CMLL #197

From way back on 12/31/05. This was the cage match and bad Groon match show. Nothing really wrong with either (crowd turned on Groon before he did it.) The story of the show was the great Averno/Sangre/Mephisto trio which really needs to be a permenant team. According to my records, they’ve only teamed once since, in a trios match in Aficion. Figures.

And this means I’m done with 2005 – only took me 4 months into 2006. [shrug]

the full queue

GdR
04/15 #21
04/22 #22

GALA
01/14 #199 (07/01/05 mex)<-- next! 02/04 #203 (07/29/05) 02/12 #204 (08/05/05) 02/19 #206 (08/19/05) 03/04 #213 (10/07/05) 03/18 #215 (10/21/05) 04/08 best of AAA '05 04/15 #218 (11/11/05) 04/22 #219 (11/18/05) 04/29 #221 (12/02/05) and this doesn't include the ten or so episodes from the last year which haven't made GALA and I haven't gotten to. This is why I'm kinda silent when it comes to lists at the moment; I'm too far behind to be relevant. I think my clock is off an hour? I guess I should look into it, but it makes me look a little faster.

04/30 news: Accion

I wonder why there’s an Argentina flag on the belt?

Not much news today; Ovaciones is all in preview mode for today’s shows. I don’t expect much news happened on the Kid’s Day show, but the Atlantis/Wagner and mask match in Guadalajara should produce some news, as should the AAA Taping.

This Saturday on Gala, they skipped a week to the Halloween/Universo hair match.

Accion highlights:
CMLL: Double hair match. Rey did a tope con giro over a ref, Aguila did a corkscrew plancha to the floor, Rey took a superbomb to the floor. In the finish, Damian tried to sneak back in and cane Rey, but got Aguila. He threw the stick to Rey, who didn’t catch, but then realized Tarzan had the refs looking the wrong way and hit Aguila with it one more time. This is quite the AAA finish. For those scoring at home, Damian and Rey wrestled the match in t-shirts, and Tarzan was wearing one in most of the clips we saw. Damain buzzed off Aguila’s hair.
AAA: La Parka, Octagon, Intocable vs Cibernetico, Chessman, Charly Mason, from Plaza de Toros Cuautla, Morelos. We see dives, including the skeletal view of an Octaogn dive on Charly. Zorro get sinvolved and beats Charly Manson many times with the cane, so that’s a DQ.

More news tommorow.

CMLL #188, #191, #195, #217; CMLL GdR #20, #23

Anyone miss the recaps? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Right.

Televisa/Gala
#188 09/17/05 – storyline noteworthy but no really good matches
#191 09/25/05 – missable
#195 12/17/05 – like everyone else said, Groon wasn’t as bad. I think it’s because they just kept it to what he could do well.
#217 04/01/06 – women’s trios match was fine, cibernetico was okay

CMLL GdR
#20 04/08/06 – Flecha vs Stuka was GOOD.
#23 04/29/06 – Hiroka and Marcela lived up to my expecations, which weren’t big

in the queue (I’ll bump this post up if I get ’em done tonight.)
CMLL GdR #21
CMLL GdR #22
CMLL Gala 12/31/05

04/29 news: Mexico results, Dragonmania

CMLL (FRI) 04/28 Arena Mexico Results
1) Bam Bam, Mini Fantasy, Tzuki b Fire, Mini Violencia, Sombrita
2) Hijo de Pierroth, Ohara, Okumura b Metro, Pantera, Texano Jr.
3) Black Warrior, Hombre Sin Nombre, Pierroth b Felino, Maximo, Ultimo Dragon
4) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Heavy Metal b Atlantis, Averno, Mepshito
5) Ultimo Guerrero b Hector Garza [CMLL LH]
6) Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy b Damián 666, Mr. Águila [hair]

That wasn’t the outcome I was expecting – a Guerrero sweep is the outcome I least expected of all. Ovaciones is down on both main events: “both combats left much to be desired and sometimes they were boring and semislow.”

In the hair match, the Perros took fall one, the Guerreros took fall two, and Tarzan got beat first in the third fall, leaving Rey to beat both men to win it for his team. Damian got eliminated first of the Perros, and his botched attempt at interfernce contribued to Rey picking up the win.

