It’s the half way point of the year in review, so it’s a good time for a break, and a chance to throw some random statistics at you. This is probably going to be the least newsworthy actual post, but it’s stuff I wanted to write about, so that’s what I’m doing.
Elsewhere on this site, I’ve been keeping track of all the shows and match results I could track down in 2006 and plugging them into a database. You see it turned into things like the wrestler cards or event lists. There’s a lot of events included which never actually made the news updates; if I cover every indy event, it detracts from pointing out the ones that actual matter. I’m sure I only get between 20% to 60% of the actual shows going on in Mexico at any time (and probably closer to the low side), but piled together, they do bring up some interesting patterns.
The upside of all this otherwise semi-pointless busy work is, at the end of the year, I can stack all the events up and check out some totals.
As of now, I’ve got at least a partial lineup for 2201 different lucha events – most in Mexico and a handful of US events. In those 2201 matches, I counted 9833 matches. That’s 4.4 per show; dragged down by shows where only partial lineups were announced (and results never mentioned) and dragged up by shows that featured tournaments.
Counting the participants in those matches is a little bit funky in my database. 422 of the guys I’ve identified and set up profile pages wrestled in 2006, and I’ve got 5803 ‘other’ wrestlers who participated in at least one match, but haven’t wrestled enough (or in a big enough place) to be counted. Some of that 5802 count is misspellings of other wrestlers or double counting of wrestlers who’ve switched gimmicks, so I wouldn’t claim 6225 wrestlers, but then I’m sure there’s a ton of guys who escaped notice all together.
I counted 858 different arenas as well, but there’s a high amount of duplication and misspelling there, so I wouldn’t take that number seriously.
I broke this down by promotion, and put in a table to save on the paragraphs. Anything featuring AAA or CMLL stars was recorded as such unless it was clearly supposed to be it’s own promotion (think IWRG) This reaches beyond the TV tapings and includes all the spot shows. (I don’t think I ever included the teleton, in case you’re wondering which area it goes in.)
You’ll notice that, even including every indy show where there was a name main event and a bunch of indy guys on the undercard, less than half of the total recorded lucha cards in Mexico were indy shows. The stars of lucha libre are the wrestlers people see on TV and in huge events, but the importance of the local indy guys should be noticed – those are the people fans outside of Mexico City are seeing on a more regular basis.
While I’m on frivolous database stats, here’s some current ones from the luchawiki.
Pages: 9633
Files: 3691
Users: 520
big news: TripleMania (06/18): The lineup was announced at the beginning of the month, but it was long before known that the main event would be Muerte Cibernetica/La Parka Jr. TNA involvement was also off, because they had their own major show on that day. Muerte vowed to break Parka’s bones, which would be something since he’s a skeleton and all. Box Y Lucha did the most AAA coverage it did all year in the lead up to the show, and there were a lot of bigger than usual shows that weekend from CMLL and IWRG that weekend. Coincidence? Not? Still not completely sure.
Results saw Parka indeed win, and Muerte Cibernetico reveal himself to be Ricky Banderas (which isn’t his actual name.) I finally saw this match, and I think I counted 14 different guys interfering in some way, including Cibernetico (on crutches) and surprise jump Brazo de Plata. There had been talk of a big jump from CMLL in the days leading up to the event, but no one really understood what the rumor meant by big, I guess. Plata’s jump involved a falling out with CMLL (they weren’t going to do anything with him at his age and shape) and El Brazo convincing him to change sides.
For a taping, Muerte switched his name to Asesor Cibernetico, but it got dropped. In the undercard, Charly Manson beat Zorro for his hair, but also forced him to wear an evil demonic mask, which he still wears today. The Fuerza Aera/Black Family atomicos title match had no finish, with the commission throwing the match because of all the hardcore stunts. (Initially, it seemed as though the commission perhaps had stripped the titles as well, mirroring what happened with the middleweight title previous, but we just got a normal rematch a few weeks later.)
Brazo de Plata jumped from CMLL at the show, starting a partnership with La Parka Jr. and wrestling in his corner. Nieto del Santo made a cameo as well.
In one of those other shows the same day, Okumura lost his hair to Rey Bucanero in an 8 man cage match, and La Mascara wins the Reyes de Air cibernetico (which wasn’t that great.)
