Taya to WWE
PWInsider was the first to report Taya has signed with WWE. This seemed like the most likely outcome after she became a free agent from Impact. Taya’s whole unusual wrestling journey was kicked off by WWE passing on her many years ago and looking for other places to go to gain experience. She gained that, and a husband who works for WWE, so it seems like it turned out pretty great for her.
Taya is still AAA Reina de Reinas champion, though she hasn’t been in the promotion in over a year. She was scheduled for TripleMania at one point and likely would’ve dropped the title there. Dorian Roldan said she couldn’t make it due to an Impact conflict, and that’s the only time Taya’s been mentioned in months – it’s not as though AAA ignored here, but they also seem to have moved on a while back. . AAA hasn’t announced the championship vacant yet and probably will not until she’s officially announced with WWE. (That may happen in about a week.) There’s no hurry to announce something when AAA’s not taping for at least a month, and it may wait until whenever AAA runs a big show and runs their usual multiwomen’s match.
(My vote would be Lady Maravilla as champion because the Hiedra/Maravilla/Flammer team has the momentum and Shani/Faby/Hades work better as challengers. Maybe they can get Maravilla to give up the Mixed Tag Titles for now if they give her a different belt.)
Masked Republic clarifying that Taya’s action figure is still coming out through them in 2021, no matter where she may have signed.
AAA Cruiserweight Belt Mystery
Laredo Kid lost the AAA Cruiserweight Championship to Lio Rush on Wednesday on MLW TV. AAA acknowledged the title change. That match appears to have been taped in October, so it made sense on some level that Laredo Kid was still carrying around a title belt until the match aired. Except, Laredo Kid defended the AAA Cruiserweight Championship on Saturday in Odessa, Texas. He was scheduled to face Daga, he instead faced the not-quite-cruiserweight Willie Mack. Laredo retained the title via 450 splash.
(Mas Lucha also reported Laredo Kid had the title on AAA TV this week, the first new TV of the year. They’ve since deleted the post. I haven’t seen that episode yet so I can’t confirm.)
This doesn’t seem to be an intentional storyline. Laredo Kid lost without controversy to Lio Rush. There was a strange thing on the MLW show where Lio Rush didn’t seem to have the AAA title for his post-match backstage promo, but it was an otherwise normal title change. It is possible Laredo Kid won the championship back sometime later in the MLW tapings, though there’s been an indication of that as of yet.
This is more interesting in trying to puzzle out what is meant to be happening than the effect on AAA; no one takes AAA titles seriously, including AAA. (The AAA Megachampionship might be considered differently, but it’s really “beating Kenny Omega” that means something. It goes back to meaning the same as all the other titles if Omega gives it up without being beat.) It’s really a pain if you’re a person who runs a Wikipedia dedicated to capturing lucha libre history but that’s not AAA’s problem.
The bigger issue here might be running an “AAA” Cruiserweight Championship in the US right now; there’s unconfirmed talk Lucha Libre FMV has started cracking down on people (promotions and wrestlers) using the AAA trademarks they believe they own in the US. Any time
This show in El Paso didn’t seem to draw well. I don’t have a number, but it comes across a large building with not many people inside. There are obvious health concerns with running a large scale events during a pandemic, but I think the people still trying to run underrate the economic concerns. A lot of people aren’t going to go out right now no matter what is on the show. The weather was poor in Texas this weekend; those traveling to El Paso for a Sunday show posted photos of being stuck in the snow.
(The rest of the matches can be found on the Facebook post listed above; they say the show will also eventually air on Pagano’s YouTube channel.)
AAA TV from Tlaxcala
AAA aired their first show of 2021 on Space Friday night. They aired three matches, leaving out the previously promoted Aramis/Arez/Latigo match. (Results so far from the taping are here; Lucha Central has a recap.) I didn’t see it but I was told it was a show you didn’t need to be in a hurry to watch.
If AAA is airing three matches a week, they’ve got about five more weeks of TV before they need to tape again. AAA’s believed to be holding that next taping in mid/late March.
That show appears to have only aired Friday night on Space; the Saturday morning replay showed an AutoLuchas instead. AAA’s broadcast on Azteca will start airing those new matches next week. A schedule put out by Tlaxcala tourism says the 2021 matches will start airing on YouTube on March 7th. It’s possible that’s outdated info, as AAA listed the most recent YouTube upload as “the final AutoLuchas chapter”. (If you’re not in Mexico, you can see that show on my YouTube channel.)
