Month: August 2017

IWRG (WED) 08/30/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Power Bull b Ángel Oriental
2) Demonio Infernal & Toxin b Celestial Boy & Vórtize
3) Alas de Acero & Aramis b Glenn Calavera & Jerry Calavera
4) Diablo Jr., Freelance, Golden Magic b Fulgor I, Fulgor II, Mr. Leo
5) Arez, Fly Warrior, Séptimo Rayo b Dragón Fly, Emperador Azteca, Imposible
Indy Nation took 1/3 to win their only match of the night. Septimo pulled off Emperador’s mask and Arez pinned him for the win. Arez challenged Azteca to another title match.

Indy Nation went 1-2, but I guess they can say they won the match that mattered.

GFW quietly posted a statement about TripleMania on their Impact website. They write that both AAA & Sexy Star have apologized, and “appropriate measures are being taken in respect of this incident.” AAA has said nothing publicly and probably shouldn’t be expected to say anything now; if GFW has given them the opening, AAA will be happy to let this story fade away.

Sexy Star appeared on Multimedios’ Bailadmios. This is the the dance competition show she had been on but elimination from, but she appeared to talk about what happened at TripleMania in the most friendly situation possible. R de Rudo has a transcript, (Edit: SuperLuchas has a more complete one) and Sexy does not at all come off as apologetic – she instead describes herself as the victim, someone people are threatening to retire or finish, but she won’t let them stop her from fighting. She feels like she did what she had to do, and she says she doesn’t know if Rosemary is really injured. In no way does this fit with the above paragraph. If Sexy had be willing to admit the slightest bit of fault while shifting the blame, this crowd was willing to get fully behind her. There’s a bit in the end that doesn’t appear in the transcript where Sexy says she has the support of her daughter and her husband and the parents and that’s all that matters, and that was her play to get the crowd on the side. It did get applause, but it didn’t change anyone’s minds. It probably not a good idea to go on TV if this is what she had to say – it wasn’t good for her and it wasn’t good for AAA – but I guess we can fairly say it was not the worst decision she’s made this week.

None of it matters. It appears everyone’s going to go back to pretending everything fine, except Sexy won’t be working many US shows. That seems like something that’ll be a big problem later  – I don’t know how AAA uses Sexy Star with anyone at this point, because she and the other AAA women can’t be trusted to work with each other, and it’s going to be hard to get an outsider in, but AAA seems like they’ve been willing to ignore any issues here so far. We might just get more excitement later on. We’re going to get nothing that’ll lead to good wrestling matches or entertaining wrestling stuff that isn’t everything breaking down.

(One more thing: if we take Sexy Star’s side for a second, why is she still in AAA? If she really believes everyone was out to get her, shouldn’t she be angry with AAA for putting her in that match?)

The Wrestling Observer, citing “a source with knowledge of all the numbers of the show”, says Dr. Wagner was paid 4.5 million pesos ($255K USD) for losing his mask. Psycho had agreed to lose his mask for 500K pesos ($28K USD) but they decided it was worth keeping him mask over the savings. Psycho instead earned $4.5K USD for the match. The show itself drew 17,000 fans, 14,000 paid with a gate of $625K, which is much less than had been expected.

The WON says Wagner & Atlantis were each offered $37K USD to lose their mask in 2007, but both declined. Park & Wagner were looking for $77K USD to lose their mask in 2012 but couldn’t get it. Wagner ended up making 3x as much in AAA.

AAA’s put the complete TripleMania up on YouTube. There didn’t appear to be any editing in the woman’s match, it’s the same video that is on Twitch.

Keeping it 100 with Konnan has a discussion of TripleMania about 50 minutes in. Kevin Gill, one of the regulars on the show, was one of the English language announcers. Kevin Gill thought he did a great job, although he gets very angry when Konnan calls him on not knowing people’s names. Kevin did mention he never watched any AAA, but felt most of the blame should be on AAA for not giving them a format sheet with the participants and run-ins or putting up an onscreen graphic so they could be identified. Kevin doesn’t get a chance to say it, but he seems to believe he should be judged by his presentation and any lack of product knowledge is not his fault. That seem to echo AAA’s belief given how they run it.

