I wrote a book. I’ll probably forget to promote after this weekend so here’s one reminder.
CMLL canceled due to earthquake
Mexico suffered a 7.2 earthquake at 5:39 pm on Friday evening. The earthquake was centered in Oaxaca, which has some of the worst damage from last September’s earthquake. It was felt in Mexico City, though the damage does not seem to be as bad there as the September earthquake. The local government requires an inspect of large scale entertainment buildings like Arena Mexico after earthquakes, and could not complete it in time to open the doors for Friday’s Arena Mexico show at 7:30pm and the show was canceled. It was just a matter of hours; CMLL indicates the building was confirmed OK to use later that night.
CMLL had Saturday scheduled as an off day previous, with a boxing promotion using Arena Coliseo for the night. That, and CMLL’s Sunday show are expected to go on as normal. The card scheduled for last night in Arena Mexico will now take place this upcoming Friday (February 23rd). It’ll be the same lineup, with the incredible pairs final again scheduled. The 02/23 was scheduled to be the “normal” week in between CMLL’s Friday night tag team tournaments. They’ll now just directly follow each other.
CMLL says tickets for last night’s show can now be used for next week’s show. Refunds are also available at Arena Mexico and Ticketmaster.
No one else has announced any cancellations for this weekend and shows are expected to go on as usual.
The Crash in Tijuana
The Crash (FRI) 02/16/2018 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [+LuchaTV, 126F, Lo Mejor de Lucha, The Crash]
1) Búfalo Ayala, Mirage, Último Maldito b Cardenal Jr., Rayo Star, Súper Caló Jr.
Mirage replaced Jonathan
2) Bestia 666, Garza Jr., Mr. 450 b Arkángel Divino, Astrolux, Black Boy
Rebelion Amarilla won their ‘punishment’ match easily, and demanded tougher opponents. Penta, Fenix and Daga confronted them, with Penta challenging Garza to a mask hair match. Garza accepted – if the Red group wins a cage match. Masada was added to the Rebelion Roja.
3) Black Danger & Lacey Lane b Diosa Atenea & Douglas James and Danny Limelight & Lady Flammer
4) Willie Mack b Black Taurus, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Sharlie Rockstar [The Crash HEAVY, torneo]
as best anyone can tell, Willie Mack is the #1 contender to Rey Misterio’s championship
5) Daga & Masada (Texas) b Aeroboy & Violento Jack
Weapons match. Masada & Violento Jack made challenges for a one on one death match
6) CIMA, Extreme Tiger, Rey Horus b Penta Zero M, Rey Mysterio Jr., The King
Bestia challenged Rey to a title match afterwards for 03/17.
The title match is now official. Bestia getting the title shot after Willie Mack won a match to win a title show is odd itself. March 17th is interesting. Lucha Underground tapings were originally said to be three weeks. Everyone’s said five weeks of late. March 17th is the fourth week. Mysterio is no long on Lucha Underground. Bestia is – or at least was – Vampiro’s evil master in the LUS3 closing scenes. It seems highly unlikely Lucha Underground is going to work with The Crash to for days off. Announcing that match – and building towards Masada & Violento Jack – suggests The Crash knows they’re not going to do that cage match on that March show.
(Maybe Bestia asked out of his LU deal? Maybe it’ll be three weeks but they told the talent to take five weeks off in case anything went wrong. Maybe not everyone understands how long it will be and it won’t be clear until they all gather together in Los Angeles in a few days.)
I assume Masada was added to Rebelion Roja because the plan is a four on four cage match against Garza, Bestia, 450 and Taurus. It doesn’t make sense for Rey to work a cage match and Zorro’s gone from here, so it’s really was just down to Fenix, Penta and Daga. Maybe 5 on 5 if they include Black Danger and Ultimo Ninja, but Ninja doesn’t seem to be a regular in Tijuana. They’re very obviously much higher on Masada than anyone else.
Again, this was taped for TV. If/when these things air, they’ll be months behind what is actually going on this promotion and have lost value for that delay. It took me until the middle of February to release a 2017 book and I could tell how much that aged the content. It’s going to be the same way for these matches if they’re just sitting on someone’s hard drive.
