Volador/Cavernario tonight, Angel de Oro to ROH, Lashley & Strong Man to Elite

The biggest match on this week’s show is the same match as last week. Cavernario and Volador have another singles match, this time for Volador’s NWA Historic Welterweight Championship after Cavernario got the win over Volador in the Reyes del Aire show. Both men did just about everything they can do last week, so the challenge will be find something else to do this week. (It should still be pretty good if they don’t, but it’s going tough to be unique.) Cavernario winning would mess up the Universal math, but there’s no sign of that happening any time soon and it may not be a concern at this point. Cavernario winning would also be an indication of how serious CMLL takes this feud; if Cavernario wins singles matches two straight weeks, they may actually be doing the teased hair match. (If he doesn’t, it just goes into the pile of feuds they can bring back some rainy day.)

Cavernario told ESTO he was surprised to make the Reyes del Aire final and was nervous going in. He also talked about working on his accounting degree: he plans on being a luchador for a long time, but wants a backup in case he ever can’t do it. He likes studying like he likes lucha.

There’s ongoing story line on the show, so the main event and second most hypest match is the Munoz brothers teaming up in the main event. Dragon Lee, Mistico and Rush take on Mephisto, Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero. The booking of that family has been inconsistent of late, even for CMLL. Dragon Lee and Rush were supposed to be on opposite sides after the Anniversary show, and they haven’t done anything with it for a month. Maybe it’ll make more sense after this match.

The rest of the show are matches, though generally OK to good looking matches. Atlantis, Valiente and Mascara Dorada face Dragon Rojo, Polvora and Felino (though CMLL’s own preview still lists Super Crazy.) The women’s match is Marcela, Lluvia and Princesa Sugehit against Dalys, Tiffany, and Amapola. Puma & Tiger continue to make a strange home in the segundas, teaming with Okumura against Hombre Bala Jr., Star Jr. and Soberano Junior. Ultimo Dragon & Fantasy vs Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Nitro is the opener.

CultIcon also previews the show. The show airs at 8:30pm on Clarosports. I’m not going to be around, but I’m going to try to somehow record this.

CMLL announced the dates for the Dia del Muertos shows. They seemed successful last year, and they’re going to double the amount of dates to see if it holds up. There will be themed shows on 10/25 (Tuesday), 10/28 (Friday), 10/30 (Sunday), and 11/01 (Tuesday.) The Friday show was an iPPV last year. It’d make sense for it to be again, but there’s not as strong a reason to buy it on Friday if the same concept is airing on two Tuesdays for free.

Elite also tapes today, with a main event of Caristico & Xtreme Tiger versus LA Park & Rey Escorpion taking place in Cuautitlan. The post-CMLL Elite TV has not been strong: the match quality has dropped with the lack of depth, and they’re really lacking any destination. The Liga Elite matches provided both good matches and at least a theoretical end point. It’s just matches to have matches, with even less of a focus on a direction than CMLL, and the matches have to be much better than they’ve been to make that work. Whoever’s putting the cards together doesn’t seem to have a great grasp on what combinations make for good matches, or lacks the available wrestlers to put together good combinations. The semimain is a good example of it: Black Tauro (ex-Taurus AAA) debuts and is really great against high flyers, but he’s facing Guapos Zumbido & Decnnis and Mr. Aguila. Aguila of a decade or more ago would be a great opponent for Taurus. The Aguilas of today are guys like Golden Magic, el Bandido and Ultimo Ninja, but they’re facing the problematic trio of Argos, Karonte Jr. and Hijo de Dos Caras. That main event is the best set up match, but also just happens to be that way because those are the top stars who are around this week.

La Parka and Hijo del Tirantes are very critical of Jack Evans’s critical comments of AAA. They specifically seem upset about Jack calling Parka a terrible wrestler (which Jack did somehow turn into a compliment about Parka still being way over despite it and how he had to learn from that.) Jack may have gotten himself into some serious trouble this time. There are people frustrated in post-Konnan AAA, but there’s also plenty who are happy with AAA and/or believe you should never be publicly critical of the company you work for.

Mascara Dorada suggested he’s now hoping to be in CMLL in November, which is a few weeks later than usual. Mascara Dorada has said he won’t be on 10/16 Lucha Libre Boom show in Naucalpan (it sounded like they never asked him). I wonder a bit about that lineup, since Septimo Dragon seems wrongly listed as well – he’s probably working the Mucha Lucha Atlanta show that day instead.

Angel de Oro is ROH’s surprise CMLL inclusion for their shows next week. He’ll face Nick Jackson, ACH and Kamaitachi in a four way in Chicago Ridge, then Kamaitachi one on one in Dearborn.

This is a less than inspiring choice for a long term diehard fan – Angel de Oro isn’t too popular, and is one of the guys most likely to have the same exact match every time out – but he did get over in his NJPW tour because it was all new to the fans. It’s also possible this was a last minute decision and they didn’t have a wide group of people to choose from: ROH needed to replace the mysterious Matt Sydal, and they may have not even considered a CMLL guy before Dragon Lee got over this past week. And it’s not like ROH is really marketing much towards CMLL fans in the first place – this is just scans as “random luchador!” for more people going to this show. Still, I’d probably go to the Chicago Ridge show if this was someone cool, and this is is not someone who’s going to get me to go. I could still watch Tanaka & Komatsu and ask them why they’re so scared of the Panthers that they left Mexico (not the real story).

I was on the Winter Palace talking about the latest stuff in lucha libre.

AAA posted photos from the Antonio Pena mass.

ROH says today they’ll a CMLL participant for their shows next weekend in Chicago and Dearborn. It’d be funny if it was just Triton, since he’s still in the area.

TKD and Voices of Wrestling have reviews of this week’s Lucha Underground.

Wrestling With Words also has reviews of Rey Misterio Heredero vs Imposible, Guerrero Maya vs Hechicero and Barbaro Cavernario vs Volador Jr.

LigerFever has started a tumblr to post all his translations.

Real Hero posted two recent Flamita match from Dragon Gate: an atomicos including Akira Tozawa and a trios match from 09/25.

Lineup

ELITE (FRI) 11/04/2016 Gimnasio Agustín Millán, Toluca, Estado de México
1) ? & Lady Maravilla vs ?? & Muñeca De Plata
2) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Hijo del Pantera, Jinzo vs Eterno, Fresero Jr., Imposible
3) Octagón & Xtreme Tiger vs Flamita & Fuerza Guerrera
4) Rey Escorpión vs LA Park [Liga Elite]
5) Blue Demon Jr. & Bobby Lashley vs Silver King & Strong Man
6) Carístico vs Cibernético [Liga Elite]

This is a month away, light years into the future for Elite, but tickets are already on sale so the lineup is as well. I say this every single time: Toluca is a great crowd for TV tapings. They’re getting a bizarre show. Caristico/Cibernetico is the biggest match Elite has to offer, and they’re in the main event. Bobby Lashley, last reported by Elite as unable to return to Mexico, is able to return to Mexico – and he’s facing Strong Man! I wasn’t even sure if Strong Man was still wrestling (he doesn’t turn up in results since 2014, hasn’t been in CMLL since 2011), but he was just featured in the Lucha Mexico documentary and I’d guess the connection is Shocker.

Flamita & Octagon on opposite sides of a match is interesting. I’m sure the idea is Octagon & Fuerza and Tiger & Flamita mostly work against each other, but I have some doubt that one is going to happen and will until it does.