Gill says they were only told they were doing the show 3 days in advance so they didn’t have enough time to prepare. 3 days advance warning is odd because it was out 10 days ahead of time that they were probably doing the show on Twitch.  It’s strange but not surprising that AAA would’ve only informed people at the last minute. This seems consistent with the work AAA didn’t do for Matt Striker in past years. The reality is, should you find yourself on an AAA show (or really any other event at all), you should be prepared to do the work as if you’re going to get no help – because you’re probably going to get no help, and because a professional should be able to get by without it. In the end, TripleMania was a small event and it didn’t matter to the announcers if they knew anything because they can still say they did it, and it didn’t matter to AAA because they probably only had English announcers to appease Twitch, so life goes on.

PW Insider (via WrestleZone) says Alberto and GFW were going to run an angle at TripleMania to build to his return to GFW, but it didn’t happen because Alberto was angry about AAA trademarked Alberto’s name. (That makes it sound like AAA just did that, but they trademarked it back in 2014 and Alberto’s been angry about it for years -it could be that Alberto wasn’t going to working the show until they transferred the name to him.) PW Insider says Alberto will work a different show to shoot the angle, which may be the 09/10 Championship Wrestling from Hollywood show he was just announced for.

CMLL’s put up it’s tutorial on how to buy the Gran Prix.

Kojima’s arrived in Mexico. I think they’re only missing Kenny King.

A video of the foreigners trip to the park.

+Lucha has an interview with Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia and Diamante Azul, and another with Juice Robinson and Matt Taven about the Gran Prix.

The Crash announced a bunch of November dates – 9 shows, including 7 straight days of them.

• 11/03 Guadalajara
• 11/04 Tijuana (Bestia/Jack)
• 11/05 Monterrey
• 11/06 Nuevo Laredo
• 11/07 San Luis Potosi
• 11/08 Aguascalientes
• 11/09 Toluca
• 11/11 Mexico City
• 11/14 Leon

This is their most ambitious schedule yet; they’d be in a great position if they do well on all these shows. The Mexico City one probably won’t be Mexico City proper.

Aeroboy promo for his match with Virus, which is already coming up this weekend.

Revolucha announced Chavo Guerrero & Matt Taven would be replacing MVP & Jeff Jarrett in their main event. I think they’re likely to work with Sam Adonis against xRayo de Jalisco, Huracan Ramirez Jr. and Mistico better.

A story on Torreon mask collector Oscar Galindo’s giant mask collection, which gets written about occasionally.

I’m on the LuchaWorld podcast talking about TripleMania.

CultIcon and TKD review last night’s Lucha Underground. CultIcon also writes about Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner and one previewing the Gran Prix.

MedioTiempo looks back at the history of Gran Prix.

Kcidis draws the Wagners and an unhappy third party.

CMLL (TUE) 08/29/2017 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Fiero & Sangre Imperial b Grako & Templario 
Fiero fell hard out of the ring on an attempted super headscissors reveal on Templario. He was strechered away but did not appear seriously injured. Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Arkángel de la Muerte, Nitro, Sangre Azteca b Astral, Pegasso, Stigma 
3) Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Puma, Tiger, Virus 
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Pólvora b Titán [lightning]
Polvora Driver for the win
5) Ephesto, Luciferno, Rey Bucanero b Dragón Lee, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 1/3
6) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Diamante Azul DQ Gran Guerrero, Pierroth, Rush
Diamante Azul replaced Niebla Roja. Rush fouled Diamante Azul.

Matches 1, 3 and 4 are said to be the best.

No Niebla Roja there, and Niebla Roja isn’t on the lineups for next week. Something’s up.

