TripleMania Regia, Lucha Capital, Kawato runs but no longer champ

AAA , CAPITAL (WED) 11/06/2019 Pinche Gringo Barbecue, Miguel Hidalgo, Distrito Federal [AAA, Lucha Central, thecubsfan]
1) Máximo b Tito Santana, Dinastía 
11:50. Maximo pinned Santana
2) Faby Apache b Keyra, Ayako Hamada 
8:52. Faby Apache sit down powerbomb Keyra.
3) Rich Swann b Argenis, Dave The Clown 
9:36. Swann phoenix splash Dave the Clown.
4) Puma King b Octagón Jr., Drago 
9:29. Puma King press powerbomb Octagon Jr.

The main event was the best match on the show. The women’s match was the most disappointing. Hijo del Vikingo, Taurus and other interesting people are still to wrestle in the next two weeks. There may be a bonus third week of random matches. Still, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to just check on the series until they got to the later rounds, or entirely. This season’s Lucha Capital shows are bad, there’s good matches, but they haven’t found some magic solution to a tournament of all three way matches. It fits with the CMLL b-shows – there’s stuff to keep track of, but it doesn’t feel especially compelling in a world of so many options unless you just have to watch everything.

AAA announced the full AAA TripleMania Regia card

AAA TV (SUN) 12/01/2019 Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
1) Big Mami, Dinastía, Máscarita Dorada, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Casandro, Dave The Clown, Demus, Lady Maravilla
2) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana vs Hijo de LA Park, Hijo del Volador, LA Park Jr.
3) Taurus & Villano III Jr. vs Aramis & Hijo Del Vikingo vs Cage & Puma King vs Bandido & Flamita
4) Taya, Faby Apache, Ayako Hamada, Keyra, Lady Shani [Reina De Reinas]
5) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 [Copa TripleMania]
6) Kenny Omega © vs Dragón Lee (Munoz) [AAA HEAVY]
1st defense
7) Pagano vs LA Park vs Rush
8) Psycho Clown, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr., Chessman, Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Aerostar, Monsther Clown [cage, hair, mask]

That’s a significantly better card that I was expecting. It’s not exactly a TripleMania – the cage match seems to be there to obscure the Monster Clown/Aerostar finish AAA heavily teased and that’s not something AAA would do at TripleMania – but it’s pretty much as close as they can get. Multimedios and the local sponsors must be kicking in a fair bit of money to make this work.

Rush & Dragon Lee are notable additions. Neither is signed full time, just work per-date. Rush has been rumored to come to AAA for years and gets in with his old rival. Pagano is there to follow up on TripleMania and to make sure it’s not simply an outsider vs outsider match. Dragon Lee is more of a surprise, and in a match that immediately gained a lot of attention. It’s a new match, it’s an exciting match, and you can even talk yourself into believing Dragon Lee if you really try.

Everyone seemed to be very excited to see this show in my Twitter replies. They will not be able to see it live. Dorian Roldan said the show will not be streamed live and repeated that later when asked by the press. (It made it a little strange, having a press conference in Mexico City for an event that will only be seen live in Monterrey.) It will air later in some form. It may air in Multimedios first since they appear to be a sponsor of the show. AAA obviously wants to sell tickets here – both Roldan and the baseball stadium owner mentioned plans to make this an annual event if this is successful in year one – but there still is a large audience of people who would probably give money to AAA if they didn’t have to get on a plane to do it.

It could be that whatever deal with Mutlimedios prohibits them from streaming it live, though AAA could restrict Mexican fans from being able to see the show as they did with InvadingNY. It is possible that Bandido & Rush’s deals prohibit them from appearing on a competing iPPV service, though there still seems to be enough interest in TripleMania Regia to air it with those matches blacked out. The reason most lucha libre promoters have stated for not airing a show live (or at all) is fear the possibility of streaming will keep people from buying tickets, so maybe there will be a change in policy if enough tickets are sold. On this week’s podcast, Konnan mentioned tickets were selling well for TripleMania Regia once they were put on sale, the local promoters were happy with how it was doing. Everyone will get to see this show in TV form eventually. Persistent people will be able to see live if they’re willing to hop between different YouTube, Facebook and Periscope sites. It’s just a barrier AAA’s putting up between their product and their fans.

Konnan, on his podcast, also talked about the MLW/AAA relationship. As assumed, that is the end of the MLW/The Crash relationship. MLW may tape more TV in Tijuana but it will be with AAA (& EMW). “Maybe” dual-branded shows, though no details. At the press conference, Dorian Roldan mentioned AAA’s relationships with AEW, Impact and MLW, so all three still seem alive.

CMLL revealed Kawato San was back in CMLL – said to have suffered a right knee injury and returned to Japan so he could better communicate with the doctors while healing – but also CMLL had decided to have him vacate the championship. Kawato had gone four months without defending the championship, but four months is no especially long period of time in CMLL. Fredo guessed CMLL may just be moving Kawato up in weight classes and I think that’s a good guess. There’s no word to when the title might be decided. CMLL has also not talked about the CMLL Welterweight Championship since Dragon Lee left. CMLL having a reason to do all of this would be positive but isn’t certain.

In other irrelevant CMLL championship news, a new CMLL Japan Women’s Championship will be decided on 01/22. It’ll be Dalys versus a Japanese winner of a tournament, the participants to be decided. This effectively replaces the CMLL-REINA championship and that set of titles are done. The CMLL/REINA relationship is done, the partnership with magazine Lady’s Ring replacing it. REINA had barely run shows the last few years, with the CMLL women mostly being booked out to other promotions while in Japan.

Dalys wins everything, so she seems likely to win this new championship as well. It seems possible CMLL will just never get around to doing Marcela/Dalys (or Dalys will even lose that match!) if Dalys is likely to get another belt.

CMLL’s news article on Terrible in NJPW’s World Tag League avoids mentioning the word Ingobernables at all. That’s the entire reason he’s teaming with Shingo. Rush seems like he’s going to keep using that name and CMLL doesn’t seem to be exercising a right to it.

The Guadalajara cards have returned to normal locals-only shows, so any Hechicero/Satanico payoff is down the road.

El Rey officially announced InvadingNY airing on the channel on Sunday.

LuchaTalk has a new episode.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 11/11/2019 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger, Policeman, Sombra Diabólika vs Fuerza Chicana, Guerrero Espacial, Rencor
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Shoko Nakajima vs La Comandante, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Drone, Dulce Gardenia, Stigma vs Felino, Pólvora, Tiger
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Carístico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

Guerreros versus sorta-Sky Team in the maine vent.

CMLL (TUE) 11/12/2019 Arena México
1) Angelito & Shockercito vs Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Metatrón, Oro Jr., Súper Astro Jr. vs Akuma, Grako, Nitro
3) Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Fuego vs Dark Magic, Disturbio, Pólvora
4) Esfinge vs Vangellys [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Terrible
6) Carístico, Titán, Valiente vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Templario

Star Jr./Templario was just a bit to get thru the night with no idea where they were going. Same as most of CMLL.