Tag: AAA Video Game

Last day

* Doctor Wagner Junior is the cover luchador for AAA Heroes en el Ring, pinning Fake Silver King in what turned out to be a four way with Elegido & La Parka Jr. I’m sure he won’t let this win go to his head. Slang hasn’t posted the cover yet, but I’m sure we’ll see in rather soon. I’m still surprised a wrestler more representative of the history of AAA like La Parka didn’t win (not to mention the people who would just assume it was the WCW guy and be more interested.) Wagner is still a fine pick. He’s an archetypal luchador, the sort of guy who’d be pictured next to “luchador” in a dictionary, if they still had dictionaries with pictures in them.

Wagner’s new feud with Vampiro makes a lot of sense now. Being on the cover of the AAA video game is clearly going to be a bad omen, like the Madden Curse.

Based on who was in Las Vegas and would fit the gear, I’m guessing Fake Silver King was Psycho Clown.

* Thunderbolt Games preview

I’m not so crazy about what I played of the game, either. It felt like a sub-par wrestling game with a lot of enthusiasm and style, but nothing about the in-game action really set it apart. At the very least, Héroes del Ring offers up something unique, and its emphasis on the culture behind the sport is what really makes it stand out.

There will more previews/reviews as we get closer to the release.

* The game was part of a Konami showcase. AAA’s hype included La Parka, Elegido and Silver King doing a weigh in (?), then being interrupted by a promo on tape from Dr. Wagner, then getting into a random slap fight. This was all completely inexplicable to the people watching.

Sure looks like they had someone else in Silver King’s gear.

Today’s the day they’re doing the match for the cover. Wagner so definitely declared he would win in his promo, Parka seems the favorite again. Then again, the only guy who can promise a win as a rudo and actually get the win is Wagner.

* Hands on from CrunchGear

walking in to the game this morning I though, “Meh, hopefully it’s halfway decent.” I’m pretty sure I can say it’s quite a bit better than “halfway decent.” It’s fairly arcadey (as in a single big punch can send one guy over the ropes), but then again lucha libre itself is pretty arcadey, too.

* Operation Sports

I’m a big fan of wrestling and wrestling games, but I am not crazy about Lucha Libre at this point. I say that because the controls felt a little stiff, there seemed to be a lack of moves, and the wrestlers looked a little robotic when moving around the ring. For those who played TNA Impact, Lucha Libre seems to be falling into a lot of those same traps.

* Dave Meltzer stopped by the show (in LA for a MMA show, of course) and said the matches were real good, calling the minis match he saw *** 1/2 stars. Crowd likes the Psycho Circus; it’s the right audience for that crew. Konnan and Moody Jack were calling matches, which means they were in SLP at the taping last night. Dorian posted on Twitter that he and Wagner got into LA this morning.

* Rob says it’s Mascarita Divina in a Mascarita Sagrada suit. Sounds about right.

1UP says AAA’s video game will not have tag matches. That’s not a good sign for a promotion built on tag matches. Max is four wrestlers in the ring at once.

On the other hand, 1UP’s podcast talks about playing the game and seems pretty charmed by it, even while noting some gameplay issues. What you really want to listen for is the Elegido wackiness. AAA talk starts about 5:55.

During the podcast, there’s a mention of El Brazo being in the game. I would not have guessed that, but he’s added to the list.

For even more Elegido (though mostly just sitting in a chair), he makes an appearance at about 3:55 mark of Gamespot’s the Spot show. This is one of those times La Parka Jr. is mistaken to be LA Park.

Gamespot has Eledigo vs Parka game play video, which seems to give a good feel about how the game will play. They’ve also got video of the entrances; they’re not using the music they use on TV, which isn’t a big surprise.

last updated 04/15

IGN says 31. Let’s count ’em off:

Spotted previously
01) La Parka Jr.
02) Electroshock
03) Konnan
04) Mesias
05) Cibernetico
06) Octagon
07) Psycho Clown
08) Elegido
09) Charly Manson – still there!
10) Abismo Negro
11) Gronda
12) Ozz
13) Chessman
14) Super Fly
15) Psicosis – was II! maybe now III?
16) Cuervo
17) Zorro
18) Vampiro

Spotted in this recent batch of video
19) Extreme Tiger
20) Monster Clown
21) Kenzo Suzuki
22) Dr. Wagner Jr.
23) Silver King
24) Murder Clown
25) Alan Stone – quick shot of him in the new trailer in a three way with Electro & Charly
26) Escoria – he’s the guy Elegido is picking up for an Atlantida. You can see his facepaint briefly, and he’s wearing his corset gear
27) Jack Evans – see late Friday note.
28) El Brazo – via 1UP
29) ?
30) ?
31) mystery guy in red

5 spots left, with 20 possibilities: Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, Joe Lider, Nicho el Millionario, Laredo Kid, Aerostar, Alebrije, Crazy Boy, Pimpinela, Espiritu, Latin Lover, Histeria, Ultimo Gladiador, Black Abyss, Chris Stone, El Brazo, Decnnis, Billy Boy, Marco Corleone, and Oriental. Many of those guys are not still around, but this roster was finalized a while back and they haven’t taken out anyone who’s since left.

