09/02: Scorpio, GDL, Puebla

Sololuchas has an interview & picture of Scorpio Jr. He’s hoping to go home in three days, then take a month off before he even considers wrestling again. He sounds like a man who may be done with the ring, but it’s probably a good idea to wait a month before making any decisions.

CMLL (SUN) 08/31 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [MT]
1) Misterioso II b el Gallo [OCCIDENTE LH]

New champ, and clean – Rosa Driver for the win. Misterioso proclaimed, since he beat Gallo in Gallo’s house, Gallo has to travel to Misterioso’s house (Arena Mexico, Torreon cries) if ever wants a rematch. Misterioso II vs el Gallo for Arena Mexico Anniversary Main Event! Who’s with me? (crickets)

(Reforma via Jazzo) No full results from Coliseo, but Villano V returned, then immediately decided he shouldn’t wrestle anymore until the anniversary. That sounds like a man not ready to come back but desperate do that match. They’re going with the story that he’s just trying to prevent more injury. V4 will take all of his matches until then, and there’s little more they’ll be able to do to build that mask match.

CMLL (MON) 09/01 Arena Puebla [superluchas
1) King Jaguar, Lestat, the Tiger b Ares el Guerrero, Sauron, Toro Bill
2) Hooligan, Loco Max, Siki Osama Jr. b Centella de Oro, Leono, Tony Rivera
3) La Sombra, Mictlán, Valiente b Dragon Rojo Jr., Ephesto, Sangre Azteca
4) Marco Corelone b Lizmark Jr.
5) Heavy Metal, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas DQ Mr. Águila, Terrible, Texano Jr.

This was taped for TvC Deportes, which apparently has no shortage of hours to fill. DQ in the main event was for Terrible pulling Niebla’s mask. I demand Marco vs Lizmark make it to the internet for review.

(Wagnermania) Dr. Wagner Jr. won the hair of Green Demon I on Saturday in Saltillo.

Next Monday’s Christina (Univision) is all about lucha libre, including Cibernetico and Elegido and a feature about exotico wrestlers. Those are two separate stories. Also, a piece about the Cholitas in Boliva.

Dragon Rojo Jr., holding a newspaper. There’s nothing else new there.

Rey Misterio is being promoted for a show in Portugal. It’s actually Hijo de Rey Misterio, and not the only time a promoter has left off the “Hijo de” for confusion’s sake, That’s the whole point of the gimmick now, I think.

SuperLuchas also notes NWA Mexico’s show include drug testing. Which couldn’t have possibly been processed by a lab before the show, so I don’t completely understand the point (because the PR.) Perhaps they’d suspend someone after the fact, but when you’ve run one show and haven’t announced a second…

Luchando Libre previews ENSEMA’s card.

DTU has a promo for it’s show this Saturday.

Mr. Libra won a battle royale in Oaxaca. Not the IWRG guy, I presume.

Why articles previewing the CMLL tour in Spain are still turning up, I dunno. Also, Pirata and Octagon are coming to Spain to wrestle as part of a week of Mexico themed events.

LuchaWorld has Robert AAA TV Tapings from ’05: 11/19 (not high on Super Fly), the shows in DF and Central America no one could find dates for, Guerra de Titanes with a million things going on. Also, KrisZ’s news update.

09/07 AAA TV Results (Hidalgo)

AAA (SUN) 09/07 Palenque de la Feria, Pachuca, Hidalgo [AAA]
1) Argenis, Billy Boy, Gato Eveready vs Ángel Mortal, Gallego, Mr. Cóndor
2) Fabi Apache, Gran Apache, Mari Apache vs Cinthia Moreno, La Hechicera, Oriental
3) Mascarita Sagrada 2007, Mini Charly Manson, Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Histeria, Mini Kenzo Suzuki
4) Jack Evans & Teddy Hart vs Extreme Tiger & Halloween
5) Alan Stone, El Elegido, Vampiro vs Cuervo, Mesias, Ozz
6) ?, Electro Shock, Kenzo Suzuki vs Cibernetico, La Parka Jr., Súper Fly

2008 AAA TV Chart
Projected Air Date (#853)
Mexico: 09/14
US: 10/04

This is the usual “taped before the major card but airing at the same time so they can’t do much” lineup.

