Mexico finally beats Japan at something (if IWRG counts), previews, AAA video game

IWRG (THU) 10/22 Arena Naucalpan [EdR]
1) Comando Negro b Halcon 2000
2) Exodia b La Rata
3) El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco b Pendulo & Star Boy
4) Black Terry, Pirata Morgan, Tóxico b Brazo de Plata, Chico Che, Suicida
5) Flor Metalica b Atsuko Emoto [hair]

Flor Metalica was bloody and repeatedly attacked 3 on 1 (with Bushi helping distract), but Kimura accidently hit Emoto in the third fall, leading to Flor Metalica winning via superplex. Flor Metalica proved herself better at fighting off the Japanese threat than both Black Warrior & Toscano combined.

Though the semimain was about building up a Black Terry/Chico Che hair match, the finish was Pirata fouling Porky and getting away with it. Porky appears to be an independent, as he said in Guadalajara.

Outside of his help in the main event, Bushi is a tecnico – he’s also hurt, so Star Boy replaced him here. Gringo Loco, who found himself a Love Machine mask to match his gear, actually picked up a win here. The tecnicos immediately demanded a rematch.

La Rata is bringing a (cage) rat with him to the ring.

AAA (WED) 10/21 Salon West, Celaya, Guanajuato [el Sol de Bajio]
1) Mascarita Sagrada 2007 & Octagoncito b Mascarita de la Muerte & Mini Abismo Negro
2) Estrellita, Gran Apache, May Flowers b Billy Boy, Polvo de Esterllas, Tiffany
3) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown b Alan Stone, Crazy Boy, Extreme Tiger
4) La Parka Jr. & Marco Corleone b Kenzo Suzuki & Silver King

This is just your normal AAA spot show (though well attended judging from the picture.) However, two notes:
– Clowns say they’re at 486
– semimain recap says “Tiratnes” was the referee. Did they get the father/son confused?

Previews of tonight’s Arena Mexico shows
Luchando Libre
OEM: “after several weeks of confrontations” between Volador and Averno “finally agreed to a title match”. Several weeks = 2?
Notimex
ESTO
Televisa Deportes writes more about a 13 year old race car driver who will be at the show. The 13 year old won a 24 hour race. I know they switch off drivers in those competitions, so it’s not like he’s driving the whole time, but that still seems many layers of insane.

Anyway, the wrestling. Tonight’s a night of (virtual) rematches from last week’s hair match show. Warrior and Yujiro slip into a trios (and possible set up for No Limit’s next opponents), Averno vs Volador is three falls this time, the semimain is now the main, and Poder Mexica face Fantastma/Valiente/Mascara (instead of Stuka this week) in a near rematch. With that tecnico trio switching a close to the current CMLL trios champs, perhaps they’re headed to a solution to the national trios titles limbo status – Poder Mexica attempts to win the world titles and vacate the Mexican ones? Dunno.

Last week’s show seemed to do surprisingly well attendance. I don’t think this one will – a title match isn’t exactly a hair match – but you can see why they would be content enough to dwell on things for another week.

Also, the Lucha Libre Premier tapings previews
LuchandoLibre
ESTO – bringing the point leader update:

11 Jack Evans
09 Elegido
07 Marco Corleone
06 Dr. Wagner Jr.
(Sexi Star is mentioned as -1. No else is mentioned.)

Now, this was the point totals last they told us:

9 Rain
9 Jack Evans (and has since added 2 points for best spot on show, so 11)
9 Mesias
9 Elegido
9 Marco Corleone (*think* he since got 1 bonus point, so 10)
9 Dr. Wagner Jr.
6 Octagoncito
6 Sexi Star
6 Rocky Romero
6 Pimpinela Escarlata
3 Mari Apache
3 Zorro
3 Mascarita Divina
1 Sugi (includes his bonus point)

Please note, these points are not something I did myself (and somehow screwed up on), this is what AAA’s website said. This is not a big surprise; Alan noticed Sexi Star bizarrely had a -1 for a match where Fabi actually got DQed, so the points they’re using on the actual TV show seem to divert with what we’ve been given. It’d be nice if, before or after this taping, someone on AAA’s side explain what is going on for the points (and why we should care), but what appears to be happening is typical: they had an idea, it had questionable merit, they only sort of followed thru, it doesn’t really make sense.