CMLL’s Gran Alternativa:
Teams were announced in late May for the annual young star/experienced star tournament. Some of the particpants talked their chances up in Box Y Lucha, and Ovaciones picked Texano, Maximo, and Misterioso II (which is only 38% of the field.) Everyone noted that the “new stars” being presented this year were repeats and guys actually older than the vets they were teaming with (particularly Nitro and HsN.)
The tournament itself actually took place on 06/03. I pretty much nailed the preview; the results saw the plot points of Rey Being Turned On Yet Again, and Perros refusing to fight each other. In the finals, Misterioso II & Perro Aguayo Jr. beat Ultimo Guerrero & Nitro to win the title.
Beating the odds, this was actually the start of a significant push for Misterioso II, as we’ll see in later months. He was an associate member of the Perros thru the summer, and got slightly higher position on cards. They’ve since dropped the Perros relationship (although it’s still there neough that they could bring it back if the mood strikes them and/or they need someone to lose), and he’s since fallen to about the same position. The GA didn’t break Misterioso II out of the pack – the AAA equivalent did a better job of that – but it did give him something to separate himself from the other at his level.
Guadalajara Walk Of Fame: This match had been announced back in April, but was finished up the first week of June. You can see a good picture of it on this post. Lots of people showed up for the dedication. The first class was Salvador Luttertoh, Diablo Velasco, Santo, Rito Romero, Mil Mascaras and Rayo de Jalisco, and the second class was announced as El Solitario, Angel Blanco, Alfonso Dantes, Perro Aguayo, Gori Guerrero, Black Shadow and Cavernario Galindo, but I haven’t heard more about it. It’s a Guadalajara Lucha Libre hall of fame, so that’s why some regional names might go in before the likes of Blue Demon.
Hiroka wins the CMLL Women’s Title: This surprised me. It was one of those things where I didn’t like the idea when it started but was unhappy when it was over.
Hiroka was a below average ruda worker; not horrible by women’s standards, but she wasn’t one of the best for sure, and she was most notable for having like a billion indy trios matches opposite of Sahori. In April, Hiroka got a title shot versus Marcela in Arena Coliseo. Remarkably, it was a pretty good match, Hiroka’s best match in Mexico for sure. I chalked it up to Marcela being better than I had figured and when they announced a rematch for 06/09 in Arena Mexico, it seemed like they were just going to repeat the match for a larger audience.
Hiroka won, becoming the 10th champion. It was another good match. Hiroka’s reigned seemed filled with tecnicas beating her, and demanding a title match, but she clearly improved as a wrestler and raised her status as champion (with the help of a couple really big wins later) to the point where she actually seemed like a champion by the end. Maybe I should have a little more faith in CMLL, huh?
teased double mask match: Averno & Mephisto feuded with the Lizmark on some Arena Mexico shows with some mask ripping. The magazines – I believe Luchas 2000 in particular – pushed the idea of a mask match, and it seemed like they were headed that direction. I was quite worried that the more tenured/famous Lizmarks would take the masks, though Lizmark Sr.’s rumored retirement gave a little bit of hope. And then it was dropped.
Later on, it was leaked that that the plans was actually to have Averno & Mephisto take both Lizmark’s mask as a major attraction of the bigger summer show, but it didn’t come together for whatever reason.
Maximo beats Loco Max for his hair: a basic Arena Coliseo midcard feud, one of quite a few while thinking about it. This was set up the end of May, and it was no surprise Loco ended up bald. That’s going to happen every 9 months he wrestles, it seems.
spanish fly is deadly: Joe Lider got hurt on apron Spanish Fly to the floor gone bad, and Averno and Volador tumbled hard to the floor off a blown one in Arena Mexico, putting them out of action for a bit.
shoe still hasn’t dropped: There was a lot of talk this month about Univision, which also owns Galavision (and a couple other channels) which was put on the market. It was initially expected that Televisa Mexico would pick up the company, and that would have [whatever] effect on lucha libre broadcasts. Near the sale, some of Televisa’s investors dropped out, and Texas Pacific Group/Haim Sabin swooped into get in the high bid and control of the network. This angered Televisa, who a partial stake in the company already and was expecting on getting it rest. The stockholders aren’t thrilled with the deal either, so nothing has come out of this, not even Televisa Mexico on internet, as promised.
At some point, it would seem there should be fallout, but if because of stockholder issues or inertia, there’s been absolutely no affect on lucha libre broadcasts on Galavision as of yet. Eventually, the people deciding what airs when will be different, but they don’t appear to be right now.
the big story: This was a bad month for CMLL and storylines they wanted to get across. It’d take over the summer for everything to be felt, but it started here, so I’ll group it together.
