Day: October 11, 2018

lucha TV preview for weekend of October 12th, 2018

thecubsfan

full size

AAA said Chalco would only air as one part, which means TripleMania should start showing up on AAA’s YouTube this weekend. If you’ve waited this long to watch it, you are very patient.

Lucha Underground promises something with Jake Savage and Antonio Cueto, so perhaps there will finally be a point to Jake Savage four episodes from the end of the season. There’s no deeper explanation about the battle royal. It could be Antonio differing from the way his son ran things, or the sad reality of not having enough time remaining and living bodies to run matches for Medallions. The episode description ends “a huge main event is made”, so there’s at least one more match to be added.

CMLL has you covered if you desire Ultimo Guerrero singles matches this week.

 

CMLL Martes: 2018-09-25 

thecubsfan
not much from this show

Recapped: 10/07/2018

Matches:

Bengala & Leono beat Apocalipsis & Cholo
(12:17 [5:41, 2:46, 3:50], 2/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Lluvia, Marcela, Sonya De Costa Rica beat Amapola, La Seductora, Tiffany
(12:42 [6:07, 4:34, 2:01], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Audaz, Fuego, Rey Cometa beat Kawato San, Nitro, Okumura
(13:29 [5:17, 3:33, 4:39], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Tiger beat Black Panther in a lightning match
(7:46, casita, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Luciferno, Máscara Año 2000, Terrible beat Kráneo, Valiente, Volcano
(15:44 [5:30, 5:37, 4:37], 2/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Shocker beat Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Niebla Roja  
(6:38 [3:04, 3:34], 1/2, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

Gran Guerrero beat Carístico cleanly in straight falls to set up a title match next week.

There’s some stream issue in the second fall of the semi-main. It doesn’t seem like much time was missed, just maybe a few seconds from the start of the fall.

Thoughts:

a Sonya GIF

Tiger jumped Panther before the bell for a match that was all moves from the top. It’s maybe not the best choice with for two guys who don’t seem to have a wide variety of things they’re doing in the ring right now. Panther doing his new swinging kick twice in five minutes was a particularly poor sign. Lightning matches should be a chance to show more than luchadors are usually allowed in a trios match, and these guys showed no more. The last couple of minutes of reversals were really well done, enough to turn me positively on the match, but it’d be helpful if they challenged themselves in other ways.

They didn’t let Audaz do anything crazy in his match, and so that match was a failure. They did the comic everyone misses a splash/senton spot to no reaction, which probably means it was a failure to them too. Old, large and slow Nitro being asked to quickly slide under the bottom rope in a chase spot was not a good idea. This whole match was not a good idea.

I only watched the women’s match to get a look at Sonya. She came across better than the male Costa Ricans, though there’s a lot lower level of difficulty in a CMLL’s women match. She worked mostly with Amapola, had one fancy move at the end, seemed nervous on her dive, and got across a personality well. Like the others, Sonya could probably use a lot more regular work. She didn’t feel out of place in this match, just limited. Special credit to all to the Costa Rica crew for all having professional looking gear that marked them as from Costa Rica; they looked the part, and that’s half of it

FantasticaMania 2019, CMLL/Multimedios, Blue Panther 40th Anniversary, Titanes en el Ring

thecubsfan

There’s an AAA vs ELITE show today in Aguascalientes. There was a poster out listing it as a TV taping. AAA says it’s not a TV taping and will not stream on Twitch tonight. It may show up in some other form later on, but that’s not a for sure thing either.

If you’re looking to watch Elite wrestlers, you could watch Impact tonight:

  • Puma King vs Jack Evans vs Trevor Lee vs Petey Williams
  • Keyra vs Tessa Blanchard

The four way got good reviews. I didn’t hear anything about the Keyra match. It’d be nice if was a breakout match for her, but it’s probably just a warm up match for Tessa before her PPV match this weekend.

Zeuxis lost last night in the second round of the Mae Young Classic. She was in this tournament in part to try and get a NXT deal. There’s no indication that’s happened.

On last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said Garza Jr. does not have a WWE deal because of his shoulder injury. The story I’ve heard is WWE wanted to sign Garza, was planning on signing him, only his shoulder that’s been a problem for years did not pass their medical tests. Garza did get surgery on that shoulder, but also did the athlete thing of making it back into his sport as quickly as possible, and the shoulder did not heal as intended. I believe that’s why he’s not wrestling at all now, except for the one The Crash match. He’s trying to give the shoulder the rest it needed to begin with with the hope that staying off it will fix it. If he can get it right, he still should have a pretty good shot at making it to WWE down the road.

