Dr. Wagner’s latest story, Bufete del Amor stay champs at a cost, Metalico/Virus, Olimpico/Shocker, Angel/Trauma II

After the show Arena Lopez Mateos show Saturday night, Dr. Wagner Jr. told La WagnerMania he’s done with AAA except for some minor legal issue, and would be in to CMLL soon. Luchas2000 has a cover story even giving the probably Dos Leyendas as his start date. Dr. Wagner has been saying this same thing since December, though this time it seems to have caught more attention. There are other things that haven’t changed:

• AAA says the small legal issue is ‘he contracted to work for AAA for 1 more year’
• CMLL says they don’t want him.

Dorian Roldan repeated the bit about Dr. Wagner being under contract to 2014 and could not leave to CMLL. He also explained AAA will not use Dr. Wagner until he acknowledges he’s under contract. There’s still some wiggle room here, because AAA has had both problems enforcing contracts they wanted enforced (rights to the Psicosis character) and ending contracts they didn’t want any part of (the Steve Shipp deal.) For all we know, AAA is completely right in Wagner is signed another year, and Wagner is completely right in that he could get out of the deal because of some breach in the contract. And if all there was to this was a legal fight, CMLL might be fine employing Wagner while the courts figure out the rest, the same as they have with the Invasors. The AAA side is relatively only a minor part of this.

It feels like the people in Mexico responding to this rumor believe you can just show up to work at a building, and they’ll just give you a match. It doesn’t seem to actually work that way. CMLL gets to choose who they employ. They don’t always do the best job of doing it, but they get to run their business however they’d like, and also get to deal with however that turns out for them. There are solid reasons for CMLL to bring Dr. Wagner back, but we’re not arguing logic here, we’re arguing about how CMLL acts, and CMLL tends not to lift their bans. There’s no reason to think they’ll lift this one.

Now, CMLL does have a press conference this Thursday (at least at last word.) It’s probably just to announce the Dos Leyendas card, with the expected big matches. If there was any major news like a Dr. Wagner returning, it’d be announced there. I don’t expect anything to be announced, but if your’e looking for news and not speculation, that’s the day you want.

CMLL (SUN) 02/17/2013 Arena Mexico [CMLL, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Camorra & Herodes Jr. b Oro Jr. & Robin
2) Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico b Shockercito, Stukita, Último Dragoncito
Rudos took 1/3, Demus and Mercurio beating Stukita and Shockercito with martillo negros
3) Diamante, Metálico, Tritón b Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
Tecnicos took 1/3. Virus pinned Metalico in the first fall after Metalico was tripped up by Raziel, and Triton was pinned by the other two. Triton and Diamante got pins in fall 2, then Metalico submitted Virus in a nudo to take fall 3. Metalico, who talked about Virus’ credentials as a maestro before the match and then beat him with Virus his own tricky hold, challenged Virus to a mask vs hair match.
4) Delta b Puma [lightning]
Match was less than five minutes long, but they went high speed from the opening. Delta looked good, and won with a tapatia variant.
5) Misterioso Jr., Namajague, Shigeo Okumura b Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 1/3. Okumura snuck a foul in on Fuego, and Namajague pulled Stuka’s mask. Stuka demanded Namajauge’s mask in a match, while Okumura countered with a title match before they’d have the mask match. No agreement was reached.
6) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush b Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Psicosis [CMLL TRIOS]
Bufete del Amor are champions, going for their 7th defense. The Invasors are national trios champions, but their titles are not on the line (and could not be, because Marco is ineligible to win those.) Rush came into the match with a hurt left knee, which flared up during the third fall and limited his participation. Tecnicos took the first in usual fashion, rudos came back in the second. Third fall was long and back and forth, ending abruptly when Psicosis crotched Maximo on the top rope, Maximo fell out of the ring, Psicosis brought him back in the ring for a pin, and Tigre Hispano belatedly called for the DQ. Bufete del Amor challenged any trio in the world to beat them.

The Terra feed was not up for the first two matches due to problems on Terra’s end.

Credit to Carlos for picking up on the Metalico/Virus feud. Puma also made a mask versus mask challenge after his match, but that was the more rote ‘I lost, so I’m going to challenge you to a match both of us know will not get made’ challenge. Metalico’s challenge to Virus, coming after the upset clean victory, appeared to be part of a legitimate program between them. Timing is more of an issue; they’d seem to want to space it out from Dos Leyendas, so an Arena Mexico show on 03/30 or 04/06 seems like a target, but that also gives CMLL plenty of mind to change their mind or add 8 more people to the match.

Rush was a crazy man, doing 30 seconds of spots on one leg, then disappearing for a few minutes to limp around on the outside. He even did his tope con giro. I don’t know how you can boo Rush at this point. I am worried about what we might hear at the press conference about him, because he seemed like a guy who’s going to need to be off that knee for a while. Knee injuries are weird things, and he could be working on a knee that could use surgery or he could just need a couple weeks off. We do know that Titan will be out for about 3 weeks due to hernia surgery, and he’s not on any lineup coming up. Rush is on a lot of cards. Lots of work for Fuego!

There’s a decent chance the ending of the main event was not meant to be the ending. It came off as awkward and weird, and Maximo seemed to be injured and pained even in the post match interview. It’s possible Tigre Hispano just called the DQ to get it over. It’s the second straight title defense versus the Invasors to go a DQ – the last was when Psicosis blatantly fouled Rush (after Rush did the same to Volador and didn’t get caught.) This didn’t come across as strong. Maximo had to get to Neza for the Brazos show there. It’s never a good night to get hurt, but this one was likely a tough one. (But at least he won in Neza!)

CMLL (SUN) 02/17/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Relampago Azul b El Novato
2) Azteca de Oro & El Hippie b Acertijo & Thunder Boy
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Black Metal b Sádico, Sky Kid [#1 Contenders, OCCIDENTE WELTER]
Black Metal gets a title shot against Leo next week.
4) Espectrum, Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Ráfaga b El Alteño, Halcón de Plata, León Blanco, Smaker
Rudos took 1/3, the last with fouls and mask pulls.
5) Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado, Shocker b Olímpico, Pólvora, Tiger
Tecnicos took 2/3, Shocker pinning Olimpico and asking for a title match.

I know you all know this, but Olimpico is the Occidente Heavyweight champion.

Oficial 911 won tonight’s three way match in IWRG, so it’ll be El Angel vs Trauma II on 03/03 for the masks. They’ve met twice in singles matches, El Angel winning both times.

Vampiro spent part of Sunday trying to get people to report that he’s retiring. I’m nothing if not helpful. (Vampiro has not had his last match.)

Psycho Circus beat Texano, Chessman and Tony Casanova in the main event of Friday’s show in Tijuana. Show looks to have drawn well. Octagon Jr. worked the semimain, though he got caught in the ropes on a dive.

Rob has highlights of late June 2002 CMLL, Rey de Reyes 2008, and CMLL Puebla 02/27/12.

LuchaWorld has Dark Angel in Japan.

SuperLuchas #499 has the Mexitosos and Konnan.

Eric R @ Segunda Caida reviews CMLL Gala 02/02/13 and CMLL Fox 02/03/13.

A program from Arena Guatemala Mexico in 1990.

Ultimo Guerrero was in El Paso this weekend.

This card from 1981 is great. Black Terry main eventing the same arena he headlines 32 years later, Villano I & Villano II team, Negro Casas in the Alan Extreme spot.