Month: July 2019

Tonight’s CMLL show lacks the excitement of last week’s Lyger/LA Park visits. The quality of the matches appears nearly as good, though a dark cloud of an unappealing Aniversario main event hangs over the show. CMLL’s biggest show of the year is believed to be only 49 days away. There is no announced match for that show, so every week brings a different possibility of what CMLL may suddenly launch into the big spot. CMLL’s ability to draw a big house on expensive prices for the not-exactly-dream match of Matt Taven & Volador Jr. versus Barbaro Cavernario & Rush last year opens up the possibility of doing similar level matches this year.

Which brings us to the semi-main, where the Ultimo Guerrero versus Cibernetico match rears its very boring head again. They’re grouped with four other unmasked rudos – Rush & Bestia teaming with Ciber and old friends Bucanero & Casas teaming with UG – which might be part of a bigger plan. The Ultimo Guerrero versus Ciber singles match a couple of weeks ago proved that match alone as a main event probably wouldn’t work. If CMLL is still set on doing it, including a lot of other unmasked people in a cage match might work better. CMLL could still end up with a short Ciber/UG match at the end instead of going fifteen or more minutes on their own. It still wouldn’t be a super appealing match for an Aniversario but CMLL found out they don’t need to do one of those. LA Park & Rush didn’t get the mics last week, and we’ll know if something is up if these guys get the mics after the semi-main.

(Thinking too deeply about this: Bestia probably wouldn’t be allowed to risk losing his hair twice in six months, but people like Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja and Vangellys, and Felino could be thrown in to round out the numbers. If Felino was supposed to lose his hair in Ciudad Juarez before being moved to the Liger show, it is possible he could get his hair loss here instead. Also, this is just another in a long line of “maybe they’ll do this match?” bit this year. CMLL made it very clear when they were running the tag match at H2L and they’ll make it very clear again if this is the match.)

The actual main event is Carisitco, Mistico, and Volador against NGD, a generic good match. Valiente versus Cavernario should also be good and is interesting for the outcome. I think people are much higher on Cavernario now, but Valiente’s the tecnico and the larger luchador, so he’s probably the favorite. Titan, Soberano, and Audaz face Hijos del Infierno in the usual showcase. Fuego, Drone and Guerrero Maya face Misterioso, Kawato San, and Tiger, who will make this match interesting. Magnus & Magia Blanca open up against bicycle enthusiasts Akuma & Espanto Jr.

The show will air on Marca and YouTube at 8:30 pm, possibly both blocked in the US & Japan. I plan on streaming on YouTube.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show.

I was unaware who Luisito Rey was before yesterday; he appears to be a very popular YouTube vlogger who does a reaction videos. (He’s also got about 2 million followers on Twitter and YouTube.) He did a lucha libre reaction video, which was mostly focused on CMLL, and talked about the last AAA show in Aguascalientes on Twitch. AAA invited him on Twitter to come to TripleMania and they went back and forth on it.

El Grafico has an interview with Australian Suicide and Villano III Jr. about the TripleMania mixed tag title match. Suicide mentions he had a neck injury and personal problems in 2018 that left him low, but he now feels better than ever and credits his relationship with Vanilla for being a reason for that. Villano III Jr. & Lady Maravilla don’t seem connected on that level but Villano mentions he and Maravilla train in the same gym and ring every day so they’re coming up with ideas and surprises for the match.

MexaWrestling says Flamita will be on their 08/05 Arena San Juan show.

Dragon Lee, along with Sho & TJP, was announced for the 2019 Super J-Cup. Dragon Lee was on promotional art for the tour previously. So was Caristico. This 16 man tournament runs from August 22 to the 25th.

In a promotion email, Warrior Wrestling announced Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero vs Caristico for their 09/01 show in the Chicago area. The match will be announced on Twitter on Monday.

EMW says they’ll be back in Auditorio de Tijuana on September 27th with an AAA vs Tijuana Indies concept. I’m not sure what goes on in Tijuana in August but both EMW and The Crash are avoiding running shows next month.

Hijo del Santo and Dr. Wagner Jr., who is so definitely retiring if he loses next Saturday, are on the next Martinez Entertainment show on 09/28 in Fort Worth. I think Hijo del Santo is one of those people worth seeing live at least once while you can and there’s no telling how often you can (though he does seem to be working slightly more often than of late.)  The Martinez shows are long but generally good.

The Tuesday Arena Aficion main event was supposed to be Eterno versus Huracan Ramirez Junior. A non-dead Huracan Ramirez Jr., though I guess it doesn’t totally matter since he was replaced by a Mascara Sagrada Junior. The Eterno/Sagrada Jr. match is described going 10 minutes with few moves and ending in a double pin draw. Those Arena Aficion Tuesday shows seem to draw less than 10 people so a main event draw is weird but not really news. The semi-main, with IWRG’s Pumita de Oro, Stat Kind and Jeque against local clowns Niko, Harry, and IWRG’s Hausser, also went to a draw. Two draws sound like there’s a bigger story there.

