Author: joegagne

News for you

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CMLL.com reports that Shocker beat Dr. Wagner Jr. yesterday in the Copa Jr. finals. Babelfish would indicate that it was a great match with the crowd being split (or, as Babelfish put it “the public divided in two sides, those that went to him to Shocker and those that they supported Dr Wagner, thus being clear that both they are the great masters of the popularity”).

No word on match quality or attendence, although the 1/28 show drew 14,500 and the tournament as a whole has been a big success, so it could turn into a large annual event (although it would seem you would use largely the same guys over and over).

In fact, business has been so good, this was the second best January in the history of arena Mexico, lagging only behind 1999 as the best.

Not sure if this was covered, but CMLL dropped Zumbido a month ago due to drug issues. He may start with AAA soon.

Lastly, Puroresu Power’s 39th edition of the Puroresu Power Hour has an interview with Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Buccanero, Virus, and Felino, conducted with the help of a translator. The segment starts about 1:12 into the show. Nothing earth shattering, but certainly something different. Can’t seem to link right now, but I’m sure you can figure it out.

I need a Mexico City tape source too

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Phil Schneider at DVDVR was actually at the big year end CMLL show (and also a crappy AAA match on a basketball court). Go read his review here, and find out why Santo is like Nolan Ryan.

Untitled

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Just a quick fill-in by me while Cubs is away. I actually got to watch the 12/11 show–it was OK. Cubs already reviewed it and I don’t have anything else to add.

From KrisZ:

“EMLL is doing a special show at Arena Coliseo tomorrow where they will re-enact the birth of Jesus with wrestlers playing the roles from the bible. Alan Stone will play Joseph and EMLL valet Xiomara will play Mary, Brazo de Plata Jr. will be playing the Archangel Michael and Sagrado will be the Archangel Gabriel. The 3 Wise Men will be Brazo de Plata/Hijo del Gladiador/Tony Rivera. Other wrestlers taking part in this will be Angels (Loco Max/Ringo Mendoza/Veneno/Volador Jr.) vs. Demons (Averno/Damian el Terrible/Mephisto/Pierroth/Satanico.)”

You have to admit that’s some pretty good casting of the Demons.

“Rayo de Jalisco Jr. had to have emergency surgery done on his right knee after his match with Canek on Sunday at Arena Coliseo and he is recovering in a hospital in Mexico City. Rayo is expected to be out at least a month.”

Here are the 12/14 Arena Coliseo Results, although KrisZ did not have specifics.

1. Los Rayos Tapatios I y II beat Polvora & Redentor
2. Hijo del Texano/Mr. Power/Starman defeated Jeque/Koreano/Ramstein
3. La Mascara/Misterioso II/Tigre Blanco beat Arkangel de la Muerte/Mazada/Veneno by DQ.
4. Hijo del Pierroth/Mephisto/Pierroth Jr. defeated Felino/Sagrado/Virus
5. Revancha Match: Canek/Emilio Charles Jr./Tarzan Boy beat Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr./Mr. Niebla with a foule behind Wagner’s back.

The big year end show is tomorrow, and I’ll try and get results up ASAP.

Blast from the Past

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Christmas comes early as I got to watch Lucha today, and damned if I didn’t pick a good week to return.

WHAT WORKED

Hot dancing girls! Atlantis says something! Alfonso Morales talks while there’s a match going on in the back! Tarzan Boys shows up and irritates him! Sniff, it’s good to be back.

Hey, minis! Mascarita Sagrada &Tzuki & Shockercito vs. Fire & Pierrotito & Espectrito, to be precise. Espectrito looks like Super Porky’s satanic mini. Primera caida is Sagrada-centric, as he works fun sequences with Espectrito and Pierrotito. He flattens Espectrito with a slip dive on the floor while Tzuki and Shockercito take out the other rudos with bodypresses for the first fall. Hell, this works just for tiny Tzuki actually making it to the top rope. Segunda caida sees Sagrada work another fun sequence, especially the “where did Sagrada go?” bit. Rudos take over as fire takes out Shockercito with a submission and Espectrito doing the same to Sagrada. Pierrotito gives Tzuki a gorilla press into a hotshot on the top rope, and the little guy takes a hideous bump. Tercera caida sees Shockercito say “You think that’s a bump? I’ll show you a bump” as he takes a flapjack right on his face/neck. Rudos go on to terrorize Tzuki with a cool suplex/dropkick combo. Sagarada gets the comeback started by ducking a Fire and Pierrotito clothesline (actually, he so much tinier than the rudos he barely had to duck at all). Fire halts the momentum and gets Tzuki with a Cerebrolock, only to walk into a Reinera from Shockercito. Lil’ Shocker shows he’s watching his Rey Jr. tape, as he hits a 619/West Coast pop combo on Pierrotito, then flattens him with a tope. Sagarada seals with the deal with a rollup thingee on Espectrito. Good action all around.

Not making us watch the Pierroth match works every time.

Who are all these guys? Oh, this must be “Guerrero U.” We’re helpfully informed that it’s Arkangel, Nitro, Sangre Azteca (woo hoo!), Coreano, Dr. X, and Loco Max (apparently doing a Gimp gimmick this week). Wow, Bucky really went all Big Poppa Pump with his haircut.

