July 15, 2017 – luchablog

CMLL (FRI) 07/14/2017 Arena México [CMLL, Culticon, luchablog, SuperLuchas]
1) Akuma, Arkángel de la Muerte, Metálico b Astral, Sensei, Star Jr.
18:17. Rudos took 2/3.
2) Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta
15:17. Rudas took 1/3.
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Sam Adonis b Blue Panther, Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr.
10:39. Dragon Rojo Jr. replaced Mr. Niebla on Tuesday. Adonis wore a Love Machine mask for the first fall and was DQed for excessive violence. The commissioner was going to stop him from wrestling until he unmasked, but Panther just unmasked Adonis himself. Rudos took 2/3, with Adonis using the ropes to get the pinfall in the third fall. Panther challenged Adonis to a hair match.
4) Pierroth b Vangellys [hair]
6:41. Pierroth took 2/3. No cheating, no new Ingobernable, Pierroth using a variation of the Buca Storm to win.
5) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Mistico b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
15:47 [2:43, 3:53, 9:11]. Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Volador Jr. b Último Guerrero [CMLL Universal]
22:41. Volador took falls took 2/3 to win the Universal championship for the first time.

Top two matches, main event especially, are worth watching. The main event didn’t start until 10:58 local time because the show had run so long, but they gave them all the time they wanted. It was a loud crowd, though one that wasn’t that much in to the hair match as far as I could tell. It appeared to be on the larger side of the regular Friday night cards, but not the level of a one of the biggest shows of the year.

Pierroth & Vangellys having nothing special going on after the last couple weeks of shenanigans was strange. I don’t know if CMLL wanted it to be more serious to protect the hair match stipulation or if they wanted it that way themselves, but it’s a match almost anyone else would’ve tried many tricks to hide. On the other hand, most anyone else would’ve not bothered to run the match.

The Crash (FRI) 07/14/2017 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [@PandillaLucha, 126f, The Crash]
1) Eli Everfly, Famous B, Último Maldito b Arkángel Divino, Black Boy, Último Panda
2) Oraculo & Serpentico b Black Danger & Jonathan
Danger & Oraculo continue to feud.
3) Rey Horus & The King b Hanson & Raymond Rowe and Sami Callihan & Shane Strickland
said to be an excellent match
4) Bestia 666 b Jack Evans [super libre]
Earlier in the night, Garza offered Bestia a spot in his new Rebelion (Yellow). Bestia accepted, and took out both his father Damian and Nicho when they tried to argue with him. Bestia was booed the rest of the night. Black Danger and Jonathan helped Bestia in this one. Oraculo attempted ot help Jack but ended up hurt.
5) Garza Jr. & M-ximo DQ Daga & Santo Jr.
Garza faked a foul
6) Penta Zero M b La Máscara, Jeff Cobb, Marty Scurll
This was announced, just prior to the match, as the winner getting into the match for a debuting The Crash Heavyweight Championship match. There were no more details so far.

It sounds like this was a good show all around, with the three way tag match coming across as a must see match based on Twitter reactions. The matches are supposed to go up on Konnan’s Patreon.

They’re running just about every three weeks, which would put the next show in Tijuana around August 5th (and they’ve announced Mexicali for the day before, so that fits.)

Lots of stuff this weekend:

Saturday

CMLL’s Arena Coliseo show has a Marco, Niebla Roja, Stuka versus Rey Bucanero, Shocker and Terrible main event. Mascara 2000, Sanson and Cuatrero take on Hechicero, Black Terry and Negro Navarro in a rematch from last week, which probably will set up an Arena Coliseo Tag Title match next week.
Lucha Memes has a relocated show in Coliseo Coacalco. Extreme Tiger vs Virus is the headliner, with the Kamikazes del Aire vs Belial, Impulso and Keria another notable match.
Rush, Dragon Lee and Septiembre Negro Jr. face Corsario Negro, Drako and Ancla in Arena Azteca Budokan, in a show promoted by Ancla.
FULL has a Huracan Ramirez & Tinieblas vs Cien Caras Jr. & Veneno show in Mexico City
There’s a benefit show in Ciudad Madero for exotico Jessy Ventura, who needs surgery for one of her legs.
Puebla’s Arena Coliseo San Ramon has a battle of Arena Puebla vets of a previous generation, Siki Osama Jr. versus Toro Bill, in a mask vs hair match.

Sunday

AAA tapes TV in Monterrey’s Arena Jose Sulaiman. This show is scheduled to have a Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner Jr. main event, which has tended to mean they fight for abut four to five minutes in a semioffical match after the real main event. They’ll probably do an Aerostar/Drago/Raptor vs Poder del Norte match since that series goes on, and I’m assuming Angelico’s making a surprise appearance since he was back on the show last night, but who knows what’ll happen. They were pretty close to what was advertised last time out, but not before it
Arena Mexico has a normal show with Carstico, Valiente and Volador against Euforia, Felino Mephisto in the main event. The undercard includes the very popular opening match rudo feud.
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara concludes it’s tag team title tournament with El Rielero & Vaquero Jr. vs Freezer & Furia Roja. The latter team seems like slight favorites. I wonder if the winning team will defend the title even two more times this year.
Lucha Libre y Pasion & Klandestino team up for a loaded show in Arena Lopez Mateos. This is absolutely going to be the show this weekend that has four different fan cams on YouTube: Penta versus La Mascara and The King Rey Fenix versus Marty Scurll are the big ones.
Mascara & Penta are doubling up, working the main event of DTU’s Arena Neza show as well. They join Crazy Boy, Sharlie Rockstar, Crazy King, Aeroboy and maybe a car.
IWRG has a Mr. Electro/Black Warrior title match. You may also be interested in a Villanos/Navarros trios or the Black Dragon/Pantera del Japon singles match.
Salon Citali has a HUMO show, which is a little less woman focused than previous ones: main event is Ultimo & Gran Guerrero against Corsaro Negro & Drako. Skayde versus Dr. Cerbero sounds interesting.

