CMLL (FRI) 05/26/2017Arena México [CMLL]
1) Cancerbero & Raziel b Flyer & Oro Jr.
2) Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus b Fuego, Star Jr., Stigma
3) Puma, Sam Adonis, Tiger b Blue Panther Jr., Rey Cometa, The Panther
4) Stuka Jr. b Pólvora [lightning] Stuka won in 8:54 with the torpedo splash
5) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero Niebla Roja’s return to the tecnico side. UG pulled off his mask for the DQ, then took a second mask later. He already had the Niebla Roja mask from last week and continued to demand Niebla Roja change his look.
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Pierroth, Rush b Carístico, Marco Corleone, Valiente Cavernario replaced Mr. Niebla on Monday. Rush Driver on Caristico for the win.
I didn’t see most of the show, but it sounded like it was just OK.
Chris DeJoseph was interviews on the Last Real Heels podcast, answering questions about Lucha Underground. He seemed completely confident about a Season 4 for the series and thought it would happen this fall. He said he was “helping out” in AAA, and being closer involved in that promotion has given him more ideas about people he’d like to bring to Lucha Underground. (Which would seem to make even more people off limits to Impact; I don’t understand how that thing is going to work.) DeJoseph even brought up the possibility of Nightclaw returning, though it sounded as if it might be a different person as Nightclaw. He did not answer answer the running joke of El Bunny’s identity; I know it’ll be end times when someone finally reveals that secret.
CMLL (FRI) 06/02/2017Arena México
1) Shockercito & Stukita vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Virus
3) Hechicero, Pierroth, Rush vs Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero, Vangellys
4) Atlantis & Esfinge vs Sansón & Último Guerrero and Mistico & Star Jr. and Forastero & Shocker and Blue Panther & Pegasso and Cuatrero & Máscara Año 2000 and Stigma & Titán and Espanto Jr. & Kráneo [Gran Alternativa, semifinal]
5) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
9) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
10) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
11) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Gran Alternativa, semifinal]
The Gran Alternativa returns not that long after the similar Copa Jr. ended. I think Pegasso is the only guy here who couldn’t have been in the Copa Jr. (and is just to make up the numbers.) This is Shocker return attempt #2, hope it goes better. Tournament shows are not usually good so the next weeks are going to be iffy.
Maximo on Facebook (and me flipping the image because the mirror letting was annoying)
Today’s another Friday with both major promotions in action, both in the same town this time. CMLL has a regular Arena Mexico show tonight, while AAA tapes in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera.
The AAA show is clearly the bigger deal. AAA’s been hyping it as their last show in Mexico City prior to TripleMania, but the real anticipation is going to be with the Alvarado family. It would make sense for Maximo, La Mascara and others like Bobby Zavala to show up tonight, but we’ve got not firm indication they actually will. We expect AAA wants them, but we don’t know for sure if they’ll want to go, or even if they’ll want to go this soon. Rumors of people jumping to AAA in the past have been more often wrong than right, but this is a unusual situation and I really have no idea about how it’s going to turn out.
Other thing I have no idea how it’s going to turn out: AAA’s lineup. We know what they’ve announced, and we know that the only match that has stayed the same on the last two TV tapings was the La Llave de la Gloria probable dark match. AAA’s flirted with turning these shows into more of a US format, running the shows as they’ll air on TV, and that would require at least the card order changing tonight. There’s really only match that looks genuinely interesting from a match quality standpoint, an all flyers match with Drago, Aerostar, Bengala, Lanzleoth, Mascara de Bronce, Venum, the debuting Raptor and the recently turned rudo Australian Suicide. The rest of the matches are the sort of running in places matches you’d expect before a big show, with nothing much likely from storyline or match quality. It would be no great shame if those matches were changed, but would continue the trend in AAA promising matches they’re not planning to deliver and promises whatever negative effect which will come of that. (So far, we haven’t seen it.) Maybe they’ll do something to leave people thinking about TripleMania, but the Alvarado situation is going to be the thing people are talking about either way.
AAA’s show is listed as starting at 9, which means it’ll really get started past 9:30 (or about three matches into the CMLL show.) There is no live stream, though there’s sometimes fan livestreams which pop up; it’s a safe bet someone will be shooting video if Maximo or Mascara appear. They’re really backed up on TV and these tapings will not air until June 17 and June 24th.
