10/16-17 Lucha Times

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AAA-US: last show before Heroes Imortales. Militia vs Crazy Boy/Brazo/Gato, Stones vs Aero/Laredo and Wagner/Tiger/Jack vs Damian/Halloween/Park. I think Rob and I differ on this show, though some of it is probably having just seen Wagner/Park live, and the main event being sort of a less good repeat.

52MX: Block B of the tag team tournament? I hope so.

LATV: again, it’s the anniversary show if this airs.

GDL: Poder Mexica vs Gallo, Blanco, Rush again, plus Aguila/Terrible/Texano vs Sombra/Maximo/Toscano.

Since both me and Alfredo have looked to see if the show was moved late and found nothing, I’m taping everything on Teleformula from 4AM to 4PM on Saturday. We’ll see if it works.

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CMLL: Negro vs Charly? Or will they just wait?

AAA-MEX: Maybe just 3 matches – Lider/Nicho vs Damian/Halloween/Konnan, Wagner/Kain, and the cage match – with the NOAH match and the opening atomicos not airing in Mexico. They may air the NOAH match eventually, but I’m not sure the point. Unless it was a good match (which seems unlikely), not sure how having Chessman return + lose to a guy the audience doesn’t know helps them at all.

FOX: Women’s trios, Mascara/Sombra/Dragon vs Nuevo Guerreros del Atlantida. Dragon Rojo is officially in the group as of tonight – CMLL doesn’t run angles on shows to set these up, they just post them on Twitter.

C3: Garza/Aguila/Taichi vs Panther/Dorada/Shocker

Puebla: On? Off? TVC Deportes doesn’t list Monday yet.

ACM: your guess is as good as mine

PdM: Last week, Perros del Mal aired 3 matches from the 01/17/10 taping. Random tape out of the vault this week, I guess.

IWRG: top 3 from this past Sunday, so the big Freelance vs Comando Negro hair vs mask match.

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CMLL-TFN: Mistico, Shocker Strong Man vs Atlantis, UG, Negro Casas

IWRG, Puebla, Santo tries to patent caballo

IWRG (SUN) 10/10 Arena Naucalpan [Mi Lucha Libre, Estrellas del Ring]
1) Super Halcon Jr. b Keshin Black
2) Alan Extreme & Dinamic Black b Epidemia & Nemesis
3) Black Terry, Chico Che, Scorpio Jr. b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Kaoma Jr., Magia Negra
4) Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro DQ Crazy Boy & Joe Lider
5) Comando Negro b Freelance [hair]

Comando Negro kept his mask. Freelance took the first fall, Comando Negro the second. Referee Rubinsky got into an argument with Chico Che in the third (Freelance’s second) and missed Comando Negro fouling Freelance. Comando added another move and got the pin. Fans were angry with the referee, and so the commission shaved the ref’s head as well as Freelance’s.

DTU team brought light tubes to the match and the Cerebros refused to fight them because it wasn’t an extreme match. In the end, the DTU team used a chair, and the referees disagreed if it should be legal or not. DQ held up, but the DTU still got their weapon shots in after the match.

That Kamoa Jr. is the one previously from AAA, the guy from Queretaro who’s in a never ending feud with Rey Cometa. He still has his mask.

CMLL (MON) 10/11 Arena Puebla [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Ares & Espiritu Maligno b Stigma & Tigre Rojo
2) Astral, Shockercito, Último Dragoncito b Bracito de Oro, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Warrior
3) Loco Max, Nitro, Skándalo b Fuego, Pegasso, Rey Cometa
4) Blue Panther, Hijo del Fantasma, Toscano b Misterioso II, Terrible, Vangelis
5) La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Místico b Atlantis, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero

Mascara and UG ripped masks during the match, and Mascara got Guerrero with a campana. That sets up a title match next week. Minis match sets up the Shockercito/Bracito de Oro hair match.

Taichi/CMLL.com

CMLL (TUE) 10/12 Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Disturbio & Mortiz b Camaleón & Trueno
2) Bam Bam, Eléctrico, Fantasy b Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Violencia
3) Ángel Azteca Jr., Ángel de Oro, Ángel de Plata b Demus 3:16, Loco Max, Virus
4) Delta, Fuego, Stuka Jr. b Misterioso II, Terrible, Texano
5) Héctor Garza, Mr. Águila, Taichi b Blue Panther, Máscara Dorada, Shocker

Not a lot going on here.

CMLL (TUE) 10/12 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Astral, Mascarita Dorada, Último Dragoncito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
2) Dalys la Caribeña, Luna Mágica, Marcela b Amapola, Seuxis, Tiffany
3) Fabián el Gitano, Horus, Metro b Cancerbero, Euforia, Raziel
4) Averno, Dragón Rojo Jr., Mephisto b Máximo, Rush, Toscano
5) Brazo de Plata, Hijo del Fantasma, Místico b Atlantis, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

Not much of note here either. La Mistica on Ultimo Guerrero in the main event.

