I don’t know the Lucha Underground matches for the first time in a while, though they’ll probably reveal them all by Wednesday. The preview mentions Marty, so I’d guess it’s Fenix/Pindar in one of the quarterfinals. The preview also mentions Dario/Matanza (who hasn’t been seen since the hiatus) and the nearly long dormant police subplot.
This Monday’s Puebla show could be pretty good; Shockercito and Pierroth had good chemistry, and Caristico & Rush should at least be interesting.
Friday looks fun too, even if they’re probably heavy into build for next week. Stuka/Hechicero should be a fun lightning match and the NGD match should be good.
Title match looks like it had all the big Infernals spots and it wasn’t enough.
Olimpico actually hasn’t worked in Coliseo or Mexico since March, only a few matches here and in Puebla. I’d guess he’ll be back to pick up Ripper’s bookings.
IWRG FILL (WED) 07/26/2017Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), Estrellas del RIng, The Gladiatores]
1) Bambino & Kraken b Dinámico & Draxter Bonus opener. Dinamico’s partner is ether Dranzer or Draxter.
2) Fireman & Puma King b Guerrero 2000 & Matrix Jr. straight falls
3) Power Bull & Tentáculo b Celestial Boy & Fly Star
4) Acero, Atomic Star, Lunatik Xtreme b Blue Monsther, Picudo Jr., Vórtize
5) Ángel Oriental, Kanon, Shadow Boy b Kempo Jr., Monaguillo, Skanda
6) Marduk, Taylor Wolf, Warrior Jr. b Gallo Frances, Hijo del Alebrije, Mike Gallo Frances betrayed his teammates, fouling Alrbrije. Estrellas del Ring lists Marduk as Harry Sick, from Chile like Taylor Wolf.
7) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Black Dragón, Black Terry, Diablo Jr., Dinamic Black, Emperador Azteca, Eterno b Arez, Fly Star, Fly Warrior, Fulgor I, Fulgor II, Glenn Calavera, Mr. Leo, Séptimo Dragón [Copa Higher Power] IWRG (Black Terry) vs Indy Nation (Arez). Centvrion & Latigo, were listed but did not participate, replaced by Arez & Mr. Leo. Black Terry replaced Demonio Infenral. Arez beat Emperador Azteca (in a rare clean finish for one of these) to set up a title match.
This is a match I think I’ll really enjoy when I get to watching it in November. Indy Nation has had a lot of turnover for a couple months (which is one of the problems with having a dozen people), but they really need to actually beat people and win things and at least they’re doing it in this match.
AAA tapes tonight in Aguscalientes. The one match we’re pretty sure is happening is a #1 contenders match for the Reina de Reinas championship, with the winner getting on the TripleMania show. AAA announced it Tuesday at the TripleMania press conference and it should hold together, though it’s still 2017 AAA so who knows. Sexy Star as a champion came out of nowhere, so there’s no obvious contender. Faby Apache is the usual pick and probably will end up in the match, but she hasn’t been on TV much the last few months. Ayako Hamada appears to be back in Japan. Of the rest, AAA’s seemed to start and stop on doing something with Lady Shani the most, but it’s an outside shot at best. AAA probably really would like Taya to be Sexy Star’s opponent and might have gotten that if they handled the situation better from the start, but it doesn’t look like she’s headed to Aguascalientes today.
Mundo is heading to Aguascalientes. He’s supposed to team with Kross and Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr., which might end with both teams splitting up if it actually happens. You can see the whole card here, while thinking about how few of the matches will actually occur; this is kind of a lame duck taping giving the TripleMania lineup is already out. Outside of Sexy Star’s challenger, the only things left to determine are the La Llave de la Gloria winners (which will be later) and slotting people into the Copa TripleMania (which might happen tonight.) They’ll probably try to explain the Mundo angle in a way that might get over – Mundo should be teasing taking the belts to Konnan and mention him by name, Fantasma & Texano should be defending AAA – but we’ll see.
Sexy Star was on +LuchaTV’s podcast, and didn’t seem all that interested in facing AAA women. My guess is she’s back in AAA because she knows she’s more marketable as a wrestler under the Sexy Star name, part of this deal may give her a chance to use the name and mask elsewhere.
I guess Pirata Morgan’s not working Copa TripleMania at the moment. He and his son posted a video, asking luchadors if they’ll work the battle royal on a big show he’s putting on for 50 pesos or perhaps just the exposure of being on the big show. It’s a parody of Copa TripleMania, which Pirata implying AAA is not offering much to work that match and real professional luchadors would turn it down. It’s Pirata, so he’ll end up working it if they up his pay.
