No Gimmicks Needed
Vol. 2 – No. 1
Once More Into the Breach
Dan Short
dan@ifight365.com

Welcome to No Gimmicks Needed. If you trace back the history that a couple of the guys here at iFight365 have back at the old site, I was a part of the crew contributing this regular commentary on the professional wrestling scene in general. I’d like to think that I did pretty well as Phil asked me to swing on over here since we last hooked up. I did so in a heartbeat.

Things have certainly changed for since the last time I wrote this column, but it’s not like anything is going to be too different. Only I hope some neat little pictures are included to go along with each new post. Would make my stuff look pretty damned spiffy, if you ask me. So any way, off to the races we go.

Opening Bell

Prior to unmasking at CMLL's 75th anniversary show

The biggest wrestling story the past week has got to be the unmasking of Blue Panther during the CMLL 75th anniversary show on Friday, September 19 at Arena Mexico in Mexico City. Panther wrestled El Villano V in a Mask vs. Mask Match that was the main event and lost, forcing him to unmask and be recognized as Genaro Vázquez Nevarez, 48, of El Barrio de Santa Rosa in Gomez Palacios.

He made his debut as a professional wrestler on October 8, 1978, oddly enough five years before I was born. Villano, whose real name is Reymundo Diaz Mendoza, 46, pinned Panther with a cradle in countering the wakigatame finisher. And boy did this get big time press in Mexico. So big that it is being regarded as the biggest upset in thirty years. No other wrestling-related story had been so dominant in Mexican media coverage since the strike in the mid-90s, though that was more of covering the business aspect of the sport.

It even made the front page of the ESTO Sports Daily on Saturday, the first time a wrestling story had done so in the publication’s 67-year history. It’s that big of a deal, folks.

According to Bryan Alvarez at Figure Four Weekly, Panther apparently approached CMLL promoter Paco Alonso sometime around six weeks ago with the question of how much he would be willing to pay for him to lose the mask. The offer was estimated to be $30,000, which is quite a lot of money in Mexico. Panther took it.

Based on the reactions from even the folks backstage, it appeared to be a well kept secret that Panther was going to be losing his mask that night. No one saw this coming. Cubsfan of CMLLblog.com even noted, “From the moment Villanos IV and V were brought back into CMLL, it’s been pretty clear they were there to lose their masks. They’re not much in the ring and breaking down.

This match almost didn’t go down due to Villano V’s shoulder injury, and both IV and V might have already lost their masks to Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero if not for previous injuries.”

However, there is some criticism coming down despite the major publicity the story is receiving. Some speculate that, while the move is not necessarily going to hurt the company, it would have been a lot better had Panther lost the mask to a younger guy who could have been made into a major star for pulling such a feat. Someone like Ultimo Guerrero or Averno, perhaps. Certainly not El Villano V, who wasn’t even treated as anything special leading up to the match. Every single person expected Villano V to lost that night, not Panther.

Sure down the line they could build to where a younger guy could make a name off of taking Villano V’s mask now, but it won’t have the same sort of impact or importance as it would have been had they taken Panther’s mask. It’s a move that has a lot of people scratching their heads.

Now, I now very little about what’s going on down south of the border. I will say, though, that I can understand why most people are wondering why now and why Villano V. Blue Panther is a legend in lucha libre and the person to take his mask should be made into a major star. If that someone were a young star in the making who would benefit from accomplishing the task.

As mentioned above, Villano V is apparently a pretty beaten up wrestler with very little long term value remaing outside of putting guys over. He’s the one that gets to take Blue Panther’s mask? Him of all people? It’s a very odd and strange booking decision and the only reason I could think of as any possible reason for him to take the mask is because Panther is going to call it quits real soon.

There are rumors going around that Panther will get getting an office job in CMLL the second his in-ring career ends, so Panther obviously has his future set. Still, why Villano V? If he wasn’t being built into anything special going into the match, why make him anything special afterward when his own long term future isn’t so bright?

While I know little about the current lucha libre scene aside from what I read, I like to think I know if a booking decision made was a good one or a bad one. I have a sneaky suspicion this may not have been a good one, even if it won’t end up hurting the company any time soon.

As for the rest of the show, it drew over 17,100 in attendance even though there was persistent rain and a thunderstorm. With exorbitant ticket prices, it ended up becoming the second-largest live gate for CMLL in it’s 75-year history, though it’s generally due to the prices and the value of the Mexican peso in 2008. The show would have been on pay-per-view, only it was pulled a few days before mostly to it would encourage fans to buy tickets and attend the show live as opposed to them watching it in the comfort of their homes due to the previously mentioned weather conditions.

