Day: November 16, 2012

CMLL hypes tonight’s Arena Mexico show around the New Guerreros taking on the all star tecnico team of Atlantis, Mistico and Sombra. There’s the slight problem of Mistico only having one usable shoulder at the moment. CMLL still hasn’t publicly mentioned Mistico’s injury, but he was unable to wrestle at a show last night. Mistico is wearing a shoulder immobilizer, meaning they don’t even want him to move his arm, so I’m not sure about the possibility of him working thru a match tonight to set up an injury angle. (On the other hand, he had to move his arm enough to take off his shirt for some reason.) Sombra replaced him last night, not sure who will be today.

Mistico – back as Dragon Lee – is supposed to appear with the rest of the cast of El Luchador today on E! Latino’s La Sopa show tonight at 10. I think that’s the Mexico version of The Soup  – they show clips from shows and make jokes of questionable taste – so I assume they’ve been making fun of El Luchador clips for a while. (I know I have!) That’s Luchador guys are a wounded crew right now, between Mistico’s shoulder injury, Rey Bucanero’s knee surgery and surely Shocker’s lack of sleep due to his new kid. Felino will have to dance for four.

The most interesting match of the night is Averno challenging Titan for Titan’s Mexican Welterweight Championship. CMLL is on a run of title changes; the last five title matches taking place in Arena Mexico have all been title changes: Dragon Rojo defeating Prince Devitt for the NWA Middleweight Title, Amapola beating Leon for the REINA International championship, Reyes del Atlantida winning the Mexican National Trios titles, Polvora defeating Mascara Dorada for the CMLL Welterweight Title and Tama Tonga & Terrible winning the CMLL tag team titles last Tuesday. CMLL hasn’t changed that many titles even when they’ve tried to assemble the right amount of champions for the Universal tournament, it’s unprecedented. There’s been no successful defense in Arena Mexico in two months (though there has been in other arenas during this time.) This feels much too soon to change a title, Titan is just stating to get established as a champion, Averno not really needing this title, and far to few tecnicos being champions. Still, Averno winning the title wouldn’t be as big a surprise as Polvora or Tama & Terrible winning, and we’ve seen both of those happening.

Los Colisenos says Panico has a surprise tonight. Free beer for everyone? (Potentially more interesting guesses are “someone debuting” and “something with Mistico.)

Extreme Tiger talked to MedioTiempo about leaving AAA. Tiger appreciates AAA for giving him opportunities and says the door is open to returning, but he prefers to be an independent and will not be joining another company. It sounds like a priority for him is to break out of the US – he specifically mentions wanting to wrestle in the US or Japan. Perhaps someone suggested he might have that opportunity if he left AAA, that might explain this. Tiger says the fans are going to see the same style out of him now as in AAA.

The Rey Cometa headlined Quereatro show on 11/30 is to fund the local box y lucha commission, who’d like to put on an award show next year. Tickets are free but they’re hoping to turn a profit on food and drink.

Rob has the top 5 spots of the week.

LuchaWorld has the return of the LuchaWorld Podcast

Another story about the lucha libre art exhibit at the museum of modern art includes a great illustration.

Photos and an article about a press conference the upcoming Teleton motorcycle ride, which will take place 12/08 and include La Parka, Cibernetico and Mascara Ano 2000 Jr.

There’s a workshop on Mexican lucha movie making today in Colombia.

AULL has an all trainee show this Friday.

AAA TV (THU) 11/15/2012 Arena Naucalpan [AAA, Black Terry Jr. (flickr)]
1) Mini Charly Manson & Mini Histeria b Mascarita Dorada & Mascarita Sagrada
Mini Charly unmasked Mascarita Dorada again.
2) Devil Rocker, Machine Rocker, Soul Rocker b Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
Oficial Fierro wrestled with his mask back on. Rockers are still undefeated, and Machine Rocker is still german suplexing people.
3) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown DQ Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Silver King, Toscano
Infierno Rockers attacked the Psycho Circus again, Uro Rocker laying out Murder Clown.
4) Chessman & Texano Jr. b El Mesías & Vampiro
Recap says Mesias speared Vampiro thru a table for the win, but it appears to be Chessman. Vampiro was fine enough to challenge Chessman to the match, and Mesias and Texano also talked trash.
5) LA Park b Dr. Wagner Jr.
Expected crazy brawl. It started before the match, where LA Park set a Wagner towel on fire in the ring. Both masks ripped, both guys bled. Wagner had Park beat with a Wagner driver, Hijo de Tirantes refused to count, Wagner laid him out, Park fouled Wagner and a second referee came into count the pin.

