Sin Piedad PPV Thread

I’ll check back in later and update this with results, but if you want some place to talk about the show in progress (or share PPV feeds), use the comments. I don’t think you can crash the site this time, but feel free to hammer on it to see.

Results:

CMLL (FRI) 08/29 Arena Mexico
1) Pequeño Damian 666, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito b Fantasy, Mascarita Dorada, Pequeño Olímpico
2) Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara, La Sombra DQ Felino, Heavy Metal, Misterioso II
3) Marcela & Princesa Sujei b Amapola & Lady Apache [Relevos Increíbles, losers advance]
4) Lady Apache b Amapola [hair]
5) Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt b Atlantis, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero
6) Dragon Rojo Jr. b Mictlán [mask]
7) Blue Panther, Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr. b Black Warrior, Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero

SoloLuchas, which bounces from match to match in a fashion where I’m not sure if I have order right, confirms Mictlan is Jonathan de Jesús Navarro Jiménez. He’s 26, 9 years a wrestler (think about that for a sec) and from Guadalajara.

Quick details for those joining late, with more tomorrow

– Main event was just A Match. No angle, no feud, nothing different than what you might get on a Tuesday or Sunday.

– Similarly, Felino was just A Rudo. And lost in two falls due to DQ. It worked for Santo! I’m thinking not so much here.

– No explanation of Dutt for Styles. Doesn’t really make a difference, they’re all TNA Invader I, II, III to the public. MCMG won clean on Negro and Atlantis and want a title shot. Ultimo still wants the hair/mask match, but I suspect we’ll see some sort of rematch in September for the belts.

– People really really care about the luchawiki. I appreciate that.

As president of the Amapola Fan Club, either I go twelve pargraphs on that booking choice or I step away from the computer a few hours. I’ll see you tommorow.

remixing the lucha subset of PWI 500

I figure, if I’m going to criticize ideas, I might as well put my own idea to be equally ripped apart. Since, I had some thoughts about the lucha libre rankings in this year’s PWI (as I do every year), I figured I could do my own.

So the criteria is supposedly:

– Win-loss record
– Technical Ability
– Influence on the sport
– Success against the highest grade of competition
– Success against the most diverse competition
– Activity

Let’s go with that. Why not. I’ll skip the minis and the women, because that seems to be part of the rule as well.

There were 62 wrestlers from the lucha libre sphere of influence on the list, which means I’ve to rank 62 people. THIS IS NOT A LIST OF MY FAVORITE WRESTLERS, though that’s obviously going to be an influence.

What did I say last time?

This list is for entertainment purposes only. If you find yourself being legitimately upset about a ranking, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re mildly amused, you’re doing better.

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Sin Piedad Preview

(again, another post will show up before the show for discussion and I should be back later tonight. There’s one more post between this and the PPV thread.)

CMLL (FRI) 08/29 Arena Mexico
1) Fantasy, Mascarita Dorada, Pequeño Olímpico vs Pequeño Damian 666, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
2) Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Felino, Heavy Metal, Misterioso II
3) Amapola & Lady Apache vs Marcela & Princesa Sujei [Relevos Increíbles, hair, mask]
4) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero vs AJ Styles, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin
5) Mictlán vs Dragon Rojo Jr. [mask]
6) Blue Panther, Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Black Warrior, Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero

Notimex preview. In ESTO, Ampola & Lady Apache wonder outloud why they’re not having a direct match instead of this tag, and Mictlan proclaims he’s won four straight and will learn from the experience (not exactly true). Luchando Libre has it’s preview of the show, echoing those issues with the women’s match.

I actually had a whole post about that written, but it didn’t get finished. The short version is: CMLL doesn’t believe the women are a draw, or they would not have put them so low and skipped them on the Sin Piedad ad. (They may be, they may not be, but the point is CMLL visibly doesn’t think so here.) Neither is this big blowoff for a long angle (Marcela & Sujei were feuding for about 2 days before this was announced, Amapola and Apache are about the title, not the hair.) If this was four men, we’d assume someone needs the money. That may be the case here, but I think this is just a misguided at including the women on a big card, done in a way which actually hurts them for being here.

Again, CMLL’s ad has swapped the CMLL/TNA match and the women’s match in it’s add. Don’t know if that’s a change or just randomness. They also don’t have “Crhis” Sabin spelled right, though it seems most other sources are getting it ready.

