AAA on Twitch is back on Saturday night at 8-ish pm. There is a lineup, it is probably not the right lineup, that’s sure a lot of people booked.
NGD vs OneAtos style should be interesting on CMLL Marca.
Kawato vs Audaz will air this Sunday, probably around 12:30 pm on CMLL TV Mexquiense.
This is indeed sometime after the WrestleMania show. A little bit later than that, and even later than what we planned. Rob and I return to talk about Perro Aguayo passing and the more recent news. We talked about our favorites parts of last night’s San Luis Potosi, what we’re hoping to see in Guadalajara/Zapopan and give our thoughts on the TripleMania lineup. There’s a brief talk about the AAA shows in the US and the CMLL Jushin Lyger show (and the possibilities for the Anniversario) before we finish talking about the RIOT Rina en el Cerro de la Silla tournament.
We wanted to get this done under two hours and before my place started getting assaulted by fireworks noise. Both worked out. We’ll be back after TripleMania, assuming I can figure out how to record if Google Hangouts is going away.
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Perro Aguayo passed away Wednesday. He was 73. The news was released by the Perros del Mal Facebook page. A service was held for him Thursday morning. No cause of death was mentioned.
Perro Aguayo was the biggest Mexican wrestling star ever among those who did not wrestle in a mask. He was a bigger star than most anyone who wore a mask too. El Santo would be ahead of him. Everyone else is arguable. Aguayo’s run as a top star went from the 70s all the way until the first years of this decade. Aguayo was nominally a rudo for much of his career but also a beloved figure. Pedro Aguayo wrestled as “Perro” due to a simple misspelling of his name early in his career. He wasn’t really happy with it at first, but the “Perro” image association ended up fitting well. Aguayo fought with the aggressiveness and the viciousness of a mad dog lashing out and refusing to give up until he defeated or scared-off his opponent. The heart to never give up is what drew the fans into to love and support Aguayo for many years. Take a look at his luchawiki apuesta record and you’ll see him taking a lot of losses in the late 70s and early 80s. That seems to incongruously coincide with his big rise in stardom. As best I can tell, it happened because Aguayo fought so hard in those losses that the fans still believed in him. Aguayo won plenty in his career but he also seems like one of the greatest “winning even while losing” wrestling stories.
70s & 80s lucha libre was untelevised in Mexico City, which meant they could away with a lot that wouldn’t have flown on TV even in those days. His homebase of El Toreo/LLI/UWA featured a more violent style than seen today, with a lot of blood and a lot of brawling. Perro Aguayo ended up with one of the most deformed foreheads in wrestling due to years of blading. The damage was probably much worse underneath the skin. Aguayo’s last truly public appearance, as best as I can determine, was his induction in the AAA Hall of Fame at the 2012 TripleMania. Aguayo was physically present at his son’s funeral in 2015 but did not speak to the media. The public story was his silence was due to grief. The loosely held secret was Aguayo was suffering from dementia or something like it brought on from his years from matches, and his family didn’t want to expose him or his condition. (Ovaciones reports this now as Aguayo being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2010.) Aguayo is a guy who would’ve been celebrated at every opportunity had he continued to be able to make appearances. Instead, no one had seen him for years. If Aguayo had been a US star, there no doubt would’ve been reporters investigating what had become of him. He was mostly spared that spotlight in Mexico, allowed to remain as he was in people’s memories.
There is at least a wire story on Aguayo in every Mexico website today, and plenty of latino leaning non-Mexico sites. It is recognized how huge a star he was, even though his last big run is now a generation removed. His son’s tragic death kept him in recent memory, I’m sure. Perro Jr. kept his father’s memory alive even after he had stop wrestling. The younger Aguayo’s transition into the personality he’s now most remembered as started when he broke an El Santo plaque while declaring his father Perro Aguayo was the true biggest legend of lucha libre. Publimetro recounts that angle. Razon has a summary of his career. El Hijo del Santo calls Perro Aguayo the greatest rudo ever, and credits a feud with Aguayo with establishing him as a star wrestler.
