AAA @ MSG tickets on sale, AAA in Los Mochis & CMLL tonight, Gladiators episode 1, Astral

ELITE (THU) 05/02/2019 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal [MedioTiempo, Ovaciones, Record, The Gladiatores]
1) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. b Villano III Jr. [Gladiators WELTER, torneo]
2) Imposible b Arez [Gladiators MIDDLE, torneo]
3) Verdugo L Averno, Hijo de Pirata Morgan [Gladiators LH, torneo]
the debuting Verdugo (?) was eliminated by losing to Pirata and then Averno.
4) Astral b Relámpago [Gladiators WELTER, torneo]
CMLL’s Astral is now Elite’s Astral. He won in his debut.
5) Ace Austin b Draztick Boy [Gladiators MIDDLE, torneo]
6) Bengala & Puma King b Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. [Gladiators TAG, torneo]
7) Laredo Kid b Último Maldito [Gladiators WELTER, torneo]
added match, replaced LA Park vs Fatu
8) Eterno L Golden Magic, Eddie Edwards [Gladiators LH, torneo]
Eterno was eliminated from the tournament
9) Fénix (AAA) & Pentagón Jr. b Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz [Gladiators TAG, torneo]
10) Taurus (AAA) b Pagano, LA Park [Gladiators HEAVY, torneo]
turned into a three way (no Fatu, no idea if he’ll be in later.) Taurus pinned both men and got 2 points, LA Park pinned Pagano and got 1 point, Pagano zero points

The top two matches were said to be the best two. I made a color co-ordinated standings table because someone might as well. Fatu not being there seems to mess up the heavyweight tournament. Not sure that was a surprise to them. Laredo Kid had no reason to stay in Mexico City after the Battle of Naucalpan unless ELITE/AAA knew they needed a replacement match. Unsure who this Verdugo was.

Astral leaving CMLL is maybe the big news. He told the press about years of going nowhere causing him to leave. Astral said he owned the name; he seems to be correct, no one has a trademark on it. Astral is the Mr. CMLL bodybuilding winner for three years running. Winning that contest originally gave people a boost – Polvora went from being trapped in opening matches to a midcard position after he did well – but Astral seemed like he was never going anywhere no matter how many times he won. Astral (& Electrico) being moved to the main division has been a dud. He’s firmly in the least important wrestler group, with new luchadors routinely jumping in ahead of him. There was no particular hope of him advancing. I don’t have a lot of hope for him outside of CMLL either, but at least he’ll get chances to change people’s minds. Astral showed up as a member of ELITE but I would expect him to make at least a couple AAA appearances.

This show didn’t draw at all, as kind of figured. It looked very dark, with empty sections and generally fewer people than Impact drew in the same venue. They’re planning on running the bigger Pepsi Center for future shows, which seems like a mistake. There was also still no announcement of when/where it will air, which is really strange for something that’s actually being taped. There’s at least a chance this ends up sitting in a forgotten folder of a hard drive, like the Global Force Wrestling TV pilots did (for a while.) The lack of promotion for these shows outside of social media was a bad sign and had a predictable result.

Speaking of: tickets went on pre-sale for 09/15 AAA in MSG show this morning. The codes LUCHA, LULUCHA, MSGSOCIAL should all work; none were announced until about two hours before the tickets went on sale. Tickets are running from $30 in the upper reaches to $300 to about Row 5. Everything inside of that seems set aside for the $600 VIP package. It costs at least $90 to sit in the lower bowl. I don’t know how many families of 4 are going to spend $120 to go to a random lucha libre show but I have so many questions as it is. I’m sure it is scaled as it is to make a profit on flying so many people in, but I don’t know that the demand is there for this level of tickets. I do have a ticket, and I half suspect I’m just giving Ticketmaster money that they’ll be refunding me in a few months. We’ll see. There was supposed to be a Los Angeles show announced as well, but there’s been no update on that since the last AAA press conference.

