February 24, 2018 – luchablog

IWRG (FRI) 02/23/2018 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del RIng]
1) Kanon, Súper Brazo Jr., Toto b Dragón Orus, Dragón Yuki, Leroy
Dragon Orus replaced Dragon Bane.
2) Adrenalina b Skanda
bonus match
3) Dinamic Black, Internacional Pantera, Shadow Boy b Atomik Star, Liderk, Lunatik Extreme
Bonus match
4) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo b Capo Del Norte, Dragón Bane, Rokambole Jr., Villano V Jr.

I think the results may be missing a match, because the advertised main event isn’t mentioned but the wrestlers in it are in the group picture at the end.

CMLL (FRI) 02/23/2018 Arena México [2018 is lucha, CMLL, Culticon, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio & Pierrothito b Stukita & Último Dragóncito
11:36. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Kawato San, Puma, Tiger b Fuego, Stigma, Tritón
13:53. Rudos took 2/3.
3) Niebla Roja TLDRAW Soberano Jr. [lightning]
10:00. Niebla Roja missed on a dive, then Soberano did the same and both were down on the outside at the time limit. Niebla Roja was stretchered to the back
4) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Stuka Jr. b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Kráneo
11:57. Tecnicos took 2/3. Stuka & Marco Corleone replaced Atlantis (moved up) & Caristico
5) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Dragón Lee DQ Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
7:36. Straight falls, the last when Cuatrero fouled Angel de Oro. They feuded heavily and mask ripped. Atlantis replaced Mistico (Tijuana booking) on Monday
6) Rush & Terrible b Último Guerrero & Volador Jr. [natl pi, final]
19:41. Rush & Terrible took falls 1/3. Volador beat Rush in the third fall. Terrible beat UG. Volador might have beat Terrible, but Rush pulled out the referee and dropped him with the Rush Driver. Terrible added a top rope splash and won. Rush invited Terrible to join Los Ingobernables and Terrible accepted.

Main event and lightning match are worth going out of your way to watch.

CMLL seems increasingly a product of short term planning, so this Terrible win sticks out as something longer planned. CMLL must’ve been at least considering this direction since they brought back the national heavyweight title. Terrible won it in October and beat Diamante Azul again in January. CMLL set up the strongest team possible to be opposition, Volador & Ultimo Guerrero, giving Terrible & Rush a big win in this tournament final. Los Ingobernables seemed to be something that was only around in 2017 because of inertia. Terrible winning and being added to the group seems like a long term plan to re-energize the group.

Rush & Terrible were very proud of themselves post match. Ultimo Guerrero mentions Volador’s injury is a fractured nose.

One tag team tournament ends, two start. Tonight begins one of those, a tournament to fill the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship, given up by Cuatrero & Sanson. It’s a normal two block tournament. Tonight’s teams are Fuego & Star Jr., Nitro & Sangre Azteca, Esfinge & Triton, Cancerbero & Raziel, Audaz & Pegasso, Akuma & Templario, Magia Blanco & Oro Jr. and Puma & Tiger.

Tiger & Puma are the favorites in today’s Colieso Tag Team title block, but said last night would like to go for the world tag team titles. These titles should be something beneath them, but they haven’t really gotten that far. Esfinge & Triton are the other strong possibility from this gorup.

Dragon Lee & Titan will be on Twitch tonight. They’re in the four way of PWR’s show in San Jose, with Ultimo Dragon & Misterioso (California version), which will be streamed on the promotion’s Twitch page. The show starts at 9pm CT, and that match figures to be on around 11.

Caristico & Voaldor will have a singles match today in Xalapa.

Rush, Mistico, Dragon Lee and Pierroth will get their hands in cement and the Plaza de la Estrellas on 03/02.

AAA is back in action on Sunday, part of back to back weeks with Sunday shows. They’ll be streaming live from Apizaco on Twitch. The poster says 5pm, but AAA’s consistently said the stream starts at 6pm CT this week. A lot of the usual top people are off in Los Angeles for Lucha Underground, which makes for some weird matches and the welcome return of AAA wrestlers who haven’t been seen on TV much.

The main event is Los Alvarados taking on Hernandez, Hijo de Wagner and Rey Escorpion, which almost but not quite follows up on Hernandez, Wagner & Blue Demon taking out a bunch of tecnicos in Aguascalientes.

