Month: July 2015

CMLL (TUE) 07/14/2015 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Bengala & Robin b Apocalipsis & Camorra
Robin replaced Sensei (knee injury). Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Akuma, Metálico, Sangre Azteca b Leono, Molotov, Oro Jr.
Molotov replaced Flyer on Friday. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Esfinge b Disturbio [En Busca de un Idolo]
Esfinge won with his cradle. Amapola was guest judge. Esfinge scored a 6 (Amapola), 8 (Gladiador), 9 (Shocker) and 8 (Tirantes) for a 31. Disturbio scored a 9, 8, 9, 9 for a 35.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. b Blue Panther Jr. [En Busca de un Idolo]
Maya submitted Panther to the suastica in under five minutes. Maya scored a 9 (Amapola), 8 (Gladiador), 9 (Shocker), 8 (Tirantes). Blue Panther Jr. scored a 6, 8, 8 and 7 for a 29.
5) Pólvora, Rey Bucanero, Vangellys b Ángel de Oro, La Máscara, Tritón
Polvora beat Angel de Oro with the Super Polvora Driver, demanded a title shot.
6) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Titán b Bárbaro Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla
Mr. Niebla’s latest return. Atlantis beat him with a huracanrana.

The first two matches were dreadfully, painfully boring. No one was blowing spots, but it was a variety of the worst of CMLL. I should stop watching the first half of Tuesday shows. En Busca de un Idolo matches were OK. I think the performances have gotten better and the expectations have gotten lower. Judges raved about Esfinge & Disturbio, which was really solid but nothing must see.

After En Busca W6 matches:

Maya 452
Boby 439
Esfinge 314
Disturbio 308
—
Flyer 301
Canelo 286
BP Jr. 247
Delta 245

— TKD 117 (@TKD_117) July 15, 2015

Flyer will pull ahead of both Esfinge and Disturbio once the Week 6 fan poll is factored in. Disturbio should gain on Esfinge, though likely enough to pass him in. It’ll probably come down to the last votes for them.

Maximo kept the CMLL Heavyweight Championship over Rey Escorpion last night.

Today’s Lucha Underground episode is #36, “The Beginning of the End.” The title refers only to the season (we hope). All three matches announced for the show are for Aztec Medallions

• Bengala vs Delavar Davari
• Sexy Star vs Super Fly
• King Cuerno vs Kill Shot

There were two version of those one of those matches, and one of those versions included a bonus match. Cuerno and Killshot had a brief staredown the last time we saw both (and have had issues parallel to Cage/Mack rivalry.) There’s not much time left, so Super Fly & Sexy Star settles things between them for now. The winners join Aerostar, Jack Evans and (in theory) Fenix as Medallion holders, with one remaining to be given out between now and Ultima Lucha.

There will also be a Prince Puma/Mil Muertes face to face to continue towards their title match. Also, Pentagon Jr.’s demand to Vampiro to accept his match or else will resolve. Lucha Undergrond has already leaked a segment with Pentagon and Dario, plus a bonus Pentagon Jr. feature.

CMLL did post Monday’s Arena Puebla show in full (minus some dead time between the matches). I haven’t gotten to Kamaitachi/Dragon Lee yet, but I’m told it’s very good.

The Mexico City lucha commission, the ministry of health and the institute of sport announced a “new” deal that will allow luchadors to get free access to be and general security in DF. I put “new” in quotes because this was previous announced at least two years ago – there was a big thing about signing up AAA luchadors. No article mentions that, so I’m not completely lost if this was an extension or replacement or applicable to different people or something completely different. These programs seems to be announced once a year and then never talked about again; I hope they’re successful but it’s tough to tell. (This free access seems to extend to diagnosis tests – x-rays and the like – and not treatment, but the language is not clear.) Only indy luchadors (Canek, Principe Maya, Falcon mentioned) were at the press conference.

CMLL hypes the Lestat/King Jaguar match.

NJPW is selling a Naito version of the Ingobernable shirt. If you want to buy it from CMLL, you have to find La Mascara’s friend around Arena Mexico and he’ll help you out. That’s not a story, that’s actually how they explained it on +LuchaTV. That interview did give me the impression that La Mascara is the guy responsible for the group’s shirts, which would definitely be his greatest contribution.

