CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 07/14/2023 Arena México [AS, Estrellas del Ring, FDDE, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b Difunto, Furia Roja, Zandokan Jr. 
16:49
2) Reina Isis b Lluvia [MEX WOMEN, final] 
10:47. Reina Isis regains the vacant title (Silueta injury/Japan trip).
3) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. [CMLL TAG]
14:17. Tenth defense for Chavez, winning via double pin.
4) Akuma & Dark Magic b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa [hair]
18:38. Dark Magic eliminated Rey Cometa, Espiritu Negro beat Akuma, leaving the old teammates Akuma and Espriitu. Akuma cleanly won with a valagueza.
5) Máscara Dorada 2.0, Metalik, Titán b Cavernario, Templario, Virus
10:22. Metalik (ex-Mascara Dorada)’s return to CMLL after his WWE/US time.
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Octagón b Averno, Fuerza Guerrera, Último Guerrero
10:22. Straight falls. Atlantis 40th Anniversary celebration; he failed at getting Guerrero up in the Atlantida for the finish. Averno and UG had issues right before the finish, then punched each other after the match. Both demanded a hair match at the Anniversary, though clear they didn’t want to do a multimatch (as Volador stated on Tuesday)
CMLL finally adding VOD to their streaming offerings paid off for me within two weeks. I was actually busy interacting with people in real life on Friday, but my plan was to do what I normally do, use OBS software to capture the show and watch it later. That failed on Friday because some violent storms took out my power. There’s no way I would’ve seen most of this show under the TicketmasterLive scheme, and I would’ve gotten no refund. With neerme, I was able to see the entire show the next day. I can’t believe I need to explain why VOD is better for the customer but I thought I might as well.
This was a really good show to see everything too. Most of the matches on this show were good or better and that’s a winning CMLL formula. The big knock on the 06/30 FantasticaMania show (and the lesser 07/07 show) was a few matches getting cut short because CMLL was set on getting the whole event in a short time window. CMLL apparently didn’t have that concern this time, and everything went pretty much as long as it needed to be. I would’ve added a couple more minutes to the semimain if possible, but it’s nitpick stuff, and we’re going to get plenty of those guys next Friday.
The hair match was amazing in how it was laid out to work around Dark Magic as much as possible. It was most apparent in a few minute stretch where Akuma fought both Atrpasuenos himself while Magic stood on the apron not participating, but that’s also the general gist of the match. Akuma literally wrestled for a man in a half, dominating the action and keeping up with both opponents, so his partner didn’t have to be trusted. Dark Magic did a few things, and had to obviously be moved around by Rey Cometa and Akuma at times, but the kayfabe and real story both was Akuma carrying the match for his team. He pulled it off and became the star of the match. The Atrapsuenos were good but this was clearly the greatest performance of Akuma’s career, and something that should earn him a lot more chances – like put him with Hechicero in a new trio and go.
Mascara Dorada 2.0 was trying to be so spectacular that he was barely pulling off moves, but he was pulling them off. Metalik appears to have watched Dorada 2,0, watched Titan and decided mid-match he’s a chop/pose guy now. Seriously, if he’s not going to do the flying he did before, some sort of pivot is needed. And he’s not going to be the flyer he was before doing a springboard elbow drop.
Chavez & Guerreros was a traditional CMLL title match, with a long bit of move turn taking that doesn’t always work for me. It was probably better being that, because it felt different than other big tag match, but it wasn’t a high-end match for me.
Mas Lucha called the Zandokan, Difunto and Furia Roja trio “El Triángulo.” I’m uncertain if that’s an official name, though it’s a good one – Loco Zandokan, Kahoz and Cuchillo were El Triangulo de la Muerte, and Difunto isn’t that far off from Kahoz. That full name seems taken but they can use something close.
The women’s match was disappointing, just didn’t feel like a great effort.
