General Lucha Libre Comments

[T.Rex-n-effeckx]

He claimed on Terecera Caida last night that he owns the rights to the Sin Cara gimmick in Mexico although his version of the mask had eye holes like his old Mistico one.

 

It's really unclear what will become of him.

I don't see CMLL taking him back.

AAA will take him back but outside of Perro they don't have anyone readymade on top to feud with him.

He said he was looking at Perros de Mal (which no longer exists) and Todo x Todo  last night.

[odessasteps]

AIE!

The edecanes are wearing Que Monito masks.

twitter.com/black_bile/status/426921129505079296/photo/1

[Kevin Wilson]

So this may just be a general question with a variety of opinions, but what have been the biggest mask vs. mask matches from the last few years?

 

I don't watch a lot of lucha libre, but the mask vs. mask matches always fascinated me.  The culture surrounding the masks and what they mean to the wrestlers/the fans has always been the most intriguing aspect of lucha libre and I always enjoyed the whole "so and so won't ever drop his mask" and "so and so will only drop it for 1 billion dollars" etc. talk.  I just noticed that Felino lost his mask, he is a wrestler I recognize from the old days - was him losing his mask a big deal or was he too "past his prime" at the time for it to make a big impact?  Any talk still of the original Parka or Dr. Wagner Jr. ever losing their masks?  I thought I had read years ago they were on the list of wrestlers that would only do it for an ungodly sum of money, no idea if that is true now or was ever true.

 

So I guess any information of the last few meaningful mask vs. mask matches, or if there are any feuds leading into that this year or next, I would be interested in hearing about.

[Tromatagon]

Volador Jr. is probably the last big one, it's at least the last big one I can think of, but the setup for it pissed off fans since they wanted to see a different mask match instead.

[AlfredoE]

 

I just noticed that Felino lost his mask, he is a wrestler I recognize from the old days - was him losing his mask a big deal or was he too "past his prime" at the time for it to make a big impact?

 

Felino wasn't a big enough star at any point for his mask to be considered a big mask match. He lost it in a match were the hotter feud was Volador Jr. and Mistico/Sin Cara I, while Felino's feud was with Sombra.

 

 

 Any talk still of the original Parka or Dr. Wagner Jr. ever losing their masks?

 

You're really out of the loop.   Always talk, nothing happens and probably never will.

 

Only big mask match that *might* happen is Ultimo Guerrero vs. Atlantis. That's probably the last one until some of the younger CMLL guys gain a stronger status with fans. Sombra's up there, but I think for the moment, unless he gets thrown into a feud with Ultimo Guerrero, there isn't a big mask for him to win after taking Volador Jr's. The UG vs. Atlantis feud continues in the CMLL sort-of-way where they'll throw it in there while those two might be feuding with others. Atlantis has been feuding with Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas lately as well. I guess maybe Mr. Niebla's mask is considered a big mask too, but he's well past his prime for hardcore fans. You still have casual fans who don't understand why Mr. Niebla isn't given a bigger push, which if you don't know his history of no-showing, would maybe make some sense since he's still very popular.

 

Park - Wagner tease a mask match every show they are on.

[jaedmc]

Okay Lucha people: I need some names. I'm including Lucha cats in the MArch Madness tourney. Yes, I know it's futile, but it's all about exposure, so help me out.

 

What guys had the best year in 2013? Who knows, maybe a representative from Lucha will get the golden ticket to the second round by drawing Davey Richards first!

[odessasteps]

Negro Casas

Sombra

Volador Jr

porky (just because)

Titan

[Tromatagon]

All the guys just mentioned above

Psycho Clown

El Goldust

[cubbymark]

Negro Casas (by a country mile over random WWE midcarders)

Rush

Titan

La Sombra (big mask win and New Japan IC Title)

Virus (if your're really into matwork)

[tbarrie]

There was a free show in Cancun last night. Fun time.

[thecubsfan]

Terrible
Rush
Volador Jr.
Negro Casas
Negro Casas agian
Negro Casas a third time
Rey Cometa
Namajague
Dr. Wagner
La Sombra
Rey Hechicero
Blue Panther
Jack Evans
Guerrero Maya Jr.
Pentagon Jr.
Ricky Marvin
Titan
Virus

[jaedmc]

What matches should I check out for Negro Casas I saw a couple of trios matches against Rush last year that I really liked.. Did those two ever have a big one on one match?

 

Was that Wagner/LA Park brawl last year? That was badass. What else did he do? 

 

Volador, Virus, Terrible, and Titan all look pretty popular. Just point me in the right direction on those guys. 

 

THANKS SO MUCH FELLAS.

[bucky]

Oh Jae...

 

For Casas, the 6/14, 7/28, 9/03 and 9/13 trios are all awesome. Singles vs. Mascara Dorada was way better than I expected, and the singles against Rush was a perfect 9 minutes until it ended way too soon.

