Mask matches in Tijuana, Santo, Negro keeps his title, FantasticaMania, Octagon Jr.

Rojas (FRI) 02/01/2013 Auditorio de Tijuana [The Gladiatores]
1) Black Zygon & Eternus b Fire Bird & Misionerio de la Muerte
2) Angelus & Star Dragon b Kamaleon Negro & Kamaleon Negro Jr.
3) Mascarita Dorada & Tzuki b Octagoncito (original) & Venum Black Jr. [losers advance, semifinal]
4) Mr. Aguilita & Mr. Maldito b Fantástico & Mascarita Sagrada [losers advance, semifinal]
5) Octagoncito (original) & Venum Black Jr. b Fantástico & Mascarita Sagrada [losers advance, final]
6) Mascarita Sagrada b Fantástico [mask]
Match originally ended with Fantasitco hitting the ref with a chair, passing it off to Sagrada, and Sagrada being DQed. The commissioner put a stop to that and ordered the restart. Ref went down again, but Sagrada ended up winning this time. Fantastico is Miguel Angel Angulo Castro, 18 years old, 2 years a luchador.
7) Bestia 666 b Hijo de Rey Misterio II [WWO CRUISER]
New championship; WWO was a Tijuana promotion started in the mid 90s and the name just seems to be used for familiarity. Bestia took falls 1/3, the last when Damian distracted the ref and Bestia dropped Rey with a martinete.
8) King Azteca b Ángel Garcés [ruleta de la muerte, semifinal]
These two appear to be replacements for Hijo del Diablo and el Pulpo. Loser advanced to the finals of the tournament.
9) Lizmark Sr. & Súper Muñeco b Fugitivo de Texas & Hijo de Espectro II [ruleta de la muerte, quarterfinal]
10) Camaleon de Oro & Damián 666 b Mr. Kato & TJ Boy [ruleta de la muerte, quarterfinal]
11) Mr. Kato & TJ Boy b Fugitivo de Texas & Hijo de Espectro II [ruleta de la muerte, semifinal]
12) Fugitivo de Texas L Ángel Garcés, Hijo de Espectro II [mask]
King Azteca interfered to attack Garces, but hit Fugitivo with a chair instead and Garces pinned him to escape. Espectro also beat his partner Fugitivo to escape. Fugitivo is Rubén Carrillo, 14 years a wrestler.

That main event tournament does make sense, though no idea why you’d do it like that. Both guys who lost their mask had been in Tijuana results for about a year. (I have no idea why I’m listening losers advance/ruleta de la muerte separate. They’re really the same thing.) That’s really Tzuki in the minis tournament.

Today is the 29th Anniversary of El Santo’s death. There’s the usual articles about his life out today. Part of Hijo del Santo’s speech at the statue is here; it seems to be cut off before the end. He said this year had been very difficult, but he had big plans for 2013. El Hijo del Santo was to present a new gold plaque for the statute; the previous one was stolen in the past year.

Negro Casas kept the NWA Welterweight championship over Valiente in Arena Puebla with a casita.

Jahmale Hepburn has started posting FantasticaMania 2013 on his Daily Motion page. Day 1 and a chunk of Day 2 is up as I write this, including Prince Devitt vs Dragon Rojo and Rush vs Yoshihashi. More is coming tonight, but you should have plenty to watch today.

Octagon Jr. posted on Twitter that he missed the AAA tapings due to scheduled USA bookings and he’ll be back in Mexico soon. Neither Octagon Jr. or AAA explained why they didn’t just announce that ahead of time (no one’s going to return a ticket because Drago’s a replacement); I know very few no-shows get announced ahead of time in lucha libre, but it doesn’t make it good or fair.

We never could figure out what indy show Samuray was working, but maybe it wasn’t an indy show. The WWE was holding tryouts by invitation this past weekend (Friday thru Sunday), the guys he’s been working with on US indy shows are the type of guys recently invited, and Octagon Jr.’s never made it a secret that his ultimate goal is to end up in WWE. I don’t know that he was there, but it seems reasonable to assume. It is possible he was invited to WWE sometime after he took the AAA TV booking, but that still the ultimate problem: by giving Samuray del Sol the Octagon Jr. gimmick, they were saying he was a guy with great star potential and could be important for them in both Mexico and US, but at the same time was somehow not good enough to do those same things for WWE since they had to know he’d choose the US company. That’s a risky gamble. It may work out. It hasn’t yet. Maybe AAA thought Samuray would be so awed by getting the Octagon Jr. gimmick that he’d give up his other goals, but that would’ve been a poor reading of his mindset.

Speaking of the AAA taping, the guy I couldn’t identify in the dark match opener turns out to be Bugambilia (del Norte)/Chicano, who hasn’t been seen in IWRG in many months. , one who did wrestle in IWRG but is not the Chicano one.

AAA has officially announced their 2 hour show airing on Univision Deportes Network (which started last week.) It’s Thursdays at 8 pm Central. So far this year, the 2 hour show seems to be the 1 hour show plus a couple minutes more of replays, and then matches from the vault to fill out time. I know Rob has a list of matches he wants to see, but this seems like a place where AAA’s internet campaigns could step in: they could run a poll on their website or Twitter or Facebook allowing people to pick one of the match every so often.

Rob has highlights of May 2002 CMLL and a 12 minute Mascara Dorada highlight reel. He must’ve had to cut it down! Rob also has various thoughts on the matches so far which I’m skipping reading until I get to watch the matches.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Black Terry Jr. has highlights of the Japan vs XMW atomicos match from the XMW show, and also promos from Chile Peludo & Core vs Compares Extremos for an upcoming match in Reynosa. Aeroboy has a great looking Estrella Blanca t-shirt in this, the colors really pop.

Mr. 450 Hammet, a familiar face on Chicago lucha shows, is trying to win TNA’s online Gut Check contest.

The current president of the Puebla Box Y Lucha commission talks about past presidents not taking the job seriously and the success she’s had with licensing so far. Rey Celestial winning QPPLC after receiving his official license just months prior seems as a big deal for the credibility of the commission as for the luchador.

The semimain on this show looks great, at least until the inevitable breakup.

Also, there’s apparently an AAA show in Tijuana on 02/15 which they haven’t announced online yet.

FMLL has a show in El Monte, California on 02/16, with the same guys who are working the Chicago show.