Attendance looked about as strong as the FantasticaMania show. CMLL takes really great photos of a full crowd, though they’re always from the part of the building where tickets could’ve been sold and weren’t. (I will never feel confident that we know the current maximum capacity of Arena Mexico and that we’re estimating attendance correctly.)
CMLL (SAT) 07/15/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Inquisidor, Nitro, Raider b Diamond, Flyer, Oro Jr.
3) El Audaz b El Coyote [lightning]
4) Dark Silueta, Hera, Olympia b La Magnifica, La Vaquerita, Sanely
5) Kráneo, Magnus, Rugido b Pegasso, Stigma, Volcano
6) Metalik, Soberano Jr., Titán b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Nothing notable here.
CMLL (SUN) 07/16/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Grako & Príncipe Odín Jr. b Bengala & Retro
Principe Odin’s first match here since early March.
2) Último Dragóncito b Angelito [lightning]
3) Ángel Rebelde, Brillante Jr., Futuro b Astral, Neón, Valiente Jr.
4) Okumura & Pólvora b Cancerbero & Luciferno
5) Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring, Valiente DQ Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Rey Bucanero
straight falls, Gemelos taking Valiente’s mask in the second fall.
6) Máscara Dorada 2.0, Metalik, Místico b Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Mephisto
Metalik is winning every match. That’s how they usually book the foreigners. CMLL does less random mask pulls than they used to but I’m not entirely sure where Gemelos/Valiente is going.
CMLL already announced the Monday/Tuesday lineups, but they’re both streaming so I might as well put them here as a reminder.
CMLL (MON) 07/17/2023 Arena Puebla
***Arena Puebla 70th Anniversary***
1) Asturiano, Prayer, Xelhua vs Futuro, Neón, Vegas
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Hera & Olympia
3) Rey Samuray vs Perverso [CMLL BARROCO]
new championship
4) Magia Blanca © vs Pegasso [MEX WELTER]
3rd defense
5) Máscara Dorada 2.0, Metalik, Stigma vs Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black
6) Atlantis, Octagón, Templario vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
CMLL says they’ll stream this live on YouTube for subscribers. It’s been three years since a live stream from Arena Puebla. The start time has moved up and hour but daylight savings time has moved it back an hour.
New York: 10 pm
Chicago: 9 pm
Puebla/Mexico City: 8 pm
Los Angeles: 7 pm
London: 3 AM Tuesday
Tokyo: 11 AM Tuesday
The quality of the title matches is more interesting than the outcome. (Magia Blanca is likely to retain, it really doesn’t matter which guy wins the new title.) Fifth match has a lot of champions and might spill into something for next week.
Arena Puebla held a press event Monday morning to promote this show. That show is going to have as big a crowd as they can fit in that building.
CMLL (TUE) 07/18/2023 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel & Periquito Sacaryas
2) Astral, Leono, Oro Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. vs Difunto, Sangre Imperial, Zandokan Jr.
4) Blue Panther Jr. & Dark Panther vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.
5) Último Guerrero vs Averno [lightning]
6) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
This main event is the four people who challenges for Aniversario. There didn’t seem to be any reason for Ultimo Guerrero and Averno last week, and now there will be. Match 4 is Villnao III Jr.’s CMLL debut. Match 3 is Sangre Imperial’s rudo debut. I still think the CMLL YouTube subscription plan is an overcharge, but this is far bigger than a usual Tuesday show.
CMLL (FRI) 07/21/2023 Arena México
1) Angelito & Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal & Minos
2) Capitán Suicida, Halcón Suriano Jr., Valiente Jr. vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
3) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Sanely vs La Catalina, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
4) Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
5) Místico vs Rocky Romero, Metalik, Volador Jr., Templario, Titán, Máscara Dorada 2.0, Dragón Rojo Jr. [Leyenda de Plata, semifinal]
The main event is a killer group of names. I would caution that it may be a way to get Templario/Dragon Rojo back going again. The blue sky outcome is Romero versus MD2.0, to march closer to that title match. Whatever’s going on, they’ve given plenty of time with only five mtaches on this card.
