Dia de Muertos iPPV, Aro Lucha to Pop TV?, Ninja Turtle unmasks elite police officer

IWRG (THU) 11/01/2018 Arena Naucalpan
Castillo del Terror, 2018
1) Lunatik Xtreme b Mexica, Alas de Acero, Shadow Boy, Power Bull 
2) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro b Demonio Infernal, Ovett, Soy Raymunda [lumberjack] 
Demonio Infernal was a surprise for some reason.
3) Pasion Kristal b Fantasma de la Ópera [hair] 
Fantasma cheated a lot, still lost.
4) Cuervo (Puerto Rico) b Último Gladiador, Hijo De Dos Caras [hardcore] 
5) Spector L Hijo de Canis Lupus, Shil-Kah, Diosa Atenea, Leo, Mike, Aramis, Hijo del Alebrije, Dragón Bane, Relámpago, Ludark Shaitan, Zumbi [Castillo del Terror, cage, mask] 
match came down to Mike vs Spector, with Leo & Rayan climbing in to join in. Spector was slowest escaping, and lost his mask. (Mike gets the win.) Spector is Jose Manuel Mejia, but tried to keep his face obscured, with the idea you’d have to buy a ticket to see it revealed on the next show. He’s also the former Arlequin/Arlequin Amarillo, who lost his this same match a decade ago to the day.

I only watched the cage match. It was definitely an IWRG cage match. The post match was bizarre, with Spector trying to hide his face by putting a hand in front of it, and not doing a very good job of it. It did come off more like he was doing it on his own more than a weird angle IWRG was doing, but who knows. Most of the crowd seemed like it filled out before he even unmasked for the first time, which says to me they weren’t that caring about who

Today is the first CMLL Dia de Muertos at Arena Mexico show of the year. These are themed shows using the imagery of the Dia de Muertos holiday. Luchadors, referees and ring announcers are painted up as created of the dark, CMLL edecan Gabu Bau introduces the show as Catrina, and various CMLL luchadors act as masked gods during the show. The losers of the matches, usually on the last half of the card, are taken to hell by the guardians of the underworld (usually other CMLL wrestlers in costume.) It’s a different show and sometimes a very weird show, though it usually doesn’t affect the action in the ring.

This show is also an iPPV. Internetv sent out an email announcing they’d be carrying the show for the usual 100MXP/$10USD price. CMLL did not announce it themselves until late Thursday night, less than 24 hours after the show starts. With the Gran Prix & the Anniversary show, this is the third iPPV running in about 7 weeks. (This one does not appear to be airing on ROH’s Honor Club service.) These shows have been aired freed the previous year.

In theory, these shows are on iPPV to make sure Mexico City people don’t feel like they can just stay home and watch the show for free, while still making the shows available to people outside the area. In reality, I don’t think most people are going to understand that this is an iPPV until the show starts and they can’t find a link in the usual places. They’re not going to go to this show to see it because they don’t know they have to. CMLL has consistently waited until days before to announce the last two iPPVs, but waiting until the day of is crazy.

Should you buy this show? Let’s do this like a bit on a middling sitcom and make a list of pros and cons.

why it’s worth buying

• Templario/Sanson should be pretty good, and it’s a unique match
• the main event should be pretty good, and it’s also a unique match
• Micros!
• The atmosphere of the show is usually fun.

why it’s not worth buying

• its really annoying they CMLL waited until the last minute to announce this
• the last two iPPVs have been ok but disappointing.
• most of the Friday night shows of late have been ok at best.
• the Grand Prix ended up on CMLL’s YouTube channel a week later, so maybe you’ll be able to see this legally later if you wait.
• if you want to see the Dia de Muertos theme, you’ll be able to see it for free on Tuesday (and maybe Sunday)
• if you’re in the US, this show is starting an hour later than usual, which is pretty late even for a Friday night.
• if you’re in the US, they’re charging you about double the price for the show just to have a “10” number.

I’m buying it, but I am not the model for sensible spending on lucha libre. I think it’ll be alright but, if you’ve got other options, you should explore those other options.

That good main event is Diamante Azul, LA Park, and the returning Michael Elgin against Penta, Fenix and Ultimo Guerrero. Elgin is not listed on next week’s CMLL cards, so this appears to be just an unusual one night return. Phoenix & Penta got off to good starts in CMLL but haven’t been used in effective ways in their recent appearances. This is probably just a match to have a match, but it’d be helpful if something was coming out of it.