AAA remembered Perro Aguayo before their show. They might do it again before Saturday’s show. Aguayo is famously from Zacatecas but Jalisco became his homebase. CMLL will have remembrances at their own shows this weekend.
SuperLuchas has a celebration of Perro Aguayo’s life, saying Aguayo became more famous than the Beatles at one point. Segunda Caida writes about a 1990 Aguayo match.
AAA TV (WED) 07/03/2019 Auditorio Miguel Barragan, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí [AAA, Lucha Central, thecubsfan]
1) Dinastía & Iron Kid b Arez & Látigo 
13:28. Dinastia submitted Latigo.
2) Eterno b Dave The Clown, Villano III Jr.
7:08. Eterno beat Villano III Jr. with Sueno Eterno (Styles Clash)
3) Drago © b Golden Magic, Chik Tormenta [AAA LA]
8:34. 4th defense. Chik Tormenta becomes the first women to challenge for this title (or any of the nominal-male titles.) Drago beat Golden Magic, then was attacked by Daga.
4) Daga & Keyra b Puma King & Star Fire
18:10. Daga used knucks to Puma to set up the win. Drago misted Daga after the match.
5) Aerostar, Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa b La Hiedra, Monsther Clown, Taurus
11:37. Aerostar pinned Monster Clown.
6) Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly b Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr.
14:49. Averno beat Myzteziz with a super devil’s wings, then asked for a trios title shot. Laredo Kid accepted.
7) Blue Demon Jr., Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. b Dr. Wagner Jr., Pagano, Psycho Clown
16:12. Demon pinned Wagner after Wagner briefly left the match following a Demon piledriver. Wagner bled a lot. Demon and the rudos beat up both Wagner sons as well.
A good show, with matches 1/2/3/6 all fun and only 4 being really disappointing. OGTs vs Jinetes could happen in Guadalajara/Zapopan on Saturday but it wasn’t definitely said; AAA probably won’t say until the show starts. Drago/Daga definitely is happening on that show. That’s an 8 pm start on Saturday night. (It’s a 5pm start for the NJPW G1 show that night, so it is possible that show finishes up before AAA has their first match if you’re in the very small slice of the Venn diagram planning on watching both.)
Turnout out seemed very strong. The Demon/Wagner matches are not for me but they’re obviously working. There were plenty of tickets left for TripleMania when I was looking around Wednesday and Wagner’s hair is absurd, but I feel confident this one is going to work. The smaller building on Saturday means AAA should easily fill that one too, though they can’t have sold too many in advance if they could shift down like that.
No Taya or Jack. I’m completely uncertain if Jack Evans is still working with AAA. He hasn’t been on an AAA show since April, and isn’t on any AAA lineup I have. There definitely was a belief going around that Jack may not be all that motivated to continue working AAA shows once he got his AEW deal. Of course, the same could be said about Sammy Guevara and he’s still around. Every case is different, though I suspect we’ve seen the start and the end of the Guardian of Lucah Libre trio.
There were problems with the Spanish stream at the start of the show. It got restarted during a Wagner promo and they switched from streaming at 1080 to 720. There were few problems after that.
AAA’s taping after Guadalajara is in Aguascalienes. The local promoter posted the lineup last week. AAA posted the lineup today. That lineup changed.
AAA TV (THU) 07/18/2019 Palenque de la Feria, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes [AAA]
1) Dark Finder, Discovery, Marvel vs Rey Sombra, Triham, Xtrem X
locals match, likely not shown on stream
2) Big Mami, Dinastía, Eclipse vs Lady Maravilla, Parka Negra, Último Maldito
Ultimo Maldito replaces Eterno (moved up)
3) Golden Magic & Lady Shani vs La Hiedra & Villano III Jr.
