El Brazo, Heroes Inmortales, Aguila returns with a win

thecubsfan 4 Comments
photo by CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 10/15/2013 Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Akuma & Misterioso Jr. b Metálico & Molotov
Sensei was announced, but Metalico was subbed in ahead of time. Misteriso replaced Herodes the day of the show.
2) Acero, Eléctrico, Fantasy DQ Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
Bam Bam was announced, but Acero was subbed in days ahead of time. Straight falls, with Warrior fouling Fantasy.
3) Boby Zavala b Pegasso [lightning]
Zavala won in 5:05.
4) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa b Namajague, Shigeo Okumura, Virus
Tecnicos took 2/3, with the tecnicos again challenging for the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Titles.
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Thunder b Euforia, Felino, Mr. Niebla
Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Morphosis, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. b La Sombra, Shocker, Titán
Mr. Aguila’s return. Both he and Volador wore joker makeup (making it hard to tell them apart in close photos.) Volador Sprial on Sombra.

No sign of Cometa/Namajague but plenty of Fiebre Amarilla/Maya/Delta

Whatever was going on with the minis, if there was anything going on, seems to have been resolved since everyone is appearing again. They’re still not appearing a lot, which just puts us back at where they were the early part of this year.

CMLL (TUE) 10/15/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno b Metatrón & Virgo
Rudos took 1/3.
2) Oro Jr., Sky Kid, Starman b Hijo del Signo, Ráfaga, Sádico
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit b Luna Mágica, Marcela, Silueta
Rudas took 2/3, Amapola defeating Marcela.
4) Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis b Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado, Super Porky
Rudos took 2/3, Olimpico beating Fantasma.
5) Averno, Mephisto, Rey Escorpión b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Mistico
Rudos took 1/3, Averno sneaking in a foul on Panther.

Which match will randomly appear on 52MX in a few weeks? (Probably women’s match.)

Obviously, the only thing people are talking about today is El Brazo. There’s a lot of remembrances from fellow luchadors on Twitter. AAA has an obit on their website. KrisZ best and most detailed recap of El Brazo’s career. Cronicas y Leyendas writes about the Brazos before/after their mask match, and their three way hair match.

AAA held their press conference for Wednesday’s Heroes Inmortales show. AAA has notes and quotes. There are many Puebla articles about the press conference, which appears to just go over the lineup and give a chance for the local commission to talk about their work. Scoria was present and was not in a sling, so perhaps he’s feeling better. Porra Fresa has photos from the parade around town to promote the show. AAA’s posted interviews with Aerostar & Drago and Angelico & Jack Evans about their hopes to win the tag team title match.

Vengador Radioactivo took Neurona Killer’s mask in Xalapa.

Genesis has been missing from CMLL cards for the last 3 months. I do not recall hearing about a specific injury, but his performance was not where it needed to be.

Lucha Libre USA lives to run another show this weekend in Pomona, California, with announced Main Events of RJ Brewer vs Solar and Hijo del Lizmark vs Super Nova. That would be Nova’s first known match back from a knee injury, though he’s been announced and hasn’t appeared previously.

Hijo del Santo will be appearing in a comedy showcase in November.

Mistico II feels his technical skill is better and his dives are more suicidal than the original.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 10/22/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino & El Ídolo vs Demonio Maya & Évola
2) Black Metal, Esfinge, Leo vs Espectrum, Hooligan, Nitro
3) Gallo, Smaker, Tritón vs Felino, Puma, Tiger
Guadalajara vs DF
4) Blue Panther & Shocker vs Averno & Mephisto
5) La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Mistico vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

This seems like a more loaded Guadalajara card than usual, with the almost-Estetas versus the Guerreros and a semimain that’s bigger than most of the Sunday main events.

CMLL (TUE) 10/22/2013 Arena Mexico
1) Metatrón & Robin vs Disturbio & Zayco
2) Aéreo, Bam Bam, Fantasy vs Mercurio, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
3) Diamante, Fuego, Sagrado vs Namajague, Sangre Azteca, Virus
4) Hijo del Fantasma vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpión, Vangellys
6) Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. vs Super Porky, Titán, Valiente

Pequeno Warrior and Fantasy are back together again, so perhaps there’s something to that feud. Rare Reyes del Atlantida team up in the semimain. Volador & Aguila again together in the main event.