I write things are “very funny” or “amusing” so much, HOWERVER if CMLL got Hechicero out of Los Infernales because they needed Averno to have a trio to feud with Los Guerreros it is indeed very funny. I guess the check is if Hechicero keeps feuding with these dudes.
Match 3 is back to The One Women’s Match That Exists on 2023 CMLL Friday shows, but I’m OK with it after the last two weeks of trying to find other matches. Reyna Isis being in for Zeuxis (and still opposite Lluvia) is the one change from normal.
The opener is young guys who will want to do a lot.
Back on Friday, I did caution everyone about the CMLL YouTube channel going forward. CMLL is either not capable or interested in spelling out what they’re fully doing, so you have to read the announcements carefully and notice what they’re not saying. Just as they didn’t specifically say the Coliseo show would air live, they didn’t say anything about that weekly Sunday upload of the Televisa TV show in their list of items that would still be on the channel. Sure enough, that upload appears to be history.
Old: CMLL uploaded 4-5 matches from the 16-day-old Arena Mexico show on Sunday afternoons
Now: CMLL uploads the full 9-day-old Arena Mexico show on Sunday evenings
It’s always possible this is an odd quirk, that CMLL decided FantasticaMania (which normally would’ve gone up this week) was a YouTube exclusive and the 07/07 show will be eventually free like normal. We won’t really know until next week because CMLL won’t address individual questions, but my understanding based on CMLL’s previous information it free stuff is just done outside of that one match a week going up Monday. It’s a disastrous decision. I can see the logic of trying to protect subscription value – it’s not as valuable to subscribe if most of the show is going up for free a week later anyway – but that’s why the subscription plan being Tuesday and Friday shows is not viable. CMLL is not going to bring in new viewers and new ticket buyers without a strong free offering, and highlights and one match a week is not strong enough. I think CMLL is absolutely good enough right now to pay for, but the way and options they’ve given to pay for it are not competitive. It’s also a lot of people’s second or third or lower promotion, and they’re just not going to spend on that many wrestling promotions unless you give them a super compelling reason to do it. I expect that the subscription channel is going to struggle to gain members and we’ll see some big changes 3-6 months down the line. Until then, I’m going to see a lot less people talking about CMLL.
AAA
AAA TV (SAT) 07/15/2023 Estadio Chevron, Tijuana, Baja California [AAA, El Imparcial, FDDE, thecubsfan, VOW, WrestlingData, WrestlingInc]
***TripleMania XXXI Tijuana ***
1) La Hiedra b Willie Mack, Mr. Iguana, Jack Cartwheel, Flammer, Myzteziz, Rey Mysterio El Heredero, Puma King, Niño Hamburguesa, Dinámico, Gringo Loco, Laredo Kid, Taurus [Copa TripleMania]
26:11. Laredo & Taurus added on 06/21. Mr. Iguana helped La Hiedra win after he was eliminated by Flammer. Antifaz (Laredo) and Argenis (Myzteziz) both got involved. Rey Mysterio El Heredero was a surprise.
2) Dalys, Lady Shani, Sexy Star b Kamille, Natalia Markova, Viva Van
12:33. Dalys pinned Viva Van. La Hiedra earlier attacked Dalys. The two Tirantes fought once again.
3) Bestia 666, Mecha Wolf, Pagano NC Aramis, Jack Evans, Vampiro Canadiense
14:02. Bestia, Mecha, Pagano and Estrellita Los Nuevos Vatos Locos. Vampiro was in an out of the match with a ‘shoulder’ injury. Arez & Komander an in and attacked Bestia & Mecha, then Taurus and the masked man attacked both Pagano & Vampiro. The masked man revealed himself as Texano, back in AAA with los Mercenarios.
