IWRG (SUN) 02/25/2018 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Haziel b Skanda
Hazel replaced Full Contact
2) Haziel & Súper Brazo Jr. b Adrenalina & Atomic Star
Haziel, wrestling in his second straight match, got his second straight win. This was in straight falls.
3) Chico Che b Gallo Frances
Scheduled as a Chico/Freelance vs Frances/Infernal tag match, became a singles match.
4) Ovett, Trauma II, X-Fly b Emperador Azteca, Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Pantera
Trauma II wants a title match with Emperador Azteca
5) Black Warrior, Liderk, Spartan, Spector DQ Capo Del Norte, Capo Del Sur, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro
Black Warrior switched spots with Eterno. Straight falls. Capos & Comando Elite are close to a mask match.
6) Aramis & Dinamic Black b Black Dragón, Dragón Bane, Leroy, Lunatic Xtreme, Ram El Carnero, Shadow Boy [El Protector, battle royal]
7) Lunatik Xtreme & Máscara Año 2000 Jr. b El Hijo del Medico Asesino & Leroy [El Protector, quarterfinal]
8) Ram El Carnero & Trauma I b Dragón Bane & Eterno [El Protector, quarterfinal]
Black Warrior was listed as Dragon Bane’s partner, until they realized the winner of this match was getting a title shot against Black Warrior & Warrior Jr. Eterno replaced him and they were out in the first round.
9) Rokambole Jr. & Villano V Jr. b Black Dragón & Veneno [El Protector, quarterfinal]
Shadow Boy was injured in the seeding battle royal, and Villano V’s brother Rokambole Jr. just happened to be around to sub for him. A fortunate coincidence.
10) Aramis & Hijo De Dos Caras b Dinamic Black & Internacional Pantera [El Protector, quarterfinal]
11) Ram El Carnero & Trauma I b Lunatik Xtreme & Máscara Año 2000 Jr. [EL Protector, semifinal]
12) Rokambole Jr. & Villano V Jr. b Aramis & Hijo De Dos Caras [El Protector, semifinal]
13) Rokambole Jr. & Villano V Jr. b Ram El Carnero & Trauma I [El Protector, final]
The Villanos will face Black Warrior & Warrior Jr. for the tag belts at some point
Maybe just give the Villanos the title shot instead of making your rookie/veteran tournament look silly. I dunno, it’s IWRG.
Today’s Puebla show has two matches which might be pretty good. The main event follows up on last week’s one ending in chaos, with Valiente & Volador teaming against Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero. That has the making of something watchable. So does the semimain, where Mephisto defends the CMLL Welterweight Champioship against Soberano following up on Soberano’s non-title win. Soberano’s unlikely to win because he has his own belt, but it should still be an interesting experiences. Mephisto title matches are exactly as interesting as his opponent puts in to it, and this is test to see what ideas Soberano has in mind.
The fourth match is a strange Diamante Azul, Hechicero, Stuka Jr. versus Johnny Idol, Kraneo, Titan incredible partners match. In my dreams, this is setting up the Hechicero/Kraneo singles rematch. Lestat, Rey Samuray and Tigre Rojo Jr. will have a long argument about who gets to work Templario and who is stuck with Arkangel & Nitro in the tercera. Astro & Stukita are a fun team against not as fun Guerrero Especial & Mercurio. Akalis & Paris take on Espiritu Maligno & Sombra Diabolika in the opener. This will air at 9pm on CMLL’s YouTube channel like usual.
AAA’s recap of last night’s TV taping noticeably does not mention Samoano debuting on AAA. I would not count on that being followed up on.
Mistico, Anibal Jr. and a Hijo de Silver King defeated Felino, Cien Caras Jr. & Hijo de Mascara Ano 2000 in Tijuana on Friday. Turnout seems weak; the one off shows aren’t going to do well there with The Crash in the market.
AroLucha announced they’ll be taping their first season this year in Nashville – and they have a plan to record lucha libre related programming along side of it. They’re working on a scripted show about “two average gringos who must go to lucha school to win the heart of a Latino love interest.” Their idea is producing both at the same time will make it more efficient, which sounds like we’re going to see people being used for both projects at the same time. No date is announced for any of this, and no TV deal is mentioned, which is odd if they’re going to commit to doing more tapings. Neither of these still have great odds of working out even if they’re good. The TV show concept doesn’t sound super promising and I wonder if Vince Russo got a new writing opportunity, but everything of this sort is a long shot.
Dory Dixon talks about hiding in Mexico instead of going back to Jamica and ending up a luchador. This is not a recommended career path but it sure worked out for him.
On his Facebook page, Lucha Underground Rich Knox says he broke clavicle. That sucks. He’s surely out for the rest of the Lucha Underground season, and probably a lot longer than that.
I still haven’t seen any match by match results for the first few Lucha Underground. The usual argument about spoilers is happening, which feels out of place when multiple new wrestlers have publicly revealed they’ve joined the show in Season 4 on social media. My belief is spoilers are fine as long as they’re doing in a way where people who prefer to go in to a show without knowing anything still get that opportunity, but I understand other people feel differently.
