Ultimo Guerrero remains heavyweight champ, Angel de Oro wins Leyenda de Azul

CMLL (FRI) 11/27/2020 Arena México [CMLL, CMLL, Furia de Titanes, Marca, R de Rudo, SuperLuchas (Heavy), SuperLuchas (Leyenda de Azul), thecubsfan]
1) Princesa Sugehit b Reyna Isis
15:27. Sugehit took 1/3.
2) Felino & Tiger b Black Panther & Blue Panther
16:56. Felinos took 2/3, Tiger getting both the win over Blue Panther and a high amount of praise from his father.
3) Ángel de Oro b Diamante Azul, Sansón, Terrible, Forastero, Niebla Roja, Valiente, Cuatrero, Kráneo, Blue Panther Jr., Rey Bucanero, Vangellys, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr., Cancerbero, Ephesto [Leyenda de Azul]
No seeding battle royal, instead tecnicos versus rudos. Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja and Terrible worked together despite being on opposite sides. Eliminations: Ephesto (by Diamante Azul, 9:18), Kraneo (Terrible, 12:45), Blue Panther Jr. (Sanson, 16:08), Vangellys (Stuka, 18:45), Rey Bucanero (Valiente, 20:01), Guerrero Maya Jr. (Cancerbero, 22:36), Stuka (Forastero, 26:34), Valiente (Cuatrero, 26:34; pinned at same time as Stuka), Forastero (Diamante Azul, 29:54), Niebla Roja (Sanson, 32:23), Cuatrero (Angel de Oro, 33:41), Sanson (Angel De Oro, 36:20), Terrible (Diamante Azul, 38:20), Diamante Azul (Angel de Oro, 40:00; after a Niebla Roja distraction and a Terrible foul.)
4) Último Guerrero © b Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]
27:02. Euforia won fall 1 in 10:03 with a wristlock. Ultimo Guerrero submitted Euforia to Pulpo Guerrero in 3:47 for the second fall. Euforia & Guerrero kicked out of each other’s finishes in the third fall, with UG kicking out and surprise cradling Euforia to win in 13:22. 8th defense. Euforia and Ultimo Guerrero shook hands after the match, but were interrupted by a trios title challenge by NGD. Guerrero accepted.

It’s been a month off from PPVs and I have not been watching a lot of other CMLL in the meantime, so this was a hard reminder about how difficult it is to watch empty arena CMLL matches. Princesa Sugehit was very loud in the opener, which makes sense but also illustrated how quiet the building it was. It’s hard to main interest in a forty-minute match in these circumstances. It’s also hard to figure how having people around the ring making noise is unsafe but having sixteen wrestlers (plus three referees) in a match is safe. The stated reason for all these 1v1 and 2v2 matches is safety, but it’s more transparently a cost issue if they can run ciberneticos.

Even the main event was strong – around the good/great line, and felt like it’d easily be great with a crowd reacting to it. Euforia was as hard as you’d expect in his one chance to do a main event singles match and they got tons of time to work with. It inevitably turned into an Ultimo Guerrero match: they checked off his near fall moves in order, Euforia went for the moonsault for no reason, Ultimo Guerrero survived his opponents finish to immediately defeat him. It was still the best of Euforia, who will never have the star quality to be pushed as a top guy but always makes top matches better.

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja have been rudos (still booked on tecnico side, but cheating like rudos) for a month now and the announcers are still surprised every time it happens. The group with Terrible are called Terriblemente Chavez, which is too wordy to stick. They worked together in the cibernetico despite being on opposite sides, facing off against NGD and later Diamante Azul. NGD are getting the trios title match, so maybe these guys will face Azul on the next show.

Tiger pinned Blue Panther in the deciding pin. Felino played it up as a huge achievement and then did a promo saying Tiger was the only one allowed to wear his colors. That seemed like a shot at Puma King.

The CMLL PPV chat room seemed significantly busier than the October shows. Interest and discussion on Twitter was minimal.

CMLL announced a 12/25 Christmas Day show at an early 5 pm start time. The show will include Copa Junior VIP, another irregularly held tournament. The NGD/Guerrero trios title match will likely be the main event. It’s likely 12/25 is the only PPV for the month, just like this show. Every show in October included part of a tournament, so this will be the seven straight PPV with a tournament match. The best I can figure is CMLL believes these tournaments are a draw and feel they can not build up matches in their current state, despite having a national TV show and all the time on YouTube they want.