Puma King posted his latest video.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Segunda Caida writes about the Briscoes vs Dragon Lee/Rush.

Blue Panther Jr. wants a mask match with Polvora.

Lineup

CMLL (TUE) 07/30/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Amperaje, Mágico, Micro vs El Jabalí, Mr. Apolo, Thunder Boy
2) Fireman, Magnum, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Guerrero de la Muerte, Raziel
3) Drone, Pegasso, Tritón vs Kawato San, Pólvora, Virus
4) Blue Panther, Kráneo, Volcano vs Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
5) Dragón Lee, Místico, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Another Munoz family team up in the main event. If you listen to their interviews, it is very clear they would like to make this a regular thing.

Fireman is also family – Audaz’s younger brother – and has been wrestling on indie shows the last couple of years. He appears to be the next line in this Sangre Nueva 2019 project. This seems to be a project for a while. Fireman has a Facebook post hinting at this back on June 7th. CMLL takes a while to get anything rolling around this looks like a direction picked before Sofia Alonso became in charge.

Zona 23 (SUN) 08/11/2019 Av. Lopez Portillo, San Francisco Chilpan, Tultitlán, Estado de México
1) Mr. Hardboy vs Venganza
2) Sadika vs Sadik Maiden
3) Phoenix Kid vs Ovett Jr., Osiris
4) Epitafio, Terremoto, Tóxico vs Abortex, Ángel Azul, Ciber Payaso
5) Yakuza vs Chucho el Roto
6) Demoledor vs Juan el Ranchero
7) Black Terry vs Pirata Morgan, Mr. Cóndor [super libre]
8) Toxin vs Fly Star [tlc]
9) Drako vs Joe Lider [Zona 23 CHAMP]

The last show for Zona 23 was said to be the last show in this junkyard with the next show on 08/04. The next show is now 08/11 and they’re back at the junkyard. It is dumb that I listed a match as super libre, all the matches are really super libre.

IWRG (WED) 07/24/2019 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV]
1) Ángel Estrella Jr. & Biosfera b Baby Star Jr. & Shere Khan 
2) Arquero & Blue Monster Jr. b Keshin Black & Milagro Blanco 
3) Diosa Haru, Flyman, Latino b Lady Cat, Quetzal, Taurino 
Diosa Haru replaced Alisha la Guerrera
4) Auzter, Cheff Benito, Mexica b Canibal, Canicero, Guerrero Olímpico 
5) Ángel Drago, Eligor, Flyman, Galactus, Güero Palma, Neza Kid Jr. b Black Danger (Baja California), Príncipe Aéreo, Torito Negro and Dragón Fly, Marado, Mosca and Black Dragón, Death Metal, Guerrero 2000 and Black Lancer, Máquina Inf., Shaolin and Adrenalina, Impulso, Wotman and Holocausto, Kid Jaguar, Piloto Infernal [elimination] 
Capitan’s represented their teams in this seeding match (but not sure who those were)
6) Black Danger (Baja California), Príncipe Aéreo, Torito Negro b Adrenalina, Impulso, Wotan [Copa High Power, quarterfinal] 
Mexa Wrestling beating Ojo de Tigre. Adrenalina and his partners fought post match, with the Argentino team making the save and bringing Adrenalina officially into their group.
7) Dragón Fly, Marado, Mosca b Holocausto, Kid Jaguar, Piloto Infernal [Copa High Power, quarterfinal] 
Team Argentino over Team Pachuca
8) Black Dragón, Death Metal, Guerrero 2000 b Black Lancer, Máquina Infernal, Shaolin [Copa High Power, quarterfinal] 
FILL IWRG over Villanos
9) Ángel Drago, Galactus, Güero Palma b Eligor, Flyman, Neza Kid Jr. [Copa High Power, quarterfinal] 
Zeus defeating Saetas del Ring
10) Dragón Fly, Marado, Mosca b Black Danger (Baja California), Príncipe Aéreo, Torito Negro [Copa High Power, semifinal] 
Argentino defeating Mexa Wrestling
11) Black Dragón, Death Metal, Guerrero 2000 b Eligor, Flyman, Neza Kid Jr. [Copa High Power, semifinal] 
FILL IWRG beating Zeus
12) Black Dragón, Death Metal, Guerrero 2000 b Dragón Fly, Marado, Mosca [Copa High Power, final] 
IWRG defeating Argentino, though the foreign scourge appeared to steal the trophy.

I had this one while working on posts and nothing really jumped out to me. I saw Death Metal do a Canadian Destroyer and thought he might get mocked on Instagram but that’s about it. Didn’t hear strong reviews from the people who watched it.

