1) who was this mysterious guy helping Lizmark Jr.?
2) was there some sort of alliance between Tinieblas, Neutronic, Lizmark Jr., and Hombre Sin Nombre?
The answers given
heck of a dive
1) Sydistiko, which was mentioned in the first moments of the show as if it was not a mystery to be solved, and barely as if it was a mystery – they knew plenty about him later
2) who knows, it was never brought up.
The big question for next week: uh – people in the title tournament? Maybe? Definitely not named people in the matches. Maybe who attacked Super Nova, but the announcers were certain it was Rellik for reasons not clear to me.
Is RJ Brewer a joke because he lost his first match (after getting quite a bit more promo time than Magno) or he totally proven correct about the wrongness of lucha libre after loses in a finish that isn’t fair and wouldn’t work in US wrestler? Maybe both? I think I need to mention his mom here because I don’t think you’re allowed to go 30 seconds without referencing her.
I liked the Lizmark/Syd vs Nova/Manson tag match and thought Sydistiko was really good as his character. And Lujo’s dive in the other tag match was impressive.
obscure trivia answer which only exposes my complete geekiness: 181 pounds, Seattle, Washington was Brian Kendrick’s weight/hometown in WWE. Probably elsewhere too. I have no idea why I remember that.
AAA TV (THU) 07/29 Gimnasio De La Unidad Deportiva, Toluca, Estado De Mexico [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), AAA]
1) Atomic Boy, Gato Eveready, Relampago b Pasion Kristal, Polvo de Estrellas, Yuriko
2) Aerostar, Laredo Kid, Súper Fly b Billy Boy, Decnnis, Tigre Cota
3) Christina Von Eerie & Jennifer Blake b Fabi Apache & Mari Apache [lumberjack]
4) Electroshock & Silver King b Dr. Wagner Jr. & La Parka Jr.
5) Extreme Tiger, Joe Lider, Nicho el Millionario ?? Alex Koslov, Damián 666, Halloween
Results seem to have the wrong order. Air Force vs rudo appears to be the second match. After the match, Konnan, Dorian, Halloween, and Damian hit the ring, helped beat up the tecnicos. Dorian declared everyone must be with the Legion or AAA, and Decnnis apparently had brokered a deal to start a new lesser faction in association with the Legion, called La Milicia. Billy, Tiger Cota and Chris Stone (not pictured) all signed up, and it’s unclear if Tiger or Decnnis’ partners will also be involved. That interview has Decnnis explaining that he’s forming this group to move up the card, and I do believe some of them will move up the card (so they can take the pinfall loss in matches where no one else will.)
From when Konnan “won control of AAA” thru about TripleMania 2009, the rudos were all budding up to Konnan or turned up as his random henchmen – the Abismo-less Vipers and the Sect were used in this way. It seems we’re just going back to that, so I’d guess the Sect get new t-shirts again. Wonder if this means the Psycho Circus finally turns tecnico, or just joins a new Cibernetico group.
Jennifer Blake replaced Sexi Star. Sexi’s off in Tampa, taking photos of highway signs , which every reads as a tease of going to WWE (FCW) or TNA. Sometimes a photo is just a photo. Match was randomly a lumberjack strap match, with Tiger Cota, Billy Boy, Atomic Boy and Decnnis on the outside. Photos show more guys. Tiger Cota got in a shot on Fabi which led to the rudas winning.
Electroshock replaced Hernandez for reasons unclear. After a match with fouls, Silver King got a “clean” pin on Dr. Wagner to build to his title shot.
Konnan helped out the rudos in the main event, and might have caused the DQ. It’s not especially clear. Mesias, hiding his face under a ski mask for no particular reason, ran out for the save, unmasked himself, and challenged (the not-present) Perro Aguayo for Verano de Escandalo. Probably going to be a trios!
IWRG (THU) 07/29 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring]
1) Dinamic Black b Carta Brava Jr.