Dr. Wagner vs LA Park: As noted in previous months, this one got started after LA Park beat Black Tiger for his mask, and Black Tiger was shockingly revealed to be Dr. Wagner’s brother. Dr. Wagner wanted revenge, and battled LA Park outside of Arena Mexico. The fans turning on LA Park in Arena Mexico worked to the benefit of the feud; after not getting along as tecnicos, Park turned rudo and they feuded some more. It even continued during the Mexico vs the World Gran Prix on 05/12, where Park caused Dr. Wagner’s elimination from the match (betraying his own country!)
LA Park returned after his suspension for a trios match, lost to Dr. Wagner in a singles match the next week, and appeared only twice more till November. Park feuded with Wagner (and also worked tecnico in some locales), but never had the big title match, much less the mask match they were teasing (though probably never planning on delivering.) A feud that had been built for months never peaked, but fizzled out.
What happened here? After the fact gossip said LA Park was scheduled to lose the program to Wagner, probably losing a title match to finish it off. LA Park either wasn’t happy with this or wasn’t happy with how much he was receiving for this. Whatever the reason, he and CMLL had a hard falling out, leading to Park’s official suspension and unofficial banishment.
In 2005, it was Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Atlantis which was teased and never fulfilled. In 2006, it was Dr. Wagner Jr. vs LA Park. Wagner was a loser in all of this, missing on a big show main event he never really got back. CMLL was off one main event.
Rey Bucanero vs Ultimo Guerrero: The breakup of the Best Tag Team In Mexico, four years and running, should’ve been plenty enough to keep CMLL going in place of Wagner/Park. Instead, it was a failure. Of any of the stuff I’ve recounted so far, this is the hardest one for me to go back and look thru. I really wanted this to be awesome, and it’s not fun to relive the disappointment.
In storyline, the Bucanero turn had been foreshadowed back to last fall, when Atlantis joined the Guerreros and immediately usurped Rey as Ultimo Guerrero’s best friend. Rey held a grudge towards Atlantis, and eventually led to them fighting in matches. In real life, it appears Bucanero had been promised a bigger role and probably a turn to accomplish it, to stay with CMLL. Everything was building fine, thru Atlantis and Rey losing a match to Ultimo Dragon and Great Muta because of their infighting.
And then it all fell apart:
Motive: The logical progression, to me, would’ve been building to the moment where Ultimo is forced to choose between his two partners, and chooses Atlantis over Rey. I wouldn’t be saying “the logical progression” if that’s what actually happened. The focus of the turn got switched, from a feud with Atlantis, to a more general and more without a point “I just don’t like being a rudo and other rudos being rudos anymore” bit. Rey just woke up one morning, and decided to stop being a bad guy, we were told.
Orgin: Rey could’ve started his turn with Atlantis, the man he despised on for months. Rey could’ve started his turn with Ultimo Guerrero, angry at his long time partner. Rey could’ve started his turn with Tarzan Boy or Olimpico, allies who could’ve sided with him against Atlantis but choose not to get invovled. Rey could’ve even started his turn on various members of the Guerrero Pandilla b-squad, taking out Ultimo’s students in preparation of fighting the top man himself.
Instead, Rey’s turn started with Averno and Mephisto, two guys he didn’t have any particular association. They’re rudos, he was a rudo, he stopped being a rudo, they got mad – not because they really cared if Rey was a rudo or a teammate, but because he was willfully throwing the match.
Usually, the idea for a guy turning rudo to tecnico is that he’s been wronged, and he’s standing up to the people who cheated him. No one cheated Rey here, and he was wronging people by costing them matches. As various fans noted, and the Guerreros actually picked up on, Rey was not a man looking for revenge for some slight, he was a traitor to all of his fans, selling them out to the tecnicos.
Visbility: That turn on Averno & Mephsito? Happened on an Arena Coliseo show. It aired on Guerreros del Ring, I actually loved the interaction between Rey & Heavy Metal in that match, but it was match in Arena Coliseo (the b-arena) that aired on Guerreros del Ring (the b-show). That’s a great presentation for a midcard storyline. It’s perfect for Stuka Jr. vs Flecha, an opening card bit. It’s not good for Rey turning tecnico, a supposed major deal. Major deals air happen in the big arena on the big TV show.