Air Date: 11/24 and 12/01, maybe? There are 3 (or 4) weeks of TV between Puebla and this one, and either could be the two taping show. This is the last taping before Guerra de Titanes and this is the show that announces the main event, so it probably should air as soon as possible, but they’re not going to wait for it to air to start promoting it.

Main event sounds like it was epic.

The biggest news of the night didn’t happen in a match. Octagon came out to the ring after the second match, thanking Parka for saving him at TripleMania and talking about training Samuray del Sol. Silver King and Toscano ran out ot attack Octagon, and Samuray del Sol made the save. After the rudos left, Octagon pulled out a new Octagon Jr. mask, and put it on Samuray del Sol to officially give him the new character.

This is a cool moment for Samuray del Sol, who’s worked hard for a long time before getting his recent chances in AAA and elsewhere. Octagon grew to fame based on his character, his movie work, and being the new star at the right time with some good opponents. I’m not sure if Samuray will get to be in a movie, but he’s a more exciting luchador than previous character, has some good opponents to work against (though Daga is not mean enough to be Fuerza Guerrera), and if AAA ever makes that move to the US, he’ll be the right new bilingual star at the right time. I wish there was a longer road and greater build to Samurai del Sol becoming Octagon Jr. – it feels like it might not be a out of nowhere only because a certain podcaster spilled the beans about it a while ago –  because a new Octagon should be treated as nearly a big deal as a new Mistico, and this was a couple weeks of build and a surprise announcement interrupted by a run-in. The biggest thing is what they do from here – he needs something to do, and finding someone credible to feud with is a lot more important than having him randomly win a title.

I wonder where this will leave Samuray del Sol’s US work. Octagon Jr. seems like a character AAA should have full time on spot shots, but Samuray has been traveling between both countries to still work independent shows. Also, if Octagon Jr. is an AAA contracted luchador, would he now be prevented from working in the US by the never ending legal issues between AAA & Steven Shipp/LLUSA? I don’t have any answers. Samuray’s also been upfront about his ultimate goal as being in WWE as the next Rey Misterio Jr., though he could’ve been swayed from that by getting this gimmick.

Samuray’s first match as Octagon Jr. should be this weekend at the Fusion taping. The listing with Octagon Jr. was probably correct all along, they just didn’t meant to reveal the name change that far in advance.

The second biggest news of the night was announced a few hours before the show. The Guerra de Titanes main event will put three feuds – Chessman vs Vampiro, Cibernetico vs Perro Aguayo Jr. and Dr. Wagner vs LA Park – in a cage match, last one out loses their hair or mask. (Amusingly, even though AAA went out of their way to get the word about the match, the six way was a ‘surprise decision’ after the main event. Guess AAA’s luchadors aren’t that into AAA’s social media. )

Cibernetico, Perro, Wagner, and Park are much too big stars to lose in this sort of match. I would argue Vampiro is not that level of star, but what I think is unimportant. AAA clearly believes Vampiro is as much a star as the other four guys and it’d be very surprising for him to lose as well. Chessman is simply a guy who AAA likes for his work and his look, but definitely do not see him on the level of the other five guys. Chessman is almost certainly taking the loss so they can keep the bigger feuds going, with the only other possible outcome (10% or less) is Vampiro losing at the hands of Konnan to start the build to his return. It’s been a long time since someone lost an AAA cage match without actually being scheduled to be part of it, but I guess we can’t completely dismiss that possibility.

The great part about this match is it bundles 3 matches into 1. Cibernetico & Perro and Chessman & Vampiro have little hope of being the sort of matches I would enjoy. I’m not that confident that I’ll enjoy the cage match either, but it frees up the undercard for matches I might. And with that…

updated Guerra de Titanes card guess

• Cibernetico, Perro Aguayo Jr., LA Park, Dr. Wagner Jr. , Vampiro, Chessman [cage, loser leaves his mask] – confirmed
• Mesias (C) vs Texano Jr. [AAA HEAVY] – confirmed!
• something like Infierno Rockers vs Psycho Circus (and ???)
• Mari Apache & Halloween vs Cuervo & Fabi Apache [AAA MIXED TAG]?
• Mascarita Dorada vs Charly Manson ?
• maybe the first Octagon & Octagon Jr. team up versus Consejo?
• a couple more matches to get poeple on the card.

Figure on getting the actual card in a few days.