CMLL’s first live broadcast of Arena Puebla is scheduled to take place. It should start around 9pm local. They’ve said they’ll have a link on their website, and you’ll probably be able to find it on their YouTube channel. The spotlight match is Dragon Lee versus Kamaitachi for Dragon Lee’s CMLL Super Lightweight Championship. Dragon Lee’s the heavy favorite.
CMLL (SUN) 07/19/2015Arena México
1) Metatrón & Robin vs Espanto Jr. & Espiritu Negro
2) Acero vs Pequeño Violencia [lightning]
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Starman, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Artillero, Hijo del Signo, Súper Comando
4) Fuego, The Panther, Tritón vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Titán vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
6) Dragon Lee, La Máscara, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja
Mascara & Volador with another failed team up, Ryees del Atlantida not back together for some reason, Acero & Pequeno Violencia actually following up on their foul. I dunno.
This was the afternoon show; they had an evening show as well. Magnifico being the replacement for Boby Zavala is a surprise but a nice one. Didn’t see anything about the evening show, but it looked like Thursday show was about the same attendance and Friday was the busiest night.
At some point, on one of the shows, Santo Jr. ran in as Tempestad as a rudo. Tempestad was the name hyped years ago as the name Santo Jr. would use when he first started to wrestle. Maybe this means he’s start. Not sure any one on these casual audience understood the circumstances, but there’s not like there’s any TxT shows in Mexico to do these things. (There probably will be one soon, I suspect.)
AAA LUCHA FUTURE (SAT) 07/11/2015 Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom [@edecanlover, Linus @ DVDVR, WON]
Attendance: 2500
1) Blue Demoncito & Octagoncito b Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria
2) Fénix b Pentagón Jr. Best match on the show. Pentagon argued with Piero, demanded he got faster, then got beat by a fast count.
3) Drago & Sexy Star b Bengala & Faby Apache
4) Blue Demon Jr., La Parka, Psycho Clown b Hijo del Fantasma, Texano Jr., Villano IV Texano was working thru his injury in a comedy match. The entire roster came to the ring to celebrate at the end of the show.
2,500 is actually more than any of the NJPW FantasticaMania shows have ever drawn – but that’s primarily because this was a 5,000 seat building (which looked great) and those top out a 2,000. The celebration at the end of the show, including Pentagon grabbing a sousaphone and playing it for crowd, reminded me of the atmosphere CMLL/NJPW shows. Hopefully this can turn into something annual like those. This lucha show – and the Lucha London/Santo ones – were said to draw both a lot of Mexican fans and a lot of people who had no idea about lucha libre. They did some heavy coaching of the crowd here, trying to get them to throw money in after the Fenix/Pentagon match and explaining who were the tecnicos and rudos (sometimes not so correctly.) Reviews of this show seemed pretty positive.
CMLL (SAT) 07/11/2015Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Apocalipsis b Bengala
2) Astral b Pequeño Olímpico
3) Soberano Jr. b Hijo del Signo
4) Misterioso Jr. & Tiger b Hombre Bala Jr. & Súper Halcón Jr. Moved down a spot. Rudos took 2/3.
5) Dark Angel b Amapola moved up a spot
6) Dragon Lee b Bárbaro Cavernario Tecnicos took 1/3.
7) Pólvora, Rey Bucanero, Terrible b Diamante Azul, La Máscara, Volador Jr. Mascara is back to betraying Volador.
Mascara/Volador is never going to happen. Alexis did some Perisopes during the show, but not during Lee/Cavernario.
CMLL (SUN) 07/12/2015Arena México [CMLL]
1) Bengala & Sensei b Camorra & El Rebelde Bengala replaced Sensei (injury on Friday)
2) Acero, Eléctrico, Último Dragoncito DQ Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pequeño Violencia Violencia fouled Acero.
