The Lucha Underground episode guide reads: “Catrina hopes to restore her life and searches for the Gauntlet of the Gods; the Trios Champions defend their titles against three new fighters; one of the Seven Ancient Aztec Medallions comes back into play.” The Pentagon/Matanza match was set up at the end of this week’s show.
CMLL Marca should continue to be interesting with Rey Fenix & Cibernetico joining the LA Park/Rush matches and Caristico versus Dragon Lee on the undercard.
The Latigo/Toxin vs Aramis/Astrolux AAA match will make YouTube this week and is worth going out of your way to see if you have not already.
Leono, Magnus, Starman vs El Coyote, Hijo del Signo, Yago
(14:23 [7:06, 2:44, 4:33], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL
Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora beat La Jarochita, Maligna, Princesa Sugehit
(12:42 [6:27, 2:55, 3:20], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Esfinge beat Drone in a lightning match
(7:10, nudo egipico, ok, viaVideosOficialesCMLL)
Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto beat Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther
(14:27 [4:30, 3:29, 6:28], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero beat Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Titán
(12:51 [5:21, 2:00, 5:30], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Rey Bucanero feuded with Atlantis in the main event, sneaking in a foul on him. That was it.
Thoughts:
a bad move
Titan looked spectacular in the main event. Atlantis did a lot of waving people into running into each other. Bucanero & Atlantis mentally can do their feud but physically it’s not too pretty. Euforia & Gran Guerrero had one really good tag move with Angel de Oro (the press slam) and one not so good (where they smacked his head into the top rope.)
This was a Tuesday card with a lot of tourists into the show. Those tourists were into rooting for Blue Panther the elder fighting against the rudos, so they gave them a lot of that. It didn’t turn into a lot more than a basic match, and it worked for the live crowd. The Panther’s 619 finish looks good when the opponent is in the right position, but there’s little margin of error on that positioning. Blue Panther Jr. is trending towards Gronda sized muscles.
The Drone/Esfinge match was the most exciting match to that point but didn’t feel like a complete match. The dives were all over the place in this one. Drone’s sliding splash was misaimed. Esfinge’s tope con giro landed on Drone’s neck and back. Drone’s corner tope ran out of stream before connecting with the target. The ending of Drone hitting his headstand kneesmash and Esfinge essentially just getting up and beating Drone two moves later didn’t make a lot of sense either.
Are there compelling reasons to watch CMLL women’s trios matches now? Part of the reason I watch any match is to find out if they’re any good to pass that knowledge. I can’t figure a CMLL women’s trios I’m likely to enjoy with Zeuxis & Maravilla gone. There’s always the chance for lightning to strike, but the depth isn’t there. There isn’t six women CMLL could put together that would sure fire be a good match in 2018. There’s even only a few possible singles matches that I’d figure on being good. Most of those involve Dalys, who will get the best reception for her matches but they tend to do nothing for me.
Angel airborne
These matches are still worth watching to me at the moment to get a read on people. Mystique, La Guerrera, and Maligna haven’t had strong performances yet but they also haven’t had many performances. (Maligna seemed slightly better this time. Maybe Jarochita & Isis have improved since they were last around. (That didn’t seem to be true here.) That’s me wanting to know everything, which isn’t as really applicable to most anyone else. And even my time is limited. My time isn’t rewarded by watching these matches, so there’s going to be lots of skipping to come. This is one you can easily skip too.
The second match was very ordinary. Magnus & Starman doing tag moves in the second fall while Leono hung in the corner until it was time to get the pin was a bit odd. It’d help if Yago & Magnus had good chemistry, since they both seem to be good wrestlers who are stuck in this low position for the moment. They were just alright here.
Dragon Lee challenged Penta El Zero M to a match on Informa, following their incident on the PCW Ultra show Friday. It’s hard to know how seriously to take it. It’s a lot like Dragon Lee challenging Desperado to a mask match in his last NJPW interview. CMLL guys promos frequently challenge for matches or set up teams that they wish could happen. They usually have no idea if they’ll actually happen when they say them. Groups like NJPW seem to give the wrestlers a direction they’re heading (if they have one) for all their interviews. For CMLL, the only interviews that really seem to count are the in-ring ones to build up that month’s feud.
