AAA World Heavyweight Tournament, so far

As best I can figure, culled from results and Chui’s comments about what’s aired on TV, this is where we are:

(dates listed are taping dates)
FIRST ROUND
08/16: Charly Manson b Kenzo Suzuki
08/16: Cibernetico b Mr. Niebla
***** Cibernetico REMOVED from tournament for losing IWC Heavyweight Title to Mesias *****
08/19: Mesias b La Parka Jr.
08/19: Chessman b Zorro

SECOND ROUND
09/09: Charly Manson vs X-Pac (replacing Cibernetico)
09/13: Chessman vs Mesias

FINAL
09/16: Verano de Escandalo – Guadalajara (Mesias vs Charly?)

Can’t ever make it easy, huh. Please just do a cibernetico for the next one.

08/19 AAA TV Lineup (Salamanca)

Previous: 07/27 (Cd. Madero), 08/03 (Queretaro), 08/16 (Toluca – lineup)

AAA TV (SUN) 08/19 Salamanca, Guanajuato
1) Aero Star, Pegasso, Rey Cometa vs Angel Mortal, Gallego, Mr. Condor
2) Fabi Apache & Gran Apache vs Ayako Hamada & Kenzo Suzuki and Kaoru Ito & Mr. Niebla
3) Alebrije, Intocable, Super Fly, Xtreme Tiger vs Alan Stone, Scorpio Jr., Super Calo, Zumbido
4) El Mesias vs ? [1st, AAA HEAVY, torneo]
5) Chessman vs Zorro [1st, AAA HEAVY, torneo]
6) Charly Manson & Cibernetico vs Cuervo & Ozz

Air Date
Mex: 09/01
US: 09/22

So, that’s 8. Very odd that they’d do the Chessman vs Zorro matchup. If we’re supposed to treat these as brackets, and there’s no certainty that we are, I guess we’d get next round match ups of Kenzo vs Cibernetico (AAAAH!!!!) and Mesias vs Chessman. You’d think there would be someone decent in the ? spot, but no way Mesias is losing here so I don’t know. This does remind me that Laredo Kid can’t be in this tournament by any definition, because he’ll be in Japan by this point.

ZAP is going to debut as a random second for Ayako, and then randomly fighting her on the next taping? Sounds about right.

Because of the two singles matches, this card seems really light on wrestlers. Don’t you sorta expect another match to get tacked on as an opener? Never mind, missed the opener.

08/16 AAA TV Lineup (Toluca)

Previous: 07/16 (Leon), 07/27 (Cd. Madero), 08/03 (Queretaro)

AAA TV (THU) 08/16 Gimnasio Agustin Milian [SuperLuchas]
1) Mascarita Divina & Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria
2) Fabi Apache vs Ayako Hamada
3) Alan Stone, Scorpio Jr., Super Calo vs Crazy Boy, Extreme Tiger, Joe Lider
4) Kenzo Suzuki vs Charly Manson [torneo, AAA HEAVY, 1st]
5) Cibernetico vs Mr. Niebla [torneo, AAA HEAVY, 1st]
6) Chessman, Laredo Kid, Zorro vs Cuervo, Mesias, Ozz

Air Date (assuming everything airs)
Mex: 08/26
US: 09/15

That main event look new! How did that happen? It’s still a Hell Brother vs a Legion guy, but variety never hurt.

I hope there’s more than 4 guys in the tournament, but I never feel like I really know with AAA. I think Mr. Niebla being in this match as well as the last taping means Abismo’s MIA again. I’d bet large sums of cash that Chessman faces Mesias in a first round match. In fact, I ought to guess the other participants while I still can

if 8
– Chessman
– Mesias
– Zorro
– X-Pac (or Ozz if X-Pac’s unavailable)

if 16
– Laredo Kid
– Ron Killings (or Cuervo if unavailable)
– Latin Lover (or Super Porky if unavailable)
– Fuerza Guerrera
– Juventued Guerrera
– Scorpio Jr.
– Octagon
– Gran Apache

You get one member from every group, with a bias towards the guys working the main event. I presume Parka will be out longer than this tournament. After both X-Pac and Killings have appeared to be replaced on shows, I’m not sure totally what their status is. I bet Konnan was hoping to be involved, but obviously that’s not going to work. If Abismo does turn up, maybe he’d take Apache’s spot.

We haven’t actually gotten it confirmed that it’s an elimination tournament…

In the segunda, Alfa is Fabi Apache’s corner, and Kaoru Ito is with Ayako in the random cameo of the week.

Announced Future Tapings
– none! I think they’re done till September after this one, but I dunno.

08/03: main lineups

(the rest of the news is to come)

CMLL (FRI) 08/03 Arena Mexico
1) Shockercito & Tzuki vs Pequeno Violencia & Pierrothito
2) Dark Angel, Diana la Cazadora, Lady Apache vs Amapola, Hiroka, Mima Shimoda
3) Heavy Metal, Sombra, Stuka Jr. vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto
4) Alex Koslov, Dr. Wagner Jr., Volador Jr. vs Atlantis, Sangre Azteca, Ultimo Guerrero
5) Blue Panther, Mistico, Negro Casas vs Hector Garza, Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Lizmark Jr.