Rich Swann to The Crash
The Crash announced Rich Swann for their WrestleCon show. 03/17 show. No match was announced. EDIT: I misread the easy to read poster; it really is the Tijuana show and not WrestleMania weekend, which makes a lot of this dumb text. I’m going to leave it up to own my dumbness.
It’s the first WrestleMania weekend booking Swann has been announced for since being released from WWE, though he has picked up other indie bookings. That release which came after Swann was charged with domestic violence. Those charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence, but Swann was never used again by WWE after those charges. This follows on The Crash using both Oraculo and MechaWolf/Mr. 450, both who were accused in separate domestic violence incidents. Neither has been charged, with police specifically saying no one would be charged in the 450 incident.
This is a cultural difference between Mexican & American wrestling in this moment. You can see it in this SuperLuchas article on Swann working The Crash, where they write it’s “unknown” why Swann got let go by the WWE because he was cleared. To me on the north side of the border, it’s fairly obvious Swann got let go because he was charged, and a strong accusation or a charge of domestic violence makes you toxic in 2018 US because of a long ugly history of not taking similar situations serious enough. Mexico is in a different place, where they’re not concerned in the same way, and so I’m sure The Crash doesn’t see any issue in using an immensely talented wrestler as soon as he became available. That would probably work out without incident if it was a for a Tijuana show, just as 450 and Oraculo have worked their shows without an incident. It’s more complicated when they’re running for a US audience.
I don’t know how people are going to feel about Rich Swann by the time of that show. I don’t know how to feel about it right now.
It’s unlikely The Crash is paying the full bill to fly in Rich Swann. At least one of the US promoters, and probably more than that, will be using Swann that weekend as well. The US people are just more aware of the mood and waited for someone like The Crash to take the bullet by putting Swann’s name out there and judging the reaction before making their own move.
Other News
In his column in Record, Leo Riano says the Domingo Elite shows will be back in “no more than a month.” He also says Blue Demon Jr. is working on an autobiography, and saying Diosa Quetzal was nervous in her debut but will definitely be better the next time. LuchaTV has an interview with Quetzal’s opponents Dalys & Zeuxis talking about how luchadoras need to prepare very hard to wrestle in Arena Mexico because it’s not easy. That match must’ve gone quite badly.
On the GCW last night in New Jersey, Ciclope set a leg on fire to hit Miedo Extremo with a Flaming Wizard for the win. Those two guys are giving it their all to make a name for themselves in the US. They’ve done in Mexico too, and I hope they don’t damage themselves in the process.
This weekend is flush with shows of note.
- DTU runs Arena Neza on Saturday, with a once in a lifetime CIMA, Cobre & Moria vs Draztick Boy, Jimmy & Negro Casas main event. This show will also have the finals of DTU’s talent search contest, where one of ten young wrestlers will earn a free trip to Japan and a tryout match on a Dragon Gate show. Cobre, Moria and Jimmy being in the main event suggests them as the favorites.
- Lucha Libre Boom runs Arena Lopez Mateos with the 90s movie team of Octagon, Mascara Sagrada and Atlantis against Canek, Fuerza Guerrera and Pirata Morgan. There’s also a NGD vs Rayman/Freelance/Mike Segura semimain. The last Lucha Memes show had a Lucha Libre Boom invasion moment, so maybe the reverse will happen here.
- Arolucha is in Humble, Texas. The announced main event include recent former lead AAA rudo Johnny Hennigan teaming with Chavo Guerrero against Juventud Guerrera and current AAA lead rudo Blue Demon Junior. The show also has LAX’s Santana & Ortiz taking on Laredo Kid & Sammy Guevera. Arolucha streamed their show on Facebook last night and may again tonight.
- an unnamed promotion, who’s poster looks a lot like the BARACAL group from last year, runs tonight in Cancun with LA Park & Volador Jr. versus Mistico & Rush in a battle of families. Sam Adonis mentioned he’d been added to this show.
