top six stories of the last two weeks

thecubsfan news
  1. Alberto del Rio went from WWE superstar to TripleMania special guest in a matter of days. Del Rio was fired from WWE after attacking a (non-wrestler) employee in a backstage confrontation. Reports say the attack was in response to a racial joke – WWE hasn’t denied it, and ADR is being portrayed as standing up to a racist in Mexico. It’s ADR’s best storyline in years and it also might be true. There’s a lot of question marks – what will be his role? is Del Rio in AAA for the long term? how can he be advertised under the WWE name? – but Del Rio appearing alone has definitely increased attention for TripleMania and probably sold a fair bit of tickets. Meanwhile, this means WWE is certainly looking around for another Mexican or Hispanic to take Alberto Del Rio’s spot (since Kalisto is more of a Rey Misterio replacement.)
  2. Dr. Wagner Jr. has improbably returned to AAA, again. Wagner made a surprise appearance at the TripleMania conference. AAA was announcing a four way match with a mystery person when Wagner (and his son) appeared to say he was back. Cibernetico ripped Wagner and Joaquin Roldan for bringing Wagner back, and others in AAA said the same on Twitter after. Wagner’s stint in AAA ended badly, with Wagner refusing work with AAA for the last few months of his contract outside of last year’s TripleMania. Both sides then made legal threats against each other and claimed they wouldn’t work together ever again, but here they are a year later. It’s unclear if this is a one match appearance or a longer return; whatever plan there was might have already changed with Alberto del Rio being available. Dr. Wagner Jr. previously suffered a bad cut in a match with LA Park, which was said to put him out of action for three weeks. He’ll be back in about half the time if he works TripleMania.
  3. The most unpredictable part of CMLL’s Juicio Final was the attendance. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise for CMLL, drawing around the same 13,000 fans they did back in March for Dos Leyendas. The outcomes were more as expected: Rush defeated Negro Casas in a one sided hair match, Marcela & Princesa Sugehit defeated Seductora & Princesa Blanca in a mask/hair match (which also marked the end of Blanca’s career, at least for now) and Volador won his title back from Sombra.
  4. AAA announced the rest of the TripleMania lineup a couple days before that press conference. The main event remains Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr. in mask versus hair and the Taya/Faby title match is still on, but the rest of the card is very disconnected from anything built on TV. There’s a four way match with Mytzeziz, Cibernetico, Perro Aguayo Jr. and a mystery person (assumed to be Wagner) which has some of the biggest stars of the last decade but hasn’t been advertised on TV. There’s the Cruiserweight/Fusion title match that’s got a different lineup than they’ve set up on TV (with Aerostar notable winning a #1 contenders match but not getting a spot in a 10 man title match.) There is a cage match that’s been somewhat built up with promos added to TV, but it generally comes off like the people putting the TV together had no idea what most of the their biggest card of the year was going to be until a couple weeks before the show. This continued frustrating patterns where matches built up on AAA’s TV show just don’t happen on their major shows, and those major show undercards are just randomly thrown together matches meaning little.
  5. CMLL announced Ultimo Guerrero versus Atlantis in a mask versus mask match will be the main event of the 09/17 Anniversary show. They had the luchadors sign the contract for the match, and have spent some time emphasizing that it’ll be a singles match without anyone else getting involved like last year. It’s unclear if people actually believe CMLL, but they’ve got a month to hype it. Ultimo Guerrero is running thru top guys in the lead up to the match. Tickets went on sale quickly, marked up $20 from last year.
  6. Various leaks suggest the AAA USA project may not be much of an AAA project at all; the people they entrusted with the power to run the thing are said to be replacing the AAA wrestlers with local indy wrestlers, completely defeating the point of AAA being involved in this project. There’s still little official details – they may be taping in two weeks, or they may be taping at some other point.
  • CMLL announced the 2014 Universal Tournament. Blocks are on 08/15 and 08/22 with a final on 08/29. The timing indicates this is probably setting up another match for the Anniversary show. There’s no mention of any NJPW involvement so far (as has been the case all year.) It looks like CMLL is unafraid of overdoing La Sombra versus Volador Jr., as they’re the on opposite sides of the tournament and appear the most likely final.
  • AAA taped their final TV before TripleMania in Teziutlan. It still seemed pretty disconnected from TripleMania despite the lineup being announced. Only Psycho Clown/Texano Jr. was hyped (which is consistent with the rest of the shows)
  • Oro Jr. beat Metalico in a mask versus mask match. This was clearly meant to be Oro Jr.’s star making moment, but he did not have much of a match. The Arena Mexico fans sided with the rudo veteran (as they often do) but it didn’t seem to help either guy. If anything, it appeared to solidify Oro Jr. as a early match luchador, the same spot Metalico spent all of his career.
  • AAA announced it’s first post-TripleMania taping would be on 09/07. That means that TripleMania will air in complete on TV in the weeks following it airing on PPV.
  • AAA also mentioned two people would be added to it’s hall of fame on TripleMania. They haven’t hinted about who it might be.
  • CMLL debuted a new “Hombre sin Nombre”, an Averno replacement partner for Mephisto and Ephesto. The new luchador wore the same kind of outfit Ephesto did way back when he used the same name and HsN’s previous identity is not immediately clear.
  • Psicosis says he’s left AAA. He’s training guys in Tijuana (and this is not related to previous item.)
  • People who won titles: Silueta (over Zeuxis)
  • People who kept their titles: Titan (over Cavernario), Oficials (over Traumas), Dragon Rojo (over Rey Escorpion), Imposible (over Emperador Azteca), Hijo de Mascara Ano 2000 (over Hijo de Dos Caras by countout)
  • Minis in CMLL and AAA complained about be overlooked by the promotion.

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4 thoughts to “top six stories of the last two weeks”

  1. I could see maybe 5 Mexican guys on the AAA USA show the usual suspects. Blue Demon and Wagner(who return right around the perfect time), La Parka. Maybe Mesias and Miss Disease as Bryan would say but thats it. I could see Jack Evans on the show as well. Konnan keep talking like its two separate promotions, so maybe that’s been the plan all along, who knows.

    Next year big storyline, AAA USA vs. AAA Mexico.

  2. The new US project starts to sound an awful lot like Lucha Libre USA,which promised to be AAA in English at first but quickly turned into something else.

  4. The only problem with your idea of AAA USA vs AAA Mexico is nobody you listed for AAA USA is willing to ever lose.

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