IWRG (SUN) 05/28/2017Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Shaolin b Atomic Star
2) Rafy & Teelo b Miss Gaviota & Takle Miss Gaviota replaced Maquina Infernal, first match back in three months
3) Aramis, Pantera I, Saruman b Ángel Extreme, Hip Hop Man, Pibe Alfajor Angel Extreme (debut, maybe the same one as from Veracruz?) replaced Villano III Jr.
4) Oficial AK47 & Oficial Fierro b Apolo Estrada Jr. & Eterno and Black Dragón & Dinamic Black Oficials want a hair match with Apolo & Eterno
5) Imposible b Máscara Año 2000 Jr. Super Mega hit Mascara with a chair to set up the loss
6) Dr. Cerebro, Dragón Fly, Mr. Electro b La Mosca, Pirata Morgan Jr., Veneno seems to be setting up another La Mosca/Dr. Cerbero match
7) Black Warrior & Súper Mega DQ Trauma I & Trauma II straight falls. Black Warrior use brass knucks without being DQ, Trauma II used the same for a DQ. Challenges for Warrior & Trauma II
Given Warrior’s habit of dropped off the radar, IWRG’s hoping for a lot by having him feud with the Traumas.
CMLL tonight has Rush versus Mr. Niebla, a match with a lot of variance. It’s possible they’ll just clown around for eleven minutes, it’s also possible they start grabbing anything not nailed down to hit each other and CMLL scrubs the match from existence later. The match is much more likely to be in the middle, but it’s less predictable than most CMLL singles matches.
That’s the semimain. The main event is a rematch from Friday, Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja & Mistico against the Guerreros. The Dinamtias (Cuatrero, Sanson, Mascara 2000) take on Stigma, Stuka and Valiente in the fourth match. The tercera doesn’t look good with Arkangel, Canelo and Fuerza Chicano on the rudo side – they face Lestat, Rey Samuray and Starman. There’s two 2v2 matches to follow it: Black Tiger & Espiritu Maligno fight Ares & Metalico (Ares & Maligno were slightly feuding last week) and Asturiano & Zaeta Roja face Guerrero Espacial & Rey Apocalipsis in the superior of the two tag matches.
The show airs at 9pm on CMLL’s YouTube channel.
AAA is unsurprisingly still promoting the original lineup for Verano de Escandalo even though they changed the lineup on Friday. I was so annoyed about that that I didn’t even mention no La Mascara or Maximo at that show, that was kind of dumb of me. That must mean they’re getting enough indie offers to take those instead for now. Super Porky did an interview for CMLL this morning, so he must not have quit to follow them.
Super Fly is quietly one of the best guy in AAA now
Recapped: 05/24/2017
All matches were taped at Paleqnue del Centro Expositor, Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala on 04/29/2017.
Matches:
Niño Hamburguesa defeated Máscara de Bronce, Venum, Joe Lider to earn a spot in an upcoming AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship match (8:32, middle rope splash on Lider, below average)
here’s the chokeslam GIF I’m a week late in posting
Early in the show, Faby Apache (in an awesome Aja Kong anniversary t-shirt) explains to Psycho Clown that Vampiro gave her a trios title rematch, but with Murder & Monster as her partners. Psycho Clown thinks this is crazy and he wanted to help her win the titles back, and says he’s got Faby’s back. Prior to the main event, they aired a recap of the trios title storyline, with the entire Vampiro/Faby vignette replayed and the entire Faby/Taya thing from last week, and a few minutes of the match were shown. It’s a lot longer than this match ended up going. The main event lasts about three minutes before Monster & Murder attack their partner Faby. Psycho immediately comes out for the save, cleans house, but is laid out by Kevin Kross. Poder del Norte pin Faby. Kross goes to chokeslam Psycho, but Faby pops to life (not selling a thing) and hits Kross with a chair. Kross doesn’t sell either, and chokeslams Faby out of the ring thru a table. AAA sticks with Faby being put in a neckbrace and stretchered away for a while. (AAA end the show still not having announced the main event for Verano de Escandalo.
Averno talked about cleaning out the trash from the group before the second match, which led to Ricky Marvin coming out. Ricky points out he won in Tijuana. Averno calls Marvin trash and a dog and an ugly man with no friends. Marvin calls out his partners, Argenis and La Parka. OGT are shocked. Averno explains the trios match is not happening because Vampiro gave him the night off, and decides to announce instead. The other OGT rudos attack Argenis and La Parka (though Super Fly gets the worst of that.)
