LU/Netflix, AAA/trademarks, CMLL (actual lucha libre matches), Lucha Memes VOD

CMLL tonight

How’s your week going? Here’s how Diamante Azul’s last couple have gone

01/22 (Sunday): Pierroth fouls Diamante Azul
01/23 (Monday): nothing happens to Diamante Azul (because Marco gets fouled instead)
01/27 (Friday): Pierroth unmasks Diamante Azul
01/29 (Sunday): nothing happens to Diamante Azul (because Caristico gets fouled instead)
01/30 (Monday): Rush fouls Diamante Azul and La Mascara unmasks him
01/31 (Tuesday): Pierroth unmasks Diamante Azul

That’s no good. That’s no good because it’s six straight matches with screwy endings. It’s not good because it’s a lot of matches with Pierroth. It’s not good because CMLL almost never carries feuds over from different days. Every feud is focused on one day of the week, one building, and often painfully ignored if those people meet on different shows. The only times where feuds carry over between shows is when CMLL is running short on time to build a match, and/or it’s supposed to be a big match on a big show. You’ve got to hope it means CMLL’s running a big show this month (maybe Diamante Azul is leaving again soon?), because the alternative is we’re seeing the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event being set up. CMLL running a tribute to one of their best matches by running one of their worst possible main events would be no good.

That’s the future. Tonight, it’s just more Diamante Azul versus Ingobernables trios. La Mascara, Pierroth and Rush take on Atlantis, Diamante Azul & Volador in a match which seems certain to end with a DQ or a foul. Mascara 2000 bounces back to the top of the card, as he teams with Cuatrero and Sanson against Angel del Oro, Marco Corleone and Maximo. The best match on the show will probably be the Titan versus Cavernario, a former welterweight feud reunited for one night. Los Revolucionarios team up again against Drone, Guerreor Maya Jr. and Rey Cometa in another match that should be good. Fuego, Pegasso and Soberano Jr. (back home in the second match) against Disturbio, Okumura and Virus. Electrico looks for another partner in Shockercito against Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Olimpico in the opener.

The show airs at 8:30pm CT on Claro.

Lucha Memes VOD is up!

It ended going up yesterday afternoon for $3 USD. If your country is showing up blocked, tweet @maslucha and they may be able to fix it. The two matches being offered are Raymond Rowe/Rush and the Jack Evans/Rey Horuz atomicos. Early review are really positive about that 4v4 match and all over the place on Rowe/Rush. One of these days, when it’s less insane, we probably need to sit down and have a conversation about where Rush is in 2017, but it sounds like the crazy spotfest match may be worth the price of the purchase by itself.

Unlike the CMLL shows, this is a purchase and not a rental, so you’ll have as long you want to watch it and you’ll be able to go back to it later. This is good news for absolute fools who’ve been spending the last few days on Netflix and trademarks and not even on actually watching the wrestling (or even the Blue Demon telenovela.)

AAA/LU/Rebelion trademarks

The trademark situation is still weird. The former Pentagon Jr. clarified last night that his new name should be spelled “Penta Zero M“. That’s very slight different than “Penta 0m”, the name AAA trademarked in Mexico. Different enough to count? I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer. Penta Zero M also said his name registered. It’s still not on Mexico’s IMPI trademark system. It could be in the Induator author rights system, which has a section set up specifically for wrestlers. That database doesn’t appear to be searchabale online, or at least can’t find a way to search it after hours of looking. And I have no idea which one takes precedent- can Penta Zero M work under that name, but not market t-shirts under it since AAA has the trademark? I don’t know, I’m still not a lawyer.

Pro Wrestling Sheet found that Penta 0M had also been trademarked in the US. I was checking on this morning and noticed there’s also one for Rey Fenix, filed just this Monday. Of note, it’s not AAA itself who’s filed trademarked it, but Lucha Libre FMV, the Lucha Underground parent company. All of the AAA trademarks have been filed that way, so it may just be operating as a US shell for AAA, but it still puts Lucha Underground in the middle of this name issue. Lucha Libre FMV has already held the rights to “Pentagon Jr.” and “Fenix”, but has never stopped them from using those names on indie shows, while LU created characters like Prince Puma and King Cuerno haven’t been seen on indie shows. Just like the Mexico trademarks, this looks a nuisance filling where AAA will never directly make any money off those names but the exist solely to antagonize their former luchadors (with perhaps a blue sky goal of forcing them back into AAA, or convincing others not leave.)

