CMLL (FRI) 01/19/2018 Arena México [Culticon, F4WOnline, MarcaClaro, Ovaciones, thecubsfan, Wrestling With GIFs]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro b Fantasy & Último Dragóncito 
10:56. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Lady Maravilla, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
14:24. Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Raziel, Sagrado, Tiger b Esfinge, Rey Cometa, Tritón
17:04. Rudos took 1/3.
4) Kráneo b Hechicero [lightning]
9:12. Kraneo won via legdrop with plenty of help from Mije.
5) Euforia, Felino, Mr. Niebla b Stuka Jr., Titán, Valiente
8:38. Tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone b Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys
8:43. Tecnicos took 2/3. Azul pinned Terrible to set up a title match next week.
Matches 3/4 are the ones to watch. It didn’t occur to me how short the matches were running until I did the math later. That means it was probably fine going short.
The usual backstage interviews were exciting last night. Kraneo called Psicosis (Ripper) and Histeria prostitutes for going back to AAA and insulted their current ownership. Zeuxis assured the media she’s not leaving CMLL, just doing some indie dates. Tiger can’t get over the Misterioso issue. Marcela and others wondered why the women never get to go on FantasticaMania or a similar tour of Japan. (Probably would help if CMLL wasn’t partnered with a promotion which only runs a few events a year.)
CMLL’s website revealed the Torneo Incredible de Parejas tournament would return in February. That’s the normal time for it, and no date is announced. It didn’t come up in the broadcast last night. They also put up an article to specifically remind us Atlantis & Mascara Dorada won the first one. Dorada was wrestling on the first 205 Live house show tonight.
AroLucha (FRI) 01/19/2018 Azteca Music Hall, Amarillo, Texas [AroLucha]
1) Low Rider b Trey Miguel
2) Gringo Loco (Illinois) & Steve Pain b Aaron Solow & Ricky Starks
3) Draztick Boy, Máscarita Dorada, Taya b Demus, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, LuFisto
4) La Máscara b Black Taurus (Indie), Laredo Kid
5) Low Ki NC Hurricane Helms
La Mascara & Pirata Morgan ran in, evidentally setting up a tag match
6) Juventud Guerrera & Súper Crazy b Carlito & James Storm
This was the first live show for the group, and the ticket situation looked a little dire going into the night. This group is doing a lot of local media the day of the show. The turnout doesn’t look bad., maybe half full in a small building, about what you’d expect for a new group. The show sounds like it was fun, and they announced a return date here of 04/28 with Rey Mysterio.
Alberto’s Luchando Por Ellos benefit show is about to happen as you read it. They announced the lineup about two months ago and it’s an indie show, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it change again. They’ve been talking about adding Hijo del Fantasma to the show tonight. Many of the people working on this show will be working an MDA show tomorrow night in Monterrey, and I suspect they’re the people actually running the nuts and bolts of the show. Alberto has been doing a lot of promoting of this show – there’s an image shaping aspect to this event, but he seems to be taking it seriously. Speaking of image, this would be Sexy Star/Sexy Dulce’s first match in Mexico City since TripleMania.
This was initially advertised as airing on Claro’s website, but there’s been no mention of it in the last week and they haven’t promoted it on Facebook so I don’t suppose it’s happening.
The Crash runs it’s first Tijuana show of the year tonight in a few hours. The main event is scheduled to be Daga, Masada and Penta vs Bestia, Garza and Mr. 450. The semimain will now by Rey Horus (making his return to the promotion) versus Joey Janela (making his debut.) That was the Matt Riddle spot; The Crash finally announced Riddle as off the show Friday afternoon, posting the flight information and some Twitter DM conversations with Riddle taking the blame. Unlike you and me, The Crash’s Twitter DMs do not appear to include dates or times under the messages. Either The Crash uses a special version of Twitter not available to the rest of the world, or they took those items off to hide how long they’ve known about the cancellation.
Here’s the thing: this didn’t start out as The Crash screwing up. The Crash totally legitimately booked Matt Riddle for this show. This was Matt Riddle double booking himself, as Matt Riddle has been known to do. My belief is Riddle wanted to go to Tijuana tonight and thought he could talk AAW out of letting him out of the 01/20 show, which is why he mentioned the show on Twitter. He could not, because it turned out AAW had planned on Riddle being the main event of their own show on that day. Riddle found this out, and didn’t immediately let The Crash know the bad news. (As best I can tell, he didn’t tell them until he asked.)
