What we know about Dr. Wagner’s status, at the moment

typing this knowing it may be irrelevant at any moment

Doctor Wagner Junior is without an AAA contract. He signed a one year deal in the run up to last year’s TripleMania and worked this year’s TripleMania without one. AAA put the AAA World Heavyweight title on him to keep him happy and get him to stay, and were under the belief he’d be signing a two year deal contact, and possibly an additional one to lose his mask.

AAA was unaware Wagner was showing up in Nuevo Laredo, finding out around the same time as everyone else. Dorian Roldan and Dos de Tres have noted the situation, but haven’t strongly reacted to it. (Dorian’s been overly magnanimous, congratulating Mistico and wishing Histeria luck for Sunday.) AAA hasn’t t buried Wagner or threatened punitive action and Dr. Wagner said he had no problem with AAA,  so he could easily end up merrily back in AAA.

Dr. Wagner Junior is not listed on any AAA spot show until the TV taping in Toluca on 07/29. AAA isn’t consistent or complete about putting out lineups, so that may not especially mean anything. Also, we’re still waiting on their Lucha Libre Expo TV taping lineup, which they’ve said will be out today.

It’s not clear how much a CMLL was a part of it; while this was a show with CMLL wrestlers, it was still one being run by the local promoter. I doubt the wrestlers would’ve let him walk out there without some understanding, but it’s not as meaningful or permanent as if the same bit was done in Arena Mexico. They might have let Wagner walk around just to prove a point in Nuevo Laredo, but he wouldn’t be allowed to do the same in Mexico City without a done deal.

The contract’s the issue. AAA’s probably going thru some issues, since we just heard about Rocky Romero leaving after the last set of taping due to a pay cut, and maybe that’s an issue with Wagner’s deal as well. However, CMLL hasn’t been handing out great deals either. About a month ago, the WON mentioned CMLL had major cutbacks in wrestler’s deals, taking everyone besides five (Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Shocker, Negro Casas, Hector Garza + outsiders) off guaranteed contracts and back to being paid via (low) percentage of the house. There are always different better deals available to top guys jumping from one company to another, but it’s not a profitable time to be a luchador.

There’s also the possibility of Dr. Wagner going back to the indies for some time, as he did between his last CMLL stint and this time in AAA. There’s much fewer options now than there were in the independents a year and a half ago – Los Perros are almost done, EAW is barely running shows, Monterrey is quiet, he may be locked out of Arena Naucalpan due to their deal with AAA – but Wagner coming off AAA TV with the title will have tons of promoter interest. It could be like what’s happened with Bryan Danielson’s schedule, but ten fold. Wagner would also be a great addition to the MTV2 Masked Warriors group. They already have all that AAA footage with him!

With the AAA video game not out for three months, Slang and AAA could certainly change the cover, and they had mock ups for alternate Parka/Elegido/Silver King covers at E3. If he left, Dr. Wagner would become the eleventh guy currently listed in AAA’s video game who has quit the company, one quarter of the video game roster.