Ultimo Guerrero beats Rush, LU in Houston, Lee/Tiger/Horuz/Aramis

CMLL (SAT) 10/29/2016 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Acero & Fantasy b Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia
2) Cancerbero, Canelo Casas Robin, Raziel b Artillero, Hijo del Signo, Inquisidor
3) Metálico, Sangre Azteca, Skándalo b Oro Jr., Pegasso, The Panther
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Kráneo, Ripper, Sam Adonis b Blue Panther, Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr.
Only fall tecnicos won was by DQ (Ripper fouled Panther twice, referee only called it on the second one.)
5) Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible b Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr., Valiente
Terrible pulled Diamante Azul’s mask and pinned him, setting up a singles match for next week

Not a themed show, regular turnout, will air who knows when.

CMLL (SUN) 10/30/2016 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Acero, Astral, Stukita b Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
tecnicos took 1/3
2) Blue Panther Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., The Panther b Misterioso Jr., Morphosis, Tiger
Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Dalys, Tiffany, Zeuxis b La Jarochita, Lluvia, Silueta
Rudas took 2/3. Losers were dragged to hell starting with this match.
4) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone b Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
Tecnicos took 2/3
5) Último Guerrero b Rush
UG took falls 2/3 to win again.

I haven’t seen this show, and I heard different takes on the main event. It does sound like the shows were better than normal non-Friday streaming, though not anything extraordinary. Attendance was good, much more in the cheaper seats. I don’t know if three (or more) shows in a week is a great idea, but CMLL obviously needs to come up with some other themed shows during the year. If you hype a show (or shows) as a big deal and then you run the show, people tend to show up, it’s amazing.

CMLL’s also not aired the dance numbers on these shows. The idea is probably they don’t want to get blocked on YouTube, as the Anniversary show did, but the idea doesn’t really make any sense. The Friday show was on Claro, not YouTube. It’s not like Claro is going to turn off the feed at any point, at least on purpose. The other shows do air on YouTube, but they don’t enforce copyright in real time – it’s possible the VOD will disappear later on, but CMLL could always put up edited versions later on. CMLL must be bothered by what happened with the Anniversary show that they’re being more cautious than they need to be.

(I suspect this is why CMLL is now airing the commercials as part of the video instead of shooting the screen – once they realized they’d have to figure have to some videos that way not to show what’s going on, they might as well do all of them.)

Titanes del Ring (SUN) 10/30/2016 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr)]
1) Kanon, Lilith Dark, Voltar b Los Independientes, Gym Coacalco, Dragonmania
four way trios match between four schools. The team representing Gym FILL won.
2) Cerebro Maligno b Canario, Niño De Cobre, Black Dragón
Fly Warrior missed the match (didn’t make it over from IAP in time?). Cerebro beat Canario.
3) Eterno b Dinamic Black
Dinamic Black replaced Bandido. Money thrown in.
4) Araña de Plata, Atomik Star, Lady Maravilla b Fly Star, Keira, Toxin Boy
Los Insanos (Plata’s team) pulled the Kamikaze’s masks for the win.
5) Golden Magic b Metaleón, Emperador Azteca, Imposible, Chicano
6) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo DQ Cíclope (DTU), El Gio, El Junior (DTU), Ovett
Team DTU was DQed for using light tubes.
7) Freelance & Sádico b Centurion & Látigo and Arez & Impulso and Alas de Acero & Iron Kid
Freelance & Saidco beat Arez & Impulso
8) Wotan b Caifan, Black Terry, Canis Lupus
Wotan snuck in a foul on Canis Lupus. Mask/hair challenges followed.
9) Extreme Tiger b Dragón Lee, Rey Horuz, Aramis
Dragon Lee replaced Rey Fenix (injury, appeared to apologize about not being there and said he’d be out 3 or 4 weeks). Lee beat Aramis with the Dragon Driver.

Not a lot of details on this one; a lot of stuff looks good, though only Eterno/Dinamic Black is mentioned as being good in the +LuchaTV recap and I bet the main event will look good when I see the highlights. Black Terry Jr. highlights = not AYM. This show had a crazy collection of indie stars and yet it looks less full than the Chairo/Lucha Memes shows. This didn’t seem pushed with anything more than the poster, which is probably not enough now.

LU 1230 (SUN) 10/30/2016 Traders Village, Houston, Texas [Prowrestling, PWPondering]
1) Paul London b Marty Martinez
2) the Mack b Garza Jr.
Crowd largely didn’t know Garza Jr.
3) Johnny Mundo b Drago [nunchuck]
hyped as a Gift of the Gods match, but Mundo declared that it wasn’t on the line because the belt was being displayed in a glass case. Taya helped Mundo win, but Drago got revenge post match.

