06/08: IWRG, title change, long rambling comic book digression

IWRG (SUN) 06/04 Arena Naucalpan Results
very reshuffled
1) Gran Cuchillo, Kid Tiger b Black Stone, Macho II
2) Ave Fenix, Avisman I, Panterita b Black Jaguar, Black Terry, Fantasma de la Ópera
3) Masada, Okumura b Sicodelico Jr., Tony Rivera
4) Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Veneno b Cyborg, Magnum Project, Xibalva
Masada and Okumura attacked the Cerebros post match.
5) Damian 666, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Terrible b Mr. Niebla, Pantera, Rayo de Jalisco Jr.
Perros used fouls to win. Rayo wants Perro in a match next week.

Don’t have full results from last Sunday’s AAA TV, but it sounds like there was a title change, and Charly Manson is the new Mexican National Heavyweight Champion.

More picks from the AP Lucha Libre story can be found here (mikeinformer)

Nacho Libre: Q&A with Jack Black and Jared Hess. Jack’s wearing a Blue Demon shirt in the photo (taken some other time, I’m sure), and has a critical evaluation of Latin Lover.

Here’s another good example of what I was talking about below: over on the fwak blog, they’ve got a YouTube video from a FMLL show this past weekend.

Cudahy?!? Talk about a secret society. Finding info on these events is getting harder each month. Plus this time it was held in a part of town I’d never heard of.

I don’t think this is specifically a lucha libre issue – this is exactly how many small indy promotions operate – because lucha libre shows can feature top wrestlers of the genre, making people sure know the when/where about shows pays off bigger.

Left turn: A little while back, in his wrestlingobserver.com news updates, Dave Meltzer (repeating a note sent to him, surely) mentioned a character in Marvel Comic’s Friendly Neighorborhood Spider-Man (#6 & #7) was based on Mistico – a gold version of him, if I remember correctly. I recently had a chance to see these comic books – and I’m still wondering who was supposed to be Mistico.

The story’s really about two lucha themed wrestlers, and Spiderman could probably have been played by any masked superhero, but then, he’s the only one with 4 books, so that’s how it goes. Oddly, they didn’t seem to touch upon Spiderman’s pre-heroic career as a pro-wrestler, which would’ve made it feel a bit more specific.

The rudo luchadore is named El Dorado, and the tecnico is El Muerte (III). At the start of the story, Dorado beheads Muerte II and threatens to kill Muerte III and/or take his soul in ten years time, if Muerte III fails to win the mask of a very important hero of the people in that time. Rather than take on, say, Atlantis, the story flash forwards to ten years later, where El Muerte has bought a huge billboard to challenge Spiderman. (You know, that’s the kind of promotion I’m talking about! We’d all know about that show that way.)

In that ten year stretch, Muerte’s grown from a scrawny teen to a hulking goon. He must’ve been on Olimpico’s fruits and vegetables diet? El Dorado, who is kept unseen till the end of the first issue, is a similarly Canek sized man, walking around in full golden Spanish armor, and has swords. (To do the beheading, you know.) Neither guys resembles Mistico without a funhouse mirror. Spiderman’s the Mistico the guy in Mistico’s spot here; he’s the undersized agile acrobat. (Also kinda like the Spiderman luchadores in Mexico!)

Muerte and Spiderman have their mask match, despite at least Spiderman’s wife (and maybe him too) not understanding the concept of “mascara contra mascara”. Wolverine explains this, because he apparently knows everything and has done everything (I was kinda waiting for the antidote about filling in for Santo in the mask match versus Black Shadow, but alas.) The mask match ends with no one losing their mask (FRAUD!) I believe it was ruled a no contest when a blade (or some sort of pokey thing) popped out of Spiderman and stabbed Muerte with position, and I don’t even care what that’s about.

I believe Issue 6 ended with Spiderman and Muerte in a hospital, and El Dorado using supernatural powers to suddenly appear there, and Issue 7 was just action scenes around the hospital, with Dorado and Muerte having vague superpowers and Muerte and Spiderman eventually running off Dorado – it’s much less lucha at that point.

There’s some lucha touches here that indicate the concept – broad ideas like “passing down a gimmick from father to son”, and some visual stuff (the referee in the mask is wearing suspenders), but I don’t know if they made as strong a lucha libre connection as you’d hope; it wasn’t very distinguishable from any other pro-wrestling story in comic books, except the wrestlers happened to be Mexicans and masked. It’s an attempt at something different, but if you’re looking for lucha libre content, you don’t need to go of your way to get this.

random: It did get me thinking – in comic book worlds, North American superhero-ing tends to go on primary in the US and Canada, because those are the people who are buying English language comic books. This has probably been suggest previously, and it’s a play off Mexican comics which already exist, but someone should explain the void of Mexico/Central American superhero activities by simply stating that luchadores are all authentic super heroes, and they’ve been keeping their corner of the world safe from alien invasions of Guadalajara and the like. (They could speak gravely about a secret Battle of Tijuana they lost – which would explain that city well.) Since they wrestle and fight crime and probably are elected officials, they don’t have much time for world meetings of superhero-types, but they occasionally battle along side heroes from other lands (Ultimo Dragon) – where they might use their power rings and Dragon Cutters and such, the luchadores battle evil with tope con giros and solid mat wrestling.

It’s a thought. Probably more a DC idea?