4) Damián 666, Nicho el Millionario, Rey Horus, Xtreme Tiger b Argenis, Chessman, Daga, Negro Casas
9:29. Baja vs Mexico City. Team CDMX was seconded by rapper Acsino, who ended up attacking and unmasking Argenis. Daga taunted Team Baja captain Brandon Moreno before the match, which led to Moreno beating up Daga during the match. Nicho won with a foul on Negro Casas.
5) Qt Marshall b Pentagón Jr. [ambulance]
19:51. Originally Laredo & Penta vs QT & Taurus. Changed to a singles match on June 21st. Both men bled a lot. Marshall won with help from Aaron Solo.
6) Psycho Clown & Sam Adonis DRAW LA Park & Rush [Guerra de Rivalidades, semifinal]
22:38. Both teammates fought each other primarily. Adonis pinned Park and Rush pinned Psycho at the same time for a draw. AAA announced all four would advance to the final next month.
7) Hijo Del Vikingo © b Kenny Omega [AAA MEGA]
19:33. Vikingo beat Omega cleanly with the Cuerno del Vikingo and some of the AAA roster celebrated. Omega and Vikingo shook hands.
The shorter version: this was a TripleMania in name only, most of the show was around building matches to another show, we have no idea when that is for most of that builds, few of the matches were any good.
I was thinking for most of Sunday about what I should put here. I feel like I usually go through all the details I hated on a bad TripleMania, but where does it get any of us? No amount of complaining feels like it’s going to change things at this point. AAA certainly believes all the stuff that I think is awful is great, because they keep on doing it. The show can have ten people interfere in the first five matches and walk away thinking they’re giving people what they want. Sometimes it’s fun to go through the ways a bad show is bad. This one just feels like a toxic disaster I want to get as far away as possible from, not spend time sinking it to it. The bottom line is if you want to see AAA wrestlers in good matches you need to watch them in other promotions, and the good news is many of them are in other promotions having those good matches a lot.
I’ll give you one, actually a really minor thing that’s representative of the whole flawed process. Arez & Komander did not have a match on this show. They instead interfered in the trios match to attack La Rebelion. That was revenge for La Rebelion attacking Arez & Komanader after they won the titles back in Morelia. Maybe that would’ve been effective if it wasn’t already the sixth run-in over the first three matches, making them repetitive and ignorable. Many of those six run-ins were references to one-off incidents that hadn’t been referred to again; the tag title match aired a month ago and none of those characters had been on TV since then. The run-in itself was nothing special; Arez & Komander have cool moves, but nothing they did stood out. Still, let’s say this was all super effective, fans were more into seeing this tag match when it finally happens. When is the match happening? It’s not happening next Friday in Verano de Escandalo – none of them are booked. (Komander is likely part of the ROH PPV that night.) It doesn’t seem like it’s happening at TripleMania Mexico City either, Mecha Wolf’s taking other bookings on that day. Maybe it’s happening later at Heroes Inmortales, and AAA’s run an angle in May, and an angle in July for a match in October with nothing much in between. It’s hard to believe that anyone’s going to care much about those ‘heat up’ angles when the match is months later, but maybe that’s even too optimistic. Maybe AAA has told Mecha Wolf he can take an outside booking on August 12th and then belatedly tell him they need him after all in their typical disorganization.
Those date conflicts are an underlining reasons why AAA has fallen off so much from 2022 to 2023. So much of the roster has other stuff going on and AAA is their second (or lower priority.) La Rebelion were NWA people before and are going to be NWA people as long as they have those tag titles. Komander is a full time AEW guy working AAA at his leisure, just like Penta. Arez has a ton of indie work and may even make it back on TV someday if AAA & MLW ever let him out of the terrible MLW contract. (They still have not, they both blame each other, and it didn’t sound like either side was that bothered to work out last I heard.) It’s going to be rough for AAA to get those four guys in the same building at the same time in the immediate future. You know when a great time would’ve been to do that tag title match? THIS SHOW. You know what could’ve used one more good/great match? THIS SHOW. AAA instead made it a minor story in a match to get over a tag feud with Pagano & Vampiro versus Taurus & Texano. I think that feud is going to be terrible, but they didn’t even need La Rebelion to set up that match – Arez & Komander’s run-in served as an excuse for them not be there when the angle went down. Another way for La Rebelion not to be involved would’ve been for them just to have some other match, like maybe a tag title challenge. Instead, AAA did the umpteenth build to a match that’s not going to happen any time soon if ever. And on it goes.
Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer reported Don Callis was attacked by fan in a post show press conference. That is not exactly what happened, though it’s reasonable that people in the moment might have believed that happened. Callis confronted Omega at a press conference – held on the field after the show – and Konsuke Takeshita attacked him as a normal pro-wrestling bit. Security smartened up to the situation, pulled Takeshita away. Callis got in a stomp as Takeshita was getting pulled away, a normal bit for a amanger. Another person, described as an ex-security person who hadn’t been smartened up, must’ve seen the one attacker getting taken down and this attacker still going at it, and decided he needed to trip and grab him from behind violently. That sucked for Don Callis and he shouldn’t have been attacked. It was a person misunderstanding the situation, not some crazed Kenny Omega fan. Callis got attacked from behind, he probably had no idea by who, so it’s reasonable for him to assume it was a fan, but it was obviously not the situation once the video came out. AEW taped a bunch of Don Callis/Konsuke Takeshita stuff before the pair officially got together, so it’s someone’s pet idea. They also never aired almost any of it, so it seemed a fairly big waste of everyone’s time. Hopefully they’ll at least use to get something out of Omega getting hurt. The story will be told forever as a Don Callis being such a great and over heel that he got attacked in Tijuana, and no one will care much about the truth of it. This is why most promotions wouldn’t do an angle like this in an uncontrolled environment. AEW did an angle at their press conference last PPV and a media member got hurt by a flying bottle, which should’ve been a learning experience. It was not, they ran another AEW angle in an even less controlled environment because they wanted that reality, and the reality came down on Don Callis.
Callis’s attack was reportedly breathlessly while anything that wasn’t Omega/Vikingo was ignored by most wrestling websites. On one hand, that’s good, this show sucked, better that people don’t know of it. On the other hand, there’s a stereotype that Mexican fans are out of control and the Callis story being the only thing talked about here just reinforces it. This was trusting AAA to correctly handle a situation; you all can’t be this guillible.
The Kenny Omega on this TripleMania was not the Kenny Omega who worked on Forbidden Door. I’m not even arguing AAA should’ve gotten that Kenny Omega, and even a Kenny Omega going less than 100% can provide a pretty good match, but this was definitely a Kenny Omega going less than 100%. It wasn’t a Vikingo going 100% either. I wonder if I would’ve liked Omega/Vikingo 2 if I had watched it fresh without three hour of a show I very much didn’t like; that’s the way I think most English-speaking people saw (and saw it without paying for it) and they seemed significantly high on it. I thought it was good, maybe great, but didn’t feel close to the AEW match. It felt closer to Johnny Caballero/Vikingo match from last year than the AEW one, a strong exhibition for Vikingo’s ability to come back against bigger opponents but not one that felt like one of the best matches of the year. This show needed a match of the year to save it and neither he nor Vikingo had enough to do it this time.
AAA should strongly thank Kenny Omega for all his efforts for them for the last few years, and especially for putting over Vikingo cleanly in the end. AAA convincing Omega to come back again next year will likely sell some extra PPV buys, but it definitely feels like time to move on to something else. AAA struggles, and all Mexican wrestling, refuses to move on when it’s time to move on, so I expect they’ll continue to try to convince Omega to come back and float his name as coming soon to friendly press who won’t pay attention to AAA unless Omega’s name is mentioned.