That CMLL & Multimedios people from a few day ago did indeed set up a new TV deal. According to the El Planchitas column, Multimedios will start airing a 90 minute show with Friday and some Tuesday matches with local Monterrey commentary (Roberto Figueroa surely.) No start date is mentioned. Multimedios is carried over the air mostly in northern Mexico, but it also has affiliates in the key CMLL towns of Mexico City, Puebla and Guadalajara. There are also Multimedio channels in the US, though sometimes US and Mexico programming differs. (I’m really looking forward to more random people asking me “what match is it that I’m watching” when there’s five different obscure CMLL shows on channels I do not get.) If you’re reading this, these are matches you’re already able to see, but hopefully more than 4000 people who watch these shows will end up watching them on TV.

NJPW announced the FantasticaMania 2019 schedule. It’s eight shows long. That’s the same as last. They’d be adding a show a year for the last few years, so perhaps they reached the limit last year. The schedule is:

  • 01/11 in Osaka
  • 01/12 in Ehime
  • 01/13 in Kyoto
  • 01/14 in Gifu
  • 01/16 in Chiba
  • 01/18 (Friday), 01/20 (Sunday) and 01/21 (Monday) in Korakuen Hall

The last three shows are usually streamed live on NJPW World. The opening show usually airs on SamuraiTV only on a delay, normally just before the live show. The list of luchadors book came out October 19th last year, which was about two weeks after the shows were announced. NJPW tends to make their announcements between tours, so we may be waiting until about November 4th to get that list this year.

Blue Panther announced the key matches for his 40th Anniversary show, to be held next Friday:

  • Blue Panther, Euforia, Black Warrior and Panterita del Ring versus Mascara 2000, Sanson, Cuatrero and Forastero
  • Copa Halcon Suriano: Blue Panther Jr., Black Panther, Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja Jr., Stuka vs Luciferno, Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso Jr., Espanto Jr., Templario

Panterita del Ring is Ephesto returning to his original character, one that was successful in Monterrey before he came to Mexico City for Promo Azteca much later. Black Warrior will have his first CMLL match since 2013, though he’s popped up on some Elite shows since then. Halcon Suriano is a legendary trainer in Comarca Lagunera (the area of Mexico that includes Torreon & Gomez Palacio), and so Blue Panther wanted him honored in Arena Mexico. You can tell Blue Panther actually booked it, because there’s an atomicos involved.

Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero were already booked on an indie show on this day. Soberano mentioned he was going to be in Copa Halcon Suriano until he was instead booked in NJPW. Soberano mentioned that NJPW booking a month ago, so CMLL’s probably had this card for a while, and maybe NJPW decided a while ago that Dragon Lee wasn’t going to be able to make their tour. Templario is from Tlaxcala, not Torreon, but he’s here as an honorary Lagunero to fill out the sides.

An article in La Orquesta has one man’s remembrance of the Blue Panther/Villano V mask match.

Box Y Lucha posted some CMLL promos from Tuesday’s show. The helpful thing they do is put titles on the videos so I don’t actually have to watch them. Kraneo is happy a Gorila del Ring made it to the heavyweight title final. (Diamante Azul is still not actually a Gorila.) Ultimo Guerrero and Diamante Azul said generic things about winning. Metalico says he lost his mask but not his quality. I don’t think he gives old Tigre Metalico enough credit, that guy was good.

Rocky Romero talked about his not great experience at Grey Shadow on Uproxx’s McMahonsplanning podcast this week, as part of a longer chat about his career.

I didn’t realize this from The Crash show: Ultimo Guerrero challenged Garza Jr. to a hair match. Which probably wasn’t ever going to happen, but didn’t help with the story that none of the CMLL guys would do a hair match for The Crash Anniversary show. They probably should’ve told him not to do that. Maybe they did!

ESPN.com.mx has a story about Fuego. Fuego has a good reason for getting in lucha libre: when he was young, his friends were popular and getting written about in newspapers (for unstated reasons) so he wanted to do something that would make him popular too. He moved to Mexico City at 18 and started training then. Fuego works as a dental prosthetist when he’s not wrestling. (That means he makes mouth guards and maybe dentures and fake teeth.)