In this case, we know Penta is coming to CMLL at some point. Penta’s not booked anywhere tomorrow, so there’s even the slight possibility he makes a shock appearance in the Caristico/Dragon Lee match. Those are the two guys he’s had words with of late. It also could be something for later or something even outside CMLL. I think CMLL wouldn’t have had Dragon Lee bring it up on Informa if they didn’t have some plan. (Edit: A fan asked the question.) It just doesn’t feel like a guarantee we’ll see it.
Lucha Underground Season 4 season is available on iTunes for $40 or Amazon for $58. Those are US links only. I have no idea. I have no idea why the free trailer for Season 4 is being sold for $3 on Amazon. After last night, I’d hold off on ordering them anyway.
Lucha Libre Xalapena has an interview with local wrestler El Demasiado.
Lineups
CMLL (MON) 06/18/2018Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger & Meyer vs Guerrero Espacial & Policeman
2) Acero, Astro, Asturiano, Stigma vs Joker, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pierrothito, Saurón
3) Estrellita & Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola & La Seductora
4) Esfinge, Fuego, Stigma vs Máscara Año 2000, Okumura, Universo 2000 Jr.
5) Rush vs Kráneo
6) Flyer, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Titán, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Rush gets another chance to see if he can get past Kraneo. Titan and Soberano still seem on track to a singles match. The atomicos match could create an apuesta match just in time for the Arena Puebla show. I’m not sure why Sauron is around if it’s not to lose his mask.
Felino, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. beat Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Titánin a relevos increíbles match
(11:00 [3:55, 1:54, 5:11], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
I don’t even know
Team Titan worked as the rudos in the main event, with Niebla & Cavernario making sure to rough up Felino.
The semimain was scheduled to be a national trios titles match. However, Mephisto could not return from a match Guatemala in time for the match due to a volcanic eruption. The title match was pushed back to next week and Hechicero filled in this week.
This was Zeuxis’ final match for CMLL for the time being, having given notice a while back. It wasn’t played up in the match. She appeared to say goodbye on Informa.
Thoughts:
The main event was interesting for the novelty of people working different sides and really for no other reason. It was a trip to see Titan as a rudo and a partner of Cavernario, and the crowd enjoyed Felino standing up to his usual teammates. It disguised that the work wasn’t all that special, with Volador having one of his vacation days and Soberano/Titan never being as in-depth as you might hope. That felt like the match they were building until Soberano just pinned Titan to send everyone home happy. Maybe it should and will be the match they end up with, but this match didn’t come off as the first part of a plan.
Puma on target
It’s really too bad Hechicero was the substitute guy in the trios title feud, because he was obviously better than the two guys on his team who will be in the title match next week. Hechicero taking a big quebradora and Luciferno struggling to take the same move from the same man 10 seconds later was not great. This was a weird feeling matches because the NDS were técnicos and never had long control of the match, just brief moments of hope to break up the domination. It did get the crowd behind the intended team, though that team would’ve really struggled to take that much of the match without Hechicero.
The crowd was way into the fourth match. The work didn’t seem that special, just a generic toned down match. They did play to the crowd a lot. Perhaps that why it worked for them. Kawato is seemingly acting a little bit more wild and rudo-ish of late, though the rest of his wrestling is not anything pleasant. He remains an interesting person because he’s evolving in a promotion where most people are locked in the form they’ll be until their skills decline. I’m just not sure he’s evolving into anything good.
Estrellita was brutal at the end of the first fall, her work so bad that everyone else looked as if they messed up as well. There was a Marcela/Zeuxis dropkick spot that looked not good, and everyone generally felt a beat slow in reacting and moving. Marcela seemed angry throughout the whole match and it showed in her performance. I don’t know that it’s going to be a sure thing that Zeuxis will do great on the indies; this CMLL division being so underwhelming has taken her down from where she was even a year ago. Still, it’s a lot better chance for her improving than hanging around here.
