Trios challenge, AAA taping tonight, lineups

CMLL (TUE) 07/27 Arena Mexico [CMLL, @cmllmagazine]
1) Robin & Trueno b Disturbio & Semental
2) La Seductora, Princesa Sujei, Seuxis b Dalys la Caribeña, Lluvia, Marcela
3) Euforia, Raziel, Shigeo Okumura b Diamante, Pegasso, Rey Cometa
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Sagrado, Strong Man DQ Histeria, Jushin Lyger, Olímpico
5) Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano b La Máscara, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada

Rudos winning the main events sets up a title match for next week.

Lyger fouled Fantasma for a DQ in the semimain.

Okumura replaced Virus.

Cesar has a really great post about How To Buy Tickets At Arena Mexico (and not from the ticket scalpers.) There’s pictures and trips and such, but it appears the important lesson is “go buy it from a music store that has a Ticketmaster hookup in advance, or at least realize there are ten different windows and you don’t have to stand in line for the most visible one.” It does seem like CMLL could use someone(s) standing outside the ticket windows, navigating people to shorter lines so they’re not as tempted to go to resellers.

AAA sent out a bunch of press releases to sites yesterday. The one which seemed to grab the most attention was AAA promising a surprise to help fight back against Legion & Los Perros at tonight’s taping in Toluca. The implication is it’ll be someone jumping sides or debuting in AAA, though my best guess is it’s simply Mesias returning to TV to set up the trios match for Verano de Escandalo.

Other articles include

• Cibernetico teasing forming his own faction to fight the invaders (whatever happened to the Bizarros? Whatever happened to the undefeated team he keeps teaming with?)
• Alex Koslov is not worried about beating Fabi/Aerostar, but wants to keep the titles to say close to Christina.
• Heavy Metal’s match is actually his return after being powerbombed thru a table by Electroshock. It’s tough to know what bits are actually supposed to be injury angles in AAA.
• 187 is going to take out Hernandez and Konnan, blah blah blah. Possibly more relevantly, this press release Chessman’s injury is being attributed to 187 laying him out, just as they did Kenzo Suzuki. Accuracy!

AAA will be covering the taping on their Facebook account, and I’ll have a results post sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Remember the odd Traumas vs Negro Navarro & Paranoiko match, where Paranoiko walked off for reasons which were not particularly explained? Video has turned up that clues us in on an expected explanation. Keep scrolling down in that thread for a great, and similar, incident with the Traumas and the Gemelos. The Dinastia Navarro have a reputation for being, uh, demanding.

In other gossip from the Expo, but without the fun video evidence (so far), the WON reports AAA and Perro Aguayo Jr. are on shaky terms after Perro Jr. “showed up in bad condition and was slurring his words when he did the mic work during the [show ending] angle.” To defend Perro Aguayo Jr., I’ve felt the same way after sitting thru a complete AAA taping. I get commercial breaks, Perro might have indulged in adult beverages or something to cope.

Also, X-Fly challenged Vampiro to a fight.

That sentence needed to stand alone. Halloween & Damian are in AAA no matter whatever else happens, but everything else with the Perros is iffy.

The WON also the actual reasons AAA moved Verano de Escandalo from Monterrey was due to increased protection fees from drug cartels in the area. Every entertainment group has to pay up or risk being messed with (which makes one wonder about that shooting outside Arena Coliseo Monterrey a while back), and there’s not the same level of issues elsewhere.

In news from Dorian Roldan tweets: Rain’s contract with AAA ended over the weekend, and Kenzo Suzuki is only temporarily in AJPW and will be back in AAA.

Mascara Magica will protest his hair loss to the Guadalajara commission, angry they restarted the match when he cheated, but not with the tecnicos did. Metal Blanco says all that matters is they got the win.

The organizers of the Lucha Libre Expo says they’ll be back next year. Attendance was 6,547 for Friday (blamed on rain and “other factors”), 9,365 for Saturday, and 9,486 for Sunday for a total of 25,398.

Fuego en el Ring has the bio stats for Bestia 666, Damian 666’s son who debuted on the last Perros taping.

Super Crazy tells SuperLuchas that he was eventually paid what he as owed from EAW.

R de Rudo has video of Arkangel’s training session from the Expo.

Quitos on Box Y Lucha’s foro has an interview with Puebla’s Asturiano.

Black Silver Jr. & Hijo de Black Silver won the Acapulco Tag Team Championship this past weekend.

Am.com.mx has a story on Morelia luchador Orion. The only local wrestler this site seems to cover is Guerrero Universal, though usually without full lineups or context, and Orion is one of his students who’ve been wrestling in Arena Jalisco.

100% Lucha is running shows today and Sunday, where admission is free with donated canned food. Came close to doing a 100% Lucha recap this week, but probably will be doing the recent CMLL off Fox instead.

Pierko el Boricua was spotted wearing his mask again in Arena Aficion.

Cronicas Y Leyendas looks back at Gigante Baba in Arena Mexico.

Dr. Alfonso Morales is actually a psychiatrist. The more you know…

DJ Spectro looks back at Pavillion Azteca and some thoughts about the merchandise stands.

Kcidis previews the first half of the Universal tournament.

Juvi singing. I’ve told you all you need to know, you’re either in or you’re out.

