02/18: LA Park, IWRG, Accion

Ovaciones reports that LA Park was suspended two weeks for his attack on Dr. Wagner on 02/09. Which means the suspension is more than half over before we even heard about it (and as a non-regular, no one would’ve noticed he was purposefully not being scheduled unless someone said something about it.) LA Park says CMLL just suspended him to protect their boy Wagner, and he was already booked in northern Mexico anyway.

Next Thursday, IWRG’s running a cage of death, with hair and masks on the line, but a title that’ll actually change hands.

Mask: Electroshock (what could he possibly look like underneath that mask!), Fantasma de la Opera
Hair: Bestia Salvaje (lives!), Villano III, El Dandy, Hijo del Diablo, Suicida
Title: Black Pentagon (IWRG Middle, I presume)

I guess the old guys could drop their hair for a payday – it would explain where Bestia came from, at least. Speaking of random people showing up, the semimain includes Nosawa and Kaz Hayashi.

AAA hasn’t posted any results yet.

Accion

CMLL: Trios title match. Tarzan and Hector are wrestling in shirts. (Wellness policy?) Ultimo’s spinning double submission was the one to end them all. They tried a spot where Ultimo backdropped Hector into a dive towards Atlantis, Tarzan and Aguila, but the backdrop wasn’t high enough and Hector got caught in the ropes on the way down. Of the three catchers, Atlantis was the farthest one away and the only one who actually tried to catch him. Atlantis and Ultimo got the double Atlantidas once again, but this time Hector and Perro escaped and cradled them for the titles. Clean.

AAA: Parka, Octagon, Alerbije, Zorro vs Abismo, Antifaz, Histeria, Niebla from Puebla. Layoff has not hurt Parka’s ability to be a goof. If anything, these clips show that he had much goofiness bundled up that he just had to get out. Abismo set up for what could’ve been the Martinez Special on Alberije, so Hijo de Tirantes – just kinda stood behind him. Abismo back elbowed him for infringing on his personal space, and then set up for the Martinez Special on him. Abismo held it up, which gave Latin Lover time to get in an foul him. Alerije tripped up Abismo and pressed slammed Cuije on top before collapsing, and Zorro covered Cuije and Abismo for the win.

GdR #65

From 02/17. I thought the opener was the best segunda I can remember them showing. Main event was Dr. Wagner being Dr. Wagner, as opposed to Dr. Wagner and Ultimo Guerrero actually having a match, but you knew that once they had Lizmark and Eclipse of all people doing the opening mat session. Since we hadn’t gotten Wagner in 4 months, this was fine, though it would drive me nuts if we saw it every week.

I look forward to the only other people who watch this show seeing things 180 degrees from me.

Next week looks to be
02/09: Lady Apache, Luna Magica, Marcela vs Amapola, Medusa, Princesa Sugieth – is there still an Amapola/Apache feud if Amapola is losing all the time?
02/18: Blue Panther, La Mascara, Mictlan vs Alex Koslov, Ephesto, Misterioso II

If there’s a news update, it won’t be late – forget to tape the early Accion.

Mistico to tryout with WWE (Maybe? Maybe Not?)

I missed this yesterday, but happened to see it this morning:

Mistico will be getting a WWE tryout during the California swing over the next two weeks. I’m not sure of the date or dates but it is happening soon, and with TV in Bakersfield and San Diego, it could be this week.

Dave Meltzer

Let’s take a moment to note Super Luchas had this right (though we’re still waiting for 3 more – maybe the tryout will be tag matches!) and Ovaciones had this wrong. I wonder if CMLL lied, or just didn’t know.

WWE in Cali dates:
02/19 – Bakersfield, CA
02/20 – San Diego (with a scheduled Rey Misterio appearance – talk about your photo ops)
02/26 – Fresno, CA
02/27 – San Jose, CA

Mistico’s booked on 02/19 in Pubela (teaming with La Mascara and Volador Jr. vs Averno, Efesto, Mephisto), so maybe it’ll be next week? Puebla’s gotten too many noshows lately that they may not want to do a big one, but I don’t really know.

There’s a very slight chance this could make TV, but WWE typically runs a dark match before it starts it’s B-Show tapings, and the tryouts always happen in that dark match.

I don’t know. We were discussing this same thing one year ago this time, and nothing came of it. (And until Mistico is in a WWE ring, I’m always going to have trouble believing it.) I presume Mistico’s role to be cruiserweight babyface. If he was an instant hit and things got sorted out quick, he could even debut on WrestleMania winning that belt, but that may be pushing it and perhaps one step beyond best case scenario.

There’s a lot of questions about how Mistico would adapt to WWE style and WWE rings (and, by the size of Super Crazy lately, WWE free lunch buffets!) Will they have him keep his mask? They’ve had success with Rey masked, but haven’t succeeded with anyone else. (Ultimo Dragon failed because they didn’t were expecting him to be a Rey clone; Mistico would be better at that.) Without knowing who in the company wants to bring him in and why, it’s tough to correctly guess how he’ll be used. We also don’t know who actually owns the gimmick or what Mistico’s contract status is.

If you’re the conspiracy type, you may note how the Reyes de Aire happened a lot sooner than usual – as if CMLL knew they might be losing one it’s top small tecnico highflier and decided they needed to get serious about creating another one ASAP. If a card juggles so Averno & Mephisto are in position to pick up the tag team titles, then we know for sure.

My feeling is Mistico has worked very hard and very often for the last 3 years, and as a guy who came to CMLL with no name value and no leverage, he probably isn’t getting paid as much as he might deserve. Everyone who’s good at what they do deserves a chance to extract as much as they can out of it; even if he doesn’t sign with WWE, just the possiblity that he could’ve is going to help him. And if he ends up with a contract that has him working 3-4 times a week, rather than 3-4 times on some days, that’s going to be pretty good for him. I have reservations about how well this is going to work, but Mistico’s deserving of the chance.

Update:

I’m not sure regarding the status of Mistico coming to a WWE TV taping over the next two weeks. Seems CMLL is extremely unhappy about this and is putting the pressure heavy on Mistico not to come.

Meltzer, today.

Swear to god, when this story comes up again (and it surely will), it’s getting one sentence and no more until Mistico’s actually in a WWE ring.