makes for funny visuals but it’s not the safest situation.

The Metalico/Leono hair match for next Tuesday has vanished. This seems to be a late decision; they were advertised as going on CMLL Informa to promote the match just minutes before the match, but their match was pulled from the CMLL website a few hours prior. I’m not sure why it was there, I’m not sure why it’s gone, I’m not sure if it’ll just turn back up.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter added a few details about TripleMania and it’s PPV. The important news was on the follow up podcast: Meltzer thinks the lineup probably will be announced in full on Friday (though notes elsewhere that the announcement of the PPV was actually delayed a week.) The WON also notes AAA had previously turned down offers to do the show as a PPV in the US as to not conflict with Lucha Underground. They’re apparently not concerned about that now, and you can read in to that what you want. Hugo Savinovich will be one of the English language announcers, with the other TBD.

AAA typically does Hall of Fame inductions on TripleMania. Perro Aguayo Jr. is certain to be inducted. Villano III may be honored as well. The show is scheduled to run three hours, which is shorter than most AAA shows. That probably means the event will only have six matches. We already know three (Myzteziz/Rey, Alberto/Cage, Villanos/Circus), there’s usually a Relevos AAA to get the minis/women/Mamba/Pimpi on, so that only leaves a couple matches to get a lot of people on the card. The La Parka/Cibernetico crew have to be worked in, and the guys who are seen on Lucha Underground have to be worked in. It’s going to be a challenge.

The Villanos/Psycho Circus really should be kept short. There’s an autograph signing for Villano III the weekend after TripleMania, and the people promoting have implied Villano III is signing because he can’t wrestle but could really use the income. That trios match has a chance of being the least well regarded match on a major PPV, but they’re doing the Villanos a favor by giving them a good payday in a big spotlight.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and this past Friday’s En Busca de Un Idolo.

+LuchaTV has a lot of new clips, including Rich Swann vs Septimo Dragon for the FIP title, Violento Jack & Aeroboy vs Ciclope & Miedo Extreo for the X-LAW Tag championship and Blue Panther building up his match with Satanico this weekend.

King Jaguar is willing to bet his hair to get another shot at Lestat.

A boxing and lucha libre exhibit was opened at the PRI political party headquarters.

SuperLuchas looks back at shows from July 22nd, 1984

Apolo Valdes writes about Ultimo Guerrero and indy lucha libre from last weekend.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 07/26/2015 Arena Naucalpan
1) Aeroman & Alas de Acero vs Araña de Plata & Hip Hop Man
2) Dragón Celestial & Metaleón vs Enigma & Imposible
3) Emperador Azteca, Golden Magic, Súper Nova vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
4) Hijo del Solar, Máscara Sagrada, Solar I vs Halloween Jr., Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 Jr.
5) Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Canis Lupus, Coloso Chris, Príncipe Orión

Panteras win the tag titles and aren’t back for the next show. Crazy Americans face off against the Navarros for whatever reason. An IWRG show.

ELL (SAT) 08/08/2015 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Black Danger & Mirage vs Black Phantom & Xperia
2) Eternus & Lady Lee vs Destroyer & Ryan Kidd
3) Fantastik, Mr. Maldito, Platino vs Ángel Metálico, Jonathan, Star Dragón
4) Histeria & Psicosis II vs Tony Casanova & X-Torm
5) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park vs La Sombra & Rush

Evolution has mostly been running smaller buildings in Tijuana; this might be the first show at the big building and they’ve brought in Sombra, Rush and LA Park for it.