Month: December 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.

AAA Autoluchas episodes 4, 5, 6

thecubsfan 1 Comment

Episode 4

  • Chessman & Súper Fly beat Pagano & Psycho Clown
    (10/11 2nd, 14:14, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)

    • Chessman snuck in a foul on Pagano
  • the Maximo/Iguana vs Carta/Mocha from 10/04 3rd show
  • Laredo/Octagon from 10/04 3rd show

Psycho Clown has really grown out his hair during the pandemic. The light tower dives are a great example of those things that looks silly on TV but might be coming off better live. There’s a large stretch here that’s just a repeat of another Psycho Clown but, so much that’s the way. The finishing sequence with Chessman and Pagano was no good and a reminder their singles match could be a fiasco.

Episode 5

  • Murder Clown beat Abismo Negro Jr. and Octagón Jr.
    (10/10 1st, 8:34, good, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Carta Brava Jr. beat Mr. Iguana and Dave The Clown
    (10/04 2nd, 9:01, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • the Faby Apache/Hades match from the 10/04 3rd show
  • Texano Jr. beat Drago
    (10/11 2nd, 11:34, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Notes

  • AAA’s started to air promos during these shows, with individual wrestlers making random challenges (similar to the Stronghearts & Daga promos put on social media a month or so ago.) These challenges have a low success rate of going anywhere, but for the sake of keeping track:
    • Texano challenged Jinetes del Aire, Laredo Kid (for the megachampionship if should win it) and Murder Clown
    • Psycho Clown challenged Rey Escorpion, who hasn’t been otherwise seen or mentioned.*
    • Mr. Iguana suggested he and La Hiedra challenge for the mixed tag titles (this aired on the previous show too)
    • Pentagon Jr. challenged Averno

The main event started with a lot of time left in the file, but they handled it pretty well. Texano seems to be doing better in this structure or just is more motivated after a break. He found interesting ways to (literally) tie Drago down before the comeback. His run of wins would feel like they were going someplace in another setup.

There’s a lot of three ways on these shows and I tire of that setup quickly. The second one had a lot of chair play and didn’t feel like it meant much, though Dave the Clown successfully basing for Mr. Iguana is stunning. The first one effectively played off Murder Clown’s size, which proved to be too much for the smaller guys. Octagon had a great looking dive.

Episode 6

These are all from the early evening Dia del Muertos show (the one that didn’t stream)

  • La Hiedra & Lady Maravilla beat Faby Apache & Lady Shani
    (11/01 1st, 10:14, ok, luchalibreaaatv)
  • Parka Negra beat Carta Brava Jr., Dinastía
    (11/01 1st, 9:27, ok, luchalibreaaatv)
  • Murder Clown beat Chessman, Abismo Negro Jr.
    (11/01 1st, 7:44, good, luchalibreaaatv)
  • Laredo Boy & Laredo Kid beat Octagón Jr. & Octagoncito
    (11/01 1st, 10:50, great, Lucha Libre AAA)

Notes

  • Hiedra & Maravilla seem to be an official team, which was teased earlier this year
  • Poder del Norte again beat up the tecnico after their match

Maybe the strongest individual episode, at least for all news stuff. Octagons versus Laredo could’ve just worked for the novelty but they also tried to kill each other so that was cool too. It’s a pleasure to see Octagoncito back in the mix, it is too bad Laredo Kid tried to merge the two Octagons into one at the end of the match. They wrestled this was an urgency and pace that you’d expect out of these guys individually, but maybe no in a match on a drive-in show. The level of teamwork was unexpected, since these ‘partners’ really don’t get to work together that much, but they came off as natural duos. Laredo Boy was a little hesitant at times but by no mean a problem. Definitely a match to seek out among the Autoluchas batch.

The second three-way was the better of the two easily. Parka & Carta played out the rote script of two rudos working together and being shocked when both wanted to win the match. Chessman, Abismo, and Murder Clown were just guys going after each other the whole match. Abismo’s continued to put on good performances during this run of shows, and took advantage of facing bigger guys to fly a bit more than usual. Chessman seems in good form going into the TripleMania match.

The women’s match didn’t come through via execution of moves, but it’s still worth a look. The personality shown by the rudas was almost enough to make up for some atypical sloppiness. Maravilla has come so far in her character work; she did a great job of getting every bit out the spot where Copetes inadvertently saved her from a tapatia. Hiedra & Maravilla doing male effeminate embracing spots plays a little bit different as women. Their act could get over big with crowds once those exist again.

