TripleMania XXX this Saturday, a busy weekend of shows, CMLL Universal Block B

AAA

It’s TripleMania week, AAA maybe should be up first in this post.

I wrote a preview of TripleMania from Mexico City. I struggled with this one, and not just because I totally messed up the recent Copa TripleMania winners.

AAA really can do much better with the people they have, they’re forever chasing after people who aren’t that as interested in them, and they assume too much that everything’s going to be waiting for them when they get around to it, when the world is around them is moving much faster. 2022 should’ve been the year of doing everything possible with Vikingo with a realization that he may not be around for them forever. Instead, 2022 was a year of a slow build to a Fenix match, one AAA didn’t seem sure they even wanted to do, and nothing for Vikingo to do in the mean time. You could put Arez and “Lucha Squad” or a half dozen other storylines that AAA surely believes they’re going to eventually but there’s no urgency in getting done and track record suggests AAA will just forget about it before they get to the end. It’s not great for building interest in a promotion or brand.

But the flip side is that sometimes all lucha libre or wrestling needs to be is really talented people having really cool matches and it doesn’t matter what else is going on. TripleMania is a show with really talented people having really cool matches, assuming AAA stays out of the way of them. (And AAA has stayed out of the way of the matches they needed to stay out, to AAA’s great credit.) AAA, especially internationally, is a promotion that only exists on their biggest show of the year. If TripleMania goes as well as it looks on paper, most fans are going to walk away thinking AAA has a really great year. I’m not sure they’d be wrong, and I’m struggling to wrap my mind around the situation.

AAA confirmed the TripleMania broadcast will begin at 8 pm with the four-way tag match. The Marvel Lucah Libre match and Copa Baradahl will be taped to air next week on Space. Kinda figured this was happening when the press conference mentioned a 7 pm pre-show. I believe that any match you’re taping that day should air if you’re charging to watch the show, but that’s not a universal standard. (Impact’s been taping matches before their recent PPVs to later put up on their digital service, and we know this because it’s usually Laredo or Taurus involved.)

This pre-show does mean an earlier night and a knock-off effect on what airs elsewhere. FITE will likely get the four-way tag, the three way trios and the Kamille/Taya match exclusively. Space & Claro will likely air the three men’s singles matches. The show might be over by 11!

I’ll have a recap of the show over on Post Wrestling.

Space is airing Saturday a marathon of all three TripleManias, plus a half hour special about the history of AAA. They usually do one of these half-hour leadup specials to TripleMania each year and it eventually gets posted on their YouTube page.

It’s difficult to tell actual ticket sales on the SuperBoletos map without spending a half hour going through every section individually. It doesn’t look like any section has completely sold out in the last week or so, though tickets are moving. The cheapest sections remain the ones with the most available tickets, and those figure to have the best day of show sales. I thought AAA might get more advance ticket sales given how unexpectedly well CMLL’s Aniversario did last month but it seems more like a normal ticket-buying pace. (Arena Ciudad de Mexico is bigger than Arena Mexico so AAA should end up with the higher attendance, though I’m not sure they’re there yet.)

Conrad Thompson and his AdFreeShow Network have been promoting TripleMania through the network’s social media accounts for the last few days. The English language videos they’re producing, relying heavily on Hugo interviews are well done, there’s just no central place where you can see them all. There’s one on AAA and lucha libre in general, on Fenix vs Hijo del Vikingo, on Villano IV vs LA Park, and on Kamille vs Taya.

It’d probably be helpful for AAA if their current champions who weren’t appearing at TripleMania put up social media posts mentioning the existence of the show. Maybe that’s just not part of the deal. The Lucha Brothers weren’t on Dynamite and don’t appear to be on Rampage this week, so TripleMania isn’t going to come up there ahead of time. They’ll likely bring it up Penta’s match at least next week. I guess they’ll absolutely have to bring it up if goes badly for Penta.

The El Mister newsletter has a “Lucha Libre AAA 4.0 Dossier” on the business of the promotion, leading into TripleMania. They interview both Marisela & Dorian, and most of the numbers seem to come straight from their side. It’s glowing coverage of the promotion they must be thrilled to have; I had to double-check at the end if it was meant to be a press release. The most eye-catching numbers seem to come from the authors instead, who ballpark the average ticket for TripleMania at 1,100 pesos and says math says AAA could have a gate of 24.5 million pesos. There’s something I’m not getting there because that would mean an attendance of 22,000+ in a building even AAA believes will only fit 19,000. (This is a number Forbes Mexico quoted, and I quoted them on it, and I’m less sure about this number knowing more now.)

