On Konnan’s Keepin’ It 100 podcast, Kevin Kleinrock asked Konnan about the disappearance of the AAA YouTube channel and the Facebook site restriction to Mexico only. Konnan notes that’s not his department and he doesn’t know; he had been told something about a music rights issue earlier, but wasn’t sure if that was the underlining cause or if it was related to the lawsuit. Konnan is curious about the situation too, though the normal AAA holiday break means everyone’s out of that office until January 6th and he’s not expecting to get find out anything until they get back. Either the lawsuit is not as big a deal as it seems or Konnan hasn’t been informed it’s important yet, because the rest of the conversations steers into subjects (English commentary, luchadors for new fans to seek out) which only make sense if fans outside of Mexico will be able to see AAA again soon.
(On the English commentary, Konnan mentions the new was emphasized to him in other discussions after TripleMania and now believes it is important not to just get people jumping into to do commentary, but commentators who follow AAA constantly and know the product.)
The big question is when AAA will able to run again. Konnan says AAA is not expecting to run until at least late January and was very clear that’s just the best guess at this point. AAA’s hoping to run outside of a TV studio and in a locale Konnan believes will be very impressive, though he’s keeping it top secret. I vote for putting a ring on top of or in front of the Teotihuacan pyramids like the video game (but I’m also not the one who’d have to haul a ring there and maybe those people would think that’s a bad idea.)
Today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter had a section on AAA which certainly reads like a conversation between Dave Meltzer and the person in charge of booking AAA about why the TripleMania women’s match was bad. The story goes AAA was going to do Taya/Shani, Taya asked out because of the COVID situation in Mexico, then it was going to be a trios match with the six women announced, then there was pressure to include Mami and the exoticos. My guess has been it was pressure from the wrestlers themselves (and their allies) to get them included, though the WON frames it more as pressure from the fans demanding to see more people.
Marisela Pena’s account announced AAA AutoLuchas episode 8 will debut on Facebook at 9 pm on Sunday. AAA started uploading earlier Autoluchas episodes on Facebook; episode 8 is the first which never aired on YouTube. This is an acknowledgment AAA doesn’t expect to be uploading to YouTube any time soon. The AAA Facebook account remains restricted to Mexico only; I will endeavor to find a solution.
There’s no CMLL PPV today as scheduled. CMLL will instead put up part of the Anniversary show on YouTube at 5 pm CT. Matches appearing
- Metalica vs Reyna Isis for the Mexican National Women’s Championship
- Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero vs Virus, Raizel and Cancerbero for the Mexican Trios Championship
- Titan vs Soberano for the CMLL Welterweight Championship
Titan/Soberano is absolutely worth going out of your way to watch. My guess is the rest of the matches from this show are being saved to go up later, but CMLL didn’t say that.
On CMLL Informa, Julio Cesar Rivera and Reyna Isis were having a discussion about CMLL luchadoras and noted that Avispa Dorada is the only one who’s yet to wrestle since the pandemic. JCR confirmed that Dorada was still part of CMLL, and mentioned Fuego & Halcon Suriano Jr. were still as well when reminded by a voice off-screen. Avispa Dorada has sent in video, the other two have not, and all are said to just prefer staying in their hometowns for the time being.
CMLL Informa did not include anything on Dr. Alfonso Morales. None of his former partners appeared, there was no discussion of his career, he didn’t even appear to be mentioned. Perhaps this was an oversight that’ll be rectified at a later date. History suggests not.
Dr. Alfonso Morales was the most famous Mexican lucha libre announcer. The current most famous US announcer was Jim Ross. I’ve got no doubt that WWE isn’t fond of Jim Ross at the moment – he works for the competition and on a podcast that is critical of WWE – and I’ve got equally no doubt WWE would flood their channels with memories of Jim Ross if he were to pass away tomorrow. Glorifying the history of Jim Ross would be respectful, and it’s also be glorifying the history of WWE since he was such a part of it. (WWE would also monetize it because that’s why they do.) Nothing CMLL puts on Televisa or on YouTube matters at all right now, and airing some old Morales announced matches or a discussion amongst the people who knew him would’ve been an easy way to earn goodwill and support. If CMLL can’t be persuaded from a moral ground that it’s important to greatly memorialize one of the key figures in how their fans have experienced their product, then maybe they need to look it at how it’s a terrible business to pave over their past in this way.
