En Busca de un Ídolo 2012

The 2012 En Busca de un Ídolo (Spanish for "In search of an idol") was a professional wrestling tournament held by Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and was the first tournament in what would become an annual tournament in CMLL. The purpose of the first tournament was to identify which of the 8 "Rookies" in the tournament would move up the ranks of the promotion. The tournament consisted of two rounds, first a round-robin tournament group round, with the top four point earners competing in an elimination tournament. Wrestlers could earn points in three ways, match results, judges points and points from an online poll available on the 'En Busca de un Ídolo website. The tournament ran from April 27 until May 25, 2012 and saw Titán win the tournament, partially due to a high number of fan votes.

En Busca de un Ídolo 2012
Titán, winner of the tournament
PromotionConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
DateApril 27, 2012 to May 25, 2012
CityMexico City, Mexico
VenueArena México
Tagline(s)"In search of an idol 2012"
Event chronology
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Torneo Gran Alternativa
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56. Aniversario de Arena México
En Busca de un Ídolo chronology
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First
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2013

Tournament participants edit

The tournament featured eight professional wrestlers or luchadors, four of whom were tecnicos (the Lucha Libre term for someone who portrays a "good guy" character) and four who were rudos ("Bad Guys"). Being a professional wrestling tournament, the matches were not won legitimately through athletic competition; it is instead won via predetermined outcomes to the matches that is kept secret from the general public.[1] Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) held a press conference in early April, 2012 to announce the creation of the En Busca de un Ídolo, a tournament designed to focus on younger wrestlers, or in some cases masked wrestlers who had only worked under that ring persona for a relative short time. This was the third "Young wrestler" focused tournament CMLL had held within a year, with previous tournaments Forjando un Ídolo ("Forging an Idol") and Torneo Sangre Nueva ("New Blood") tournaments having a similar focus. The teams were divided by their rudo/tecnico status and the rudos only faced the tecnicos and vice versa. The technico team consisted of Diamante, Dragon Lee, Titán and Tritón, the team was coached by Atlantis and assisted by CMLL trainer Franco Colombo.[2][3][4][5][6] The Rudo team consisted of Euforia, Niebla Roja, Pólvora and Puma King, the team was trained by Último Guerrero, assisted by CMLL trainer Tony Salazar.[6][7][8][9][10] The top two point earners on each team would move on to the elimination part of the tournament. Initially the tournament matches were not shown on TV, they could only be seen on radiocmll.com and on CMLL's official YouTube channel. The matches were all taped and shown as part of a special "tournament/reality show" on Fox Sports International, starting September 29, 2012.[11]

Point system edit

Wrestlers could earn points in one of three ways

  • 20 Points for a victory
  • 10 Points for a draw
  • 0 points for a loss
  • Judging
  • The tournament also include four judges, referee El Tirantes, ring announcer Miguel Linares and wrestlers Maximo and Negro Casas. The judges could award up to 10 points each based on the way they portray their character, their personality, their charisma, and how much of a fan response they get during their matches.[12][13]
  • Online Poll
  • The third way to earn points for the tournament was through an online poll conducted after each match on the En Busca de un Ídolo website. The online poll could give a wrestler a maximum of 40 additional points in the tournament each week.[12]

Prize edit

The winner of the tournament would be given the opportunity to main event the first CMLL Super Viernes show after the tournament ended to showcase their skills, they would also get the opportunity to work on the 2013 Fantastica Mania show, an event co-promoted by CMLL and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) that takes place in Japan once a year, they would also receive a one-year membership to a Fitness club. Finally the winner would receive a title match for the CMLL World Middleweight Championship against champion Dragón Rojo Jr. at a later date. The top four finalists would get an all-expense-paid trip to Cancun.[14]

Tournament results edit

First round edit

Final score
# Wrestler: Won Loss Draw Total Points
1 Titán 1 2 1 293
2 Diamante 3 1 0 238
3 Eurforia 3 1 0 236
4 Dragon Lee 3 1 0 229
5 Niebla Roja 1 2 1 226
6 Puma King 1 3 0 206
7 Triton 1 3 0 196
8 Polvora 2 2 0 165

Second round edit

The top four wrestlers moved on to the second round of the tournament, a round robin tournament where each competitor would wrestle in three matches, with the same point system in place as the first round. The matches took place exclusively on the Friday night Super Viernes shows and as the first round they could only be seen on radiocmll.com and on CMLL's official YouTube channel. CMLL held a special Trios team match where the coaches would team up with the four second round competitors on the May 25, 2012 Super Viernes show. Atlantis teamed up with Diamante and Dragon Lee to defeat Último Guerrero, Euforia and Titán. After the match Guerrero and Euforia attacked Titán, giving everyone a preview of their match in the second round.[15][16]

The final matches of the second round took place on June 15, 2012. The first match saw Dragon Lee actually cost himself the match by disqualification when he did not release a submission hold when told to do so. Losing the match cost him 20 points.[17] The other match was more notable for the change to the mask and trunk design change of Diamante than anything else. Diamante debut a new silver and black mask and trunks very reminiscent of Lucha libre legends El Santo and El Hijo del Santo.[17]

Final score[18]
# Wrestler: Won Loss Draw Match Points Judges Public Poll Total Points
1 Titán 3 2 0 40 points 106 points 120 points 266 points
2 Euforia 3 2 0 40 points 88 points 79 points 207 points
3 Dragon Lee 3 1 0 20 points 97 points 39 points 156 points
4 Diamante 3 1 0 20 points 87 points 20 points 127 points

