Month: August 2019

CMLL (FRI) 08/02/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, Marca, thecubsfan]
1) Dark Magic & Sangre Azteca b Oro Jr. & Súper Astro Jr. 
15:25. Espanto Jr. replaced Sangre Azteca, then Sangre Azteca & Dark Magic ended up in the match instead of Akuma & Espanto anyway. Rudos took 2/3.
2) Chamuel, Guapito, Periko Zacarías b Átomo, Gallito, Microman 
13:49. Chamuel gave Microman his first ever Arena Mexico loss.
3) La Metálica b Marcela, Amapola, Tiffany, Sanely, La Infernal, Maligna, La Guerrera, La Seductora, Avispa Dorada [CMLL Universal Femenil, semifinal] 
21:42. Mystique was briefly listed in La Infernal’s spot. Order of elimination (after a battle royal): La Infernal (Amapola; Infernal’s return after 20 years), La Guerrera (Seductora), La Malgina (Sanely), Seductora (Marcela), Sanely (Tiffany), Amapola & Tiffany went to a double pin, Avispa Dorada (Marcela), Marcela (Metalica) leaving Metalica to advance to the final.
4) Dragón Lee b Gran Guerrero [lightning] 
8:35, but only after Pompin held up on an obvious three count a half minute earlier.
5) Ciber the Main Man, Rush, Terrible b Cavernario, Dark Magic, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
9:20. Ciber took 1/3, beating UG to set up a title match next week. Dark Magic replaced Mr. Niebla, working twice.
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón DQ Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. 
7:23. Straight falls, Forastero faking a foul from Volador.

CMLL Promos: Super Astro & Oro Jr. would like to form a regular team, the Micro rudos are proud to finally get a win, La Metalica talks advancing to the CMLL Universal final, Dragon Lee dedicates his win to the fans, Ciber believes this is the moment where he’ll win the CMLL Heavyweight Championship, Ultimo Guerrero is very insistent on the hair match after and NGD brag about winning in straight falls.

Pressroom interviews: NGD (who make a point of saying the Dream Team don’t get a title shot because they lost again), Caristico (dealing with a finger injury), Dragon Lee, Ciber, Ultimo Guerrero, and La Metalica.

This was another weak show in a series of them. Unless you’d like to hold onto hope of a Volador/Forastero Aniversario main event, everything points towards Ciber versus Ultimo Guerrero in a hair match on 09/13. There was nothing else this week to tease a cage match and no other match being set up. Ultimo Guerrero did the sort of promo CMLL uses in their video package every time. The feud is neither nor over but it’s the direction CMLL has committed itself towards. It’s not very exciting and we’ve seen bad Aniversario matches cause the month before them to struggle as well.

Dragon Lee/Gran Guerrero was fun until the referee botch. There were highlights in the Micros match and with Avispa’s performance in the women’s match. CMLL had something they could follow up with Avispa Dorada in this match – she’s good and she stands out from everyone else – but it seems unlike CMLL to do that. I hope indie promoters try to get Avispa (& Metalica) in their promotions to see what she could do without the limitations of CMLL.

Akuma announced on Facebook that he would be out six weeks after suffering a leg injury last Friday. Dark Magic may have been intended to fill in for Mr. Niebla (who missed a Thursday show) and Sangre Azteca for Espanto, but CMLL also knew Akuma was out well ahead of time and didn’t bring enough subs. That was just weird. Dark Magic is one of the last people in CMLL who should be featured twice in a show.

