Day: April 28, 2017

CMLL (TUE) 04/25/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Martes de Glamour]
1) Joker & Sádico b Sky Kid & Smaker
Sky Kid was hurt on the finihs.
2) Mercurio, Pierrothito, Relámpago Azul b Acero, Cosmos, Último Dragóncito
3) Pegasso, Rey Cometa, The Panther b Forastero, Puma, Tiger
4) Carístico, Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy b La Máscara, Pierroth, Sam Adonis
tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Rush b Diamante Azul
Rush snuck in a foul on Diamante Azul

Usual show in Guadalajara. It’d be nice if the third match (first TV match) slipped thru this week, but it’s unlikely.

SuperLuchas has a very good obit for Brazo de Oro. Brazo de Oro probably will be honored at wrestling shows many times this very busy weekend.

Volador Jr. versus La Mascara was scheduled to be tonight’s Arena Mexico main event. It’s not been announced if La Mascara will still wrestle following his father’s death, but it’s probable he will not wrestle. Traditionally, Mexican families spent the day with the body of the deceased, but whatever La Mascara decides is the correct decision. The fans would be understanding with any substitution and any of the three rudos in the semimain could be elevated to the main event. It’s going to be an emotional night whatever happens in the main event; Brazo de Oro was a fixture and still active around Arena Mexico and many people wrestling or otherwise part of the show knew him well.

As it stands, the semimain will be Mephsito, Negro Casas and Barbaro Cavernario taking on Caristico, Dragon Lee and Mistico, which could be an exceptional match. Valiente, Marco Corleone and Diamante Azul take on Ripper, Hechicero and Kraneo in the fourth match.

The Copa Junior comes a conclusion tonight with a the son of Euforia, Soberano Jr., taking on the son of Cien Caras, Sanson. Soberano seems headed to a big match with Misterioso sometime in the next few months and could use a win her to put him more in the spotlight before that oppurtinty. On the other hand, CMLL’s been behind the Nuevo Generacion Dinamitas since they’ve debuted, and for good reason, so Sanson can’t be ruled out from pulling an upset.

The second match is an unusual relevos incredibles match. CMLL running a relevos incredible match itself isn’t new, we’ve seen about what seems likes hundreds with Los Ingobernables the last few years. It’s not done as much in the women’s division, because hardly anything is done in the women’s division. The teams are Zeuxis, Dalys & Marcela against Metalica, Estrellita and Sanely. These lead to either to someone changing side, or a makeshift team having some issue leading to a match. There’s been no hint of someone switching teams yet. Marcela and Dalys could have problems to lead to another match, but this seems like an extra effort to do a match they’d run with no setup anyway. It’s possible also a stipulation just to do a stipulation.

The opener is Electrico & Fantasy versus Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Nitro. The match was listed that way on the poster, but the show preview CMLL sent out to it’s media partners had Demus instead of Nitro. It’s fixed on CMLL’s site; I suspect Demus was originally in the match before he quit, and someone neglected to make the change after he left.

Lucha Memes also has a rare Friday night show, Chairo 10 at Arena Naucalpan. There’s a good sounding opening trios, but it’s really built around four matches that each could’ve main evented any indie show. CMLL’s Titan faces Rey Horuz/Dragon Azteca. Rush fights Black Terry. LA Park creates some sort of havoc with Super Mega. And, in the match that’s gotten the most attention, Zack Sabre Jr. makes his Mexico debut by facing Negro Navarro. The previous Chairo cards have been more along the lines of 7-9 matches with some singles and some tags; it’ll be an worth watching to see if the different style or day changes how the show does.

Sabre/Navarro reads like a great exchange of holds match on paper. My concern about the match is the quality of Navarro’s matches vary with how highly he thinks of his opponents – if he doesn’t think or know much of his opponent, it may be quick and one sided. Navarro sounded interested in wrestling if not totally familiar with him on +Lucha’s podcast, and hopefully we’ll get the match everyone wants to see here. Navarro mentioned a hope to use this match to get more international bookings, and a good performance here could help with that.

Lucha Memes announced Negro Navarro & Black Terry vs Hechicero & Virus from the last Lucha Memes show will be uploaded to +LuchaTV’s channel. (It’s possible this may be delayed due to Brazo de Oro’s death.) It’s great we’re getting to see that match. It’s disappointing we’re still getting piece meal bits and pieces of shows instead of the full thing. I don’t want to preach about this today, my message doesn’t seem to be getting thru. Tonight’s show should be a good event and I hope it does well.

