Christmas Day show previews, TripleMania date announced

Arena Mexico today has a women’s cage match, including La Jarochita, Sanely, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Marcela, Estrellita, Zeuxis, Dalys, Amapola, and Metalica, where the winner will loser will unmask or lose their hair. Early guessing had Zeuxis as the loser, but I think it’s unlikely if she’s wearing a special outfit. (Remember back to the Sombra versus Volador mask match, where Sombra wore a new variation of his mask, and Volador wore the classic version of his, and it was a sign of who was going to win. Luchadors prefer to go down wearing their most well known version of their mask.) There’s no other obvious loser, just a lot of people (Jarochita, Vaquerita, Amapola, Metalica) who all have about the same chance, and others who wouldn’t be a big leap. CMLL hasn’t strongly pushed any rivalry, more just everyone against everyone. Their advantage is the outcome is a mystery, but there’s no strong reason for people to get into this mask beyond the drama of the stipulation,

The rest of the card are matches without meaning, though the star power is more like a Friday night show than a Sunday one. Atlantis, Marco and Volador take on Barbaro Cavernario, Felino and Negro Casas. Stuka, Titan, Valiente face Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero and Terrible. Drone, Johnny Idol and Star Jr. face Boby Z, Vangellys and Virus. That’s a bit lower than we’re using to seeing Vangelys and Drone. A minis match with Astral, Shockercito, Pequeno Olimpico and the returning Pierrothito opens the show.

This show will air on CMLL’s YouTube and NJPW World. CMLL hasn’t promoted that part all that much, possibly because they need to sell tickets for this show. The prices are marked up for a bigger than usual show, betting on the holiday and the cage match to move them. They didn’t seem to be moving all that quick on last check on Ticketmaster.

CMLL is promising this show will end by 7pm so fans can could go see the LigaMX final. The LigaMX final seems to be listed at 6:30pm. It was very stubborn of CMLL not to simply move their show up an hour, and it may cost them in tickets sold. For those who don’t care about LigaMX, it’ll probably mean CMLL is cutting some of the undercard a little short to make sure they get done on time. Most CMLL shows have tended towards being two hours of late, but a cage match usually take as little bit longer, and setting up the cage kills a few minutes too.

Guadalajara has the same sort of cage match: a whole bunch of people around the equal status, with a lot of people as potential losers. This cage match build is more individual rivalries which have been thrown together: Neutron/Leon Blanco, Infierno/Magnum, Mr. Trueno/Freezer, Nautilius/Pitbull I, Star Black/Nautilius (and Rafaga & Star Black seemingly just throw in, or their feud didn’t make the recap.) Infierno wasn’t wrestling for two years before coming back a few weeks ago, so he’s the favorite to lose.

In Tijuana, Caristico and Histeria (Morphosis) have their own mask match. It’s a bit strange there’s a mask match happening between two guys who work for CMLL in an indie promotion. It’s arguably a much bigger match than the one CMLL is running on the same day. Neither Caristico or Histeria both seems like outsiders who are in CMLL, so that might have something to do with it. Histeria is probably losing. The only way he’s not is if someone else gets involved.

The most interesting show of the night is Chairo 7 show in Arena Naucalpan. It too has a cage match, with the three way feud between the Saetas, Indystructibles and Kamikazes.  Guerrero Maya & The Panther defend the Arena Coliseo Tag Team title belts against Black Terry & Negro Navarro, and Jack Evans & Rey Cometa and Trauma I & Satanico have first time ever matches. Lucha Memes/Chairo is less likely to be affected by LigaMX: they’re drawing from people who are care more about the matches, and it’s a much better card than CMLL.

There’s plenty of smaller shows today, and this seems like a day that might have a lot of outdoor shows which aren’t promoted anywhere but in the neighborhood.

AAA announced next year’s TripleMania will take place August 26, 2017. This is the first time they’ve announced TripleMania’s date this far in advance. They’re trying to make a destination show for the 25th Anniversary, with Dr. Wagner versus Psycho Clown also already announced. They haven’t quite announced the location yet. Seems safe to assume Mexico City, but maybe it’ll be a different building. AAA posted their entire holiday special.

Azteca aired another Lucha Azteca special today. The announcers for the show still say they’ll be back with new episodes in 2017. Elite seemed to have cameras on hands for their show at Arena Lopez Mateos, though it wasn’t clear if they were Azteca and they might have just been used for the holiday messages they’ve been posting. Still, something is better than nothing.