They did follow up on the turn on the big Galavision show the next week, pretty much repeating the same match from Coliseo. This was good.
That Sunday, they broke up the Guerreros – one of the biggest and long running groups of the decade – on another Arena Coliseo show, in a match that never aired. CMLL would find time to air the Stuka/Flecha match, a mask match between opening match workers who were normally lucky to get on TV once a year. CMLL would fine time to air the complete India Sioux/Medusa feud, a rivalry between two women who neither highly pushed nor really in-ring ready for the exposure they were getting. CMLL could not find time, on it’s Galavision show, on it’s Canal52 show, on it’s website, or anywhere else, to show the breakup they were going to base a couple months of main event angles on.
When they buried the match, that was the sign that this going to be a disappointment. I don’t care if the match was bad or if the crowd didn’t buy into or what, you’ve absolutely got to air the match where the team breaks up if you want people to actually care about the team breaking up. They buried it.
followup: Recall February, when Black Warrior turned on Mistico and was instantly moved to the rudo side. Somehow, the power CMLL had to change all those lineups disappeared when Rey turned tecnico. For one week, this was semi believable, and it got a chance to get over the turn to those who hadn’t seen it (which would be everyone). But one week turned into two, two weeks turned into three, and things were slow to change. Rey Bucanero appeared to spend a month, in arenas small and large, being turned on and beat up by his teammates time and time again, occasionally screwing his own team and helping the tecnicos win.
At this point, the new tecnico star was a traitor who turned in unimportant matches and then got destroyed for a month. At least he was still Rey Bucanero!
attitude: Or not. Rey had been doing the ladies man bit as a rudo, but he turned it up a few dozen notches. He was aiming to appeal to women fans, which appeared to work, but any male fan who was him at that time was a little put off. This may have worked fine in AAA, with a different mix of fans, but it seemed to backfire with the CMLL audience.
Look, a great wrestler can overcome all kinds of handicaps – you can put them in all sorts of stupid positions or give them unfair situations, and they’ll eventually shine thru, because that’s what makes them great. Rey could’ve overcome this to be a bigger star, Rey and Ultimo could’ve seized upon the CMLL Light Heavyweight Title match they had (which Rey won, ending Ultimo’s long reign) and if they were better, could’ve turned into one which would’ve made Bucanero by itself. It certainly was still possible at that point.
And while I’m at it, let’s also be clear and acknowledge that, even at his best, no one believed Rey Bucanero would be a promotion carrying babyface. He’s a good worker, who can have great matches with good and great people, and he’s got charisma, but not enough to make him. His upside is probably a second tier guy, not one who can carry everything all year, but who can step up at times to that level. He’s not going to be Mistico, but no one can be – that’s why he’s Mistico.
Still, the bottom line is they took a great storyline people easily would’ve bought into, and ran it into the ground before it even had the chance to succeed or fail on it’s own. When I’m feeling extra conspiratorial, I wonder if this may have been a case of being careful what you wish for – Bucanero wanted his turn, so they gave him his turn, but didn’t promise to make it good. I think it’s more likely this was simply ill thought out and badly presented. Whatever it was, it was a clear miss. Rey was less over than he started, and they had to restart pushing him in the fall, and it still hasn’t seemed to paid off for CMLL at all.
Great Muta cameo: He came in for a weekend of Dragon shows, he acted like a horror movie villain, and then he left. Those who knew Muta’s history were awed by seeing him live and in Mexico and those who were expecting 1991 Great Muta and got 2006 Great Muta were disappointed and wondering what the hype was all about. By the way, this is how I feel every time a Canek or a Mil Mascaras or a Hulk Hogan comes to a Chicago show.
Also, Zorro won the Mexican Heavyweight Championship in a bloody cage match from Charly Manson, and La Parka Jr. and Muerte Cibernetico continued towards their mask match.
Others: Once the Wagner/Park feud fell thru, CMLL started ratcheting back up the Warrior/Mistico feud, with Black Warrior getting an actual big win over Mistico by taking the NWA Middleweight title. Speaking of NWA Titles, Dragon revived the NWA Welterweight Championship, with prospect Hajime Ohara beating La Mascara in a decision match. Ohara would wrestle in in CMLL while holding the belt, but it was functionally a Toryumon Mexico championship…Sangre Azteca participated in NJPW’s Super J tournament, and lost a lot…El Dandy asked for a chance to return to Arena Mexico, and was seemingly ignored…“Are you dying in anticipation of how they spell Jindrak?” How little did I know…
the big story: On a non-wrestling TV show appearance, Ciberentico gets into a brawl with ex-boxer turned politician Jorge Kawaghi. All involved act as if the fight is a unscripted incident, which garners a lot of press in Mexico.
