Raziel advances to final, FdT leave Perros del Mal, AAA tries to unmask Santo

(photo by CMLL)

CMLL (TUE) 03/13/2012 Arena Mexico [Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports]
1) Camaleón & Freesbe b Ramstein & Zayco
Zayco was hurt again. Looks like either his eye injury or a concussion based on photos.
2) Metatrón & Tigre Blanco b Artillero & Súper Comando
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Raziel b Triton, Disturbio, Robin, Bronco, Hombre Bala Jr., Hijo del Signo, Super Halcon Jr. [Sangre Nueva, semifinal]
Expected winner. Teams were Signo/Robin/Halcon/Bronco vs Raziel/Triton/Bala/Disturbio. Elimination order: Robin (Disturbio), Bala (Signo), Bronco (Triton!), Disturbio (Halcon), Halcon (Raziel), Signo (Raziel). That left partners Raziel & Triton, and Raziel got his third straight elimination to take this and move onto face Dragon Lee. Triton is said to have a had a good night.
4) Fuego, Sangre Azteca, Super Porky b Misterioso Jr., Namajague, Shigeo Okumura
Tecnicos take 1/3.
5) Olímpico, Psicosis, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, La Máscara, Marco Corleone
Rudos took 1/3. Psicosis pulled La Mascara’s mask for the win. Psi & Mascara agreed to a singles match in a week.

Familia de Tijuana

Damian 666, Halloween, X-Fly, Bestia 666, and Super Nova formerly announced their departure from the Perros del Mal group on Tuesday. Most of them were on Tercera Caida talking about the split, and they also sent out an article about it, with a press conference promised for down the line. The five are now operating under the old Familia de Tijuana name, and Damian and Halloween are the leaders. They said FdT is not a new promotion, but an independent group of luchadors which will be open to working for any promotion – even Perros del Mal. They’re just not going to work in the Perros del Mal office any more. They will be working their already agreed upon AAA bookings (and Halloween and X-Fly are booked a lot in the next week.) Super Nova mentioned he had returned the Perros del Mal Light Heavyweight title to the promotion.

Last week, Damian and Bestia had responded to rumors of them leaving the group by insisting they had just spent the early portion of the year elsewhere and were not leaving. This week, Damian explained that the idea just came up Sunday after the Perros del Mal show, and he talked to Perro Jr. about having different visions for the future. Damian and Bestia were going to leave on their own, but the others found out they were leaving and left with them. It’s not explicitly said, but it’s clear they were all upset about having worked for the company the last three years and being passed over for the recent arrivals from CMLL – Halloween & Damian both talked about working hard for the company and how Perros del Mal was a family, and that past tense seems to be important.

Perros del Mal have been completely silent, though I’d imagine most of the communication coming out of Perros del Mal previously was via these guys who are leaving. If Perros del Mal is going to exist on any level as a promotion, it’s going to be with a complete internal reorganization. Either AAA is going to completely operate it (they’d been helping out a lot for a while, which may have been another source of tension) or new people are going to be involved.

FdT fully presented themselves as independent luchadors. Damian said they had not talked to CMLL. If he hasn’t, it’s hard to believe he won’t be talking to them soon. There is not enough work on the independent scene for guys the level of Halloween and Damian to make it worth their time. Perros del Mal is down to running one show a month, a small hole to fill, and AAA had not been using them as much on TV since El Consejo came in, but those AAA spot show appearances are going away. I suspect FdT will do more international and more actual Tijuana based shows than Perros del Mal has been, but luchadors need to be on TV to be relevant in 2012. If it’s not AAA, it has to be either CMLL or maybe Todo x el Todo, but they don’t really have a strong reach themselves. I wouldn’t expect FdT to ever be full time with CMLL, but I believe they’ll end up there like the Invasors, working some CMLL shows and free to work outside if they can find the work.

Other News

Yesterday was Marisela Pena’s birthday. She celebrated it by making El Hijo del Santo look like a fool. At a hearing about the TripleMania DVD lawsuit, Santo was set to testify when Pena demanded Santo unmask. They were in court, and she argued she has the right to face her accuser, and even to see if it’s actually him under the mask. Santo was not going to do this, and it sounds like the judge felt this was unnecessary, but allowed the AAA side to postpone the case while this decision was appealed. The reports are just coming from the Santo side, so keep that in mind. It seems to me that if protecting the rights of individual wrestlers is the most important thing, unmasking yourself for a court case to move this process along is a worthwhile price – AAA would’ve looked cruel if he was forced to do it, but they correctly counted on Santo’s ego not allowing that to happen.

 

WWE announced they’ll be stopping in Mexico in May: 05/25 in Aguascalientes & 05/26 in Guadalajara. No TV taping, no Mexico City. There was a sense they had over-saturated the market, and this seems like backing off a bit.