4) Faby Apache, Niño Hamburguesa, Taya vs Dave The Clown, Keyra, Tessa Blanchard
5) Aerostar, Laredo Kid, Puma King vs Averno, Chessman, Eterno
Eterno replaces Daga (moved up)
6) Cage vs Killer Kross
7) Daga & Taurus vs Cody Rhodes & MJF
Daga replaces Cage (moved to a singles match)
8) Dr. Wagner Jr., Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown vs Blue Demon Jr., Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr.
Texano Jr. replaced Kross (moved to a singles match)
Cage being split off into his own in to his own match seem like not just AAA being random. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has been charting some tension between AEW and Impact that might have spilled over into AAA. It has actually centered on Cage – AEW wanted to use him on their debut show, Impact didn’t want their champion to just be another guy in a battle royal – and maybe one or multiple sides decided they didn’t want to do a match with both sides involved. It got Texano and Ultimo Maldito (first AAA appearance this year, may have left the promotion at some point) on to this show, so I guess they can’t complain. Etereno has obviously impressed if he’s the guy being moved up from to replace Daga.
This is 8:30 pm on the poster but AAA’s said the stream starts at 9 (the locals match is not airing.) I’m all but sure this is the final TV taping before TripleMania, though it would take AAA doing something unusual with their schedule for it to make TV before that show.
AAA & local promoter Rosales has a show in Arena Naucalpan tonight. The main will be Pagano, Psycho Clown, and Pentagon in a no rules match. It will probably end with someone breaking a rule. Vikingo, Myzteziz and fill-in L guy Joe Lider face Poder del Norte. I wouldn’t bet on this streaming on Internetv but I suspect it’ll be on YouTube tomorrow.
It’s a rare day when an LA Park return to CMLL is this far down in a news update. LA Park and his sons sent in a video to CMLL Informa to announce he be coming back one more time. In usual LA Park form, this came a day after he was RT-ing the TripleMania poster to get people wondering if he would be the mystery luchador. LA Park will appear on the 07/19 Lyger retirement show, which now looks like
That match is going to start up the LA Park vs Rush rumors again. There’s plenty of possible ideas for the Aniversario show with no being overtly being set up. The answer to “is LA Park going to do a mask match” is “usually no” but there’s room to speculate until CMLL starts pushing another idea. If you look at the timing, CMLL ought to be pushing something by the. The Liger show is just 9/10 weeks from the Aniversario and will possibly have the most attention of any CMLL show this summer. CMLL’s build time to big matches has consistently shrunk so they might necessarily do anything on that show. It would just make a lot of sense to do it.
It is curious Dragon Lee is not involved. He’s got to be booked somewhere.
Informa also announced that the next edition of Mexico’s Lottery will feature the female wrestlers of CMLL as well the Natalia Vazquez (first female Mexican wrestler) and Irma Gonzalez (considered the most important luchadora; the Mexican Fabolous Moolah without that baggage.)
Satanico and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara’s gym will host a lucha olimpica demonstration for the public tomorrow. It’s a free deal
Marca did a Q&A with Alberto that leaned more towards WWE subjects. He notes he hasn’t watched American wrestling in years. It’s totally understandable he would want to spend his time on other things, but a lot of the Nacion Lucha Libre stuff he’s pushing comes off as if from a guy who’s not followed wrestling in many years. That’s a danger; by the time he figures out MVP & Chavo Guerrero aren’t the guys to building around top stars in 2019, everyone will have made their decision on the promotion. On another stop in his press tour, Alberto el Patron said there are about 100 wrestlers working for Nacion Lucha Libre and another 300 who would like to join. I guess “about” can have a lot of flexibility. They have planned 50 shows, including US ones in Texas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. (No date past the first show has been announced though there really are scheduled dates.)
MexaWrestling on 07/14 in Arena Naucalpan
Tony Rivera won Peligro’s hair last Sunday at an Ice Killer tribute show.
