Oh yes, it was great to see Rey Mysterio return to the ring, and LU is so much more his element than WWE. I got chills seeing him make his entrance. BOODICA BOODICA!
And then Prince Puma decided to upstage him with that reverse somersault leap off the top rope. Cah-razy.
Was some rumors about a brand split, with Shane running RAW and Trips running Smackdown. I take it as just that, someone making shit up.
But if they did, I’d like to see the belts broken out as;
RAW: Big Gold, US Champ, Tag belts
Smack: Intercontinental, Women’s (no longer Diva)
That gives each show one belt per hour of air time. The Intercontinental would be the centerpiece of the men’s division on Smackdown, with the Women’s belt right with it and rightfully getting more main events on a show with only two belts.
Though if you wanted to, you could add a Cruiser Weight to Smackdown and let most of the NXT guys fight over it. Would possibly save Tyler Breeze, Neville and others from being so underutilized. Heck, Heath Slater is billed at 216, so there’s another experienced hand for it.
Hot damn, Aztec Warfare was good. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get put over as convincingly in a debut match as Matanza did - and considering that they’ve been building to it for a year and a half, it had a lot to live up to and managed to exceed my expectations.
Props to Rey for working all the way from bell to bell. Loved Joey Ryan handcuffing himself to the post and waiting out the match, Famous B working the crowd, and the big swerve of Pentagon Jr. showing up and undoing Catrina’s master plan (coupled with her uncensored “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” at Vampiro). Also, props to Matt Striker for quoting that great American, Jebediah Springfield, when he said of Rey that a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Dragon Azteca Jr., in case you were wondering, is a wrestler whose real name is not a matter of public record, but is known in in Mexico as “Rey Horus”. He was formerly “El Hijo del Rey Mysterio II”, having taken over from the original Hijo del Rey (Rey Jr.'s cousin, and the son of Rey Sr.), but became Rey Horus when Hijo del Rey I returned to wrestling. Whether he’s actually related to the Mysterios is, like his real name, not known to the public.
In other news, WWE is reportedly warning PPV providers to expect a 5-20 minute overrun on WrestleMania, and William Regal has announced that some of the matches for the Global Cruiserweight Series this summer are going to be taped at Evolve shows.
Congrats to Texano on becoming a two-time AAA Mega Champion! He won the title, which has been vacant since Alberto returned to WWE, by beating Mil Muertes in a tournament final in Mexico City a few days ago.
Given the lead time with LU, it won’t be acknowledged until sometime in season 3 if it happens at all, but I can easily see them having him do a title defense in the Temple at some point.
So, does AAA wrestling have storylines that their luchas come from other planets and have magical powers and such? I remember you saying enemies in LU were tag team partners in AAA.
Not to my knowledge, no. Mil, for the record, wrestles without a mask in AAA and is called “El Mesias”, and looks kind of like what might happen if Nathan Explosion became a pro wrestler.
Quite a few LU characters have other gimmicks in Mexico, and their face/heel alignments aren’t necessarily the same - Sexy Star is a heel, for example, and was mixed tag champions with Pentagon Jr. for awhile. Angelico and Jack Evans were tag champions recently, and Texano’s character is more of an “evil American” sort of thing. King Cuerno wrestles under a different mask and is called “Hijo del Fantasma” after his retired father. Fenix, Drago, and Aerostar are pretty much the same in Mexico as they are in LU, but as far as I know they’re not portrayed as literally being immortal, ancient dragon gods, or time-traveling aliens.
Wait. Someone who is “Rey Jr.” is actually the cousin of someone who is “Rey Sr?” Is Rey Jr not actually named Rey? What the hell is up with Mexican wrestling?
In general, a masked wrestler’s real name is kept secret from the public until he retires or he’s unmasked as part of a match stipulation. El Santo, who was one of the most famous masked wrestlers from the '30s into the '80s, took this to an extreme - he never took his mask off in public, revealed his face only once after he finally retired, and was buried with his mask on.
