12 Mask Match Preview

No point in doing a person by person why/why not preview. There’s zero story reason why one person should be the winner or one person should be the loser. It’s not even especially clear why these 12 men were picked for the cage match – why Flash and not Stuka? why Puma King and not Tiger Kid? why Tigre Blanco and not Metalico? why every masked Tuareg member but not Nitro? That last would’ve actually been an interesting idea – after months and months of Tuareg trios taking on tecnico trios, a cage match as the big blow off would’ve made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, this match isn’t about making sense – it’s about running competition against a show that had already almost sold out by the time they announced this match – so you really can’t expect much sense in the finish either. We can only base it on the reasons outside the ring, and we know very little of that.

Tiger Blanco is the obvious loser. Since his head injury (in 2004? – if only I remembered to write things on the wiki), he’s had long stretches of being out of the ring, and has openly talked about not being able to continue. Most of the wrestlers from his ‘generation’ have either made it to a significant level by now or are being phased out, and he’s definitely in the later group. In a year or two, Tigre Blanco might not be a big enough name to be in these sort of cage matches (he’s arguable the lowest ranked guy in the match) – this isn’t the best way to end a stage of your career, but it might be the best spot Tigre Blanco gets.

[poll id=”47″]However, CMLL has been pretty consistent in NOT having the most likely guy losing these cage matches. The last 4 cage match losers in Arena Mexico were Shockercito, Toscano, Heavy Metal, and Hijo del Lizmark, and none of those guys stuck out as the most likely going in. If they continue on with that booking, who else is possible?

The Tuareg: For what their roles are (experienced rudos helping younger tecnicos thru early matches), they really don’t have to be masked. If you take the long view, and there’s no reason you actually should here, it’d be better for them to be unmasked, so they could lose their hair every so often to a guy on the way up. Better than just having Loco Max do it.

Individually, it doesn’t work out as well. Hard to believe Dr. X was going to lose his mask in a match he didn’t even know was going to happen. Arkangel does enough stuff with Ultimo Dragon where being a masked rudo luchador probably means more than average for him. Skandalo is too young and probably on his way to more important things. Of the four in the match, Hooligan seems most likely to lose – he’s not around as much as the others – but there’s the unfortunate business of this not being his first mask.

Flash, Angel de Oro, Pesgaso, and Rey Cometa all make much more sense as masked. With Astro Boy, you could make the same case of being passed by as with Tigre Blanco – enough to make him the second most likely tecnico, but doesn’t seem like a strong bet with who he’s related to. Likewise, Tiger Kid losing his mask wouldn’t make any sense, unless we immediately found out he was actually Negro Casas Jr. or something like that.

Which leaves, unless I’ve skipped someone here, Polvora. He would actually make some sense. Polvora’s lost his old tag partner and could use an image overhaul. Unlike Tigre Blanco, Polvora losing could be the start of something new. I’m picking him, but I wouldn’t actually wager on it.

Picking a winner is even more random. If they were consistent from show day to show day, Angel de Oro would be the strong pick, but they’ve been doing the opposite; Volador’s feud with Ultimo Guerrero on Sundays is completely forgotten for Volador’s feud with Averno on Friday’s. This is pick a name out of the hat reasoning, so I’ll pick…Astro Boy. Hey, he’s got a movie out, it’s a good time.