Crixus, a new luchador who popped up in Arena Coliseo Guadalara’s Sunday midcard starting a couple months ago, says he’s the nephew of Mano Negra. That would make him Sanely’s cousin. They may have changed his name, since there’s a guy named Cris Skin on this Sunday’s show.
DTU has an interview with Aero Panther, who’s the brother of Fight Panther Jr. and son of Fight Panther.
Lineup
CMLL (MON) 07/08/2019 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Meyer vs Black Tiger & Sombra Diabólika
2) Halcón Suriano Jr. & Sonic vs Espíritu Maligno & Rey Apocalipsis
3) Eléctrico, Millenium, Pegasso vs Cancerbero, Policeman, Raziel
4) King Jaguar vs El Perverso [lightning]
5) Dragón Lee, Místico, Soberano Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas
6) La Bestia Del Ring, Rush, Terrible vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón [Relevos Increíbles]
Fifth match is in that “should be good but Puebla?” territory. Jaguar/Perverso are having a hair match in a week or two.
Recapped: 07/03/2019
All matches took place in Auditorio Miguel Barragan
Matches:
Dinastía & Iron Kid beat Arez & Látigo
(13:28, Dinastia cross armbreaker Latigo, great)
Eterno beat Villano III Jr. and Dave the Clown
(7:08, Sueno Eterno Villano III Jr., good)
Drago beat Golden Magic and Chik Tormenta
(8:34, Inframundo DDT, good)
Daga & Keyra beat Puma King & Star Fire
(18:10, Daga knucks→double underhook facebreaker Puma, below average)
Aerostar, Lady Shani, Nino Hamburguesa beat Taurus, La Hiedra, Monsther Clown
(11:37, Aerostar splash Monster Clown, good)
Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr.
(14:49, Averno super Devil’s Wings Myzteziz, good)
Blue Demon Jr., Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. beat Dr. Wagner Jr., Pagano, Psycho Clown
(16:12, Demon pin Wagner, ok)
What happened:
In some classic AAA over-dramatics, a bloody Dr. Wagner was given a lethal piledriver by Blue Demon and rushed to the back by his older son. Wagner heroically returned in a neckbrace but was ultimately beaten by Blue Demon. Demon was not satisfied with Rey Wagner’s blood as he also busted open Galeno del Mal and spread that blood on his father as well.
The OGTs cleanly defeated Los Jinetes del Aire. Averno demanded a trios title shot so they could demonstrate that they’re the better team, Laredo Kid accepted, and the OGTs ended up laying the champions out. It wasn’t said if this title match would happen on Saturday’s taping, but everyone involved appears to be scheduled for that show.
Daga continues to use a hidden set of brass knucks during his matches to get victories, knocking out Puma here. Daga was much more visible in showing off the knucks in this match to make it clearer what was happening, though he was also clearly punching Puma with them while Tirantes was watching at the finish.
Chik Tormenta versus Golden Magic versus Drago was made a Latin American championship, making it the first time an AAA luchadora had challenged for a nominally male only championship. This was noted by commentary before the match but it wasn’t treated as some big broken barrier. Daga attacked Drago with the knucks after his successful defense, saying he’d win the title in Guadalajara. Drago repaid Daga by blowing mist in his face after the following match.
Perro Aguayo was announced as having passed away a few hours before the show began. There was a moment of remembrance before the show started.
Taya was advertised and didn’t appear. Dave the Clown more or less replaced her, though the matches were changed around slightly.
Thoughts:
This was a strong AAA show. I’m not sure how many people ended up seeing it live – this was a 9 pm start on a Wednesday where the pre-show had streaming issues, giving people a reason to pass. It’s easily worth watching later. Most of the matches were pretty good, with one disappointment. Nothing huge happened on the show, but they do have some non-TripleMania things moving along.
