Month: November 2011

CMLL (MON) 11/07/2011 Arena Puebla [Es Imagen (final), Es Imagen (semifinal), Luchas 2000, Porra Fresa]
1) Centella de Oro & Milenium b Ares & Centauro de Fuego
tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Dalis la Caribeña, Estrella Mágica, Luna Mágica b Amapola, La Seductora, Mima Shimoda
Estrella was actually Estrella Magica! Tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Hijo del Signo, Nitro, Virus b Fuego, Sagrado, Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 2/3. One of the top turnbuckles broke in the the third fall. Sagrado was injured and sterchered out, but was back in the Guadalajara ring the next day. The ring crew moved the bottom rope set up to the top rope and they worked with two ropes for the rest of the show.
4) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano b Rush, Super Porky, Valiente
Rudos won all three falls, but were DQed in the second for excessive violence. A lot of Rush/Terrible focus.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero b Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Shocker
Rudos took 1/3, with focus on Dragon Rojo vs Mascara Dorada. Shocker had UG in the reinera, Dragon made the save, Dorada got Draogn with a ‘rana, and UG turned it over to give Dragon the win.

IWRG (THU) 11/10/2011 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), IWRG (1-4), The Gladiatores]
1) Imposible & Rambo Jr. b Kaving & Ojo de Tigre Jr.
straight falls. Kaving’s name was misspelled “Kevin”.
2) Bugambilia del Norte, Dinamic Black, Saruman b Carta Brava Jr., Comando Negro, Eterno
swapped spots with the previous match. Bugambila del Norte beat Eterno for the win in a “wild, bloody and thrilling game”
3) Centurión & Tritón b Alan Extreme & Bizarro
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, King Drako b Golden Magic, Pantera, Zumbi
Rudos took 2/3, with Apolo sneaking in a foul on Pantera.
5) Silver Kain, Tabú, Último Gladiador b Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan
Neither team got along great. The AAA team had more problems but won, with Taboo stealing a pin from Ultimo Gladiador.

Other News

Today’s Arena Mexico main event groups together a few different singles feuds: Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero, La Sombra vs Volador Jr. and Lyger vs Dragon Rojo. The last seems to be setting up a title match within a couple Fridays. There’s more Peste Negra vs Blue Panther, and Tiffany and La Comandante return to CMLL action in the women’s match.

AAA says Guerra de Titanes will take place 12/16 in Puebla’s baseball stadium, Estadio Hermanos Serdan. It’s later than usual and probably the last taping of the year. Last year, Guerra de Titanes was the last taping of the year and I’d expect it would be the same this year. If there’s no more interruption in TV, this show will take AAA thru the rest of the year.

KrisZ previously said there’s a 12/11 AAA TV taping in Campeche. That’ll be the lame duck show, airing the weekend after the PPV but taping a few days prior. AAA hasn’t mentioned this taping yet.

IWRG’s announced special events for the rest of the year
11/13: Rey del Ring.
11/15: IWRG vs DTU trainee show
12/04: celebration of 49 years in Estadio de Mexico
12/16: annual awards dinner
12/22: Arena Naucalpan 34th Anniversary; last Thursday show of the year.
There will also be a Rayo de Jalisco show, the Head Hunters will be back (tease of a feud with the Temerarios) and the winning select of the the design a wrestler contest from the lucha libre expo – Canis Lupus – will debut at some point.

We really should do a Rey del Ring pool. Everyone gets a number, if your number wins, you win absolutely nothing. (May not have 30 readers.)

Box Y Lucha also had an interview with Mascarita Dorada this week. He explained he’s only using the Plateada name on really important shows or Santo shows. He left CMLL on good terms, but had to leave because CMLL was ignoring the division. Dorada feels like CMLL still has great minis, but does not give them any attention, and he’s got opportunities elsewhere. Dorada expects 2012 to be a great year for him.

LuchaWorld has Alfredo on 08/27/11 CMLL.

Links

• There was another meeting to press for social security for Mexican athletes.
• CMLL drew relatively well in Arena Aficion yesterday.
• A bunch of CMLL wrestlers are headed to La Laguna this week, including a Magnus sighting.
• Axxel hypes the FULL show by saying Scorpio Jr. and Silver Kain are losers because they lost their masks. I guess he doesn’t watch AAA.
• R de Rudo interviews Soldado de la Muerte 

Lineups

IWRG FIL (TUE) 11/15/2011 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mascarita de Oro & Mini Aerocruz vs Galactico & Infierno Kid
2) Halcon 2000, Serpiente Dorada, Super Black vs Blue Monster, Guerrero 2000, Pacto Negro
3) Alan Extreme, Astro de Plata, Carta Brava Jr., Dinamic Black, Eterno, Golden Magic, Saruman, Tritón vs ?, Araña de Plata, Electro Boy, Jhonky, Kalibuz, Miedo Extremo, Radical, Slayer [Copa Higher Power]

Another IWRG vs DTU show.

