Day: May 16, 2016

AAA TV (SUN) 05/29/2016 Palenque de la Feria, Pachuca, Hidalgo
1) Atomic Boy, Dinastía, Pimpinela Escarlata, Venum vs Apache, Mamba, Mini Psycho Clown, Soul Rocker
2) Faby Apache & Mary Apache vs La Hiedra & Taya
3) Aerostar, Drago, Fénix vs Averno, Chessman, Ricky Marvin [#1 Contenders, AAA TRIOS]
4) Argenis, Australian Suicide, Bengala vs Damián 666, Halloween, Nicho el Millionario
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Texano Jr. vs ? & Hernandez
6) Psycho Clown vs Pentagón Jr. vs Pagano

Air Date:  06/11 & 06/18

AAA has a spot show in the same city two days later. That’s an unusual scheduling choice. I suspect that other show might be quietly rescheduled.

Also, the TV show revealed Verano de Escandalo will take place on 06/19 in Monterrey. That’s a little bit of an interesting choice in venue, since some of the guys in Monterrey AAA might go to for help for local promotion are now doing a podcast with Konnan. Maybe everyone can just work together amicably.

They stopped putting the silhouette that gave away the mystery person! Now maybe just stop doing mystery person? It probably should be Cage or Mesias and it’d be odd for them not to just be listed. Still seems like they’re headed to Wagner/Parka/Texano vs Team Trump, which doesn’t seem like a big match for a PPV main event. (Maybe a six way instead?)

The finish in the third match feels telegraphed by Averno & Chessman already having an opponent for the tag titles. Xinetez/tecnicos should be good the second time. I don’t like La Hiedra’s odds in the second match, or Argenis’ crew in the fourth match.

Pagano probably should be getting a Latin American championship shot by beating Psycho Clown – and Psycho seems like the odd man out by winning his feud with Dr. Wagner, so maybe he’s a long term part of this feud

Other quick AAA notes:

• the tickets for Puebla 06/03 Lucha World Cup first round are running 220 to 1210 MXPs ($12 to 66 USD). Show listed as starting 8:30pm, which means it’s going to be a very late night.
• the Mexico 06/05 Lucha World Cup final has a start time of 4pm. That’s early for an AAA show.
• There’s a nice look back at AAA 1992 posters, as part of a piece writing about the 24th Anniversary of the promotion. Dorian Roldan mentioned to +LuchaTV that AAA is planning for something big for the 25th Anniversary. That’d be a change; there’s no bigger difference between the two promotions than CMLL building it’s whole year to it’s birthday and AAA typically just mentioning their own relatively quietly. (But getting 1992 posters is cool to me.)
• Edit: Kronosport says Lady Maravilla quit AAA. Her Facebook is mostly friends only, so I don’t see a message saying that but it’s probably there.

It’s unclear if there’s another taping between this show and Verano de Escandalo; it really depends on if they’ll be airing the Lucha World Cup as part of normal TV. It feels like there ought to be another one, because the Verano de Escandalo card doesn’t feel like it’s taken shape much at all, but we’re also a month away from the show in real time. Might as well take one guess at the card:

random mixed tag
random other match
Los Xinetez (c) versus Aerostar, Fenix, Drago for the AAA Trios Championship
Averno & Chessman (c) versus Faby Apache & Mary Apache for the AAA Tag Team Titles
Psycho Clown, Daga, Joe Lider, Pentagon versus Pagano, Nicho, Damian, Halloween
La Parka, Dr. Wagner, Texano Jr. versus Hernandez, Cage, Mesias

Again, it’s missing a big match; it feels more like a TV taping than a major show. Maybe something will happen yet.

