12/22 Arena Mexico Preview

CMLL (FRI) 12/22 Arena Mexico
1) Molotov & Sombra de Plata vs Artillero & Super Comando
2) Fabian el Gitano, Leono, Tony Rivera vs Arkangel, Loco Max, Okumura
3) Felino, Heavy Metal, Texano Jr. vs Black Warrior, Olimpico, Takemura
4) Mistico, Negro Casas, Sagrado vs Damian 666, Halloween, Mr. Aguila
5) Averno vs Volador Jr. [CMLL MIDDLE]
6) Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Rey Bucanero vs Atlantis, Tarzan Boy, Ultimo Guerrero

Fabian el Gitano, Leono, Arkangel and Loco Max in a segunda. Who would’ve ever guessed such a thing?

You know, they could’ve easily swapped Texano and Sagrado and made even a tiny deal out of the Texano/Negro team in Japan. They’re not.

I think the tecnicos win in the main event, and they setup a low key trios title defense sometime during this down period. We usually get one or two title matches with a week or two build, and that would make as much sense as any.

The title match is obviously the event of night. It’s got the rare combo of no clear winner, a meaningful outcome and a likely really good match. Averno’s started to establish himself as a singles star besides his matches with Mistico. Volador’s once again in the spot of nearly breaking thru and needing a signature moment to do it. They’ve worked with each other before and worked well. This is a big moment for them; Volador’s only been in single matches in Arena Mexico during tournaments (2005 La Copa Jr., Super Light finals) and not this high on the card. Averno’s been high on the card for singles matches, but only when facing a guy like Santo or Mistico. This is their chance to prove they can be more than Mistico’s rudo foil and Mistico’s lesser tecnico friend.

The best possible outcome is this match gives the feud legs and it becomes something they can carry on well into 2007. (Judging from some early lineups for Janurary, they will keep meeting on spot show, but they have been meeting before, so I’m not sure if that means anything.) If they want to keep this going, I’m guessing Averno holds onto the title here, allowing them to do rematches around the country for a few months, and then Volador finally wins it in the undercard of some match in March. But I’m not sure about this finish at all.

The other drama here is hoping this show will air. Shocker, Universo, Corelone, Kenzo, Perro and Hector all being gone isn’t going to hurt the match quality here. Everything has the ablitiy to be a good match (though, in the case of that segunda, one I’ve see way too much of the last few weeks.) After the 09/29 PPV, they showed the big matches from the PPV on TV following, instead of that week’s (10/06) Arena Mexico show. The main event turned up on CAN52MX, and while I wouldn’t mind seeing that match, that’d leave the title match unaired. It could air in future weeks if they do Best Of shows, but we don’t know if they’re doing those since they’ll be running Arena Mexico as normal. If they really want to air it, they can find a spot to air it, but it’s tough to tell how much CMLL wants these things.

historical irony: the last time Averno dropped a singles title, it was on a ‘Friday’ taping and never aired because they were doing Best Ofs.

FWIW: I’m running a normal schedule this weekend. If you’re not, I hope you enjoy it!

12/22: Negro, Perro, Warrior suspended in Tijuana

Muerte Cibernetica
back when he wasn’t lost at sea

Negro Casas, Perro Aguayo Jr., and Black Warrior have been suspended from wrestling in Tijuana for a year. The Box Y Lucha commission is suspending them for actions on a show last Friday:

– Black Warrior attacked a fan who either attacked him or threw something at him.
– Perro Aguayo Jr. had his trunks pulled down by Santo
– Negro Casas mooned the crowd.

El Sol de Tijuana has the commission’s side. They’ve suspended Latin Lover in the past for similiar incidents, so they’re being consistent. By suspending Warrior, they want to make it clear that they’re not allowing the fans to do stuff to the wrestlers, they’re going to be insisting on better work by the security companies (or changing them altogether) and they’d like the police to be at some of these shows to help throw out unruly fans when necessary.

Twelve months is an awful long time to suspend these guys. I don’t have a big problem with it Black Warrior’s case, but a year’s suspension for pulling the trunks down seems high, because that’s a spot done with no (public?) penalties elsewhere in Mexico. It’s also been pointed out (rafasilva) that Santo is mysterious escaping prosecution here, despite being the one who pulled down Perro’s trunks.

I didn’t hear anything about any of this until people started talking about it on message boards yesterday. If what happened was this offensive, you’d think someone would’ve said something about it much sooner. Maybe I missed it?

Suspensions took effect on Wednesday and run till 12/20/07. All the local promoters and CMLL have been informed they can not use these three guys in Tijuana until the suspension is up.

CMLL (TUE) 12/19 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Results
1) Milenio b Thunder Boy
2) Fraile de la Muerte b Estrella de Jalisco
3) Asesino Negro b Lider
4) Azazel b Guero Loco
5) Fabian el Gitano, Gallo, Metro II b Hombre Sin Nombre, Mascara Magica, Toxico
6) Cien Caras Jr., Mascara Ano 2000 b Leon Blanco, Rayman
7) Mistico b Ultimo Guerrero

Rayman was going for a top rope springboard when the top rope, and he fell hard. Last I heard is he’s alright. The CMLL report was all “when you’re doing athletic things, sometimes bad things can happen”.

AAA (MON) 12/18 Gimnasio Municipal Irapuato Results [El Sol de Irapuato]
1) Chiva Rayada I, Chiva Rayada II b Muerto Viviente I, Muerto Viviente II
2) La Parkita, Mascarita Divina, Mascarita Sagrada b Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Chessman
3) Brazo de Plata Jr., El Brazo, Oriental b Chris Stone, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr.
4) Charly Manson, Chessman, Cibernetico b Cuervo, Espiritu, Ozz, Scoria

Zorro’s out due to injury, so Oriental replaced him in the tercera. Muerte Cibernetica was supposed to be part of the main event, but he’s still trapped in that coffin.

AAA posted a lot of pictures from the Toluca taping on their website.

ESTO has quick bios of Volador Jr. and Averno, leading into their title match today. (They kinda give away that El Hijo del Cien Caras is not related to Cien Caras.)