CMLL (TUE) 11/08/2011 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Black Metal b Evola
2) Metatrón & Super Halcon Jr. b Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno
Metatron replaced Hombre Bala.
3) Metal Blanco & Palacio Negro b Puma King & Tiger
4) Princesa Blanca b Marcela [MEX WOMEN]
Seconds were Tiger and Silueta. Marecla had the win, but the ref was busy with Silueta, and Tiger snuck in a kick for the win.
5) Ephesto, Mephisto, Mr. Niebla b La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Sagrado
Mr. Niebla, Sombra, and Sagrado replaced Averno, La Mascara and Maximo. A lot double booking. Mephisto & Ephesto beat Sombra for the win.

National champion > World Champion. That makes no sense at all. I’d like to reiterate my belief that the people who book Mexico City and the other locales don’t ever actually talk to each other. (That’d also explain Puma and Tiger teaming here all the time.) Really, if you absolutely had to do Princesa Blanca vs Marcela on this day, why not have the more important title on the line? It would actually work as a story since Blanca’s beaten Marcela many a time already, and the title belts wouldn’t seem so dumb and pointless.

I’m sure Ayumi is winning the CMLL title when Marcela heads to Japan. It explains a lot.

Other News

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter had a lot of lucha info. The eyegrabber is Mascarita Dorada (who says he still owns that name) was among those who tried out for WWE, impressed, and will be offered a contract. Minis in WWE do not have a great track record; they’ve brought in Mexican in 1997 and 2005, only lasting a few months at a time, but the pay is so much better that it’s surely worth trying. Dorada is too small to work with almost anyone on their roster; they’ll surely be bringing in people to work with Dorada, but exactly who is unknown. Dorada’s doing a lot of touring with Pierrothito as an opponent and Pierrothito was in WWE for the 2005 Juniors Division, but he’s got a pretty good spot in CMLL that he probably wouldn’t get back if he left. Demus and Pequeno Halloween seem like decent possibilities, but there is no actual news on any other other names; WON does mention other luchadors are expected to be offered contracts, but we still don’t know who.

A lot of AAA injuries: Drago (elbow) and Argos (shoulder) are out two months due to injuries. Crazy Boy’s long absence from all shows is due to a knee injury; surgery didn’t go well, so he’ll be getting another one and be out well into 2012. Relampago is out an undetermined amount of time after messing up his ankle at the last AAA TV taping. All those tecnicos going down probably explains why AAA’s moving up Fenix  much faster than usual. Mortiz and Semental are done for the year due to “personal reasons”, but are expected back in 2012.

Todo x el Todo drew only 1,300, less than we had heard. The Tijuana show with Santo the next day drew only 1,200. The Monterrey show did do well, but it doesn’t seem like what Santo is doing is going well overall.

New rumor of the day – Pato Soria wasn’t fired, but instead called to Mexico City to run Arena Mexico. Seems unlikely, but they haven’t kept too much quiet about these changes.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

El Luchador

Just a few brief thoughts on the last two episodes. Last one is up on YouTube.

After the first episode, I mentioned how the Man in Black bit felt like it strained the credibility of the real-ish nature of the show. They’ve downplayed him for Tony Salazar in more recent episodes, but there are other aspects of the show that are piercing the reality bubble. Rey Bucanero having a speakerphone conversation about the strip club show he was promoted while unaware his wife was standing right behind him was something off a bad sitcom. There are mature ways to set up that conflict that don’t seem such manipulated cliches. Felino, the man who portrays a homeless smelly possibly drunk man who dances with a parrot, lecturing his son Tiger about taking lucha libre more seriously seems like a very forced storyline to set up the conflict between him and Bucanero. Magnus & Dragon Lee meeting two women, and getting the CMLL van to take them to the canals for a double date was highly improbable.

These are actually fine enough wrestling skits, but the show has felt like too much of an extension of their lucha libre characters (without really much lucha libre) instead of a peek behind the curtain. The show may be working better with casual fans who aren’t as familiar with this characters, but the too obvious scripted storyline stuff detracts for me.

There is stuff I’ve liked on the show. Shocker’s storylines feel more genuine than the other ones on the show, and help to explain some of the random stuff from this summer. Shocker getting stripped of his title right when he was about to come back is because the title tournament will be the focus of episode four, and Shocker’s inability to return is probably an plot of another episode. Even though his argument with his significant other is just as set up for the cameras, it came off as much more organic than Bucanero and his wife.

The show is really not doing Magnus any favors. He got wrestled to a draw (or worse) versus a random high school student, he looks like a klutz compared to his good friend Dragon Lee, he suffers a bad looking injury while flipping around the ring, he’s the first eliminated in the only match he’s in, and yet he still comes off as overly confident. The show has done a great job of making Dragon Lee look like a future star – besides the flashy moves, he’s able to be in the ring dancing with Rey Bucanero and be on a boat with Magnus at the same time! – but they haven’t really come up with a reason we should be rooting for Magnus.

Still an entertaining show for what it is.

Links

• La Comandate vows to strike down the tecnicas who’ve been taking advantage of her absence
• LatinNation posted the show that included the  Masked Republic segment on their site; it’s about 17 minutes in.
• Damian hypes this weekend’s Perros del Mal show.
• Another press conference for the FULL Tinieblas show