CMLL tried to explain what exactly is going on right now on CMLL Informa, though the answers have left me slightly more confused than beforehand. @therealfredo has the best recap of what was said, and probably will have more detail in the next Lucha World Lucha Report.
Fenix appears on the show at 1:17:55
On Sunday in AAA, Fenix explained he was the freest man in lucha libre and that’s why he showed up on Verano de Escandalo. On Wednesday in CMLL, Rey Fenix explained he has a contract in the US (LU) that requires him to work for other companies (AAA & Impact) and that’s why he was at Verano de Escandalo. Fenix surely is under contract to Lucha Underground, but our previous understanding of those deals was that wrestlers weren’t allowed to work for competition to AAA in Mexico, not that they were required to work for AAA.
Julio Cesar Rivera stated Rey Fenix would work his dates with AAA, and then be a regular in CMLL. That doesn’t seem correct. We know Fenix isn’t working for AAA any time soon, because AAA’s not taping TV for over a month. It’s also unlikely Fenix would be a regular in CMLL; he’ll work some Friday nights, but regularly seems unlikely.
Rey Fenix explained coming to CMLL as the one place he hasn’t been in Mexico that he really wants to be. Rey Fenix has modeled his career after Rey Mysterio Jr., who worked CMLL shows late in 2001 for similar reasons. Mysterio’s appearance place between his WCW and WWE stints, where he probably could’ve taken better paying bookings elsewhere (CMLL just paid him just the usual amount they pay people for those matches), but no one else could offer the chance for him to work in Arena Mexico. That’s the appeal for Fenix too. Unlike Mysterio, Fenix and Penta were training in CMLL’s school at one point, left when they realized they were years away from getting onto shows if they’d ever get that chance, and now are coming back to make the debut they had been working towards. It sounds like Fenix came off great on the show.
The only other thing of note is Zeuxis made a surprise appearance. She hope she’ll be back in CMLL some day in the future, but wants to take the chance for other opportunities right now. She obviously would like to be in WWE and the Mae Young Classic, and I have no idea if she will be.
Lucha Memes posted a promo with Mike Quackenbush, announcing he’d be coming in September. No date is announced. CHIKARA has a show on 09/22 so it wouldn’t be that weekend. The week of CMLL’s Anniversario show would make a lot of sense, but Memes did not run that weekend last year.
Monsters & Critics has a Lucha Underground Season 3 review video. It’s an approved Lucha Underground story, so some stuff that people involved or at the shows who have been not permitted to talk about (Antonio Cueto) seem to be fair game if it’s mentioned there.
Lineup
CMLL (TUE) 06/12/2018Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Luminoso, Magnum, Star Black vs Carlo Roggi, El Chakal, Mr. Apolo
2) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Sanely vs Dalys, La Comandante, Reyna Isis
3) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
4) Dragón Lee, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
5) Niebla Roja vs Furia Roja [hair]
6) Carístico vs Mistico
The loaded month of shows continues with a rare double main event. Caristico won the other match between the two men in Puebla, and Mistico is again the rudo in this rivalry.
CMLL (TUE) 06/12/2018Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia
2) Magnus, Príncipe Diamante, Robin vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
3) Fuego, Oro Jr., Stigma vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
4) Drone vs Audaz [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Hechicero, Shocker, Templario
6) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Rush vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero
A less exciting card, though Audaz gets his first aired singles match. Bucanero/Atlantis continues to a singles match. Rush is a tecnico this night.
IWRG (SUN) 06/10/2018Arena Naucalpan
1) Arquero vs Power Bull
2) Mexica & Shadow Boy vs Demonio Infernal & Psycho Kid
3) Hijo del Olímpico, Relámpago, The Tiger vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Dragón Bane, Lunatic Xtreme
4) Leo, Mike, Rafy vs Dr. Karonte, Lunatic Xtreme, Tortuga Teelo
5) Danny Casas, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Relámpago, Veneno vs Eterno, Ovett, Pit Bull, X-Fly
6) Emperador Azteca & Imposible vs Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro and Trauma I & Trauma II
The Cerebros riped up Azteca/Imposible’s mask last week, and this figured to be even more of a brawl with the Traumas involved. Not sure if that’s Rush’s uncle Pit Bull or a different one.
CMLL (TUE) 06/05/2018Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central]
1) Retro & Sangre Imperial vs Apocalipsis & Cholo tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Leono, Magnus, Starman b El Coyote, Hijo del Signo, Yago tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Amapola, Dalys, La Seductora b La Jarochita, Maligna, Princesa Sugehit Rudas took 1/3.
4) Esfinge b Drone [lightning] Hombre Bala replaced Rey Cometa.
5) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto b Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther Rudos took 2/3
6) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero b Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Titán Rudos took 1/3, the last with Bucanero pulling Atlantis’ mask to beat him.
I’m planning on starting catching up on CMLL B-shows tonight but an Atlantis/Rey Bcuaenro feud is not exactly getting me excited to do it.
Post-match interview: Cholo & Apocalipsis (see themselves as tests for the new kids),, Amapola (like Mephisto, was in Guatemala this weekend) Esfinge (says 2018 is important for his career) Hijos del Infierno (building up the trios title match in Puebla) & another with Mephisto (support for Guatemala), Rey Bucanero (building up a feud with Atlantis)
CMLL (TUE) 06/05/2018Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga, Sádico b Black Sugar, El Alteño, Micro
2) Pegasso, Stigma, Vaquero Jr. b Akuma, Grako, Metálico tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Carlo Roggi b Difunto [lightning] Carlo Roggi replaced Freezer. Roggi won in 9 minutes but was unhappy with the decision for unspecified reasons.
4) Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Valiente DQ Cavernario, Furia Roja, Shocker Niebla Roja replaced Diamante Azul on Friday. Tecnicos took 1/3, Furia Roja fouling Niebla Roja. Niebla Roja challenged for a hair match.
5) Mistico, Mr. Niebla, Rush b Carístico, Kráneo, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] Team Mistico took 1/3, the last when Mistico used the ropes to beat Caristico. Singles match challenge followed.
I’d doubt they’d do both big singles matches on the same week. Mistico/Caristico seems more likely for the 12th. CMLL usually announces Tuesday Guadalajara on Thursday.
CMLL specifically cites Furia Roja winning the Occidente Heavyweight Championship from Diamante Azul as the start of this run. That seems to suggest they’d been planning this feud since that title change in March, and that Diamante Azul didn’t give them much heads up about leaving since he was originally in this feud.
Rey Fenix is still appearing on CMLL Informa tonight at 4pm. It should be fun.
Most of the news today is from TripleMania post-press conference interviews.
LA Park said CMLL always knew already knew he was going to be part of TripleMania and the door is still open for Park to work in CMLL. Park explained that he would’ve accepted the match with Rush, but CMLL has never offered it. He’s still hopeful that match will happen. Park decided to enter the match to face Psycho Clown, to show him he wouldn’t lose like Wagner did. Park feels AAA & CMLL are opening things up because the public demanded new rivalries. Park off handily confirmed that Penta will also be coming to CMLL at some point this summer, which is still supposed to be a surprise even though everyone’s put that one together. It’s also clear Park plans on doing the match with Rush but can’t confirm it at this point.
Konnan explained his return to AAA as Dorian Roldan making the offer and Konnan only agreeing to come back on his conditions. Konnan believes having the leverage to set the conditions is why Fenix, Penta and Park are currently able to work both AAA & CMLL. Those guys were doing fine without working for either promotion, so those two promotions know they have to give the wrestlers what they want or they’ll just happily go back to what they were doing.
Penta says he’s back in AAA to show how much he’s grown and improving by fighting the best wrestlers all over the world. Everyone on Twitter looked at the list of four names and seen Fantasma as the fourth most important person, the most likely to lose his mask. In AAA storylines, Penta is sort of the fourth most successful person. He was getting way over by the end of his AAA run, but he never actually won the big matches Fantasma did.
Still, in reality, this looks like Fantasma is most likely to lose his mask, with an outside chance of Psycho Clown instead. This match is just going to do a better than just a Fantasma/Psycho straight up singles match would’ve done. The bigger mystery is who will get the winning pin – I’d assume it’s Psycho Clown, but we’ve seen elsewhere that there can be a negative blowback if you push a guy a little bit too hard.
Yesterday, Vampiro announced he had returned to Canada because Killer Kross’ back suplex had broken his neck and caused him to retire. This is his second career ending injury in the last three months, following the martinete he took in Monterrey that no one remembers at this point. I’ve lost track of the number of retirements. This bit was successful in getting Vampiro attention on a busy wrestling day, as intended.
If you’re looking for what’s next with AAA, you may have a very long wait. According to the most recent TV show, the next TV taping is not until July 13th, 37 days away. It’s crazy to think AAA will have zero tapings in the entire month of June, but it checks out with their TV backlog. The second half of Verano de Escandalo will premiere on Space on July 14th. The upcoming schedule, courtesy of @PitachoOnline on Twitter and as aired on Televisa version of the AAA show:
07/13 FRI 8:45pm CT Queretaro
07/21 SAT 8:00pm CT Mexico City (Juan de la Barrera)
07/29 SUN 6:00pm CT Ecatepec
08/04 SAT 8:30pm CT Cuernavaca
08/10 FRI 8:45pm CT Veracruz
08/18 SAT 8:00pm CT Valle de Chaclo
08/25 SAT 8:00pm CT Mexico City (Arena Ciudad de Mexico, TripleMania)
Note that those are live event start times. The first match won’t hit the ring until at least 30 minutes later. Tapings have been known to disappear without mention before.
