TripleMania thoughts, other notes from Sunday

This is the update I posted on tumblr last night. I’m attempting to resume normal services, but the site may yet go up and down more; no all clear yet.

Quick Correction: I misread something; TripleMania TV notice about Monday was saying the VOD would only be up until next Monday, not that anything was going to be fixed. As far as they’re concerned, it’s working completely fine. I don’t understand but am giving up on it for now.

TripleMania was the coronation of Alberto el Patron as the new lead tecnico for AAA. People with functioning short term memories may recall Myzteziz being crowned in that same position just three months ago. Things can change quick, and will always keep changing with AAA, but they were all in on Alberto Del Rio tonight. AAA used the Alberto del Rio name on a chyron and his WWE music, totally unafraid of a lawsuit. Alberto did a promo talking about his firing and racism to start the show, and was confronted by Konnan and Perro Aguayo Jr. (Daga and Fantasma are now wearing those shirts; it seems like the solution to rapidly falling apart rudo factions was to make everyone a Perro del Mal member tonight.) Konnan’s music played and he got to talk first, in his only appearance on the show, but this was about Perro picking a fighting with Alberto. They fought here, then again after the main event. Perro won, defeating Myzteziz last with a foul. Patron confronted Perro, got slapped and his shirt ripped, but pulled Perro into the armbar at the end. The rudos made the save, but Alberto stood tall at the end of the show.

The long term plan appears to be Perro Aguayo Jr. versus Alberto del Rio. It’s AAA, so the current long term today may change tomorrow – it very much seemed to be Myzteziz versus Perro Aguayo before the last crazy week – but AAA came off as the El Patron Promotion.

The four way ended the show. Not sure if that was the original plan, but it obviously was a setup here so they could bookend the show with Del Rio segments. Perro won the main event after fouling a very bloody Myzteziz. He had beaten Ciberentico (only after Cibernetico made it clear he could’ve won but got too confident.) Dr. Wagner, wrestling with one arm after his injury in Monterrey, was the first out, cleanly defeated by Cibernetico. His son was chokeslamed too. Unlike Del Rio, the Wagners appear to have returned in a weak position (again, at least for one night.)

The Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr. match was demoted to the semimain. They didn’t give them top spot, and Psycho’s win was overshadowed by what happened later, but they did give them free reign to do whatever they wanted in the match and those two guys did just that. The first half of the match was every bell and whistle from previous matches – Rafael El Maya returned as referee, Hijo del Fantasma interfered freely, Texano used a fork on Psycho as both men bled a bunch – but Fantasma Sr. and others cleaned up by about half way thru. Piero took over as referee, all the seconds were kicked out, and Texano and Psycho turned it more into CMLL Big Match style with a some weapons and some blood. (Even the blood started to get wiped away.) Lots of big moves for near falls, dives, and a cavernaria. It felt like a heavyweight version of Sombra/Volador from last September, complete with a Canadian Destroyer to finish it. This one was one rung lower, and onto a (partially flattened broken) table, but it got the same win for Psycho as it did for Sombra. Texano shook Psycho’s hand after getting his hair cut; it came off to me as the end of this and the start of both guys moving in different directions, but maybe it’s only a single day truce.

Both scheduled guest foreigners of the shows missed the show. Ricochet, a few minutes before they show was to start, announced that he had missed his flight (“last night’s show went too long”). That’s not a great excuse. Jeff Jarrett had less control of the situation; bad weather in Dallas delayed and canceled flights all day, which mean Jarrett couldn’t even get on his flight to Mexico City until the show was half over. In both case, if these guys are big enough names to be a part of AAA’s big shows, they’re worth flying (and paying) for an extra night. This same situation nearly happened with Jarrett previously and it was a matter of time if they’re just going to wait to the day off.

Ricochet’s absence didn’t mean anything. Jarrett’s required changes to the cage match. (Neither was announced until the matches took place.) Mesias worked the cage match in JJ’s spot, taking Electroshock’s hair as the second to last guy out. It’s a long running WWE tradition to put over the replacement wrestler when a top guy can’t make it, and that might have been the call here. Electroshock was probably losing all along. Mesias didn’t look in his usual shape; it may have been a situation where he was just supposed to wave to the crowd but was asked to work a few hours before the show. Electroshock somewhat turned rudo after the match, probably to give him something after losing to a fellow tecnico.