Averno joined the announcers for the match, while Marvin hangs out at ringside. OGT beat up the técnicos for about four minutes, Averno tripped Parka, Marvin grabs Chessman to stop him from a dive, and Argenis small packaged Chessman for the win.
dictionary definition for “ill-advised”
In the opener, Mascara de Bronce has evolved into looking like Venum’s tag partner. Niño Hambruguesa is checked on after landing badly on a huracanrana. Finish involves Dalton showing up at ringside, giving Lider a springboard frontcracker when Lider was holding a chair, and Niño immediately splashing Lider for the win. Dalton seemingly beats Lider up after the match, but we’re shown replays instead. Niño Hamburguesa will be one half of one of the teams to challenge for the mixed tag titles based off winning this match
The entrance for the building they’re running looks so much like Arena Neza, but it’s a palenque so it’s a small circular area on the floor. It’s better than some they’ve run, with a bit of space around the ring to work with (they wouldn’t have been to able to do the table spot in the other ones they’ve run.)
The mystery new referee is finally introduced as Hugo “Negro” Rosas.
Session of La Llave de la Grloria was shown, focusing on the luchadoras. Mary Apache has one monologue that includes more talking from her than she’s gotten in some years.
AAA says 70% of the tickets are sold out for TripleMania.
Review:
a good idea with not great execution
This was not a good show if you like actual good matches – it’s probably the worse show this year for matches, but it feels like there’s a few which would be candidates for that spot. They didn’t give the matches all that much time – 17:38 bell time total, almost half in the opener – but they also didn’t put together matches which had a hope of being any good. The storytelling seemed not much better considered.
The main event was not much of a match and didn’t do anyone any favors. Poder del Norte got in a main event, but looked like a joke. Murder tossed them around easily, they only got anything on Faby, Faby was beating them before her partners turned on her and then Psycho Clown had no problem with them either. Putting Poder del Norte in main events is not alone going to make them special, they have to be effective in some way, and instead it comes more as if AAA just doesn’t have any thing better. The whole thing was a setup to make Kevin Kross look more impressive and I’m not sure why that’s important when he’s not in a big match coming up. (The priority definitely is to the weekly TV over building to Verano de Escandalo; the bit ended with most of the people in the VdE mask match working together.) They at least tried to get over the severity of a table spot but could’ve gotten to it in a more effective way.
I ran out of good wrestling GIFs this week
There wasn’t really anything to the tag match, calling it OK seems like an overstatement, but I’m not sure it’s their fault they had so little time. Super Fly’s moonsault and Estrada bump looked cool, maybe that’s enough. Moderately surprised Argenis got the win instead of Parka, who made sure to argue with Averno so he’d get talked about in commentary
There were decent moments in the opener, maybe enough good that’d I’d normally say OK, but this was also a super sloppy match. They tried to do team spots with Bronce & Venum against Ludxor to start the match and near the end, and both looked liked Lider was on a totally different page. Venum/Bronce’s sequence in the middle looked super indie with it’s timing issues. (Later, they tried for a double pin, which made no sense). Niño Hamburguesa almost broke his neck taking a frankensteiner. There was a bit built around Joe Lider catching dives, and he caught on one of two Bronce did a big tornillo and the camera missed most of it and they never found a replay of it. This wasn’t good. This whole show wasn’t good.
CMLL (SAT) 05/27/2017Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Leono & Sensei b Rocky Casas & Templario Rocky Casas’ first match here since October.
2) Artillero, Canelo Casas, Sangre Azteca b Astral, Bengala, Magnus Sangre Azteca replaced Nitro
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Pegasso b Disturbio, Universo 2000 Jr., Virus Universo 2000 Jr. replaced Metalico on Saturday, making his debut.
4) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther b Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
5) Ángel de Oro, Rey Bucanero, Terrible b Kráneo, Ripper, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Stat You Can’t Actually Use: Rocky Casas first match in CMLL was in March 2016. He’s had 4 matches in that time (and one dumb seeding battle royal.) He has won zero matches. He’s also apparently related to the wrong person if he’s back in the opener and Universo 2000 Jr. is solid midcard guy in week 1.
Toryumon Mexico (SAT) 05/27/2017Arena México [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Átomo, Shadow Boy, Shaolin b Gatillero, Solaris, Sonny
2) Blood Eagle, Fidel, Labernito b Adrian Quest, Dicky Mayer, Eli Everfly
3) Mima Shimoda b Vanilla Vargas, Reina Isis No India Sioux, so they had a three way match instead. Vanilla Vargas is the same woman listed as Lady Boricua. Mima Shimoda won when Sam Adonis cost Vargas the match.
4) Súper Ciudadano b Patán, Fiero, Gallo (Jalisco), JC Navarro, OT Fernandez, Piel Roja, Hijo del Signo, Villano III Jr., Malefico, Ulises Jr., Hijo de Black Silver, Voltech Rivera, Dany Cruxiel [Dragon Scramble] Ulises Jr. (with new hair) , Hijo de Black Silver and a whole bunch of Puerto Ricians were added to the match, with Super Ciudadano beating eternal rival Patan.
