Internet’s been down all evening, but I think I’m good now.
Click Here for the chat; not sure if I’ll be always around, but I should be able to get it started.
Month: January 2010
CMLL on Televisa #960 (01/23/2010)
watched @ WarriorX2000’s YouTube channel
Even though there wasn’t a great match on this show, and the matches were clipped up, this definitely felt like a show worth checking out, where things were actually happening. The Mistico turn stole the headlines, but the winners all came off as true winners. Even shortened, both the tournament and the title match had enough to them that you felt like that side that won proved they were the best. Ultimo Guerrero is clearly better than Hector Garza, and Atlantis & Mascara Dorada were the top team on that night.
The Mistico angle came off great. They teased that the Volador/Mistico matchup in the match, and the excitement was there when they finally faced off. The foul was perfect, and so was the post match. It seemed even less ambiguous watching it; Mistico chooses to foul Volador for his city, but it turns into something beyond once he throws the drink into Volador’s face. Even though it wasn’t the final of the night, it didn’t lose any impact for it.
The main event was too short to be very good, but what they showed was fine.
UG/Stuka, Mistico/Averno, Perros
More Ultimo/Stuka interviews for today’s show in Fuego en el Ring. UG thought Sombra/Dragon would do better last week. He’d be willing to face Garza in a mask vs hair match, because he’s not yet won hair. He promises a new look coming in about two months.
[poll id=”56″]
Record has a three part interview with Mistico and Averno about their team. Mistico considers himself neither tecnico or rudo right now and explains he did what he did because he wanted to win the tournament, but also talks about teaming with Averno full time and says Volador’s became famous only because he was teaming with Mistico. At the same time, Mistico also says he hasn’t forgot his feud with Averno, still would like to do that mask match, and hasn’t forgot how past partnerships have gone bad. (Odd that the past partnership he brings up isn’t Black Warrior or Negro Casas, but Hector Garza.)
[poll id=”57″]
Averno thinks he and Mistico should take the tag titles from Sombra & Volador. Averno should be the programmer! Mistico suggests bringing in Mephisto and making it a trio. Mistico again says he doesn’t want to be tecnico or rudo, but just the best and win the titles. (Again, Hector Garza. ISSUES.) Depsite all this talk, it’ll be Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero that Mistico will actually be teaming up with Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, SuperLuchas looks at the three way battle that day – Perros vs CMLL vs WWE’s Royal Rumble on PPV. The Perros have made “cheap tickets for all!” as one of their focuses, but CMLL’s cheapest tickets are lower than the Perros for this week, and CMLL’s letting in all kids for free – both clearly designed to pack their house at the expense of the Perros. The Perros most expensive tickets are cheaper than CMLL’s.
In hyping up the Perro’s show, Perro Jr. says his promotion can make the best cards in Mexico, and figures he’ll be the only one wrestling as a rudo in the main event on Sunday. Also, Charly Manson says X-Fly is very respected and very prestigious, and so is Charly title.
For weekend 2 of the AAA movie, various AAA wrestlers will be doing autograph signings at theaters. Haven’t been able to find out how the movie actually did in week 1 (only know Avatar was the #1 movie of the week in Mexico.) Speaking off, Kcidis illustrates Ozz inspired by a movie.
There was a thread on Box Y Lucha mentioning a gossip show saying Sexi Star had left AAA. AAA says no, she’s still in AAA. AAA also has a Psycho Circus promo.
ROH has added Super Parka to Blue Demon Jr. and Cassandro on it’s April 3rd show in Charlotte.
There’s a new lucha libre restaurant open in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland?
Shocker & Strong Man team up in San Fransisco on Saturday. This is the same show with Lady Apache vs Alissa Flash for a new title. Since Alissa is finished up with TNA, can Lady Apache talk her into coming to CMLL? She’d be fun.
Segunda Caida continues it’s complete Cassandro recap with AAA matches from ’06 and ’07.
Lineups
CMLL (MON) 02/01 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger, Blue Center, Tigre Rojo vs Akron, Barbaro I, Sauron
2) Molotov, Sensei, Tigre Blanco vs Bronco, Dr. X, Hooligan
3) Dark Angel, Lluvia, Marcela vs Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sujei
4) Blue Panther, Brazo de Plata, Toscano vs Terrible, Texano Jr., Vangelis
5) La Sombra & Volador Jr. vs Felino & Mr. Niebla [CMLL TAG]
They haven’t done this combo of Peste Negra yet.