The Guerra de Rivalides tag match was worked essentially the way the four way in Mexico City will be worked. It will be the same match with a slightly different finish, I’d assume. It’ll work better that time, because the format was nonsense here. The first half of the match was the partners fighting each other instead of their opponents, and the last third of the match was each person desperately trying to win a match they had long talked about wanting to lose. One of the funniest moments on the show was Sam Adonis and Rush making the final pinfall covers, then both talking and getting up quickly because they realized they had covered the wrong man. – no one understood what was supposed to be going on. It was good and bloody and still didn’t rise to the level of the best of LA Park brawls or even the best of Psycho Clown brawls; there was some drama missing.
It’s worth noting AAA again left the English announcers out to dry on the TripleMania four-way announcement. That was the most important piece of information those announcers needed to get across, and they were left scrambling on Twitter to find my explanation of what was going on. I also DM-ed it to Larry Dallas without being asked, doing a job someone who is paid by AAA or FITE should’ve done, because I felt bad for them being so lost.
Pentagon Jr. and QT Marshall was a revelation only if you had such a low opinion of QT Marshall that you were blown away by him doing the exact hardcore match that happens on every one of these TripleManias. He beld a lot; a lot of bleed a lot. (Including the people in the next match; putting this match and the Guerra de Rivalades match back to back was terrible planning.) Marshall got to do the thumbtacks spot that happens on every time. It was a far different presentation of Marshall than in AEW, and he’ll use it forever to show people what he’s capable of if given a real chance. I don’t know that it helped AAA any. Marshall & Penta blew their big double table package piledriver spot near the end, but it turned out fine because it was just meant to set up a shocking swerve that Marshall recovered quick enough to put Penta in the ambulance with help from Aaron Solo anyway.
No one knew who Aaron Solo was, Solo was never shown or mentioned in any of the videos leading up to match, AAA could’ve put used anyone on their roster in Solo’s spot, but instead they had to keep continuity for a minor character for a promotion that’s been back on TV in Mexico for two weeks. I like Aaron Solo – I think he’s exactly the sort of AEW guy who would benefit from being a regular AAA character for six months – but I have no earthly idea why AAA spent a dollar on him in this role, and they shouldn’t be allowed to declare themselves too poor to do do a lot of things if they can afford to bring in Aaron Solo to hide in ambulances. (Maybe AEW or QT paid for it themselves? That’s only rational explanation I can come up with.) The ambulance match stipulation added nothing, AAA failed at shooting it until the finish, and the finish itself as a some WWE B PPV that kills the concept as an idea on the very first match. That was straight garbage. AAA’s obsession with getting heat by doing screwjobs and interference killed this show, and QT would’ve still gotten plenty of heat if won the match by himself.
The inevitable Marshall/Pentagon rematch should also be fine, and I’d have no problem seeing in a promotion with a large amount of matches per show, but I don’t want to see it at the expense of seeing people regularly on AAA have a match at TripleMania. I don’t need to see Penta either if his involvement is just going to be bloody match with a guy who’s showing up in AEW twice a year; if they could this with QT, why couldn’t they have done it with Arez or someone else who might be working those shows that aren’t drawing in Morelia or Puebla?
The Mexico versus Tijuana match was fine. It was just a vehicle to try to get social media buzz by having Acsino beat up Argenis (who was on his team) and Brandon Moreno beat up Daga. The Moreno bit has gotten a lot more attention of the two. You probably don’t need two celebrities beating up your wrestlers on the same show but who cares at this point. That match itself was fine, which meant it was better than most of this card.