Ovaciones honestly believes Rayo de Jalisco Jr. versus Michael Elgin is happening.

El Universal says Tinieblas Jr. will appear on Netflix reality show on “Made in Mexico”. The show description reads like this is a typical “rich people live fancy lives in photogenic surroundings”, a show billed as unscripted that’s very much unscripted.

Argentina’s Titanes en el Ring is being brought back on November 17th. This was the group famously run by Martin Karadagian, with his daughter Paulina behind the relaunch. The idea of bringing it back comes up every few years, and this time it seems like they’ve got a TV deal to make it happen. It’ll be most younger wrestlers, not the people who were around when they stopped running about 20 years ago. The article says they’ll have new characters to aim at children and not just be a rehash, though the trailer seems to be playing on nostalgia for the old series: it ends with a tease of the Mummy.

Leo Riano, when not joking about Psycho Clown’s acting prowess, explains away the disappointing Gran Prix attendance as CMLL was charging high prices. They charged high prices in past years and drew better

AK Las Luchas interviews Microman, which MicroMan Fever has translated.

Lucha Talk has a new episode of the podcast.

Lineup

CMLL (TUE) 10/16/2018 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Mercurio & Pequeño Universo 2000
2) Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Robin vs Espanto Jr., Inquisidor, Metálico
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Fuego vs Kawato San, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Audaz, Esfinge, Tritón vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
5) Mistico, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Euforia, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
6) Último Guerrero vs Diamante Azul [CMLL HEAVY]

I still think Ultimo Guerrero is going to win. I think I may be in the minority. Titan may be back but he still seems to have better things to do than hang out with Esfinge & Triton right now.

CMLL (TUE) 10/16/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Black Sugar, Magnum, Star Black vs Bobby Black, Difunto, Ráfaga
2) La Guerrera, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Pólvora
4) Blue Panther, Kráneo, Volcano vs Dark Magic, Gran Guerrero, Mephisto
5) Atlantis, Carístico, David Finlay vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible

Dark Magic gets another match. Los Ingobernables get to team up.

DTU (THU) 10/25/2018 Arena Aficion
1) Dayami vs Destino, Lobo Blanco Jr., Josh Sniper 
2) Drolux vs Jitsu, Kevin 
3) Adrenalina & Luigi vs Heradboy & Hermes 
4) Aeroboy vs Jimmy [BMLL AI] 
5) Crazy King vs Paranoiko, Mosco, Camuflaje, Moria 
6) Cíclope & Miedo Extremo vs Kaleth & Tiburón and Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria

The main event is listed as a four corners of pain, so I was really confused at it being a three way tag match until I read closer. They’re putting objects in all four corners.

I think the Black Mask Lucha Libre Cruiserweight title and Alto Impacto title might be the same title.

KAOZ (SUN) 10/28/2018 Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) Dalys, Hija de Karonte, Tiffany vs Lady Puma, Marcela, Sexy Star
2) Epydemius & Ricky Marvin vs Furor & Galactar
3) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Emperador Azteca (IWRG) & The Tiger
4) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Diamante Azul (CMLL) & Fresero Jr.
5) Mr. Iguana vs Taurus (Indie), Vasco Jr. [final]
6) Cuatrero, Forastero (CMLL), Sansón vs Bestia 666, Garza Jr., Mr. 450 [KAOZ TRIOS, tournament]
7) Mil Muertes vs Ramsés
8) Mistico II & Rush vs Carístico & Daga

Next Kaoz card includes plenty of unusual things. That’s Silver King as Nacho Libre’s Ramses in the semi-main. The finals of the tournament they’ve been running is exactly the same as the semi-final because of some really ludicrous finish they ran.

LLB , HUMO (SAT) 11/03/2018 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Astro Boy, Dragón de Fuego, Escarabajo Azul, Gatillero, Sabotaje, Tlatoani vs Chanito, Coco Azul Jr., Fantasma De La Opera II, Hauser, Hijo Del Brazo De Platino, Kid Jaguar
Sin Caras Gym vs LLB
2) Ángel o Demonio, El Divino, Ovett vs Jessy Ventura, Juan Diego, Pasion Cristal
3) Tsunami vs La Magnifica
4) Nitro, Pólvora, Sangre Azteca vs Carta Brava Jr. (IWL), Fantasma de la Ópera, Hijo de Canis Lupus
5) Zumbido vs Ricky Marvin
6) Carístico vs Laredo Kid, Valiente, Dragón Bane, Ángel de Oro, Freelance, Sádico, Gran Guerrero [LLB CRUISER]

Main event should be fun. They teased a mystery person and revealed the person as giant surprise Gran Guerrero. I have no idea. Zumbido vs Ricky Marvin is a throw back.

