03/23 AAA TV Lineup (2016 Rey de Reyes)

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Rey de Reyes
AAA TV (WED) 03/23/2016 Plaza de Toros Monumental El Paseo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
Rey de Reyes 2016
1) ?, Faby Apache, Máscarita Sagrada, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba, Mini Charly Manson, Taurus, Taya
2) Aerostar, Drago, Fénix vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro [AAA TRIOS]
first defense
3) Averno & Chessman © vs Daga & Joe Lider and Australian Suicide & Jack Evans [TLC, AAA TAG]
first defense
4) Blue Demon vs Villano IV, La Parka, ? [AAA Rey de Reyes]
final participant will be determined on the Toluca TV taping.
5) Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr.
6) El Mesías vs Texano Jr. [AAA HEAVY]

Air Date: maybe 03/26 and 04/02?

It happened again. 2016 Rey de Reyes, like 2015 Guerra de Titanes, was announced for Tampico and then pushed to the next TV taping instead. This time, the next TV taping was a few days later. San Luis Potosi’s show moves from Auditorio Miguel Barragan to the 7000 seat bullring.

I don’t think we’ll see another show announced in Tampico any time soon. I also tend to believe this is not AAA’s fault (except maybe for giving it a second try.) There’s only been one other lucha libre show known to be scheduled in Tampico this year, a CMLL show that was quietly canceled and moved to Queretaro. You have to go back to November to find a show, in what had been a pretty active area for indie lucha. It’s also been an active area for cartel activity this decade, and my educated guess is the violence has made it unsafe to run a show in the city. It certainly would explain why AAA hasn’t wanted to talk about the cancellations. Maybe they’ll give it another try again later, but it seems like it’s not working.

It also would explain why AAA had another TV taping scheduled soon after a major show. It doesn’t quite fit their pattern, they only do that with the Hard Rock resort shows, but perhaps this was a little bit of insurance in case Tampico fell thru again. It does still leave them a TV gap. AAA can (and probably will) add another match to the Toluca taping next week to stretch it for an extra week of TV, but would still either need to air this show on Saturday (a quicker turnaround than usual) or make up a TV week anyway. This SLP event was is scheduled to have a Perro Aguayo Jr. tribute element, and perhaps that’s done in a different way to also account for the missing week of TV.

A Wednesday night show is doubtful to be a PPV and unlikely to be an iPPV either. Again, I’d prefer to see it live, but it’ll turn up on TV rather quick anyway.

The local promoters seem to have known of this change for maybe just 24 hours. They were still promoting the normal TV taping on Tuesday, then started vaguely promoting a big event at the bullring on Wednesday night. Wednesday is all big AAA decisions seem to be announced, so they can be part of that week’s TV show. They were just waiting for the actual poster to announce it today. (The whole Wednesday TV thing is why getting this show on TV in time is going to be tricky.)

I guess I should talk about the matches! Rey de Reyes looks not far different from Guerra de Titanes: the same three titles which were on in play will be on the line again on this show. I kind of like the idea of focusing on a few titles, rather than having them disappearing for half a year. I’m not sure these are the ones I would’ve picked, but better than nothing.

Mesias has not been on a taping since he won the main event title shot and maybe turned tecnico. Neither has Texano. They’ve had them on NotiAAA to do promos, but this is the strangest build to a main event title match I can recall. They’ll both be on the Toluca show – which now will air BEFORE Rey de Reyes and becomes relevant – but they’ve been lost in the mix and a couple of disconnected matches isn’t going to make this feud click. Especially when both characters were coming into cold. I advocated for the Rey de Reyes tournament to double as a AAA Heavyweight Championship Tournament this year as a way to make both more meaningful. What didn’t occur to me, but seems obvious in retrospect, is doing the title tournament and Rey de Reyes separately meant one was going to be pushed into the background. The Rey de Reyes has a higher volume of matches, so the Heavyweight title was always going to be stuck in the background. As is, Mesias/Texano, the titular main event for the biggest championship in AAA, is either the fourth or fifth most important feeling match on the show.

Psycho Clown versus Dr. Wagner is not for Psycho’s Latin American championship, but Psycho probably has the same chance of winning with or without a title on the line. (It’s not a good chance.) This’ll be interesting to see how well they mesh and what direction they head next – a longer Wagner/Psycho feud probably helps Psycho, but I’m not convinced that’s the direction until it happens.

