Verano de Escandalo doesn’t seem near the level of TripleMania. It’s not that they’re holding matches back for the Pena show; they’re probably doing more here, because we didn’t have an apuesta match at the last show. Of course, there’s not the (seeming) culmination of a multiyear storyline here. I guess that does take it down a step. Still, the main event is a just a tweak on the last one, and much of the rest of the card doesn’t look too must-see.
As far as we know, this show is supposed to air on television like normal, over two weeks. There’s been no mention of a PPV this time around, and I doubt they’ll do much the way of live coverage.
Match by match
1) Psycho Clowns and TWO CLOWNS TO BE DETERMINED vs Kenzo Suzuki, Oriental, Sugi
I was working on this preview earlier this week, before the official lineup came out, and even then I was thinking this was a match where the Psycho Circus could finally lose. Losing in the opener in an irrelevant match is not quite a dramatic climax to 21 months of winning, but we’ve given up that on a while ago. Yakzua is at least a new team with upward potential – AAA can push them in singles feuds, so they fufill AAA’s purpose for a trio – and could get a long term benefit from this feud.
If Zombie & Killer have left, obviously the replacement team loses (maybe Psycho sticks around as a random midcard guy while everyone else fades away?) Even if they’re all there, this is probably as a good a place to pull the plug on this as ever. I’m taking Yakuza.
2) Extreme Tiger vs Jack Evans, Rocky Romero, Teddy Hart, Alex Koslov [AAA CRUISER]
This title really doesn’t mean anything yet. Someone’s got to successfully defend it, for a start. Everyone’s on about the same level. There person who holds the belt is just the person who happened to win that day, but doesn’t seem to prove they’re the best at their size. Having a five way match doesn’t help the situation, but presumably they wanted to do only 7 matches and so these singles feuds had to be bundled here.
My guess is the long term plan here remains Sugi getting the next title shot. He did pick up that pin on Tiger, so the easy thing is to set up that match with Tiger winning here. The two sets of rivals can negate each other, and perhaps we’ll get a clue on who’s leaving at the end of the month based on who takes the loss here.
3) Joe Lider & Nicho el Millionario vs El Elegido & Gronda II [hardcore]
Really maddening for this not to be a title match. In storyline, what more do Elegido & Gronda have to do to get a chance? You’d think beating them twice in a row would be pretty good proof Hermandad Extreme might not be the best tag team in the world. In reality, this not being a title match means they’re either ending it here, or we’ve got yet another match down the road that’s actually for the title – maybe at the Pena show? Which would mean a couple more months of this?
It’s very strange to be picking Joe Lider & Nicho as a vote for sanity.
4) La Parka Jr., Marco Corleone, Octagon vs Electro Shock, Silver King, Ultimo Gladiador
I sure hope I’m pleasantly surprised when I watch the pre-Verano TV episodes, and find out they’ve explained the Gladiador turn in the background somewhere, but it just hasn’t made it to luchalibreaaa.com. It still won’t make this match much good. Someone find Marco some better partners!
Wagner’s team of Electro, Silver and UG ought to get this win, just to give them some momentum as a new faction. I’m not too sure of it, though.
5) Charly Manson vs Chessman [street]
AKA Chessman falls from a high place and everyone bleeds a bunch. I guess the tag match is hardcore stuff around the ring, this match is hardcore stuff in the crowd, and apuesta match might be hardcore stuff inside of a cage (or at least a lot of blood.) A stunt show is probably going to be more entertaining then these two having a straight match (thought Charly has looked better than when he first returned.) If Chessman’s going to fall, for the first time in a while, Charly would presumably take the win.
Remember how this feud started? When Charly stopped Chessman from winning the title (due to Chessman not actually being in the match)? Why haven’t they just been showing a video clip each week? Same really could be applied to Teddy/Jack – AAA puts a lot of effort into the bits where the heel destroys face, but then stops showing it after one week, and things become just a generic tecnico/rudo feud.
6) Aerostar vs Fabi Apache, Billy Boy, Sexy Star [mask, hair, cage]
lock of the show: Aerostar dives off the top of cage.
almost as strong lock of the show: Fabi Apache is not losing her hair. That’d be too dumb.
