Super Comando unmasked, iPPV failure, Thunder gone from CMLL?, Atlantis/Caifan

CMLL (FRI) 12/25/2015 Arena México [CMLL, luchablog, Yahoo! Deportes]
Attendance: 12000
1) Estrellita, La Vaquerita, Lluvia b Dalys, La Seductora, Tiffany
2) Blue Panther, Stuka Jr., Super Porky b Kráneo, Pólvora, Vangellys
3) Máximo Sexy, Super Parka, Valiente DQ Cavernario, Kamaitachi, Negro Casas
Kamaitachi fouled Maximo. Super Parka & Negro Casas and Kamaitachi & Maximo signed for their hair matches next week after the match (and seemed to have different levels of awareness that the match was already announced.)
4) Cibernético, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b Carístico, Mistico, Rush [Relevos Increíbles]
Rush
5) Súper Comando L Blue Panther Jr., Tritón, Esfinge, The Panther, Pegasso, Fuego, Sangre Azteca, Tiger, Raziel, Cancerbero, Puma [cage]
Luchadors were required to stay in the cage three minutes before escape. Escape order went Esfinge, Puma, Pegasso (who dived off the cage earlier), Cancerbero, Triton, Tiger, Blue Panther Jr., Sangre Azteca, Fuego, and Raziel. The Panther submitted Super Comando to a nudo lagunero after a near six minute singles match to end it. Super Comando is Gustavo Torres Ramirez, 34 years old, 17 years a luchador, from Neza. His father, Principe Odin, consoled Super Comando after the loss. The Panther celebrated with Blue Panther Jr. & Blue Panther.

Really good turnout for the show. I guess 12,000, but may be too conservative. I would guess the concept of a big show on Christmas (with multiple dance numbers) was the biggest draw, but the fans did react to the escape and finish spots of the cage match loudly. The matches themselves were nothing special, but it’ll be interesting to see if they can repeat this again in a week. The fact that everyone had a pretty good idea of who was going to lose and that it wasn’t a big name didn’t seem to hurt the attendance at all.

Super Comando says he wasn’t prepared to lose his mask and will take some time to reflect on his career.

The iPPV was a screw up. A few people got it to work early on, mostly by refreshing the page at a rapid rate and lucking out that video player actually worked for them. Most people just got a gray box where the player should’ve launched. (It doesn’t really matter, but my guess would be that the video streaming program was set for a small number of connections, and the people who got in were only getting it because someone else had jumped off.) About twenty minutes into the show, Cleeng posted a note saying the show would soon be starting, seemingly thinking the start time was later. About an hour in, CMLL cut off the stream for the few people who were connected, and served it over their normal YouTube channel. That made it free to anyone who had the YouTube link. Around 600 people were watching at the end. I’d guess about 25-40% were people who had paid, though it’s a lot lower overall than the Anniversary show. People who contacted cleeng about a refund were told they’d instead ask CMLL to replay the event. CMLL said they were not to blame for the situation and has said no more. It does not appear a replay is coming or a refund.

I had the usual many paragraph thing complaining about everything involved in this, but I do that every time there’s an iPPV failure and the people in charge who could fix it but they’re not actually listening. I’m kinda done with them for the moment, and the rest of you shouldn’t have the endure it. This is the deal, this is the expectation you need to have: only buy a lucha libre iPPV if you are OK with starting at a blank screen for an hour, then lightning your money on fire. Maybe you’ll actually get to see the lucha libre show, but maybe that lightning your money on fire deal has pretty nearly the same chance of happening.

 

 

In the most cynical manner possible, CMLL’s wasted no time advertising next week’s iPPV. It’s another $10 + fees show that starts at 5pm local time. (Not 8:30, as CMLL’s twitter mistakenly lists.)

I’m unclear what’s going on with Thunder right now, but here’s the timeline

last week: Ultimo Guerrero tells the press he has no idea what they Thunder/UG match appears to be off, or even where Thunder is
Monday: Thunder is a surprise fill in on the Puebla show
Tuesday: Thunder wrestlers in the main event as scheduled
Thursday: CMLL tells MedioTiempo the Thunder/UG match is off, saying Thunder had signed the apuesta contract but asked for more time to get better, and the two hair matches would be happening at 01/01
Friday: CMLL tells Mas Lucha that Thunder did not sign the apuesta contract, and Thunder has left CMLL
Saturday: CMLL lists Thunder on the 01/01 card, in an undercard trios match and not against Ultimo Guerrero

This is a comedy. I tend to believe Mas Lucha and MedioTiempo have their acts together much more than CMLL. My assumption is Thunder’s gone from CMLL, that something happened reached between Tuesday and Friday, and that CMLL’s usual lack of communication meant the people in charge of putting up the card for Friday did not know it had changed. (On Informa, when he signed the contract, Thunder mentioned he would’ve gone back to Australia for the holidays if not for the mask match. Perhaps he actually did decide to make that trip when the match was canceled.)

