As noted by @ThereAlfredo, Samurai TV lists Dos Leyendas as airing in Japan on 04/13, which is likely much sooner than it will air in Mexico. I suspect it’ll turn up on YouTube by 04/15. It’s a 120 minute slot, which would mean top 4 matches in Mexico.
The latest WON mentions Mr. Niebla was suspended for 30 days (Dos Leyendas was the first show he missed, so that’d put him back after 04/19), and Marco Corleone is expected back in AAA in the next month or so. The story there is he had no idea he was possibly in line for the AAA championship until he read it on the internet, after he left. Mexico is weird.
Also mentioned: AAA’s trying to bring in some TNA wrestlers for TripleMania. Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy are mentioned. Mr. Anderson is not. There’s also a mention that Vampiro wanted to do one last one run as heel, so that may explain the odd booking on the mid April lineup.
Arena Mexico Previews
- Notimex notes main event is more Volador vs Mistico
- Ovaciones sees today’s semimain as the real big match, setting up a trios title match (Angels Rebeldes vs the odd Fuerza T trio of Texano, Terrible, and Taichi)
- Esto, in talking about the Pequeno Warrior/Bracito de Oro feud, call the rudo “the mini human guillotine”, a fantastic nickname. Everyone still lists Dorada in the match, though Ovaciones is the only one who notes that’s news. I’m still not especially confident he’ll be there, since everyone involved has been so quiet about this.
Brazo de Oro tells Fuego that he was prepared to win, but made an oversight, and now he’s bald. Brazo says the hair match versus Asesino Negro drew well, so the Brazos may do more.
Today’s AAA on MTV2/MTV Tr3S detail:
The deal clinched by Cookie Jar Entertainment’s The Jar brings 52 weeks of the new show to the two networks. The two channels will also air Behind the Mask, a half-hour special that takes an in-depth look at the history of the sport of Lucha Libre.
There’s been documentaries around that name, but none of them particularly AAA focused, and you’d think that’d be the deal here. Maybe it’s something new. Steven Ship is listed as manager director of Lucha Libre USA; he’s been with them since the 2007 matches on the Warped Tour.
R de Rudo has dual interviews with Damian 666 and Pequeno Damian 666. Not a lot new with the older guy. The mini says the regular size guy actually only trademarked “Damiancito 666”, not the name the mini is actually using. Mini Damian 666 says his problems in the US was trying to get in as an illegal, and he’s visited the US Embassy to try and clear them up. Mini Damian plans to keep that name until Paco Alonso tells him different, but feels like he’s brought some value to the name and would prefer not to give it up.
Cesar correctly notes the lesson here: luchadors have to copyright every variant of their name if they want exclusivity; verbal agreements will not hold. (Or change the law, I guess.)
At a PAN political rally, Intocable explains the wrestling business is hurting because of the drug trade. Fans are scared of being caught up in the violence, promoters are scared of losing money and being indebted to drug dealers.
Sexi Star says she was happy to win the Reina de Reinas, because she’s always considered herself queen, crown or not. She’s also angry about breaking her $1,000 fingernail, though Sexi also says 100% real.
Alex Koslov Cam #2 has footage from ROH, Monterrey, and bad hotel rooms across northern Mexico. Boom?
Cesar also has an article on AAA’s attempts to keep LA Park appearing as an independent outsider. I don’t think that’s especially needed for AAA’s fan base; for this promotion, I don’t think there’s an additional group of fans who will be more into if it they think it’s a all unplanned (and keeping people believing is probably beyond their grasp.)
Estrellas del Ring has an interview with Cuernavaca wrestler Oso Dorado, who has a very Tiger Kid-esque mask. I’m always in favor of more lucha libre bears.
DJ Spectro writes about El Resucitado‘s one match in Arena Coliseo, and the first lightweight champ.
Proyeccion Luchistica has play by play for the CMLL return to Arena Lopez Mateos.
Ohtani’s Jacket watches a couple matches from the Monterrey lucha Liibre festival.