ChilangaMask (SUN) 11/17/2013 Coliseo Coacalco
1) Aero Boy vs Astro Rey Jr., Titán (CMLL), Latin Dragon, Magnifico
2) Reina Isis vs Silueta
3) Rey Cometa vs Impulso [falls count anywhere]
4) Belial vs Ricky Marvin
5) Cerebro Negro & Trauma I vs Dr. Cerebro & Trauma II [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Solar I vs Black Terry
7) Negro Navarro vs Valiente

Not sure if this is all the matches, but it’s probably pretty close to it. It’s another really interesting lineup with somegood sounding matches.

El Brazo (1961-2013)

thecubsfan 5 Comments

El Brazo, Juan Alvarado Nieves, passed away Tuesday night. Reports say he was in a diabetic coma since Sunday. He was 62.

El Brazo

El Brazo followed his father, luchador/referee Shadito Cruz, into a lucha libre career. He was the middle brother of the three most famous Brazos – Brazo de Oro, Brazo de Plata and El Brazo – but the last of those original three to debut. Many more would follow. The brothers formed the “Mosqueteros del Diablo”, a hard brawling rudo side which made it’s name in the 80s UWA. Their family versus family mask match against the Los Villanos is one of the most famous matches of that era.

The Brazos lost their masks and changed as a team. The trio became more comedic, the other two playing off Brazo de Plata’s natural charisma. Their family had long history in UWA and were very loyal, but decided to move to EMLL in 1991 (right before the UWA started going down.) The trio turned tecnico and remained were a regular act in EMLL/CMLL after AAA started. The trios broke up and faced each other in hair matches in 1995. El Brazo was the rudo, and defeated his brother Brazo de Oro in a three way hair match with Brazo de Plata.

El Brazo left CMLL in 1996, permanently splitting the famous trio. There’s always been a suggestion he had some falling out with his brothers, but I’m not sure if that’s true or what the details were. El Brazo would never return to CMLL while Brazo de Oro has forever stayed connected with the promotion, though it does appear they teamed on indy shows a little. El Brazo jumped to Promo Azteca for a couple years, then floated around the indies.

El Brazo joined AAA in the early 2000s and worked a variety of roles in AAA, including the standard creative Antonio Pena character (Tio Lucas), and was moved to an veteran role to work with youngsters. In recent years, he’s been a member of Los Guapos (feuding with Brazo de Plata in his one year visit to AAA), a luchador doing impersonations of other characters (most frequently the Latin Lover parody named Latin Broiler), and an exotico as La Braza. El Brazo had not been in a TV match since February 2012, but continued wrestling on off TV events. Brazo lost his hair once again last month in an all exoticos cage match, and wrestled semi-frequently in Arena Cuatro Caminos in Nuevo Laredo. Brazo had also transitioned to a behind the scenes role, representing the AAA office on those spot shows.The entire family was brought together once again for a all Alvarado charity show earlier this year. El Brazo was not allowed to work the show (they could not get the CMLL family members if the AAA were in matches), but the trio stood in the ring together, for what would become the final time.El Brazo is survived by his wife and children. A El Brazo Junior has wrestled in recent years, most frequently in IWL, and has been billed as the son of the original. El Brazo is the second Brazo brother to die – Brazo Cibernetico/Robin Hood passed away in 1999.

Both CMLL and AAA will honor El Brazo at their events this Friday. In a coincidence, both shows include Brazo family members in major roles. Brazo de Plata puts his hair on the line in a Super Libre Plus match, drawing on those old days as a rough brawler. Psycho Clown challenges for the AAA Mega Championship, and has reminded Texano how he was scared of the Devil’s Musketeers when he was little and should be equally scared of Psycho Clown. Both figure to be emotional matches under the circumstances.

