You can find Strong Style Spirit over here at the moment. Eventually, I believe www.puroresunetwork.com will resolve to the new site, but it doesn’t appear to be working from my computer yet. (DNS can be such a freaking pain.) The other promotional sites look to be in various stages of returning. I’ll change the sidebar links once everything gets settled.
Bad news: the Mexican futbol federation has BANNED wearing lucha masks after scoring a goal. This was big last season, when Gabriel Pereyra (ironically the unmasked man in that photo), a player from the Cruz Azul team, wore Mistico’s mask after scoring a goal (and CMLL did a few bits with both of them together), and other players started wearing other people’s masks and such. There’s no new rule, the officials are just reminding everyone of the illegalness of bringing non-uniform equipment out onto the field (if you’re familiar with the other football, think TO & Sharpe pen) and promising to do something about it this season. The season starts soon, and this is the Big News in upcoming rule changes (so it’s a slow period.)
Ovaciones announced today that CMLL’s Leyenda de Plata tournament would be start next week. The article mentions says “more than 12” wrestlers have applied to be involved in the tournament, but only some of the applicants are listed
– Rey Bucanero
– Mistico
– Dos Caras Jr.
– Santo (who’s in for four weeks starting Friday.)
– members of Perros del Mal
– members of Guerreros del Atlantida
The participants (usually 16) will be announced after this Friday’s Arena Mexico show. Atlantis is the reigning champion.
El Halcon #67 is up! Inside:
– Interview with LA Park. Lots of talk about AAA claiming their La Parka is the original, which LA Park is very unhappy about. The interviewer asks if he’d ever face La Parka Jr. in a mask match, and LA Park figures he could never trust those AAA refs to call it fairly; they’d have to do it Arena Mexico (which means NEVER.) Park’s asked for sure if he’ll ever fight La Parka Jr., and he says…
“EN EL CONSEJO MUNDIAL DE LUCHA LIBRE TE HACEN ANTIDOPING CADA SEMANA, ENTONCES POR ESO NO TE FUMO, NO TE TOMO, QUE LA GENTE SEPA QUE AQUÍ SE HACEN BIEN LAS COSAS…”
which google translates to
“IN THE [CMLL] THEY DO ANTIDOPING EVERY WEEK TO YOU, THEN FOR THAT REASON I DO NOT SMOKE TO YOU, I DO NOT TAKE YOU, THAT PEOPLE KNOW THAT HERE THE THINGS ARE MADE WELL…”
Is that a figure of speech, or is CMLL doing drug testing? That’d be a story. Not many comments about Wagner, except to say the feud’s not over (well, for non-TV it’s not, and thinks were going along fine when this interview was done)
– The interview happened at a June show in Durango
CMLL (SUN) 06/18 Teatro del Puebla, Durango, Durano Results
1) Red Panther DQ Andy Rock
2) Caballero Negro, Alacaran Aseseino, Relampago b Gran Misterio, Dragon Negro, El Camaleon
3) Lobo de Aire, Texano Jr., Sagrado b El Negro Sosa, El Siniestro, Hijo de Cien Caras
4) Dark Angel & Lady Apache b Princesa Sujei & Amapola
5) Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada, LA Park DQ Hijo de Pierroth, Blue Panther, Super Parka
– Interview with Silver King. He’s back in CMLL to win the tag titles with his brother. He was very thrilled with his reaction upon returning, and thought about friends who’d passed since he last was in Arena Mexico as Silver King. Silver King thinks LA Park is aiming a bit too high if he’s trying to take down both the Wagner brothers. Silver King also explains that after “10 years” of WCW and “5 years of NJPW”, he’s just decided he rather stay home with his family. After his performance in Nacho Libre, he’s been offered a role in another movie.
– Highlights from the first AULL TV taping at Arena Lopez Mateos. It sounds like it was run pretty well and people were happy with the initial show. The plan is to showcase indy guys and compliment with CMLL wrestlers – they soley worked the semimain and main.
– flashback to 1984.09.02, when Canek fought Hulk Hogan for the WWF Title at el Toreo Curato Caminos. They broke the attendance record that day, bigger than the previous match where Canek defended his title against Hogan. Villano II vs el Faraon for the WWF LH title was the semimain. Hogan won the first fall, but was DQed in the second. Both men were tired (and at least Hogan was bleeding) in the third fall, but thru the support of the fans, Canek finally rallied back and managed one mighty body slam to get – a near fall. Canek got a few more near falls. Hogan eventually was sent out, and Canek TOPED Hulk Hogan, but he got caught in the ropes on the way out and may have taken the worse of it. The two ended up battling outside for a double countout. Referee in this match was Shadito Cruz, father of the Brazos, oddly enough. The author wonders – how would’ve have things changed had Canek won the WWF belt? (Would Canek and Randy Savage have formed the MegaMayans? Would Canek have led the nWo? Would VH1 have a ‘Canek Knows Best’ show? Would Larry Sweeney have to dress up as Canek Jr? oh the possibilities.)
– Interview with indy wrestler Lasserman. He was trained by el Isleno and in Gualadajara by the Flash, and hopes to make it to CMLL one day.
Opening lines to a box y lucha article (translated)
Days ago, Konan commented that the Mexican female wrestlers were fat and ugly. It is clear that the Cuban said this because he’s nearsighted.
BURN. Anyway, they’ve got quick bios of Atenea and Silueta, who wrestle in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara.
Excelsior has an article about a man who smuggled an ancient historic skull – under an Octagon mask. That seems appropriate.
It’s good thing I’m out of news, because now I’ve got the image of Canek playing air guitar with the UWA Heavyweight Belt and I can’t think about anything else.
Wow that parka interview was hard to read.
I’m shocked vince would let hogan anywhere near Mexico back in those days. Has anyone seen that match?
Regarding the lucha mask ban: To be fair, soccer’s clamped down on excessive celebrating over the past few years. A lot of players would take their shirts off after a goal to reveal a t-shirt underneath it with a political message or something like that, and that could lead to a PR nightmare if the team has to distance itself from the player’s beliefs or something of that nature.
It sounds stupid, but given how taking the shirt off in most leagues now is grounds for a yellow card, it’s no surprise that the masks are now forbidden. Odds are they’ll only get yellow carded but I’d love to see CMLL do a bit where a heel (say, Atlantis or Ultimo) goes off on the league because one of the players put their mask on and got a red card as a result.
The season starts on Saturday, by the way, meaning that CMLL in Mexico can and will have its timeslot changed numerous times during the span of a *week*, let alone the entire season.