Month: April 2012

AAA (SUN) 04/29/2012 Sala de Armas Magdalena Mixhuca [Estrellas del Ring]
1) Fenix & Relampago b Dark Dragon & Tito Santana
2) Mini Chessman & Sexy Star b Cinthia Moreno & Mascarita Dorada
Sexy Lady started the match was strechered out after a Cinthia Moreno backcracker. Sexy Star took her place and won.
3) Cuervo, Espíritu, Ozz b Daga, Jack Evans, Pimpinela Escarlata
4) Alan Stone, Nicho el Millionario, Octagón vs Daga, El Elegido, Extreme Tiger
Mesias appeared to talk about his injury and announce Daga as his replacement. Daga was hyped as upcoming star of AAA, lost twice here. Alan Stone was a rudo for the night.
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. b Vampiro
Wagner worked as rudo, Copetes helping him thru the match and Wagner sneaking in a chair shot to the head for the win.

Attendance here looks slightly better than the usual Toryumon Mexico show in this building. This is the last spot show for AAA’s sponsor (for the time being), and they resume taping tonight in Leon. Main event is the odd teams of Juvi & La Parka vs Jeff Jarrett & Chessman. The Wagners team up versus Consejo, Teddy gets his first match since coming back, and Mari and Fabi have a singles match.

Vampiro’s been featured on all of these AAA PASCO shows, but won’t be on the TV taping tonight; he says he’s headed to Guadalajara for a Kid’s Day function but will sign a contract with AAA on Thursday.

TxT (SUN) 04/29/2012 Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring]
1) Batman & Hombre Arana b Duende Verde & Guason
2) Carta Brava Jr. (IWRG) & Saruman b Dinamic Black & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.
Saruman shook hands with his opponents after the match, which upset Carta Brava.
3) Black Terry, Scorpio Jr., Shu el Guerrero b Super Muñeco, Súper Pinocho, Súper Ratón
Rudos won. Muneco challenged Shu for a mask match. Shu ignored him.
4) Angel Blanco Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera DQ El Hijo Del Santo & Huracan Ramirez
Rudos took 1/3. Fuerza snuck in a foul on Huracan Ramirez, and Santo raced in to pull off his mask. Santo challenged Fuerza to a mask match, but Fuerza blew him off.
5) Cien Caras Jr., Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 b Rayman, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Villano IV
Rayo was about to win when Cien Caras walked out to distract him. Rudos beat him for the win. Rayo challenged Cien to a mask vs hair match.

Attendance was way down from the last show, predictably so. Maybe 40% full. DJ Spectro says 60%. On the other hand, payoffs must’ve been really good last time if everyone’s making challenges for mask matches.

IWRG (SUN) 04/29/2012 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Matrix Jr. & Pacto Negro b Johnny Rivera & Star Boy Jr.
straight falls. Johnny Rivera replaced Charly Madrid, Matrix replaced the Mummy Tecnicos did match to beat Matrix in the eecond fall, but Pacto Negro beat them both.
2) Centvrión, Danny Casas, Saruman b Comando Negro, Gemelo Fantastico I, Gemelo Fantastico II
Saruman beat Comando Negro
3) Chicano, Dinamic Black, Golden Magic b Alan Extreme, Carta Brava Jr., Douki
Chicano submitted Carta Brava though Brava insisted he didn’t submit. This sets up a title match on May 6th. Douki is a Japanese wrestler.
4) Eterno, Pacto Negro, Zumbido b Danny Casas, Pantera, Tony Rivera
Danny Casas and Pacto Negro worked twice, replacing Ultraman Jr. & Zumbi. Match appeared to be coming down to Tony Rivera vs Eterno, but Zumbido tripped up Tony to set up Eterno’s pin.
5) Trauma I b Oficial Factor, Oficial 911
Captains seeding match. Oficials make a deal to eliminate Trauma I first, which of course fell apart. Trauma I submitted 911 with a inverted figure four, and Factor pinned Trauma with a Styles Clash.
6) Angelico, Trauma I, Trauma II DQ Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
Bloody mask ripping match. AK47 tried to martinete Trauma I, refs broke it up, and Oficial AK47 fouled him instead.
7) Angelico, Trauma I, Trauma II b Eterno, Oficial Factor, Oficial Spartan
Eterno replaced Oficial Rayan. Rudos jumped the tecnicos right after the last match, tecnicos made their way back, and Trauma II beat Eterno. Lots of post match challenges.