The following are the results of the show according to Figure Four Weekly:

1. Damian 666, Mr. Aguila and Texano Jr. defeated Alex Koslov, La Sombra and Maximo in 15:13. In the first fall, Aguila pinned Sombra with a moonsault while Damian forced Koslov to submit. The second fall saw Maximo pin Texano following a plancha while Koslov was making Aguila submit. The final fall had Aguila pin Somba with a reverse top rope frankensteiner while Damian and Texano made Koslov submit.

2. The Triad of Terror of Averno, Ephesto and Mephisto defeated Hijo del Fantasma, La Mascara and Volador Jr. in 14:45. In the first fall, Ephesto pinned Fantasma with a shoulderbreaker while Averno and Mephisto took out Mascara with a double super powerbomb. The second fall saw Volador pin Averno with the Spanish fly while Mascara made Mephisto submit. The final fall had Averno pin Volador with the super devil’s wings the same time Mephisto pinned Mascara following a butterfly DDT.

3. Dos Caras Jr., Hector Garza and Marco Corleone defeated Heavy Metal, Hijo del Lizmark and Mr. Niebla in 16:00. They were victorious in two straight falls. The first fall had Caras pinning Metal with a military press into a German suplex while Garza pinned Niebla following a moonsault. The second and final fall had Corleon pinning Lizmark with the Aero Italia, a running dive from the ramp over the top ropes and into the ring.

4. Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated LA Park in an “extreme” match in 18:15. Both were counted out in the first fall. Wagner took the second fall with the Doctor Driver and then a splash. Park was disqualified in the final fall for hitting referee Babe Richard. This was one of the hot feuds running in Mexico as they had a 60-minute showdown at Arena Netzahualcoyotl and then a 40-minute contest at Arena Adolfo Lopes Mateos that, because of the match’s fast pace, Wagner had to be hospitalized and given and IV due to fluid loss. The finish was said to go like this: Park needed to win the third fall to force a fourth. He had the fall won, but Richard was bumped and it took him so long for him to roll his fat body over to make the count that Wagner was able to kick out. Park got so hot that he forearmed Richard and thus got the DQ.

5. In a CMLL vs. TNA special attraction for the CMLL World Trios Championship, Atlantis, Negro Casas and Ultimo Guerrero retained over Sonjay Dutt and The Motor City Machine Guns of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. Even though the champions were rudos, the crowd became quite partiotic and cheered for them as opposed to the challengers. The first fall saw Dutt hit the 450. Second fall had Casa pin Dutt with la majistal while Guerrero pinned Sabin with the Guerrero special. The final fall was Atlantis making Shelley submit to the Atlantida. Word is that there was a plan for a Shelley vs. Guerrero Har vs. Mask Match, but based on the finish it could be off. Probably because terms could not be agreed upon. Although during the last fall Guerrero was eliminated with a double superkick from the Machine Guns, so if they do manage to find a way to get the feud back on they can.

6. El Villano V defeated Blue Panther in the Mask vs. Mask Main Event. Panther won the first fall by disqualification when Aguayo Jr., who was in Villano V’s corner, tripped him up as he was running the ropes and then Villano unmasked him afterward. The second fall saw Panther get disqualified for tearing Villano’s mask off his face. Note that after each unmasking, both ran to the back to get a new mask and try to beat the twenty count. Many believe that when Villano returned from getting his new mask it might be that he’s actually not Villano V, but rather Villano IV. Any way, this led to the final fall in which Panther went for the wakagitame only for Villano grabbed the ropes. Panther went for it again, only for Villano to hook him in a cradle for the win. Word is that the fans started to get behind Villano during the match as he was fighting so valiently, so when he got the final fall there was a huge pop. Much to the genuine shock of Panther, Villano and even one of the two referees Rafa el Maya. A despondent Panther then told the ring announger his information before finally unmasking. After handing the mask over to Villano and getting paraded around the ring on his shoulders, Panther noted that this was not the end of his career and that though he and Villano may feud again he had great respect for him. Villano said that he was very happy to have kept his mask, yet at the same time was very sad to have taken the mask of a legend such as Blue Panther.

Around the Ring

2008 Ted Petty Invitational

The late "Flyboy" Rocco Rock

1Wrestling.com announced that IWA: Mid-South as announced the matches that will make up this year’s Ted Petty Invitational tournament being held this weekend. Formally the Sweet Science Sixteen, the tournament became an annual dedication to Ted Petty, better known as “Flyboy” Rocco Rock of the tag team Public Enemy, after his passing in September 2002.

It started out retaining the 16-man tournament format until 2003 when they started using the 24-man format that has remained and was later adopted by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla for their Battle of Los Angeles tournament.

