top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. Perro Aguayo Jr. took Cibernetico’s hair in the main event of TripleMania XXI. The match was the expected mix of blood, weapon usage and controversy. Texano kept the AAA heavyweight title over Heavy Metal and was challenged for the next shot by the retired Ray Mendoza Jr. Mendoza’s brother Villano IV continued his feud with La Parka, though his team of Lucha Libre Legends lost to the team of AAA Legends. The Mexican Powers & Blue Demon Jr. picked up the vacant Tag Team and Latin American titles respectively. Former tag team champion Vampiro appeared to award those titles and restart his feud with Konnan, while LA Park also surprisingly appeared to had Demon his title. Park doesn’t appear to be back, at least yet. Jeff Jarrett let a combined TNA/WWL team over the Psycho Circus in easily the worst match on the show. The show lacked a standout great match similar to previous years, and appeared to be a much better live experience than it came across on video. The crowd especially sounded quiet and distant on TV, when it seemed clear they were making a good amount of noise.
  2. Three more CMLL titles changed hands in a short time. Los Estetas del Aire (Mascara Dorada, Valiente and Mistico) won a tournament for the vacant CMLL Trios championship, Diamante Azul ended Rey Bucanero’s long but injury ridden NWA Light Heavyweight Championship reign and Zeuxis won the REINA International Junior Women’s championship from Silueta, which has mostly been defended in CMLL. The first two seem designed to increase attention on the younger tecnicos, while the last one was less clear.
  3. TripleMania XXI was marred by a complete failure of it’s scheudled iPPV. Not a second of the show aired as scheduled and customers were left hanging for hours with little information about the show’s status. AAA waited until after the four hour show to announce it would make good by putting the show on their YouTube channel for free and offering refunds to all who bought the show. AAA also shifted the blame completely to the uStream providers, while acknowledging uStream was blaming AAA. The entire experience was frustrating for all involved. TripleMania’s normal TV PPV, announced as for sale only a couple days before the show took place, aired mostly without problem.
  4. Valiente, Stuka Jr., Vangelis and Fuego are the four finalsts in CMLL’s En Busca de un Idolo tournament. Like last year, it’s one rudo and three tecnicos, though with a slight surprise about Hijo del Fantasma being the one tecnico not to advance. Valiente and Stuka are the favorites to advance to the final. It’s unclear if anyone is actually paying any attention to this show.
  5. AAA taped post-TripleMania TV shows two days prior to the major event. They mostly continued existing feuds: the indepedent legend outsiders will still be feuding with the AAA luchadors, and feuds like Atomic Boy & Gran Apache continue. A strange injury angle with Heavy Metal also took place; he was not cleared to wrestle on this show, but apparently (relatively) fine on TripleMania two days later. It’s possible there was a backstage skit explaining this on the taping, but nothing like that was explained. The AAA brand split, previously announcing as starting the day after TripleMania, was not implemented in any obvious way.
  6. Ultimo Dragon’s annual DragonMania show took place last Saturday. The crowd was estimated at 12,000, though the tickets for the show are usually given away. The actual real main event of the show was Ultimo Dragon, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., and Atlantis defeated Ultimo Guerrero, Hajime Ohara, and TNA’s Mike Knox. Los Celestik’s lost their masks in the undercard.
  • CMLL announced it would start renting out their edecnaes, now known as “Chicas Vuelta, Vuelta” for corporate and private events.
  • Vampiro announced he had signed a five year contract with AAA.
  • NJPW’s BUSHI debuted in CMLL as BUSHIROAD, working on tecnico side unlike his countrymen.
  • Trauma II won the IWRG Juniors championship, while the Piratas kept the trios show. Perhaps the most amazing news is IWRG drew about normal this past Sunday, despite running straight against the TripleMania show.
  • El Hippie took Exterminador’s hair in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, part of their usual long run of Anniversary shows.