Apolo Dantes tweeted Leon Blanco kept his mask over Espécimen in Guadalajara.

Links

• The legends/benefit show in Cuernavaca is said to have gone well.
• Article about who (says they) hold the actual rights to the Gran Markus name.

Lineups

IWRG (THU) 05/03/2012 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sky Ángel & Templario vs Dragón Celestial & Poison
2) Crosby & Pequeño Ángel vs Comando Negro & Pacto Negro
3) Charly Madrid, Chicano, Freelance vs Alemán, The Mummy, Tóxico
4) Dinamic Black, Trauma II, Veneno vs Súper Nova, Violencia Jr., Zumbido
5) Hijo de LA Park, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Trauma I, Ultramán Jr. vs Bestia 666, Damián 666, X-Fly, Zumbi

They’ve got a picture of (Wolverine) Violencia on the poster, so at least whoever did that thinks Violencia Jr. is related to the former CMLL guy. Main event is FdT vs a motley crew.

CMLL (SUN) 05/06/2012 Arena Coliseo
1) Metálico & Soberano Jr. vs Bronco & Zayco
2) Estrellita, Lluvia, Luna Mágica vs Amapola, La Seductora, Princesa Sugheit
3) Pegasso, Sagrado, Triton vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
4) Delta, Rey Cometa, Sangre Azteca vs Olímpico, Pólvora, Psicosis
5) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible, Volador Jr.

Rey Cometa owns the semimains in Arena Coliseo. Seriously, I’m not sure why/how he leapfrogged over Sagrado and Triton in the pecking order (and why Sangre Azteca has also), but it’s an interesting development.

CMLL (SUN) 05/06/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Meteoro vs Relampago Azul
2) El Divino & Javier Cruz vs Demonio Maya & Sádico
3) Esfinge & Leo vs Barbaro Cavernario & Espectrum
4) Gallo, León Blanco, Smaker vs Magnum, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
5) Ángel de Oro & Máscara Dorada vs Ephesto & Mephisto

A show.

CMLL (SUN) 04/29/2012 Arena Mexico
***Kids Day 2012***
1) Apocalipsis, Bronco, Cholo b Höruz, Metatrón, Molotov
Rudos took 2/3.
2) La Comandante, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit b Estrellita, Luna Mágica, Silueta
Estrellita’s figure four is called “Star Cross”. Rudos took 2/3, Comandante beating Estrellita with an inverted campana.
3) Astral b Eléctrico, Bam Bam, Fantasy, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia, Mercurio [cibernetico]
Elimination order went Mercurio (by Fantasy), Fantasy (by Violencia), Nitro (by Bam Bam), Electrico (by Olimpico), Bam Bam and Violencia pinned each other, and Astral surprised Olimpico with a cristo to win.
4) Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Olímpico b Delta, Hijo del Fantasma, Stuka Jr.
Fantasma, Delta, Stuka, Marco, Sombra, Shocker and Que Monito threw out shirts to the kids before the match. Kraneo has a new mask design, no longer the half Alebrije/half Kraneo look. Rudos took 1/3, Olimpico beat Fantasma.
5) La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.
Moved to the semimain. Tecnicos took 2/3, Volador yanking Sombra’s mask.
6) Negro Casas b Ángel de Oro [NWA WELTER]
Moved to the main event. Negro Casas came in as the champion. Angel de Oro won the first with the mecedora, Negro Casas won the second with the casita, and Negro Casas won the third with the casita again. First defense.

Only two tecnico wins, only one by pinfall. That’s a big philosophical change on these shows. Main event is the right decision, one I’m totally surprised by.