Recent financial problems IWA: Mid-South and promoter Ian Rotten have been facing for more than a year now have forced the promotion to cut back on booking some of the high-profile talent previously seen in the past like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Bryan Danielson, Low Ki, Austin Aries, and a number of others.

That apparently continued to be the case as previously announced participants Delirious, El Generico, and Roderick Strong bowed out of the tournmaent to work some shows in England while Arik Cannon was taken out for unannounced reason and BJ Whitmer undergoing surgery on his hand. Cannon’s spot was replaced by AAA wrestler Cassandro and Whitmer’s spot went to international star Ares.

The two-night tournament, taking place this weekend on September 26-27 at the Hartman Recreation Center in Joliet, Illinois, will go as such: Dingo vs. Michael Elgin; Chris Hero vs. Sami Callihan; Cassandro vs. Chuck Taylor; 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Bobby Fish; 2 Tuff Tony vs. Drak Younger; Dave Taylor vs. Tracy Smothers; Mike Quackenbush vs. Ricochet; Ace Steel vs. Ares; Egotistico Fantastico vs. Prince Mustafa Ali; Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jimmy Jacobs; Josh Raymond vs. Tyler Black; and Sara Del Rey vs. Trik Davis.

A non-tournament match has also been booked as Jason Hades defends the IWA: Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship against Jayson Quick in a Steel Cage I Quit Match with the added stipulation that the loser must drop their Ja(y)son name for good. Both participants were previously scheduled to be in the tournament, but were instead pulled so as to further their running feud.

Dragon Gate

The complete card for the September 28 Memorial Gate show at the Sun Dome in Fukui was announced last week, according to DGUSA: 1. Akira Tozawa, Keni’chiro Arai and Taku Iwasa vs. Anthony W. Mori, PAC and Ryo Saito; 2. Open The Owarai Gate Four-Way Match: Jackson Florida defending vs. Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa vs. K-ness vs. Syachihoko Machine; 3. Cyber Kongcito vs. Naoki Tanisaki; 4. BxB Hulk and m.c.KZ vs. Dragon Kid and Susumu Yokosuka; 5. Cyber Kong and Genki Horiguchi vs. Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi; 6. Open The Triangle Gate: Gamma, YAMATO and Yasuhi Kanda defend vs. Don Fuji, Magnitude Kishiwada and Masaaki Mochizuki; 7. Open The Dream Gate Main Event: Shingo Takagi defending vs. TAKA Michinoku.

Apparently, the show will not air on pay-per-view despite being a major one for the fall. It will instead feature highlights, and probably the entire main event, in episode number 103 of the one-hour Dragon Gate Infinity show airing on October 10. Oddly enough, that’s the same day they will be running a Korakuen Hall show that currently has scheduled a Handicap Lumberjack Death Match with Shingo Takagi against Cyber Kong and YAMATO.

In other Dragon Gate news, Don Fuji recently celebrated his 20th Anniversary in the fight industry with a show on September 21 at Messe Wing Mie in Mie. Fuji began in career in sumo and then moving on to a non-wrestling job in the WAR system before training to become a wrestler as a member of the first Ultimo Dragon Gym graduating class alongside CIMA, Dragon Kid, SUWA and Magnum TOKYO.

Fuji had three sumo matches, defeating Akira Tozawa and Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa in the first two before losing the third to Akebono, who was on-hand at special request from Fuji. Fuji later teamed with Akebono and Dragon Kid in defeating Cyber Kong, Gamma and Genki Horiguchi with Fuji pinning Geki with the Nice German. He passed on partcipating in the main event Survival Gate Battle Royal, ultimately won by Akira Tozawa who last eliminated Yasushi Kanda with the Tozawajuku Hiden: Ganki.

Mixed Martial Arts

As reported here on the site earlier today, Andrei Arlovski has signed a deal with EliteXC and will be fighting on the October 4 CBS special against former IFL fighter Roy Nelson. It should be noted that both were scheduled for the October 11 Affliction show that got canned recently.

CBS is still being talked with over the deal, but it is assumed that the show will end up going longer now that they have at least five fights airing live.

In the CBS press release regarding the deal, Affliction COO Michael Cohen said, “Mr. Trump and the Affliction Entertainment group are honored to be working alongside CBS, Showtime and Elite XC. It is without question that this event will exceed everyone’s expectations and will continue to uphold Affliction’s promise to promote the best fights for the benefit of the fans.”

Recap of the EliteXC Heat main card goes as such: Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice in the heavyweight main event fight; Jake Shields defends the Welterweight Championship vs. Paul Daley; Andrei Arlovski vs. Roy Nelson in a heavyweight fight; Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobald in a women’s fight; Benji Radach vs. Murilo Rua in a middleweight fight.