Other expense numbers that come up

• it cost 14.5 million pesos to run the three TripleManias
• Each TV taping costs between 1 and 1.2 million pesos, an estimated 30 million pesos cost per year
  • A later factoid mentions Lucha Underground episodes cost 300,000 USD (6 million pesos)
• AAA had spent 68 million pesos on operating the promotion from January to August this year.
• AAA says they had 200 million pesos (10 million USD) of revenue in 2019.
  • There’s a factoid saying that AAA makes their money equally from sponsors, live events, and media rights, which implies a implausibly amount of money from media rights; even this dossier notes AAA was paying for air time at the end with Televisa. I’m sure they’re making money now and they’d like it to be 33% of revenue but that sounds like more a goal than a current reality

The big push for on-screen after TripleMania is the 12/28 Acpaulco show (and the 12/03 Tempe show, if that is really happening.) The big push behind the scenes is the Cancun project, Luchatitlán, that’s come out in bits over recent press conferences. It seems more a sure thing here than it has before, a definite plan to run regular shows in Cancun in time for Spring Break 2023. The goal is to make this a tourist destination in the same way Cirque du Soleil is in Las Vegas (and, unsaid, like Arena Mexico is in Mexico City.) The shows will seat 350 people, will have gimmicks specifical for the venue, and everyone will be able to pay in US Dollars if they so choose. AAA and other investors are putting 200 million pesos into the project.

The article also reminded me of the scheduled AAA/Orange Cometa NFT launch, which was announced and never seemed to launch. The market may have fallen out on that idea.

Both in this article and generally, one innovation AAA seems to have picked up this year is from wrestling in Japan. You can just announce numbers and figures and it’ll mostly get reported on as a fact. It helps to get the word out there that you’re doing good business, which helps the image of the company in turn and only weird cranks like me are going to even think twice about them. AAA’s been very direct about getting out attendance totals for the two previous TripleManias (as well as Verano de Escandalo) and I expect they’ll be just as direct about announcing a figure for Arena Ciudad de Mexico. Dorian Roldan has said 19,000 so often that I expect to be the announced number.

Allure has an article about the makeup AAA luchadoras use to highlight their characters. Lady Shani, Taya, Chik Tormenta and Dulce Kanela all are talked to about their choices.

Radio Disney Mexico is giving away tickets to TripleMania on Instagram. The ticket giveaway isn’t news, there are always a few of those, but it’s an explicitly Marvel Lucha Libre tie-in by a Disney company and I’d been wondering why those weren’t visible lately. That one is visible.

CMLL

Today’s CMLL show has the second part of CMLL Universal de Amazonas, with the winner facing Lluvia next week.

• has a real chance to win: La Jarcohita, Princesa Sugehit, Dalys, Reyna Isis
• weirder things have happened: La Metalica
• probably no: La Magnifica, Sexy Sol, Valkiria, Tiffany, La Seductora, Olympica

Four possible winners is more open than usual for this sort of competition. The weird number is “11” participants, an odd number for a match with two sides. I anticipated CMLL would explain what their plan is on Informa, but that was all Dia del Muertos focused. CMLL had a complicated plan for an odd-numbered cibernetico back in July, where the battle royal would go to one person, and then the last two people would choose teams like a pickup basketball game. The overly complex setup bothered me at the time, but today I’m thinking more about how it’ll look for someone if they’re the last person choosen. Guess we’ll know tonight if CMLL runs with that format.

Nothing much that looks notable on the rest of the card, which makes sense because the Universal tournament and then the Gran Prix are driving this month. Los Guerreros team with Volador against Mesias, Soberano, and Stuka. (Not sure if Satanico is ready to go tonight.) Lluvia teams with Avispa Dorada and Marcela against Amapola, Hera and Stephanie Vaquero. The fun trio of Panterita Jr., Suicida, and Astral take on Cholo, Disturbio, and Inquisidor in the opener. It’s on Ticketmaster Live as usual and will go up on YouTube on 10/30.