Which leaves
1) Aerostar comes back in the cage to save Fabi, ends up paying for it with his mask
2) Billy stays in with Fabi to finish it for all times, and Fabi surprises him for the win
3) Sexi stays in with Fabi, and Fabi kills her good
3 looks right to me. They’re selling Sexi on her looks, and her looks aren’t going to be hurt by losing the mask. If they want the feud to keep going, Fabi’s Reina de Reinas title did just make a reappearance, and Sexi could win that back somehow. Billy losing his hair only makes sense if this feud is going to end (and it never will), and Aerostar losing his mask makes no sense at all.
7) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Cibernético, El Mesías [cage, AAA HEAVY]
The big question: does AAA believe Dr. Wagner will be willing to take a pinfall loss to lose the title at some point? If you do, that’s the better way to go – have Cibernetico & Mesias cost each other the match and Wagner climbs out to fight another day. Wagner did take the pinfall loss to Cibernetico at the Lucha Libre Expo – which looks like the only TV pinfall he’s taken since coming in – so he’s not completely adverse to being beat. Mesias getting the win back at Pena Memorial is better than winning it back here without actually beating Wagner this way.
If Wagner doesn’t want to take a loss, then obviously this is the easy way to get it off of him without setting yourself up trouble down the line. The question then is which guy is better holding the title coming out of this show. Cibernetico probably sets up more things to do, since he’s the lone wolf feuding with rudos and tecnicos, but may cause more internal strife. Mesias has nothing new to do as champion, but he is the central guy they’re building the company around, so he might as well have the title.
This may be hopefully naive, but I’m thinking Wagner still comes out of this with the title, and they leave everything else in the air for the time being.
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Is it me, or is interest in AAA decreasing? And I’m not going just by the ByL board.
I agree with Cubs. Wagner wins.
I know my interest in AAA is decreasing. I used to make sure I watched it every weekend, but now, eh. It’s like watching TNA, only in Spanish; fast-forward fodder.
I’ve noticed too that interest in Triple A is decreasing. Wonder why?
Lets all pray (including the atheists that might be perusing the site!) that Gronda II and El Elegido don’t die during this match because they just seem like the wrong guys to be working a hardcore match WITH JOE LIDER!!! Last thing we need to see is Gronda II’s arms or legs snapping off during a match.
I agree. It really seems like no one gives a shit. People are getting excited about Anniversary, and the potential main event.
My interest in AAA started to decrease after Triplemania last year. Within the last year AAA went from being awesome(AAA Pena years), to basically being a rip-off of many U.S. promotions (In my opinion). But for the last year plus, (2008-current) CMLL has replaced AAA as my favorite promotion. (even with Los Shitheads, in the company)
I’m basically in Calabcd44’s camp. I was a huge AAA fan during the Pena years and always prefered it over CMLL. It was in late 2007 that I became more into CMLL than AAA. AAA always used to be ‘different’ and there was always a ‘variety’ of things on their TV tapings. You never knew what you’d get. Now the roster has been trimmed down to the point you can pre-book any TV taping just by process of elimination if you know the top 2 matches. It’s the same thing every week outside of a new guy debuting once a year (Atomic Boy) and being relegated to opening matches. I much prefered the old AAA where you never knew when Los Espanatapajaros would return! The top of the card absolutely stinks right now outside of Zorro. Even Chessman has been pretty dull to watch over the past year. I want to watch AAA to see AAA, not a ‘C’ version of TNA or some random U.S. indy.
Anyways, my Verano picks:
1: If it’s the original Clowns I gotta go with them winning but it’ll be a cheap win to setup a rematch. If we’re going to see new Clowns the obvious thing to do would be put the Japanese trio over and kill the Psycho Circus gimmick which will go down as one of Konnan’s all-time biggest failures during his booking run.
(If we are getting new Clowns, two of the Biazarros would fit size-wise, no?)
2: Do we even know if Extreme Tiger will be okay to work? If he’s still injured I can see them getting rid of him early and putting the title on Jack.
3: I’m not as opposed to this as others. Would you rather see a straight tag match for the belts with these teams or this match where they can just do weapon shots and silly bumps? I know I prefer the latter! Rumors are that the original Gronda will return tonight so I’ll take the Hermandad winning after he interferes.
