Lucha Underground Season 3 starts tonight, Garza/Mundo on Heroes Inmortales, Titan/Mephisto

CMLL (TUE) 09/06/2016 Arena México [+LuchaTV, CMLL, CultIcon, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia b Fantasy & Último Dragóncito
2) Cancerbero, Metálico, Raziel b Flyer, Magnus, Sensei
3) Disturbio, Puma, Skándalo b Hombre Bala Jr., Oro Jr., Star Jr.
Star Jr. replaced Super Halcon during the week.
4) Sagrado b The Panther [lightning]
The Panther replaced Star Jr. during the week. Sagrado won in 6:55.
5) Bobby Z, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora b Blue Panther, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr.
6) Atlantis, Stuka Jr., Titán b Cavernario, Mephisto, Último Guerrero
Tecnicos took 2/3. Titan asked for a title match against Mephisto.

I have not seen this show and reviews were not too strong. Titan doesn’t get his match quite yet.

A few days later, CMLL’s website notes everyone is still unsure of what’s next for La Mascara and Los Ingobernables, and even goes as far as speculating about Rush, La Mascara and Sombra reuniting based off the photo. That would be welcome but seems unlikely.

Today is the debut of Lucha Underground Season 3, on El Rey at 7pm CT. The only repeat follows immediately after, as it did last season. (El Rey was added to Verizon FIOS in between seasons; maybe double check to see if you’ve got it now if you didn’t have it before.) This first episode is named “Wheel of Misfortune”. Matches announced:

• Rey Mysterio versus Pentagon Dark

Pretty much nothing else announced, but probably the usually three match. There’s probably a wheel, it will be spun, I’m guessing it won’t end well based on that name.

These episodes were taped starting in March. For context, matches on this show were taped before Ultima Lucha 2 last season, before Matanza’s first official match. This season is completely taped, maybe with a little bit of feedback from Season 2 to adjust things, but a lot of taking guesses on what will work and won’t work based on the reaction of the fans in the building and their own internal guesses. It’s a challenge – they had to have confidence to pick their own directions and go with them, and hope they’ve chosen well.

The Last Real Heels had Chris DeJospeh on this past week to talk about various Lucha Underground things. You should listen to it yourself to get a better idea on some of these things.

DeJospeh noted they were originally planning for Season 3 to be a 26 or 27 episode season, and it got expanded to 40  early during the season. This meant the most intense amount of taping they’ve done before, and a lot of planning/replanning to add to the early portion of the season, as well as working around everyone’s schedule. (You can see this in the taping results; there’s stuff taped as late as May that seems to belong to the first few shows.) It sounds like this was hard, but DeJoseph feels like they got it all worked out.

DeJoseph sees Season 2 & Season 3 as one big 60+ episode season, as they build into each other stronger. There’s no specific theme statement like “a much darker place” with Season 2, but a pattern of people’s past coming back to haunt them.

The stuff I always like is the What If kind of stuff – the alternate world where Marty the Moth ended up as Mil Muertes got brought up on Twitter yesterday. On the podcast, DeJoseph mentioned AR Fox was originally supposed to be part of the Crew, and Famous B’s also auditioned for a role on the Crew. (Lucha Underground wanted Fox for a while, but I believe the situation was he had a deal with Evolve and wasn’t free until Season 3. LU & Evolve seemed to have ill feelings over that and a similar situation with Prince Puma, resulting in Evolve being off limits to LU guys – until recently, so maybe everyone’s friends now.) They had been working on ideas for Taya for a while, even considering her for the Kobra Moon and Mariposa roles, before just realizing she had great chemistry with Johnny Mundo and they could play male/female versions of each other. It had been a plan to create a Mundo group and that fit in with it.

Famous B & Vinny Massaro were mentioned as guys who kept showing up every weekend, looking to help out, and they had wanted to do something with them. Famous B would wear suits to the tapings, which gave them the manager idea. They’re really happy how he’s run with the character.

There was a brief mention of a character storyline from a previous season that they wanted to follow up into Season 3, but couldn’t find a way to make it work and ended up holding it back for later. That seems to be the general long term planning: they have more ideas they can use, so some end up filed away for another day, and they have broad ideas of where they’d like to be with characters in the future, but they’re letting it play out rather than planning details years in advance.

DeJoseph said he’s heard there will be news on touring soon. I’ve heard similar things; nothing wide spread or far reaching, don’t get your hopes on this, but a show or two close enough that they should be announced soon.

