Day: July 13, 2008

Volador Jr. grabbed a giant X after everyone else crashed and burned, and so this proves Mexico is the best in the world. (I know I’m supposed to be excited about it, but I’m haven’t been.) CMLL kinda gave this away by announcing the TNA guys were coming to Mexico for revenge before CMLL actually did anything, but everyone will live. You’ve got to assume the TNA crew is going to end up winning the Gran Prix to win their trophy (or a trophy of equal or greater value) back, but I guess we’ll see how badly TNA wants to make the partnership with CMLL work.

The actual big news of the night is AAA announcing Verano de Escandlo on their TV show. As Rob noted in the comments, it’s August 8th in Madero. That’s much earlier than usual. Only in 2003 was a VdE held in August, and that was the last day of August and one of three shows with that name that year. This show tends to be held the same time as the CMLL Anniversary show, give or take a week, so this is about 6-7 weeks early.

I’ve got no info on this, but I suspect this means the Pena Memorial Show is becoming an annual event, and will take place either at the end of September or beginning of October. VdE and the Pena show were bunched close together last year, and this schedule allows them to be built to as individual events.

VdE occurring on August 8th means the Arena Solidaridad 10 man #1 AAA World Heavyweight contenders match (participants a bit iffy) is indeed for a major show main event slot against Cibernetico (adjust picks accordingly), and there’s likely only one more TV taping to be announced between now and then. Besides that title match, and the finals of the Minis tournament, there’s nothing really obvious for the show. Perhaps that’ll be when they finally do the Konnan/Parka singles match we’ve all been dreading? There’s still four weeks of TV to sort it all out, including the taping going on tonight.

Would you like to know who might be one of those surprise participants in the Arena Solidarad match? Ricky Marvin is being advertised for a spot show on 07/31. NOAH’s Summer Navigation tour ends on the 18th, the next tour doesn’t start until 08/23, that’d leave plenty of time for him to show up on TV and at Verano de Escandalo. (There’s a one day show on 08/01, but that’s probably at the same exact time as this show.)

Going the other way: Silver King is scheduled in AJPW for it’s Junior tournament from 07/20 to 08/03. That’s why he’s not on AAA TV cards later this month.

(The actual big news for ME is Chikara’s coming to town in September. I’m totally there.)

IWRG stuff:

IWRG (SUN) 07/06 Arena Naucalpan [superluchas #272]
1) Eragon & Halcon 2000 b Avisman & Comando Gama
2) Jack & Miss Gaviota b Anubis & Judas el Traidor
3) Capitán Muerte, Fantasma de la Opera, Xibalva b Freelance, Goleador, Zatura
4) Arlequin, Black Terry, Ciclon Negro b Aeroman, Centauro, Chico Che
5) El Dandy, Mascara Ano 2000 Jr., Veneno b Multifacético, Scorpio Jr., Zumbido

Scorpio had to deal with Veneno busting him open and Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. fouling him for the pinfall. After his team won, Fantasma de la Opera challenged Freelance for a shot at his title. Freelance declined, pointing out Fantasma de la Opera isn’t too big to be a Lightweight. Are they ever just going to strip Negro Casas of his title, or can they not get the physical belt back?

IWRG (THU) 07/10 Arena Naucalpan [superluchas #272]
1) Halcon 2000 b Avisman
2) Star Boy & Yack b Trauma I & Trauma II
3) Arlequin, Capitán Muerte, Karloff Lagarde Jr. b Freelance, Miss Gaviota, Turbo
4) Negro Navarro, Septiembre el Terrorista, Veneno b Aeroman, Chico Che, Ultramán Jr.
5) el Hijo Del Anibal, Multifacético, Tinieblas Jr. b Hijo del Cien Caras, LA Park, Mascara Ano 2000 Jr.

Park and Tinieblas swapped masks in the third fall, and Cien accidently fouled his partner as a results. Tecnicos covered for the win. Septeimbre el Terrorista is now wearing gear with a plane flying into two tall buildings – so was the name change just to move to a more recent event?

IWRG (THU) 07/17 Arena Naucalpan
1) Eragon & Miss Gavitora vs Anubis & Judas el Traidor
2) Buena Nina & Lady Rabbit vs Kat Killer & La Chola
3) Centauro, Multifacético, Super Astro vs Ciclon Negro, Negro Navarro, Septiembre el Terrorista
4) Dr. Wagner Jr., Scorpio Jr., Zumbido vs Fuerza Guerrera, Hijo del Cien Caras, Veneno

IWRG (SUN) 07/20 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ergaon & Jack vs Comando Gama & Judas el Traidor
2) Crazy Star & Enimatica vs Fugitiva & Tormenta
3) Coco Verde, Cocochips, Cocolores vs Black Terry, Capitán Muerte, Septiembre el Terrorista
4) Centauro, Chico Che, Super Astro vs Ciclon Negro, Negro Navarro, Veneno
5) Multifacético, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Super Calo vs El Hijo del Solitario, Hijo del Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000

A TV show company is looking for the Ultimate (latino) Lucha Libre Fan for an episode of their show. It’s going to be taped at the Orange County (California) fair and there’s a contact address at the link.

