2006 Year In Review: June

big news: TripleMania (06/18): The lineup was announced at the beginning of the month, but it was long before known that the main event would be Muerte Cibernetica/La Parka Jr. TNA involvement was also off, because they had their own major show on that day. Muerte vowed to break Parka’s bones, which would be something since he’s a skeleton and all. Box Y Lucha did the most AAA coverage it did all year in the lead up to the show, and there were a lot of bigger than usual shows that weekend from CMLL and IWRG that weekend. Coincidence? Not? Still not completely sure.

Results saw Parka indeed win, and Muerte Cibernetico reveal himself to be Ricky Banderas (which isn’t his actual name.) I finally saw this match, and I think I counted 14 different guys interfering in some way, including Cibernetico (on crutches) and surprise jump Brazo de Plata. There had been talk of a big jump from CMLL in the days leading up to the event, but no one really understood what the rumor meant by big, I guess. Plata’s jump involved a falling out with CMLL (they weren’t going to do anything with him at his age and shape) and El Brazo convincing him to change sides.

For a taping, Muerte switched his name to Asesor Cibernetico, but it got dropped. In the undercard, Charly Manson beat Zorro for his hair, but also forced him to wear an evil demonic mask, which he still wears today. The Fuerza Aera/Black Family atomicos title match had no finish, with the commission throwing the match because of all the hardcore stunts. (Initially, it seemed as though the commission perhaps had stripped the titles as well, mirroring what happened with the middleweight title previous, but we just got a normal rematch a few weeks later.)

Brazo de Plata jumped from CMLL at the show, starting a partnership with La Parka Jr. and wrestling in his corner. Nieto del Santo made a cameo as well.

In one of those other shows the same day, Okumura lost his hair to Rey Bucanero in an 8 man cage match, and La Mascara wins the Reyes de Air cibernetico (which wasn’t that great.)

CMLL’s Gran Alternativa:

Teams were announced in late May for the annual young star/experienced star tournament. Some of the particpants talked their chances up in Box Y Lucha, and Ovaciones picked Texano, Maximo, and Misterioso II (which is only 38% of the field.) Everyone noted that the “new stars” being presented this year were repeats and guys actually older than the vets they were teaming with (particularly Nitro and HsN.)

The tournament itself actually took place on 06/03. I pretty much nailed the preview; the results saw the plot points of Rey Being Turned On Yet Again, and Perros refusing to fight each other. In the finals, Misterioso II & Perro Aguayo Jr. beat Ultimo Guerrero & Nitro to win the title.

Beating the odds, this was actually the start of a significant push for Misterioso II, as we’ll see in later months. He was an associate member of the Perros thru the summer, and got slightly higher position on cards. They’ve since dropped the Perros relationship (although it’s still there neough that they could bring it back if the mood strikes them and/or they need someone to lose), and he’s since fallen to about the same position. The GA didn’t break Misterioso II out of the pack – the AAA equivalent did a better job of that – but it did give him something to separate himself from the other at his level.

Guadalajara Walk Of Fame: This match had been announced back in April, but was finished up the first week of June. You can see a good picture of it on this post. Lots of people showed up for the dedication. The first class was Salvador Luttertoh, Diablo Velasco, Santo, Rito Romero, Mil Mascaras and Rayo de Jalisco, and the second class was announced as El Solitario, Angel Blanco, Alfonso Dantes, Perro Aguayo, Gori Guerrero, Black Shadow and Cavernario Galindo, but I haven’t heard more about it. It’s a Guadalajara Lucha Libre hall of fame, so that’s why some regional names might go in before the likes of Blue Demon.

Hiroka wins the CMLL Women’s Title: This surprised me. It was one of those things where I didn’t like the idea when it started but was unhappy when it was over.

Hiroka was a below average ruda worker; not horrible by women’s standards, but she wasn’t one of the best for sure, and she was most notable for having like a billion indy trios matches opposite of Sahori. In April, Hiroka got a title shot versus Marcela in Arena Coliseo. Remarkably, it was a pretty good match, Hiroka’s best match in Mexico for sure. I chalked it up to Marcela being better than I had figured and when they announced a rematch for 06/09 in Arena Mexico, it seemed like they were just going to repeat the match for a larger audience.

Hiroka won, becoming the 10th champion. It was another good match. Hiroka’s reigned seemed filled with tecnicas beating her, and demanding a title match, but she clearly improved as a wrestler and raised her status as champion (with the help of a couple really big wins later) to the point where she actually seemed like a champion by the end. Maybe I should have a little more faith in CMLL, huh?

teased double mask match: Averno & Mephisto feuded with the Lizmark on some Arena Mexico shows with some mask ripping. The magazines – I believe Luchas 2000 in particular – pushed the idea of a mask match, and it seemed like they were headed that direction. I was quite worried that the more tenured/famous Lizmarks would take the masks, though Lizmark Sr.’s rumored retirement gave a little bit of hope. And then it was dropped.

Later on, it was leaked that that the plans was actually to have Averno & Mephisto take both Lizmark’s mask as a major attraction of the bigger summer show, but it didn’t come together for whatever reason.

Maximo beats Loco Max for his hair: a basic Arena Coliseo midcard feud, one of quite a few while thinking about it. This was set up the end of May, and it was no surprise Loco ended up bald. That’s going to happen every 9 months he wrestles, it seems.

spanish fly is deadly: Joe Lider got hurt on apron Spanish Fly to the floor gone bad, and Averno and Volador tumbled hard to the floor off a blown one in Arena Mexico, putting them out of action for a bit.

shoe still hasn’t dropped: There was a lot of talk this month about Univision, which also owns Galavision (and a couple other channels) which was put on the market. It was initially expected that Televisa Mexico would pick up the company, and that would have [whatever] effect on lucha libre broadcasts. Near the sale, some of Televisa’s investors dropped out, and Texas Pacific Group/Haim Sabin swooped into get in the high bid and control of the network. This angered Televisa, who a partial stake in the company already and was expecting on getting it rest. The stockholders aren’t thrilled with the deal either, so nothing has come out of this, not even Televisa Mexico on internet, as promised.

At some point, it would seem there should be fallout, but if because of stockholder issues or inertia, there’s been absolutely no affect on lucha libre broadcasts on Galavision as of yet. Eventually, the people deciding what airs when will be different, but they don’t appear to be right now.