A few months ago, Steve Sims wrote the definitive history of Mexican wrestling for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It’s well researched, detailed, informative, and entertaining.
This is not that. But it’s got pretty boxes.
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Day: November 27, 2008
AAA #860 (11/22)
I figure, the months ahead will provide me with no shortage of opportunity to mock the matches. Though – wait, I just realized a point that needs to be made…
ATTENTION: putting aside who they are or where they’re coming from, if you want to bring in better wrestlers to improve AAA, there’s definitely places where it can improve. The problem is, they’re talking about bringing in guys to be midcarders. The midcard isn’t the problem! Even if you believe Mark Briscoe is better than Night Queen Jessy, it doesn’t make the main events any less horrible! And the matches will continue to suck unless they change THOSE guys or they let the guys who can actually have exciting matches do more than sell all match.
Anyway. It’s important to remember they really don’t want to have better matches, they want to have matches that look different than the WWE stuff. So we get endless hardcore and ladder because WWE doesn’t do that on free TV (for good reason!) and we’ll get ROH style matches for the same reason. Since the emphasis is on style rather than quality, I still think it’d be easier to just buy a bunch of ROH DVDs and have their guys watch them than to buy ROH wrestlers, but this is also a subtle networking bit.
(and I think it’d be better if they just skipped ahead to buying CHIKARA DVDs, but I’ve totally digressed here.)
Getting back to the part where I actually talk about the show:
– minis match, chopped up and not especially compelling. But watch it below!
– torneo de Pena – everyone not named Mesias and Pirata (and maybe Elegido) buried 6 feet under. I know the point here is to subtly push Mesias as a tecnico and snuff out the feud with the Dark Family (he’s a main eventer, they’re a midcarder, they’re not allowed to feud) but it also kinda seemed like the point was to showcase Mesias inability to work anything but the same exact match seeing as he did it about five straight times.
Also, what was the point of having all three referees out there? They didn’t anything to stop the interference, which would be the reason to have them there. Which leaves me with no reason for them to be there.
– cage match: at least it felt shorter than usual?
What I planned on talking about was the non match stuff, but this is at a billion words already. Let’s see how quick I can do it.
* AAA would be so much better off if Octagon and Atlantis switched places. Octagon forever gets booked in these matches as the older legend of AAA, the symbol of traditional wrestling in an traditional world, the mentor to all the young guys. (Tecnico Atlantis. Or maybe Panther.) Unfortunately, he’s awful at it; he works as symbol, but he seems like he could care less. Getting his trademark spots in and taking off was such a typical moment for Octagon, that’s what he’s done for years. There’s tons of CMLL guys who can (and do) play the legendary wrestler defending his company from invaders, but AAA’s stuck with Octagon and no one really else – La Parka strength is comedy and doesn’t work as serious, so they have to bring back Latin to be the defender of all things AAA. It’s not a problem AAA can fix, there’s no obvious replacement, but the problem sticks out every time they do one of this angles.
* You’re also left with problems like “X-Pac, the man of reason”. Why does DX care about AAA going into chaos? Don’t they want a revolution? Maybe I can count them out.
* Did AAA make enough money by switching from the usual Auditorio to the baseball stadium to make up for the absolutely dead sounding crowd? I think the crowd was actually making noise and it was just audible, but the biggest memory of this show is people waving to the crowd to try and get a reaction every twenty seconds.
* The video packages they have now are better than what they had before, but they’re really not great and wearing thin. They’re trying to ape WWE here, and I wish they’d do a better job of it. WWE video packages start with one angle, follow it thru, maybe have some chaotic highlights underneath promos, and a dramatic conclusion. AAA video packages start with an angle, branch off to another angle, descend into random scenes and random promos and then just end with more random images, to the point where they have the show the graphic again to remind you what was supposed to be going on here.
* If Cibernetico vacating the title is supposed to be a big deal, maybe you’ve waited for another show where it would’ve come off like a big deal, instead of jamming it here overload. I think the people got their money’s worth with Konnan taking over, that could’ve been saved until the next taping.
(also, it would’ve been nice if Galavision aired the show in the right timeslot, so the end of the show would’ve be clipped off – like it is in my linked video. I’m sure it’ll repeat next week and five straight weeks after that.)
CMLL Apertura 2008 Standings
Lucha libre, even CMLL these days, is far more soap opera and less sport. People win, people lose, and it doesn’t really matter unless you’re in a pre-programmed feud (in which case you either trade wins or the champions lose every match until they win the title defense.) It doesn’t matter what you did last Friday by the time next Friday rolls around. The top guys are identified by their position on the card and their involvement in storylines.
On the other hand, the Mexican Futbol First Division is wrapping up this half season right now. In professional sports, wins and losses are all that really matter, how you determine the winner.
Just for kicks, and because this is the kind of thing I like to do with the database, I though it’d be amusing to see who would be closing on the championship in a mirror world, where the top lucha libre wrestlers are determined by record. (I don’t have the knowledge to do it the other way for futbol.)