That schedule doesn’t make a lot of sense. AAA is currently taping two episodes of TV per taping. (They went as far as doing a second show open on Verano de Escandalo.) Taping two episodes every week creates another huge backlog. AAA could take TV off for two months after TripleMania because they’d have enough TV to last until far into October if they keep doing things they’ve done them. Something has to be changing. Either some of those AAA tapings are not going to happen, or some of those AAA tapings are AAA-ELITE tapings for a second TV show.
Martin Amaro Torres, who promoted the IWL wrestling promotion from the early part of this decade, passed away. That promotion includes a lot of indie luchadors who became bigger stars later, and was way ahead of anyone else in Mexico by doing iPPVs for a couple of their shows. SuperLuchas, which was close to the promotion when they’re running, mentions Amaro Torres was a civil engineer who had saved money from his career and decided to use it on a wrestling promotion. It certainly seemed like a non-wrestling person with a lot of money running shows for fun at times.
Puma King will be wrestling for AroLucha on 06/17. He’s the new name listed for that show who wasn’t on the taping. The other people on the show were generally The Crash people and now are sort of AAA people.
CMLL (MON) 06/11/2018Arena Puebla
1) Arkalis, Rey Samuray, Star Jr. vs Disturbio, El Malayo, Hijo del Signo
2) Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr., Tritón vs Kawato San, Okumura, Universo 2000 Jr.
3) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto [MEX TRIOS] 5th defense. Pushed back a week.
4) La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible vs Atlantis, Kráneo, Niebla Roja
5) Flyer, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Titán, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Second try for the title match. Second try for the main event, which probably means it was meant to go somewhere. Flyer gets another main event.
Star Jr. is lower than usual, maybe because of the rudo/rudo tercera
Torta Super Astro (SAT) 06/23/2018Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Divino Boy, Kalibus, Magnético vs Dr. Pólux Jr., Maremoto Jr., Murciélago Plateado
2) Ciclón & Dragosth vs Demasiado & Musashi and Astro Infernal & Lucifier
3) Montana, Syrus, Tackle vs Maravilla, Perro Negro, Terremoto
4) Lady Apache vs Zeuxis, Quetzal, Cinthia Moreno, Rossy Moreno, Mima Shimoda, Estrellita [G21 WOMEN]
5) Ricky Marvin & Silver King vs Hijo De Dos Caras & Steve Pain and Huma & Samoano
6) Imposible & Laredo Kid vs Demonio Infernal & Golden Magic and Ángelus Fly & Diamante
7) Baronessa vs Muñeca De Plata [mask]
8) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park vs La Máscara & Xtreme Tiger
The usual overstuffed card. They held a press conference to build up the Baronessa/Muneca mask match. Munca isn’t wrestling a lot and she’s a Brazo, so she’d be my guess to lose. Not really sure about it.
AAA announced the field for it’ Poker de Ases TripleMania 26 main event will be Psycho Clown, Hijo del Fantasma, LA Park and Pentagon Junior. The last two were surprise returns to AAA unveiled at a press conference this morning. LA Park was accompanied by his son. Konnan was introduced as returning as well, and he was the one who announced Penta as the fourth man. TripleMania 26 takes places on Saturday August 25th, and will air live and free on AAA’s Twitch channels.
The first question from the press was to LA Park, asking what this meant for his CMLL plans. LA Park said this did not change his planned CMLL dates, and that CMLL has not yet agreed to a mask versus hair match with him and Rush. That’s correct, at least in the storyline sense. LA Park said he’d be willing to still face Rush and put up his hair if he should lose his mask in this match. It appears LA Park vs Rush is still on, or at least as on it’s as it ever has been, and they’re doing a tightrope walk to not spoil the outcome for this TripleMania match or for the yet to come CMLL storyline.
Penta gave a similar explanation to what his brother said Sunday in Monterrey: he’s totally independent, he’s going to continue to work other dates (with CMLL strongly hinted) and he’ll wrestle in AAA & AAA affiliated groups as Pentagon Jr. while continuing to wrestle as Penta el Zero M elsewhere. Park & Penta made points about how they can and do wrestle anywhere while Fantasma & Psycho are AAA-only guys, which led those two to suggest that maybe they’ll go everywhere too.
Konnan was asked about the possibility of AAA & CMLL running a show together. Konnan told the story he’s told elsewhere about sneaking into a CMLL show in a mask because he was banned otherwise, and compared it to the current situation where people are now working in both promotions at the same time. Konnan seemed optimistic that such a combined show could happen if they could just get “one, two, three” more people onboard.
