Volador beats Mistico (twice), (some of) The Crash in Neza, trios title match off

CMLL (FRI) 12/15/2017 Arena México [CMLL, Ovaciones, thecubsfan, Wrestling with GIFs]
1) Star Jr. & Starman b Hijo del Signo & Templario 
8:53. straight falls, and lots of mask ripping.
2) Shockercito © b Mercurio [CMLL MINI] 
12:43. Shockercito took 2/3. 2nd defense
3) Lady Maravilla, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis 
12:53. Rudas took 2/3. Pato Soria was honored after the match.
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rey Cometa b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón 
19:49. Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Ephesto, Mephisto, Sam Adonis b Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Pólvora 
11:06. Team Adonis took 1/3. Shocker replaced Negro Casas on Monday, but was replaced Polvora due to Pato Soria passing away.
6) Mistico, Terrible, Volador Jr. b Carístico, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
15:45 Team Mistico took 1/3. Mistico & Volador wrestled as rudos again. Finish saw everyone foul or unmask eveyone else in turn until Volador pinned Caristico. Caristico challenged for a mask vs hair match, and Volador said UG’s hair was worth more than Caristico’s mask. Mistico, Volador, Caristico and Soberano were left in the ring at the end of the post match, with the ‘rudos’ attacking Caristico and Mistico counting a mock Volador pin.

I liked matches 1, 2 and 6 and everyone besides me liked match 4. Attendance might have been slightly been better. The main event angle seems to be working, but next week will be the real test.

The Crash (FRI) 12/15/2017 Arena Neza [+LuchaTV]
1) Kalibus b Black Metal, Lunatik Extreme, Demonio Infernal
bonus match?
2) Pegazus & Tromba b Sky Man & Torito Negro
3) Látigo, Tiago, Toxin b Aramis, Astrolux, Black Boy
Rebelion Amarilla attacked Astrolux to cause his team to lose. Tiago was annoyed with the interference even though his team worn.
4) Keyra © b Christi Jaynes, Lacey Lane, Mima Shimoda [The Crash WOMEN]
fifth defense. Mima Shimoda’s debut with the group. Rebellion Amarilla offered Keyra a spot. She said nope, so they attacked her and Lacey Lane joined the group instead.
5) El Bandido & Laredo Kid b Neza Kid & Séptimo Dragón
Neza Kid replaced Flamita.
6) Daga © b Mike Segura, Willie Mack [LWA CHAMP]
the LWA title is a Texas promotion. Neza Kid got moved to another match, and Trevor Lee missed the show due to illness. Segura was added to the match.
7) Mecha Wolf & Sammy Guevara b Flamita & The King
Scheduled as Ricochet/Guevera vs Fenix/Penta. Penta was moved up, Flamita replaced him, Ricochet missed the show citing flight issues, 450 replaced him.
8) Blue Demon Jr., M-ximo, Penta 0M b Bestia 666, Garza Jr., Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal was flipped to the rudo side and Penta took his place on the tecnico side with Mr. 450 moving down.

Show drew maybe half full, though the matches got good reviews. I have a (slightly obvious) idea about why these shows aren’t drawing, but you’ll see I’ve used up my ranting time on other things today. Maybe another day.

I don’t have results from Teziutlan, but there are videos of the main event, a match with Taurus, and the opener. They didn’t run Cage/Rush, instead throwing them into the main event to make it a trios. They also didn’t draw well, looking like 15-20% of the building was filled.

a useless section about no-shows

Ricochet posted a video about an hour before the The Crash show apologizing for missing the show and saying he’ll make it up some how. It’s certainly possibly Ricochet may squeeze in a The Crash appearance in the month or so he’s got left before he can sign with WWE, but it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be back Neza any time soon for him to make it up, and it sounded like he knew that even as he was saying in the video (so maybe don’t say it.)

Trevor Lee said he woke up sick and couldn’t make the show.

Both those tweets were RTed by many people, but not The Crash. It’s not like The Crash was prevented from using social media, they posted an Instagram stories and posted on Facebook during the night. Elsewhere on that same Facebook, people were asking The Crash hours ahead of the time about Ricochet not being there, and got no response. (Dark Lucha Whatsapp knew well ahead of time. Word spread fast.)

What The Crash did was put signs near the ticket windows saying Ricochet would not be there because of plane issues. (There didn’t appear to be a mention about Trevor Lee.) That is much better than nothing, and might have actually been enough a decade ago. Today, it comes off as a bet that if you can get people to the arena by not telling them about card changes, they’ll decide they might as well go in. The Crash might have not intended to leave that impression, but that’s how their actions come across.

Deceptive process with no-shows is not just a The Crash issue, it’s a Mexican wrestling issue that no one in Mexican wrestling wants to talk about. CMLL’s website swept Negro Casas all of it’s lineups during the middle of last week. It’s not the ideal way of announcing changes, but at least CMLL stopped advertising Negro Casas – except, they kept advertising him for Puebla social media after he was off that show. IWRG announced Rayan was out the mask match on Sunday in one tweet, and has spent the rest of the week tweeting about Rayan’s mask match as if it’s still on like normal. AAA runs tonight and who knows what card changing joys they’ll bring. Some of this is simply the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, but that’s not an excuse, that’s a problem that long ago should’ve been fixed.

I’ve been railing about this problem for pretty much the entire time I’ve been writing on this website. It hasn’t changed much. I think I should change because this isn’t a fair way to treat customers, and I believe it’d be a business advantage to be the company that the fans the best, but I also don’t think any company is going to make any changes unless the fans get together and force them. And one person typing away on a blog isn’t going to accomplish that.