There was no finish in the Pagano/Vampiro trios match. In trying to reconstruct it later, I thought maybe the referee screwed up when La Rebelion gave Aramis their big move and that was supposed to be the finish. I watched it back, and that’s not the case, the match is still clearly going as intended at that point. I wouldn’t have wasted Aramis kicking out of his finish when four more people were going to run in; no one remembered it even happened. It was another case of AAA trying to do too much, trying to help everyone by giving Aramis a moment, but they’re doing so much of that none of it means anything and most of it just washes past you. The match may not have gone as intended at other points; Vampiro sold a serious shoulder injury that medical personal checked and treated like was nothing. (Vampiro later posted a video of him getting his shoulder wrapped while saying he would still wrestle in Aguascalientes.) I have no idea if it was terrible medical treatment or Vampiro being a weirdo, but I guess we can all look forward to what serious injury he gets in the next match because it’s not like AAA is ever going to stop booking him. Doing a non-finish in that trios match when they were going to come back and do a non-finish in the Guerra de Rivalades match was absurd.
I about lost my mind when Mecha Wolf’s band showed up, because I didn’t realize it was Mecha Wolf’s band, and I thought AAA was going to open with twenty minutes of intros, two nothing matches that lasted over an hour, and then a musical performance. It was just an intro song. It was fine, but, if you live in a country that gets AAA on HBO Max or Space, you should never actually bother to buy the show in FITE. The part you miss is not any good.
The women’s match, the one that seemed a weird inclusion, appears to have been a business deal. American Icon Autographs was doing a photo shoot that weekend as they’ve done around some previous AAA Tijuana shows. Names like Kamille and Markova were probably on TripleMania as part of an intercompany deal. The son of American Icon is the blond boy who came out with Vikingo in the main event and has been on other shows.
Konnan, on his podcast, said he feels they’ve improved the Copa Triplemanias but they’re still not good and no one likes working them. He sounded like a guy who would not book them if he had his choice. I hope whoever is actually empowered to make that decision does so before Tuesday’s press conference. This was booked like a joke because it was one, lots of nothing leading to an Iguana and Hiedra celebration. It was amusing to me that this match was seemingly booked just to get wrestlers in the building, the idea of the post-match main event was to get as many AAA wrestlers out there to help celebrate Hijo del Vikingo to feel like a big deal, and most of the guys in the Copa TripleMania appeared to be long gone by the time the Vikingo celebration took place. They did their work, they got their money, and they got out of there to have a lot better time than they would sticking around for this show.
WrestleTix reports 15,386 Tickets Distributed, which I presume is an AAA-provided number, since they don’t track attendance the same way leading up to a show for Mexican events. I wish they would note when the number comes from the promotion and not their own (really good) work but so it goes. The Tijuana crowd looked terrible during the opening ceremony but filled in greatly front what we could see as the show went on, which is why you can’t ever tell a Mexican attendance by the opening footage.
AAA hasn’t announced it – why they promote things they’re doing ahead of time – but there’s a press conference Tuesday to talk about Arnea Ciudad de Mexico. We’d normally just get the main events in a first press conference. This isn’t normal, the next TripleMania is less than a month away, so we might get the full card. Nothing’s officially on that show except the four-way match. There were a lot of angles on TripleMania, but all of the running-in-place variety. I think fans expect that some of those teased matches are finally going to happen on TripleMania, but AAA didn’t promise any of them would happen.
It does seem like an AAA’s priority is to clean up their mess of championships. The Omega/Vikingo resolved that Mega championship situation. A version of NGD will finally defend the trios titles Friday in Aguascalientes, which have been in limbo due to Cuatrero’s domestic violence investigation. As of Monday morning, AAA starting moving on the Latin American and Cruiserweight situation. Fenix published a video on Instagram, later reposted by AAA, announcing he was vacating both championships, explaining he’s busy wrestling internationally and wants to give other wrestlers a chance. (He named Arez, Komander and Latigo.) Fenix said this was goodbye for now for him and AAA, though suggested he’d be back someday. This video coming out Monday seems to tied to that press conference on Tuesday; AAA will fill one or both of those titles at TripleMania Mexico City.
