LA Park wins $$$, Dos Caras to retire, AAA owns Wagner name?, CMLL tonight

RCH (THU) 10/03/2013 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), IWRG]
1) Fulgor I & Fulgor II b Látigo & Mr. Leo and Atomic Star & Electro Boy
2) Decnnis & Relámpago (Coahuila) b Centvrión & Golden Magic and Arez & Impulso
3) Apolo Estrada Jr., Bracito De Plata, Rossy Moreno b Bugambilia, Lady Apache, Voladorcito
Listed as Bracito de Oro, turned out to be Bracito de Plata, might actually be the same guy. Whoever, he helped Rosy reverse a Lady Apache roll up for the win.
4) Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Trauma I, Trauma II DQ Eterno, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Zumbido
Tecnicos took 1/3. Wagner blatantly fouled Hijo de Pirata for the DQ.
5) LA Park b Dr. Wagner Jr., Canek [50000]
winner gets 50000MX ($3850 USD). Usual crowd brawling, mask pulling and fouls. Wagner beat Canek with a mask pull and a foul (after Canek had started it), then Canek pulled Wagner’s mask to set up LA Park’s pin. 50000 peoss to LA Park.

Missed opportunity: I thought “bag of money” was the way to go, but they should’ve given LA Park one of those giant checks after the win. Or had it before the match with no name on it so people could clock each other with it. (I’m not sure how they were awarded the money.)

Dos Caras Senor to retire

This week’s SuperLuchas magazine (#510) includes an interview with Hijo de Dos Caras and Dos Caras Sr. It starts off introducing the new son, but turns into the older Dos Caras announcing his plans to retire. Luchadors claiming they’re going to retire then never actually retiring is almost as old as lucha libre, but Dos Sr. seems credible about this. His plan is for five matches – one in November, one 12/04 in Korakuen Hall in Japan, then 3 matches early in 2014 in Monterrey, Tijuana and Mexico City and that’s it – he specifically doesn’t want to be like other luchadors who do retirement matches in every arena in every town. He plans on continuing to work out, because it’s important, but no more lucha libre after those matches.

There’s also an article where Black Shadow Jr – the third different one! – says he’s going to retire soon. That one is not as concerning.

Dr. Wagner’s US trademark

Last night, Dr. Wagner Jr. ranted angrily to the press about AAA stealing his name. Jose Manuel Guillen of Tercera Caida and Black Terry Jr. have video has a version too. It’s tough to take Dr. Wagner at his word when he’s told tall tales about returning to CMLL and mask matches with LA Park this year, so I did some research. It turns out the name is actually trademarked. (You can find the US Trademark search here.) These are all the AAA US trademarks I could find via the online trademark search, sorted by the date they were filed

Filed 12/26/2002
AAA – then the logo again on 12/22/05

Filed 02/01/2005
Mascara Sagrada

Filed 02/17/2005
LLL Mexico logo, then again on 02/20/2013

Filed 09/08/2005
Psicosis – then again on 02/20/12

Filed 10/01/2009
Mascartia Sagrada – lists 06/30/1995 as first usage, and 07/15/1995 as “first use in commerce”, then filed again on 02/25/2010 for more items

Filed 12/19/2012
“It’s not wrestling, it’s Lucha Libre” – tag line used with the video game

Filed 02/11/2013
Cibernetico
Dr. Wagner – (not Dr. Wagner Jr, FWIW)
La Parka – also tradermarked by Lucha Libre USA, but that trademark is listed as abadonded
El Mesias
Monsther Clown – probably why they’ve drifted back to the h spelling again.
Murder Clown
Psycho Clown
Sexy Star

There’s also a Latin Lover trademark filed on 12/07/2005 that was marked as canceled just this past August 23rd.

The wrestlers are tradermaked in categories specifically for usage in wrestling and also to sell merchandise. It looks like AAA just trademarked a bunch of their top people in a bunch, but the timing is funny. Dr. Wagner was in his weird contractual limbo with AAA by February; they didn’t know if he was coming back at that point. It’s possible these were in process when Wagner and AAA were still friends and didn’t get done until much later. It’s also possible Wagner unknowingly signed something that gave AAA permission to trademark his name in the US (maybe back around the video game time), though that seems unlikely with Wagner.

It’s also unclear how much of an effect this actually has. The original Psicosis trademark was timed to stop him from using the name with WWE, but that doesn’t seem to have actually worked. It’s unlikely to stop Dr. Wagner Jr. from using that name on any indy show in the US and it’s possible he could get a lawyer to remove AAA’s claim, though that’s expensive and annoying and enough to make you angrily rant into the camera about it after a show.

Marisela Pena says they’ll explain this (at some point.) The reasoning AAA would do something like this in general makes a lot of sense when you start rooting around the database. Previously, Lucha Libre USA had trademarked terms including Konnan, Octagon, La Parka, El Mesias, Dr. Wagner, Cibernetico, and Chessman, but those are all listed as DEAD since 2010 and are no longer valid. (They don’t even own the trademark for Lucha Libre USA any more, but they do own Lucha Libre.) It was probably a pain to have someone else own the rights to AAA characters before, and this is about making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Other News

I was on Joe Versus the World yesterday. It was fun!

CMLL is again giving free tickets to today’s show in exchange for hurricane relief donations. Atlantis, La Mascara, Maximo, Brazo de Plata, Brazo de Oro, Goya Kong and guests Aramis, Muneca de Plata, and Brazo de Oro Jr. will be helping with the collections.

Today’s main event is Peste Negra versus Marco, Shocker and Atlantis. There’s nothing really ongoing with that match, but there are a couple stories in the undercard. The Rey Escorpion versus Brazo de Plata feud will continue in the fourth match, Dallys might finally turned ruda in the women’s match, and 2012 En Busca de un Idolo winner Titan faces 2013 En Busca de un Idolo winner Vangellys.

Puebla Express says the opening match for Heroes Inmortales is the usual Relevos AAA style match. Teams are listed as Faby Apache, Elegido, Pimpinela, and Octagoncito versus Mary Apache, Cuervo, Mamba and Mini Abismo Negro. It’s possible the match could be changed with Cuervo replacing Escoria in the tag team title match, but we at least can figure on Cuervo being on the card for interference at some point.

Televix Entertainment says they’ll be distributing CMLL in Latin America. It’s said to be a one hour TV show with occasional larger specials. Given CMLL’s amount of programing, this could just about anything, but that sounds most like the Fox Sports show. No idea what countries. Televix’s website lists other products they handle – including Strawberry Shortcake. She gets around. I think the take home here is fans in El Salvador may get to see CMLL on their TV and people on YouTube might have someone new filing copyright claims.

Rob has highlights of 03/15/13 CMLL.

Lucha Libre in Japan

Tanahashi is putting the CMLL Universal Championship on the line in his IWGP Heavyweight Championship title match, which is a bit amazing since the CMLL belt has never been defended as a title belt before (even though it looks like one.) It’s just been a trophy shaped as a belt. Anyway, Tanahashi is winning and some people will be very sad.

Links

R de Rudo has video of Oficials versus Comando Elite from last weekend, which appears to be setting up masks/hair vs hairs/mask match, or something less dramatic, on 10/15.

This week’s DTU TV show.

The dark match from the SLP taping was Diablo Negro & Aero Fly beating Black Maravilla & Mini Maniaco.

Ohtani’s Jacket writes about Enrique Vera vs Dos Caras

An interview with Shocker.

Skayde is in Berwyn (outside of Chicago) on Sunday.

SuperLuchas looks at La Sombra’s career so far.