Volador/Casas best match in CMLL, AAA invades NY tomorrow

CMLL (FRI) 09/13/2019 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Lucha Central, Marca, Ovaciones, R de Rudo, thecubsfan]
1) Robin & Súper Astro Jr. b Espanto Jr. & Grako 
14:43. Tecnicos took 2/3. Grako replaced Akuma
2) Dulce Gardenia, Esfinge, Fuego b Disturbio, Misterioso, Tiger 
13:38. Tecnicos took 1/3. Misterioso replaced Sagrado
3) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Niebla Roja b Dark Magic, Ephesto, Luciferno 
12:49. Tecnicos took 1/3. La Besita del Ring was added to the card on Monday and moved into this match on Tuesday to replace Mephisto, but Dark Magic ended up in the spot.
4) Carístico, Dragón Lee, Titán b Cuatrero, Forastero, Mephisto 
16:50. Tecicos took 1/3. Mephisto was moved up to replace Sanson on Tuesday.
5) Volador Jr. b Negro Casas [lightning] 
9:05. Volador wrestled as the rudo and snuck in a foul to beat Negro Casas.
6) Cavernario, Ciber the Main Man, Diamante Azul b Gilbert el Boricua, Sansón, Último Guerrero 
10:53. UG & Gilbert cost each other the first two falls, which turned out to be the only two falls. Challenges all around. Sanson replaced Big Daddy on Monday.

CMLL Promos: Volador Jr., Ciber, and Gilbert.

Pressroom interviews: Cibernetico (Box Y Lucha), Atlantis & Chavez Brothers (Box Y Lucha), Volador Jr. (Box Y Lucha)

Casas/Volador is the only thing worth your time on this show. I think, ultimately, this upcoming main event is a cage match because CMLL thought they had to pay off Ciber & UG in some fashion and that putting Negro Casas in an Aniversario match was not strong enough. The reaction to Negro Casas tonight was immensely stronger than to anything else on the card. The UG/Ciber/Gilbert feuding made sense but got a quiet reaction. I don’t know if that means fans would really spend Aniversario level prices to another Volador/Casas hair match – it was a low turnout for a Friday night – but the reaction felt like CMLL would’ve been better with that way.

Leo Riano’s weekly column includes a defense of the CMLL programming department and praise of AAA running on the Holu (sic) Theatre, so you can tell he’s really put the work in once again. The idea is the programming department isn’t to blame for the cage match because Ultimo Guerrero and Ciber couldn’t agree on a satisfactory result. (In other ones, neither one wanted to lose for what CMLL was offering.) It seems to me that’s probably something the programming department could figure out before they started building that and then built a different or better match. It also seems to me that no one really wanted to see Ciber and UG in the first place so they shouldn’t have needed to ask.

Ciber and Sharlie Rockstar are apparently booked for the 09/29 Sunday CMLL card. They were scheduled to headline a DTU show on that day. DTU announced they had a CMLL conflict and their show would now take place on 09/22. (Refunds were offered.) The wrestler better known as Charly Manson hasn’t appeared in CMLL since June, his only appearance this year.

Ring of Honor mentioned Ultimo Guerrero will be back in the promotion “on a couple shows late in the year.” That may mean he’s on the Final Battle PPV (12/13) and the TV taping which follows in December.

AAA’s Invading NY is on Sunday. It’s listed as a 5 pm CT start. They do have to hit a time mark because they’re on conventional PPV, but Hugo indicated in an interview that they may actually get going around 5:15. If you are in Mexico, you can see it free on Space live and on Azteca later this week. If you are elsewhere, you can purchase it on conventional PPV and FITE for $30 in Spanish and English. (The FITE page seems to indicate you’ll be able to switch between languages no matter which one you buy. They’ll have VOD as well.) I guess if you’re in parts of South America you can both watch the show on Space and buy it on FITE if you feel like being silly.

I wrote a preview for Voices of Wrestling that should be going up later. The shorter version is AAA needed either strong promotion or a strong card to get people to pay $30 for shows when they’re used to paying $0. They’ve had bad promotion, and they have an ok-good card. There’s a lot of rematches and there’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before in bigger moments. I’m skeptical these shows would still exist if not for Cain Velasquez doing well on TripleMania, agreeing to work this show and Los Angeles, and the hope that UFC fans might cross over to AAA for one evening to check them out. The only reason AAA fans can’t miss it is to see an AAA show outside of Mexico, and the people who would be most compelled to buy for that reason are probably the Mexican fans who are getting it for free anyway. AAA will get to count this show as happening and hope that people forget as many details about it later as they have going in.

We still do not know the opening matches on this card. I think we probably won’t find them out until Sunday. The luchadors themselves seem to have no idea and would like people to stop asking them, judging from an Aerostar Instagram post. He, Drago, Lady Shani and Daga seem to be in New York or headed there, so they’ll be involved somehow. The inescapable conclusion is AAA hasn’t announced the rest of the card because they aren’t sure what the rest of the card will be. It could be they haven’t reached an agreement with Impact on them or are uncharacteristically cautious about advertising matches that’ll be changed (due to factors they can’t totally control, like people making it in to the US.) It’s not great, but so much of this is not great.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show.