CMLL’s press conference yesterday was to announce the Segura Popular insurance plan will now include CMLL luchadors, referees, vendors, and all other staff working at the building. This is the same insurance that’s been announced with AAA and others in the past. Atlantis, who hasn’t been seen in a while, noted CMLL already covered in-ring injuries but this would extend coverage to any illness outside the ring.

Atlantis was also asked about Dr. Wagner Jr. losing his mask. Atlantis was surprised Wagner lost it, and guessed Wagner though he’d win and then come challenge Atlantis – because Atlantis has the most valuable mask in lucha libre. (They asked him if he was including Hijo dle Santo & Blue Demon Jr., and he said yes.) Atlantis is still recovering from leg surgery and will only begin rehab on 09/07. He’s still hoping to be back in the ring by the end of the year but it doesn’t sound like a definite thing.

Taya’s interviewed on today’s Talk in Jericho. The interview is recent but not from this week; the only mention of TripleMania during the interview is Taya jokingly wishing her friend Lady Shani would beat up Sexy Star in their title match. (Everyone knew there was a good chance something was going to happen and it’s incredible AAA put Shani & Sexy in that match together.) Jericho does briefly mention the situation after the interview and rips Sexy Star.

In the interview, Taya says she’s still under contract to AAA but “I don’t know where I stand right now with Mexico. I’m taking some time off.” Taya’s explains the sequence of events as Johnny bringing the belt, Johnny telling Taya they were keeping the belt, Taya messaging Dorian to find out what was going on, Dorian saying not to worry about it, and Taya finding out she was no longer champion the next day via social media. Taya didn’t like losing the belt and seems to have really not liked Sexy Star getting it, but says she would’ve filmed a promo for whatever AAA wanted to give it up if they had just asked her ahead of time. Taya’s bigger issues were Vampiro ripping her on social media and Vampiro saying Taya wouldn’t show up to defend the title – attacking her professionalism after she had professional loyalty to stick with AAA while her friends had left really hurt. Vampiro apologized to Taya at Comic Con, and it sounds like she’s at the point where should could tolerate working with him if she had too but still doesn’t like him all that much.

La Aficion has an interview with Dr. Wagner Jr., who says he wants to be called Rey Wagner. The idea, as explained by Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., is the younger Wagner will be the only Doctor now. I’m not sure that’s going to stick.

Angelico didn’t wrestle in Nuevo Laredo, with the promotion saying he had a shoulder injury. Maybe that’s why we didn’t see him on TripleMania at all?

The Crash’s press conference officially introduced Rush (& Pierroth) to the promotion. Both Rush and the promotion emphasized Rush was still in CMLL, was only working in The Crash via permission from CMLL and would not be working in any other additional promotions. The tease was for a Penta/Rush match. The match actually announced on the show was Jack Evans versus Bestia 666 in a hair match, to take place on 11/04 in Tijuana. They also announced a return to Mexico City on 11/11, and a Guadalajara date on 11/03. No venues were announced.

Today’s Lucha Underground episode is episode 3×33, 98 overall, “Havoc Running Wild”. Matches on the show

• Marty the Moth vs Argenis
• something with Son of Havoc & Son of Madness
• a Joey Ryan match

There’s also something with Matanza and Dario.

I’m pretty sure Joey Ryan faces Sexy Star on the show. It hasn’t been announced but, based on stuff coming up, this is the only episode that match can air. Get your jokes ready?

This episode looks a lot more like moving pieces around for Ultima Lucha. The next few episodes seem to follow that way: it’s about half setting things up and half big matches for feuds not considered important enough for the last few episodes (or that just have to be resolved to get to things they really want to get to.)

The annual CMLL minis party happened.

Rey Escorpion has been added to the AAA/EMW show in Tijuana on 09/08.

Aeroboy talks about where his name and mask came from.

Los Guerreros were filming something.

