2006 Year In Review: December

the Big Story: Both promotions held major shows to close the end of the year.

AAA’s Guerra de Titanes show certainly trumped CMLL’s year end card for meaningful storyline conclusion. The company spent the last quarter of the year building up Muerte/Cibernetico and (lesser) Alan/Intocable/Scorpio/Porky feuds. AAA sort of paid off the undercard one – Porky lost his hair, but Alan vs Intocable didn’t get resolved – and saw Cibernetico get his revenge on Muerte by putting him in a casket, hammering it closed, carrying it to the ocean, setting in on fire, and dumping it in the water. (Muerte’s gone – for a few months.)

This was also Konnan’s last appearance before hip surgery, which was complicated by kidney’s issues. Konnan hip would be replaced in 2007, but he still needs a new kidney as I write this.

AAA ran one more TV taping in 2006, which didn’t air until 2007. On it, La Parka Jr. continued having problems with the newly tecnico Hellbrothers, since Cibernetico was his old rudo rival.

CMLL’s year end show was a PPV, just like the anniversary show. CMLL originally announced it for a 12/01 date, but when the annual Arena Mexico vacation was called off, the match was pushed back with the excuse of a Marco Corelone injury. Which was odd, because he was still wrestling his full schedule, but they pushed the idea he wasn’t 100% for a hair match.

The main event of the show, and the only major focus of the show, was a Kenzo Suzuki (w/Mima Shimoda) & Marco Corelone vs Universo 2000 & Shocker hair match of the heavyweights. The build up was based on Universo and Marco not getting along, which happened to be a real problem. The two guys from vastly different wrestling cultures apparently didn’t respect each other much, and got in cheap stiff shots for a couple weeks until they were isolated from each other. On the other hand, my favorite build up was Kenzo calling Universo the worst wrestler in the world, fantastic on many levels.

Mistico was announced in part of an undercard match, and another Guerreros/Perros CMLL Trios match was added just before the show.

The results from this show were pretty much we had figured, with the foreigners losing their hair and the Guerreros holding on the trios titles.

The big news from the undercard was a pending Averno/Volador Middleweight match, which was good and never aired. Of course. They have taken that match on the road, so maybe it’ll turn up someplace else eventually.

Lots of other singles feuds going around…

Rayo and Konnan Big: I think I’ve covering Monterrey that much; I think I could sum up it in bullet points
1) Konan Big inexplicitly gets in a feud with a star of a TV show on the same network Arena Monterrey shows air
2) Konan Big beats TV star in a match – sometimes for their hair
3) People care, but really only about the TV star, and eventually they run out of ones of those

In December, the twist was to do a program with Rayo de Jalisco Jr., who seemingly left CMLL earlier this year when no one was paying attention (and no one cared). Rayo put up his mask for Konan Big’s FULL Heavyweight Title, and unsurprisingly did not lose his mask. Konan Big got a return title match for putting up his hair, and I never saw a result, so I assumed Konan Big won the title back – but apparently I’m hearing now that didn’t happen? That’s a surprise.

Mistico vs Hijo del Diablo: After years of teasing mask matches, mostly with Hijo del Santo, Hijo del Diablo finally agreed to put it on the line versus Mistico, on December 1st in Tijuana. Mistico won in a match which was supposedly anywhere from below average to terrible, with people assuming Diablo of trying to expose Mistico. (Full results from that show.) That story got lost in the shuffle when Diablo claimed to Ovaciones that he was stiffed for pay. Diablo’s story was questionable, and he quickly changed his tune, perhaps having gotten extra pay out of it. Diablo, unmasked, has gotten a regular gig with IWRG and has debuted his son in that promotion.

Hiroka vs Lady Apache: Lady Apache was going to get her win back, and I probably shouldn’t have assumed total altruism. At first, it seemed like it would happen with Lady Apache defending her Mexican Women’s Title against Hiroka, despite Hiroka not actually being Mexican. Someone must’ve noticed this, because the match was changed to Apache vs La Nazi (who was working as an Argentinean, but apparently that’s okay?) This still didn’t solve the problem of Lady Apache’s win, and it wasn’t a big surprise when she got it by winning the CMLL title to become a two belt champion.

La Mascara vs Sangre Azteca: La Mascara had been a pretty protected midcarder in CMLL in 2006 – as Brazos tend to be – so when Sangre Azteca got a title shot, it seemed like Sangre would get a high profile match but was unlikely to win. Uh uh – new champ. Sangre was pretty ecstatic for his win.

CMLL vs AAA, finally: completely unannounced by either promotion going in, CMLL wrestlers faced AAA wrestlers on the Teleton itself. It was an hour focused on lucha, first with intra-promotion trios matches by each group and then a tease of a battle between the winning squads if only the people at home would donate enough money by the end of the hour.

As if there was any doubt that people would pay to see AAA vs CMLL, the Teleton easily hit their price, and the two trios squared off. Of course, charity or no charity, neither side was going to lose here, and the match ended with a double pin draw finish. CMLL’s front office would later complain about having to go along with this. If AAA acknowledged this match, I missed it.

Other: Nicho started telling his side of the Tijuana robbery , claiming the story was a fabirication and an extortion attempt…CMLL debuted Mictlan, a tecnico midcarder, and debate raged about who he might otherwise be; some people settled on a story that he was Vaquero and/or a stripper from Guadalajara, but that doesn’t seem to fit. The one thing we know for sure is he gets hurt a lot (or doesn’t bother letting the injuries heal). Mictlan’s had multiple scary neck injuries. His debut seemed to be a month behind schedule, so this may have been going on for some time and is still ongoing…Negro Casas, Perro Aguayo Jr., Hector Garza were suspended for a year in Tijuana for >crowd mooning related antics. Seriously.…the finish to an Arena Coliseo main event went awry, when the referees lost track of who was the legal main and called the end to an match that should’ve been still going. The wrestlers fixed it, but the match was never shown.