indy (SUN) 12/23/2012 Arena Coliseo Monterrey [LuchaMania Monterrey]
1) Artillero (Monterrey) & Kratoz b Caballo Dorado & Xtreme Boy
2) Angelica & Lady Puma b Hija de Karonte & Lady Maravilla
3) Tigre Universitario & Vaquero Romo b Low Rider & Monje Negro and Demonio del Caribe & Silver Star and Difunto I & Difunto II
4) Hator, Head Hunter, Pierko el Boricua b Big Neurosis, Galactar, Simbolo
Hunter snuck in a foul on Neurosis.
5) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park b Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.
Parks had spiffy new matching outfits. Usual Wagner/Park match. Park fouled Wagner, ref stopped counting at 2, both Parks argued with the ref, both Wagners rolled up both Parks for the win.
Hey, Pierko el Boricua. This also serves as your Low Rider Update.
CMLL (TUE) 12/25/2012 Arena Puebla [Porra Fresa]
1) Ares & Siki Ozama Jr. b Akron & Fuerza Chicana
Rudos took 1/3.
2) Artillero, Saurón, Súper Comando b Asturiano, Höruz, Robin
Sauron replaced Ramstein. Rudos took 2/3.
3) Fuego, Magnus, Stigma b Arkángel de la Muerte, Nosferatu, Skándalo
4) Último Dragoncito b Mercurio [lightning]
Mercurio replaced Pierrothito, hurt on Sunday. Best match of the night. Dragoncito won with a campana.
5) Diamante Azul, Sagrado, Super Porky b Mr. Águila, Olímpico, Psicosis
Diamante Azul tried throwing his shirt to the tecnico fan club, but instead hit the grating preventing the fans from spilling out from the balcony. Comedy match. Tecicos took 1/3.
6) Terrible, Tiger, Volador Jr. b Atlantis, Delta, Valiente
Volador pinned Atlantis, but the fans thought Tirantes fast counted the pin.
Edecanes only appeared with the fall signs, not before matches. Show moved a day later than usual due to Christmas Eve falling on Monday, but kept at the usual time of 9pm. Lowest attendance of the year. A late night start on Christmas Day with no main event seemed like a tough sell. No lineup for next week yet – seemed like Pierrothito was likely giving Dragoncito a title shot on 01/01, and his status could change things.
El Medics II was unmasked by Silenicoso in a Christmas Day cage match at Arena Aficion. Medics II is Calixto López Cruz, 58 years old, 38 years a luchador. His two partners (1 and 3) were in the match and escaped with their masks.
IWRG is off today, as they annually do for the last Thursday of the year.
Last night’s Tercera Caida had a roundtable with CMLL’s Miguel Reducindo, AAA’s Miguel Fonseca and Box Y Lucha’s Enrique Yniesta talking 2012 in lucha libre. It’s rare to get AAA and CMLL people on the same stage at the same time, so this was a treat. AAA and CMLL Miguel both stuck to mostly talking about their own companies strong points from this past year, but they did go back and forth on topics like future stars in lucha libre (where CMLL Miguel said the CMLL fans were slowly warming to the new guys and AAA Miguel seemed to point out theirs were farther along) and debating the merits of extreme wrestling. Enrique – who’s at times ring announced for AAA and been banned by CMLL – put his relationships to promotions aside to be the unbiased voice in the debates. Enrique and the promoters also spoke up for the independents and WWE. In comparison, I’ve only seen a couple minutes of the show on Televisa Deportes Network with Negro Casas, Cibernetico and Fabi Apache, and it already seems like it’s theatrical screaming. Tercera Caida had actual discussion, and I love listening to actual discussions.
One interesting part was a long discussion of Mistico and Octagon Jr. as new top guys. When you make that direct comparison, it’s not a great one for CMLL. Mistico Nueva Era is more of a draw then Octagon Jr, but that’s entirely due to the old Mistico being more popular than the current Octagon. Samuary himself is easily better than Dragon Lee as a luchador at this moment, and would’ve been better than Dragon Lee at Mistico himself. I’m not sure if Samuray del Sol would’ve been received much better than Dragon Lee – ‘they’re bringing back Mistico – and giving the name some guy from Chicago?!?!’ but he probably would’ve been physically and mentally more capable of taking the role. (And Dragon Lee being Octagon Jr. would’ve been much better for him – the couple minutes a match he could’ve been doing martial arts and trademark Octagon spots would be a couple minutes he wouldn’t be in danger of breaking himself spinning like a top.)