Tonight’s big focus is on Perro (and Lizmark)’s return to the ring. Figure Perro gets a win to restart with, probably by cheating Panther since that’s the way things have been going for him. We’re still far enough away from the anniversary where CMLL doesn’t actually need to have a direction, and it’s not like they’ve been doing other major shows in between this year. Anytime Mistico teams with Negro, I wonder if they’re setting up something with the tag titles, but it’s equally likely (read: not very) they could do something with this tecnico trio challenging for the Perro’s CMLL Trios belts. Most likely, they’re just going to try to coast off the momentum of Perro being back in the ring.

The semimain is all about the continuing Wagner vs Ultimo feud. I think that one will have some sort of short term climax, maybe a singles match at some point soon, but I don’t actually know anything.

Ovaciones and NotiMex have the usual previews. ESTO profiles Perro Jr’s return and has a fun interview with Ultimo Guerrero, where he states
– Atlantis warned him about teaming with Dr. Wagner, but Ultimo made the mistake of trusting Dr. Wagner. Now, CMLL’s not big enough for the both of then.
– Ultimo vows to retire before he ever teams with Mistico
– Ultimo says Perro Jr. got the benefit of his father’s name and hasn’t learned a wrestling hold. If Perro’s going to be around, Ultimo wants to get his team another shot at the trios titles.

Meanwhile, AAA’s taping in Queretaro

AAA TV (FRI) 08/03 Auditorio Jose Maria Artega de Queretaro
1) Mascarita Divina & Octagoncito vs Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria
2) Aero Star, Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Super Fly vs Cuervo, Espiritu, Scoria, Toxico AAA
3) Alfa, Apache, Fabi Apache vs Cinthia Moreno, Laredo Kid, Oriental
4) Alan Stone, Super Calo, Zumbido vs Crazy Boy, Extreme Tiger, Joe Lider
5) Elegido, Intocable, Zorro vs Abismo Negro, Antifaz, Histeria
6) Charly Manson, Chessman, Cibernetico vs Kenzo Suzuki, Ozz, X-Pac

(more about this show here)

This is being touted as Intocable’s return. It’s the 5th straight taping with a Hell Brothers vs Foreign Legion themed main event, and 12 out 13 since Rey de Reyes. (The other was AAA Tecnicos vs Foreign Legion.)

AAA always hypes “surprises” for their shows. Usually, I just figure that means “run-ins”, but Ovaciones today revealed AAA plans on creating their own World Heavyweight Championship, and the process for determining the champion would seem to be announced on this show. (For the love of all that’s holy, do not do a league again.) Ovaciones also mentions AAA will downplay or drop other World Title belts that are hanging around.

I am 100% behind this idea, and have been expecting it since Konnan got involved. I’m all for adding titles if it means we’re getting rid of more pointless ones. If I got to make these decisions, I think I’d say

DELETE
– AAA Campeon de Campeones (held by Cibernetico – a previous kinda attempt at this same concept)
– GPCW Super-X Monster Title (held by La Parka Jr. – it can disappear till the next time Juvi runs a show)
– AAA Americas Belt (shows up once a year with Sangre Chicana)
– UWA Light Heavyweight (let it float back to Monterrey, but not on TV unless they’re taping there) and any other UWA belt I can’t think of (Miss Janeth’s Women’s title, if she still has it)
– Any IWC or WWA belt which may or may not still exist. Any belt that I don’t mention below.

PUT ON THE SHELF
– Mexican Heavyweight Championship (Charly Manson; eventually, you can use it as a secondary title, but it confuses the issue when you’re trying to make up a new belt)
– Any Mexican National Championship Octagon or La Parka Jr. holds – the Cruiser belt may be lost in some closet, let’s leave it there. They haven’t done a thing with the Middleweight Title since Octagon won it, that’s perfect. The new AAA Tag belts have supplanted the Mexican ones, which is exactly right. All this needs to be taken a step further – you don’t have to vacant them if the wrestlers insist, but don’t make any references to these belts. It’s a bigger deal for someone to win a championship if they don’t already have two other ones they don’t care about.

KEEP
– AAA Heavyweight
– AAA World Tag (Crazy Boy & Joe Lider – would like to see more with this, but it’s fine enough so far)
– Mexican Atomicos Title (La Secta – though they’ll probably want to upgrade this to World at some point)
– AAA Mascot Tag Titles (Alebrije, Cuije – not wild about these, but they work fine enough)
– AAA Mixed Tag Titles (Oriental, Cinthia – only as long as they’re doing something with them)

That’s five. Five is usually plenty, though the those two special tags make it seem not as much. I’m anticipating that the end result of Mascarita Sagrada 2000 issues with AAA will be him walking off with the National Title and Mini Histeria winning a new AAA Minis Title (though there’s the difficulty of doing two new titles at once.) I wouldn’t be surprised by women’s title or some sort of cruiser/middleweight midrange getting added down the road either.

Wow, I wrote way too much about that, without even spitballing ideas for who’d win the new title. (It’s going to be Mesias vs Cibernetico, obviously.)