It is possible this will end up being the final show the day before TripleMania on TV Azteca. (They’ve got five episodes, which might just cover these last three tapings.) Blue Demon badly blooding Dr. Wagner Jr. and giving him a near neckbreaking piledriver would be a strong way to lead into the mask match. They might not have a chance to do any more than in front of a massive audience and they might not need to do any more. There’s the slight problem that the piledriver looked Terrible and Demon can’t really do much, this match isn’t going to get any plaudits on a technical nature. It’s going to get over great anyway, these guys have their match down, they’re going to take the same sort of shortcuts they took in this match, and the crowd is going to care because it is the Blue Demon’s mask on the line. I am suspicious that all these Blue Demon rudo heat up angles are only for the lowly AAA diehard’s edification and that most of the Arena Ciudad de Mexico crowd is going to cheer for him anyway because that’s the mask they’ve known for the entire existence and Wagner is a guy just defending his peculiar hair. If it is even possible to get Demon booed by a TripleMania audience, they’ve worked as hard as possible on the TV shows to make it happen. It may just not be possible. It also may not matter at all if the match is just over. This match was over even though it as a lot the same as usual. Pagano did give us his one very botched spot of the night, but the cameras did a much better job of hiding it this night.
OGT versus Jinetes gave us a great deal of Averno and friends destroying people instead of the comedy foils they’ve been more often this year. The press slam into the totally unsuspecting crowd was a strong rudo moment in a match with a lot of them. The tecnicos did a lot of synchronized flying and everyone seemed to have a much better night than Verano de Escandalo. I thought this was really good, a positive including to the Jinetes year, but kind of felt like they were holding back a bit. It’s really dumb that a post-match challenge for a match I want to see downgrades how I rate a match, but this was a borderline match for me and it’s easier to rate it good and leave space for the (theoretical) rematch to be better than for that to blow this away and both of them be great. This is all very dumb. Was the OGT/Jinetes match what you’d want to see out of both teams? Yes, it was. Did the OGT do the triple swandive headbutt spot? Yes, yes they did.
The Aerostar/Monster Clown trios was a professional midcard match, not the most memorable thing but done well in the moment. Taurus reminded me of that early Lucha Underground match where Pentagon convinced people Sexy Star was a spectacular wrestler because of his basing. Lady Shani is better than that Sexy Star but still was helped out a lot by Taurus. So was Aerostar. Taurus didn’t get to help himself out as much, with this more being an exhibition for the tecnicos and the rudos just getting in what they needed to get the heat. The Aerostar/Monster Clown feud isn’t dead but it doesn’t feel much alive either.
Daga/Keyra vs Puma/Star Fire was the true disappointment of the night. The match started slow, took a long time to pick up, and had a bunch of iffy moments. There were enough impressive spots to turn this into a short highlight video. That’d be the better idea than airing it fully. Puma didn’t have a good night. I was excited to see Star Fire back and she got one suplex that woke up the match but seemed off at other times. Keyra didn’t make a strong impact and her entire deal is making a strong impact. Brass Knucks Daga isn’t making much of an impression. Whoever came up with this idea (Tessa, one would assume) probably saw this bit done in a context where it makes a lot of sense. Great. It doesn’t work in AAA. The following matches including people using cookie sheets and trash cans. Trying to push the idea that Daga is doing some despicable act by using a weapon in a promotion where everyone uses weapons and every match is functionally no DQ is just not going to work. Daga doesn’t come off as a cheater for using the knucks, he comes off as dumb for not using it all the time. To their credit, they did realize most of the fans had no idea what was meant to be going on when he used the knucks on the last couple of tapings and had Daga be really obvious about them this time. To their discredit, he was so obvious about using them that even Hijo del Tirantes saw him use them and didn’t call the DQ. Maybe they could someone actually got DQed for using it because it was so violent to explain the idea of why Daga needs to be sneaky, but this was the same show where Blue Demon tried to break Dr. Wagner’s neck with the oh so illegal piledriver. It wasn’t illegal. Nothing in AAA is illegal beyond a mask pull and maybe a foul. Stick with those.