LU 300 (SUN) 10/30/2016 Traders Village, Houston, Texas [ProWrestling.net, PWPonderings]
1) Matanza b Cage [LU CHAMP]
2) Ivelisse b Taya, Saltador, Joey Ryan
Ivelisse beat Joey Ryan. Saltador is the checkboard guy associated with Paul London from the trailer.
3) Pentagón Dark b Mil Muertes [Devils Day Death Match]
Vampiro started off the show by announcing this as a Devil’s Day Death Match before his doctor confronted him, saying it was bad he was involved in violence. Vampiro almost choked the doctor before Mil attacked Vampiro from behind. He came back to help Pentagon win. Pentagon was swarmed by fans on the way back.

No Ultimo Ninja – LU fans got Matanza instead and were probably pretty OK with that trade. I think “Vampiro’s doctor” was Chris DeJospeh – he was definitely there, but I haven’t seen a photo of hte doctor.

Both Lucha Underground shows look well attended. I can see a few empty seats, but I can also see tons of people crowded around outside the “arena”. People on Twitter were saying they were turned away from noon show because it was full. It’s a much bigger setup than last week – maybe 800 people each show? The Houston Chronicle has photos.

Apuesta matches from Sunday:

• Evola upset El Yaqui in Guadalajara in their hair versus hair match. I had to read that three times to believe it.
• Maximo took Demasiado’s hair on the Chairo/LG show in Xalapa, as expected.
• As Charro took Black Man Jr.’s match in the IAP show.

Tonight’s Puebla show – well, the truly most important thing about tonight’s Puebla show is if you’re watching it in the US or any place else that didn’t switch clocks, it’s one hour later this week only. That’s 11pm Eastern, 10pm Central in the US. (If you live in Japan, it’s one hour later until spring. Sorry!) The Sky Team is in action, that’s normally really fun, but there literally was a CMLL show yesterday and there literally will be another CMLL show tomorrow, maybe you should get your sleep and catch up on this later. If you’re up until 1AM watching CMLL and they do a rushed 9 minute match, you will be very sad.

Anyway, the main event is the Sky Team facing La Mascara, Euforia, Gran Guerrero in a trios title match. This would be a really compelling challenge if CMLL could’ve bothered to book Niebla Roja or Ultimo Guerrero instead of La Mascara – Mascara’s not going to be bad, but the odds of a split faction team winning the trios titles is very low. The only way it happens is if CMLL suddenly decides the Sky Team needs to die. There was no suggestion of that on Friday. It still should be a fun match, maybe even a great one if they give it time and effort, but the drama isn’t what it could be.

Semimain has the Maximo, Rush and Pierroth as a trios match, so that’s going to be a waste of 20 minutes until they get onto the finish, and then maybe they’ll set up something with either those guys or the Marco, Shocker and Vangellys opposition. The Panther family teams up to face Sagrado, Misterioso, and Okumura; it’s the last match in Mexico for Misterioso & the Panther before they head off to ROH for a couple of days. Everyone’s favorite vampire Lestat rises on Halloween to team with Black Tiger & Flyer against Raziel, Cancerbero and King Jaguar. Lestat was involved in the continous King Jaguar/Black Tiger/Policeman drama before he disappeared last year, so maybe there’s a storyline coming there. The opener is Arkalis, Meyer and Zaeta Roja vs Malayo, Espiritu Maligno and Policeman. Zaeta Roja’s usual good, but the opener is not a great place to be good.

The show will air on YouTube and CMLL.com, one hour later than usual.

US women’s promotion SHIMMER announced Sexy Star/Dulce Sexy will appear on the 11/12 & 11/13 tapings. On a business level, this kind of makes sense to me: we’ve seen Fenix, Pentagon, Drago and Aerostar help draw crowds and draw in those might not otherwise check out typical indie promotions, there’s logic in trying the same thing with Sexy Star to see if it’ll work with her. SHIMMER may make money off photos and such, regardless of what she adds in the ring – and if it doesn’t work, that’s the life of an indie promoter, you take the best gambles you can and sometimes they don’t work. On a personal level, I laughed out loud when I saw this announcement, just thinking about how badly she may get exposed on this show, and then was borderline offended that the first luchadora was Sexy Star – not the people who’ve had a history of great matches, not younger people who could gain a lot from the experience, but someone who I watched for years and years without ever seeing a great match out of her. Sexy Star is on Lucha Underground, so a fanbase (and likely even a programming department) largely oblivious to Mexican wrestling might actually know her and it’s sound business decision, but it’s so unjust at the same time.

(This is, in a nut shell, the usual ROH/FM complaint too: I want all the international opportunities to the people who work hard and have good matches. I know that it never going to be that way, but not enough to stop getting annoyed when it doesn’t.)

