It was belltime once again for Rey de Reyes 2015. Just like Sunday, belltime didn’t mean matches, but instead the entire roster coming to the ring to announce the show was not going to happen. An impromptu press conference was held in the ring to announce the show would not happen again. The show is currently scheduled to instead take place Wednesday night at 8pm local at this same indoor venue.That’s two hours later than these last two attempts. (Time conversion table is here. It’s starting 1 hour after the first run airing of Lucha Underground ends.)
I was otherwise busy and did not get to see this press conference. AAA claimed there, and also on social media, that they were unable to secure the permits to run Rey de Reyes in that venue. Today was a national holiday in Mexico, celebrating Benito Juarez’s birthday. (AAA’s show just happened to be in Auditorio Benito Juarez.) It meant that a lot of people would be free to come to the show, but it also meant governmental offices were shut down and it was impossible to get those permits. It appears AAA had been working on this situation all day, but realized they could not find a solution in time. AAA’s Twitter stopped promoting the show sometime in the last couple hours prior and rumors started about the cancellation at least a half hour before the show. Unlike Sunday, no fans ever made it into the arena, so AAA must’ve been turning people around and word spread from there. Judging from the pictures, AAA had everything ready to go to put on a show, and were just solely missing the legal permission to run one.
It will not be the full card on Wednesday. Alberto el Patron versus Brian Cage has been canceled. AAA said they were “otherwise busy.” My hunch is Alberto has surgery scheduled for tomorrow back home and everyone agreed it didn’t make sense for him to put it off. Alberto’s been pulled even from non-wrestling appearances on WrestleMania weekend, so someone’s under the impression he’s not going to be moving around much any time soon. There’s no reason for Cage to stick around without Alberto and one less person to put pay for is best for AAA’s bottom line. This has to be the most expensive Rey de Reyes ever, just between the costs of a second venue, transferring all the equipment, all the extra man hours involved, and finding room and food for everyone for these extra days. It reads like AAA implied they’d make up for the missing match somehow. I’d expect the Cage/Patron match also happens whenever Alberto is back.
As long as they’re talking make ups, AAA needs to offer refunds for both the live tickets and for the iPPV to anyone’s interested. That’s not going to help the financial situation any, but it’s the smart move to keep goodwill for the product. AAA doesn’t need to do it this moment – if they’re bringing in a name match to replace the Cage/Patron one, it’s perfectly fine to wait to announce that at the same time as extending the refund offer. Still there are people who bought tickets to a Sunday show and can’t go to a Wednesday one, or who just wanted to see Alberto, and keeping their money only guarantees it’s the last you’ll see of them.
AAA should have no trouble getting everything sorted out, but they really don’t have much wiggle room. Lucha Underground tapings are this weekend, which blocked any Saturday or Sunday reschedule (and even running this on a Friday night would’ve been rough.)
Everyone looked pretty bummed about the situation. It stinks for everyone involved, from the people working on it, to the people who traveled to Guadalajara just to see it.