Drago’s title match was good when Chik Tormenta was around to suplex people. It was less good when she vanished after (sort of) catching a Golden Magic dive. Magic & Drago were fine together, Magic took the finish impressively, it should help with Saturday’s title match. Still, Tormenta was the start of this match for the first half and it left a void without her. There do feel like missed opportunities here to get characters over – Chik Tormenta talking about challenging for a male title, Rey Escorpion/Daga/Star Fire’s feelings about being left off TripleMania at the moment – but there wasn’t much time for talking. Then again, the show went for three hours, so maybe no more talking is fine.
Villano III Jr. thought spearing two men to the floor was a good idea and that’s why I enjoy watching him wrestle. I may not get to see him wrestle much pass the age of 30 but there are tradeoffs everywhere. Dave had some Dave moments trying to get over the top rope but didn’t handicap things too much. Eterno didn’t quite fit into this as well as he has with against flyers in his AAA return. He still made an impression with the new look and him getting the win over a regular TV guy was totally unexpected.
My cowardly rating of the Jinetes/OGT match leaves the opener as my match of the night. It wasn’t perfect, it was just very creative and super energetic. The three guys who aren’t regulars worked very hard given the chance. Arez showed off spots that everyone in CMLL is going to continue to steal, Iron Kid did his fearless highspots and Latigo made everything look good. The crowd saw these as four guys who didn’t matter much. They hooked them in by the four-way submission spot and everything worked well from there. There’s probably better in them, but this was pretty good.
CMLL (TUE) 07/02/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, The Gladiadores]
1) Retro & Sangre Imperial b Akuma & Rider 
Tecnicos took 2/3. Debut of Rider, who is the former Principe Tihegus.
2) Dalys, Metálica, Reyna Isis b La Jarochita, Marcela, Sanely
rudas took 2/3
3) Misterioso Jr. b Universo 2000 Jr. [lightning]
4) Hechicero, Kawato San, Vangellys b Blue Panther, Drone, Guerrero Maya Jr.
Drone replaced Audaz
5) Atlantis, Flyer, Stuka Jr. b Felino, Mephisto, Templario
Tecnicos took 2/3
6) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Dragón Lee DQ Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
Carstico replaced Niebla Roja (double booked) on Monday. Cavernario unmasked Dragon Lee, setting up a singles match next week.
Rider introduces himself in a promo. Rider is not the FULL Rider but the luchador formerly known as Principe Tihegus. His Facebook indicates it’s meant to be Raider, with CMLL misspelling it in traditional lucha libre form. He’s the son of the currently missing Princesa Sugehit, and so is yet another relation getting a spot on a CMLL show.
There’s the usual lightning match/mask stealing promo from Misterioso, Felino celebrating 37 years of wrestling, and Dragon Lee & Cavernario hyping next week’s match. That should be something to see. It is Tuesday, I don’t believe they have a half speed match in them.
CMLL (TUE) 07/02/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Joker, Mágico b Carlo Roggi, Maléfico, Paymon
Tecnicos took 1/3.
2) Disturbio, Espíritu Negro, Guerrero de la Muerte b Dulce Gardenia, Magia Blanca, Magnum
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Fuego b Pólvora, Sagrado, Tiger
tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Místico, Soberano Jr., Valiente ?? Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
Tecnicos took fall 1, rudos took falls 2, no third fall mentioned
5) Niebla Roja b Gran Guerrero
Roja took 2/3.
We may never know how the semi-main finished. That’s OK. Doing live tweets and not summing up the results is why this happens but CMLL is also very clear that wins and losses do not actually matter so it’s fine. My OCD likes to have those filled in – I’m still keeping track of the falls for some reason – but I’m mildly surprised they bother.
AAA is back live tonight from San Luis Potosi, who traditionally holds their big lucha libre shows on Wednesday nights. The poster says an 8:30 start time, AAA started saying it was an 8:45 start last night. You may have time to go see some fireworks on the east coast.