On Sunday’s WWC TV, they announced (as breaking news) the return of Mesias for their Anniversario shows, June 29th to July 1st. That’s a month early than AAA is saying he’s back. No matches have been announced, so I guess it’s possible Mesias is just going home to recover from his arm injury and agreed to come out to a few shows and wave at the crowd before he’s returned to health. It’s also possible Mesias might have a miracle recovery in his near future.

DTU is teasing something with Dragon Gate. Over in Dragon Gate, they recently did a bit where if Eita Kobayashi learns 100 words of Spanish by their May 18th show, he gets an excursion to Mexico. Perhaps those are related.

Bill has highlights of 04/17/11 IWRG.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and Alfredo looking back at El Matematico.

Rob has highlights of 04/19/11 CMLL and 03/18/12 AAA Rey de Reyes.

Links

• SuperLuchas #460 has an all Apocalpsis issue.
• The Traumas store opening looks like a big success.
• Cerebro Negro and Vaquerita talk about their upcoming DTU matches.
• Cronicas Y Leyenda looks back at Santo winning the 1996 Gran Prix.
• Perro Aguayo Jr. tells Durango blog he’ll order AAA send the best to the next Durango show, becaus that’s just heo much that part of the country means to him.
• Mini Psicosis has been AAA minis champion for a full year. He has zero defenses. AAA has far less titles than CMLL but many of them are equally useless.
• Mini Psycho Circus hung out with the children of Club America.
• The Gladiatores has an interview with Alan Extreme & the Mummy.
• If you like AAA shows with most of the lineup changed, the show in Veracruz was for you. And that’s one they’re doing for their main sponsor! They’re back in DF for the last of the run of sponsored shows, then can resume TV taping on Monday.

Lineups

Toryumon Mexico (SAT) 05/12/2012 Arena Mexico
***DragonMania VII***
1) Kana vs Syuri
2) Akebono & Brazo de Plata vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Loco Max, Rey Bucanero
two on three
3) Último Dragón vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Ohara, Último Guerrero, Hijo del Fantasma, Magnus, Durango Kid, Escandalo, Angelico [NWA IJ, Dragon Scramble]
Ultimo Dragon is the current champion.

The annual Ultimo Dragon show in Arena Mexico, with the usual assortment of Friends of Ultimo Dragon and Random People From Japan. Not a complete card; if the Navarros aren’t on this show, I’d be shocked.

Takaiwa is the Black Tiger Dragon unmasked. Akebono is a big sumo who’s been a very special guest star in pretty much every promotion in Japan (and WWE.) Kana vs Syuri are women who hit very hard from Tajiri’s promotion (and plenty of other places.)

IWRG FILL (TUE) 05/08/2012 Arena Naucalpan
1) Blue Metal, Imperio Azteca, Pikachu vs ?, Blue Monster, Serpiente de Oro
2) Dragón Celestial, Sky Ángel, Volaris vs Black Solider, Guerrero 2000, Matrix Jr.
3) ?, Acero, Leroy vs Kortiz, Negro Casasola, Templario
4) Chicano, Golden Magic, Pacto Negro vs Batman del Futuro, Guerrero Mixteco, Star Boy Jr.
5) Star Boy & Tony Rivera vs Black Terry & Temerario Infernal

Only IWRG lineup I have at the moment. Main event is based off all four getting involved in the last cage match.

Batman del Futuro and Johnny Rivera are the same guy.

Tercera mach seems to be a Gym Negro Navarro special.