Anyway, it’s also worth noting 20 points by December is the mark to make the final, and it’s going to be really tough to get there if they’re done to one taping a month. Either they’ll be taping again real soon, December is no longer the end, or the 20 point thing will be ignored. (Bet on the last option.)

Today starts a big 3 day electronics game expo in Mexico, and it’s logical there would be a presentation for the AAA game. Sure enough, there’s a press release out today saying Konnan & Elegido will be presenting a XBOX 360 demo of the game tomorrow afternoon. The important news is buried in the last line, where it says they’re planning for a 1st half of 2010 release. Earlier, it had been said to be for this Christmas. When it got to late October, about a month before the game should be coming out, and nothing had been said about the game in a long time, it’s no surprise it’s being pushed back. I’m just pleased to find out it still exists!

There will probably be more about AAA’s game this weekend, but…
– that they have an 360 demo makes me wonder a bit about the PS3 version (porting from 360 to PS3 has been difficult for video game producers)
– there’s a new English language website for the game: http://www.heroesdelring.com/, with not a lot of new content besides badly translated English. The trailer is the old trailer, and the six wrestlers profiled are ones we already knew where in (including Charly Manson! Maybe he’ll be back before this game is out!) There’s spots on the wrestler profile page for 16 profiles of wrestlers. I hope that’s just a website thing. I really really hope that’s just a website thing.
– CNN Expansion writes about the game in terms of the start up Mexican video game industry. The accompanying pictures appear to be of the DS version and/or the year 1996. I can only identify the second as La Parka because I can see the health meter. Is there guy on top Zorro? Who else has a full head of hair and beard (and no facepaint?) Hope it plays real well. The Dr. Death Steve Williams guess is as good as any – make him an boss character, with everyone going for revenge for that pinata match.

Shocker explains Strong Man was nervous early on, so if you didn’t observer great technique then, he’ll have it soon. Meanwhile, Strong Man has been giving everyone diet and exercise tips. Great. Shocker says his group is now Guapos International and he’s working at new members, but he doesn’t want to say them until it’s confirmed. (Everyone assumes this to mean Val Venis.)

Terrible talks about this weekend’s trip to France.

There’s a post on SML about this Zorro not being the first Zorro (maybe that the Promo Azteca Zorro was different? – or maybe there was just a different one in Monterrey?) that I don’t quite follow.

Ohtani’s Jacket looks back at Mascara Ano 2000 vs Perro Aguayo.

LuchaWorld has the new Slammin’ Stan 16, where it doesn’t appear I owe money (yet), and KrisZ’s Lucha Junket..

The Argentina basketball federation made a surprise visit to Giant Gonzalez, bringing him a new fridge, clothes, a TV, a copy of a movie he was in, and food. Gonzales – noticeably not standing in the pictures – says he hopes to return the favor by coming to a game next Sunday.

CMLL (TUE) 11/17 Arena Xalapa
1) Crazy Man & Gore vs Caballero NEgro Jr. & Rey Tiburón
2) Dr. X, Jason la Máquina, Skándalo vs Caballero Ninja, Eslabón Perdido, Rey Pantera
3) Loco Max & Virus vs Ángel de Oro & Ángel de Plata
4) Lady Apache, Lluvia, Luna Mágica vs Amapola, La Nazi, Princesa Sujei
5) La Sombra, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto

Notable only that this seems to indicate a planned return date for Luna Magica. Hope the custody situation resolved well.

Mexico, Toryumon, IWRG

CMLL (TUE) 10/20 Arena Mexico [CMLL]
1) Artillero & Súper Comando b Apolo Estrada Jr. & Sensei
2) Dr. X, Hooligan, Nitro b Astro Boy, Guerrero Maya Jr., Starman
3) Bracito de Oro, Eléctrico, Mascarita Dorada b Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
4) La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Toscano b Felino, Heavy Metal, Virus
5) Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto DQ Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Yujiro

Mendoza fouled Averno, and the Avernos demanded a rematch. Felino & Dorada were stretchered out after some spot went wrong. Hope Dorada is still good to make it to France.

Toryumon (SAT) 10/17 Salas de Armas de la Magdalena Mixuca [the Gladiatores]
1) Rigo & Robin Hood b Miedo & Negro Cassola
2) Trauma I & Trauma II b Ministro & Súper Camaleón
3) Diosa Maya, La Nazi, La Seductora b Hiroka, Kyoko Kimura, Tomoko Nakagawa
4) Arkangel de la Muerte & Medico Asesino Jr. b Brazo de Platino & Starman
5) Angelico, Solar I, Último Dragón b Juventud Guerrera, Negro Navarro, Trauma I

Trauma I worked twice becuase of no Fuerza. Angelico pinned Juvi, then challenged for his NWE Cruiserweight Title.

