Day: January 26, 2017

lucha TV preview for weekend of January 27th

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I have less of an idea of what’s going on this week. Lucha Retro was a weird repeat this past week, which means they could air the next episode or they could skip around. Elite on Azteca US did skip around, so they might be up to the final episode taped in Arena Mexico, or they could be going backwards.

Plus, AAA starts Guerra de Titanes, which is going to be a weird TV show whatever matches air. (Though, the ROH episode this week with the long departed Nigel McGuinness as announcer felt much more outdated than anything AAA is going to do.) I expect everything airs like normal, with maybe Daga’s challenge removed, but AAA had plenty of time think of how they wanted to handle this and could go many ways. They have the two guys who left losing singles matches, there are worst situations.

IWRG had a Wednesday show, with Sunday being the Chairo show. That means the new episode might air on TV a couple days earlier than usual. It should still air on Monday.

03/05/2017 AAA TV Lineup (Tlaxcala)

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AAA

AAA TV (SUN) 03/05/2017 Plaza de Toros Rodolfo Rodriguez el Pana, Apizaco, Tlaxcala
1) Lanzeloth, Máscara de Bronce, Venum vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota, Soul Rocker
2) Argenis, Big Mami, Dinastía, El Elegido vs Dave The Clown, La Hiedra, Mini Abismo Negro, Parka Negra
3) Aerostar vs Súper Fly [no dq]
4) Dark Cuervo & Zorro vs Bengala & Joe Lider and Angélico & Australian Suicide and Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan [#1 Contenders, AAA TAG]
5) Apache, Faby Apache, Mary Apache vs Averno, Chessman, Ricky Marvin
6) Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Texano Jr.

Air Date: 03/11 & 03/18

This follows the taping Friday in Toluca and on 02/11 in Cuautitlan. It’s the last show before (what’s believed to be but hasn’t officially been announced as) Rey de Reyes in Monterrey on 03/19.  It’s AAA’s first taping in this city in ten years; that was a very different show.

AAA’s been running three way main events on spot shots for about a year straight, and it’s only a surprise they took this long to come to TV. Psycho & Wagner are in a holding pattern for another five months, and heavyweight champion Texano’s thrown in. There’s no obvious sign of Rey de Reyes matches for any of these guys. I suspect they’re doing another miscellaneous trios match with Wagner & Psycho at Rey de Reyes as in Guerra de Titanes, but maybe having Texano in there will set something up.

There’s no obvious sign of a Rey de Reyes tournament this year too. With the people they have on hand, and with three singles matches already set (Taya/Shani, Mundo/TBD, Super Fly/Aerostar), it’s probably not going to be a lot of fourway matches leading to a fourway. Hey, I could do this:

Rey de Reyes guess

  1. relevos AAA
  2. Taya vs Shani
  3. Rey de Reyes (royal rumble? they’ll have a lot of midcarders with nothing to do)
  4. Super Fly vs Aerostar, mask vs mask
  5. Wagner/Psycho trios match
  6. Johnny Mundo vs a replacement for Daga

Really, the replacement for Daga is the most interesting thing on the show.

AAA’s roster still is deep enough to run two shows at once, at least at the moment. This is the same day as a show in Juarez that’s seen changes. They are stretched thin enough that Villano IV has to wrestle on that show, and this show looks thin as well. There’s no sign yet of any added talent, new or returning, though it wasn’t clear until now if either Pirata Morgan Jr. or Atomic Boy were still with AAA since neither had appeared in a while. They got the call here.

The tag title #1 contenders match is strange, because it can’t happen for some time: Aerostar’s going to be too busy to defend his half of the title at Rey de Reyes. AAA’s normal time scale means the resulting title match likely won’t happen until Verano de Escandalo in June, and that’s a long way to go to hope nothing else happens. Pentagon and Garza were suppose to be in Juarez, but I suspect the four way was originally booked with Daga in Bengala’s spot. That team would’ve also made sense as the challengers to Aerostar & Drago. Angelico & Suicide seem like the best option, but a tecnico/tecnico match might not make sense. There are bigger problems, though.

