Day: August 25, 2006

Things I learned while putting this week’s lucha times together.

– I really needed to clean up a few things

– Tripleheaders of Mexican Futbol really screw things up. This week’s Saturday show will start to air at 1 PM in New York, and won’t air on (some) digital cable systems in LA till 9 PM west coast time, or 11 hours later.

– It’s highly unlikely AAA will be skipping an episode this week. Why? When I compared GALA to what Rudopolis has airing the last few weeks in Mexico, I realized GALA is only 1 week behind Mexico. The episode that airs in the US this weekend is the one that aired on Televisa last weekend. At most, they could skip an episode and be on the exact same page as Mexico, but perhaps getting the tape in the right place in time might not be possible. This what I was begging for months and months, and I’m shocked they actually did it. GO whoever convinced Galavision. (Let’s credit Konnan, for no good reason, which balances out when I blame him for no good reason.)

It looks like we’re still lagged, because we’re still in July tapings and will be next week as well. But it’s the same way in Mexico; AAA did 8 full tapings in 5 weeks, so everyone’s a bit behind and I suspect we’ll all be skipping part or most of a taping sometime soon.

– AAA doesn’t have to do a taping until at least Mid September. I don’t think they’re doing another one this month, for sure, but who knows past then.

– ‘Lucha de Vuelta’ is dead, and it took two weeks for me to realize it. The lucha is still airing, but it’s the third airing of the same episode. They could bring it back at any time, but I don’t expect it. If they’ve finally gotten the lag taken care of, I think we need to refocus our complaining to a “instead of airing the same AAA episode three times in 24 hours, why can’t your air CMLL once?” platform.

(And you know, if they start airing CMLL again, they’ll start exactly where they left off.)

– If they brought Lucha de Vuleta back, they ought to put it on Saturday and put the new-er episodes on Sunday. That slot never moves.

– Either the CAN52 or FSE is screwed this week. If the 4 team trios tournament from a few weeks back took a half hour, this 8 team tournament will fill out an hour. One of the shows will just be getting just the tournament (name the last good one night lucha tournament – you can’t!) and nothing else, and that’s not going to be watchable. If you are a person who recaps wrestling on television and you realize your show got the tournament, I suggest you instead spend the hour getting out of the house and doing something more interesting, or at least pop in a different 1 hour TV wrestling show instead of suffering.

(it remains to be seen if i’ll take my own advice.)

The other show will be getting a Dos Caras Jr/Black Warrior main event (which actually doesn’t sound a lot better), and probably the segunda trios match, though I’m holding out hope for crazy mini action. Then again, I picked those matches for CANAL52, because I believe they roll with Leono.

– that made no sense

Ovaciones: CMLL has signed a one year image licensing deal with Warner Brothers. It covers rights for official shirts/jerseys, hats, action figures, games, cartoons and comic books for twenty wrestlers. Wrestlers listed are Mistico, La Mascara, Terrible, Perro Aguayo Jr., Damian 666, Hector Garza, Negro Casas, Averno, Mephisto, Ultimo Dragon, Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo de Lizmark, Dos Caras Jr., Tarzan Boy, Rey Bucanero, Black Warrior, Sagrado, Mr. Aguila, and Atlantis.

It seems as though this is an attempt to official license CMLL merchandise for (most of) the top stars, so CMLL can push the fans away from the bootleg stuff and towards the items the wrestlers (and the promotion) actually get income from. By licensing it out, CMLL only has to worry about promoting the wrestlers; WB takes care of the merchandise for them. The article states that this is primarily going to be about shirts and action figures (no luck on an AVERNO comic book, I guess.) Masks do not appear included in the agreement; maybe they just figure there’s no chance to compete with the bootlegging there. No mention of financial terms.

Notable omissions from the list: LA Park (independent?), Heavy Metal (independent?), Pierroth, Universo 2000, Canek (independent), Blue Panther, Olimpico, Satanico (they may have preferred younger more colorful guys), Volador Jr., Halloween (independent/injury?), Mr. Niebla (official sign he’s out of the company again?), Terrible (has appeared in commercials so probably has someone already taking care of his image). Santo has his own deal with Cartoon Network. Nacho Libre is a Warner Brothers film, which may partly explain how they got involved here.

The merchandise will start going on sale the second week of September. To promote it, Paco Alonso says the five Friday shows in September will be special events, and the anniversary show (on 09/15) will start early to be a longer show than usual.

Paco Alonso also says they’re in talks with Latin Lover, and Latin wants to join CMLL soon.

Both CMLL.com and NOTIMEX’s preview of tonight’s Arena Mexico card bring up Perro breaking the Leyenda de Plata plaque, which makes me happy. NOTIMEX likes Heavy Metal, Rey Bucanero (“the idol of the ladies” – oh no, he IS John Cena), Ultimo Guerrero and Misterioso II in the match.

AAA still hasn’t updated their site. I can tell you that they’re doing a AAA vs TNA theme for the Verano de Escándalo show. Names have been mentioned, but they’ll change between now and October.

Zumbido appears to be MIA.

WWE is claming their 09/20 Mexico City show (Palacion de los Deportes, ~18,000 seats) sold out in 1 hour 53 minutes. (That doesn’t include pre-sales.) Tickets are still available on the other tour stops in Guadalajara, Tijuana and Monterrey. Speaking of WWE tours, Rey Mysterio collects exotic colognes as he tours around the world. He must have a pretty good system to prevent them from breaking in his suitcase, or that’d be a stinky hobby.

indy (SUN) 08/20 Arena Queretaro Results
1) Luminoso b Stranger
2) Fuira Dorado Jr. b Hombre Sin Rostro
3) El Rebelde & Drabek II & Pantera Gris b Neurosis I & Neurosis II & Star Tron
4) Caligula, Mesala, Macabro b Soberano Jr., Ursus, Polvora
5) Vaquero b Lince [hair]
Lince got hurt in the final fall. They had to stop the match, but Lince shaved his hair anyway.

