CMLL (FRI) 02/08/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, Marca, Ovaciones]
1) Metálico & Nitro b Príncipe Diamante & Robin 
15:54. Rudas took 2/3.
2) Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Universo 2000 Jr. b Black Panther, Drone, Rey Cometa
11:29. Rudas took 2/3.
3) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Místico DQ Gran Guerrero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano IV
8:18. Straight falls DQ, the last when Villano III fouled Atlantis
4) Gilbert el Boricua, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush b Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Valiente
14:56. Rudos took 1/3.
5) Sansón & Volador Jr. b Niebla Roja, Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero, Mephisto, Cuatrero [CMLL Universal, seeding battle royal]
3:32
6) Último Guerrero b Diamante Azul [CMLL Universal, 8f]
3:14, pulpo guerrero
7) Cuatrero b Soberano Jr. [CMLL Universal, 8f]
4:42. Crucifix powerbomb.
8) Niebla Roja b Mephisto [CMLL Universal, 8f]
3:40, reverse campana
9) Volador Jr. b Sansón [CMLL Universal, 8f]
3:21. Huracanrana.
10) Último Guerrero b Cuatrero [CMLL Universal, quarterfinal]
4:02. Guerrero Special
11) Niebla Roja b Volador Jr. [CMLL Universal, quarterfinal]
5:04. Canadian Destroyer (Kamiatachi style)
12) Niebla Roja b Último Guerrero [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
6:00. Niebla Roja won the block in a shock with a reverse campana. He faces Terrible next week.
CMLL promos: Atlantis, Hijo del Villano III, Gilbert & Los Ingobernables, and Niebla Roja. Also the guy who does the voice for He-Man in Latin America was actually at the show.
Media room interviews: Niebla Roja (talked about making it to the final), Ultimo Guerrero (praised Niebla Roja), Los Ingobernables (teased the idea of Gilbert joining), Atlantis (put down Hijo del Villano III), and the Villanos (vowed to retire Atlantis). Again, no one’s made an apuesta challenge but there’s nothing else being built up besides the Atlantis/Villano feud so that looks like the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas big match. H2L came for the first time on yesterday’s broadcast, but no date was given. Maybe that’ll come up when the Universal tournament final plugs go away.
Usually, when a wrestling promotion says “against all predictions, this man won”, it is a bit of hyperbole. It is not hyperbole with Niebla Roja. I was wrong – loud wrong – picking Diamante Azul to win, but I join the 99% of people who did not have Niebla Roja going to the final of the Universal tournament. This is reminiscent of Valiente going to the final (and winning) in 2016. Valiente’s performances had slipped in the ring at that point and it felt like he was being rewarded more for his enlarged physique, so that wasn’t received well. Niebla Roja is not universally beloved, but he did pick up some votes for best wrestler and most favorite wrestler in the Tapatia awards and I think enough people like him that this is going to be looked at well. Niebla Roja versus Terrible will be a first time match.
Dragon Rojo posted a post-surgery photo with a massive leg cast. I’d guess we’re not going to see him for a while.
ESTO had an article shooting down the idea of CMLL returning to Televisa, insisting there had been no talks between the two companies. This story had first come up in Leo Riano’s column in Record a few days ago, though it’s blamed on “blogs who cover lucha libre.” (Huh.)
It’s a bit odd for a promotion to declare the biggest TV network in the country is definitely not interested in broadcasting you. The article mentions CMLL will continue streaming on Marca and airing on Sundays on Teleformula, a show very people know exist. (I certainly didn’t know Hechicero was one of the announcers. Everyone go vote for Hechicero as best announcer in the WON awards.) The previous CMLL Televisa crew was Leobardo Magadan, Miguel Linares, Dr. Alfonso Morales, and Leo Riano. Morales is no longer doing much announcing, but the other three men were the rumored crew for CMLL returning to Televisa. The current CMLL Marca crew is Leobrado Magadan, Miguel Linares, Julio Cesar Rivera, and sometimes a rotating fourth person. JCR both appears to be the odd man out should CMLL return to Televisa and also the person in charge of CMLL’s TV department. He probably wouldn’t be interested in a deal that would cost him a prime position and may even be a person deciding if it’s going to happen. He sure seems like the source to this story.
AAA
AAA TV (FRI) 02/08/2019 Centro de Usos Múltiples, Mazatlán, Sinaloa [AAA, Lucha Central, Punto]
Attendance: 6500
1) Lady Maravilla, Lanzelot, Villano III Jr. b Dinastía, Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa
Maravilla again distracted Hamburguesa from a victory.