Moreno family anniversary lineup, unseen CMLL luchadors, Rush ROH title match

thecubsfan 4 Comments

Caristico, Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Felino, and Tiger will appear on CMLL Informa today. CMLL’s promotional image for 12/25 Copa Junior includes Atlantis Jr., Soberano, Negro Casas, Volador, and Caristico, so pencil them into the match. CMLL has tended to give few details about their shows this far out but if you think you’re probably going to buy this show, buy it early and save yourself a couple of dollars.

Back at the end of September, I wrote a lot of CMLL luchadors who had not appeared since the start of empty arena shows. Seems a good time to update it. (I haven’t gotten to the matches airing on NJPW World but will in the next few days. We don’t know anything about the CMLL show airing on Megacable, including if it is airing unique matches.) This is a smaller list. Same categories as last time:

  • midcarders: Fuego, Mascara 2000
  • minis:  Fantasy, Pequeno Nitro, Pequeno Universo 2000, Shockercito
  • micros:  Zacarias el Perico
  • women: Avispa Dorada
  • prelims: Apocalipsis, Principe Odin Jr. (Artillero), Halcon Suriano Jr. (Stukita)
  • pending debuts/returns: Astral, Gemelo Diablos, Mascara 2000 Jr.

Halcon Suriano and Mascara 2000 are likely actually independent guys on informal deals and so aren’t a high priority to get bookings right now. Artillero, under that name, is listed on an indie show. Everyone assumed he’d leave when Super Comando did, and maybe we just guessed too soon. Avispa Dorada appeared in a video CMLL’s “wear a facemask” campaign; she’s in CMLL but not in Mexico.

Fuego may have given up. CMLL doesn’t book a lot of minis matches but it does stand out that their minis champion hasn’t been around. Apocalipsis is a guy who few notice even when he’s around, so it may not be worth his time to come back. Zacarias is a head-scratcher; the current health situation is surely less safe for people of his size but it hasn’t stopped CMLL from using the rest of the micros. (They are specifically not using seconds, which is why we haven’t seen KeMonito.) CMLL probably just introduced new people just to have something to talk about on CMLL Informa with no grand urgency on using them.

CMLL sent out a Tweet supporting famous Mistico/wrestling fan (and soccer player) Raul Jimenez, who suffered a fractured skull in a game collision. It’s nice they did that. It seems nicer than the format press releases they sed to handle their own wrestlers getting COVID but opinions may differ.

Laredo Kid versus ACH in their Opera Cup airs on MLW today. The show airs on YouTube at 6pm CT as well as on TV. I’d be more surprised if Laredo Kid won in MLW today than if he beat Kenny Omega at TripleMania; he has lost all four of his previous MLW matches.

I don’t assume AEW will mention the Omega/Laredo TripleMania match tonight. Their whole show is built around a different Omega title match, they probably shouldn’t distract from that point. It’ll be a miss if it doesn’t come up by next week though not entirely unexpected.

ROH officially announced Brody King versus Rush for the ROH Championship will take place on their 12/19 Final Battle PPV. All the ROH titles will be defended on that show; ROH’s set up a program for the tag team titles but not an obvious one yet for Dragon Lee’s TV championship or Mexisquad’s Trios championship.

They might not do it until late, if at all. I’m not sure if ROH will air an episode from their next set of tapings – taping around a week or so – before Final Battle airs. That also means that even if that’s the final taping for wrestlers with expiring contracts (Mexicans or otherwise), Final Battle might not be their final match; ROH is likely taping a lot of TV for after the PPV too and those wrestlers may continue to appear deep into January 2021.

An el Sol de Leon article about Bobby Lee tells a story that should’ve been obvious to me: his green and silver outfit was in tribute to the local soccer team. Bobby Lee was such a fan that once, after he was retired, he offered to be a vendor at one of their games when he couldn’t get a ticket. He didn’t actually sell any items, he just snuck to his usual seat and watched the game.

Fly Star is coming back out of retirement (again) as the super luchador in Lucha Libre Boom’s multiman apuesta match. There’s been a lot of useless Spanish language articles about Pirata Morgan explaining match outcomes are fixed – something every single person writing the article knows to be true but desperately wants to write about how a luchador says it is false anyway – and how terrible it is for wrestling. Fly Star retiring and then unretiring for a potential payday shows lucha libre as fake more than any Pirata Morgan speech. If this was a real combat sport, no one would be trusting Fly Star to actually come back and come back in a decent state of mind. There are twelve people in the match so Fly Star’s probably not losing and he’s probably wrestling plenty of times in 2021.

