Day: December 4, 2020

Copa Jr., Tiger becomes Felino Jr. , ROH/Final Battle/Dragon Lee

thecubsfan

On CMLL Informa, Tiger and Felino announced Tiger would begin wrestling as Felino Jr. This was teased in their post-match promo last Friday, but the ideas had been floated many times through the years so it didn’t stand out as foreshadowing. Tiger will be using Felino orange/black look, which he’s generally done in recent years.

This is a nice honor for Tiger but it is hard to believe this will mean anything for his career long term. Everyone’s known he’s the son of Felino for years. This is a good refresh point if Felino Jr. springboards to winning Copa Junior and onto big achievements, but past CMLL has led me to believe this will be a more cosmetic change like Artillero to Principe Odin Jr.

Meanwhile, Puma King has a new video where he places the blame on the Felino outfit issue on his alternate personality Gato Supremo. OK.

CMLL announced two matches for the 12/25 show

There’s probably room for two or three matches, though unlikely anything important given recent offerings. If you are at all interested in this show, you have until Saturday to order at the cheapest price.

CMLL pushed the junior aspect of this show in their media interviews. Stuka Jr. did an interview with Stuka Sr. (who is actually his older brother as far as we know), Star Jr. did his with his father Star Boy, and Mephisto with Astro Rey. This might be leading to the first Atlantis appearance in a few months. Don’t think we’re going to be seeing Mistico’s father; they should just have Fray Tormenta show up for him and Caristico.

Mexican wrestlers related matches on 12/19 Final Battle

Mexisquad won the trios titles back in January, That match was great, but they haven’t had a chance to defend the titles since. It’d be deflating if they lose them here but it’s possible. Josh Woods is the strongest pushed wrestler of the four to get a title shot against Dragon Lee. Tony Deppen was the most popular pick on Twitter reaction. (Again, as noted on Wednesday, this might not be the last date for anyone even if their contracts are done in December because ROH will also be taping many weeks of shows for after this PPV at the same time.)

Planeta Wrestling had a video interview with Dragon Lee on Wednesday. He’s asked if he’s considering going to AEW or WWE in the new year. Dragon Lee doesn’t give a direct answer but talks about how much he likes everyone at Ring of Honor and that there will be a big announcement soon. It came off like he’s staying there. Rush teasing the addition of a new Faccion Ingobernable member fits with that; they’re not going to be adding more people if half the group is about to leave. ROH may hold off making any contract announcements until after Final Battle to play with the intrigue and it may be a couple of weeks before we hear anything definitive.

Dragon Lee’s NJPW/BOSJ situation didn’t come up.

The last visible obstacle for TripleMania has been lifted; Mexico City announced they’d be staying in Orange health condition for the following week, which includes the 12/12 TripleMania day. Mexico City is said to again be very close to switching to the more restrictive Red conditions, but any change would now start no sooner than 12/14. It’s 2020 so nothing feels like a sure thing, but it would be a surprise if TripleMania didn’t happen as scheduled.

Sports Illustrated has an interview with Laredo Kid. It focuses mostly on his TripleMania match with Kenny Omega, but I’d presume it was something set up by MLW. Laredo Kid’s opening round match Opera Cup match with ACH aired on MLW TV this week; Laredo lost, as he has in every MLW match he’s wrestled. Konnan works for MLW and likely has some influence on how AAA wrestlers are used, so maybe he could’ve persuaded MLW not to use Laredo Kid that way if he’s about to be AAA champion. But, it’s also only MLW, a promotion most of the people who watch AAA are unaware of, and Konnan generally seems to lean towards losses in one place don’t affect you elsewhere. I still think it’s a bit of a tell about how AAA perceives Laredo Kid going into that title match. The match with ACH was good and the match with Omega will be great, but he’s their guy who gets moved around a card to have great matches, not the guy the card is built around.

On Keepin’ it 100, Konnan mentioned TripleMania will have a screen (or screens) behind the ring to help the presentation. He also talked about a yet-to-air vignette to explain one of the matches. The concept (which will come out in a video) is LA Park was going to team with Bestia del Ring & Rush at TripleMania, but they’re busy with ROH. LA Park asks to pick one of the replacements, which Konnan allows as long as he can pick the other one. LA Park picks his son, Konnan picks Blue Demon, LA Park is left unhappy. Way back in March, AAA started a Blue Demon versus Ingobernables issue that we haven’t seen much of since.

It’s a light weekend for shows. I wonder if indie promotions also heard AAA was planning on running TripleMania on 12/05 and cleared off the date, only for AAA to move to a week later.

MexaWrestling was planning on running Saturday in Arena San Juan, but this show has now been canceled. An expo lucha scheduled for Arena Azteca Budokan on 12/13 is canceled. Lucha libre in Neza may be done for the year. Dr. Landru reports this cancelation was at the request of just Neza officials and also Mexico State officials. That would place other Mexico State promotions, most notably IWRG, in danger of being canceled. All these shows exist depending on the willingness of local authorities, but that’s never been more present than now.

Mas Lucha posted their schedule for through next Tuesday, which I hope is a new regular thing. They’ll be streaming two Vanguardia shows this weekend, including a first-air of a show on Sunday for donations. Vanguardia’s next show is 12/27 in Hidalgo, and it’ll air on local TV.

KAOZ announced they’ve signed Dulce Kanela, Baby Love, Charro Negro, and Komander to exclusive deals. Komander’s deal made his hometown paper. This may have been a bit for show, because at least Baby Star and maybe others were already under contract. This is more a booking deal than anything, where other promotions have to go through KAOZ to use these wrestlers on their shows. It’s unclear how this sort of deal benefits the luchadors, though the prestige of signing a contract is sometimes enough to satisfy younger wrestlers. KAOZ has stated plans of growing into a full-fledged wrestling promotion but it’s a long road there.

El Catedrático (Arturo García, 83) passed away on Thursday. Catedratico is Matematico’s brother and wore a similar mask. His mask had letters instead of numbers. Catedratico did not have the success of his brother, but wrestled frequently around the Mexico City area most notable in the 80s. Matematico II, the son of the original and the nephew of Catedratico, passed away in June.

 

KeMonito started a YouTube channel.

Pagano was named second place in Juarez sports athlete of the year voting.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.