La Sombra, the winner of the 81st Anniversary show, will put his mask on the line against Atlantis, the winner of the 82nd Anniversary show, in a mask versus mask match in this year’s Anniversary show. The two signed a contract for the match at a CMLL press conference this afternoon. There were no other stipulations or other luchadors involved or even teased to be involved, in a straight one on one match.
This is really happening. I’ve been skeptical of this actually happening, and was expecting some sort of angle to interrupt the press conference. Instead, they just simply signed the contracts. There’s a month for CMLL to change their minds, but the tickets go on sale tomorrow and it would be a significant backlash if they changed the main event after putting the tickets on sale. (Ticket prices have not been announced, but expected to be sky high.)
La Sombra is the favorite to take Atlantis mask. It would be more a certainty if anything about this makes sense. It’s clear CMLL was not planning on doing this match until two Fridays ago, when the feud was suddenly started in the main event of the show. The historic nature of the match will mean another huge gate, though putting this together cold at the last second with no TV for the feud seems like it’s going to hurt it a little it.
This would’ve been a big news conference even without the Anniversary main event. Dr. Wagner Jr. and LA Park are returning to CMLL. Dr. Wagner Jr.’s return was announced on a video (he’s in the US) and as taking place next Friday. LA Park appeared for an interview, but did not have a return date. Park said he hoped it’d be soon, so he could help fill all the empty buildings. Park did seem to have a program, as he said he was coming to CMLL to get at Rush. Rush & the Ingobernables have been feuding with LA Park on the indy shows, and LA Park said he was bringing the indy to CMLL. Wagner & Park are part of CMLL officially – this isn’t another All Elite situation. They’re probably on the Anniversary show, though it wasn’t said.
Dr. Wagner and LA Park were kicked out of CMLL seven years ago. It appeared they had a lot of disagreements with CMLL management, but a singles match between them at the 75th Anniversary show which turned into an out of control brawl appeared to be the breaking point in the relationship. Both eventually ended up in AAA, where they drew well but also completely annoyed management (and were completely annoyed by management.) LA Park seemed to get on the ‘never again!’ list for AAA too, but Wagner was on the World Cup show and was in talks with them to work TripleMania. Given it’s Wagner, he probably was talking with AAA the same time he was talking to CMLL. It’s unclear what changed to cause CMLL to bring them back; it’s possibly some combination of Wagner/Park’s demands going down as indy work has dwindled, and CMLL realizing it’s lack of marketable main eventers when Rush/Sombra/Niebla/Shocker/Casas were all out via suspension or injury at about the same time.
The big idea has to be LA Park versus Rush in an apuesta match sometime down the road; maybe the 83rd Anniversary show, since they’re running out of big masks. There’s no telling if LA Park and CMLL will make it that long without wanting to kill each other, or if they can get LA Park to agree to an apuesta match without changing how much he’s wanting at the last second. Park & Wagner stand up for themselves a lot stronger than other luchadors, but dealing with them can be like playing with fire. This may not work out well – it almost certainly will not end with everyone happy! – but it’ll definitely be interesting.
That’s pretty much all the news, though it took about forty minutes to get there. Guerrero Maya Jr. & Boby Zavala were confirmed as the En Busca de un Idolo finalists. (There was talk about the winner going to Japan, there was no talk about the winner’s title shot.) The bodybuilding contest was announced for November 25th, with La Mascara apparently involved this year. There’s a good chance of that airing on YouTube. A lot of time was spent talking about a CMLL branded lottery ticket. And that’s it.
No talk about the Universal championship, no talk about Naito coming in. No mention of what else might be on the Anniversary card. It’s a one match show, but that’s seems to be the way of big shows in Mexico City – a dream match or two on top, and they might not even mention the rest of the card. There might be other things added – the Dalys/Angel feud looks dropped, but that Shockercito/Demus feud might be noteworthy – but they’re selling this show entirely on seeing Sombra or Atlantis be unmasked.
