Near the end of this week’s SuperLuchas, there’s an interview with Dos Caras Senior about his son’s recent matches on the WWE tour of Mexico and upcoming debut on TV.* Dos Caras noted that the fans did not generally seem to know his son prior to his match. They also did not know Dos Sr. when he appeared to introduce his son. The fan reports posted on SuperLuchas during the tour noted the same lack of recognition at the time.Before leaving to Florida last year, Dos Caras Junior spent the last four and half years as one of the top regulars in CMLL. His father has not been a regular in any promotion since the mid 90s, but can make an argument about belonging in the top dozen most famous luchadors in the history of Mexican professional wrestling. Both men have been main evented major shows, been on the cover of numerous lucha magazines and been around the center of lucha libre for the last couple of generations. The Dos Caras family is famed in lucha libre, but not famous to those going to WWE shows last month.
There’s a misconception when it comes to comparing and grouping the Mexican fanbases of the homegrown and WWE. There are certainly people who watch WWE in unison with the homebased groups, but the majority of people who watch WWE are people who are not and have not been lucha libre fans. The people who had no idea who this Dos Caras fellow was clearly can not be lapsed AAA or CMLL fans, those are people who had no better the passing interest in the entire concept of professional wrestling until they started following WWE. These are not people the local promotions lost when WWE came to town, these are people they were failing to reach all along. It took WWE coming in to group them into one easy space for counting, but they were out there all along, never being served.
These people likely have some knowledge of lucha libre; your current Mexican WWE fan is was probably super casual fan all along, the kind of person that has a long forgetten Perros del Mal or Hell Brothers shirt somewhere deep in their closet. They’re the people who represent the surges in attendance when CMLL and AAA were doing great business, who may have gone to a big show somewhere down the line, but probably can’t remember 90% of the people who were on it the next day. These types of people are not as much fans of lucha libre as going to something that’s cool and at it’s best, and don’t stick around for the downturn. These are all my assumptions; it’d be easy enough for a promotion interested in finding out the answers to just ask these people. While they’re doing that, they may want to take a step back and determine why none of the current big ideas can be said to appeal to this casual fanbase.
CMLL’s biggest storyline of the moment is CMLL vs Invasors. AAA’s biggest feud is LA Park vs La Parka. Heck, IWRG’s biggest feud is AAA vs IWRG. (Perros del Mal has gone the Different route of no storylines since the DF show.) Those three feuds were interesting to denizens of this blog and other internet lucha libre sites, because that’s the aim. You can follow LA Park vs La Parka Jr. just off the TV bits, but being emotionally involved in storyline requires you to previously have an opinion about a decade and half trademark issue.** Seeing Histeria, Psicosis and Maniaco in an CMLL ring is vastly entertaining to the hardcores, but it requires you to not just know, but care, about them being AAA stars of the last decade. No problem for you and me, no chance for the guy who hasn’t been to a show since Black Warrior vs Mistico and can’t remember anyone else on the card.
It’s not just storylines which are dwelling history. Much was made at the Lucha Libre Expo press conference about bringing together the strength of the Mexican promotions to fight the incursion of WWE. It’s a great tag line, a great message to spread to the press. I know that if I were ever to make it to Mexico City, I’d most want to be there the weekend of the Expo, because there’s no easier place to see so much different events in one short time and in one easy place. The problem is I’m not the problem. People who purchase a ticket to see a Mexican lucha libre exposition are those people who already care about the Mexican variety of professional wrestling; this plays to the base of fans, but if you currently only care about WWE, why does having three promotions in one place you don’t care about mean more to you than just the normal one? There was nothing particularly announced to get WWE-only fans to walk in the door; the anti-WWE sentiment almost makes it as if they would like to keep those people away.
Long time viewers should be rewarded for their loyalty, and there’s nothing wrong with events which appeal to them. However, if CMLL or AAA is seriousl about getting those fans who are now watching WWE, they’ve got to stop treating them like lasped fans who can be coaxed back thru nostaglia. These fans are decidedly not looking back for nostalgia, they are looking forward for what’s new and what’s next. There’s certainly a lot of catching up to do in presenation and look to both group’s events if they want to make them attractive to those who watch WWE shows. More than that, they need to start pushing things forward*** instead of recycling the past. If CMLL or AAA want these fans, they need to appeal to them, not appeal stronger to those they already have. These promotions completely missed with Dos Caras, and they’re going to keep missing with everyone else unless they reach out and grab these fans.
* – Dos Sr. says Dos Jr.’s debut is “just a few weeks away.” I say “family members, even those with the best intentions, are best not talking to the press about their work in WWE; those people are vindictive and spiteful enough as it is.” That’s another post for another time.
** – internal logic flaw – Dorian feuds with Joaquin because Joaquin doesn’t represent Antonio Pena’s true vision of AAA; he’s trying to anoint LA Park as the real Parka while saying this (guess this is why he’s a heel!)
*** – obligatory “CMLL royally screwed up Mistico vs Volador, and it cost everyone” mention of the week
Figured I’d toss this in – went to the Smackdown tapings here in Dallas last night and Dos Caras wrestled a dark match – with no mask. He’s physically impressive, and good on the mic. He wrestled Chris Masters, so it was a generic four minute big man-style match, and Dos jobbed. It seemed his offense was all kicks, though seeing a man that big throw an enzuigiri is impressive.