01/05-01/07 Lucha Times

backtracking: Rob’s comment said the opener aired this weekend on the main CMLL show – I’m presuming that means everything from Friday but the segunda (saved for CAN52) aired on the main show. Can anyone confirm?

forward tracking: Chui says 01/19 Guanajuato is the next AAA taping. If two weeks of Best Of is correct (plus the unaired 12/14 show), Guanajuato would air on 01/27. An 8 day turnaround seems about right.

AAA ran Guanajuato (baseball stadium) and Teziutlan (bull ring) to start last year in opposite order.

box

AAA US: three way cage match leading into Guerra de Titanes

CAN52: Women’s Trios, and Wagner/Negro/Volador vs Averno/Olimpico/Ultimo

FSE: appears to be a repeat. A new episode is listed next weekend, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. They may be just be screwing up the descriptions again, I guess.

01/02: Mexico, Pierroth, Euforia

CMLL (TUE) 01/01 Arena Mexico [ovaciones, CMLL, Alvin @ El Martiente]
1) Pólvora & Vaquero b Super Camaleon & Super Tri
2) Apocalipsis, Súper Comando, Zayco b Sensei, Sombra de Plata, Trueno
3) Astro Boy, Metálico, Super Nova DQ Arkangel de la Muerte, Nosferatu, Skandalo
4) Flash, La Máscara, Valiente b Nitro, Pierroth, Texano Jr.
5) Black Warrior, Lizmark Jr., Mascara Ano 2000 b Negro Casas, Sagrado, Shocker

SUBS: Zayco replaced Ramstein, Flash replaced Heavy Metal, Nitro kinda replaced Universo 2000.

So I guess the bit they’re doing for Pierroth matches, since he’s commentating for these Tuesday shows, is he comes straight from the announce booth to do the match. This time, Valiente tried to drag him from the announce booth to the ring, and got a microphone to the nose. Valiente and Pierroth got into a fight during the TV open for CadenaTres, Mascara got the pin on Pierroth in their match, and there seems to be an ongoing issue here.

Nosferatu yanked Super Nova’s mask in the tercera, allowing the tecnicos to win in two falls.

Speaking of him, Pierroth was interviewed by La Jornada about his addictions to drugs and alcohol during the peak of his career. He says he’s been clean for 8 years.

Also, Pierroth is currently scheduled to put his career on the line in Merida on 01/20, against local wrestlers Cachorro Jr.’s hair. I would expect Pierroth to try to maximize the revenue of his last few months of his career (however few or many they turn out to be.) He’s surely losing his hair to Valiente or someone else before he finished up.

indy (TUE) 01/01 Deportivo Los Soberanos [El Siglo de Torreon]
1) Brakman vs Diestro
2) Calakita & Nieto del Soberano vs Pentagoncito & Pequeño Violencia
3) La Sombra vs Euforia [NWA WELTER]
4) Misterioso II, Pyscho, Semental, Tony Rodriguez, Último Guerrero vs El Tackle, Hijo del Soberano, Piloto Negro, Piloto Suicida, Stuka Jr. [ciber]

Euforia must’ve had a rough holiday seasoning, if he dieted all the way down to welterweight. I hope Tackle won the cibernetico again.

The paper also has a nice interview with Euforia, who talks about his first two years in CMLL. He wasn’t sure about changing his name or his style (he’d been working as a tecnico) at first, but now does not regret it a bit. He’s proud of all the guys from Laguna who’ve done well moving to CMLL in recent years. Euforia breaks from the pack and hopes NOT to put his mask on the line this year; he doesn’t feel he’s at the level where it’d mean anything quite yet. Euforia seems like a rational person.

Pentagon I talks about his life after death. He’s selling CDs of his greatest matches outside of arenas of late.

La Jornada previews “Mexico Enmascarado”, a documentary on the cultural importance of lucha libre, set to come out mid-year. As noted here, 2008 is the 75th anniversary of lucha libre (or the start of EMLL, which everyone decided is close enough), so we’re probably due for a lot of retrospective stuff this year.

El Sol de Tulancingo is running a series of articles on the history of lucha libre again: 12/27, 12/28, 12/29, 01/02 There’s some interesting stuff here, and there’s something intersting stuff (the 12/28 article says the man in charge of WCW when they signed Rey Jr. was Lex Luger.)

Guerreros del Ring #120 is the first part of a year in review.