I don’t think the main event means anything; they’re coasting on the popularity of Wagner.

I don’t think the semimain means anything. Back and forth feuds with mask ripping doesn’t hype a feud when plenty of people who aren’t feuding (or who don’t get around to finishing their feud) do it every week. Mictlan has done absolutely nothing to this point but have below average matches and Dragon Rojo has been treated as The Great Rudo Find Of 2008, so there’s no drama and there’s absolutely no reason to believe anything but Dragon Rojo Jr. winning. Doing a shock tecnico win here would be a tremendous waste of time and effort.

Mictlan really should have won the Arena Coliseo Tag Team titles or some tournament or anything at all to prove CMLL has the slightest faith in him at all. Getting DQ wins when Dragon Rojo yanks off his mask is nothing. Even getting trios wins is nothing, because wins and loses don’t generally mean a whole lot in this promotion; you have the same match next week anyway.

As far as I can tell, they haven’t had these two work a singles match elsewhere before this one. Hopefully they’ll have been training or working small shows or something.

They’ve done nothing to build up CMLL/TNA since the Gran Prix, and the CMLL crew are rudos and acting like rudos in the press. Not seeing the TV, I don’t know if maybe they’ve don’t a good job of selling it there, but it doesn’t come off as especially meaningful. I guess you can make a case that Negro’s on the team (and the champs, which can’t be a coincidence) so it’s CMLL vs TNA, not Guerreros vs TNA. But if you really were going to do that, you should be putting a tecnico on the team to show promotion unity.

I think TNA wants a long term deal with CMLL enough that they’d lose here. I know they wouldn’t have much of a problem with sacrificing the Machine Guns to make something else work – that’s what they do in Orlando already, and Ultimo Guerrero is a slight bit more useful than the Road Dogg.

What I really hope happens is Felino doesn’t help his teammates and befriends the other team after that match, staying a tecnico. That makes more sense than anything else. This ‘turn’ has gotten zero notice.

My guess for results are Rudo Minis, tecnicos by DQ, Sujei losing her mask, CMLL over TNA, Dragon Rojo Jr. and Niebla getting the pin on Wagner to set up a
‘shocking’ mask match announcement.

tie-in: The animated voice of Dragon Rojo Jr. talked to El Universal. Sounds like he had fun.

08/29: Neza, AAA

Splitting this up today. Preview is up at 4p CT. Plans came up and I will be unable to do live coverage, but I’ll have a post for comments around 7:00 if you’d like to talk. There should also be another post before that…

CMLL (SUN) 08/24 Arena Neza [The Gladiatores]
1) Golden Bull & Iron Black b Dragon Xtream & Moto Cross
2) Furia Roja & Rey Neza b Asesino del Futuro & Dr. Trauma
3) Espectrito I & Mini Boricua b La Parkita & Mini Vagabundo
4) Okagua & Shogun b Black Hunter & Volcan Negro
5) Chac-Mol, Starman, Tony Rivera b Apocalipsis, Black Heart, Black Hunter
6) Ángel Azteca Jr., Hijo del Faraon, Mictlán b Bronco III, Dragon Rojo Jr., Semental

Wasn’t I just told CMLL was no long running in Arena Neza? You may counter that a card with Angel Azteca jr. and Semental doesn’t actually count, but it’s kinda more interesting that way.

The Gladiatoes also has interviews with Cien Caras and Dr. Wagner Jr.

AAA (WED) 08/27 Arena Miguel Canto, Cozumel [El Diario de Quintana Roo]
1) Alan Stone & El Elegido b Cuervo & Ozz
2) Jack Evans & Teddy Hart b Crazy Boy & Ultimo Gladiador
3) Gronda II & La Parka Jr. DQ Kenzo Suzuki & Mesias

Attendance is estimated as 3000 in the article.

El Hijo del Santo was on a panel discussion for the magazine Castalida, as he’s featured inside. Santo says he’s been vetoed from Mexico City (not CMLL, though that’s what he probably means) for many years, and the NWA Mexico match is his return.

CMLL’s Blog has more photos of CMLL in Spain.

SuperLuchas has a story on a Bolivia vs Peru show.

Both this week’s Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly say Televisa and TV Azteca rejected WWE’s TV offer, and that’s why it ended up on TVC Deportes. I think I just buried the lead.

Ovaciones has a general preview on Arena Mexico and an artice on Scorpio Jr. “Grave, but stable and hoping for a quick recovery.”