- On Sunday, MDA returns to Arena Coliseo Monterrey for the first time after unveiling their MAD rudo group. MAD’s Kevin Kross & Zorro face Cibernetico & Rush in the main event, while Juventud makes the trip here to represent MAD against Extreme Tiger. There’s also a Ludark Shaitan versus Dulce Sexy match, with the implied concept Ludark is going to use some of her usual extreme tactics to mess up the former Sexy Star in the way she’s messed up people in the recent past.
- The MDA promos leading up to this show include VHS effects and promos with background music and other ideas I’ve seen a little bit in US indie wrestling but never in Mexican wrestling. I would really like to know who’s the creative/production team behind these now – I always like to see people trying new things and someone’s definitely trying with this.
- Cibernetico being booked here meant he was never going to be on the second ELITE show if it hadn’t been pulled. Which is peculiar.
- Long time local legend Rocky Star will be honored at AAA spot show in Juarez on Sunday. The Juarez spot shows seem to set up matches for TV tapings here and there probably will be another Juarez TV taping in the next few months so the results matter.
- FILLM at the ex-Salon Citlali has Octagon versus Fuerza Guerrera, if you want to punish yourself. Golden Magic versus Diamante and Gran Guerrero versus Fresero Jr.
ROH announced Soberano Jr., Ultimo Guerrero and Volador for their on 03/03 Anniversary show in New York. Matches TBA. That’s a Saturday show. ROH is moving towards streaming all their shows live but hasn’t officially launched their HonorClub service yet – this will be available at some price point.
+LuchaTV posted their interview with Cibernetico., as well as a new edition of Aqui esta el Lucha.
2018 is lucha libre watched Destino Negro versus MEGA Danger.
Eju TV has a feature on Fray Tormenta. Tormenta says Huracan Ramirez was the first one to find out he was an actual priest, when he called him for a wrestling booking on a Saturday and Tormenta said he couldn’t do it because he had a wedding booking.
El Sol de Leon writes about the first mask maker.
Lineups
Pura Raza (SAT) 03/03/2018 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
AULL trainees
2) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
CMLL trainees
3) Sádico & Yoruba vs Audaz & Titán
4) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Jean Montañez & Pierre Montañez
5) Princesa Sugehit vs Zeuxis
6) Blue Panther vs Hechicero
7) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Rush vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
Full lineup for this promotion’s debut show. This lineup is in “too good to be true” territory, though there are behind the scenes indications that this was done with CMLL’s blessings and shouldn’t fall apart.
AAA TV (WED) 03/21/2018 Domo de San Luis, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
1) Mamba & Pimpinela Escarlata vs Ashley & Estrella Divina
2) Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, La Parka vs Joe Lider, Mr. Águila, Parka Negra
3) Aerostar, Drago, Hijo del Fantasma vs El Mesías, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr.
4) La Máscara, Máximo, Psycho Clown vs Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
5) Dr. Wagner Jr., Pagano, Vampiro vs Blue Demon Jr., Dave The Clown, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.
6) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 [Copa Perros del Mal]
Promociones Juniors put out their upcoming TV taping last night. This is two tapings after Rey de Reyes. There’s supposed to be a show in Cuernavaca in between – I wonder if that lineup is out or the date got changed. In theory, this will air April 28th & May 5th. In reality, things will probably change and I’m not sure if you need me calling out air dates in a world where everything is airing live.
That main event is simply listed as “eight star luchadors”. I’d assume it’s people from the undercard working twice, and probably something just for the live audience and Twitch.
This is the first we’ve seen of Pagano and Mesias this year, both returning from injuries. Many of the people we’d expect to be on Lucha Underground are back here, which either means AAA is going to be flying a lot of people between Los Angeles and San Luis Potosi or they expect the tapings to be done by this point. There’s no sign of any new people as mystery people on Rey de Reyes. Parka Negra being back on TV suggests they’re going with Angel Mortal Jr. as the fourth (? – Zorro, Dizzy, Ultimo Gladiador) version of that character going forward.
That semimain looks like one of the worst matches AAA could put together. Third match could be fun. Fourth match might be OK.