 

Parka was great in a bunch of random mediocre indie matches last year. Besides the singles vs Wagner, which is my lucha MOTY, he had that tag with Villano 4 against Wagner and Angel Blanco Jr. in Monterrey that was a crazy brawl.

 

Volador I can't really speak for. Terrible and Titan were good but not amazing. The best people in CMLL were Rush, Casas, Virus and Blue Panther. Check out Virus vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. from October 5. Panther was amazing in a bunch of different types of matches and I would vote for him over all but maybe 3-4 WWE guys.

[Robert]

Pentagon Jr.

 

This guy is so good and nobody will ever know it unless Arena Fusion starts getting weekly TV.

[thecubsfan]

stealing from my own motyc list and heavy on singles matches

 

Volador

vs Rey Escorpion:

vs La Sombra: dailymotion.com/video/x1a7cl6

 

Virus

vs Guerrero Maya:

vs Blue Panther:

 

Terrible

vs Rush:

vs Shocker:

 

Titan

vs Polvora:

vs Averno:

 

also, Ricky Marvin is still neat:

[bucky]

also, Ricky Marvin is still neat: [youtube link]

Chilanga Mask is so great. How often do they run those Coacalco shows, and how often do they get taped/aired?

[AlfredoE]

Their schedule varies. They are running March and April shows.  Last year, I believe it was 6 shows. If I recall all their shows get taped with some of their shows getting Tercera Caida 1-hour TV shows w/ 3 matches airing and highlights.

 

April show is headlined by El Dandy vs. El Satanico as part of El Dandy's retirement tour.  Promoter mentioned he was told that would be the last match in El Dandy's retirement tour, which might be right as far as El Dandy's initial comment when talking about the tour. I believe El Dandy had mentioned on his facebook page that April would be the end, so he was getting bookings leading up to that being his final month.

[Curt McGirt]

A question. El Rey Network, which airs AAA, is supposed to be on DirecTV. Do I have to have a special Spanish language package to have it? I just cycled through the channels I get and it wasn't among them, though there's still a shitload of espanol stations on there.

[odessasteps]

The lucha show, with Wagner and Park, at the ECW arena in april is very tempting.

[thecubsfan]

A question. El Rey Network, which airs AAA, is supposed to be on DirecTV. Do I have to have a special Spanish language package to have it? I just cycled through the channels I get and it wasn't among them, though there's still a shitload of espanol stations on there.

 

El Rey is English language, not with the Spanish language channels, and channel 341 according to wikipedia.

 

It does not air AAA right now. The AAA show is supposed to start "in the second half of the year." 

[Tromatagon]

I have El Rey on my cable, and whenever I select the channel it says "EL REY HD IS NOT AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW, CHECK BACK LATER" despite having a full program listing and being in a regular channel package that I have.

[thecubsfan]

I've had El Rey since launch, and it's only been in SD at all time. I think they're not even bothering to run a HD version of the channel at the moment because almost all of their content is SD reruns. I'd guest the HD version doesn't debut until whenever their original content is ready.

[Curt McGirt]

Thank you Cubs, just found it due to your post. Lots of Starsky and Hutch and some '70s kung-fu fare that I should probably know already. Go figure, knowing Rodriguez. 

[BillThompson]

Question regarding UWA and LLI. I keep reading that the promotion is actually called LLI, but most people call it UWA because that was the name of the fictional sanctioning body. So, to use an example, WWE has WrestleMania XXX coming up and that event is going to be called WWE WrestleMania XXX. If UWA/LLI had WrestleMania XXX coming up, would it be called UWA WrestleMania XXX or LLI WrestleMania XXX?

[thecubsfan]

This is not the most helpful answer, but they would call it "WrestleMania XXX at El Toreo de Cuatro Caminos" or at Palacio de los Deportes or whatever.

 

Here's the poster for a card in late 1984 in el Toreo; there's not a mention of the UWA, but a fan would know it's a UWA show because it's their home venue. This is an magazine ad for a 1989 card, and those seemed to have big headers for UWA or EMLL, but only for the major shows of the week and you're left to work out the promotion for the rest of the shows.

 

There were some venues which ran both promotions frequently. Pista Arena Revolucion probably ran the most of both shows. At least in this lineup, they still didn't feel the need to specify which group was running (but it's obviously a UWA show based on who's wrestling.)

 

These are all 80s examples, where the promotions were at peace with eahc other and sharing names for occasional shows, and maybe it was differnet in the prior couple of decades. I think they would tend to choose the UWA name if they were hyping a show in an unusual location, but would most often actually use the "[event name] at El Toreo" since most of the big events of the happened there.

 

(OJ probably has a better answer.)