WON Rey de Reyes notes, Lucha Underground, IWRG

IWRG (WED) 03/07/2018 Arena Naucalpan [@GabrielBludemo1, Estrellas del RIng]
1) Guerrero 2000 b Puma de Oro
2) Haziel & Toto b Chef Benito & Darth Metal
Toto replaced Haziel.
3) Aramis & Máscara Magica Jr. b Atomic Star & Lunatic Xtreme
4) Capo Del Norte, Capo Del Sur, Eterno b Hijo del Alebrije, Leo, Rafy
Spector helped Eterno win with a martinete on Leo, which did not please the Capos.
5) Ovett DQ Fantasma de la Ópera
Fantasma had Lucha Libre Boom wrestlers (Carta Brava, Ninja de Fuego, others) with him to help. That ended up getting him DQed. Lunatik Extreme and Toto (two of Ovett’s sons) made the save, along with Black Terry. This set up a FILL/Boom Copa Higher Power for next week.

The latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions Texano was furious when he found out his head shaving was not shown on Twitch because they ran long, and he had to be pulled away from Vampiro and put in another room to calm down. The show had timing problems; AAA didn’t have a change of heart on keeping Bengala & Hijo del Tirantes out of the apuesta match, they just got cut for time. So did a Dr. Wagner post match bit to build up his match with his son. There’s no additional details on the Mesias/Parka stuff.

WON says Rey de Reyes drew 5000 in a building set up for 9000. AAA says they drew 11,340 to the show. I am terrible at guessing these numbers, so my guess is neither of these numbers are right. No one really cares about the exact number unless they’re getting paid off the house, but the Acropolis website says the building holds 10,229 people when set up for “360” and 7716 when set up traditionally. There were sections cut off for the entrance set.

That press release does mention setting a record on Twitch at 17,348. I have no problem believing that because it was easy to seen on the screen and trending in that direction all night. The numbers have been increasing for the big shows, helped by Twitch promoting the show on their front page. I think AAA could easily crack 25,000 for TripleMania; the issue is it might just be split over a couple streams, since they’re likely to run the English language feed for that show.

On +LuchaTV’s podcast (EN+CARADOS #62), they mentioned the locals did have a dark match before the stream went live. In the interview with Dorian Roldan, he mentioned there needs to be a different format for Copa TripleMania and less people this year.  He claimed they’ve asked Histeria to wrestle unmasked since he lost it and the only thing he knew about Mesias waving bye is he probably didn’t like the finish. Both of those stories are hard to believe.

 

The WON also reported Lucha Underground sent cease and desist letters to Ryan Satin (Pro Wrestling Sheet) and Steve Bryant (So Cal Uncensored) to get them to take down Lucha Underground Season 4 spoilers. Satin posted his C&D letter, and his response where he points out they’ve got no legal standing to make him take it down. Justin Harvey of the MMM show smartly pointed out these C&Ds were sent from Lucha Libre FMV, and not from the MGM parent company who would normally oversee production and handle these matters.

I understand people not being happy about spoilers being out, and not wanting things out that shouldn’t be out. I can not understand legally threatening people about it. I especially can’t understand going after people for talking what’s being taped for the show in a world where the people who are actually on the show are talking about the show. I know there’s a cage match this weekend because the lead writer posted about it. I know there’s a good chance Tessa Blanchard is on the tapings this weekend because Taya posted a photo with her. I know LAX are in Los Angeles too for no obvious reason, so maybe they’ll be visiting Temple too. I can go on, there is plenty more. I don’t want to because this is not about getting people in trouble, this is about how much comedy it is to think you’re going to keep something like this quiet in 2018.

You can make a case that finding out what happens will diminish people’s interest in what has occurred. I’m not sure that’s conclusively correct, especially with a show on a network (and an advertising budget) the size of El Rey, where any buzz to remind people the show exists is a helpful thing. But let’s run with it: let’s say spoilers are costing them money. Other things costing Lucha Underground money: the lack of LU merchandise, the lack of promotion of the merchandise they do have, the lack of live shows, the lack of a third season streaming deal, the lack of international deals in obvious places like the UK. Somehow, Lucha Libre FMV always has time and money for lawyers and nothing else. It’s that dril tweet come to life. The difference between Lucha Underground being a success and not being a success is not Lucha Underground spoilers. This is all wasted energy when they really do need that energy for other things.