Guerrera Isis & Estrella Negra published an article about lucha libre in the magazine of the Instituto Mexicano de Cultura. There’s a lot of anthropology students who seem to write about wrestling but Guerrera Isis is actually a luchadora so I’d be interesting in reading this one.

LuchaTalk talks about TripleMania.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 09/05/2017 Arena México
1) Fiero & Magia Blanca vs Espíritu Negro & Grako
2) Pegasso, Star Jr., Starman vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Nitro
3) Lady Maravilla, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
4) The Panther vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro, Blue Panther, Johnny Idol vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero, Pólvora
6) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr. vs Negro Casas, Shocker, Terrible

Negro Casas & Shocker teaming up should lead to a tag team title match but usually leads to one of them getting hurt. I think Caristico & Stuka is the best possible team of challengers and won’t actually challenge.

CMLL (TUE) 09/05/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino & Explosivo vs Guerrero de la Muerte & Ráfaga
2) Flyer, Magnum, Príncipe Diamante vs Artillero, Difunto, Metálico
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Silueta vs La Seductora, Metálica, Zeuxis
4) Kráneo, Pierroth, Rush vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Marco Corleone, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Kojima, Último Guerrero

Kojima getting the usual bit of working every possible show for a while. Weird CMLL has two women’s matches on Tuesday but split up Zeuxis & Sugehit.

The Crash (WED) 09/13/2017 Auditorio Miguel Barragan, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
1) Látigo, Pegazus, Tiago vs Arkángel Divino, Astrolux, Rey Celestial (Puebla)
2) Keyra © vs Chik Tormenta, Diosa Quetzal, Christi Jaynes [The Crash WOMEN]
3) Drastik Boy vs Sami Callihan, Mr. 450, Sammy Guevara
4) Jack Evans & Willie Mack vs Black Taurus (Indie) & Último Ninja
5) The King © vs Flamita [The Crash CRUISER]
first defense
6) Daga & Penta Zero M vs Pierroth & Rush and Máscara & Máximo and Bestia 666 & Garza Jr.

Rush & Pierroth start. I think you’re going to see them as a tag team a lot, just so they don’t have to stick in Pierroth on his own. Fenix/Flamita has some history and should be great.

CMLL (MON) 08/28/2017 Arena Puebla [CMLL, CultIcon, Sin Limite de Tiempo]
1) Asturiano & Meyer b Ares & Joker 
Asturiano replaced Astro.
2) El Malayo & King Jaguar b Millenium & Rey Samuray 
3) Misterioso Jr. & Sagrado b Drone & Guerrero Maya Jr. 
4) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Mistico b Cavernario, Mephisto, Negro Casas 
Angel de Oro replaced Niebla Roja for the second straight day.
5) Diamante Azul, Euforia, Rush, Último Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Johnny Idol, Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin, Sam Adonis [cibernetico] 
Volador beat Elgin with a poison rana for the win, the first time Team International has lost in this tour.

Main event was fun. They’re not going as full out as we’d expect on Friday and there’s more comedy here than I’d expect in the Gran Prix, but it’s still enjoyable.

The big news from Puebla last night wasn’t that show, but the lineup for next week’s show: Octagon is listed in the main event. Octagon left CMLL in 1992 to help found AAA. He, Antonio Pena, and Konnan were considered forever on Paco Alonso list of people not allowed back to Arena Mexico – not just to work, but Konnan had to sneak in when he wanted to just be at the show – for starting the rival promotion. Octagon did make it back into the building without having to hide, with ELITE being allowed to use him on their shows the last couple of years, but CMLL’s never directly worked with him. And Octagon probably had no great interest in working with CMLL either until he and AAA broke up badly three year ago.

Octagon’s not any good at wrestling and has not been any good at wrestling since I started watching in 2004. If you started watching in the early 90s and you were a kid at that time, he was cool and super popular. If kids liked you, and if you were over when the people who were then wrestling are now booking, you’ll get booked forever and ever even if you have terrible matches, appear in no condition to wrestle frequently and most of the kids who liked you are adults who are no longer into wrestling. (You just need a few fans in the right places.)