On one hand, I totally missed the boat when it happened and didn’t think it was a big deal at the time. On the other hand, I was sure it was a work to begin with – as were many wrestling fans when they saw the video – and eventually the mainstream press caught on. Cibernetico, Antonio Pena and AAA were steadfast in maintaining that this was all real, and keeping up other angles related to Cibernetico, like his feud with Pena. Kawaghi kept up his end by threatening to sue Cibernetico.
Obviously, the idea was to do a Kawaghi/Cibernetico match at some point – it might’ve finally confirmed to all that the fight was never real to begin with, but by then there would’ve been plenty of interest in the story no matter how it was conceived. It was always supposed to put off for a few months, figuring that if it went to the ring right away, it’d look too fake.
As of 01/2007, the match hasn’t happened, and hasn’t even been hinted at in a great long time. Circumstances have conspired against it. Cibernetico suffered a knee injury in the following couple of months, which they managed to weave into the story (Kawaghi’s political clout forced Pena to suspend Cibernetico for the six months he’d need to recover), and Antonio Pena’s illness and death surely affected keeping Kawaghi involved. The shelf life of the angle hasn’t completely expired, but with Ciberneitco’s new tecnico role, it doesn’t seem to work unless Kawaghi is willing to act as the rudo. Looking back, Muerte turning on Cibernetico was the sign that they’d given up on this direction.
Even if the angle never comes off, there was some nice ancillary affects from it. I don’t live in Mexico and I don’t watch a lot of other spanish language TV, so I’m picking this up second and third hand and may be over or under playing it, but it sure seemed like Cibernetico got a lot more mainstream attention int he second half of the year, even much past the initial Kawaghi fight. While out with his knee injury, he was a guest on daytime talk shows, and often they’d do a ‘real unscripted fight’ as with the original Kawaghi bit. Sometimes Cibernetico would be involved, and latter in the year his girlfriend Esterllita would get into fight with Tiffany on these shows. Individually, these were far lesser deals, but it got Cibernetico in front of a lot of female viewers while he was reshaping his gimmick. When he returned to the ring at the end of the year, Cibernetico suddenly had a ton of screaming female fans (and male fans too). A lot of it was being the returning rudo who’s now a tecnico and going to save us all, but the talk show appearances and his new popularity couldn’t have been a coincidence.
I don’t know that Pena figured the mainstream pub of the Kawaghi fight would turn out this way, but establishing Cibernetico as a big tecnico star probably will gross AAA more in the long term than just the one match with Kawaghi would’ve.
Gran Apache beat Billy Boy for his hair: Gran Apache had opposed his daughter Fabi’s relationship with Billy Boy, and was angry when he found out Fabi was pregnant – till he realized/decided it wasn’t Billy’s son. This didn’t sit well with Billy Boy, and he feuded with his father-in-(common?)law leading up to a hair match on 04/30. Due to sparse coverage of AAA, both on their own website and elsewhere, it wasn’t really easy to get a good feel for how over this feud was before this match unless you were watching the TV show (which was still months behind in the US.)
The hair match between Billy Boy and Gran Apache has since been acclaimed as one of the best matches of the year. Bloodied and battered, Billy Boy can not overcome old man Gran Apache, and the match ends with the emotional scene of Fabi bringing her newborn son into the ring to watch as his red faced father gets his hair shaved off. This was AAA doing what it does at it’s best; going in, the thought was Billy Boy needed a win to establish himself as a singles star, but everything coming together as it did a better job of making him as an individual (and he can always get the win later.)
AAA would downplay the feud during the summer (starting a triangle with Gran Apache claiming Brandon was the real father but never really going anywhere with it), but ramp it back up during the fall. Gran Apache would kidnap his grandson, starting another round of matches.
The Mexican Powers debut: On the same show, Juventued Guerrera returned to AAA, starting a new group that was obviously intended to be a mimic of his previous WWE stable. They originally called it the MexiPowers (to be like the MexiCools), but split into two names. Replacing Psicosis was the AAA Psicosis (who left the just reformed Vipers to join this group), and replacing Super Crazy was his cousin, Crazy Boy – who was a CMLL undercarder up until that moment, and had just missed an Arena Mexico show days before, due to injury. Juvi didn’t just borrow from his own WWE group; he also took Rey Misterio’s area code gimmick and got his whole team jerseys with their own area codes.