Hector attacked Ultimo after his loss and then challenged him to a mask vs hair match.

On May 12 (to celebrate my birthday – maybe), CMLL’s going to hold a Grand Prix, featuring (so far unnamed) people from Japan and the US besides your usual Mexicans. It’s not even clear if it’s a trios or singles thing, actually. All I know is there will be people and they will be fighting.

Which people? The May 13th Toryumon “Dragonmania” show at Arena Mexico has an announced lineup. Prepare to be disappionted about the US types!

Toryumon-Mexico (SAT) 05/13 Arena Mexico Lineup
1) Kazuchica Okada vs Amigo Suzuki [20 min]
2) Brazo de Plata, Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Platino vs Okumura, Masada, Nosawa [15 min]
3) Mima Shimida & Hiroka vs Dark Angel & India Sioux
4) Negro Navarro, Skayde, Arkangel de la Muerte vs Shinjitsu Nohashi, Fujita Jr., Hayato, Kanjuro Matsuyama [30 min]
5) Averno & Mephisto vs Milano Collection AT & Hiromi Horiguchi
6) Hijo de Fantasma, Brazo de Plata Jr., Astro Boy, Toshiya Matsuzaki, Daisuke Haonaka vs Matematico, Kahoz, Mano Negra, Cuchillo, Ultraman [Dragon Scramble]
7) La Mascara vs Hajime Ohara [NWA Welter]
8) Dos Caras Jr. & Hijo de Lizmark vs Johnny Stamboli & Mark Jindrak
9) Ultimo Dragon, Perro Aguayo Jr., Great Muta vs Ultimo Guerrero, Atlantis, Dr. Wagner Jr. [pi]

That’d be the vacant NWA Welterweight Championship La Mascara and Ohara are fighting for; that belt last appeared in Toryumon in 2004 before the split, and it’s currently vacant.

GdR is as predicted – Women’s title match and the Coliseo main event.

Not for nothing kids, but this post on box y lucha has Juvi listed on an upcoming AAA lineup in Puebla.

Cibernetico almost gets punched by some dude

I can’t believe I forget the fight AAA got into.

There’s video included in this article here (peru.com via the-w). There’s other articles if you want to look for them, but basically it was supposed to be an arm wrestling bit between Cibernetico and a former boxer turned elected offical that went bad when they were arguing over the grips. When I write it like that, it sure sounds exactly like an angle. Initial thoughts were that it was a shoot (and either way it seems that Antonio Pena got in trouble with Televisa for it), but people are starting to move toward the work side.

When you’re watching, notice
– Chessman moving the table, as if he knows it’s about to be in the way.
– La Parka slightly move to cut off anyone from jumping in too soon
– the boxer miss on a dramatic shot to Ciber’s head with Cibernetico putting up no defense
– how they immediatly go to the ground

If it’s an angle, they’ll surely play off it on Sunday.

04/28 news: weekend preview

This weekend is all about the big shows.

1) Bam Bam, Mini Fantasy, Tzuki vs Fire, Mini Violencia, Sombrita

2) Metro, Pantera, Texano Jr. vs Hijo de Pierroth, Ohara, Okumura

3) Felino, Maximo, Ultimo Dragon vs Black Warrior, Hombre Sin Nombre, Pierroth

4) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Heavy Metal vs Atlantis, Averno, Mepshito

5) Ultimo Guerrero vs Hector Garza [CMLL LH]

6) Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy vs Damián 666, Mr. Águila [hair]

This show is all about the two main matches. Today’s Ovaciones’ preview is under the impression only one man will lose his hair in the main event, but everything else has run counter to it, so I think they’re mistaken. (If they were correct, it’d be a mortal lock Damian would be losing his hair yet again, and the show would be a disappointment.)

The thing I think we can be sure of is neither the Perros nor the Guerreros will sweep the double main event. Neither side needs the boost from winning both matches, and they’re not close to ending it.

