Month: May 2004

In case you haven’t seen it, recap #130 actually went up the same day. I told no one, to protect all from the shock of me being punctal.

This week’s lesson: I was completely wrong to be surprised about Black Warrior being passed by for the NWA LH Title. He got pinned (though obviously not cleanly), and the third fall and post match bits moved the rivalary away from him, and to Shocker. Which is what the feud was the previous weeks of television, and what the feud ended up being after – this was just a short diversion to get another person involved.

Back later with news.

Arena Mexico Results (all thanks to KrisZ ’cause I can’t find them myself)
– Hooligan/Loco/Sangre d Neutron/Power/Blanco
– Atlantis/Rayo/Shocker d Tiger/Terrible/Universo
– Averno/Mephisto/Pierroth d. Felino/Niebla/Volador Jr.
– Perro/Negro/Dragon d GdI (Ultimo pins Ultimo!)
– Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Canek. Mask ripping ensued. Wagner got a little help from – Dr. Wagner Sr.?!? Or more likely someone else under the mask screwing with Canek. Canek got stretchered out. I know Canek and Wagner are well into “Will Never EVER Drop Their Mask” territory, but it sure kinda feels like they’re building to a mask/mask match here. Or maybe I’m a mark. Who can say.

Ultimo Dragon told the fans that he’d back, and maybe hang around longer that time. Reports have the show as being Really Good.

This Week’s Card
– Ultimo Dragoncito/Pequeno Olimpico vs Espectrito/Fire
– Pantera/Starman/Neutron vs Dr. X/Nitro/Azteca
– Guapos Tournament Final: Texano/Misterioso/Oro vs Espiritu/Vikingo/Maximo
(which means I was wrong this week, though I sure I read the finish the other way. It’s fixed.)
– Atlantis/Rayo/Panther vs Ultimo/Rey/Tarzan
– Shocker/Lizmark/Casas vs Vampiro/Tarzan/Pierroth

I’m thinking this won’t get the same Real Good comments. As a follow up to Canek/Wagner, both of them will take the week off.

Other matches of note
– No more Guapos matches in Arena Coliseo. Sunday’s main is Atlantis/Lizmark/Panther vs Vampiro/Universo/Tarzan, and Tuesday’s is Shocker/Panther/Warrior vs Pierroth/Emilio/Scorpio
– Mr. Niebla is CMLL Heavyweight Champion, in case you’ve forgotten (and sometimes I do, so don’t feel bad.) He’s actually going to defend the title versus Tienieblas Jr. in Arena Pubela on Monday.
– Dr. Wagner will be wrestling in Guadalajara today, facing Atlantis for a Guadlajara Trophy. As if they needed a reason.
– Acapulco got added to the on line show listings, but they’re not actually updating the lineup. Eh.

By request, I put together a list of Best of Lucha (I’ve seen). That’s the prompt for you to say “Why haven’t you seen [x]? It’s really very good” so I can make some changes and order some tapes.

Noticed while compiling: My Best of GdI part 2 recap is either missing, or I totally forgot about it till now. Not sure. If someone can find the non-badly formatted and not edited copy magically, that’d be neat

Let’s do this in a hurry, because it’s 2 AM and much of this stuff is 6 or more days old

(Thanks to KrisZ, Stuart, CMLL.com and others)

New NWA Champion: So, Shocker beat Vampiro for the NWA LH Title in Arena Puebla all the way on the 3rd. If you recall, the last time this title was seriously brought up was a Vamp title defense versus Black Warrior (scheduled to air next week), where Vampiro walked out of the match in the third fall, got dragged back, and laid out many tecnicos.

That seems like a killer angle to me, but without the title being involved (as the reason for the match, and a source of heat for Vamp wearing a belt that’s much too small for him), I don’t think there’s anything left there worth going after. Either something happened causing them to speed up the title change (and I don’t know anything of the sort) or it’s just one of those magical disappearing lucha angles. It’s not like Shocker and Vampiro didn’t have their own issues anyway, so there could be less important title switch matches.