The Crash’s problems came to light the moment AAW announced Riddle, but started from having a misguided view of their own importance. I write (and will continue to) write a lot about The Crash. I am one of the few people in the entire world writing much about The Crash. The promotion puts on good shows and draws a lot of fans to Tijuana and that actually really matter a whole lot in wrestling in 2018, as hard as it may to believe if you’re in Mexico. What matters for a wrestler is how much they’re getting paid, and their likelyhood to get paid more. I dunno what AAW & The Crash were offering Riddle for tonight, but I’m guessing AAW also previously agreed to bring in Riddle at least a half dozen dates in 2018. I’m 100% sure that working in front of an AAW (or any bigger US indie) crowd is also getting Riddle more dates because people who promoter and program other shows are 100% more likely to see Riddle on an AAW show than The Crash show. Running a show in front of 5,000 people is great and I wish everyone could do it, but the way you get people work in 2018 is to get them on (good quality) video so people elsehwere can see them, and then can book them elsewhere.
The Crash (and every other Mexican indie) insistence on not taping their shows is making it less attractive for outsiders to want to work there. I doubt Riddle was working their even if they were live on Twitch – again, one booking versus a handful – but I’d suspect it makes a difference for a few. It’s probably costing The Crash money and I’m absolutely sure it’s costing the wrestlers work. Just to name a few, Arkangel Divino had a strong 2017 in the Crash, so did Black Danger, so did Bestia 666, so did Mr. 450 – and none of those guys are really getting booked elsewhere because of their work in The Crash because no one’s watching cellphone videos of matches besides me. Those same people are going to work WrestleMania weekend and – because a whole bunch of people who been able to easily see them might stumble upon them – they’re going to suddenly get a lot more inquiries. Visibility matters. The Crash is really visible to about 5,000 people but might as well be on the moon for the rest of the people. And same with most everyone else in Mexico.
Anyway: The Crash assumed Riddle was coming because they’re The Crash, and hopefully this was a cup of cold water to the face waking them up to what being The Crash really means at this point. We’re about eighteen months into The Crash pinning all their hopes on a TV deal which is clearly not anywhere close to happening, so I’m not expecting this to be the wake up call. Still, there’s definitely an opening in the Mexican indie wrestling market for someone to promote like an adult.
Adult thing: today’s Record had an interview with Johnny Mundo hyping Guerra de Titanes. AAA confirmed to me Mundo’s good to go, so whatever reason Mundo said he wasn’t going to come has been resolved.
This week’s AAA show is up on YouTube already.
FantasticaMania is in – uh, 6 hours from now because taking forever to write. That’s 3:30CT. Tonight’s show has the Volador/Cavernario match and the first half of the brothers tag team tournament (UG & GG vs Angel de Oro/Niebla Roja and Dragon Lee/Mistico vs NGD.)
Sofia Alonso has been on the FantasticaMania tour. She’s very visible on the SamuraiTV FantasticaMania show and Mr. Cacao posted a photo with her today. I don’t know if this is anything but just getting an understanding of this tour and NJPW, I don’t expect some big announcement to be coming. Still, every time you read me or someone else say “changes coming in CMLL, new generation of leadership”, that’s talking about Sofia Alonso and the people close to her. She’s really already at this point the public face of the family which owns the promotion, since her father Paco Alonso hasn’t ever done this public stuff. The harder part to know when/if she’ll the one making the decisions; anything change this point forward is going to be attributed to something decision she’s made, but CMLL is a black box of decision making and any number of people could be pulling the strings at any moment. Trying to figure out who’s exactly doing what from the outside of CMLL is really tough.
+LuchaTV has a sit down interview with Penta. It goes 48 minutes, and it’s a fine listen, talking about his year and The Crash’s plans for a gym.
Pushing Upwards writes about the Rey Pantera Jr/Hijo de Rey Pantera vs As del Espacio & As del Espacio double mask match from Xalapa.
SegundaCaida reviews Lucha Underground episode 3 x 26 and Tim makes me consider the possibility of Tirantes t-shirts.
Aerostar & Drago picked up tag team titles in Australia (so I guess they’re going back!)
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 01/26/2018 Arena México
1) Flyer & Robin vs Akuma & Espanto Jr.
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Nitro, Raziel
3) Audaz, Drone, Starman vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Virus
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
5) Terrible © vs Diamante Azul [MEX HEAVY]
second defnese, second time versus Diamante Azul
6) Atlantis, Dragón Lee, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Everyone’s back from Japan next Friday. Main event is probably good outside of Atlantis. Diamante Azul might get the title win. Fourth match continues the NGD vs Hijos de Apolo Chavez matches. Audaz is in a high position. Star & Astral are reunited to fight Grumpy Rudos. Opener would be hot if Espanto Jr. was good.