There’s a card, I don’t really trust it; there are two different mixed matches which don’t really make any sense. There are a lot of interesting people thrown in who aren’t often on AAA shows; Iron Kid makes his first TV appearance in nearly a year in a match where he’s scheduled to team with Dinastia against Arez & Latigo. Star Fire is back for the first time since March, Eterno is back and might be a regular. The OGTs have not been around much this year and a match against the Jinetes sounds promising. This is a situation where the card announced seems like it’ll have some good matches but the usual amount of changes could produce some great matches. The next few shows don’t seem to hold a lot of story importance with TripleMania already announced but the potential matches still make this interesting.
Anyone who subscribes to Twitch starting July 4th gets TripleMania included. If you can afford to throw AAA $5 a month, I think you’re going to want to watch that show without commercial interruptions. If you’re an American with holiday plans tonight, you could watch this show on-demand later, get the next two AAA shows and TripleMania for one price.
There are some extra notes from reaction and interviews to TripleMania. Not having Fenix defend the Mega title against someone, anyone seems to be one of the more common complaints. A fan asked Konnan why they didn’t just book Omega versus Fenix and Konnan says it was an idea that came up but both AAA & AEW decided to wait for another show to do it. It’s probably not the right time for Omega to be in a singles title match; it doesn’t help AEW to have him take another loss right now. Even Omega winning might not be right for AEW with them trying to get their own belt started. I think the best card change idea I saw was Dylan from Lucha Talk suggesting just swapping Laredo Kid and Vikingo, which give the trios match AEW wanted to do but couldn’t and make it not a straight rematch of a few weeks ago. It’d be a waste for Laredo Kid to be dropped into a match about the exoticos but it is also a waste to have the six other guys in there. I do wonder if AAA will end up airing the Fyter Fest match, as they did the Double or Nothing this past week.
I’m still wondering on the mystery guy. If it was meant to be Daga or Rey Escorpion, there would be no mystery about it. I’d say the same thing about Kross, though I could see AAA believing they needed to do (and could do) some big angle to heat him up and move him on from Puma King first. The easiest answer is probably simply “AAA hasn’t decided yet” and thinking about this is a bad use of time. I am all about bad uses of time and my mind has drifted to “you know, Jack Swagger/Jake Strong has a connection here and has MMA experience, that’d be something AAA would totally do” and “San Luis Potosi is Alberto’s hometown and even though he’s not on good terms with AAA that can change quick.” Please send help.
Dorian Roldan noted that August 3rd was Joaquin Roldan’s birthday and says that is why they picked the date this year.
Psycho Clown explained that he originally wanted to fight Cain Velazquez, then got to know him and decided he’s a great person. Psycho says Velazquez has come to Mexico City to train and he’s going to San Jose to train and it seems like a good idea to be a team.
People who have not blocked last year’s TripleMania out of their mind may remember Vampiro and Konnan set up a match where the loser had to leave AAA. That match isn’t happening at TripleMania. It doesn’t need to. Vampiro didn’t lose a match but remains out of AAA. Either it happened on good terms or there’s still a connection there because Vampiro hasn’t said a single bad word about AAA, but he’s off doing his own thing. There’s really not been a mention of Konnan wrestling again any time soon, though I suspect that may change when he returns to MLW this weekend. Konnan said he’d like to do a retirement tour next year while admitting he’s been saying this for the last two years.
MexaWrestling on 07/14 in Arena Naucalpan
El Siglo de Torreon has a detailed article about the history of the Espantos.
An interview with the fourth generation of mask sellers in Cuernavaca.
Segunda Caida watches some lucha libre from earlier this year.
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.
Recapped: 06/28/2019
Matches:
Inquisidor & Nitro beat Eléctrico & Oro Jr.
