Rey Escorpion/Dragon Rojo, unhappy minis, AAA in Pachuca

Today’s CMLL show is main evented by the Ingobernables versus Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas but the biggest match is Dragon Rojo defending his middleweight title versus Rey Escorpion. It’s the first ever singles between the two men who had been partners the last few years. Dragon Rojo hasn’t clicked yet as a tecnico, but Rey Escorpion is a pretty great rudo and should be able to make this work.

The title match is happening under the looming specter of the Universal tournament, which should be happening any week now if CMLL plans on squeezing it in prior to the Anniversary show. There are currently 16 healthy champions (plus Mistico II, who won’t be participating unless they bump this tournament to October or November.) Rey Escorpion is already light heavyweight champion, so him winning tonight would open up a spot for a guest from NJPW. It’s not necessary CMLL does that, since they’ve just bumped Virus from the tournament in other years. It would hurt Dragon Rojo to lose so early in his tecnico run, though it might make sense if there’s a greater plan for a mask versus hair match with these two next month. Rey Escorpion doesn’t need to win for either of those thing to happen, but it definitely means there are more moving pieces if Escorpion becomes a double champion tonight.

Mini Abismo Negro went off on AAA last night on Twitter. I didn’t even know he had a Twitter account, but he used it for the first time in two months to complain he’d only been booked 6 to 8 times in the last couple months, he felt he deserved more than that, but the executives were favoring other people. (We have him list in nine matches since June, though it’s tougher to tell because AAA’s pretty much stopped posting spot show lineups again.)

Sunday is the (celebration of) the 22nd Anniversary of the start of the CMLL minis division. Pierrothito, Demus and Mercurio celebrated by noting the division has lost it’s luster and has not gotten a deserved amount of attention – they’d like to be on the big shows. Not sure about them having the best match every time, but the years CMLL goes in between holding title matches in Arena Mexico is a pretty obvious clue the older guys are out of favor. They’re still doing plenty of apuesta matches with the lesser guys in the division. The whole division seemed to get less attention after Dragonicto, Pierrothito and Pequeno Olimpico started pushing in the press for the three way mask match. Talking about these things to the press (while hyping the promotion) may not be an optimum strategy. Demus, who was in the main division for a brief time, notes how most countries don’t have minis division and broaches the subject of folding the minis in with everyone else. That’s not as absurd as it might have been at a time, as the taller minis are about the same size as the smaller main roster guys. There can’t be more than a few centimeters of height between Stigma and Electrico.

AAA’s TV this week announced the first post TripleMania taping on 09/07 in Pachuca. That means AAA will have to get four weeks out of the taping in Tezitulan and TripleMania, so TripleMania is probably three weeks of TV again. It also suggests AAA’s not taping in the US on the 09/07 weekend.

The Arena Xalapa Facebook mentions Vengador Radioactivo, Zafiro, Peligro and Corsario de Fuego had a dark match on Wednesday’s night AAA taping in Teziutlán. Vengador has impressed in previous appearances elsewhere and he and Corsario wrestled on a AAA dark match match back in 2012 which ended up airing on TV anyway.

The Arena Lopez Mateos show with Sin Cara has been moved back to 08/24. The undercard has been shuffled and Flamita is no longer listed.

El Hijo del Santo’s Record column this week is about it being his final column for Record. Santo talks about all the other places he’s worked and his favorite columns and suggests he may work on putting out collections of his columns in books next.

Looks like Silueta lost the CMLL-Reina Internaional Junior championship. Haven’t found official results. (Haven’t looked that hard.)

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Segunda Caida reviews Satanico & Averno vs Rey Bucanero & Ultimo Guerrero.

Blue Demon Jr. and Averno are on the 09/28 ColiseoMania show.

DJ Spectro is giving away old lucha magazine Espectacular 16 & Halcon 138 to anyone who likes his Facebook page.

Oro Jr. and Metalico threatened each other on Cadena3’s morning talk show. It’s part of a media tour which also included a radio appearance.

Blue Panther is among those listed as working in Chicago on 08/31.

Important news: there’s already a Pequeno Bengala.

Lineup

DTU (WED) 09/17/2014 Teatro del Puebla, Tulancingo, Hidalgo
1) ? vs ??
DTU Kids
2) Jimmy, Kevin, Tony vs ?, ??, ??? and Cruz Infernal, Destructor, Loco Estrella
3) Chica Ye-Ye & Estrella Divina vs Artikus & Lanzeloth
4) Ángel o Demonio & Ovett vs Dement Extreme & Paranoiko
5) B-boy & Crazy Boy vs Cíclope & Miedo Extremo and Ángel del Misterio & Jhonky
6) Willie Mack vs Hacker, Pesadilla, Drastik Boy, Septimo Dragon, Black Fire
7) Violento Jack © vs Slayer Pack [DTU]
Violento Jack is champ, second defense.

Show #3 on the DTU tour.