One thing bugged me from CMLL’s Miguel is mentioning he didn’t even watch AAA. It’s so much easier to follow AAA – all you need to do is watch the one hour show. You can be extra informed and watch Fusion and the two hour regional show if you can track it down, but you’ll get 95% of it by watching a single 42 minute show per week. CMLL is significantly more difficult, because an average fan will never know where the important is airing and CMLL appears completely disinterested in making an easily digestible product. (Those that only are aware of the Televisa show missed Cometa/Puma, Panther/Casas and Titan/Averno to pick three for Fox alone.) It’s not WWE, which is easier to figure out what to watch (watch RAW and the PPVs and you’ll get enough of it) but a lot more hours a week. It’s a single hour show and your closest competition; if CMLL wants to be competitive, they ought to know what they’re battling. I know the reality is most people who work in wrestling do not watch other promotions, and fairly often do not watch their own TV shows. It just seems like an ill considered way of doing things, especially when it’s one hour.
I was not very familiar with Miguel Reducindo before this, so I goolged his name to see what came up, and the first thing that came up was a radio interview he did along side Triton. Not Metal Blanco Triton, then IWRG Triton from 2010, months before CMLL would come up with the idea to rename one of it’s own luchadors Triton. Oops.
CMLL Gaceta has hype for next Tuesday’s CMLL Welterweight title match. Titan’s plan is to beat Polvora for that title, then go to Japan for FantasticaMania and defend the world title against an opponent to be determined. Polvora claims he’s only giving Titan the title match to humiliate him.
WWC will be airing a Mesias match this Sunday (from IWA, something that would be astounding in past years), because Mesias is back wrestling in Puerto Rico next weekend. He usually does at least one match in Puerto Rico each January while AAA is on break.
El Hijo del Santo’s biweekly column is more grouchy than usual. He takes a shot at Fray Tormenta; Fray Tormento was never a good lucahdor, but a thousand other people were never good luchadors. He also says regulatory officials should consider taking lucha libre off TV for matches where men face women or minis face regular size wrestlers, WWE should be taken off TV because too many people and children watch it, and too many fighters just dance and strip (a complaint years out of date; AAA goes out of their way to cut that out of TV every time Perro and Garza try it.) Santo says the announcers mock the luchadors and don’t explain what’s going on. That’s definitely true at times, but he blames Andrés Maroñas and Arturo Rivera, and Arturo hasn’t done a show outside of TripleMania in years now; Santo can’t be bothered to actually watch a lucha libre TV show or even find out who’s broadcasting them. Santo says families don’t bring children to lucha anymore because of bad language shouted by the fans (there’s always been bad language.) Santo thinks the best luchadors of AAA, CMLL and the independents should come together to get rid off all the people who are damaging lucha libre, and form a single promotion to compete with WWE. He also thinks lucha libre is dead, so I guess we shouldn’t bother.
Santo has some points in his favor, but he’s – or whoever is ghostwriting for him – clearly stopped paying attention to lucha libre outside of anything he’s directly involved in years ago and comes off as out of touch with the lucha libre. He’ll always have credibility to casual fans because of the mask, and he’ll always find luchadors willing to work with him because anyone who can get a luchador paid is a luchador’s best friend, but Hijo del Santo seems totally irrelevant to lucha libre going in to 2013. His Todo x el Todo shows have stopped, he’s not wrestling much elsewhere (and has acknowledged time is running out on his in-ring career) and his rants like this one go utterly ignored. Hijo del Santo’s strength is he’s not required to listen to anyone outside his family, but Hijo del Santo’s problem is that no one’s required to listen to him.
Three Kings day in Tijuana includes a Bestia 666, Extreme Tiger, Hijo de Rey Misterio (II) three way match.
Rob has highlights of the 11/24/12 Perros del Mal Hector Garza tribute show.
English language commentary over Puma King vs Rey Cometa!
AAA now has La Parka paper toy instructions.
Lucha Libre in Japan
The Ni Modo blog has photos of Violento Jack & Aeroboy’s appearance on the Freedom show on Christmas Day.
More footage from Rush & Azul in Japan: an eight man tag, and versus Tenzan & Kojima.
Lineups
IWRG (SUN) 12/30/2012 Arena Naucalpan
1) Impulso vs Dragón Celestial
2) Galaxie & Saruman vs Araña de Plata & Yack
3) Chico Che, Freelance, Freyser vs Alan Extreme, Imposible, Tóxico
4) Centvrión, Dinamic Black, el Ángel vs Bombero Infernal, Carta Brava Jr., Eita
5) Golden Magic, Trauma I, Trauma II vs Eterno, Head Hunter, Súper Nova
Vacation time = Golden Magic main events, and Bombero Infernal wrestling two shows in a row. Main event if probably better if Head Hunter doesn’t make the show.
Chico Che’s first match here since March. He was a rudo then, but appears to be back as a tecnico. Alan Extreme & Freyser may still be feuding, though I’m not sure what they can put on the line versus’ Alan . Maybe Freyser’s Making It Rain money? Maybe Freyser has to disclose the location of Durok & Machin so Alan can go after them yet? Maybe Freyser will be forced to sing Alan Extreme’s favorite songs? There are many possibilities here.
Impulso, of Mexico City indy fame, gets his first main show appearance after five matches on FILL shows going back to the middle of 2011.