CMLL’s booked people who are just as near as bad as Octagon. The mystery about Octagon is why suddenly now. He’s been available for a while. He appears to still be battling over his name, and CMLL’s eventually stopped using the Invasors AAA names in original names over it. (Of course, Octagon is different in that he started that name in CMLL – maybe this plays into it somehow?) I’d guess this means he’s on the Anniversario show somehow – maybe they’re so concerned about these matches and think bringing Octagon back for it would be a draw? I am missing a piece.

It’s really interesting that CMLL is allowing a deal with a Konnan run company and bringing back Octagon at about the same time. Either thing alone my be a blip, but those are the two living people forever hated by CMLL – except forever doesn’t seem to be forever now.

Let’s take a moment to note CMLL has plenty of ways to hype news and even a show called Informa, and the way they revealed Octagon was returning to the promotion after 25 years was a lineup page being quietly updated in the dead of night. They are consistently terrible at this sort of thing. They did have a press conference to announce insurance plan for luchadors, which had been previously announce with AAA and others.

CMLL’s preview of today’s CMLL card mentions Rush is in the eye of hurricane. It’s played off like Rush is siempre in the eye of the hurricane, but he’s surrounded by chaos than usual. In addition to The Crash appearances, which will be formerly announced this afternoon, Rush was also hanging out at TripleMania. He was there with La Mascara to support Psycho Clown, but the Wrestling Observer reported Dorian Roldan was pitching Rush on jumping to AAA and promising him next year’s TripleMania main event. The report sounded like nothing was agreed to and he’s sticking with this CMLL & The Crash bit, but this is easily not the first time AAA’s worked on convincing him to jump.

Tonight’s CMLL “Nuevo Valores” show actually has a new person match; the opener is Fiero & Sangre Imperial versus Templario & Grako in a battle of newcomers. Fiero & Templario have been the best of the recent additions and there seems to be less limitations on these matches than the past.

The matches on the rest of the card don’t seem that important – the Gran Prix being around the corner and Mistico/UG last week means there’s probably not much going on here. The main event is listed as Pierroth, Rush and Gran Guerrero versus Angel de Oro, Caristico and Niebla Roja, but CMLL’s preview lists Diamante Azul instead of Roja. Roja has missed his matches Sunday and Monday too. He’s oddly not booked on Friday, but is back on Sunday. His recent Twitter posts do not suggest anything is wrong, but missing a run of shows raises some alarms about his availability in two weeks.

Dragon Lee, Rey Cometa, and Stuka face Ephesto, Luciferno and Rey Bucanero. Titan takes on Polvora. Titan wins this match most every time they have it, but it’s usually a pretty good match. Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya face Puma, Tiger and Virus in a match that’s reliably good, but they’ve over-relied on of late. Arkangel, Nitro and Sangre Azteca vs Astral, Pegaso and Stigma is reliably not good. The show airs on CMLL’s YouTube at 7:30pm.

Gran Guerrero was asked about fans saying Zeuxis & Princesa Sugehit maybe headlining instead of Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero, and said the only thing he could say: they’re really good and they could main event and it’s good they’ll also be on the card.

Flip Kendrick Gordon says he’s in Mexico from 09/16 to 09/30. I’d presume he’s working the Lucha Memes show after the Anniversary show in addition to the CMLL dates.

ROH World has an interview with Matt Taven, with a lot of talk about his time in CMLL. Taven said CMLL was actually interested in him before he suffered his knee injury (Dec 2015), but they were having problems getting the visas all worked out at that point. He was contacted about coming in September, had been aiming for a October return, but sped up his rehab to make it in time. CMLL had him working so much and he survived without his knee OK, so it also gave him some confidence going forward. He mentions Marco, Sam Adonis, Titan and Ultimo Guerrero for helping him get adjusted to CMLL and life in Mexico. He’s been able to get around on his own because he got a lot of help the first couple days and seems to be really enjoying the trips.

