Month: December 2013

IWRG (SUN) 12/15/2013 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Fulgor I & Fulgor II b Alfa & Omega
2) Dragón Celestial, Hip Hop Man, Látigo b Araña de Plata, Kaling Black, Zurdog
3) Douki, Imposible, Oficial 911 b Diva Salvaje, Golden Magic, Miss Gaviota
911 used a ref bump to sneak in a foul on Golden Magic.
4) Alan Extreme, Máscara Púrpura, Veneno b Fuerza Guerrera, Súper Nova, X-Fly
Eterno was in the crowd, on crutches. Super Nova borrowed one of the crutches to play around with before the match, then took Purpura out in the crowd during the match so Eterno could hit him with a crutch. Veneno pinned X-Fly.
5) Dr. Cerebro b Apolo Estrada [hair]
Apolo won a quick first fall. Cerebro rallied back to win fall 2. 911 (Apolo’s second) stole Golden Magic (Cerebro’s second) mask, and Golden Magic went to the back to find a new one. It took him a great deal of time. 911 interfered a lot, Magic came back and moonsaulted 911, and Cerebro beat Apolo with a superbomb. Apolo got a chunk of hair taken off in the ring and more backstage. The Doc would like a title shot next.

Yesterday, I mentioned how Konnan said a planned tecnico turn for him in AAA Mexico was scuttled because the plans for him to be a heel in AAA US. there’s also been a general sense AAA has been holding back and waiting for the US launch to do certain things. I used to think that was a good idea, but I’ve done a 180 on the concept in the last few weeks and now believe it’s not a smart move.

We still don’t know very much about the AAA US promotion (which is kind of amazing given it’s supposed to be 3 months away from launching, but that’s another topic for another slow news day), but what we know about is the El Rey people in charge are approaching it like AAA has zero or nearly zero brand identity in the United States. Possible changes like a different name or making the characters more super-heroic could only be done if there wasn’t a concern about putting off people in the US who were already following the product. They’re starting from scratch decisions, which you can only make once you admit you’re at scratch. There are people in the US who do follow AAA – the kind of people who read this website or tried to purchase TripleMania – but that’s a small amount of people compared to the numbers it’s going to take AAA US to be viable.

If you’re starting AAA US as new for a new audience, then nothing that’s gone on in AAA Mexico matters to that audience. They don’t know it’s been 10 years since Konnan was a tecnico in Mexico, because AAA US just started to exist. They don’t know how big a deal it would be for [luchador X] to win a title or [luchador Y] to betray another and turn tecnico, because they’re unaware of the history or build up to that moment. AAA US could spend effort teaching them that history, but they’ve got get over who these people are first for it to matter. Telling the ending of stories or even the second act of stories will be lost on these new people – they just came in, they didn’t see the first act. AAA US has to be the start of new things.

It also doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to hold things back in the Mexico promotion, or even really treat them as related promotions early on. The number of people who will be following both the US and Mexico wing will be very small. Very few people in the US follow AAA in Mexico, and very few people in Mexico will  be following the US promotion. The inconsistencies are only going to bother a minor group of people, not enough to revolve your booking around. There’s going to be a lot to get across for AAA US when they start up, don’t deal with the baggage of the last ten years of stories at the same time, and don’t handicap the promotion you’re counting on supporting you by waiting for the US audience to catch up. Tell the best stories you can right now, and make them all match up later on if it makes sense then. Give yourself the best chance to succeed and don’t worry about the crossover details.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Mask maker Jade has a new website.

 

recap

taped 2013-10-29 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Gallo, Smaker, Tritón vs Felino, Puma, Tiger: Fun trios match, like most of the Felino/Puma/Tiger trios matches have been of late. Smaker and Gallo both fit in good here and this was a steady night for Triton. Even Gallito got more involved than usual. Nothing wrong with this at all.

taped 2013-11-03 @ Arena Coliseo
Mephisto vs Titán for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship: This was going along at a good pace, but the injury happened too soon in the third fall to know how it was going to turn out. (The Daga/Halloween vs Crazy/Marvin match is your better late injury match, to that extent.) It’s possible this was the finish planned for the end all along; Titan didn’t seem too surprised when Mephisto told him it. I think Mephisto might have gotten two different injuries in this match – Volador was working over the hip/back after the dive, but Mephisto was limping after the dragon screw – but I hope he gets healthy enough for them to try this all again.