So. On top of all of this, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter also says Dorian Roldan has told people he’s looking at buying Impact. That rumor has been going around since last fall. It makes not much sense to me, so I’ve not bothered to say anything about it. It makes some from the Anthem side, since turning around Impact seems to have been more a more difficult and costly process than they believed when got into it. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense for AAA, who is already hoping to bring that brand into the US in 2018 and has another brand in Lucha Underground which their GM Roldan theoretically is still trying to market in the US. He’s had to stretch to make the case that they need both in the US, with the idea they’re going after different markets with different kind of shows. It’s hard to continue the argument with Impact also thrown in. If there’s anything to this at all, it doesn’t seem a great sign for Lucha Underground’s chances except as something tacked onto Impact’s existent plans. Like:

Impact Wrestling announced Pentagon & Fenix as appearing on their Impact/LU WrestleCon show. Those names were announced on their press release last week. Most people don’t pay attention to press releases so this is probably a good way to sell some tickets. LU has not mentioned this show at all; it’s harder for them to tweet about something than threaten a lawsuit.

Mil Mascaras says he’ll be selling merchandise as Homenaje a Dos Leyendas from 8-9.

Konnan is undergoing hip surgery today. He’s hoping to be able to return the ring for a retirement tour.

La Hiedra will be playing Mario Kart 8 on AAA’s Twitch stream as part of their Lucha Gamer series.

Record has an interview with Faby Apache from the recent TripleMania press conference.

Tijuana a Tres Caidas, a Facebook page I did not know existed until it was pointed out on Twitter, says Pirata Morgan Jr. has been suspended from wrestling in that city for a year. They’ve got a photo of the paper work from the commission. Pirata Morgan Jr. last wrestled in Tijuana on February 23,. Reports said Pirata Morgan Jr. looked in no condition to wrestle. Pirata Morgan Jr. rarely wrestles in Tijuana, so this will probably not affect him much. Drone got the attention because his ‘highlights’ went viral. This is far from a Drone only issue.

Ricky Marvin has a promo in Japanese to build up his match with Kawato on Sunday’s Lucha Memes show.

Excelsior has a fluffy interview with Kaho Kobayashi and Kawato San. The most interesting part is the interviewer believes his last name is actually San.

El Manana has a story on Kuman Jr., a Tamaulipas luchador who was in a car accident in 2014 which left him in a coma for 7 days. He was told he would be paralyzed on the right side for life but regained movement after three months of rehab. He’d like to return to the ring some day.

CMLL looks back at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2009, Villano V vs Ultimo Guerrero.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 03/11/2018 Arena Naucalpan
1) Atomic Star vs Soma
2) Máscara Magica Jr. & Shadow Boy vs Dragón Bane & Gallo Frances
3) Chico Che, Hijo del Alebrije, Veneno vs El Hijo del Medico Asesino, Eterno, Ovett
4) Ricky Marvin vs Dr. Cerebro [super libre]
5) Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera, Pantera vs Capo Del Norte, Capo Del Sur, Máscara Año 2000 Jr. and Black Dragón, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly and Liderk, Spartan, Spector
6) Black Warrior & Black Warrior Jr. © vs Rokambole Jr. & Villano V Jr. [IWRG IC TAG]

Changed lineup for this show. Of note, the poster mentions Hijo de Canis Lupis is coming soon.

CMLL (TUE) 03/13/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Mágico & Tigre Blanco vs Frezzer & Sádico
2) Magia Blanca, Magnum, Magnus vs Akuma, Espanto Jr., Rey Trueno
3) La Vaquerita, Lady Maravilla, Sanely vs Amapola, Metálica, Tiffany
4) Ángel de Oro, Esfinge, Niebla Roja vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
5) Diamante Azul © vs Furia Roja [OCCIDENTE HEAVY]
second defense, first defense in four years
6) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Rush vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón

I counted the days, because counting the days is one of the few things I’m happy to write about today. It’s going to be 1407 days between title defenses for Diamante Azul. The Occidente championships are the worst ‘major’ championships in Mexico.

Terrible is back teaming with Bucanero & Shocker. No one’s less into CMLL’s storyline than the people who put together CMLL’s cards.

Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 03/24/2018 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Diva Salvaje vs Centvrión
2) Torito Negro & Toro Negro vs Judas el Traidor & Sobredosis
3) Atomic Star, Metaleón, Rafy vs Fly Star, Fulgor I, Fulgor II
4) Aramis vs Toxin, Moria, Séptimo Dragón, Fly Warrior [THE CRASH CRUISER, #1 Contenders]
5) Eterno & Ricky Marvin vs Belial & Impulso and Freelance & Mike Segura
6) Felino & Mr. Niebla vs Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako

Full card for Mexa Wrestling show. I’ve been watching the first two shows for the Catch Up project and there’s always really good matches on these shows (and it’s close enough to Neza that someone will have a good video of it.) The really good matches don’t seem to be drawing well at all. I’d really love to see them try some stronger way of promoting these shows before they run out of money and there’s another break between high ends shows in this building. One of these promotions has to figure it out or we’re all going to miss out.