Intermission of dumb to entertain me 

I’ve been spending too much time on the Mexico trademark site, but I had reason to go into again for another reason. Everyone’s friend Caristico did an interview where he revealed the awful “Mistico 2.0” plan was actually a secret plan. Liger Fever translated the interview, where Caristico claims he never planned on using the Mistico 2.0 name, but just used it as the introduction to fake AAA into trademarking it while he waited until the actual show to reveal the name he really trademarked.

This is a fantastic story! It’s completely a lie, but it’s a fantastic story. If you go look up “Mistico 2.0” in the trademark search, you’ll find that Caristico did trademark it himself, because he was actually going to use it until he got talked out of it. It was not a fakeout and AAA didn’t try get that one. The Carsitico name wasn’t revealed just before his first match either, but announced it to the press ahead of the show.

Anyway, don’t believe anyone. Which leads us into…

Netflix and Lucha Underground and basic communication skills

Will Lucha Underground be on Netflix on February 15? Court Bauer of MLW, working off info from inside Lucha Underground sources, said Yes. Justin Harvey, of the Masks, Mats and Mayhem Show, working off info from inside Lucha Underground sources, said LU is getting on Netflix, but is still working on getting the shows in Netflix standard and don’t know when they’ll be ready.  Netflix Canada says Yes! Lucha Underground officially says – uh, they say nothing at all.

What do I know? I know I would like to mute the word Netflix on Twitter. That’s not too helpful but it would feel so good.

“Justin Harvey, of the Masks, Mats and Mayhem Show” scans as some random dude with a podcast, one of a five million podcasts in the world, so I’d suspect most people will probably just go with what Court’s saying and be confused why I’m even bringing up another take here. What I can say is I talked to Justin a bit last time I was out at Lucha Underground, where he’s a regular in the crowd, and I saw the people he was talking with, and it gives me confidence that he and the rest of the podcast group are plugged in a bit. Check out a list of the guests they’ve had on their show – the executive producer, the two leader writers of the show among other – or realize they’re dudes appearing in the promos during episodes and it’s clear they’ve got connections. So does Court, and I’d guess they’re just with different people in the same organization who may not be communicating clearly with each other.

Justin was careful to say it’s not definitely 02/15, it’s more they’re not far enough along to know when they’ll get done. Everyone seems to be agreeing that deal to get Netflix on Lucha Underground is done or close to being done, and this is he said/he said argument over timing. Unless it takes some really extended time to get them prepped, they’ll probably be up long before we get to see an actual new episode.

Let’s throw out everything related to Netflix for a sec and focus on the Lucha Underground part a different way.  That banner, with 5.31.17 is still up on the Lucha El Rey Twitter. It’s been their since Wednesday. I assume it’s the date they’re back, because they’ve done the same bit with putting the date on social media every time they come back from a break. I can only assume that, because it’s Friday and there’s still no official press release announcing this. This is Lucha Underground and El Rey’s date – they’re not holding up waiting to sign some papers, they probably already have the next episode ready to air, they just have to announce the decision they’ve already made. And yet, nothing official at all, nothing but some art work that implies everything but doesn’t officially say anything. What in the world?

This is the same thing that’s going on with Netflix but this one’s totally in their control. They could’ve already confirmed announced this date that same day, that same hour, thru the Lucha Underground main Twitter account, or thru Dario’s account or thru someone one staff’s account or thru El Rey’s twitter account or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube or a generic press release on some page. They’ve done none of it. It’s not that hard to do, it’s probably easier than creating art work with a date on it. It would’ve been a really good thing to do! It’s still not done. Just like with Netflix, that date is going to come (whether it’s 05/31 or some other day) and the show is going to be on. That’s not the point. The point is it’s another missed chance to promotion your TV show, it’s a half effort bit where the full thing needs to be communicated.

