Day: November 19, 2015

La Sombra just left town. Let’s try to pretend there’s other news.

The jump everyone was talking about a whole 24 hours ago was Cibernetico. AAA met the press for the first time as part of the opening of the new lucha libre exhibit in Mexico City, while Elite had a introductory press conference with Ciber himself.

The Elite press conference had a little more news. CMLL covering it itself was news, because they mentioned AAA by name and said more luchadors from AAA were coming. CMLL luchadors are pretty much trained not to even mention AAA or it’s wrestlers by name – the most recent funny example of this was Psycho Clown being mentioned as “the Alvarado in the other promotion” – so this is a noticeable different attitude mostly due to their relationship with Elite.

Cibernetico confirmed he left AAA on bad terms and that AAA says they have him under contract. (+LuchaTV has the video.) He says he’s repeatedly asked to see the contract and AAA’s refused to show it to him, so he doesn’t believe he’s actually under contract. Cibernetico questioned how he could still be under contract to AAA and also be told he couldn’t work last Friday night’s show in Ciudad Madero because he was no longer in AAA. Cibernetico maintained that he owned his own name. (This is confirmed, there’s a trademark for Cibernetico under his name, and it’s one he used prior to coming to AAA.) Cibernetico said others from AAA may follow him because they’re unhappy with they’re being treated, blaming an unnamed person/persons big ego for not understanding the reasons people want to leave. I don’t know if he was talking about Konnan, but everyone’s going to assume he was talking about Konnan.

Ciber says he wants to get the CMLL heavyweight championship, so he can be a UWA, AAA and CMLL heavyweight champion. There’s a few people who have two of those, but no one has all three. He didn’t mention Maximo by name and may not know Maximo is champion. Those would be some matches. Ciber said he was also be in a movie.

Marisela Peña said downplayed the situation, saying luchadors switching company was part of lucha libre but she would’ve liked to see Myzteziz & Cibernetico leave more professionally. Peña took a very CMLL viewpoint: “luchadors come and go, but we have the batteries to strength new ones.” Peña did not immediately say anything when it came to Cibernetico, saying that situation would be talked about at a press conference for Guerra de Titanes, going silent for a moment, and then ending with “I think my silence say it all.” Peña said AAA owns the name “Myzteziz”, but they would not give the name to a new luchador at this moment.

Marisela Peña said AAA had a good year with some ups and downs. The Hindenburg also had some ups and downs.

The lucha libre exhibition – at Mexico City’s Museo del Objeto del Objeto – includes 90 masks, 20 costumes, 300 images, and 250 publications.  60% percent of the items are said to have never been publically displayed. AAA luchadors introduced the presentation and Victoria seems to be a sponsor. CMLL isn’t mentioned as participating in some of the articles, but they appear to have donated some material; this article shows the Leyenda de Plata trophy from the year Perro Aguayo Jr. won, which CMLL Informa displayed the week after Aguayo passed away. The Gladiatores has the most photos of the exhibit. The exhibition is open Tuesdays to Sundays thru March and costs 50 pesos for an adult ticket.

CMLL (TUE) 11/17/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Gallo & Kempo Dragón b Maléfico & Ráfaga
Gallito helped his team get the win.
2) Dalys, La Comandante, Reina Isis b Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Silueta
Isis replaced Amapola (who ended up in Arena Mexico instead.)
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Stuka Jr. b Joker, Pierroth, Skándalo
Joker (who had been training in DF) replaced Misterioso
4) La Máscara, Marco Corleone, Rush b Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
5) Volador Jr. © b Negro Casas [NWA WELTER]
Seconds were Fuego & Skandalo. 6th defense. Volador won with a top rope headscissors.

Los Ingobernables were still Los Ingobernables on this show and were on Monday in Puebla. They’ll probably keep being that way, but miss something without Sombra. No disrespect to Marco (mild disrespect to Mascara), but it’s now Rush and his goons.

