5 questions for Verano de Escandalo

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.