Day: June 10, 2010

World Cup, Parka/Park, Chico Che, Sombra

thecubsfan 9 Comments

By the time I post tomorrow, the World Cup will have gotten underway, and Mexico’s game vs South Africa will probably be over. I’m not sure how this will affect lucha the next month. it will be hard to do angles which capture the attention of the masses – even if Friday is a full fledged Volador turn and a title change, they probably won’t make many Saturday sports sections – but I’m not sure it will hurt attendance as much as it may have in other years. The time zone difference means the late game will usually be done by 4 pm Central Time; fans are not going to have stay home in the evening to catch games live like they might for a western hemisphere World Cup. If Mexico wins, maybe people go out to lucha shows to celebrate. If they lose, maybe they go out to lucha shows to yell at people. Or maybe they just stay home to watch a replay of the game, who knows.

Tomorrow is also the VivaLaLucha PPV. I’m planning on getting it, though I need to pick up an actual cable box tonight if I’m going to pull that off. It’s been a while since I put that poll up – are other people getting it? Is it worth doing a chat to talk about the show while it’s airing?

AAA’s website confirms what we’ve heard elsewhere – “the commission has invalidated the finish of the match”, and everyone’s sticking with the names they had before the match on Sunday. If they had to do this angle, it’s hasn’t been done well, but then even may that may part of the angle. Like one guy agreeing to lose, but only if the announcement of the invalidated finish is made that day, but the other side only being down with that if it’s not made in the ring, and so on until they get reached a settlement, only by making it totally unpalatable to those watching the show.

This is really no different than the Fabi Apache hair cut bit, AAA promoting a stipulation they have no intention of delivering. (The Legion going away after last year’s TripleMania is about the same thing.) I know that’s kind of in AAA’s DNA, but if you’re promising a stipulation and not delivering, that’s actually where a real commission is supposed to get involved. There’s not one of those in Mexico, but no one should care about any major status quo changing stipulation in AAA, because they’ve shown those are the ones that’ll be ignored.

Meanwhile, in a show last night in Sinola, LA Park threw La Parka Jr. over the barricade, then threw a carton of glass bottles at Parka AAA. The bottles flew everywhere, nearly hitting children.

Chico Che beat Bugambila in a hair match at Arena Aficion.

Sombra lost his BOSJ match today to SMASH’s KUSHIDA, which mathematically eliminated him from making the semifinals (unless there are some more injuries.) I know KUSHIDA is the top guy in SMASH, but I figured CMLL was a much bigger deal to NJPW. It didn’t work out that way, but Sombra’s still in line for a good showing if he ambushes Liger on the last day.

Stats for fun: if win/loss/draw had equal chances of happening, chances of top 2 (including ties)
93% Ibushi – clinches tomorrow if Sombra or Davey win
67% Liger – there’s a way he can beat Davey tomorrow, and still be out with a loss to Sombra.
62% Devitt
33% Davey

Misterioso II would be happy to face Gallo for the Occidente Light Heavyweight Championship, but does not break his streak of interviews mentioning Ultimo Guerrero and the Heavyweight championship.

Gigante Bernard tells ESTO that the Mexican fans are the best fans he’s seen, and would like to come back and win a title. All those two falls wins sure seem to indicate they’ve got bigger plans for him than one tour. Bernard leaves on Monday. Bernard tells Fuego that he started as a tecnico because that’s what Paco Alonso told him to do, but prefers to be a rudo. Fuego en el Ring fails to ask how much money he spends on food each day.

Estrellas del Ring has an interview with Acapulco rudo trio Los Depredadores del Ring.

Students in Argentina, protesting the poor condition of their school, attacked a father who happened to be taking his kid to that school. There’s an argument about who started it, and it sounds like it turned into a big deal because it was captured on video and shown everywhere. The twist here is it turns out that the father is rudo Rottweiler of the 100% Lucha show. I think Bill Watts would’ve fired him.

Dos de Tres previews the Day With Monster Clown article in it’s latest edition. It looks so great. Also in great ideas, Atlantis was on a cooking show.

Most random story of the day: A London based painter has an upcoming exhibition, and her work includes paintings of fat luchadors. Her name? Jazmine Velasco, the niece of legendary Guadalajara trainer Diablo Velasco. In this story, Diablo is an uncle who wasn’t very good at wrestling until…

“[Diablo]’s nose was broken and one of his aunties was embarrassed to have this messy nephew so she gave him lots of money to set up a business. He organised body building competitions, appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger and became super- rich!”

I had never heard this story before.

Segunda Caida takes a look at IWRG 02/11/10. Is the Complete and Accurate History of Cassandro on hiatus while Cassandro is? And can I request a review of one of the 100% Lucha episodes if I get around to posting them next week?

LuchaWorld has a KrisZ’s news update.

Lineup

IWRG (SUN) 06/13 Arena Naucalpan
1) Guizmo vs Halcon 2000
2) Comando Negro & Magia Negra vs Alan Extreme & Dinamic Black
3) Eragon, Freelance, Jack vs Hijo del Signo, Némesis, Trauma II
4) Máscara Año 2000 Jr. & Trauma I vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan [super libre]
5) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Cien Caras, Scorpio Jr., Tinieblas Jr.

Changed card. IWRG poster actually lists Moster Clown and Los Capos Jr. in main event. If they’re doing AAA vs IWRG, they really need to go all the way and give us the big match: Nemesis vs Nemesis.

