Impact in Mexico starting airing tonight, La Parka’s sons, Gran Prix, Rush

Tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling is the first episode from their Mexico tapings. Lucha matches of note on the show include

• Austin Aries vs Texano for the Impact Championship
• oVe (Sami Callihan, Jake Crist, Dave Crist) versus Aerostar, Laredo Kid, Hijo del VIkingo
• Faby Apache vs Alisha Edwards

The show airs on PopTV in the US. If you do not get Impact Wrestling, the episodes are also available for free on GlobalWrestlingNetwork about two weeks after they air. Impact taped two nights of tapings, but it may be more than two episodes given how many matches they’re running.

Sofia Alonso held a press conference talking about renovating CMLL. (This TV y Novelas page talks about it, but isn’t clear when/where – it may have been before Friday night’s show.) She wants to see CMLL with new faces and on new platforms to capture younger fans and convince them to come to shows. Some luchadors were presented as the new faces of CMLL: Dragon Rojo, Titan, Cuatrero, Hechicero, Soberano, and Fuego. Some of those people have been around for quite a while. 10 years ago, as part of the 75th-anniversary celebrations, CMLL pushed a debuting class of luchador as new stars. Dragon Rojo (as Diamante Negro) & Fuego (as Flash) were part of it then too. x

CMLL announced Ultimo Guerrero, Diamante Azul, Cuatrero and Sanson as the first four members of Team Mexico for the 10/05 Gran Prix. The other four will be announced next week.

CMLL is also part of a lottery ticket giveaway.

Rush revealed to Diario Basta that he almost became a movie star. Rush says he was supposed to be in the movie Roma, which has gotten strong reviews at film festivals and will be released on Netflix at the end of the year. Rush says he had a contract, gone to rehearsals, got measured for costumes, but they changed the filming date and it conflicted with FantasticaMania. He said he choose wrestling over movies. (Latin Lover ended up cast in the movie. I’d guess for the same part, but it’s not said.) Rush says that if he was offered a movie today, he’d reject it – he’s got too many offers to wrestle to take time off for movies. He also wouldn’t go on a reality show like Extalon, not wanting to leave his work and his family behind. Rush thought it was better idea for Dragon Lee, who doesn’t have a child or wife yet.

The La Planchitas column today does some fun investigating today. A few days ago, AAA’s La Parka talked about wanting to wrestle long enough to team with his 18 & 19 year-old sons. That should’ve been strange; the only son of La Parka we have ever seen before was a small child involved in a Parka/Cibernetico storyline many years ago. (That was the angle that led to the debut of Parka’s brother, Tabu.) Planchitas says one child – probably the child from that angle – is an 11 and wants to be a luchador but is obviously a long way away. La Parka has another son, but he’s playing football and not wrestling. The 18 and 19-year-old sons, it turns out, are inventions of AAA to keep Parka character going similar to what was tried (and badly failed) with Octagon Junior. It’s not clear if anyone’s been cast in the Parka roles yet, but Parka bringing it up was planting a seed for it.

Funcion Estelar interviews Aero Boy about challenging for the AAA Megachampionship. They bill it as the first time the main AAA title has been defended outside of Mexico. (It was defended on a Lucha Underground show.) Aero Boy seems excited for the chance.

I put up the 09/30 MDA poster weeks ago, but I didn’t think enough about it. Caifan is listed on the card, which would be his first match since retiring at the end of last year.

A doctorate student in Guadalajara did a study on why luchadors wrestle on small shows with little or no pay. He ended up working as a referee.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 09/25/2018 Arena México
1) Bengala & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Lluvia, Marcela, Sonya De Costa Rica vs Amapola, La Seductora, Tiffany
3) Audaz, Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Kawato San, Okumura, Sagrado
4) Black Panther vs Tiger [lightning]
5) Kráneo, Valiente, Volcano vs Luciferno, Máscara Año 2000, Terrible
6) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Shocker

Caristic & Ultimo Guerrero matched up again, so that’s a singles match in the next couple of weeks. Black Panther/Tiger should be good. I’m probably being too literal about Sonya’s name as listed on the poster.

PALL (SUN) 09/30/2018 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Fantasma de la Ópera vs Jessy Ventura
2) Angeluz Fly & Maravilla Strong vs Perro Callerjero Jr. & Perro Negro
3) Iron Kid vs Dragón Bane
4) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako vs Cíclope & Miedo Extremo
5) Avisman & Black Terry vs ? & Eragón
6) Templario vs Belial
7) Zeuxis vs Ricky Marvin

This is techinically a LLB/Lucha Memes/G21 combined show. Zeuxis/Marvin came up as an idea elsewhere this week. Templario/Belial and Iron Kid/Dragon Bane boht sound promising. Fourth match will be hard hitting.