TripleMania is today. AAA’s annual biggest show of the year takes place in tonight in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. The announced schedule, all in CT.
5:00: pre-pre-show: interviews, vignettes, maybe announcing the opening two matches?
7:00: llave a la gloria match, cruiserweight match, Dr. Alfonso Morales & El Apache added to AAA HOF
8:00: main card
11:00: four way mask match main event starts airing on Televisa (may start earlier in reality)
That is the time AAA is saying now. The problem is, AAA & Dorian Roldan announced a 7:30 start to the pre-show at the press conference on Tuesday, and many people with AAA (including “the producer of the show” and one of the promotions involved) seem to think that’s still the start time. Plus, the tickets say the doors are opening at 7, so no one’s going to be in the building at first. That 7:00-7:30 could go as planned, could have nothing but the same song being played over crowd shots, or could have chickens running around with their heads cut off. It’s very good for the main card if AAA is going to start a half hour sooner, but expect the usual chaos.
The show will stream for free in Spanish on Twitch, where a best of TripleMania marathon is airing now. The show will be available on VOD if you subscribe to their Twitch channel ($5/month or free with Amazon Prime.) If you’re ever going to do that, even if you’re planning on watching live, this would be a great night to do it. Twitch has changed the way they’re handling ads now – they’re longer, they’re more often, and you may still see them if you’re logged in. You should not see them if you’re a subscriber.
There also is an English language feed, but don’t even bother. You are reading this site, so you likely have more interest and knowledge about what’s going on in AAA than you’ll get from that English announcing crew. You’ve probably also listened to the usual Spanish language crew and know you’ll be fine with them. There’s probably some news value in recording the dumb things Vampiro & Matt Striker say, but there’s not going to be any effect from them: AAA will bring them back again next year even if they’re terrible again, and everyone outside of Mexico will pretend it never happened. It also now appears like they won’t be calling the pre-show.
Twitch’s press release says “select” Twitch streamers will also be broadcasting the show. It’ll probably be like the World of Warcraft guys, where they had no idea what was going on but entertained themselves. It might be a way to find the show later on, if you can’t watch it live.
I’ve written a typically too long preview over at Voices of Wrestling. Some additional quick thoughts
- Most everyone on in the english speaking wrestling sphere thinks the cruiserweight match is a 10 way and it’s pretty much my fault.
- the opening matches remain unannounced. It appears to be a feature, not a bug, opting to reward people who tune in early rather than attract people by actually revealing their match. I think this is dumb but it’s not my money.
- Three title changes seem likely, but none are locks. The cruiserweight champion will be whichever guy is more willing to work AAA dates, and it’s saying something about where AAA is in the global picture that no one’s going crazy for that chance. The mixed titles mean nothing in the overall picture so they can do whatever, but Vikingo & Vanilla are obvious favorites. Fenix as mega champion was definitely the plan, but you can never rule out Jeff Jarrett continuing some nonsense.
- Aerostar & Drago make most sense as #1 tag contenders, but AAA has a history of having people win #1 contender matches and never getting that shot. (I think Fenix is still owed a cruiserweight match.) This undercard seems barely canon as it is, so don’t worry too much about it.
- I assume Shani’s losing. If Faby loses and doesn’t get her head shaved in the ring, everyone will lose their mind.
- The crowd reactions to the main event coming down to Psycho Clown & Fantasma will be fascinating. Not that I expect the crowd to get behind Fantasma strong, but the most likely outcome is also the least exciting one. Fans show “know” it’s coming down to those two just like they know Rush/Park was never officially on, but we’ve seen they can still be plenty unhappy about it.
Lucha Central also has a preview of the show. They’ll be a great place to check for live results since I won’t be doing it here. (It never works out well for this site. Someday, I’m going to pay for decent hosting.) My coverage plans are to post a recap early Sunday morning, and then delete the Twitter app off my phone and take a day off. Do not count on a news update Sunday night.
If you’re only watching AAA on YouTube, it doesn’t appear there will be a new episode this week (unless they just put this up in full.) The Televisa show will air matches from last year’s TripleMania instead of anything new.
CMLL (FRI) 08/24/2018 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Lucha Central, Marca, Ovaciones, SuperLuchas, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro 
13:18. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) El Audaz, Esfinge, Tritón b Kawato San, Templario, Virus
15:24. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Ángel de Oro b Titán [lightning]
9:17. Mecedora
4) Hechicero, Mephisto, Negro Casas b El Hijo de L.A. Park, Flyer, Soberano Jr.
20:17. Rudos took 2/3.
5) Ciber the Main Man, Scharly Rock Star, The Chris b Gran Guerrero, L.A. Park, Último Guerrero
14:41. Klan Kaoz took 1/3, Ciber getting away with a foul on Ultimo Guerrero
6) Cavernario, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush b Carístico, Matt Taven, Volador Jr.
8:06. Straight falls. Cavernario used the ropes to beat Taven after earlier doing a splash to the floor on him.
CMLL promos: Rush & Cavernario, Volador & Matt Taven, Klan Kaoz, Hechicero, Negro Casas & Mephisto, and Angel de Oro (who hurt his knee in the match).
They also put up the tribute to Villano III and some words from them. I hope Villano III Jr. wrestles today if he wants to and has a killer match.
