Day: January 21, 2011

Gringos/Cerberos, Vagabundo, Medico Asesino, AAA mystery men, CMLL shirts

thecubsfan 6 Comments
Black Terry Jr.

IWRG (THU) 01/20/2011 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Mi Lucha Libre]
1) Imposible b Keshin Black
2) Eterno & Hammer b Dinamic Black & Miss Gaviota
3) Chico Che, Freelance, Saruman b Alan Extreme, Maldito Jr., Samot
4) Avisman, Bombero Infernal, El Hijo del Diablo b Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro
5) Comando Negro, Scorpio Jr., Último Gladiador b Multifacético, Pimpinela Escarlata, Trauma I

Alan Extreme and his teammates kept having problems leading to their loss.  Samot & Maldito Jr. turned on him post match, and the tecnicos (Saruman first) made the save.

Black Terry bled, but still beat Diablo with his feet on the ropes. Bombero Infernal replaced Gringo Loco, who should be back in time for a title match next week.

More Comando Negro/Multifacetico feuding. Gladiador snuck in a foul on Pimpi for the win.

CMLL’s first of two shows in Japan will take place tomorrow, though it’ll actually have happened by the next news update. Bell time is 16:30 local, which is 1:30 AM Mexico City time. Sunday is a noon show, which means it’ll be happening at 9 pm DF time. I’ll have results here eventually, but I recommend Strong Style Spirit and Purolove‘s coverage of the shows from a NJPW perspective. The two matches to watch tonight, as far as figuring out where things are going next, are the Taguchi/Dorada and Sombra/Liger matches. If Dorada’s expected to be off for a long time after this, we’d see in the match and in an unexpected title change. Sombra/Liger is the one title match on the tour with with no clear consensus on the finish. I still think Liger will hold on to keep the feud going, but there are ways to do with Sombra winning the title back in CMLL.

There’s also an Arena Mexico show. Yep.

El Vagabundo, Jose Luis Garcia, passed away early Thursday. He was a star of the late 70s and 80s, a hobo luchador. DJ Spectro has the most detailed obit. Box Y Lucha has some photos and a thread, and SuperLuchas has video of a promo and part of a match.

SuperLuchas notes the El Hijo del Medico Aseisno WWE signing that everyone’s been asking about the last few days. It looked like the poster on SuperLuchas didn’t realize this was actually reported in SuperLucha magazine until someone came along and edited it. It’s a good magazine, they really should check it out! Anyway, as far I as I can figure, this Medico Asesino (and there are a few) was working Toryumon shows in 2009 and 2010, and started to pop up in IWL shows late in the year. Ultimo Dragon’s school attracts people from all over the world (Angelico), so it’s not even especially clear this is a Mexican. SuperLuchas lists his teachers as Lizmark, el Dandy, Hijo del Solitario and Arkangel, quite the collection and indications he’s spent time in Acapulco and in CMLL’s training school. It’s almost certainly someone who can speak English or WWE would not have bothered.

AAA posted a teaser article for the two mystery men in the opener on the 01/22 taping. I’m assuming the pictures are meant to be the luchadors, and the guy on the left is wearing an Ultimo Dragon outfit or something like it. For what it’s worth, we haven’t seen Dragoncito in CMLL in almost a couple weeks, though he’s booked for GDL this Sunday. The guy in the right is a more nondescript. I’m hoping it’s Rio Bravo III.

Octagon says Super Fly ran like a girl last time they met, and promises to strike some sense into the child. (That’s going around in AAA!) Super Fly says Octagon is finished. Someone should let Super Fly know that Octagon still has a title belt.

Surropa’s officially licensed CMLL shirts are now up. There’s a Black Warrior shirt, so these designs are either old or the project has been in the works for quite sometime. There’s some nice designs: the Volador one came out well, and I’m debating the Ultimo Guerrero one.

Crazy Boy will be out two months due to a knee injury from a dive gone bad. He’ll still be at the DTU show, on crutches.

Fuego en el Ring catches up with Gran Cochise, following up on his exit from CMLL. Cochise says Satanico told him CMLL wanted to cut back from two trainers to one, and so Cochise was let go. Cochise doesn’t blame Satanico, because he knows the direction came from Mexico. He enjoyed worked for Paco Alonso and Chavo Lutteroth and hopes to work for CMLL again (and not poison the water for his children.) He’s working with Arena Roberto Paz now.