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther b Okumura, Sangre Azteca, Virus
4) Fuego b Puma [lightning]
5) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto b Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. Mephisto snuck in a pinall on Atlantis
6) Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero b Diamante Azul, Mistico, Valiente Euforia replaced Shocker on Wednesday. Ultimo Guerrero beat Mistico clean with the Pulpo Guerrero
Ultimo Guerrero should win, but seems weird he beat Mistico. At least they had the good sense not to ask Mistico to take a Guerrero Special, he might have been crushed into a pile of dust.
Semimain seems like an obvious set up to a trios title match in two or three weeks. I’m not going to change this sentence when it turns out in a few hours none of them are booked together next week.
Puma just won a belt, Fuego has no belt, it doesn’t really matter either way, so Fuego won.
Crossing my fingers for a big Acero/Pequeno Violencia apuesta match to counter TripleMania.
Wasson/photo by Black Terry Jr.
Cara Lucha (SAT) 07/11/2015Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México[+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, Kronosport, The Gladiatores]
1) Pegasuz & Shadow b Centella Atómica & Príncipe Aéreo Teams changed around, with Pegazus taking Rey Fenix’s spot. Centella Atomica was hurt.
2) Yoruba b Demus 3:16 Good match. Yoruba upset Demus. Akuma attacked Yoruba after the match and Kilvan made the save. Mask/hair vs mask/hair challenges were made.
3) Epydemius b Jinzo and Aramis and Septimo Dragon Good match.
4) Flamita b Wasson Standing Spanish Fly for the win. very good match, money thrown in
5) Felino b Guerrero Mixtico Listed as a double countout or a win for Felino in different place.
6) Rush b Pagano quick match. Pagano complained Rush used weapons when he thought it was going to be a clean match (???), and rematch challenges were made.
Attendance seems down from recent Cara Lucha shows. Maybe that crowd is more into Volador than Rush? (Felino seemed like a weird fit for this show.) It seems like Pagano is used every as if he’s a drawing indy guy, but it’s hard to find evidence he’s a draw.
Pagano was back at it Sunday, going to a “out of control” draw versus Nicho in Salon Citalli. They talked about a rematch with no rules, which one would think every Pagano versus Nicho match would have. That seems like an odd way to build to a rematch but I suspect the people interested are more concerned with the fight than the outcome. Pagano/Nicho seems to be the favorite indy match of the moment, at least among indy bookers.
La Aficion’s weekly lucha libre column questions the existence of journalism in lucha libre coverage This column wins the award for most blind items which aren’t actually blind, to the point where a) they might as well have gone the extra half step to call people out by name because everyone knows why they’re talking about and b) it would’ve been more interesting to dig into any one of those stories and explore why no one looked into it. As it is, it comes across as “everyone sucks” and even I’m not that cynical.
Not even sure how to approach this, while saying everything correctly. I think a lot of people who are producing content about lucha libre right now are doing it because they came in loving lucha libre, not becuase they love journalism. There are (still) places you can do journalism and get paid, but there’s not much money in doing lucha libre journalism. That said, there’s a lot of people in English speaking counties doing what this column would count as journalism (and I’m not even thinking of raising it to Meltzer’s level, but a site like PWPonderings or Voices of Wrestling are more likely to evaluate and critique their wrestling than Mexican side) and it’s just not done even by the fanzine level stuff in Mexico. Maybe it’s cultural (around the wrestling even more than the question), maybe it’s an access thing – it does turn up when Mexican fans are talking about WWE, but not when they’re talking about IWRG. And it is disappointing – not even on the attendance or match rating level, but just people who have that access asking more questions (not just the usual fact sheet Q&A) would be fascinating.
Black Terry Jr. & Estrellas del Ring caught up with Flamita to ask what was going on with him and AAA. The “Fireball” name appears to be AAA only. Flamita & AAA are talking, but he hasn’t signed a deal with them.
