Month: September 2016

CMLL has two previews of the today’s show, with one of them still convinced there were 16 people in the 12 person match. Both of them believe Reyna Isis will be on the show; she said she was leaving for Japan yesterday. (Maybe she meant next Thursday? I dunno.)

The main event, and the only match with an ongoing issue, is Cavernario versus Volador. ESTO has an interview with Volador, hyping him as the best luchador in Mexico. Volador would be a strong favorite under normal situations, and stronger more since this is a (ESTO) sponsored tournament. It should be a great match, given Cavernario’s work with other flyers in the past, even with a one sided outcome.

The semimain is supposed to have Mistico, Caristico, and Valiente versus Ultimo Guerrero, La Mascara and Euforia, though Caristico is also scheduled on the Elite show the same night. CMLL (& Elite) seem to be allowing Caristico to be booked on both shows, but they’re not making it particularly easy to keep the schedule. The Elite show will probably have to be delays, and maybe matches done out of order, if Caristico is going to make the 60-90 minute drive between the two shows.

The fourth match is Maximo, Marco Corleone and Johnny Idol vs Mr. Niebla, Mephisto and Ephesto, in the usual Maximo/Niebla comedy match. One of the previews points out Marco forgot the search for a new third member of Bufete del Amor; what the preview forgets is Maximo & Marco actually picked Idol as the new third, but CMLL didn’t bother booking them together again until now. CMLL seemed to start a Idol/Ephesto feud, which I can’t believe is a real thing. The third match is Guerrero Maya, Titan, and Rey Cometa versus Hechicero, Vangellys and Bobby Z, which should be a pretty good match. The second match teams up three of CMLL’s younger tecnicas, Sanely, Lluvia, and Silueta, taking on Dalys, Tiffany and maybe Reyna Isis. The opener is a minis match with Ultimo Dragoncito, Shockercito, Demus 3:16 and Pierroth.

CultIcon also previews this show. The show will air at 8:30pm CT on ClaroSports.com. The main event will air after 10:30, and it’ll probably be worth checking out even if you don’t watch the rest of the show.

That Elite taping is also tonight. The two “Liga Elite” singles matches are Blue Demon vs LA Park and Xtreme Tiger vs Cibernetico, though they’ve stopped listing standings. The second one doesn’t sound like it’s going to be so great. Demon & Park were on an Azteca sports show last night pushing their match, which can only help with attendance after last week. There’s been talk, including on the podcast last week, about showing up this Sunday on AAA’s Heroes Inmortales, but the most recent word is that’s now off.

The rest of the Elite card has Caristico & Golden Magic teaming against Rey Escorpion & Silver King (where Escorpion has repeatedly destroyed Golden Magic as a way to build up other feuds), Emperador Azteca, Intocable and Toscano versus Decnnis, Mr. Aguila & Zumbido, Ciclon Ramirez Jr. & the debuting Leon Dorado Jr. facing Imposible & Peligro, and an opener of Hijo del Pantera & Mr. Leo taking Luzbel & Tanque Infernal. Matches from the show will air Saturday night on Azteca.

Meanwhile, Dragon Lee debuts tonight in Ring of Honor, on their PPV tonight. He fights Kamaitachi once again. You can purchase the show for$35USD on Fite.TV (or PPV companies.) Dragon Lee will also wrestle on the TV tapings Saturday night, but I don’t think we’ll know the match ahead of time. I’m somewhat annoyed/frustrated/not-surprised at the lack of effort ROH’s made in building up Dragon Lee – that’s why I wrote that introduction of him for Voices of Wrestling – and I’m not convinced he’ll be treated as important as he should be on this show. The CMLL/ROH agreement feels like something being pushed on ROH, and not something they have a personal interest in – or, to be more generous, something they have an interest in but have so many other things going on of importance that it’s slipping thru the cracks.

Also meanwhile, Jack Evans & Angelico are over in Germany for WXW’s tag team tournament over a three day weekend.

Konnan told people he plans on having surgery next month, then doing a retirement tour in March. It seems like he’s talked about doing a retirement tour for years.

CaraLucha announced (Rey) Fenix will be on their 10/22 show. The full card will be announced on 10/05.

Averno says the Apaches are going to pay.

If you’ve never been to the CMLL arenas but always wanted to get a feeling of what it’s like inside, Google Maps has Street View photos of Arena Mexico & Arena Coliseo.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Demus won the Wrestling Superstars championship, whichever championship that is.