I hadn’t thought about it in light of TripleMania, but Sexy Star was announced for those Lucha Underground/AAA shows in Japan in October, which is probably a reason they won’t actually cut ties with her. AAA still hasn’t acknowledged that tour though.

Dr. Wagner Jr. was being called Rey Wagner last night in Nuevo Laredo. I’m uncertain if that’s just a new nickname or if he’s going to be billed as it for the moment.

Vampiro used his personal Facebook page to announce it was a personal Facebook page and that he would not be speaking for officially AAA there. And then he said “the situation that is going around will be dealt with very ethically and professionally” and there will be a statement soon. I think that statement is happening today. Vampiro then moves on to the real issue of the day: Dave Meltzer not calling him. He really really wants a call. Please call. Please. The Meltzer thing is old, but it reads like he got a talking too about what he’s allowed to post after the stuff with Taya – that was always a source of conflict when Konnan had the same job. Deep in the comments, Vampiro claims TripleMania drew 22000. That doesn’t seem right; 22300 is the listed capacity and you’d figure more than that would have to be cut off for the stage. (It was a really nice stage this year.)

AAA put up this week’s TV show this morning. It’s later than usual, but I assume they just gave everyone a couple days off.

The Crash has their press conference today at 2pm. They’ll probably have a announcements in addition to Rush & Pierroth.

Rey Fenix resurfaced to apologize for missing the Fight Club shows this past week. He blames “an accident happened that no one wanted”. I hope everything’s OK.

IWRG added Bombero Infernal vs Eterno in a hair match to Sunday’s show.

10/21 Lucha Libre y Pasion in Arena San Juan

• Xtreme Tiger & Daga vs Fly Warrior & Aramis
• Toxin & Tromba vs Kastigador & Vengador
• Eterno vs Bandido – new

That sounds like a fun match which hasn’t been done much.

Lucha Underground announced Argenis vs Marty for this week’s show.

GALLI has announced Penta, Fenix, Maximo, La Mascara, and DJZ for their anniversary show on 09/10 outside of Chicago.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

+LuchaTV’s podcast talks about TripleMania. Look, if you’re not unintentionally starting international incidents on your podcast, you are not on +LuchaTV’s level. They’ve also got a video interview with Dragon Lee and Rush, neither of which are wearing shirts for some reason.

Sensaciones de Luchadors talks to Aeroboy about his favorite luchadors growing up, and why he likes lucha extrema.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 09/04/2017 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger, Lestat, Tigre Rojo Jr. vs El Malayo, Fuerza Chicana, Guerrero Espacial
2) Astro, Asturiano, Último Dragóncito vs Joker, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico
3) Ángel de Oro, Drone, Soberano Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Vangellys
4) Blue Panther, Johnny Idol, Valiente vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Sam Adonis
5) Mistico, Octagón, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Kojima, Último Guerrero

Beside that one name, Kojima seems to be sticking around for the weekend.

Super Astro (SAT) 09/16/2017 Arena Azteca Budokan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Demus 3:16, Diva Salvaje, Rossy Moreno vs Demasiado, Pandora Pecadora, Taylor Wolf
2) Diamante, Imposible, Metaleón vs Ciclón Ramírez, El Bandido, Emperador Azteca
3) Fishman Jr. vs Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Flamita, Jack Evans, Fresero Jr., Último Ninja
4) Antifaz del Norte vs Oriental, Máximo
5) Sharlie Rockstar & Silver King vs Trauma I & Trauma II
6) Cibernético, Dark Ozz, Dark Spíritu vs Garza Jr., LA Park, Rey Escorpión
7) La Máscara & Zorro vs Daga & LA Park

Super Astro’s Independence day show. No Rush or Dragon Lee, so no one’s probably going to be working this show and Arena Mexico (which will start the same time.) Rey Escorpion still working here is a little surprising, may be subject to change.