Psycho Clown believes the random Villano IV attack is going somewhere. It may! We know the top two matches for TripleMania but the rest of the card feels amazingly mysterious. There’s a slight tease of Psycho Circus versus Villanos in that interview, and Psycho Clown also brings up his challenge to Chessman which equally has gone nowhere.

Apolo Valdez writes about the decline in position and new faces of women’s division in both AAA & CMLL.

Los Colisenos resurfaces to say the problem with CMLL women’s wrestling is mostly nepotism.

+LuchaTV has Dark Angel again saying women should be in CMLL main events, and a longer sit down interview with Ultimo Guerrero.

Diana la Cazadora says she’s retiring at the end of the year.

The (London) Times gave the Lucha Future/AAA show four stars.

Segunda Caida reviews random May CMLL lucha and more Dragon Lee trios.

Gonzalo Lopez Peralta’s lucha libre photography seminar is coming to Arena Coliseo Guadalajara.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 07/21/2015 Arena México
1) Angelito & Fantasy vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Leono, Pegasso, Starman vs Metálico, Okumura, Puma
3) Boby Zavala vs Disturbio [En Busca de un Idolo]
4) Flyer vs Guerrero Maya Jr. [En Busca de un Idolo]
5) Marco Corleone, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja
6) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Ephesto, Pólvora, Terrible

That’s at least three of the final four En Busca de un Idolo participants. It could be all four if Zavala did his partner a solid and threw the match. (In any other promotion, they’d spend a day talking about the possibility. CMLL will never bring it up.) They might just run the same exact matches a week from Friday.

Dragging out Angel de Oro & Polvora is not actually building anticipation. Metalico owns Tuesday segundas, maybe it’s right he’s on the last Terra one. Puma is totally wasted in that match, can go back to being mostly wasted on Tuesday’s once En Busca de un Idolo ends.

CMLL (TUE) 07/21/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Frezzer & Virgo vs El Chakal & Sádico
2) Gallo, Hombre Bala Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. vs Cancerbero, Ráfaga, Raziel
3) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, The Panther vs Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sangre Azteca
4) Diamante Azul, Super Porky, Titán vs Kráneo, Ripper, Vangellys
5) La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mephisto, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero

Ultimo Guerrero’s first appearance after his hair match (so, he’ll still have his hair.)

CMLL (SUN) 07/12/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Meteoro & Rey Halcon b Guerrero de la Muerte & Micro
Tecnicos took 2 (excessive violence DQ) and 3. Rey Halcon’s debut (and apparently not the Laguna one, so maybe his first career match) and Micro’s switched to the rudo side after one match.
2) Demonio Rojo & Mr. Brisa b Capitan Cobra & Javier Cruz Jr.
Rudos took 1/3. First matches here in a while for Cruz (last in March) and Demonio Rojo (last in April)
3) El Divino b Sádico
Divino won, asked for a title shot.
4) Frezzer, Nautilius, Omar Brunetti b El Chakal, El Yaqui, Thunder Boy
Omar beat Thunder Boy.
5) Esfinge, Gallo, Magnum b Joker, Maléfico, Ráfaga
Gallito suffered an arm injury. Tecnicos took 2/3, Mangum defeating Malefico.

Keeping track of the names is more work than keeping track of the stories.

CMLL (MON) 07/13/2015 Arena Puebla [CMLL]
1) Artillero & Súper Comando b Arkalis & Black Tiger
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Shockercito b Espíritu Maligno, Mini Joker, Saurón
3) Flyer, Lestat, Soberano Jr. DQ Fuerza Chicana, King Jaguar, Okumura
Okumura replaced Nitro. Jaguar ripped off Lestat’s mask for the DQ, setting up their mask match next week.
4) Fuego, Stigma, Super Porky b Boby Zavala, Misterioso Jr., Pierroth
Fuego replaced Stuka Jr.
5) Dragon Lee © b Kamaitachi [CMLL SL]
second defense for Lee (both against Kamaitachi). Dragon won the third with a superplex.
6) Euforia, Rey Bucanero, Terrible b Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush
Euforia snuck in a foul on Maximo. Sets up a rematch next week.

CMLL announced the show would not be streaming about 45 minutes before showtime. They said the show would be posted in some other format. CMLL had tested broadcast video before, but it appeared they were airing an Arena Puebls show on tape – if they had tried from Arena Puebla before, they did it very quietly. The plan was to air the Monday show every week live, we’ll see what they say today.