The preliminary card will run as such: Cristiane Santos vs. Yoko Takahashi in a women’s fight; James Edson Berto vs. Mike Aina in a lightweight fight; Aaron Rosa vs. Seth Petruzelli in a light heavyweight fight; Lorenzo Borgomeo vs. Mickey Gomez in a welterweight bout; David Martinez vs. Nicolae Sinicio in a welterweight fight; David Gomez vs. Nicholas Cardella; and Crafton Wallace will have a middleweight fight against an opponent to still be announced.

The event takes place at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Many insiders believe this is a make or break show as it needs to succeed for EliteXC to stay alive. How essential is this, you ask? EliteXC has lost $55 million in just a few years. That’s really bad. If the ratings are good, they will stay afloat and probably get purchased by Showtime Networks, who already own 20% of the company. If the ratings tank, however, they are finished.

The Meltzer List

Not long ago, I engaged in a little venture that I’m half way through at the present moment.

Since first using the star rating system in reviewing the matches he watches, Dave Meltzer has only given 65 a full five-star rating. 65 out the thousands, dare I say a million, matches he has seen. Why should any one care about the opinions of one man? They don’t have to. But there’s just this mystical aura around it.

It’s very rare for a wrestling match to receive that rating, meaning there probably is something special to the 65 that did get five-stars. With the help of a number of folks on the Internet who were just as intrigued by the quest I had set myself out on doing, I will be watching all 65 matches in chronological order and providing my own personal opinion about them.

Remember, the point is not to figure out why it is that Meltzer gave these matches five-stars. It’s me watching these matches and seeing how it ranks in my perspective of how I rate wrestling matches. It’s turned into quite the fun journey, really. So be on the look out as the next 65 issues of this column, if it does manage to go that far, will include the next entry on the list of matches that were give a five-star rating by Dave Meltzer.

First Up:
WWF World Junior Heavyweight Championship
Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask
New Japan Pro Wrestling – April 23, 1983

Finishing Move

Facing problems: PWG

Those of you who know me know real well I’m a big fan of a wrestling promotion out of Los Angeles known as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Owned and operated by six wrestlers Super Dragon, Joey Ryan, Scott Lost, Disco Machine, Excalibur and Top Gun Talwar, PWG has become the elite wrestling promotion in Southern California, maybe even the entire west coast.

They recently released a Best of DVD set with both HighSpots, their regular DVD distributors, and Big Vision Entertainment in the form of an awesome 3-Disc package for at least fifteen bucks. An absolute steal, believe me.

Their biggest event every year has become an annual tournament known as the Battle of Los Angeles. The finest of Southern California wrestling compete with some of the best in independent wrestling from around the world compete in a multiple night tournament to crown the unofficial “King of Los Angeles.”

Some of the names that have competed include AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Bryan Danielson, Jamie Noble as James Gibson, Frankie Kazarian, Doug Williams, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Colt Cabana, Evan Bourne as Matt Sydal, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, PAC, Austin Aries, Jimmy Rave, Tyler Black, El Generico, Kevin Steen, Davey Richards, Necro Butcher, Delirious, Matt Cross as M-Dogg 20, and Dragon Gate superstars CIMA, Dragon Kid, Shingo Takagi, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka. Just to list a few.

However, there’s a problem happening.

See, many of the names PWG has been wanting to book for this year have been getting booked elsewhere. That includes the tournament itself, which was originally scheduled to take place from August 29-31. That obviously didn’t happen. So they tried October 31-November 2, at the expense of canceling a show they had planned for September 21. Problem now is that Total Non-Stop Action are running their first batch of house shows in California on the same three nights. Not wanting to risk forcing wrestling fans to decide upon BoLA or TNA, PWG decided to pull the dates. Now they’re in real trouble over when they’re going to having this year’s tournament, if at all.

It highlights the troubles they are having this year in regards to getting the talent they want to book, in particular their regular talent like Generico, Steen and Richards, who are starting to get more bookings elsewhere. Not to mention other talent getting injured, a particular issue that had thrown the PWG World Heavyweight Championship into a troubling loop through most of the year until finally getting strapped around the waist of the reliable Chris Hero. Throw in problems with Jack Evans and his AAA commitments and simply put, 2008 has not been as good of a year for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as it had been previous years.

Not to say the quality of the product they’ve been putting out has been hampered, far from it. But it’s really starting to hamper the overall operations for the company.