I’m a bit more confident about the AAA show in Los Mochis tonight. They’re running a 7,000 seat Multiple Use Center tonight. It’ll be an 8 pm start time, which is 9 pm Mexico City time. (That’s 30 minutes after the CMLL show starts.) Blue Demon & Dr. Wagner are around this week, which seems less promising for the shows. La Mascara & Pagano too, that’s more of a problem. Still, there are enough good people that good matches are inevitable.

The scheduled main event is Dr. Wagner & Pagano versus Blue Demon Jr. & Texano Jr., in the usual TripleMania build up. Psycho Clown takes on Rey Escorpion in what has been a real one-sided feud so far – Escorpion never wins. This is supposed to be a lumberjack match, so maybe he can get some help.

Myzteziz is back, teaming with Hijo del Vikingo and Flamita against Chessman, La Mascara, and Taurus. That should be pretty good. Laredo Kid isn’t scheduled this week, so the Jinetes del Aire still won’t actually all team up. Drago, Faby Apache, and Golden Magic are listed as facing Chik Tormenta, Monster Clown and a mystery luchador who seems likely to he Hijo de Tirantes again.

Poder del Norte are supposed to face Maximo, Mamba, and Keyra in an inexplicable match. Arez returns to AAA shows to be Lady Maravilla’s latest partner against Big Mami & Nino Hamburgesa. I expect all of this to change.

Lucha Central has a preview of the show.

CMLL has what turns out to be a normal show after last week’s tournament final. The two people who won the tournament, Cavernario & Titan, are not on the show. Titan may be in Japan by next Friday, and he and Cavernario won’t be in the ring again until June. Ultimo Guerrero and Volador started a feud last week. They’re in separate matches this week. The Crash/CMLL match was disappointing for what was announced, but it is one of the few interesting things on this show.

The main event has Volador & Caristico – currently feuding in Puebla – teaming up with Valiente against Los Ingobernables. It is hard to expect a lot from that combination. Better luck may be found in the semi-main, where Los Guerreros take on Sanson, Cuatrero and Mascara 2000. The old man of the trio cheated to win last week, which seemed like a road to – uh, no one’s quite sure. Probably an apuesta match that few are excited about.

Adam Brooks & Mecha Wolf 450 are the first members of The Crash to wrestle in Arena Mexico. I was going to advise people that there will be a lot of Adam Brooks wikipedia facts recited during this match, but it doesn’t seem though Brooks has a wikipedia profile. The announcers are going to be lost. On Informa, JCR imitated that we’ll be seeing a lot more Crash wrestlers, even on non-Friday shows. That seems hard to believe, but perhaps this can be figured as CMLL trying to replicate the success of Penta/Fenix/Park but wanting to keep costs lower than those guys. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja are their opponents for what should be a good match.

Kaho Kobayashi & Amapola continue a hair match in the segunda. Avispa Dorada, La Jarochita, Dalys, and Reina Isis fill out that match. Magnus & Oro Jr. take on Akuma & Grako in the opener.

The show will stream on Marca, Facebook, and I’ll probably stream it on YouTube.

Atlantis handled media interviews this week, saying nothing much of note.

Dragon Lee defeated Taiji Ishimori to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship earlier this morning in NJPW. They’re still heavily teasing a Hiromu Takahashi return. Dragon Lee also called for a match with El Desperado. That sounds like a main event for one of the opening Best of Super Juniors shows. We may know the blocks for that tournament as soon as tomorrow’s show.

Octagon did an interview about his union in a late Labor Day bit. That rolled out with the usual big announcement and hasn’t been talked about it. Octagon is upset by the idea that some wrestlers get paid as low as 100 pesos per match. Some actually get paid less.

Segunda Caida reviews an Andre el Gigante match in El Toreo.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 05/07/2019 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Pegasso, Stigma, Súper Astro Jr. vs Cancerbero, Metálico, Raziel
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Tritón vs Sagrado, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr.
4) Audaz vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Flyer, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
6) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Niebla Roja vs La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible

Audaz and Misterioso is an odd mix. Probably won’t end well for Audaz.