CMLL (FRI) 09/07/2018 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Lucha Central, luchablog, Ovaciones, The Gladiatores]
1) Hijo del Signo & Metálico b Pegasso & Príncipe Diamante 
15:09. Rudos took 1/3.
2) El Gallito, Guapito, Microman b Chamuel, Mije, Perico Zacarías
13:30. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Dalys b Reyna Isis [lightning]
8:10. Dalys won via senton.
4) Esfinge, Soberano Jr., Tritón b Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Templario
21:38, though straight falls for the tecnicos. Soberano replaced Titan (hand injury) on Tuesday
5) Atlantis, L.A. Park, Mistico b Gilbert El Boricua, Mephisto, Negro Casas
14:38. Tecnicos took 2/3. Debut of Gilbert (Mesias/Mil Muertes) in CMLL.
6) Carístico, Matt Taven, Volador Jr. b Cavernario, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush [Relevos Increíbles]
6:41. Straight falls, the first via DQ after a foul. Rush, Cavernario, Taven & Volador fought post match to build to next week’s hair match.
CMLL promos: Volador & Matt Taven, Barbaro Cavernario & Rush, Negro Casas, Gilbert el Boricua & Mephisto, Dalys, the rudo micros, and the tecnico micros. Taven starts to say he and Volador are going to shave their own heads next week before correcting himself. They could’ve used a second take. On the promo, and on this whole feud.
Pressroom interviews: Gilbert (The Gladiatores, Box Y Lucha), Rush & Cavernario (Box Y Lucha), Matt Taven & Volador (Box Y Lucha).
This was a cold show outside of the micros match. It mostly convinced me the micros should be on the Anniversario show, because people would’ve been excited for that and it doesn’t seem like they’re excited for much. Gilbert didn’t do much in his debut, the hair match guys didn’t have a great match (the brawl afterward were better), and there’s nothing much going on. Crowd seemed down compared to recent shows, though that may have more to do with the Anniversario show being next week and people saving their money. Next week should still be a good show, it usually it is, but the build-up has been very little since the Anniversario main event was announced.
Klan Kaoz appears to be simply “Klan”, following Zorro’s falling out with the Kaoz promotion. The word “Kaoz” is obviously muted out in the preview for the Anniversario show. Both the promotion and Zorro seemed to state they had the rights to the name “Klan Kaoz” this week. The name on the Mexico trademark for Klan Kaoz is not Zorro’s name.
Pasala talks to Rush, who talks how he struggled to make it when he started out, including a time where dinner was a single tomato that he and Bestia split. Cavernario’s also involved in the interview, and they claim they have a grudge against Matt Taven because Ring of Honor always brings in the fancy flippy guys (Dragon Lee, Titan, Soberano, Volador) and they want to show him and ROH that Mexican wrestling is really about the hard hitting tough guys.
CMLL looks back at Cavernario beating Rey Cometa a second time, the three differnet Anniversario shows in 1975, and Volador & Maximo beating Terrible & Rey Bucanero for their hair.
AAA TV (FRI) 09/07/2018 Plaza de Toros, Cancún, Quintana Roo[AAA, Lucha Central]
1) Keyra, La Hiedra, Scarlett Bordeaux b Lady Maravilla, Lady Shani, Vanilla
Debut of Impact’s Bordeaux. Keyra got the win over friend/rival Maravilla, then asked Vampiro for a title shot. Vampiro agreed.
2) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana b Angelikal, Australian Suicide, Hijo Del Vikingo
Wagner appeared on the show, to again declare he was challenging Jeff Jarrett for a hair match. Suicide betrayed his partners in the match, the second straight match Poder del Norte have won with someone betraying Vikingo.
3) Golden Magic & Jack Evans b Laredo Kid & Sammy Guevara
Jack used a mule kick foul and his bridging backslide to beat Guevera, which may set up a title match.
4) La Máscara, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. b Aerostar, Máximo, Pagano
Los Mercenarios used a foul to beat Pagano. Parka made the save.
5) Brian Cage & Hijo del Fantasma b Fénix & Psycho Clown
Fantasma beat Psycho Clown. Los Mercenarios celebrated with him post match.
