November 17, 2018 – luchablog

CMLL (FRI) 11/16/2018 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Estrelas de La Lucha Libre, Lucha Central, Marca, Ovaciones, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Espanto Jr. & Grako b Astral & Eléctrico
13:30. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) La Guerrera, Lluvia, Marcela b Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
11:33. Straight falls. Dalys was DQed for refusing to let go of a choke.
3) Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Vangellys b Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa
Rudos took 2/3. Vangellys return from knee injury.
4) Cavernario, El Audaz, Felino, King Phoenix, Tiger, Tritón, Virus, Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Flyer, Kawato San, Mephisto, Místico, Soberano Jr., Templario, Titán [battle royal]
5) Cavernario & King Phoenix b Volador Jr., Titán, Flyer, Místico, Soberano Jr., Tritón, El Audaz, Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Virus, Mephisto, Templario, Kawato San, Tiger [Leyenda de Plata]
34:52. Eliminator order Kawato San (by Audaz), Tiger (Templario), Triton (Dragon Rojo), Audaz (Soberano), Flyer (Virus), Titan (Felino), Virus (Mephisto), Dragon Rojo (Cavernario), Felino (Soberano), Templario (Volador), Mephisto (Fenix), Soberano (Cavernario), Mistico (Volador), Volador (Cavernario), leaving Cavernario and King Phoenix as the finalists for next week.
6) Gran Guerrero, Penta 0M, Último Guerrero b Carístico, Diamante Azul, Valiente
9:42. Rudos took 1/3, UG rolling thru La Mistica to cradle Caristico for the win.

Post-match promos: Marcela & Dalys (building up their Puebla match), Vangellys, Barbaro Cavernario & King Phoenix (Leyenda de Plata; Phoenix is very obviously edited), the main event rudos (Penta forgets Valiente’s name) and the main even tecnicos.

I really liked the cibernetico, though it did get a bit iffy for a stretch. The rest of the show is skippable. Fenix/Cavernario next week is going to be outstanding.

Oro Jr. suffered a what appeared to be a serious injury on a show in Texas last night. The promotional later announced Oro would be ok. There are no details on what exactly his injury is.

AAA (FRI) 11/16/2018 Movistar Arena, Bogota, Colombia [Lucha Libre AAA Colombia]
1) Angelikal & Hijo Del Vikingo b Black Danger & Último Maldito
Vikingo & Angelikal replaced Divino & Black Boy when Blue Demon was added to do the card.
2) Faby Apache b Lady Shani
3) Laredo Kid & Máximo b Aerostar & Drago
Maximo pinned Aerostar after the kiss. Aerostar earlier dove off a balcony.
4) Psycho Clown b Hijo del Fantasma, Blue Demon Jr.
Psycho pinned Fantasma after Fantasma had fouled Blue Demon. Psycho Clown thanked the audience.

This show looked like a strong success: about 70% full crowd that was into everything. It seemed a crowd more specifically excited for having major league Wrestling more than specifically AAA, but they did get into the AAA wrestlers. I saw the last two matches, which were both better than you’d expect on a normal show. The reactions I saw on social media for the show were strongly positive, especially for those people who went to the show; there’s definitely a “now that we proved we’ll support wrestling, WWE will come soon” vibe to some of it, but the people who went to see AAA seemed to enjoy AAA.

This aired live in Colombia on WIN Sports, with Savonvich and Zuniga commentating. WIN was one of the sponsors – it was their logo on the mat – and they did of TV promotion for the show. Nothing more was said about a follow-up show beyond “we hope to return”. It’d be a surprise if they did not return.

Hombre Bala has passed away. Aurelio Ortiz was an 80s/90s start in EMLL, who later wrestled as caveman Cro-Magnon. He had a long stint in AAA as the Monsther, teaming with Chucky to forever feud with Alebrije & Cuije. Hombre Bala is part of the Pirata Morgan family, his son Drone wrestles in CMLL, and his daughter India Sioux is married to Maximo. His wife was a luchadora as well. Hombra Bala had been in poor health for a while.

Volador and Rush meet in a singles match tonight in Arena Coliseo. Sunday has the Rey Bucanero/Niebla Roja hair match. There’s always a chance CMLL could stream that show, but nothing has been announced and probably wouldn’t be until the afternoon of the show.

AAA will definitely be streaming on Sunday. They’ll be on Twitch on Ciudad Juarez, the end of a very busy week for them. The show will start at 5:00 pm CT, with the first match around 5:30 pm. The main event is scheduled to be Blue Demon, La Parka, Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr., Hijo del Fantasma and Brian Cage, which doesn’t sound any good and also doesn’t make much sense. They’ll also have the Joe Lider & Pagano versus Ciclope & Miedo Extremo extreme match, and a rematch of Poder del Norte versus Vikingo, Laredo and Angelikal. The group who worked Ciudad Juarez have a lot of traveling to do this weekend.

Indie shows this weekend include Zona 23 shows in Monterrey and Mexico State (might turned up on Powerbomb, include people coming in form IWA), a FILL legends show in Monterrey (Rayo vs Solitario), IWRG (Eterno vs Imposible), AAA’s Ultimo Maldito putting up his mask against Proximo in Tijuana, and LA Park & son facing Wotan & Masada in Guanajuato.

