AAA had so over taped that Verano de Escandalo, an event which took place more than a month ago, will just start airing on Space this week. That promotion would be rough to follow this year if they weren’t offering live shows streaming and even then it’s an awful lot of work. This might be the last week without an AAA taping for two months.
Lucha Undergroudn’s preview mentions three Aztec Medallion matches in total; I may be making a mistake by assuming just three Medallions are on the line. We’ve seen tag matches with them in the past. The preview mentions they’ll follow up on Mascarita Sagrada leading the Rabbit Tribe to the White Rabbit from the ending of last season. The Antonio/Cuerno/Cage bit this week checked off one scene from the trailer, and I’d guess we’ll get a couple more to come.
Still including IWRG on this seems wildly optimistic.
It turns out nothing happened. It looked for a half a second like they were going somewhere with Forastero & Flyer, but nope.
Thoughts:
Zacarias needed some wings
The main event, and this whole card, were tough to watch. Everything was the ok/good technically range, and nothing moved me emotionally. It may be too much CMLL or these show feeling so meaningless – the one angle here in the main event appears to have been dropped after it happened – but this was kind of like a chore I had to get thru to do more interesting lucha things. The crowd liked the action better, with Negro Casas & Dragon Lee having the usual strong interactions and Euforia setting up Mistico greatly. Forastero & Flyer really should feud, but it seemed odd that CMLL would do a midcard feud with no title involved, and so it makes more sense they’re not.
The semifinal had things that normally are interesting but it didn’t really come together in a great way. There was enough noise and excitement that I’d understand why people liked it but it just was missing something. It was a little too nondescript, nothing memorable about it that doesn’t happen a lot. Triton & Titan work like a team and Triton & Esfinge work like a team but I’m not sure Titan & Esfinge know each other. Luciferno catching Triton’s first dive with his back and then running away as to make sure Triton didn’t try a second dive was very odd.
another moment in Euforia being the best
The lightning told a match about Felino being outmatched. The normally fast and flying rudo was hit by an airborne Hechicero far more often than he could do for the same, and Hechicero was faster than him when it came to rolling out of the way of the elbow drop. Hechicero put in a lot of effort for an otherwise meaningless Tuesday match and Felino’s streak of better than usual matches continued.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying I liked the segunda, but it was noticeably better than usual. They allowed the tecnicos to do more than usual, and the crowd reacted well enough to their dives and such that it’s confusing why they can’t just keep it this way. Yago needs to be bumped up to (at least) this level on the regular. He’s good enough that he can keep the sometimes shaky spots of the ex-minis on target, without getting fiercely annoyed with them like the veterans in this pool of guys. He’d fine counterbalance to Raizel & Cancerbero, should Raziel ever turn up again.
Pura Raza teased CMLL & ROH wrestlers appearing on their next 08/04 show. No names or locations announced. I think this is probably someone (Taven?) coming to Mexico to work for CMLL and Pura Raza getting to use them for the Saturday date, similar to how Lucha Memes has done in the past. CMLL hasn’t even announced anyone from ROH coming in yet. Maybe we’ll start getting more CMLL announcements with the Mexico team out of the World Cup.
Looks like no Arena Coliseo show next Saturday; a Televisa boxing broadcast is scheduled for the venue instead. A ROH would normally be working the Arena Coliseo show on Saturday and not an outside date, so I wonder if there’s a boxing show scheduled for 08/04 too.
Impact Wrestling officially announced their deal with 52MX in Mexico. They’ll air Saturday nights at 9:30pm. The Wrestling Observer hypes this as a lead-in for more Impact wrestlers working in Mexico because the fans will know them. I’m skeptical of that working to any great degree. 52MX doesn’t have much viewership in Mexico (or the US), and the people who are going to see it are the wrestling fans who are seeking out everything and probably know who these people are already. CMLL has had a show on 52MX for over a decade and I can’t point to any sign of it helping the promotion create stars. Impact itself used to be on 52MX and it didn’t seem to help Impact people get over in Mexico previously. It’s much better than nothing, and it would seem to create the situation where Impact is available in another language while AAA still is still Spanish only.
In the weekly Marca interview, La Jarochita said she was a soccer player growing up, but her father thought it wasn’t a tough enough sport and put her in wrestling instead. She’s picking Uruguay to win the World Cup.
A show in Tecate next weekend has a four-way scheduled with Negro Casas, Mistico, Arkangel Divino and Black Destiny. That would be the first time the ex-Crash (and seemingly current AAA) and CMLL guys have mixed. I think there’s a good chance it’d end up on 126F’s channel.
