Day: August 14, 2010

CMLL (FRI) 08/13 Arena Mexico [@cmllmagazine, Cesar, SuperLuchas]
1) Molotov & Sensei DQ Disturbio & Durango Kid
2) Demus 3:16, Pequeño Warrior, Pierrothito b Astral, Mascarita Dorada, Último Dragoncito
3) Charlie Manson, Héctor Garza, Mr. Águila b Felino, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero
4) Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Niebla, Volador Jr. b Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto [tournament, semifinal]
5) La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Místico DQ Atlantis, Olimpico, Último Guerrero [tournament, semifinal]
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Niebla, Volador Jr. b La Máscara, Máscara Dorada, Místico [tournament, final]
7) Jushin Lyger b La Sombra [CMLL Universal]

Main event was a three fall tournament final. Sombra took the first, Lyger brainbustered him in the second. In a back and forth third fall, which sounded pretty good on Twitter, Lyger managed to survive the same dive which Sombra beat him with in the Best of Super Juniors, while Sombra kicked out big Lyger moves. Lyger got the win when his second Okumura distracted the ref, and Lyger pulled Sombra’s mask before rolling him up. It’s a cheap, unsatisfying finish to a such a tournament. Sombra would have lost little by losing to Lyger after a fierce battle. Instead, this comes off as a just another cheap finish in a promotion overly concerned with protecting everyone in main event singles matches. (This is the third main event singles match this week, and the third with a screwy finish – will Rush & Loco Max be the fourth?)

After the usual battle royal to determine teams, the mismatched rudo team beat the Hijos de Averno. Volador got Averno. The other semifinal had the sole tecnico team win over the reconstituted Guerreros del Atlantida. Psicosis and Histeria attacked Misitco to soften him up for 09/03. Guess they wanted to get an early start of things. This greatly annoyed Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis, who were further perturbed by Olimpico helping out his Invader friends. UG & Atlantis quickly gave Olimpico a “with us or with them?” ultimatum, and Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis just as quickly got punked out. The reconstituted Guerreros lasted one whole day; that’s what you get for ignoring Rey Bucanero. Ultimo Guerrero & Atlantis demanded to be included in the 09/03 cage match, so they can get some revenge on the Invaders.

In the final, the only match of the tournament to crack six minutes, Mr. Niebla stole the pin on Mistico by reversing a casita and using the ropes to hold on. Niebla and Mistico went back and forth after the match, Mistico reminding Niebla about a challenge for a mask match before Niebla last vanished and inviting him to join the cage match. Niebla said he’d rather do it 1 on 1.

Will he be in the cage? Will the main event finish cause Lyger to be included? The Anniversary card will be announced Monday, though clearly subject to change until it happens.

Demus’ double underhook piledriver stopped Mascarita Dorada. That’s the same move that beat Electrico on Tuesday, the same move that finished Bam Bam in their last hair match. If anyone’s going to stop Demus from winning the minis bicentennial tournament, they’re going to have to a way to stop, counter, or survive that hold.

DQ in the opener was for Durango pulling Sensei’s mask. Those two may be feuding.

IWL (FRI) 08/13 Arena Lopez Mateos [The Gladiatores, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Estrellas del Ring, R de Rudo]

1) Space Warrior b Hormiga Atomica
2) Silver Cat I & Silver Cat II b Kilvan & Yoruba
3) Chucho el Roto, Iron Love, Robin Maravilla b Cerebro Maligno, Herejia, Tormento
4) Rocky Santana, Sadico, Yakuza b Angel o Demonio, Leon Rojo, Obett
5) Heddi Karaoui b Ryan Taylor [IWL CHAMP, eightfinal]
6) Histeria II & Psicosis II DQ Hijo del Cien Caras & Máscara Año 2000 Jr.
7) Chuck Palumbo b Charly Manson [IWL CHAMP, eightfinal]

The big news here is Histeria, Psicosis, and Charly were able to make both shows on Friday night. Probably helped that this turned into a seven match card. The box y lucha thread about this card mentiones they delayed the show, and it didn’t finish until midnight.

Attendance seemed better than a usual AULL show here, though it looks like most people were grouped on one side (for TV?) They dressed up the arena a bit and had lights and pyro.

Palumbo and Karoui move on in the tournament. They showed off the title belt, probably as proof that they were taking this seriously.DQ was four Mascara Ano 2000 fouling Psicosis, though the ref took his time calling it. Fourth match was a bloody brawl.

Ras de Lona was built around the (announced) cage match participants all talking about being in the match. You’ll be happy to know that crazy paranoid Mistico thinks Sombra could end up going against him in the cage as well.  Also, Demus hyped/mocked all his possible opponents in his tournament final, and Jushin Lyger kicked an imaginary Sombra in the head. Last night’s challenges/demands to be included were not shown.

Article in Hidalgo Sport asks if the local promoters at Arena Azteca have been promoting fake wrestlers – promoting certain (unspecified) luchadors to appear, and producing ‘pirate’ versions. Coming to the promotion’s defense: Huracan Ramirez and Huracan Ramirez Jr., the two most pirated gimmicks of the moment. (At least in that case, there’s no ‘real’ ones around; there’s a half dozen people who all are pretending to be the same person.)

