top six stories of the last two weeks

1) After running in Puebla, Mexico City, and Guadalajara, the independent ex-AAA wrestlers won their first match against CMLL starts, Monday night in Puebla. There was Cuije related cheating, but it’s still a win.

2) Vampiro returned to action in AAA, by brutally turning on Joaquin Roldan and allying himself with his son. Konnan and Vampiro are already having issues, despite seemingly being in the same alliance. Also, a Sabu/Dr. Wagner match occurred.

3) Polvora (w/Hector Garza) and Delta (w/Volador Jr.) advanced to the final of the biggest Gran Alterntiva tournament ever. Biggest in terms of participants, at least. The final will take place this Friday, along with a Bracito de Oro vs Mini Warrior mask match

4) The Viva La Lucha PPV, a US airing of this weekend’s 05/02 Perros del Mal taping (plus some other stuff) was officially announced. It’ll air on 06/11 in both Spanish and English.

5) Mephisto kept his NWA Welterweight Championship over La Mascara but appears to have lost part of the name; all CMLL mentions of the title before and after the title match have omitted the “NWA” name, due to an apparent cease/desist order.

6) Long time Guadalajara wrestler Guerrero Samuari (II) lost his mask in a cage match to Rafaga

20 thoughts to “top six stories of the last two weeks”

  1. 1. Do you think ex-AAA masks will be in the main at Anniversary?

    2. Could this be the start of Konnan’s face turn, as Rob predicted?

    3. It’s a good Gran Alternativa for sure

    4. How do you think this PPV will do?

    5. i do think an NWA vs. CMLL feud would be interesting if Demon was involved as a heel.

    6. I think the cage match is on Superluchas(you probably noted it already, and I forgot).

  2. some guy on 411mania.com said that names like charly manson and halloween are stupid.

    as if the name desmond wolfe is any better?

  3. @odessa steps magazine: Thought about it, but in the end it’s a story about people not making a show, which does happen just about every day in lucha libre. (Oriental appears to have done it last night, and that wouldn’t make the top 600 stories.) We got a much more in depth look at why the no show than normal, but I didn’t think it was more important than a guy who’s been a local name of moderate importance for more than two decades losing his mask.

  4. @LLL: The F4D podcast. he just mentioned how difficult the Televisa CMLL show is to watch on streaming video with the commercials, the contest, and the additional filler.

  5. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if CMLL TV were uploaded to youtube immediatly after it aired I wouldn’t bother with the live airing. And if I lived somewhere where I got it on TV regularly I would record it and watch it after it finished.

    CMLL has the worst wrestling program on TV right now.

    Skayde/Quack story def shoulda been in the top 6 but I guess too many politics involved. Still waiting for someone to interview one of the Mexicans for their side…

  6. @Alfredo: One fall in an IWRG TF match is longer than 3 falls of a CMLL Televisa match.

    TF doesn’t take 7 minute commercial breaks either.

  7. @Rob: if there were politics involved, they were

    – a quiet statement about what this story actually means in the big picture of lucha libre; if this was top 6 indy wrestling stories of the week, I’d be dumb not to include it

    – indication of my own boredom with the story. I will watch/read the inevitable interview with Valiente and I very much appreciate American Gigolo giving a contrary look to the original story so there was some chance of triangulating what actually occurred, but I’d 12x more interested in reading a Fuego en el Ring interview with Guerrero Samuari II about his career.

    What must’ve it been like when his brother, making progress in Mexico City, died and they decided to build a title match around 2 challenging for his brother’s title and losing? Why did he end up staying in Guadalajara? A Diablo Velasco trainee gaining note just as AAA started would seem to have had chances to move to bigger stages. A guy wrestling under the same mask in the same building for about 30 years probably had a lot of good stories to tell, more than one weekend where a promoter and a talent agent had a falling out and cost an opportunity.

    Maybe “Valiente not making the CHIKARA tournament” as a missed opportunity could’ve made the list. If he had made it, I’m pretty sure his appearance makes the list, because I’m absurdly convinced he would’ve had a break out weekend, along the lines of what Kota Ibushi did with CHIKARA last year. I would’ve probably gone overboard, proclaiming this not just a great moment for Valiente but a status quo transforming moment, Vailente opening the door for a more two way exchange of talent between US indy promotions and luchadors (as opposed to the current 1 way AAA way), giving talents guys more opportunities to make better livings. Y’all would’ve pointed out I’ve gone overboard and I would’ve pulled back a little bit but still generally stuck to my point.

    It’s a big missed opportunity. The CHIKARA King of Trios is not a big show in terms of audience – the WON correctly pointed out that they draw what about what they always draw, replacing the people who might have moved on to something else but haven’t really been growing of late – but it has seemed to evolve into a highly influential series of shows the last few years. Even if it’s not a lot of people who watch it, it’s a lot of people whose opinions on this sort of stuff influence a lot of other people’s stuff (in quite the opposite way a lucha show can pack 2,000 people into the Congress Theatre and no one outside of the building is aware it happened; some events track stronger than others.) There’s few places left to have that sort of breakout, and I don’t expect luchadors to get this same sort of opportunity in ROH or DGUSA for their own reasons (partly because those chances have been used and not cashed in on), and there’s not a lot of other alternatives.

    So, yea, What Could Have Been could’ve been a top 6, but I went with what happened over what could’ve happened. Lots of things can happen.

    The whole Skayde/CHIKARA thing was bad, and had people acting bad one or probably both sides, but – as people eagerly pointed out – this was not the first time for this couple, and maybe not be the last. Maybe I’m vastly cynical, but if had a long enough conversation with a wrestler or promoter, I would guess it wasn’t even in the top 10 of bad things between promoters or wrestlers they’ve heard about this year. It just usually doesn’t get to us, because people aren’t usually so tripping over themselves to protect themselves, but I didn’t think it was all that special.

    (it took me much longer to write this comment than I spent on this post. that’s also a slight factor!)

  8. Also, I wrote the post knowing exactly that this is where the comments would end up. I may be dumb but I’m not a fool.

  9. I’m with Cubs – if this was “top stories of indy wrestling”, I’d be for the inclusion of the Skayde mess, but in terms of impact on the lucha world, some dudes backing out of an indy U.S. deal is small potatoes.

  10. Ehh, knowing indy fans Valiente probably wouldn’t have made any more of a blip than Malachi Jackson.

  11. Highly doubt that.

    Though it was interesting to see the fallout on chikarafans after Valiente was dropped. “He’s fat” “Oh no who will do a double jump moonsault” “WE WANT CLOUDY!”

    Nuff said.

  12. I’m surprised it didn’t come up on the podcast, especially since Steve and I had talked about it a day or two before.

    I’m not surprised Bryan didn’t bring it up, since it appears Quack is an advertiser on their site and certain coverage on that site seems to be dictated by who are friends and/or advertisers.

    (disclaimer: a former and likely disgruntled member of the site)

  13. i think it’s funny that all the indie workers came out against Chikara.

    My guess is that Skayde told Chikara that he could get the talent, possibly without going through the office, and that it would be cheaper than calling the Contrataciones number. Chikara believed they had the talent and wasn’t trying to f*ck anyone(fans or wrestlers) over.

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