As much as I disliked the last episode, Sexy Star is probably the biggest lucha triumph of the Lucha Underground creative crew. They’ve definitely helped guys like Pentagon, but half the battle with those guys was just getting them out there where people could see what they do. Sexy Star’s the opposite, she would’ve been exposed if she was thrown out there with no support, and needed some storytelling and good match making to cover up for her weaknesses. Sexy Star has her fans, and would not if LU hadn’t done well for her. Though, I think we’re going to get a measurement of exactly how well they’ve done with her rather soon.

RIOT is running a show on 11/19 in Arena Femenil de Monterrey. Card so far:
1) Ultimo Ninja vs Septimo Dragon
2) Erik Ortiz vs Kamikaze
3) Kratoz vs Impulso
4) Dralion vs Alberto Rios
5) Larry Miranda & Dulce Kanela vs Hooligan Byron & Kaientai
6) Belial & Arez vs Drastick Boy & Ronnie Mendoza

GALLI has some Facebook video of their show last night with Laredo Kid.

Volador, Flamita and Negro Casas are among those advertised for the 11/16 DTU show in Celaya.

A fan held video of Dr. Wagner Jr. vs LA Park from the 2008 Anniversary show was posted to YouTube. It’s a low quality video, but it’s of one of an infamously lost match. Wagner & Park were told not to do their usual brawling match, did it anyway, and it would get them banned from CMLL until their return late last year. (Park was banned immediately, Wagner was around a few more months.) CMLL never aired the match and would not let anyone air the match, though +LuchaTV was able to air highlights.

Black Terry Jr. posted photos of Rey Horuz vs Dragon Lee vs Extreme Tiger vs Aramis.

+LuchaTV has interviews with Mascara de Bronce and new Universal champion Valiente.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

LA Park’s hand prints were added to Plaza Galerias.

A video interview with Electrico.

Lineup

CMLL (SAT) 11/05/2016 Arena Coliseo
1) Flyer, Leono, Sensei vs Artillero, Grako, Inquisidor
2) Princesa Sugehit, Sanely, Skadi vs La Seductora, Metálica, Yeska
3) Blue Panther, Drone, Rey Cometa vs Hechicero, Ripper, Vangellys
4) Diamante Azul vs Terrible
5) Carístico, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero

Main event looks like a lot of fun! Drone finds a way to get booked. And yet another women’s match.

Yeska (sometimes Yesca) was part of a batch of young women who debuted in late 2008 and early 2009, after the CMLL women’s division got going again. Zeuxis & Lluvia eventually stuck as full timers. Others, like Crazy Star, Estrella Magica and Star Fire, just disappeared after a time and have wrestled a bit on the indie scene. Yeska stopped being used in CMLL in 2010 and just vanished for four years – maybe she was starting a family or injured or just not interested in wrestling. She never had any success in CMLL and didn’t show improvement, so that would’ve made sense. Her name shows up in 2014 a couple times, and then returns for a handful match of matches this year. Two of those matches are with Reina Isis on Toryumon shows, so this is probably an Arkangel student – his name’s coming before as recruiting indie women when REINA needed people.

Yeska might only be getting booked because Isis is still in Japan and CMLL needed another body. But that match isn’t going to be any good with or without here, and there are dozen of men who don’t seem to be getting booked who could have a better match. There’s also a bunch of women who could probably get that same spot and do well with it – perhaps Yeska has improved leaps and bounds after not wrestling for years, but there are people Metalica was/is working with on the indies who I’d bet on. (Not just a young person – a vet who knows what they’re doing could’ve been helpful, there are some very green people in that match.) It could also be that Yeska’s not getting paid very much for this date – or is losing money on it, because paying for training classes is part of the deal – and people who are actually good aren’t going to take that deal. That’s a bigger problem with the CMLL set up.

Terrible hasn’t done anything remarkable in years at this point, except occasionally powerbomb Titan very hard, but Azul beating him still would feel wrong.

CMLL (SUN) 11/06/2016 Arena México
1) Eléctrico & Último Dragóncito vs Demus 3:16 & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Oro Jr., Soberano Jr., Star Jr. vs Disturbio, Sangre Azteca, Skándalo
3) Estrellita, La Jarochita, Lluvia vs Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
4) Atlantis, Dragón Lee, Valiente vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja
5) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero

A show. With a women’s match, because what show doesn’t have a women’s match. There’s a tercera that used to be here but maybe not again. I miss Puma.

CMLL (SUN) 11/06/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Micro vs Guerrero de la Muerte
2) Black Sugar & Capitán Cobra vs Destello & Quca
3) El Yaqui & Reycko vs Carlo Roggi & Mr. Apolo
4) León Blanco, Neutrón, Smaker vs Espectrúm, Exterminador, Rey Trueno
5) Frezzer, Gallo, Omar Brunetti vs Pitbull I, Pitbull II, Sádico

First appearances for the Pitbulls since June 2015. They were feuding with Exterminador & Malefico, and then just disappeared. Might have been one of the programming changes.