Octagon back in CMLL, Team Mexico wins, Taven on CMLL

CMLL (MON) 08/28/2017 Arena Puebla [CMLL, CultIcon, Sin Limite de Tiempo]
1) Asturiano & Meyer b Ares & Joker 
Asturiano replaced Astro.
2) El Malayo & King Jaguar b Millenium & Rey Samuray 
3) Misterioso Jr. & Sagrado b Drone & Guerrero Maya Jr. 
4) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Mistico b Cavernario, Mephisto, Negro Casas 
Angel de Oro replaced Niebla Roja for the second straight day.
5) Diamante Azul, Euforia, Rush, Último Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Johnny Idol, Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin, Sam Adonis [cibernetico] 
Volador beat Elgin with a poison rana for the win, the first time Team International has lost in this tour.

Main event was fun. They’re not going as full out as we’d expect on Friday and there’s more comedy here than I’d expect in the Gran Prix, but it’s still enjoyable.

The big news from Puebla last night wasn’t that show, but the lineup for next week’s show: Octagon is listed in the main event. Octagon left CMLL in 1992 to help found AAA. He, Antonio Pena, and Konnan were considered forever on Paco Alonso list of people not allowed back to Arena Mexico – not just to work, but Konnan had to sneak in when he wanted to just be at the show – for starting the rival promotion. Octagon did make it back into the building without having to hide, with ELITE being allowed to use him on their shows the last couple of years, but CMLL’s never directly worked with him. And Octagon probably had no great interest in working with CMLL either until he and AAA broke up badly three year ago.

Octagon’s not any good at wrestling and has not been any good at wrestling since I started watching in 2004. If you started watching in the early 90s and you were a kid at that time, he was cool and super popular. If kids liked you, and if you were over when the people who were then wrestling are now booking, you’ll get booked forever and ever even if you have terrible matches, appear in no condition to wrestle frequently and most of the kids who liked you are adults who are no longer into wrestling. (You just need a few fans in the right places.)

CMLL’s booked people who are just as near as bad as Octagon. The mystery about Octagon is why suddenly now. He’s been available for a while. He appears to still be battling over his name, and CMLL’s eventually stopped using the Invasors AAA names in original names over it. (Of course, Octagon is different in that he started that name in CMLL – maybe this plays into it somehow?) I’d guess this means he’s on the Anniversario show somehow – maybe they’re so concerned about these matches and think bringing Octagon back for it would be a draw? I am missing a piece.

It’s really interesting that CMLL is allowing a deal with a Konnan run company and bringing back Octagon at about the same time. Either thing alone my be a blip, but those are the two living people forever hated by CMLL – except forever doesn’t seem to be forever now.

Let’s take a moment to note CMLL has plenty of ways to hype news and even a show called Informa, and the way they revealed Octagon was returning to the promotion after 25 years was a lineup page being quietly updated in the dead of night. They are consistently terrible at this sort of thing. They did have a press conference to announce insurance plan for luchadors, which had been previously announce with AAA and others.

CMLL’s preview of today’s CMLL card mentions Rush is in the eye of hurricane. It’s played off like Rush is siempre in the eye of the hurricane, but he’s surrounded by chaos than usual. In addition to The Crash appearances, which will be formerly announced this afternoon, Rush was also hanging out at TripleMania. He was there with La Mascara to support Psycho Clown, but the Wrestling Observer reported Dorian Roldan was pitching Rush on jumping to AAA and promising him next year’s TripleMania main event. The report sounded like nothing was agreed to and he’s sticking with this CMLL & The Crash bit, but this is easily not the first time AAA’s worked on convincing him to jump.

Tonight’s CMLL “Nuevo Valores” show actually has a new person match; the opener is Fiero & Sangre Imperial versus Templario & Grako in a battle of newcomers. Fiero & Templario have been the best of the recent additions and there seems to be less limitations on these matches than the past.

The matches on the rest of the card don’t seem that important – the Gran Prix being around the corner and Mistico/UG last week means there’s probably not much going on here. The main event is listed as Pierroth, Rush and Gran Guerrero versus Angel de Oro, Caristico and Niebla Roja, but CMLL’s preview lists Diamante Azul instead of Roja. Roja has missed his matches Sunday and Monday too. He’s oddly not booked on Friday, but is back on Sunday. His recent Twitter posts do not suggest anything is wrong, but missing a run of shows raises some alarms about his availability in two weeks.

Dragon Lee, Rey Cometa, and Stuka face Ephesto, Luciferno and Rey Bucanero. Titan takes on Polvora. Titan wins this match most every time they have it, but it’s usually a pretty good match. Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya face Puma, Tiger and Virus in a match that’s reliably good, but they’ve over-relied on of late. Arkangel, Nitro and Sangre Azteca vs Astral, Pegaso and Stigma is reliably not good. The show airs on CMLL’s YouTube at 7:30pm.