Rey Mysterio is a stage name - it means “King of Mystery” in Spanish. Rey Mysterio Jr.'s real name is Oscar Gutierrez. He’s the nephew of Rey Mysterio Sr., real name Miguel Ángel López Díaz. Hijo del Rey Mysterio is Miguel Aarón López Hernández, Rey Jr’s. cousin and is billed as Rey Sr.'s son, though he’s actually another of Rey Sr.'s nephews.
Rey Horus/Dragon Azteca Jr. was also billed as “Hijo del Rey Mysterio” between when the original Hijo del Rey retired in 2011 and when he un-retired in 2014. His real name is not known to the public, and as such it’s not known whether he’s related to Rey Sr., but he was trained by him, just as Rey Jr. and Hijo del Rey were.
What an interesting and confusing mess of crap. Next you’ll tell me Sin Cara is actually famous in Mexico and is a good wrestler:D
In a related note, I hate Alberto Del Rio because he’s boring to me…but the funniest thing to me is that he tries to take off the mask of every. damn. luchador. he. faces. It’s like he’s mad he never got to wear a mask, so he wants to remove errbody elses
Would you believe he had a mask until he joined WWE?
In his CMLL career, he was “Dos Caras Jr.”, a role he inherited from his actual father, Dos Caras Sr. His uncle, additionally, is Mil Mascaras, the first masked wrestler to work for WWWF in 1972 (after the NYSAC abolished a rule prohibiting wrestlers from wearing masks).
The Lucha tradition is so storied and completely (pardon the pun) foreign to me.
I need to find a book or something on it because I would actually love to learn more about all this.
Lots of luchas come from wrestling families. Here’s the Guerrero family tree, and it’s growing. Matthew Rehwoldt, who wrestles as Aiden English in NXT, married Eddie Guerror’s daughter Shaul in January 2016.
Mil Mascaras has an extended family of luchas—his brothers José and Pablo respectively wrestle as Dos Caras and Sicodélico, José’s older son Alberto wrestles as Alberto Del Rio, José’s younger son Guillermo wrestles as El Hijo de Dos Caras (an identity that Alberto had once used), and Pablo’s son Aaron is better known as Sicodelico, Jr.
Rey Misterio Sr. is the uncle of wrestlers Rey Mysterio, Metalika, and El Hijo de Rey Misterio, and brother-in-law to Super Astro.
I believe the original Pentagon was supposed to be some sort of evil clone of a wrestler named Octagon. Octagon is retired, but brought in a new wrestler named Octagon Jr who was no actual relation (and is now Kalisto in the WWE). So they brought in a Pentagon Jr to oppose him.
I’m really getting annoyed with Angle pushing to have Jordan Bagels/American Alpha be “Team Angle”.
Seriously, Kurt, FUCK OFF. They don’t need you stepping in front of them to hog their spotlight, they don’t need your damned name.
Are you talking about his Digital Spy interview?
Sounds like he’s looking for a part-time role like Chris Jericho and Brrrrrock Lesnar have. Maybe he’s smelling blood, looking to fill an injury gap. Last time he made a push for WWE, HHH turned him down, but we’ve all seen those burnt bridges rebuilt in a heartbeat before.
Awwww, Undertaker got a HIAC birthday cake!
Looks like Snoop Dogg has been confirmed as this year’s celebrity inductee. They’ve also announced Joan Lunden as the winner of this year’s Warrior Award.
It’s just been announced that NXT is coming to Seattle and Portland in May! Yay me.
Every time I see something like this, I see it a bit differently.
“Hey, these guys are HOT! An old guy like me could easily step in front of them and pretend to be ‘giving them the rub’ while I play vampire and steal their heat and suck them dry of everything they had before ME!”
Again, they’re fucking good. They don’t need Angle. They don’t really benefit from Angle. All they get is someone standing in front of them, stealing their thunder and stealing one of their spots on all of the big cards.
Brie Bella is retiring (according to several sites, I saw it on prowrestlingsheet.com) to start a family with Bryan.
Do you guys think they will do a send off with her versus Lana to pay off that storyline? Do you care? I can’t say that I do, but it would be refreshing to see creative finally start giving us a pay off instead of just blowing off angles mid-stream.