CMLL (TUE) 09/27/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [+LuchaTV, Martes de Glamour]
1) Explosivo & Neutrón b Mr. Apolo & Relámpago
Tecnicos took 1/3. This is still the old CMLL Neutron.
2) Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely b La Seductora, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
Tecnicas took 1/3
3) Esfinge, Frezzer, Pegasso b Okumura, Skándalo, Tiger
Frezzer replaced Rey Cometa. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Máximo Sexy b Rey Bucanero, Sam Adonis, Terrible
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Euforia, Negro Casas, Shocker
Tecnicos took 1/3. Valiente & Volador want a tag title match.

CMLL booking is having a big Marco/Terrible blowoff match last week, and then back to fighting each other this week in the same building. This is Reyna Isis’ last match in Mexico for now; she’s leaving today for Japan, but still is booked Friday and Sunday in Arena Mexico. CMLL booking is also announcing someone for matches while also announcing they’re going to be in another country at the same time.

IWRG (WED) 09/28/2016 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Crazy León & Crazy Tiger b Águila Enmascarada & Kira
2) Charly Boy, Guerrero 2000, Vardeus b Canario, Keshin Drago, Volta
3) Keshin Black, Picudo Jr., Skanda b Fireman, Omega, Shadow Boy
4) Cadilac, Leo, Mike DQ Demetrio El Gladiador, Demonio Infernal, Hip Hop Man
Hip Hop Man fouled the turtles and the referee
5) Demente Extreme, El Pachico, Fuerza Negra, Kid Jaguar, Ojo De Halcón, Pinochito, Shadow, Tromba b Alas de Acero, Aramis, Araña de Plata, Atomic Star, Black Dragón, Dragón Fly, Hijo del Alebrije, Kanon
FILL (Black Terry) vs Lucha Libre Boom (Fantasma de la Opera). Match came down to Shadow, Ojo de Halcon vs Atomic Star & Black Dragon. Atomic & Halcon were eliminated, but Atomic came back in and betrayed Black Dragon to give team Lucha Libre Boor the win. Team IWRG to the worst of the post match brawl.

A betrayal in the main event is a new deal.

SoloWrestling has a length interview with Jack Evans. Jack speaks his mind, which never seem to work out well for Jack. I hope he’s not in trouble for this one.

Jack feels the AAA TV hasn’t has been very bad since Konnan left and, with an apology to Dorian Roldan, the company was being booked 100 times better when Konnan was in charge. Jack misses Konnan’s creative idea, but also his communication. Before, he (and others) could give ideas to Konnan and maybe they’d be used but they’d at least there would be an effort and maybe you’d get feedback. Now, they give ideas to the office, the office says OK, and then they never hear about it again or know if it was even being tried. Jack also says losing Konnan has cost them international opportunities, since Konnan had all those contacts and deals. Jack’s critical of how much AAA charges for talent (on top of what the talent gets), feeling AAA would make more money if they charged less because the wrestlers would get booked far more often.

Jack praises AAA La Parka in a roundabout way: Parka is not athletic, and is one of the worst luchadors (Jack means this with no disrespect), but Parka is so entertaining that it doesn’t matter and the crowd still pays to see him. Those kind of experiences has taught Jack he’s got to be expressive and entertaining. Jack also mentions there were plans for him to have have matches with Perro Aguayo Jr. and Pentagon, but both got canceled. He got replaced by Cibernetico in the Perro feud, which he understood, but the Pentagon was more “here we go again.” There’s much more in the interview, including Jack’s thoughts on why Fenix left and the Ricochet/Ospreay match, but you should check it out yourself.

AAA says Heroes Inmortales will only air on TV; no iPPV this Sunday. It should air on 10/08 and 10/15.

(Rey) Fenix was indeed the mystery man on Sunday’s Lucha Libre Fighter show in Tijuana, defeating Laredo Kid & Mr. 450 in the main event.

CultIcon, TKD and Voices of Wrestling review this week’s Lucha Underground. Segunda Caida reviews the Lucha Underground episode two weeks ago.

+LuchaTV has interviews with Australian Suicide and the OGTs about Heroes Inmortales.

Another article on Polvora & Dragon Rojo training police. Kcidis has a cartoon of those two.

In Dragon Gate, there was a tease of Flamita challenging Eita for the Open the Brave Gate championship.

The latest edition of Lucha Talk is up.

Lineups

AAA JAPAN (WED) 10/26/2016 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1) Dinastía, Faby Apache, Kenzo, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Sumire Natsu, Toshizo
2) Angélico & Jack Evans vs Ikuto Hidaka & Masato Tanaka
3) Drago vs Aerostar vs Taiji Ishimori
4) Daga & Taya vs Aja Kong & Australian Suicide
5) Psycho Clown vs Pagano
6) Akebono, Marufuji, Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Brian Cage, Pentagón Jr., Texano Jr.