Today is TripleMania. I wrote a long preview over at Voices of Wrestling. Some additional random notes

• I didn’t have it figured out by the time that was up, but the bonus match is Dragon Bane, Arkangel Divino, and Astrolux vs Toxin, Arez and Aramis. That sounds great and worth sitting thru whatever pre-show there will be.
• I blanked on the reason why Killer Kross might not be in the mystery match: the Impact vs AEW thing seems like an issue. Maybe they’ll work it out. My impression is AAA is trying to make that spot a big deal, though it’s going to be hard to come off that way with Psycho, Velasques and Cody on the other side.
• I still don’t know who will be the English announcers. Vampiro still believes he’s on the microphone. Other people either clearly believe he will not or want that to be the case. I suspect Vampiro will get his way and continue to announce the show because one of the goals of AAA seems to be to keep Vampiro happy above presenting a product that reflects AAA in the best light.
• This show is going to be very long. This show is always very long.
• Tickets seem like they’re moving well but there are still plenty left. There’s surprising a bunch of close tickets left, but maybe they were added late. I think this will outdraw the ~15,000 for the Liger farewell show.
• There are people who very sincerely believe Blue Demon’s losing. I’ve had to ban one of them from the luchawiki this week. I do not believe and would think it would be one of the most illogical decisions ever – even if Demon’s got to lose here, you don’t put Wagner opposite of him –  but Rob seemed like he heard things that suggest it in his POST Wrestling interview and Planchitas is picking it.
  • Neither man seems to be actually retiring given all the bookings they’re taking. They’re wrestling again tomorrow.
  • My guess still is the show ends with Blue Demon vs Psycho Clown being set up.

I’m more excited and less terrified by TripleMania than usual. I may eat my words on that. You can listen to me eat my words on Twitch after the show is over. We’re also going to be soliciting donations via Ko-Fi if you enjoy the podcast. Doing something live like that is above and beyond what we’ve normally done so if you like it and you’d like more of it, it would help to thru a few dollars our way.

Cain Velasquez told SI that there are two more events “that I’m for sure doing after TripleMania.” This sounds like he’ll be part of the New York & Los Angeles AAA shows. If he gets the same attention for those matches as he’s got for this TripleMania, it seems an easy call for AAA to pay him to do more shows. It also might affect tonight’s match; AAA would be wise to give people a story for the MSG show. They don’t always do that. Cain is also teasing a mask he’ll wear to the ring.

Blue Demon says he’s at his best physical shape (at the age of 53!) I know that’s hype but my American brain has me wondering what this mean was doing in his 20s and 30s.

Rey Escorpion was shooting video from the TripleMania set up yesterday, so he was probably walking thru whatever it is he’s doing on the show.  Copa TripleMania seems most likely, but I could see him taking bumps for Velasquez as well.

Dr. Wagner & Blue Demon are listed as headlining a lucha libre show at the San Jose’s SAP Center on October 12 using the very old WWO promotional name. The poster is so cheap looking that the event comes off fake. The SAP Center website currently lists no event on that date. The promotion has a Facebook page that points to a website for tickets, but the website doesn’t exist or didn’t load when I checked Friday. The sponsor listed is the same one which sponsored the AAA US tour in 2009. AAA ran this same building (it was the HP Pavillon at that point) and didn’t draw well. That lineup looks like something sure to struggle to sell tickets.

Toxin posted his schedule for the next two months in an Instagram story. (Captured here.) Of note, there’s an AAA TV taping scheduled for September 8 and Pro Wrestling Mexico is scheduled to have a second show on September 7th. I’d expect we’ll start to hear more about the PWM show after Nacion Lucha Libre runs on Sunday in Monterrey. It’d be helpful for AAA if they pushed their next half dozen or so tapings during TripleMania but that’s something that never happens.

AAA is hoping to reach their one millionth YouTube subscriber today. They were about 60,000 short when I checked this morning.

Laredo Kid was announced for PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament. He’s the 6th Mexican wrestler to be announced, which ties the record.

Diamante is headed to Dragon Gate, as the newest member of the RED group. He wrestled in AJPW last year and continues to get regular foreign booking despite not having a high profile home in Mexico. He seems like a guy who’d fit in Nacion Lucha Libre but hadn’t shown up there yet. There’s no word on how long he’ll be there.

