CMLL (SUN) 04/23 Arena Coliseo Results
0) Aguila Roja, Teuton ?? Renegado I, Renegado II
1) Sombra de Plata, Trueno, Valiente b Artillero, Super Comando, Zayco
2) Hijo de Pierroth, Mr. Mexico, Okumura b Leono, Sagrado, Tony Rivera
3) Marcela b Hiroka [CMLL WOMEN]
4) Damian 666, Mr. Aguila, Terrible b Felino, Heavy Metal, Negro Casas
5) Hijo de Lizmark, Mistico, Ultimo Dragon DQ Olimpico, Tarzan Boy, Ultimo Guerrero
OMLL (SUN) 04/23 Congress Theater Results
Attendence was down, which is what you’d figure when they start charging for tickets. Balcony was closed off. Ringside was still sold out, but I’m thinking 500-600 range. Not sure how good I’m at guessing.
No one brought a ring bell, a whistle, or anything to signal the beginning and start of falls. All matches were three falls, though they never actually made a point to announce that before the first match, confusing at least one participant. No one got music for the first match, and then everyone got the same song on max volume except Demon and Misterio. They had a smoke machine, and I’m not sure why.
1) Justin Adams, Yakuza b Acid Jazz, Lancer 2000
Justin and Acid are non-lucha, Windy City guys. I’d never seen Justin before, but I recalled Acid Jazz looking like had some skills, and when he was in with Justin, it looked good. Yakuza and Lancer – who I’m guessing have worked less often and for a less amount of time – didn’t look as good, but at least had an idea about the lucha style. Cross pollination between the two matches didn’t work at all, and it was actually less fun when all four were in at the same time – there just wasn’t much chemistry here. Acid Jazz has a good bemused expression, and got to use it a lot during the night. In the first match of the night, Yakuza – seemingly under the impression he was working in an Arena Mexico main event – did some crowd brawling and he and Lancer took turns throwing each other sections of crowd. They did do a dive train spot, with Adams doing the Stuka Jr. moonsault to the floor. (I’m sure that’s who he was thinking of!) Yakuza talked trash to the camera (and I guess the tecnicos) post match, and then got beat up by the tecnicos.
2) Rayo Laser, SWAT Kat b Aguila del America, Blade
I may have the finish flipped here. They waited till the second match to break out the chair shots. Somewhere during the night, someone took one unprotected to the head, and while I can remember it happened, I can’t remember who did it to who, which says something about something. Blade got his mask pulled off and the tecnicos wouldn’t give it back, so he left and got a new one, which is a weird spot for a rudo. There was no flow or story to the match at all, just a lot of brawling and spots, with a vague idea of building to a SWAT Kat vs Blade match down the line. The idea tonight seemed to be talking up matches/rematches for another show, but since they’ve never actually done that, it seems like a waste of time to hear the hype. Blade talked trash post match, and SWAT Kat laid him up (2 for 2 for the tenicos!) and the chair shot might have been in here.
3) Lupillo el Terrible, Mascarita Sagrada b Guerrerito del Futuro, Mini Charlie Manson
Don’t ask me which guy it was under the mask, I dunno. Sagrada was super over with this crowd – he’s been here at least a half dozen times doing the same basic match and the kids are still into him. Unlike past shows, they had security keep the fans from the wrestlers, holding the kids back from getting to Sagrada. Mini Charly Manson has the look down, but I didn’t see enough of him here to know if he’s got the work. This was the usual Sagrada match (though slightly not as good), and I think it plays a lot better in person than on TV. Two production assistants/backstage workers/security/whatevers worked their own angle and fight during this, which must’ve gotten over tremendously more to their colleagues; I couldn’t tell if they were supposed to be managers or supposed to be people who just were hanging around; they’d be hanging around talking to the ring announcer like normal civilians at one part of the match, and then getting slightly involved later. It didn’t affect the matches at all, but it added to the much more indy feeling of the show.
4) Amenaza del Siglo, Arkangel de la Muerte b Blue Demon Jr., Rey Misterio Sr.
We went from Villano IV and Villano V to Villano III to Villano None; Siglo’s a local guy who wasn’t at the other three’s level, but it’d be unfair to expect that from him. My primary interest in this whole show was to see Arkangel in person; he’d impressed me when I was watching a bunch of TV, so I wanted to see him in another environment to figure how much that was real and how off I was. Problem was, this wasn’t the best match to tell; he was the best guy here, but looking at this crew, you’d expect he’d be the best guy here. He was pretty good, so I’ll go with that.
Like his previous appearance, Misterio and the promoters were doing partial truths; he was listed as “Rey Misterio” (no Senior, but then that’s his name), his masked face appeared on the poster (not his body, which is completely different than Rey Rey), and they didn’t make any special effort to let you know this wasn’t the WWE Mysterio. I think a lot of people did know what was up, but I also know there were people who were confused when Sr. appeared. Misterio wore his mask like he never lost (and like he didn’t wrestle without it last time in) and, in the complete homage to the partial truth gimmick, also had a world championship belt.
Demon, another guy who I’ve seen at least a half dozen times now, was a lot more demonstrative and vocal than usual.
Match was okay; they did a lot of the crowd brawling that had been done earlier so it did not have as much impact. Demon had a good tope into the aisle. They did a nice job of subtly teasing dissension in the first fall, where Misterio stole Demon’s pin, and then left it alone till Ark pulled Misterio in the way of a Demon chop and the two tecnicos started chopping the heck out of each other. Ark and Siglo inside cradled them, celebrated, and left the tecnicos in the ring. Tecnicos did mic work for a while, Demon challenging Misterio to a match (I was sure I was going to have to add a mask loss to Misterio’s luchawiki bio, but Demon repeatedly challenged for only the hair, the belt, or Misterio’s valet for the evening), they hemmed and hawed for a bit, then got into a long pull apart with the ringside guys and the WCPW guys from the opener helping to break up. It finally ended when Misterio got Demon’s mask, but Demon didn’t let that stop him from cutting another promo with a football jersey over his head, and then while wearing a Panther/Wagner mask – which was good, because he stole the Wagner head adjustment (and did a crotch chop) during this whole match.
In the end, I ended up with at least a DVD of a Mistico match Robert Bihari does not actually own, so certiantly I came out ahead.
Debuting (but not wrestling) as Team Mexico last night on the TNA PPV was Shocker, NJPW-LA’s Puma (who perhaps got traded from Team Phillipenes – but he did work in Mexico for a while!), and Magno, who worked on the CMLL branded North Carolina shows (DVDVR). They may have a fourth by the time TV tapings happen, and everyone still figures that to be Abismo Negro.
Guerreros del Ring #32 has a big ol picture of Mr. Aguila.
Luchas 2000 #314 has quite bloody pictures of La Parka and Sabu among a million things going on the cover. It’s all about the Solitario show.
OU Daily has an interview with the director of Nacho Libre.
WWE.com has an interview with Rey Mysterio Jr. about the start of his career.
Lineup notes
– Averno & Mephisto get their first (major) rematch for the tag titles tonight in Puebla
– AAA has their next TV taping on 04/30; only a partial lineup is below
– If you haven’t been offered work on Saturday or Sunday this week in Mexico, something is wrong you. There’s a ton of shows listed in box y lucha alone, including a bunch featuring all indy names not included in this list
– Mistico is working four times on Sunday, at least.
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