Villano III passes away, CMLL notes

Villano III has passed away today. He was 65 or 66 depending on the source. He’d been having health problems for years and is said to have passed away from a brain hemorrhage while in the hospital.

Villano III was one of the great stars of the 70s & 80s in El Toreo. He always involved with their WWF Light Heavyweight Championships. He had a Santo like list of apuesta matches won, including names like Perro Aguayo, Super Astro, Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit), Mascara 2000, and pretty much all Brazos (despite not being in the famous three versus three match.) Villano III’s best-remembered match is not any of the wins, but his mask loss against Atlantis. The March 2000 battle of two tecnico legends of rival companies is considered one of the best matches in the last two decades of lucha libre. (In something which sounds familiar, that match had been teased for CMLL’s Anniversario show in 1999 only for it to end up with Mr. Niebla & Shocker deciding it instead.) Villano III was considered an excellent luchador in the 80s and 90s, and but the death of LLI/Toreo/UWA and the lack of preserved video robbed him a bit of his legacy. The mask match with Atlantis gave him a moment to be remembered in another promotion, and CMLL honored him for it last year at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas.

80s/90s lucha libre has extracted a hard price on the participants. There’s so many stars who’ve passed away before reaching the age of 70. Villano I & III passed away a long time ago, and Villano III was obviously having health issues at his last TripleMania appearance in 2015. Many of the Brazos they feuded with have passed and away, and others of that era are said to be in poor shape. I know everyone nowadays is doing a lot more athletic and hardcore spots, but the 80s guy had a hard bloody gladiator physical style with even harder rings, and worse conditions to do it in. LuchaWorld Alfredo has noted how many obits he’s had to write this year. I do not expect the pace to slow down, unfortunately.

Two sons of Villano III are wrestling today: Villano III Jr. is now an AAA regular, while Hijo del Villano III shows up CMLL trainee photos but has only wrestled in indies so far.

(TripleMania news will come along in a separate post in a little bit.)

CMLL (MON) 08/20/2018 Arena Puebla [Lost in Lucha, Lucha Central]
1) Asturiano, Centella Roja, Millenium b Ares, Espíritu Maligno, Sombra Diabólika 
Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Joker b Shockercito [lightning] 
Joker won to set up a title match next week.
3) Lestat, Pegasso, Tritón b Cancerbero, Nitro, Policeman 
Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Matt Taven, Niebla Roja b Ephesto, Mephisto, Templario 
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Cavernario, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush [Relevos Increíbles] 
Guerreros took 2/3, the last when Rush fouled UG.

I’ve seen nothing of this show so far, but I’m guessing the main event gets repeated next week. Cavernario & Rush aren’t losing many pinfalls.

Today’s CMLL show has NGD versus Atlantis, Mistico, and Soberano. The first half of the card has nothing strong, and the second half has some has some that could be good if things go the right away. It’s a show you can skip. Lucha Central has a preview.

The most interesting Tuesday show is in Guadalajara, as it tends to be. Ultimo Guerrero defends the NWA Middleweight Championship against Caristico in a match with Universal title implications. UG has another ticket via the trios titles, while Caristico would be left off. I’d assume Caristico loses here so he doesn’t have to lose later in the tournament, but I was wrong on the title change last week. CMLL will have the winner of this match, as well as Hechicero to talk about last week’s loss, on this week’s CMLL Informa.

CMLL will also have their own press conference for CMLL’s Anniversario show this Friday. I’m expecting the main event and maybe one other match to be announced, not the full card. I don’t know for sure.

DTU announced LuFisto would be coming back to Mexico in September. They’re probably doing the LuFisto/Faby Apache match on one of these shows. Masashi Takeda will also be on the September 11-13 shows.

3-2-1 Battle, a promotion in Seattle, will have Daniel Makabe versus Negro Navarro on 08/24. It appears they stream their events on Twitch.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

The latest edition of the +LuchaTV podcast is up.

Criterio Hidalgo has an interview with Pesadilla about his career and mentions Ciclope & Miedo Extremo successfully defending their FREEDOMS Tag Championship. Pesadilla seems to mention he had a WWE tryout, which would fit with WWE looking at Mexican wrestlers who’ve also wrestled in Japan.

ESTO interviews Mascara 2000.

MedioTiempo talks to Maximo.

MedioTiempo writes about the history of LA Park at TripleMania.

There’s an exhibition of lucha libre photography in San Francisco.

Lineups

CMLL (SUN) 08/26/2018 Arena México
1) Arkalis & Robin vs Camorra & Inquisidor
2) La Guerrera, Marcela, Sanely vs Amapola, La Comandante, Metálica
3) Rey Cometa vs Guerrero Maya Jr. [lightning]
4) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Disturbio, Dragón Rojo Jr., Okumura
5) Diamante Azul, Kráneo, Soberano Jr. vs Felino, Hechicero, Rey Bucanero
6) Atlantis, Matt Taven, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Sanely was back last week doing the book signing deal and wrestling on the Toryumon Mexico show. This is his first CMLL in-ring match since April. It appeared she had a knee injury based on photos posted on Twitter, but she and CMLL never explained what happened.