Justin made a really good point about how we probably shouldn’t be getting our LU news from a guy on a podcast that may not have anything to do with Lucha Underground. The problem was Justin was, in that moment, a guy on a podcast giving us news about Lucha Underground. Why am I getting all my news about Lucha Underground thru podcasts? I’ve been hammering at this for months, Lucha Underground’s communication is insufficient to build their promotion. They can’t just appear one a week on Twitter to write a couple tweets and disappear for the rest of time and hope to (re)build buzz that way. They’re not going to sell t-shirts by mentioning it once a week in a 10 second advert for a show. There needs to be a more constant presence out there to keep people paying attention, and to channel that energy in a helpful direction. They’ve got to get better at this, and quick.

more unlikely CMLL wrestlers to ROH 

Ring of Honor announced Marcela and Amapola will debut in their promotion on their 04/01 Orlando show on Saturday. This was so weird that the first reaction was this was a fake poster. It is not. Their match is not announced. A tag or trios match with some of the ROH’s regular women (as part of their Women of Honor division) seems most likely

As a fan of this women for a long time, I’m happy they’re getting a trip to Orlando. They more than earned it, especially from when CMLL relaunched their women’s division until about 2013 or 14 or so when they were both in the argument for best female wrestler in the wrold. They’re not really those ladies any more, time catches up to us all. They’re still among the best CMLL women has to offer, so if it was just Ring of Honor wanted some Mexican women, they could’ve done worse. (They could’ve done better. Zeuxis is so obviously the right pick and has been suggested to ROH enough times that it glaring she wasn’t selected, like there must be some other reason we’re not privy to right now.)

It’s just strange that ROH wants CMLL women on their card for a big show. There’s a lot of guys who would’ve made a bigger impression, and names that might have sold tickets better. The ROH press release is transparently someone grabbing facts from wikipedia, written as if the person has never seen these two women in their life. That’ll also likely be true of most the people in the crowd that day. All unknown people are going to have an uphill battle getting over in front of a ROH crowd in 2017. The ROH crowd generally didn’t know who Dragon Lee was when he was he debuted. Even figuring the WrestleMania crowd will draw in more hardcore fans, there still will be very few people who know or care about these women being in this match unless ROH does a great job of hyping them (which they haven’t with anyone else.) This seems like a waste of two plane tickets for ROH – but, come to think of it, I don’t really care how ROH uses their money, so hooray, free trips to two women who killed it for years and are being recognized much later than they should’ve been.

ROH has other issues and this is not really a big one. Still weird, like everything with CMLL & ROH. Still happy for them.

upcoming shows

Sexy Star and Taya face off on 02/11 in New York.

Flamita is headed back to Dragon Gate in March.

Lucha Memes 02/19 in Coliseo Coacalco
1: Totem I & II vs Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako 
2: Ronnie Mendoza vs Hechicero
3: Diva Salvaje & Demasiado vs Baby Star & Black Metal

Penta is OFF the 03/04 show for Smash Wrestling in Toronto.

RIOT 03/04 in Arena LLF in Monterrey with “Show Me The Money”
1: Sammy Guevara vs Jack Evans
2: Dulce Kanela vs Larry Miranda
3: Los Kamikazes del Aire (Aramis, Iron Boy, Alas de Acero) vs Los Mismos de Siempre (Kamikzae, Kratoz, Erik Ortiz)
4: Los UnMexicans (Kaientai & Byron) vs Tony Rodriguez & TBA 
5: Low Rider vs Septimo Dragon

GALLI announced Aero Boy coming back on 03/12 and Penta el Zero M on 06/04.

Many familiar luchadors, including what looks to be Extreme Tiger, Fenix, Aeroboy, Violento Jack and Rey Horuz, are heedad to Puerto Rico on 03/18. Lluvia’s pictured, which is notable. She hasn’t been in CMLL since November 25. She’s battle knee problems (losing most of 2012 and 2013 due to them), so maybe that’s what’s going on and she’ll back around in March.

Rey Fenix is announced CZW’s 04/01 Battle of the Best tournament in the Orlando area.

Other Stuff

Blue Demon Jr. refused to talk about the TV series when asked about it.It could be a situation where he’s not legally allowed to say anything negative about it due to the name rights, so he’s just refusing to talk about it. In his own life, he hopes to make another move and write an autobiography, and won’t be back in the ring until the February Crash show.

The latest Fuego en el Ring podcast is up.