Day: April 11, 2014

Hijo del Santo says TxT on hold, relevos increible

thecubsfan 1 Comment

Tonight’s Arena Mexico main event is a relevos increibles trios, teaming Rush, La Sombra and Rey Escorpion versus Volador Jr., Maximo, and Negro Casas. Main event relevos increibles are usually the precursor to someone changing sides, and Sombra did act like a rudo – or like Rush – for most of his match two Fridays ago against Volador. It still seems unlikely Sombra would be a full time rudo, but expect him to act like on again tonight. The Volador/Sombra issue should end up taking a backstage to the other feuds. At least one of Negro Casas versus Rush and Rey Escorpion versus Maximo should be happening in the next few months, and maybe tonight’s about figuring out which one is closer.

Tonight’s En Busca de un Idolo matches has the four luchadors from Thursday switching opponents. Super Halcon Jr. gets his shot against Cavernario, while Guerrero Negro Jr. taking on Hechicero in what should be the main event of the Terra broadcast.

El Hijo del Santo, doing promotional work for the Wildcoast charity, confirmed he would not be getting neck/spine surgery any time soon. The injury was the reason for his temporary retirement announcement back in November, but Hijo del Santo says the new plan is for him to wait six to eight months to see if the bones regenerate and he’s fine on his own. His wife was credited as saying similar things a couple months ago, but then went on to say Hijo del Santo would completely retire due to that injury after a couple matches teaming with his son. Santo instead position the end of his career as having done everything there is to be done (guess Solitario’s mask wasn’t that important) and just wanting to pass on the name to his son. The plan for Santo Jr. seems to be about the same: he’s expected to head back to NOAH in the summer, and then debut in Mexico under the Tempestad name until he’s ready to take on the Santo Jr. name.

Hijo del Santo also said there are no plans for any Todo x el Todo show in the near future, claiming they have to wait until after the World Cup (June to July) to get enough attention to run shows. That’s also the point where Santo should be done with his break, what they’re actually waiting for. Hijo del Santo’s does not admit TxT is essentially his vanity promotion (though funded by others), but that’s the way it’s operated so far. The TV announcers on the last show in November 2013 were heavily pushing a return date in March 2014, but it was unlikely they’d bother shows if Santo couldn’t be part of them. I just wonder if they told everyone (or if it really mattered, since they only ran a handful of shows.) Santo also said they’d have to find a new venue in Mexico City, saying he doesn’t want to go back to Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera now that ” a circus, excuse me, AAA” is running there. In reality, AAA likely has some control of who else can run them building and TxT has no choice to go elsewhere and that building was frequently much too big for the shows they were running. (Also, when Santo is calling other promotions a circus, did Hijo del Santo watch some of the matches he wasn’t in? Probably not.)

Thunder may have returned to Australia. That idea didn’t work at all.

This week’s Tercera Caida still hasn’t come thru on YouTube’s RSS feed (YouTube’s RSS feeds are awful) but featured lots of WrestleMania coverage. They had to put their actual coverage of the show on DailyMotion.

There was a press conference to announced Sin Cara working on 05/03 in Arena Pavillon del Norte. The promoters say they’re talking to Averno about working the show.

Meanwhile, Dr. Morales thinks Sin Cara might be going to AAA. I’m shocked. (I’m not sure this is the case, but his lucha libre column output makes it appear that his only preparation for is watching AAA most weeks.)

Cerebro Negro talks about his near death from the flu, says he may still be a couple months away from returning.

The next Lucha Fan Fest is on 05/17 in Arena Lopez Mateos.

Tabasco Hoy says the dark match on the 05/04 AAA taping will be Los Cadaveres vs Torbellino y Gatubeda.

Eric R reviews CMLL on LATV 03/23/14.

Los Colisenios says lucha libre is at it’s lowest level ever because indy promotions are targeting smart marks. I don’t know about that, but it’s an inversion of the US theory that the biggest factor to how all wrestling promotions draw is how the top promotions are doing; indy promotions can very based on what they do, but it’s a top down effect, and Colisenos is suggesting Mexico is a bottom up one.

CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2014-03-15

thecubsfan

recap

taped 2014-03-07 @ Arena México

This was a less interesting tournament.

Rey Escorpion is just leaving

Titan/Felino: Místico refused to fight Titan, then they teased the matchup, then they just fought like it was normal all within about 3 minutes. That’s like four months of matches in one tournament lucha. Felino & Titan got to do a little but this was much more for the other team.

Cometa/Polvora: Cometa and Pólvora got in trademark moves just to have them done, but Cometa got a knee to the gut on his tornillo and Pólvora had his special kicked out to no reaction, so maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

Valiente/Vangellys: The one Valiente/Vangellys match just felt like guys doing random moves with nothing to them. Vangellys & Valiente basically worked as rudos; UG as a rudo in danger from another rudo kind of works, but there wasn’t enough Sombra/Valiente to get a feel for that.

Mistico La Nueva Era

La Mascara/Ephesto: La Mascara & Ephesto’s sole match was another getting in the spots as quick as possible situation – look, it’s Ephesto’s dive, it’s a campana tease, it’s a shoulderbreaker, etc. Mascara doesn’t have many spots so this worked out okay. The only advantage is I believe the early near falls, because there are only early near falls.

Místico/Reaper: Does Reapper’s snake have a name? Is it spelled differently every show like Reapper is? Místico and Escorpion had a stumble stating off and they were both kind of useless for a while, but still managed the dangerous headscissors to the floor. Every other team was generally on the same level, but Místico was treated like a big star and Reapper like just a guy.

Averno/Volador Jr.: Volador was the only one who seemed to work at changing his outfit each time out. Averno & Volador were the efficient team they were this time last year and it reminds me that I’m still not so sure why they’re enemies. Crowd, which was deathly quiet for this show, was their loudest for the Volador/Sombra face off. It’s not for a lack of doing big spots in this tournament – there were a ton of them in the second semifinal – but it came off as no one cared about them. Or maybe someone just turned crowd mic sound by accident, who knows.

Volador continues to try to detach Sombra’s head.

Ultimo Guerrero/Sombra: UG has to get in all his near falls even in a tournament, as always. This team probably had the two best matches of the tournament. Their semifinal with Averno & Volador was the last four months of a much longer and better imaginary match, and the final was the most complete story told in four minutes. Sombra switching to being ticked off mode right away helped, and they had some good people to work off.

Rey Escorpion & Maximo: Escorpion’s change from complete dismissal of Máximo to grudging respect was the best part of this tournament; I’m not sure if they planned it that way or Rey Escorpion is just smart enough to work it out. It was the only thing really connecting the matches and the only thing that made them seem meaningful.