Albert on his MMA future, AAA’s odd TV situation

Alberto, while in Puerto Rico for WWL, talked to the Primera Hour newspaper about his career. (Article via SuperLuchas.) MMA is the focus, but he talked about pretty much everything. Alberto says he’s been “aprroached” by Bellator, Victory, UFC and Fighting Americas – but he’s also feels like he’s done MMA and has no need to go back to it. Alberto figures he would have to stop wrestling for three months train, so he wants three months of his pay plus a bonus. People have suggest amounts for him, but no one’s offered anything firm, which annoys him. Alberto is only going to fight for a specific amount, and he’s fine not fighting if he doesn’t get it.

As far wrestling, Alberto says he worked “like 300 shows a year” for WWE and plans to cut that way back. His aim is to work only 110 shows in 2015, and there’s only 9 left to be filled for 2015. Alberto says he’s fine financially and wants to spend more time with his family.

There’s no specific mention of TNA or Lucha Underground, though both run limited enough dates that they might fit with Alberto’s schedule. (And taking 3 months off to prepare for a fight would affect both.) The WON was reporting TNA desperately wanted Alberto in for their debut episode last night; he was not on the show .

On the MMA side, the UFC side is interesting because that’s the one group that wouldn’t need an pro wrestler since they already have CM Punk. However, approached doesn’t necessarily mean wrestling, and there’s certainly non-fighting speaking roles where Alberto will be asset. Alberto could be playing disinterested as a leverage tool, but it doesn’t sound like he expects to go to MMA.

No one’s saying exactly what’s going on with AAA TV, but everyone is saying something is happening. The WON’s been reporting for the last couple of weeks that there’s no AAA TV tapings scheduled until March, and people have separately been telling me the same thing. This week, the newsletter reported this

they are going to reboot with a totally different looking product. In many ways, that sounds similar to TNA, which isn’t good, but AAA still has a deal with Televisa, which is a major network. The only thing we’ve heard is that it will be a more streamlined product with more of an emphasis on using only big stars, either main event draws or young guys who can really go.

I’ve been told too that there’s a new TV deal to be announced, but I’m not sure if it’s this or the timeline on that. The changing to “main event draws or young guys who can really go” doesn’t seem new. It’s something that’s been said by AAA for many years and occasionally been done. Only occasionally, because it’s careful way to say “we’re going to take [veteran name] and [veteran name] and [cult favorite early act]” off TV, and those things are always politically difficult to actually do. (See: everything going on with Octagon.) No one who knows the details of any changes is actually talking about them.

Lucha Underground has not been financially successful – the WON raises the bar to “they’ve got to get on Univsion proper or they’re doomed” this week – but it’s been aesthetically popular. It’s always been clear that if Lucha Underground got a positive reaction, some elements would eventually find their way to the Mexico promotion, more of normal human reaction than any big plan. Maybe some of that is what is being thought about here, though the Lucha Underground show benefits from a lot of production help which may not be as available in Mexico City as it has been in Los Angeles.

AAA’s talked a lot in the past about modernizing the product, and they are using more big storylines, vignettes and other TV drama elements around the in ring product, and the matches are as modern as any other promotion. Still, the presentation of the matches isn’t really that different from CMLL. AAA’s still essentially taping live events to put on TV with whatever two or three matches fit on the show – so say Alberto’s part of the TV episode if he has a match but, if they didn’t do vignettes that taping, he’s no where to be seen the other week. (This really sticks out more as they’ve gone back to more two week tapings.) If the idea is to focus on people, that whole format has to be changed, which might be going on here.

Might not. I don’t really know much, I’m doing a lot of speculating. AAA’s got 3 more weeks of TV (one more of Tuxtla, 2 of Guerra de Titanes), and then the start of mystery shows on 01/31 until they tape again. I’d presume Televisa wouldn’t be thrilled with a month of reruns or filler material and everyone seems to think AAA’s still running Rey de Reyes, so some new content should still be airing. Possibly AAA will start to tell their story about this new plan before then. Until then, we can read into manufactured interviews like yesterday’s Angelico one, where the usual bit of promoting the next taping is noticeably missing.

The WON also mentioned Lucha Underground still wants to bring in the Young Bucks, even though both sides aren’t happy with how previous negotiations went (Jacksons over the price, LU over their complaints going public.) Jeff Cobb, who previously said he signed, is listed as still being talked too. So is Willie Mack, who everyone’s assumed would be coming here after he got cut from WWE. Dark Angel is also on the list; I don’t know if CMLL billing her for shows she wasn’t going to work is related to this situation – plenty of people are still on vacation and it could’ve just been a mix up over that. The timing makes it look suspicious. This has seemed to happen with Angel/CMLL before when CMLL seemed upset for whatever reason – but they’ve always ended up working together again.

The next Chilanga Mask show is quietly taking place this Sunday, with Trauma II vs Black Terry as the headline match. The women’s match has changed, with Keira now facing Black Fury instead of Star Fire.

Vice has a really good Fray Tormenta bio, one worth reading even if you’ve read these before.

Estrellas del Ring interviews AULL trio Los Insurrectos.

SuperLuchas looks back at past January 7ths, including a day where pre-Rayo de Jalisco was wrestling as Doc Curtis.

Yahoo! Travel has a video story on visiting Arena Mexico with Dragon Rojo Jr.

An Arizona lucha libre promotion is debuting in a new venue on Saturday.

Luchoroscopo for Piscis

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 01/12/2015 Arena Puebla
1) Astral, Astro, Asturiano vs Demus 3:16, Espíritu Maligno, Saurón
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Starman, Súper Halcón Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Toro Bill Jr.
3) Dark Angel, Estrellita, Marcela vs Amapola, Tiffany, Zeuxis
4) Blue Panther, La Máscara, Titán vs Ephesto, Kráneo, Pierroth
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Valiente vs Euforia, Niebla Roja, Shocker

A show. Segunda could be good.