A show scheduled for Mexicali today has been canceled. Shocker was scheduled to headline; he hasn’t wrestled since May 21st and hasn’t liked anything on Twitter since June 26th.

Last week was one of the less notable Friday night CMLL show of the year. This Friday’s show should be a bit more interesting and maybe a bit better in the ring.

The CMLL Universal Femenil tournament kicking off is the big focus on tonight’s show. CMLL’s taken false steps at creating annual women’s tournaments previously. None of have stuck, but CMLL is in a brand new era. These ten women matches appear to be ciberneticos (there are too many other matches on the show for a 1v1 tournament.) That format seems like a good match to the talent involved, who can get in, do the couple of things they’re best at, and get right out. Marcela is the easy favorite out of the group, with Amapola & Metalica as long shots. This will be La Infernal’s first match in CMLL in 20 years. It’s not the longest gap between matches – Octagon’s was longer – but it’s a rare feat.

The main event has NGD versus Carsitico, Volador and Mistico. The tecnicos asked for a title match last week and will likely get it next week if they can get a win here. Whatever is going on with Ciber the Main man & Ultimo Guerrero continues in the semi-main. Rush, Terrible, Mr. Niebla and Cavernario are involved this time. It is mildly interesting that CMLL is so high on Ciber and clearly not as much on The Chris and Scharly Rockstar given how the rest of the CL4N has rarely been involved. Maybe they can handle only so many of them in one match.

Dragon Lee and Gran Guerrero meet for the first time ever in Arena Mexico in the lightning match. Gran Guerrero is coming off a strong performance on Tuesday night. The micros are back, with Microman, Atomo, and Gallito teaming against Chamuel, Guapito, and Periko Zacarias. They’ve struggled of late outside of Microman & Chamuel exchanges, but this is a chance to do better. Espanto Jr. & Akuma are scheduled to face Oro Jr. & Super Astro, though the rudos have been dealing with injuries of late.

The show starts at the traditional time of 8:30 pm CT. It’ll stream on Marca and on their YouTube channel. I’ll stream it as well.

CMLL posted a preview of the CMLL Universal Femenil. Marcela won’t get a shot at world title if she wins (Marcela fighting herself would be a challenge.) They still say the winner will bring out the Mexico Flag for the Gran Prix, which is going to be odd if the winner is Dalys, Avispa Dorada or Stephanie Vaquer. The winner of this tournament will defend the title next year.

This week’s WON mentions Sofia Alonso will be meeting with Ring of Honor officials in late August about working more together between the two promotions. With NJPW pulling back from working ROH shows in the US, there’s an opening for more CMLL spots, but it’s just as important for those CMLL wrestlers to come off as stars the same way the NJPW guys did. I hope Ian, Colt, and Caprice get to pitch doing the Aniversario show in English to Sofia because that’s a necessary first step in that goal.

Dragon Rojo mentioned he’ll be back as a CMLL guest commentator this week. Dragon Rojo hasn’t been seen around CMLL since suffering his latest leg injury in January, though he’s remained active on social media and is rehabbing for a return.

On a Hugo Savinovich Facebook Live video from the AAA pilgrimage, Konnan revealed the yet-to-be-announced preshow match will be Astrolux, Dragon Bane, and Arkangel Divino vs Aramis, Toxin, and Arez at the 4:50 match. AAA had previously said there would be no matches on the pre-show. (Thanks to GypsyMorris) That should be a great match. It probably shouldn’t be a social media treasure hunt to find out who’s wrestling in what matches on this show and who’s announcing this show, but that’s just the way AAA is.

Keyra was at the pilgrimage as well. She’d been hinting things weren’t going well her injury recovery on Instagram, but I didn’t see anyone noticing any signs of a problem on Thursday. Also Mini Histeria still exists.

The AAA wrestlers were also showing off copies of the new AAA Panini sticker album, which will likely go on sale at TripleMania.

