There’s no real need to do to a full preview of Dos Leyendas tonight. While it wouldn’t be too big of a surprise for a storyline to turn up in one of the other matches, there’s only the main event worth considering.
Everyone expect Felino to take the loss, with “Blue Panther vs Villano V” being the strongest reason why he might not. Felino being picked to lose isn’t about Felino; there’s no reason to believe this would be the end of his career, and it’s unlikely to even be the start of a ramping down towards it. Felino has actually been on the upswing in the last 9 months, since he really got into the Peste Negra angle, and he’ll probably continue being involved for years to come. I’d be surprised if Felino, who will turn 46 next Monday, wasn’t still wrestling five years from now.
If Felino’s losing, it’s because of his opposition. Rudo or tecnico, Mistico remains the straw that stirs CMLL’s drink. If Mistico lost his mask tonight, the mask reveal would actually be dwarfed by whatever events had led him to quit wrestling or at least quit CMLL, because those would be the only possible explanations.
CMLL could manage on with an unmasked Volador or Sombra. Felino’s mask is easily more valuable than either of them, but the future of CMLL (short term, at least) requires one of them to actually get a meaningful win. Previews of tonight’s show note that Volador has one some minor hair matches, and Sombra (under that name) has never actually won any hair or mask match. Together, they’ve won tag and trios titles, and individually have one weight division championships, but they’ve never had the career defining win. Volador’s singles wins over Mistico have been the closest, but both men need the kind of win that’s not easily forgotten about a month later.
CMLL’s strategy has been to not give out those big wins that often to keep them big (when they talk about Felino’s big wins, they have to go back to his mask win over Ciclon Ramiez from 17 years ago and his title match win over Santo), but this is the time to give one out. Part of the reason Averno has never become a really meaningful rudo is he’s never gotten that win; they may give him occasional wins over Mistico, but those victories are fleeting and the idea that he’s just the guy who lose to Mistico is what’s stuck in everyone’s mind. Volador (and Sombra) can quickly get slotted into the same spot unless he proves to the fans that he’s a real threat, and there’s no better way of doing than picking up a mask win here.
If it isn’t Felino losing tonight, Volador actually makes the most sense. There’s a history of an unmasked Volador, and maybe being the high flying tecnico who isn’t masked makes him a little different. Mistico makes no sense, and Sombra just as much – if he’s supposed to be the reincarnation of Oro right down to the mask, he’d have to be completely reinvented without it. Still, looking forward, the strongest match they have for the anniversary show is Volador vs Mistico, mask vs mask. CMLL’s invested the turn and the wins over Mistico in Volador, and you can’t easily recreate that with someone else.
If you’re looking for hope in Felino keeping the mask, you should be looking for an alternative Annviersary main event to start some place on the card. CMLL doesn’t need to even run an angle, but showing they have another plan frees them up from being Mistico/Volador. It would have to be two equally big masks on the line to work, and there are only a few possibilities for that.
As mentioned yesterday, we’ll be running a chat later tonight. I’ll have a post up before it to remind you, and to do some live results during the show.
Other CMLL Dos Leyendas previews: Ovaciones (says the show won’t be aired on TV – all of it?), MT, ESTO
Alex Koslov has his first edition of KoslovCam.
DJ Spectro looks back at Solar as el Mariachi, Ray Mendoza vs Colos Colosetti, and the Hermanos Corzo
Cronicas Y Leyendas has the second part of it’s interview with El Sinodal, as well as Negro Navarro’s troubles with tecnico fans in the late 70s, and AAA debuts of 1997
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Dorian comes off as a moron. Why else would people go to a mask match? To see the guy who’s losing of course. They’ve been running the same formula everywhere and when they go off script that’s usually when people complain (i.e. Blue Panther losing his mask).
That little comment by Konnan saying they don’t have to do 2 for 1 deals to get people to go to shows was a bit funny, but c’mon if AAA ran the same building twice every week, they’d do it too. CMLL is basically doing what Memphis did for a number of years, only they’re still doing it.
Someone in Mexico should be honest and say every promotion has their own issues that make them kind of suck in some ways.
I was reading the post on Superluchas and there is actually one guy who commented on Latin Lover and he was dead-on as to why AAA always uses him and will probably bring him back at some point.
How did my comment end up on this post? LOL! Must have clicked the wrong one. It was suppose to go on the AAA press conference one.
Ah mask matches are always tough. Of course I understand the buisness and money reasons(and still don’t understand Blue Panther losing his), but I always hate to see guys lose their masks.
What Konnan says about the 2-1 deals in CMLL is funny because with that CMLL can draw a crowd of 10.000+ each friday, but nobody know how people come to see a AAA show. And perhaps with this deal AAA would have sold out their Rey de Reyes show…