AAA told Diario Basta that El Hijo del Santo is attempting to patent the la de a caballo (camel clutch), claiming himself as the originator, filing it under dance/choreography, and looking for payments should anyone else use it on TV. Santo calling his own wrestling ‘a dance’ is the point AAA is pushing since Santo just did the anti-dance/anti-sillyness column in Record.

The idea of patenting a wrestling move is completely ludicrous and yet so perfectly El Hijo del Santo.  I have doubts that this is actually true – it’s from AAA, the article even notes ongoing legal issues between them and Sant0 – but it seems plausible.

I will say, after seeing AAA tweet about 50 times about this already today, I’m getting ready to take Santo’s side.

CMLL’s website now includes a listing of the ‘other’ shows their wrestlers are working over the weekend. The show have listings of who’s working, but not the exact matches. (CMLL.com seems to be down now.)

Black Terry Jr. is putting up video of last night’s IWRG trainee show.

Big list of of Heroes del Ring reviews

K-Mart will give you a $25 gaming coupon if you buy the game there.

Other Links

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 10/18 Arena Puebla
1) Asturiano, Black Tiger, Stigma vs Espiritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana, Sauron
2) Ángel Azteca Jr., Fuego, Stuka Jr. vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Loco Max, Skándalo
3) Shockercito vs Bracito de Oro [hair]
4) La Sombra, Shocker, Super Porky vs Terrible, Texano, Volador Jr.
5) Último Guerrero vs La Máscara [CMLL HEAVY]

I’m at the point where weight classes just are names and don’t actually have anything to do with actual divisions.  But this one seems a bit egregious. La Mascara is listed at 187. The heavyweight minimum is 214 lb. At least he’s got plenty of family who can give him advice on the tastiest ways to add a lot of weight.

Looks to be a tough night for Brazo de Oro’s in general.

I thought there was a lineup for Tuesday’s show up, but the website is down.

top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. Heroes Inmortales happened. All the tecnicos won, including Wagner keeping his title, Pimpi & Fabi winning the tag titles, Mesias defeating Perro, and Team AAA winning the cage match with a half dozen angles going on. Mistico did not appear, totally disappointing #1 fan Perro Aguayo Jr. Other notable losers include anyone who was interested in finding out the identity of Octagon’s attacker; keep waiting.
  2. Volador Jr. was on the hottest run of his career, won a best of the best tournament, and then lost his title to La Mascara in a switch no one saw coming. We don’t have La Mascara anymore, but this was as boggling a result as any that’s occurred in lucha libre this year.
  3. Heroes del Ring came out. Though without the mask. You know, it actually is slightly better when I remember it’s a $50 game.
  4. Televisa Deportes judged Televisa’s AAA & CMLL of not being competitive enough with Televisa’s WWE. CMLL ignored the whole thing. AAA insisted they were actually better. Everyone agreed cell phone junk app commercials are really annoying.
  5. IWRG won the Battle of the Promotions. Their prize appears to be “Sunday tapings will now air on TVC Deportes instead of Thursday ones.” A strange prize!
  6. Los Angels & Diamante & Delta advanced to the finals of the Arena Coliseo Tag Team #1 Contenders, something that only makes this list on slow two week bit.

Just missing the list: Tijuana Joe.

Reminder: chat on Friday for Negro/Charly. Thinking about spaghetti.

AAA Hereos del Ring review

Eh.

AAA Heroes del Ring is definitely a video game featuring AAA luchadors. The strongest point of the game are the models of the AAA characters, who look very accurate and true to life. Everything else has it’s issues: game play leans towards more frustration than fun, both the story mode and the announcing quickly become repetitive, and there’s not much depth here. The CAW appears to have a lot of options, but having only four slots to save is strange and limiting on today’s systems, and there’s no apparent way to easily share your creations. I have not yet tried multiplayer or online (did not appear to be working) – those might be fun, but there weren’t a lot of extra options there.

As the first major game completed by a Mexican video game company, it’s a remarkable achievement. As a $60 game going up against $60 games, it’s doesn’t hold up to the competition. Not just of wrestling games, but of games entirely in 2010. If the novelty of an AAA game appeals to you, it’s worth getting. It’s not a terrible or broken game, but one that’s not nearly as fleshed out as any other new game you’d buy at the moment and doesn’t have enough charm or fun to make up for the lack of standard features.

Heroes del Ring feels about 10 years behind the curve. (And even then, WCW/nWo Revenge had tag team moves and six people in the ring.) Getting from zero to here is a good start, but they’ve got just as far to go if they want to make a good game.

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