IWRG (WED) 11/18/2015 Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Guerrero 2000 & Magnum 44 b Aramis & Halcon Fire
Halcon Fire replaced Vardeus.
2) Ángel De La Muerte I & Ángel De La Muerte II b Black Dragón & Osiris
3) Fireman, Rocket, Shadow Boy b Matrix Jr., Power Bull, Vampiro Metálico
4) Atomic Star, Eterno, Kanon b Black Terry, Hijo del Alebrije, Látigo[super libre]
Rematch from last week. Team Eterno took falls 2/3. the last when Kanon sneaking a foul on Alebrije. Eterno challenged Terry to an apuesta match.
5) Canis Lupus, Spector, Violencia Jr. b Freyser, Mega, Ultra Mega
Spector replaced Liderk.

Eterno/Terry is going to be awesome if it happens. I’m not entirely sure why that isn’t the main event feud, but Wednesday are odd.

CMLL posted the Delta/Sagrado lightning match.

This is a few days old, but Estrellas del Ring posted video of a crazy hard chop exchange between Herodes, Los Traumas, Rush, and La Sombra. (Marco wisely decides he’s got better things to do; I wouldn’t get in there either.) That’s from Sombra’s last match in Mexico for the time being, a match in Monterrey for Tinieblas’ FULL promotion. Sombra was going 110% even in his last match in Mexico for a promotion he’ll likely never work for again. At the time I saw this, a few days ago, I was thinking about how great it was for Herodes to get the heck out of CMLL because his career seems to be going better (and much funner) than it would’ve been if stuck in CMLL the last couple of years. There’s no way he would’ve been in this match if he still teaming with also Arkangel & Nitro in segunda. Hope we’re saying the same thing about Sombra in a couple years, with him reaching the new heights because we wouldn’t have expected because he took the same chance.

Laredo Kid told people he was going to Lucha Underground. His name has come up with the show, but the only Mexico based guys who’ve worked with the show are signed with AAA, and Laredo’s not working with AAA except when they come to Nuevo Laredo. He also previously said he was going to NXT and only appeared there for a tryout.

LuchaWorld has a recap of yesterday’s CMLL Informa. The highlight of this show was JCR saying the bodybuilding contest might air on YouTube. Even Informa doesn’t have the CMLL information. The second highlight was Terrible asking why Cibernetico calls himself a luchador when he has no idea how to wrestle. Boby Z dropped his complaints about Guerrero Maya going to Japan, so that’s an angle going nowhere. I hope Panther gets his match with Minoru Suzuki. LuchaWorld also has KrisZ’s news update.

Krazy Star won a title in Guatemala.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 11/22/2015 Arena Naucalpan
1) Black Dragón & Omega vs Adrenalina & Power Bull
2) Centvrión, Látigo, Mr. Leo vs Hip Hop Man, Imposible, Vortize
3) Dinamic Black, Dr. Cerebro, Pantera I vs Diablo Jr. I, Eterno, Violencia Jr.
4) Apolo Estrada Jr. & El Hijo del Diablo © vs Hijo del Pantera & Pantera[IWRG IC TAG]
second defense for the Gringos
5) Danny Casas, Toscano, Veneno vs Engendro Jr., Máscara Año 2000 Jr.,X-Fly

Engendro Jr. popped up on Arena Coliseo Guadalajara shows, so this fits the profile as someone coming to Mexico City for training/tryout and picking up IWRG matches while he’s here. (Or it’s a vastly different Engendro Jr.)

Panteras are previous champions getting a rematch.

Third match is Dinamic Black’s first regular IWRG match since 2013. He was Welterweight champion, there was a strange title match that ended in a draw, then Dinamic quit IWRG without losing the title. Time heals all wounds (and he’s since seemed to be allied with Pantera I, who’s also back of late.)

Someone’s name was scratched out and Latigo’s name was placed in that spot. That could be a really good match.

WWE announced today that Manuel Alfonso Andrade Oropeza, better known to you and me as La Sombra, has signed with the US company and has reported to their NXT Training Center.

Sombra’s always seemed like a guy WWE should be targeting. He had a well known tryout with WWE when the came in Mexico in 2011, but WWE passed him (and others over). The reason appeared to be the stylistic differences and his size. Sombra’s grown larger in the four years since, but the bigger change has been within WWE. The promotion, and especially the NXT brand, is just more concentrated on finding people who can have really good matches with them and not worrying if they fit the WWE mold. The long term plan for La Sombra has to be graduating to WWE at some point, but he’ll fit in well in NXT for now. Sombra will have to most work on fitting his style into the WWE’s limitations and improving his talking ability. Sombra’s believed to speak a little English, but not so much that he can consistently do great talking segments. Sombra’s speaking skills were concerned a weakness in Mexico, especially prior to the formation of the rudos, but it’s not something CMLL focuses much on.

