TripleMania Day, Ciber vs Ultimo Guerrero, Demon/Wagner in San Jose?

CMLL (FRI) 08/02/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, Marca, thecubsfan]
1) Dark Magic & Sangre Azteca b Oro Jr. & Súper Astro Jr. 
15:25. Espanto Jr. replaced Sangre Azteca, then Sangre Azteca & Dark Magic ended up in the match instead of Akuma & Espanto anyway. Rudos took 2/3.
2) Chamuel, Guapito, Periko Zacarías b Átomo, Gallito, Microman 
13:49. Chamuel gave Microman his first ever Arena Mexico loss.
3) La Metálica b Marcela, Amapola, Tiffany, Sanely, La Infernal, Maligna, La Guerrera, La Seductora, Avispa Dorada [CMLL Universal Femenil, semifinal] 
21:42. Mystique was briefly listed in La Infernal’s spot. Order of elimination (after a battle royal): La Infernal (Amapola; Infernal’s return after 20 years), La Guerrera (Seductora), La Malgina (Sanely), Seductora (Marcela), Sanely (Tiffany), Amapola & Tiffany went to a double pin, Avispa Dorada (Marcela), Marcela (Metalica) leaving Metalica to advance to the final.
4) Dragón Lee b Gran Guerrero [lightning] 
8:35, but only after Pompin held up on an obvious three count a half minute earlier.
5) Ciber the Main Man, Rush, Terrible b Cavernario, Dark Magic, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
9:20. Ciber took 1/3, beating UG to set up a title match next week. Dark Magic replaced Mr. Niebla, working twice.
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón DQ Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. 
7:23. Straight falls, Forastero faking a foul from Volador.

CMLL Promos: Super Astro & Oro Jr. would like to form a regular team, the Micro rudos are proud to finally get a win, La Metalica talks advancing to the CMLL Universal final, Dragon Lee dedicates his win to the fans, Ciber believes this is the moment where he’ll win the CMLL Heavyweight Championship, Ultimo Guerrero is very insistent on the hair match after and NGD brag about winning in straight falls.

Pressroom interviews: NGD (who make a point of saying the Dream Team don’t get a title shot because they lost again), Caristico (dealing with a finger injury), Dragon Lee, Ciber, Ultimo Guerrero, and La Metalica.

This was another weak show in a series of them. Unless you’d like to hold onto hope of a Volador/Forastero Aniversario main event, everything points towards Ciber versus Ultimo Guerrero in a hair match on 09/13. There was nothing else this week to tease a cage match and no other match being set up. Ultimo Guerrero did the sort of promo CMLL uses in their video package every time. The feud is neither nor over but it’s the direction CMLL has committed itself towards. It’s not very exciting and we’ve seen bad Aniversario matches cause the month before them to struggle as well.

Dragon Lee/Gran Guerrero was fun until the referee botch. There were highlights in the Micros match and with Avispa’s performance in the women’s match. CMLL had something they could follow up with Avispa Dorada in this match – she’s good and she stands out from everyone else – but it seems unlike CMLL to do that. I hope indie promoters try to get Avispa (& Metalica) in their promotions to see what she could do without the limitations of CMLL.

Akuma announced on Facebook that he would be out six weeks after suffering a leg injury last Friday. Dark Magic may have been intended to fill in for Mr. Niebla (who missed a Thursday show) and Sangre Azteca for Espanto, but CMLL also knew Akuma was out well ahead of time and didn’t bring enough subs. That was just weird. Dark Magic is one of the last people in CMLL who should be featured twice in a show.