Real Japan Pro Wrestling, a promotion led by original Tiger Mask Sayama, ran a show on 07/03 with a lot of Mexican names. The bit here is Tiger Mask is resurrecting UWA/LLI, even showing a letter from original promoter Francisco Flores’ daughter endorsing the idea. He brought in a bunch of sons of UWA/LLI wrestlers to this show to get over the concept. (RJPW is supposed to be 80s NJPW, when UWA was a partner promotion.) That included Brazo de Oro Jr., who seems to rarely work in Mexico, flown over to work a midcard trios match. They’re also running a masked man tournament, with Toscano (wearing a mask but still called Toscano) and Dos Caras Jr. participating. Dos Caras Jr. won the main event match. I’m not sure how the tournament works or when it’ll be continuing; RJPW doesn’t run often and doesn’t get a lot of attention.
CMLL (TUE) 07/10/2018Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Magnus, Retro, Sangre Imperial vs Akuma, Inquisidor, Yago
3) Pegasso vs Virus [lightning]
4) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Misterioso Jr., Puma, Tiger
5) Flyer, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
6) Ángel de Oro, Kráneo, Niebla Roja vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
A show. Main event is a rematch, which wasn’t really set up at all in the matches (but JCR seemed tipped off.) That could mean Sanson/Niebla Roja on 07/17 or they’ll just forget about the whole thing.
Akuma’s not going to be any happier with that match.
Soberano and Cavernario had a great title match last year. Matches on the GDL tend to be edited down to shorter time (assuming the internet feed even works.)
Tyson La Bestia, who’s wrestled on plenty of indie shows with CMLL wrestlers and appeared on the one-off ELITE 2018 return to Arena Mexico, makes his way onto a normal CMLL show in the opener here.
Flyer & Volador Jr. beat Templario & Último Guerrero
(14:18 [2:44, 3:02, 8:32], 2/3 DQ, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
real topes con giro
Soberano kept his title over Titan.
Último Guerrero fouled Volador, setting up a singles match next week.
Amapola asked for a title match after he won, and Sugehit granted it.
Thoughts:
Puma, unimpressed
The main event was a regular match with the same people as the Gran Alternativa, not something trying to build on that or even approach it. The crowd got into the match, but the pace and intensity was much lower. The wrestling was smooth but they didn’t as much to showcase the younger wrestlers until Flyer’s run in the third fall. It kind of makes sense, because Volador/UG is the match coming out of it, but I’m not really excited to see that one more time.
Titan had his right hamstring taped up, Dragon Rojo style, and he slid out of the ring early on when it was bugging him. It’s hard to tell how serious the injury really was, but it perfectly explained Titan’s reasons for attacking Soberano with a different strategy. He did it well, going for his leglock submission instead, and it turned into a dramatic match. Titan never really got a close near fall in the third fall, but they’d done so much to establish the figure four a deadly that it was better than any cradle would’ve been. They made smart use of the three falls structure to get that over as possible finish in the first fall, and they built it up a lot until Titan got in that moment. There were fun twists along the way – Joker got obliterated by a tope just for being a second – and these two got as about as a good reaction as they would’ve with something that would’ve required a lot more leaping. This was well done.
Jokerplex
The Panther/Felinos match was the expected mirror of their successful matches in Arena Mexico with a little less time. It was a little slow to start, but probably intended that way to build to a faster moving finish. If you’re going to watch one, you should watch the Friday ones, but this was worthwhile on this show. Felino has been looking better teaming with his sons of late and has a lot better timing as a third wheel than Esfinge.
When I wrote that there were only a few possible women’s matches left that would be potentially good, I think I was thinking of this match being on that list. This match was alright, but it wasn’t good. Part of it is the ghosts of the past: they’re both slow and less impactful than the same match would’ve been five or ten years ago. They haven’t pushed themselves to adjust what they do, and so this came off as a slimmed down version of an actual good match. I’m sure they’ll try a bit more in the title match but they’d have a ways to go before it’d be recommendable.
The athletic ability of the mini técnicos can sometimes overpower the boring structure of their overall matches. This wasn’t one of those times. Asturiano and Astro didn’t do a lot while that match itself followed the usual pattern. Asturiano wrestles in Puebla locals fairly often. Astro doesn’t seem to be wrestling anywhere unless it’s in some small Tlaxcala indie we’re not hearing about. I hope he’s getting more out of wrestling than these matches.
this always looks great, even with a weird yellow light treatment
Matches
Jake Savage beat Big Bad Strong Steve (2:07, anklelock, ok)
Taya & Johnny Mundo beat Daga & Kobra Moon (6:22, Taya curbstomp Kobra Moon, good)
Matanza defeated Mr. Pec-tacular (0:47, Wrath of the Gods, ok )
King Cuerno beat Chavo Guerrero for an Aztec Medallion (9:52, Thrill of the Kill, ok)
Status Check
Champion: Pentagon Dark
Gift of the Gods: vacant
Aztec Medallions: Dragon Azteca, King Cuerno, the winner of Mil Muertes/Cage + 4 TBD
Trios Champions: Killshot, the Mack, Son of Havoc
Died This Season: Jeremiah Crane (casket), Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed)
Happenings
flecha negra
After three episodes of big events, the fourth episode of the season was smaller in scale, mostly setting up things for later. As usual for these sort of Lucha Underground episodes, the Aztec Medallions were back in play.
