Month: February 2019

CMLL (MON) 02/04/2019 Arena Puebla [CMLL]
1) Astral, Milenium, Sonic b Gemelo Pantera I, Gemelo Pantera II, Guerrero Espacial 
tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray b Joker, Siky Ozama, Tyson La Bestia 
tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Tritón b El Malayo, Felino, Pólvora 
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Stigma, Terrible, Vangellys 
Stigma replaced Shocker. Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) La Bestia Del Ring, Místico, Rush DQ Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón[Relevos Increíbles] 
NGD took 1/3. Rush unmasked Cuatrero. Challenges followed.

The main event seemed to set up a singles match for next week but it wasn’t especially clear. They could end up just doing the trios rematch instead.

I’ve been thinking a simpler way to preview shows would be to rate them 1 to 5 on how important they are and how good the matches appear to be. Today’s Arena Mexico show is a solid 1 on the important scale – in that it is no important at all – and maybe a 2 in match interest. Audaz getting his first streaming singles match is going to have some interest. Audaz has only had one other singles match in his time in CMLL so far, a non-televised match against Tiger, who he also faces tonight. Everyone believes Audaz is pretty good and will end up great. I think the general view on Tiger is he’s good as well, but he doesn’t show it in most of the trios matches – either he’s not in a position to do well or he’s not worried about doing well. There’s a lot of people in CMLL who can be thrown in the same bag: good reps based on past work but haven’t been given real chances in years and it’s unclear if CMLL has completely destroyed their ambition to be great or if they’ll still show if given a real opportunity. This is a real opportunity that I’m hoping Tiger makes something out of. This is probably just the start of lots of Audaz matches to come, so I’m kind of more interested in seeing what Tiger does with him in particular.

The rest of the show has solid but disposable matches. Volador, Kraneo, and Stuka face Cavernario, Euforia, and Terrible in the main event. The semi-main is scheduled to be Ephesto, Luciferno, and Vangellys versus Blue Panther, Titan, and Flyer, though nothing has been said about Flyer since his injury on Friday. Flyer hasn’t said anything about on social media, though luchadors tend to be less public about injury news than people north of the border. He did not wrestle on Saturday, he was listed on the card for next Sunday’s show but that isn’t always definitive. Fuego, Maya & Stigma face Los Cancerberos & Sagrado in the tercera. There are a women’s match and a prelim featuring some of the older prelim guys to open. The show starts at 7:30 pm.

Guadalajara has a Munoz versus Guerreros & Mephisto main event. That show looks like 1 for both relevance and quality.

Today is the 35th Anniversary of El Santo’s death, which means many sites have the same articles they run every year or every five years with the year changed. I hadn’t seen a “five most iconic Santo movies” list before, so I’ll link to that one. SuperLuchas has a good article. El Hijo del Santo was scheduled to have his annual press conference at his father’s statue today, but this sentence is still here because it was supposed to happen at noon and it still hasn’t happened quite yet.

Arturo Rivera confirmed he’s staying with Televisa and so will no longer broadcast AAA shows. My impression is Arturo Rivera was well liked by people in but not actually a good announcer. Nostalgia always seems to trump quality in Mexican wrestling fans so he’ll still be missed. Jesus Zuniga has been quiet except for RT-ing some compliments a few days ago.

+LuchaTV put up their interviews from the 01/01 Mexa Wrestling show. The pattern is full shows air right before the next show takes place, so maybe that full show will be one of +Lucha’s streams later this week. They include Keyra talking about signing with AAA. She’s been on AAA spot shows the last month, where before she was only working TV tapings. Star Fire is also working those AAA smaller shows, so she likely also signed with AAA.

+LuchaTV also has the latest edition of their podcast.

Lucha Memes on 03/19 in Coliseo Coacalco (Chairo Kingdom)

• Murcielago Plateado Jr., Hijo de Dr. Polux vs Iron Kid, Alas de Acero vs Prayer, Multifacetico
• Dragon Bane vs Hijo de Canis Lupus
• Super Crazy vs Aeroboy – new

El Grafico has an interview with La Hija de Fuerza Guerrera, who says she and her father agreed she needed to train much more after her first match. She says it was never her dream to be a luchadora (it was her dream to become a mom and she’s done that), but feels it is her destiny.

Lineups

CMLL (SUN) 02/10/2019 Arena México
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Magnus, Pegasso, Súper Astro Jr. vs Difunto, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo
3) Marcela, Mystique, Princesa Sugehit vs La Comandante, La Seductora, Tiffany
4) Flyer vs Okumura [lightning]
5) Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero, Villano IV vs Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Valiente
6) Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón

Main event should go well. Villanos in the semi-main position even without the Atlantis family around.

