Recapped: 02/09/2016
What happened: Nothing. Skandalo unmasked Blue Panther Jr. to end their match in two falls, but that felt like a random DQ rather than a happening. (They’re not matched up the following week, so it was random.) Marcela worked as a ruda because CMLL was literally out of rudas.
What was good: Nothing. This was a boring Tuesday show.
Where can I watch it: It’s on CMLL’s YouTube channel. Read More
CMLL (TUE) 02/09/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno b Mágico & Magnum
Truenos took 1/3.
2) Dalys, Tiffany, Zeuxis b Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta
Rudos took 1/3.
3) Fuego, Titán, Tritón b Fujin, Kamaitachi, Okumura
Kamaitachi replaced Raijin (foot injury) on Monday. Tecnicos took 1/3 despite Triton being injured on a dive; Titan beat Kamaitachi.
4) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Dragón Lee b Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Euforia, Kráneo, Último Guerrero b Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Máximo Sexy
Rudos took 1/3, Euforia defeating Maximo to set up a title match next week.
Raijin’s injury must’ve been quite minor since he’s back on next Tuesday. (Or at least he’s listed as being back right now.)
GDZ Lucha Libre, a Monterrey group, says they’re promoting a Super Porky retirement tour show on March 6th. Brazo de Plata retiring is not impossible to believe, but there’d been no particular hint of it until now (and since this is coming only from a little known group, this doesn’t seem definitive even by wrestling retirement standards.) He’s been out of action with an unspecified injury since January 19th. I’m skeptical about this, but there definitely could be something to it.
The Wrestling Observer lists the Lucha Underground Season 3 tapings weekends as
March 19 & 20
March 26 & 27
April 9 & 10
April 16 & 17
May 7 & 8
May 14 & 15 (Ultima Lucha 3)
It’s earlier than I had it starting. They’ll actually be starting pre-production work (vignettes and such) on March 11th, with AAA wrestlers coming in after Rey de Reyes. The schedule indicates they’ll be running the same amount of episodes as this season. It also means they’ll be taping Season 3 before even most of Season 2 airs; Ultima Lucha 3 will tape a couple months before Ultima Lucha 2 airs. It’s a challenge for the promotion, because they’re going to have to make decisions about how to use their luchadors without having full feedback from their TV audience, but it saves them money by not having to totally disassemble and reassemble in between seasons. These shows are still not expected to air until 2017; even if spoilers get out, it’s likely most of them will be forgotten by the time the show airs.
The Lucha Underground ticket window usually opens about a couple weeks before the first show; maybe set a reminder to check in on Lucha Underground social media on March 7th.
These dates probably affect AAA & indie bookings a bit. Of note, Revolution Pro says Ricochet will still be on their 04/16 show. NJPW’s Best of Super Juniors is scheduled to start on June 6th. This earlier schedule would allow Ricochet to work those shows. I’d assume Angelico is still spending March in Europe and so won’t be on those first two weekends too.
Vampiro, Pentagon Jr. and Dario Cueto will be featured in the other Lucha Underground comics.
The WON also mentions Garza Jr. (Hijo del Ninja) had some interest from WWE and would probably come in for a tryout camp.
Elite had a press conference with Lizmark Jr. about his return to Arena Mexico. Mas Lucha has the video, CMLL has the official story, Furia de Titanes has some quotes, as does Fuego en el Ring. He’s not signed to come into CMLL proper, but will be at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. He’ll return to using his traditional blue and silver for the show. Hijo de Lizmark himself will reach 25 years of wrestling this year, and mentioned he and his father had talked about plans for a 25th Anniversary show and a new Mini Lizmark, though he’s uncertain if they’ll still happen now. Hijo de Lizmark isn’t looking for revenge on Blue Panther, but would like apuesta matches with Marco and Rush.
Mr. Niebla, in taling about the 02/20 show in Gimnasio Hercules, notes 2015 was a tough year for him. He’s hoping 2016 is better, and feels Atlantis is old and he can beat him if they had a mask match.
Arena Jalisco has it’s 42nd Anniversary show this weekend. Lucharan has a piece about the history of the building. This was the building where the UWA/LLI guys would work in Guadalajara during that era.
RobViper has highlights of 08/04/15 CMLL.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.
TGR want to get the trios titles and fight Los Ingobernables.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 02/16/2016 Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Akuma & Espanto Jr.
2) Astral, Stukita, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pierrothito
3) Delta, Fuego, Pegasso vs Fujin, Okumura, Raijin
4) Silueta vs Zeuxis [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
6) Rey Cometa, Super Porky, Titán vs Boby Z, Felino, Mr. Niebla
Super Porky listed as working, but he was listed this past week too. Tercera is Fujin & Raijin’s streaming debut.
CMLL (TUE) 02/16/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitan Cobra & Neutrón vs Carlos Rogi & Mr. Apolo
2) Sensei, Súper Halcón Jr., Vaquero Jr. vs Camorra, Hijo del Signo, Maléfico
3) Soberano Jr., Starman, Tritón vs Cancerbero, Disturbio, Raziel
4) Máximo Sexy © vs Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]
6th defense
5) Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Negro Casas, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
I don’t think Euforia has any better chance of beating Maximo this time, but good on him to keep on trying. Main event could be good.