Alberto el Patron accuser apologizes

Alberto Rodriguez (Alberto el Patron)’s ex-girlfriend posted a message last night on Instagram apologizing to Alberto’s family for damages caused by her errors. The last name she’s apologizing to is incorrect, but the belief is she’s retracting her claims which led to Alberto indicted in October for sexual assault and kidnapping. Both Alberto’s brother (Hijo de Dos Caras) and his sister also took to Instagram to denounce the accuser, painting this as a case of a celebrity being dragged through the mud by a greedy person. “People close to Alberto” told Mas Lucha they expect the charges will be dropped and the case closed before the end of the year. We don’t know why the accuser is considered greedy in what was a criminal case, or her reasons or circumstances of her apology. We don’t know if the charges will actually be dropped; this is a criminal case, so it’s up to the district attorney and not an Instagram post. Alberto will soon be doing an interview with Hugo Savonvich.

I guess it’s mandatory to neutrally look at this from a business perspective. It is also hard to do so, because there’s no great fit in normal conditions and the pandemic makes it harder. CMLL’s never going to pay what Alberto wants, AAA and Alberto have disagreed on pay in the past. (And AAA currently has Kenny Omega, who weirdly fits Alberto’s spot as international world champion.) Alberto has seemingly planted rumors of a WWE return in the past; WWE shot those down hard last time they came up and it’d be a hard sell while they still employ Paige (she’s accused him of abuse, he claims he has proof it was her) but it can never totally be ruled out. I can’t imagine AEW would bring him in (more because he’d demand a top position they wouldn’t necessarily want to give him before any moral issue.) Alberto burned his bridge with Impact years ago. I don’t know that ROH or MLW have the budget for him or would be interested if they did. The most likely outcome is getting his MMA job back (if he indeed ever lost it), sporadic indie bookings, and hoping to find someone new to build a promotion around him. There’s also the part where Alberto hasn’t been a good wrestler for years. Nacion Lucha Libre was a failure leaving wrestlers and others unpaid for their work, and the shows with Alberto on them didn’t draw. Alberto is famous but he’s long past being a meaningful star; people are about to morally compromise themselves for a guy who can’t even help them now.

Let’s talk about the compromise: I wouldn’t trust this guy in my wrestling promotion, around my family, or with fifty feet of me. There’s a pattern of behavior and subsequent denials that should be impossible to ignore – it’s not just one thing or two things, there have been so many Alberto incidents over the last ten years where he comes off as a terrible person. He gets away with it because he’s a big wrestling star, and that weirdly matters a lot to a small group of enablers who are willing to pretend to be oblivious about the obvious. People are going to align themselves publicly with Alberto, he’s probably going to mess up someone else’s life due to his own issues, and those people around him will pretend to be surprised until they repeat the cycle again.

Wrestling is rarely a moral or ethical business. I’m sure we’ll see Alberto in the ring in 2021. I am rooting for it to be the WWE so I never have to think about him.

Other News

LuchaWorld has a great Bobby Lee obituary.

Shows in Neza this weekend may be off. The event scheduled for Arena Azteca Budokan was canceled as part of the town cracking down on public events. Lucha Strong has a show scheduled for Arena San Juan, where two shows have been announced and then moved/canceled in the last month. No one’s successfully run there since Principe Aereo passed away; that may have wakened the local officials up more about the number of people in attendance rather than specifically Aereo’s passing.

Space’s schedule lists TripleMania as a four-hour show, with a Chessman/Pagano special prior. I expect that will go long and the Omega/Laredo match will as well, but I think they can squeeze more than 7 matches in a four-hour window.

I’m skipping the previews, since shows are probably happening by the time you read this.  Tom Mix is scheduled to be honored tonight in Arena Lopez Mateos; his son talked about his career.

CMLL edited out Texano and Maximo from their 2008 Leyenda de Azul video, so they’re just taking out anyone who is on AAA. Not sure if CMLL will upload past Copa Juniors like they have with Leyenda de Azul, but the past winner’s list shows we can expect them to skip 2004 (Wagner runner up), 2010 (Averno runner up), 2014 VIP (Maximo winner), and 2016 (Puma runner up).

The IWRG Tag Tournament final will take place on their 12/06 Anniversary show, so I guess the tag team title match is later in the month.

Mexico State (ex-IWRG) luchador Heavy Boy is looking to raise funds to pay for surgery to remove a tumor from his kidney. Heavy Boy says he had COVID-19 earlier this year, survived with diminished lung capacity, and they found the tumor during that process. The public endocrinologist who was evaluating him for surgery ended up dying from COVID before Heavy Boy could be treated, and now he’s in a long medical limbo. The money he’s raising is in hopes to get the operation done through a private hospital instead.

A profile of Mexico State’s Super Dragons (not related to the PWG one.)

An interview with Reynosa’s La Pantera (not related to all the other ones.)