My guess is Jack, Teddy, Lider, Nicho and Crazy Boy. That last one is a bit of a reach because Marco or Latin would be a bigger deal, but Crazy would be so sad if he wasn’t in this game. I also can’t shake the feeling that we would’ve seen Jack & Teddy already if they were actually in this game, but I have no actual facts to base it on. If it were up to me, I’d make Kahoz or Espectro de Ultratumba a hidden boss of some sort, but I would be surprised to see it.

It may not even be 6 spots, though. There’s a guy shown briefly, in a red one strapped singlet, wearing red boots with a lightning bolt on them. He’s got Gronda’s colors and Silver King’s body, but doesn’t appear to be either of them.

The most recent WWE games have included extra downloadable wrestlers for a fee. No idea if this game will get that sort of support.

Safe to assume that women or mini would’ve been spotted by now if they were going to be in this game. Disappointing, but not altogether surprising. That’s for the next version.

Edit late Friday: I’ve been told Jack Evans was in the game by those playing it at the Acclaim show. I’ve also read X-Pac mentioned by a commenter in the game, though I don’t trust anonymous commenters enough to count him as confirmed. X-Pac in this game would be bizarre to anyone not familiar with 2008-2009 AAA. Heck, I watched 2009 AAA and it still seems bizarre.

Edit: I forgot to take Escoria out from up in that paragraph.

IWRG (THU) 10/22 Arena Naucalpan [EdR]
1) Comando Negro b Halcon 2000
2) Exodia b La Rata
3) El Hijo del Diablo & Gringo Loco b Pendulo & Star Boy
4) Black Terry, Pirata Morgan, Tóxico b Brazo de Plata, Chico Che, Suicida
5) Flor Metalica b Atsuko Emoto [hair]

Flor Metalica was bloody and repeatedly attacked 3 on 1 (with Bushi helping distract), but Kimura accidently hit Emoto in the third fall, leading to Flor Metalica winning via superplex. Flor Metalica proved herself better at fighting off the Japanese threat than both Black Warrior & Toscano combined.

Though the semimain was about building up a Black Terry/Chico Che hair match, the finish was Pirata fouling Porky and getting away with it. Porky appears to be an independent, as he said in Guadalajara.

Outside of his help in the main event, Bushi is a tecnico – he’s also hurt, so Star Boy replaced him here. Gringo Loco, who found himself a Love Machine mask to match his gear, actually picked up a win here. The tecnicos immediately demanded a rematch.

La Rata is bringing a (cage) rat with him to the ring.

AAA (WED) 10/21 Salon West, Celaya, Guanajuato [el Sol de Bajio]
1) Mascarita Sagrada 2007 & Octagoncito b Mascarita de la Muerte & Mini Abismo Negro
2) Estrellita, Gran Apache, May Flowers b Billy Boy, Polvo de Esterllas, Tiffany
3) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown b Alan Stone, Crazy Boy, Extreme Tiger
4) La Parka Jr. & Marco Corleone b Kenzo Suzuki & Silver King

This is just your normal AAA spot show (though well attended judging from the picture.) However, two notes:
– Clowns say they’re at 486
– semimain recap says “Tiratnes” was the referee. Did they get the father/son confused?

Previews of tonight’s Arena Mexico shows
– Luchando Libre
– OEM: “after several weeks of confrontations” between Volador and Averno “finally agreed to a title match”. Several weeks = 2?
– Notimex
– ESTO
– Televisa Deportes writes more about a 13 year old race car driver who will be at the show. The 13 year old won a 24 hour race. I know they switch off drivers in those competitions, so it’s not like he’s driving the whole time, but that still seems many layers of insane.

Anyway, the wrestling. Tonight’s a night of (virtual) rematches from last week’s hair match show. Warrior and Yujiro slip into a trios (and possible set up for No Limit’s next opponents), Averno vs Volador is three falls this time, the semimain is now the main, and Poder Mexica face Fantastma/Valiente/Mascara (instead of Stuka this week) in a near rematch. With that tecnico trio switching a close to the current CMLL trios champs, perhaps they’re headed to a solution to the national trios titles limbo status – Poder Mexica attempts to win the world titles and vacate the Mexican ones? Dunno.

Last week’s show seemed to do surprisingly well attendance. I don’t think this one will – a title match isn’t exactly a hair match – but you can see why they would be content enough to dwell on things for another week.