Other Things

AroLucha announced their next shows as 01/19 in Amarillo and 01/20 in Lubbock. These do not appear to be the TV tapings, but bringing super indie style shows to places which might not have them. That’s kind of what The Crash wanted to do, and also what Lucha Underground could’ve done but failed to do. AroLucha, like many other indie promotions, are going to be making the money Lucha Underground tours could’ve been making, which would’ve left LU in a much stronger spot than “21 episodes taped over 4 weekends.”

(Pause here to note that all Arolucha announcements should be expected to come thru Konnan for the time being. Not necessarily because of his role, but he’s got 60K followers and the promotion has 1K.)

Anyway, that 01/20 date is interesting, because the next The Crash Tijuana show is also on 01/20. The Crash late announced Daga, Penta, and TBA vs Mecha Wolf, Bestia 666, Garza Jr. as the main event. Penta confirmed in the comments that he’d be there. Daga, Penta, Mecha Wolf and Garza were all on the first AroLucha show, and at least seem to not be on the third. I think Arolucha could do fine with Rey, Johnny and a random assortment of other people, but there’s not certainty to who would be on those Arolucha cards until they announce something.

Something odd happened with the Tijuana show with Alberto & Wagner. They didn’t draw well (not horrible, but not near what Crash does), and they started the show late in hopes more people would show up. Maybe because of that late start, they announced midway thru the show that the Alberto/Wagner trios match was actually going to be the semimain. Alberto beat Hijo del Wagner, and two third of the crowd left before Arandu & TJ Boy beat Extreme Tiger & Rey Horuz, which was meant to be the semimian.

Salvador Lutteroth visited Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on Tuesday.

LuchaWorld has an obit on Pato Soria.

This Weekend

Saturday

• AAA has the final taping of their year on in Apizaco. The main event is listed as HIjo de Dr. Wagner versus Hernandez, an incredible sign of how much AAA has changed in the last 12 months. This will probably be the first new TV to air in January; they’re starting the Xalapa show on TV tonight.
• Coliseo has Marco, Soberano and Valiente vs the Axis of Evil
• DTU goes home to Tulancingo for an apuesta cage match.
• Arena Lopez Mateos has Rush & LA Park vs Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero. Chairs will be thrown.
• GIW comes out of hibernation for a show with a lot of singles matches, including probably the only Ultimo Guerrero vs Oriental match you might ever see (if this even turns up)
• Martinez is in Houston, with an Arez, Dralion, Low Rider, Draztick Boy and Ultimo Ninja fiveway.

Sunday

• Arena Mexico main events with Caristico & Dragon Lee & Niebla Roja vs Euforia & Ultimo Guerrero & Terrible.
• IWRG has a mask match with Black Dragon and Who Knows but with Rayan’s mask still on the line.
• MDA has the only Santo & Laredo Kid vs Pirata Morgan & Zorro match that will ever be
• Revolucha runs across town. They’ve announced names but I don’t actually know any of the matches. That’s ok.
• Martinez is in Kennedale with Penta & Fenix vs La Mascara & Maximo and Taurus vs Keith Lee.
• Guadalajara has a mask match and a title match.
• Mucha Luchas Atlanta has a Daga vs Rey Horuz match.

Lineups

CMLL put up Tuesday’s lineup with some important changes.

CMLL (TUE) 12/19/2017 Arena México
1) Bengala & Sonic vs Artillero & El Coyote
2) Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pierrothito
Shockercito replaced Electrico on Saturday.
3) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
4) Blue Panther, Mistico, Valiente vs Johnny Idol, Mr. Niebla, Okumura
Replaces a CMLL Trios title match (w/Adonis & Volador)
5) Volador Jr. vs Sam Adonis
added on Saturday
6) Pierroth, Rush, Terrible vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas[Relevos Increíbles]

Everyone who was supposed to be in the trios title match is still on the show, CMLL just decided to do a singles matches instead. My original theory was CMLL had the Axis of Evil defeating the heroic Mexicans on the same night they were honoring actual heroic Mexicans and decided that wasn’t a great idea. It doesn’t hold thru with that singles match. Adonis beating Volador would get the same reaction. Plus, the timing isn’t great; there’s no sense in beating Sam eight days before his hair match, and no sense in beating Volador three days before he main events. Their styles don’t fit exactly with each other either. I have no idea what the thought process is here.

I do know that means Triton is not making his DF return, at least not yet.

CMLL (FRI) 12/22/2017 Arena México
1) Fiero & Oro Jr. vs Raziel & Templario
2) Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
3) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Cavernario, Cuatrero, Negro Casas
4) Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero, Terrible, Shocker, Sansón, Kráneo, Euforia, Máscara Año 2000, Rey Bucanero, Gran Guerrero, Forastero, Pierroth, Hechicero, Misterioso Jr., Vangellys [Leyenda de Azul]
Cuatrero & Mephisto were originally announced, with Kraneo and Mascara 2000 replacing them.
5) Carístico vs Volador Jr.

That would be Kraneo’s return from being MIA (injury?), which explains why he’d be back. Not sure why Cuatrero got pulled, but the tercera will be better for him. Kind of strange Negro Casas is working Tuesday & Friday but not with Adonis either day.

I do not know how that cibernetico is going to go, but everything else has a chance to be good. Raziel is the best of the old dudes in the cage match so that opener could actually be fun outside of the mask ripping. The other matches are pretty obviously good.