Media room promos: Mephisto & Hechicero (Estrellas del Ring, +Lucha), Rush (Estrellas del Ring, +LuchaTV, ), the Villano Family (Estrellas del Ring, +Lucha), LA Park (+Lucha, ), Angel de Oro (+Lucha), Ultimo Dragoncito & Angelito (+Lucha),
This show wasn’t great. The last weeks before the Anniversario show usually seem to have crowds excited and anticipating the upcoming apuesta match. This week’s show felt like it had a gray crowd over, with the audience being muted compared to recent weeks. The 2v2 hair match is a mistake, but the Klan Kaoz/Guerreros title match is not that far behind. There really needed to be one important and exciting match on this show, and a strong secondary match would’ve really helped out the tough sell of a main event. CMLL is running two matches which their fans don’t seem to care about instead. The next few weeks may be a drag, and there’s nothing on this show I’m going to remember beyond the Villano III tribute.
The big topic coming out of the interviews is LA Park explaining his side of the Anniversario situation while trying to make both CMLL & Park out to be good guys done wrong in all of this. Alfredo has a better translation than I can do in this Twitter thread. The big picture story is Park says AAA threated CMLL’s TV partners when they brought in Fenix (perhaps explaining why he quickly became King Phoenix) and CMLL was scared AAA would do it again if they put Park in an apuesta match. Park said CMLL tried to call him to find out if it was ok to put him in a match, but he gets bad cell phone service out at the ranch and they couldn’t reach him. Park says Dorian promised not to sue him for anything, though he may with others, and CMLL reviewed his papers and said Park is totally legal to use.
It is too bad CMLL staff doesn’t have access to social media, since LA Park is seemingly always on Twitter despite his poor cell phone service at the ranch. Also, it’s Mexico, LA Park has Whatsapp, every luchador in Mexico is on Whatsapp and you don’t need cell phone service for that. There’s also the slight issue of “LA Park has worked for CMLL many times since King Phoenix started working there, so couldn’t they have asked him about his legal status one of those times?”, but whatever. I’m spending too much time dissecting badly thought out stories. The match isn’t happening at 09/14 no matter.
LA Park – and Rush & CMLL via JCR – are very clear on a few things. They feel they know exactly where the line is between “teasing a match” and “actually promising to do a match”, feel they never crossed that line, and feel like they should be given some sort of award for doing so. (This is another long splitting hairs debate.) The other thing they’re very clear on is this match doesn’t have to be an Anniversario match. In that interview, LA Park goes as far as saying he doesn’t want to wait until next September and will not wait that long for it. JCR pushed that LA Park could work many dates for CMLL and it’s possible the match might happen on another date. My podcast partner RobViper has a theory that CMLL simply did not want an outsider like LA Park to forever be part of the montage of Anniversario main events, that CMLL wants that to be a CMLL guy, and that is less of a deal if LA Park loses his mask at some other point. It requires believing CMLL seeing Matt Taven as a CMLL guy, but that doesn’t seem like a huge stretch at this point. Do not buy any plane ticket, do not get your hopes up, but it seems like a reasonable theory.
Of course, saying “maybe Rush/LA Park will still happen later this year” sure seems to kill the suspense of the Rush hair match he’s got coming up in three weeks. I’m not sure if it can be helped.
The Lucha Libre Expo announced they’ll be streaming their shows live for free on 08/31 and 09/01. No platform has been announced, but you’ll be able to see it thru LuchaCentral next weekend.
LuchaWorld has a great obit for Villano III.
The Winter Palace returns with RobViper talking about recent happenings in lucha libre.
Lineups
CMLL (TUE) 08/28/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Alteño, Rielero, Vaquero Jr. vs Carlo Roggi, El Chakal, Mr. Apolo
2) Magnus, Oro Jr., Star Black vs Espanto Jr., Espíritu Negro, Guerrero de la Muerte
3) Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Tritón vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
5) Carístico, Diamante Azul, Matt Taven vs Cavernario, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush
Caristico returns to the scene of last week’s title win.
CMLL (FRI) 08/31/2018 Arena México
1) Arkalis & Robin vs Akuma & El Coyote
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela vs Amapola, Dalys, Reyna Isis
3) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Felino, Negro Casas, Tiger
4) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Ciber the Main Man, Scharly Rock Star, The Chris
5) Matt Taven vs Cavernario
6) Bushi, Naito, Rush vs Diamante Azul, LA Park, Volador Jr.
EVIL will be seconding (or valeting?) the Ingobernables trio but not wrestling. The story appears to be that he was hurt in the G1 and so is taking this one off. BUSHI was in as Bushiroad last time because Bushi lost his mask in IWRG nine years ago. Recent memories include the ringside commissioner protesting when Blue Panther & Felino were going to wrestle a match masked, so hopefully, someone’s figured out a way to make this one go smoother – maybe a name change is coming mid-week.
Taven/Cavernario should be good. It’s very notable that Cavernario & Rush are getting the wins so far, since that usually the role of the person or team who’s leaving. It’s far enough away that it means nothing yet, but it will if Cavernario gets the win again here. It would make no sense for Rush to lose his hair in a match like this but you can’t count CMLL out on nonsense.
So should the third. Puebla’s Arkalis makes his Friday night debut, and his first streaming appearance since starting in Mexico City. Openers are not a great places to show off but he’s a positive addition.