IWRG (SUN) 10/18 Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Dinamic Black b Extraño
2) Carta Brava & Hijo del Signo b Miss Gaviota & Star Boy
3) Alan Extreme, Avisman, Fantasma de la Ópera b Bushi, Chico Che, Exodia
4) Kyoko Kimura & Tomoko Nakagawa DQ Flor Metalica & Josseline
5) Negro Navarro, Trauma I, Trauma II DRAW Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro

Different finish to the main event. Both Cerebros hit their finishes on both Traumas, but captain Navarro got captain Terry to give up just as the other ref was counting three. They decided to rule it a draw, and agreed to a Mexico State Trios title match.

Flor Metalica accused Atsuko Emoto of being scared and no-showing. (She had a different booking this day.) The other two members of Revolucion Amandra lost in straight falls, losing the last for excessive violence.

Alan Extreme replaced Sangre Chicana. Kinda the same thing.

Perros del Mal say they have a press conference at 6PM on Friday, covering plans thru the end of the year. Their TV will be on again this week, Sunday, 10:30pm on 4TV.

Fuego en el Ring talks to Super Porky about his return. He notes his last match for AAA was in Guadalajara and his first match back with CMLL is in Guadalajara (but he’s been elsewhere in between.) Brazo de Plata says his friends in AAA where Elegido, Gronda, Octagon, and Parka, but everyone else is “worthless, disrespectful people.” He had great fun his first year in Mexico, with Antonio Pena fulfilling all his promises and making him lots of money, but it fell apart after Pena died.

ESTO interviews Mascara Dorada, who says he’s a loner but friends with Horus. He mentions he’s the son of Gitano, which I don’t think he’s said before. Also, I don’t know which Gitano that’d be.

The Gladiatores also has interviews with Anticristo, Los Traumas and Solar, as well as Sexy Star, and Dr. Wagner Jr..

Box Y Lucha has a text interview with La Nazi talking about her career (and working on a movie with Denzel Washington) and a video interview with Los Traumas. There’s also a column looking back at Antonio Pena, and Villano III’s column is about a battle for a 5 dollar bill in Tijuana.

CMLL will be holding it’s annual mass to honor Oro on Monday at Arena Coliseo.

Record dresses No Limit as samurais. If they were in the US, would they be wacky samurai? No, they’d be wacky ninjas. Anyway, they reveal they did not actually come to Mexico to destroy prove Japan is better, but to gain experience.

Kcidis illustrates Polvora’s new wall mount.

Stumbled across a poster for a Blue Demon, Hijo del Santo, Super Porky, Mascarita Sagrada, Octagocnito show in Queens, NY on 11/22. I know nothing about this but the poster.

Cronicas y Leyendas de la Lucha Libre looks back at Hijo del Santo vs Perro Aguayo Sr..

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

CMLL (TUE) 10/27 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino & Meteoro vs Relampago & Skaxy
2) Angelo & Magnum vs Ebola & Malefico
3) Astaroth & Metal Blanco vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado, Toscano vs Black Warrior, Felino, Negro Casas
5) Héctor Garza & Shocker vs Terrible & Texano Jr.

10/24-25 Lucha Times

box. I don’t know if the Perros are airing. But they do have a press conference on Friday. Edit: Perros del Mal facebook says they’re airing Sunday on 4TV, same 10:3o time. I bet it’ll be the best two matches that didn’t air.

AAA-MEX: Part 2 of Heroes Immortales, including Chessman/Electro hair match.

52MX: cage match seems to happen here, plus the minis match.

CMLL-MEX: top 3 should include No Limit/Okumura vs Warrior/Panther/Garza, Averno/Volador’s title match, and more Strong Man vs Ultimo Guerrero

AAA-MEX: Clowns vs WagnerManiacs, and a whole lot of other things going on.

AAA-FOX: should be the last new episode from the first taping, with women and Wagner/mesias/Rocky vs Cibernetico/Kenzo/Sugi

CMLL-FOX: Strong Man vs Ultimo Guerrero

C3: No Limit for Avernos, Felino/Dorada have something go badly wrong.