Both titles changed hands. Taya beat Faby Apache for the Reina de Reinas title. Taya may have broken her nose in this one; she definitely was bleeding significantly from it for a while. Everyone improvised pretty well to give her time to recover (and I couldn’t pick out when it happened), but it slowed the pace of the match down. Faby was protected in the match, with Tirantes cheating her out of numerous victories until Taya finally just beat her clean. Match didn’t do either one much good, but Taya was thrilled for the victory and maybe they’ll do better when both can breathe the whole match.

Drago was added to the Cruiserweight title match, and appeared to have been added even before Richocet was pulled out since they were both in the preview video package at the start of the show. The first half of this match was completely unviewable, but what I could see was insane spot fest. It was a crazy piledriver fest too – Fantasma won the title with one on Angelico at the end, and Bengala was carried to the back after taking one earlier. Fantasma was presented (by his father) with a new title belt. It’s got green leather and the new AAA “Lucha Libre World Wide” logo on it. No one else changed their belt, but I would assume other belts will soon be replaced or removed. (Fantasma actually carried all three title matches to the back, but hopefully he’s just got the one next time we see him.)

Show started off well with the Relevos Locura atomicos. These can be good and always seem better when they’re on TripleMania because everyone wants to do crazy stuff. Jennifer Blake had a nice assisted dive, Sexy Star broke out her tornillo, and Aerostar did all of his crazy moves. Mascarita Sagrada submitted Mini Abismo, and the Super Fly/Aerostar feud was a point of emphasis on commentary.

El Brazo and Rayo de Jalisco (Senior) were added to the AAA Hall of Fame. Rayo Sr. did not attend this show, but his son did, happy to dance to his music and salute the crowd. Perro knocked down the Rayo Sr. plaque leading into a fight with his son, and Blue Demon Jr. made the save. This seemed like one too many times of Perro getting into a fighting and getting ran off on the show. The idea was to give a reason for Rayo Jr., Demon, and Dos Caras (who came with his son to ringside at the beginning of the show and took a bump when the rudos shoved him) to be at ringside for the final confrontation, and to endorse Alberto el Patron as the new Mexican hero after he fought Perro off.

No surprise jumps or debuts. Maybe for the best, since they would’ve gotten lost in the mix and were less valuable once Alberto was signed. The Rayo Jr. thing came off as more a one time appearance than bringing him back full time.

Sadly, the internet feed was a failure again. It was buffering from the start of the show, and was non functional for half of the cruiserweight match. It seemed to get a little better as the show went on, but even better meant there were times where it was working fine, times where it was lagging and leaping head twenty seconds later, and times where it would just drop and force me to start at the start of the show. There were 10-15 minute stretches where everything seemed to be fine, but then it’d fall right back apart. It wasn’t as complete a failure as last year, but the inconsistent nature was really frustrating. Those who gave up early (or found an illegal feed and stuck with it) made the better decision.

As of now, the VOD is the same broadcast which aired live, with the same skipping issues. There does appear to be a message saying it’ll now be up Monday and hopefully that’ll be the better version. AAA should really get out of the iPPV game if this is what they have to offer, because it’s only hurting their image (much like ROH ran into.) As much as I like the idea of being able to watch TripleMania live, I don’t think I’m going to do this next year unless there are some massive developments between now and then. I knew better this year and got it out of some devotion to operating a good website. Today, I didn’t have a website and I didn’t have much to put on it.

(This also involved me repeatedly demanding answers about what was going on – AAA went completely silent on Twitter for most of the show, only returning to RT any positive comment they could find after it was over – and AAA insisting all was well. I hate acting like the jerk online, but I also don’t like people not taking my issues seriously. This was an altogether unpleasant experience. I write a lucha libre blog because I really lucha libre, not because I want to get into arguments with people who are just doing their jobs.)

The English announcing was exactly the disaster it looked like it was going to be. AAA put people in positions they weren’t going to well in, and they didn’t give them enough help to make it work. The announcers generally calm down later in the show, but at no point did it feel like an okay broadcast. It was amateur hour, except two amateur fans who had been watching AAA would’ve probably done a better job with it. If you’re going to watch the show, I’d recommend heavily choosing the Spanish language broadcast even you don’t speak Spanish (and especially if you’re a regular AAA watch); it has to be less distracting.

