June 16, 2018 – luchablog

the real story is LA Park is 52 going on 12, and so he must play with any nunchucks he finds (also Rush tosses the nunchucks comically high in the air)

CMLL (FRI) 06/15/2018 Arena México [ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Lucha Central, Ovaciones, thecubsfan]
1) Shockercito & Stukita b Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
13:47. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther b Kawato San, Okumura, Universo 2000 Jr.
13:26. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón b Felino, Puma, Tiger
16:49. Tecnicos (Guantos Style? Oneatos Style?) took 2/3.
4) Hijo de LA Park, Niebla Roja, Valiente b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
16:02. Tecnicos took 2/3. Arkangel was honored before the match (and the moment included many people who weren’t booked on the show.) Mephisto wore an Arkangek mask and outfit. He took the loss to Valiente.
5) Carístico b Dragón Lee [lightning]
8:12. Dragon Lee submitted La Caristica.
6) Cibernético, Rush, Terrible DQ LA Park, Rey Fénix, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
16:49. Rush faked a foul to draw the DQ in the first fall from Edgar. Rambo ordered Edgar out of the match and put Tirantes in. Rush ran Park into Tirantes in the second fall. Comandante passed Rush nunchucks (???), Park took them out and twirled the nunchucks around, and Tirantes spotted it to call a second DQ. Park screamed for a match with Rush (super libre + mask/hair) and Rush agreed to a match next week, saying he wants blood.

CMLL promos: Mercurio (wants a title shot) OneAtos Styles (want more challenges) Mephisto (talks about Arkangel), Caristico (talks about Dragon Lee), Cibernetico (his return to CMLL) La Familia Real. The general media interviews included Cibernetico (teased Kaoz, the faction he has with Zorro, Manson and Mesias, coming to Arena Mexico), LA Park (wants to yell loud enough for Paco Alonso to hear he wants the mask/hair match), Rush (just wants blood), Mephisto (talks about Arkangel)

CMLL also posted the Arkangel de la Muerte remembrance.

This was another overall enjoyable Friday show. The main event was better than the last couple of weeks for being all over the place. Caristico & Dragon Lee is worth ten minutes.

Penta Zero el M was mentioned on commentary when talking about Rey Fenix. Dragon Lee posted another video teasing the match in a conversation with Fenix. Dragon Lee told Grafico he’d like to have a singles match with Rey Fenix. Rey Fenix told the press he’d like to team with Penta against Dragon Lee & Rush. I think that’s where they’d like to ultimately head with this, Penta & Fenix teaming in a special 2v2 match in Arena Mexico. We’re still week to week on anything happening.

It’s not happening next Friday because Penta is booked in California. I believe Penta booked in other places the next couple of weeks and I know Dragon Lee is busy. He’s got the NJPW Daytona show on the 29th (teaming with Taguchi versus Sho & Yo), and then out to California for the King of the Indies on July 6th. Penta will make it to Arena Mexico eventually, it’s just not happening right away.

(Also: is Dragon Lee the only one in CMLL – maybe the only one in Mexico? – doing short videos to hype upcoming matches like this? Everyone else can’t be letting him be fair ahead of the game at the wrestling AND the non-wrestling, that’s just unfair.)

That Faby Apache/Lacey Lane match at the Martinez show last night went old school: the two champions ended in a (15 minute) draw.