CMLL goes on. The main event tonight is Caristico, Marco Corleone and Valiente against Pierroth, Rush and Barbaro Cavernario. Cavernario’s obviously a replacement for La Mascara. Valiente is possible one for Maximo. CMLL’s instead is billing this as a big opportunity for Barbaro, and he’s not wrong – he could bring something to that main event that his partners aren’t, and Mascara probably wouldn’t either.
The semimain returns Niebla Roja to the tecnico side for the first time since June 2011. He teams with his brother Angel de Oro & Caristico against the Guerreros in the first match based off the turn. The crowd seemed into the story last week, though a bit more into cheering Ultimo Guerrero than the actual tecnicos, and it’ll be a good sign if they react strongly tonight.
The rest of the card are random matches, though some look like they may be good. Stuka Jr. faces Polvora in the lightning match. There’s another round of Panthers versus Cats, with Rey Cometa & Sam Adonis rounding out the teams. Fuego, Star and Stigma face Misterioso, Sagrado and Virus. Virus’ actual partners are in the opener against Flyer & Oro.
The show starts at 8:30 pm CT on ClaroSports. It looks like Claro will be streaming an MMA show on the usual show link; CMLL itself is still linking to that. I do not believe I’m going to be around tonight until late, but will do my best to record and stream the show remotely.
Maximo posted a 15 minute Facebook live (captured by Box Y Lucha) where he watches his relatives play arcade games, talks up his soccer team, and eventually talks about his situation, slightly. You may want to skip ahead to about the 10 minute mark, but I think his point in walking around where he was at and showing all the family members is hanging out, is showing how united they are to build his point that they’re all for one and one for all. They take that musketeers slogan a bit seriously. The bit is a little bit played for the TV – I’m guessing they don’t wear masks (or shirts over their faces) at family gatherings normally. It seemed like Maximo was having a hard time deciding exactly what to say; he mentions lawyers so perhaps part of it was not being sure what it was OK to say.
I think they’re going with the family sticking together concept because they believe it, and because they don’t really have any stronger explanation. I do wonder how seriously they’re going to take that, at least professionally. La Mascara did showed up an the indie show on Wednesday, but Maximo wasn’t there with him. Robin, at least we knew, was still in CMLL (his match Tuesday in Guadalajara.) Do they all end up supporting Psycho Clown in AAA? Do they end up separate in workplaces but together elsewhere?
Ronnie Mendoza was part of the NXT tapings last night, back under his Raul Mendoza name from Crusierweight Classic. This is not a one time thing; my understanding is he’s reported to NXT as a new signee a while ago and that’s why he’s disappeared from Mexican rings. You can see when his Twitter turned into only WWE hashtags and mentions of people passing away to figure out when he knew he was going for sure. He’s a lot more on the WWE message than other people who’ve gone.
WWE still hasn’t acknowledged Mendoza signing as of this writing. It’s been so long in between him reporting and being acknowledged that I was a bit worried that there was a hang up, but I think now it’s more likely WWE is just waiting for more (international) names to filter in to announce them as a group. It’s probably going to be a longer road for Mendoza because he’s not coming in with the notoriety of La Sombra or Mascara Dorada, but that ultimately hasn’t seemed to help them. Hopefully it’ll go better for Mendoza. It’s possible he may end up on the 205 show, that seemed to be the original concept, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Speaking of WWE, they did finally put a date to their upcoming women’s tournament will begin taping on July 13 & 14th (with the final taped live at a later date.) We still don’t know for sure if Zeuxis or Chik Tormenta or anyone else will be included in this tournament, but WWE announced the CWC participants well in advance and could do the same here.
CMLL’s gone on & off with the Zeuxis/Sugehit feud, teasing that mask match. It’s never been clear if they’ve been holding it off because Zeuxis has an out date that keeps changing, or if someone decided to make it a match on the Anniversario show, or if CMLL is just being as flaky as usual. There’s usually a CMLL medium sized show in June, but I lean towards Zeuxis not actually having a mask loss any time soon. If she’s going to WWE (which we guess is the case but don’t know) and they wanted her unmasked, it probably would’ve happened by now since WWE would soon be promoting her as unmasked. If Zeuxis is going to WWE masked, then they’d encourage her not to lose her mask right now (or maybe lose much in general) so no match would be happening. If Zeuxis is not going to WWE at all, CMLL doesn’t have any great history of doing additional apuesta matches when not forced into it.