CMLL (FRI) 04/27/2012 Arena Mexico [CMLL, Kaiser Sports (Rest), Kaiser Sports (Title)]
***56th Arena Mexico Anniversary***
1) Demus 3:16 & Pierrothito b Astral & Eléctrico
Rudos took 2/3.
2) Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Sangre Azteca b Hooligan, Loco Max, Skándalo
Tecnicos took 1/3. Five match winning streak for Rey Cometa.
3) Black Warrior, La Máscara, Valiente b Rey Escorpion, Vangelis, Virus
Straight falls for the tecnicos. Rudos were DQed for excessive violence in the first, then Warrior pinned Rey Escorpion in the second.
4) Triton b Puma King [En Busca de Un Idolo]
Triton win in 9:26. Triton picks up 20 points for the win, plus an additional 25 points from the judges. Puma King received 22 points.
5) Pólvora b Dragon Lee [En Busca de Un Idolo]
Polvora picked up 20 points for the win and 20 points from the judges. Dragon Lee earned 18 points from the judges.
6) Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas b Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Shocker
Rudos took 1/3. Shocker had Negro in the reinera, but Niebla fouled Atlantis and pinned him for the win. Negro & Felino were not getting along with Niebla & Zacarias post match. CMLL does not play that part up, so it may have been just usual goofiness.
7) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush b Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger [CMLL TRIOS]
Marco Corleone, Rush, and Maximo were the trios champs. TRT won fall won, tecnicos won fall 2. In the third, Maximo pinned Bucanero, Tiger beat Maximo, and Rush & Marco beat Terrible and Tiger to keep the titles. In backstage interviews, Rush & Maximo made hair match challenges to Terrible & Bucanero. Marco noted this team has only lost once as a trio since forming.

CMLL’s results oddly omit the En Busca de Un Idolo matches from their results and twitter feed. It did not seem like they announced the judges scores in the arena; the only place I’ve seen them mentioned so far is on Kaiser Sports. Maybe this all is supposed to be revealed on Wednesday nights? The judges watched the matches from a table put out on the stage.

Rob has highlights of the Perros del Mal 3rd Anniversary show and has his Busca un Idolo picks.

Bill has highlights of 03/20/12 CMLL GDL.

Links

• Mascara Dorada, Mephisto, Incognito, Hijo de Rey Misterio visited a Juarez children’s hospital.
• CMLL is running another show for PRI in Morelos today.
• The Traumas store opens today at noon.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 05/04/2012 Arena Mexico
1) Hombre Bala Jr. & Super Halcon Jr. vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Dark Angel, Lady Apache, Marcela vs La Comandante, Princesa Blanca, Tiffany
3) Fuego, Hijo del Fantasma, Sangre Azteca vs Misterioso Jr., Namajague, Shigeo Okumura
4) Diamante vs Niebla Roja [En Busca de un Idolo]
5) Titán vs Euforia [En Busca de un Idolo]
6) Black Warrior, La Máscara, Máscara Dorada vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Rey Escorpion
7) Atlantis, Rush, Shocker vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Volador Jr.

Main event looks to be more Atlantis/Niebla. Warrior and Escorpion continue in the semimain.

CMLL (TUE) 04/24/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Exterminador b Virgo
2) Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Triton b Barbaro Cavernario, Infierno, Malefico
3) Demus 3:16 & Pierrothito b Astral & Último Dragoncito
Dragoncito knocked Pierrothito into the third row with a dive. Rudos still pulled it together to win.
4) Sangre Azteca & Valiente b Namajague & Shigeo Okumura
Tecnicos took 2/3. Namajague pinned Sangre Azteca in the third, but Valiente beat Namajague & Okumura by himself. Valiente demanded a shot at Okumura’s title.
5) Atlantis, La Máscara, Máximo DQ Mr. Águila, Mr. Niebla, Psicosis
Straight falls for the tecnicos. Zacarias and Mije could not get along. Aguila fouled Maximo. Maximo demanded a hair match with Aguila. Aguila declined to respond.

Rey Cometa is on a scintillating four match winning streak going in to tonight’s trios.

IWRG (THU) 04/26/2012 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Johnny Rivera & Templario b Epidemia & Luger
2) Charly Madrid, Crosby, Pequeño Ángel b Comando Negro, Imposible, The Mummy
Debuting Crosby beat The Mummy in the third.
3) Oficial Spartan, Pacto Negro, Zumbido b Angelico, Chicano, Golden Magic
Pacto Negro replaced Rayan. Zumbido defeated Chicano.
4) Alan Extreme, Carta Brava Jr., Eterno b Dark Dragon, Decnnis, Tito Santana II
Alan & Carta were able to put aside their differences to fight AAA, but Dark Dragon still snuck in a foul on Eterno for the win.
5) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown b Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Oficial Factor
Clown took 1/3. Wagner had Psycho beat in the third, but Monster stopped the count. Wagner was distracted and beat by a Psycho Cerebro Driver.

