Dorada regains the CMLL Weltereweight title, Cavernario keeps his own, GDT preview

CMLL (SUN) 01/17/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Ángel Aéreo, Johnny Dinamo, Rey Halcón b Gitano, Mr. Brisa, Quca
Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) El Chakal b El Divino [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE, quarterfinal]
Chakal reversed a huracanrana to win and advance.
3) Joker b Vaquero Jr. [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE, quarterfinal]
Joker used a piledriver variant to advance.
4) Cosmos, Frezzer, Neutrón b Furia Roja, Gran Kenut, Ráfaga
Neutron beat Rafaga with the reverse tope.
5) Felino & Puma b Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr.
Felinos took 1/3, with Puma pulling Jr.’s mask to beat him.

CMLL (TUE) 01/19/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) El Yaqui & Omar Brunetti b Joker & Sádico
Tecnicos took 1/3. Brunetti beat Sadico.
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Reycko vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito, Relampago
Tecnicos took 1/3. Electrico suffered an arm injury late and left the match. Astral beat Pierrothito.
3) Dalys, Tiffany, Zeuxis b Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi
Rudas took 2/3. Estrellita beat Tiffany, but Dalys & Zeuxis defeated Skadi & Princesa Sugehit.
4) Ephesto, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja b Ángel de Oro, Delta, Tritón
Rudos took 1/3.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Kráneo, Thunder b La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Rush
Rudos took 2/3. Kraneo snuck in a foul on Rush to win!

CMLL teasing Rush versus Kraneo is the most exciting thing possible. I’m all for that match, though they’re only doing the rematch next week. Mije probably shouldn’t go within 30 meters of the match for his own safety.

CMLL NJPW (FRI) 01/22/2016 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan [NJPW]
Attendance: 1566
1) Fuego & Stuka Jr. b Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
5:40. Fuego beat Komatsu.
2) Boby Zavala, Gedo, Hechicero, Okumura, YOSHI-HASHI b David Finlay, Guerrero Maya Jr., Jyushin Thunder Liger, Kushida, The Panther
10:13. Hechicero beat David Finley with the rolling half crab. Zavala and Maya talked up tomorrow’s tag title match.
3) EVIL & Tetsuya Naito b Atlantis & Juice Robinson
7:59. IdJ beat Juice after a foul and the Out of Control. Rudos took Atlantis’ mask, and Naito attacked commentator Milano Collection AT.
4) Bárbaro Cavernario © b Titán [MEX WELTER]
10:57. Cavernario used a Cavernaria for the win. Barbaro second defense. Cavernario thanked the fans in Japanese after the match.
5) Máscara Dorada b Bushi © [CMLL WELTER]
13:33. Atlantis & Naito were seconds in this match. Naito interfered, but Atlantis ran him off. Dorada took out EVIL with a tope before beating BUSHI with the Dorada Screwdriver. Dorada is 31st champion. BUSHI follows Dorada with zero defenses; the last success defense of this belt was April 2014. Dorada told the press he’d like to challenge for the IWGP title again.
6) Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Virus b Dragon Lee, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi
15:09. Virus defeated Dragon Lee with the MotoVirus. Virus said his belt was coming back to him tomorrow.
7) Mephisto & Último Guerrero b Mistico & Volador Jr.
18:28. Ultimo Guerrero defeated Mistico with the Guerrero Special (helpfully screamed before being used) for the win in a very fan friendly match. Guerrero declared he’d prove he’s on another level with in their 1 on 1 match.

Getting up at 3:30 on a workday is tough, but – if you decided to wait until later to watch this show – I think you’ll enjoy it. Main event was entertaining and the two title matches were very good. Most of the matches were good, and it was at the normal level for this tour. I was going to post the recap this morning, but then I realized I had another post coming already. It’ll show up later to spread things out better.

