Day: September 2, 2016

CMLL has a show today, you might have heard. It’s their 83rd Anniversary show tonight in Arena Mexico. Dragon Lee and La Mascara wager their masks in the main event, Super Crazy and Rey Bucanero gamble their hairs, and the Sky team and Los Guerreros fight for the CMLL World Trios Championship. I wrote a (probably too) extensive preview over on Voices of Wrestling earlier this week, if you’ve missed any of the build up.

There is no official live video of the show tonight. CMLL, in a change of policy, will instead only upload the complete show on YouTube at 8AM tomorrow morning. I have not seen the price of the show posted anywhere, and expect to not find out until it’s posted for purchase (only to later to find they mentioned it in a Facebook comment or something.) You can probably avoid spoilers pretty easily if you get off the internet for the night, or you can find out the results without really seeing what’s happening if you stick around social media instead. I’m crossing my fingers people will be posting live video on Periscope tonight and will be RT-ing on Twitter if find working ones; CMLL doesn’t stop people from posting video, and live streams have been common on bigger shows, though it’s no guarantee.

My plan is to start watching the show as soon as it gets posted, and a recap should appear tomorrow afternoon. I think everyone is going to be watching at slightly different times, which is going to make it quite a bit less fun.

Dragon Lee & Rey Bucanero are the favorites in their matches. The hair match is more up in the air, because it doesn’t matter as much and really should be more about who would be a better opponent for someone else to come along and beat them. Still, Bucanero has taken the worst of it so far and is the home promotion guy facing a guy who was representing the promotion CMLL appears to no longer be working with. The math is not in Super Crazy’s favor. (What is and isn’t say about Crazy and Elite in post match interviews will be interesting.)

I’d be shocked if Dragon Lee lost. Like Psycho Clown, it would generally seem a dumb idea for his career to lose his mask at this point, and their opponents wouldn’t be the best choices to win. (Outside Atlantis, who would be a good choice to win? Anyone at the top wouldn’t get much out of it, and it’d be only about how much they could draw. Someone like Hechicero or Cavernario to make them forever?) La Mascara has turned up his performance and I have much more hope now than when it started. It’ll probably be an incredible scene postmatch if his family’s involved. We might even see Super Porky.

The trios title change is the least clear outcome of the actually important matches. Both apuesta matches will end with tecnicos winning, which may mean a rudo win for balance. On the other hand, getting Mistico over has been a priority on these shows and these title matches, and it’s gotta be tempting to have him win again in hopes of getting that reaction. It’s far from sure it’s going to happen, but it hasn’t stopped CMLL before.

Tickets have picked up a bit a little bit since Wednesday

Still plenty of blues (third row seats if you want to go alone!), but pretty good considering this is still most of the tickets sold on the day of the show. This doesn’t include the upper sections, which are really the difference between 8000 and 16000, but these are the most expensive tickets.

There’s plenty of previews of the show. CultIcon breaks down the show. Even CMLL’s own preview is a little confused as to how this match ended up La Mascara versus Dragon Lee and not La Mascara versus Rush. In an interview with ESTO, Mistico says he’s rooting for his brother, but knows Dragon Lee will be okay if he loses because he’s handsome and talented. That same interview has Valiente says he believes the Sky Team would actually stay together and challenge for a rematch should they lose tonight, despite rumors otherwise. CMLL took Marco Corleone, Valiente, Princesa Sugehit and Stuka Jr. on the Turiluchas bus to a park to promote the show. Sugehit continues to push for the mask match with Zeuxis. Stuka continues to want the title match and apuesta match with Ultimo Guerrero. These guys are so rarely given stories that they never let go to the ones they get.  La Aficion has a generic preview. So does ESTO. 24-Horas has quick quotes with both. Record, who appeared to have a deal with AAA to cover TripleMania, has nothing about the CMLL show.

La Sombra is rooting for La Mascara but wishes good things for his ‘godson’ Dragon Lee. People have read Sombra saying “I am going with La Mascara” as a literal statement. NXT is off this weekend, so it’s not impossible for Sombra to be at the show, but I don’t think it’d be a great idea for him to be in front of the crowd.

I’m not at the show this year. Octagon says he’s thinking of going. I guess that’s a fair trade.

SuperLuchas, after translating the Alberto story from this week’s WON, mentions Elite is negotiating with Alberto to debut in their promotion in late September or early October. SuperLuchas believes an announcement is coming soon.

That would be a change. Elite itself didn’t even say it wasn’t having a show this week, but changed their Facebook header to remove the “Todos Los Domingos” banner. Priorities! Elite switching to Sundays, then being kicked out right back out of Sundays, makes me wonder if Elite had decided the weekday shows were the problem but CMLL was no longer willing to give up Sundays, and that was the breaking point. I would not expect Elite to return to Wednesday or Thursday if they’re running Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera, which isn’t confirmed but is everyone’s working theory. Friday, Saturday and Sunday make the most sense, and Friday most of all because their indies guys are usually booked elsewhere on Saturday and Sunday. AAA’s TV tapings there (which would be a question going forward) have usually been on Fridays. TxT was usually on Saturdays.

The YouTube commercial for the AAA Hard Rock show is the best thing that’s happened in AAA this year. This isn’t even a shot at AAA, it’s just great.

AAA debuted this commercial at a press conference for the Hard Rock show. The only news was Melissa Santos being added to the show as a ring announcer.

Lucha Memes Chairo 5 on 09/25 in Arena Naucalpan.
1: Volador Jr. vs Rey Horuz
2: a Lucha Memes vs IWRG Torneo FILL (8v8 cibernetico).
IWRG: Black Dragon, Kanon, Dragon Fly, Atomic Star, Lilith Dark, Arana de Plata, Fireman, Demonio Infernal
Lucha Memes: Astrolux, Garrobo Punk, Tekilita, Baby Star Jr., Black Metal, Ciber Punk, Tonak
3: Keira, Lady Maravilla, Magnifica vs Belial, Impulso, Arez
4: Black Terry, Virus, Solar vs Caifan, Hechicero, Alberto Dos Rios

MDA is teasing a big show on 10/02 in Arena Coliseo Monterrey, which would be heads up against Heroes Inmortales.

Sololuchas is selling tickets for the AAA in Japan show, and says “15” wrestlers will be coming, which is lower (and a bit more saner) than the 20 mentioned previously.

CultIcon rates the chances of Alberto going to various promotions.

SuperLuchas notes Pagano’s poor record in apuesta matches.

AAA’s posted their Hall of Fame video for Art Barr.