Guadalajara, new Mistico, Busca prizes, Chessman

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CMLL (TUE) 06/19/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring, SuperLuchas]
1) Metatrón & Virgo b Magnum & Thunder Boy
2) Black Metal & Gallo b Exterminador & Ráfaga
3) Amapola & Princesa Blanca b Dark Angel & Marcela
Rudas won in straight falls
4) Volador Jr. b La Sombra, Mr. Águila, Diamante Azul, Psicosis, La Máscara, Delta, Olímpico, Kráneo, Guerrero Maya Jr. [cibernetico]
Cibernetico in honor of the 53rd Anniversary. Eliminator order went Guerrero Maya, Kraneo, Olimpico, Delta, La Mascara, Psicosis, Diamante Azul, Mr. Aguila, leaving Sombra and Volador as the final two. Their closing section was said to be excellent.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Último Guerrero b Marco Corleone & Máximo [CMLL TAG]
Guerreros came in as champs, and took falls 1/3 to keep the titles

A strong day for evil.

Dragon Lee is still scheduled to wrestle as Dragon Lee this Sunday (which makes no sense, but oh well.) After that, his redebut as Mistico II is unknown. I now believe he will not actually debut until July 6th, because there’s no point in having his debut be second to the women’s cage match, and the aim will likely be to set up a big match for him by TripleMania weekend.

If CMLL wanted to defend Dragon Lee as Mistico*, they would probably point to NJPW’s Tiger Mask, a character that’s been used by many different wrestlers. In fact, when Dragon Lee talked about becoming Mistico, they pushed it in a similar direction. Despite inheriting the mask, Dragon Lee wants to create his own histories and his own achievements; he aims to fill the mask, but not the shoes.

The major difference is Tiger Mask was a guy playing the role of a cartoon character, while Mistico was an actual person. The Japanese Tiger Mask cartoon and comic book was a short run series, airing a decade prior to the debut of the first Tiger Mask. Fans would’ve understand that the wrestler was playing a TV character, the same as if a wrestler in the US wrestled as Daffy Duck. Mistico has never been presented as a character or an identity, but as a person who happens to be wearing a silver mask. He may have a conflicting backstory and semi-fictional battles, but Mistico existed in the real world where Tiger Mask existed in the pages of a manga. You can take over a character’s look, but you can’t take over their life.

There are also special circumstances surrounding Tiger Mask. The original Tiger Mask had a bad split with not just the promotion he was working for, but the entire business of wrestling, going as far as writing a book exposing the interworkings of it. Satoru Sayama was still around when Tiger Mask II appeared, but he was off to the side of wrestling, dabbling in the early days of MMA. Sin Cara is on still wrestling, still on TV, in a promotion that draws five or six times as many viewers. Tiger Mask II was not introduced in the same promotion as Tiger Mask I; rival AJPW bought the rights to the name, and their fans would not have had the same loyalty to the original. One of the biggest obstacles for Dragon Lee to overcome is to get those who are fans of original to cheer him without feeling like they’re betraying the original.

AAA’s had their own problems with this scenario, but CMLL know it as well. They’ve been trying to do the same exact bit with Diamante Azul, only slightly changing the name, and he’s not much more popular than he has been as Metro. If Diamante Azul’s booking is consistent with how they’ll be treating Mistico II, then we should not be expecting big things. The big plans for Diamante Azul have including him losing to Ultimo Guerrero (in a typically poor Ultimo Guerrero match) and losing to Ultimo Guerrero & Dragon Rojo (in a poor Dragon Rojo match). It’s still pretty early, but CMLL’s backing of Diamante Azul has been limited to giving him a new gear and then adjusting it to be a more Blue Demon. If all they’re going to do is give Dragon Lee the new Mistico gear, he’s going nowhere too.

* CMLL does such a lacking job of defending the strange decisions they make and getting people excited about their own product that we have to imagine a situation where they might be responsive. I fully understand that the people CMLL are trying to reach are not the people who are reading lucha libre blogs, and especially not this lucha libre blog, but it’s insane that there’s not someone doing an interview with a friendly outlet explaining CMLL’s decision here. CMLL, and AAA to a lesser extent, present them as monolithic unknowable structures, the sort of behavior that only turns off people in 2012. It’s not just “Dragon Lee as Mistico”, it’s “Pegasso went to the hospital for neck x-rays…and we’re never telling you any more about this” that’s just crazy. We really should have to be bugging Konnan on Twitter to find out if Aerostar still works for AAA either, there’s should be someone using this information to build a relationship between the brand and it’s fans, at the very least pretending to bring you behind the curtain. I’ve said this so many times and it’s still true.