There does seem groups to the most of those new names: a former WWE guy, current Impact people, some indy names, but generally all who seem to be identified with the US wrestling scene. Meanwhile, Aerostar mentioned missing the Sunday taping to work in Dallas (though he’s going back to LA), another wrestler mentioned they were done after one day on Instagram, and we saw Texano & Dr. Wagner on AAA’s show Sunday because they presumably weren’t being used. If anyone new on the lucha side has been added, they’ve kept it quiet. It doesn’t mean it’s not happening – I would not expect an LU crowd to immediately recognize a Mocho Cota Jr. if he debuted, and Mexican wrestlers aren’t as public about what they’re doing as US/Canada ones – but the picture they’re sending out to world outside the new Ice Temple is of a Lucha Underground that’s a bit less lucha, and a bit more old friends from non-lucha US promotions.
We’ve been done this road with Lucha Underground before. And it’s just one weekend of four which also had AAA things going on. And we don’t have full results. And we shouldn’t expect the current AAA guys to be immediately recognized if they did debut; most LU fans aren’t watching AAA and wouldn’t be able to ID a Mocho Cota Jr. if he walked out there, just like fans didn’t realize King Cuerno was Hijo del Fantasma at first. And there’s history of stuff not sounding good in bits and pieces of details on the tapings and then coming together better when it airs. And there’s also times where some stuff not sounding good and then also not actually being any good when it airs. All we can do from out here is nudge people in a direction, and maybe it’ll be strong enough to get Dario Cueto to hire a Mariachi Loco out of restaurant again. (And maybe most people won’t care if it still hits their entertainment button.)
This is really part of a larger riddle I’ve been struggling with for some time: what is lucha libre? What does it entail? Where are the dividing lines where it becomes something else? Ricky Marvin taking a Spanish Fly onto the chairs and dirt in Coacalco is definitely lucha libre. Rush taking a beer from an Arena Mexico fan’s hand throwing it in someone’s face is definitely lucha libre. Some kid no one’s heard of showing up on AAA show and doing an incredible aerial move is lucha libre. Ex-Impact wrestler James Storm showing up as a surprise on Nashville Aro Lucha show and saying “guess I’m a luchador now!” is surely successful and popular but doesn’t seem like lucha libre unless we’re stretching the definition to the point of meaninglessness. There’s a cutoff somewhere along that spectrum and I have no idea where it is.
Whether it be Arolucha or Lucha Underground or Lucha Libre USA or whatever’s next, the one thing I don’t want as a fan of lucha libre is non-luchadors cosplaying as guys with masks on. It’s abstractly not the style I am a fan, and it’s concretely taking away opportunities from people who do practice that style. And yet, I do not know what when someone goes from playing a luchador to being a luchador. Do they have to be Mexican or latino? Do they have to specifically wrestle on the ‘wrong side’ or do certain moves? Is Jack Evans lucha libre? Is DJZ? At what point does he become so? Is Incognito/Sin Cara still lucha libre even though he hasn’t been wrestling in the style for years?
These are question that I, person who spends too much time writing about lucha libre, should really be able to precisely define if I’m asking anyone else to do the same. I’m just not sure I can – or that I even have the right to define it.
Lineups
CMLL (SAT) 03/03/2018 Arena Coliseo
1) Angelito & Fantasy vs Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia
2) Kaho Kobayashi, La Vaquerita, Marcela vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
3) Flyer & the Panther vs Misterioso Jr. & Sagrado and Magnus & Sensei and Disturbio & Virus and Astral & Stigma and Hijo del Signo & Metálico and Príncipe Diamante & Robin and Arkángel de la Muerte & Espanto Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG, battle royal]
4) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, 8f]
5) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, 8f]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, 8f]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, 8f]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, quarterfinal]
9) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, quarterfinal]
10) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Arena Coliseo TAG, semifinal]
11) Rush vs Euforia
Flyer, Robin and Magnus wanted to be a trio. They’re now all in this tournament with separate partners.
IWRG (WED) 02/28/2018 Arena Naucalpan
1) Dinámico, Dranzer, Puma de Oro vs Bisofera, Carnicero, Chef Benito
2) Fireman, Full Contact, Hijo Del Bombero vs Black Puma, Guerrero 2000, Power Bull
3) Ángel Oriental, Haziel, Toto vs Atomic Star, Odín, Skanda
4) Kanon, Mike, Teelo vs Dragón Yuki, Leroy, Liderk
5) Aramis, Diablo Jr., Eterno, Lunatic Xtreme, Shadow Boy vs Dragón Bane, El Divino, Pachucho, Ram El Carnero, Shado and La Mosca, Máscara Magica Jr., Motocross, Orión, Príncipe Negroand Ángel Estrella Jr., Death Metal, Guero Palma, Marduk, Taurino [cage, hair, mask]
The main event is teams representing Gym FILL (Black Terry), Lucha Libre Boom (Fantasma de la Opera), Gym Cerebro (Dr. Cerebro) and Gym Zeus (Offical 911), but a cage match seems like it’s everyone for themselves.