Today is TripleMania. I wrote a long preview over at Voices of Wrestling. Some additional random notes

• I didn’t have it figured out by the time that was up, but the bonus match is Dragon Bane, Arkangel Divino, and Astrolux vs Toxin, Arez and Aramis. That sounds great and worth sitting thru whatever pre-show there will be.
• I blanked on the reason why Killer Kross might not be in the mystery match: the Impact vs AEW thing seems like an issue. Maybe they’ll work it out. My impression is AAA is trying to make that spot a big deal, though it’s going to be hard to come off that way with Psycho, Velasques and Cody on the other side.
• I still don’t know who will be the English announcers. Vampiro still believes he’s on the microphone. Other people either clearly believe he will not or want that to be the case. I suspect Vampiro will get his way and continue to announce the show because one of the goals of AAA seems to be to keep Vampiro happy above presenting a product that reflects AAA in the best light.
• This show is going to be very long. This show is always very long.
• Tickets seem like they’re moving well but there are still plenty left. There’s surprising a bunch of close tickets left, but maybe they were added late. I think this will outdraw the ~15,000 for the Liger farewell show.
• There are people who very sincerely believe Blue Demon’s losing. I’ve had to ban one of them from the luchawiki this week. I do not believe and would think it would be one of the most illogical decisions ever – even if Demon’s got to lose here, you don’t put Wagner opposite of him –  but Rob seemed like he heard things that suggest it in his POST Wrestling interview and Planchitas is picking it.
  • Neither man seems to be actually retiring given all the bookings they’re taking. They’re wrestling again tomorrow.
  • My guess still is the show ends with Blue Demon vs Psycho Clown being set up.

I’m more excited and less terrified by TripleMania than usual. I may eat my words on that. You can listen to me eat my words on Twitch after the show is over. We’re also going to be soliciting donations via Ko-Fi if you enjoy the podcast. Doing something live like that is above and beyond what we’ve normally done so if you like it and you’d like more of it, it would help to thru a few dollars our way.

Cain Velasquez told SI that there are two more events “that I’m for sure doing after TripleMania.” This sounds like he’ll be part of the New York & Los Angeles AAA shows. If he gets the same attention for those matches as he’s got for this TripleMania, it seems an easy call for AAA to pay him to do more shows. It also might affect tonight’s match; AAA would be wise to give people a story for the MSG show. They don’t always do that. Cain is also teasing a mask he’ll wear to the ring.

Blue Demon says he’s at his best physical shape (at the age of 53!) I know that’s hype but my American brain has me wondering what this mean was doing in his 20s and 30s.

Rey Escorpion was shooting video from the TripleMania set up yesterday, so he was probably walking thru whatever it is he’s doing on the show.  Copa TripleMania seems most likely, but I could see him taking bumps for Velasquez as well.

Dr. Wagner & Blue Demon are listed as headlining a lucha libre show at the San Jose’s SAP Center on October 12 using the very old WWO promotional name. The poster is so cheap looking that the event comes off fake. The SAP Center website currently lists no event on that date. The promotion has a Facebook page that points to a website for tickets, but the website doesn’t exist or didn’t load when I checked Friday. The sponsor listed is the same one which sponsored the AAA US tour in 2009. AAA ran this same building (it was the HP Pavillon at that point) and didn’t draw well. That lineup looks like something sure to struggle to sell tickets.

Toxin posted his schedule for the next two months in an Instagram story. (Captured here.) Of note, there’s an AAA TV taping scheduled for September 8 and Pro Wrestling Mexico is scheduled to have a second show on September 7th. I’d expect we’ll start to hear more about the PWM show after Nacion Lucha Libre runs on Sunday in Monterrey. It’d be helpful for AAA if they pushed their next half dozen or so tapings during TripleMania but that’s something that never happens.

AAA is hoping to reach their one millionth YouTube subscriber today. They were about 60,000 short when I checked this morning.

Laredo Kid was announced for PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament. He’s the 6th Mexican wrestler to be announced, which ties the record.

Diamante is headed to Dragon Gate, as the newest member of the RED group. He wrestled in AJPW last year and continues to get regular foreign booking despite not having a high profile home in Mexico. He seems like a guy who’d fit in Nacion Lucha Libre but hadn’t shown up there yet. There’s no word on how long he’ll be there.

A show scheduled for Mexicali today has been canceled. Shocker was scheduled to headline; he hasn’t wrestled since May 21st and hasn’t liked anything on Twitter since June 26th.