IWRG FILL (WED) 07/30/2014Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Sexy Girls, Skandia, Último Caballero b Blue Metal, Fly Tiger, Vardeus
2) Black Niko, Galaxy, Psique b Chicanito, Cosmos Fugas, Zumba
3) Payaso De Plata, Payaso Extremo, Vampiro Metálico b Blue Monsther, Fly Boricua, Marduk Jr.
4) Atomic Star, Matrix Jr., Muerte Infernal b Aramis, Black Angel, Seiya Money thrown in.
5) Dante, Discordia, Euro, Finders, Ironica, Rey Inmortal, Spider Boy, Xcorpio b Anubis Black, Emperador Azteca, Látigo, Metaleon, Omega, Power Bull, Sky Ángel, Zurdog [Copa High Power] IWRG vs Arena Lopez Mateos (Yakuza). Match came down to Metaleon versus Spider Boy. Metaleon took out Spider Boy with a dive, but Yakuza hit him with a chair while he was out there. A groggy Metaleon returned to the ring and was beaten by Spider Boy for the win.
Outside team winning Copa High Power usually means more is coming. As usual, the FILL shows draw a decent crowd (of parents and family.)
Last night’s CMLL Informa included all the participants in the apuesta matches on Friday. Negro Casas was on the show, seemed fine. No one talked about Blanca being booked next week or Casas not making his appearances.
Negro Casas says he’s not scared of Rush and plans on celebrating his win with his wife, daughters and grand daughter.
Eterno, who did not make the TripleMania card, also did not make his scheduled appearance last night in San Luis Potosi. Angel Mortal replaced him. (No idea if that’s related.) Argos replaced Devil Rocker in the main event; they seem to have problems getting three Rockers in the same place at the same time. Demon’s worked as Devil on random spots shows so often that I’m totally sure there are still three regular Rockers.
Luchador Asesino Negro Jr. (from Campeche – believe he’s not the same guy who was in Guadalajara for years) was arrested for fraud. He created a website promoting tours from Campeche to Mexico City, took the money from the tours, and then just tried to disappear when it came time for the tours. The story says he’s a retired luchador, but I see him booked this weekend. I don’t think he’s making it.
Air Date: 08/17, obviously. But also likely 08/23 and 08/30. Maybe only 2 weeks since it’s a six match show, the first one to only be six matches since 20.04.
So. What’s been noticeable for the last year is re-enforced here: AAA’s weekly TV storylines are nearly irrelevant, and you’re best off just dropping in on the major shows. There are good matches to be found on AAA’s weekly TV, but nothing else. Attentive viewers are not rewarded. They’re actually persuaded to pay less attention so they can ignore the gaping plot holes. AAA’s drawn well this year, but that’s been a combination of choosing only building they could do fill and smart talent acquisition. It’s not really about anything they’ve done with the talent.
(It’s really hard to reconcile AAA being lauded for it’s detail work and consistently see big shows like this. People are blind or deceiving themselves.)
Not that the major shows are really building much or filling up with more than thrown together match. AAA’s clearly known they were going to run that cage match for a while, but couldn’t be bothered to run any angles to build up and have just added completely random promos to justify it after the fact. There’s not even that for the semimain. TripleMania is supposed to be the biggest show of AAA’s year with the big payoffs. There’s only one feud being paid off here.
I’ve been critical of nothing happening on AAA TV tapings this year, but maybe that’s got to be the way to do it. If anything that happens is going to be pretty much ignored, then there’s no sense in wasting the time.
Psycho versus Texano has been covered a lot, but it’s still surprising to see them in the main event. It makes sense in that it’s the only match AAA’s promoted on TV. I’m not sure their audience sees them as the top stars and there’s a real danger some of the crowd is going to walk out during the match (which is not exactly what they’re looking for when they’re obviously trying to make someone.) It is helped by only having six matches and a PPV time window; AAA can’t drag the show on as long as they might do on some other nights.
Semimain continues the proud trend of completely pointless tournaments to eat up space on AAA major shows to avoid actually doing something. (3 of the last 5!) The mystery guy is the mystery guy. Like always, it’s probably a top secret only known to a few and/or someone in the Parka Negra suit if the persons bails at the last second. It definitely helps that Hijo del Fantasma was the last guy AAA really tried with this, though it’s still way overdone. Judging from Fantasma’s interview, AAA’s probably trying to get someone from CMLL who hasn’t actually quit CMLL yet.