AAA TV (SUN) 03/03/2019 Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Dinastía, Lady Shani, Starfire vs Faby Apache, Keyra, Villano III Jr.
2) Golden Magic, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa vs ?, Australian Suicide, Jack Evans
3) Mamba, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
4) Brian Cage, Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid vs Hijo del Fantasma, Taurus, Texano Jr.
5) Aerostar, Pagano, Psycho Clown vs Chessman, Monsther Clown, Rey Escorpión

This slides in after Friday’s show in Mazatlan, Sunday’s show in Tepic, and 02/16 in Morelia. Could be another taping around 02/23.

Semimain, opener and the second match look like the best chances for good match, on this show, depending on who’s in the mystery spot. Ultimo Maldito or Black Danger would make sense, but they haven’t made a show since last year (and seem to be scaled back since the Espectro/Kahoz false start.)

There doesn’t appear to be anything happening at these shows. AAA’s returned to the old trend of doing a lot of storylines on one show of a major card cycle and then not much the rest of the way.

IWRG (SUN) 02/03/2019 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Ángel Estrella Jr. b Puma de Oro 
2) Güero Palma & Neza Kid b Kamikaze & Latino 
3) Apolo Estrada Jr., Hip Hop Man, Mosca b Atomic Star, Divino, Manchitas
Apolo beat Macnitas with a martillo negro 
4) Demonio Infernal, Eterno, Lunatic Xtreme b Liderk, Rayan, Spector ©[EdM Trios]
Comando Elite lose in their first defense for titles that had not been defended once in fifteen months. 
5) Dragón Bane & Hijo de Canis Lupus b Eterno & Séptimo Rayo
Black Dragon ended up in convulsions after a bad dive very early on. Eterno replaced him in the match. 
6) Mr. Águila, Sinn Bodhi, Utamaro b Hijo del Pantera, Imposible, Internacional Pantera
eliminated Bodhi distracted Internacional Pantera for the loss. 
7) Oficial 911 & Oficial AK47 © DQ Capo del Norte & Capo del Sur [IWRG IC TAG]
3rd defense. 911 & Capo del Norte were left, Norte tried to get in a foul while the ref was down, a second referee caught him for the DQ.

Some eclectic names even for an IWRG card. Utamaro is a Japanese wrestler who’s been seen a bit in the US in the last couple of years and appears to be hanging out with Hijo del Pantera.

This past weekend’s CMLL story was about how Rush & Bestia del Ring are more Ingobernables than Munoz. That gets pushed to the side tonight, as they’re back to teaming with Mistico against NGD, with Terrible split apart from them in the semifinal. I think that matchup means rudo Mistico and NGD as faces, and maybe it’ll go somewhere.

Volador & Terrible in the semi-final is a potential Universal title final. Angel de Oro, SOerbao, Shocker and Vangellys fill out the match. Triton, Esfinge, and Fuego take on Polvora, Malayo, and Felino in the tercera. Siki Ozama is back for a second straight week, facing Joker & Tyson la Bestia taking Arkalis, Rey Samuray, and Pegasso. If there’s a direction for Ozama, it’ll probably be evident tonight. Sonic seems to be showing off more often in Puebla than Mexico City. He teams with Astral & Millenium versus Guerrero Espacial and the Gemelo Panteras. The show starts at 9 pm.

The El Planchitas column says AAA will start on TV Azteca on the last week of February, but the reason there were not been many details in the announcement is those details haven’t been worked: they’re still deciding on when it airs and who announces it. Jesus Zuniga is apparently an option, as he doesn’t work directly for Televisa after all, but all the other announcers are out.

El Planchitas also point out that Televisa is keeping the AAA film library. They would also have the CMLL film library but have done nothing with it. I’m unclear on what AAA owns and what Televisa does. AAA has been airing footage from as early as 2003 on their Twitch channel, as well as older footage during some TripleMania marathons, but their footage only includes in-arena footage and none of the vignettes.

Tomorrow is the 35th Anniversary of El Santo’s death, a subject of the cover of this week’s Box Y Lucha. El Hijo del Santo will take his annual visit to the El Santo statue, which usually comes with a press conference. There are sometimes plans announced for the rest of the year. There wasn’t much of that last year, and El Hijo del Santo didn’t end up wrestling much.

Lineups

CMLL (SAT) 02/09/2019 Arena Coliseo
1) Leono & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Star Jr. vs Akuma, Difunto, Grako
3) Robin vs Halcón Suriano Jr. [lightning]
4) Átomo, Gallito, Microman vs Chamuel, El Guapito, Perico Zakarías
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. vs Felino, Pólvora, Templario
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Diamante Azul vs Ephesto, Euforia, Mephisto

Atlantis Jr. is already in the main event. Eh.

Difunto would be making his Guadalajara debut. He wrestled on the most Tuesday Guadalajara shows of any of the locals last year (one more than Star Black) and is the current Occidente middleweight champion. They’ve seemed high on him as Guadalajara local, but few of those have made their way to the main roster in recent years.