I didn’t see most of this one, but it sounded like it was the much better of the two last night. In the great tradition of the Bandido/Flamita tag title shot, there’s no indication when Keyra – or Jack! – might be getting that title match. Flamita & Bandido lost in the first round of the UK J Cup, also in the great tradition of Mexicans losing in the first round of international tournaments. Vampiro welcomed Keyra to AAA in agreeing to give her the title shot – does that means he’s not Elite? Does it matter? It’s hard to tell.
AAA is not scheduled to stream tonight’s show from the Hard Rock Hotel resort. They will be back around 1:30pm tomorrow, with a rare afternoon show from Merida. I don’t think most people grasp the show will be on early, even given that following the AAA schedule takes some strong calendar work to begin with. It’s the better looking show of the weekend, with both the semi-main (Fenix/Cage/Guevera) and tercera (Jack/Golden/LA Park). It also has Australian Suicide in a match where he’ll turn on his partners, so that’ll be fun.
The opener, as listed by AAA, has Impact’s Kiera Hogan listed in it. It probably should’ve been a tip-off that she wouldn’t actually be on these shows when Hogan wasn’t listed on the Friday & Saturday shows, and also when AAA hyped Bordeaux’s appearance but didn’t mention Hogan. La Hiedra wrestled yesterday and probably will be in Hogan’s spot on Sunday and the only people who will notice are dorks like me who keep records. It’s actually fine.
The interesting part of this is Kiera Hogan did wrestle Friday (and is probably wrestling tonight) for Evolve. I don’t know the sequence of events if Hogan actually had those bookings first and there was some confusion or if she bailed out AAA to take these instead. It does make a for an interesting hypothetical of if AAA or Evolve is the better place to work this weekend? Evolve historically hasn’t focused much on women’s wrestling, though perhaps this is part of a change. They have a connection to WWE, though not as strong as they and others would like. They also tend to have small crowd (in the hundreds), and far less eyeballs watching them on streams. They may also have more important eyeballs, but they don’t have three days at a beach resort with not a lot asked as far as matches. It’s one of the best weekends of the year to work for AAA, and I still think Hogan probably made the right choice in working for Evolve instead. AAA has no presence in the US about 364 days a year, and if you’re a US wrestler who has a goal of making it to a big promotion, AAA doesn’t really help with that. It’s obvious that part of AAA’s current strategy is to make it a place where big US names want to work, but there’s more to do to make it appealing. A lot of the reason AAA should start doing English language is to market to fans far in advance of when they plan on running in the US, but they also ought to be doing it to market AAA to wrestlers as a place where you can make a name.
TJ Sports talked to Sammy Guevera, who did not know the AAA cruiserweight title match would be on the TripleMania pre-show. Guevera does not read this website. Anyway, Guevera’s goal is now to make people care about the cruiserweight title. There are about three people he needs to convince, the people who are making the decisions.
The Crash is running tonight in Tijuana. They’re still advertising Caristico & Volador vs Fenix & Penta. I’m still under the impression that Fenix will be in AAA instead. This is the Matt Riddle thing take 2, where The Crash is going to have known well in advance that someone will not show up and will keep on going on advertising anyway. The rest of the card should still be good, but there’s going to be a time where this catches up to them.
DTU’s September shows start tomorrow afternoon in Coacalco. Zeuxis vs LuFisto and Crazy King vs Freedom’s Masashi Takeda are the big matches.
Ace Austin is once again the DTU Alto Impacto champion, picking it up back from Alex Colon in a three-way match at Rockstar Pro where he also won a CZW title from Zachary Wentz. Somehow, Austin was not champion for about two weeks, which included the time I actually saw him wrestle live.
Sunday’s shows include a Kaoz show without Zorro and IWRG’s Carnival of Champions
Tortuguillo Karateca III – one of the Arena Lopez Mateos ones, not an IWRG turtle – lost his mask to Concord in Arena Aficion on Thursday. Tortuguillo Karateca III is Daniel Torres Rangel, from Mexico City, 18 years old, and 9 years a luchador.
+LuchaTV has a new edition of Aqui esta la Lucha.
Arkalis & Venom will be honored by the Puebla government on the next national luchador day.
Indie preview