Bushi is just hanging out in Mexico.

Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is the 56th anniversary of Arena Mexico founding. The big main event for the occasions is the team of Marco, Rush, Maximo putting up the trios titles against TRT, a match they’ve been building towards for a while but only announced last week. It looks like it’s going to come down to Rush and Terrible, as Rush was the one hwo accepted this match (before his partners really had a chance to think about it), and it always seems to come down to those two. Champions are slight favorites but it wouldn’t be a surprise for the challengers to cheat there way to the win. Marco says his team is better, and they know TRT’s weakness.

This show is the start of the En Busca de un Idolo tournament. Triton vs Puma King and Dragon Lee vs Polvora open it up. CMLL published a schedule of matches, which clarifies the tecnicos will only be fighting the rudos, with no intra-group match ups. That means four weeks of group matches, then a break week with the top four finishers teaming with coaches Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero. (That also leaves room for a tiebreaker that week, if needed.) It’s probably a four man tournament to finish, but it’s not on the schedule.

It appears it’ll be the top two wrestlers in each group who move on, not the top four overall, so they can have two tecnico partners for Atlantis and two for Ultimo Guerrero. The format also means that, as much as they try hype this as group vs group, the true victory is to be the best of your group.

I did match by match predictions for Forjando un Idolo, but it doesn’t seem like a worthwhile idea when no one’s quite sure about how the judging will work in practice, and the judging is more important than the match outcomes. Judging as a tiebreaker is a nice idea, and legit judging would be interesting, but it could very much backfire if someone with a worse record advances because he got more judge’s points. For my part, it seems more fruitful to predict the 1-8 standings, even though they may actually be two groups of 1-4.

1. Niebla Roja
2. Titan
3. Polvora
4. Dragon Lee
5. Euforia
6. Triton
7. Puma King
8. Diamante

Diamante seems out of favor, which makes him great for a tournament like this where someone’s got to lose. Puma’s not been treated at this level consistently. It’d be unlike CMLL to advance both Titan & Triton, and Triton got to go to the Gran Alternativa final so this is probably not his turn. (Also, if judging is legit, Triton has more off days than Titan.) Same reason Euforia doesn’t win the title – two Cancerberos advancing is unlikely, Euforia just won, and Polvora has a title so he should be protected a little bit. (In a less political place, one guy who keep winning all of this youth tournament to establish him as the guy. I’m trying to guess what CMLL will actually do, not what they should do.)

The order of the top four is not especially important, but my guess is Titan win this, and so they give someone else the group victory. It may just be a difference of judging points for the group stage. Dragon Lee will have at least one match where five things go wrong in a row and it’s impossible to judge him highly, and Niebla Roja is much more of a character than Polvora.

I’m supporting Titan in this, but if you wanted to mess with CMLL to see what they’d do, you’d probably want to flood the vote for Puma King.

Fuerza Guerrera promotes this weekend’s Todo x el Todo show by saying he has no idea who this Huracan Ramirez is and Santo is scared of him. Fuerza thinks Santo took advantage of Angel Blanco Jr.’s lack of experience in mask matches, but he’s beat Santo plenty of time and would defeat him in a mask match if the promotion wasn’t protecting him. Fuerza is back to wanting that mask match with Octagon, and now is promising to pay for it and promote himself if AAA will just release Octagon to have the match. Fuerza ends by talking about how lucha libre is booming. It’s a quiet boom.

Silver King explains it was he who went to Dorian and demanded Roldan team up him and his brother to fight the Consejo. Silver King says he hasn’t talked to Dr. Wagner Jr. in two years and there are still ill feelings, but the threat of the Consejo is so dire that they must work together.

Namajague explains he came to Mexico to have fun and learn lucha libre. His best teammate, besides Okumura, has been Misterioso, and his most difficult opponent is Valiente. Namajague says he knows of Yujiro though he’s never talked to him, but hopes Yujiro can team up with the rest of Fiebre Amarillo as a great trio.