Dorada winning the title back is the only surprise, and it’s kind of a surprise. I don’t think he’s getting that IWGP title match, but it’s a nice big win (both the title and putting a stop to the Ingobernables for a day) to resolve his year in NJPW. And, even though there’s two more shows left, that appears to be the end of him in NJPW: he moved out of the dojo to the Tokyo Dome hotel today.

I always forgot how Mistico is a totally beloved figured in Japan. This crowd loves Ultimo Guerrero too, but they react to Mistico in the way CMLL hopes and dreams the Arena Mexicans fans might. Mistico also looks about ten times better then he did this time last year. Maybe 2016 will be a better year.

That 1,566 attendance is a lower normal than usual. There may be other reasons the number was down (the WON mentioned a couple weeks ago the building’s attendances had been inflated based on a historic capacity that wasn’t the current capacity), but I’m not sure if it’s that why it’s down or other reasons. THey had been saying only standing room tickets were available for a while.

Today’s either the first big show of AAA’s year – or maybe the last show of AAA’s last year. We’re still not clear. It’s Guerra de Titanes 2016 (first of two.) The last few months of 2015 was as if AAA was putting together a jigsaw puzzle carefully and then Life walked over and knocked the table over. They start to put back the pieces tonight.

Guerra de Titanes starts tonight at 8:45pm CT, though that generally means more like 9:15 (with one unmentioned dark match in there.) There is no iPPV or regular PPV for this show, though it’s expected to start airing on TV as quickly as next Saturday. I’d keep an eye on Periscope if you really want to watch anything from the show tonight, since there’s usually someone putting up a grainy screen.

The main event of this show builds to the next. Dr. Wagner Jr & Psycho Clown face Mesias & Texano Jr., where the winning team squares off again at Rey de Reyes for the vacant AAA Mega championship. It’s hard to imagine Mesias & Texano as the main event of a major show right now, but they actually did main event a major show for this same title in 2012. Wagner & Psycho is the more sellable title match and are the favorites.

AAA also addresses a couple other title situations. The AAA Trios championship is vacant after Cibernetico left the company, so AAA has a three way match with two teams (La Parka, Electroshock and Garza Jr. + Hijo del Fantasma, Hijo del Pirata Morgan and Taurus) who have never teamed prior. The third team, Cuervo, Scoria & Zorro, has just been put together on team and appears to be the favorites. The AAA Tag Team titles aren’t on the line, but a title shot at the current champions (Jack Evans and the currently injured Angelico) is on the line in another three way match: tecnicos Aerostar & Fenix, rudos Chessman & Averno and oddballs Villano V & Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. all meet with no clear favorite. Chessman & Averno were originally slotted to get a title shot, but that title shot won’t be happening for quite a while and Pentagon Jr. & Joe Lider are still involved in all of this some how. (Pentagon & Drago are in the UK, which might be the only reason they’re not in this match.) Aerostar & Fenix winning the title shot and defending it against Pentagon & Lider would make sense as a program, but it seemed like Chessman & Averno were involved in the first place to keep them from going to Elite, and that’s still an issue. They’re not leaving this match without something.

The rest of the card wasn’t mentioned on TV, but has some promise. Daga, Parka Negra, Super Fly take on Jack Evans, Australian Suicide and a mystery luchador. AAA hasn’t teased anything for the mystery luchador yet, so it’s probably an on roster tecnico (like Flamita) and they just hadn’t decided when the card was announced. The second match is Faby Apache, Maravilla, and Goya Kong versus Lady Shani, Sexy Star and Taya. That actually might not be a bad match on it’s own, but it’s a lumberjack strap match for some reason and so it’ll only be dumb comedy. There’s a 100% chance Hijo del Tirantes will be the referee. Opener is a Pimpinela special, with Nino Hamburguesa and Dinastia against Mamba, Apache and Mini Charly.

Eric also previews Guerra de Titanes.