Positive Thought Bullet Points

  • We’ve wanted them to pick someone, anyone, and go with them. Dragon Lee is not the preferred pick, but if CMLL wholly getting behind someone may be better then getting half, quarter, and one eight the way behind three dozen people at once. If this somehow works, and business improves, they can fix everything else later.
  • If this doesn’t work, I’ll have so many great gifs.
  • Dragon Lee is capable of having a good match. If you want to defend his capabilities, your best best would is last year’s Anniversary segunda with Stuka against Misterioso and Euforia. Dragon Lee will likely be working a lot of with Euforia going forward, but he’ll also have a ton of other guys who know how to make flyers look good, maybe even that Averno guy if he’s allowed to escape the dog house.
  • (and Averno losing to Dragon Lee in a big match is better than Averno losing in terceras)
  • Last year, Magnus was working as Fake Mistico. This year, Magnus isn’t around. Things can change and get better.
  • Also, it could’ve been Magnus. It really could’ve been. Dragon Lee is not the best choice, but he’s not the worst either.

Other Links

CMLL added some details on the prizes for the En Busca de Un Idolo winner. The Cancun trip is not just for the winner, but for all four finalists, and is 2 days and 3 nights. The winner will be in Friday night main events “indefinitely”, though I’m not exactly sure how that can work when next week is a main event female cage match (and that vacation!) Euforia has been declared a heavyweight, so he’ll get a shot at the winner of Yujiro and Terrible if he wins, while Titan is a middleweight and would face Dragon Rojo Jr. I would love to find out which weight division everyone is supposed to be part of, but that must be Top Secret information (just like this tournament.)

The women in the cage match said very generic things about their feuds.

AAA sent out a press release with Chessman saying he wants to face Vampiro. (Nooooooooooo.) Chessman worked with Vampiro when Vamp was around for the sponsored spot shows.

Rob has highlights of 10/28/11 CMLL. Enjoy the highlight videos while they last.

LuchaWorld also has KrisZ’s news update.

Lucha Libre in Japan

NOAH announced Super Crazy and Ricky Marvin will challenge Atsushi Aoiki and Kotaro Suzuki for the GHC Junior Heavyweight titles on July 22nd. Crazy did well last tour. He’s also headed to Chile on July 2nd.

NJPW also announced Maximo’s inclusion on their next tour, starting July 7th. It appears Alex Koslov has gotten Davey Richards’ spot with the group, which is super for him (until he runs into Maximo again.)

Links

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 06/24/2012 Arena Naucalpan
1) Centvrión & Charly Madrid vs Alan Extreme & Imposible
2) Chicano, Dinamic Black, Dr. Cerebro vs Carta Brava Jr., Eita, Heddi Karaoui
3) Danny Casas, Niko, Veneno vs Head Hunter, Súper Nova, X-Fly
4) Ultraman & Ultramán Jr. vs Bestia 666 & Damián 666 and Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan and Hijo de Mascara Sagrada & Máscara Sagrada and Hijo del Pantera & Pantera and Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 & Máscara Año 2000 [tournament]

This is the annual father/son tag team tournament. This year, the fathers all start in the ring, and the sons replace them when they’re eliminated.

Niko is a new name, but he also has a mascot, like the Terrorista Negra from a few months back.

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12 thoughts to “Guadalajara, new Mistico, Busca prizes, Chessman”

  2. Hi guys… Super Crazy was booked to three shows in South America…

    – WAR Super Crazy Wrestling, June 24 in Quito, Ecuador
    – LWA Alta Tensión 2012, June 29 in Lima, Perú
    – XNL Contraataque 2012, July 1st in Santiago, Chile.
    – The July 2nd is a Wrestling Seminar, holded by Xplosión Nacional de Lucha.

    That’s all… See ya!!!.-

  3. Oh, I get it. The “U” in the LLUSA teaser is giving away that they got Univision.

    You got to admit, Steven Ship came out of nowhere and did a taped AAA PPV, got a toy deal for LLUSA, Dr. Pepper to sponsor a tour and his tapings were very high quality. He is very competent.

  4. I’m going to miss Crazy while he is Lima, but his match with Caoz could be very good.

  5. “They’ve been trying to do the same exact bit with Diamante Azul, only slightly changing the name, and he’s not much more popular than he has been as Metro. […] It’s still pretty early, but CMLL’s backing of Diamante Azul has been limited to giving him a new gear and then adjusting it to be a more Blue Demon”

    This was explained when Cesar (family member of a CMLL programmer) took to his blog to tell the fans to chant ‘DIAMOND, DIAMOND’ instead of ‘DIAMANTE, DIAMANTE’.

    I dunno – maybe instead he could have called up his uncle to say “hey, maybe we shouldn’t give our wrestlers the same names?”

    Typical CMLL incompetence.

  7. (well, excepting the “I” in “In” — but I’m pretty sure that this is what they were going for.)

  10. CMLL “we won’t make you a star, but we will make you look like one… Litterally!”

  11. @LLL: They were off the grid last week as well. So was the lead in show “La Corte del Pueblo” (the Spanish people’s court show). I believe they had paid advertising listed. They still aired CMLL.

    This week though, they have some MMA show listed “Xtreme Combat” in that time slot. Might spell the end of the CMLL show, which has mostly been repeats outside of the 2 weeks they aired new content a couple of weeks ago.

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