Day: August 14, 2018

CMLL (MON) 08/13/2018 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, Lucha Central]
1) Joker & Mercurio b Meyer & Shockercito 
Rudos took 2/3, setting up a Joker/Mercurio title match.
2) La Jarochita & Mistique b La Metálica & Reyna Isis 
tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Drone, Stigma, Tritón b El Malayo, Kawato San, Okumura 
tecnicos took 1/3
4) Hechicero, Mr. Niebla, Shocker b Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Valiente 
rudos took 1/3. Hechicero took Soberano’s mask after the match.
5) Atlantis, Matt Taven, Octagón b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón 
tecnicos took 2/3.

The big news from this show was a heavy sponsorship by Ford. A “Ford Motorcraft” logo was in the center of the ring, banners were hung around the arena and representatives were introduced as being in the front row. Motorcraft turns out to be the parts company, not the whole car company. It’s not immediately clear if this is a Puebla sponsorship deal or something for CMLL entirely; we’ll know more about that tonight. It’d be interesting if it was only Puebla because Puebla happens to be the home of Volkswagon in Mexico.

Hechicero defends the NWA Light Heavyweight championship tonight in Arena Mexico. It’s his first streamed title defense in over a year. (He’s had a non-recorded win over Blue Panther Jr., a Guadalajara win over Esfinge, and the recent Christopher Daniels match.) Hechicero remains good, though he’s also adjusted a lot to the CMLL style since he started in the promotion a few years ago, concentrating on a smaller set of moves he can do well in every match than being as experimental as he was prior. Hechicero’s matches can still be exciting, the match with Valiente on Friday show that, but he’s not had the top level matches in CMLL. He’s also not been given all that much chance for those. Stuka doesn’t seem to have much chance of winning but should be a solid opponent.

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja team with Kraneo against NGD in the main event. That’s a solid Tuesday match which might be sped thru tonight. Hijos del Infierno face Panther, Soberano and Titan in the fourth match. Audaz makes an appearance in the tercera. You may want to skip the first couple matches.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show. It’ll air at 7:30pm CT on CMLL’s YouTube channel.

Guadalajara has Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, and Negro Casas against Caristico, xMatt Taven and Mistico as the main event. Last week was the Mephisto/Titan title match, so we’re looking for a new feud somewhere here.

CMLL announced they’ll have an 85th Anniversario press conference next Wednesday, announcing the details of the show. It’s expected those details will include the mysterious main event of the show. The promo art for the press conference includes a photo with Rush, for what it’s worth.

CMLL also announced Soberano Jr. will be on that Anniversario show. From his reaction in that video, it didn’t appear he had been told before that point. The full list of people announced so far are LA Park, Caristico, Mistico, Dragon Lee (if off reality show by then), Sanson, Forastero, Cuatrero, King Phoenix, Penta el 0M and now Soberano. There are some obvious names to be added.

One of those obvious names are Ultimo Guerrero. He told Notimex that he wants a hair versus hair match against Cibernetico on that show, feeling it’s a big match people want to see. He’d also be open to facing Mesias if he comes to CMLL.

Highlights of Dragon Lee’s performance on the first of a million Exatlon episodes are here, at least until Azteca gets it taken down. He appears to have done very well on his first show and probably will be sticking around for a while.

AAA officially announced the 08/31 Tijuana and 09/21 Toluca AAA versus ELITE shows. The 09/21 show was originally listed as a TV taping on the poster, but that’s been removed in this version. It is not planned to be recorded or streamed on Twitch.

It was a little peculiar when the upcoming The Crash show listed Garza Jr. as a special referee and not wrestling. It’s not a bit lucha libre promotions usually do. It makes more sense now; Garza Jr. says he won’t be wrestling 4-6 months, but can still take bookings for meet & greets. Garza’s had reoccurring shoulder injuries and has tried to work thru them, which is probably why they’re reoccurring. This is likely taking time off to see if it’ll actually heal completely.

The Crash says they have nothing to do with an upcoming show in Puebla using that name, and they didn’t give permission for someone to use their name.

La Enigmatica posted a video, asking for her father to be allowed to wrestle again. When Black Skeller’s license was suspended for attacking her with a chair, they also took away El Enigmatico’s license for allowing her at ringside without one. Skeller continues to wrestle anyway, telling people the whole thing was a work. Engimatica maintains it was not, and her father needs to work to pay for her medical bills. She’s in a neck brace in a video and says she’ll still be in for a month more.

Coliseo Coacalco will have it’s 21st Anniversary show on 10/21. Canek has been announced.

+LuchaTV’s latest podcast included an interview with Penta.

Segunda Caida reviews Hechicero versus Aramis.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

Ovaciones has part one of an interview with Fray Tormenta.

The annual lucha libre expo in Oaxaca will be held today.

Funcion Estelar interviewed Drastico.