Month: October 2012

IWRG (THU) 10/11/2012 Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Johnny Rivera b Radical
Radical replaced Johnny Rivera
2) Alan Extreme & Tóxico DF b Centvrión & Freelance
3) Freyser, La Cobra, Relampago b Carta Brava Jr., Factor, Violencia Jr.
Freyser pinned Carta Brava Jr., then challenged Factor to a match for the Juniors championship.
4) Heddi Karaoui, Oficial 911, Oficial AK47 b el Ángel, Trauma II, Veneno
Oficials jumped the tecnicos, particularly Trauma II. Ruduos took 1/3, AK-47 getting away with a foul on Veneno and Karoui finishing with a backcracker.
5) Negro Navarro & Trauma I DQ Bestia 666 & Damián 666 [IWRG IC TAG]
Negro Navarro & Trauma I came in as the tag champs. Navarros dominated the first fall, but 666s turned it around and won it and the end. Navarros submitted 666s in the second. In the third, Bestia dived on to Trauma I but hurt his ankle on the landing. One referee went to check on that. The other referee got caught in the middle of Negro & Damian, and Negro pulled Damian’s leg to cause him to foul the ref. Damian immediately caught Negro in an armbar, but ref DQed him for the foul and the Navarros kept the titles.

AAA has their first post Heroes Inmortales taping tonight in Tlahuelilpan. It’s a bit of follow up to the last show: another cage match with everyone from Sunday’s cage match except the two involved in the finish (which is a good place for a big angle), Mesias vs Texano in the semimain, and more Apache on Apache violence in the segunda.

CMLL runs another show not continuing any ongoing storylines or looking like a big draw, but possessing some interesting matches. The main even is Hijo del Avernos vs a Guadalajara high flying trio of Titan, Mistico and Mascara Dorada. CMLL Gaceta pushes this as El Futuro Ya Esta Aqui. (The future in this case is Monday’s Reyes del Aire match.) The show also has the Leyenda de Azul tournament, where there is no definite favorite. It’s not hard to make a case for over half the field. It’d be amusing to see Diamante Azul to take it, just for the reaction, but this has not been a strong week of performances for the ex-Metro. The show also has Leon defending her REINA championship vs Amapola. Leon is only in for a few days and there’s no guarantee she’ll be back, so it serves no obvious purpose for her to beat one of CMLL’s top rudas, but then Amapola rose to the top by beating everyone for a long while and she’s not going to be hurt by a loss.

Perros del Mal announced Lizmark Jr. would be rejoining their group. Hijo del Lizmark worked for the promotion in 2009 and 2010 when they were running more regular shows, and was part of the group in AAA last year. He’s barely been seen anywhere this year, only showing up in 3 lineups I can find since Lucha Libre USA stopped running shows again. (Lucha Libre USA still is putting up new episodes taped months ago each week on Hulu, though the only people talking about their show is their Twitter account.) Perros del Mal have no upcoming show announced.

This week is the third QPPLC tryout, taking place in Puebla. Saturday’s schedule is here, with the usual final selection and AAA show on Sunday. Like all these tryouts, they’ll draw from outside the local region; La Copa has an article writes about 10 Hidalgo luchador making the trip, including one of the 14 year old wrestlers mentioning before.

AAA launched their new website yesterday. It looks great! The new roster page is a strong improvement over previous ones they’ve had and I like the composed group shot. The press conference for the launch mentioned the webchat they’ve been doing of late will be a regular Thursday event. Dorian said the entire AAA roster would be on Twitter and Facebook within a year, both so they can speak to the fans directly (and uncensored), but so they can start ridding the world of all the fake AAA social media profiles out there and get people to the genuine ones. That’s been an increasingly problematic issue and it’s smart to address it. The entire website is being handled by digital marketing company Konzeppt.

AAA’s site looks much better than CMLL or IWRG’s. (It’s a million times slicker looking then the site you’re looking at right now.) It’s not WWE’s site, but it’s not WWE’s budget either. If AAA’s new site had just sprung up without advance warning, I would stop right here, noting how it’s a great new start. Instead, AAA’s social media crew did an excellent job of building hype for an unfinished product. (Maybe they should be reassigned to the programming crew?) It starts on the main page, where every link on the main page links to a old preview of a TripleMania match, and not to the actual social media place. It’s displayed the graphic, but no one wants to type. The events page doesn’t seem to be sorted in any fashion, and includes plenty of events from August and September, perfectly fine to keep on your website, but need to be sorted away from the upcoming shows.  The taping tonight is not listed at all, much less the ones coming up which have been mentioned on TV. The broadcast page links to the latest YouTube video, a strong place to start, but there’s no place where a visitor could find out when AAA’s broadcasts are actually on (uStream, Televisa, TVC Deportes, whatever.) (And, this is a tech wonk/what works for me thing, but if they’re pushing all the ways you can connect with them, there really should be a RSS icon up there without all the social media stuff. ) It very much feels like the example site of what the web company wanted to do, only no one went back and actually added content and cleaned up before the site went live.

It also doesn’t mean all that much in the long run. TV and live events matter much for AAA than whatever they’re doing on the internet. It’s added bonus. There’s still no way to buy anything, tickets, merchandise, DVDs, whatever, so all it’s doing is building brand awareness and likability. Those things are important and AAA is doing them better than the promotion in Mexico City, but it’s down the list of important things.

Rob has a review of the first AAA Fusion show.