2) Laredo Kid b Taurus
replaced a scheduled Sammy Guevara title defense (family emergency, rescheduled for 02/16). great match
3) Faby Apache & Monsther Clown b Aerostar & Taya
Hijo del Tirantes helped Faby Apache win, though Tirantes earlier expressed confusion/annoyance about his relationship with Faby and they argued afterwards.
4) Drago © b Jack Evans, Hijo Del Vikingo, Flamita [AAA LA]
turned into a title match to replace the missing cruiserweight defense. Second defense, Drago beating Vikingo.
5) Dr. Wagner Jr., Máximo, Puma King b Blue Demon Jr., Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara
Demon snuck in a foul on Wagner with the referee distracted
6) Killer Kross & Rey Escorpión b Hijo Del Vikingo, La Parka, Laredo Kid, Psycho Clown
Earlier, a Konnan/Mercenarios promo included Fantasma challenging Fenix again and led to Rey Escorpion boasting about all his (& Texano’s) tag title defenses. Vampiro interrupted, insulted Konnan some, and introduced a video. The Lucha Brothers said they’d be challenging for the tag titles at Rey de Reyes (officially announced as 03/16 in Puebla). Vampiro then attacked the rudos, the rudos attacked him, Psycho Clown made the save, Faby Apache attacked him (???), and Taya & Laredo Kid got involved as well. During the main event, La Mascara came out to mildly distract the referee while Fantasma gave La Parka a martinete. Parka was eventually strechered out but the match continued anyway. Laredo Kid ran in from the crowd and took Parka’s place for a while, then Hijo del Vikingo ran in and took Laredo Kid’s place. Vikingo landed the 450 on Kross but Kross kicked out and eventually pinned him after his back suplex.
The main event was quite the 90s throwback in terms of so much going on. La Mascara put about as much effort into distracting the referee as he does in wrestling nowadays, and it was silly that the match wasn’t stopped at that point. (AAA’s got to pick “referee distractions” or “all matches no DQ”, because doing both back to back is weird.) No one came up with an explanation for why Laredo Kid or Hijo del Vikingo were allowed to add themselves to the main event because there was no real explanation to be had. Hot rising star Vikingo taking the pin in a match he wasn’t in after having his finish kicked out of doesn’t do him any favors, though it came across better than the disaster it must read like. The real problem seems like having Hijo del Vikingo take the pin also earlier when Jack Evans, who has nothing going on, was also available to lose in that match. They tried to push the idea of huge win for Vikingo before he got beat, and it’ll serve a purpose if Vikingo eventually does beat Kross (Mascara de Bronce feud take 2!) but the earlier loss doesn’t really have a purpose. It was a memorable wild scene but I’m not sure it served AAA well. AAA people would rightfully say “scoreboard!” and the scoreboard shows they sold out that arena. So maybe none of this matters.
Show started a half hour later than planned (so a half hour later than the usual half hour late start), which made it run late into the night. Taurus/Laredo was great from what I saw of it. Opener looked good and the crowd was super into Nino Hamburguesa. The fourway was said to be alright but maybe not as good as you’d expect with the names involved and the Aerostar tag was also just fine. Semimain sounded skippable; La Mascara is in the matches but also seems to be skipping them.
Sammy Guevera sent in a video from home talking about a family emergency and saying he’d be back in Morelia to make up the title match. This was followed by Killer Kross interrupting, complaining about no one ever defending their titles in AAA (he’s not going to like the next paragraph) and hoping that Sammy’s family all dies. That seemed harsh. That’s also something that would be a bit over the line if there was a serious family emergency, so it is good that it isn’t really as serious as sounds but Guevera does really have a family thing that’s going on.
Fenix suffered an injury at the end of the AAW show Friday night in Texas which will likely keep him out of action for a short time. It means the heavyweight title scheduled for Sunday is almost definitely not happening (and it’ll be the second straight time he’s had to miss a defense due to injury.) Fenix landed badly taking a cutter in AAW’s main event tag title match, a fall that did not immediately look bad. Fenix was in obviously in pain after and they quickly ended the match (with Penta winning the tag titles.) Fenix was checked out and ruled to have a muscle contusion, a relief considering how seriously everyone had treated the injury at the moment. Fenix & Penta are scheduled for House of Glory in New York tonight before Fenix was to join the AAA crew in Tepic. AAA hasn’t said anything about how the card will shuffle, and likely will not until show time.
MLW announced Fenix & Pentagon will be on their 03/03 show in Chicago (barring injury), which presumably means Penta/Park is still on for the first MLW show WrestleMania weekend. They have not signed with AEW (and can’t until LU is resolved), so they’re still as free to work for MLW when they want. MLW drew a heavy latino audience last time in Cicero so having them on that show is important.
