Park/Rush remains almost on but not on, NXT UK & CMLL in The Crash, Picudo

CMLL (FRI) 08/03/2018 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Lucha Central, Marca (Casas), Marca (Rush), Ovaciones, SuperLuchas, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) El Audaz & Fuego b Templario & Virus 
12:54. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther Jr., Niebla Roja b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto 
14:31. Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Carístico, Hijo de LA Park, Mistico b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón 
14:31. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Negro Casas b Fuerza Guerrera, Octagón, Solar I  
Negro Casas 40th Anniversary match. He was given a plaque by Sofia Alonso and joined by Dalys, his daughters, and their children. his team took falls 2/3 in 11:25.
5) Volador Jr. b Matt Taven © [NWA WELTER] 
16:39. Volador took falls 2/3, Taven falls in his first defense. Rush attacked Volador after the match, and Taven when he tried to get involved. Taven and Volador ran Rush off, Taven turning tecnico in the process.
6) King Phoenix, LA Park, Penta El Zero M b Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, Rush 
19:35. Debuts of the Briscoes in CMLL. They and Rush attacked LA Park before the match. Team Park took 2/3, but the last only by DQ when Rush repeatedly landed the corner dropkick but refused to hold down Park for three, then unmasked him and fouled the referee. Both Park & Rush declared they wanted their mask/hair match at the Anniversario show and for it to have no rules, but it was not confirmed as happening.

CMLL post match interviews: LA Park, Lucha Brothers, Rush, Volador Jr., Blue Panther, and Solar & Fuerza Guerrera.

CMLL also posted the Negro Casas tribute in its own video, notable mentioning the rights to the music.

Media interviews: Volador Jr. (Box Y Lucha), Volador (Box Y Lucha), Rush (Box Y Lucha), Negro Casas (The Gladiatores), Fuerza Guerrera & Solar (The Gladiatores)

This was a very strong show, with 3 & 6 worth watching, and 5 as long as you’re cool with the Volador formula. It was easily the most attended show of the year – a sell-out or something pretty close to it. IT was a crowd that was loudly into the show, especially the main event.

CMLL holds contract signing when they officially have a match. There was no contract last night. CMLL led people to believe Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero were going to have a mask match one year, ran La Sombra & Volador Jr. instead, listened to a night of Fraude chants, and still sold out the building next year. They learned that worked, and they learned they can do it again. There was no other main event suggested outside Rush/LA Park last night, but they were very careful to say it wasn’t locked in. LA Park is as hot a star as he’s been in a while, and the MLW deal shows he can get booked in places that weren’t available to him even a year ago. Both AAA & CMLL will drop what they’re planning and give Park his mask match next year or the year after if he decides to do it then; it’s just a gamble of how long his body holds up.

The most optimistic view is CMLL can’t or won’t announce the match until after TripleMania is over, because they don’t trust AAA and maybe don’t totally trust LA Park either. (AAA could outbid CMLL for the mask if they wanted to, but it wouldn’t be the soundest financial decision they could make.) Maybe LA Park & Rush are going right up the line but not over it because they’re just not allowed. The pessimistic viewpoint is that if you trust wrestling promotions to do what they’re hinting they’re going to do, you’re going to be disappointed a lot. I have no inside information on this and the people who usually have inside information seem to have been wrong a lot about this.

LA Park is in Veracruz next Friday for AAA’s taping in Veracruz. He’s got nothing yet announced for 08/17.

