A lot of good matches this week. That AAA show was good and it’s still a month away from going up on YouTube. CMLL was better than usual, though mostly in the midcard and not the top matches.
Recommended matches
rating
matches
TV Show
taped
excellent
Black Danger, Mirage, Último Maldito vs Arcángel Divino, Black Destiny, Genio del Aire
Lucha Underground’s Season 4 trailer is being officially released tonight on El Rey, during the regular airing of old episodes in the usual timeslot. It’s upgrade in what they have been doing for promotion, a still image airing for ten seconds between episodes. The new season is five weeks away and they’re starting to turn up the volume.
You don’t really have to wait until tonight to see it though. Lucha Underground did a promotional interview with ESPN about the new season, including quotes form lead writer Chris DeJospeh. The trailer is embedded in there.
If you click thru the article, you’ll notice the season 4 episode count is listed as 22. Vamprio, on the infamous Stone Cold Steve Austin interview, said it was 26 episodes. Other LU sources suggested in that range, so 22 seems like a change. Maybe there will be a lot of extra material placed on the web this time around.
I used VirtualDub to split it up the trailer – which is noticeably hosted on El Rey’s site and not the Lucha Underground one – so let’s what this season has to offer. There’s a lot of images here, so you’ll have to quick the link.
CMLL (TUE) 05/08/2018Arena México [CMLL, Lost in Lucha, Lucha Central]
1) Bengala & Leono b Apocalipsis & Cholo Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Dalys, La Metálica, La Seductora b La Guerrera, Lady Maravilla, Mistik Debut of Mistik (indie luchadora Mystique) and Arena Mexico debut of La Guerrera. Rudas took 2/3.
3) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa b Puma, Sagrado, Virus Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Tiger b Kawato San [lightning] Tiger won with powerbomb in about 7 minutes.
5) Blue Panther, Kráneo, Soberano Jr. b Okumura, Rey Bucanero, Terrible Tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr. DQ Gran Guerrero, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero Tecnicos took 2/3. Ultimo Guerrero pulled Stuka’s mask for the DQ.
Looks like one NWA title will be defended here soon…
CMLL (TUE) 05/08/2018Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Mr. Apolo, Ráfaga, Rey Trueno b El Divino, Mágico, Magnum
2) Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis b La Maligna, La Vaquerita, Marcela Rudas took 2/3.
3) Blue Panther Jr., Drone, The Panther b Misterioso Jr., Templario, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón b Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Pólvora Tecnicos took 2/3, Esfinge beating Hechicero and asking for a title match.
5) Mistico, Rush, Valiente b Cavernario, Euforia, Negro Casas Valiente replaced Volador.
…and one here next week. Esfinge/Hechicero for the Light Heavyweight title seems set up for 05/15. Stuka/Ultimo Guerrero for the Middleweight one seems more like 05/22. No sign of Taven defending his Welterweight one.
Puebla luchador Tarahumara passed away. He was a regular in Arena Puebla in the 90s and 00s, and made a few Mexico City appearances. He’d been wrestling on the indies and training wrestlers at least as of a few months ago.
I’m saving the Lucha Underground news for a separate post.
Magia Blanca beat Flyer to win Torneo Nuevo Valores (12:58, 1/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Magia Blanca tornillo (1:34)
Flyer code red (1:33)
Magia Blanca super Michinoku Driver (9:51)
Carístico, Dragón Lee, Rush beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero
(9:16 [3:44, 2:25, 3:07], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Virus pulled off Audaz’s mask for the DQ in the tercera.
Thoughts:
The main event was the usual técnico favoring happy match to end the show. Dragon Lee & Rush lost a fall while playing invisible soccer, that’s about how serious they were taking this one. Crowd got into the finish so it was fine enough.
Magia Blanca & Flyer was good enough to be a young stars tournament final. It just wasn’t the high level of match break either guy out. They had a solid match outside of two springboards, they looked good in their offense, but it wasn’t a special match. They had two falls of establishing finishes and a final fall that would’ve been a pretty good lightning match. The finish is what stuck out to me Magia Blanca is an Último Guerrero trainee, you just wouldn’t have known it by the way the ending came together: no back and forth, just Magia Blanca hitting two straight topes and then Flyer walking up into his finish. It probably would’ve worked better if Flyer sold the topes more he did the silliness of his decision to do the one that would definitely cause him to lose, but it definitely was different.
Triton’s new outfit should just be his normal outfit and the técnicos generally did well in the fourth match. It just was lacking much from the rudos. Kawato wasn’t adding up, and then end part of the match had to be redone on the fly because he completely missed catching Esfinge on the dive. That’s two in a row for him. It took a while for Kamaitachi to really become Kamaitaichi but he was a lot father along by now, and he’s trending more towards the Yoshihashi spectrum of things. He’s going to keep chances – he seems to be picking up matches that would’ve gone to suddenly disappeared Idol & Adonis – but there needs to be some improvement.
The two fall set up the tercera didn’t allow it to develop totally, but they had action while it lasted. It was fast pace without anyone getting lost, and the Audaz/Virus sections were pretty solid. I wasn’t impressed by Super Astro in person in November, but he seems to fit in find in CMLL.
Kinda put myself thru the opener just for the novelty of Angelito being a fill-in rudo. He was fine. He wasn’t exactly Rey Escorpión, but he could take the técnico offense and he showed some aggressiveness when it came to it. I still think of Angelito as a tiny guy, but he’s gown over the last couple years and is about the same size as Acero & Aereo. They could easily use him as a replacement for the some of the older rudos who’ve been in the same place forever. Or they could try turning the other técnicos here. Or they could do anything at all with the minis.