Lineups
indy (SAT) 05/01 Arena Neza
1) Alan Extreme, Hermano Muerte, Keshin Black vs Ángel de la Noche, Dinamic Black, Vuelo Espacial
2) Comando Negro, Crazy Boricua, Dark Zombie, Redentor vs Cocolores, Cósmico, Diamante Azul, Super Electra
3) el Signo vs Ray Mendoza Jr., Villano IV, Shu el Guerrero, Rambo, Hijo del Signo, Canek Jr., Ultramán Jr., Hijo del Solar, Fishman Jr. [cage, mask, hair]
4) Dos Caras Sr., El Fantasma, Villano III vs Canek, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000
This is the Signo retirement/benefit show. Making a guy climb of a cage on his retirement show is rough, but maybe that won’t be an issue here.
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Don’t forget Samurai TV also shows about 40 minutes less commercials than Galavision does so they’ll probably squeeze the entire card into 2 hours.
You forgot to list the generic tag on that Arena Neza show.
Signo’s a great con-man. Gonna trick another promoter into thinking he’s wrestling his final match (again) and may squeeze out an extra hair payday too. We’ll see how long that cash lasts him till he’s back begging for bookings.
@Rob: Speaking of commercial time, LATV is airing just 12-14 on CMLL, which is a good ratio. They can squeeze a third match on there if they did away with dancing girls and intros.
I’m heading to Arena Mexico with a friend tonight, so we’ll see if Dorado is there and if they do anything interesting in the semimain or main.
Sounds like they won’t even call it AAA.
Tonight’s crowd at Arena Mexico was quite a bit better than I expected. Most of the first two levels were full with. I’d say 2/3’s to 75% full on those levels and probably a little over half on the upper level. It was a pretty fun show overall. I walked past Bernardo outside, so maybe he really does go to all the shows on his own? OK, here are the results.
1) Horus & Metálico beat Disturbio & Durango Kid-Not bad, not great.
2) Bracito de Oro, Eléctrico, Mascarita Dorada beat Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito-Dorada Returns! Sadly I don’t know the html to make that flash and blink or I would try it out here. I’m horrible at the “who is under that mask” game, but it looked like Dorada to me. The match had some build for Warrior and Bracito, but wasn’t strictly focused on them. Electrico is getting better every week. Dorada attempted his finisher on Pierrothito but wasn’t able to get it locked on for the finish. They improvised and ended with a camel clutch.
3) Fuego beat Pólvora [lightning]-Four and half minute lightning match. Pretty good, but could have used some Flash.
4) Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto beat Blue Panther, Rush, Sagrado-Triad uses their new finisher (beer to the face) to finish off Panther.
5) Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara beat Taichi, Terrible, Texano Jr.-Que Monito is out with the tecnicos. They did nothing to tease a Garza turn here as he worked perfectly with his teammates. If this is supposed to be building toward a title match, they should have worked it differently because it felt pretty one sided. Maybe Terrible and Texano can try again with Vangelis? Still an entertaining match and a program with the champs and Terrible/Texano and a more natural partner could be fun. If they do pull the trigger on a Garza turn, adding him to a group with Terrible and Texano would seem to work well.
6) Brazo de Plata, La Sombra, Volador Jr. beat Felino, Místico, Negro Casas-Brazo de Plata came out in the Super Sky Team mask to start the match so maybe he becomes the third member? Pretty good stuff from these guys, but the match was clearly built just for the finish. Surprisingly enough, Casas and Felino got tired of Mistico and cost him the final fall which Volador got with la Mistica. Casas and Felino left the ring and the tecnicos followed them out. Mistico got on the mic and talked about how the tecnicos only won because of Felino and Casas. Volodor got in some mic work as well, and Mistico basically challenged everyone to mask and hair matches. Mistico was left alone in the ring with the entire crowd booing him again. I was expecting (hoping) that this might have been the Triad’s chance to come out and make the save/help Mistico beat down the tecnicos, but not tonight at least.
This all brings me to a couple of thoughts. How is a man with no friends supposed to survive in a promotion that books trios matches almost exclusively? Hopefully they have a plan for how they are proceeding here, but they should be able to keep it interesting. The Triad seems like the logical move (Mephisto didn’t wrestle in it tonight, but for the past several weeks he’s been wearing the Mephisto/Averno/Mistico combo mask), but they could do some other interesting stuff too.
For the time being, if Mistico doesn’t start using 2pac’s Me Against the World as his entrance music there is something seriously wrong with CMLL.