 

Namajague & Shigeo Okumura vs Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. for the Arena Coliseo (DF) Tag Team Championship: GREAT. Best match in 2013 where one of the participants randomly strikes a fan in the closing minutes? It’s got to be in the discussion! CMLL was surprisingly good at making sure we never saw what happened, but enough of the live crowd saw it to make it a distraction for the live crowd – but they were still into the match! Crowd was generally much more receptive to this than I would’ve guessed. Match seemed stronger to me on the rewatch; Delta and Maya have grown as a tag team and Namajague is just great at making everything look big. I wanted a bigger ending or at least something where the rudos get foiled trying to cheat their way to another win, but this still had a lot in it.

 

 

CMLL (SUN) 12/15/2013 Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Leono & Robin b Akuma & Inquisidor
Tecnicos took 1/3, but not before the rudos ripped up Robin’s America jersey.
2) Demus 3:16, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior b Astral, Fantasy, Shockercito
Rudos took 2/3 in a quick usual match.
3) Cancerbero b Súper Halcón Jr. [lightning]
Cancerbero won via motocicleta in 7:47.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Sagrado, Stuka Jr. b Misterioso Jr., Puma, Sangre Azteca
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) Blue Panther, Rush, Thunder b Pólvora, Rey Bucanero, Tiger
Tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Felino, Negro Casas, Pierroth b Atlantis, Valiente, Volador Jr.
Maximo was announced originally, but replaced by Mistico on Monday, then by Atlantis on Wednesday. Rudos took 1/3, Negro popping up from a front cracker to sneak in a foul on Volador. Negro belittled Volador and challenged for a title shot.

Really dead show. I think they’re turning up the ring sound to make it seem louder, but it still can’t hide when there’s not many people in the seats.

CMLL (SUN) 12/15/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) El Piraña b El Capitan
One fall.
2) Acertijo & Sádico b Halcón de Plata & Javier Cruz Jr.
Rudos took 2/3, Acertijo sneaking in a foul on Cruz.
3) León Blanco b Magnum
One fall. Leon one with a cristo.
4) Esfinge, Gallo, Leo DQ Demonio Maya, Infierno, Maléfico
Tecnicos took 2/3, Malefico pulling Gallo’s mask.
5) Diamante Azul, Titán, Tritón b Bárbaro Cavernario, Espectrum, Ráfaga
Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) La Máscara b Gran Guerrero
Mascara took 2/3.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara announced the Tuesday shows on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Even would be pushed back to Wednesday. That’s the usual practice – CMLL always runs on the holiday, never the eve – and Arena Mexico will announce the same in the upcoming days.

Today’s MLW Radio includes some AAA tidbits about Guerra de Titanes. It’s about 16 minutes in and not long, but there are two main news items. Konnan does not use almost anyone’s name in talking about the show, seemingly feeling his podcast friends and listeners are mostly unfamiliar with a product his company will make a big splash in the US in 2014. It means I may be confusing a “that person” with a “that person”, and Konnan notes (discussing another subject) he may be getting people or words confused because he’s so high. It’s not really a podcast about getting every little fact right. It’s always worth listening for yourself if you want to figure it out, but I’m going to spend a lot more words unravelling in than Konnan did explaining it.

Yuriko quit because he was going to lose his hair in the cage match. (Konnan does not say Yuriko, but there’s only one person who quit.) It’s not totally clear when Yuriko found out and when he quit, but it sounded like the quitting was very late and they were working on a solution the day of the show. It was Konnan’s bosses who thought Pimpinela might be okay with it, and it sounds like Pimpi had no problem. There was a little extra drama because Konnan said the a different third was going to lose when going over the match with the eight people in it, and that person about fainted when they heard they were losing. Konnan straightened it out and it all turned out okay, but it was an extra hassle in a day where he’s got a full plate.

