things that have been bugging me

Out of the 19 GdR shows so far, Mistico has appeared on 11 of them. It feels like even more, partly because there’s not a match Mistico is in where the focus is not on Mistico.

The main reason Henrik taken the anti-women in CMLL is because he feels they’re taken spots on the cards from the regular male crew. I’ve had a suspicion the actual losers are the minis – the regular crew seemed to have stolen their opening match spot in turn – but I hadn’t bothered to research the numbers so I didn’t voice an argument.

So, I did the research

Percentage of participation in the opening two matches on Friday CMLL DF cards

            Regular    Mini   Women
Qtr 1, 05      85%	15%	0%
Qtr 2, 05      85%	15%	0%
Qtr 3, 05      79%	7%	14%
Qtr 4, 05      77%	12%	12%
Qtr 1, 06      65%	12%	23%

The minis have lost about a match every three months. The regular men had lost a match a month last year. This year, with women being on about half the cards, the men are down now closer to two matches a month.

(There were three times a women’s match appeared higher than second on the card; the first two times, the cards were six matches long and they had seemed to add another match. The third time, a Coliseo card in December, they did apppear to take a spot away from the regular crew.)

(So I’m wrong and Henrik is right.)

Is anyone but Robert and me watching the GdR stuff? Was I way off on Mistico/Perro? That I’ve heard nothing about either my dislike of the match or the match itself is worrisome.

04/05 news: Coliseo results, Guadalajara walk of fame, Piloto Suicida

reminder (to me): I’ll be on Figure Four Daily this evening, talking lucha and whatever else (pirates? shows that go on forever? who can say). It is a pay show, so if you’re not a subscriber, you should go steal $7 from someone and sign up for a month.

CMLL (TUE) 04/04 Arena Coliseo Results [alexis]
1) Mini Fantasy, Shockercito ?? Mini Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Leono, Sensei, Trueno b Jeque, Ramstein, Zayco
3) Loco Max, Mr. México, Nitro b Mascara Purpura, Starman, Virus
4) el Hijo del Pierroth, Emilio Charles Jr., Pierroth b Blue Panther, Lizmark Sr., Satánico
5) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Lizmark Jr. b Atlantis, Dr. X, Universo 2000

That’s some elevation for Dr. X; he was filling in for Black Warrior so I don’t think that means anything, but we do get a Doctor vs Doctor battle. I wonder if they pay to keep a midcard rudo/tecnico on standby for the Coliseo shows, or if he just got a late phone call when they figured Black Warrior wouldn’t be able to go and drove over from another show?

El Hijo del Diablo visted Ovaciones to make sure no one’s forgotten about him and push for the mask match against El Santo some more (they even have a picture of him pointing at a Santo mask for clarity.) Both of them appear to really be selling that match, but I guess they haven’t yet found anyone to buy it at the price they desire. Diablo explains we haven’t seen him in Mexico lately because he’s been working on a show for Azteca TV, wrote a book and is about to tour the southern US. (Don’t know anything about it.)

Ovaiones also has a quick interview with Rey Tigre, who’s moved up a decent pace since debuting in February. Friday’s his Arena Mexico debut, something he and Mascara Purpura have achieved as newcomers and others (Crazy Boy for one, besides the TORY show) haven’t gotten. Of course, the big news about his match is Tigre Metalico, Tigre Blanco and Rey Tiger all teaming up; Rey Tigre says they’re a new generation of feline and hopes they can form a permanent team, feeling there’s not enough concept teams around nowadays.

Rey lists his height and weight at 1.95m (6′ 4″) and 100kg (220 pounds), which apparently means he’s grown 3 inches since his interview with Halcon, but that’s what Ovaciones will do to you. That does confirm what Robert noted about him being a larger guy compared to most undercarders (and everyone, really.)

Piloto Suicida, who works on the West Coast but has appeared a couple times on Chicago FMLL and Lucha Va Voom shows, suffered a very bad back injury which will put him out of action a year, if he can ever come back. (Suicida fell off a ladder in his normal construction job.) They held a chairty show for him at the NJPW Dojo this past weekend, and were able to collect $2,000 for his medical bills. If you’d like to help out, there’s an address to mail checks. (Thanks to Mikeinformer)

Guadalajara is going to put a Walk of Fame around Arena Coliseo Guadalajara; they’ll have their name and a picture on the sidewalk, basically. Initial inductees will be Diablo Velasco, Rito Romero, Rayo de Jalisco (Sr.), El Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, and Salavador Lutteroth. That’s a pretty decent opening class. They hope to install in time for a big show on 06/04, where a main event match of Santo, Demon, “Mil Mascaras Jr.” (hope that’s not right) vs Ultimo Guerrero, Olimpico and Atlantis is scheduled. Apolo Dantes was at the announcement, and stated that lucha libre is as big, if not bigger, than futbol right now. He may be slightly biased.

El Universal (and other papers; must’ve been a wire story) has an article about succesful lwomen in sports: Laila Ali, Mia Hamm, Gabrielle Reece, and Rena Mero. Probably should’ve given you a “don’t drink something reading this paragraph” warning.