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Lineup

CMLL (FRI) 08/20 Arena Mexico
1) Ángel de Oro & Ángel de Plata vs Loco Max & Skándalo
2) Fuego, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Misterioso II, Shigeo Okumura, Yoshihashi
3) Sagrado vs Texano Jr. [lightning]
4) Felino, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero vs Charly Manson, Héctor Garza, Mr. Águila
5) Olímpico, Psicosis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Atlantis, Strong Man, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
6) La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Jushin Lyger, Mr. Niebla, Volador Jr.

Packed lineup, with the first three matches featuring guys working lower than usual. They’re trying to avoid the pre-Anniversary let down, I guess. Main event could be good or could be a parade of rudo goofballness. Could be both!

Lyger, Rayo and Dorada are all in spots where they’d make sense being added to the cage match.

Just to be even confusing, Ras de Lona combined matches 4 and 5 into one 6 vs 6 relevos Increibles match. That would be a match! They got the lineups right htis week.

The show’s tonight. (I’m pretty sure of that, now.) As always with AAA, I have a lot of questions it, but there’s five I hope are answered tonight.

1) What’s the status of Dr. Wagner Jr. and Sexi Star?

I haven’t spent much time talking about Dr. Wagner after his initial appearance on the CMLL vs Invaders show last month, because nothing has really changed since that moment. Dr. Wagner has not signed a new deal. Dr. Wagner has not left AAA, though he has worked at least one independent show outside of AAA’s bookings. If he’s not under contract, Wagner could still choose to leave at any moment. The only ‘news’ we’ve figured out since that appearance is CMLL isn’t interested in Dr. Wagner; they continue to ignore him, it’s unlikely he’d go back to CMLL, and Wagner doesn’t have that leverage to use against AAA.

Still, no progress appears to have been made. If Wagner is not the AAA champion at the end of the night, it’s going to set up a whole another round of rumors about his status.

On a much lesser scale, the same is true for Sexi Star. While it hasn’t been made clear on AAA TV and may not be the stipulation they end with, the posters locally suggest her Reina de Reinas title (and the Mixed Tag Titles) are on the line in the trios match against the Apaches and Aerostar. It matters much less who has the Reina de Reinas title, but if Sexi suddenly loses right after trying out for the WWE, it might be the same sign.

2) Is Perro Aguayo Jr. sticking around AAA for the long haul? Will they let him?

Perro Jr. came off as a huge star at TripleMania. At the Lucha Libre Expo, which airs this week in the United States, Perrito comes off as the direct opposite. If you haven’t seen Perro’s “performance”, it’s worth watching the last five minutes of AAA TV just to see the dictionary definition of ‘in no condition to perform’ for yourself.

Perro comes into AAA with one strike against; he’s getting paid good money, which means there’s money others believe they should be getting but won’t be. Perro’s behavior already earned him strike two. Perro’s a man without a country – his more important crew have found life boats and won’t be going down with the ship – and he’s not even had a match yet. A fresh and strong rudo presence who can actually wrestle would be a big asset to AAA, but Perro needs AAA more than they need him right now. It feels unlikely AAA would cut ties with Perro so quick, but another bad night so quick could be it.

3) How are they going to get finishes for the top matches?

The main event trios match is Cibernetico (rarely losses), Mesias (just back from injury, doesn’t make sense to lose), La Parka (probably not in a mood to lose after his last big loss) vs Perro Aguayo Jr. (rarely loses), LA Park (rarely loses), Damian 666 (???). In some times, this would add to the match, because someone would be taking a loss who doesn’t normally. In AAA of 2010, this means some sort of massive face saving screwjob.

Meanwhile, it seems incredibly unlikely Dr. Wagner is going to take a direct loss. Even if he’s losing, the rules of the match (first pinfall to a finish) will allow Wagner to escape being beat, which is exactly what AAA did with Mesias this past Rey de Reyes. If Mesias is getting that courtesy, Wagner surely will want the same. Silver King takes his fair share of loses, but it feels more like he and Wagner are the long term program for the title and wouldn’t make sense for him to lose this early. On the other hand, it took a bag full of powder for Vampiro to lose at TripleMania.

AAA’s been good at remembering to do finishes for it’s matches of late. Satisfying finishes are another matter.

4) Is there anything actually good here? Or surprising?

This card has been compared to both a normal AAA TV card, and a lesser major CMLL card. It’s their usual format – a title match, a trios match featuring big names with nothing on the line, two midcard matches designed only to get certain people on the card, and two undercard matches which might be good. It’s underwhelming.

However, some of AAA’s angle filled TV tapings have come off lineups which seem very ordinary, and this is sure a night which could use a surprise or two. Even though there’s no sure good match on the card, the relevos AAA atomicos, the mixed trios, and 187/Jack vs Legion matches all have decent chances to be fun.

5) What the heck is the deal with Extreme Tiger and Relampago?

Okay, neither guy being on this card might make this a long shot to be answered. You’ve got to have hope.