Day: August 16, 2018

DTU (TUE) 08/14/2018 Arena Aficion [Cuadrilatero TV, Funcion Estelar]
1) John Sniper, Little Ricky, Luigui, Mini Flash b Ángel Negro, Hard Boy, Hector Perfecto, Hermes
2) Camuflaje b Lokillo, Mr. Grim
3) Cobre, Jitsu, Pesadilla b Aj Gray, El Exótico, Tiburón
4) Mary Apache, Miranda Alize, Shotzi Blackheart b Diva Salvaje, El Exótico, Jessy Ventura and Douki, Kevin, Príncipe Cometa
Women defeated exoticos and men
5) Shlak b Paranoiko, Mr. Cóndor, Tiburón
6) Ace Austin b Aero Boy, Jimmy [DTU AI]
Austin started on the tour with this show after missing the first couple (Impact tapings.) Jimmy challenged Austin to a direct singles match.
7) Crazy King © b Nick Gage, Jimmy Lloyd [DTU]
money thrown in. Referee may have helped Crazy win.

Seems like a decently attended show. I don’t spot any particular cameras at this taping but it figured to be the one show most likely to turn up on Powerbomb.

IWRG tonight has Penta vs Rush vs Caristico. This would be a good night to stream the show, like two different people were doing before. I have no idea if that’s happening.

AAA TripleMania on 08/25 is now up to three (3) matches, nine day away

• Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma vs LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. in a four way mask match
• Lady Shani vs Faby Apache in a mask versus hair match
• Jeff Jarrett (c) vs Brian Cage vs Rich Swann vs Fenix for the AAA Heavyweight Championship

When Fenix earned a shot at Jeff Jarrett back in Aguscalientes, it was certainly presented as if it was going to be a singles match. Cage & Swann are added with no explanation. Cage was at least around as part of MAD (& maybe Elite) on the AAA/ELITE show, though it’s not exceptionally clear why he’d be challenging his ally for the title. Swann has not existed before in AAA.

The reality is Jeff Jarrett versus Fenix would’ve been bad (Jeff Jarrett versus anyone would’ve been bad) and so Jeff Jarrett is going to stall outside for 90% of the match while the other three do highspots, and then maybe try to steal a pin. This is perhaps the problem with having Jeff Jarrett as your champion in 2018. Current Konnan AAA is going to go for “good match” over “makes any sense”. It’d be nice if AAA could have both, but it is an improvement from the Vampiro era of bad matches that didn’t make any sense. I don’t know if we’ll get the rest of the card before the TripleMania press conference next Tuesday.

Something else I don’t know what’s happening with is AAA’s TV plans. They’re still on Televisa. They may go off Televisa at some point in the intermediate future, but AAA’s shows are airing on both Space and Televisa and there’s no solid indication either are about to change. Space is still getting the episodes 1 week earlier (and with a different announce crew) than Televisa, and only 1 new episode is airing week. AAA is currently taping 2 TV episodes a week and airing 1 episode of a week. Neither of those things seems to be changing, despite them not making sense together. Here is the upcoming airing schedule on Televisa & YouTube, the places were most people who watch AAA will actually see the show.

• taped 07/21 Mexico City will air 08/11 & 08/18
  (LA Park’s return to AAA will not air until one week before TripleMania)
• taped 07/29 Ecatepec will air 08/25 & 09/01
  (Hijo del Fantasma’s rudo turn will not air until the day of TripleMania, or a week after)
• taped 08/02 Aguascalientes will air 09/08 & 09/15
  (Fenix earning his TripleMania title match will not air until three weeks after TripleMania)
• taped 08/10 Veracruz will air 09/22 & 09/29
• taped 08/18 Chalco will air 10/06 & 10/13
• taped 08/25 Mexico City/TripleMania will air 10/20 & 10/27 (and also maybe live)
• taped 09/02 Monterrey will air 11/03 & 11/10
• taped 09/07 Cancun will air 11/17 & 11/24
• taped 09/09 Merida will air 12/01 & 12/08
• taped 10/03 SLP? will air 12/15 & 12/22
• and that’s probably it for the year! 12/29 & 01/05 & 01/12 are usually recap shows.

(If you are a person who gets Space, subtract one week.)

That means, as it stands right now, Heroes Inmortales and anything else taped in the last three months of 2018 will not air 2019. Maybe well into 2019. AAA, by their own volition, has put themselves in a place where they can not really use their own TV show to build up stories, because their TV is so far behind the shows they’re trying to promote. They may have realized this and decided to do less things on these tapings and at a slower pace because it takes so long to get seen, but it doesn’t explain why they didn’t chance course and cut back these shows.

Something’s gone wrong, something was supposed to change and did not, and they’re still running as if they expect that change to happen. It’s the weirdest thing. If you are a lucha libre fan who likes to watch all you can, this is a good situation with AAA streaming a whole bunch of matches they do not seem to need to run and giving more people chances to be seen. This seems like a big issue in the long run. Maybe that TripleMania press conference happens and AAA announced Space is doubling the length of their show going forward and it all makes sense – it has to be something like that for any of this make sense.

Yesterday’s CMLL Informa introduced the sensation new character find of 2018 (maybe): Vulcano. Vulcano is Kraneo’s new ally in the Gorillas del Ring group he’s putting together. Vulcano explained he’s a fan of firefighters, likes to visit fire stations and watch documentaries, so he’s wearing a fireman themed outfit to honor them. Bombero is the usually Spanish word for firefighter, so it’s unclear why he ended up named Vulcano instead. (Edit: apparently, the firefighter chief is called Jefe Vulcano)

Long time lucha libre fans remember that Vulcano was a well working midcard rudo, one-third of Los Destructores with Tony Arce and Rocco Valente. Vulcano hasn’t been active in lucha libre since 2000 (at least under that name), and I’m not sure where he is now. Other people have used the Vulcano name since – there’s one around Tijuana who worked the last EMW show – and there people upset that CMLL is once again taking a name from the past and reusing it. My guess is this Vulcano is actually Warrior Steel Jr., as the size matches up and there’s not that many other guys that size around CMLL.

ESPN has one of what seems like a monthly profile piece on a CMLL wrestler, this time on Audaz. Audaz was both a luchador and a soccer player, a defender for the LigaMX (and since defunct) Jaguars de Chiapas when his father told him to pick one or the other. Audaz picked lucha lire and is very happy with his choice, though his family originally didn’t like the idea of him going to Mexico City to learn and thought he’d get mixed up in drugs and alcohol. He credits Arkangel, Ultimo Guerrero, and Virus as his CMLL trainees and started sketching out ideas for moves in a notebook. Aerostar has talked about (and occasionally posted on twitter) a secret list of ideas he has for offense. That seemed like it was a text list, while Audaz is said to have actually drawn the ring and his movements in it to work out what he could try next. Audaz says she’s received called from the US, Japan, and Central America to wrestle there, but wants to stay loyal to CMLL for giving him this chance.

Penta says he wants to destroy the fake illusion of Psycho Clown, calling him just a creation of AAA. He’s happy to be on both TripleMania & Anniversario, and has no idea what match will be on CMLL’s show.

Escape Viajeros’s Instagram says this year’s Ring & Rockstars trip will happen September 7 to the 9th. That’s the weekend with the Cancun & Merida TV tapings, so it fits. AAA usually pushes this vacation trip big. They haven’t mentioned it yet this year.

Lucha Talk has a new episode up.

Valiente & Pantera Blanca Jr. are wrestling in Victoria, Texas this Saturday.