Yesterday’s CMLL Informa had a big announcement about the group’s luchador. They’ll be getting a (yet to be named?) new annual tournament. Everyone on the roster and some new people will be in the tournament. There will be blocks on August 2 & 9 and a final on August 16th. The winner will get a world title match with Marcela and will get to be the Mexico flag bearer for the upcoming CMLL Gran Prix.

This seems like an idea to create an equivalent of the Leyenda de Plata or Universal tournament for the women. They’ve used the Copa Natalia Vazquez in that spot previously, but a one-week tournament is less of an event in CMLL. It’s not clear if those blocks are 1v1 match (like most CMLL tournaments) or ciberneticos (like Leyenda de Plata). It also doesn’t seem like they announced a specific number of participants. The prize for the winner obviously suggests Marcela will not be winning the match. I guess Dalys or Avispa Dorada are not winning either if the winner is Mexico’s flagbearer, though they could always just have them bring out the Rest of the World instead. CMLL desperately needs someone who isn’t Dalys, Amapola or Marcela win this to elevate someone into the top mix if they’re serious about doing something with the women. I’m just not sure if they’re serious.

One reason they might not be serious is the introduction of the newest CMLL luchadors: La Infernal. La Infernal is a 44-year-old luchadora, the widow of Villano III and the mother of the two Villano III children wrestling. She has not been part of a major promotion since 1999; records indicate she wrestled a couple of months while being pregnant with Hijo del Villano III, stopped probably when she realized it and has only wrestled a handful of times since then. La Infernal did wrestle on last Saturday’s Arena Coliseo show, most people just assumed it was someone new recycling the name until she had her match. It’s nice for her to get to come back to Arena Mexico after all these years and it is probably harmless if it’s just for a match or few, but CMLL is already the oldest women’s division in the world and adding a person hasn’t been a full-time wrestler in two decades is not helping. La Infernal was presumably re-introduced because she’ll be in the August 2nd block; more people will be announced next week on CMLL Informal.

I thought this division that was getting a big match announced on CMLL Informa was the minis. They were there (except Pierrothito & Shockercito.) They all got to talk. It seemed like the set up to a cibernetico. No cibernetico was announced.

Other notes on Informa include a mention that Kairos is 19 and had been training for five years. Hijo de Mano Negra, who debuted Tuesday, is actually the son of former CMLL mini Panterita (not this one, this one instead) and the godson of Mano Negra. He’s 23. He’s been training with Mano Negro since he was 7, and had been training for 6 years with Virus. Hijo de Mano Negra had been wrestling the Mexico City indies as Arceus for the last couple of years. More new wrestlers were teased.

No mention of Kenny King yet on Informa, by the way.

Vampiro announced on Facebook that he and & Matt Striker will be back doing commentary for TripleMania. He and Striker have been wildly panned in their past performances. I think the consensus was Striker wasn’t as bad this year, or just looked a lot better while attempting to reign in a wild Vampiro. Neither are great at being left alone and neither seem to actually watch AAA. Vampiro very clearly does not watch any wrestling show he’s not at, and Striker’s relied on Vampiro and AAA provided notes on previous shows. Vamprio was so clueless in his video that he didn’t know if TripleMania was airing on Fite or Twitch; the important thing is he was involved.

I’d presume Vampiro & Striker will also be the team for the AAA US PPV shows, and that Bernado Guzman & Adrian Mendoza will continue to do English off a monitor for the regular AAA TV tapings. I haven’t thought Guzman & Mendoza have been good either – they’re just not comfortable enough speaking English to project the energy they need – but some combination of Striker and Mendoza would probably be the best of available parts, combining someone who’s used to broadcasting in English with someone who knows the AAA stories. But it’s also very possible to just pick someone new instead of throwing the same failed people in the same spots over and over again.

There are people liked Vampiro & Matt Striker because it had so many bloopers and mistakes. It should be entertaining for those reasons again. It does make AAA come off like a trash promotion that’s only enjoyable as something to make fun of once a year, but that’s the decision AAA has gone with. Putting aside personal preference here, AAA desperately needs to sell some tickets for the US shows, and TripleMania is going to be a big shot to convince people on the idea that they should buy tickets. They’ve given that job to two people who will surely plug those shows, but help AAA come off as some silly thing that’s fun for a night without being something you need to see.

It may be too late to change this AAA image because there were so many people happy when I posted about Vamprio announcing who just want to see the car wreck. The reaction to “this makes AAA look like a trash promotion” is a fair bit of “yea, AAA is a trash promotion.” I don’t see it like that and I don’t think that’s what AAA should aspire to be, but maybe I’m just too close and should stop thinking of them of being capable of more. This comes off to me like an unforced error, but maybe it’s just not something AAA is capable of doing any better.

