CMLL Arena Mexico 60th show, AAA in Xalapa tonight

It’s another Friday night with both major promotions running tapings. It feels a little more important than usual because both shows could be first steps to bigger shows down the line.

AAA’s more directly building to a big show. There are two qualifiers for the Lucha World Cup tonight in Xalapa. That is the entirety of what we knew about the Lucha World Cup so far, though it’s said there’s more news coming tonight. The two qualifiers are in the second and third matches. Texano’s going to beat Taurus & Garza Jr. to advance unless Mesias & Cage get involved (or unless he’s still meant to be out with a knee injury.) Pentagon Jr. seems most likely to win the intra-Perros qualifier, but interference could also affect the outcome.

The most important match for this night is Chessman & Averno versus Argenis & Australian Suicide for the AAA Tag Team titles. Argenis & Suicide pulled off the upset win back in Leon, where most people expected Angelico & Jack Evans to win. It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, but it sure looks like a fortunate decision now that both Angelico & Jack are out of action. AAA’s absorbed more bullets lately than an end of level boss in a first person shooter, but they dodged one this time. Chessman and Averno seem likely to continue with their tag reign.

The main events don’t promise much on paper. Electroshock, making his first TV appearance in a couple months, is back in the main event teaming with La Parka against Mesias and Cage. Cage & Mesias stooging around for Parka’s comedy doesn’t fit their characters, but that’s probably what they’ll do. The semimain is a rematch of the Psycho Circus versus Pagano, Nicho and Damian from Leon.

There’s no official live stream for the AAA show. It’ll start airing on TV on May 7th.

Meanwhile, CMLL headlines their 60th Arena Mexico Anniversary show with the first ever match with Mistico I and Mistico II on opposite sides. They’ve teamed a few times since Caristico return to Arena Mexico, but never wrestled each other. (Edit: in Arena Mexico, at least – they were on opposite sides of a tag match in Aguascalientes.) Tonight, it’s the ELITE pillars of Caristico & Cibernetico taking on CMLL top stars Mephisto & Mistico in the finals of the annual incredible pairs tournament. This tournament has either had Atlantis winning or the setup for the (main) Anniversary show. Caristico versus current rival Cibernetico and old rival Mephisto would be big matches, Mistico versus the same two would be tougher sells but still plausible. Caristico versus Mistico directly would sell itself, but is hard to believe would ever happen. (Cibernetico vs Mephisto probably wouldn’t work.) It’s CMLL, so they could just as soon run a tournament and have no follow up coming out of it – what exactly did Esfinge get out of the Gran Alternativa? – but it’s the one important match on an important show and the ingredients are to make something big.

The undercard includes a Rey Cometa versus Cavernario lightning match, and they’re always great against each other. The semimain is Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr. & Angel de Oro versus Ephesto, Felino, Rey Escorpion, which should be a fun showcase. The undercard is shakier: the tercera has a lot of reliable people but also Super Porky, the women’s match has some reliable people but also Skadi, and Flyer and Star Jr. could be fun if they’re not limited by the rudos or the rules.

The show airs on ClaroSports at 8:30pm.

Mephisto says he thought the Caristico & Cibernetico team would advance to the final and would be the toughest possible match.

Elite also airs tonight at it’s now normal time of 11:30pm. It’s worth watching, either live or later, because Mascara Dorada versus Volador was said to be the high spot match you’d expect and Ultimo Guerrero versus Lashley sounds at least interesting. The trios in the middle could put you to sleep that late at night.

This weekend has is flush with lucha libre shows. A lot of them are free shows, shows just to have show for Kid’s Day weekends, but there are small shows all over the places. This is the count of shows I’ve found.

There’s many more out there where we’ll not find a poster or lineup.

In title matches we might not get a result from, Bobby Z defends the FULL (Chile) Heavyweight Championship and The Panther & Guerrero Maya defend the Arena Coliseo Tag championship on Saturday in Mexico City, and Dalys defends the CMLL Women’s championship on the same day in Oaxaca.

Laredo Kid is part of the trailer for AIW’s Forgot About Dre DVD.

LuchaWorld has a recap of this week’s CMLL Informa.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara has a free show today for Kid’s Day. No matches announced.

Arena Lopez Mateos will have their anniversary show on 05/21. There will be a four way main event, including Canek.

Angelico and Jack Evans are going back to WXW in October for their tag tournament, assuming they stop breaking their body parts.

Jun Akiyama will face fellow AJPW wrestler Yohei Nakajima on the 05/28 DragonMania show.

Pasion Kristal is going after Los Mariachis Locos.

A five year old wants to be a lucahdor.

Luchadors in Cuernavaca are accusing the current Box Y Lucha commission of embezzling their licensing fees and not doing anything to help lucha libre. (They want someone else to be in charge.)

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 05/01/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) Fireman & Shadow Boy vs Adrenalina & Power Bull
2) Dragón Fly & Shadow Boy vs Galaxy & Hip Hop Man
3) Leo, Mike, Rafy vs Diablo Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Imposible © [EdM Trios]
2nd defense
4) Dinamic Black, Freelance, Hijo De Dos Caras vs Cerebro Negro, Herodes Jr., Killer Jr.
5) Apolo Estrada Jr., Canis Lupus, Eterno vs Toscano, Trauma I, Trauma II

Rudo versus rudo main event is an odd pick for the Kid’s Day show. They’re literally never going to put the Ninja Turtles on top. Shadow Boy really is listed in two matches.