Bill has highlights of last Sunday’s IWRG

CMLL (TUE) 10/09/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Thunder Boy b El Divino
2) Demonio Maya & Ráfaga b Èvola & Infierno
3) Goya Kong b La Comandante, Tiffany, Marcela, Princesa Sugheit, Lady Apache, Luna Mágica, Dark Angel, Dallys la Caribeña, Zeuxis [cibernetico]
Elimination order went Zeuxis (Luna Magica), Dallys (Sugheit), Dark Angel (Apache), Luna (Comandante), Apache (Marcela), Sugheit (Goya), Marcela (Comandante), Tiffany (Goya), Comandante (Goya). Goya landed a senton for the win, and celebrated as Comandante was taken out.
4) Mr. Águila b Valiente
good match
5) Averno, Pólvora, Último Guerrero b Atlantis, Mistico, Titán
Rudos took 1, tecnicos took 2, Atlantis beat Averno in the second, Ultimo Guerrero beat Atlantis, Mistico dived onto Guerrero, and Titan jumped into a Polvora dropkick for the loss. This sets up a title match next week between Titan and Polvora.

The debut episode of AAA Fusion is already on YouTube. The women’s match and the Bizarros vs Perros match aired. If the AAA Digital thing turns out to be interesting, I’ll do a post about it later.

The cast of El Luchador Season 2 was presented at Arena Mexico yesterday. The show starts a week from tomorrow. There’s a mention of Magnus challenging Dragon Lee to a mask vs mask match during the series. He’s a tecnico now, so either Magnus is changing his ways on the show or in CMLL soon. All the ‘secondary characters’ were there except Rey Bucanero’s wife or daughter, and since Rey Bucanero’s story arc is if he’ll get stay with his wife or get custody of his kid, that’s not very promising. In another, the director emphasis the need for continuity between seasons and is surprised at it’s success in other countries. The article says they’re already in talks for a third season. Rey Bucanero emphasizes the series showing the reality of their lives.

Dragon Rojo says he hopes to be the execution of foreigners in CMLL after already beating Devitt & Lyger. Rojo says nothing concrete is planned as far as a name for he and Escorpion or a third member (though Misterioso is suggested), just that they don’t want to be teaming with Ultimo Guerrero any more.

Tama Tonga arrived in Mexico yesterday, and said he plans on winning Leyenda de Azul, and focused on Sombra and Atlantis. Namajague & Okumura’s routine of meeting people at the airport and asking them to team with them to challenge for the trios titles continued here, though Tonga was non-committal. Tonga’s stay is said to be undetermined, but that usually means until a week or two before the next NJPW tour (11/20, so probably thru the 11/09 Friday show.)

Leon also arrived. She’s in Mexico just for a week, which may explain why her lightning match suddenly became a title match. Leon has dreamed of wrestling in Arena Mexico, and wants to win so she’ll be invited back. This is her first wrestling trip outside of Japan alone and not with other wrestlers, but she hopes she’ll get him safe and with her title.

Rob has his top 5 spots of the week.

LuchaWorld has this week’s PosterMania.

Links

Monito has an idea to slightly change the Leyenda de Azul name. Actually, they should have a tournament where the winner gets Monito as his exclusive manager for two months, it’d be the most heated battle ever.

A report from a Dr. X mass.

Cronicas Y Leyendas looks back at El Halcon vs Hiro Matzuda

Profile of Arena Pavillon del Norte wrestler Tiburon Jr.

AAA participated in electronic recycling and glasses for kids programs. I think I’m participating in electronic recycling this weekend, but I don’t think masked men will be there.

DJ Spectro has Flama Roja being set up in a mask match in an interesting way, Ray Mendoza vs Ape Man in a worked MMA match, and American Salvaje vs Ultraman.

MT interviews Sairus, who’s wrestled in Northern Mexico, GALLI, and IWC in Pittsburgh.

Lucha Libre in Japan

Ultimo Guerrero was added to the lineup for Ultimo Dragon’s 11/07 Lucha Fiesta show. Rayo de Jalisco and Brazo de Plata had previously been announced.

Lineups

LLT (SUN) 10/14/2012 Eagles Club, Berwyn, IL
1) Arc-angel vs Wilmoah
2) Tigre Asiatico & Venganza vs Silver Star & Tokio Lee
3) 450 Hammet & Devil Dogg vs Chris Prism & Erick Del Rey
4) Steve Boz vs Steve Rydell
5) Golden Star & Slayer vs Caballero Tiger & El Infernal
6) Nikki St. John vs Melanie Cruise
7) Flash Metal, Hijo de Rey Misterio II, Lobo Blanco vs Guerrerito del Futuro, Imperio Azteca, Yakuza

Poster sure looks like Horuz. I’d like to check him out, but it’s a 5pm show, right the same time as Terra, and I think I need to be around the luchablog HQ to see the mask match and report on Diamante Azul’s attempt to break Volador’s neck. But I’d definitely check this out another Sunday, so maybe you ought to?

CMLL (TUE) 10/16/2012 Arena Mexico
1) Genesis & Robin vs Cholo & Ramstein
2) Camaleón, Oro Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Disturbio, Herodes Jr., Taurus
3) Dalis la Caribeña, León, Silueta vs La Comandante, Lady Apache, Princesa Sugheit
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Namajague, Sangre Azteca, Shigeo Okumura
5) Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis
6) La Sombra vs Volador Jr.

Three fall rematch! Volador has three singles matches in three days, two with Sombra. This is the second time that’s happened recently; whoever looks at the big picture is strange.

First Silueta match in Arena Mexico since May.

Reyes del Atlantida have almost got their rematch for the trios titles, except they’re fighting the wrong three Invasors.