AAA announced their international trios tournament, now officially known as Lucha Libre World Cup, will take place on Sunday, May 24th at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. Tickets are on sale immediately and run between $185 to $2152 Mexican Pesos ($12 to $139 US).
The press release named the promotions participating. The Ticketmaster site also lists some names of wrestlers appearing. This is what’s known so far:
Mexico 1 (“Dream Team”): Alberto el Patron, Rey Misterio Jr., Myzteziz
Mexico 2 (drawn from AAA’s roster): winner of Fenix/Electroshock/Fantasma, winner of La Parka/Texano Jr./Cibernetico, winner of Psycho Clown/Zorro/Averno
Mexico 3 (“outsiders”): Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., TBA
US 1: a team representing Ring of Honor
US 2: a team representing TNA, including Matt Hardy
Japan 1: a team representing Pro Wrestling NOAH, including Taiji Ishimori
Japan 2: a team representing All Japan Pro Wrestling
Rest of the World: TBA
The Ticketmaster info lists Johnny Mundo as participating, so perhaps he’s on the Rest of the World. The press conference announcing this competition highlights Jack Evans (and Fantasma) as a possible participant, but there’s no obvious spot for him unless one of the US groups is not sending a full trio. I’m surprised there’s no specific Lucha Underground team.
As far as guys not mentioned, Super Crazy seems like he might fit in here – either as an other outside Mexican, or as a NOAH rep. This date is right in the middle of a NOAH tour, but would require missing only one show. It’s a few days after an AJPW tour. It’s the off weekend after the NJPW shows and before another set of events for ROH and doesn’t conflict with TNA’s schedule, so both should have many people available.
There’s always the chance that Victoria will try to force El Hijo del Santo and AAA to work together. I’d bet someone’s brought it up. It’d be hilarious for about five seconds and then just bad.
Assuming TNA runs more shows (seems likely, one never knows), this also might mean AAA wrestlers could show up there in the future. Dave Meltzer had mentioned GFW and TNA were both negotiating with AAA as part of this deal, with GFW wanting to use some of TNA’s wrestlers for their summer tour. That would seem unlikely now.
(If you’re catching this late: AAA and sponsor Victoria asked CMLL and CMLL turned it down. Out of loyalty to CMLL – and to the money NJPW makes on the FantasticaMania tour – NJPW also turned down participating.)
Palacio de los Deportes could seat up to 20,000, but it’s likely to be cut down a bit if they set up a stage. It’ll still be a big number to fill, and a trios tournament featuring international stars the fans may not be familiar with. They’re going to look for familiar to Mexico names to fill this out. Victoria beer will be helping out as well.
There’s a ripple effect on TripleMania: if they get the fans to turn out for this show, will the DF fans want to spend to come back again in three months for TripleMania, especially with AAA obviously lacking a huge TripleMania match now. Or does AAA shoot some big angle on this show specifically to set up that big match and return? I expect TripleMania to be in Mexico City every year until it’s not, but there’s at least a reason why it might not be this year. (Whatever they’re doing, this May 24th show is a hard deadline to decide it so they can announce it.)
There’s still a lot to announce here: the people on the teams, the actual format – presumably single elimination but one shouldn’t assume – and if there’s any other matches on this show. It’s only a month away now, so more info will be coming soon enough.