I still don’t understand what happened with Ayako Hamada, but she has a new Facebook page and posted something about “a person destroyed her life” but God opened a door for her.

As a press conference for an upcoming Evolution Lucha Libre show, the third Hijo de Rey Misterio announced he was returning to his previous D’Luxe character.

An interview with Pachuca luchador Persy.

Recapped: 11/16/2018

Matches:

Espanto Jr. & Grako beat Astral & Eléctrico
(13:30 [5:22, 4:12, 3:56], 1/3, below average, 00:01:10)

La Guerrera, Lluvia, Marcela beat Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
(11:33 [6:03, 5:30], 1/2 DQ, ok, 00:23:20)

Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Vangellys beat Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa
(12:20 [5:35, 2:57, 3:48], 2/3, ok, 00:44:10)

The dumb battle royal went 2:52.

King Phoenix and Cavernario advanced past Titán, Volador Jr, Flyer, Místico, Soberano Jr., Tritón, El Audaz, Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Virus, Mephisto, Templario, Kawato San, Tiger in CMLL’s Leyenda de Plata Tournament
(34:52, great, 01:16:34)

Audaz springboard headscissors Kawato San (7:56)
Templario frontcracker powerbomb Tiger (9:35)
Dragon Rojo double stomp Triton (12:20)
Soberano front piledriver Audaz (13:28)
Virus motocicleta Flyer (14:51)
Felino superpowerbomb Titan (18:19)
Mephisto super Devils’ Wings Virus (19:20)
Cavernario springboard splash Dragon Rojo (20:43)
Soberano guillotine moonsault Felino (21:27)
Volador reverse rana Templario (23:01)
Fenix springboard dropkick to the face Mephisto (24:24)
Cavernario cavernaria Soberano Jr. (25:25)
Volador Canadian Destroyer Místico (28:50)
Cavernario cavernaria Volador Jr. (34:52)

Gran Guerrero, Penta 0M, Último Guerrero beat Carístico, Diamante Azul, Valiente
(9:42 [2:14, 1:29, 5:59], 1/3, ok, 01:56:30)

What happened:

UG turned a La Mistica straight into a crucifix cradle.

Felino might have picked up a hip injury taking Soberano’s moonsault. The final four came down to only Místico left on his team against King Phoenix, Volador and Cavenario. Those last two decided to start fighting Phoenix, and fought the final as a three way leading to the finish. Cavernario & Phoenix advance to next week’s final, a rematch from earlier this year.

Dalys would not let go of a choke – a choke she’s never ever done before and probably will never do again – and she was disqualified without a count. (This was a typically strange way to do a DQ in a women’s match where there’s no mask involved.)

Grako lost Astral on a powerbomb. Instead of picking him up again, he just dropped him badly. Eléctrico was strechered out after taking Grako’s hanging double underhook facebuster, though it was less clear if that was a real injury (brought out by his head being too low) or if he was selling the move.

Thoughts:

The main event seemed liked it was going to be a usual super rush trios match to follow a really strong match for two falls. It slowed down and gave a little bit of time in the third fall, though the action was never really noteworthy. It was more interesting what they didn’t do (Azul/UG dropped) than anything they did do. Penta based well for Carístico but mostly existed as something for Valiente & Diamante Azul to be angry about. They seemed annoyed he’s so over, which is an odd thing to be angry about. The finish was nicely done.

The Leyenda de Plata was easily the best of the recent run of ciberneticos, a borderline great/excellent match. The overall performance level was better than those, and this had an insane section of the match that was just missing from the others. The action was really solid for most of the way – until Fenix’s slip on a springboard felt like it derailed the action and the crowd for a couple of minutes. Fenix got them back with a dive, but it was just long enough where I couldn’t go with the high grade. Fenix looked super throughout the rest of the match, with his best moments coming in the second half of the match. Templario had a great run, carrying a lot of the middle and doing great with whoever he was working with them. Soberano looked really good if also a bit dangerous. Triton & Audaz did well in short runs (while you could’ve replaced Felino with anyone and gotten the same.) Would’ve liked to see more of Titan but they did get to mix it up with other people. This is an easy recommendation.

Vangellys getting a strong showcase win in his return was the purpose of the third match. That’s a strange purpose but I suppose he was fine with it. Rey Cometa did an impressive dive and then Vangellys quickly pinned him. The match was the most professional of the undercard, the standard solid if predictable CMLL midcard trios match.

The women’s match was the same as always, just with a little less crowd reaction than normal. It held all the way to the finish, where no one really bought the finish. This division desperately needs something fresh to happen. This was the opposite, Dalys & Marcela feuding again. I feel like I’ve seen the Amapola dropkick the person on the middle rope spot 1000 times and La Guerrera took the bump differently than everyone else, so that’s something to say for this match. It didn’t go well.

The opener kind of derailed when Grako dropped Astral badly, as tends to happen. The rudos stalled out the second fall to give Astral some time to recover, and openers don’t need any more time to cool down. Grako seemed off the rest of the match, though he hasn’t looked on a lot. Grako trying to take a bump into the corner off an Electrico dropkick and landing on referee Pompin’s feet is about as well as this one went.

Day: November 17, 2018

Cavernario & Fenix advance to Leyenda de Plata final, AAA does well in Colombia

CMLL on Marca: 2018-11-16

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