On his 72nd birthday, Mil Mascaras talks about his his first love: acting.

An outdoor El Santo photo exhibition has opened in Chapultepec, featuring 100 photos from his career. (This is the same place as other photo exhibitions, like the CMLL one from a few years back.) It’ll only be open thru August 13. The article mentions the plan for a Santo show on September 23rd as still being on.

Record has an interview with La Llave de la Gloria participant Royer Boy, who also works as a civil engineer.

Lucha Underground has a Son of Havoc Cueto Cup promo. His match with Dante Fox airs this week.

Myself and Rob are guests on the latest edition of the LuchaWorld podcast.

Lineups

CMLL hasn’t posted the lineup yet. Maybe later.

Recapped: 07/14/2017

Matches:

Akuma, Arkángel de la Muerte, Metálico beat Astral, Sensei, Star Jr. (18:17 [9:38, 4:50, 3:49], 2/3, below average)

Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis beat La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta
(15:17 [8:08, 2:46, 4:23], 1/3, ok)

Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Sam Adonis beat Blue Panther, Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr.
(10:39 [2:00, 2:02, 6:37], 2/3, ok)

Pierroth defeated Vangellys in a hair vs hair match
(6:41, 2/3, below average)

Vangellys northern lights suplex (1:17)
Pierroth middle rope senton (1:40)
Pierroth Buca Storm (3:44)

Carístico, Dragón Lee, Mistico beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto

Volador Jr. beat Último Guerrero to win the CMLL Universal Championship
(22:42, 2/3, great)

Pulpo Guerrero (4:07)
Volador Code Red (2:43)
Volador Spanish Fly (15:52)

What happened:

Volador defeated Último Guerrero to become the ninth CMLL Universal champion. It is the first time he’s won the annual tournament.

Pierroth defeated Vangellys in their hair match. No new Ingobernable interfered or appeared, and Pierroth won mostly clean. Vangellys later protested that Pierroth had used a piledriver to win, but it was (an attempt) at the same sort of finish Rey Bucanero and Joe Lider have used.

Sam Adonis came out wearing a Love Machine mask while attacking Blue Panther. He and his team were disqualified for excessive rudoness in the first fall. Comissioner Zavela came to the ring to demand Adonis unmask in the second fall, and Panther took care of it by untying and pulling the mask off. Panther through he won with in the third fall with the armbar, but Adonis was under the ropes. Sam Adonis held onto the ropes to beat Panther a moment later. Tirantes was leaning heel the whole match. Blue Panther challenged Sam Adonis to a hair match, but the whole thing got derailed by Azul tossing Adonis’ flag into the crowd and Adonis never got around to responding.

Thoughts:

The main event was a well performed match which I’m probably just not going to say nice things about. When it was going well, it looked impressive but just as predictable. This was the extended version of their big match, which meant all the spots were coming in the third fall, and all in the same order as usual. UG pulling out a Rainmaker when he had exhausted his playbook was amusing for the reference and for UG showing he could actually do something else. This is one where the efficiency of the moves is counter balanced by the lack of creativity in the layout, and your preferences of those two things is going to sway your opinion on the match strongly either way. The crowd totally got into, tremendously more than the other singles match, and this was successful for what they set out to do. I just can’t imagine rewatching it again; it felt like I already did.

The semimain was the showcase match for the técnicos it looked, but it just took a while to get there. The first two falls were kind of slower than expected, maybe because they were purposefully backloading everything for the third fall. It had all the highspots, with Mistico’s ramp running dive looking spectacular as usual. Dragon Lee and Luciferno continue to have good chemistry and they should just pretend Luciferno is a lightweight to do the title match at this point. It got confusing near the end, with the announcer not really doing a good job of explaining who was still alive and Mistico’s SSP not connecting well, but it was still good.

Pierroth & Vangellys had a normal match, underwhelming in fashion for not being the fiasco and for no shenanigans. It was just the two guys having a match as best as they could, which still wasn’t very good at all. They both move very slow and were all sorts of tired by the end of the match. Vangellys got protected by taking a piledriver and they tried to protect both by going short, but they couldn’t do much even as sort as it was. This was a match only for the interest of the Munoz family and they appeared to be the only people who enjoyed it.

I think once you break out the Love Machine mask, you’re doing the apuesta match. It’s just a matter of time before Blue Panther and Sam Adonis have that match now. They’re still things that can be improved – it’s weird big Adonis is leaping onto Panther all the time – but the crowd a lot cares and it’ll work. Diamante Azul looked clumsy and dangerous during the match, which make me concern when they did the monkey flip spot with Soberano (but that went alright.) Not as much Soberano as in some other matches.

only the second scariest spot with Astral tonight

The second match was better than the opener but that’s the lowest of the bar. It was just a match and boring for a while, with few highlights. It slowed down in the second fall and never really picked back up again to any interesting degree. They didn’t do much, and Dalys was repeating spots while still in the first fall. Zeuxis breaking out the Spanish Fly was the only real highlight.

The opener had the usual problems: a way too long and slow first fall that killed the crowd, tecnicos running thru some of the same sequences as they’d do in a normal match, but unnaturally cut off from dives to boos, Arkangel badly screwing up. To be fair to the técnicos, the crowd ended up booing both teams and the other falls weren’t that much better. We haven’t gotten to see Star Jr. in a real match for a while and this wasn’t one.

Day: July 15, 2017

Volador Universal Champ, The Crash results, AAA in Monterrey

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2017-07-14

Share this:

Share this: