Tag: features

the Big Story: Both promotions held major shows to close the end of the year.

AAA’s Guerra de Titanes show certainly trumped CMLL’s year end card for meaningful storyline conclusion. The company spent the last quarter of the year building up Muerte/Cibernetico and (lesser) Alan/Intocable/Scorpio/Porky feuds. AAA sort of paid off the undercard one – Porky lost his hair, but Alan vs Intocable didn’t get resolved – and saw Cibernetico get his revenge on Muerte by putting him in a casket, hammering it closed, carrying it to the ocean, setting in on fire, and dumping it in the water. (Muerte’s gone – for a few months.)

This was also Konnan’s last appearance before hip surgery, which was complicated by kidney’s issues. Konnan hip would be replaced in 2007, but he still needs a new kidney as I write this.

AAA ran one more TV taping in 2006, which didn’t air until 2007. On it, La Parka Jr. continued having problems with the newly tecnico Hellbrothers, since Cibernetico was his old rudo rival.

CMLL’s year end show was a PPV, just like the anniversary show. CMLL originally announced it for a 12/01 date, but when the annual Arena Mexico vacation was called off, the match was pushed back with the excuse of a Marco Corelone injury. Which was odd, because he was still wrestling his full schedule, but they pushed the idea he wasn’t 100% for a hair match.

The main event of the show, and the only major focus of the show, was a Kenzo Suzuki (w/Mima Shimoda) & Marco Corelone vs Universo 2000 & Shocker hair match of the heavyweights. The build up was based on Universo and Marco not getting along, which happened to be a real problem. The two guys from vastly different wrestling cultures apparently didn’t respect each other much, and got in cheap stiff shots for a couple weeks until they were isolated from each other. On the other hand, my favorite build up was Kenzo calling Universo the worst wrestler in the world, fantastic on many levels.

Mistico was announced in part of an undercard match, and another Guerreros/Perros CMLL Trios match was added just before the show.

The results from this show were pretty much we had figured, with the foreigners losing their hair and the Guerreros holding on the trios titles.

The big news from the undercard was a pending Averno/Volador Middleweight match, which was good and never aired. Of course. They have taken that match on the road, so maybe it’ll turn up someplace else eventually.

Lots of other singles feuds going around…

Rayo and Konnan Big: I think I’ve covering Monterrey that much; I think I could sum up it in bullet points
1) Konan Big inexplicitly gets in a feud with a star of a TV show on the same network Arena Monterrey shows air
2) Konan Big beats TV star in a match – sometimes for their hair
3) People care, but really only about the TV star, and eventually they run out of ones of those

In December, the twist was to do a program with Rayo de Jalisco Jr., who seemingly left CMLL earlier this year when no one was paying attention (and no one cared). Rayo put up his mask for Konan Big’s FULL Heavyweight Title, and unsurprisingly did not lose his mask. Konan Big got a return title match for putting up his hair, and I never saw a result, so I assumed Konan Big won the title back – but apparently I’m hearing now that didn’t happen? That’s a surprise.

Mistico vs Hijo del Diablo: After years of teasing mask matches, mostly with Hijo del Santo, Hijo del Diablo finally agreed to put it on the line versus Mistico, on December 1st in Tijuana. Mistico won in a match which was supposedly anywhere from below average to terrible, with people assuming Diablo of trying to expose Mistico. (Full results from that show.) That story got lost in the shuffle when Diablo claimed to Ovaciones that he was stiffed for pay. Diablo’s story was questionable, and he quickly changed his tune, perhaps having gotten extra pay out of it. Diablo, unmasked, has gotten a regular gig with IWRG and has debuted his son in that promotion.

Hiroka vs Lady Apache: Lady Apache was going to get her win back, and I probably shouldn’t have assumed total altruism. At first, it seemed like it would happen with Lady Apache defending her Mexican Women’s Title against Hiroka, despite Hiroka not actually being Mexican. Someone must’ve noticed this, because the match was changed to Apache vs La Nazi (who was working as an Argentinean, but apparently that’s okay?) This still didn’t solve the problem of Lady Apache’s win, and it wasn’t a big surprise when she got it by winning the CMLL title to become a two belt champion.

La Mascara vs Sangre Azteca: La Mascara had been a pretty protected midcarder in CMLL in 2006 – as Brazos tend to be – so when Sangre Azteca got a title shot, it seemed like Sangre would get a high profile match but was unlikely to win. Uh uh – new champ. Sangre was pretty ecstatic for his win.

CMLL vs AAA, finally: completely unannounced by either promotion going in, CMLL wrestlers faced AAA wrestlers on the Teleton itself. It was an hour focused on lucha, first with intra-promotion trios matches by each group and then a tease of a battle between the winning squads if only the people at home would donate enough money by the end of the hour.

As if there was any doubt that people would pay to see AAA vs CMLL, the Teleton easily hit their price, and the two trios squared off. Of course, charity or no charity, neither side was going to lose here, and the match ended with a double pin draw finish. CMLL’s front office would later complain about having to go along with this. If AAA acknowledged this match, I missed it.

Other: Nicho started telling his side of the Tijuana robbery , claiming the story was a fabirication and an extortion attempt…CMLL debuted Mictlan, a tecnico midcarder, and debate raged about who he might otherwise be; some people settled on a story that he was Vaquero and/or a stripper from Guadalajara, but that doesn’t seem to fit. The one thing we know for sure is he gets hurt a lot (or doesn’t bother letting the injuries heal). Mictlan’s had multiple scary neck injuries. His debut seemed to be a month behind schedule, so this may have been going on for some time and is still ongoing…Negro Casas, Perro Aguayo Jr., Hector Garza were suspended for a year in Tijuana for >crowd mooning related antics. Seriously.…the finish to an Arena Coliseo main event went awry, when the referees lost track of who was the legal main and called the end to an match that should’ve been still going. The wrestlers fixed it, but the match was never shown.

the big story: the best known man to wear the Huracan Ramirez mask, Daniel Garcia, passed away on 11/01. He was 54.

There were a lot of obits covering Garcia’s life, and explaining the legal issues which led to him having to cede his gimmick. As one of the most famous men in the history of lucha libre, Huracan was on the cover of all the legal magazines., and Box Y Lucha pretty much dedicated the whole magazine to him.

Garcia’s son in law, Axxel, was very distraught about Huracan’s passing, as they were close. Huracan’s wife took solace in Huracan having being honored multiple times while he was alive. Unless I’m blanking on one, there hasn’t been an official tribute show for Huracan, but there was a remarkable old school AULL match decided to his memory.

Plenty of indy wrestlers kept using the Huracan Ramirez gimmick, with an uptick of business.

Averno has busy week: When Alex Koslov won a cibernetico to gain a Middleweight Title shot, it set up a pretty busy weekend for Averno with two title matches (though CMLL had a bit or a problem recalling Averno was Middleweight champion.)

The Friday Arena Mexico Tag Team title match was actually just CMLL getting a good Mistico win to promote the debut of the music video he was appearing in, so Averno had really no shot of winning two titles. However, he did keep the middleweight one with a good defense vs Koslov.

CMLL vs Indies: CMLL ran it’s teleton show on 11/20. The concept didn’t sound great, the lineup wasn’t great, and the show was run worse than usual for some reason. But, they drew good (holiday, people who aren’t usually in front of a big crowd) so it was nice for the charity.

AAA also used one of it’s normal TV taping into a teleton special, plugging the charity and asking for donations thru the show.

Safari -> Hombre Sin Nombre -> Efesto: After a year of being the man with no name, CMLL announced he was becoming Efesto (sometimes Ephesto) and starting a partnership with Averno & Mephisto. I still haven’t actually seen him in action, but I assume he’s the same Safari as always.

Other CMLL:
LA Park and Dr. Wagner were suspended in Leon for unauthorized crowd brawling in; LA Park blamed it on drunk fans…Shocker had kinda started and stalled turning tecnico during his return, and Shocker tries to explain it…CMLL ran a wrestlers only bodybuilding contest to encourage fitness among it’s wrestlers; my workplace just does weight loss contests…Negro Casas and Texano Jr. go to NJPW and win every match except the one that matters (best case scenario)..