Accion showed CMLL’s tag team title match. All but one clip was Garza/Mistico offense, and the match didn’t look that special. I wonder if they’re killing Pesta Negra off already. AAA had the five way cage match. Evans did a 450 off the top of the cage, which was the only crazy spot. La Parka’s move to put Konnan thru a table was a legdrop that actually didn’t look bad. Odd that Roldan opened the cage door to let Parka out that way.

A couple of other notabae cards

AULL (SAT) 07/19 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Enigmatica & Josseline vs Flor Metalica & Fugitiva
2) Juan el Ranchero, Psicopata, Super Panda vs Misterio, Trauma I, Trauma II
3) Rey Crimen, Sadico, Sepulturero I vs Robin Maravilla, Terroy 2000, Yakuza [AULL TRIOS]
4) ?, Intocable, Quimico Jr vs Epitafio, Herejia, Zumbido

There’s Intocable in AULL, as promised.

CMLL (SUN) 07/20 Arena Coliseo
1) Sensei & Sombra de Plata vs Artillero & Súper Comando
2) Metálico, Neutrón, Tigre Blanco vs Arkangel de la Muerte, Loco Max, Nitro
3) Mascarita Dorada, Pequeño Olímpico, Tzuki vs Pequeño Damian 666, Pequeño Halloween, Pierrothito
4) Black Warrior, Olímpico, Sangre Azteca vs Alex Koslov, Grey Shadow, Volador Jr.
5) Héctor Garza, Marco Corelone, Shocker vs Heavy Metal, Lizmark Jr., Negro Casas

Definitely an angle going down with the minis.

Also, teaming in the opener of a show at Arena Lopez Mateos: “Sigried and the Cat”. That doesn’t sound like it’ll turn out well.

So. Card from what was poster was different then flip card they were giving away at the ticket table which was different from what actually happened. These things happen. Crowd seemed much less than last time out and much more weighted to bleachers then ringside. (This was fixed by people just moving to the more expensive seats – it wasn’t like there was actually someone checking these things.)

I got there a little bit after 7:30 and still had ten minutes to kill.

0) Ryan Slade b Ricky Dragon and Zach Thompson

Slade is the guy doing the Canadian gimmick, Ricky Dragon is a guy wearing a dragon shirt, and Zach Thompson is the other guy (and has been the other guy before.) Usual novato opener of guys doing spots and then other guys doing spots and the corwd not getting into it becuase no one’s a particlaur tecnico or rudo, they’re just guys doing spots. Slade hit the Canadian Destroyer on Dragon (maybe) for the win in around 5 minutes, seemingly shorter than these usually go.

1) Centella de Oro, Golden Star b Resistencia, Venganza [GALLI TAG, sf]

The random return of the tag team tournament wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but this seemed to actually follow a pattern. Quinto Sol was Golden Star’s partner, but they explained he was hurt and Oro was taking his place. Sol/Star presumably beat Silgo/Emperador sometime in the meantime to advance.

Rudos were announced first, their music played, and played, and played. No one was quite sure was what going on, people were dispatched to the back, and suddenly a garage door at the back of the building opened and Venganaza & Resistencia drove to the entrance on aisle on motorcycles. Just random.

The match itself was good when they did comedy stuff (got the crowd into the show), and not so good at other parts. Venganza and Centella de Oro had issues when they were working against each other – they’ve been okay before, but the size difference seemed to be a problem tonight. Sol got Resistencia with La Mistica and Oro got something on Venganza to advance to the final (which should be Chilagno & Gringo Loco, but we’ll see.) Rudos attacked post match but didn’t get much out of it.

2) American History X b Kent Brothers

This was supposed to be the Northstar Express/Scarpone/Cannon tag match, and turned out to be something else. I had no idea it was a replacement at the time, thought they were just adding enough random matches so we’d be stuck waiting all night for the matches I came to see, and was too busying pouting about it to pay attention early. (Idiot!) This was, you know, an average midwest US style indy tag match in 2008. American History X (the rudos) did a pretty good job of beating the Kent in the ring and using La Vaca to keep the other one out, and then killed one of the Kents (Christopher?) with a spike powerbomb for the win.