Recapped: 01/31/2016-02/04/2016
This is the third show of the tour, on 2016-01-20, in Osaka
What happened: This is the third show in a build up to shows you already saw, can anything really that important have happened? Okumura got his usual hometown win (and Zavala got one too) to set up the tag title match. Everything else just continued being everything else.
What was good: The singles matches were good, and the atomicos have always been good. This had the best Ingobernables de Japon match on the tour.
Where can I watch it: Most of these matches are on Real Hero’s rutube channel, with a couple on his dailymotion channel. Read More
Kobra Moon defeats Bengala (2:46, Dragon (Snake) Sleeper, below average)
Jack Evans defeats Drago (bridging backslide foot on the ropes, 7:19, good)
Fenix defeated King Cuerno in a last man standing match (11:19, great)
Where to even start with this one?
The Cuerno/Catrina/Muertes pact to keep Fenix away from the main title continues, though with some setbacks. Catrina, disappointed Fenix still had enough spirit to challenge for a rematch with Cuerno, demanded Cuerno finish him off in a last man standing match. Cuerno liked the challenge, but disagreed with Catrina’s notion that he would be no match for Mil. At any rate, Fenix got the win in a back and forth match, tipping over a ladder and sending Cuerno crashing thru a table. This was a non-title match, but Fenix has a good claim on a rematch.
The other matches did not have as much advancement, but served to introduce (and reintroduce) some characters. Kobra Moon defeated Bengala in the opener, in a match more memorable for the shape Bengala is in. He, uh, graduated from the cruiserweight division. We didn’t learn much more about Kobra Moon except she appears to be a snake. Jack Evans defeated Drago in a much better match, using a bridging backslide and a foot carefully placed on the bottom rope to win. Jack declared himself the Dragon Slayer after his narrow victory.
The vignettes stole the show, as they often do:
A skit with Prince Puma and Catrina dropped the bombshell that Konnan actually died last season when he stuffed in that casket. This didn’t appear to be news to the characters.
A vignette set “a thousand years in the past” had Aerostar meeting ancient Mexican people and insisting on the necessity of bringing peace among the seven tribes. Aerostar said the gods are returning in the form of Men. The ancient people seemed doubtful Aerostar could achieve this goal. The tribesman said Aerostar had returned, so this is likely happening (for Aerostar) after Season 1. It’s not exactly clear, and this was the hardest one to follow. It definitely appears he can travel space and time.
A character profile on Texano established him as a hard working, hard drinking cowboy who still had issues with Chavo Guerrero and the rest of those who attacked him on Ultima Lucha. He’ll be back next week. Texano handled the first section of the promo in English, which is coming along. It’s better than my Spanish, for sure.
The show closer changed what we though was happening for the entirety of season 1. The Crew’s Cortez Castro was revealed to be undercover police, an Officer Reyes. He’d gone deep cover to track down Dario Cueto, and had wanted to bring him in after Mantanza had murdered Bael. His commanding officer, Captain Vasquez, declined at the time (or was just annoyed Reyes brought it up now) and isn’t interested in Catrina or the rest – she wants Dario, who Reyes says hasn’t been seen in months. Vasquez agrees to send Reyes back to the Temple, where Catrina’s invited them back, but not alone. The other officer (who’s unnamed, but is Joey Ryan) will be going as well, though they’re told to pretend as if they don’t know each other and do what they can to bring down Dario. Ryan and Reyes don’t like each other.
The vignette briefly mentioned Blue Demon Jr. had retired back to Miami. Bael was said to be just a street thug. Mr. Cisco and Chavo were touched on.
I think the feelings about tonight’s episodes are going to be heavily dependent on how interested your are in the Lucha Underground mythology (and maybe your feelings on Joey Ryan in general, since he’s a pretty polarizing figure.) Those last couple of minutes flipped some of season 1 on it’s head, and was totally unexpected at this point. Most of all, The Crew betraying Big Ryck to ally themselves closer to Dario makes a little more sense and seems much more significant. This is a pretty interesting deal if you’re into the storylines, and I am.
Even if you’re not, if you’re someone who’s just watching for the matches, that main event was a pretty strong match. They defied the expectations of what you’d expect from two flyers in a last man standing match, even bringing a ladder in play but not using it for a big dive while still coming up with a compelling finish. Cuerno’s running smash to Fenix’s head was pretty great too. Fenix was good, but Cuerno looked super impressive even in a loss. The pause for ten counts doesn’t usually work for me because it disrupts the flow of a lucha match too much, but they made it work by the end.
Drago & Jack was also good, though again not exactly in the way you’d expect. The announcers even noted it wasn’t until late in the contest before either man tried a dive, and it was much in ring strike battle than it was high risk out of it. Jack was also aiming for an over the top heel than a crazy move exhibition with taunting like his first match with Aeorstar. The eye gouging and thumb biting might mean less snowflakes, but it did his still kind of new character some good. His promo after the match was fun too.