Bob has highlights of IWRG 03/10/11, IWRG 03/17/11, IWRG 03/24/11, IWRG 04/14/11, CMLL GDL 02/28/12, CMLL GDL 03/06/12, and CMLL 08/28/1992.

Links

• The Gladiatores catches up with Toxico.
• There’s a new lucha libre commissioner in Juarez.
• Teddy Hart does a Teddy Hart interview.
• Triton says he’s learned from his recent tournament losses
• The local AAA promoter in Merida, in hyping Monday’s AAA taping, says he hopes to bring six AAA shows there a year, two of them TV tapings.

Site Note

Videos may be late this week. Heading to the local ROH/CHIKARA shows on Saturday and the not-quite-local CHIKARA show on Sunday, which leaves me unsure when I’m actually going to edit out commercials and convert files. It’ll get done, just like everything eventually gets done, but the schedule may be off. Or I may just edit videos at a Steak N’ Shake in the middle of Indiana? Or maybe I just won’t sleep? I have a lot of possible plans, but the only thing I’m sure of is I’ll forget about the time change border at least twice.

Hoping my road trip will be fun. Black Terry Jr.’s trip to Guadalajara looked like a fun adventure and he had to spend 7 hours on a bus one way. I’m just stuck in a car with a halfway working cassette player for three, this should be easy.

CMLL (MON) 04/23/2012 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Asturiano, Black Tiger, Lestat b Espiritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana, Sauron
Tecnicos took 2/3. Rudos thought they had the third fall won, but Lestat snuck in a pinfall on captain Chicana.
2) Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior b Bam Bam, Fantasy, Pequeño Halcón
Rudos took falls 1/3
3) Fuego, Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado b Cancerbero, Hijo del Signo, Raziel
Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Black Warrior, Blue Panther, La Sombra b Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpion, Último Guerrero
Dragon Rojo still appears to be hurt. Tecnicos took 2/3. Escorpion and Warrior continued their feud. Sombra moonsaulted Rojo for the win, then asked for a title match.
5) Volador Jr. b La Máscara
Volador took 1/3. Tirantes prevented him from attacking Mascara before the match. Volador took the first with a backcracker, Mascara won the second on a casita (with a possible slow count), and Volador won the third with the spanish fly. Best match of the night.

That singles match sounds a lot like their Guadalajara match. I hope Dragon Rojo is feeling better really quick – back to back nights of title matches with Sombra (an athletically demanding match) and Diamante Azul & Blue Panther (a physically pounding match) are a lot to ask of anyone in any shape.

Mesias will be out three months after surgery on his arm this past Monday. They’re crediting Perro Aguayo Jr.’s attack with a chair back in Pachuca (04/01). Mesias was still wrestling up to Sunday night, so it must’ve been something he could work thru to an extent, though may be not long term or as well as he’d like. It was three weeks between the injury angle and the surgery, which suggests AAA didn’t know exactly how bad it’d be but wanted to cover their bases. That’d also explain why Perro challenge Mesias to a title match at TripleMania, which wouldn’t seem possible now.

The Observer did mention last AAA was considering moving back TripleMania to July. AAA would’ve known Mesias would not be healthy for the normal June date at that point and may have wanted to wait to do the show until July, but this would mean late July at the soonest. Pushing TripleMania back would also stack up the rest of the year; that show, Verano de Escandalo, Heroes Inmortales and Guerra de Titanes would be squeezed together in about four months. Last year’s schedule was less audacious and AAA still downplayed one of the shows to build the others. If AAA tried to do all four big shows in the second half of the year, they’ll probably end up with two big shows and two slightly bigger than usual TV tapings.

If Mesias is not back for TripleMania, whenever that turns out to be, the main events have to shuffle again. Perro Aguayo Jr. has no logical opponent, unless they drop the Teddy Hart feud and put Jack with Perro for the hair match after all.

