IWRG, Lucha Underground reaction, Alberto on WWE racism

IWRG (WED) 10/29/2014 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Power Bull b Black Niko
2) Capitán Muerte & Hip Hop Man b Alfa & Omega
3) Golden Magic, Metaleon, Sky Ángel bAnubis Black, Araña de Plata, Atomic Star
Money thrown in.
4) Imposible © b Dragón Celestial [IWRG IC Light]
Imposible took 1/3. Imposible’s fifth defense
5) Kenshi Kabuki, Relámpago, Veneno bCanis Lupus, El Hijo del Diablo, Eterno
Tecnicos took 1/3, Veneno leading them to the win.

The details of the title match make it sound really good as well. LAS TV scheduling has been awful of late – lots of repeated baseball, and IWRG being a two hour show where they only really have one hour slots for this type of programming are the two big issues – but I hope things other than the main event make it thru.

The internet reaction to the first Lucha Underground show is generally positive. Maybe not people falling over themselves, but likign the show and interested in enough to keep checking it out. (Or wishing they had El Rey so they could see it now.) People really liked the Prince Puma/Johnny Mundo main event and the one hour length to the show. The reaction to feel of the show is a bit all over the place – some people liked it being different, some people want wrestling to just be wrestling without adding movie aspects and some just didn’t like these particular skits. The thing we can take from the production, which we kind of already knew, is this this is a TV show doing wrestling first, not a wrestling show with cameras set up. That was clear from the opening swoop in on the location and logo from the show (as seen on every reality show) to ending the show with credits over the action. There were also complains – like the size of the crowd and the noise and the lack of authentic luchadors – that appeared to have been already fixed during the course of the production.

Internet buzz is not necessarily an indicator of financial success – go look at WWE’s numbers this morning – but good buzz is good buzz and Lucha Underground had that. It appeared the show went from a low amount of talk to exploding as they show came on the air and continuing strong thru the east coast showing. There are recaps over on Wrestling Observer and PWTorch, and Rob posted his take. Lucha Underground people on Twitter seemed happy with the show and the reaction to it.

Fighting Spirit Magazine has a great interview with Alberto el Patron. You should go buy the magazine and read the whole thing, it’s available digitally on iOS and Android. When the WWE tour came and went without Alberto saying anything to the press, I started to assume Alberto and WWE had made some deal where he’d stay quiet about WWE in exchange WWE dropping the restrictions on Alberto working in the US. That’s clearly not the case: Alberto openly talked about dealing with racist incidents in WWE regularly, not just the one which led to his firing.

Alberto explained it was both people in management and in other roles who would say those sorts of things. He would not put up with it from people below him on the food chain, but kind of had to tolerate that from management for political reasons. Alberto says the man who called him up to fire him was one of those people who would make racial comments. He avoided using the name of the person in this interview, but Alberto has said repeatedly said elsewhere it was HHH who called to fire him. (Ricardo Rodriguez has made similar comments towards HHH.) Alberto also complained heavily about the pay in WWE. He would constantly fight for better payoffs, because he knew what he was worth in other promoters and could threaten to go back there if WWE wasn’t going to pay him much, but feels the young guys are getting totally taken advantage of under the current system. Alberto had no desire to stick with WWE when his contract was over given the current situation.

Of note more directly related to lucha libre, Alberto mentioned talking to Myzteziz about his (much higher) Mexico’s pay. That suggests those two are on much better terms then was suggested previously. Alberto states his offer from AAA (Dorian) includes money for working the Mexico promotion and Lucha Underground. That sounds like he’s been signed by Lucha Underground – something they’ve denied but everyone believes is happening the moment he’s legally allowed to be there – but it’s also possible Alberto is getting that part of his contract until the non-compete is cleaned up. Alberto says he took the offer to Paco Alonso and Paco told him he couldn’t match and Alberto should sign with AAA. Alberto mentioned vague plans for a Dos Caras Sr. retirement show in the first half of 2015, and a desire to get his close friend Drew Galloway (ex-WWE Drew McIntyre) in to AAA in 2015. It’s a UK magazine, it’s always a good idea to mention how much you like a UK wrestler, but Galloway was considered vastly underutilized in WWE.

Tercera Caida had footage of the ChilangaMask show and sit down interviews with Rayo de Jalisco and LA Park. The big news is Bernado Guzman, who’s been cohost of the show since episode 1, is leaving the show. Bernardo and Jose Manuel have been doing the show for eight years and came up with the concept of the show. Bernardo will still be helping with +LuchaTV.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

CMLL Informa had Boby Zavala, Angel de Oro, Negro Casas and Felino as guests.

Lucha 2000 746 has the All Elite show teaser on the cover. I think All Elite is another name for “Lucha 2000 promotions.” (Either that or one is sponsoring the other pretty heavily.)

CaraLucha announced an Arez & Guerrero Mixtico vs Aeroboy & Violento Jack match for their next show. There’s also promos for (other) Los Neza Boys and Los Furia Dorada.

Casandro, Puma, Niebla Roja and Magnus made it to France yesterday. Here’s a French language advertisement for their 11/03 show.

Someone please help Angelico meet Ronaldinho.

Black Terry Jr. posted highlights of Hechicero & Black Terry Jr. vs Negro Navarro & Trauma II and Solar vs Negro Navarro.

Olimpico, in promoting the Dia Los Muertos shows, again said that leaving CMLL was the biggest mistake he made in his career.

Chessman says the Hell Brothers are going to run the ridiculous people out of AAA.

Impulso talks about wrestling in Puebla