This Sunday, Queretaro runs a Artillero & Super Comando vs Ozuno & Sombra de Plata match for Artillero & Super Comando’s Queretaro Tag Team championship.

At a CMLL show this week, Mini Damian 666 & Mini Halloween came to the ring looking hurt, and asking the crowd for money to help take care of their injuries. After getting money from some fans, Mini Damian revealed they were actually not hurt, but in fact rich and planning to use this money to buy tacos. (They were beat soundly by the tecnico minis.)

I forgot to do lucha times. I’ll try to fix that later today.

The first block of this year’s Leyenda de Plata is tonight. It’s an 8 man ciberentico, with 4 tecnicos and 4 rudos.

Last year, picking winners was easier. It helped that we had a good idea of both groups before hand, and it was a pretty safe guess to pick Atlantis versus a tecnico, given the ongoing storylines. Things aren’t as direct this year. They ought to be moving towards a definite anniversary show main event, but it seems as though there’s a billion possibilities and no locks.

As a guide to you, the inquisitive reader, let’s break down everyone’s chances in Block A.

Metro
Why he will win: Metro paying CMLL a truckload of pesos to get their gimmick pushed to the top; perhaps the start of a gigantic Neutron push, rocketing him up the card.
Why he will not win: It’s Metro. It’s Neutron. It’s not happening.
Bottom Line: Setting aside his no chance of winning, he’ll be get in this match and get eliminated first. Once next week’s lineups come out, it’ll be interesting to see which tecnicos got left off. This is the worker’s tournament, so Metro fits in, but he’s easily the low man here.

La Mascara
Why he will win: CMLL is high on him, would turn him into a bigger star even if he didn’t win out the tournament, capable worker, puts him in the role of Mistico’s Understudy.
Why he will not win: Doesn’t currently have a rival in the other block to build towards, less experience than the usual champion, probably over his head here. Volador seems to have moved back ahead of him as Mistico’s Understudy.
Bottom Line: Another guy who has no chance of winning; it’s be a huge upshift in his push for him to even make it to the final three. Best case for him is to set up a rivalary with Misterioso or Mephisto, so he’s doing something with his title belt in Mexico City.

Mephisto
Why he will win: He’s a reigning champion of, uh, something. He’s a potential guy to drop his mask in the short-term, and could be set against Volador or Mistico if they won the other side.
Why he will not win: Tag team guy probably isn’t winning a big singles tournament. Despite the shiny belt, really not considered a top singles guy.
Bottom Line: Only a very outside choice, and it’d mean something is up with him in the near future. I highly doubt it. Should be the first rudo to be eliminated, and likely by something spectacular from La Mascara.

Heavy Metal
Why he will win: Just underneath the top contenders, it wouldn’t be unbelievable to have him win and it’d still springboard him up a bit. Of late, CMLL seems to be loving the guys who’ve jumped from AAA. Family connections, naturally.
Why he will not win: Appears to be running in place in CMLL. Promotion doesn’t seem particularlly behind him, and there’s no logical money match from a Metal win.
Bottom Line: Likely will last a great while but ultimately not win. He’s probably the 7th of the 8 workers in this match, but can/will go depending on the circumstances, and his performance will be interesting here.

Misterioso II
Why he will win: His current death feud with Volador Jr. – who must be in the other block – would be a great final match. They’ve been high on him, with the Gran Alternativa win and loose relationship with Perros del Mal.
Why he will not win: Still a big step up for him, and he’d have to beat some much bigger names than him to make this work. Since he’s won other events, I expect someone else gets to win for a chance.
Bottom Line: A very outside chance. Like La Mascara, it’s more about how long he lasts and if they set up something for him to do after this.

Ultimo Guerrero
Why he will win: He’s ULTIMO GUERRERO. That’s enough.
Why he will not win: Doesn’t really have anything going on; taking a backseat to the other feuds. The assumption here is the Leyenda de Plata directly sets up the anniversary main event, and it’s looking unlikely Ultimo will be involved in that.
Bottom Line: A moderate chance at winning, leaning towards no. If this was after the annivesary show (and they didn’t have something to urgently build), he’d have a much better shot. Ultimo doesn’t seem to be part of big plans at the moment.

Rey Bucanero
Why he will win: I’m not sure if you noticed, but they’re trying to push him as The New Great Tecnico Sensation. They’re trying to set up something with Perro here, and this would be a find avenue to do it.
Why he will not win: The New Great Tecnico Sensation has had mixed results. They may not need this do build up the Perro feud, and Rey may have been aced out of it by Santo.
Bottom Line: A very strong possibility. If they’re going all the way with Rey, he needs to keep beating Ultimo on the road to doing something bigger. It’d be a shock and disappointment if he wasn’t the last remaining tecnico.

Black Warrior
Why he will win: Mistico’s gotta be in the other block, and they’ve been setting up Warrior vs Mistico all year. Even if Mistico isn’t going to win the other block, he’s being prepped for it and could use a big win.
Why he will not win: They’ve got other plans for the annivesary show and Mistico/Warrior is being pushed back to some other date, or they sour on Warrior/Mistico entirely.
Bottom Line: Best bet in the group, though it telegraphs a Mistico win in the other block. Though he’s quite possibly the worst worker in this bunch (which isn’t much a insult when you look at the names), he’s gotta look like a dominant force if we’re to believe he has a chance against the dominant force in all of lucha libre.

Who do you think will win? Who do you think will be the other eight?