AAA had Fenix win both titles in a five way match in TripleMania Tijuana. He never defended those titles. It was the sort of troubled AAA booking they’re known for in this area. Fenix winning the belts meant Laredo Kid’s long and slightly cool Crusierweight title reign ended without him being pinned or even much caring about it, diminishing the value of it. The concept was to build interest in Fenix versus Vikingo by Fenix winning titles before hand, but Fenix versus Vikingo sold itself without title belts. AAA also believed Fenix would start bringing those belts out on Dynamite, giving AAA the US attention they desperately crave over all else. Fenix didn’t bother with that and AEW seems much less interested in having random title belts on screen. AAA could’ve had the Fenix/Vikingo match be for all the belts to take care of the situation, but they believed they could get Fenix to come back to lose the other titles at some point. They were wrong; Fenix didn’t make a title defense in December and had ROH commitments that kept him out of Verano de Escandalo. It’s also possible Fenix can’t travel to the US right now due to immigration issues; he was off the entire AEW swing through Canada. (Some sites have him working a ROH match in Toronto, but that was in Chicago, I was there.) The positive situation is this is AAA taking the loss and moving on.
AAA should learn not to put titles on people who may not be available for their big shows, but AAA put the tag titles on Arez & AEW’s Komandner so they haven’t learned anything. Maybe they can prevent these problems by not having so many titles to screw up. AAA should absolutely get rid of one of those titles; probably the cruiserweight one because weight divisions don’t make sense in AAA where most of the wrestlers are cruiserweight. Tthey should get rid of both because AAA isn’t doing much with titles anyway, they’re not treated as meaningful parts of the show, and they only serve to get their fans angry at them when those title aren’t treated well. I expect instead for AAA to pick six to ten random people in a scramble for TripleMania, and the focus to be on those feuds that aren’t going anywhere than deciding a new champion that’ll mean something.
Fenix and Cuatrero giving up their titles leaves Taya and the Reina de Reinas championship as the most obvious messed up title situation. Taya last defended the Reina de Reinas championship on last year’s TripleMania Ciudad de Mexico. Taya did defend it in a Tijuana show in February, but very few of the fans would’ve known about it – she’s just another person who’s ghosted on AAA’s fans. Either a Taya video giving up her title should pop up in the next day, or Taya should be announced as defending the title on TripleMania.
AAA will also eventually go through this issue with Hijo del Vikingo. They’re not ready for it.
(The AAA Mixed Tag team titles are nearly as bad; Abismo and Flammer haven’t defended them since winning in December. They’re around all the time, Negro Casas and Dalys ask for a title match every time, and yet they’re feeding with La Hiedra and Nicho for some reason. I’m sure AAA intends to give the Casas those titles at some point, but they’re always putting it off for another day, finding reasons not to do it that day, and annoying their most supportive fans in the process. )
I presume Texano is meant to be Daga & Taurus’ partner in the semi-main in Aguascalientes.
LuchaTalk has a recap of TripleMania and the Altantis Anniversary show.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 07/16/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha, Zona Ruda]
1) Fussion & Gannicus b Águila Roja & Kenji
2) León Dorado & Mr. Leo b Leo & Mike and Noisy Boy & Spider Fly
Leon Dorado has a scare of an injury but was fine.
3) Black Dragón (2000s), Bombero Infernal, Oficial AK47 b Mega, Puma de Oro, Revolucionario
this appeared to be the 2000s Black Dragón, not the more recent one. Revolucionario unmasked mid match.
4) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. b Dr. Cerebro & Dr. Cerebro Jr.
rematch challenges followed
5) Capo Mayor & Hijo de Canis Lupus b Máscara Sagrada Jr. & Rayman
6) Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool b Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. and Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
IWRG says a man named Ivan Rockov (?) interfered.
7) Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Penta 0M b Rey Espectro, Taurus (Indie), Tonalli
I was really surprised to see the original Black Dragon here. He’s quite a bit heavier than he was two decades ago but that’s the case for most of us. Revolucion unmasked during his match – and I had no idea who it was. I’m a real fake lucha libre fan. Penta put over Tonalli after the man event.