I includes only those with at least 17 matches between Coliseo and Mexico (First Division’s season length), and normalized the points for a 17 game season so those with the both matches aren’t unfairly rewarded. The first division season went from July 26 to November 16, so that’s what I used. There’s one show in that span where results never turned up, so that’s the U line. 2 points for a win, 1 points for a loss. Which two wrestlers would get demoted to the second division IWRG?
Name W L D U Points Blue Panther 28 2 0 0 32 Marco Corelone 22 6 0 0 27 Dos Caras Jr. 15 4 0 1 26 Volador Jr. 20 6 0 1 25 La Sombra 17 6 0 0 25 La Máscara 17 9 0 0 22 Héctor Garza 16 8 0 1 22 Sagrado 9 9 0 0 17 Valiente 9 9 0 0 17 Último Guerrero 12 13 0 0 16 Negro Casas 9 11 0 0 15 Atlantis 9 12 0 0 15 Rey Bucanero 11 16 0 0 14 Mephisto 7 14 0 1 11 Dragon Rojo Jr. 7 12 0 0 13 Ephesto 6 12 0 0 11 Averno 6 12 0 1 11 Misterioso II 6 14 0 0 10 Mr. Niebla 5 17 0 0 08 Terrible 3 15 0 1 05
Poor Niebla and Terrible. You know, CMLL enacting relegation and promotions would sure explain how Shocker and Toscano got back in, now that I think about it.
What really intrigued me out of this is Blue Panther’s record – 28 and 2! I think you can identify one of those losses pretty easily. By my count, Blue Panther won 11 matches in a row between losing his mask and losing his next, against Atlantis, Rey and UG on 11/14. There’s been a concentrated effort to build/rehab Panther here, and it’s been completely lost on me.
Note the top group is all tecnicos, the bottom group is all rudos, and UG has been both and is in the middle. That’s never changing.
CMLL FSE #120 (11/23)
This was better than average but not a special episodes. Minis were good, but the bar is pretty high there and they didn’t quite reach it. Coliseo Trios was fine but a bit paint by numbers.
Mascara Dorada = Grey Shadow II. There’s some effort to position him as something on occasion, but it’s pretty clear they don’t have confidence in his work in the ring right now to sustain it. On the net, he’s going to move up from being second/third match guy to third/fourth match guy when everything settles down, but probably still not mean a whole much other than getting someone out there using the Mascara Dorada name (which they surely own, which may not have been as clear the case with ‘Metalik’.)
I can’t believe I’m not higher on a show with 27 minutes of wrestling.
11/27: updated Perro lineup, Loco/Mictlan, Satanico to GDL
PERRO (SUN) 12/07 Sala de Armas de Ciudad Deportiva [ESTO]
2) Black Spirit, Súper Nova, Turbo vs Black Thunder, Cerebro Negro, Head Hunter I
3) Enigmatica & Esther Moreno vs Flor Metlica & Rossy Moreno
4) Intocable & Super Crazy vs Damián 666 & Mr. Águila
5) Cibernetico, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, LA Park vs Dos Caras Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., ?
Updated lineup for the debut show. Latin is now not listed, and Intocable replaces Juvi. I guess Super Nova is out of CMLL. Tickets are 80 pesos ($6 US)
CMLL says the 12/02 Arena Mexico main event is Mictlan vs Loco Max in a hair match. They’ve been feuding for three weeks, hadn’t even noticed.
(MT) Satanico has taken over as head trainer for Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. In that article, he’s teaching both the beginner and advanced classes, with the aim of improving prospects from the region. Satanico notes Guadalajara has a long history of producing great wrestlers (and training them; he’s taking over Gimansio Diablo Velasco after all) but has been surpassed lately by places like La Lagunera. Satanico thinks the talent is there, pointing out Mascara Dorada’s ascension, but also notes the public wasn’t happy with the matches of late.
I presume Satanico is moving to GDL to coach there full time. Not sure who takes off his Mexico City training.
While in Guadalajara, Mistico also talked to MedioTiempo’s reporter, and complained about the medical care he received after breaking his collarbone here four months ago. Actually, he complains about the utter lack of attention – Mistico says no one helped when he fractured his collarbone, and no one from the arena helped him after the show. A friend bought him a plane ticket, helped him change clothes in a taxi and got him back to Mexico City where emergency surgery was performed, because he had no place to go in GDL. Without naming him, Mistico’s critical of Apolo Dantes and the way he’s running the building.
Ultimo Guerrero is very free. He feels better with the Guerreros, but isn’t sure if the company will put him with them, with the Laguneros, the Pesta Negra, or some super combination of all three. If he doesn’t have a clue, the rest of us are completely lost. UG says they’ll try everything and see if anything works. UG also said the door is open for Toscano to return to the rudo side if he wants, and he’s happy to have Shocker back since UG considers him his #1 rival.
Santo predicts Lucha Libre Madrid will be a success.
AAA previews Pirata Morgan vs Elegido in a chain match and Mesias & Chessman teaming again, both on this weekend’s taping.
SuperLuchas looks back at Cibernetico in LLI. Ovaciones talks to Mil Mascaras about his career.
Yet another Santo in Spain interview.
LuchaWorld has Robert on 08/05/06 AAA and CMLL GDL 08/16/06 and IWRG 07/30 & 08/06 IWRG.