4: Geez, it feels like Octagon hasn’t been around in ages. Seems like a rather pointless match just to get more names on the show. Doesn’t matter who wins but let’s go with the rudos.
5: 2 years ago this would have been something. But with Chessman have regressed and Charly being immobile… I can’t see this being anything but a brawl around the building leading to Chessman’s idiotic bump of the night. Charly goes over.
6: Oh yeah, Aero Star is most definitely diving off the cage. I’m really worried though b/c I think his dive of choice will be that reverse cannonball either into the ring or outside of the ring on Billy and that spot just seems full of danger. Hopefully I’m wrong and he just opts for a plancha but with this being his biggest match ever… I’m worried. Smart choice is Sexy Star losing but they could just as easily hold off on that and have Billy just get shaved. I’ll take Billy being shaved by Fabi.
7: I’m ruling out Ciber for the win so it’s between Wagner and Mesias and I can’t see Mesias being patient enough to trust he will get his win back from Wagner down the road. So I’ll take Mesias escaping first.
AAA.com says they are doing live results + a chat.
Of course, I’m in the minority as I’m looking forward to this show and Wagner coming in has increased my intrest in AAA. A couple months ago that was my case as I was down on Lucha as a whole. CMLL hasn’t brought anything to the table but shitty tecnicos and another crappy Japan vs Mexico feud. Yay.
Anyways as for predictions: KENZO Team beat the clowns, Jack wins, Hermanidad retains, Team Wagner, Charly, Sexy Star loses and finally, Ciber wins the main.
Verano de Aburrimiento
Cubsfan got a reply from aaa.com!
“AAA y Los Psycho Circus responden a la campaña de desinformación que ha tenido lugar en algunos sitios de internet no acreditados por la empresa, donde se sugiere que el día de hoy en Verano de Escándalo se estarían presentando otros luchadores en vez de los hasta ahora conocidos como Killer Clown y Zombie Clown, o bien que este sitio oficial “no sabe quiénes están en Los Psycho Circus”.
Por este medio y en exclusiva, momentos antes de que dé inicio el megaevento Verano de Escándalo, AAA hace de su conocimiento que los dos elementos antes mencionados cambian de nombre, y se convierten en Murder Clown y Monster Clown, respectivamente.
En entrevista exclusiva con el ahora Murder Clown para Luchalibreaaa.com, previo a su combate decisivo ante La Yakuza de Kenzo Suzuki, desea aclarar que se trata de los mismos elementos, por lo tanto queda indiscutible la racha de victorias como equipo. Además, Murder aclara que no sólo son los mismos, sino que la imagen que todos conocemos (y que ha sido mundialmente exitosa) también se mantiene intacta.”
Something smells fishy…
so what we’re saying here is no one would’ve found out they changed their names unless I brought it up? Glad I could help AAA out!
Certianly odd that such an global known team would tarnish their brand identity by changing their names so late in the game.
@thecubsfan: Changing your name on a TV skit or in a nationally distributed magazine is so passe! The LEGIT way to do it is to have the new names get listed on the lineup sheet and then explain 30 minutes before the show to everyone checking the website at the exact moment that they have new names.
I find it hard to believe this is just a simple name change though but it will be easy to tell. Not many Mexicans can pull off Killer’s pale white skin…
@Rob: or konan just broghut in some other american.
Why would one of the largest wrestling companies in the world be worried at all about what is on the internet on the eve of one of their (traditionally) biggest shows of the year?
Hey Cubs, AAA just essentially “legitimized” your blog as a source of breaking news by responding to it and acknowledging it.
@ Nikita:
Another way of looking at it is that Konnan “legitimized” luchablog as a source of breaking news by responding to it and acknowledging it.
So, AAA is upset because we were all curious as to why there were TWO different names listed among the Psycho Circus for several days and rather than just explaining it that they had just made name changes and all, they decide to be douchebags about it RATHER than apologize themselves for their own misinformation THAT their own FUCKING website created. Classic.
They actually should be sending Cubs a big thank you for actually finding something interesting to talk about for this show because I can’t think of anything else we’ve discussed about AAA more this past week than the Psycho Circus, other than the Pimpi/Gato storyline.:)
Damn Cubs, you gotta be feeling pretty fucking good about yourself right about now. I know I’d be.
@Nikita: Maybe because the internet is important in 2009?