Sanson defends his once a year Rey del Inframundo championship in the semi-main against Templario. This is Templario’s new biggest match of the year, a spotlight singles match in his first full year on the CMLL roster. I think the dedicated CMLL fans know both guys are really good, and the challenge is if they can pull in the more casual fans coming for the Dia de Muertos hype. This match should be pretty good, but there’s a significant amount of pressure.

The fourth match has Hijo de LA Park, Mistico and Atlantis taking on Cavernario, Ephesto, and Mephisto. Audaz gets a Friday night appearance, teaming with Angel de Oro & Stuka against Hechicero, Rey Bucanero and Terrible. The micros get in on the Dia de Muertos show for the first time (at least in-ring), with Microman, Gallito and Atomo taking on Mije, Zacarias and Chamuel. Coyote & Grako, who’ve looked promising in few appearances, take on Super Astro & Oro Jr. to open the show. This should be a good show, but they haven’t been running good of late.

Mr. Iguana seemed to be teasing an appearance of himself and Fresero Jr. at this show.

One thing you should look for coming out of this show is if the Cl4n is back on next week’s show. They haven’t appeared on Friday night shows as a full time in five weeks. If they’re not back soon, it’s hard to believe the cage match is still on.

Grafico interviews Templario, who reveals he worked at his uncle’s funeral home when he was living in Tlaxcala. This is a device to tell a “scary” story as hype for Templario potentially becoming king of hell.

The most fascinating thing to happen yesterday was PopTV airing a commercial for Aro Lucha during Impact, teasing a debut sometime in 2019. Impact’s deal with PopTV is up at the end of the year, Impact’s ratings have been on a prolonged slide, and they recently got bumped to a later timeslot. All of that sounds like really bad news for Impact, potentially fatal news, though everyone who might be reporting on those things is more preoccupied with the problematic WWE show today.

The part we know for sure is Aro Lucha is apparently coming to Pop TV in 2019. The part we don’t know for sure is what exactly Aro Lucha is at the point. They haven’t run a show since June and haven’t done more than publically Tweet since their funding drive came to an end in August. There’s been reports of Aro Lucha meeting about TV deals, but no one connected them to Pop TV to this point, and no one’s really saying much it even today.  The promo used footage from their December 2017 taping, a moment in time where Konnan had been excommunicated from The Crash (mostly) for working on this show, but a significant chunk of the wrestlers were still working for The Crash and otherwise free to work anywhere. A lot has changed in eleven months. The Crash couldn’t really stop people from working for Aro Lucha if they wanted, but now a lot of those people are working for companies who could have some control – especially AAA, where a lot of the Mexican talent has ended up.  That includes the booker, Konnan, who has since returned to AAA while also working for MLW and has some influence in Impact. I have no idea what an Aro Lucha show is in 2019. It may not be like that December show, but I have no idea what it would be.

I’m not going to get to The MMM Show with Lucha Underground’s Eric Van Wagenen and Chris Roach today, but you should really go listen to it if you’re interested in the interworkings of that show and/or the guests expressing fear of this blog. I’ll have notes later on this weekend, but there’s some very interesting stuff.

In a recent video, Juventud Guerrera seemed to announce he was no longer with AAA. I don’t totally trust my own translation, but it appears him being pulled for Heroes Inmortales was because Guerrera is not currently with AAA. He was unhappy with how he was being used and wanted to be booked like a bigger star – he mentions wanting to be megachampion.

The Gladiatores has a video with Puma & Pentagon, who note Lucha Capital wasn’t the first time they fought: they first met 11 years ago on a Cuchillo promoted show when Penta was still Syrus.

Puma King & Barby are back with a new video, a lot from a recent show at PCW Ultra.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Lucha Report.

Argentina’s Pagina 12 has an interview with Casandro, around her new documentary.

An interview with Monterrey luchadora Tsunami, coming to Mexico City to challenge for a title this weekend.

Lineup

CMLL (TUE) 11/06/2018 Arena México
1) Magnus & Star Jr. vs Metálico & Nitro
2) Avispa Dorada, La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Kawato San, Okumura, Tiger
4) Cuatrero © vs Titán [CMLL MIDDLE]
3rd defense, first not against Angel de Oro.
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. vs Dark Magic, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
6) Diamante Azul, Místico, Stuka Jr. vs Mephisto, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

The last of the three Dia de Muertos match. I do not understand why the title match is fourth, but it should be pretty good.