(The same criticisms can fairly be leveed at AAA, though their issues with social media might make handling the situation very tricky.)
Arena Queretaro says they have a 35-year tradition of shows and will continue it tonight with no fans. The show streams tonight at 5pm on Facebook. There’s also an empty arena holiday show in Merida on Saturday, where lucha libre has also generally been shut down for months. Mas Lucha is airing a third Lucha Madres show with a Arez/Tromba match that seems good; they’ve had good encounters in non-singles situations. There’s also a Lucha Time show today, but they have the time to film wacky Christmas videos but not the time to advertise what is airing on their shows, so I can’t write about it.
The OCESA/AAA Rock y Lucha was postponed. I could never figure out how the show would’ve happened, but presumed it was pre-taped when they did the Media for it. Guess not.
Mr. Niebla passed away one year ago Wednesday. SuperLuchas looked back through old interviews to remember him.
01/22 Lucha Memes/Martinez Turf Zone Arena in Fort Worth, Texas
- Aeroboy vs Joshua Wavra
- Ricky Marvin vs Tony Deppen
- Arez vs Daniel Garcia – new
- Aramis vs Jonathan Gresham – new
I don’t know the logistical involved, but this card feels like it should be an IWTV or FITE show. I think it’ll play well to the internet audience; maybe a lot better than for the ticket-buying audience at this point.
Following the ChinampaLuchas bit of luchadors putting people in holds if they didn’t wear a mask, the Iraputo government sponsored a PSA where luchadors are attacking people with chairs if they don’t wear a mask. I presume the people being hit are in on it but it is Mexico can’t be sure.
In CMLL press day interviews, Sanson said he’s working on starting a podcast. I wonder which luchador is going to be the first Mexican wrestler to get a Twitch channel going.
El Cuervo de Puerto Rico will appear on this upcoming week’s AEW Dark show. IWRG hyped his return to Mexico in late October, while Zona 23 teased “a match too controversial to reveal” (which seemed likely to be Cuervo versus his assailant Angel o Demonio.) Cuervo didn’t come to Mexico after all. He’s wrestled very rarely since the 2018 head injury.
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Long post:
re: Luchablog tweet noting how Triplemania got more reviews than Final Battle. And it was mostly thumbs up. I guess Kenny Omega was part of the reason for all the attention.. Maybe it’s a better time of the year for a big AAA show in terms of driving viewership? COVID keeping people home helped, I guess.
In addition to good matches, the pace and quantity of talent at Triplemania was just right. It was not an overloaded, overbooked show. A main event between two guys who have an issue and you have an idea will deliver on the kind of match we’re expecting. A semi-main with an international star Kenny Omega taking on a top tecnico. Interest in Marvel had to help as well because there is crossover between wrestling/Lucha and comic fans.
re: English commentary. They should have started catering to English speaking fans years ago. Hugh Savinovich speaks perfect English and could host a recap show for their youtube channel. This would have increased interest, to some degree, in English speaking countries.
I liked Hugo’s Spanglish at Triplemania. Interesting note about Hugo, he was tasked to do something similar to build up the NWA “Night of Champions” at the Meadowlands Arena in May 1984. Mid-Atlantic, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and World Class Wrestling all started jockeying for a timeslot in New York in the summer of 1983 but no station wanted their show. NY is a tough nut to crack. So Crockett came up with the brilliant idea of airing his content during Carlos Colon’s WWC timeslot on Ch.41 on Saturday afternoon. In exchange Colon was on Starrcade and the Meadowlands show. My point is, it was Hugo who did the localized commentary and promos, mostly in Spanish but lots of English too. What’s old is new again. Hugo would be a great voice for the English speaking viewers as well as Spanish.
How far behind is multimedios? They seem to have a live stream on YouTube that’s not block.
I agree Hugo did a great job & is a good choice for familiarity reasons (like a Jim Ross – someone who is a calming voice for regular fans but has their own interests above helping the promotion). It’s just wild we are saying someone from the 80’s (now 40 years ago) is the best option for English announcing. If AAA was even 0.1% legit serious about English announcers they’d already have a crew… a younger crew… of 2 or 3 people who actually follow the product. Instead of using Mas Lucha guys who struggle with the language or bringing in recommended names for Triplemania who just get a crash course on AAA a week before the show.