Cibernetico starts the Hellbrothers: Things started picking up in AAA as they approached the year end show. Cibernetico returned, inviting Chessman to join his new Hellbrothers group. Charly Manson also joined – he was wearing the gear before the group even started. The group officially debuted the same taping Chessman and the Dark Family finally dropped the Atomicos titles to Mexicools. The Sect team had managed to keep the belts over Juvi’s team multiple times despite nearly self destructing as a team, but this time it all fell apart. Surprisingly, Cibernetico was scheduled to return on the TV taping before the Guerra de Titantes.

Other AAA: Gran Apache kidnapped his grandson, continuing the Apaches/Billy Boy feud from earlier this year, with Billy Boy and Fabi Apache starting to turn against each other when they couldn’t get their son back…the teased Intocable/Alan Stone and Scorpio Jr./Brazo de Plata hair matches were converted into one big four way hair match, and the only other noteworthy match announced for Guerra de Titanes was a mystery trio versus the top tecnicos, though it didn’t turn out to be much.

Other: AULL dropped from TV net AULL got dropped from a cable network – was this just a temporary thing? People are still seeing them at least on the other station they’re on…Fantasma de la Quebrada no-shows a mask match in Acapulco he was supposed to lose to Pirata Morgan, claiming money issues….Nicho was back working indies…TNA announced a spot show in Monterrey; the lineup didn’t include any AAA wrestlers, and they’d go back and forth about that…Parade!

the big story: Antonio Pena, the founder and driving creative force behind AAA, passed away on October 5th. He was 57.

It was revealed, after his death, Pena had been sick for a long time before his death and had a long hospital stay. The illness was kept from all but a close few, with Pena continuing to book and run AAA by phone without his wrestlers knowing what was going on. They had an idea he was sick, but not the extent of it till he died.

Pena was remembered and honored by those who worked for him, those who feuded with him like LA Park and even the Archibishop of Mexico City. Pena was not honored by CMLL, who worked for before starting AAA, as they made no mention of his death that night on the Arena Mexico show. CMLL’s TV show did mention it, but that was the choice of the network, not the promotion. (He was dead to the promotion long ago.)

AAA’s TV air liked normal that Sunday, but the following week was a three hour tribute to Antonio Pena’s life, and the rest of 2006 of AAA shows were in dedication to him.

There were lots of obits. The magazines had theirs, Konnan talked about the future of the promotion on Wrestling Observer Live, and Jose wrote the definite remembrance of Pena’s crazy mad genius.

There was a lot of question about what would happen with AAA without Pena. It seemed possible that the whole thing might fall apart, but by three weeks out, it seemed like they were staying pretty stable. Pena’s family took over operations, and kept the promtoion together. There were no major jumps or losses; the only notable change was Arena Coliseo Monterrey split, but that seemed to be more local promoter politics using Pena’s death as an excuse. Part of the reason everything stayed together is probably because there didn’t appear to be chaos; no one made that first move to jump off a sinking ship, so it never was a sinking ship. Another factor was CMLL’s official unwillingness to acknowledge Pena’s death, which angered the AAA workers and focused them to get revenge on CMLL for the slight.

Despite having six TV tapings this month, including a stretch of five TV tapings in ten days just after Pena’s death, there wasn’t a lot of huge AAA news this month. Things were ticking along slowly to build for Guerrera del Titanes show, with no big blowoffs before hand.

Chessman was now openly feuding with the Sect, leading to a match against Muerte. Chessman had Charly Manson as backup, but superior numbers helped Muerte take the win. Cibernetico returned on the 10/22 taping, vowing to return to the ring before the end of the year.

The other big angle was Intocable taking a piledriver from Alan Stone in a six man cage match, heating up that rivalry again. Intocable was off of TV for a month of shows due to the resulting neck injury (though he appeared fine on non-AAA TV shows), and Brazo de Plata Jr. took his place in a number of matches.

