CMLL/Elite, AAA to Japan (without Fantasma), LU live shows?

CMLL (TUE) 09/06/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [+LuchaTV, Martes de Glamour]
1) El Yaqui & Vaquero Jr. b Demonio Rojo & Thunder Boy
Vaquero Jr. replaced Leon Blanco. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Hijo del Signo, Maléfico, Sangre Azteca b Robin, Star Black, Starman
Rudos took 1/3.
3) Dalys, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis b Princesa Sugehit, Silueta, Skadi
Silueta’s return from injury.
4) Hechicero, Kráneo, La Máscara b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Valiente
La Mascara removed Dragon Lee’s mask to win.
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy, Volador Jr. DQ Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
Terrible fouled Marco, which lead to hair match challenges

Neither Terrible nor Marco have any titles, so maybe they’re just building to a normal singles match. Can’t imagine they’d actually do the hair match. (I don’t think this is happening, because we’d know by now, but it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to run a special Friday night show in Guadalajara on 09/16, since very few of the regular guys are booked in Arena Mexico that night away. You could do Marco/Terrible in a hair match on that sort of show.)

AAA announced the talent list for the Star Battle Japan AAA show on 10/16. Akebono was right, it’s 20 people: 18 luchadors and a referee and an announcer: Aerostar, Australian Suicide, Angélico, Cage, Daga, Dinastía, Drago, Faby Apache, Jack Evans, Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Pagano, Pimpinela Escarlata, Psycho Clown, Texano Jr., Pentagón Jr., Rey Mysterio Jr. and Taya are the luchadors, Hijo del Tirantes and Jesus Zuniga are the other two. With that many people, AAA should use that as a TV episode somehow.

Hijo del Fantasma is not on the list. Hijo del Fantasma was very unhappy not to be on the list, and posted a message on Twitter complaining about that and how he’s been used since coming back. It took about 15 minutes before Fantasma had to apologize and he later deleted the original post. Fantasma isn’t wrong: his tag team with Fenix lasted one whole match, the team with Garza wasn’t as good, and now he’s not going to even be doing that for Heroes Inmortales if Garza is getting the singles match with Mundo. There’s still no sign of anything going on with the Cruiserweight title, and there’s not a great shot of it if they’re doing two other singles belts on the show. Fantasma getting the King Cuerno gimmick was great for him at first, but he’s still got no name in the US and can’t pull a Fenix and work elsewhere. He’s kind of stuck, and understandable not always thrilled about it. (Fans were telling Fantasma to go back to CMLL and be an Ingobernable, which wouldn’t be a bad idea if were actually possible.)

I wonder if Fenix & Fantasma would’ve gone instead of Aerostar & Drago had Fenix stuck around and they won the tag titles.

Leo Riano claims CMLL tried to steal Elite’s deal with Azteca and kicked Elite out of CMLL when they complained. The CMLL show would’ve just been the same show which airs in the US version of Azteca. Elite is now prohibited from using CMLL guys on their own shows. Riano’s been right a lot lately, but is coming from a particular viewpoint – the rest of his column praises the recent success of AAA, and avoids mentioning Fenix’s walkout.

CMLL’s story on the press conference omits Valiente going to Ring of Honor, so they must’ve wanted to save that later. ESTO’s story on the CMLL Reyes del Aire mentions it’ll be a 12 person match. Maximo, Dragon Lee, Volador and Valiente are named, so we’re missing eight names.

The WON says they’ve heard of Lucha Underground house shows on 10/16 in San Diego, 10/23 in Phoenix, and 10/30 in Houston. I’ve heard entirely different dates and somewhat different locations. Either way, if this is really happening (and DeJoseph indicated it’s finally happening) and it’s happening in October, they kind of need to be announcing the dates now. I was moderately surprised we didn’t get something last night during the show.

The same story says Season 4 tapings may start in January, but no one really knows for sure.

Lucha Underground in Canada is moving to Wednesdays at 8pm on 09/21, starting with Season 2. That’s the same timeslot as in the US, though they’re a season behind – for now, anyway. They were airing them 2/3 at a time on Sundays, and could catch up during season 3 if they keep that up.

Flamita has returned to Dragon Gate now that their tag team tournament is wrapping up. He’s on their 09/10 card. There’s no indication of how long he’ll be in Japan this time, but it obviously means he won’t be the mystery guy on The Crash show on 09/16.

About that, this week’s WON says:

The mystery opponent for Mascara Dorada on the 9/24 show in Tijuana won’t be either Flamita or Ricochet, the names we mentioned last week. The name is being kept a secret because it’s a wrestler who has to first quit their promotion

No one in CMLL or in the indies would have to quit their promotion to work with Mascara Dorada. That definitely leaves open the possibility of Alberto, who hasn’t officially been released by WWE. Fenix, and anyone else from AAA, may also fit.