(10:32 [4:23, 1:53, 4:16], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany beat Avispa Dorada, La Maligna, Lluvia
(13:46 [6:38, 2:25, 4:43], 2/3, below average, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Dulce Gardenia beat Disturbio
(6:34, good, crucifix cradle VideosOficialesCMLL)
Esfinge, Titán, Tritón beat Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
(17:27 [5:39, 5:34, 6:14], 2/3, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Stuka Jr. beat Mephisto in a lightning match
(9:07, torpedo splash, good, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Ciber the Main Man, Sharlie Rockstar, The Chris beat Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
(6:27 [2:23, 4:04], 1 DQ/2, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. beat Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
(9:34 [2:34, 4:20, 2:40], 1/3, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)
What happened:
Titan and friends challenged for a trios title match next week.
The Chris was disqualified for using his kendo stick in the first fall. UG snuck in a foul on Ciber in the second fall. This set up a singles match in two weeks between them (because Ultimo Guerrero is in France next week.)
Thoughts:
The main event was the Tuesday send everyone home happy match on a Friday, with a slightly better crew than usual. Everyone did a bit of their signature stuff, Negro Casas won a fall with a sleeper for some reason, and the fans got the happy finish. Maybe we shouldn’t take these for granted but I kind of do.
CL4N had some teamwork spots that look fine until the Guerreros took over and the difference was unmistakable. The very short match seemed felt like they’d run thru it many times to make sure it wouldn’t suck and it didn’t suck, though it didn’t also do much to make you want to see Ciber and UG. There were moments with those two in particular that looked like they were going slow just so nothing would get missed, but looked more staged because of the speed. The Chris & Scharly did dives and neither seemed broken, which is at least an improvement over the last time this trio was altogether in Arena Mexico.
Mephisto singles match remain exactly as good as the tecnico opposition is willing to do. Stuka was willing to do a half dozen big spots in this seemingly insignificant match and so it was very good. The last few were ones he doesn’t do much, if at all lately – he wanted to make this big and it worked. I always appreciate the CMLL match where a guy just keeps hitting moves until he wins just wins instead of the (non-)surprise turnaround; Stuka’s ramp plancha didn’t get the three count itself but meant something because it led to him getting the win.
The NGD/Oneatos style blended their usual spots with a few things they don’t do as usual. It also felt like the tecnicos took the fight to the Dinamitas at times; things like that and Triton picking up a pinfall in the third fall help make this a more believable title match for next week. The two teams mesh well. This wasn’t quite as good as their big title match in Guadalajara but they seemed to be saving the big dramatics for next week, and that should easily be better than this.
I had been told the women’s match was awful and didn’t think it was that way early on. It got there in the third fall. Maligna having been told to leave the ring at one point because it wasn’t her turn stuck out, not just because what she did when it was finally her turn wasn’t effective but also how much these matches are strictly on rails and can’t handle people being out of sequence. That entire third fall should not go on Maligna’s highlight reel or most of anyone. Lluvia bending over to feed herself obviously for a Tiffany faceslam, then getting right back up to chop here was frustratingly bad. It showed all the signs of a rehearsed match but why would they rehearse a sequence that nonsensical.
A dance number takes place to introduce Dulce Gardenia. CMLL again will not air the dance numbers, but someone forgets to turn down the Arena Mexico audio – if the idea is to avoid music issues, they’d have them the same, just without the dance to go with it. Dulce got smoke bombs after the win. Sofia Alonso and a member of the Mexico Tourism department give Gardenia trophy.
The opener was better than usual, seemingly because they got a lot less time than they were planning and had to actually press the pace to get everything done. Inquisidor works at a leisurely pace on Tuesdays and was hustling, especially in the first fall. He still took the Oro Jr. apron headscissors terribly and Oro almost lost him on the valagueza, so working fast doesn’t cure all problems. Oro Jr.’s favorite part of wrestling is definitely the posing. Nitro moves slightly better than an average CL4N member.