LuchaMania Monterrey posted their recap of ColiseoMania. They earlier posed video of a Roberto Figueroa & Dorian Roldan in-ring segment to hype Heroes Inmortales. Or at least they attempted to; they instead got heckled by the fans to distraction. The big matches announced were Johnny Mundo defending the Latin American championship against Garza Jr.  and – at a long last – Australian Suicide putting up his mask against Daga’s hair. AAA hasn’t mentioned those announcements yet; they’re either coming on TV, or the full card will be announced after the Hard Rock Hotel show (where both two matches look to be built up.)

Rocky Santana and Herejia have a “loser leaves Arena Lopez Mateos” match on Sunday. I assume Herejia is losing, because this would be a harsh way to send off Santana (who’s been there forever.)

Villano IV says he plans on retiring masked, maybe soon, unless there’s some big show where he can face Psycho Clown. (Via R de Rudo.)

Aerostar talks about winning the tag team titles.

In an interview in Tijuana over the weekend, Psycho Clown was sure his mask match with Dr. Wagner would happen, and hopes to be in Lucha Underground soon.

A new movie in the style of the Santo movies is being filmed in the Dallas area (including some familiar wrestler names.) They’re raising money on indiegogo.

Apolo Valdes gives his thoughts on the Anniversary show.

Cross ArmBreaker reviews Trauma I vs Canis Lupus.

Kcidis draws what’s next for Dragon Lee and La Mascara.

German Sanchez says he wants to make the 2020 Olympics, so he can go watch some puroresu in Tokyo.

Croncias y Leyendas writes about Lady Chicana, the other other luchadora daughter of Sangre Chicana.

Lineup

PWR (SAT) 09/10/2016 Terrnenos de la Feria, Napa, California
1) Styker Green vs Karl Fredricks
2) Pantera Jr., Psymon Cross, Zucarita vs Cazador Del Alma, Grappler III, Memo Cuevas
3) Arkady Federov vs Último Panda
4) Thunder Rosa & Vaquero Fantasma vs Gallo Tapado Jr. & Lady Apache
5) Nicole Savoy vs Christina Von Eerie © [PWR WOMEN]
6) Phoenix Star & Zokre vs Border Patrol I & Border Patrol II
7) Misterioso (California) vs Carístico [PWR OPENWEIGHT]

This is an iPPV on FiteTV for $10.

CMLL (TUE) 09/13/2016 Arena México
1) Leono & Sensei vs Camorra & Cholo
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Stukita vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia
3) Blue Panther, Fuego, Pegasso vs Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Sagrado
4) Esfinge vs Pólvora [lightning]
5) Guerrero Maya Jr., Johnny Idol, Rey Cometa vs Bobby Z, Sam Adonis, Vangellys
6) Dragón Lee, Rush, Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Luciferno, Mephisto

Rush & Dragon Lee being on the team should be the story, but it’s probably more Titan/Mephisto. Luciferno in a main event. Nice to see Stukita.

CMLL (TUE) 09/13/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra & Johnny Dinamo vs Diplomático & Linterna
2) Magnus, Robin, Starman vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
3) Estrellita, Marcela, Silueta vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
4) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Stuka Jr. vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Ripper
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible

Marco & Terrible matched up again, so maybe they’re leading somewhere. Silueta gets another home game as she comes back from injury.

Cara Lucha (FRI) 09/16/2016 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) ? & Hijo de Clímax vs Imperio Negro & Ying Sang
2) Sky Man vs Toxin
3) Fly Warrior & Rayo Star vs Toro Negro II & Toro Negro III and Corsario Negro & Drako
4) Bryan Villa, Gallo (Jalisco), Willy Banderas vs Templario, Trauma II, Wasson
5) Hijo de Pirata Morgan vs Rush, Trauma I
6) Danger vs Makabre vs Toro Negro Jr. [hair]

This is a slightly early show – 4:30pm start- which makes me think Rush may be trying to work another show on this night and they started early to help him out. This isn’t the usual talent list, with a lot of the indies names pulled elsewhere (Elite?). There must not be a lot going on in Guadalajara on this day, since Mucha Lucha is sending guys. Gallito is listed with Gallo.

Pirata on this show means someone in AAA just won a free trip the beach.

AAA Rosales (FRI) 09/16/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) Atomic Boy, Mary Apache, Niño Hamburguesa vs Ángel de la Noche, La Hiedra, Máscarita Negra
4) Angélico, Dizzy, La Parka vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro
5) Psycho Clown vs Pagano, Pentagón Jr. [bull terrier]

A rare late show on the 16th, starting at 8pm. That’s because of the schedule – the main event guys are listed as working at least three shows. (Cards may be subject to change; the other ones have people listed who are also on the TV taping.) Psycho, Pagano and Pentagon are listed as working all three cards.