GALLI has Aeroboy vs Arez vs Gringo Loco vs Gino Medina on Sunday. I think that’s streaming online for free. Arez is apparently in the US for the next stretch, which would be exciting news if not for the national health emergency that has pretty much ended indie wrestling.

Speaking of, Lucha Memes says they’re running the US on January 22. This is probably part of the previously announced tie-up with Martinez Entertainment. An international promotion running in the US in the middle of a national medical emergency is just checking off a box to say they did it. It isn’t really accomplishing much for US promotions and will do less for a foreign one.

Aerostar & Drago are among the working a show in Texas (near Dallas) on 12/12, so they’re definitely out for TripleMania. There was a fair chance they were meant to have a mask match at TripleMania at one point.

The most recent Vanguardia show, which was originally announced as Mas Lucha Premium show, is now a donation-based show streaming Sunday night.

Arena Guatemala Mexico says they’re re-opening for a limited audience show on Christmas. That’s a weekly venue that hasn’t run since March. COVID cases in Guatemala seem relatively stable.

Mas Lucha has a new episode of the their En+carados videocast.

A new Vampiro interview has been added to the Highspots Wrestling Network. I heard it’s entertaining.

Lineups

Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 12/05/2020 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Guerrero Olímpico & Karma I vs Chris Stone Jr. & Furor
2) Puma de Oro vs Torito Negro
3) Apolo Estrada Jr. vs Black Terry
4) Atomic Star, Fulgor I, Ovett vs Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal, Rock Power
5) Toxin vs Baby Extreme
6) Centvrión & Fuerza Guerrera NG vs Hijo Del Espectro Jr. & The Mummy and Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr.

Another one of those MexaWrestling shows where some of the matches look like maybe they could be good but nothing is for certain and there’s no obvious direction. The one notable change is MexaWrestling says they’re limiting tickets to 200 people. They’ve seemed to have much more than that in recent shows in this building.

IWRG (SUN) 12/06/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Ovaciones]
1) Baby Star & Mexica vs Dick Angelo 3G & Sobredosis
2) Baby Xtreme vs Puma de Oro [IWRG IC Light]
3) Toxin © vs The Tiger [IWRG MEXICO]
4) Jessy Ventura & Pasion Cristal vs Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. [IWRG IC TAG, final]
5) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo Del Espectro Jr. vs Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Puma King
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Capo Mayor [hair]

This is the annual 58th anniversary of Moreno promotions. Adolfo Moreno ran wrestling shows in Mexico State for many years before Arena Naucalpan or IWRG was even a name. They’ll also be honoring Gran Hamada on the show. This is a Mas Lucha Premium show. They’ve been consistent on keeping the more well-known bloggers from putting up their version of subscribers-only shows (more effective than I would’ve guess), but there are always alternatives.

The main event is a rematch of the mask match from TripleMania XX, where the former Mascara 2000 Jr. served as a big guy with a mask who’d lose it. (He appeared on no other TripleMania.) Wagner was the heavy favorite back in 2012 and may be an even bigger favorite in 2020. They needed a lot of smoke and mirrors to make that match good eight years ago and will likely do the same again.

Ventura & Cristal seem like the favorite to get the tag team title shot based on the run of victories. Toxin and the Tiger are repeating the same program Toxin with Puma de Oro. Toxin won that time. Baby Xtreme seems the slight favorite in the tournament final.

AAA Autoluchas episodes 1, 2, 3

thecubsfan

I don’t expect to have a lot to say about these matches, but one show a week makes this more palatable to watch everything than the three shows CMLL is running. The AAA luchadors are generally working hard than the CMLL ones in addition to having a better roster. There’s no storyline, which is normally a drag though also slightly better than what CMLL is doing. I’m still going to do these in batches so there’s some length to these.

Stats/results are for the unaired matches only.