The rumors of La Sombra joining WWE came up a couple weeks ago, first mentioned on MLW Radio by Konnan as the only person WWE found in Mexico who they deemed meeting their standards. Konnan said he didn’t know if Sombra was going to WWE and no one else knew who was talking either. The rumors of Sombra going to WWE built upon themselves, but Sombra kept doing interviews saying he hadn’t signed anything and no one else did. I’ve spend the last couple months pestering people to find out if they knew concrete anything about Sombra going to WWE, and no one could pass on any more than the same rumors I’d heard. They did say Sombra was a quiet guy who mostly kept to himself and to his phone, and anyone who did know must’ve done an excellent job of keeping it to themselves.

(NJPW probably didn’t know until recently; they were surprised about Sombra losing his mask. The bit about Naito teasing Sombra coming in as his partner and it not happening might be because CMLL hadn’t told NJPW Sombra was leaving.)

People obviously knew. Sombra lost to all the top CMLL guys on the way out. He lost his title to Ultimo Guerrero in Puebla, he lost his mask to Atlantis clean on the Anniversary show, he lost to career rival Volador Jr. clean on the Dia de Los Muertes show (and made a point of saying it ended the feud) and he lost to best friend Rush on his last night in CMLL. (He did beat Shocker! Poor Shocker.) The mask feud came out of nowhere on an August 7th Arena Mexico show and was a clear deviation from a plan to do Ultimo Guerrero versus Thunder. We believed that was happening because Thunder is a terrible luchador. It now looks like that’s probably when Sombra informed CMLL he was leaving and was willing to drop his mask. Everything that happened since that point makes sense if he & CMLL knew Sombra had a hard deadline to leave and they were trying to get in everything they could before he left.

Sombra should be the present and future of CMLL. He should be guy headlining Arena Mexico fro the next two decades. He’s going to be on another path now. As we’ve seen with Octagon Jr., Dos Caras Jr. and Mistico, that path can go off in many directions. Sombra could be back in Arena Mexico in three years, or he could be headlining WrestleMania. The fact that CMLL has little effect on that outcome is a big problem for the promotion. CMLL’s lucky to have access to a great deal of young talent and does a decent job of developing some of them into exciting luchadors, but CMLL’s potential is capped if they WWE can pluck them away whenever they want. WWE was able to do it with Mistico and now they did it with the guy built to be Sombra’s replacement. Maybe Dragon Lee or Titan or Cavernario or someone else will end up being the next Sombra, but CMLL’s business is going to have to change for this scenario not to repeat again in a few years.

The top CMLL wrestlers make extra money from big outside bookings, including NJPW. Sombra hadn’t been used by NJPW this year, outside of FantasicaMania, and so the jump to WWE was easier to make. Rush has also not been used by NJPW, isn’t on next year’s FantasticaMania and there’s no sign of him getting that extra income. Rush also would seem to fit with WWE. Unlike Sombra, Rush hasn’t really lost to anyone and there’s no real sign of him leaving. Yet. Rush is going to be the guy everyone wonders if he’s going to be heading to WWE next until something else happens. The future of the Ingobernables in CMLL is also a question – it was five man unit, but it was really coming of a Sombra/Rush led group with three other guys. CMLL’s aligned Rush with his brothers at other times. He’s better at being a rudo leader, but there’s no real logical way to fit someone in Sombra’s void. It’s a different Ingobernables going forward.

Sombra’s going to be missed in Mexico. I’ve watched him since the moment he came to CMLL. “Brillante” was fun from day one, but few have worked as hard to improve as much as a luchador as he have, and following his evolution from skinny trainee from La Laguna to Ingboernable has been one of the interesting parts of CMLL in the last ten years. I’m happy for La Sombra, because he’s where he wants to to be, but I’m disappointed that’s no longer in Mexico.