Day: November 9, 2015

Dorian Roldan appeared on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio earlier today. Alfredo of LuchaWorld was listening and posted highlights.

The big news is the AAA Mega Heavyweight Championship is officially vacant. A tournament will be held at Guerra de Titanes to determine the champion. The size and participants in the tournament are unknown.

Additionally, Dorian says they’re no longer expecting Alberto to make any more appearances in AAA. (They had hoped for 2.) Alberto told Dorian he’d be willing to lose the title, but WWE said no. Dorian said they were originally hoping for two more appearances by Alberto, wished Alberto well in the future and AAA wants to move forward.

The rest of the interview didn’t have much of the news, or at least not new news. They’d like to get TV back in to the US, as always. Lucha Underground could take many different forms in the future. They’d be open with working with anyone. The usual.

AAA has been proceeding towards Guerra de Titanes like everything was normal, with no mention of Alberto and no sign of a title tournament. A tournament or a decision match at Guerra de Titanes was always the most likely option, but, this is the first time AAA’s acknowledged the situation at all. They’ve only acknowledged it English and haven’t sent out a press release or anything more to explain it to their Spanish language fans.

The card they’ve built towards for Guerra de Titanes includes Rey and Mundo in a trios match, Hijo del Fantasma defending his cruiserweight championship against a to be announced contender, Joe Lider & Pentagon Jr. challenging Jack Evans & Angelico for the tag titles and some match, maybe hair vs mask, involving Daga & Australian Suicide. Some of those names would seem to be belong in a tournament for the AAA Heavyweight Championship, but there’s also others (Dr. Wagner Jr., Psycho Clown, Texano Jr., Brian Cage, La Parka, Cibernetico, Chessman if they’re around – and Chessman’s and friends were joking about the Elite lineup) who didn’t currently have programs. They could blow up the existing card or just put something together out of those people who weren’t scheduled for big roles.

AAA has only one more announced taping before Guerra de Titanes, the 11/15 show in Ciudad Juarez. That show would not air until December 5, so holding off the TV announcement of the tournament would give AAA only days to promote it.

AAA also has three weeks of TV already taped (one week from Nuevo Laredo & two weeks from Xalapa), where they could insert an announcement of a tournament in an added segment. It’s a bit amazing there wasn’t announcement this past week on TV if AAA was going to make this announcement a couple days later (and, maybe since it was a US interview, this really doesn’t count as announcement.)

IWRG (SUN) 11/08/2015 Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Guerrero 2000 & Vampiro Metálico b Dragón Bane & Osiris
An Osiris previously appeared in 2009, this is probably a new one.
2) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo b Atomic Star, Diablo Jr. I, Hip Hop Man, Ram El Carnero
This is a new Leo.
3) Mega, Super Mega, Ultra Mega b Fresero Jr., Golpeador, Spector
Spector & Fresero replaced Oficial AK47 & Rayan.
4) Diva Salvaje, Hijo del Pantera, Relámpago b Apolo Estrada Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Eterno
Hijo del Pantera replaced Pantera (in Toronto)
5) El Hijo del Solitario, Hijo De Dos Caras, Veneno DQ Canis Lupus, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Pirata Morgan
Mascara gave Veneno a martinete for a DQ. Rafael el Maya was referee on this show.

No sign of referee Rosas, who was the one awarded Golden Magic the win in Castillo del Terror. It wasn’t his fault, but maybe he’s been ‘suspended’ for a bit.

Sombra’s not on NJPW’s next tour, not in the tag league. CMLL & Sombra probably would’ve known this advance, so the quick pace of the Sombra/Rush issue has nothing with needing to do it before he left for a tour of Japan. Everything from the last few months makes sense in the context of Sombra leaving to go to WWE – but CMLL rarely makes that much sense, rarely has such a coherent plan, so it’s hard to believe that’s actually what’s occurring. Averno had a random trios match on his way out. Mascara Dorada won a title match and was just in regular matches when he was going to NJPW for a year. Things in CMLL seem to happen by randomness, or for internal reasons never actually explained. There’s enough strangness that it feels like something is going on, but it doesn’t actually mean there’s something to it.

(Of course, the counter point to CMLL never really writing people out is Dark Angel’s recent farewell.)

The Cibernetico & Chessman appearance on next week’s Elite Lucha Libre show seems to be the thing everyone’s talking about today, though no one involved seems to be saying much. It was up on CMLL’s website for about thirty minutes, but the screenshot of the lineup lives on. The best guess I have here is this was a real lineup, at least at some point, but either wasn’t really supposed to get out yet (until Elite had a chance to announce the surprises themselves) or Cibernetico & Chessman decided they were no longer going to be on that card at some point and it was pulled. It took Elite till about Wednesday to announce their lineup last week, maybe it’ll be the same speed this week.

Maybe we’ll get more on this when Dorian Roldan has that interview later today.

CMLL’s Puebla show tonight has the Sky Team versus Peste Negra (Niebla, Casas, Cavernario) in what appears to be a prelude to a trios title match next week. The semimain is another relevos increibles with Atlantis, Dragon Rojo & La Mascara versus Sombra, Marco Corleone and Ultimo Guerrero, which could mean more Ingobernables fighting. Locals working the show tonight are Asturiano, Astro (not the IWRG guy), Mini Joker, Sauron Arkalis, Lestat, and Zaeta Roja. The show will air live on CMLL’s YouTube channel at 9pm CT.

I’ve got an article on Voices of Wrestling tracing the history of AAA’s Linear Heavyweight Championship. The short version is it got messed up long before Alberto left town. Very messed up.

Today in Nuevo Laredo is the indy show with Chris Masters, Brian Cage, and Blue Pants.

No Sabado Retros at Coliseo this week; they’re off for boxing again.

Segunda Caida reviews Caristico & Volador Jr. vs La Mascara & Rush.

This week’s lucha magazines are focused on Dr. Wagner.

Lineups

CMLL (SUN) 11/15/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Johnny Dinamo & Micro vs Black Sugar & Guerrero de la Muerte
2) Capitan Cobra & Javier Cruz Jr. vs Avispón Negro Jr. & Demonio Rojo
3) El Yaqui & Nube Roja vs El Chakal & Mr. Apolo
4) El Divino, Frezzer, Reycko vs Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Thunder Boy
5) Kempo Dragón, Magnum, Vaquero Jr. vs Exterminador, Maléfico, Ráfaga

Back to only locals here

AAA ZZinc (SUN) 11/22/2015 Auditorio Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
1) Mr. 450, Rey Horus, Venum vs Bestia 666, Speedball, Steve Pain
2) Dinastía, Mickie James, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Lady Shani, Mamba, Mini Charly Manson
3) Aerostar, Australian Suicide, Súper Nova vs Sanada, Sonjay Dutt, Willie Mack
4) Garza Jr., Hijo De Dos Caras, Psycho Clown vs Magnus (UK), Moose, Psicosis I
5) Carlito, Dr. Wagner Jr., Rey Mysterio Jr. vs ?, Chris Masters, Drew Galloway

This is the last of four days of this tour; cards aren’t out for the other day but figure to be just about the same. Brodus Clay was probably supposed to be in the main event – his picture is still on the poster – but they also probably took his name off when after he wasn’t on the Veracruz show.

These are also going up against the second weekend of Lucha Underground tapings, which suggests anyone on this show can’t be on those (and won’t be on their TV in February unless they tape out of order.) AAA’s done so with switching lineups that I wouldn’t consider this definitive.