Day: May 7, 2008

Or things I keep forgetting to throw in.

– CHIKARA’s Rey de Volador tournament will include Turbo. The tournament is scheduled for May 17 and May 18 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The first round match ups are four ways, and Turbo’s two announced opponents so far are Incognito and Stupefied.

Skayde will be working matches outside the tournament, opposing Claudio Castagnoli on the first night and in trios teaming with Mike Quackenbush and a TBA partner versus Claudio, Pantera and another TBA wrestler on the second night. I’d guess the Turbo ends up in that trios match if he doesn’t advance in the tournament.

(thanks to ChikaraFans and odessasteps)

– TNA sent out a text message to it’s subscribers saying CMLL wrestlers would part of it’s World X Cup. No names were mentioned, and I have a hard time believing until the moment a CMLL wrestler steps into the ring.

AAA posted tons of photos of their recent tapings.

CMLL (SUN) 05/04 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Quazar b Milenio
2) Fraile de la Muerte b Carlo Roggi
3) Idolo & Oro II b Depredador (Guadalajara) & Exterminador
4) Mini Damian 666 & Pierrothito b Atomo & Último Dragoncito
5) Jeque, Malefico, Toxico b Casanova, Metal Blanco, Metalik
6) Villano III, Villano IV, Villano V b Dos Caras Jr., Negro Casas, Rayman

Top two matches were both won with sneak fouls. Jeque got the better of Metalik again.

CMLL (MON) 05/05 Arena Puebla [hugo999]
1) Asturiano, Forajido, King Jaguar b Aguila Guerrera, Espiritu Maligno, Mr. Rafaga
2) Cerebro Negro, Flecha, Tigre Rojo b Fuerza Chicana, Furia Chicana, Policeman
3) Amapola b Marcela [CMLL WOMEN]
4) Olímpico, Sangre Azteca, Toscano b La Máscara, Sagrado, Valiente
5) La Sombra, Místico, Shocker DQ Damian 666, Ephesto, Mephisto

Damian replaced Averno, who was announced as injured. Averno was healthy enough to run in during the third fall and yank Mistico’s mask for the DQ.

Amapola is still your queen. She won clean, and they shook hands after the match.

80% filled arena, the second straight non-sell out for Mistico here. Axxel and a hair match (involving the segunda wrestlers, I think) are scheduled for next week.

AAA (TUE) 05/06 Arena Coliseo Monterrey [RFC]
1) Jorobados I & Jorobados II b Guerrero Blanco & Virtual X
2) Diabolic & Escorpion Negro b Invasor & Momia
3) Golden Boy & Super Nico b Ejecutor & Simbolo
4) Alan Stone, Antifaz del Norte, El Brazo b Esocria, Espíritu, Laredo Kid
5) Mesias & Ozz b Charly Manson & Cibernetico

CMLL (TUE) 05/06 Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Luna Mágica, Princesa Blanca, Sahori b Hiroka, Medussa, Rosa Negra
2) Fabián el Gitano, Mictlán, Súper Nova DQ Diamante Negro, Nitro, Skandalo
3) Pequeño Damian 666 b Bam Bam [CMLL MINI]
4) Averno, Mephisto, Misterioso II b Felino, Heavy Metal, Negro Casas
5) Alex Koslov, Blue Panther, Dos Caras Jr. DQ Black Warrior, Sangre Azteca, Último Guerrero

Pequeno Damian 666 is still your king. And perhaps also your father.

Warrior got his team DQed in the main event for excessive violence on Alex. Might have been something similar with Diamante Negro and Fabian el Gitano in the segunda – I can’t make out the specifics of that one. Averno’s teaming beating the assembled Casas brothers feels like a bit of an upset, but nearly the same rudo team (Warrior in for Misterioso) beat them in Arnea Coliseo almost exactly one year ago.

Ultimo Guerrero told Reforma (via Jazzo, who remains great) that he’d love for the 75th Anniversary main event to be Blue Panther vs Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis vs Villano 5 in a four way mask match. UG explains he came up with the idea while eating breakfast, and I dearly hope that’s the next kcids cartoon.

I’m not sure Panther would think it’s such a great idea to defend his mask against three rudos, but I don’t think he has to worry about exactly that match happening either. Maybe that’s half the June cage lineup, though.

El Hijo del Santo says he’s completely cleared to travel to the US again – he already has his work visa, but I guess he’s got himself off the watch list – and he’s in the process of tracking down who tried to drop the dime on him.