During the press conference, Psycho Clown asked AAA to remove the cage from the four way mask match, saying they wanted the fans to feel close to the action. Psycho & Fantasma had previously asked about making the change on a past conference. The AAA official first seemed to say the stipulations had already been sent, and then allowed that they might poll the fans to see what they want. A four way match works a lot better when two people can disappear on the outside for a moment and there’s much more freedom of movement. On the other hand, a cage match is easier to book finishes, because no one has to actually get pinned or submitted.
There’s not much else of note from the press conference. They wanted the focus to be on the reveals and they were aware nothing else would get talked about after. The Roshfrans sponsor was there, so they talked about more La Llave a La Gloria coming soon. The AAA official (who’s name I’ve forgotten to jot down) tried to show a video of TripleMania 25, then went thru a Powerpoint presentation emphasizing the amount of people who saw the show and it being a global event. There was nothing advanced about ELITE, MAD, Jeff Jarrett as champion or even when the next TV taping would be.
Dorian Roldan was not as the press conference. Photos on Instagram have indicated he and Marisela Pena have been in South Korea for about a week. It’s said to be for business meetings, though it’s no clear what the business is. (Korea wasn’t on the original list of countries AAA wanted to go to this year. This could be setting up something for later.) Vampiro, who’s continuing to write about having possible broken neck on Facebook, also did not appear at the press conference. Dorian was mentioned but Vampiro was not in what I heard.
CMLL announced Rey Fenix will appear on CMLL Informa this Wednesday. That indicates CMLL is still on board with Fenix after he appeared in AAA, and he still will appear in Arena Mexico on Friday. If Penta is coming in soon, they may reveal it on that Informa broadcast too. Penta has no known booking for next Friday.
Fenix coming in to CMLL will be a big deal for people who closely follow lucha libre. Fenix coming in could’ve been an even bigger deal. Yesterday, Arolucha announced Fenix would be on their June 17th show. He was on their previous Nashville show, so that’s not the issue. The issue is Arolucha hypes him as the current AAA Heavyweight Champion. (A day later, that is still up.) If you watched Verano de Escandalo, you are aware Jeff Jarrett is the current AAA Heavyweight champion. Konnan’s the booker for Arolucha, the AAA booker too now, and the person who would’ve known what one promotion was planning to let the other one know what the promote.
My educated hunch is Fenix was at one point scheduled to win the AAA Heavyweight Championship in his return, that he was originally the mystery man in the match, and he would’ve gone to CMLL as champ (and maybe literally with the belt.) Fenix might have known this for a while – the weird The Crash bit where Fenix gave up the cruiserweight title because he was moving up to heavyweight may have had us all assuming the incorrect heavyweight title. How & why that changed to Jeff Jarrett winning the title and Fenix doing a run-in instead is probably a story with a few different viewpoints.
Blue Demon, who at one point seemed destined for this cage match, seems to have been wiped from AAA existence for the moment.
The big news for today, on any other day, is AAA has a hold on a September date on New York City’s Madison Square Garden. AAA has only held the date and not officially said they’re running a show in the arena that’s long been the spiritually home of WWE. This first came up with Dave Meltzer mentioning that someone had a date on the building, Joe Lanza of Voices of Wrestling saying it was an AAA date, and Pro Wrestling Insider saying it was a September date. Mexico Independence Day is September 16th, and there’s no event currently listed as taking place in MSG on that day. This was not talked about the AAA press conference; no one knew to ask a question, this one is still deep in the weeds.
This is a crazy week of crazy things happen, but this is also AAA talking about running a show in the US. They do this in some form most every year, and most every year it doesn’t happen. This would also be a tragically bad investment by AAA or any sponsor footing the bill: AAA currently has no US TV and has done nothing to get it’s name out in the US except for Lucha Underground, a show watched by less than 200K people a week. AAA’s official English language presence is non-existent, limited to commentators dropping 15 seconds of English every hour and reliant on sites like this one and Lucha Central and Lucha World to talk about their shows (hoping we don’t get something like a wrong.)
AAA running a large arena anywhere in the US seems like a bad decision at this moment. AAA running one of the most expensive arenas in the world seems like an poor use of money. Drago, Aerostar and others from AAA where at La Boom in New York just this past week, and didn’t fill out that small building. An full fledged AAA show would have a bigger turnout but still seem like a really bad bet. Even by big building standards, MSG is an expensive building to run, and more expensive to telecast, which is why even WWE doesn’t really do nearly as much as any more. This would be a seriously bad idea if it were to even happen, and it is not going to happen.
