This is only ever posted to complain – but I think they went too far the other way this year for the most part, with one really notable exception. Thanks to Dr. Keith, by the way.
Day: September 14, 2006
09/14: on PPV?
There’s a lot of talk on lucha boards that the 09/29 Anniversary show will be shown on PPV. That seems pretty likely to me, and I’m sure we won’t be seeing the Mistico/Black Warrior match on the normal TV show regardless. Two years ago, the four way mask match where Universo lost was held off TV (and advertised as such), only airing on the year end Best Of show. Last year’s anniversary match did air, but that was the triangle hair match where they were pushing off the Perro/Universo match some more. Mistico/Black Warrior is the blowoff to the biggest feud of the year so far (at least in CMLL), so it figured CMLL would want to collect a bit on it.
Previous CMLL PPVs
(I’m the impression that the Palacio de la Desportes shows were non-CMLL promoters using CMLL talent)
03/17/2000: Atlantis vs Villano III [mask], with a cibernetico and Ricky Marvin vs Sangre Azteca on the undercard. The ’00s equivalent to When World’s Collide – major lucha show everyone ought to have seen.
09/04/2000: Villano II & Perro Aguayo vs Mascara Ano 2000 & Pierroth Jr. in a cage of death match; losers advance cibernetico (Rencor Latino defeats Hijo del Gladiator for his mask)
12/15/2000: Perro Aguayo vs Cien Caras [hair], Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero vs Santo & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]
03/30/2001: Universo 2000 vs Perro Aguayo [mask, hair, Perro’s retirement], Satanico/Shocker/Black Warrior vs Ultimo/Rey/Tarzan, Safari/Olimpico/Niebla vs Fuerza/Signo/Panther [MEX TRIOS]
09/28/2001: Infernales vs Infernales [cage of death, for the name]
12/14/2001: Tarzan Boy vs Brazo de Plata [hair], Shocker vs Emilio Charles Jr. [hair], Nicho/Juvi/Halloween/Damien vs Santo/Negro/HsN (Rayman)/Rey Misterio Jr.
03/17/2002: Gran Markus Jr. vs Veneno [hair, mask], Panther/Fuerza/Wagner vs Antifaz/Warrior/Niebla [CMLL TRIOS]
Buyrate information never was released nor otherwise passed to the general public, as far as I know. At the time they stopped running PPVs, it was thought there were not enough people in Mexico who had access to PPV, and not enough of those were into buying PPVs. (That last show probably didn’t help the situation.)
I don’t see Mistico/Warrior on PPV – if this is a PPV
– being a turn back towards putting most of the major shows back on PPV, but a singular case of CMLL trying to extract the most money possible out of a hot feud.
OTOH, as Robert has pointed out elsewhere, if this is a big enough success, it could open up the doors to big matches which seem finically impossible now. As you recall, the reason we haven’t had Dr. Wagner losing his mask is there’s no way to make enough of money off Arena Mexico attendance to make both Wagner and CMLL happy with their cuts. If you add in PPV revenue, maybe that could do it.
I would not expect this to be on PPV in the United States or elsewhere outside of Mexico.
Tickets for this show actually went on sale yesterday, without a card being announced. (They do have a poster advertising Mistico vs Black Warrior.) That’s pretty rare for CMLL. I’d guess they’re still working on a deal with someone (Latin Lover?), and it says something to how hot things are that they can get away with it.
Damian was telling people at Arena Puebla that Halloween would be back in Arena Mexico next Friday.