Fourth match is the cage match that was hurriedly thrown together in promos (when they figured out Mesias wasn’t going to be back in time.) Jarrett, Demon and Parka are obviously aren’t losing, but I wouldn’t rule out any of the other three guys – even Averno, since they may have already moved on from his program with Myzteziz and this is probably as good a payoff as he’s going to get.
Faby versus Taya was actually built on TV! Taya stands a really good chance of winning here. She’s at every single AAA press event, she might as well attend them with the belt. Sexy Star can easily be used to give Taya an out.
The second match continues the annual tradition of throwing Jack Evans in a wacky multiman match because AAA can’t be bothered to come up with angle for Jack Evans. The closest thing he’s gotten to a normal match was 2011, when he teamed with Extreme Tiger to take on Abyss and Mr. Anderson in a cage match. Repeat: that’s the closest Jack Evans has gotten to a normal match at TripleMania.
The storyline of the Cruiserweight Title Match
Daga doesn’t show up in Tuxtla Guiterrez on 05/24, and everyone agrees never to mention this again
Bizarrely, but because much like this show AAA couldn’t be bothered to book angles for the midcard of their major show, there’s a second #1 contenders match on Verano de Escandalo, where Bengala beats Pentagon Jr.
In a 06/27 trios in Queratro, Fenix beats Daga, and also asks for a title match. Bengala points out he’s due a shot first, but Fenix proposes putting his Fusion title on the line to make it fair. Daga accepts – under the condition he also gets to add Steve Pain and Eterno to even the numbers. Everyone there accepts. Aerostar doesn’t appear, but probably couldn’t since he got dropped on his head in the previous match.
This match is announced! It had nothing to do with the last few bullet points except for the two titles thing.
That’s just crap story telling.
Everyone being gifted the title shot actually lost in one of those contenders match except for Ricochet (new here!) and Joe Lider (not actually a cruiserweight except for when they’re trying to give him a TripleMania payoff.) Meanwhile, Steve Pain, Eterno and Aerostar are all not booked in the match. Kind of have to wonder if Pain knew he was being left off the TripleMania show when he left – there doesn’t seem to be any obvious place where he should’ve been on, and it’s not as though Eterno made it he did it.
Also: Flamita is working in Arena Lopez Mateos the previous day, is probably just as well known by the Mexican fans as Richochet and probably could’ve been brought in just a little bit easier. Ricochet is great, really great, but is AAA really going to spend the next 19 days working hard to explain that to the fans? That’s not what they do. Are the hardcore Dragon Gate fans going to buy TripleMania just for Ricochet, when there’s an actual Dragon Gate show on that same day (not to mention SummerSlam?) Probably not. I’m pretty sure AAA has no idea there’s a Dragon Gate iPPV that day, oh well.
I would assume the real story is Ricochet’s been offered a spot on the El Rey show – and Flamita has not! – so they’re using him here even though the two projects will have very little to do with each other. So at least Ricochet is better than Ricky Reyes.
I wonder if if Fantasma is thrilled to be working the second match on the biggest show of the year. That didn’t seem to be a thing he liked. I really hope he gets his Cibernetico feud but it sure doesn’t look in the cards. Mystery Guy got your spot, maybe you should’ve waited a few more months. (I think Terrible’s the name everyone’s going to guess for the next few weeks.)
Opener is the usual Get Pimpinela A Payday. I’m 100% the excuse for pulling Aerostar from the title match was to have him face Super Fly to “get them ready for their mask match”, but Pentagon Jr. and Australian Suicide are having the same mask match feud and are in the cruiserweight match. Since Aerostar earned the shot and Sexy Star and Pentagon Jr. are the odd couple tag team champions, it seems pretty obvious those parings should’ve been swapped. Maybe not obvious enough.
It’s also insane that Mascarita Sagrada is working this show and Dinasita is sitting at home. There’s a lot of spots on this card where it feels like people are being gifted spots because of relationships and that’s honestly one of them.
Show should be good! I wish I paid a lot less attention to AAA so I could enjoy it more. I’m beyond frustrated with the booking. AAA is a fraction of what it’s capable of being and it would be awesome if they actually tried to fulfill their potential. Instead, this is probably the start of a few months of frustration.
Main event looks really good from the pictures. Looking forward to seeing that.
Kind of late in the day to do something with Seductora, but maybe actually winning would’ve been more helpful.
CMLL (TUE) 07/29/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Brillante & El Divino b Acertijo & Magnum Tecnicos took 2/3
2) Canelo Casas & Infierno b Leo & Metatrón Rudos took 2/3.
3) Princesa Blanca b Princesa Sugehit [lightning] bumped down to tercera. Blanca won with a powerbomb.
