What happened: La Mascara defeated Dragon Lee in straight falls, though once by a fluke DQ and once by cheating. Super Crazy defeated Rey Bucanero cleanly again, continuing their issue. Mistico was hurt early on in his match and his status is unknown.
The last three matches were all quick, and this was the quickest ending Friday show (under 2 hours) in recent memory.
What was good: I liked the first half of this card, with the second match being the best on the show. It stopped being a good show once Mistico got hurt and never recovered.
Where can I watch it:It’ll be up on my channel at least by Tuesday.Read More
They also have no match on the level of the Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero/Volador/Sombra matches from the last three years. It was always going to be tough to follow those with anything, but the effort and the results aren’t close this year. La Mascara will likely be involved, but CMLL’s being meandering in it’s focus on a rivalry, and either Dragon Lee or Rush (or both if Shocker teams with La Mascara) might be the opponent. None of the feuds are particularly compelling; CMLL’s given La Mascara wins, but he hasn’t had an impressing outing, and just feels like a lesser version of rudo Sombra without the quality of wrestling or force of personality.
CMLL’s preview mentions that feud as one of several possibilities. Volador & Ultimo Guerrero are mentioned, and are facing off in the main event tonight, but it seems unlikely they’d be rushed to an Anniversary match after not really feuding much prior. (It does seem a better draw than Rush/Mascara.) The Dragon Rojo/Guerrero Maya feud, that’s mostly been pushed on Informa and dropped in booking, is brought up. Also mentioned is the Rey Bucanero/Super Crazy match, and that actually does seem fairly likely given the timing, but it’d mean nothing as a main event match and would have to be a secondary apuesta match on the show. CMLL mentioning many different rivalries also leaves open the possibility of a cage match, which is what CMLL held last time they ran the Anniversary show this early in September (on the 3rd, back in 2010.) That cage match saw well liked (and recently returned) company solider Olimpico lose his mask; CMLL could do something similar with Pierroth this time along, but maybe I’ve gotten too cynical.
The 2010 show is one of the reasons I have a bad feeling about all of this. That was a cage match for lack of idea, coasting off the end of the last major boom. Announcing the Anniversary show 5 weeks ahead of time suggest CMLL doesn’t have many big plans for this one either. The advantage to running a big show early in September is so CMLL can come back with a second big show later in the month; back in 2010, they ran Volador/Mistico as a tournament final on the 17th. I’d suspect the same is going to happen, you might see something just as good (but a lot cheaper) if you go to show on the 16th or 23rd. The only other known Anniversary show on September 2nd was the 1966. They did two hair matches on that show, and brought the winners back for another hair match on the 30th. There’s almost certainly going to be another big show in CMLL later in September, but we might not know the date until 6 days before.
The September 2nd date makes it less likely wrestling fanatic foreigners will be going to the show. If you’re the type to travel to watch wrestling, you’ve likely already made plans to go to the Battle of Los Angeles or King of Trios. Conversely, if you were free and wanted to attend both major Mexico shows, you could go to Mexico and see both TripleMania & the CMLL Anniversary show in a week’s span. That doesn’t appeal to me, as a jaded type who’s seen both already, but it’s a good deal if you haven’t gone and just want to see AAA & CMLL for the first time at their peak. If I were a real journalist, I think that’s the week I’d have to go to Mexico. As an idiot with a blog, I believe I’m more likely to go around the weekend of the Chairo show, though I’m still not sure I’m going anywhere.
AAA’s TripleMania has a full card, and it’s happening 6 days earlier. There’s no indication of when CMLL might announced their card, although obviously the main event has to be made clear very soon. Like: tonight soon. NJPW World quietly added the last two CMLL Friday nights in August to it’s schedule recently, so they were probably told of the date in the last day or so. CMLL itself decided the best idea to announce this was a press release late on Friday (the worst time to announce anything), which suggest they’re planning on setting up the main event tonight and the date was going to get out after anyway.
The CMLL Anniversary card could still really be good. They certainly have the luchadors to have a really good card, and those luchadors will go full out for the occasion. Almost nothing could follow Atlantis/Sombra anyway. It’s not like the other company’s main event is thrilling the readers of this site either, yet the rest of the show looks good. This will probably be a pretty good show overall, but there’s no way CMLL would run their biggest show of the year like this if they had the confidence in it as past years. It’s a definite red flag.
tonight’s showsELITE (THU) 07/28/2016Arena México [+LuchaTV, Box y Lucha]
1) Astral & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Warrior & Pierrothito
2) Hechicero & Raziel b Heddi Karaoui & Pantera Raziel replaced Blue Panther.
3) Jinzo & Rocky Lobo b Puma & Tiger Very good.
4) Rey Escorpión b Máscara Dorada [Liga Elite] Said to be very good.
5) Hijo De Dos Caras, La Máscara, Magno b Ángel de Oro, Golden Magic, Volador Jr. La Mascara replaced Diamante Azul and pinned Volador.
6) Teddy Hart b Xtreme Tiger [cage, Liga Elite] Long match. Xtreme Tiger did the required dive off the top of the cage. Teddy fouled Tiger and escaped.
Show seems like it had the usual level of turnout, maybe a little bit better, but really good matches. 3/4/6 were the standouts. This will air on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Reports different if the main event was considered a Liga Elite match or not; we probably won’t know until that TV show. Mascara Dorada & Rey Escorpion talked about their match, which appears to have been the best match of the night.