AAA TV (SAT) 05/14/2016 Plaza de Toros La Concordia, Orizaba, Veracruz [AAA]
1) Faby Apache, Mary Apache, Pimpinela Escarlata, Venum b Apache, La Hiedra, Lady Shani, Mamba
Unlisted bonus match; may air. Faby & Mary got the win for the team.
2) Monsther Clown & Murder Clown b Daga & Joe Lider
Nicho cost Joe Lider the match, with Murder Clown getting the win.
3) Psycho Clown b Ricky Marvin, Nicho el Millionario, Hijo de Pirata Morgan [Lucha Libre Victoria World Cup qualifier]
Winner joins Pentagon Jr. & Texano on the AAA team. Dropped to the third spot. Psycho Clown came out before the match, asked Marisela to be in the match, and was granted a spot. Nicho beat Pirata and Psycho, and Psycho beat Nicho with help from Daga & Lider. Pagano threatened Psycho after the match.
4) Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Taurus b El Elegido, Garza Jr., Niño Hamburguesa
Taurus beat Hamburguesa with a superplex.
5) Hernandez & Zorro b La Parka & Texano Jr.
The Xinetez attacked Texano at the start of the show, with Zorro saying they were allied with Team Trump. Parka made the save. Hernandez was the mystery person (and presumably part of Team Trump as well.) Texano beat Zorro, but still refused to be friends with La Parka.
6) Averno & Chessman © DQ Argenis & Australian Suicide [AAA TAG]
3rd defense. Rematch from the last taping, which had a controversial DQ. Averno tricked Copetes into DQing Argenis again. Avenro issued an open challenge to any challenger, but was dismissive when Faby & Mary unexpectedly accepted the challenge.
7) Pagano b Psycho Clown [hardcore]
Pagano won with a Spanish Fly thru a table on fire and a heel ref.

Air Date: 05/28 & 06/04

It’d be disingenuous to complain about the results for this taping because it wasn’t like I was all that interested in the lineup either, and they simply did what you’d assume they would do for the show. Even Psycho Clown being added to the World Cup qualifying should’ve been figured out ahead of time, since there was that Record article listing the trio originally in the qualifying match, and the three guys put in the match never really made sense. (It leaves the selection team as Texano, Psycho Clown and Pentagon, as close as they can get to repeating last year’s team with Hijo del Fantasma out of action.)

AAA’s pushing the main even as one of the most impressive matches of the year. The photos and text show it to be what you’d expect from Pagano, and something along the lines of Psycho’s recent matches with Dr. Wagner. Those matches haven’t worked for me and I suspect this won’t be anything different, but AAA seems invested in Pagano to a higher level than most of the people working there, and they might as well let him do his style of match if they’re in on him. I don’t have much issue with the result and it sounds like it might have been the usual heel referee meaningless outcome anyway.

The Twitter live post mentioned the tag match ended in DQ. It’s not mentioned elsewhere, so I’m not quite sure how Averno & Chessman pulled it off. It’s strange to do a match with a confusing DQ, then do a rematch with a DQ, and that’s apparently the end of the feud. (If you can’t beat Argenis, who can you beat?) The Faby/Mary challenge will go fine, could possibly just be a solution for Angelico & Jack being out, and makes sense given they’re treated as so more important than the other woman. That, not intergender, feels like the bigger long term problem here: there’s exactly three women around who are taken seriously, AAA won’t book any of those three women against each other in titles matches (for reasons), and so it’s nothing but meaningless tag matches. It’s no different than the CMLL minis division, except AAA’s women division has people who are actually over (Faby, Taya) so they might as well pull them into places where that overness is useful. It’s good they came up with an idea, but it’s a problem they’ve been unable/unwilling to get anyone other woman over to face them, or to just have them face off.

The pro-intergender message here does fall a little flat in the greater context. It’s hard to make the case Faby & Mary should be able on the same level as the men at the same time as the same promotion is running a tournament where the women (including Faby & Mary) and men are specifically being kept separate from the men.

(Again, I’d guess this is just something to fill a spot for Verano de Escandalo. Maybe, in theory, they’re thinking this as a way to save bigger matches for TripleMania – but since all the regular midcard AAA feuds seem to get pushed to the side for the guest stars at TripleMania, it seems unlikely to be going that way.)

Apache didn’t annoy Venum. Maybe they forgot. Maybe we’ll never know why this is happening. Not sure if there’s four matches one of these weeks, or if they’ll just make on a UTDN/YouTube exclusive.

Next taping is – the next post, actually.