Links

Lineups

AAA UWE (WED) 02/02/2011 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Héros & Panda Lee vs Ronny Ventura & Super Mascara
2) Aerostar, Argenis, Gato Eveready, Súper Fly vs Epitafio, Herejia, Robin Maravilla, Sadico
3) Fuerza Guerrera & Juventud Guerrera vs Aeroboy & Violento Jack and Villano III & Villano IV and Chucho el Roto & Iron Love and Scorpio Jr. & Zumbido and Murder Clown & Psycho Clown and Coco Azul & Coco Rojo and Cien Caras Jr. & Máscara Año 2000 Jr. [UWE TAG, semifinal]

The winner of this show is meant to face the winner of the tournament on the last show, Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis. That presents some very obvious problems for a few of the teams. The Villanos would make the most sense as the winner.

I wonder what possibly will happen in the match where rudo Super Fly is teaming with his ex-friends.

of weekly schedules, small arenas, Santo and the UWA

thecubsfan 1 Comment

El Hijo del Santo’s Record column mourns the loss of the small lucha arenas, which seems to include the giant El Toreo. It’s an El Hijo del Santo column, so it includes many long lists as if he’s a high school student trying to reach five double spaced pages. I happened to be reading thru an old edition of Lucha Libre Weekly, published right as AAA was starting up. It also had a list of arenas, sorted by day and promotion, which is useful way to illustrate those same missing arenas.

An example CMLL weekly schedule of May 1992:

Mondays
– Chiconqua

Tuesdays
– Arena Coliseo
– Arena Cuatitlan

Wednesdays
– Cortijo bullring
– Arena Naucalpan
– Arena Ectapec
– Arena Coliseo Acapulco

Thursdays
– Arena Isabel
– Arena Cuperuac
– Arena San Juan Pantitlan

Fridays
– Arena Mexico or Arena Coliseo
– Arena Puebla
– Auditorio Municipal Los Reyes La Paz
– Arena Lopez Mateos

Saturdays
– Arena Xochimilco
– Arena Aragon
– Arena Altailla
– Pista Arena Revolucion

Sundays
– Arena Mexico
– Arena Coliseo DF
– Pista Arena Revolucion
– Arena Naucalpan
– Arena San Lorenzo
– El Cortijo
– Arena Azteca

Meanwhile, UWA’s schedule

Mondays
– Arena Puebla
– Arena Isabel

Tuesdays
– Arena Queretaro
– Arena Aficion

Wednesdays
– Arena Celaya
– Arena Lopez Mateos

Thursdays
– Pista Arena Revolucion
– Arena Toluca

Fridays
– Arena Neza (TV)

Saturdays
– Arena Isabel
– Arena Aficion

Sundays
– El Toreo
– Arena Neza
– Arena Toluca

Not every arena was run every week, but this list doesn’t include all the other shows that might be run (especially on Sunday), and doesn’t include circuits in Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla and probably other areas, and indy shows around Mexico City. Many of these arenas just don’t exist any more: Arena Isabel and El Toreo were torn down in the last few years. Pista Arena Revolucion used to hold shows on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, but was demolished for a Walmart. Some of the issues are more with buildings: Arena Neza has had ownership issues and no one’s figured out how to make Arena Coliseo Acapulco work since Roberto Rangel passed away.

CMLL’s main two arenas still run about the same schedule, though there are far more shows in Arena Mexico and never any Sundays where they run both arenas. Arena Naucalpan still runs two shows a week, though the days change. Arena Puebla only runs Mondays now, with a once a year Friday show. Arena Aficion usually runs one show a week, sometimes two. Arena Lopez Mateos runs an irregular schedule. Arena Neza has runs of shows, then nothing for months. Arena Queretaro might be back in CMLL’s regular rotation, and Arena San Juan Pantitlan ran a show this week despite having it’s “last ever show!” a few month ago. That still a lot on this list that are either gone (El Cortijo) or silent (Arena Xochmilco?)

Santo blames AAA TV for the death of the small arena, saying they put too many stars on TV and the smaller buildings could no longer compete. Even if this wasn’t Santo attacking AAA just to attack AAA, it doesn’t hold up. CMLL and UWA were running TV shows of all stars before AAA existed. TV itself might be partially to blame, but they’re not alone.

Santo heaps praise on Francisco Flores and Carlitos Maynes, who ran LLI/UWA, but they’re also same people who ran their promotion into the ground. UWA was miserable in the early 90s due to the same stories being told over and over with the same guys. It was completely obvious they needed to make new stars, and it was equally obvious that the people in charge were unwilling to make those changes. AAA’s arrival killed off UWA, as much thru making the product look dated as talent raids (including a luchador named ‘el Hijo del Santo’), but UWA might well have died on it’s own without AAA’s push. UWA’s death seems to have had a domino effect: those arenas who were running two or three shows a week with name talent only could get access to one, and one show didn’t pay the overhead. AAA’s historically been more about running shows around the country than in the same arena every week, so voids were never filled and buildings disappeared.