It’s so obviously a bad idea that I’ve been trying to think of long shot ways AAA could make it work. AAA does some bizarre things but usually they have at least a plan. How could they make this one work? Maybe it becomes this year’s Lucha World Cup – Victoria and other sponsors help foot the bill so AAA isn’t living or dying just on the show. It also sets up for AAA to call in every favor they can to stack the show – bring in Impact, bring in Lucha Underground, bring in whoever they’re working with in Japan at the moment, bring in whatever ex-WWE stars they can to represent something – in hopes of making it mean something. And maybe, with this AAA & CMLL peace that seem to happen, they even get CMLL to actually send people, something that would mean much more if it was held in Mexico but might not bug CMLL as much if it happens elsewhere. CMLL sending people to an AAA show seemed impossible a month ago, but who knows now – and maybe that even lets ROH & NJPW people get involved. It’s even more of an outlay of money that way, and they’d need all the sponsorship they can get to not lose their shirts, but it’s about the scale they’d need to make the date seem worthwhile.
This sounds like an easy show to skip with the title match not happening and the main event not going anywhere. Maybe CMLL calls everything Relevos Increibles because they feel like it helps draw? It doesn’t seem to work.
CMLL posted a farewell video of Zeuxis, who seems to be leaving on the best possible terms. It didn’t seem like she was headed to AAA when she announced her departure and has told people on social media it wasn’t happen, but everything’s changed a lot in the last few weeks. If she can work there without signing a contract like everyone else, she might as well.
The upcoming El Santo TV show is said to be at the point where they’re writing scripts, with the idea of production starting in 2018. They’re pitching this as the real story of El Santo (as opposed to the fictionalized Blue Demon show.)
CMLL (SUN) 06/10/2018Arena México
1) Angelito & Fantasy vs Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro
2) Arkalis, Magnus, Robin vs Disturbio, Inquisidor, Príncipe Odín Jr.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Súper Astro Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Lee, Niebla Roja vs Felino, Hechicero, Negro Casas
5) Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Dragon Lee makes his first CMLL appearance since the scary injury with Caristico. They’re at least giving him most of the week off after returning from Japan. Puebla’s Arkalis gets to come to Arena Mexico to wrestle almost the same guys he’d wrestle in Puebla.
A new episode of IWRG turned up Tuesday afternoon. I had a bad week at remembering to record things. I missed most of Guadalajara, where my proxy was also making the feed buffer. I also missed most of the first airing of the missing Nuestra Lucha Libre episode, and the replay didn’t include sound. I combined what I got into one file here but it’s not going up on YouTube.
IWRG Zona XXI: 2018-05-29
taped 2018-05-23 @ Arena Naucalpan – YouTube/Mega
1) Chicanito vs Atomic Star
2) Mexica vs Demonio Infernal
3) Lunatic Xtreme & Toto vs Ángel Estrella Jr. & Death Metal
4) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Golden Magic vs Diablo Jr., El Hijo del Diablo, Imposible
5) Leo, Mike, Teelo vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
CMLL Lucha Azteca: 2018-06-03
taped 2018-05-25 @ Arena México – Mega
1) Rey Cometa vs Guerrero Maya Jr.in a lightning match
2) Flyer, LA Park, Volador Jr. vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible
CMLL Guadalajara: 2018-06-02
taped 2018-05-29 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara – YouTube/Mega
3) Carístico, Kráneo, Último Guerrero vs Mistico, Mr. Niebla, Rushin a relevos increíbles match
IWRG Zona XXI: 2018-06-03
taped 2018-05-27 @ Arena Naucalpan – YouTube/Mega
1) Shaolin & Toto vs Demonio Infernal & Picudo Jr.
2) Alas de Acero, Aramis, Mexica vs Atomic Star, Dragón Bane, Gallo Frances
3) Black Dragón, Hijo del Olímpico, Súper Mega vs Apolo Estrada Jr., Eterno, Lunatic Xtreme
4) El Hijo del Medico Asesino, Hijo De Dos Caras, Mr. Electro, Silver King vs Jungle Boy, Migra, Ultimo Panda, Vapor
CMLL (SUN) 06/03/2018Arena México
1) Retro & Robin b El Coyote & Inquisidor Retro replaced Robin (injury?). Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Estrellita, La Jarochita, Maligna b La Comandante, Reyna Isis, Tiffany Tecnicas took 2/3. Jarochita & Isis’ return from Japan.
3) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther b Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr., Valiente DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Shocker Tecnicos took 2/3, the last with Shocker desperately fouled Valiente.
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas b Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja Rudos took 1/3.
