CMLL (FRI) 05/13/2016 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Eléctrico & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
14:17. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Estrellita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
13:32. Tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Bobby Z, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora b Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Titán
16:45. Rudos took 1/3.
4) Stuka Jr. b Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
6:53. Misterioso replaced Cavernario on Monday and was back to his normal gear. Stuka won with the torpedo splash.
5) Mistico, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Sky Team took 2/3, in VOlador’s last Friday night before the BOSJ.
6) Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible b La Máscara, Pierroth, Rush
TGR, who worked as tecnicos in this match, took it in straight falls. La Mascara suddenly decided he was liked Shocker and would not fight him (after having no problem for the last two years.) Rush & Pierroth attacked Mascara after the match, and he’s now out of the Ingobernables, who may be done as a group. Shocker made the save.
This was a frustrating night. It came off as if CMLL had put pleasing it’s luchadors by going with their pet projects over anything that might be the slightest bit entertaining for the fans. Maybe it’s right that the Ingobernables are done, because the group has never recovered from Sombra leaving town, but the replacement ideas are far less appealing. The Guapos concept, last over in 2004, appears to be getting yet another shot with Shocker & La Mascara teaming up. Pierroth, despite not being over or particularly skilled, moves from one main event group to another. The inescapable conclusion is this happening simply to keep Rush happy and to dissuade him from looking elsewhere, coming off the Super Parka run which seemed to be happening for the same reasons. CMLL’s reputation for nepotism usually centers on sons of luchadors getting spots but, in practice, it’s the older wrestlers getting favored with top spots they wouldn’t even be considered for if not for their sons.
Post match interviews pushed the Rush/Pierroth faction as both still the Ingobernables but also a family group. That may mean Dragon Lee or Mistico is sucked into this. Neither of their styles really fit, but it doesn’t seem like that’s much of a concern.
This was a promotion taking a very hard turn in the wrong direction, with only limited upside. (Add La Mascara/Rush to the Anniversary possibilities, which would finally give Rush his mask win.) It’d be easier to take if there was anything good to balance it out, but there was nothing else going on this show. The Guerreros/Sky Team felt a replay from seeing the same matches in Puebla, but it still a really good match. The Blue Panther trios was good too, but this was generally a depressing show I’d like to not to think much about.
Last night’s ELITE TV show was odd; they didn’t air Caristico/UG and didn’t announce a next show. We got the explanation afterwards: Elite’s next show will be 05/21 Saturday. CMLL also announced Sabado Retros are indefinitely canceled, so it appears Elite’s move to Saturdays is not just a one off. No one’s confirmed that as a permanent move, but that seems to be what they’re setting up. This past Wednesday’s show will be stretched over two weeks, and everything but the minis opener and the seeding battle will end up airing. This was not announced ahead of time, but maybe they knew since they had those extra tournament matches planned.
It’s unclear what those tournament matches actually mean, though. A handbill promoting the 05/21 show has a Middleweight cibernetico with people in the match who didn’t qualify, along with the four people who won on Wednesday. It also has a royal rumble for an Elite Heavyweight Championship. That has been advertised as the prize for the Liga Elite tournament, and it definitely suggests that competition has been canceled. Again, no one’s officially said anything about the tournament, or anything useful at all. (The field also lists Diamante Azul as returning.)
A day switch and a sudden end to the tournament always seemed like a possibility – I wrote about it even a day before! – because the shows haven’t been doing what you’d expect for the matches they’re giving away. There might have also been internal pressure to get away from those matches. A switch to Saturday would be the third different day for the ELITE show. It’s very possible the Wednesday day was hurting their draw, but they weren’t doing super business on Sundays either. Taping on Saturdays would mean it’ll be six days before the shows air on TV, unless they make the Sunday airings the first run broadcast.
Canceling Sabado Retros means CMLL is no longer running events at Arena Coliseo. CMLL specifically says they’ll announce a return date at some point, they’re not ceasing shows there forever and boxing events will likely still take place, but it is a venue that’s been in continual use for lucha libre since 1934 and there’s no next known show. It’s too bad they can’t find a way to make the venue viable for indie promotions to keep shows going on. There’s not a lot of good venues in Mexico City for indie shows. (The Arena Coliseo neighborhood is said not be totally safe, but the other locations are not much better.) I know some other promotions have tried to rent the building in recent years, but I guess it hasn’t worked out – Elite’s the only who’s pulled it off.
(There’s also the DragonMania show scheduled for 05/28 in the same building, though that tends to be a noon show. Maybe they’ll run two shows on one day? Maybe that means the Elite move is just one week? Maybe Elite is going to just run every two weeks? Maybe these are all simple questions the promotion won’t be answering?)