The Mexican Powers, particularly the non-Juvi members, were way into hardcore/extreme/garbage wrestling styles; that’s how Crazy Boy had made his name, such as it was, on independent shows and AAA gave them free reign. Crazy Boy’s frequent indy partner/rival Joe Lider was later brought into the group to do more of the same style. Some of the younger AAA wrestlers went along with it, some of the older ones didn’t seem too impressed.
The Mexican Powers actually had more legs than the group they were mimicking, and got over well as an undercard tecnico group. Their matches provoked definite opinions – you either liked that style or you hated them (like me), and the wrestlers weren’t that great at doing their stunts; over the course of the year, there were a lot of botches AAA never bothered to edit out.
Besides the AAA stuff, there were three different important CMLL shows on the month.
Dark Angel beats Amapola for her mask on 04/14: When CMLL restarted the women’s division, Amapola and Dark Angel were initially the rudas, but they stole the match, Dark Angel got over as a tecnica, and everything got redone for that and seemingly a dozen other reasons. The two spent the first part of the year feuding, with Dark Angel yanking Amapola’s mask multiple times, but I don’t it occurred to me how big a deal CMLL was going to make it until it was announced as a semi-main of an Arena Mexico show.
It was proclaimed to be the highest women’s match and first mask match in Arena Mexico history. There was a discussion of women’s lucha libre history in that week’s Box Y Lucha; I was unaware until then that women had been banned for wrestling from around ’58 to ’88 due to local morals legislation (that same that kept lucha off TV.) Dark Angel seemed primed for the top spot in the division, so there as no doubt Amapola was losing her mask in the preview, and she did, but got herself in trouble for storming off after taking her mask, not allowing any of the magazine photographers to get a good shot off her. (I think they’re going to have to position themselves on the ramp to get people as they walk to the back, one of these days.) Amapola apologized for her actions in the press in the days after, but seemed to drop in rank on the ruda side as punishment.
Surprisingly, this win actually didn’t springboard Dark Angel. The match was fine, but outside of winning the CMLL bodybuilding title on her own, she wasn’t given major matches or feuds the rest of the year. She’s still seems to be the fan’s choice, but maybe not the promotions pick for the center.
Mistico & Negro Casas end Averno & Mephisto’s reign, win the tag team titles: Negro finally found the right partner. Title change went down the same day as the mask match. Averno & Mephisto had a great reign as tag champions, especially on the sliding scale for championships in Mexico, defending the titles often, in high visibility, and against top competition. The titles were raised to their highest level since Ultimo & Bucanero were trading them with Negro & Santo. Despite not having the titles, Averno & Mephisto are still casually referred to as the best team in the country and it’s assumed they’ll get the belts back at some point.
As of this writing, Mistico & Negro Casas have been near non-entities as champions. Outside of one defense versus the former champions (to promote Mistico in a music video), CMLL hasn’t done much with the duo as a team and Mistico’s individual issues would’ve made it tough for them to do a lot with this title even if they wanted to. Negro, as a guy who’d been chasing the titles, and Mistico, a frequent opponent of Averno & Mephisto, made sense as a team to finally stop the ex-champs, but didn’t make sense as a team that’d keep the belts valuable.
Guerreros defeat Perros on 04/28: This was the traditional end of April big card by CMLL. The top two matches were another outgrowth of the feud between the two rudo stables.
In the semimain, Ultimo Guerrero defeated Hector Garza to retain the CMLL Light Heavyweight championship.
In the main event, Tarzan Boy & Rey Bucanero beat Mr. Aguila & Damian 666 for their hair.
Neither match ended up meaning all that much by the end of the year; Ultimo and Hector’s match wasn’t as good as it might have sounded, and the double hair match was one you had to strain to remember a few months later. It really had no impact.
What we didn’t know at the time was how this card was probably a compromised rethought out lineup. Apparently, the original plan – maybe for this show, maybe for a show later in the summer – was to culminate the Perros/Guerreros feud with a cage of death match, everyone on both sides involved, and Rey Bucanero taking the loss and losing his hair. Bucanero, having started the Guerreros with Ultimo as his equal partner and since been passed in importance by every new member, balked at taking the loss, and considered a jump to AAA. CMLL changed it’s booking to keep Rey around, turning him tecnico later in the year – which flopped bad. He probably would’ve been better going.