The WON says Jeff Jarrett is trying to get The Crash & AAA to work together “to at least a minor way” for TripleMania. It’s brought up in the idea of Maximo & La Mascara showing up to support Psycho Clown. Dorian specifically brought up people who left AAA showing up in the Copa TripleMania, so it could factor into those names.
The WON also makes note of another TripleMania lineup floating around Wednesday. I saw it – it had Pagano/Mesias in a hair match, which is why I was I thought I heard them announce it that way even though they never did. That other lineup had some stuff that would’ve been hard to guess (Aerostar & Drago and Monster & Murder challenging for the tag titles) – it probably was an early draft of the lineup, but it’s hard to tell from when. The notable thing is it had Alberto defending the GFW title against Lashley. Lashley’s now in the Copa TripleMania and Alberto wasn’t used. Perhaps it’ll be added after something happens to set up in GFW, but it also may be that there’s no real guarantee GFW will have Alberto as champ a month from now.
There’s also a bit about the AAA show on Frontrunner TV. The first show drew 14K (three times as much as any other show on the network.) The third week was down to 2K and the last show (7/5) was down to 1K. The network got complaints about the content not being suitable for prime time and the announcers were said to be terrible.
(This is possibly bad advice but: if you are someone with wrestling announcing skills and would like to work for a dysfunctional but still major wrestling promotion, maybe put together a lucha libre demo video and sneak it to AAA throw social media somehow. It’s probably not going to go anywhere, but AAA both wants something that’ll work and has no money/time to go look for people on their own. I’m guessing this announce crew got the job sight unseen because someone recommended them, so try being your own recommendation.)
Instead of a full press conference, CMLL held one of their smaller contract signings in the office for a the small hair match between Canelo Casas & Cholo. You can watch the whole thing here if you’ve got 11 minutes to kill. In the CMLL quotes from it, Canelo even talks about it being a stepping stone win, and that’s probably all it is.
CMLL Informa announced Michael Elgin as the final member of Team World for the 09/01 Gran Prix. The final teams are
World: Michael Elgin, Marco Corleone, Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Sam Adonis, Matt Taven, King Haku, Johnny Idol
In context of last week’s discussion, it’s notable there’s only one ROH name (Taven) on the list, and it’s the same and only name CMLL has brought in from ROH. Kojima, Elgin, and Robinson are from NJPW and Haku was likely booked thru them (and it wouldn’t be too big of a surprise if NJPW was paying them.) On Informa, Princesa Sugehit mentioned she’ll be carrying out the Mexico flag for the match.
El Consejo appears to be Nitro, based on the promo photo CMLL is using. Nitro was pulled from Consejo’s match at the same time as Consejo was added, so CMLL had him on the books with two different names at the same time. Nitro has been a poor rudo for some time and will be an even worse tecnico. He’s also the acting head of the wrestler’s union, now named the promotion itself and this seems like the most obviously shady move in some time. Even if CMLL needs to use the name El Consejo for some trademark reason, Nitro would be the worst person to have it.
CMLL also posted a video introducing Fiero. They should do that every time someone new is added to the roster – but of course, he’s not actually new, they just stopped booking him last year.
Douki, Black Terry, Sammy Guevera, Syrus were announced for KDojo’s 09/18 Lucha Fiesta show. Douki wrestled in KDojo back in 2015 and the idea is he’s coming back with his lucha libre friends. It’s a long way to go for one show for a promotion that doesn’t normally bring people in, so I wonder if they might be involved in others to be announced. This is Terry’s first match in Japan since 1991 and I would like him to bring home the UWA Middleweight Championship so I can stop updating that title history. Syrus is from Torreon and is billed as the nephew of Silver King & Dr. Wagner Jr.
NGCW (SAT) 07/29/2017 Florida Fire Frogs Baseball, Kissimmee, Florida
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) ? vs ??
4) ? vs ??
5) Ivelisse vs Santana Garrett [WS WOMEN]
6) Lightning (Puerto Rico) & Thunder (Puerto Rico) vs Minotaur & Mr. Águila
7) Blue Demon Jr. & Boricua Guerrero vs Noriega & Savio Vega
8) Fénix (LU) vs Mr. 450, Mil Muertes [#1 Contenders, WS SUBMISSION]
9) Ec3 & Son Of Samoa vs Apolo & Chicano
10) Pentagón Jr. vs Cage [WS SUBMISSION]