Today’s CMLL show is the latest return of Mr. Niebla. Niebla was suspended 10 weeks for “poor behavior”, which he’s repeatedly been suspended for in the past twelve months. Niebla was barely back form his last suspension before picking up this one. Hopefully it’ll go different for him this time, though his history suggests it will not. He teams with Peste Negra partners Felino & Cavernario to take on Atlantis, Titan, and Diamanate Azul tonight. Mr. Niebla is unhappy people would suggest he might go to AAA; he probably needs to take it up with Mr. Niebla, who brought up this possibility in a newspaper interview on February 29th.

 

The semimain includes Angel de Oro and Polvora, who feuded last week. That CMLL preview suggests they’re headed to a title match. The En Busca de un de un Idolo with Guerrero Maya Jr. versus Blue Panther Jr., where very little on the line, and Esfinge versus Disturbio, where pretty much everything is on the line. Disturbio & Esfinge are very close in the standings right now and likely to end up that way. The 20 points on the line for the result may end up being the difference between who advances and who’s done after one round. The Terra broadcast should start at 7:30 pm, but both of the preliminary matches look rather poor.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara has the Maximo versus Rey Escorpion heavyweight match. Rey Escorpion is unlikely to win either of his big matches this week, but has a least a shot in this title match. He could use the momentum of the win, there could be some distrust of keeping a title on Maximo after his sister jumped to AAA, and it would help out the new Guadalajara TV show. None of those are strong reasons, and CMLL’s definitely not playing up this title match as anything important, but it’d be enough to explain it after the fact.

Rey Escorpion says he’s happy to have gotten this far in his career, and plans on shaving Ultimo Guerrero Friday.

Alberto el Patron did contact people yesterday, so he’s alive. The most that has been said about him missing the show on Sunday is “personal reasons” and that’s probably the most that will be said.

As noted in the comments, Santo Jr./Tempestad didn’t just appear, he wrestled his first ever matches on the Lucha London shows. That feels like it should’ve been a much bigger deal.

Black Terry Jr. has video of the Terrible Cerebros versus Tortugas Ninjas title match and Navarros vs Solars/Golden Magic from Sunday’s IWRG show. That IWRG show was not taped by AYM; they aired a rerun of the Wednesday show instead in the usual time slot.

GFW will have a match with Bestia 666, Blood Eagle, Steve Pain, Phoenix Star, Zorke, and Misterioso (California one) in a match on their 07/24 taping. I assumed this was a trios match but everyone else assumed it was a six way and they’re probably right. I would assume Steve Pain is not under AAA contract so he’s free to do this. Also, it’s a TV taping for a group that doesn’t have TV so whatever.

Senor Lariato has a review of the AAA/Lucha Future show.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news report and this week’s Poster-Mania.

DJ Spectro looks back at Andre el Gigante & Tamba vs Canek & Perro Aguayo and Perro Aguayo taking Ultraman’s hair.

SuperLuchas looks back at the day Lizmark versus Gran Markus didn’t happen and the Misterioso versus Volador mask match that did.

Lineups

CMLL (SAT) 07/18/2015 Arena Coliseo
1) Aéreo vs Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Magnus vs El Rebelde
3) Soberano Jr. vs Inquisidor
4) Starman vs Nitro
5) Tritón vs Okumura
6) Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Hechicero & Luciferno
7) Blue Panther, La Máscara, Máximo vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys

Semimian should be fun.

Triton is listed as working here, in Lucha Mutante and in Puebla all on Saturday. That’s not possible, would assume he’s getting pulled from the Puebla show.

CMLL (MON) 07/20/2015 Arena Puebla
1) Arkalis, Asturiano, Black Tiger vs Camorra, Cholo, Inquisidor
2) Metatrón, Rey Samuray, Starman vs Policeman, Rey Apocalipsis, Toro Bill Jr.
3) Fuego, Stigma, Tritón vs Boby Zavala, Hechicero, Okumura
4) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Valiente vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Lestat vs King Jaguar [mask]
6) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Euforia, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Lestat’s the younger guy, which usually means he wins the Puebla mask match. King Jaguar was only a regular here leading into this feud, but Lestat’s been in and out of this group over the last few years too.

That will all turn up on 52MX even if the live stream doesn’t work, but it’d be nice to be able to see Rey Apocalipsis & Toro Bill again.