Kobra Moon’s debut did not go well. The editing stuck out, and even then it was one of the least successful matches on Lucha Underground. Her offense looked light and unconvincing. It’s hard to put too much blame on her, because Bengala looked sadly out of shape. He’s been heavy in his entire AAA run and kind of got away with it, and seems to have added another 10-15 pounds since we last saw him and couldn’t get away with it. This is Bengala’s only TV match of the season. Kobra Moon has a cool look and will be back in a few weeks, hopefully it goes better then.
There were farewells to a few people on this show. The Puma/Catrina vignette seemed to only exist to get Puma on TV this week and declare Konnan well and truly dead. That was weird. (Since it came from Catrina, it’s also something that could always be revealed as a lie later down the road.) Blue Demon Jr. retiring to Miami seems to be his write off – he doesn’t appear on the tapings this year. People going in and out is the way of TV shows, but those were names pitched as being pivotal to the success of the show at the start and no one would’ve guess at them both being gone now.
I think I’m going to need to draw a diagram to figure out the Aerostar timeline. (It does bring back the Seven Tribes idea, which hadn’t been seen in a while.) With that, and with Captain Vasquez (who appeared to be a new reoccurring character and not a one off), the advisory that the season would start with a lot of material outside the Temple at first is correct. It’s not bad stuff by any means, but I suspect LU will continue to feature a few minutes of look-ins elsewhere each week until everyone makes it back to the Temple.
Yesterday’s numbers included all matches for everyone regardless of what promotion they were working for. Today, results strictly for each promotion.
I’m skipping the indie groups this year; there’s no sense of a roster for most of them, and DTU runs a lot of shows where results don’t come out. As always, there’s a Google doc with more.
AAA
This is any match on a taping for people who were on the roster (made at least 1 TV appearance) during the year. The “draws” are mostly me weirdly listing the original Guerra de Titanes matches as no-contest to preserve the lineup in the database.
Most Wins: Myzteziz & Rey Mysterio (14) – Psycho Clown was right behind at 13
Most Losses: Jack Evans (16); Angelico, Averno and Chessman were right behind at 15.
Best Win %: Rey Mysterio (85%)
Most Matches: Jack Evans (28) – 27 made TV, there was a match in Monterrey which never aired.
Jack’s a good example of the difference between how CMLL and AAA are experienced. If we just count TV shows that are available in Mexico City – not Lucha Underground, the CMLL Guadalajara show, not Azteca, not anything that simply aired on the internet – Jack had 27 TV matches, the most in AAA. Thirty five CMLL luchadors had more TV matches than him. There were more Gran Guerrero CMLL TV matches than Jack Evans AAA TV matches. Sangre Azteca (24) had more TV matches than Angelico (23). Pentagon Jr. and Mercurio had the same amount of TV matches (21). So did Astral and Alberto el Patron (16).
IWRG
Most Wins: Veneno (25)
Most Losses: Eterno (32)
Big Win %: Miike (82%)
Most Matches: Eterno (56)
What’s left of the IWRG regulars are younger than in recent years. Atomic Star, who was still considered enough a rookie to be in the El Protector tournament recently, had the third amount of matches beyond those two. Hip Hop Man, who’s rarely used in the top half of the card, is fourth. Negro Navarro had 33 matches here, and Black Terry 28. The Traumas are down to about a match every three weeks. Some of that has to do with having less show, some of it aligns with the reasons there are less cards.
CMLL
including the main three arenas, since the DF matches seem to be booked by the same people.
Only including Mexico City appearances.
Most Wins: Volador Jr. (97)
Most Losses: Mephisto (72)
Best Win %: Aereo (77%)
Most Matches: Volador Jr. (156)
141 wrestlers were part of the main roster (excluding Puebla/GDL only and those who only appeared on Elite shows, but also probably missing some sponsored shows.) That’s slightly down from 145 last year. Wagner, Park and Ramstein only lasted for 2 matches. Sanson and Cuartero made it on the DF roster just at the end of the year, but that means I retroactively count all their GDL matches.
Top 10 most CMLL main Arena matches are Volador, Valiente, Máximo, Atlantis, La Máscara, Último Guerrero, Mephisto, Mistico, Negro Casas and Ángel de Oro. Atlantis is is much higher overall; he’s getting a lot of outside bookings. Rush is way down the list at 77, a product of his early injury and his Guadalajara suspension.
Might as well roll out that TV appearance chart too. This doesn’t include the internet only matches.
| 72 | Valiente |
| 70 | Volador Jr. |
| 59 | Máximo |
| 58 | La Máscara |
| 56 | Atlantis |
| 52 | Último Guerrero |
| 52 | Rey Bucanero |
| 51 | Terrible |
| 51 | Negro Casas |
| 50 | Mephisto |
| 50 | Mistico II |
Recapped: 02/08/2016
What happened: Negro Casas beat Volador to earn himself a title match next week. Nothing else happened – the Mephisto/Angel de Oro feud seemed to be dropped and nothing else was added.
What was good: The fourth match and fifth matches are the two worth watching.
Where can I watch it: It’s on CMLL’s YouTube channel. Read More