Finals edit

The final of the En Busca de un Ídolo tournament came down to Titán and Euforia facing off in a one fall match with no time limit on the June 2, 2012 Super Viernes Show. Titán had coach Atlantis and trainer Franco Colombo in his corner while Eurforia had coach (and Los Guerreros del Infierno teammate) Último Guerrero and trainer Tony Salazar in his corner. Euforia started the match before Titán, trying to cheat his way to an easy victory. The two competitors worked a very high impact match, with Titán's mask being torn open in one place and the top of Euforia's mask being torn off completely. Titán pinned Euforia to win both the mask and the tournament. After the match All four finalist were awarded with trophies and flowers.[19]

Aftermath edit

CMLL held a Torneo cibernetico (Multi-man elimination match) on the July 6, 2012 Super Viernes Show that involved the En Busca de un Ídolo coaches Atlantis and Último Guerrero and seven of the eight participants, with Rey Cometa replacing Dragon Lee in the match. Último Guerrero was the last man standing in the match, lastly eliminating Titán with the help of Euforia.[20][21]

Torneo Cibernetico order of elimination
Order Wrestler Eliminated by
1 Rey Cometa Puma King[20][21]
2 Tritón Euforia[20][21]
3 Pólvora Diamante[20][21]
4 Puma King Atlantis[20][21]
5 Niebla Roja Diamante[20][21]
6 Diamante Último Guerrero[20][21]
7 Euforia Titán[20][21]
8 Atlantis Último Guerrero[20][21]
9 Titán Último Guerrero[20][21]
10 Último Guerrero Winner[20][21]

One of the prizes that Titán won was a match for the CMLL World Middleweight Championship against champion Dragón Rojo Jr. Titán cashed in his prize on the July 21 Super Viernes Show, but was unsuccessful in the match.[22][23] Titán would later defeat En Busca de un Ídolo rival Pólvora to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship[24] Titán also wrestled on all three of the Fanstatica Mania shows, winning one of his three matches.[25][26][27]

Third place contestant Dragon Lee was announced as taking the ring character Místico ("The Mystic"), the successor of the original Místico who left CMLL to work in World Wrestling Entertainment as Sin Cara in 2011. Dragon Lee was referred to as Místico, La Nueva Era ("The new era").[28][29]

References edit

  1. ^ Madigan, Dan (2007). "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre and honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  2. ^ "Participantes: Tecnicos Diamante" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  3. ^ "Participantes: Tecnicos Dragon Lee" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  4. ^ "Participantes: Tecnicos Titan" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012.
  5. ^ "Participantes: Tecnicos Triton" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  6. ^ a b "En Busca de un Idolo Inicio" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012.
  7. ^ "Participantes: Rudos Euforia" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  8. ^ "Participantes: Rudos Puma King" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  9. ^ "Participantes: Rudos Niebla Rojo" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  10. ^ "Participantes: Rudos Polvora" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  11. ^ ""En Busca de un Idolo": La Mision (Capitulo 1)" (in Spanish). Super Luchas. October 2, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  12. ^ a b c Valdes, Apolo (April 19, 2012). "Em busca de un idolo en el CMLL" (in Spanish). MedioTiempo. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  13. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (April 19, 2012). "Rápidas de la Arena México: "En Búsqueda de un Ídolo" el nuevo Reality del CMLL y Cadena 3" (in Spanish). Super Luchas. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  14. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (June 22, 2012). "Titán Gana el torneo "En Búsqueda de un Ídolo"" (in Spanish). Super Luchas. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  15. ^ "EN BUSCA DE UN IDOLO 1a ETAPA" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015.
  16. ^ Redacción Mediotiempo (May 26, 2012). "Atlantis lanzo reto a Ultimo Guerrero" (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  17. ^ a b Redacción Mediotiempo (June 16, 2012). "Black Warrior y compania humilan de nuevo". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  18. ^ "Resultados" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012.
  19. ^ "EN BUSCA DE UN IDOLO 2a ETAPA" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Redacción Mediotiempo (July 7, 2012). "Averno regreso con triunfo a la Arena Mexico". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Redacción Mediotiempo (July 7, 2012). "Puma contra Cometa en el Torneo Cibernetic". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  22. ^ Redacción Mediotiempo (July 21, 2012). "Dragon Rojo Jr se impuso a Titan". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  23. ^ Redacción Mediotiempo (July 21, 2012). "Terrible reto a Rush por las cabelleras". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  24. ^ Salazar López, Alexis A. (September 5, 2012). "Martes 4 de Septiembre del 2012". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  25. ^ Dark Angelita (January 18, 2013). "CMLL/NJPW: Resultados "Fantasticamanía 2013" – Día 1" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2013.
  26. ^ Dark Angelita (January 20, 2013). "CMLL/NJPW: Resultados "Fantasticamanía 2013" – Día 2" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  27. ^ Dark Angelita (January 20, 2013). "CMLL/NJPW: Resultados "Fantasticamanía 2013" – Día 3" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  28. ^ "Místico con alma de Dragón.... ¡Las Amazonas del ring en jaula!". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). June 21, 2012. Archived from the original on June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  29. ^ Boutwell, Josh (June 23, 2012). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. Archived from the original on August 28, 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2012.

External links edit