Guerra de Titanes 2013 preview (and 2012 look back)

Maybe it’s better there isn’t much going on with Guerra de Titanes 2013. Look back at all the major events from last year’s Guerra de Titanes:

• Daga wins the cruiserweight championship
• Octagon Jr., Parka Negra and Pentagon Jr. debut
• Texano Jr. wins the heavyweight championship
• the Jarretts make a surprise appearance to attack LA Park.
• Vampiro loses his hair
• Konnan announces he’s taking all the rudos and forming his own promotion.
• Joaquin announces Konnan can’t leave because he’s under contract for one more year.

Wow, tonight being Konnan’s last show has been vastly underplayed! Or it’s one of many storylines thrown out as big deal which were never went anywhere. The teased split in the same segment was never really was explained again, one of two teased splits in the last twelve months which were trumped as huge deals then completely ignored. (That they couldn’t be bothered to explain why the second one didn’t happen was particularly amazing.) It’s amazing AAA appears to be laying the groundwork for a third split when they’ve got no credibility left with that bit.

The title changes haven’t amounted to a lot. Both men are still champions, but the championships haven’t been that important. Texano has done better, but the title win felt like a breakthru to the top tier of protected AAA guys (Mesias, Cibernetico, Perro, La Parka.) It hasn’t turned out that way – Texano’s remained on the tier just below, important enough to get things for most every PPV but not important enough to even feud with those top guys (because that would mean they would have to lose, and that’s not happening.) AAA hasn’t used the cruiserweight title since this match; the implosion of the Perros del Mal meant Daga was pulled into the tag team feud to an extent, but that’s also a declaration that Crazy Boy & Joe Lider are more important to AAA than Daga. AAA seemed genuinely excited about Daga in 2012, but he’s just been floating around in 2013.

The Jeff Jarrett & LA Park thing was absurdly stretched out and had no ending, which is the pattern for Jeff Jarrett feuds in AAA. AAA doesn’t seem to get much out of them outside of Jeff’s Twitter feed. It’d be surprising if whatever Jeff does tonight goes anywhere.

The debuts were all reality checks of some sort. AAA appeared to think Samuray del Sol would mark out so much for being Octagon Jr. that he’d make AAA his top priority. Instead, he never appeared on AAA TV again. Parka Negra was an attempt to put an existing top level guy in another identity and keep it quiet until for a long time. It took a week before people figured it out. (Still think they should’ve seen it thru, but maybe they just lost interested in this as well.) The reality check with Pentagon Jr. is you can be very good in AAA, AAA can acknowledge you’re very good, and you can still drift thru a year with nothing much to do. Tonight’s the first AAA major show Pentagon Jr. has wrestled on since Rey de Reyes, and he only made that one because Fusion was still a thing.

We’ve already been told something major will happen tonight. We probably should wait a few months to see if it still is major.

1) Dinastía, Ludxor, Venum vs El Apache, Machine Rocker, Mini Charly Manson

Also at Guerra de Titanes 2012, the Rockers took their first loss ever. Like Pentagon Jr., Machine Rocker is great and hasn’t been part of a major show since Rey de Reyes (which means he hasn’t had a feud since Rey de Reyes.) There’s a complicating situation with the Rockers – one of the other Rockers asked out of the trio – but there were imminent plans for a new person to be placed into the role back in September. It’s December, and it still hasn’t happened.

The tecnicos are the latest young high flyers and they’re set up against guys who will make them look good. Tecnicos should win.

2) Angélico, Fénix, Jack Evans vs Eterno, Pentagón Jr., Steve Pain

Eterno’s not wrestling, AAA refuses to stop false advertising this match. It’s even a free show, it’s not going to cost them any tickets at all, and they can’t say Carta Brava or whoever is filling in here. It could be stubbornness, or it could just be lack of internal communication.

This should be the best match of the show, possibly great. Jack & Angelico are in the argument for tag team of the year; they didn’t really get together until midway thru the year, but every match they’ve been in has been very good and they’ve been featured frequently on television the last few months. (Maybe Delta & Guerrero Maya are close, but there’s not many teams who’ve been together as much and had big matches.) Eterno & Steve Pain would’ve made a lot of sense as tag team challengers sometime in the future, but that’s not possible. Maybe Pentagon gets a win on Fenix instead.

3) Pimpinela Escarlata, Taya Valkyrie, Mamba, Jennifer Blake, Faby Apache, Pasion Kristal, Yuriko, ? [cage, hair]

My favorite part of this Wednesday’s Tercera Caida was when their guests were guessing who the mystery person might be and appeared to guess every single person in the world with the exception of Sexy Star. Which I take to mean it’s really Sexy Star.

I hate lucha libre cage matches. I will probably hate this lucha libre cage match. Betting on Mamba to do the dive off the top, and Pimpinela to get an early holiday bonus.

4) Blue Demon Jr. vs Electroshock [AAA LA]

I don’t understand the people who believe Electroshock is an awesome technical luchador, but those people do seem to exist. They are confusing people. This would actually be a halfway decent spot for Electroshock to turn rudo to give both of the guys something to do; this was definitely build up like the first match of a long feud where something turns one of these guys. But, AAA could only get Texano to beat Demon by giving Demon a win right back on TV, and that’s probably more effort than it’s worth for Electroshock. Demon retains.

5) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma, Silver King, Texano Jr. [AAA TRIOS]

anything other than the Clowns beating Silver King would cause my brain hurts.

6) Cibernético, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, El Mesías, La Parka vs Daga, Jeff Jarrett, Parka Negra, Psicosis

Zorro’s not listed, but he appears to be something akin to crow Sting now. Something’s got to be set up for Zorro to need to make the save. Maybe Jeff has a random unbiled TNA guy playing bodyguard. The Big Angle will probably come after the main event, and the big angles always seem to come after the rudos beat up the tecnicos. I assume that happens here; the rudos get the win, Zorro comes in to make the save, Zorro gets laid out because he’s a tecnico and then whatever whatevers

The big angle has to be someone turning. That tecnico side is the 4 top guys in AAA, and AAA doesn’t work if they’re all on the same guys. Everyone else, including those four guys on the other side, are treated as if they’re no challenge to the top guys. (Look at the Secta feud.) It should be fixed by the end of this show. Either the Perros del Mal are doing a fake breakup to set up tecnicos for a beatdown (and a return to the TripleMania status quo), or some other tecnico is turning to replace him. Cibernetico wouldn’t make any sense, and La Parka didn’t work last time. Maybe it’s time for Mesias to be a rudo again.