ESPN has a Lucha Underground piece; it looks like it was done at around C2E2, because it’s the same information given then (including the same Mundo/Mack preview we saw there.) LU is talked up as a great success, while dancing around the thorny issue of no one knowing for sure quite when/if they’ll be taping again. It’s nice press, anyway.
SuperLuchas recap of the Carpa Astro puts the turnout at 60% (so about 2,000 on a 3,200 capacity.) It’s not the sellout Alberto brags he does everywhere he goes, but 2,000 at inflated prices for a indie show is not a bad number and better than it looked in photos.
LuchaWorld has the latest news update. Alfredo notes in the recap that Nitro said he would like to be voted in as official leader of the union in December. It wasn’t clear if he wanted that role prior. Hope he doesn’t have a nice car.
did you know: Lucha Underground is back on Wednesday. It has a match. I hope it’s good.
AAA went back to taping episodes in order in Tlaxcala. The second half has a Kevin Korss vs Psycho Clown match, set up by the finish of this week’s TV.
It’s probably good Niebla/Rush is airing live from Puebla because it has all the makings of a match CMLL would edit out if it was taped.
Tuesday CMLL has Marco/Terrible, which might be a rematch coming soon.
Super Astro (WED) 05/24/2017Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Estrellas del Ring, R de Rudo]
1) Demasiado & Diva Salvaje b Aramis & Demonio Infernal
2) Demus 3:16, Eterno, Rossy Moreno b Felinito, Hijo de Máscara Sagrada, Keira Eterno replaces Samoano
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., El Bandido, Emperador Azteca b Diamante (Elite), Imposible, Metaleón money thrown in
4) Súper Astro Jr. b Rey Horus, Laredo Kid, Golden Magic, Flamita, Jack Evans, Último Ninja, Xtreme Tiger Super Astro Jr. didn’t look good, won anyway, was booed.
5) Daga, Garza Jr., Rey Fénix (US) DDQ Hijo De Dos Caras, Hijo de LA Park, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. Wagner & Fenix ended up with each other’s masks
6) Bestia 666, Damián 666, Nicho el Millionario b Cibernético, Silver King, Súper Astro
7) LA Park & Rey Escorpión (Elite) DQ Penta 0M & Zorro La Mascara made a surprise appearance to attack LA Park.
Unsatisfying finishes to LA Park matches are a common thing, but at least this one had something to it. La Mascara came out in a hoodie to conceal his identity while he was attacking Park, before doing the surprise reveal. He’s still referring to himself as La Mascara and wearing the Los Ingobernables gear, which he probably can get away with on the indie level. He tried to go promo for promo with Penta0M, did not win, and attacked Hijo de LA Park so he could get something on someone.
He told the press he had lots of friends on the independents, and lots of quality opponents to face (mentioning LA Park and Alberto, but not Penta. and Penta.) Mascara insisted multiple times he wanted to be independent, not in any promotion. He may even mean it, at this point. He did not mention Maximo or Bobby Villa.
Ultimo Guerrero told Record he had no interest in running the union, has no idea what’s going on with it, and just wants to be a solider (not the guy running things.) He also claimed to not know why Mascara & Maximo attacked his car and so he would say nothing about it. This is hard to believe and suggests he just wants this story to go away.
Leo Riano’s Record column on the Alvarado/UG situation fits with other people who work for AAA, taking the side of Mascara & Maximo. He says those guys won by earning their earning freedom from CMLL and will get more work elsewhere. He also says Ultimo Guerrero shouldn’t press charges, because it won’t get his car back. Maybe everyone has information we don’t, but it’s so bizarre to see these guys treated like they’ve done nothing wrong; usually when it’s even a justified rebellion about something, the things they are rebelling against are well known.
(Amusingly, he goes from saying nothing should be done about this to saying AAA must do something about Kevin Kross chokeslamming Faby Apache.)
Local promoters say the AAA 06/30 Puebla taping will have Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Psycho Clown. That’d be the fifth time AAA’s billed this match. We’ve seen it only once on TV (though it’s possible they may have done it as a dark match at other times.)
+Lucha put up the Angel de Oro vs Rey Horus match from the MDA show in Monterrey, so maybe the CMLL matches are going up out of order.