2) Gemelo Fantastico I & Gemelo Fantastico II b Comando Negro & Magia Negra
3) Maldito Jr. & Samot b Diva Salvaje & Miss Gaviota
4) Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro, Oficial Marshal b Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro
5) Último Gladiador b Crazy Boy, Psicosis III, Chris Stone, Espíritu, Escoria, Oficial 911, el Ángel, Trauma I, Freelance, Suicida, Chico Che [IWRG IC HEAVY, #1 Contenders]
Poster said this was for a title shot, but there’s no mention of that in the recap and Ultimo Gladiador vs Silver King doesn’t make a lot of sense. Gladiador beat Trauma I to win, thought there was some miscellaneous cheating. Mike Segura was taken to the hospital after taking a move from Psicosis.
Oficial Marshall won in his debut, using a foul on Black Terry.
Previews of tonight’s Arena Mexico: Psicosis thinks the hospital should reserve a bed for Mistico after tonight’s match. SuperLuchas picks Ultimo Guerrero to win (and also says Ultimo Guerrero has his best year the last year – he has?)
I’m still leaning towards Sombra, but the Psicosis/Mistico is the bigger match. If it’s good, we’re seeing it again in about six weeks. If it’s not, no one has any idea what they’re doing in six weeks.
CMLL put up a list of current champions, which seems like something you might have wanted to even before you announced your tournament of champions. (It does seem like UG would be eligible for the tournament even if he didn’t have the heavyweight title.) They have also updated their champions page. It may be a typo, but Mascara Dorada is less super and now just the Lightweight champion. They have no picture of Metal Blanco. They acknowledge the existence of the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Titles, but have no picture of Stuka & Fuego. All the NWA titles are still listed as NWA titles.
Cesar writes about friends and hanger ons of promotions using message boards to influence others feelings towards their promotions, or to stay quiet about problems with the promotion. There seems to be no hint of his own perceived glass house problem on this one.
SuperLuchas has a profile of Oaxaca wrestler Lalo el Loco.
This didn’t hold up as well when I watched it for the recap. The stuff I didn’t like (the announcing, for one) didn’t get any better than second time and there was choices that didn’t seem to make sense the second time.
around and around and around...
It makes sense to have a fast paced trios to open the show, and it was good along those lines, but it was also six guys who were thrown out there with little introduction and disappeared back into the mist. Neutronic turned up in the main event but was not seen the following week, and Mascara Purpura was just seen in passing in a vignette. I know these people. If you’re reading this blog, you probably know these people, but anyone watching lucha for the first time needs it hammered home who these people are and while they should care, and probably shouldn’t be expected to remember them when they disappear for a couple weeks. You’ve got to make people appear to be stars, and stars don’t show up only every other week.
Same vein: there was also the odd choices of who got put over in the first couple of matches. Of the six guys in the opener, Mascara Purpura was treated as a big singles star, Neutronic had a role later in the show, PR Flyer & San Juan Kid are a set team and likely will either hold or challenge for the tag team titles, and yet it was Oriental & Limon who got the wins. Maybe the PR Powers get that win back down the road in the tag team tournament, but you can’t take the long road when kicking something like this off. 52 week contract with the network or not, you don’t have a 52 week contract with the fans, you can’t plan with the idea they’ll be around for a payoff six weeks down the road.
And then the mixed tag ended with Tigresa Caliente going over. Chi Chi got the win, but the vignette the next week set up Tigresa as the star of the duo. I dunno
Main event showcased the different between wrestling for the live crowd and for the TV audience. I don’t know if the rudo gesturing to the crowd for cheers works under any circumstance, but it definitely doesn’t if the crowd is being dubbed over anyway.
I think I’m missing my point here. (Maybe, like the announcers, I’m explaining something until I got distracted halfway thru.) None of this is big stuff. It’s all tweaking stuff, thinks that can be fixed and probably will be fixed with time. The larger point is I don’t think promotions like this have that sort of time. This would’ve been fine as week #13, but you’ve got to have a blowaway premiere, or the momentum built up to it is lost and very hard to get back. This show came off as something I wouldn’t mind watching again, but not something I needed to watch again. It wasn’t a failure, but I wasn’t surprised when half the people didn’t come back the next week.