CMLL tends to make changes to their lineups on Monday afternoon, so some replacement will be added at that point. I’m not ruling out Thunder wrestling, but I think it’s the less likely option.

By the way, CMLL would have a lot smaller roster if they fired everyone whoever challenged for a mask match but did not sign a contract.

Lucha Memes (FRI) 12/25/2015 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Mano a Mano]
1) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Demasiado, Iron Kid b Freelance, Mike Segura, Septimo Rayo, Supermega
money thrown in
2) Decnnis, Toscano, Zumbido b Arez, Belial, Impulso
Rematch from a previous show with the Guapos team getting the win. Money thrown in.
3) Negro Navarro b Virus
money thrown in.
4) Keira DRAW Dalys
Scheduled to be Marcela defending the CMLL title, but she no showed (and hasn’t been spotted in a match since early December.) Dalys replaced her. Double pin finish left the luchadoras and the fans unhappy.
5) Negro Casas b Dr. Cerebro
quick match
6) Trauma I & Trauma II b Black Terry & Negro Navarro
Dandy missed the show, said to be due to health issues. Negro Navarro worked twice to replace him.
7) Atlantis b Caifan
very good match, with Atlantis of course winning with La Atlantida. Caifan bled. Lots of money thrown in. Caifan asked for a rematch, hair vs mask.

Building looked close to but not totally full early on. Not sure if it got full later or if the show will go up on YouTube. Probably more info later if it’s happening. Atlantis/Caifan looks very good and the Naucalpan crowd seems into all of the matches.

The no-shows are unfortunate. I’m not sure what the deal is with Marcela. She goes up to New York ever few months to wrestle there, maybe she just stayed for the holidays. I thought maybe she got suspended for not making the Arena Coliseo date, but I’m not sure that would affect her appearing on this show. No Dandy is disappointing to, and this would’ve been a tough to do find last minute subs. (Zeuxis would’ve worked a lot better than Dalys, though Dalys might have been coming with Negro Casas anyway.)

CARA LUCHA (FRI) 12/25/2015 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México [+LuchaTV, Kronosport]
1) ? ?? ??
2) Kilvan & Yoruba b Atomic Star & Diva Salvaje
3) Toxin DQ Templario
4) Centvrión, Fly Warrior, Látigo b Niño De Ebano, Sky Man, Toro Negro Jr.
Mala Hiebra remain unbeated. Centvrion challenged Toro Negro Jr. to a match, but the local professor decided the one person Centvrion should face is his trainee – Latigo. It’ll be Centvrion vs Latigo in a super libre match next week.
5) Andy Boy, Danger, Guerrero Mixtico b Eterno, Mr. Leo, Wasson
Mr. Leo replaced Eterno.
6) Flamita & Rayo Star b Eterno & Golden Magic
Eterno replaced Super Nova. Said to be a good match.

Not a lot of details, but the big news is them coming back as quick as next weekend. It doesn’t seem like the other super indie groups are doing that, though I’d expect a lot of smaller shows.

It looks like most of the big shows did well on Christmas Day. Arena Neza and Arena Lopez Mateos are also specifically said to have large turnouts. Cara Lucha looks the softest, but still a regular attendance for the show (and probably a better profit for the promoters, since there weren’t CMLL guys to pay ont his one.)

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 01/01/2016 Arena México
1) Estrellita, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis
2) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, The Panther vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
3) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Thunder
4) Máximo Sexy vs Kamaitachi [hair]
5) Carístico, Mistico, Rush vs Cibernético, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Negro Casas vs Super Parka [hair]

This is again a 5pm start for a $10 iPPV (+ up to $2.04 fees.) It’s going to be tricky for me to be able to see this one and CMLL’s definitely encouraging to make the effort, even though this is a much better card this past Friday.

I think they went with the wrong match as the main event. Kamaitachi & Maximo are going to deliver much better, it’s more likely to have a happy outcome (though plenty of people will be happy with Casas winning), and Maximo is sort of the heavyweight champion of the promotion. Instead, CMLL bows to age as always. I have no doubt Super Parka is going to work as hard possible to make the main event work, I’m just skeptical that’s nearly enough.

Again, I think Thunder will be out of the third match and replaced by someone in a couple days. Second match could be pretty good, or could just be a match.