The AAA title seems a bit cursed at the moment, or at least weakened from where it was a couple years ago. Mesias will have a long time between defenses following a Jarrett reign notable for the long gaps in appearances (and creatively unsatisfying defenses.) Jarrett won the title from Zorro, who seemed to fall off a cliff as soon as he won the belt. Zorro won the belt from Wagner, who’s title matches were build around an unending amount of interference spots from Silver King’s guys and voice recordings from beyond the grave. Wagner won it from Electroshock, who himself won the title by beating a guy who wasn’t even champion. This is not a stellar run.

Rey Misterio Jr. has been suspended by WWE for violating their drug policy for the second time. Second time in their policy means a 60 day suspension, and the third time is automatic termination. Just off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone who’s gotten that third strike in WWE. Jeff Hardy got two strikes and left WWE before he would’ve gotten a third (and there’s some discussion if he’d go back to zero if he ever came back.) Chris Masters had two strikes, left the company, went to rehab, and had no problems his second run. Misterio’s first violation was back in 2009, when he claimed it was a mix-up with the doctor over some knee medication.

I’d expect the same sort of story this time. If Misterio ever left WWE, for whatever reason, everyone assumes he’d end up back with AAA. I’m not as sure about that; he’d probably have some relationship with AAA, but I’d assume Misterio would have a ton of other wrestling promotions and non-wrestling business people offering him money and opportunities; Rey could easily be the US version of Hijo del Santo, at a much higher level. (And much more so than Mistico.) I’m sure he’d work some big AAA shows, but he’d have better options than working in Mexico full time.

The new En Busca de Un Idolo C3 show will actually just be part of the current show. I’m not sure how that will affect the current broadcast. Two lightning matches are about as long as one regular three falls match, and C3’s supposedly airing all four Busca matches each week. That would only leave time for the top other two matches on a normal week to air (this coming week, it’d cut out Mini Reyes del Aire!) I am not convinced this is actually what’s going to happen, because the explanations keep changing, and we won’t really know until shows start airing next weekend.

At the conclusion of his Bachelor-type dating reality show, Hijo del Ninja unmasked himself. He’s Humberto Garza (III?), 19 years old. The show had promised he’d unmask at the end of the series, so he did. Seems a fair tradeoff for a months long show promoting him. Also, it’s Monterrey.

Apparently, a CMLL edecan has been fired for not signing some release to A&E (? for the Luchador show? not sure) and people are upset about it. The people being upset about her being gone part I’m pretty sure about, more upset than when luchadors go missing. I have no idea what would be in a contract for such a TV show that would cause someone to refuse to sign it, but as long as this paragraph is mostly thin speculation, let me guess that it meant she couldn’t appear on any other network and it wouldn’t make much sense for her to sign it. These girls aren’t supporting themselves based on being edecanes alone.

LuchaWorld has Alfredo on Dos Leyendas and KrisZ’s news update.

Links

• A press conference in Japan was held for the 05/19 Lucha Fan Fest. SamuraiTV taped the press conference – maybe they’ll get a tape of the show?
• Tiger says it’s a dream to main event a big Arena Mexico show, but it’d be a double dream to win a world championship.
• La Parka, Octagon, Cibernetico, and Perro Aguayo appear on the Mexican version of Family Feud this weekend. Good to see the arch enemies can get along when it comes to guessing how many people out of 100 answered questions in a certain way.

CMLL (MON) 04/23/2012 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Asturiano, Black Tiger, Lestat b Espiritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana, Sauron
Tecnicos took 2/3. Rudos thought they had the third fall won, but Lestat snuck in a pinfall on captain Chicana.
2) Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior b Bam Bam, Fantasy, Pequeño Halcón
Rudos took falls 1/3
3) Fuego, Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado b Cancerbero, Hijo del Signo, Raziel
Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Black Warrior, Blue Panther, La Sombra b Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpion, Último Guerrero
Dragon Rojo still appears to be hurt. Tecnicos took 2/3. Escorpion and Warrior continued their feud. Sombra moonsaulted Rojo for the win, then asked for a title match.
5) Volador Jr. b La Máscara
Volador took 1/3. Tirantes prevented him from attacking Mascara before the match. Volador took the first with a backcracker, Mascara won the second on a casita (with a possible slow count), and Volador won the third with the spanish fly. Best match of the night.