This is only the six combination of OGT vs the Apaches match since TripleMania, but it feels like many more. It’s technically a lumberjack match, which means it’s a comedy match in what might have been a serious feud at one point. Aerostar/Super Fly should have cool spots, but a no DQ singles match will probably look like the normal AAA interference laden singles match, only with the referee not looking as dumb. Second match is an amazing collection of human beings. Opener is good.

AAA/the Crash/LU notes, CMLL & IWRG results

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CMLL (TUE) 01/24/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Explosivo & Gallo b Maléfico & Pitbull I
tecnicos took 1/3
2) Princesa Sugehit, Silueta, Skadi b La Seductora, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
tecnicas took 1/3
3) Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge, The Panther b Disturbio, Puma, Tiger
tecnicos took 1/3
4) Mephisto b Negro Casas
Mephisto took 1/3, the last by sneaking in a foul.
5) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Volador Jr. b Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
tecnicos took 2/3.

Cavernario not only wrestled, it appeared he wrestled without his hurt shoulder being wrapped. I dunno. Mephisto has three singles matches in one week (Saturday & Friday vs Caristico) because CMLL is not really good at planning sometimes.

IWRG (WED) 01/25/2017 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Ángel Oriental, Rey Dinámico, Voltar b Guerrero 2000, Kira, Último Caballero
2) Cadilac, Kesier Drago, Shadow Boy b Águila Enmascarada, Araña de Plata, Atomic Star
3) Blue Monsther, Kanon, Vardues b Acero, Keshin Black, Vampiro Metálico
4) Dragón Fly b Pibe Alfajor (Argentina) [AIWA ARGENTINA CRUISER]
Second defense.
5) Dowki, Heddi Karaoui, Hip Hop Man, Mosca (Argentina), Picudo Jr., Taylor Wolf, Yakuza b Aramis, Black Dragón, Demonio Infernal, Emperador Azteca, Eterno, Freelance, Hijo del Alebrije [Copa Higher Power]
Torneo FILL 56, FILL vs Legion Extranjera. Eterno replaced X-Fly but he and Demonio Infenrla were having problems all match. Mosca (who’s chest was blood red from chops) beat Emperador when Hip Hop Man threw power in Emperador’s face.

Promociones Conteras held a press conference to talk about their show this Friday. This is the one that started as a reunited Vipers versus Vatos Locos main event, and then notPerros Penta, Fenix, Daga, and Garza got added. Those four were not there, but Garza called in to say the new group name and look would be revealed on that show this Friday. Hope they came up with a good name quick. They haven’t had much luck so far. “The Crash” is an odd name, Fenix el Rey needed two tries on his, and “Penta el 0M” did not get a great reception upon being revealed.

CMLL mentions Astral’s upcoming switch to the main division. They say Astral asked to move up a year ago, and it was approved about two weeks ago. That sounds about right for CMLL.

CMLL also has an article introducing Raymond Rowe, and briefly alludes to Dragon Lee & Volador working the ROH show on WrestleMania weekend.

This week’s WON has some new details on the luchadors who jumped to The Crash. The WON states that Garza, Daga and Pentagon did not tell AAA they were leaving and AAA had no idea it was happening. Garza & Pentagon lost the their title matches because that was the original plan, not a reaction to them leaving. AAA’s plan was for Daga/Mundo at Rey de Reyes, they weren’t going to do a mask/hair match with Pentagon/Mundo, Pentagon was just losing the feud and they were moving on. Mundo’s probably still booked for Rey de Reyes, but we don’t know who he’d face now.

AAA’s belief is Konnan/The Crash will not be able to get Mexico television (which they’ve had meetings on) and the group isn’t going to mean much without it. US TV is more a long term goal.  “Others close to the scene” believe Pentagon and Fenix’s outside of Mexico bookings will diminish without Lucha Underground on the air, and all four will be hurt by not being on AAA TV. (My feeling is AAA TV hasn’t been helping anyone besides Pagano & Psycho Clown in the last year, and Fenix & Pentagon’s indie popularity stopped being driven by LU about a season ago.)

