Day: April 24, 2013

Alternate title: Fenix is probably not as thrilled to win the Fusion title as he thought.

AAA article is here – not sure this is most dramatic way to do it, but we’ve been there already. The storyline is Marisela made the decisions. And may have turned ruda, if these decisions are to be believed – at the least, an interview explaining some of this would be fascinating. The roster splits will not be enforced until after TripleMania.

The rosters:

That’s 41 for Fusion, 45 for Evolucion. (Missed Saturno in my first count.) There’s no explanation of why any of the decisions were made. The lists for both says ‘and more.’

Missing names

• Dr. Wagner Jr. No surprise.
• LA Park. Which confirms they know LA Park quit, and may have known for a while.
• Juventued Guerrera, which seems like an oversight but you never know with Juvi.
• Uro Rocker. He’s probably meant to be with the other Rockers.
• Sexy Star. She’s headed to CMLL going to be out for a long while so it doesn’t matter.
• Anyone from IWRG – no Eterno, no Dr. Cerbero, no Centviron.
• Lanzeloth of DTU, who worked both the last Fusion taping and the February Sin Limite one. As well as Dama de Hierro and Nemesis from the last Fusion taping.
• Dizzy – and the La Chiva who only show up on spot shows. None of trainesr/very part time luchadors like Angel Mortal are listed, nor really would I expect them to be.
• It would’ve been a nice touch to draft Astro de Plata to a side. He’s still far away from returning, if he ever will be, but it’s the thought and they’re already drafting many people who don’t seem like they’ll actually be wrestling any time soon.
• Teddy Hart is still listed on their roster page, but I think that’s more a roster page oversight.

Edit: Other people note Ricky Marvin and Heavy Metal are missing. Konnan probably should be listed as well, but he can be assumed to be on the Evolucion brand.

Break ups

• Consejo appears to be done as a group. Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. & Argos are on Fusion, while Texano Jr. & Silver King are over on Evolucion. (Silver is also broken up from long time ally Ulitmo Gladiador.)
• Billy el Malo has been split up from the Bizarros and from the Apaches, which might end up being a good thing.
• Maximum Velocidad is on Evolucion, away from all the rest of the DTU guys on Fusion.
• The Air Force is split up, but really hasn’t existed as anything more concrete than common entrance music in years.
• There are 7 minis on the Evolucion side, but no minis title. Likewise, there are four women on the Fusion side, but no women’s title. I don’t know that there needs to be one. It does mean the talked about Mini Abismo Negro vs Dinastia feud is either happening right now or never. (It’s also possible that the minis and women’s titles are supposed to float between the brands – it’d make some sense, but has not been said.) Dinastia instead has title defenses against the least impressive rudos (who are rudos while their big versions are tecnicos.)

There’s no escaping the Fusion side being much weaker than the Evolucion side; it’s the B-promotion from the start. There’s about three matches worth of guys who have been TV regulars, so either a lot of people will have to be added or some guys who haven’t been given chances will have new opportunities. It won’t be hard to fill out the spaces – more people from DTU, more people from IWRG, more people we haven’t heard of but will be meeting soon – but it’ll continue to be hard to draw people to the Fusion shows. We’ve seen the Rockers vs Clowns not work out well for those tapings, and you can only run Fenix & La Parka vs Parka Negra & Pentagon Jr. so many times. This looks like a situation built for another Vampiro return – he’d be a top guy as a tecnico or rudo based on lack of other options. Not a great option, but you need to have some stars before you create new ones. Ideally, a guy like Jack Evans or Chessman would be moved over – they’ve got nothing to do on the Evolucion side and would be one of the top guys on the other side. Same thing with the Apache/Atomic Boy feud, which would be at least the third biggest one on the Fusion brand, and is around the fifth on Evolucion.

The advantage to the Fusion side is it’s going to be an overall younger crew and probably more exciting matches. The fans will get some good matches. Everything could be built around Fenix, because there’s no much else going on.

I would’ve actually guessed that Evolucion would’ve been shorter on names, just because of the ultimate plan to go to the US and use wrestlers from there would mean they don’t need as many Mexican names. It’s actually gone the other way.

Overall, it looks the rosters are reflective of current feuds and current feuds only; these roster don’t take affect until after TripleMania, but most people will still be stuck feuding with the same people they’ve been against all year so far.

These splits are only for the single branded Evolucion/Fusion tapings. Both groups will still be on the Sin Limite shows. Since the Sin Limite tapings are the only places where storylines are happening, it’s unclear how much of this actually matters. AAA could create the different identities for each brand, but they could also just be running tapings with half the roster, and quickly forget who’s supposed to be on each side. There’s potential for interesting things, and there’s potential for this to be the new AAA Tag Team Tournament, a lot of effort into nonsense.

