05/18 news: Gran Alternativa, Xalapa, Queretaro



alexis via cmll.com

The big news is CMLL announcing the Gran Alternativa participants. Names, and ages for fun.

* Mascara Purura (unknown, sometimes seems about 18)
* Misteriso II (unknown)
* Texano Jr. (21)
* Maximo (25)
* Volador Jr. (25)
* Sangre Azteca (33)
* Loco Max (34)
* Hombre Sin Nombre (40)

Yea, there’s no way HSN should be in there. The context is we’re completely unaware he’s Safari and has been around for approximately a billion years. And it’s not like they couldn’t find another rudo to fill the spot; Super Comando’s not doing anything important.

Early guess is Sangre Azteca, but I think Maximo’s another good possibility.

The tournament will not held till 06/02. I suspect we’ll hear about the partners next week. I wish they would release brackets before hand so we could have all sorts of predicting fun. I don’t think a lot of people are interested in the seeding battle royal and tournaments shows always feel rushed, they could save about 10 minutes by just skipping it and announcing matchups.

Speaking of things that are made up, remember how Ultimo and Wagner fought in the main event of Arena Puebla on Monday? Coincidentally, the UWA (which, technically, is dead) released it’s Heavyweight rankings to Ovaciones today.

champ: Dr. Wagner Jr.
1) Ultimo Guerrero
2) Rayo de Jalisco Jr.
3) Canek
4) Dos Caras Jr.
5) Damian 666

Damian? ANYWAY, since the stars have aligned, Arena Puebla will hold a UWA Heavyweight Championship match between Dr. Wagner and Ultimo Guerrero. Ovaciones points out Ultimo is on a title match streak (of 1), beating Garza in Arena Mexico. To counter for the Doc, I’ll point out the last time these two met in a championship match, Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Ultimo Guerrero for the NWA Light Heavyweight Championship.

Speaking of championships, Octagon and La Parka Jr. retained their Mexican Tag Championships over Charly Manson and Alan Stone (filling in for Electroshock; I believe the Observer recently had a note about him possibly on the way out, again) on Monday. Fabi appeared for the first time in a year, after a maternity absence.

AZTECA (WED) 05/17 Arena Xalapa Results
1) Aguila de Plata, Aguila Dorado b Cherokee, Relampago
2) Jaguar, Lobo Solitario, Samurai b Dragon Infernal, Guerrero del Infierno, Perro Mocho Jr.
3) Maximo, Sagrado, Texano Jr. b Caballero Negro Jr., Nitro, Skandalo
4) Villano IV, Villano V b Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata
Villano cheated to win.
5) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Mil Mascaras DQ Canek, Canek Jr., Rey Bucanero
Canek low blowed Dr. Wagner.

CMLL (TUE) 05/16 Arena Queretaro Results [Latin Deadman; with pictures]
1) Caballero Aguila b Wild Kiss
2) Principe Valiente Jr., Ursus b Corsario, Zayco
3) Diana La Cazdora, Lady Apache DQ Amapola, Medusa
Medusa replaced Hiroka. Shimoda, not scheduled, ran in and attacked Lady Apache to cause the DQ.
4) Ultimo Dragon, Volador Jr. b Rambo, Sangre Azteca
5) Dos Caras Jr., Lizmark Jr. b Johnny Stamboli, Mark Jindrak

Is this Hajime Ohara‘s blog, or someone following him? Either way, they must be still partying after the title win, because it hasn’t yet been updated this week.

More links: A Ras De Lona has a nice looking site, and a blog

Luchas 2000 #317 provides your bloody AAA face of the week (Charly getting Zorro.)

If you’re aggregating this post as part of Nacho Libre hype, I would very much like free tickets. I’d love to find some way to see this ahead of time so I can write a (hopefully!) happy review of it before it comes out, but I lack any and all connections. If you’re can help, get a hold of me at thecubsfan AT thecubsfan DOT com

NJPW.com redid their website, and includes profiles of some men who are never ever going back. Who do they have Safari related to in his profile? If you look around enough, you can find profiles of Silver King and Black Tiger III – that’s keeping it real. (There’s a Negro Casas bio, but no FELINO bio. The world’s anti-Felino bias is so unfair!)

All the ex-participants bios are up to date as of around their last appearance, which leaves you with things like Chris Benoit‘s latest career highlight listed is WCW TV champion. That is seriously great. I spent about twenty minutes screwing around and going “Hey, Kid Romeo! I recall him!”. (Just with Kid Romeo, over and over.)

lucha times

I’ve got no real idea what will air Saturday, but Something Is Up. What we know for sure is Galavision has a 3 hour block for lucha this Saturday (for both the early airing and the late night airing.) I’m not sure what this means, but I’m not sure what episode should be next in airing order. No tape has ever turned up from Mexico for this week of programing, but since it’s the first week of no Arena Mexico and the following week is a Best Of, maybe this could be a Best Of. OR they could simply be airing a three hour show they skipped. OR AAA could be back, since they are doing a three hour program and those shows weren’t airing because no one wanted to cut them down.

Galavision doesn’t offer any answers, so I don’t really have one either until about 2 minutes into program. I’ve listed my guess on what would air, if it was a normal week of tapings, but I think that’s the least likely off all posibilites.

Sunday’s show is much more straight forward: it’s the second half of the Leyenda de Plata, at the normal time.

BTW, lucha is on the 06-07 Galavision lineup, though they don’t mention the overnight slot. I’m figuring that’s just an oversight.

Guerreros del Ring is a much easier guess. There was some talk that AJPW might not want the Mutoh match to air on TV, but rudopolis’ report said it did, so I presume the atomicos match from Coliseo will also air here. Mistico vs Mephisto is the lock of locks.