CMLL (TUE) 02/06/2018 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Violencia & Pierrothito 
2) Astral, Oro Jr., Star Jr. b Espanto Jr., Nitro, Sangre Azteca
tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Virus b Audaz, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr.
Rudos took 1/3. Kawato’s first win in CMLL.
4) Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr., Titán b Felino, Hechicero, Rey Bucanero
5) Cuatrero DQ Ángel de Oro
Cuatrero took 1/3, the last when Angel de Oro fouled and unmasked him. Mask match challenges followed.
6) Carístico, Niebla Roja, Valiente b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
Tecnicos took 1/3.
Cuatrero/Angel de Oro was more set up than match.
Kawato keeps looking at Misterioso when he’s doing something – or not supposed to be doing something. He did it while applying a wristlock to beat Fuego in the first fall and then I couldn’t stop noticing it. They’ve been on the same team in every match so far. It is nice they’ve assigned someone to make sure Kawato knows what he’s doing in these matches, since they usually have Okumura in that role.
CMLL held it’s Dos Leyendas press conference today. Some of the stuff was already announced, some new, just like last week’s AAA show.
CMLL (TUE) 02/06/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@Arena_GDL]
1) Omar Brunetti & Tigre Blanco ?? Joker & Thunder Boy
tecnicos took 1, rudos took fall 2, no third fall reported
2) La Seductora, Reyna Isis, Tiffany b Kaho Kobayashi, Lady Maravilla, Sanely
rudas took 1/3
3) Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Tritón b Disturbio, Puma, Tiger
Puma’s return from Japan. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Blue Panther b Okumura
Okumura wore a Blue Panther mask to taunt him. Panther took falls 2/3 to win. Money thrown in.
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Dragón Lee, Marco Corleone, Volador Jr.
Rudos took 1/3, UG sneaking in a foul on his current partner Volador.
Hooray, UG wrestling Atlantis & Volador, how novel.
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas
The show will take place on March 16th, with Angel de Oro versus Cuatrero in a mask versus mask match. This has seemed like the direction the last few weeks. It still mirror the past year’s Anniversary show, two guys who have never been used as singles main eventers on big shows being asked to carry a big show. The rest of the card is TBA.
Mil Mascaras will be the legend honored. He appeared in a video tape bit.
Tickets for the show on Ticketmaster run $336.00 – $1,476.00 MXN (18 -78 USD). Last year’s show (Pierroth/Diamatne Azul) went from 304-1849. Anniversary went 363-2352.
ELITE
It’s back. With a poster and TV.
This version of Elite is presented as more of an overt CMLL/ELITE co-promotional situation than in times past. Ernesto Santillán was there as Elite general manager, and Gerardo Melin & Rafaél Ayala will be announcers. Hechicero & Tirantes will also work as guest announcers, the role Shocker filled last time.
Elite will be airing on A+, an subchannel offshoot of the main Azteca channel in Mexico that was launched just last year. Most of the country can get the channel over the air, though it’s figures to have much less awareness than the channel they were on previously. (In the US, these digital subchannels have not caught on at all, not sure how it’s gone in Mexico.) Shows will air on Sundays at 2pm, the week after they take place.
It is possible the US Azteca eventually picks up this show, though that wasn’t announced as a plan here.
Ultimo Guerrero made it clear he wants the Elite heavyweight championship currently held by Cibernetico, in the process of burying him for not showing up for the press conference. Golden Magic was the sole ELITE luchador present.
Other CMLL announcements
The CMLL tag team titles were declared vacant, for not having been defended in 16 months. (The last defense was in October 2016.) CMLL had been trying to get the titles off of Shocker & Casas for a while, only one or the other would get hurt or be otherwise busy or an earthquake would cancel shows for two weeks. It seemed like they should just vacate them for a while and had held off doing them. I’d think this means they had new champs and a plan to get there ready to go and just needed to get the titles freed, except CMLL said they didn’t have any specific plan to fill the tournament to announce.
The new Teleformula show starts this Sunday, at 1pm. They’ll air Friday matches, starting with the current tournament.
None of this will affect the internet/YouTube content. It’ll go on as it has.
No one appeared to ask about Drone, at least during the live press conference.
AAA & LA Park
(This is no longer the H2L press conference)
Last night, there was an interesting Twitter interaction R de Rudo picked up on. The shorter version is LA Park told a fan he can’t be at TripleMania or fight AAA guys without an invitation, and Dorian invited him. They’ve continued it today, and now AAA’s own Twitter has RT-ed it. That confirms it’s something AAA wants to promote.