The Crash (FRI) 08/03/2018 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [126f, Zona Ruda]
1) Cósmico, Graven, X-Peria b Star Boy, Viento, Zarco
Viento replaced Bufalo Ayala. Money thrown in.
2) Titán (CMLL) b Rey Horus
Very good match. Horuz and Titan talked about a rematch in September.
3) Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos b El Bandido & Flamita and Soberano Jr. & Stuka Jr. 
Good match. Brookes pinned Stuka Jr. with a cradle and a trunks pull.
4) El Mesías b Terrible 
Garza was announced off the show earlier that morning (injury), so this was changed to Mesias vs Terrible (and Fatu wasn’t there?) The singles match didn’t last long, with Terrible being hurt on an early dive. Mr. 450, who had taunted Mesias before the match to build up a Puerto Rico vs Puerto Rico match, came out to brawl with Mesias to take up some of the time.
5) Bestia 666 & Mr. 450 b Trent Seven & Tyler Bate 
good match, money thrown in
6) Pete Dunne b Daga, Dragón Lee (CMLL) 
good match. Daga took Dragon Lee’s mask after the match.

The big outside names and the good matches were outweighed by moving from Saturday to Friday. This wasn’t the filled building, closer to 2/3rds full. Running Friday was the only way The Crash could get the Progress/NXT UK names, and The Crash seems more interested in having surprising match ups than business, so I would guess they’re probably fine with how it turned out. They streamed the top three on Facebook with no warning, though I suspect better views will turn up on YouTube this weekend.

Next show is 09/08 (Saturday). They teased Lucha Brothers vs Caristico/Volador, which suggests Penta & Fenix won’t be working the Cancun?/Merida AAA TV tapings that weekend. Cuatrero, Sanson, Hechicero were also announced, and Titan/Horuz seems like it’s happening again.

If you watch the 2003-2005 AAA shows on their Twitch channel long enough, you’re eventually going to see a match with a bunch of run-ins and interferences and maybe even dueling promotions. It seemed to happen in just about every episode when I was cataloging them. In the middle of it, inevitably, will be a wildly dressed man blowing fire as a big spot. That man was Picudo, who passed away yesterday due to complications from diabetes. He was 51, and had appeared last in AAA as part of the Copa TripleMania. Picudo was a young luchador, wrestling different names in small promotions in 1992 who got his big break when AAA started. He was one of the original members of the promotion, an undercard rudo doing a sort of British punk gimmick. Picudo wasn’t especially pushed, but he was good and good enough to be used as Perro Aguayo Jr.’s first major rival. Aguayo took Picudo’s mask just four months into his own career.

Picudo got a more prominent role after the AAA/WCW/Promo Azecta split happened. He formed Los Vatos Locos, essentially a KISS tribute band as a wrestling group with Charly Manson, Nygma, and May Flowers. Espiritu, Silver Cat, and short-lived characters Slam & Super Kiss were part of the group later on. AAA increasingly focused on big characters in the post-1998 period. Luchadors dressing up like a rock band with makeup fit in, were pretty popular and frequently fought for the Mexican Atomicos (4v4) Tags. The group was phased out from a regular TV role in the mid 2000s; like most rock bands, they’d just run their course as an act and were moved down to smaller venues. Picudo made a surprising, if concealed, return to AAA in 2012 as Devil Rocker, one of the masked Infierno Rockers. The Rockers were a midcard trios match at time when AAA wasn’t doing a lot with midcard trios, but they were having good matches when matched up with the right opponents.

After AAA stopped using the Rockers, Picudo continued to use the Devil Rocker character with new people under the Machine Rocker & Soul Rocker characters. This was a strange situation because AAA was threatening lawsuits over people using “Fenix” and “Pentagon Jr.” names elsewhere, but appeared not to have the same issues with the Rocker characters. The difference was Picudo is part of the Pena family, a cousin of both Antonio & Marisela. Picudo passed away on his birthday, which was also Joaquin Roldan’s birthday. I can’t imagine how rough a day it is for that family.

SuperLuchas has an obitruary of Picudo.

Today’s an apocalyptic day of indie shows in Mexico State. There’s a lot of great looking matches, though there’s a lot of people also booked for two shows which are running at about the same time. Bandido’s booked for three, and he might not be the only one who works three. With the need to get to one place to another more important than the need to have four star matches, it’s likely a few of these matches are going to disappoint. There’s so much that there should be good stuff still, but these matches may change as people are a little late making it one place to another.