I’m not sure how attendance is going to be for this one. It’s Mexico City and a big show, so it should be not hard to put a big number in Juan de la Barrera. They’re not coming in with a lot of momentum and there’s no big matches on this show; this is about how much the crowd wants to see an AAA taping (and, to a lesser extent, Wagner.) They could fill half or they could fill all, I have no feel. Ticketmaster says you could still buy four seats in the general ringside area (row G1) as of this morning.

AAA posted the La Secta and La Parka promos from this week’s TV to hype Guerra de Titanes, and Plantilla Deportiva talks to Daga, who still wants to send Australian Suicide back to Australia. I bet Australia is really nice this time of year, I’d take that. In retrospect, it’s strange they didn’t start hyping this show on TV until the week before this show. They were doing nothing of consequence for a month, they had plenty of time spend weeks on these matches, but they just didn’t have a card.

AAA’s been posting their TV show on Friday nights of late; it might happen again tonight, which would be a pretty cool achievement given they’ve got a taping going on. The matches on the show should be good, but it’ll also be interesting to find out if they announce more tapings. There’s been nothing confirmed by AAA past tonight, but they tend to run shows relatively close to Mexico City early in the year (Toluca, Naucalpan, Ecatepec) and maybe don’t want to advertise those until after tonight’s show.

CMLL has it’s usual Friday night show, and I mean usual. There’s no effort to make this bigger than usual because AAA is in town, and it’s definitely the weaker of the two Friday night shows without the FantasticaMania crew. Show will start at 8:30pm and air on ClaroSports.com.

The main event tonight is the Ingobernables taking on Terrible, Rey Bucanero and Negro Casas, with no particular issue between the teams. The semimain is another rematch of the Revolucionarios and Guerreros, which was pretty terrible last week. Blue Panther has a lightning match against Ripper – it’s either that or the segunda with Blue Panther Jr., Delta and Triton versus Misterioso Jr., Puma and Sagrado as the best match of the night. With everything else going on, this definitely comes off as a show you can skip (unless you’re the guy dedicated to recording this, because than you’re pretty screwed.)

The fifth night of FantasticaMania tour takes place early tomorrow morning, at 3:30AM central. It’ll air on NJPWWorld once again. Last night’s stream had some problems, especially early on, but they warned people ahead of time that the stream might not start on time and apologized for the issues ahead of time. Like, you know, everyone should do.

The main event is Okada, Mephisto and Ultimo Guerrero versus Mistico, Volador Jr. and Valiente replacement Tanahashi. I guess he’ll be OK. There’s another two title matches on this show: Virus gets his rematch for the super light championship against Dragon Lee in the semimain. NJPW’s been careful to treat Virus like he’s a big star (much bigger than they treat him in CMLL) and if they follow that with giving these guys enough time to do some Virus mat work before speeding up into the Dragon Lee high spots, this could be the best match of the tour. Lee figures to retain, but I’m not as confident about that as I was when this card was announced.  The other title match is the third match on the card, as Bobby & Okumura challenge Guerrero Maya & the Panther. It should be a good ten minute match.

This is another seven match card, which stretched to about 6AM CT this morning. I’d say to watch the whole thing, because the opener – Titan & Dorada vs Komatsu & Tanaka – could be great if they give them some time, but you might be able to start watching at around 5AM if you just want to see Virus/Dragon Lee.

And, if all of this is not enough, the first day of FantasticaMania has been uploaded:

1) Kushida & Stuka Jr. vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
2) Boby Zavala & Okumura vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther
3) Fuego & Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario & YOSHI-HASHI
4) Hechicero & Virus vs Dragon Lee & Jay White
5) Bushi, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito vs Atlantis, Juice Robinson, Máscara Dorada
6) Ryusuke Taguchi & Volador Jr. vs Mephisto & Shinsuke Nakamura
7) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Mistico vs Gedo, Kazuchika Okada, Último Guerrero

CMLL says Shocker’s knee surgery will put him out four months, but he says we’ll see him in other projects before then. No mention of where this leaves the tag team titles. Four months would mean end of May/early June. If he’s going to be back before the Anniversary show (and if the have no real plan for the tag titles, which has seemed the case), Shocker’s still champion when he returns.