On today’s Keepin’ It 100, Konnan talked about last week’s Aguascalientes show. A lot of his comments on the show mirror what is reported about the show in the Wrestling Observer this week. (Konnan says almost literally the same positive things about Villano III Jr.) He thought the bit of MJF being a heel behind Cody’s back was a bit confusing to fans who didn’t know them but feels like they got Cody over at the end of the show. He also mentioned AAA will be putting AEW storylines on their TV to help get the characters over. Disco presses Konnan to talk about changes he’s made back and Konnan talks about the new underneath luchadors he’s brought in that he’s happy with. He also gives credit to Lady Shani and La Hiedra as two people who were going to be dropped because he felt they were mailing in their matches, but they stepped up their game when the other women came in. Konnan says he actually weighs people and tells people they have a certain amount of time to lose weight, feeling it’ll be better for their image and health. “I don’t need you to look like Brian Cage, just get in shape.”

El Planchitas has Hijo del Fantamsa’s start date with NXT as next month. I believe the gossip is the next NXT start date is September, but it’s also possible Fantasma could be moving to Orlando in August to get settled. Planchitas says also hints at there being a reason Fantasma joined La Rebelion Amarilla even though he wasn’t going to be in The Crash for long. There’s some connection here to Lacey Lane and Angel Garza being allowed to go back to Tijuana and go in the ring to celebrate with the rest of the Rebelion Amarillo on the 07/05 Crash show. (I don’t think The Crash becoming NXT Mexico.) Planchitas also thinks CMLL is debating if to do Rush/LA Park on the Aniversario show or not following them throwing around the seats last week. I don’t really believe that.

Diamante Azul is listed on a Galactar benefit show in Monterrey this Saturday. This would be Azul’s first wrestling appearance since having unspecified surgery in early June (though he was also visible at the Paco Alonso mass.) He’s also scheduled to wrestle on Sunday in Arena Coliseo Monterrey.

Fenix is one of the big draws of the 08/10 AAA TV tapings in Saltillo. Fenix & Pentagon are also now announced for a show on 09/07 in the same town.

There’s a Kickstarter for a Tinieblas video game. The text hyping it does not inspire confidence.

Microman Fever has a recap of a +LuchaTV Nino Hamburguesa interview.

LuchaTalk has a new episode of their podcast.

RetroWrasslin’ writes about the Santo farewell show.

Yo Ciudadadno visits with some Ciudad Juarez luchadors.

Lady Sensacion says she’s wrestled in the US & Spain recently and is close to going to Japan.

A profile of Zacatecas luchadora Dark Lluvia.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 07/30/2019 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Skadi vs Dalys, La Comandante, Reyna Isis
3) Blue Panther vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
4) Dulce Gardenia, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Okumura, Universo 2000 Jr., Vangellys
5) Atlantis, Audaz, Flyer vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
6) Euforia & Gran Guerrero © vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja [CMLL TAG]
first defense

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja probably should win, though I can’t work out who they’d defend the titles against. Dulce Gardenia is back.

NLL (SUN) 08/04/2019 Gimnasio Nuevo Leon Independiente, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
1) Reina Oscura vs Baby Love
2) Azrael, Baby Extreme, The Tiger vs Emperador Azteca (Indie), Séptimo Dragón, Súper Nova
3) Dulce Sexy & Lady Flammer vs Christi Jaynes & Stephanie Vaquer
4) Bestia 666 & Damián 666 vs Fresero Jr. & Mr. Iguana and Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria
5) Mechawolf 450 vs Hijo De Espectro, Rey Horus
6) Hijo De Dos Caras vs Bram
7) Hijo del Fantasma & La Máscara vs Carlito & Chavo Guerrero

Alberto is scheduled to appear but not wrestle, which he did indicate would be the case for some shows. Still, that leaves Fantasma & Mascara vs Carlito & Chavo as the main event, a tough sell in a saturated city. This would be Fantasma’s final match in Mexico. Weirdly, both Ultimo Ninja and Sombra have had their final matches in Monterrey.

AAA , ELITE (SUN) 08/11/2019 Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Lancelot & Villano III Jr. vs Astral & Demus
2) Silver Star & Tigre Universitario vs Negro Navarro & Solar I
3) Parka Negra & Súper Fly vs Karonte & Zumbi
4) Dave The Clown & Murder Clown vs ? & Galeno Del Mal
5) Hijo Del Vikingo & Myzteziz Jr. vs Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Golden Magic
6) Averno & Chessman vs Villano IV & Villano V Jr.
7) ?, Psycho Clown, Texano Jr. vs Canek, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

The third AAA/ELITE show in this newest run. The third time it’s been listed as airing on TV. None of them have aired on TV. It is probably OK if Canek & Rayo de Jalisco matches don’t air.