CMLL (TUE) 06/15 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Relampago vs Cerveruz
2) Astaroth & Magnum vs Ángel del Mal & Infierno
3) Hierro & Neutrón vs Ebola & Ráfaga
4) Ángel Azteca, Metal Blanco, Rush vs Cancerbero, Euforia, Raziel
5) Shocker & Toscano vs Héctor Garza & Último Guerrero

Actually, CMLL.com lists someone named “Rouge” in the semimain.

Notes from Konnan’s latest appearance on Wrestling Observer Radio

thecubsfan 10 Comments

Via f4wonline.com, worth the monthly fee as usual.

  • The lucha commission invalidating the finish of Park/Parka is a designed part of a storyline. AAA had no intention of doing a definite finish. They weren’t going to take Parka AAA out of the costume, but there was ‘backstage politicking’ which led to the finish. Konnan, who mentioned having to convince people in management to bring back LA Park and bring in Los Perros, specifically said LA Park was not going to do the match unless he got his hand raised. LA Park’s statements this week about not caring if Parka AAA keeps the name and mask are 100% Park going into business for himself, aware that Parka AAA will not actually be losing the name or mask, and making it clear that it still should count as a win even as AAA prepares an angle otherwise.

    If this was the plan all along, they should’ve done the commission invalidating bit at the post show press conference, or not at all. The confusion about the angle didn’t help and Dorian seeming to say the result stood without being challenged makes no sense, unless they wanted to hide the angle from the press, which seems silly. The idea should be to get people into wanting to see a more definite match, but they left the impression that this was the definite match. Nothing else matters until the mask match.

  • LA Park is under contract to AAA, but they’re still working on signing him to another contract specifically for him to lose his mask. AAA would like to see him lose his mask to Parka AAA, but it may end up being Wagner (who also might lose his mask, though he’s been talking about that for the better part of a decade.) Park and Parka may end up going in different directions for a while before coming back again each other.
  • AAA has a contract with Los Perros. When listing the members, Konnan mentioned Perro Jr., Damian 666, Halloween, Black Warrior, Hijo de Lizmark, and Super Crazy (who he wasn’t sure if had been ever in AAA – he has) as guys he wanted to see working with AAA guys. Konnan didn’t say they were working with just those guys, but they sounded like the guys he was most excited about. It didn’t sound like Konnan had big plans for the Mexican Heavyweight Champ, but perhaps it just slipped his mind.
  • There’s a major angle coming off the Roldan family feud and the finish to the main event, but Konnan wanted to avoid specifics so it wouldn’t get out. It sounds like it’s happening soon – AAA doesn’t plan on slowing down during the World Cup – so probably next week’s tapings.

    If they’re doing an angle where the AAA & Legion team up, I’ve been thinking not all of the Legion is going with them. Vampiro and Konnan are feuding in storyline, so perhaps Vamp & Zorro are joining the Perros, but the surprise is other people going with them? Wild guess.

    It’s a very good idea to run a big angle soon. You don’t want fans to dwell on how the promotion did not give them a finish in the main event of the biggest show of the year.

    Konnan did say they plan to run a lot of Legion vs AAA the next month (much like every month!) to take advantage of higher levels of national pride.

  • Verano de Escandalo is in Arena Monterrey. Konnan thought it was about six weeks from now but couldn’t remember the date off the top of his head.

06/12-13 Lucha Times

thecubsfan 5 Comments

box.

World Cup will play with the scheduled for a while. In a unhelpful but unsurprising development, the Perros del Mal won’t be appearing anywhere this week. This week’s AAA TV was taped before TripleMania, so they won’t be there unless AAA adds some TripleMania footage. Their own show, which seemed to be on pace to start the DF taping, is preempted this week. The Perros recently ran a poll asking about when people would ant to see the show, and I wonder if we’ll be seeing it at all when the World Cup is over. The same preemptions knock Puebla off the schedule as well.

In the US, the Sunday early morning repeat of AAA seems to be off during the World Cup.

AAA-US: a 2 hour preview of TripleMania, which won’t air for seven months here. This is a poor week to start watching this show.

52MX: Fantasma/Mascara/Shocker vs Alebrije/Olimpico/Psicosis, plus the heavyweight match of doom. This is a poor week to start watching this show too.

LATV: they’ve been alternating weeks, and this looks to be an off week, but that next new episode has Tuareg vs Astro/Maya/Sensei, and Poder Polvora vs Los Angeles

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CMLL-MEX: Top 3 includes Valiente/Virus – will they get more time than the lightning match? Also, Mistico and Volador on opposite sides of a trios.

AAA-MEX: taped before TripleMania, this has Wagner/Parka vs Electro/Silver, and Hernandez/Park/Zorro vs Cibernetico/Metal/Octagon. Will the Sect/Alan match be cut this time?

CMLL-FOX: Mistico and Volador opposite sides of the trios, and Maximo vs Taichi. First airing this week moves to 9:30 AM on Sunday. Fox Sports Mexico does not have the World Cup, they’re just being difficult.

C3: The exciting Magica/Magica team up. Also Hijos de Averno vs Guerreros.

Puebla: Off, World Cup

Monterrey: Poder del Norte and Vipers III?

PdM: Off, World Cup

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CMLL-TFN: if they skip the missed week, Maximo/Sagrado/Valiente vs Misterioso/Okumura/Virus, plus Shocker vs Dos, loser forced to move to Flordia and wrestle in endless dark matches.