Gran Guerrero was asked about fans saying Zeuxis & Princesa Sugehit maybe headlining instead of Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero, and said the only thing he could say: they’re really good and they could main event and it’s good they’ll also be on the card.

Flip Kendrick Gordon says he’s in Mexico from 09/16 to 09/30. I’d presume he’s working the Lucha Memes show after the Anniversary show in addition to the CMLL dates.

ROH World has an interview with Matt Taven, with a lot of talk about his time in CMLL. Taven said CMLL was actually interested in him before he suffered his knee injury (Dec 2015), but they were having problems getting the visas all worked out at that point. He was contacted about coming in September, had been aiming for a October return, but sped up his rehab to make it in time. CMLL had him working so much and he survived without his knee OK, so it also gave him some confidence going forward. He mentions Marco, Sam Adonis, Titan and Ultimo Guerrero for helping him get adjusted to CMLL and life in Mexico. He’s been able to get around on his own because he got a lot of help the first couple days and seems to be really enjoying the trips.

I hadn’t thought about it in light of TripleMania, but Sexy Star was announced for those Lucha Underground/AAA shows in Japan in October, which is probably a reason they won’t actually cut ties with her. AAA still hasn’t acknowledged that tour though.

Dr. Wagner Jr. was being called Rey Wagner last night in Nuevo Laredo. I’m uncertain if that’s just a new nickname or if he’s going to be billed as it for the moment.

Vampiro used his personal Facebook page to announce it was a personal Facebook page and that he would not be speaking for officially AAA there. And then he said “the situation that is going around will be dealt with very ethically and professionally” and there will be a statement soon. I think that statement is happening today. Vampiro then moves on to the real issue of the day: Dave Meltzer not calling him. He really really wants a call. Please call. Please. The Meltzer thing is old, but it reads like he got a talking too about what he’s allowed to post after the stuff with Taya – that was always a source of conflict when Konnan had the same job. Deep in the comments, Vampiro claims TripleMania drew 22000. That doesn’t seem right; 22300 is the listed capacity and you’d figure more than that would have to be cut off for the stage. (It was a really nice stage this year.)

AAA put up this week’s TV show this morning. It’s later than usual, but I assume they just gave everyone a couple days off.

The Crash has their press conference today at 2pm. They’ll probably have a announcements in addition to Rush & Pierroth.

Rey Fenix resurfaced to apologize for missing the Fight Club shows this past week. He blames “an accident happened that no one wanted”. I hope everything’s OK.

IWRG added Bombero Infernal vs Eterno in a hair match to Sunday’s show.

10/21 Lucha Libre y Pasion in Arena San Juan

• Xtreme Tiger & Daga vs Fly Warrior & Aramis
• Toxin & Tromba vs Kastigador & Vengador
• Eterno vs Bandido – new

That sounds like a fun match which hasn’t been done much.

Lucha Underground announced Argenis vs Marty for this week’s show.

GALLI has announced Penta, Fenix, Maximo, La Mascara, and DJZ for their anniversary show on 09/10 outside of Chicago.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

+LuchaTV’s podcast talks about TripleMania. Look, if you’re not unintentionally starting international incidents on your podcast, you are not on +LuchaTV’s level. They’ve also got a video interview with Dragon Lee and Rush, neither of which are wearing shirts for some reason.

Sensaciones de Luchadors talks to Aeroboy about his favorite luchadors growing up, and why he likes lucha extrema.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 09/04/2017 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger, Lestat, Tigre Rojo Jr. vs El Malayo, Fuerza Chicana, Guerrero Espacial
2) Astro, Asturiano, Último Dragóncito vs Joker, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico
3) Ángel de Oro, Drone, Soberano Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys
4) Blue Panther, Johnny Idol, Valiente vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Sam Adonis
5) Mistico, Octagón, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Kojima, Último Guerrero

Beside that one name, Kojima seems to be sticking around for the weekend.

Super Astro (SAT) 09/16/2017 Arena Azteca Budokan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Demus 3:16, Diva Salvaje, Rossy Moreno vs Demasiado, Pandora Pecadora, Taylor Wolf
2) Diamante, Imposible, Metaleón vs Ciclón Ramírez, El Bandido, Emperador Azteca
3) Fishman Jr. vs Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Flamita, Jack Evans, Fresero Jr., Último Ninja
4) Antifaz del Norte vs Oriental, Máximo
5) Sharlie Rockstar & Silver King vs Trauma I & Trauma II
6) Cibernético, Dark Ozz, Dark Spíritu vs Garza Jr., LA Park, Rey Escorpión
7) La Máscara & Zorro vs Daga & LA Park

Super Astro’s Independence day show. No Rush or Dragon Lee, so no one’s probably going to be working this show and Arena Mexico (which will start the same time.) Rey Escorpion still working here is a little surprising, may be subject to change.