Mystery guy is either the Legion convincing Chessman to team with them to fight Cibernetico or Zorro. Or Konnan, I guess. Chessman has to be involved somewhere here.

I think I would enjoy an Alan Stone/Elegido vs Cuervo/Ozz tag match, depending on Alan’s pose/work ratio. Hopefully Mesias and Vamp can brawl

Including triangle matches, this is the fourth time Extreme Tiger and Halloween have teamed on AAA TV since winning the tag titles in April, including doing the same exact match at the same exact point in the PPV cycle (right before TripleMania), which Jack and Teddy won. Halloween and Extreme Tiger has defended the titles ZERO times on TV. I had to deal with that nonsensical tag team tournament for months for what now?

Can’t Apache or Pirata Morgan or Histeria or Alebrije find another women and train her? Also, what happened to Ayako?

No way AAA posts results of the opener.

You know, it’s 11 days from Verano de Escandalo, shouldn’t we have a full card by now?

top ’08 lucha libre rookies

or, reposting emails while waiting to for your pizza to get done:

I got asked in email about ’08 Lucha Libre rookies, because apparently Rookie of The Year is a discussion on the F4 board at the moment.  This year is going too fast if we’re already takling OfTheYear stuff (though I believe the cut off here is September to September – I probably should’ve known for sure at some point.) This is what I wrote back…

It’s very difficult to define rookies in Mexico, because a lot of guys
are regional names before they come to CMLL or AAA and a lot of guys
work early matches for a few years before they get much of a push.
They’re never really rookies, but they’re a new star when they’re
pushed that way.

Out of CMLL, the closest to ROTYC are
– Hijo del Fantasma (who’d been wrestling occasionally in IWRG and
other small/mid Mexico City metro area groups AND had a few matches
for AAA’s TV back in 2005 as part of a middleweight title tournament
but only started full time with CMLL this year after graduating from
college – see what I mean about it being difficult?)
– Dragon Rojo Jr./Diamante Negro

Fantasma is clearly the better worker, Dragon Rojo Jr. is slightly
pushed better (won a mask this Friday in Arena Mexico, to a
disappointing turnout.)

AAA doesn’t really have any rookie standouts – most of their guys
people think of young were 2006 or 07 startups. Guys that might
qualify include

– Argenis (Mistico’s brother, bad and in a minor role)
– Jesse (had a minor role before, had a slightly less minor role this
year and is good)
– Black Abyss (midlevel role, but had short runs with the company in
’04 and ’05 under different names, probably not really a rookie)
– Killer Clown (pushed more than the rest of these, but no one’s quite
sure who’s under the mask – it stands a good chance it’s someone from
Puerto Rico or elsewhere and not a new person.)

I’d stick with Hijo del Fantasma and Dragon Rojo Jr.

So who was obvious that I missed? CMLL’s brought in lots of novatos and near novatos (Metalik! Hijo del Faraon!) this year, but I don’t that they really qualify or do much enough to matter.

ROTY comes up every year in the Tapatias, and I don’t go with it because there’s no criteria that completely works for me. I think either you have to go really strict (only promotions X, Y, and Z count, and you’re DQed if you’ve appeared on TV X many times) or something really simple (you’re a rookie only if you’ve never recieved a vote for any award before) – most rookie awards end up in some nebelous middle ground. And I generally don’t think these awards are that useful – a most improved/biggest riser award does a better job of telling what happened that year in wrestling than something that’s going to include/exclude based on arbitararly divisions.

BTW, when Paco Alonso gets in the WON HOF in the next week or so (which I assume is happening), I think I’m going to lose my mind. Even if you believed he should belong, it’s going to be the greatest bad timing award ever.