OK, main event sees Santo & Negro Casas & Atlantis & Mistico vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Buccanero & Tarzan Boy & Averno. This is my first time seeing Mistico, so we’ll see what he’s got. Ultimo and Mistico start us off, as we get the “disrespect the rookie” bit, until Mistico knocks UG outside and hits a ka-razy pescado into a ‘rana. Neat. Hey, how about Santo and Buccanero and Ultimo? Don’t mind if I do. Santo hits a HUGE dive to the floor on Ulitmo while Mistico hits a tilt-a-whirl headscissors into a Fujiwara Armbar on Tarzan and an Atlantida takes care of Averno for the first fall. Segunda caida opens with a quick sequence between Casas & Averno, then switches to Bucky bullying Mistico some more, until Bucky gets knocked outside with a springboard ‘rana. Tarzan blocks a Mistico dive, but gets taken down with a “run up the ringpost” armdrag. God, Tarzan’s facial expressions are so great. No matter as the rudos take over at that point and win with an Ultimo Guerrero submission to crazy to try and describe. Tercera caida sees the tecnicos makes a comeback in a goofy manner as Buccanero takes out Averno with his “vaulting splash while the other guy’s on the ropes.” Things settle down for about a minute until chaos breaks out again. Santo hits his tope onto Averno, while Mistico tries an Orihara Moonsault and nearly kills himself crashing into the apron. In the ring, Atlantis gets Tarzan with a guillotine choke, but Bucky blocks the Casits and puts his feet on the ropes to pin Casas and win the match for the rudos. Great match. Mistico looked fine, although I’m not sure why they’re elevating him over the 4,000 other guys they’ve got floating around the undercard.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

The refer-eye camera thing. Yeah, let’s show grainy 8mm footage from the ref’s point of the view that’s no better than the usual camera angles.

Not too much to Stellar Moments this week. Hey, I’ve got to pad out this side of the ledger. Good to see old SM regulars Ramstein and Sangre Azteca again.

Vampiro walks away from Pierroth mid-match, allowing him to get beat on by Black Tiger, Apollo Dantes, and Universo Dos Mil. Pierroth’s kids run in for the save. Hey, it’s La Nazi! This gives me flashbacks to 2002. Where’s Bulldog? Veneno? Gran Markus?

Shoot

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Couple tidbits from the Observer:

–CMLL is going to copy the Taboo Tuesday concept with fans voting on matches maybe one out of every four show. They’ve done stuff like this before, but never to this degree.

–Dos Caras Jr. quit AAA. While he wasn’t a big star, it comes at a bad time, since Perro Aguayu Jr. and Hector Garza having left the company a while back as well. Dave doesn’t mention it but you’d have to imagine he’d be showing up for CMLL soon.

Get this: Caras has done a fair share of shoot fights in Japan, mostly for the DEEP promotion (although he did appear at the first Pride Bushido show to get murdered in 46 seconds by Mirko Crocop). Antonio Pena made a play to get Shocker, and his big idea for an angle would be Shocker would have a shoot fight with Caras (which would be worked) and win. Caras refused, saying it would make him look bad in Japan (it’s dubious anyone would care, and he hasn’t been booked over there in ages). Shocker ended up not coming in anyway.

What a dumb sounding angle. Shoot fighting has already seeped into wrestlig in Japan, do we really need it infesting Mexico as well?

Evil Doctors

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Some news from last week’s Observer:

Good crowds continue as the 9/24 Arena Mexico show (headlined by Negro Casas vs. Perro Aguayo Jr) drew 8,500, while the 10/1 show (with Atlantis & Santo & Mistico & Casas vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & Tarzan Boy & Averno on top) drew 9,000.

Some more notes on the original Dr. Wagner:

The name Dr. Wagner came about in 1962, when North Mexico promoter Elias Simon wanted Manuel Gonzalez to take the name El Hijo del Medico Asesino (the original MA had died two years prior). But Gonzalez didn’t want to be the fake son of a wrestler.

Later, Gonzalez was either listening to music by composer Richard Wagner, or reading a book about him, and came up with the name Dr. Wagner. Interestingly, there was already a Dr. Wagner in Mexico who used the name back in 1941 and didn’t last long.

Talking about the original Medico Asesino, Meltzer notes there were tons of copies over the years, and “the idea of an evil doctor who laughed about screwing up paitents went back years in Lucha Libre tradition.” Someone should write a research paper about that.

Dave also had an obit on Enrique Yanez, who went by Enrique LLanes (so it would be easier for the fans to remember). He and Tarzan Lopez were a top tag team known as La Pareja Ideal (the Ideal Pair). Some interesting tidbits.

–He was working as a locksmith when he started watching the early days of lucha. He idolized Lopez, and when they met, Lopez agreed to train him as a wrestler while LLanes returned the favoe and trained Lopez to be a locksmith.

–Llanes was best friends with Gori Guerrero, and in fact Guerrero married Llanes’ sister Herlinda, who was on Smackdown a few months back having a heart attack thanks to JBL. The Guerrero-Llanes family may very well be the most successful in history, as besides all the Guerreros, Enrique’s brother Mario and Sergio, along with son Javier, all went on to become decent sized stars in the business.

–He had a tournament match with Lopez that was so good, fans pelted the ring with money afterwards. The tournament was to get a #1 contender for Sugi Sito’s NWA World Middleweight title, at the time the most important belt in Mexico. Llanes won the tournament and later the title.

–Best story ever. He had a mask vs. hair match with the original Santo on July 3, 1949 in Arena Mexico. Santo won, of course, but the match was so emotional fans stormed the ring and carried LLanes backstage to avoid the haircut. Booker Francisco Flores told him to go back out and get his hair cut, but the fans blocked the aisle. When he got home, his mother started crying because she saw he had his hair and thought he unmasked Santo. When he told her what happened, she told him he had to live up to the stipulations and made him shave his head right there. As Dave asks, “where are mothers like that in wrestling today?”