None of these are announced as streaming; at best, it’ll be THe Crash situation where surprise streamed on Facebook from a weird angle. All of them will probably be bootlegged.

• Mexa Wrestling celebrates it’s first anniversary with former Kriminal Boyz parnters Toxin and Fly Star having a mask versus mask match. The two have been feuding off and on for the last couple years (interrupted by promotors trying to put the team back together), and have been heavily fighting the last few months. They’re going to destroy each other. Toxin is the slight favorite. The Mexa Wrestling show is loaded without it: MexaBlood taking on Eterno & Steve Pain, Fenix vs Titan, and Tiger vs Metaleon highlight the card. I think I would want to see this whole show if I had gone to Mexico today.
• That would be a problem, because most of the people I would hang out with in Mexico want to go to the Pura Raza show instead, or at least after a few of the Mexa matches take place. Both shows have high end matches, but the Pura Raza draw is the place to see the Ring of Honor wrestlers in big matches. Christopher Daniels faces Hechicero for the NWA Light Heavyweight Championship, and Hermanos Briscoes taken on Rey Cometa & Volador. The Dragon Lee, Mistico versus Titan & Triton vs Mexa Blood vs Audaz & Templario four-way may be insane.
• Arena Lopez Mateos’ Klandestino brand would be the hottest show on most weekends: LA Park & Wagner vs Rush  & Terrible, and a four way with Dragon Lee, Laredo Kid, Bandido and Daga.
• Arena Neza follows last night’s Arena Mexico with LA Park vs Rush vs Dr. Wagner. As sure as the sun will rise, Dr. Wagner will tease the idea of going to CMLL to challenge both of these men. Caristico and Penta get to have their singles match here as well.
• Vamper Wrestling has Atlantis & Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera & Ultimo Guerrero
• Mistico is working for Tinieblas’ FULL promotion. Those two face Euforia * Pirata Morgan.
• When all these shows heavy on CMLL talent were announced, I assumed that meant CMLL wasn’t running Arena Coliseo. That is wrong: Atlantis, Diamante Azul and Valiente take on Felino, Mr. Niebla and Rey Bucanero. Atlantis is double booked, but a lot of the rest of the card are people who didn’t get on those indie shows.

By comparison, Sunday is pretty calm. Daniels makes has his one CMLL match. (Klan) Kaoz runs in Monterrey. They’re more a real promotion than Elite is right now. IWRG has two title matches and a team main event.

At the AAA/Panini press conference this past week, Dorian Roldan said TripleMania lineup will be announced in a “couple” of days. That fits with Konnan saying it would be announced Monday. AAA’s held a press conference for that announcement in past years.

The Pachuca lucha libre commission proposed in November still hasn’t been passed into law, which is causing conflicts with the Hidalgo lucha libre commission.

+LuchaTV has an interview with Amapola about her mask loss, now 10 years ago.

An interview with Sinaloa’s Astro Boy.

Segunda Caida writes about the Hijo del Santo & Eddie Guerrero vs Blue Panther & Negro Casas match from 1987 Juarez that turned up on YouTube recently.

Baja Stars USA 08/18 Extreme Tiger & Rey Horus vs Sanson & Cuatrero main event is now Tiger vs Horuz vs Daga vs Barbaro Cavernario after the NGD guys were pulled off the show.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 08/10/2018 Arena México
1) Oro Jr. & Star Jr. vs Akuma & Espanto Jr.
2) La Jarochita, Marcela, Mystique vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
3) Flyer, Soberano Jr., Titán vs Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas
4) Valiente vs Hechicero [lightning]
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Mistico vs Euforia, Penta El Zero M, Último Guerrero
6) King Phoenix, Matt Taven, Volador Jr. vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]

Taven still around, until who knows when. Things that would make people upset: a Rush/Volador feud or a Rush/Taven feud. Tercera is a really good match for a tercera.