AAA & Ouduo announced this late last night. The main event is suitably bizarre for this kind of mash up. Matches two and three should probably pretty good and unique for the occasion. Daga teaming with Perros del Mal traitor Taya doesn’t quite make sense, but it’s what happens when you have a limited amount of people you can bring to Japan (and when you’ve decided you’re absolutely not going to put Taya and Faby in the same match anymore, which sure appears to be the situation.)

There’s video of the press conference in Japan. Akebono says it’ll air in Mexico at some point. AAA seemed less sure.

CMLL (TUE) 09/27/2016 Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon, Plantilla Deportiva, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Leono & Robin b Artillero & Cholo
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Magnus, Oro Jr. b Arkángel de la Muerte, Hijo del Signo, Sangre Azteca
Hijo del Signo replaced Metalico. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Misterioso Jr., Puma, Sagrado b Fuego, Soberano Jr., The Panther
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Blue Panther Jr. DQ Virus [lightning]
Virus unmasked Blue Panther.
5) Cavernario, La Máscara, Mr. Niebla b Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Dragón Lee
Cavernario goes into the Reyes del Aire with a win.
6) Pierroth, Ripper, Rush b Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Titán
Rush & Pierroth cheated to beat Tirantes.

I didn’t watch this one either. Maybe some day. I’m told the second match completely fell apart at the end, but the third match was pretty good.

 

Today’s Lucha Underground episode is number 4 of this season’s 40, titled Brothers in Broken Arms. Matches announced for the show:

• El Dragon Azteca Jr. vs Chavo Guerrero with Rey Mysterio as special referee – video
• Sexy Star, Fenix, Drago, Aerostar vs Taya, Johnny Mundo, PJ Black and Jack Evans
• Cortez Castro has a match, his first match since being revealed as an undercover cop
• Prince Puma has a match (not the same match!)

Lucha Underground doesn’t have four match shows often. It usually means one or two of the matches will be pretty short.

The MMM show had Lucha Underground’s Eric Van Wagenen this past week. Two of the hosts work in television background, so there’s much more of a discussion about that side of LU than you’ll get in other interviews. I found it interesting that the editors actually work from home and send in their work, since LU can’t afford to bring them in full time. (I was surprised and then I remembered I edit video at home so why am I surprised.) It’s noted that Mark Burnett probably isn’t paying close attention to the show – his assistant is, so they treat her great – but the Robert Rodriguez side is more hands on. Still, they’ve only gotten maybe 3 minor notes the entire time.

Van Wagenen has worked on high profile shows like Survivor and is currently working on the Apprentice, and noted there’s so much more analysis and passion on the LU than anything else. There’s not 70 different podcasts on the Apprentice, with LU “you know every decision is going to microanalyzed, 18 different ways, and if you’re lucky 51% of the people agree with you.” It’s not Van Wagenen being critical of the criticism, but impressed by the volume of feedback they get on this show compared to those with many times more people watching.

There’s a bit of talk about the reaction to Matt Striker’s performance in the WMD match. Van Wagenen’s viewpoint is the he wants Striker & Vampiro to either be really loved or really hated, and he feels they’re doing their job well. He’s not considered about Matt – “Striker has a pretty thick skin, he can take it.” On occasion, they have to pull Striker and Vamp back a bit, but he’s constantly entertained by them.

That WMD match, for what it’s worth, was originally scheduled to be a ladder match (and that’s why the ladder got involved at the end.) Van Wagenen wanted something more colorful and didn’t want to over use the ladder match concept, and thinks everyone involved did well with the match.

Van Wagenen defended intergender wrestling by pointing out LU simply didn’t have enough money in Season 1 to bring in a lot of women – it would’ve just been a lot of Sexy Star/Ivelisse matches – and they were trying to stay true to the (AAA) lucha libre traditions, where intergender wrestling is a already a thing. They are sensitive to criticism on this point – there’s a mention that the first season Ivelisse/Angelico/Son of Havoc storyline was completely rewritten during an intermission, at least in part due to getting a bad reaction from the crowd for the match between Angelico & Ivelisse where Son of Havoc was manager. (Van Wagenen mentions getting an earful about that match from a journalist – that’s been mentioned previously to be Brandon Stroud of Uproxx.)

