CMLL (TUE) 11/14/2017 Arena México [CMLL, Wrestling With Gifs]
1) Fiero & Magia Blanca b Grako & Yago 
Yago replaced Coyote.
2) La Jarochita, Marcela, Sanely b La Metálica, La Seductora, Zeuxis
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys b Drone, Rey Cometa, Titán
4) Virus b Mr. Cacao [lightning]
Cacao wants a rematch in Japan.
5) Blue Panther, Soberano Jr., Valiente DQ Ephesto, Felino, Luciferno
straight falls, Luciferno fouling Soberano
6) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Stuka Jr. b Hechicero, Mr. Niebla, Terrible
Hechicero & Terrible replaced Negro Casas & Shocker.
Mr. Niebla is the only one on the rudo side who made his bookings, that seems unlikely. Negro Casas & Shocker seemed to be booked to once again set up a tag title match with Diamante Azul & Stuka. They missed this week, but it looks like the title match still wasn’t going to happen: Diamante Azul was pulled from all matches after. I assume that means he’s head to France again. Soberano is in on Saturday, Volador picks up Sunday’s main event, and Niebla Roja takes his place on Monday.
Sounds like Dragon Lee missed Tuesday’s Guadalajara show due to medical issues.
The MMM show had Lucha Underground’s Eric Van Wagenen to talk about season 4. It’s one you should go listen to yourself to get the context: some of the answers were specifically unspecific, either because Van Wagenen didn’t want to announce things before LU officially did, or because the details are still being worked out.
The big answers: season 4 will be “an episode count in the 20s”, taping will start in “early to mid February” and finish by the end of March, and the season will debut “in late spring/early summer”; EVW guesses May, but give or take a month on that and it’s really out of his hands. He figures he’ll be able to deliver completed episodes in March or April, but El Rey makes the decision of when they start to air.
The taping schedule jumps out. It’s about half the time as usual. EVW said it’s a budget consequence, and figures they’ll probably be taping every weekend and maybe some Fridays to squeeze it all in quickly. There will also be cutbacks in other areas (“a department that was five people might be four people”, less vignettes), though his hope is these will be one season cutbacks and they’ll be in better shape in the future. EVW said “the deal is in place for seasons five, sixth and seven” – not that it’s done, but they set up the framework of how those deals would be made. Still, after how hard it seemed to be to get a fourth season, the possibility of a seventh was something I was having a tough time grasping. If they happen, they’d be taped at about the same time of the year and one per year: when LU finishes taping Season 4 in March, that’ll be it for 2018.
That leaves about ten months of the year with no Lucha Underground taping. They’ve not given up on touring, though he acknowledged that hasn’t worked out. They never wanted to have a one year hiatus and know “it hasn’t been fair to keep people on a shelf”, especially when their wrestling careers are not that long. So, LU’s decided to drop their TV exclusivity, and allow their wrestlers to appear on other wrestling groups TV. EVW mentions Ring of Honor, Impact, NOAH, and Stardom as promotions they’ve talked to open doors for their wrestlers. (This appears to already have been going on: Joey Ryan was announced as appearing in Ring of Honor this morning, and it would explain how Sami Callihan ended up in Impact.) EVW says these deals are under Dorian Roldan’s control, but they’re going to be negotiating with groups in hopes of getting their guys more TV exposure, hoping that helps LU as well. Van Wagenen presumes these opportunities will also be open to guys like Penta & Fenix who’ve left AAA, feeling time will probably fix those problems. (If you read Masked Republic’s tweets yesterday and today that does not appear to have happened.)
The hope is giving Lucha Underground wrestlers those outside opportunities will make them want to stay Lucha Underground wrestlers. That may not be the case for everyone, and Van Wagenen says they’re open to letting people out of their contracts as long as they come back to allow the writers to resolve their characters on the show and drop any titles. There may be more to it – “where it’s reasonable, we’ll negotiate him” – but they seem at least open to possibility of letting people move on if that’s what they want. The reality of the situation is there’s not going to have the same amount of TV time this season anyway, so they want to focus on the people who want to be there.