CMLL (SUN) 06/03/2018Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Gran Kenut & León Blanco b El Divino & Neutrón
2) Principe Daniel, Rielero, Vaquero Jr. b Exterminador, Maléfico, Ráfaga
3) Perico Zacarías b Gallito Tapatío Zacarias won via casita.
4) Mágico b Mr. Apolo [mask, hair] Magicio took falls 2/3 to save his mask and take Mr. Apolo’s hair. Malefico was seconding Mr. Apolo, but was thrown out for interfering by commissioner Gran Cochisse in the third fall.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Explosivo, Star Black, Tiburon official debut of Tiburon, who may be Atlantis Junior. NGD took 2/3.
6) Difunto, Hechicero, Sádico, Satánico b Blue Panther, Esfinge, Joker, Magnum Rudos took 1/3, Sadico using the ropes to beat former partner/current rival Joker. Hair match challenges followed.
The Guadalajara radio station that does audio of the shows also did video for this one on ACG Facebook page. The angle is good but the video quality is not so great. Still better than nothing. Weird they beat Gallito in his home building.
IWRG (SUN) 06/03/2018Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, The Gladiatores]
1) Shaolin b Death Metal
2) Atomic Star & Gallo Frances b Alas de Acero & Mexica
3) Dragón Bane, Picudo Jr., Psycho Kid b Aramis, Chico Che, Freelance Dragon Bane & Freelance made challenged post match.
4) Eterno, Ovett, X-Fly b Danny Casas, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Veneno
5) Emperador Azteca & Imposible DCOR Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro Bloody brawl that went into the crowd for the ocuntout.
6) Black Dragón b Lunatik Extreme [hair]
Not a lot of coverage of these show (or the Memes one) with the AAA show going in Monterrey. Azteca/Imposible versus the Cerebros seems like a very IWRG match.
Lucha Memes (SUN) 06/03/2018Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México [+LuchaTV, Black Terry Jr.]
1) Chef Benito & Heronia ?? Chris Stone Jr. & Melissa
2) Alas de Acero b Demasiado
3) Iron Kid DQ Komander Komander was hurt during the match trying a SSP to the floor.
4) Toxin b Demonio Infernal
5) Hijo del Olímpico b Impulso, Karonte Jr. bonus match?
6) Fresero Jr. b Eragón
7) Aramis b Eterno very good match.
Aramis vs Eterno got cited as a good match else was said. Heronia dressed up kind of like a waitress to team with the chef, which made for some amusing photos.
There’s a CMLL show tonight in Arena Puebla. It’s delightfully normal following last night’s AAA craziness, though it also probably won’t have anything as good as the AAA opener.
The NGD defends the trios titles against Hijos del Infierno in the semimain, where a title match seems unlikely. On the other hand, the main event is a relevos increibles trios, where an unlikely singles match (Soberano/Titan? Titan/Volador?) could be set up. Zeuxis makes her CMLL farewell, appropriately teaming with the older lucahdoras Tiffany (45), Estrellita (40) and Marcela (47) she probably was tired of facing.
Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma & Triton versus Kawato, Okumura and Puma looks like it could be good. The problem is few of the matches which look good have turned out that way. The show also includes Policeman and the Centella Rojas in the opening matches. It’ll air on CMLL’s YouTube channel at 9pm.
PWPondering’s recap of the ROH New York TV tapings mentions Ultimo Guerrero vowed to bring in some partners to take on the Kingdom for the ROH Trios titles. No date was announced.
CMLL (SAT) 06/09/2018Arena Coliseo
1) Stukita & Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
2) Bengala, Eléctrico, Príncipe Diamante vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Kawato San, Sangre Azteca
3) Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Templario
4) Kráneo, Niebla Roja, Valiente vs Mephisto, Rey Bucanero, Shocker
5) Volador Jr. vs Rush
It was a lot easier for Volador to get his singles match with Rush than LA Park. Note that Kawato is in the segunda; at the last, Templario seems to have passed him in the depth chart.
Important cleanup note: Tirantes is innocent. And so really is Golden Magic. I’m told the five turned six way had problems. Drago’s injury threw things off and they finish changed during the match. The match was changed to end on Aerostar’s handspring cutter on Guevera and Tirantes was right to count three, but Golden Magic (and others) didn’t know the finish had changed. You could argue Tirantes shouldn’t have counted after the pin was broken up but it seems like just a wrestling mishap.
This show is a lot absorb. Let’s see if it makes sense subdivided into luchadors.
Rey Fenix
Rey Fenix did a series of media interviews (MedioTiempo, +LuchaTV, Estrellas del Ring) posted immediately after the show declaring himself “the most free person in lucha libre.” He framed his appearance in AAA as not coming back full time or under contract, but instead a demonstration that he has the freedom to go to any company at any time. Fenix avoided mentioning CMLL or The Crash by name, but the idea here is specifically that he’ll be able to still work there and anywhere else and not sign a contract with anyone.