5) Arkángel de la Muerte & Rey Bucanero b Shocker & Yohei Nakajima Arkangel replaced Ultimo Guerrero, while Shocker (with amateur wrestling headgear protecting his jaw) Nakajima replaced Marco & Maximo. Sam Adonis helped Rey Bucanero win
6) Dick Togo b Solar I Added match. Double pin on a tapatia.
7) Bodyguard & Zeus b Daisuke Hanaoka & Douki The AJPW team defeated Japones del Mal
7) Carístico, Jun Akiyama, Último Dragón b Joe Doering, Sam Adonis, Último Guerrero Ultimo Guerrero replaced Mephisto. Dragon had come out to celebrate 25 years of wrestling early in the show, and received well wishes from Chris Jericho via video. He also got a cake, which Rey Bucanero threw in Dragon’s face. Dragon won the main event by beating Adonis.
The usual “I can’t believe that guy was wrestling in Arena Mexico” bit out of a DragonMania. This isn’t taped by CMLL and I don’t think +Lucha was even there, but SamuraiTV usually tapes it for later airing on their network. (It’s possible there may be handhelds around too; maybe keep an eye on Black Terry Jr.’s YouTube channel.)
FULL (SAT) 05/27/2017 Plaza de Toros Monumental el Paseo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí [Pulso SLP]
Attendance: 1000
1) Ludark Shaitan, Luzbel Jr., Pequeño Warrior b Ángel Del Amor, Reyna Dorada, Shadow Boy
2) Pibe Alfajor & Saru b Hip Hop Man & La Mosca (Argentina)
3) Mr. Águila b Alan Stone, Extreme Tiger Alan Stone replaced Garza Jr.
4) Intocable & Zumbi b Alan Stone, Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Elektro Universo 2000 Jr. & Alan Stone moved to antoher match.
5) Blue Demon Jr., Cibernético, Tinieblas b Pirata Morgan, Rey Escorpión (Elite), Zorro
6) Alberto el Patrón & Hijo De Dos Caras b Jack Swagger & Silver King and Roy Knight & Zak Knight Alberto beat Swagger for the win.
The newspaper report has 1,000. That looks like a generous number given how the building looked in photos, but we can go with it. It’s still about a 15% turnout for a 6,000 seat building built around Alberto el Patron in his home town. I’m not sure what expectations were, but I’m sure they were a lot higher than that. Between this tour and Rey Mysterio Viva el Rey ones, I think the concept of non-TV promotion running an all star lineup at high prices is not a workable idea in Mexico. The press will cover it for the names, but the fans just aren’t interested in paying big prices unless it’s a big brand name promotion.
CMLL (SUN) 05/28/2017Arena México [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Violencia b Acero & Aéreo
2) Akuma, Inquisidor, Sangre Azteca b Magnus, Príncipe Diamante, Starman rudos took 1/3
3) Estrellita, La Jarochita, Silueta b La Comandante, La Seductora, Metálica tecnicas took 1/3
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Soberano Jr., Titán DQ Hechicero, Terrible, Vangellys tecnicos took 2/3, winning the third on the rarely seen toss over the top rope DQ on Soberano Jr.
5) Atlantis, Carístico, Mistico b Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas Caristico suffered an injury, but the tecnicos still won.
There’s no details on the injury, other than it was in the third fall of the match. We’ll know if it’s serious if Caristico misses his singles match with Rush in Guadalajara on Tuesday
At a book fair, Rey Mysterio (Sr.) says he plans to start teach wrestling in Tijuana. He famously was a trainee prior, so this is more a restart of his prior work. He’s still in a wheel chair.
A Spanish Mexican goal scorer on a Portuguese team celebrated by putting on a Sin Cara mask he had hidden inside his shirt. This was actually put in the rules as a yellow card offense in Mexican leagues after a player starting doing with Mistico masks when he first got hot.
CMLL (SAT) 06/03/2017Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Estrellita, La Jarochita, Sanely vs Amapola, La Comandante, Reyna Isis
3) Blue Panther Jr., Rey Cometa, The Panther vs Forastero, Sagrado, Sam Adonis
4) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Morphosis, Pólvora
5) Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Niebla Roja vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Rey Bucanero
One day, I’ll find time to flip Niebla Roja to the tencico side.
Morphosis keeps getting listed and being replaced. He seems like a fill in name for Bobby Villa, and may be replaced yet again when they figure out who’s actually in that space.
The Casas family won a title shot on November 25th. More than six months later, and after some frequent twitter badgering, they’re finally getting it – on the show CMLL doesn’t tape. No one gets to see it. CMLL never will stop being CMLL.
Shocker tries for a return, take two. At least he wrestled on the Toryumon show, there’s some hope for more, and maybe more matches for him to take La Mascara’s place.