The entire rest of the show is Rey de Reyes qualifiers. We have no idea what that means, if the entire winning team or the person who gets the pinfall gets on, and AAA’s track record with living up to these stipulations isn’t great. Cuervo, Scoria and Vikingo take on the OGT trio in the semifinal, which should be a fun match regardless. Angelikal & Bengala versus Histeria & Psicosis could be good. Dave & La Parka vs Monster & Murder will be bad. Raptor & Tigre Boy against Angel Mortal Jr. & Mascara de Bronce has rudo/tecnico mixed sides for some reason, and the opener has rare appearances for Dinastia, Pimpinela Escaralta and Venum, as they take on Chicano, Mamba, and Villano III Jr.

A 600 seat arena, billed as Arena AAA, has been opened in the Selva Magica theme park in Guadalajara. They’re hyping it locally as a place where AAA will be both running regularly and using as their home base for a Hall of Fame. La Parka & Texano are interviewed about it. The strange thing is AAA hasn’t said anything about this outside of Guadalajara. I saw pictures of a strange AAA show on Facebook, which must’ve been their debut show on Thursday.

I don’t have results from last night’s Lucha Underground taping. There is a notable LU story though. I’m going to put it after the break if you don’t want to know it, though it’s liable to be a thing that gets talked about everywhere once people notice it.

Dulce Garcia, the former Sexy Star, will have her third boxing match on 03/24 in Saltillo against Lourdes Juarez. Lourdes is the sister of Barbie Juarez, a champion boxer, seen occasionally in the crowd at CMLL shows. Lourdes is 22-2 in her career, the WBC FECOMBOX Female Flyweight Champion, and has not lost in four years. This is a massive step up in opponents for Garcia, and a match she’s unlikely to win. Training for this match means she’s out of wresting – Lucha Underground and otherwise – for the next month.

Zona Ruda notes an interview with Latin Lover at AAA show in Juarez, where Lover says he’s been invited to wrestle in 7 to 10 TV events for AAA. Latin Lover mentioned a similar return offer last year from Vampiro, and this time it sounds like he’s going to accept it. Latin Lover is 50 and would join fellow 50+ wrestlers Blue Demon Jr. & Vampiro as short term fixes for AAA’s lack of star power at the cost of taking up spots that could be used to build new people and producing some not great matches. Latin Lover is a mainstream name due to his reality show appearances in the past, but also hasn’t wrestled 20+ matches in a decade.

EMW has a generic poster for their 04/20 TV taping. There’s no big surprises on people included, though it’s amusing that Histeria is going to try wrestling masked in the same city he lost his mask.

AAA drew a strong crowd last night to a spot show in Cuauttilan. Mr. Aguila wrestled in the main event, so him missing the Aguascalientes show seems like a one off thing (and so might be Angel Mortal Jr. as Parka Negra.) Argenis wrestled on the show, so he wasn’t in Los Angeles.

Lucha Sorpresa has some February match recommendations.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 03/02/2018 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
2) Blue Panther Jr., Fuego, The Panther vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón vs Felino, Negro Casas, Shocker
4) Carístico & Volador Jr. vs Dragón Lee & Mistico and Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero and Forastero & Sansón and Atlantis & Soberano Jr. and Euforia & Kráneo and Pierroth & Rush and Hechicero & Máscara Año 2000 [CMLL TAG, battle royal]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, 8f]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, 8f]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, 8f]
9) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, 8f]
10) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, quarterfinal]
11) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, quarterfinal]
12) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, semifinal]
13) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, semifinal]
14) Ángel de Oro, Marco Corleone, Niebla Roja vs Cuatrero, Ephesto, Mephisto

The CMLL tag team tournament starts, with the previous tag team champions just hanging out in the tercera. It makes no sense, which I hope means CMLL’s got some plan of where they want to this all to go and it’s worth the nonsense. The Guerreros are the favorites. Volador seemed not thrilled when he was asked about teaming with Caristico, so that’s the other thing to watch.

Someone realized Cuatrero shouldn’t be in this tournament, which means there was even less reason for them to give up their tag team titles.