CMLL vs AAA: As if the handling of Pena’s death didn’t fully articulate CMLL’s upper management feelings on AAA, the rumored and then yanked interpromotional show said it. Super Luchas broke the story of a Televisa backed dual promotional show, as part of Televisa’s annual Teleton events. As part of the build, Televisa brought in former CMLL announcer and long time AAA announcer Arturo Rivera back to Arena Mexico for a set of shows. (Later, Dr. Morales appeared on AAA TV to return the favor.) CMLL was not down with this idea, wanting nothing to do with AAA, and called the show off. In it’s place, CMLL announced a CMLL vs Indy show for charity on 11/20. This wouldn’t be the last of the teleton, though.

CMLL to December: AAA wasn’t the only one focused on setting up it’s biggest show of the year. Many of October’s Arena Mexico action focused on heavyweights, and adjusting them around to a foreigners/hometown battle. Specifically, Universo had to be a good guy to feud with Kenzo and Corelone, with Univero teaming with Shocker & Rey Bucanero and the foreigners teaming with whoever.

This might have not been the whole plan throughout; in the middle of the month, both I and Ovaciones thought we were getting some sort of Dos Caras vs Marco Corelone feud, as they had started building that up since day Marco debuted. Instead, they ran an angle with Universo 2000, the tecnico, giving Kenzo, the rudo, an illegal Black Hammer to send him to the hospital. That is the way of Universo.

Mistico vs Warrior, stuck on repeat: Before they started prepping for later, CMLL decided to yank as much money as possible out of the Black Warrior/Mistico feud, running trios matches with the two constantly. The whole match didn’t matter, because everyone quickly figured out it was leading to the same finishing sequence: Mistico would attempt La Mistica on Warrior, and either the move would work, or Warrior would escape to immediately cause a foul. It was the kind of match you might do all across the country one or twice for fans who hadn’t seen it, but it instead was run in the same locations on a weekly basis. They kept running this in spot shows and Coliseo and Mexico until attendance dropped off (coincidentally, that was the week Mistico finally learned a counter to one of Warrior’s DQ tactics.) It might have been too late; the repetitive finishes had been a complaint about Mistico matches previous to this, and this set of matches magnified that problem, causing people to turn against him.

The matches just ended one week, with both guys off Arena Mexico shows. Black Warrior was explained to be suspended for his role in stealing Mistico’s Leyenda de Plata trophy, a minor angle from the previous month which hadn’t been mentioned much since it happened.

Lady Apache vs Hiroka: It was a surprise to see Hiroka successfully defend the CMLL Women’s Championship over Hiroka at the end of September; the more tenured and connected Lady Apache was the easy favorite, for reasons even extending beyond vague notions of internal politics. When they continued feuding, and agreed to a hair match, I was sure Lady Apache was getting her win back. Turns out, no, Lady Apache was shaved bald. While Lady Apache would win the title at the end of the year, Hiroka’s two big wins over her are still pretty cool. I still don’t see the logic of Lady Apache getting the title back, but the road there did accomplish something.

Other CMLL
– the annual Leyenda de Azul tournament took place. We probably spent too much talking about it, since it still featured 0 worthwhile matches. Rey Bucanero beat Atlantis in the main event, to end that feud for the moment in the most pointless manner possible.
– Maximo won his fifth hair of the year, beating Emilio Charles Jr.. While they were all midcard feuds, Maximo had a pretty good year.
– In an exclusive interview, Oro II talks about getting a new gimmick as a rudo. Oro II’s vanished, but no one’s yet turned up as rudo matching his description.
– Mistico is very delayed getting to an Arena Coliseo show and the promotion anticipates problems if he doesn’t show, so they stall by taking a undercard trios match very long, having the valets dance, and running a Hooligan/Mascara Purpura match until they get the all clear. None of this, except for clips of the dancing, makes air.

Other: William Boo, famous referee Argentina’s “Titanes en el ring”, died on 10/20. Boo become a national symbol for corrupt and incompetent refereeing. Nicho was reported to have been on armed robbery/reckless driving rampage; he later claims this was all a fabrication as part of an extortion job, but loses his WWE job in the process (though he probably was on his way out already)…Mistico vs Hijo del Diablo for a mask match, was announced to take place in December…Mr. Niebla worked an AAA spot show, though he was still months away from joining the promotion.