Also, the Lucha Libre Premier tapings previews
– LuchandoLibre
– ESTO – bringing the point leader update:

11 Jack Evans
09 Elegido
07 Marco Corleone
06 Dr. Wagner Jr.
(Sexi Star is mentioned as -1. No else is mentioned.)

Now, this was the point totals last they told us:

9 Rain
9 Jack Evans (and has since added 2 points for best spot on show, so 11)
9 Mesias
9 Elegido
9 Marco Corleone (*think* he since got 1 bonus point, so 10)
9 Dr. Wagner Jr.
6 Octagoncito
6 Sexi Star
6 Rocky Romero
6 Pimpinela Escarlata
3 Mari Apache
3 Zorro
3 Mascarita Divina
1 Sugi (includes his bonus point)

Please note, these points are not something I did myself (and somehow screwed up on), this is what AAA’s website said. This is not a big surprise; Alan noticed Sexi Star bizarrely had a -1 for a match where Fabi actually got DQed, so the points they’re using on the actual TV show seem to divert with what we’ve been given. It’d be nice if, before or after this taping, someone on AAA’s side explain what is going on for the points (and why we should care), but what appears to be happening is typical: they had an idea, it had questionable merit, they only sort of followed thru, it doesn’t really make sense.

Anyway, it’s also worth noting 20 points by December is the mark to make the final, and it’s going to be really tough to get there if they’re done to one taping a month. Either they’ll be taping again real soon, December is no longer the end, or the 20 point thing will be ignored. (Bet on the last option.)

Today starts a big 3 day electronics game expo in Mexico, and it’s logical there would be a presentation for the AAA game. Sure enough, there’s a press release out today saying Konnan & Elegido will be presenting a XBOX 360 demo of the game tomorrow afternoon. The important news is buried in the last line, where it says they’re planning for a 1st half of 2010 release. Earlier, it had been said to be for this Christmas. When it got to late October, about a month before the game should be coming out, and nothing had been said about the game in a long time, it’s no surprise it’s being pushed back. I’m just pleased to find out it still exists!

There will probably be more about AAA’s game this weekend, but…
– that they have an 360 demo makes me wonder a bit about the PS3 version (porting from 360 to PS3 has been difficult for video game producers)
– there’s a new English language website for the game: http://www.heroesdelring.com/, with not a lot of new content besides badly translated English. The trailer is the old trailer, and the six wrestlers profiled are ones we already knew where in (including Charly Manson! Maybe he’ll be back before this game is out!) There’s spots on the wrestler profile page for 16 profiles of wrestlers. I hope that’s just a website thing. I really really hope that’s just a website thing.
– CNN Expansion writes about the game in terms of the start up Mexican video game industry. The accompanying pictures appear to be of the DS version and/or the year 1996. I can only identify the second as La Parka because I can see the health meter. Is there guy on top Zorro? Who else has a full head of hair and beard (and no facepaint?) Hope it plays real well. The Dr. Death Steve Williams guess is as good as any – make him an boss character, with everyone going for revenge for that pinata match.

Shocker explains Strong Man was nervous early on, so if you didn’t observer great technique then, he’ll have it soon. Meanwhile, Strong Man has been giving everyone diet and exercise tips. Great. Shocker says his group is now Guapos International and he’s working at new members, but he doesn’t want to say them until it’s confirmed. (Everyone assumes this to mean Val Venis.)

Terrible talks about this weekend’s trip to France.

There’s a post on SML about this Zorro not being the first Zorro (maybe that the Promo Azteca Zorro was different? – or maybe there was just a different one in Monterrey?) that I don’t quite follow.

Ohtani’s Jacket looks back at Mascara Ano 2000 vs Perro Aguayo.

LuchaWorld has the new Slammin’ Stan 16, where it doesn’t appear I owe money (yet), and KrisZ’s Lucha Junket..

The Argentina basketball federation made a surprise visit to Giant Gonzalez, bringing him a new fridge, clothes, a TV, a copy of a movie he was in, and food. Gonzales – noticeably not standing in the pictures – says he hopes to return the favor by coming to a game next Sunday.

CMLL (TUE) 11/17 Arena Xalapa
1) Crazy Man & Gore vs Caballero NEgro Jr. & Rey Tiburón
2) Dr. X, Jason la Máquina, Skándalo vs Caballero Ninja, Eslabón Perdido, Rey Pantera
3) Loco Max & Virus vs Ángel de Oro & Ángel de Plata
4) Lady Apache, Lluvia, Luna Mágica vs Amapola, La Nazi, Princesa Sujei
5) La Sombra, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Ephesto, Mephisto

Notable only that this seems to indicate a planned return date for Luna Magica. Hope the custody situation resolved well.