Tecnicos lose on Kids Day!: CMLL ran a special Arena Mexico show on a Sunday, drawing lots of younger fans (at reduced prices) for a Kids Day show. Since the beginning of time, or at least since CMLL started running these years ago, the good guys would win on shows for kids, sending all the children home happy.
In 2006, La Park was a grinch. As noted in previous months recaps, LA Park had some issues with fellow tecnico Dr. Wagner and was upset with the crowd going against him. Despite Wagner not being involved in the main event (it was the Perros versus Negro Casas, Heavy Metal, LA Park and Mistico), LA Park got booed once again. Park became angry and bitter, taking it out on Mistico. He attacked his teammates, and then laid down to allow the Perros to beat him. Park teased joining the Perros at the time, but ended up being an independent rudo (and sometimes a tecnico in other parts of the country.)
historical note: at one point, it was hinted Black Warrior vs Mistico for the masks would happen on 04/30, to give Mistico the big win in front of all the kids, but they wisely waited for a day where they could for full price (and even more than that) tickets.
Stuka Jr. beats Flecha for his mask: This was an opening match feud that slipped under my radar till they were at the mask challenges. Stuka won on a pretty fun Guerreros del Ring show, and then Flecha disappeared off everyone’s radar, wrestling only rarely and not in the main arenas. In hindsight, this was Flecha putting over a youngster one last time on the way out, typical of his career.
Other: US indy wrestler Sabu did a weekend in Mexico, including a bloody brawl in a Luchas 2000 promoted card at Arena Coliseo. Sabu tore a nail off in one of his matches, which actually sidelined him for a bit
the big story: culminating a five (or thirteen) year saga, Perro Aguayo Jr. avenged the end of his father’s career by beating Universo 2000 for his hair. This feud has been pushed since the moment Perro Jr. arrived in CMLL, continuing on thru his rudo turn, and dominating the promotion at times despite the seeming unwillingness for either side to actually lose.
Universo gave Perro Sr. his Black Hammer piledriver in a hair match, which also doubled as Perro Sr.’s retirement match. (He’s of course still wrestling, but it was the end of him on a regular schedule.) Going back further, Perro Sr. beat Mascara Ano 2000 for his mask in ’93, starting the rivalry between the families.
This hair match was announced on the first day of the month, with the rest of the lineup revealed a day later, with noting major looking on the rest of the card. There was a little thought Universo might continue to protected, but Perro won as most expected. The rest of the card saw Park and Wagner continue their issues into CMLL, and Amapola and Dark Angel to continue to feud.
LA Park and Dr. Wagner Jr. feud: See above. Park, both in storyline and apparently in real life, was upset about fans booing him, particularly in Arena Mexico.<
AAA Rey de Reyes: As far as logic goes, this sucked. The match wasn’t good either, but it drew, so you’ve go that. The lineup notable included US indy star Samoa Joe, but he ended up in Chicago Ridge, Illinois instead of Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas. (Wrong turn at Albuquerque.)
Vampiro won Rey de Reyes by winning a four team trios match which didn’t actually make sense, and Intocable and Alan Stone battled for their identities in a match which didn’t actually end – Alan Stone knocked them both on a dive (or so the story says – Alan missed his dive and Intocable stayed out with him.)
CMLL held the La Copa Jr. tournament: It was a CMLL one night tournament – it didn’t have much in the way of worthwhile action, and it was pretty pointless. Dos Caras Jr. won, his biggest win of the year. The real draw on this show as the first big Mistico/Black Warrior match, with Mistico winning and challenging for a mask match. It looked like he might get it by June at this point.
WWE cut all the Juniors. They give up an idea that quick. Brazo de Plata appeared on TV about twice, and never before the crowd. The minis worked standard mini lucha style to start, and then were asked to do US mini spots – it wasn’t as good. US mini workers were involved, people were signed to developmental deals, and it never felt like someone completely thought it out. It was a work in progress being figured out in front of audiences, and when they couldn’t find a quick and easy solution, they gave up.