King Cuerno won a Medallion over Chavo Guerrero, in a match which seemed to exist for the announcers to tell us Chavo was one of the best of all time, but also evil and that meant Cuerno was now a good guy. It was more notable for the office vignette which set it up. Antonio Cueto would like the Gauntlet back for the Order. Cuerno’s story is it was stolen from him. Antonio in no way believes this story but can’t do anything about it for this moment. Instead, he tries bribery. Cuerno’s offered not just a medallion match against the man who beat him in Aztec Warfare, but the specific medallion which represents his tribe. Cage interrupts the meeting to ask for a title shot of his own. Antonio’s not big on getting a title match just by attacking the champion and tells Cage he’ll have to earn it, starting with a Medallion match with Mil Muertes next week. Antonio says Muerte’s tribe’s medallion will be on the line, which is also shown to the camera.
Both the Cuerno (Deer?) and Muertes (Death?) tribes & medallions had been guessed at by people watching the show. This appears to be the first time the show has outright stated those last two ones. That means off referenced about seven tribes are:
Deer (or something like that): King Cuerno
Rabbit: Paul London, Mala Suerte, Saltador
Moth: Mariposa & Marty
Reptile: Kobra Moon, Daga, Drago, Vibora
Eagle: Dragon Azteca Jr.
Jaguar: no known active currently members in LU
Death (or something like that): Mil Muertes, Catrina
shibata style
In other show mythology, a vignette with Catrina served as a coda to the three-way Grave Consequences match from last week. Catrina sucked the lifeforce out of Fenix with a kiss, then dropped off her half of the immortality amulet with Melissa as a reminder. Melissa has no idea what it is, but the show did a good job reminding us of the amulet’s meaning in the previously vignettes. They also showed a brief clip from a season 1 (!) episode where Catrina outright said stealing Fenix’s lifeforce was her goal – this plan seemed to come suddenly the last few weeks, but they’d laid a seed for it years ago. Catrina’s lifeforce absorption came with an outfit change into a red dress. I think it’s the outfit she was wearing in the western poster that hinted at her old age in an episode long ago, but I can’t remember which one to check.
On top of all that, Matanza is now sacrificing people to the gods by having the lights go off, a special effect noise play, and the person being disappeared when the lights came back up. Mr. Pectacular was the first victim, getting in no effective offense against the newly charged up monster.
Big Bad Steve didn’t fare any better against Jake Strong, losing an uncompetitive match and getting his ankle broken. Strong stole part of Steve’s gear too. Brenda was with Steve but Famous B was not – Matt Striker said B was in danger of getting his leg amputated because of the damage from Strong’s anklelock. They asked that people send well wishes to 1-423-Get-Fame
Maybe the most normal thing on the show was the feud between the Hollywood types and the snake people. Kobra Moon’s first in-ring action since season 2 ended in a loss, though it wasn’t without interference. PJ Black cracked her with a kick to the head to set up Taya’s curbstomp. The victory was short-lived, as Vibora was able to take out three present members of Worldwide Underground in revenge. Kobra Moon vowed Johnny Mundo would bow before her.
Thoughts
a new take on the headscissors escape into something idea
This episode had some things for people who are into the Lucha Underground lore, but it didn’t really have much in memorable matches.
Both the Matanza and Strong matches were not much. Matanza is much better at doing an impressive squash at this point. The sacrifice bit was unimpressive; I was preparing myself for something gory, something in the more over the top LU fashion that would get everyone’s who already given up on the show mad at it. It was just the lights out trick instead. Strong needs a direction and a better connection with the LU storylines then beating up people vaguely allied with Famous B. He also needs a better camera angle on his gutwrench suplex, since that was his one impressive spot.
I wasn’t really feeling long Chavo Guerrero matches in 2015. Three more years haven’t improved the situation. The match had a purpose of reminding people who hadn’t seen Cuerno wrestling a real match since season 2 of what he can do and that it’s ok to cheer for him. It still felt more long than good. Lucha Underground Twitter teased this might be it for Chavo for now, which didn’t seem connected to anything mentioned on the show. I hope they know what they’re talking about.
timber
The mixed tag was the best match on the show. Daga got a lot of time for once and made a good impact with it. It didn’t make him by any means, but he’s another guy no one’s seen on this show for nearly two seasons and it at least reminded those people he might be part of good matches. (He also told Mundo “Welcome to Snake Town!”) We’re kind of owed a Mundo/Daga match from AAA and they did enough to make me want to hear it here. Kobra Moon seemed protected early – tagging in, doing the Lita headscissors on Mundo and tagging right back didn’t give me great hope – but she did more later and ended up looking better than she had in the past. (There were some edits though, even I could pick it up for once.) The big surprise was they did a mixed tag match without making a big deal about it for once. Vibora was put over super strong in this match. I still have no idea who I’m supposed to be rooting for in this feud. At least the action’s good.