The WON also mentions Mascara Dorada is moving his family to the US, and that’s may take some time, which is probably why he’s still working in Mexico for a while longer. Dorada’s family has been living in Guadalajara, not moving to Mexico City even after he started their full time, and he was spending a lot of time on buses to go back and forth. That’s kind of possible on CMLL’s schedule but less so on WWE’s, and seemed like a roadblock to him working elsewhere long term. Dorada’s consistently cited being away from his family as the reason why he didn’t stay in NJPW longer, so this probably wasn’t going to happen without his family going with him to the US.

In an interview with MedioTiempo, Santo Jr. claimed he had a tryout with WWE and they offered him a contract, but he only then found out he would have to WWE full time and he and his father decided he needed to finish school first. I guess you can stretch to make sense of it: Santo Jr’s a taller Mexican, has trained in Japan (where they scouted most of the Mexican guys) and they’d be able to train him from scratch. And it’s not like WWE hasn’t signed people from Mexico who seemed to make no sense to us. It just generally seems implausible to me, both from WWE having interest in Santo Jr. at this point to Santo Jr. being unaware he’d have to train full time. Plus, the Santo’s main purpose in life appears to be protecting the identity of Santo, and they would give up a lot of that control in any deal with WWE. The Santos were uncommonly positive towards WWE for traditional Mexican luchadors. Hijo del Santo also mentioned he hopes to never lose his mask but, if he had to lose to anyone, he’d pick Atlantis. Hijo del Santo did not want to talk about Blue Demon Jr. at all, upset about Demon wronging him in some unspecified way.

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
5: Trauma II vs Sharlie Rockstar, must use El Pozo to win (so also no DQ)
6: Dr. Cerbero vs Ultimo Guerrero

(if I start bolding the new additions, is it easier to follow?)

Lucha Libre Boom/DTU 10/16 in Arena Naucalpan:
1: Volador, Caristico, Titan and Mascara Dorada in Copa International
2: Septimo Dragon, Eterno, Fly Star, Toxin Boy vs TBD
3: Ronnie Mendoza & Draztick Boy vs Sadico & Mike Segura vs Arez & Belial

+LuchaTV has an extended interview with La Mascara.

LuchaWorld has the latest edition of their podcast, interviewing Thunder Rosa and talking about the Anniversary show. There’s also the newest Lucha Report.

TKD reviews this week’s Lucha Underground.

Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground 2×21 (Six To Survive)

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 09/11/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) Aramis & Cadilac vs Demonio Infernal & Skanda
2) Astro, Black Dragón, Dragón Fly vs Luis Cirio, Manny Cirio, Tony Cirio
3) Diosa Atenea, La Tesorito, Oscar El Hermoso vs Diva Salvaje, Lilith Dark, Soy Raymunda
4) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Negro Navarro, Toscano, Trauma II
5) Hijo del Pantera & Pantera © vs Chicano & Veneno [IWRG IC TAG]
3rd defense
6) Canis Lupus, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Rey Misterio Heredero vs Imposible, Texano Jr., Trauma I

A lot of unusual names passing thru. We’ve seen this happen before, and later worked out there were CMLL or AAA tryouts going on around that time. I’m not sure if that’s the case here. The Misterio Heredero is the newest version of the gimmick (one I think might be one of the actual sons but I’m far from certain and easily confused), and odd name to make the trip all the way here for no reason. There’s a La Tesorito who wrestles in San Luis Potosi, no idea if that’s the same. Soy Raymunda & Oscar el Hermoso are Mexico State/Hidalgo area exoticos. The Cirios are also long time local indie wrestlers; Manny & Luis last are known to wrestle here in 2004.

Texano Jr. probably should have something better to do, but I don’t have him on any lineups from TripleMania to the next TV taping, maybe he was just bored.

GDR (SAT) 09/24/2016 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Starman & Stigma vs Arkángel de la Muerte & Skándalo
2) La Jarochita & Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys & Zeuxis
3) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Máximo vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible

A three match show is odd. Running it Juan de la Barrera means they’d be using the building a day after Elite if they run every Friday (and at least confirms Elite doesn’t have a lock on this building.) Maybe Elite is running every other Friday. Maybe I have no idea.

LLC (MON) 09/26/2016 Arena de Lucha Libre, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
1) ? vs ??
2) Rió Bravo II & Violento vs Black Extreme & Dark Demon
3) Astuto & Silver Tiger vs Hijo Del Espectro & Lemus Jr.
4) Hijo De Octagon & Laredo Kid vs Aero Boy & Kendor Jr.
5) El Hijo Del Santo & Santo Jr. vs Silver King & Silver King Jr.

This has been out for a while but hasn’t made it over here.