Second half of the year thoughts

I’m going to be on Joe Versus the World this Thursday. Joe’s doing a month of Year In Review, and so we’re going to talk about the year in mexican wrestling. If you’ve got questions you’d like to be asked, you can e-mail to joegagne@charter.net.

I’ve been doing some prep work for the appearance, though not as much I’d like because I’ve had a cold since a local blizzard on Friday, and it’s really hit me hard this last week. Today’s the first day I don’t feel worse, which is nice. Anyway, I’m not sure I’m being negatively affected by the cold, but I keep thinking about the last few months of lucha, and much like my nose, it kinda just blows.

Lucha libre is inherently a slower progressing variety of wrestling compared to other versions in other countries, and I understand that. No one said anything about things just grinding to a halt for months at a time.

CMLL ran Mistico/Warrior a million times before the mask match, did the mask match, did Mistico/Warrior another million times until it was dead, ran it a couple more times to make sure it was dead, and then just screwed around for a while because they didn’t have anything else ready to pick up in it’s place. When they finally do decide to do something, they look at all the options and make one which seems least logical, and then give up on halfway thru*. Maximo versus Emilio Charles Jr. in a hair match shouldn’t be the second biggest feud of the half-year, but it is by default

AAA’s been in a holding pattern since the first taping after TripleMania (JUNE!), when Muerte Cibernetico did his coup. It took one taping for the promotion to tell the story of Chessman not wanting to go along, yet they stretched a one month story of break up into 5, because they had no idea how to progress until Cibernetico returned, which is kinda sad.** The stuff on the undercard has been underwhelming compared to the first half of the year. Nothing at Gran Apache/Billy Boy level (which they’ve stalled out – no ideas there?), but even as much as I was not a fan of Zorro/Electroshock, I find I prefer it to Scorpio/Porky! There’s odd matches here and there that I have an interest in, but most of it – random TNA loser, the Mexican Powers – run opposite of what I’m interested in.

The other stuff – if I can’t see it, there’s a limit to how much it can excite me, you know. (I say this while an IWRG tape is sitting on my desk, demanding to be watched.)

A lot of enjoying wrestling in finding matches you like or wrestlers your like, but also seeing wrestlers you like progress and improve themselves. There hasn’t been much new stars created, or older guys ascending the card. Laredo Kid won the Dream tournament, and maybe moved up, but more just started teaming with different people. Misterioso II won the GA, won Pantera’s mask, and then proceeded to drop right back in the pack. Chessman couldn’t beat Muerte Cibernetica, because they had to leave that for Cibernetico, but he could’ve at least been pushed to the point where you’d think he just might be the Sect – they cemented his permanent second banana status by keeping him against the Dark Family instead of Muerte. Shocker’s return to being a CMLL tecnico so far will not be a long passage in his biography, but the team with Rey Bucanero could’ve at least been given a shot. Like a lot of with Bucanero this year, it just got dilluted and pushed to the side rather quick. ***

The rising star of AAA the last few months has been Cibernetico – the top rudo of the group for years, and he hasn’t even been wrestling. The rising star of CMLL has been Marco Corelone, who pretty much showed up in the position he’s at (so not really much rising there). Neither guy really interests me much – I think I like Corelone better, because he’s actually wrestling and to some level, he’s working at figuring out how to better himself in the lucha world, but that’s a marginal difference.

To a great extent, both major companies have opted to write off the last half of 2006. It’s great for the corporations that they’ve able to do such a thing without taking a big finicial hit, but it sure leaves something to be desired for us people who aren’t making money off the show. I’m hoping they’ll be a bit more motivated in 2007.

* If they were going whole heart into this, not only would the guys in the match actually be fighting each other in the same match for lead up (instead of being in different matches, or not there at all), not only would people actually be selling injury angles, but they’d actually have Universo put up the Heavyweight Title in a leadup match – something to get across the idea that these foreigners are really dangerous and might have a chance to beat Our Mexicans if we don’t rally around them. I’d say they’re going at this with one-fourth of their heart.

** I see it going: Chessman loses the Atomicos Titles sooner, turns tecnico sooner, teams with AAA tecnicos to beat Muerte occasionally, gets singles matches with Muerte, can’t beat him because the Sect keep interfering, until the one time he does because Cibernetico returned to help him. They did some of this, but the pacing was awful.

*** The only interesting exception is Sangre Azteca’s quiet movement up the cards, but because it’s been so quiet, it’s hard to believe it’s anything more than him being around when others aren’t – or a make up for not getting to go to NJPW.