There’s also an AAA show tonight in Neza – it’s the one with the cool Lego inspired poster – and a special Kid’s show with no advertised matches in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. Today kicks off one of the busiest lucha weekends of the year. The big promotions are running shows, but it’s more about lots of local and small shows aimed at kid’s, many of which inevitable take place at non-traditional locations.

Rey Mysterio was on Jim Ross’ podcast. Pretty much unprompted, just in general discussion about how management should treat wrestlers, Rey brought up and criticized a promotion that was sending wrestlers on fifteen plus hour bus trips to shows. Rey never mentioned AAA by name, but was clearly talking about them. Rey wouldn’t have been asked to go on those bus trips during his return to AAA, but was speaking on behalf of people who probably could not safely say those things. AAA has the roughest travel schedule of any major promotion as far as I know, with no set touring scheduled and people sometimes send from one corner of the country to another, or just stopping back in Mexico City in between. (Christina Von Eerie had a great explanation of what it’s like to work an AAA schedule on a recent edition of Colt Cabana’s podcast.) I know it was reported that AAA recently said they were going to end that practice and start flying people out if it was more than a certain amount of hours, though I’m not sure if they have. Mysterio sounded very down on AAA, which fits him with him being part of the Rebelion. He and Dorain Roldan were doing group interviews last week at C2E2 about Lucha Underground; everyone at LU events is really good at keeping whatever tension there is out of sight for those outings.

Aeroboy will debut in AAW on May 6th. He’s on the ChilangaMask show the next day, so he’s picking up an extra high profile match while in the area.

RIOT on 05/20 in Arena Femenil Monterrey

• Chik Tormenta vs Christi Jaynes
• UnMexicans (Kaientai & Lord Byron) & Dowki versus Los Mimos de Siempre (Kamikaze, Kratoz, Erik Ortiz)
• Flamita vs Ultimo Ninja
• Fly Warrior vs Dralion – new

The ribbon cutting was held yesterday for a lucha libre museum in Tijuana. The official opening is Saturday.

Super Crazy is announced for AIW’s JLIT tournament on May 26th & May 27th.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

DoradaFan has highlights of January 3, 2017 and January 10, 2017 CMLL

Segunda Caida reviews the Panthers vs Negro Navarro & Black Terry.

Fuego en el Ring’s latest podcast is up.

Lineups

HUMO (SAT) 06/03/2017 Salón Citlalli, Ecatepec, Estado de México
1) Diva Salvaje & Rey Gato vs Novasonic & Piel Roja
2) Sagrado vs Demasiado
3) Paloma Rouse & Zafiro (Chihuahua) vs Mystique & Reina Dorada
4) Skadi vs Tsunami
5) Felina Metálica vs Ludark Shaitan
6) Dalys, La Comandante, Marcela vs Cinthia Moreno, Esther Moreno, Rossy Moreno

The women’s focused HUMO promotion returns on June 3rd with the Moreno sisters against CMLL lucahdoras.

LLP (SUN) 06/04/2017 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Canario, Novasonic, Prehispanic vs Imperio, King, Quetzal
2) Fly Star & Toxin vs Lunatik Fly & Lunatik Xtrem and Kaiser & Osiris
3) ?, Johnny Idol, Pantera vs Apolo Estrada, Rey Gato, Sam Adonis
4) Aero Boy vs Alan Extreme vs Dinamic Black
5) Dr. Cerebro & Hanaoka vs Dick Togo & Douki

Dick Togo was around Mexico for a few weeks in 2012. It’s unclear if he’s hanging out with the Japones del Mal for one match or more. Semimain could be very good.

Brazo de Oro, Jesús Alvarado Nieves, passed away early Friday morning from a heart attack.

Brazo de Oro was the first member of the famous Los Brazos trio, and first of the six sons of Shadito Cruz to start wrestling. He was named after a movie (which his father also briefly used), and the name scheme and the word Brazo became associated with his entire family. Brazo de Oro is remembered as part of that trios, but he first found success as a singles wrestler when he was out on his own (winning Texano Sr.’s hair among others and many local championships), and he and Brazo de Plata were a successful tag team as well. Brazo de Oro was believed to be actual best wrestler and best prospect among the young wrestlers for a time, and Dr. Lucha’s obit for El Brazo mentioned there was serious consideration to leaving him as a single and only having him team with his family occasionally (which could’ve led to a Villano III like career.)

