For the first stage of the SoCal UNCENSORED World Tour the destination was Tijuana, Mexico for a Promociones de Baja California show at the Auditorio de Tijuana.
We left for Tijuana about 7:30 in the evening. A couple friends of mine (a guy named Ruben and the Duplotastic Justin Crast from neowrestling.com) who go to the Lucha shows in Tijuana often, stopped by my house to pick me up. One of the things that has stopped me from going in the past is my refusal to drive my own car into Tijuana, and taking a taxi to the shows is not hard, but taking one back is semi-impossible. Luckily, Justin had no problems taking his Infinity south of the border.
Now I have been to Tijuana many times, but since I never drive into their and have mostly just gone to clubs there are a few things I have never seen. One of those things is this huge statue of Abraham Lincoln. Apparently ol’ Honest Abe is a hero down there. Of course he stood by while the French conquered Mexico, but who is keeping track?
Anyways we get to the Auditorio around 8:30, and after parking in a supermarket parking garage, we head over to wear we buy tickets. There was a ton of people out front buying tickets, scalping tickets, selling lucha schwag, selling snacks, everything. One interesting side note is the scaplers actually sell the tickets for the same price the box office does. The line for tickets took us quite a bit of time. The others seemed to agree it was longer than normal. While in line they wheeled a stretcher into the building. No word on who was hurt, if anyone was. About 8:50 we finally had gotten our tickets.
When we entered the Auditorio a match between Guepardo and Colibri and two rudos was taking place. Colibri wears the same mask Rey Misterio Jr. used to wear and resembles him a great deal. This was the 2nd match on the show (we had missed the first while in line) and was not very good. Colibri did look like he has some promise however.
Next up Solar, Phantasma, and Arandu defeated Zumbido, Depredador, and Kiss. Zumbido was by far the most impressive in this match. None of the rest impressed me much. The crowd seemed to really love Arandu, but I didn’t care for him. Phantasma was terrible. He looks sort of like the Phantom of comic strip and that bad Billy Zane movie fame. He wrestled like the plot of the movie. Just not good. He did look to be an older guy and maybe his best years are just behind him.
In what was the worst match I have seen this year (and yes, that includes anything at Scene of the Crime), Kato Kung Lee beat Hijo del Diablo for a Martial Arts title. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Kato Kung Lee an Asian name? I thought so. Well, Kato Kung Lee is not Asian, but he was dressed like the Karate Kid. In one of the worst moments of the match Kato bladed. I have no issue with blading but aren’t you supposed to be hit first? And I also thought one of the things with blading is that you are supposed to hide the fact you are blading. Anyways this match killed what had so far been a hot crowd.
The next match may intrest the XPW fans out there as Rey Misterio Sr., Damien 666, and Halloween defeated Super Parka, Super Porky, and Mr. Niebla. Earlier in the show they set up a Triangle Ladder Match to Crown the 1st WWEA Extreme Champion: Rey Misterio Sr. vs. Damian vs. Halloween on May 11th. Super Porky and Super Parka had some good comedy spots in the match. By far Super Porky was the most impressive, doing a backflip and splashing Lady Victoria and La Familia’s other masked valet. The match was entertaining but I wouldn’t give it more than **1/2.
In the main event Santo, Nicho, and La Parka defeated Scorpio Jr., Juventud, and Hijo de Pieroth. This was the match I was most looking forward to. I have always wanted to see Santo in action, but I was disappointed in this match. Its not that Santo did bad or anything, he just didn’t do much of anything. Juvy actually did the most in this match. That was a little suprising to me since the last time I saw him he was blowing spots against Sabu and Kid Kaos at XPW’s Night XPW Stood Still. Nicho landed on his head after blowing a top rope rana spot. Looked pretty bad and I wondered after that if he was legit hurt or not. La Parka was hilarious bringing some girl out of the audience into the ring and doing his sexual comedy with her. The match was really nothing to write home about (or on a website?). I’d say at most ***, but I’d more than likely give it **1/2.
On the way back we ran just about every light in Tijuana as my friend Ruben said “the lights are just suggestions”. We made a quick stop at Club Iguanas to look for someone but apparently she was passed out drunk in Vista somewhere. After we got back into the U.S. we stopped at a Mexican food place for a bite to eat and then headed home.
Overall I was hoping to kick off the world tour with a little bit better of a show. My friends tell me that was the worst TJ show they had been to, so I guess I just picked the wrong weekend to start. Maybe there will have to be another Tijuana trip in this World Tour since Lonnie was unable to make this one. On the May 11th Promociones de Baja California show at the Auditorio de Tijuana the card will have Gigante Silva, Mil Mascaras vs. Chuck Palumbo, Dr. Wagner, and Apollo Dantes; Hijo del Santo, Nicho El Millonario, andLa Parka vs. Scorpio, Fuerza Guerrera, and Juventud Guerrera; and the before mentioned Triangle Ladder Match.
-Steve