How seriously is CMLL taking breast cancer awareness month? A charity will provide free mammograms before the Sunday Arena Mexico show for women over 40. They have the capacity for 270 exams. I can’t recall that at a wrestling show before, it’s a very kind offer. I’m not sure if CMLL is contributing more than the venue but that’s a help too. In a more conventional bit, fans can take photos with Lluvia & Jarochita at that show too.

CMLL (MON) 10/17/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Centella Roja & Millenium vs Dark Soul & Rencor
2) Angelito & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Dalys & Reyna Isis [MEX WOMEN TAG]
11th defense (9th on CMLL shows)
5) Negro Casas, Octagón, Stuka Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Fuerza Guerrera

Dalys & Isis are absolutely a team that could end up dethroning Las Chicas Indomables, it’s just a question is if CMLL will do back to back weeks of title changes in Puebla.

CMLL’s liked booking Octagon in Arena Puebla. He worked there three times in 2018, three times in 2017. No Hijo del Octagon this time around. Atlantis Jr. is back, still not wrestling in Arena Mexico. The Guadalajara rudo trio seems to be sticking around for a bit.

CMLL (TUE) 10/18/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Logan, Mr. Samurai vs Destello, Destructor, Minotauro
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Jkr, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Zandokan Jr.
5) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido vs Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono
6) Blue Panther, Cachorro, Dark Panther vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Satánico

More Satanico wrestling, this time against Blue Panther in a trios. Maya/Zanokan in a singles sounds interesting. I’m unsure if the copyright police came for Joker or if it’s just a weird typo to get him to “Jkr”.

CMLL Informa announced some plans for the upcoming Dia del Muertos shows. These announcements are always timed right before tickets go on sale, and tickets are now on sale.

• November 1st (Tuesday) will have a 10 person Rey del Inframundo contender cibernetico. The field is Rugido, Esfinge, Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring (Sr.), Star Jr., Rey Bucanero, Sagrado, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., and Dragon Rojo Jr.
• November 4th (Friday) will have the winner of that cibernetico against the reigning king of hell Terrible.
• November 6th (Sunday) will have all of the unmasked luchadors wrestling under their masks for one night. Most of the card is here; JCR said “only the Micros were missing” when going over the people on the card, which I took literally as the Micros were missing from the announcement but would be on the show.
  • CMLL is pushing “remaking luchadors for only one night” as an innovation, an idea IWRG and others have done in the past.

All Dia del Muertos shows streamed live in past years; only Friday is listed on Ticketmaster so far. (The Gran Prix de Femenil show is still not listed while I’m on the page.) CMLL must be expecting a big turnout for the Friday show because they’re put the upper-level tickets on sale in addition to the regular seats, which was unusual when they did it for the Anniversary. The theme of these shows is the draw, but those tickets suggest they have something bigger planned than just Terrible versus Dark Panther.

Titan started as an LIJ member early this morning, teaming with BUSHI and Naito to defeat TJP, Francesco Akira, and Gideon Grey, a show that is available for free on NJPW World. I wrote that result on Thursday and I didn’t need to edit it, though I do have to add this part “Titan got the pinfall win over Grey.” Titan getting actual direct victories in NJPW makes the rest of this paragraph a bit obvious: Titan is still a CMLL wrestler, but his schedule is going to be much more NJPW-focused going forward. This is not just a couple of month thing to get through a tag tournament, Titan is going to be a regular presence in NJPW for the foreseeable future. He’s expected to be back in Mexico after this current tour ends (November 5th) but will likely turn right back around for another tour starting on November 21st.

NJPW’s posted CMLL shows on NJPW World since early on in their service as part of the relationship between the two promotions. NJPW does their own commentary, usually with Miki Moto, another NJPW announcer, and a guest NJPW wrestler. They’ve stuck with two shows a month in recent years. Starting this month, one of those shows will go up for free on YouTube. Only those with a Japanese IP address will be able to see it. You’re not really missing out much – it’s similar to those go up on CMLL’s YouTube channel with a different commentary track. NJPW does appear to be getting the full Arena Mexico show instead of the TV version; you can dig around on my drive to find missing from YouTube matches if you don’t want to get around the region ban

This weekend is busy

There sure are a lot of notable shows on TripleMania weekend even in addition to the usual CMLL stuff