CMLL (TUE) 02/02 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino vs Meteoro
2) Angelo & Virgo vs Ebola & In Memoria
3) Astaroth & Hierro vs Asesino Negro & Ráfaga
4) Ángel Azteca, Diamante, Metal Blanco vs Euforia, Máscara Mágica, Shigeo Okumura
5) Máscara Dorada & Místico vs Misterioso II & Último Guerrero
First time Mistico would be a tecnico at any of the major building since Friday. Could be interesting.
CMLL Roster, by training area
I was looking at articles to link to tomorrow, and I noticed ESTO’s preview of the show is based around and interview with Stuka & Ultimo Guerrero. They must’ve been on a media tour this afternoon, having also appeared on TelevisaDeportes’ website and probably being quoted more places tomorrow. It’d be a pretty big upset for these two to lose in the first round on Friday, if only because they’ve drawn lots of attention to the poor record of Team Laguna so far (0-3), though they’re not likely to win it all either, since UG won’t stop talking about facing Atlantis. He’s totally jinxed it.
The quote from this article that caught my eye was at the very end, where UG says Guadalajara is the best lucha libre school, but notes there are more than 10 Laguna wrestlers on the current roster. UG doesn’t actually give an exact number, and I’ve figured out that even being on another level doesn’t give you the ability to count everyone up, especially when they’re sprouting like weeds. Just to figure out the answer, and because no one will care much about this discussion a month from now, I broke down the roster by location, the same as being done in the ongoing tag team tournament.
Just like the tournament, some of the geographical distinctions are iffy at best, and a few could probably fit in different categories. I based my info off the data on the luchawiki profiles, and also the Current Roster based on that category, so I might’ve missed a couple. (Not sure if Metatron is officially on the roster. Super Cameleon slipped by! And we need to remove Black Warrior, I think.) I did include minis and women. The full list is after the jump, but the big summary is right here:
70 Mexico City
14 Laguna
10 Guadalajara
10 Monterrey
20 Other/Unknown
Just eyeballing the list real quick, only 5 Laguna guys have been around for a while (UG, Panther, Ephesto, Hooligan and Misterioso); guys from about Stuka on are part of this Laguna Wave. It’s a lot different from the mostly veteran lists hailing from the north and the west.
01/30-31 Lucha Times
Not on the schedule, but starting this week, CMLL will air on The Fight Network in Canada. Looks like a one hour slot and a lot of reairs. It’s not new shows – most likely, it’s the same run of tapes from 2008-2009 that have turned up in France and England already. I guess we find out on Monday.
AAA-US: part 2 of TripleMania. I assume the Clowns/Air Force match isn’t airing this time either.
52MX: Angels/Fabian vs Tigers/Skandalo. Almost a good match there. Plus Poder Mexica faces Rush, Toscano, and Sagrado. Watch that match and see if you can still tell me Sagrado’s the disappointment.
IWRG-TF: IF A NEW EPISODE ACTUALLY AIRED, this would be the second half of the IWRG tag tournament, plus a Diablo/Loco vs Terry/Cerebro match. It’d be nice to finally get a Gringo Loco match.
—
CMLL: looks to be a few minutes shorter than usual, so maybe only the tournament here?
AAA-MEX: Listed as two hours, so the minis are getting cut from the first taping of the year. Main event is Cibernetico/Psycho Clowns vs Legion
CMLL-FOX: Minis! Plus Negro/Terrible/Texano vs Plata/Garza/Fantasma. On at 9AM this week.
C3: top 4 includes more Sombra vs Felino. I forget to list this, but this show does reair very early on Monday mornings, in case a recording goes wrong again.
Puebla: More Sombra(/Volador) vs Felino(/Niebla)
ACM: Hijo del Ninja/Furor. I legit recorded this, but it randomly stopped recording at 22 early. Here’s what I got, if you want it, and I’ll keep trying.
IWRG-TVD: maybe it’ll be Perros? TVC Deportes doesn’t have listings up for February.