A driving issue over the problem with the dates is wanting to bring in the Dragon Gate talent. The previous August 29-31 dates weren’t going to work because Dragon Gate was running a couple big shows in there before they flew out to Los Angeles for their first United States show on September 5. Aside from Susumu Yokosuka and gaijin talent El Generico, PAC, and The Young Bucks of Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson, Dragon Gate could not spare any other talent.

PWG turned the weekend in their seventh All Star Weekend event, running just the last two days as opposed to all three, with said talent above and getting a few others like the returning Low Ki, Alex Koslov, Eddie Kingston, CHIKARA’s Chuck Taylor and Vin Gerard, The Age of the Fall of Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black, and Australia’s Ash Riot and Mark Davis who were actually taking a vacation when Hero asked them and PWG if they wanted to crack a shot at working the first night. So PWG tried to get the middle of November. Dragon Gate, obviously, also had some important dates then going into their annual Osaka pay-per-view, but the beginning of the month was open. Then everyone found out about the TNA dates and that screwed everything up.

If PWG is that serious in getting the Dragon Gate talent and they still want to make the tournament happen in 2008, I think their last resort will have to rest on the middle of December after Dragon Gate wraps their King of Gate tour.

This would then move into the next problem. Booking a venue. If anything, the Burbank National Guard Armory is the ideal place to hold the tournament. It was the location for last year’s tournament and easily housed those in attendance that ranged from 450 to 500 per night. Only the military makes the call over whether or not they’re allowed to use the building that weekend. Same problem with the option of booking at the armory in Van Nuys.

There is the idea of using the American Legion Post #308 as they did in 2006, but it’s too small of a venue and most fans agree that BoLA is too big of an event to hold there. A new option has come up thanks to the Dragon Gate show on September 5 and that’s to use the recreational center at John Anson Ford Park in Bell Gardens. It could hold 500 in attendance. It might get a bit more cramped then the Burbank Armory, but in the middle of winter it would make the building nice and toasty. But the question become whether or not they can book there without disrupting any other activities that might go on there. It is, after all, a public park the building is a part of.

If PWG manages to solve the above problems, they then have to contend with booking regular and other talent. Would any of them be available as most would probably either be busy getting other bookings or even not accepting them in favor of resting for the holidays. Booking flights during that period is also going to be hell on their finances, not to mention the hell the airports would be in the first place.

Would it even be worth the effort just to put together three nights worth of high quality wrestling action that can draw around 400-500 in attendance? Could they even make their money back from the fans who manage to come? Well, most likely, but would they be able to actually pull it off at all?

It’s certainly one of many questions that has fans wondering if PWG can salvage the remainder of what has certainly been a year-long headache. Fans are even thinking that it might be a better idea if they didn’t have BoLA this year given the many obstacles they have to overcome. I love PWG, but even I’m asking this questions and wondering the same thoughts in my head.

Closing Bell

I’m a big fan of Kitano Takeshi, better known by his stage name of Beat Takeshi. Takeshi is probably most well known to the Western world in a rearranged fashion as Vic Romano on Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, or MXC for short. MXC is a reformulated presentation of Takeshi’s Castle, one of the original forerunners of the reality competition show in which 100 contestants tackle the most impossible series of obstacle courses in an effort to win a hefty sum of yen.

Those in Great Britain have probably seen the proper version of Takeshi’s Castle, just with an English announcer commentating on the spectacular, and often times brutal, crashes the contestants make. And boy do they ever crash often. The MXC version sets it up, with wacky dubbing that has virtually nothing to do with the original concept or the actual translation, as two teams looking to score the most points. Outside of this popular game show, Takeshi is a manzai comedian who ended up becoming a highly respected filmmaker. Strangely enough, very few of his films are comedy and rather deal with the very dark and violent psyche of human nature. His film sincluding Sonatine, Hana-bi, and a revival of Zatoichi.

What a lot of people probably don’t remember is that Takeshi also had an interesting stint in professional wrestling. As a matter of fact, he was one of the major players in the New Japan show that resulted in the infamous Sumo Hall riot on December 27, 1987. Roughly twenty years later, Takeshi and New Japan would team up once again. This time in Takeshi’s film Kantoku Banzai, which was one of his few comedy films. The scene saw two girls, one of whom had a hand puppet duck that apparently had a life of its own, eating at a noodle shop.

They try to set up a situation that would get them out of paying for their meals, only they watch as a group of men apparently had the same idea. This group of men happened to be the CTU unit. Their complaints cause the chefs to exit their kitchen and confront them. The chefs happened to be Masahiro Chono and Hiroyoshi Tenzan. You can tell right off the bat that I absolutely love this scene, so instead of just further explaining it I’ll share it with you guys courtesy of danko101 via YouTube.