only a couple of items today due to time constraints; maybe no links until Saturday.
Jose Manuel Guillen announced Tercera Caida has left TVC Deportes. The last episode was on the 17th, they usually run special shows around this time but instead they’re just done after nine and a half years. You can hear JMG talk about in the YouTube link, but they’ll be continuing on with the +LuchaTV YouTube channel project as a group and he’s moving onto a new job, and they hope to be able to bring the show back on a different network. (I don’t know how it works in Mexico, but JMG and Bernardo were the ones who came up with the show name and concept, so it’s possible it can just land complete on a different network.)
This was a sudden announcement, but it did not seem to be a total surprise to the people involved with Tercera Caida. JMG hinted back at this when we had him on the podcast back in September. Just generally, his level of optimism with TVC Deportes changed quite a bit from when we talked him in 2013 and 2014. TVC Deportes itself is going thru some hard times – they lost the cable rights to WWE Raw, and they were taken off cable/satellite systems. At the time, articles were predicting doom for the network, and now it sounds like they’re shifting more onto football/soccer to try to fight off that doom. Tercera Caida was still good, and the network might have still thought it was good, but it was a causality of other events.
Tercera Caida was one of the best parts of lucha libre. I hope they’ll be back soon, and they’ll be missed until they do get back. There’s really nothing on their in lucha libre – in wrestling in general – that can replace them. I also think a great wrestling show and quality wrestling programming in general would be a good addition to any cable network looking to draw in a new group of eyeballs, and hope someone figures that out quick.
I would assume, but I’m not certain, this is also why CMLL’s Puebla TV has disappeared from TVC Deportes. Guillen been the lead announcer on that show, though his cohost changed 3 times in 2014 after Bernardo left. CMLL’s shifted those Puebla matches onto other networks when they’ve lost the TVC Deportes deal in the past. Not sure if they will again.
The Young Bucks sent out a series of Twitter messages on Tuesday, feeling disrespected with a contract offer sent to them (much less than they can get elsewhere.) They narrowed the list of companies who sent it, and then turned into a joke when they narrowed it down a little bit too far. The bad contract figured to be Lucha Underground based on the clues and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed that to be the case. It reads as if it’s the same seven year low money offer given to people back in the fall.
I’m not thrilled that a) no Young Bucks on the show and b) this is the exact same cycle as happened before the first tapings (wrestling LU people promise things to indy guys, other LU people send bad contract, indy guys are offended and make sure every one knows) and it appears no one’s learned anything and we all get to go thru it again. At least it should be a shorter list this time.