No one seemed to think the Lucha Brothers were leaving MLW until MLW started teasing after their show past weekend and I’m unsure why MLW did a storyline teasing losing more people than they already had. It did not seem to get them any more positive attention and it probably made for a week of people who had bought tickets to those upcoming events less sure they were going to see some of the people they wanted to see. (Being the internet, there are still going to be people who heard MLW’s story about the Lucha Brothers maybe leaving and will not catch the story about them not actually leaving too.) I guess it worked if it was meant to distract from the disappointing match they had.
Impact announced Fenix & Penta will face Rob Van Dam & Sabu on their own WrestleMania weekend show (which starts about an hour after the Thursday night MLW one.) Impact also aired Fenix & Penta winning their tag team titles from their taping in Mexico City, which looked pretty good from what I got to see of it.
One more Lucha Brothers note: on Wrestling Observer Radio, Tony Khan specifically thanked Dorian Roldan/AAA for making the Lucha Brothers available for them. Fenix & Pentagon are competing under their indie names, but I guess that means they had to get permission from LU/AAA to work on those shows. Khan mentioned more luchadors would be on the show but did not want to give many details about this (or a lot of other things.)
AAA is back on Twitch Sunday night. It will be around an 8 pm CT start time counting the time difference and the usual delay. The main event is scheduled to be La Parka, Psycho Clown & Puma King versus Rey Escorpion, Hijo del Fantasma and Killer Kross, but that may change with if they play up the martinete on Parka from Friday. Most of the rest of the card may change: Demon versus Wagner in a street fight seems pretty set and likely for a big announcement, but the rest of the show has to deal with Fenix and Guevera missing. As simple as it would be to just combine some matches, AAA seems set on having six matches for tapings for TV purposes.
Fenix is supposed to defend his title against Laredo Kid and Flamita. I wouldn’t mind seeming a Laredo Kid/Flamita singles match. Aerostar, Maximo, Taya are scheduled to face Faby, Mascara and Monsther Clown. The second match is listed as Hijo del Vikingo & Sammy Guevera versus Jack Evans and Taurus. The opener is the same as Friday, Dianastia, Lady Shani, Nino Hamburgesa against Lady Maravilla, Lanzelot and Villano III Jr., and it might have the same finish.
Record has an interview with Dr. Wagner, pitching the idea of himself versus Blue Demon Jr. in an apuesta match. It’s very obvious that is the plan, only AAA still isn’t having anyone say it on their shows. Wagner is not saying TripleMania even here. Maybe we’ll have a better idea what is supposed to be happening after their street fight.
Other shows of note this weekend
- The Crash runs tonight with Bestia versus Damian in a hardcore cage match. The undercard includes Willie Mack defending the heavyweight title against Barbaro Cavernario & Austin Theory, as well as a six-way with Dragon Bane, Soberano, Titan, Rey Horus, Flamita and Oraculo
- Ring of Honor has a TV taping tonight in Lakeland, Florida and a live/streaming event Sunday in Miami. These are the first two shows with Rush as a full time member of their roster. He’s got a trios match on Sunday and is facing Tracy Williams on the TV taping. Bandido is on both shows, with an atomicos on the Sunday show and nothing yet announced for the TV taping.
- Coliseo Coacalco has a benefit show for Toxin on Sunday. Three singles matches on top: Flamita/Marvin, Latigo/Dragon Bane, Keyra/Rossy Moreno.
- Dragon Bane heads over to IWRG later to challenge Cerebro Negro for the IWRG IC Welterweight championship
Guadalajara’s Difunto makes his debut on the CMLL shows this weekend. A quick interview with El Grafico fills in a blank: he started out in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara as El Diplomatico in 2015 before switching to the Difunto character. I remember Diplomatico for being such an odd name, especially for a rudo.
There’s a new wrestling school in Tampico.
Lineups
CMLL (FRI) 02/15/2019 Arena México
1) Pegasso & Stigma vs Cancerbero & Raziel
2) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Okumura, Tiger, Virus
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón vs Pólvora, Templario, Vangellys
4) Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, La Bestia Del Ring, Mephisto
5) Carístico, Místico, Valiente vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
6) Terrible vs Niebla Roja [CMLL Universal]
Top two matches should be good.
The “two main event stars debuting” are missing. My belief was the two wrestlers were Garza Jr. & Bestia 666, who were already announced as appearing the next day in Arena Lopez Mateos. They’re main eventers in the Crash, the Crash works with CMLL, they haven’t wrestled in Arena Mexico and they’re likely were not coming to Mexico City to just for one show. (Garza and MechaWolf are noticeable around the following weekend as well.) But they’re not there, so I’m not sure if that means they got dropped entirely or if they’ll be some sort of surprise.
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