CMLL (TUE) 07/03/2018Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, The Gladiatores]
1) Stukita & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico tencicos took 2/3.
2) Akuma, Hijo del Signo, Metálico b Astral, Eléctrico, Príncipe Diamante Rudos took 1/3.
3) Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Sangre Azteca b Drone, Fuego, Pegasso Rudos took 1/3.
4) Audaz b Universo 2000 Jr. [lightning]
5) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Stuka Jr. b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto Stuka replaced Kraneo (moved up). Tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Ángel de Oro, Kráneo, Niebla Roja Kraneo replaced Diamante Azul (France). Rudos took 1/3.
Promos: Audaz, Hermanos Chavez (Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja), and NGD. The main event kind of set up Sanson/Niebla Roja, but didn’t commit to it.
I have not made the necessary time in my life to watch the segunda. I do know it was bad enough that Akuma went on Facebook to apologize about it and ask for chances elsewhere to prove what he’s capable of doing. He doesn’t want to blame anyone else in the match (but Astral had a bad night.) Akuma is a guy I’ve wanted to see get out of CMLL elsewhere to get better because there seems potential there, but he has no star value and no easy opponent like his brother Demus so no indie promoter is going to be going out of his way to use him. I think he’d end up lost in the mix too – he’s still a project and needs someone investing in developing him. CMLL doesn’t seem to be doing that.
CMLL (TUE) 07/03/2018Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Magnum, Star Black, Vaquero Jr. b Carlo Roggi, Difunto, Guerrero de la Muerte tecnicos took 2/3.
2) La Comandante, La Seductora, Reyna Isis b Maligna, Mystique, Princesa Sugehit rudas took 2/3.
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón b Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura, Pólvora Okumura replaced Kawato. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas b Flyer, Soberano Jr., Valiente Cavernario submitted Soberano to set up a title match.
5) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Mistico DQ Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero Dragon Lee & Mistico didn’t want to help Caristico. Tecnicos took 2/3, the last by DQ when UG fouled Mistico.
Soberano/Cavernario maybe next week. The longer term problem is how to handle Caristico when most of the top tecnicos are also feuding with him. Maybe they’ll just forget about it like the last few times.
Lucha Underground has episode 4×4, “Pain, Love and Sacrifice to the Gods”. Announced matches:
Daga & Kobra Moon vs Taya & Johnny Mundo (video clip)
King Cuerno vs ? for an Azteca Medallion
Matanza offers a Sacrifice to the Gods (which I assume involved a match in some way.)
The photos released for this show indicate Mr. Pectacular is Matanza’s opponent/victim, and Chavo Guerrero Jr. faces King Cuerno. The preview mentions a Catrina/Melissa segment following up last week.
It wasn’t until seeing that video that I realized how awkward it’s going to be to listen to Vampiro call Taya matches now. The clip is less than a minute and he still managed to scoff at her. Probably in character.
If you miss this show, it’ll be repeated next week before the new airing. If you can’t get the show now because of the Sling/Univision dispute, you can buy it tomorrow on Amazon or iTunes.
Pagano did an interview with his hometown paper, happy about being on TripleMania for the third year in a row. He has no idea who he’s facing, so falls back to the generic “I’d like to win a title, mask or hair” luchador promo. Pagano talks about his title match with Dr. Wagner proving that he was more than an extreme fighter. That was the not good match where a chair figured prominently.
MexaWrestling in Arena San Juan Pantitlan (Mextasis) on 08/04
CMLL (MON) 07/09/2018Arena Puebla
1) Asturiano & Meyer vs King Rocker & Sombra Diabólika
2) Arkalis & Black Tiger vs Espanto Jr. & King Jaguar
3) Astral, Lestat, Star Jr. vs Fuerza Chicana, Hijo del Signo, Policeman
4) Rey Cometa, Rey Samuray, Stuka Jr. vs Hechicero, Máscara Año 2000, Templario
5) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Cuatrero, Mr. Niebla, Sansón
6) La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible vs Atlantis, Carístico, Euforia [Relevos Increíbles]
That main event looks like it should be Ingobernables/tecnico match, but Diamante Azul isn’t actually back so Euforia gets the call. Semimain is the rematch. The fourth match is about one person from being really promising. Opener could be good too.