Tonight’s another Friday with both major promotions running, though in different places in Mexico. CMLL has it’s usual show in Arena Mexico, while AAA continues the road to TripleMania in Toluca. (The shows are about 90-120 minutes apart, depending on if Mexico City traffic is simply bad or if it reaches all the way to horrific.)
CMLL’s seemingly inconsequential main event is Marco, Maximo & Volador versus Shocker, Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero. Volador & UG have issues in Puebla, but that may not even come up tonight.
The big match on the night is the semimain, where La Mascara is again spotlighted, this time against Dragon Lee. Mascara had Dragon Lee beat two weeks ago in the Leyenda de Plata, only for Rush to run in to save his brother. Dragon said he didn’t want that help and that he wanted Mascara’s mask. La Mascara refused the mask match, but Dragon Lee is getting another shot at him in a singles match. Mascara versus is still considered the most likely Anniversary show for lack of any other promoted options; a Dragon Lee win would give them other options. (Shocker being around might mean something as well; he keeps jogging in and out of these feuds with no explanation.)
The other feud carrying over from previous weeks is another Rey Bucanero/Super Crazy trios match, with Vangellys, Bobby Z, Golden Magic and Sharlie Rockstar filling out both teams. Bucanero was talking about having either a title match or a hair match against Crazy, and it seems like one of those must be coming up soon. The concern is the hair match is actually the secondary apuesta match on the Anniversary show, which would be a significant step down from the quality of the previous years.
There’s nothing much going in the other three matches, but they generally look good. The old Estetas del Aire (Mascara Dorada, Mistico & Valiente) trio reunites to face the Peste Negra team of Cavernario, Felino and Negro Casas in what should be a pretty good match. Fujin and Raijin team up with old man Okumura against the somewhat useful team of Soberano Jr., Pegasso and Oro. The minis are in the opening again, with a good foursome: Electrico & Ultimo Dragoncito vs Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro.
CMLL’s show will start at 8:30 pm and airs on ClaroSports as usual. The show is not listed as airing on NJPW World today. Their schedule lists CMLL as next airing on August 20 & August 27, which are random seeming Fridays to pick this far ahead of time. Could those dates the first rounds for the Universal tournament?
AAA has it’s second to last taping prior to TripleMania tonight in Toluca. Some of the drama has been taken away from this show by announcing the TripleMania lineup last night, and it seems a general problem that the most interesting things involving AAA seem to be happening away from AAA’s TV tapings.
The main event is another Psycho Clown/Pagano match, this time in bull terrier rules. “Bull terrier” is known as a chain match outside of Mexico, with AAA usually using touch all the corner rules. AAA’s often had this match with a rudo referee, where the referee grabs the chain to stop the tecnico from getting to the fourth buckle at some point. Given Psycho’s remarkable rate of losses, this might be a time where he gets a win just to break the pattern. On the other hand, maybe Hijo del Tirantes costing the match is the justification for next taping’s “winner chooses the referee” stipulation. It’s going to be a ref heavy finish, either way.
The foreigners aren’t in AAA for this show, which leaves a lot of people who’ve been fighting Team Trump instead. The strange trio of Texano, Aerostar & Drago face Perros del Mal (Pentagon Jr., Daga and Joe Lider) in what should be a good trios match. Daga & Lider are semimain event on this show even though they were omitted from the TripleMania card announced yesterday; maybe they’re in the Copa TripleMania. The Apaches, Chessman and Averno are all on this show, which suggests they’ll get involved in each other’s matches once again. The tag champs team with Ricky Marvin against Argenis, Bengala and La Parka, while the Apaches team with Elegido against La Hiedra, Super Fly and Hijo de Pirata Morgan (a trio who literally never wins, and should be encouraging Averno to interfere.) Hijo de Pirata turned up in IWRG last Sunday, and suggested that wasn’t a one off, so there’s a slight chance he might not be in Toluca for this show. He hasn’t quit on Facebook yet, so I think AAA’s probably safe on this one.
It’s less clear who’s actually wrestling in the other matches. Jack Evans & Angelico have a normal tag match on TV for the first time in 392 days. We don’t know who they’re facing. It’s listed as a mystery team on the card, and AAA hasn’t hinted anything (which seems to be the normal procedure now.) We do know Matt Cross & Paul London and Fenix & Fantasma are scheduled to be teams at TripleMania, and it’s possible either team could make their first appearance as a pair tonight. (None of them have given anything away on Twitter.) It could also just be someone else, it doesn’t have to make sense in AAA. The opener is scheduled to be a rare AAA minis trios, with Lanzeloth, Mini Abismo Negro and Mini Histeria against Dinastia, Octagoncito, and Mini Drago, only Mini Drago’s quit the company and AAA hasn’t acknowledged it. The most likely switch is Lanzeloth moving to the tecnico side, and Mini Psycho Clown or Mini Psicosis being added to the rudo team.
AAA’s show is listed as starting at 8:45pm local. They usually get going about 20-30 minutes late, so figure more around 9:10. The show should air on August 13 & August 20th.
Aerostar will be in CHIKARA’s Rey de Voladors tournament, during the weekend of September 2nd. That’s the same weekend as PWG’s BOLA. I wouldn’t think AAA would run a taping the weekend after TripleMania, and it looks like a bunch of people are booked in the US anyway.
Ensenada’s Boxing, Lucha Libre, MMA commission has new regulations for shows, only the second time they’ve updated them since 1973. There’s no mention of wrestling, but I was amused to find out this only now make it legal for women to participate in combat sports in that city. Women had been on wrestling shows prior, mostly when AAA came thru.
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