In AAA, he’ll be going as his original name “Fenix”. He’ll still use “Rey Fenix” (and probably “The King”) elsewhere and, at least in theory, there’s an agreement than AAA will no longer go after Fenix and the people who use him for his name.
Fenix explained his leaving as wanting AAA to change and his return as AAA in the process of changing. The obvious big change is Konnan, Fenix’s mentor, is back in charge. Fenix was lingering around the midcard with no direction when he left AAA and when Konnan was out as booker. Konnan’s back as booker, and Fenix is now taking out all the members of the lead rudo group to end a show. Even if that changes, he’s not tied down to a contract; Fenix has the freedom to work anywhere, and he’s got the freedom not to work anywhere.
It appears Rey Fenix at the very least told CMLL he was going to appear in AAA. He may have even been told by people in CMLL would be OK for him to do so without risking his CMLL booking. I hope that is what happens. No one should feel 100% safe that is what will happen at the moment. If Rey Fenix makes an appearance on Informa, or is otherwise still on that Friday night lineup on Wednesday night, it’s probably fine.
The issue here is CMLL already this year gave a bigger rollout to a promotion (ELITE) and a TV partner (Azteca), then made them both vanish in a snap of a finger. They can not be fully trusted. CMLL is capable of going back on their word, to reverting to the way they’ve always done things because it always works well enough for them. CMLL must be at least open to change to bring in Fenix in the first place and to use LA Park but, even with LA Park there are people pushing back because he’s not sold out Arena Mexico like he said in promos, and pushing back on Fenix because he’s just some indie guy to people who don’t pay attention to anything out of CMLL. Parts of the CMLL may want to open up the promotion. Other people in the promotion, the people Miguel Reducindo refereed as not having the best interest of the promotion in mind in his letter quitting the promotion a couple months ago, haven’t suddenly disappeared. Rey Fenix, a Rey Fenix who just showed up in AAA, is the litmus test on actual change.
Dr. Wagner Jr.
That’s it. Dr. Wagner Jr. says he’ll take some AAA dates but he’ll be independent. If you’ve been checking out Wagner’s schedule of late, you can see he’s already been doing that for some time. This is really Wagner saying he’ll be open to working TripleMania or big TVs if they want to give him big TV paydays but he’s not going to be working regularly in AAA. Wagner was done with AAA after Verano de Escandalo no matter who beat him for the title. He can at least now leave pointing out he got cheated out of the title in a match that never should’ve been a three way match.
Dr. Wagner was quite clearly champion to do a title program with his son, to make his son a big TV star. It may have been part of the deal for him to lose his mask back at TripleMania. That Wagner/Wagner title program was dropped after the Tijuana taping, the moment Konnan fully took over the creative. Hijo del Wagner hasn’t been on TV or mentioned the three shows. There’s no other reason for Wagner to stick around and it was just a matter of how or who he’d lose the title too. Wagner/Wagner was already announced for 06/28 in Arena Aficion.
The AAA heavyweight title hasn’t gone too well of late.
Wagner quit the moment he lost the title
Mundo quit the moment he lost the title, and both were only around long enough to lose the title
Texano didn’t quit! but he lost the title without being pinned, “injured” in a match
Alberto left AAA and never lost the title
You have to go back to Texano’s first reign ending in December 2014 for someone to both lose the heavyweight title in the ring and also not quit immediately after. Which brings us to the new AAA champion…
Jeff Jarrett
Jarrett’s definitely continuing that streak, right? He’s either disappearing from AAA before he loses the title, or the title change will be his last night. Jarrett’s history here: multiple hair matches built up that were never paid off and a penchant for having travel problems causing him to miss those biggest shows.
Those defending the idea of Jeff Jarrett will point at those previous runs as missed opportunities, as something built up that can be finally be paid off here. That’s again hoping that they’ll get to that payoff. It’s not even the right guy if they get there. The announcers played Jarrett up huge, though it didn’t feel like the fans saw it that way. (The last time AAA fans saw Jarrett, he was explaining that this gimmick had been just a gimmick all along and he was really a nice businessman.) Translator Juventud Guerrera was the clear star of the Jeff Jarrett’s promo segment. Sam Adonis showed that plenty of other people can do the pro-USA/anti-Mexico bit and do it better than Jarrett. Mundo just did the same pro-USA/anti-Mexico bit; AAA’s pretty well run this well dry. Jarrett was the obvious worst wrestler in the title match, including Hijo del Tirantes. You have to believe Jarrett has a singular ability to draw and get a reaction and I didn’t see either demonstrated last night. AAA had multiple evil referees in the match to try and get it over, Jarrett could’ve been replaced by anyone for the same result.
