Official Lucha Libre Thread

The Mexican Senate voted 75-0 today to make September 21 El Día Nacional de la Lucha Libre, the National Day of Lucha Libre. Introduced to the floor by Jesús Casillas, who represents Jalisco, the idea for a wrestling-based holiday is a pet project that Brazo de Oro has been working on for some years now.

The date was chosen to honor the first show that CMLL (then EMLL) held, on September 21, 1933, a show largely considered to herald the beginning of lucha libre in Mexico. Before making this historic decision, the senate watched some five hours of lucha libre footage, which seems like a good idea no matter what kind of decision you’re making.

While everyone was focused on the happenings in the U.K. in recent weeks, some equally major moves were taking place in Mexico as Pentagon Jr., Daga and Garza Jr. all showed up at The Crash promotion show in Tijuana, a Konnan-booked company which indicated them leaving AAA.

Pentagon Jr. posted about leaving AAA on Facebook.

This comes just days before AAA was scheduled for a major press conference, believed to be announcing this year's TripleMania event.

All three showed up wearing Perros de Mal gear, and while that is AAA's most popular stable, AAA, which has gone on a trademark spree of late, can't trademark that term which was started by the late Perro Aguayo Jr., along with Damian and Halloween years ago, long before Konnan recruited the group into AAA. Right now the status of Perros Del Mal, a valuable merchandise name, is uncertain.

Pentagon Jr. will no longer be allowed to use that name, but will instead be called Penta El Cero Miedo. AAA owns the name Pentagon Jr. Lucha Underground owns the name Pentagon Dark.

The former Pentagon Jr. & the former Fenix, who has worked as Rey Fenix and Fenix el Rey since leaving AAA, which trademarked Fenix and later Rey Fenix, are now being called The Lucha Brothers, and are an outstanding tag team, having two of the best tag team matches in the U.S. this year in PWG with now WWE performers Chris Hero & Tommy End, along with The Young Bucks. The two are brothers in real life.

This also means Pentagon Jr., who has been working extensively in the U.S. because he earns more money there, not to mention does huge merchandise business at independent shows, would be booked by Konnan, who also books Mysterio Jr., although Mysterio Jr. has worked with AAA recently and would be expected to appear at TripleMania, and is Lucha Underground's biggest star.

A key to this is also the unhappiness of the talent because with Lucha Underground not taping now, nor scheduled for any tapings until November, they aren't making any money from that promotion. If Lucha Underground had set up ways to merchandise its talent and either book its talent or run shows, it's doubtful this will happen. A key is that if Lucha Underground backs Dorian Roldan, who is a part owner, then this talent would be out of their Lucha Underground contracts in North America, opening them up to potential work in WWE, ROH or TNA.

With the exception of Rey Mysterio Jr., most considered Pentagon Jr., now Pentagon Dark, as the biggest star of Lucha Underground and this puts them in a unique position. For years, one of the keys to the Lucha talent in Lucha Underground staying with AAA is that they would lose their spot, which was exposure and American dollars, in Lucha Underground if they left the promotion. But of late, that didn't stop Sexy Star and Fenix, two of Lucha Underground's biggest stars, from leaving.

Now with Pentagon, it becomes more interesting to see if Lucha Underground will no longer book those wrestlers, which would also make them free agents in the world marketplace.

Konnan has spoken for months about The Crash expanding, running more dates and getting television in Mexico. He even made a remark last night about 1996, which was when Konnan and Antonio Pena had a falling out and Konnan took much of the talent with him to both WCW and Promo Azteca. The latter promotion fell apart shortly thereafter.

The jump came one day after Guerra de Titanes at Juan de la Barrera Gym in Mexico City, where Pentagon Jr. lost when challenging Johnny Mundo for the Latin American title. But the curious thing was that Daga issued a challenge for the next title shot, meaning AAA could not have known about his leaving.

Daga and Garza Jr. will be able to use their names as Daga used that name prior to AAA, and Garza Jr., is a family name, as he is a third generation member of the famous Monterrey wrestling family and, unlike with Cody Rhodes, Garza Jr. used that name prior to AAA.