Month: September 2006

Tonight’s the last Arena Mexico show before the Anniversary.

CMLL (FRI) 09/22 Arena Mexico Results
1) Mini Olimpico, Ultimo Dragoncito vs Mini Damian 666, Mini Halloween
2) Dark Angel, Marcela, Sahori vs Amapola, Princesa Sujei, Rosa Negra
3) Felino, Heavy Metal, Negro Casas vs Damian 666, Halloween, Mr. Aguila
4) Lady Apache vs Hiroka [CMLL WOMEN]
5) Blue Panther, Dos Caras Jr., Volador Jr. vs Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Marco Corleone, Shocker
6) Dr. Wagner Jr., Mistico, Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Black Warrior, Ultimo Guerrero

Lady Apache talks about her title match in Ovaciones today. Nothing too noteworthy there, though we do get a picture of her kissing her Mexican National Women’s Championship belt. Traditionally, if someone holds a National title, they’ll vacate it if they win a World title, so this could be the last day she has that belt. That belt’s also been pretty much a vanity title, so I wouldn’t expect her to lose it unless she’s getting another belt for quite a while. Apache favored to win the CMLL Women’s Title, but I’m not convinced of it.

Lady Apache is already a two time CMLL Women’s champion. The last time she won the title, in 1999, she jumped to AAA and never lost the belt in the ring. (Which may be another reason she’s won’t win.)

Other wise, the focus is on next week. There’s interesting things on the undercard – a rare team up by the Casas brothers to take on PdM (including a returning Halloween), probably more Dos Caras/Marco Corelone feuding – but the only thing that’s being pushed hard is Mistico vs Warrior. They’ve stacked the main event well, with the ‘secondary’ rivalries being ones that might have been the headline for the anniversary show if things had worked out differently.

Konnan was on a conference call Wednesday, where he told reporters (SLAM, Gerwick.net) usual Konnan like things. If only they held it on Thursday, that’d been real fun. If the first question was really about Groon, y’all are dorks. (Thanks to mikeinformer.)

Santo and Rey Misterio Jr. were hanging out before the Mexico City WWE show. Everyone’s getting in on the photo ops. Among those listed as being invited and sitting in the first few rows were Blue Demon Jr. (yea, that’s him in the picture – who else would be wearing a suit?), Fantasma, Fantasma Jr., Ultimo Dragon and Scorpio (Sr.)

In La Cronica, Santo says the WWE coming to Mexico is good for lucha libre, because it forces the existing companies not to rest on the laurels. Santo says he’d wrestle in the US again, only if it was a per date deal where he was still free to control his own schedule. He thinks a lucha libre movie with him and Rey would be pretty cool – so do I! Where’s WWE Films when you need them?

Meltzer had a story (from Robert, from a CMLL photographer – hmmm) about Edge trying to check out the Arena Coliseo show on Tuesday, and concealing his identity beneath a Mephisto mask. That’s quite awesome, and these kinda of things are why Edge is likely going to steal the ‘smart’ WOTY awards over Mistico in various publications.

Update:

(score one for Julio Cesar Rivera)

Also, this kills me

And to top it off, Lita had lunch with her former WWE partner, Essa Rios. They made their WWE debut together in February 2000.

Not sure what my update schedule will be this weekend; maybe nothing Saturday? I may sneak in the Arena Mexico results late tonight, and I’ll have something about the Congress show late Sunday.

Today’s the 73rd anniversary of lucha libre in Mexico, and Ovaciones mentions some of the milestones. Did you know Arena Coliseo was originally built with (in part) 40,000 pesos Lutteroth won in the lottery? Early on, the big show of the week was held on Thursdays, so as not to conflict with boxing promoters.

IWRG (SUN) 09/17 Arena Neza Results
1) Bacteria b Turako
2) Comando Gama, Comando Mega b Halcon Salvaje, Kid Tiger
3) Ave Fenix, Stuka Jr., Suicida b Black Jaguar, Fantasma de la Opera, Xibalba
4) Kraneo, Loco Max, Nitro b Coco Blanco, Coco Rojo, Coco Verde
5) Canek, Misterioso II, Veneno b Dr. Wagner Jr., Negro Casas, Pantera

CMLL (TUE) 09/19 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Results
1) Milenio b Virgo
2) Golden b Depredador
3) Mr. Trueno b Ebola
4) Guero Loco b Egipcio
5) Asesino Negro b Leon Blanco
6) Mascara Purpura, Maximo, Volador Jr. b Hombre Sin Nombre, Mascara Magica, Toxico
7) Hijo del Santo, La Mascara DQ Black Warrior, Olimpico
Warrior pulled La Mascara’s mask. He can’t buy a win.

Gladiador #11 is up at their website. Among other things, they’ve got recaps from some of the recent IWRG shows (that’s where the Neza results come), and interviews with Rosa Negra (not a lot new) and Gallo de Jalisco, and photos from a CMLL spot show with Rey Bucanero & Santo vs Ultimo Guerrero & Perro Aguayou Jr.

The El Nieto del Santo mentioned as wrestling earlier this was probably Axxel.

Hey, I got the Fox Sports Espanol episodes.

* 08/13 – opener seemed liked a strong build to a big finish, and then it just sort ended. Main event had little value.
* 08/20 – Hey, a CMLL cibernetico NOT better than Reyes de Aire. This was just okay, though, and the extended Volador/Misterioso sequence teased a pretty good singles match some point down the road. Main event wasn’t much.
* 08/27 – skippable. Probably didn’t miss much from the clipped open. Neither Warrior or Dos are entertaining singles wrestlers, and it doesn’t help that they did a singles match by the numbers a week after Volador and Misterioso essentially did for him. Dos will hopefully grow better than this (though that’s far from a sure thing), but this was about usual for Warrior one on one; I think everyone knows this, but it’s still probably not a good idea to expect Mistico vs Black Warrior to be a MOTY (at least for in ring work alone – the crowd may carry it.)

In my opinion, it’d be better for FSE to join the show in progress – start in the middle of the opener, if you have to cut things out – rather than pull out random falls. We can live without the introduction stuff before we can live without the matches. This may be my biased “they better show the full main event this week” view, and I agree with everyone that it wouldn’t be hard to find another slot to put the show, either first run or a replay, to get that full hour out there.

I think I may be able to get to this week’s GdR this week tommorow, and then I don’t know what.

Gala: Again, a wacky time for the west coast feed.

Rudopolis has a recap of this episode:

With that said, I think AAA was fine, but far from the Chilpancingo, Toluca,(twice), Nvo Progreso, Naucalpan and a few others which are in the top. Show had that double main event thing that is usually not a good idea, but at least Manson and Zumbido were back (maybe momentarily in Zumbidosky’s case) and the show advanced the storylines, nice, Secta turning on Ciber was over a month ago and they have not really done anything with that!!

FSE: 9 PM, and they even have Negro Casas vs Averno listed in the lineups, so we’re sure about that one. (Yay info.) Preceeding the show is an Italian Futbol league game, “Lazio vs. Atalanta”. If I’m reading the Series A league info right, this will actually take place at 9 AM, so you think they could find some time in between to make sure it fits to a two hour window. If they’re getting the main, that means they’re probably getting a segunda, a women’s trio. I seem to have the least problem with lucha women among people who read this site, but I think I’d be okay if they cut all the opener out before they touched the main event.

GdR: If that goes there, that means Shocker makes his first appearance on CAN52. Neither match lined up here looks particularly good.