CMLL Puebla: 2018-09-24 

thecubsfan
LA Park spear always helps when I’m looking for GIFs

Recapped: 10/01-6/2018

Matches: 

Millenium, Robin, Súper Astro Jr. beat King Rocker Jr., Perverso, Policeman
(10:57 [3:59, 3:52, 3:06], 2/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Stigma beat Ares, Escualo, Kaiser
(10:13 [-0:01, 2:26, 7:48], 1/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Diamante Azul, Kráneo, Volcano beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(14:27 [5:40, 3:00, 5:47], 2/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Carístico & Soberano Jr. beat La Bestia Del Ring & Negro Casas
(6:39 [1:40, 2:05, 2:54], 2/3, ok,VideosOficialesCMLL)

Hijo de LA Park & LA Park beat Cavernario & Rush
(20:09 [5:48, 3:53, 10:28], 2/3, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)

gif: 3633/4152/4250

What happened:

because it’s taken so long for me to post this, I’m not entirely sure if this is Escualo

The Parks had scissors in their boots to start the match, which they attempted to use to cut the hair of their opposition in the first fall. They got rolled up instead. Cavernario & Rush unmasked them in the second fall, but the Park still cradles them for the win. Park fouls Rush for the win in the third after the referee refused to count when Rush did the same.

The first fall of the segunda goes negative 1 seconds, with Blue Panther Jr. submitting Escualo to a nudo lagunero before the whistle even blows. That seems to suggest it shouldn’t be a legal finish but no one’s paying attention.

Thoughts:

The main event was more of an indie LA Park tag match than ever. The Rush singles match always were those styles too, but he seems to have more freedom to brawl, grab objects and go long in Puebla than in the main arena. Less people paying attention to a Monday night in Puebla than a Friday night in Arena Mexico. At least fewer people in power: after last week’s destruction, someone instructed security to take away the ring steps to safety as soon as the match started. Rush went deep into the crowd to grab another wooden object, and that was spirited away as soon as he dropped it. These matches can be excited and can also meander in random directions at times. They also didn’t leave much for Cavernario & Hijo de LA Park to do. When Hijo de LA Park did get something to do, it was whatever hot indie finisher he felt like doing at that moment. I can understand him not wanting to do his father’s spots, but he’s doing everyone else’s big spots and not much else, like a video game created wrestler. There needs to be something of his own in there. The match was exciting and weird – the scissors bit was truly strange, a build to a match that’s surely not actually happening. LA Park is bringing up the effort on these shows, and that counts for some. He’s also trying to come up with some new ideas, even if it’s weird to see him borrow Rush’s own headbutt spot to use again him.

The semi-main moved quickly and didn’t stay long, which was great given those who were involved. Soberano & Negro Casas had nice short sequences, which made it look like they could have a great match together without actually asking them to do it. Bestia also wasn’t asked to do a lot – Carístico pinned him after he missed his senton, nothing more – which kept him for looking dumb. Short matches are OK too.

 

Forastero fly

The fourth match was an exhibition match for the heavyweight técnicos to look impressive by tossing around the NGD. It doesn’t seem like the greatest use of the NGD, but they do get tossed around pretty well. Volcano, either by character choice or for other reasons, often comes across as a big dumb ox who doesn’t exactly understand how big he is or what he should be doing. Helping Kraneo get to the top rope by trying to grab the hand Diamante Azul already had grabbed was the peak of Volcano silliness, and they might as well lean into it more.

The Puebla crowd was into the Costa Rica versus Mexico concept, more than it felt they were into the Gran Prix. The Ticos didn’t show a lot on offense in control and struggled taking moves at times. Maybe part of it was due to working CMLL style 3 on 1 beatdowns because they were looking better in the one on one sequences. Blue Panther Jr.’s quebradora sequence was shakier than normal. Normal is important here because these técnicos seem to face rudos on this show every week, and those matches are usually better than this. The Costa Rican guys were putting in the effort and probably got something out of the experience.

I have no idea why I took notes on every match on this show. The opener was a solid match, with a little bit more action than normal. It was watchable, with the Mexico City guys fitting in fine with the locals.