Alberto says lucha libre is not the best wrestling in the world – he believes the best is a mix of Japanese, American and Mexican wrestling (which he happened to do.) Alberto also says he doesn’t care who’s AAA champion, which is less severe than it sounds – he just doesn’t concern himself with promotions he’s not in, but sures whoever will have it will deserve it. Alberto continues to insist he had WWE permission to come back to do a farewell match in AAA but AAA couldn’t get the dates straight. He’s also still on good terms with the Roldan family despite leaving AAA, saying he had talked to Dorian early in the day about going to dinner.

AIW announced Pentagon Jr. will be appearing on their 03/18 show.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update from the 21st and the one from the 22nd.

RobViper has highlights of 07/17/15 CMLL.

Konnan Big wants to face Rush & Cibernetico. I think, if we look deep in ours hearts, we all want that. Shocker is with me on this.

Jarochita talks about her jump to ELITE.

Akuma hypes his appearance on the 02/20 HUMO show.

Segunda Caida reviews more recent CMLL and Villanos vs Babe Face, Negro Casas, Rambo.

Elite’s confirmed the Traumas vs Puma/Tiger match this weekend is the final of the Dinastia Elite tournament, even though Canelo was in that tournament last week. It doesn’t matter.

Lineups

IWRG FILL (WED) 01/27/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) Bambino & Último Caballero vs Demonio Imperial & Skanda
2) Canario, Shadow Boy, Voltar vs Ángel De La Muerte I, Guerrero 2000, Vampiro Metálico
3) Fireman, Galaxy, Kanon vs Acero, Blue Monsther, Picudo Jr.
4) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Dragón Fly vs Adrenalina, Atomic Star, Vortize
5) Araña de Plata, Centvrión, Diablo Jr. I, Freyser, Hijo de Mascara Sagrada, Hijo del Alebrije, Imposible, Power Bull vs Balack, Danger King, Energia, Imposter, Motocross, Novasonic, Orión,Royer Boy
Gym FILL (Black Terry) vs Gym Arkano (Dr. Cerebro)

First FILL trainee show since October, though they were running trainee focused shows on Wednesday to close out 2015. Dr. Cerbero’s squad seems totally outgunned in the cibernetico – no disrespect to Danger King – but maybe someone will surprise us.

LI (SUN) 01/31/2016 Salón Citlalli, Ecatepec, Estado de México
1) Infierno Negro & Star Moon vs Sombra Azteca & Stigma
2) Anubis Black & Comodín Jr. vs Imperial Jr. & Septimo Rayo
3) Hijo del Solar, Súper Astro Jr., Villano III Jr. vs Devastador Jr., Mr. Jack Jr., Signo Jr.
4) Solar I © vs Black Terry [FLLM MASTER]
5) Aguila Solitaria, Canek, El Fantasma vs Gigante Xandåo, Histeria, Mr. Jack

Leyenda Inmortales is back, for all you craving for more Mr. Jack. Black Terry/Solar will get me to watch this if it turns up.

AAA Go Mask (SUN) 02/21/2016 Arena Jardines, Ecatepec, Estado de México
1) Fiero & Íkaro vs Moria & Sony
2) Rayo Star, Rayven Dark, Sky Man vs Corsario Negro Jr., Drako, Terremoto
3) Dinastía & Mini Drago vs Mini Histeria & Mini Psicosis
4) Faby Apache & Lady Maravilla vs La Hiedra & Taya Valkyrie
5) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Parka Negra, Taurus

Carxyus is taping these for DVDs, so the lineups are at least worth mentioning. This one looks more like a normal AAA spot show, which aren’t typically worth seeking out. Minis match could be fun.