Episode 1

  • Laredo Kid beat Drago © for the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship
    (10/03 1st show, 12:11, good, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Murder Clown & Octagón Jr. beat Abismo Negro Jr. & Dave The Clown
    (10/03 2nd, 12:30, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Faby Apache beat Hades
    (10/03 2nd, 6:29, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Carta Brava Jr. & Tito Santana beat Dinastía & Myzteziz Jr.
    (10/03 3rd, 8:17, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)

Notes

  • Myzteziz’s shooting star press to the floor splits the rudos in the main event, and that’s where he picks up an injury. He finishes the match but misses the next day’s shows. Mocho Cota ran in after the match with Mr. Iguana making the save; there are plenty of Iguana/Poder del Norte matches to come
  • I’m not entirely sure if this is the Faby Apache/Hades match from the 2nd show or the third.

The Drago/Laredo Kid match was a little bit less than the Octagon/Laredo Kid. That match the next day was more spectacular, though this had a good story of Drago continually taking advantage of Laredo Kid mistakes. It never got close enough to where Drago felt like he could win (and given how these two have been positioned, it should feel like Drago could win.) Of all the guys who were just working one show a night, Laredo Kid was doing the craziest stuff.

The rest was fine matches. Faby Apache & Hades didn’t go a long time but made the most of it as usual. Faby wasn’t great at basing for Hades’ headscissors but did destroy Hades on a powerbomb. It must have been a long weekend for the young ruda, Faby seemed to be putting her through the wringer. (I suspect these were meant to be Shani/Apache matches and I wonder how those would’ve gone.) There seemed to be editing issues with Murder/Octagon versus Abismo/Dave, with them cutting away right after the finish. The camera switching was overwhelming during that match. The main event was going well until Myzteziz got hurt, and it’s was still enough to show they could have a very strong match if given the opportunity.

Episode 2

  • Myzteziz Jr. & Octagón Jr. beat Dave The Clown & La Parka Negra
    (10/03 1st, 4:10, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Pentagón Jr. beat Texano Jr.
    (10/03 2nd, 11:28, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa beat Abismo Negro Jr. & Mamba
    (10/03 3rd, 6:08, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Drago & Psycho Clown beat Chessman & Súper Fly
    (10/03 3rd, 13:42, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

The main event was nothing more than usual AAA main event style (in 2v2 form instead of 3v3), but the formula generally worked well. The brawl on the outside was the weakest section. Chessman teasing Psycho throwing into multiple cars and holding up (because he’d clearly been told not to do that) looked awkward and they were just meandering early on. The action picked up back in the ring, with the Drago boost headscissors to start the comeback being timed very well. Super Fly’s salida de bandera was excellent, looking like he clocked his head on the apron unless you really slow it down. Super Fly took a table bump too (and it broke!) so he was doing a lot for an Autoluchas show.

The Pentagon/Texano match is much longer than the time; Penta’s entrance alone last longer than the opener. Penta spent the first half of the match just selling and it felt too slow to me. That one had a lot of playing to the live crowd that didn’t work well on video. Cutting to a camera showing Texano’s shoulder not even close to being down on the finish was no bueno.

The other two matches weren’t offensive but not much notable. Abismo and Mamba didn’t play to the tecnicos strengths. The opener was one of the shortest AAA TV match you’ll ever see.

Episode 3

  • Hades & Mamba beat Big Mami & Faby Apache
    (10/03 1st, 9:07, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Myzteziz Jr. beat La Parka Negra
    (10/03 2nd, 9:07, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Mr. Iguana beat Mocho Cota Jr.
    (10/03 3rd, 8:30, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)
  • Texano Jr. beat Octagón Jr. and Laredo Kid
    (10/03 3rd, 7:03, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Notes

  • Poder del Norte ran in after Cota’s loss, with Myzteziz and Dinastia running them off.
  • The rope finish set up a Mamba/Faby challenge which seems to have gone nowhere.

The main event was just enough to get one match over the line. The three-way portions made sense, with Laredo and Octagon competing enough for the win to justify working against each other at points. This had Lots of impressive power spots for Texano, making him feel like a bigger deal than usual before the win. Laredo Kid probably should be winning all the way to Omega but I guess at least he didn’t take the pin and Texnao winning is a decent idea.

The opener turned into a lot of the usual Faby/Tirantes stuff. Fewer matches this year has made some repeated bits feel fresher. Not Faby Apache & Hijo del Tirantes though. Myzteziz was up and down in his match with Parka Negra, messing up a 450 splash before a perfect picture shooting star press for the finish. (What a world where those are done back to back in a midcard match.) Parka Negra is good but would better with a few less unserious pins. Iguana/Cota was solid.