Day: December 17, 2004

Previews

Saturday: The word up in TLN land last week is they aired an hour of matches, cutting out directly during the Misteriosos match. We know next week was scheduled to be a two hour CMLL show (that’s how it aired in Mexico), and this sounded like another one that TLN interrupted. Tack on the obvious focus of the show – Dr. Wagner’s rudo/tecnico status resolved – and I figure we’ve gotta be getting two hours of CMLL lucha this week.

Digression 1: Despite the jobs lost and the pressure to succeed removed, kinda makes you wish AAA went away, at least TV wise, just so we could get a larger view of CMLL like always happens when they go to two hour shows. This is Sangre Azteca’s second TV match in the last two months, and I don’t know if he got that much full length time in the last two years.)

Digression 2: Between skipping episodes, showing AAA occasionally, and not realizing your show ended in the middle of a match, that’s not exactly a stellar job TLN Is doing.

Sunday: Boring.

Other junk…

Waiting for word on the Friday night shows. Do you realize, on the same night, there were three major shows in Mexico City?

Funny to me only: The recap of last weekend’s Vuelta included me noting, during stellar moments: “ASTRO BOY with a spin spin spin into a Fujiwara armbar.” That move sounds awfully familiar.

Funny possibly to more: Pena, on last Saturday’s AAA show, taking responsibility for making el Hijo del Perro Aguayo and Juventued Guerrera. Coming up with “the sons of a legend” ideas must’ve taken a lot of work.

CMLL: Year End Show, tag team hair match
ENSEMA: Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (not Rayman, I think) and Axel vs Black Man/Hijo del Espanto, mask/mask
GPCW (Juvi): Cibernetico vs Konnan, title match

Isn’t that the kinda stuff that’s hurt Japanese business in Tokyo? At least they’re not trying fill a dome here.

so so bitter everyone was like “wow, a wacky christmas lucha show” when I had the actual poster here A WEEK AGO, proving no one besides jtron and maybe Bihari reads this. And people who produce wonderful cartoons.

In my non-existent double shot lucha recap, I would’ve pointed out that Blue Demon used Blue Demon music at the VaVoom show, but was using the Mucha Lucha music at the follow up kids-oriented show.

so so bitter in general

Posters are awesome. If someone in Mexico just had a blog where they scanned in the weekly poster, I’d be bookmarking that site.

Anyway, the only news I have is Rayo’s out a month with a (knee?) injury, ‘ccording the KrisZ. The situation (solo match vs new rudo Canek) and the timing (he wasn’t scheduled for the Year End Show, and he’d be taking the holiday season off) sure makes it sound like an angle. Or maybe something he might work thru if he had a big pay day pending.

Wild guess on upcoming main events based on a blurb on CMLL.com:

– Canek (mask) vs Dr. Wagner (UWA Heavyweight Title) on the Return to Arena Mexico Show
– Canek (mask) vs Dr. Wagner (mask) on the 72th Anniversary Show.

Canek’s not leaving town without his belt, at any rate.

Best Of: Anyone else intersted in doing voting for a Best of Lucha 2004 thing? I’ve been sketching out ideas for something along those lines

– any ‘lucha’ match/wrestler from 01/01/04 to 12/31/04 would count.
– any promotion

Awards
* Best Wrestler
* Best Match

– Best Tecnico
– Best Rudo
– Best Tag Team
– Best Trio
– Best Mini
– Best Promotion
– Best Rivalary

– Best Title (Championship which meant this most this year)
– Best Legend (Best Wrestler for those 40 years and up)

– Favorite Wrestler

– Worst Wrestler
– Worst Match

– Most Improved
– Most Deserving Of More Attention

* 1 to 5 ballotting
– 1 to 3 ballotting.

Questions: Are Worst categories worth anyone’s time? Too many categories? Missing categories? Categories that wouldn’t work? (Have y’all see enough Minis to vote for one?) Longer ballots for certian awards? (I think I could go MLB MVP like 10 deep on Best Wrestler, but I don’t know everyone would want to.)

My big worry is how the lagged AAA/CMLL TV is dealt with; is Best Match balloting just a seperate awards bit done after all the TV gets here? Do we use different start/end dates for those awards?

I think you’d need to get at least 10 ballots to make this worthwhile. (Which wouldn’t seem to work if it’s just the 4 of us.) So if it’s something you’d like to particpate in, give me a heads up. If this is something you’d like to do yourself and all I’d have to do is link to stuff and post stuff and send in a ballot on time, definetly get a hold of me.

Lucha Times: Previews aren’t done, but it looks like everything’s on at the normal times. I’m 70% sure it’s 2 hours of CMLL on Saturday.