4) Disturbio, Maléfico, Ráfaga b Fuego, Omar Brunetti, Tritón Rudos took 1/3.
5) Felino, Puma, Tiger DQ Black Panther, Blue Panther, Cachorro Panthers took 2/3, the last when Tiger fouled Blue Panther
6) Mr. Niebla, Rey Escorpión, Último Guerrero DQ La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush Rey Escorpion replaced Negro Casas. Rudos took 2/3, UG tossing his mask to Rush to draw the DQ.
Negro Casas doesn’t miss many matches, but he’s missed his bookings in Puebla and Guadalajara now. (Whoever was running the Twitter for Guadalajara didn’t appear to know Negro Casas wasn’t there until Rey Escorpion walked out for the match, so the fans probably didn’t get an explanation either.) I assume Negro Casas is showing up as scheduled on Friday because he’s Negro Casas and no-showing would be pretty much unprecedented for him and for CMLL. Still, this is why you have a press department, to assure people that the main event they’re thinking about seeing is still happening.
CMLL really should address this today on CMLL Informa, but who knows. I’m struggling to figure out what they would do in the unlikely Negro Casas is hurt or otherwise unavailable. Does Mr. Niebla just lose mask with no build? Does Rey Escorpion? There is no good solution.
Reminder: Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the TripleMania iPPV to get it at the discounted price. They haven’t said what the price will be later, but if you’re going to risk it anyway you might as well save a few dollars.
(Just to be clear, one promotion is running a “surprise main eventer” angle, and one promotion is accidentally running a “surprise! our main eventer?” story. It’s tough to keep straight.)
Ricky Reyes – one of the Havana Brothers if you’ve got a long memory – said on Facebook that he’s signed a contract for the AAA/El Rey show. The plan all along has been to sign US indy guys to work with the AAA roster, Reyes is the first signing that’s public. Reyes also said the tapings were happening in September. Konnan was telling people it was happening in August as recently as a week ago. AAA themselves still have said nothing new about the show.
ColiseoMania II hype video, with various Arena Coliseo Monterrey highlights. Or “highlights.” The show is on 09/21 and the only thing they’ve announced so far is No Konnan Big.
Flamita’s back! Flamita’s probably defending this title without explicit approval. He’ll win, it’ll be okay. Flamita turns up in Arena Lopez Mateos the next day.
CMLL (TUE) 08/05/2014Arena México
1) Bengala & Molotov vs Akuma & Cholo
2) Magnus, Sensei, Star Jr. vs Herodes Jr., Hijo del Signo, Nitro
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Starman, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Okumura, Sangre Azteca, Skándalo
4) Titán vs Cavernario [lightning]
5) Fuego, Rey Cometa, Tritón vs Boby Zavala, Kamaitachi, Misterioso Jr.
6) Ángel de Oro, Máximo, Super Porky vs Mr. Niebla, Shocker, Vangellys
Bringing back Titan and Cavernario for a lightning match a week later diminishes the work CMLL put into it last night. It’ll probably be a good match, Cavernario figures to get his win back and it may even have been designed as a way to promote the YouTube channel, but it’s not the best move for them. The idea of putting them in the main event last night was to promote Cavernario and Titan as top line stars having a big match. Throwing them in an inconsequential lightning match makes Tuesday night’s match seem not as big of a deal, putting them as the fourth match (especially given the rest of the card) makes them appear not to be stars. Again, it’s going to be a big match, but if they want to help those guys be stars, CMLL ought to swap them with Rey Cometa and Zavala and wait a few months before running the match again.
That main event tho’. That’s a “we run six shows a week and we can’t try on every single one so.” That’s not a strong TV main event. It’ll get over live so that’s good.
CMLL (TUE) 08/05/2014Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Brillante vs El Acertijo
2) Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora & Princesa Blanca
3) Gallo, Omar Brunetti, Smaker vs Disturbio, Olímpico, Virus
4) Black Panther, Blue Panther, Cachorro vs Felino, Puma, Tiger
5) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
6) Rush vs Último Guerrero
Blanca being booked here says she’s not going to retire on Friday. So either she’s winning after all (and CMLL is insane for making this a tag feud) or she’s just not retiring yet. Probably the latter, though this is again is something CMLL Informa might want to talk about. Glad I can help book the chat show today.
The first time Rush versus Ultimo Guerrero happened, Ultimo Guerrero was obviously the better wrestler and Rush was not quite there yet. That was three years ago and a lot has changed. Ultimo Guerrero can be good when Rush is just hitting him very hard. I’m sure that’ll happen. I’m sure UG’s five moves of doom will also happen.