Killer Kross posted on Twitter that he was very interested in seeing how Cain Velasquez does tomorrow. That almost, but not quite, makes it sound like he’s not going to be the mystery guy. It’s delightfully either way.

Big news: Psycho Clown is headed to Orlando to wrestle! For an indie against Carlito, not something else. Meanwhile, the WON this week had the same story as here, believing Hijo del Fantasma is starting with NXT in September.

Photos from a lucha libre show in San Salvador, which we don’t usually see many lineups from normally.

Puma King’s latest video is on his trips to Los Angeles and Acapulco.

Rob is on PostWrestling talking about TripleMania and other lucha news.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 08/05/2019 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, King Jaguar, Millenium vs Centella Roja, Espíritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana
2) Fuego, Stigma, Tritón vs Misterioso, Okumura, Tiger
3) Eléctrico © vs Virus [MEX LIGHT]
fifth defense, first in 21 months.
4) Ángel de Oro, El Audaz, Niebla Roja vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Vangellys
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Valiente vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible
6) Volador Jr. © vs Dragón Lee [NWA WELTER]
third defense

That’s about as interesting as a Puebla show is going to get. Virus’ match with Metalico was a good reminder that every big Virus match is absolutely worth watching. The main event is a first time ever match with the only question of what effort we’ll see on Monday night. Dragon Lee’s talked a lot about wanting to face different opponents, and this is his big chance.

CMLL (TUE) 08/06/2019 Arena México
1) Arkalis & Robin vs El Coyote & Grako
2) Star Black, Star Jr., Súper Astro Jr. vs Cancerbero, Difunto, Raziel
3) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Olímpico, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Black Panther vs Hijo del Villano III [lightning]
5) El Audaz, Kráneo, Stuka Jr. vs Felino, Pólvora, Vangellys
6) Atlantis, Carístico, Soberano Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible

This not as interesting. Black Panther versus Hijo del Villano III should be an interesting test of where this V3 is at, and probably another hard loss for Panther. Atlantis should be used sparingly and in important roles. Random Tuesday night matches are not the use for him.

CMLL (TUE) 08/06/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Joker, Metatrón, Mr. Samurai vs Capitán Cobra, Gran Kenut, Maléfico
2) Magnum, Magnus, Príncipe Diamante vs Cholo, Furia Roja, Hijo del Signo
3) Marcela, Mystique, Sanely vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente vs La Bestia Del Ring, Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Niebla
5) Dragón Lee, Místico, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Maybe more set up to Mistico/Cavernario.

There are so few things going on that I’m leading off with a story on the CMLL Universal Femenil tournament. CMLL revealed the second group of 10 luchadoras involved on Informa, which included some new people. Missing were La Vaquerita (apparently has a family commitment – for both Fridays?), Estrellita (busy studying for her medical career) and Princesa Sugehit. She suffered a concussion on June 1st; two months out for a concussion seems rather serious.

Replacing them are Stephanie Vaquer, La Magnifica and Silueta. This will be the Arena Mexico debuts of the first two. Vaquer, originally from Chile, has most recently been seen on Nacion Lucha Libre shows and wrestles around Mexico City primarily. She’s the significant other of Ricky Marvin. La Magnifica made her CMLL debut back on April 1st as a fill-in luchadora back in April. I went over her long backstory back then. The shorter version is she has the pedigree to be a good part of a women’s division but hasn’t ever been on TV with anyone to know if there’s something there.

Silueta is back in CMLL just two weeks after announcing she was out of CMLL. On Informa, Silueta said Sofia Alonso personally contacted Silueta and invited her to participate in the tournament. Alonso is also quoted as telling the programming department that she wanted Silueta in CMLL, the first public mention of Sofia making that sort of claim. Both those conversations are interesting because of the Planchitas gossip about Silueta’s departure actually being because of the Guadalajara programming department blocking Silueta (and alledged to have demanded favors to start booking Silueta again.) We can’t be sure that Sofia took that story seriously enough to investigate and make some changes, but these actions seem to match up with something happening.