IWRG FILL (TUE) 07/14/2015Arena Naucalpan
1) Blue Metal, Canario, Sexy Angel vs Demonio Imperial, Orquidea Azul, Sexy Girl
2) Chicanito & Voltar vs Charly Boy & Vampiro Metálico
3) Guerrero 2000, Matrix Jr., Power Bull vs Acero, Adrenalina, Centella Oriental
4) Aeroman, Dragon Fly, Hijo del Alebrije vs Rey Terco Jr., Roller Boy, Troll
5) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Araña de Plata, Atomic Star, Chapulin, Electro Boy, Kanon, Mr. Jack vs Corsario De Fuego,Crazy Man, Master (Xalapa), Maximus, Pitufo, Rey Infierno, Totem I, Totem II [Copa High Power] Gym FILL (Eterno’s team) versus Gym Skayde (this time, guys from Xalapa)
A Tuesday show, which is when FILL shows were originally when there were Thursday shows. (And there is a Thursday show already this week, the Lucha Libre Boom one with CMLL guys, so this is a recently rare 3 show week for Arena Naucalpan.)
Skayde’s team is really from Xalapa; they used to be all Arena Xalapa wrestlers before affilation started to move around (and were most recently around Arena Independence Total.) Many of those guys were listed on Arena Aficion show this past Tuesday. Maximus is the former Vengador Radioactivo, who’s NOAH tour is surely still coming someday.
There’s no new info or gifs or thoughts here; I just wanted to figured out how much they cut from the TV version of these matches and decided to put it up as a recap in case the info was needed later. (They cut out 3 minutes from Alas de Oro; not all of that can be carting Fenix away.) You’ll want to read something else.
(This is just for data purposes; nothing but time and finish notes, and so I can find this info later when I’m looking for old TV reports. You can skip it.) Read More
AAA TV (FRI) 07/10/2015Gimnasio Miguel Hidalgo, Puebla, Puebla [@FlyDeportes , AAA, Cinco Radio]
1) Dinastía, Mini Drago, Pimpinela Escarlata b Mamba, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Psycho Clown Pimpi beat Charly.
2) Goya Kong & Niño Hamburguesa b Carta Brava & Taya Valkyrie Goya Kong was the mystery luchadora, is now 2-0 in AAA. Hamburugesa splash on Carta Brava.
3) Fireball & Ludxor b Daga & Steve Pain Ludxor replaced Argenis. Fireball (Flamita) was the surprise luchador. Fireball beat Steve Pain with a Spanish Fly, and Pain was stretched out.
4) Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria b Monsther Clown & Murder Clown and Electroshock & Hijo de Pirata Morgan and Australian Suicide & Jack Evans Cuervo beat Jack.
5) Aerostar, Drago Argenis, Myzteziz DQ Averno, Chessman, Cibernético Argenis replaced Drago. Myzteziz had La Mistica on Chessman, but Avenro pulled off his mask.
6) Brian Cage b El Patrón Alberto, El Mesías [bull terrier] Cage powerbombed Alberto thru dry wall, then touched four corners to win. Cage covered Alberto up with the American flag, and Cage challenged Alberto to hair versus hair. Alberto later accepted.
Even with that match set, Averno is still hassling Myzteziz. Secta versus Jack & Angelico is still going, and that one could actually be another TripleMania match. (They did a cage match, maybe they do a ladder match? If only they had something to hang up there.)
The Fireball thing is weird. It suggests AAA has larger plans for him than the Belial/Arez level guys who turned up earlier this year, because they’ve gone thru the effort of introducing him with a name AAA will own. (He was still wearing his Flamita gear, so the naming wasn’t any more than that.) I’m sure what it means long term. AAA wanted to bring back Flamita for at least a year, Flamita’s was still said to be going back to Dragon Gate in September at last report, so this might just be a couple shows. CMLL has appeared not to object to their luchadors wrestling those who’ve appeared just once or a few times on AAA TV tapings this year, but they’re also completely inconsistent about those things. Maybe the Flamita/Dragon Lee match in Veracruz happens (help by being a small enough town that no one will know if it does happen), but it’s probably a good thing for CaraLucha that they went to Volador/Flamita right away.
There is no next announced taping until TripleMania. It’d be a four week break as currently scheduled, so the guess is something gets announced today on TV to take place in a couple weeks.
