Mephisto fouled Angel de Oro after the two had traded fouls all match.
Thoughts:
Halcon Suriano Jr.
Místico needs an active and impressive rudo to push him to his best. Forastero is not that, at least not right now. This was a main event that went a while, went there slowly, and didn’t accomplish much. A problem with all these Forastero feuds is no one believes Forastero is going to win them or are all that interested in seeing him being in them. Maybe if he had a win over Rey Cometa or Guerrero Maya in a similar feud on the way up, there’d be a reason to care. Maybe not, though it’d at least be better than this.
Star Jr. had one really impressive looking dive. The new submission they’ve given him doesn’t come off as well. He might need something like that to distinguish himself from the other tecnicos but he’s slow at applying the hold and it doesn’t come off as impressive. Perverso came off as a guy with a weird name, who was fine enough but brought nothing special to this match.
The segunda lost me when Black Tiger was unable to take a tapatia. Also the first fall went nearly 9 minutes for some reason I can’t fathom. Halcon Suriano Jr. is so talented but doesn’t right for CMLL’s system at all; never has a man so clearly wanted the freedom to do his own things in a system that will not allow such things.
The Dia de Muertos shows have passed, the winter holiday shows are weeks off, so CMLL is in a space of not much happening right now. It is possible they could put together stories that might be interesting outside of themed shows. They have not chosen to do that tonight. Tonight’s Friday show is a regular card with some good names and no obvious meaning to it.
New tag team champions Caristico & Mistico team with returning Volador Jr. against NGD in the main event. It’s one of a number of matches that should be good if they’re interested in having a good match. Cavernario & Negro Casas teaming with Ultimo Guerrero facing Soberano, Titan, and Valiente fits the same way. Dulce Gardenia, Fugaz, and Star Jr. against Hijos del Infierno isn’t quite the same level but seems to think it is the same deal.
Audaz faces Hijo del Villano III in a lighting match of people on the verge of being complete luchadors but not quite there. Shoko Nakajima makes her debut teaming with Sanely & La Jarochita against Amapola, Dalys and Reyna Isis. There’s the slightest chance of a Dalys loss to set up a title match; Nakajima is only in for a couple of weeks so it’ll need to happen quickly. Magnus & Principe Diamante take on Coyote & Hijo del Signo in an opener unlikely to free from errors.
The show is back at airing at 8:30 and is back to airing on Marca, which means I’m back to streaming it.
Mistico & Caristico want to be booked just as a team while they’re champion, no more facing each other. Caristico went in on CMLL doing that on Informa, though Mistico is speaking of independent bookings in this interview. Indie programs seem to ignore the main promotion/TV feuds when it comes to putting together their own lineups, and it doesn’t even seem to be simply a CMLL issue. Indie promoters will follow those TV feuds only when they believe they’re especially hot, and maybe we’ll find out if they believe the Caristico & Mistico team has that level of interest.
At yesterday’s AAA press conference, Dorian Roldan mentioned La Parka is now out of intensive therapy and has some movement in his hands and legs. It’s a good sign in a slow progression. The next step probably is La Parka getting out of intermediate care and getting back to Mexico City, though there’s no indication of when that would be.
Dragon Lee mentioned he intends to keep using that name for now. He believes the name is his, and he believes it’ll take a long time to settle in court if CMLL wants to go that route. (Sofia Alonso is listed as the Mexico trademark owner.) Dragon Lee mentioned that the older wrestlers would always tell him that CMLL would kick him out the door when he got too old and no longer needed him but didn’t expect to be too old at 24. Dragon Lee says now it was the best thing that could’ve happened to happen, he didn’t realize how many opportunities were waiting for him.
Some people took to Twitter to dunk on the official CMLL Twitter account for never booking something like a Dragon Lee versus Kenny Omega match back when the promotion had (at least theoretical) access to both. People tag or quote the CMLL Twitter account all the time and the account gracefully ignores it. It also ignores the compliments, or the people asking questions. They’ve been a one-way account. Either the Dragon Lee bit struck a nerve or the person who was at the controls yesterday (and there appear to be multiple people) had a bad day and the CMLL account started blocking critical people for the first time. Be aware with your dunks going forward.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Fenix & Penta “reportedly” signed new deals with AAA, which would give AAA control of the Lucha Brothers bookings in Mexico only. There’s no mention of who is reporting it. This is mentioned as related to CMLL & The Crash, though Penta & Fenix work for a lot of indie promotions beyond them. The Lucha Brothers are still working a lot of indie bookings thru the end of this year and were announced for The Crash’s next show after I started writing this paragraph. The WON doesn’t make sense as presented, which often doesn’t mean it’s completely wrong but means there’s a piece we’re missing. Maybe they’re working out the existing shows any deal would take effect in 2020? It’s still hard to understand how Penta & Fenix would benefit from a promotion booking them out in Mexico, outside of maybe keeping track of their calendar better. Though that doesn’t seem like a strong skill set of AAA either. I don’t get it.
Thunder Rosa’s MMA debut in Combates Americas is tonight. They moved around the match order to make sure Sexy Star made it on TV when she had her debut. I assume they’ll do the same here. The TV broadcast starts at 11 pm CT, around the time CMLL is finishing up.
