There seems to be nothing going on AAA wise, after the fun of the last couple days. They probably should be announcing their next TV taping in the next few days, but haven’t really hinted at. No word about the stips for the Wagner/Mesias match, even though that’s been hinted at since last Sunday. They’ve already really done a cage match, so what could they possibly do for this one?
It’s Friday, so the big story of the day is the Arena Mexico show. You can find the lineup on ESTO and notimex, but it’s not that interesting of a lineup. Following the principle of doing the bare minimum, this show was built around Val Venis’ return, but he’s now replaced by Super Porky in a pretty ordinary match.
The semimain continues the No Limit Villanos/Avernos feud, but that one doesn’t appear to have a sure direction. Got to figure they’ve got something in mind to pay off Mephisto getting laid out so heavily on Tuesday, but it may just be something limited to Tuesday shows and not followed up on here. Some of the previews play up possible matches in the tercera, but – even though I keep forgetting this – they’ve actually already done Sangre/Dragon/Misterioso challenging for the World Trios titles in Arena Mexico, and Poder Mexica can’t quite defend their titles without Black Warrior.
For some of these guys, this may be the last Arena Mexico show they’ll be on for a couple weeks. CMLL posted a note saying the crew headed to France – Sagrado, Fantasma, Valiente, Stuka, Marcela, Dragon Rojo, Sangre, Misterioso, Nitro, Hiroka – are leaving on Thursday. (Which makes hard to follow up on that tercera regardless.) The website for the tour still only lists dates for 3 shows over the 14 day trip, and I can not imagine how the people running this show are planning to make this work. Hope I’m missing something.
The most interesting match of the weekend will take place early Sunday morning. Mistico’s third defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship will take place in Sumo Hall, against previous champion Tiger Mask IV. Checking out NJPW discussion, the expectation leans towards Tiger Mask IV getting the belt back, mostly out of disillusionment with how TM4 has worked this year (boring, far less interesting than the other juniors in the promotion) and how the promotion has pushed him (very strong.) No one wants to see TM4 as champion again, but NJPW seems stuck on him.
I think it’s 80/20 Mistico keeps the title. Too much effort has been put into building Mistico as a special attract that losing in his first defense in Japan would be vastly counter productive. There’s a definite possibility Tiger Mask 4 gets some sort of face saving incident during the match, just to keep the issue going, but with Mistico most likely working 3 shows for Japan in the next two months (both nights of the Super J and the Dome), there’s no reason to blow his winning streak here. There are a lot better possibilities for that first loss with the Super J coming up. Some scenario where Mistico loses in his second or third match of the final night, setting up an obvious challenger for 01/04, would be a lot more productive.
The other notable title match of the weekend is Mascara Dorada’s Super Light title defense in Guadalajara. Should be a win for Dorada in front of the home crowd.
Estrella del Ring has results from last night’s IWRG Ruleta de Muerte show. Gringo Loco defeated Chico Che in the final to win Chico’s hair. Chico had won two hair matches in the last four months, so his luck ran out. People from Chicago are really good at losing everything, and then getting a win at the end. There are tournament brackets over at the wiki, and someone should let me know if they look better than the formated text ones.
SuperLuchas has an article on a promotion called Masked Republic, which wants to run shows and sell lucha merchandise primary in the US. Reads as though the promoter has been a contact/agent for luchadors since 2002, so he’s trying to expand it into a bigger organization. The website hypes a 20 show US tour for 2010, with shows taped for DVD and PPV and syndication in 2010, so they’ve got big plans. The website says their online store opens on 12/01, which seems like a good barometer about their actual ability to carry out their plans.
Box Y Lucha has interviews with Angelico (originally trained with Booker T, wants to make it to CMLL), Rey Bucanero (talks about his rehab), Konnan/Cibernetico (same things as always), and Rain & Jennifer (delightfully over the top evil). Also, Villano III talks about pranks and Los Gemelos Diablos.
Cronicas y Leyendas writes about the debut of Mil Mascaras. It’s impossible to consider Mil Mascaras as an young man. There’s also a post on UWA being formed.
Ras de Lona #70 has Sombra & Mascara Dorada traveling thru a haunted house to rescue a princess. Yes, really.
LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update, and the latest Slammin’ Stan.
The 2nd Dragon PPV is this weekend. It was really good stuff, even if I can’t believe they cut out the Danielson/Richards post match angle. Worth checking out, if you can get it.