Ovaciones has gone back to the ‘new’ version of it’s site. Unfortunately, they don’t have the lucha libre articles up, and the digital version of the paper links to yesterday’s version. However, all you have to do is change the date in the URL and flip to page 18 to find the usual article. (I’m afraid to change the date to tomorrow to find myself in an Early Edition situation.)

Anyway, it’s a shame you have to hunt to find the article, because it’s quite critical of CMLL letting titles go adrift. As noted here, Hector Garza splitting from the Perros has put both the CMLL Trios and WWA Tag teams belts on the shelf. Ovaciones notes the Trios belt hasn’t been defended in 14 months, while the regulations say it’s supposed to be defended every 3. Ovaciones hopes for a tournament for new champs. I hope they just give it to Sagrado, Volador and Sombra, but maybe we both can be happy. Ovaciones’ article also points out the inactivity of the CMLL Super Light, CMLL Heavy (no defense since August), CMLL Welter (no defenses since December), and CMLL Middleweight (last February.)

The date they use for last defense of the Super Light title, which probably should just be in the defunct pile, is the NJPW-LA defense we’ve got on the wiki and I don’t think it’s mentioned anywhere else. Hi!

None of this is especially new news, but there’s always more change of someone reacting to it if it’s said in a paper than a blog.

AAA’s recap of their expo show makes it sound like the whole show will be a TV taping, airing in three weeks. I’ll spend some time figuring out the air schedule of everything later.

The Arizona Republic writes about lucha libre in Tempe. Lucha Libre starting in the 1950s probably comes to a surprise to CMLL.

CMLL (SUN) 05/11 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Thunder Boy vs Milenio
2) Golden vs Impostor
3) Depredador (Guadalajara) & Güero Loco vs Carlo Roggi & Nuba Roja
4) Lider, Metalik, Metatron vs Exterminador, Jeque, Super maquina
5) Gallo & Leon Blanco vs Cien Caras Jr. & Mr. Águila
6) Villano III & Villano V vs LA Park & Negro Casas

CMLL (TUE) 05/13 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Quazar vs Azazel
2) Virgo vs Valentin Mayo
3) Nube Roja vs Egipcio
4) Idolo vs Infierno
5) Casanova vs Cien Caras Jr.
6) Rayman vs Toscano
7) Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Metal Blanco, Metalik vs Averno, Mephisto, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno

Seems rare to have an atomicos here.

In today’s Reforma (via Jazzo), Blue Demon Jr. says Hijos de Anibal and Solitario did not meet his standards at the first NWA-Mexico show. The first NWA-Mexico show? He mentions the event being last Wednesday in Leon, so I’m presuming the Domo de la Feria de Leon show was it. It’s the quietest launch of a promotion ever, to the point where it’s hard to believe this was actually a show by that promotion, and not something Blue Demon is just retroactively calling it an NWA show to make it look as though the promotion actually exists. Look at the lineup:

NWA (WED) 04/30 Domo de la Feria de Leon
1) Cien Caras Jr. & Hijo del Cien Caras b Black Terry & Shu el Guerrero
2) Dos Caras Sr. & El Hijo del Solitario b el Hijo Del Anibal & Mano Negra
3) El Hijo Del Santo & Mil Mascaras b Blue Demon Jr. & Máscara Sagrada

It’s the UMLL/Todos x el Todos crew with Black Terry and Shu el Guerrero joining in. Absolutely nothing new going on. Getting back to Demon’s point, he was surprised and disappointed that Solitario and Anibal were bad despite having two maestros to work against and he can’t book them for semifinals if they’re going to wrestle like that. Demon has worked on shows with those two and worked against them for I don’t know how many years – how can he just now be figuring this out? They’ve always been what they are now. This whole article is confounding.

Demon says there’s a couple week break, and then there are NWA shows in Queretaro, San Luis and perhaps Morelia. He hopes to make it to DF just before or after the Olympics. I would suggest not going to the NWA’s Mexico page for more info.

If I may go off track for a second, this sort of thing is why there’s not going to be a third major group any time soon (unless someone comes in with lots of money they’d like to lose very quickly.) Wagner, Demon, Santo may actually be difference makers, but everyone’s got their own agenda and none of them are strong enough to do it alone. If you pooled their resources – Blue Demon takes his NWA affiliation to IWRG, who supplies wrestlers better than those exiled from major companies, and Santo and Wagner could work their part time to draw. What Mexico has now is a lot of people who want to be their own king and achieve that, but only over a very small kingdom.