No funeral arrangements have been announced.

great match roundup, week of 2013-09-21

thecubsfan

Great/Excellent Matches

CMLL on CadenaTres: 2013-09-21
taped 2013-09-17 @ Arena Mexico
Terrible vs Shocker for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship – GREAT

CMLL on Terra: 2013-09-13
taped 2013-09-13 @ Arena Mexico
Blue Panther vs Averno for the hairs – EXCELLENT
Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Valiente vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión for the CMLL World Trios Championship – GREAT
La Sombra vs Volador Jr. for the masks – EXCELLENT

Shows Watched But Nothing Made The List

CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2013-09-21
AAA on UTDN: 2013-09-26

Matches To Watch Later

I have nothing.

Estetas vs Revolucionarios, Mr. Aguila returns

thecubsfan

CMLL (MON) 10/14/2013 Arena Puebla [El Popular]
1) Fuerza Chicana & Toro Bill Jr. b Guerrero Espacial & King Jaguar
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Espíritu Maligno, Nitro b Leono, Milenium, Starman
Millenium took the loss.
3) Boby Zavala, Misterioso Jr., Shigeo Okumura b Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Sagrado
Misterioso beat Cometa.
4) Ángel de Oro, Máximo, Rush b Kráneo, Tama Tonga, Vangellys
Rush Driver on Tonga for the win.
5) Mr. Niebla, Pólvora, Rey Escorpión b Mistico, Titán, Valiente
Recap says Polvora beat Titan, which doesn’t quite make sense with what they’re going. Revolucionarios challenged Estetas for a trios title match and Estetas accepted this time.

Valiente’s trip to Mexico means the title match must be next Monday, but they didn’t announce it on the show. Busy week for Rey Escorpion.

Okumura promised more and stronger Fiebre Amarilla in 2014. Not sure what actually is going to happen, since Namajague will be going back and it doesn’t yet look like someone else is being sent to replace him. It’s still a ways off.

Mr. Aguila is scheduled to return tonight in Arena Mexico. It’d be his first appearance in three months, since his poor performance in the cage match where he lost his hair. He’s been scheduled on indy shows but has not appeared. (Aguila was listed as wrestling on a Guadalajara show the weekend after he lost his hair, but I’m not sure that result is correct.) There’s been no reason given for Aguila’s absence; it’s actually more surprising he’s back at all. Aguila is scheduled to team with Volador and Morphosis versus Titan, Shocker and Sombra.

Acero also returns as a fill in for Bam Bam after an even longer spell. In actual match news, Rey Cometa and Namajague may continue their feud in the fourth.

Referee Jose Luis Castillo, who used the name Chocolate, passed away Monday. He had a stroke a few days ago, then passed away due to a heart attack. There were plans for a benefit show before he passed away, then to go on as a show in tribute to him, then it was canceled due to a request by the family all within 24 hours.

Rob has highlights of AAA 08/02/13 and CMLL 08/16/13.

LuchaWorld has PosterMania and KrisZ’s news update.

Lucha Libre in Japan

NJPW announced Valiente will team with BUSHI in a Super Juniors Tag Team Tournament. It’s an eight team single elimination tournament. The first round is on 10/25 (first day of the tour), where Valiente & BUSHI face KUSHIDA & novato Yohei Komatsu (a replacement for an injured Alex Shelley, which gives Valiente a good chance of advancing.) The semifinals and the finals are on the last day of the tour; Valiente & BUSHI would face the winner of TAKA/Taichi and the Alex Koslov/Rocky Romero if they advance. Valiente spends the middle of the tour in early show tag matches, teaming with BUSHI and rookies against KUSHIDA, Liger, Tiger Mask and other rookies.

NJPW also has a story on TRT wearing Bullet Club t-shirts last Friday.

Sunday night, Sombra revealed he is in NJPW’s World Tag League. He was pictured as teaming with Naito in the tournament, which runs from 11/23 to 12/08 according to Purolove. The rest of the teams seemed about normal for NJPW, but I can’t link to Tweet – because Sombra deleted it. Oops!

Lucha Libre in Chile

CMLL Gaceta has a story on Arkangel de la Meurte’s trip to Chile. His match versus former trainee Trox is on 10/26 (and maybe for a random title), but Arkangel is actually going from 10/18 to 10/30 to work as a trainer.

Links