IWRG (SUN) 08/27/2017 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Power Bull b Celestial Boy
2) Demonio Infernal, Hijo Del Bombero, Shadow Boy b Lunatic Xtreme, Skanda, Toxin
3) Hijo del Pantera b Emperador Azteca
Pantera has now beaten Azteca in 3 singles matches since July 27th and, like both previous matches, Pantera wants a title match and Azteca was a mask match.
4) Bombero Infernal, Chico Che, Leo, Rafy vs Eterno, Gallo Frances, Internacional Pantera, Kanon
straight falls. Bombero wants a hair match next week but Etenro said no – in the ring only, because he was said to have accepted later.
5) Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Trauma I, Trauma II b Danny Casas, Golden Magic, Villano III Jr.
Golden Magic & Villano III Jr. had problems.
6) Mr. Electro DQ Villano V Jr. [IWRG IC HEAVY]
2nd defense. DQ win after all the Villanos interfered.

The main event doesn’t sound like it was good, but JMG says it actually was. Golden Magic and Villano III Jr. feuding somehow how set up a Villano III/Impossible match.

I thought AAA said TripleMania would only be up for 24 hours, but maybe they meant it’d be available 24 hours a day? I dunno, but I know it’s still up and most Twitch videos are up for 30 days. EDIT: The link still works, but you need to be Twitch subscriber ($5/month) to be able to watch it now.

The Mexico versus the World theme continues tonight in Arena Puebla. The main event is a 6v6 cibernetico previewing Friday’s Gran Prix, with Diamante Azul, Euforia, Rush, Ultimo Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. versus Johnny Idol, Juice Robinson, Marco Corleone, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin and the returning Sam Adonis. Kenny King & Kojima aren’t in for the World side for a couple days, so Dragon Lee and Mephisto sit this one out and are in the semifinal instead. These ciberneticos are reliably good: they’ll get plenty of time but will still work at a fast pace because so many people are involved, and the eliminations make sure there’s a build to the end. Everyone kind of knows the outcome to this one, but it should be enjoyable to get there.

The semimain is scheduled to be Dragon Lee, Mistico and Niebla Roja against Cavernario, Mephisto and Negro Casas, in a rare Niebla Roja match not against Gran Guerrero. The rest of the match are 2v2 tag matches. CMLL has a booking formula based on scheduling a certain amount of wrestlers and matches. They ‘must’ still have five matches with a 12 people in the main event, but can’t book many extra people, so there’s midcard pairs matches. Drone & Guerrero Maya team up against natural team Sagrado & Misterioso in the one CMLL CDMX matchup, while Millenium & Rey Samuray take on Malayo & King Jaguar and Astro & Meyer face Ares & Joker in the opening bouts.

The show airs at 9 pm on CMLL’s YouTube as normal.x

AAA’s usual show Monday in Nuevo Laredo, run by the Cantu family, includes Laredo Kid & Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Mocho Cota as the main event. The semimain has Drago, Angelico and Aerostar in a three way match and there’s at least a chance it’ll turn up – matches from these shows were turning up on YouTube occasionally last year. That match jumped out at me for other reasons though; AAA found a spot on TripleMania for Dave the Clown but not Angelico (or maybe the spot was so nothing that Angelico just passed.) I’ve already written about not being sure Angelico is sticking around here, but he’s already been so minimized that I didn’t even notice he was missing. I supposed he’ll be fully missing soon, but he’s listed on shows thru September 17.

Speaking of AAA talent moves, Pagano on Facebook, said he’s going to work a NGX show in December, but is still with AAA. This is probably not much different than Rush working The Crash. If you follow WWE, can you imagine a highly pushed person – maybe the second hardest pushed guy over the last year in a half – announcing the day after their biggest show that he’s going to work a small indie in December?

