Lucha Azteca (CMLL): 2013-11-16

Escorpion fists of fury

recap

taped 2013-10-11 @ Arena Mexico
Máximo, Super Porky, Valiente vs Comandante Pierroth, Ephesto, Rey Escorpión: Actually a disappointing build up to the fight the following week; crowd didn’t seem as into it, and Porky didn’t as much get in offense as Máximo did. Máximo’s punches were much worse than Escorpion and Porky’s; they got better the following week. They did telegraph the finish to that match – Máximo got angry and illegally attacked Escorpion this week, just as he would do next.

Averno headscissors doom
Titan tope of doom

Titán vs Averno in a lightning match: Total Titan showcase. Averno never got in a move, he just moved out of the way at the right times. Finish seemed legitimate and crowd got into it; it also makes the dives a big more dramatic if they don’t always work (though maybe Titan’s got to stop missing them with Averno.) Both guys came out looking good.

 

Rush dropkick

La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Rey Bucanero, Tama Tonga, Terrible: Build up to the title defense by humiliating the challenger, an odd way of doing it (but it’s Rush so it kind of works.) Bucanero didn’t seem hurt in this match, but Marco definitely did. Rush and Tama Tonga look good brawling, but do not do as well doing anything else – Rush couldn’t make Tama’s finish look good here.

Oficial 911 unmasked (and X-Fly loses his hair again), Leyenda de Plata, el Mago

photo by Black Terry Jr.

Oficial 911 & X-Fly lost their mask and hair to Golden Magic and Hijo de Pirata Morgan last night. (Full results are not yet available.) 911 was announced as Jose Angel Bocanegra Gonzalez, 28 years old, and wrestling for 15 years. Do the math there. 911 tried to get away without unmasking,  but Golden Magic’s father Mr. Magia helped get him back to the ring.

Thought this was with one person losing their mask/hair, but it was actually the entire team and it’s not a surprise who lost given those rules. It’s also the end of an era, the last Oficial to be unmasked. They started in 2006, so this lasted much longer than IWRG characters usually survive.

X-Fly remains a perfect 0-18 moves to 1-18 in known apuesta matches. DTU has taken him out of Saturday’s six way main event apuesta match, announcing Onita Santana (Rocky Santana’s hardcore personality) will take his place. The show is in Santana’s home building of Arena Lopez Mateos and DTU probably knew of this chance well in advance.

IWRG says they’ll have another big show on 01/01.

Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is a great test of the Volador/Reapper feud. They have their big singles match, with decent support from the first part of the Leyenda de Plata. If they draw, then they’ve managed to overcome their problems in promoting the feud, but I’m not betting on that happening. Reapper needs a definite win here if he’s meant to be taken seriously, but I doubt that’s happening.

The Leyenda de Plata also starts tonight. It’s lacking a lot of depth for vacations or not-wanting-to-lose reasons. Atlantis, La Mascara, Titan and Averno are the four favorites and since the last three have won titles or have had big matches in the last few matches, it probably means it’s Atlantis’ turn. That would also point towards an Ultimo Guerrero win next week and one more singles match between them in the final.

Titan & Triton plan to work together in tonight’s match.

Mexican announcer Pedro “El Mago” Septien passed away on early Thursday. He was 97. Septien was a general sports announcer, best known for his baseball work (able to remember details of long ago games), but was also the Televisa announcer for the return of lucha libre to television. (I hadn’t seen an exact date previously, but it’s listed as 1980 in articles on Septien’s life.) Septien did not follow lucha libre before he starting covering it but studied it after being assigned to the role  and made things sound exciting even when he wasn’t exactly sure what to call a move.

Dr. Alfonso Morales, who notes he was mentored by Septien, mentions Septien maintained a book on the top stars so he would have the info with him at all times. Morales column on Septien also credits him for coming up with the “La Mejor Lucha del Mundo” tag line which CMLL still uses today. Furia de Titanes has a complete obit, and Cronicas y Leyendas has some memories.

If you like the gifs and not the worlds. I’m now updating a tumblr blog at http://luchablog.tumblr.com. It’s pretty much just going to be the same gifs I use in the recaps that tumblr will let me upload. (Some are just too big.) Other pictures may turn up as well, but no words outside of captions. Maybe I’ll use Facebook for just words? Anyway, you should be following http://fyeahlasombra.tumblr.com/ too.

Cronicas y Leyendas looks back at Perro Aguayo taking Rene Guajardo’s hair.

This week’s TerceraCaida interview previews the DTU and ChilangaMask shows. There’s also the after the cameras interview with Dement Extreme and Hacker trading masks.

Stigma says he barely knew Camorra before Camorra decided to start feuding with him, and now he’s just annoyed with all his tricks.

Press conference for La Comandante’s title match.

DJ Spectro looks back at Ultraman and (part 2).

Eric R reviews 12/07/13 Lucha Azteca.

Perro Aguayo Jr. did more scenes for the TV show he makes guest appearances on.

MedioTiempo looks back at January.

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-11-16

recap

taped 2013-11-08 @ Arena Mexico
Máximo vs Rey Escorpión in a lightning match: Good enough lightning match to allow Máximo to get some revenge, though it was designed to be more CMLL normal than the existing feud. It’s hard to get a ready on where they’re going with this, if this is meant to be going anywhere at all. Máximo did recover from the one botched spot, though it was Rey Escorpion paying the price (as he usually does.)

La Máscara & Rush vs Tama Tonga & Terrible for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship: Match was good, Rush faking the low blow and then mocking everyone about how he got away with it was great. Best match of this program at the right time, with Tama and Terrible working well with Rush now and Mascara being fine. It was amusing how both rudos desperately wanted to kill Rush and really had no interest in Mascara; he didn’t hold the match back but is an odd ball partner. Both teams got in some team work bits to make them actually feel like teams.

Atlantis, La Sombra, Shocker vs Euforia, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero: Not a lot more than a build up match to restart Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero. UG was barely in it because he was ducking Atlantis (and working with other técnicos even less), and Sombra was barely in it for whatever reason, so this was a battle of Negro Casas & Euforia vs Atlantis & Shocker and very frequent tags. None of the individual sequences seemed that long, which makes sense when the match didn’t go too long either. Match didn’t get into a rhythm at any point as a result.