Today’s CMLL show is headlined by a La Mascara vs Mephisto light heavyweight title match. Mascara notes this is his third chance at this title: he lost the title to Mephisto on August 13, 2013 in Guadalajara, then lost a rematch on October 7 in Puebla. Mascara doesn’t vary his matches much, so maybe you don’t want to watch that match unless you want to see all the repeats. Mascara already has a title he doesn’t do much with, he probably doesn’t need two, but it doesn’t really matter either way.
An annual survey of Mexican sports interests says lucha libre is the fifth most popular sport in Mexico. 35.5% of Mexicans consider themselves a fan of the spot. It’s not the second most popular sport in Mexico as it’s usually billed – though I wonder if it would’ve been if they were including lucha libre in this poll around Mistico’s peak. This year’s list goes Futbol, Boxing, Basketball, Beisbol, Lucha Libre, American Football, Race Cars, Bull Fighting. Futbol has a huge number (70%) and boxing is about half now, but both it, baseball, and basketball were all at much lower numbers for portions of last decade.
Daga explains he hasn’t defended his title because there’s been no one in AAA worthy of getting a title shot. This story would work better if he was now defending it against someone outside of AAA; he’s instead facing three guys who’ve been in AAA for the last six months. I’m not quite sure what Argenis did to become more worthy except have a temporally less employed brother.
Euforico, Sioux and Drako won the Morelos state trios championship.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and this week’s PosterMania.
Rob has video of Mistico’s painful day on this week’s Fox main event.
Two new CMLL videos: preview for Friday, another Cien Caras history piece.
The newly renamed Rey Horus debuted under that name with a win at the Evolucion Lucha Libre show.
Eric R reviews 03/01 Lucha Azteca.
DJ Spectro looks back at Gran Hamada vs La Fiera as MOTY of 1985 and Black Shadow vs (Hijo del Black Shadow. That one was about the original Black Shadow renting out his name and then the deal ending, as it did with Rey Misterio/Rey Horus over the weekend, and appears to have happened with Lizmark and “Lizmark Jr.” as well (not the well known Hijo del Lizmark, but a sporadically seen luchador, mostly in Tijuana.)
An article about retired luchador/action figure creator Demonio Cibernetico.
Cronicas y Leyendas writes about the events of early 1989.
Ojo Diabolico Jr. is taking an extended break from lucha libre soon.
Chucho el Roto & Yakuza are headed to Costa Rica.
The AULL team of Pegazus, Shibata and Spider Boy are teaming up as Los Super Dinamicos.
Lineups
IWRG (SUN) 03/16/2014 Arena Naucalpan
***Guerra de Golfo, 2014***
1) Hip Hop Man & Látigo vs Hanaoka & Ms1 Jr.
2) Chico Che, Emperador Azteca, La Magnifica vs Dowki, Imposible, La Sádica
3) Trauma II vs Súper Nova [IWRG JUNIORS]
Trauma II is champion. Third defense, second versus Nova (though they’ve switched sides since that one.)
4) Tony Rivera vs Veneno, El Hijo del Diablo, Trauma I, Toscano, Golden Magic [cage, loser advances]
5) Black Terry vs Oficial AK47, Apolo Estrada Jr., Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Relámpago, Skayde [cage, loser advances]
6) ? vs ?? [cage, mask, hair]
Skayde lost his mask in 2007 (to Mistico, in something that came out of nowhere.) He has somehow been allowed to just put it back on in recent years and it’s absurd to see him apparently risking it again in a cage match. Apolo Estrada, who beat Chico Che in this match last year, lost his hair nearly 3 months to do the day of this show and is still in the process of growing it back. This is super sketchy.
I think it’s safe to rule out the other masked people (Trauma, Golden Magic, Hijo de Mascara and Relampago) and probably Toscano, but the other 7 are fair suspects. Plus others (X-Fly!), as IWRG’s had people not booked for cage matches lose cage matches. Tony Rivera vs Black Terry is the big feud they could finish off here, which often happens.
CMLL (SUN) 03/16/2014 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo vs El Yaqui
2) El Brillante vs Demonio Rojo
3) Idolo & Javier Cruz vs Espectrum & Infierno
4) Metatrón, Sky Kid, Smaker vs Magnum, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
5) Ráfaga vs Stuka Jr. [OCCIDENTE LH]
Rafaga is champion. First defense
6) La Sombra, Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr. vs Cavernario, Felino, Herodes Jr.
This could be a pretty good – main event should be good and so should be the title match. That one could go either way.