There’s also a mention that LU S4 tapings will now happen in December 2017. That seems tough logistically: they’re not going to want to tape the last two weekend of the year and one of those weekends will have an AAA show. I don’t think anyone really knows for sure at this point and it shouldn’t be taken too seriously until there’s an actual day attached to it. The WON says the delay is due to a funding issue, suggesting the delay isn’t totally due to El Rey but because LU doesn’t have enough money to tape. There’s no certainty about what will happen with these guys if/when those tapings happen, but it reads like they would be released out of their contracts

CMLL luchadors are no longer allowed to work The Crash. It seems to directed at Konnan, but something that would’ve happened anyway as they tried to get TV and were seen as a competition. This ban hasn’t seemed to affect indie shows yet – Volador/Fenix still seems to be on – but don’t count on getting those Crash/CMLL matches going forward.

In the WON, there’s also an mention that CMLL is “believed” to be getting $600-$1200 a week for it’s US TV deal. (It’s not specified which one; Fox Deportes makes most sense, but WON had them still on Azteca recently so can’t be sure.)

On +Lucha’s podcast interview with Daga, he mentioned he’s talked to Joe Lider, and Lider is happy in AAA. Konnan’s Podcast Boom was taped prior to the Crash show, though Konnan does mention Vampiro is no longer working for AAA, says Rey Mysterio’s LU contract has ended, and Roberto suggests The Crash may come to Monterrey with the Hardys. Konnan’s Keeping it 100 mentions the show in the description but I don’t what they say.

AAA and their partner local promotions continue to update their lineups with Daga, Pentagon and Garza. The only ones I haven’t seen updated are the two Tao shows, in Celaya and Queretaro, and it may only be because I can’t figure out what their Facebook page is nowadays. In Juarez, the planned Mucha Luchas title match is off because Penta was the champion. Mesias and Villano IV have been added to the card in Ciudad Juarez, a show about two weeks after Konnan runs there. Villano hasn’t appeared in the ring since early December and seems to be be essentially retired except when there’s no one else available.

Apolo Valdes writes about the AAA departures over the last two years.

Octagon held a press conference yesterday to announce his first Legado Dragon show. The card is nothing special, just Octagon and Fuerza in a tag match so they pretend they’re close to doing the mask match. It’s pretty much a Tinieblas Jr. FULL show with Octagon, Hijo del Octagon, and Dragon Dorado from the reality series added. Octagon announced another announce on February 21st. Octagon’s most recent argument was luchadors were not being paid enough; there was no specific mention of what the luchadors on his show were getting paid.

Ripper told R de Rudo that he changed his name from Psicosis (at least on TV) because AAA held him hostage with harassing lawsuits until he did it. Ripper says it like he didn’t lose any lawsuit, but fighting them cost too much.

AAA posted video of the TripleMania press conference, first attempt. They had Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner go back to do the face off on Wednesday.

ESTO interviewed Dalys, mostly focused on feuding with Marcela. She mentions she and Negro Casas will reach 24 years of marriage this March.

El Universal Queretaro has interviews with Drabek I (a police officer in his day job) and Nieto de Halcon Negro (who’s family has battled addiction problems) as part of a series on lucha in Arena Queretaro.

The Expo Mascaras is being held at the Monumento a la Revolucion on February 19th.

Hechicero teased being Zach Sabre Jr.’s opponent for his upcoming Lucha Memes appearance.

Segunda Caida reviews Kahoz vs La Fiera.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 01/31/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Fugaz & Neutrón vs Destructor & Linterna
2) Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Star Black vs Akuma, Cholo, Ráfaga
3) La Vaquerita, Silueta, Skadi vs Dalys, La Comandante, La Seductora
4) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Titán vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Diamante Azul, Máximo Sexy, Volador Jr. vs La Máscara, Pierroth, Shocker

Sometimes this Tuesday Guadalajara cards look like the best cards of the week. This is not one of those times. Trios champs teaming in the semimain.

Neutron has been around long enough to face the previous Fugaz (Ramstein) and team with a new one.