Lineups

LIMEX (SAT) 07/31 Teatro al Aire Libre Carlos Colrado
1) Aguila & Tristar vs Angel Guardian & Legendario Extremo
2) Aguila Tapada & Impostor Macabro vs Mr. Zebra & Super Pinocho
3) La Parkita & Mascarita vs Calaquita & Espectrito de Ultratumba
4) Super Muñeco, Super Pinocho, Super Raton vs Canek Jr., Coco Amarillo Jr., Coco Blanco

Memorial show for Popitekus.

indy (SUN) 08/01 Arena Azteca Budokan
1) Rey Neza & Skyderman vs Golden Bull & Quinto Elemento
2) Genesis & Mini Oriental vs Dr. Jenkins & Mini Apache
3) La Chola, Rossy Moreno, Tiffany vs Flor Metalica, La Italiana, Vanelly
4) Cocolores, Gran Alebrije, Ultraman vs Histeria II, Monsther, Skándalo
5) Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Huracan Ramriez, Oriental vs Charly Manson, Mr. Águila, Olímpico

Hyped as first unmasked match for Oriental (though we know he already wrestled unmasked in Texas.) First in his home building, I guess. Mostly an Invader show, which makes Skandalo working the semimain interesting.

CMLL (MON) 08/02 Arena Puebla
1) Black Tiger & Stigma vs Sauron & Siki Osama
2) Dalys la Caribeña, Marcela, Silueta vs Amapola, Seuxis, Yeska
3) Fuego, Metro, Stuka Jr. vs Euforia, Pólvora, Virus
4) Blue Panther, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Misterioso II, Sangre Azteca
5) Místico, Rotoporky, Shocker vs Charly Manson, Héctor Garza, Psicosis

More Mistico/Psicosis in the main event.

I now believe they brought back the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Titles and then did nothing with them as an elaborate way of being annoying. Got to respect the long game. That tercera might be setting up a title match for the next Fan Appreciation show, but it’s more likely to be for the Mex Trios titles.

Is Silueta starting as a DF regular after losing her mask? That’s a new one.

Stigma, getting matches in back to back weeks, was interviewed in Luchas 2000. He’s yet another member of the Robles/Paniaco/Mar family, though who exactly he’s related to isn’t said. The interview makes it sound as if he’s a Puebla regular rather than a DF CMLL guy; he’s been training with Police Man and Toro Bill Sr.

CMLL (TUE) 08/03 Arena Mexico
1) Horus & Trueno vs Cholo & Zayco
2) Guerrero Maya Jr., Metálico, Molotov vs Durango Kid, Puma King, Tiger Kid
3) Diamante, Fabián el Gitano, Rush vs Cancerbero, Euforia, Raziel
4) Hijo del Fantasma, Máximo, Sagrado vs Charly Manson, Histeria, Universo 2000
5) La Máscara, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Héctor Garza, Terrible, Texano Jr. [CMLL TRIOS]

Fan Appreciation show, which is why they’re doing a title match. It’s not a good time to be doing it, with a title tournament going along.

No word on how a trios title change would affect the Universal tournament, which probably means we don’t have to worry about a title change. CMLL would have 15 champions – La Mascara (scheduled for the 08/06 block)  & Sombra (could win this week’s block) would be out of titles, Terrible would have one. Or maybe my old theory about the Tuesday, Friday and Sunday shows being booked individually by people who have absolutely no idea what’s going on the other shows is actually slightly accurate.

Kinda hoping they were done with Universo. Guess not. Also returning is Guerrero Maya (actually, on Sunday); he’s been MIA for most of July.

CMLL (TUE) 08/03 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Meteoro & Nocturno vs In Memoriam & Nube Roja
2) Silueta vs Princesa Maya
3) Hierro & Leo vs Exterminador & Máscara Mágica
4) Delta & Valiente vs Shigeo Okumura & Yoshihashi
5) Místico, Rotoporky, Shocker vs Jushin Liger, Mephisto, Negro Casas

The people who last lost apuesta matches here – Silutera, Exterminador, Mascara Magica – all make their first appearance since on this show. None of the people who beat them are on the show.

IWL (FRI) 08/13 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Histeria II & Psicosis II vs Hijo del Cien Caras & Máscara Año 2000 Jr.
2) Ryan Taylor vs the PWG Champion from England
3) Chuck Palumbo vs Charly Manson

One EAW falls, another rises in it’s place. Lineup from here. There’s no PWG champion from England, unless we lost Davey Richards and Washington State in a war I slept thru. Their tag team champions are Paul London and Generico, and either of those doing a British gimmick in Mexico might be hilarious, but I don’t think that is what’s happening here. Maybe it’s Pac? I forget if he was on the poster that turned up earlier for this group.

I can not emphasize this enough: people on this show should ask for as much of your money as possible up front, and make sure you can get your own lodging/flight home if need be. Rule of thumb is if someone’s flying in one guy from the US, then they possibly could have a clue (no guarantee), but if they’re doing more than that, expect disaster. I’ve never heard anyone said a bad word about Chuck Palumbo, but I think they could put Chico Che in the same spot and draw just about the same amount (and the same TV rating), and they’re not paying Chuck Palumbo what they’d pay Chico Che. Even more true with the undercard.