CMLL unhappiness, Colbert, WON, lineups

thecubsfan news

separate post on the press conference a bit later

CMLL’s roster is unhappy, and unhappy enough to let the press know. There’s a big article on Record (not on their site, but there’s a partial scan here.) It’s really two different stories, and hopefully I’m understanding them correctly.

Edit: Record now has the Mistico article up on it’s website. It includes a part clipped out from the scan, which changed the meaning of a few things.

In one, Mistico – who notes you get in trouble if complain to the press, and one wonders if that’s actually stopped him ever – complains about the business of CMLL. Mistico says people think he’s a favored pet of the promotion, but he gets no favors – this week, he’s only getting to work one the Friday night match and have nothing else. Mistico is upset with the promoters for not doing the big matches the fans want to see (Volador vs Mistico for the masks) and because they’ve focused too much on the Indepedents and the young wrestlers instead of “us”. Since they’re the young guys being pushed, it sure seems like he’s saying CMLL is doing too much with Mascara Dorada & Sombra. Anyone else have a different read?

The other article mentions a meeting of about 50 luchadors (including Mistico) with Paco Alonso, talking about reduced attendances. The problem is blamed on the economy and specifically not the luchadors themselves or the programming. Averno is quoted talking about everyone needing to work a little harder. This not the first meeting they’ve had of this exact sort – the WON had a mention of one a few months ago – so the interesting thing is they’ve made this public. Maybe there’s a feeling that empty arenas are breeding empty arenas, and they feel the need to get the message out to the people that the shows are still good.

Whatever it is, it’s not a good sign that people are concerned about attendance being down right after what should be their biggest business of the year. If this wasn’t the turnaround, it’s a long way off.

Random video I saw last night


Stephen Colbert vs El Hijo del Santo

Everyone makes the Santo joke, but someone on that writing staff took it a step beyond. Which was neat.

CMLL has partnered with the United Nations “1billion hungry” campaign. They’re trying to create awareness of the 925 million people who are chronically undernourished by signing a petition on their website. CMLL will be promoting the campaign at the Friday shows the next three weeks; guess it’s not as much an issue on Sundays and Tuesdays. Here’s a funny picture of Rey Bucanero for this serious issue.

the Wrestling Observer Newsletter announced it’s annual Hall of Fame voting. Lucha related results

(60% is the cut off)
Rey Mysterio        75%
Chris Jericho       64%
----
Dr. Wagner Sr.      55%
Dr. Alfonso Morales 43%
Atlantis            39%
Karloff Lagarde     35%
Blue Panther        33%
LA Park             31%
Villano III         31%
Vampiro             27%
Perro Aguayo Jr.    25%
Cien Caras          24%
Huracan Ramirez     15%
----
under 10% (off ballot)
Cibernetico
Dr. Wagner Jr. (for the second time?)

The one thing that bugs, so much that this is the third or fourth time I’m writing it the last 24 hours, is LA Park and Dr. Wagner Jr. are similar level stars to me and I can’t understand how one can get 31% and the other can’t get any. Maybe it’s because no one watches AAA TV and that’s really changed my impression of Wagner’s ‘fame’, but he’s been clearly the biggest star in that company over the last year and a half, and there are guys on the list who were never the top guy in the company for tha tlong.

I also think that if we had loads of attendance figures for El Toreo, Villano III would be in already. It actually helps that he’s not wrestling as much (or at least not as visible), so the depressing present doesn’t shadow his past as much, but the results sure seem to indicate that he was booked as a lighter version of Canek and Canek is in. We’re just missing the proof that it worked for Villano 3.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Links

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 09/28 Arena Mexico
1) Rayo Tapatío I & Rayo Tapatío II vs Apocalipsis & Disturbio
2) Bam Bam, Eléctrico, Tzuki vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito
3) Fuego, Metro, Stuka Jr. vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Loco Max, Skándalo
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Rotoporky, Toscano vs Héctor Garza, Olímpico, Ray Mendoza Jr.
5) La Máscara, Místico, Strong Man vs Averno, Mephisto, Volador Jr.

2/3 matches look pretty good. More Mistico/Volador. Mascara appears still to be on Shocker replacement duty, since he usually teams with Strong Man in that spot. Part of that is because Shocker speaks English, just like Mendoza has teamed with No Limit for a while because he spoke some Japanese. Dos La Mascara speak English?

CMLL (TUE) 09/28 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Angelo & Thunder Boy vs Acertijo & Templario
2) El Divino & Idolo vs Ángel del Mal & In Memoriam
3) Black Metal & Leo vs Drago & Ebola
4) Blue Panther, Máximo, Sagrado vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Último Guerrero
5) La Sombra vs Mr. Águila

Sombra has Lyger on Monday, Aguila on Tuesday, and hopefully a good nap on Wednesday. This’ll be the first singles match between the two. Black Metal seems to have ascended the cards rapidly.

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21 thoughts to “CMLL unhappiness, Colbert, WON, lineups”

  1. Has El Dandy ever been placed in the ballot? I know most people would only know of him from his WCW days, but if you look over his run from about 1982 thru 1997, tell me he doesn’t belong in at least some discussion into being at the very least in the ballot.

    Cien Caras as a top headlining rudo for like 20+ years not being in and Meltzer instead talking about why Wagner Jr. should be, isn’t surprising, but still odd.

    There’s a lot of reasons as to why attendance is down besides the economy.

  2. I can see Mistico being upset with Sombra & Dorada (and even maybe Volador), simply because over the last year or so Mistico hasn’t been pushed to the moon like he was, and the pushes for those three have caught up.
    As much as CMLL was supposedly using Mistico (10+ shows a week) back in like ’08 – if he is down to 5 or so a week (and the house is down) then Mistico probably sees these guys as threats to his wallet.

  3. @Nikita: Completely off topic question that I’ve been meaning to ask.

    Cubs says you might know Super Z. What should I expect when I go see him this Sunday in Lima?

  4. I don’t get how LA Park and Wagner are Similar level stars? One was on worldwide TV for years and is probably more known than the other.

  9. If Cien Caras gets in I may kill myself.

    I don’t know how he was in 80’s, but on seeing him in early 90’s AAA, old Carmelo was the shits. I do appreciate it’s not all about work rate though.

    Ah, stick him in so, ‘Cien caresmatico’ as Morales used to state ad nauseum whilst Cien did some shitty brawling.

  10. @Dr.x: He won’t get in for the very reason you gave. Most people only remember him from the ’90s and since it is the WON HOF, they’re more into workrate than the other stuff a guy did.

    Cien probably would have gotten in if he had retired after the match with Rayo since most people’s memories of him are post ’90.

  12. @Nikita: Though we had a conversation about him and “Josef Von Schmidt” at one point, maybe here, maybe at DVDVR, during the week where they started popping up a few places.

    I know I had that conversation with someone, at some point, some place.

  14. Cubs you are giving the WO too much credit. Zero credit is too much for them in this day and age. The Luchadores who deserve to get into a hall of fame, won’t, because they have no idea what they are talking about. Same with all non-US wrestling.

    So it’s best just to ignore it.

  16. @Nikita: Thanks for the link, I had seen the LWA stuff. I had asked about him in the chat last week because I was curious about him. He is coming down here billed as representing Mexico and I hadn’t heard of him during my two years there. The little bit of a web search I did turned up info on him from a PA based indy promotion that claimed to be associated with the AWA.

    Just trying to set my expectations for the LWA show appropriately.

  19. Hmmmm… I will have to look into that. I was wrestling in the Cinti area in ’05 and I do not remember any Mexican Nationals in the area. But I know HWA had a lot of random “training shows” back then….

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