All involved claimed visa problems and flight costs and hoped they’d be back soon.
foreshadowing: Ultimo Dragon brought in fellow former ex-WWEers Johnny Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo (misspelled Prombol) to work a Toryumon show, and CMLL had them work the Friday and Sunday shows around it. Stamboli and Palumbo – as the FBI – were booked as novelty guys here, but got over well enough for this to be repeated around future Toryumon Mexico shows, and eventually to get another ex-WWEer a permanent spot.
erroneous signs: Brazo de Oro announces he’ll retire on October 5th. He’s still wrestling – he’s booked for a card on the 20th. Never listen to retirement announcements! I’ll learn someday.
the big story: The Mistico/Black Warrior split didn’t go completely down during February – the turn actually happened in March – but this was the month where it got going and the most of the action took place.
This really sort of started as part of a continuing story in 2005, where Negro Casas was teaming up with random people to get a shot at the tag team titles. Averno & Mephisto, the champs, turned back challenges from Negro/Metal, Negro/Felino, and somewhat miraculously, Averno & Mephisto stopped Negro & El Hijo del Santo as well. Negro, Mistico and Black Warrior worked as a trio against Averno, Mephisto, and assorted rudos, and the tecnicos spent a few vignettes on TV debating among themselves which combination should try next. Of course, it ended up being Mistico/Warrior.
Going back a bit farther, Black Warrior had outright requested CMLL turn him rudo in the pages of Box Y Lucha; he’d been floating a bit aimlessly on the tecnico side, and it seemed like the promotion was going to okay it (but for a price.) Warrior even turned on a Toryumon Dragon show at one point, which was quickly ignored, but seemed like a good sign that a permanent change was coming soon. His team with Mistico was an easy explanation of how it’d happen, and everyone was kinda just waiting for when.
Mistico & Warrior got their shots on 02/17. Both sides talked up the match in Box Y Lucha, and I figured the turn would go down right away. Averno & Mephisto retained, but the turn was only hinted at here.
LA Park beats Black Tiger for his mask: It’d been originally scheduled for ’05, but it was pushed back after Black Tiger broke his nose. As most knew, Black Tiger III turned on to be Silver King. King first wrestled around the country as Black Tiger, getting his mask pulled off early in matches to do the big reveal, and then later worked under “Dr. Wagner II/Hermano de Dr. Wagner” gimmicks, sometimes even masked.
Silver King losing the gimmick outside of CMLL – where he’d wrestled with it for years – was a bit of a story; partially because NJPW had asked Silver King to stop using the gimmick (they were handing it off to someone new), but there had to be something a bit more than that, because CMLL never brought Silver King back after he lost the gimmick except when he was clearly marked as an independent guy only in for one show. The mask match was promoted under the Wagner name, and I had some thought of it being a test run for the Wagner’s to feel out how much money might possibly be made if the Doctor were to lose his mask on his own promoted show, and certainly the setup allowed Silver King to make a bigger cut that he would’ve done if he lost it on an Arena Mexico show.
LA Park taking Silver King’s mask would be the starting point for the Dr. Wagner/LA Park feud, which get more attention later in the year.
AAA: lots of little things, no overwhelming big story here
– Scorpio Jr. debuted as a new member of the Guapos. His bookings had dried up from CMLL, but he was IWRG Trios’ champion at the time. Scorpio would take over the group once Shocker jumped back to CMLL
– Zorro and Electroshock were tecnico trios partners who just stopped getting along, fighting with each other multiple times at taping before Zorro finally put up the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship at the end of the month. Zorro won, with a little unexpected help.
– Chessman, Cibernetico, La Parka Jr., and Octagon had a small challenge and defense for the Mexican tag team titles, proving those titles actually exist.
– Miss Janeth won the Reina de Reinas tournament. This was treated like a huge moment for her on this particular TV show – and then she appeared just three more times on TV the rest of the year. I don’t know if she got hurt or she was on the outs or what (we never got a story), but that was just plain weird.
– AAA’s website returned. A happy day for all. Now if they only updated a bit more often.
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on fire?In a literal sense, yea. As it turned out, it was just exterior and minor damage, and the show went on. In the artificial attendance/quality/interest sense, not so much, which would become an issue later on.
you’ve got the wrong Asian: Tajiri, who wrestled in Mexico seemingly a decade ago, works a tag match with Ultimo Dragon in Arena Queretaro. As a free agent, it seems like this might be the start of another run in Mexico – he’s never back. Meanwhile, Kenzo Suzuki announces he’s coming to Mexico, and he’s stuck around for quite a while.