Terrible & Texano suspended, Ephesto out three weeks, ratings, Tinieblas retiring
Texano & Terrible are suspended from wrestling in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara for 2 months for getting into a fight with a fan. It sounds like Terrible was sent into the second row on a Dorada dive, knocking beer out of a fan’s hands, the fan responded aggressively, and Terrible & Texano responded just as aggressively. They apologized later, but still got suspended. Being banned from an arena for two months (especially when you’re supposed to be the tag team champions of the building) is obviously a bad thing, but at least it was rudos and probably the right rudos too.
Mephisto, when talking about his title match with Valiente on the same show, says Ephesto will be out two months after hurting his leg on Friday night’s show. Didn’t pick up an obvious injury spot when I was watching the TV, but I didn’t know to look for one. Ephesto did work a show on Sunday, so maybe Mephisto just got the day wrong. Sounds like the crowd wasn’t much into the title match, by the way.
Tinieblas Sr. says he’s retiring. By the end of the year. (Maybe.) He’s planning a retirement tour from 04/16 to the start of the world cup, and then a second retirement tour from July to November, but no precise dates. I’m thinking he’s announcing this tour 2.5 months before it’s starting because he’s got a lot of open dates on the tour to fill, but Tinieblas claims he’s got plans to visit AAA, CMLL and IWRG. His only regret is he never got to win Mil Mascaras mask, but maybe there’s a little more time.
In this week’s WON, there’s a section about major changes in AAA coming soon. I am sure I’ve read that same thing in that same section a half dozen different times in the last six months. The idea for this year is to build around Marco Corleone, Jack Evans, Zorro and Laredo Kid (with Wagner, Konnan and maybe Vampiro still around.) Again, seems like we’ve been here before. AAA is a out of shape person who makes a New Year’s Resolution to join a gym, and is back booking Wagner vs Mesias all over again by the end of February. I think I mixed my metaphor there. Funny how Mesias is not on the list.
TV ratings for this past week, as pointed out in the comments
SmackDown: 9.6
CMLL: 3.3
AAA: 2.4
AAA was bumped a few hours early, which surely hurt the number. Both promotions could do a far better job of promoting their own TV show. CMLL’s been mentioning the start time for their show on Twitter, and it’d be great if AAA was doing the same. There really should be no reason for me to do Lucha Times posts in 2010; the promotions should make it blatantly obvious when their TV shows are going to air and even what will be on them. Even if they’re not making a dime off the TV, the TV is still supposed to drive interest in the company, but the promotions still promote it as an accessory product to the live events they’re really promoting.
El Pancracio has an interview with Rey Mendoza, who says he WILL wrestle on Friday, having recovered from peritonitis. There’s also interviews with Shocker about his changes this week, and Claudio Castignoli heading to Uruguay.
Laredo Kid and his brother Oscuridad are opening up a lucha libre gym in Nuevo Laredo. They say there hasn’t been a lucha libre focused gym there since the 70s, and they’re renting a place for three days a week to see if it’ll work.
Perros del Mal held a press conference to promote Sunday’s show. Not a lot of new stuff on the promotion itself, but some minor details. Super Nova says he has NOT signed with the WWE but is hoping to get a call back, and will continue working here and in NWE for the time being. Charly Manson says his feud was supposed to be with Psicosis II but “due to problems, he’s not active right now.” That’s odd – Psicosis is listed as working AULL tomorrow and Monterrey on Sunday.Dr. Wagner III and his partners talk to ESTO about their match against the Perros this Sunday. The Perros respond in another article by calling Dr. Wagner III green, Groon only muscles, and Oriental the only real fighter of the group.
AAA has a preview of the Electroshock interview from the latest Box Y Lucha, and points to upcoming video of La Hermandad spray paitning Decnnis’ gear.
Over on YouTube, there’s video of The AAA Van Nuys tryouts.
Among projets on the table for the Guadalajara city government: building a Blue Demon statue.
You can video chat with Laguna’s last hope Ultimo Guerrero & Stuka over at Televisa Deportes, today at 5pm.
DJ Spectro has a report on the show to honor Tigre Colombiano.
Cronicas Y Leyendas notes a photo of Hombre Bala doing a frankensteiner in 1985.
Segunda Caida thinks they finish up IWRG ’09 with the 12/25 and 12/27 shows, but they haven’t yet see the non-excitement of the extra 11/01 matches from the past weekend. Maybe it’s just this bad cold, but that show cured me of enthuasism for IWRG.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.