Lucha Libre in Japan

via Purolove.com
03/11 AJPW: Takao Omori, Manabu Soya [O], KAI b Ozz, Cuervo [X], Ronin
03/13 AJPW: Takao Omori [O], Manabu Soya, Kaz Hayashi b Ozz, Cuervo [X], Ronin

There’s a new AJPW named Gillete who they’re claiming is from Mexico, but is apparently a Japanese guy in a new disguise.

Links

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 03/20/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Javier Cruz Jr. vs Demonio Maya
2) Ángel Azteca Jr. & Smaker vs Malefico & Ráfaga
3) Astral, Bam Bam, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
4) Diamante & Sangre Azteca vs Misterioso Jr. & Rey Escorpion
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Prince Devitt vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto

Devitt tour continues, as does the Bam Bam extended Guadalajara stay.

CMLL (TUE) 03/20/2012 Arena Mexico
1) Freesbe, Robin, Soberano Jr. vs Bobby Zavala, Cholo, Disturbio
2) Aereo, Eléctrico, Fantasy vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Warrior
3) Dragon Lee vs Raziel [Toreno Sangre Nueva]
4) Diamante Azul, Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger
5) Psicosis vs La Máscara

They’re teasing a Psicosis vs La Mascara mask match, which is possible to happen sometime this year.

AAA (SAT) 04/21/2012 Vive Cuervo Salon
1) Metallium vs Punker
2) Mascarita Sagrada & Octagoncito vs Mini Histeria & Mini Psicosis
3) Canelo Casas & Dani Casas vs Destroyer & Heddi Karaoui
4) Sexy Lady & Sexy Star vs Lolita & Ludark Shaitan
5) Cibernético & Heavy Metal vs Chessman & Octagón

A Rock & Lucha show, with five bands performing. Weirdly, the article says Jennifer Blake and Que Monito are on the card, though they’re not on the poster right next to it. (And Que Monito on the card would be odd aone.)

CMLL (TUE) 03/20/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Javier Cruz Jr. vs Demonio Maya
2) Ángel Azteca Jr. & Smaker vs Malefico & Ráfaga
3) Astral, Bam Bam, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
4) Diamante & Sangre Azteca vs Misterioso Jr. & Rey Escorpion
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Prince Devitt vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto

8 thoughts to “Raziel advances to final, FdT leave Perros del Mal, AAA tries to unmask Santo”

  1. Before we all feel sorry for one of the biggest assholes in Lucha Libre not named Mil Mascaras let’s think about this…

    AAA is being sued by this guy for including him on the DVD of a show where not only did he refuse to lose in the main event but he also held the promotion up for more money. Is that not the definition of scumbag?

    This is also the same guy who tried to register a move he didn’t invent which is basically a fuck you to the entire Lucha Libre community.

    Not only has he sued his own family members for trying to use the Santo name but he is currently preventing the next generation of Santo from making his debut much the same way Rayo De Jalisco Jr. screwed over Rayman in 2001 because he didn’t want to let go of his fame yet.

    Santo is in it for Santo. He could give a fuck about anyone else and would probably be thrilled if Lucha Libre died as soon as he was unable to wrestle any more. He stands for the opposite of everything his father did.

    Much like fans of Dynamite Kid – you can admire his work ethic in the ring all you want but you have to be a fool to ignore the fact that by all accounts he’s a total douchebag.

    What AAA did was genius. Probably won’t effect anything but it was a nice tactic to fuck with Santo’s huge head. I don’t think Santo cares about the fact his picture is on the internet. Common fans aren’t searching out unmasked pictures of him. People who visit this site are. I mean we had that scandal in 1995 (1996?) when his ex-wife leaked photos of him unmasked to the magazines which printed them the next day so it’s not like he doesn’t think some folks have seen him unmasked. It’s probably just about the principle. He doesn’t want to look weak in front of AAA and probably had no guarantee nobody would take any photos.

    Excuse me if I’m not going to feel sorry for a guy who has held up tons of promoters, does everything he can to make sure young talent doesn’t succeed & could care less if everyone who works a show with him leaves with nothing as long as he gets paid and gets to have his hand raised. A class act, indeed.

  2. Does Damien even do matches these days without weapons? I can’t see how he’s going to work in CMLL.

    I bet Bestia is waiting by the phone for WWE to call.

  3. I agree with you on what you are saying there Rob, but that was still a first class Dick move by AAA, and Santo being a first class asshole or being the nicest guy in the world doesn’t really change that – just makes it more palpable to the folks that know he is a Dick.

  4. Eh, don’t you think that Santo *should* protect his name? Or should he let there be multiple clones like Ciclon Ramirez etc. running around?

    He’s the son of the most famous luchador of all time. He is one of the biggest names in lucha libre. Nobody else is going to protect his name/image/identity for him (and it is doubly hard to do so in Mexico).

    AAA booked him for that cage match, so it was up to them to pull him from the show, or shoot on him. Seems like they should’ve addressed it then instead of bitching about it years later…or maybe they just respect him though it’s not currently cool to do so?

  5. Has Mister Santo had any kinds of problems like this with other promotions like this or just AAA? It seems like there’s a lot of venom there between the two parties for quite some time.

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