I felt like I was never as high on Silueta as others during her CMLL run as others seemed to be, but she was definitely more exciting than most of the younger tecnicas luchadoras. She also hasn’t suffered two years of losing every trios match to Dalys while she’s been gone. Silueta mentioned Sofia wants to support women’s wrestling and not running off everyone under 35 who shows a bit of talent would be a good way to start. It also might just be a start; CMLL doesn’t usually book 20 different women, so it’s possible this is one appearance and out for the three new people.

(It does say something about Zeuxis that isn’t back for this. I don’t know her and don’t talk to her so this is all a guess, but the way she’s taken matches in the last year suggests to me she’s treating wrestling as an occasional second career and has largely moved on.)

I really have no idea who’s announcing TripleMania in English. Konnan hints around that Vampiro is being replaced by someone else on his podcast but doesn’t use names and it definitely comes up unsettled. Vampiro was asked earlier and said he and Matt Striker are 100% doing the show. It seems like in flux. Vampiro shouldn’t be an announcing a four-hour show and probably shouldn’t be announcing any length of show.

Konnan also mentions the first three matches will air in the first hour and the rest will air on TV Azteca. That means those are probably under a slightly tighter time restriction. One of the other many things I don’t know is if the first three matches are the actual first three matches we know. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions a Llave a la Gloria match taking place. No names are mentioned. AAA originally said there would be one of those, didn’t mention it during the card rollout and haven’t said anything else. I have no idea if it’d air on the main card or the hour pre-show they’ve scheduled for Twitch. Lots of things could be fixed in a single Tweet but those are apparently expensive.

Ovaciones mentions the entire show will repeat on Space the next day at 10 AM.

The AAA pilgrimage took place today. There are some good photos though no real news. They got a lot of fans showing up, which they always do. I would not have remembered Tiger Boy if he were not wearing a polo shirt with “Tiger Boy” on it, so those were a good idea.

Cain Velasquez will host a TripleMania after party at Pinche Gringo BBQ Warehouse. That’s the same location as the Lucha Central shows.

Dr. Wagner is still saying he’ll retire if he loses his mask hair. He’s going to have to no-show so many dates if that’s the case.

Caristico was officially announced in the NJPW Super J Cup last night. He was previously featured on advertising for the show, along with Dragon Lee. There are about eight spots left to be revealed and any additional Mexican wrestlers would be a surprise at his point. The middle day of the tour falls on a ROH TV taping date, making it unlikely for Bandido to be part of it. There’s nothing that far out yet for the CMLL wrestlers.

PWG announced Rey Horus for their Battle of Los Angeles tournament.

Chavo Guerrero sent in a video for Nacion Lucha Libre, so he’s still around even if he’s not on the shows.

Morelia luchador Argho talks about trying to bring back lucha libre in the area. They’re running a show this Saturday in their old arena with Octagon and Microman, with the hope of running monthly thru the end of the year.

A Lucha Libre Ice Cream shop opened in Greensboro, North Carolina.

LuchaTalk has a new episode.

Lineups

Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 08/10/2019 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Eurus, Hijo De Furia, Kunai vs Adamantium, Blue Monster Jr., Rojo
2) ? & Demasiado vs Denebola & Lady Cat and Dinámico & Tiago
3) Marcela vs Lady Flammer
4) Fly Warrior vs Látigo, Imposible, Príncipe Aéreo, Freelance
5) Alas de Acero, Cobre, Iron Kid vs Demonio Infernal, Eterno, Lunatik Extreme and Fresero Jr., Fulgor I, Terremoto
6) Toxin vs Black Terry
7) Séptimo Dragón vs Audaz (CMLL), The Tiger, Último Maldito
8) Flamita vs Hechicero

This should be pretty good. Flamita/Hechicero is a first time match. A four way and a five way seems a bit much but they both should be good.