DTU announced Jun Kasai will be coming to Mexico. He’ll work for NGX in Monterrey on 12/02 (probably the same show Pagano’s working) and 12/03 in Arena Lopez Mateos for DTU, which will likely be DTU’s Anniversary show.

Sexy Star was pulled from WrestleCade this upcoming weekend. She’s probably lost most of her American bookings for the time being, which are the things she really wanted all along; she’s been done with lucha libre out of shows where she can cash a big pay day like TripleMania AAA could’ve fired her and it wouldn’t have mattered nearly as much to her. It’s much more embarrassing for AAA to not have done something. Sexy Star was advertised for a New York WUW show on 09/09 with other Lucha Underground wrestlers – including Johnny Mundo & Taya – which always seemed strange. I can’t believe they’ll all be on it now.

Sexy Star’s only messages has been retweeting her sister saying Sexy was attacked first. On her own timeline, Sexy’s sister says everyone believes Rosemary over Sexy Star because they’re sticking with the English speaker over the Spanish one. This will likely be part of the reasoning AAA will probably go with to not do anything.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Marty the Moth vs Argenis is on this week’s Lucha Underground.

Lineup

IWRG (WED) 08/30/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ángel Oriental vs Power Bull
2) Celestial Boy & Vórtize vs Demonio Infernal & Toxin
3) Alas de Acero & Aramis vs Glenn Calavera & Jerry Calavera
4) Diablo Jr., Freelance, Golden Magic vs Fulgor I, Fulgor II, Mr. Leo
5) Dragón Fly, Emperador Azteca, Imposible vs Arez, Fly Warrior, Séptimo Rayo

The top 3 matches are IWRG vs Indy Nation matches.

IWRG (SUN) 09/03/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Fly Tiger vs Guerrero 2000
2) Ángel Oriental & Celestial Boy vs Power Bull & Skanda
3) Demonio Infernal vs Lunatic Xtreme [super libre]
4) Aramis, Freelance, Hijo del Alebrije vs Gallo Frances, Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera
5) Villano III Jr. vs Imposible
6) Black Terry & Diablo Jr. vs Black Warrior & Warrior Jr. [IWRG IC TAG]
3rd defense.

Card subject to change – that Eterno/Bombero match is missing. Traumas beat Oficials for a tag title shot in June which seems to be forgotten. Warrior and son won the main event here over the Piratas a month ago, which I guess is the setup for this.

CMLL (SUN) 09/03/2017 Arena México
1) Bengala & Flyer vs Artillero & Espanto Jr.
2) Acero, Stukita, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) Ángel de Oro, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Felino, Luciferno
4) Marco Corleone, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero, Kráneo, Mr. Niebla
5) Diamante Azul, Kenny King, Volador Jr. vs Kojima, Pierroth, Rush

What a rudo team. Once the clock strikes twelve on the Gran Prix, foreginers are back to being tecnicos and rudos. Kojima’s going to probably go on quickly (and save himself a bit) in Coacalco to make this show.

CMLL (SUN) 09/03/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Amperaje vs Destructor
2) Capitán Cobra & Yaqui vs Mr. Apolo & Stress
3) Black Sugar, El Alteño, Javier Cruz Jr. vs Carlo Roggi, Linterna, Thunder Boy
4) Mágico, Metatrón, Star Black vs Exterminador, Joker, Sádico
5) Príncipe Kisho & Terremoto King Jr. © vs Gran Kenut & León Blanco [PC TAG]

These tag titles were a Sinaloa championship (though there’s a title of the same name in Mexicali too.) Gallo & Vaquero Jr. won the titles there, brought them back to Guadalajara for a defense, then had to go back to Sinaloa to actually lose them since Gallo isn’t working in Guadalajara any more. Kisho & Dragon are defending this title next month in Sinaloa, so a title change isn’t likely here.