AAA tapes tonight in Orizaba. The main event is the much talked about Pagano/Psycho Clown singles match. It’s probably going to have an inconclusive finish with the Perros interfering, since it doesn’t seem likely AAA is going to want either guy to lose. The most noteworthy match is the three way between Hijo del Pirata, Ricky Marvin and Nicho for the last spot on one of the Lucha World Cup teams. I’m thinking Marvin is likely to win, since he’s a natural opponent for the Japanese teams.
There’s also a tag team title match (where Chessman & Averno figure to keep the titles again) and the debut of a mystery person (assumed to be Hernandez returning to the promotion), but the card overall is one of the weaker TV lineups AAA’s presented in a while. For reasons unexplained, there’s both an AAA taping and a LU taping on this day, meaning a lot of people who might be on this show are in Los Angeles instead. We hit the disorganization point a lot, but this show is as clear evidence of it as anything. This double booking really shouldn’t have happened this way.
AAA’s TV this today will have the previous tag title match, the Texano/Garza/Taurus qualifier, and the La Parka/Mesias singles match. The show isn’t up yet; they’re now not putting it online until it’s aired on TV (which does make some sense.) Besides the matches, it’ll be worth checking to see if AAA’s announced a new taping for later this month, or they’re just going quiet for three weeks until the Lucha World Cup.
As mentioned, Lucha Underground tapes today and tomorrow in Los Angeles. It’s the last tapings of the month, but not the last tapings of the season. They’ll be back sometime in June.
+LuchaTV talked to Dorian Roldan at the Lucha World Cup press conference, about AAA rumors and the Cup itself. LuchaWorld’s news update includes a recap of that interview and a couple of others from that press conference. The biggest news note is Dorian claims CMLL said they’d participate in the World Cup at one point, then backed out.
It sounds like AAA is still planning on going after Electroshock & Cibernetico in the courts, aren’t happy with Myzteziz but won’t be doing that with him, and Dorian has only nice things to say about Alberto, Flamita and Mini Charly Manson. Dorian explained Konnan as just an incident of a person leaving the company with hard feelings and thanked him for his work in AAA. The story they’re going with on Sexy Star is she’s still an AAA employee and Dorian and Sexy just haven’t had the chance to talk about what happened since February. (Someone needs to get those very busy people some time together, maybe at one of the many LU tapings they’re both at.)
Dorian noted the bad reception to last year’s TripleMania, saying it didn’t turn out like they’d hope, but felt it meant it was time for the older stars needed to make room for the younger wrestlers. (It’s a great sentiment but one AAA’s not seriously implemented.)
(Dorian also calls TripleMania a financial success. They put a lot of people in Arena Ciudad de Mexico and there’s no doubt they made money on the show itself, but they also wrecked their chances of potential revenue from the United States and Canada with a terrible first impression. They made money on the day, but they lost a fair bit of future earnings in the process.)
It’s worth reading the whole thing. There’s an amusing line about Park & Wagner.
The Victoria rep at the show said the rest of the field will be announced this week. Not sure why they couldn’t just say this at the press conference.
Konnan’s second podcast is available on dropbox. It’s a nice gesture that saves someone from having to rip it from YouTube, but it is still not something I can subscribe to on a RSS feed or via a phone app and so still very much not a podcast, and I’ve decided I’m not going to bother with this silliness until they can get up to the standards of a 12 year old with access to a free WordPress account (or anyone who can google “how can I make a podcast”.) This – and stuff like the guessing games about when AAA might be bothered to announce all the participants of their tournament, or ELITE not even bothering to say there’s no event next Wednesday or any of the other things that are annoying me right now – is like so much of lucha libre where the people in charge can’t even be bothered to go half way, not even a quarter of the way, maybe an eighth of the way if you’re lucky, and they expect the people following them to do the work they can’t be bothered to do or be patient until they feel like explaining what’s supposed to go on. Most people can just fine one of the million other things as good or better things to spend their time on, and do so instead. You need to make it easy for people to care about you, but the default seems to make it as frustrating as possible.
ANYWAY, Alfredo listened to the podcast and there’s lots of notes on his Twitter account right now which will probably end up in the next Lucha Report. The key thing is Konnan did get Pentagon Jr. on, a surprise to me since I’d think AAA would have cut everyone off from Konnan. Maybe AAA’s disorganization worked in Konnan’s favor finally.
Lucha Memes has it’s Ciudad de Mexico versus Monterrey show tomorrow in Coacalco, with Hechicero versus Virus as the main event and Caifan versus Dr. Cerbero on the card as well. Kronosport interviews Princesa Maya, who’s making her debut in the arena with a match against Marcela. She’s a LLF regular in Monterrey, and explains she got the opportunity thru a recommendation from her maestro: Caifan.
RobViper has highlights of 10/09/15 AAA.
Toro Negro Jr. talks about his mask match at next week’s Cara Lucha anniversary show..
Elfego Silva is the new president of the Morelos Box Y Lucha commission, something which had been pushed for by luchadoors.
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