(Those watching the regular PPV noted a couple of times where the picture disappeared, though nothing as major. Even though the press release only named two people, the Spanish/regular PPV crew was the normal four guys for these shows – Andres, Jesus, Arturo Rivera and Leo Riano as the Televisa guest.)

I will eventually have a full length version of this show to recap – either by AAA or other means – so more thoughts on the matches then. My impression from what I could see was the opener and the cruiserweight match and the Texano/Psycho match were worth watching. The cage match is the easiest one to skip.

CMLL’s show in Arena Mexico wasn’t nearly as eventful, but did have a solid turn out despite the opposition. It was a strangely busy day for show. No one shyed away from running against TripleMania – IWRG brought in LA Park, and Arena Lopez Mateos ran a show honoring Cuchillo. The Pesta Negra kept the Mexican National Trios championship over Stuka, Mascara Dorada, and Valiente. Oro Jr. missed an action packed segunda; it sounded like he had a mouth injury, though CMLL strangely thought the best way to communicate this was to have him talk about it. An early injury in last week’s match would explain last week’s lackluster performance, but it doesn’t do anything to remedy it – he’s still a man in search of career making match who may years away from getting another opportunity.

Main event, Ingobernables against Ultimo, Gran and Escorpion, sounded like the best of the show. (I was far too distracted by AAA to really tell.) Rush fouled UG for the DQ, and it seems likely they’ll be running that match on 08/31 or 09/07. Their match in Guadlajara aired this week on 52MX; it was not half-bad, but not near the best Rush. Rey Escorpion proved Ultimo Guerrero can be tolerable if the other guys just mugs him and that’s what Rush did there, but it still fell into Ultimo Guerrero’s contrived near falls by the end. I’d expect the same here.

Last week, that Ultimo Guerrero singles match seemed more like it was going to be against Sombra. That wouldn’t make sense if they were planning to do UG/Sombra as a Universal final, so picking another Ingobernable leaves that open. JCR might have slipped and asked Sombra what he thought about facing UG in the final (where he meant to say “possibly”) – that’s what Rob heard, I wasn’t listening closely at that point. UG is the odds on favorite to take his block this Friday.

Dragon Rojo is now using the Ghostbuster’s theme song, which was the most bizarre thing on a bizarre day.

Oficial 911 no showed his match in Naucalpan tonight. That’s notable because his match was a double hair vs double mask match with AK47 against the Traumas. Apolo Estrada took his spot, and presumably lost, though I haven’t seen a result yet. I can’t imagine the Traumas lost, so it’s just a matter of if they switched the rules. Like I said, the promoters weren’t afraid to run a lot of shows at the same time, but there’s only so many people who cover them, and they mostly were at TripleMania or SummerSlam.

The Ringo Mendoza show on Saturday in Arena Coliseo from Saturday seemed to do well. They did bring back some unbilled legends and wrote a little bit about on the Twitter feed. They seemed to tape things for Informa as well.

CMLL’s show this upcoming Sunday includes Ephesto, Hombre Sin Nombre and Hechicero as a trio. We’d quickly moved on from Hechicero being the new Hombre sin Nombre, but that’s obviously a dead issue now. Based on who’s not around and the details they’ve given away, it’s most likely either Hooligan or his son El Rebelde, and we’re learning more towards his son at the moment. This is not confirmed, do not put it in your database, just take a look at his matches and think about it.

Sunday Guadalajara has a father son tag team tournament. Universo 2000 returns to Arena Coliseo Guadalajara action for the first time in a while, and Magnum is revealed to be Esfinge’s father. If I had a luchawiki, I could tell you if we knew that already. We do not.

IWRG has a fun looking four way tag match Wednesday with Relampago & Golden Magic (as team IWRG) versus Yakuza and Ironia (team AULL) versus Tony Rivera & Ciclon Black (the returning Team Neza) versus Alan Extreme & Metatron (team FILL.) The AULL/FILL captains hair match did air on LAS; it lived up to the pictures, and Metatron and Alan as a regular team would not be a bad idea.

More tomorrow. I’ve got plenty of links, including more from Alberto del Rio on his firing. I hope I can share them better later.