This weekend has a fair bit of shows of some importance

The Crash has slipped from attention with AAA bringing many of their wrestlers aboard. They still have a pretty loaded show Saturday night in Tijuana. The main event is an all-star lineup Alberto, Rey and Penta against Garza, Bestia, and Rush. It should be enough to fill the building on its own. Daga & Fenix take on ~~Adam Brooks~~ someone & Matt Riddle in the semimain. The card is full of more US indie names.The Crash seems to have endorsed the VideosLuchas3000 YouTube channel as its official bootlegger. There probably will be other versions as well.
Atlantis, Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. have the second match of their two-day tour in Dallas tonight. They challenge The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, and Vinny Marseglia) for the ROH Trios championship. Team CMLL has a better chance of anyone reading this of becoming the champions tonight, but not a much better chance. They’re a guest team who might not be back in ROH, and the last ROH TV taping hinted Ultimo Guerrero + friends are challenging The Kingdom soon, maybe even on the next ROH PPV.
Last night’s Team CMLL match against So Cal Uncensored was said to be a good match. They can probably work out the same here. Tonight’ show will stream live on ROH’s ROHWorld service at 7 pm.
Lucha Memes & MDA make their annual return to Puebla, with a lot of locals getting the sort of chances against Mexico City wrestlers they don’t get on Arena Puebla shows. Prayer, who had a big match with Virus last year, faces Blue Panther this time around. ex-Mini Multifacetico faces Templario. Arkalis is supposed to face Aramis, but Arkalis is also listed as working in Arena Coliseo that night. I’d be shocked if he picked Memes over a chance in CMLL.As always with Lucha Memes, we have no idea if anything will turn up or when it’ll turn up. Puebla shows are unlikely to be fan-camed in a complete fashion, so you’ll have to wait until +LuchaTV puts it up. That usually happens around the time of the next show important show in the market – they put up highlights of the last Puebla show Friday night.
LuchaMemes, MDA, and Lucha Libre Boom are in Arena Lopez Mateos the next day. The main event sees Octagon & son against Penta & Ultimo Gladiador in a clash of styles. The Ricky Marvin indie tour continues on with his first ever singles match against Daga. Mesias is a surprising inclusion in a Solar vs Negro Navarro & Satanico match.This show being in Arena Lopez Mateos means there will be five different versions of these matches up on YouTube in the next week. Most of them will be weirdly and confusingly edited. It’ll also appear in some form on the +Lucha channel.
Aro Lucha pops up for the first time in four months with a show in its home base of the Nashville Fairgrounds. This was originally scheduled as the start of Season 1 tapings for their TV show (and is still listed that way on their WeFunder page – up to $112K) but has said to be just a live event. Rey Mysterio Jr. is booked, so much hunch is they had already paid for this Mysterio date, the official tapings aren’t ready to go, and they decided to just run a live event since they had Rey. The main event has been announced as Willie Mack, Black Taurus, Shane Strickland vs Rey Mysterio, Fenix and Sammy Guevera. Plenty of other people have been announced. What we’re really looking for here is any sign there’s movement a greater plan. This promotion hasn’t done anything but cancel shows and announce they were looking for money in the last few months. Running any show is a nice change of pace but one show on its own isn’t a solution.Even though this is not an official taping, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still recorded at some level – it’s useful footage to sell investors and TV people on the product, and to put out on social media. Some matches from their February events (the last time they ran) were put on YouTube, so it’s possible a match or two will eventually slip out.
IWRG has it’s annual Festival de las Mascaras show on Sunday. That show is usually centered around older and near retired luchadors coming back in the original masked characters for one night a year. This year, it’s that and it is also LA Park & Rush fighting while Hijo de LA Park & Dragon Lee stand nearby. It’s been very obvious CMLL has told Park & Rush to reign it in after the first suitcase busting match. It doesn’t appear anyone in IWRG has ever been told to hold back in a brawl. That beer bottle cooler is going to be raided. The one concern here is Rush is also booked in the main event of the CMLL Father’s Day show, so the IWRG show will probably go long and Rush might not be totally into it.It’s Rush & Park, so I expect the half of the people who don’t go to Arena Lopez Mateos to go to Arena Naucalpan. It’ll also air on IWRG’s YouTube channel/+LuchaTV and I may be able to get a copy from AYM if that feed works.
CMLL does have that Father’s Day show. Non-Friday CMLL shows have been pretty consistently boring of late, so even though this one should be better than usual, I don’t get the sense anyone cares about it airing. It probably won’t. It is a bit weird CMLL has one day of the week hot and most every other day of the week very cold.

AAA announced Jeff Jarrett will be part of their 07/13 Queretaro taping, the next one to take place. The full card will be announced on Monday.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 06/22/2018 Arena México
1) Robin & Súper Astro Jr. vs Akuma & Yago
2) Estrellita, La Jarochita, Marcela vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Pólvora
4) Atlantis, Carístico, Stuka Jr. vs Euforia, La Bestia Del Ring, Último Guerrero
5) El Hijo de L.A. Park, Rey Fénix, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
6) L.A. Park vs Rush

The main event is billed as “what the fans asked for”. I think the fans asked for a no rules match. We’ll see. Semi main should give Fenix (& Volador) more to do. Nice to see the young guys in the opener.

The Panther is still listed as The Panther on the poster, but was referred to as Black Panther last night. Who knows.