• IWRG is running a Friday night show, with the idea of being all new matches
• Big Lucha has Dark Night, with Bandido vs Yutani and La Secta in.
  • I think both of these shows will stream on Mas Lucha, and I think they’re both running on Friday in hopes to draw some traveling TripleMania fans
• GCW wrestlers will appear both on Friday’s Vanguardia show in Hidalgo and Zona 23 on Sunday
  • Gringo Loco being a late addition to Vangaurdia suggests he’s probably involved on TripleMania somehow.
    • I’m blocking and reporting Gringo Loco if he interferes in the Vikingo/Fenix match.
  • The GCW shows will air on FITE but not live. They’re not on FITE’s schedule last I checked, they may be waiting for them to get filmed before deciding a date
• Arena Lopez Mateos (Texano vs Mesias) and Arena San Juan (Poder del Norte, X-Fly and Monster Clown vs the Pigs) are running against TripleMania
• Arena Neza has the Traumas vs Super Nova & Texano Jr., a match I feel like I’ve seen in lineups a million times but really hasn’t happened much
• Lucha Memes is running Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on Sunday.

Nacion Lucha Libre’s “Season 2 debut” TV show also airs Saturday night. I hope I remember to record it, if ImagenTV does stream it. Nacion said they’d put the show on all the social medias as well, though nothing’s been said about that since.

IWRG

Wasn’t sure there was an IWRG Retro this week but one did air:

• 2005-03-10: Los Strippers (Marco Rivera & Star Boy) vs Los Cerebros (Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro)
• 1999-04-11: El Matador, Salsero, Súper Parka vs Bombero Infernal, Maniacop, Shiima Nobunaga
• 2005-03-10: Blue Demon Jr., Blue Panther, LA Park, Máscara Sagrada vs Black Tiger, Pentagon Black, Scorpió Jr., Veneno

IWRG (SUN) 10/16/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental vs Súper Boy
2) Jhon Tito & Sol vs Brad Alexis & Tortuga Leo
3) Noisy Boy, Shocko, Spider Fly vs Decimus, Juventud Aérea (Tamaulipas), Rey Halcón
4) Aster Boy & Cerebro Negro vs Hell Boy & Puma de Oro
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Luka, Relámpago vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
6) Laredo Kid & Rey León vs Hijo De Canis Lupus & Hijo del Pirata Morgan

It’s RGR versus IWRG, except IWRG also promoted Canis is going to RGR soon and Pirata’s been there before. I saw those guys in the third match at the lightly attended Lucha Maniaks show WrestleMania week.

IWRG also announced the 10/30 Puma de Oro/Tonalli match would be for both the Middleweight and Mexico championships. I did think they had too many titles for that level of guys.

Other

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

The remaining people in the INJUVE Mexico City “El Lince a la Victoria” talent search contest are Night Fury, X-Devil, Sol, Shao, Little Star, Septimo Elemento, Conquistador, Ultimo Azteca, Andy Panda, Rey Quetzal, Boyka, Castor and Candela. The winner gets to wrestle in Big Lucha, so it’s very funny Sol is in a talent search for a promotion he’s already wrestling on. X-Devil is his brother of course, and they wrestle in IWRG and their own promotion (where Boyka also wrestles.) Night Fury is Argenis’ son. Rey Quetzal shows up in Lucha Madre often. Most of the rest are low level Mexico State/Mexico City wrestlers. I can’t find any previous Septimo Elemento matches. They’re doing cut downs on every Thursday until the final on 10/27.

Neither Laredo Kid or Black Taurus won their six way match on Impact this week (and they’re not on next week’s show.) Impact is holding a tournament for the now vacant X-Division championship and they’ll probably both be involved in that. The quiet news is that six way match included the AAA lucahdors and NJPW’s Yuyu Uemura, and no one seemed to raise an issue over it. Maybe AEW should trade Andrade to Impact so he can wrestle the NJPW guys?

There will be a benefit show for children dealing with hearing problems on 10/23 Gimnasio Miguel Hidalgo.

11/06 PWG “Dink”

• Aramis, Bandido, Komander vs Latigo, Laredo Kid, Black Taurus
• Titus Alexander vs Rey Horus

Tickets go on sale Wednesday.

A YouTube video following Herodes Jr. around for a day.