I have never been “dunked on” (quote retweeted with people noting how stupid the original post is) on Twitter as many times for anything as much as I have for the post mentioning the title change. This was not heel heat of wanting to see someone beat Jarrett, this was “AAA is doing something dumb again and I’m glad I don’t watch them” heat. The people reacting negatively (and 99% of them are negative) are doing so in English. The WON explanation for Konnan’s return to as head of creative is a sense he’d be better at getting the product over internationally than Vampiro. Vampiro torched a lot of bridges with international fans, but this is also a pretty terrible first impression for the new WWE era. Fenix returning afterwards was clearly supposed to take some of the sting off of it, but it’s still Jeff Jarrett as champion of your promotion in 2018.
What do you even do with Jeff Jarrett as champion? Wagner’s gone. Mysterio’s not full time and didn’t seem to be a great fit last night. Rey Fenix seemed like he might be set up as a challenger, but they’d be dumbing down all the exciting stuff Fenix to fit into what Jeff Jarrett can still do at 51. Jarrett as Alberto’s opponent is probably the best fit, as terrible as that sounds. I have no interest in seeing Jeff Jarrett do Jeff Jarrett matches even without the title, and I don’t think most other people do either, but the big problem with making Jeff Jarrett champion is now you’re stuck booking a series of Jeff Jarrett title matches. All of which are going to be bad! In an era where having a good match seems to be more important than ever, AAA’s just put themselves in a spot where all their title matches will be bad for the foreseeable future. This is not ideal.
Jarrett coming back just as Konnan is back is no coincidence, though I can’t believe Konnan can be high on the idea of Jarrett as champion. The way they immediately moved on to other things – Konnan’s unmasking was treated as more important, Rey Fenix’s return was treated as more important – suggests they wanted to move on from that part of the story as quick as possible.
This has zero change of happening, but that AAA press conference for TripleMania should start with Dorian or Vampiro or whoever pointing out Konnan is not a legal referee, throwing out the finish of the title match, and restarting with a vacant title. It’d be a lame way to get the title off Jarrett, but any way he’s going to lose that title is going to be lame. They can move Jarrett right onto Alberto or whatever other sideshow feud he’s going to have, and move title onto people who are actually build something with it.
Konnan
Konnan returned onscreen to AAA and he’s no more than the fourth most important person from this show. Konnan’s previous regimes in AAA have been built around him leading a large group of rudos against the AAA establishment, and it appears they’re they’re setting up it once again. Konnan’s previous regimes have also included a lot of exciting wrestler in early matches, and it seems like that’s back again too. The same difficult in elevating these wrestlers into something meaningful will probably be there, but at least the quality of the show is better.
Jarrett really played up Konnan’s limp when doing the fake Konnan early in the show. Actual Konnan seemed in better condition when we saw him run-in for the main event. That seems great news for him.
Rey Mysterio Jr.
True story: he was in that main event. Did you see him? You did not see him do a 619 because Tirantes tripped him up the one time he did. Heroes of Lucha Libre might have given Rey Mysterio Jr. more to do this weekend than AAA.
Even with Mysterio advertised for this show (in a dream match that was not delivered), AAA did not sell out the arena. There were visible empty sections, and it seemed less than the 2014 show in the same venue.
Everyone else
On Facebook Vampiro is teasing that Kross’ back suplex seriously damaged his neck. That suplex seemed much safer than the one Kross gave to Maximo earlier, and so this is probably a storyline. I guess it’s possible this could be Vampiro’s write out of the promotion, but it seems unlikely – they need a tecnico symbol of AAA to face off with Jarrett & Konnan for promos, and they never put someone younger than 50 in that spot.
Golden Magic, Star Fire, Arez, Belial, Lady Maravilla, Keyra, Cage, Laredo Kid, Extreme Tiger, Sammy Guevera and Darby Allin all also debuted or returned on the show. A lot of these people did really good. None of these eleven people seemed to be involved in any storylines on this show. They may get something to do eventually but they were just names on this show.
MAD so far is Jeff Jarrett, Konnan, Killer Kross, Juventued Guerrera and maybe Teddy Hart. They got the heavyweight championship by disrupting the main event, so I think they’ve already won?
ELITE so far is Golden Magic, Laredo Kid, Extreme Tiger, Black Taurus (worked an indie Sunday) and maybe Teddy Hart? There’s no explanation of what this is supposed to mean and so it’s not registering as anything but strange. They can’t go another TV taping with no information about them, there has to be something coming soon.
What’s next?
TripleMania is scheduled for August 25th. That was the only upcoming show promoted on yesterday’s stream. They haven’t announced a next taping anywhere, unless it’s on the TV show they no longer post online.