Puebla: no women’s match is the easiest guess ever

Monterrey: AAA!

10/30 AAA TV Lineup (Poza Rica)

AAA (FRI) 10/30 Gimansio Miguel Hidalgo, Poza Rica, Veracruz [luchalibreaaa]
1) Relampago & Tribal vs American Rebelde & Jesse
2) Crazy Boy, Decnnis, Gato Eveready vs Rió Bravo, Tigre Cota, Tito Santana
3) Fabi Apache, Gran Apache, Mari Apache vs ?, Rain, Teddy Hart
4) Laredo Kid, Octagón, Súper Fly vs Joe Lider, Mantra, Nicho el Millionario
5) Marco Corleone, Pimpinela Escarlata, Rocky Romero vs Alex Koslov, Konnan, Zorro
6) Dr. Wagner Jr., Electroshock, Último Gladiador vs El Mesías, Extreme Tiger, La Parka Jr.

2009 AAA TV Chart
Projected Air Date (#912)
Mexico: 11/08
US: 11/21

So let’s start with: MANTRA? (??????)

There’s no way that opener is airing. But it’s nice to know who’s working it.

I need to start listing Decnnis as a tecnico. Funny how, of the course of a couple months, they’ve moved from a Decnnis/Billy Boy team to a Decnnis/Gato Eveready team. If only they could team up all three at the same time, what a trio they would make. Everyone sees that I’m not calling Tito Santana “Tito Santana”, and have stopped using the “II”. Everyone understand that I mean the stringy haired Poder del Norte, and not anyone ever in WWE? Great. I would think about doing the same for La Parka Jr., but I don’t want to get an angry all caps comment.

The ? spot is for a woman, so either it was scheduled to be Nikki Roxx and they’re officially giving up on that, or they’re just not sure if Jennifer Blake will be around. I don’t expect the spot to be meaningful.

Is Hermandad/Air Force a feud? Should’ve been more careful when I asked for them to give Laredo Kid & Super Fly something to do.

There’s clearly something going on with Pimpi – over the last few TV tapings, he’s suddenly been put in the top 3 matches. Sad to see Zorro fall back in which such bad company.

Being an even numbered show, Wagner is a rudo. I may be making that up or I may have just cracked the system. I don’t want to find out.

the problem with CMLL tecnico groups

This is going to descend into a list post. Your time may be better spent watching part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the Perros del Mal debut show.

Diaro de Yucatan (picking it up from El Universal?) has my favorite article of the week: a serious discussion of CMLL is out of balanced in favor of the rudos. I don’t know about that being actually true, but if you’re willing to conceded it, you have to like the all the work to get actual quotes for people involved. Some tecnicos suggest it’s because CMLL doesn’t support tecnicos groups, and Panico says it’s up to the tecnicos to make their own groups because that’s what rudos did. (Really?) They explore tecnicos not being able to get along, and of course Mistico & Garza snipe at each other. They point out the fans seem to be more behind rudos, and many are switching that way.

Early on, the article claims there are only 13 tecnico stars: Mistico, Garza, Shocker, Panther, Toscano, Maximo, Fantasma, Mascara, Volador, Sombra, Mascara Dorada, Stuka and Valiente. I’m glad we all can agree Mictlan is not star, but it’s the suggestion there’s 25 star rudos that seems surprising. Let’s see if I can work them out (in no real order)

  1. Atlantis
  2. Averno
  3. Black Warrior
  4. Dragon Rojo Jr.
  5. Felino
  6. Heavy Metal
  7. Mephisto
  8. Misterioso – on the level of Stuka & Valiente, surely
  9. Mr. Niebla
  10. Negro Casas
  11. Sangre Azteca
  12. Terrible
  13. Naito
  14. Ultimo Guerrero
  15. Yujiro
  16. Hijo de Lizmark – article seems written before his jump
  17. Okumura – ???
  18. Satanico – still a star
  19. Euforia – starting to reach; hard to argue Flash shouldn’t be on the first list when including these guys
  20. Nosferatu
  21. Virus

How do you get the other four? Can’t include the Tuareg, which would mean a lot more tecnicos should be included. Whom am I missing? Same with the minis and the women.