Recapped: 06/15/2018

Matches:

Shockercito & Stukita beat Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
(13:47 [4:53, 3:02, 5:52], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, Black Panther beat Kawato San, Okumura, Universo 2000 Jr.
(13:26 [4:38, 2:56, 5:52], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Esfinge, Titán, Tritón beat Felino, Puma, Tiger
(16:49 [5:41, 3:26, 7:42], 2/3, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Hijo de LA Park, Niebla Roja, Valiente beat Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
(16:02 [4:49, 4:16, 6:57], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL )

Carístico beat Dragón Lee in a lightning match
(8:12, La Caristica, great, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Cibernético, Rush, Terrible beat LA Park, Rey Fénix, Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(16:49 [5:50, 10:59], 1 DQ/2 DQ, good, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened:

Rush faked a foul in the first fall of the main event, with help from Edgar being taken out. Referee Edgar got involved in Rush’s favor a couple times during that fall. Commissioner Rambo ejected Edgar from the match and replaced him with Tirantes. Tirantes was knocked down by Rush sending him into LA Park in the second fall. LA Park got a visual pinfall soon after, just as he did in the first fall. La Comandante passed nunchucks to Rush to use. LA Park knocked them loose, grabbed them and flashed them around. Tirantes saw Park with them, and called the disqualification. LA Park again demanded a super libre and a mask versus hair match with Rush. Rush accepted for next week.

Arkangel de la Muerte, who passed away on Wednesday, was remembered between the third and fourth matches of the card. Mephisto dressed up as Arkangel, complete to the black marker goatee, for his match.

The Panther was called “Black Panther” all match and in the preview for next week. It appears to be a permanent name change. (And a little bit confusing one, since his brother was the one called Black Panther before.)

The Titan/Triton/Esfinge trio are trying to change their name (or at least the spelling to One Atos Style) though CMLL hasn’t taken that one up yet.

Thoughts:

The main event was a definite improvement over the last couple of weeks. Rey Fenix being involved helped, though he and Cibernético felt like AAA editions. Not because they were former AAA wrestler, but because they were big guest star names added to a match where they didn’t have an important role, like Laredo Kid and Brian Cage at Verano de Escandalo. Fenix and Cibernetico being matched up was not ideal (and must’ve been weird for both of them), and they still made it work. Like in the past, Cibernético seems willing to sell and go along with whatever spots the técnicos want to try in big CMLL matches. His bumping isn’t great, but I was content getting him taking Fenix’ spinning heel kick. Volador continues to feel like a luxury item in this feud, doing well while doing 20% of what he does when he’s the focus instead. Those supporting players being good added to the overall match, and the referee shenanigans helped create the chaotic feel that needs to be present in the LA Park/Rush feud. LA Park is an abnormal presence in CMLL and it should never feel like any routine CMLL match – the ref bumps and the ejections can’t and shouldn’t be done for everyone but they absolutely work in the context of the out of control rivalry taking place. The stuff done here makes a lot of sense if they’re finally coming back with the super libre match next week. The nunchuck spot is going to be forever remembered.

The lightning match far exceeded my expectations. Dragon Lee is Dragon Lee and is always going to be pretty good. Carístico was surprisingly excellent and the two meshed together wonderfully. Carístico was up Dragon Lee’s bonkers ideas, Dragon Lee playing rudo made the match work out pretty well, and the two were smooth against each other for a match we haven’t seen. Caristico’s walk up the rope Spanish Fly was super impressive; I was concerned he’d come off as a lot less athletic than Dragon Lee and that wasn’t the case. I was also expecting another draw once it started getting alone, so an actual finish was a nice surprise. Go watch this one.

The fourth match had a hard time picking the crowd back up after the Arkangel moment. The crowd really only reacted to the dives until the last moments. The action wasn’t so great that these guys were cheated out of a reaction. It was a basic Hijo del Infierno match. Hijo de LA Park is very indie, willing to try big moves and not really smooth with them. He was lucky not hurt himself on his diving headscissors, but scooting across the ropes at least made it feel different than the dozen other ones we get a week. I can not believe Mephisto took the pin.

The Tiger/Puma match was the usual good Tiger/Puma match. Felino looked a lot better than usual, maybe trying a little bit more because he was with his sons. They came off as a better unit than usual, so something was working. Titan & Felino mixed well. Puma had really timing. The match seemed a little rough at times, so I wouldn’t put among their best, but it was still good for a Friday night watch.

The segunda wasn’t as the pace of other Panther matches – these rudos are just not that fast – but it wasn’t as huge a dropoff as it seemed. This was borderline good. The Panthers have their match down and can do it with pretty much anyone. Kawato included! Kawato had a nice dive, I shouldn’t be so mean. There were a lot of stutter steps during the second fall comeback because the timing just wasn’t there. It was still fine. Universo is getting new moves, needed new moves.

Of all the recent OK openers, this was definitely the best one. Shockercito & Stukita looked good, Mercurio’s comedy work, and they didn’t go too long. They even did the only thing rarer than dives in openers: near falls. Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro lived up to a reputation of being halfway decent when they try. There’s probably also a bit of me avoiding minis matches like the plague of late so this felt a bit more fresh.

Day: June 16, 2018

Nunchucks lead to Rush/Park singles match next week, Dragon Lee/Penta, busy weekend of shows

CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2018-06-15

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