Lucha Underground

near calamity (and a new overhead camera)

Recapped: 02/23/2018

Matches:

Mercurio & Pierrothito beat Stukita & Último Dragóncito
(11:13 [4:06, 3:23, 3:44], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Kawato San, Puma, Tiger beat Fuego, Stigma, Tritón
(13:53 [3:47, 2:53, 7:13], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Niebla Roja went to a time limit draw with Soberano Jr. in a lightning match
(10:00, great, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Stuka Jr. beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Kráneo
(11:17 [5:09, 2:07, 4:01], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Dragón Lee beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(7:46 [3:35, 4:11], ½ DQ, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Rush & Terrible beat Último Guerrero & Volador Jr. in a Parejas Increible final
(19:41 [2:28, 2:51, 14:22], 1/3, excellent, )

What happened:

The third fall saw Volador eliminate Rush, then Terrible beat Último Guerrero. Volador may have had Terrible beat with a top rope armdrag, but Rush pulled Tirantes out of the ring, then dropped Volador with a Rush Driver. Terrible added a top rope splash and Rush threw Tirantes back in to count three. Rush offered Terrible a spot in Los Ingobernables, and Terrible accepted. Both refused their trophies and even threw money back at the crowd.

Cuatrero fouled Angel de Oro to end the semimain after two falls. They continued to go after each other’s masks after the match, then screamed each other on the microphones.

Both Niebla Roja & Soberano missed dives in the last 30 seconds, and probably would’ve been counted out if time hadn’t run out first. Soberano dove second, and might have won if he had simply decided to stay in the ring. Medics checked on both men, with Niebla Roja needing a neck brace and a stretcher, and Soberano helping to carry the stretcher to the back.

Thoughts:

The main event was one of the most exciting CMLL experiences of the year. There will be bigger spot matches – the lightning match had craziest moves overall – but the finals of the tournament was an exciting ride to the finish. The last few minutes of this match were as dramatic as anything, and everyone worked so hard for it. The story of this match was Terrible, and this will be one of his most famous matches, but everyone else stepped up their game too. Volador looked surprisingly normal for a man wearing face protection after his nose broke a few days ago. Último Guerrero got in his usual spots but also took as much as he gave, and his dropkick on Terrible was brutal. Rush worked as hard as he has here in any match in the last year, and his personality came strong. The finish was perfect; Rush cheating to help Terrible win was the exact right ending for this match. Seeing this live helped, because the finish felt in doubt the entire way, but I think this is one that’s going to hold up even knowing the result.

The semimain wasn’t a great bout, but it did a great job of heating up the Angel de Oro & Cuatrero feud. They came at each other strong and the final brawl seemed violent and personal. This is still going to be a tough sell as a big match, but at least fans will understand it’s a feud. Dragon Lee looked awesome in the time he was in. Everyone else was secondary but that’s what their role should’ve been.

The fourth match seemed a bit extraneous to the show and played out that way too. It was the usual crowd pleasing match, only the crowd seemed to be more of a rudo group who weren’t into Marco or Stuka that much. They were being more receptive in the third fall and the técnicos were doing more than they’d do on a B-show. Kraneo doing the flip to the apron was amazing for his size.

The lightning match turned very much in to a “do all the moves battle”; it was an all sugar match but really good at that. Neither man really played the role rudo, though Niebla Roja is still pretty good at being in the right position for the Soberanos’ trickier spots. They got to a good pace at the end. The missed dives at the end were both brutal.

The second match was close to good. I was expecting a little bit better pace early and there were some iffy moments. Kawato seemed like he wasn’t quite close enough a couple times and his second fall finishing kick didn’t look strong. CMLL must be thinking highly of him to give him the big spots in the third fall. Kawato did seem a little lost, but Puma is really good at soaking in a moment to allow the crowd to get into it, like he did on the delayed suplex and the double stomp finish. Fuego had a horse!

The opener was a quick bout by those standards. It was also a lot like many Stukita openers, where his antics are the most and only interesting about them. His matches by his willingness to take big bumps are good highlights, but they need to find something for him to do. Dragoncito about the minimum one could do without getting in trouble for doing nothing.

Day: February 24, 2018

Terrible joins Los Ingobernables, Dragon Lee & Titan on Twitch Saturday, AAA on Twitch Sunday, AAA GDL Hall of Fame?

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2018-02-23

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