The bigger news is the surprise Konnan hyped last week was Konnan’s own tecnico turn. It was not explained how it would’ve worked, just that it was decided he needed to be a heel for the US promotion so they couldn’t turn him here. The next idea was an unnamed main eventer turning from tecnico to rudo. “And that…that didn’t go down. So, at the last minute, we had to change things.” It’s never said who refused, if that’s what happened, but it would have to be one of Cibernetico, Mesias and La Parka.

So Konnan had to spend the night rebooking the angle and getting all eight guys on the same page (and in the right spots) for what they did instead. That was complicated by the Jarrett’s not showing up until the semimain due to fights issues. (Boring aside: Jarretts had flight delays due to ice issues in the US, but the only flights going from DF to Nayrit that day left at 3pm and 7pm. The Jarrett’s flight schedule seemed like they wouldn’t have ever been able to make that 3pm flight. At any rate, normal practice is to be in town the day before the show to avoid these kind of issues and it probably was the Jarrett’s call to make it same day.)

(I know, I can’t believe I looked up flight times either.)

One of the things had to be rebooked was Zorro’s run in. Konnan wanted the lights to go out for Zorro’s appearance after one tecnico had turned on another. Again, no names, but that sounds like Perro was supposed to turn on Cibernetico, Zorro makes the save, only Zorro’s evil and helps Perro. The people in charge of the lights and Zorro’s run-in didn’t understand their cue or just didn’t execute right, because they actually turned off the lights before Perro turned, so Zorro was making a save for no reason. (This is probably why no one was quite sure right away what how Perro figured in – his moment got skipped over.) Konnan feels like it worked in the end but seemed to really like the idea of the save swerve and was disappointed it didn’t happen.

That change in plans explains the final product seemed so uninspired. AAA probably wasn’t putting together a Nueva Sociedad, and definitely not one with the same people, if either of Konnan’s first two plans came together. They did what they could with what they were left with, but did not go into this major card cycle knowing they’d end up there. (The negative reaction to GdT was not mentioned at all.)

When I first was thinking about this, I also thought it as Perro’s turn was a makeup because other people weren’t turning – but I guess Perro and whoever else could’ve both turned rudo at the same time. There didn’t seem to be a concern about doing too many things in the same segment as it was, so one more would not have been a problem.

My hunch, based on absolutely nothing and assuming I’ve got this story right, is Mesias passed on turning. I can’t imagine AAA even asking the other two.

Pasion Kristal took Diva Salvaje’s hair on Saturday.

La Vaquerita explains she’s out of action due to a right knee injury suffered in her final match in Japan. The doctors told her she’d need surgery at first, but now believe she may just be able to rest and rehab it. That’s her hope, as well as to challenge for the CMLL title in 2014.

Super Libre had interviews with El Faraon & Chik Tormenta.

Rob has highlights of 10/02/13 AAA and 10/04/13 CMLL.

Black Terry Jr. has photos of the AULL show on Saturday.

SuperLuchas #515 has a Guerra de Titanes recap.

AAA TV (SAT) 12/14/2013 Hard Rock Hotel, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco [Lucha Libre AAA]
1) El Elegido, Faby Apache, Mascarita Sagrada b Dark Cuervo, Mini Abismo Negro, Taya Valkyrie
Faby Apache replaced Jennifer Blake (pneumonia, returning to Canada.) Mascarita beat Mini Abismo. Sexy Star tried to help the rudos, but it backfired on Taya.
2) Angélico, Australian Suicide, Jack Evans b Daga, Steve Pain, Toscano
Usual finishing sequence of moves on Toscano. Rudos turned on Toscano after the match (so he’s still a tecnico.)
3) Blue Demon Jr., Cibernético, Fénix b Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagón Jr., Silver King
Sociedad ran in to attack Cibernetico for the DQ. Other tecnicos came out and ran them off to end the show.

Air Date: 01/18 if they take usual three week holiday break. (No one knows for sure.)

All the tecnicos won and nothing substantial happened. A good time was had by all (assuming from the pictures.)

No word on the first 2014 taping. It’ll probably be a few weeks before we heard about that.