Pentagon’s new shirt sold out in the first day. The merchandise side and the video distribution is handled by other parts of the partnership (the Lucha Libre FMV side), Van Wagenen he gets info on it but wishes it’d all move along faster the same as everyone else. There’s also a good discussion about handling the different name rights – some names AAA owns, some LU own, some people came into the promotion – Van Wagenen mentions they haven’t gotten everything right here, but they’re trying to make it work.

Fenix has changed his Twitter name to ReyFenixMX and it’s no longer private.

Alberto el Patron is of the Lucha Ilimitado show in Washington. Rey Mysterio will now face Jeff Hardy, which should still be pretty good. Alberto’s restaurant opening is also delayed.

ROH announced the Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) & Kamaitachi will face Team CMLL (Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero and Okumura) in their trios team tournament. It’s an odd heel/heel matchup.

+LuchaTV has an interview with Daga about Heroes Inmortales.

Lucha Memes has a 10/23 show in Coacalco (Chairo Bill Vol 2)
1: Titan vs Sammy Guevara
2: Impulso vs Mike Segura

Misterioso & Sagrado defeated Hechicero & Blue Panther Jr. via fouls on the debut show for Arena Boing in Tulancingo.

DTU will be running free shows in Pachuca at a fair on October 9, 16, and 23rd.

CMLL recaps Matt Taven’s visits to archaeoligcal sites around Mexico City.

Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground season 3 episode 1.

The 10/16 show at Arena GALLI (but not promoted by GALLI) is now just not happening.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 10/04/2016 Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Akuma & Camorra
2) Oro Jr., Starman, Stigma vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Bobby Z, Vangellys, Virus
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Hechicero [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Máximo Sexy vs Rey Bucanero, Sam Adonis, Terrible
6) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Titán vs Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush

They’re either setting up Azul/Rush, which should be good, or Azul/Pierroth, which should be amazing.

That’s only the second ever Maya/Hechicero match, and the first to make a stream. Don’t start watching this show until the third match.

CMLL (TUE) 10/04/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino & Nautilius vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno
2) Sensei, Soberano Jr., Star Black vs Joker, Metálico, Sangre Azteca
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Sagrado
4) Dragón Lee, Máscara Dorada, Mistico vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Atlantis, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs La Máscara, Negro Casas, Shocker

Valiente & Volador challenged for the tag titles last night, so they’ve moved on from every iteration of Los Ingobernables getting a tag title shot to every iteration of Sky Team.

Mascara Dorada is still around in the semimain, which might have a few flips.

TV host Ernesto Chavana will second Garza Jr. at Heroes Inmortales. This means they’ll be talking about the show quite a bit on Noches de Coliseo for the next couple weeks and I’ll get a lot of Multimedios promotion.

AAA’s posted this week’s TV show, with the tag team title match and Psycho/Pagano (which seemed like it might have been edited down a bit looking quick at the length.) The bonus features include Aerostar & Drago talking about winning the tag titles.

AAA also has the top 5 moments from the Australian Suicide/Daga feud, an interview with Johnny Mundo declaring his group “Perros del Mundo” and Nino Hamburguesa talks about Copa Antonio Pena.

Estrellas de la Lucha Libre, CMLL’s inhouse magazine, has an article on Mascara Dorada being in the eye of the hurricane. That sounds like they’re acknowledging the WWE deal, at least in the magazine. They didn’t appear to be selling any of these last week (or we were just too late to get one.) Dorada has said he expects to be wrestling in Mexico 3-4 weeks more. He’ll likely be on a reduced schedule for this time, trying to balance out from working so much the last couple months.

The UK’s Heidi Katrina won the vacant CMLL-REINA international championship in Japan, defeating Chik Tormenta. CMLL’s Twitter has highlighted this, so maybe there’s some plan for her to come to Mexico.

There’s a new lucha libre photography exhibit at the Guerrero Metro station in Mexico City.

In Cuernavaca, Dia del Luchador was celebrating by members of the four local promotions and the commission coming together for a meal.

LuchaWorld has the Saturday news update, the Monday news update and this week’s Poster-Mania.

TKD reviews the June 14, 2015 CaraLucha.

PWR will have Rey Horus vs Taurus (ex-AAA) on 10/15, which sounds awesome.

Tigre Rojo talks about owning/running Arena Coliseo San Ramon. Tigre Rojo mentions he’s the father of locals Tigre Rojo Jr., Rey Dragon and Shitara.

There’s an October 9th card in Aguascalientes to celebrate 76 years of lucha libre in the state.

Shocker’s car got hit by another car this weekend. The other driver ran away.

Michoacan based luchador Principe Mercurio has passed away.

Lector 24 interviews Canek Jr. about his career.