Anyway, if I circle back around to a point worth making, CMLL’s problem isn’t in quantity, it’s CMLL not giving keeping tecnico acts going from show to show, and keeping groups together. It’s either indicative of how quickly things get forgot, or how old article this is, that the Super Sky Team isn’t mentioned. (Garza’s group is considered to be only him, Mascara, and Fantasma, which may come as to news to Hector Garza.)

For my money, Toscano and Garza are completely right and Panico is full of it.The tecnicos are jumbled together in random combination for every match, never teaming any group long enough to get momentum unless they happen to be challenging for titles at that moment. (12 shows DF per month, and Flash & Stuka team up an average of 1 of them.) Meanwhile, rudos teams are always kept together – No Limit rarely wrestle separately, and they’ve got Mendoza as a third for no apparent reason except to give them a permanent third, Poder Mexico usually has at least 2 in any match where there’s 1, the Avernos team are always booked together, the Guerreros (both of them!) are always booked together.

If CMLL wanted to get a tecnico trio over, they could do it in a month – as long as they didn’t completely give up on it the next month. They were actually doing it with something as dumbly named as “Super Sky Team”, and stopped booking them together too. It’s simple: there are no strong CMLL tecnico groups because CMLL doesn’t want unified tecnico groups.

Porky returns in GDL, Gran Davis Jr., Bucanero

CMLL (TUE) 10/20 Arena Mexico [ESTO]
5) Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto DQ Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Yujiro

More tomorrow, I hope.

CMLL (TUE) 10/20 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Acertijo & Ebola b El Divino & Saturno
2) Ángel del Mal & Drago b Hierro & Palacio Negro
3) Lady Apache & Marcela b Hiroka & Princesa Blanca
4) Blue Panther, La Máscara, Máximo b Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca
5) Black Warrior, Terrible, Texano Jr. b Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Shocker

Porky is back. And on the losing side. Texano got in a foul on Garza.

Semimain ended with Sangre and Mascara in the ring, and you can put the rest together. Saturno took himself out on a dive in the opener, leaving his partner to go 1 on 2.

Wrestler Gran Davis Jr. was murdered this past week. He’s been wrestling in Laguna recently (including in a couple hair matches last month, as well as working as butcher, and is the son of the famous referee. Gran Davis Jr., who also wrestled as Tor-Ver, was really Osvaldo Patino Cabrera, 34 years old. He was one of three men who’s bodies were found dumped in a box outside of a school. Osvaldo and another man where last thought to be going to a bar, riding in the third man’s taxi. The news reports say there were signs of torture.

Rey Bucanero will not be back until 2010. Rey tore his ACL in his left knee hurt back in May, and was expected to be out over six months, so this is a slight push back. Bucanero explains the doctor will probably clear him to return in December, but it’ll take a while to get back in ring shape, so he may not make it back in 2009. Rey wants another match with Ephesto so they can go all the way to the outcome. In the mean time, he’s promoting another nightclub show on 10/30 in Tecamac.

Is this AAA’s twitter account? Or someone else pretending? Or will this be already clear by the time I posted it? Need to update the links to add on

Bolivian Wrestling has photos of South American champion Javier Lee.

R De Rudo has photos of a Matematico exhibition at Blue Demon Jr.’s gallery. That mask at the end with 6s for eyes and 8s for noses and mouths is the best.

The governor of Colima honored wrestler TNT, at a presentation of a documentary about TNT’s life.

Hijo del Santo spoke about ocean conservation at the California Science Cetner yesterday. There’s video at the link.

El Sol de Tulancingo profiles retired wrestler Sombra del Peru.

Box Y Lucha #2944 has Black Warrior bald.

Luchas 2000 #492 has Warrior bald and Dragoncito hurt. Dragoncito hands, arms, and face all look burnt or bruised – he looks in rough shape. There’s also an interview with Cassandro where he accuses TNA of being homophobic, and Leobrado Magadan’s column where he rips Dos Caras Jr. and WWE for having him wrestle unmasked in FCW.

CMLL (MON) 10/26 Arena Puebla
1) Karisma & Policeman vs Asturiano & Centella de Oro
2) Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pequeño Violencia vs Bracito de Oro, Eléctrico, Shockercito
3) Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca vs Máximo, Metro, Rouge
4) Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto vs Blue Panther, Máscara Dorada, Valiente
5) Ray Mendoza Jr., Terrible, Texano Jr. vs La Sombra, Strong Man, Volador Jr.

CMLL’s started to refer Electrico as “Pequeno Electrico” the last week. Nothing like being your own mini.