Last week was one of the less notable Friday night CMLL show of the year. This Friday’s show should be a bit more interesting and maybe a bit better in the ring.
The CMLL Universal Femenil tournament kicking off is the big focus on tonight’s show. CMLL’s taken false steps at creating annual women’s tournaments previously. None of have stuck, but CMLL is in a brand new era. These ten women matches appear to be ciberneticos (there are too many other matches on the show for a 1v1 tournament.) That format seems like a good match to the talent involved, who can get in, do the couple of things they’re best at, and get right out. Marcela is the easy favorite out of the group, with Amapola & Metalica as long shots. This will be La Infernal’s first match in CMLL in 20 years. It’s not the longest gap between matches – Octagon’s was longer – but it’s a rare feat.
The main event has NGD versus Carsitico, Volador and Mistico. The tecnicos asked for a title match last week and will likely get it next week if they can get a win here. Whatever is going on with Ciber the Main man & Ultimo Guerrero continues in the semi-main. Rush, Terrible, Mr. Niebla and Cavernario are involved this time. It is mildly interesting that CMLL is so high on Ciber and clearly not as much on The Chris and Scharly Rockstar given how the rest of the CL4N has rarely been involved. Maybe they can handle only so many of them in one match.
Dragon Lee and Gran Guerrero meet for the first time ever in Arena Mexico in the lightning match. Gran Guerrero is coming off a strong performance on Tuesday night. The micros are back, with Microman, Atomo, and Gallito teaming against Chamuel, Guapito, and Periko Zacarias. They’ve struggled of late outside of Microman & Chamuel exchanges, but this is a chance to do better. Espanto Jr. & Akuma are scheduled to face Oro Jr. & Super Astro, though the rudos have been dealing with injuries of late.
The show starts at the traditional time of 8:30 pm CT. It’ll stream on Marca and on their YouTube channel. I’ll stream it as well.
CMLL posted a preview of the CMLL Universal Femenil. Marcela won’t get a shot at world title if she wins (Marcela fighting herself would be a challenge.) They still say the winner will bring out the Mexico Flag for the Gran Prix, which is going to be odd if the winner is Dalys, Avispa Dorada or Stephanie Vaquer. The winner of this tournament will defend the title next year.
This week’s WON mentions Sofia Alonso will be meeting with Ring of Honor officials in late August about working more together between the two promotions. With NJPW pulling back from working ROH shows in the US, there’s an opening for more CMLL spots, but it’s just as important for those CMLL wrestlers to come off as stars the same way the NJPW guys did. I hope Ian, Colt, and Caprice get to pitch doing the Aniversario show in English to Sofia because that’s a necessary first step in that goal.
Dragon Rojo mentioned he’ll be back as a CMLL guest commentator this week. Dragon Rojo hasn’t been seen around CMLL since suffering his latest leg injury in January, though he’s remained active on social media and is rehabbing for a return.
On a Hugo Savinovich Facebook Live video from the AAA pilgrimage, Konnan revealed the yet-to-be-announced preshow match will be Astrolux, Dragon Bane, and Arkangel Divino vs Aramis, Toxin, and Arez at the 4:50 match. AAA had previously said there would be no matches on the pre-show. (Thanks to GypsyMorris) That should be a great match. It probably shouldn’t be a social media treasure hunt to find out who’s wrestling in what matches on this show and who’s announcing this show, but that’s just the way AAA is.
Keyra was at the pilgrimage as well. She’d been hinting things weren’t going well her injury recovery on Instagram, but I didn’t see anyone noticing any signs of a problem on Thursday. Also Mini Histeria still exists.
The AAA wrestlers were also showing off copies of the new AAA Panini sticker album, which will likely go on sale at TripleMania.
Killer Kross posted on Twitter that he was very interested in seeing how Cain Velasquez does tomorrow. That almost, but not quite, makes it sound like he’s not going to be the mystery guy. It’s delightfully either way.
Big news: Psycho Clown is headed to Orlando to wrestle! For an indie against Carlito, not something else. Meanwhile, the WON this week had the same story as here, believing Hijo del Fantasma is starting with NXT in September.
Photos from a lucha libre show in San Salvador, which we don’t usually see many lineups from normally.
Puma King’s latest video is on his trips to Los Angeles and Acapulco.
Rob is on PostWrestling talking about TripleMania and other lucha news.
Lineups
CMLL (MON) 08/05/2019 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, King Jaguar, Millenium vs Centella Roja, Espíritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana
2) Fuego, Stigma, Tritón vs Misterioso, Okumura, Tiger
3) Eléctrico © vs Virus [MEX LIGHT]
fifth defense, first in 21 months.
4) Ángel de Oro, El Audaz, Niebla Roja vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Vangellys
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Valiente vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible
6) Volador Jr. © vs Dragón Lee [NWA WELTER]
third defense
That’s about as interesting as a Puebla show is going to get. Virus’ match with Metalico was a good reminder that every big Virus match is absolutely worth watching. The main event is a first time ever match with the only question of what effort we’ll see on Monday night. Dragon Lee’s talked a lot about wanting to face different opponents, and this is his big chance.
CMLL (TUE) 08/06/2019 Arena México
1) Arkalis & Robin vs El Coyote & Grako
2) Star Black, Star Jr., Súper Astro Jr. vs Cancerbero, Difunto, Raziel
3) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Olímpico, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Black Panther vs Hijo del Villano III [lightning]
5) El Audaz, Kráneo, Stuka Jr. vs Felino, Pólvora, Vangellys
6) Atlantis, Carístico, Soberano Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
This not as interesting. Black Panther versus Hijo del Villano III should be an interesting test of where this V3 is at, and probably another hard loss for Panther. Atlantis should be used sparingly and in important roles. Random Tuesday night matches are not the use for him.
CMLL (TUE) 08/06/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Joker, Metatrón, Mr. Samurai vs Capitán Cobra, Gran Kenut, Maléfico
2) Magnum, Magnus, Príncipe Diamante vs Cholo, Furia Roja, Hijo del Signo
3) Marcela, Mystique, Sanely vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente vs La Bestia Del Ring, Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Niebla
5) Dragón Lee, Místico, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
Maybe more set up to Mistico/Cavernario.
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Who’s totally hyped for worked shoot announcer drama!
I’ll admit I’m a total mark for AAA, but was that just me or was that an impressively solid show for AAA. There wasn’t as much super insane deathmatch stuff as last year but main still bled like all hell, and a bunch of generally good stuff.
I feel like between Sofia clearly stepping CMLL’s game up and AEW looming to eat talent there’s some sincerity in that stuff about AAA viewing AEW as a rival.
And only LA Park could be a surprise in a show he had already appeared on in a video package.