Factors to consider:
– As previously pointed out, Damian seems to exist to lose these sort of matches – but he actually hasn’t lost in since 2002. He had the hair win over Mascara Magica as the final of the 9 way cage match last year, and you could see him giving them back.
– Aesthitically, I belive Mr. Aguila has the best looking hair, but it’s not a group of winners here.
– They’ve been doing skits for months (on the Televisa show) with Rey being upset about him and Ultimo not teaming up as much and Ultimo recruiting more people to team with instead (Atlantis, Black Warrior) – does that go anywhere on this show?
– if Hector Garza wins, he becomes a double CMLL Champion. Remember, he still holds the trios belts, from back when he was partners with Tarzan.

There’s a thread discussing this (and the AAA show) on luchaworld, exploring the idea of someone in GdI doing a turn. I think that’s possible, but I don’t think it’ll actually happen.

The safe bet is Hector beating Ultimo for the CMLL Light Heavyweight belt, and Rey and Tarzan winning the hair match, and that’s what I’m going with. It’d provide some nice rematches for the spot shows, and I could see stripping the trios champs of the titles to create a Ultimo/Rey/Tarzan vs Perro/Hector/Terrible? big title match for June or later. (And maybe that’s where you do a turn.)

The Arena Mexico is not the only big show of the weekend; there’s also an AAA taping in Guadalajara on Sunday.

AAA TV (SUN) 04/30 Plaza de Toros Monumental Nuevo Progresso de Guadalajara Results
1) Martha Villalobos, Mascarita Sagrada 2000, Oriental, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Cassandro, La Diabolica, Mini Abismo Negro, Psicosis II
2) Laredo Kid, Nemesis, Rey Cometa, Super Fly vs Cuervo, Escoria, Espiritu, Ozz
Tecnicos are supposed to get new looks here, probably to fashion them together as a stellar new group.
3) Billy Boy vs Gran Apache [hair]
This seems to be the end point of the feud; either Billy Boy gets the big win and uses that momentum to move up in the card, or he gets his hair cut and a new look.
4) Zorro vs Electro Shock vs Charly Manson
This is “first fall normal, second fall street fight, third fall extreme” which is exactly word for word the match Blue Demon Jr. challenged Rey Mysterio Sr. to have this past Sunday in Chicago. I thought Electro and Charly were on the same side, but obviously that shouldn’t last if they’re against each other in this match.
5) Intocable, La Parka Jr., Octagon vs Chessman, Muerte Cibernetica, Ron Killings
There’s been some talk about turning Killings tecnico. Otherwise, I suspect they keep building to Parka Jr. vs Muerte.
6) Vampiro vs Konnan vs Shocker vs Cibernetico [bull terrier]
This should be the usual AAA main event.

There’s also a promise of a big surprise by Antonio Pena. I’ve been figuring it’ll be Juvi’s return to AAA, but we could get really lucky and it could be the new version of Gronda. By the time the taping’s done, we should have a good idea what the major plans are for Triplemania (and I’m still thinking Parka/Muerte in a mask match there, but what do I know.)

There should be a lot of good->great matches to come out of these shows. The double main event from Arena Mexico should be good, the Nuevo Cadets match should be spectacular, and maybe other things on the AAA show will surprise.

CMLL Magazine is up (inside, outside), with this Tuesday’s card listed ahead of time.

Konnan will be on Bryan Alvarez’s show on May 4th. That should be an exciting adventure for all, and I suspect we’ll learn many things we did not know before. Konnan will drop the knowledge and so forth. Steve Sims is on Cinco de Mayo show and Dave Meltzer is on the day before, so if you like Lucha and have 7 US DOLLARS, I’d go send it to Mr. Alvarez and sign up for May.

The whole week is supposed to be Lucha Week, and I think it was threatened that I might be on, but I haven’t heard anything. (HINT!) I’m hoping Bryan books KrisZ and gets Bihari’s number, because I can’t steal news and opinions from myself, you know?

Andpop.com is giving away a Nacho Libre prize pack, to one winner of their trivia contest marketing questionaire. In this inteview, costar Hector Jimenez says the person who taught the (non-Jack Black) actors lucha libre is Canadian! I will give this movie five million thumbs down if they are taking flat back bumps all the time.