CMLL (TUE) 04/23/2013 Arena Mexico [CMLL, Yahoo! Deportes (Photos)]
1) Apocalipsis & Camorra b Molotov & Oro Jr.
Oro Jr. & Apocalipsis took the place of Robin & Cholo.
2) Estrellita, Goya Kong, Lady Afrodita b La Comandante, La Vaquerita, Zeuxis
Lady Afrodita, back here for the first time since January, replaced Silueta.
3) Fuego, Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado b Misterioso Jr., Puma, Vangelis
Tecnicos took 2/3, Fantasma beat Misterioso.
4) Sangre Azteca b Tritón [lightning]
Counter dropkick for the win.
5) Stuka Jr., Super Porky, Valiente b Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
Stuka beat Escorpion again, taking falls 1/3, the last with a Code Red, setting up a title match.
6) Euforia, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero b Ángel de Oro, Shocker, Thunder
Shocker replaced Diamante Azul, Angel de Oro replaced Marco Corleone.

Marco did appear on the show to explain his injury.

CMLL (TUE) 04/23/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) Espectrum & Ráfaga b Esfinge & Leo
Rudos took 2/3.
2) Gallo & Starman b Cancerbero & Maléfico
Starman took 1/3.
3) Amapola, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit b Dalis la Caribeña, Luna Mágica, Marcela
Rudas took 2/3.
4) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger b Delta, Diamante, Titán
Titan replaced Angel de Oro (in Arena Mexico instead.) This was Titan’s first match since early February. Rudo were DQed for excessive violence in the first, but took the next two falls.
5) Atlantis, La Máscara, La Sombra b Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto
Tecnicos took 2/3.

LA Park announced on Facebook that he had quit AAA. He was very complimentary towards AAA (even as far as to apologize for past issues) but said he wanted to be free like a hippie.

LA Park is the current AAA Latin American championship, which would not be the first title to disappear from AAA when the champion left with it. That title has never really had much of purpose and would not be missed; the new Blue Demon title could easily take it’s place. The bigger hit is not having LA Park around for the AAA US stuff, where he would’ve been a helpful cross over star. Park is already a guy who works US shows fairly frequently, and perhaps that was already an issue with AAA or was soon going to be. I think it’s also possible that Park and Wagner might have found someone willing to promote their mask match, though the absurd venues proposals suggest they’re still fooling around at this point.

A news site in San Antonio says this weekend’s scheduled Lucha Libre USA show there has been rescheduled to ‘a future date’. (This seems a good idea, rescheduling to a past date never works out.) They’re refunding the tickets at point of purchase. The Lucha Libre USA site used to list tickets for Austin and Laredo for this weekend as well, but both those links are now removed (and Dallas and Chicago tickets have never been on sale.) The Austin show never had a venue, while the venue for Laredo show seems to have taken down the link to buy tickets (though ads are still on the site.) LLUSA hasn’t announced anything besides the San Antonio postponement, but this looks like they may be going away again.

Rob has highlights of 03/26/13 CMLL

Bill has highlights of 03/15/12 IWRG.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Links

• Blue Panther & Ultimo Guerrero face Caifan and Rey Hechicero on 05/05 in Arena Coliseo Monterrey.
• Short story on the upcoming AAA TV taping in Puebla; the local promoter doesn’t know the card yet.
• AAA took Dark Dragon (now Pentagon Jr) and Mascarita Dorada (now WWE) off their roster page.
• DJ Spectro calls Super Muneco and Shu el Guerrero “joven veteranos”. They’re both over 50, so the standards of youth are look great for all of us.
• Arena Coliseo Monterrey is promising Super Heroes & Doubles de la WWE for it’s Kid’s Day Show on Tuesday.
• Lucha Libre DZ is closing, or coming back with a different name, or a little of both.
• Dr. Cerebro kept the IWL Internet championship over Astro Latino in Arena Margarita of San Luis Potosi.
• CFan Deportes has pictures of arenas which no longer exist.
• A third Torneo Amigo Para Siempe will occur, at some point.
• The lucha libre exhibit in Monterrey is reaching the record for most visited in the history of their museum.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 04/29/2013 Arena Puebla
1) Milenium & Tigre Rojo vs Blue Center & Siki Ozama Jr.
2) Metálico, Starman, Stigma vs Hijo del Signo, Hooligan, Nitro
3) Blue Panther, Hijo del Fantasma, Rey Cometa vs Felino, Puma, Tiger
4) Diamante Azul, La Máscara, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Rey Escorpión
5) Atlantis, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Negro Casas, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

Metalico & Signo feud continues here. I hope Arena Puebla doesn’t get stuck with that as their Anniversary show.

CMLL (TUE) 04/30/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino & El Ídolo vs Exterminador & Infierno
2) Black Metal, Esfinge, Metatrón vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Canelo Casas, Skándalo
3) Fuego, Pegasso, Tritón vs Nosferatu, Shigeo Okumura, Vangelis
4) Delta, Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado vs Misterioso Jr., Olímpico, Pólvora
5) Marco Corleone, Rush, Thunder vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Águila, Psicosis

Canelo Casas’ first appearance here.