Pantera & Pantera Jr. are headed to Wrestle-1 for their 11/27 Korakuen Hall show to team with Hijo del Pantera. He’s the current Wrestle-1 Cruiserweight champion, having just defended against Masada. In that interview, Pantera Sr. is said to be retiring soon so this may be his last Japanese match. There was an underexplained Pantera retirement tribute match in Mexico recently, so that fits. Pantera Jr. has been wrestling under the name Kamikaze to this point. That name has popped up in IWRG during a FILL cibernetico with Pantera trainees earlier this year. There are not many lineups with him in Queretaro, but much like there’s not a lot of news about Wrestle 1, there’s not a lot of news about wrestling in Queretaro outside the big arena shows. (There’s one of those tonight.)
AAA , CAPITAL (WED) 11/13/2019 Pinche Gringo Barbecue, Miguel Hidalgo, Distrito Federal
women: La Hiedra vs Hades vs Lady Shani
men: Mr. Iguana, Hijo Del Vikingo, Carta Brava Jr., Súper Fly, Villano III Jr., Flamita, Taurus, Psycho Clown, Mamba
Will they keep Vikingo & Taurus away from each other? Will Hiedra have twenty photo requests and three marriage proposals on the way to the ring? So many questions.
Assuming everyone wrestles twice, that leaves 11/20 as
women: Big Mami, Vanilla, Lady Maravilla
men: Willie Mack, Bengala, Mocho Cota Jr., Pagano, Aerostar, Murder Clown, Nino Hamburguesa, Arez, Abismo Negro Jr.
Pentagon Jr. issued an open challenge for the tag team titles. Los Mercenarios beat him (and the other tecnicos) up after the main event, with Texano & Escorpion seemingly wanting that rematch.
Lady Maravilla attacked Big Mami after the match. Nino Hamburguesa made the save. He even attacked Lady Maravilla, though he was conflicted about it. Mami challenged Maravilla to a hair versus hair match. (Mami would later explain she didn’t want to force the public to see Maravilla’s ugly face by challenging for a mask.) Maravilla rejected the idea. Mami also wanted a rematch for the tag team titles, but told Hamburguesa he wouldn’t be her partner.
Laredo Boy (Freelance) and Drago Kid (Astrolux) were surprise wrestlers in the opener. Dinastia worked twice, replacing Maximo the second time.
Piero was wearing a personalized InvadingNY shirt, a show he didn’t end up getting to work.
Thoughts:
The main event didn’t vary from the usual form. They’ve just got better people doing it nowadays. Well, not all better people, Pagano did some Pagano stuff, but the rudos are really good and the other tecnicos are watchable. Near 20 minutes is a bit too long for this but it was entertaining while it happened.
Laredo Boy
The four-way was super. They went for everything here, a bit to their determent. They had trouble keeping up with their own setups. It stuck out early on, where it was clear what they were going for but also clear they didn’t have the timing to pull it off. There’s no reason to discourage the idea of innovation, but a little less of it might have made this match go a little better. Vikingo looked healthier than on Copa TripleMania, even if he ended up still needing medical attention at the end. He wasn’t coming up short as often, and he was fluid with what he was doing. Aramis & Arez being small dudes helped Taurus look like even more of a monster. Arez did well, though some of his spots may have worked better in a singles match where they had time to sink in rather than this fast-paced multi-man match. Aramis’ tope looked great and his big moves are slowly getting over to the AAA crowd. If AAA had a highlight package of spots to show at every show, the Vikingo moonsault off the guardrail should be on all of them. (But only as long as he doesn’t do another one for six months, and it doesn’t turn into the CMLL ramp dives.)
The fourth match didn’t stand out among wild matches. There was action and it was easy to watch, but it was a lot of these guys running their usual bits along with a couple of off moments. (There was a Puma/Abismo spot that didn’t go well. This and the trios preceding it were fun live and maybe nothing you need to see later.
The Mami led trios was enjoyable if not novel; the storyline progression was more interesting than the match. It held together well. The Bengala/Maldito bits were the same ones as always, were the more memorable part of it was Bengala taking out a fan in the process of his dive. Keyra/Dinastia were fine but there’s better stuff of them recently. This was a borderline match, though one helped a lot by the crowd.
Drago dive
The Poder del Norte match was fun in the usual fashion for them. The tecnicos got in a good run of offense before being mowed down by the rudos. Octagon Jr. looked better here than against designated opponent Abismo Negro Jr., which is strange. Mr. Iguana’s character fit better in AAA in this match than his debut. Poder del Norte seem to be an extended holding pattern; wish AAA had the foresight to give them the trios titles at TripleMania so both they and the belts would have something to do.
The minis match was all action, just lots of moves in a short period of time. Adding Laredo Boy & Drago Kid is amusing in isolation, but they and Demus give Dinastia so many good opponents to work with than he had before. The two Mini Parkas, Octagoncito and maybe Mascarita Dorada are out there too. This division seemed pretty much done a year ago and now there’s enough depth to have good matches on every show. Neither Drago nor Laredo did a whole bunch to hide their identities, the same as we’ve seen with all the new gimmicked people. That worked fine here, seeing a masked Freelance and a re-gimmicked Astrolux do the usual is fresh given how rarely they’ve been around. Demus seems significantly more motivated to than he was at the end of his CMLL run, and also seemed to catch all the dives.