The upside is Shocker already had a scheduled match vs Ultimo Guerrero for CMLL’s LH Title. They didn’t turn it to title for title, not putting the newly won belt on the line, but it still was champion vs champion. And it’s Thursday and I can’t find a result for it, so I’m guessing it was either an Ultimo win or (probably more likely) indecisive.

Meanwhile, that NWA Middleweight Title Ultimo Dragon dropped off during his last visit still sits in a closet somewhere in the bowels of Arena Mexico, I guess. I wonder if he’ll just grab the belt back while he’s in the area.

Japan to Mexico: AJPW’s (I think) Shigeo Okumura told the Japanese press earlier this week that he’s signed with CMLL and will be leaving Japan to work in Mexico full time for as long as he feels necessary. CMLL hasn’t mentioned this at all. I don’t expect this to be a big deal.

Speaking of Japan – Takemura did end up seconding Masada and Nosawa in their match against Jado and Gedo, only to help out the former team to win. Weird thing was, Takemura, Masada and Nosawa managed to imply they were previously together under a “Tokyo Gurentai” name. That’s a cool name, but the name I heard was Legion de Japanese. I could imagine Nosawa and Masada wanting to use another name and being totally ignored, though. Or a name switch happening after they were sent back to the lower card abyss.

Guapo Tournament Update:
The second generation team of Texano Jr., Brazo de Oro Jr. and Misterioso Jr. beat Lestat, Leono and Karisma to move on in the tournament. That sets up the title shot match next week at Arena Mexano, where Texano/Oro/Misterioso meets Chris Stone/Tiger Metallico/Brazo de Plato Jr – the Brazos collide! I’m guessing Misterioso’s team wins, just because I see his name more than people on the other side. Winners get the title shot vs Voaldor/Safari/Felino on the 28th.

Arena Mexico Results from last week
1. Mini Olimpico and Mini Brazo de Oro d. Mini Pierroth and Mino Violencia
2. Tiger Blanco/Misterioso Jr./Sagrado d. Dr. X/Sangre Azteca/Nitro (some Blanco/X rivalry here)
3. Felino/Ricky Marvin/Alan Stone d. Super Crazy/Fuerza Guerrera/Violencia
4. Olimpico/Averno/Mephisto d. Atlantis/Niebla/Zumbido
5. Ultimo/Tarzan/Wagner d. Canek/Parka/Shocker (cheat to win, and Wagner/Canek challenge each other post match)

Arena Mexico Card for this week
1. Tigre Blanco/Mr. Power/Neutron vs Holligan/Sangre Azteca/Loco Max
4. Mr. Niebla/Felino/Volador Jr. vs Pierroth/Averno/Mephisto
4. Perro Jr./Ultimo Dragon/Negro Casas vs GdI (Tarzan/Ultimo/Rey)
4. Atlantis/Rayo/Shocker vs Universo 2000/Tiger/Terrible
5. Canek vs Dr. Wagner

The stated deal is that all 3 middle trios matches are all really big. I guess the real deal is none of them wants to be promoted as the second match on the card.

If I didn’t tend to push everything to wards the middle like a really steep bell curve, the 05/08 show probably would’ve got a 1 of 4. As is, there was enough decent moments to boost it to a two. It came down to the show being missable (thanks to major clipping that left only one complete match in the 45 minute show) and not offensive to the senses. But you didn’t miss a thing.

This week’s lucha times are also up. Same one hour deal for Saturday afternoon. I think they’re working on a two week cycle for Vuelta, but whatever it is, I think I’ll start keeping a better backlog of what aired when so I can figure out the pattern more accurately.

News later, but the biggie is already over a week old: Shocker beat Vampiro to become your new NWA LH Champion. Somewhere, Black Warrior what happened to his program.

And before I go someplace and lose this link, there was a nice discussion of Good Ciberneticos on the DVDVR board.

Updated, or shall be shortly. Futbol issue this week: the afternoon lucha broadcast is only one hour. They’ve been showing the CMLL show on the one hour slot lately. This week is the start of the Vampiro turn.

They skipped around on Vuelta again. I dunno anymore.

I’m giving up on the return to Arena Mexico show being aired. Need to put in my “order tape” queue.