Instead, El Brazo completed the trio in 1981, which began as the vicious Los Mosqueteros del Diablo rudos and evolved into a beloved comedy act much later in their career. They were a strong part of the UWA/LLI, and won the promotion’s trios championships three times when it was the most important trios title in Mexico. They also were national trios champions twice. They were a popular act thru the 80s, and among the people featured in rival promotion EMLL when the two groups exchanged talent; their appearances there would’ve been their first national exposure in the US. Brazo de Oro and his brothers also traveled to Japan many times, wrestling tours for All Japan, New Japan, WAR, Michinoku Pro and other promotions as a lucahdor emblematic of the UWA/lucha libre style in Mexico.

Brazo de Oro’s biggest feud was the family feud with Los Villanos. The matches were violent and bloody, a rougher style used by many in the promotion and less so in major lucha promotions today. The rivalry lasted for years (and still gets called back to today) and was heated enough that there were reports of promoters around the country wanting to host the blowoff match. They eventually chose a promoter away from their homebase of El Toreo outside of Mexico City, with the 3v3 mask match taking place in Monterrey on October 21, 1988. The choice of venues and promoters was a mistake: lucha libre rivalries were mostly regional concerns, the match didn’t drew well in Monterrey, and the Brazos claimed they were never actually paid for the mask loss.

Of the three brothers in the primary trio, Brazo de Oro seems like the one most damaged by losing his mask. Brazo de Plata and Brazo were more charismatic luchadors and Brazo de Oro never had the singles success once forecast for him. The trio stuck together even as LLI fell apart, moving to CMLL where they found some success in the early 90s. After a few years, Brazo de Oro turned into the guy with a name who would lose apuesta matches every year or so, first in Arena Mexico and later just about anywhere. CML had a intra-family feud in 1995, with El Brazo splitting from the other two and winning Brazo de Oro’s hair before losing to Brazo de Plata. It seemed to reflect some actual issues between the family members, as El Brazo left CMLL in 1996 never to return and Brazo de Oro remained in CMLL for the rest of his career.

Brazo de Oro remained active thru 2006. I first saw him during those late stages of that career, where he was not much of an exciting luchador and nothing like he had been in his best days, but a name from the past who was kept around to have some experience mixed in with the younger wrestlers. Brazo de Oro announced a retirement around 2006, but of course continued to wrestle from time to time, even being brought back to Arena Coliseo Guadalajara a few times. He would also appear as a corner man for his son La Mascara’s title matches at times, especially early in his career. The last confirmed Brazo de Oro match appears to be a Christmas 2015 match with Brazo de Plata and Robin (filling in for Brazo de Platino) versus Canek, Dos Caras and Mil Mascaras; a lot of Brazo de Oro’s final matches were LLI tribute matches or Villano/Brazo tribute matches. Many of the participants in the match don’t look like they should be still wrestling at that stage, but such is the long lasting popularity of that era of Mexican wrestlers that people will still come out to see them more than two decades after the promotion ceased to exist. Those opportunities to see those wrestlers are shrinking; with also Fishman passing away earlier this month, it feels like those times are beginning to slip away for good.

A 1991 CMLL vignette which frequently gets brought up when talking about Los Brazos. The brothers are having childlike dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. Brazo wanted to be a rock star, Brazo de Oro wanted to be a businessman, and Brazo de Plata dreamed of being Brazo de Plata. The dreams have often been said to be reflection of what they really wanted to be, and Brazo de Oro spent much of his career behind the scenes working on the business of lucha libre. He was part of LLI’s office late in the promotion’s run, then moved over to being the man in charge of wrestler’s union in the CMLL around 1994 when the UWA went rapidly downhill. Last anyone’s said, Brazo de Oro was still in charge of the wrestler’s union, though he’s been also been mentioned as being part of the programming team in the distant past and had appeared as a reserve referee a few times earlier this decade. He likely had other behind the scenes roles.

El Brazo passed away in 2013. Brazo de Plata is now the only remaining member of the famous trio, too hurt to continue wrestling. He hopes for a return, but it’s unclear if it’ll happen. Their brother Brazo Cibernetico/Robin Hood passed away back in 1999. Brazo de Platino and Super Brazo still wrestle on small shows. Brazo de Oro is survived by La Mascara, who’s currently scheduled to main event tonight’s Arena Mexico show. He also appears was at least billed as the father of Brazo de Oro Jr., who wrestled a few shows with Brazo de Oro and continues to wrestle on smaller shows today, but hasn’t been billed as one of his sons in the obits today. The Brazos seemed fond of wrestling, but were also seemed fond (or in need) of making as much money from wrestling as they could, and it was not uncommon for them to license out the Brazo name to non-family members.

CMLL & AAA have already posted condolence message. He’ll be remembered at shows this weekend.