They still plan on adding people for Season 4. There’s a hope that allowing LU wrestlers to work other promotions will be a two way street. The Black Lotus Triad story is cited as something that they felt worked, and they’d be interested in bringing in outside people from other promotions as “guest stars” for a weekend’s worth of tapings that wouldn’t require a long term contract. Chris DeJoseph also has people he’s seen in AAA this year that he’s very excited to bring in.
There’s one notable hitch that came up: they may not have access to the Temple. They had a hold on the building, but they’ve pushed back recording so long that other people have been using it and they’re still figuring out how/when to get in there. They have contingency plans – it sounds like a specific second Los Angeles line – but they’re still trying to make it work and that’s also probably why there’s no hard taping dates as of yet.
Netflix briefly came up, and it turns out the hold up is all on Netflix. It’s up to them to decide if they want to pick up the third season of the show and when it would air; it’s all ready to go on the LU side. LU expects it will be up there, but also has other plans if Netflix doesn’t pick up the show before their option expires. If it’s anything like El Rey, they may want until just about the last day to do so.
Aro Lucha is the name of the the new Aroluxe lucha libre promotion. (Recap: this is a group that was producing TNA/Impact for a time and unsuccessfully tried to take it over. This is the promotion with the Harris Brothers.) Aro Lucha announced it’s name and it’s lead writer today: Konnan. Way back when, Konnan was told he’d be in charge of creative for Lucha Underground, but eventually ended up just producing some of the matches until he was killed off in season 1. We don’t know a lot about this promotion/TV show, but the little we do know is they want to do LU the way they felt it should’ve been done. Konnan both was part of LU and had some disagreements about things that were done there, so he’s a logical fit. It’s a surprise he’s involved only because I would’ve guessed his involvement in Impact might have not permitted this, and he’s already going to have a lot on his plate between that promotion and The Crash in Mexico. We don’t know how much of a commitment this is; if it’s simply putting together episodes and being behind the camera, it’s not as much time and probably not in conflict with anything else.
There’s no in-ring talent announced yet for this show. That press release mentions The Crash, Rey Mysterio, Psicosis (name spelled wrong), Penta and Fenix as guys Konnan has helped find. The idea is he’ll find the next generation of those guys, and I wonder if that means The Crash young guys not tied to LU (Arkangel Divino, Ultimo Maldito to pick two) will end up working here as well. We don’t know who exactly will be in Arolucha or when anything is happen, but their Facebook suggests they’ve somehow already sold a house show.
The Crash finished up it’s tour in Leon, which included Mr. 450/MechaWolf joining La Rebelion Amarilla. It was not intended to be the final show of this tour: tonight’s show in Tulancingo was canceled late last night. The Crash’s statement says they and the local promotion (OME Produciones) agreed to postpone the show to another date. They say it came because of recommendations of local authorities after violence in the city early in the week. They plan to return either before the end of the year or early next year, still having Rey Mysterio on the card.
RIOT’s now on Powerbomb.TV. Their July show, BLOW, is available now. I’ve heard good things about the Please Don’t Dive Invitational. The main event, Fly Warrior vs Shane Strickland, is part of the Powerbomb.TV tournament and aired live at the time. I’ll have a recap of this show at some point. The promotion says they’re hoping their previous 9 shows will be up soon.
Rey Escorpion talks up his match with Psycho Clown and Pagano Thursday in Gimnasio G2 in Mexico City. That’s not a TV taping; AAA’s been putting more attention on house shows of late.
El Manana talks to Monterrey luchador Obesesion.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 11/21/2017 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Astral, Flyer, Robin vs Akuma, Espanto Jr., Templario
3) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta vs Metálica, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
4) Fuego vs Pegasso [lightning]
5) Johnny Idol, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mr. Niebla
6) Ángel de Oro, Marco Corleone, Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero
Another tecnico/tecnico lightning match? I dunno.
CMLL (TUE) 11/21/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Cosmos & Micro vs Exterminador & Thunder Boy
2) Magnus, Oro Jr., Star Black vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Difunto, Sangre Azteca
3) Drone, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Misterioso Jr., Puma, Sagrado
4) Dragón Lee vs Cavernario
5) Soberano Jr., Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Pierroth, Rush, Sam Adonis
Dragon Lee vs Cavernario in a three fall non-title match will probably be good. Can’t wait to find out how I’m unable to see this one. Main event is a style mix.