There were rumors of LA Park making a surprise appearance as part of the Guerra de Titanes main event. It may have been a reason that whole cage match came off so badly; the theory goes LA Park just didn’t show and they threw something together – but the only people who know for sure are LA Park & AAA and they’re not saying. What we do know is Park would obviously like to have a payoff the level of what Wagner got last year, and AAA would like the attention bringing that would come with bringing back Park once again. This fits Dorian talking about trying to sign a national star and later talking about how stars want to work in AAA.
This doesn’t mean LA Park is necessarily going back to AAA – it’s LA Park, he does whatever he wants, he could show up in Elite on Sunday and no one would be shocked. But there’s smoke to this Twitter bit.
Other News
The California based Heroes of Lucha Libre hasn’t been seen since running it’s second show in December. Tinieblas says they’ll be back April 6, 7th and 8th. That’s WrestleMania weekend. There’s no location announced so I guess they could even be in New Orleans. The building they have been using, Citizen Bank Arena, is booked for a hockey game on April 6.
MDA posted a Rush promo (against the MAD group.) MDA sending out promos to build to matches is interesting, but the thing that struck me was this might mean about Rush’s status. This could mean he’s done with The Crash for the time being, since CMLL seems to let their top guys only pick one of these indie groups to work with. A big attraction of The Crash for Rush was to work with La Mascara and that’s not an option now. He’s not on The Crash’s next card and hasn’t been announced as coming with them to WrestleMania.
Lucha Memes says their next show will be on 03/11 back in Coacalco, with Keyra vs Kaho Kobayashi. This is not a title match, though the title is an interesting part of this. Keyra was CMLL REINA International Junior champion, REINA took the belt away (likely because a deal couldn’t be worked out with Keyra), and Kobayashi won the vacant title.
The art for this Memes show is Japanese themed. They’ve hinted about booking Kawato while he’s in Mexico, so I think there’s a chance he works this show
+LuchaTV’s latest podcast includes interviews w/NGD and Mr. Iguana..
Box Y Lucha has the Alvarados and Andrade Almas on the cover.
El Universal writes about lucha libre photographer Gonzalo Lopez.
Debate has an article on Culiacan luchador el Delfin.
New Zealand’s Stuff has the usual tourist visits Arena Mexico piece.
Arolucha is holding a contest to meet Rey Mysterio at a yet to be announced taping in Nashville.
2018 is Lucha Libre writes about NGD vs Kamikazes del Aire and Kawato’s latest match.
Lineups
CMLL (MON) 02/12/2018 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Asturiano, Black Tiger vs Joker, King Jaguar, Saurón
2) Arkalis, Millenium, Starman vs Cancerbero, El Malayo, Raziel
3) Stuka Jr., Titán, Tritón vs Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado
4) Mistico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Atlantis vs Último Guerrero
This is the 7th time Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero have wrestled a singles in this building alone in the last 7 years. Matches 3/4 could be good.
AAA TV (SUN) 02/25/2018 Plaza de Toros Rodolfo Rodriguez el Pana, Apizaco, Tlaxcala
1) Dinastía, Pimpinela Escarlata, Venum vs Chicano, Mamba, Villano III Jr. [Rey de Reyes, qualifying]
2) Raptor & Tiger Boy vs Ángel Mortal Jr. & Máscara de Bronce [Rey de Reyes, qualifying]
3) Dave The Clown & La Parka vs Monsther Clown & Murder Clown [Rey de Reyes, qualifying]
4) Angelikal & Bengala vs Histeria & Psicosis [Rey de Reyes, qualifying]
5) Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Hijo Del Vikingo vs Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly [Rey de Reyes, qualifying]
6) La Máscara, Máximo, Psycho Clown vs Hernandez, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Rey Escorpión
AAA suddenly realized both they have a Rey de Reyes tournament coming up and also that they employ Dinasita. Great news for everyone. The main event might be a Rey de Reyes match too, who’s to say. Last year’s Rey de Reyes was an unannounced Royal Rumble, so no idea what these matches are leading into this time.
(What’s great here is it’s going to be pretty tough for AAA to announce a Rey de Reyes card without giving these matches all away.)
For what it’s worth, CMLL doesn’t own Maximo – another non-wrestling company had the rights to name for merchandise, which is why he ended up as Maximo Sexy. CMLL did file a trademark for La Mascara in 2010, listing this guy’s first usage of it in 2004 as the start. Plenty of people have used La Mascara even before then, which might be why that trademark has been stuck in “under review” status for the last 7 years.
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