3) El Tiger & Slayer b El Funebre & Blade

I don’t remember much about this one. It was just a match. Tigre & Slayer (Tecnicos) got the win clean. Something happened post match when the tecnicos were walking to the back. I wasn’t paying attention until everyone started to run towards the entrance where Blade was rolling around with one of the tecnicos. People reacted as if it was a legit brawl and the fighters were pulled apart. Tecnicos went to the back and Blade seemed ordered not to go to the back for a moment to cool off. Blade walked around the ring, grabbed a microphone, and demanded a mask match with either Tigre or Slayer. Blade’s kinda sorta feuded with both, so I thought this was just a well done angle. Then the GALLI promoter said “no, not tonight” and no match was announce for a later date, so I dunno.

4) Meteoro 2 b Chilango [hair]

Finally, a match on the original poster! I have no idea where this feud came from, but it’s apparently been going on long enough to have the promoter act as special referee, because La Vaca had cheated Meteoro 2 sometime earlier. Meteoro 1 and Amenaza de Siglo were seconds. Meteoro I isn’t listed on any cards for a few weeks, so I thought he might be injured or something, but he looked fine here.

These two tried, but they’re young and everything didn’t turn out exactly as they’d probably wanted. They got plenty of time, more than they needed, and they either started the false finishes too soon or did too many of them, because it was pretty overdone by the end. La Vaca ran in and got Meteoro with a chair shot for a near fall, Siglo got Meteoro with a chair shot for a no fall (referee refused to count), none of which actually played into the finish. Chilango seemed to do a homage to late 90s WWE spots – Eddie’s Three Amigos, Jericho’s Yea Baby pin, a Rock spit punch, a Stunner – none quite enough. Meteoro stuck to more lucha (and Japanese) stuff, and won with a shiranu and a top rope splash.

Post match, Chilango sat down for the hair cut despite Amenza del Siglo trying to get him to run. The bigger problem was the scissors – first they had none, then they weren’t sharp enough to cut Chilango’s hair. They got enough for Meteoro to hold some up, and said Chilango must have it all shaved off by the next show.

5) Tokio Lee, Nemesis, Guardian b Amenaza del Siglo, Emperador, Yakuza

This was a bit different than listed. No Joey Marx, Tokio Lee suddenly a tecnico, me having no idea who the third tecnico was (I’m guessing at the name.) Yakuza was announced as unsuspended as of the last show. Just a normal trios match, long beat down by the rudos, Nemesis and Guardian wiping out two of the rudos with simple dives and Tokio Lee beating Yakuza. Even though the tencicos had count out wins, they pulled the rudos back into put them in submission holds as well.

6) Samurai b Negrotistico and Gringo Loco and Tony Scarpone [GALLI TITLE, no rules]

Tony Scarpone replaced Amenaza del Siglo, which worked better for the match. Negrotistico brought a cane, Gringo Loco brought a tiny step ladder. Everyone but Samuari is a rudo, and the other three realized it early to work together on Samuari. He outsmarted him for a while, and the rudos ended up turning on each other (and turning back and forth thru the match.)

It wasn’t really a TLC match. Gringo’s tiny ladder was great, and they had a utility ladder set up on the outside, but they never really stood it up on the ring and there was no reason to – they didn’t actually hang the belt either. They didn’t have tables either (as revealered when Scarpone played Bubba Ray to Negrotistico’s D-Von), but they made it up with it by using lots of chairs, and one big superplex into thumb tacks to take out Negrotistico and Scarpone.

Match seemed to about 20 minutes. Ending spot seemed like it should’ve been Samuari giving Gringo Loco a bottom rope chair assisted 619 on the floor. I figure this, because they did it twice, Samurai covering after each time, and La Vaca being busy with other stuff as to not come over and count. When he finally did, Vaca decided no pinfalls counted on the floor. This didn’t stop Samuari from giving Gringo a chair shot adn trying again, but it still didn’t work. They took it in the ring, did one more bit, and finally got the pinfall they were looking for.

After the match, the rudos decided they non-lucha guys should be teaming together to stop the oppresive lucha forced holding them down. They beat up Samuari, and announced themselves as the Underground or the Guapo Underground, I dunno. They all wanted another match with Samuari, and after a bit of back and forth with the promoter, the rudos were offered a Underground vs Samuari/?/?? match where whomever pinned Samuari won the belt, but if Samurai wins, he gets Negrotistico’s valet. Guys were saying no, but she said yes and vowed Samuari was losing the belt. Not sure when the match is supposed to happen.

I got myself an actual camera and took some pictures. They’re up on Flickr. They’re kinda blurry.