Blue Demon & Dr. Wagner visited the United Nations. They’re surely doing promotional work for the show today.

Impact announced Dr. Wagner and two partners to be named would take on the Rascalz on their 10/20 Bound for Glory show in Chicago. When the WON originally mentioned AAA involvement on this show, it was Wagner in a singles match and a separate trio match. Not sure if that just means one AAA match now or if someone else got the singles match.

B-Boy says he’s debuting for AAA next month. You may remember his brief stint in Lucha Underground as Bael, and he’s been a well respected southern California based indie guy for a while. Debuting for AAA could mean anything from working a TV taping, or wrestling on the EMW Tijuana shows, or being part of the AAA Invading LA show. Or all of those things.

AAA is sponsoring an eSports team. It looks like they’re just sponsoring a couple of people playing Street Fighter V at a tournament this weekend, but it’s an interesting way to get their name out with a different audience. AAA’s current style, especially in the undercard, seems much more like a fighting game and there’s the natural crossover on Twitch.

Tonight appears to be the final new episode of Nacion Lucha Libre; they air three matches a week, and there’s only three matches left to air from their most recent taping. Their next taping was scheduled to happen tonight in Puebla; they never got as far as advertising it. There’s no public word about any future show or the future of the promotion. There’s been a lot of private chatter that the promotion was done after the last Ecatepec taping, but nothing official. Promotions rarely announce they’re closing their doors these days. Nacion’s going to end up in the same bucket as Lucha Libre Elite, AroLucha, Lucha Underground and others, where the name is occasionally still kept alive in case they find a new money source, but they’re not going to run additional shows without them.

Monday is Mexico’s Independence Day. A lot of promotions are running this long holiday weekend, though a lot are running Monday instead of Saturday/Sunday. Notable shows.

Saturday

• Mexa Wrestling is back in Arena San Juan with a Bandido vs Emperador Azteca vs Mr. Iguana vs Arez main event.
• Diamante Azul vs Negro Casas headlines Arena Coliseo.

Sunday

• There’s the AAA show, of course.
• Lucha Time in Monterrey has Bandido vs Dragon Lee vs Hijo del Espectro. This should eventually turn up on the La Esquina YouTube channel.
• MDA has Hijo de Octagon & Xtreme Tiger vs Bestia 666 & Rey Horus running opposite in Monterrey.
• Diamante Azul vs Ultimo Guerrero headlines Arena Mexico.
• Super X runs the first show in Mexico City’s Merkado Hamburgo, with Imposible vs Audaz vs Juventud Guerrera.

Monday

• Arena Naucalpan features Dragon Bane vs Toxin in the main event, along with Aramis, Imposible, and Relampago against Cerebro Negro, Fly Warrior and Hijo de Canis Lupus in the semimain. An odd 3:45 start time for this.
• Arena Puebla also has an unusual, 6 pm, start time. Caristico, Mistico and Terrible take on Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, and Soberano Jr.
• The AAA wrestlers make it back Arena Neza Monday night, with Fenix, Penta and Psycho Clown take on the LA Park family.
• Arena Lopez Mateos is headlined by a Penta vs LA Park vs Rush match. This show has the earlier start time than Neza, so luchadors will be traveling from one to another.
• Guadalajara’s Muchas Luchas promotion has a four year Anniversary show with Hijo del Bucanero Jr. vs Super Brazo Jr. in a mask vs mask match. Bandido teams with Draego against Aero Xtreme & Rey Horus. It’s rare to get more than clips from Guadalajara indie shows but maybe this one will turn up.

ESTO has a follow up on Shocker, disputing the original story. People close to him say he’s not in rehab, just waiting to get surgery. The story says Shocker will be posting a YouTube video on Sunday to explain the situation. Planchitas has been shaky. It does stand to reason that if Shocker was completely fine, he probably wouldn’t have disappeared from all of his social media at once.

10/05 The Crash in Auditorio de Tijuana

• LA Park, Bestia 666, Mecha Wolf vs Fatu, Josef Samael, Simon Gotch
• Rey Horus (c) vs Hammerstone [The Crash HEAVY]
• Dragon Lee, Barbaro Cavernario, Soberano vs Teddy Hart, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Brian Pillman Jr.
  • not to air on MLW
• Oraculo vs Minoru Tanaka
• Damian 666 & Jimmy Havoc vs Mance Warner & Savio Vega – new
• Triple Amenaza (Star Boy, Arandu, Zarco) vs Los Haraganes (Animal, Demencia, Silver Star) – new

The Crash is known for having some eclectic lineups. A show with the team of Mance Wagner & Savio Vega is way up there.

MJF’s been advertised for this show so there might be at least one more match. This does feel a lot more like a The Crash formatted card than an MLW one (no squashes, mostly tag matches), so it should get over well with the Tijuana crowd. I’m interested in seeing in how it ends up on TV, and how much of it ends up on TV. It’d be neat if the Triple Amenaza and Los Haraganes match made MLW TV. They’ve been killing it (and killing each other) here this year, but it’s also six guys few know outside of this area. I myself need to look up the names in each group to make sure I have them right every time they come up, so I’d imagine it’d be a challenge to call a match with them if you haven’t seen them before.