Tonight’s CMLL show has La Mascara & Rush on opposite sides, following their break up last week (and another break up Tuesday in Guadalajara.) Rush teams with his father Pierroth and noted opportunist Rey Escorpion against La Mascara, Shocker and Terrible. I guess it’ll be interesting to see if the fans cheer for La Mascara now that he’s against Rush, but it’s not really that interesting.
The semimain is Mistico, Atlantis and Valiente versus Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas and Euforia in what should be a good trios match. Angel de Oro and Dragon Rojo meet in the lightning match. Rey Cometa and Barbaro Cavernario are back on opposite sides of the tercera, but it’s unclear if that feud is still meant to be going. Puma, Tiger, and Hechicero team up against Triton, Esfinge and Fuego in a match way too good to be a segunda, and there’s a women’s match in the opener.
AAA announced the USA/TNA team for the Lucha World Cup: EC3, Tyrus, and Eli Drake. Drake has been in Mexico before, wrestling as part of the Border Patrol in Todo x el Todo as Shaun Ricker in 2013. He’s also worked lucha shows in California. Eli Drake’s sort of the replacement for Mr. Anderson in TNA, and Anderson was on this show last year. Tyrus, the ex-WWE Brodus Clay, was advertised as appearing on the Viva el Rey tour last year, but never actually made it to the shows. In TNA, Tyrus used to be EC3’s bodyguard – EC3’s recently turned turned face and they broke up.
I’m a fan of EC3 from his days on the antics on the original version of NXT as Derrick Bateman. He and Drake are considered good talkers and should be helpful to promote the whole thing (and Tyrus is there for the visual of the large heavy guy who had a memorable gimmick in WWE for a moment.) It’s disappointing as far as a team that’s going to have good matches, since there’s a lot of people in TNA who could probably fit in this format better. There’s still three men’s teams to announce, but there’s not many possibilities for great matches given who’s been announced so far, especially on the men’s side.
(It’s unclear if TNA picked the side, AAA picking the side, or some combination.)
A photo of the upcoming Blue Demon TV show taping at Arena Coliseo turned up another day, and Reforma published an article about the show is going. It’s mentioned to be historical fiction, not a retelling of Blue Demon’s actually life. They’re filming the show out of order; they mention they’ve taped scenes for 20 different episodes, with one complete and four or five more to come. Of note, Demon’s opponent is mentioned as world welterweight champion “Ala Dorada”, which probably means Hijo del Santo was able to stop them from using El Santo as a character and they’ve created a stand-in. It sounds like it was a one day taping – it might just be a coincidence this is happening the same time Coliseo isn’t running on Saturday.
CMLL (TUE) 05/24/2016Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Cholo & Espanto Jr.
2) Eléctrico, Fantasy, Stukita vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) Esfinge, Pegasso, Stigma vs Disturbio, Puma, Tiger
4) Rey Cometa vs Cavernario [lightning]
5) Fuego, Tritón, Valiente vs Misterioso Jr., Pierroth, Sagrado
6) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Stuka Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero
Pierroth broke up with the Boricuas, but they’re teaming anyway because CMLL doesn’t pay attention to CMLL (and they absolutely will not book Puma & Tiger in a semimain, I guess.) Cometa/Cavernario should be very good.
CMLL (TUE) 05/24/2016Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Frezzer & Neutrón vs Demonio Rojo & El Chakal
2) Flyer, Hombre Bala Jr., Starman vs Canelo Casas, Hijo del Signo, Metálico
3) Blue Panther Jr., Gallo, The Panther vs El Cuatrero, Sansón, Skándalo
4) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Súper Porky vs Bobby Z, Hechicero, Vangellys
5) Máscara Dorada, Rush, Titán vs La Máscara, Shocker, Terrible
Rush betrayed La Mascara, but La Mascara wants to hang out with Shocker and so Rush is apparently a tecnico by default. That’s just weird.