Other Notes
Mexico City and Mexico State are now open for wrestling shows, to limited amounts. No one’s announced new plans to run as of yet.
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara held their charity show on Friday. Results, and links to the video, can be found on the luchadb. The matches were nothing special, though the wrestlers were clearly happy to have matches again. Rayo de Jalisco did not appear despite being on the poster. He hasn’t seemed to address it. Rayo skipping a charity show seems unlikely, so I’m curious about the COVID testing before this show. Local wrestler Paladin is now going by Guerrero Vikingo. (Or going back to it; someone locally had been using that name a few years back.) The broadcast aired a teaser for shows returning soon, but it was so generic that it could’ve aired any time in the last year and meant the same. No next show was announced.
WrestlingInc. talks to the co-executive producers of the upcoming Ultra Violet & Blue Demon show, Dan Carrillo Levy and Eugenio Villamar, as well as Blue Demon. Demon and the producers had been working with Disney for three years before the pilot got made. It will air on the actual TV Disney channel in the US and vary in other countries. The writers will be those who did the 2019 Detective Pikachu movie; one had been a fan of Blue Demon for a long time prior. The crew on the pilot (and for the show) is all Latino. Demon mentioned still wanting to revive luchador movies of the past in addition to this work.
Mas Lucha’s Vic Martz has thoughts from the IWRG tryouts, which will start airing on the channel tonight. He says only licensed wrestlers participated and fifty-seven were chosen to permit. The initial mention of this tournament said eighty would participate. I’m unsure if that means twenty-three were cut after the first round of drills or they just didn’t reach eighty people signing up. Mas Lucha will also have an interview with IWRG’s Marco Moreno before this shoe.
Mas Lucha has been running Kriminal’s Prohibido tournament the last two weeks, with a match each night. The matches stopped airing right as the semifinal was scheduled to start. Neither the promotion nor Mas Lucha has said when the final three matches will air. R de Rudo is also airing the tournament; they started on a delay and have now caught up. Perhaps they’ll both being airing the last matches at the same time, or R de Rudo will have the final matches instead. It is frustrating and less than professional for the tournament to air incomplete without either the video provider or the promoter acknowledging the issue.
03/07 Lucha Memes at Coliseo Coalco (“Coacalco Forever”)
- Avisman vs Perro de Guerra Jr., no rope breaks match
- Astrolux vs Skayler, win by using a Canadian Destroyer – new
Memes reached 42% of their funding goal with less than two weeks left. I was very wrong; airing the Guerra de Naciones show barely moved it. It is hard to know what else will change it, outside of a big match announced for the 03/07 show. (I was also surprised no big match was announced for the 03/07 show while the Guerra de Naciones show aired.)
That Guerra de Naciones show is up on IWTV for VOD viewing. I think I’m writing more about it tomorrow, but it’s generally what it seemed to be: some really good matches that would’ve gotten more of a reaction in front of a different audience.
Ring of Honor officially announced their 19th Anniversary show on 03/26. All their titles will be defended on that show including the winner of the upcoming Rush/Taylor and trios title matches. I’d presume they’ll start to announce a card after those title matches take place.
NJPW’s Juice Robinson and David Finlay were revealed as coming to Impact wrestling soon. Impact, AEW, and NJPW have all hosted talent from other promotions on their recent shows (though just the US branch of NJPW as of yet.) There’s no direct effect on Mexican promotions at the moment, though a reconfiguring of internationals alliances may eventually change the ROH/NJPW/CMLL and AEW/AAA relationships. The Mexican promotions are kind of along for the ride in both; however it shakes out, it’s going to be which other promotions want to work with CMLL or AAA, they don’t have much power in either relationship. (Their power is to participate or not.)
An article about wrestlers struggling in Hidalgo mentions off-handily “AAA & CMLL have laid off most of their staff.” I don’t think that’s been reported previously. I’ve heard mention of AAA furloughing much of their office staff soon after the pandemic and it would not be a surprise if CMLL did the same.
Oaxaca promoter Fernando Alvarez Leon of Arena Pepe Cisneros talks about the struggles in promoting right now. Fito Cisneros, a name sake of the arena, passed away back on the 8th. The promoter confirms it was a COVID related death.
The Oaxaca luchador bio of the week is Guerrero del Tiempo.