I’d love to see regular AAA English announcing but it comes off to me like the “AAA is going to regularly run the U.S. next year” topic. Just a constant pipe dream.
Adrian is more moe than Hugo
English commentary for internet content(not PPV) should have been easy to figure out between Hugo being a regular and maybe a female, such as Taya. Interviews in English too. Rob is right that the English commentary is crash course. It is not genuine.
Joel Gertner is another name who comes to mind. He has done Lucha commentary for a group in the northwest and has a background in commentary.
“AAA is going to run the US regularly next year”!!!! One of my favorite topics.
I truly believe that they should have run just one show a year at the LA Sports Arena after their historic run there ended in 1995, and reality sunk in that AAA was more of a novelty And that can still be profitable.
Galavision grew because Hispanic cable penetration grew in the late 90’s. So AAA had adequate tv. They had a strong brand. All of their stars were household names and Lucha as a style, had some crossover. Galavision grew AAA brand in the US similar to how TBS Saturday 6:05 grew the NWA brand in the 80’s.
After Ron Skoler stopped promoting, AAA never found a competent promoter again. Actually the Arakalian Brothers in Houston did very well in 2000-2004 in Texas, Denver, and Phoenix. But they would not run San Jose or Chicago where AAA needed to be. They did the Olympic Aud in LA but and it bombed. The AAA demo of women and children were not going to go to the Olympic anymore. Mexican bands like El-Tri, ECW Wrestling, and KROQ events did well at the Olympic but the family/female oriented AAA didn’t.
Pena knew Skoler was his best bet and flew himself and Joaquin Roldan to NYC in to meet with him in hopes of doing business again, but Ron’s partners weren’t interested. The dinner took place at WWE restaurant in Times Square NYC. Pretty funny.
AAA had another chance to shine in 2019. They booked MSG and LA Forum. NYC was a huge mistake. Most of NYC’s immigration in recent years is from El Salvador, Peru, and Ecuador, not Mexico. Had AAA simply gone directly to the LA Forum they would have sold at least double maybe triple the number of tickets they sold in NYC and that would be a great start (although it still might have lost some money). LA was the city AAA had the best shot at selling the most tickets in and they needed a good first showing and blew it by not going there to begin their US rebirth.
Is the US market even worth going after anymore? Just seem like problems after problems. Places like Colombia,Chile,Argentina seems more natural.
@Lakersfan The arena landscape favors companies like AAA, and to a greater extent AEW.
in LA,the Forum is hot. The venue in Ontario, CA would have been perfect for AAA. I cringed every time I saw HOLL on sale there, because AAA would have drawn better. Las Vegas has a bunch of venues. Phoenix has the GCU Arena. Houston UH renovated Hofheinz and in Chicago UIC is competitive in response to what’s going on there.
AAA runs Tijuana and Monterrey and border towns often enough to justify LA and one or two Texas dates. It won’t change their fortunes in Mexico but the perception helps. Going to the LA Forum would have been a feather in the cap of AAA.
I definitely would have gone to a AAA event in Ontario, when I don’t really watch AAA. They have many notable names, and I know the matches would have been good.
When Heroes de Lucha Libre was in town, I skipped on it. And by the looks of the show on Crackle, I’m glad I did.
However, I was hoping that the luchadores would stop by the store I managed at the time at the Mills Outlet. Haha
@Carlos Did you hear about the HOLL show beyond this message board?
Yeah, I think Ontario would have been great for AAA as an annual stop.
Lucha Libre Super Indies are interesting. It’s always people who think they are starting their own fed, like HOLL, WWO, and LLUSA. They find the money for big budget lucha indie shows in real arenas like Ontario CA, San Jose Arena, etc.., They book top names and invest in big production. They do just well enough at the box office for the first show, giving hope that they are one break away from being the next Ron Skoler level lucha promoter.
They usually have a list of cities they plan on expanding to , and always, always, are “talking to Univision”.
@Keith Barbaro I was well aware of HOLL through this site. As far as ads go, my brother showed me one. Maybe from Facebook, I think. Spanish-language radio may have mentioned it, but I don’t know for sure.