Full card for the Crash show, with the Jack/Zorro vs Besita/Pirata tag the most notable name. There’s no foreign names coming in but you can have a pretty good card with all Mexicans and this looks like one.
CMLL (TUE) 05/23/2017Arena México [CMLL]
1) Grako & Yago b Magia Blanca & Sangre Imperial
2) Shockercito, Stukita, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Violencia tecnicos took 1/3
3) Dalys, Reyna Isis, Tiffany b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi
4) Drone b Disturbio [lightning]
5) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas b Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Johnny Idol Felino replaced Cavernario.
6) Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible b Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Titán straight fall win, Terrible cheating to beat Marco, setting up a singles match next week.
This show didn’t stream; CMLL said they had an issue with their fiber internet connection. The show was still recorded and will be put up when the internet’s fixed. I suspect today’s CMLL Informa isn’t going to happen if it’s not fixed by then.
Rey Bucanero was surprised to find Rey Bucanero was working those ROH/RevPro shows in the UK. He’s pleased too, and maybe looking to get in better condition before those matches. Bucanero says he’s thrilled to represent CMLL internationally since he hasn’t had that chance in a long time. He mentions he once had a sort of performance/exhibition in London, but hadn’t had a real match there before this tour.
Arturo Rivera took to Facebook to defend the Alvarados and dispute reporting on the situation without offering any new information on what occurred. It’s basically the Spanish language version of what Vampiro wrote in English on Saturday, where the real enemies are deemed to be the vile media and Ultimo Guerrero and Psycho Clown’s actions were justified. (They’re treating this like a lucha libre finish where the rudo fouls the tecnico, the tecnico fouls the rudo back, and it’s unfair when the justified tecnico is the one disqualified.) I’m looking forward to what Leo Riano writes in Record about this, as he also seems to speak for AAA in these situations, but it seems unlikely Psycho Clown will be in any trouble with AAA over this incident.
This week’s Zona Ruda includes an interview with La Hiedra.
HUMO’s 06/03 show is canceled. They’re not totally direct about why, but between the announcement and a comment on Facebook that SuperLuchas notes, CMLL said to HUMO they wouldn’t let their luchadoras face indie luchadoras and HUMO decided it was better to cancel than to shuffle everything. The main event was scheduled as Dalys, La Comandante and Marcela versus the Moreno sisters (Cinthia, Esther, and Rossy). The Morenos used to be in AAA, but none of them have worked there for years, so it’s not clear why CMLL would have an issue.
Lineups
IWRG (SUN) 05/28/2017Arena Naucalpan
1) Shaolin vs Atomic Star
2) Máquina Infernal & Takle vs Rafy & Teelo
3) Aramis, Pantera I, Saruman vs Hip Hop Man, Pibe Alfajor, Villano III Jr.
4) Oficial AK47 & Oficial Fierro vs Apolo Estrada Jr. & Eterno and Black Dragón & Dinamic Black
5) Máscara Año 2000 Jr. vs Imposible
6) Dr. Cerebro, Dragón Fly, Mr. Electro vs La Mosca, Pirata Morgan Jr., Veneno
7) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Black Warrior & Súper Mega
Black Warrior betrayed the Traumas last week, faces them this week. Fifth match is a match between Rey del Ring winner against the previous Rey del Ring champion (who wants a title shot.)
CMLL (TUE) 05/30/2017Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Artillero & Hijo del Signo
2) Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Metálica, Tiffany, Zeuxis
3) Esfinge, Oro Jr., Starman vs Puma, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Sagrado
5) Niebla Roja, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Mephisto
6) Marco Corleone vs Terrible
It’s not physically possible for Volador to make both this show and the NJPW show the next day unless someone invents time travel. They probably just threw a name because it was a Maximo booking and they haven’t figured out who gets the spot yet.
Niebla Roja versus the Guerreros in the semimain. Sagrado sliding into the Bobby Villa spot in the tercera. Universo 2000 getting booked decently from the start.
CMLL (TUE) 05/30/2017Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo & Neutrón vs Difunto & Sádico
2) Astral, Magnus, Star Black vs Metálico, Nautilius, Sangre Azteca
3) Marcela, Silueta, Skadi vs Dalys, La Comandante, La Seductora
4) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Titán vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
5) Carístico vs Rush
Back to back days of singles matches for Rush with two different opponents (Niebla on Monday.) Star Black & Nautilius bring their Sunday feud onto Tuesday shows.