Fenix, Pentagon, Fantasma and ??? are in the Toluca Group. Fenix has a spot, and the ??? is probably booked in the opener. That means either Fantasma or Pentagon is sitting this show out. Comedy voting schemes aside, I tend to believe Pentagon is advancing to the Rey de Reyes final and has a half decent of winning: all the effort they had for him with the Mixed tag title storyline makes more sense the context of bigger plans. It would require AAA’s impression of Pentagon to have greatly changed in the last few months, but going thru those three guys to win the Rey de Reyes would be the perfect way to start to move Pentagon up. (Giving the Perros a big win on this show makes sense.) That leaves Fantasma as off the side, weirdly.

The TLC is usual AAA show randomness and there’s no real reason for the two challenging teams to be getting a title shot, but at least there’s feuds between the people involved. Joe Lider doesn’t like Averno & Chessman, Daga doesn’t like Suicide, Jack Evans doesn’t like three way matches. This will be something, something probably involving really cheap looking ladders. Angelico’s knee is going to appreciate being in Europe.

Trios title match should be good! (Really, everything but the Rey de Reyes final should be OK to much better than OK.) I am a big fan of the challengers, but would understand the champions keeping the titles to give someone momentum. This feels like the title less likely to change of the two.

I hope I live long enough to see another AAA major show without a Relevos AAA atomicos opener, but I fear I may not. Everyone involved seems like perfectly wonderful people and I wish them much health and prosperity, but I don’t want to see that match any more. Please stop. (The underlining issue is AAA won’t book more than six matches on these shows, so they’re keep needing to do that match to get everyone represented instead of doing actual different matches.)

Next taping makes sense as being on the 04/03 weekend, but, uh, that may not be a great day to run a show. AAA people are announced as appearing in Dallas on 04/01 and 04/02. Your guess is as good as mine.

AAA says Sexy Star told them she’s retired?, Dorada/Casas in Guadalajara

in earlier, less retired times

CMLL (TUE) 02/23/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Omar Brunetti & Vaquero Jr. b Furia Roja & Joker
Tencicos took 2/3.
2) El Yaqui, Robin, Star Jr. b Espanto Jr., Metálico, Ráfaga
Yaqui replaced Gallo. Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Esfinge, Fuego, Gallo DQ Disturbio, Puma, Tiger
Gallo replaced Pegasso. Tecnicos took 1/3. Puma is still annoyed about losing Copa Junior to Esfinge, fouled him in the third.
4) Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr., Titán bDemonio Rojo, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora
Tecnicos took 1/3. Demonio Rojo replaced Bobby Z.
5) Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casasb Marco Corleone, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr.
Rudos took 1/3, Casas winning clean over Dorada with a casita. Casas challenged Dorada to a title match and Dorada accepted.

Dorada/Casas should be great. Hope it turns up. Esfinge/Puma aren’t on next week’s card, so that was just a one night issue.

IWRG FILL (WED) 02/24/2016 Arena Naucalpan [The Gladiatores]
1) Skanda & Último Caballero b Bambino & Canario
2) Conde Negro, Guerrero 2000, Vampiro Metálico b Ángel De La Muerte I, Mimo De Cobre, Osiris
3) Acero, Crisis Boy, Troll b Fireman, Galaxy, Picudo Jr.
4) Factor, Matrix Jr., Rayan b Leo, Mike, Rafy
Matrix Jr. replaced Spector. Rayan unmasked Mike for the ring, and other turtles were unmsaked after the match.
5) Black Mercury, El Resplandor, Gemelo Fantástico I, Gemelo Fantástico II, Iron Kid, Príncipe Pantera I, Príncipe Pantera Jr., Psycko Kid b Alas de Acero, Aramis, Atomic Star, Dragón Fly, Freyser, Kanon, Power Bull, Violencia Jr. [Copa Higher Power]
Gym FILL (Black Terry) vs Gym Toluca (Astro!). Match came down to the Gemelos (who may actually be the trainers) against Freyser & Atomic Star. Gemelos beat Freyser. Atomic Star beat one of the Gemelos, but the usual riot broke out and the Gemelos made a switch to set up the win.

The cibernetico should be good, since there’s some experienced names on both sides. Hope it turns up on TV.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Dorian Roldan told the AAA locker room Sexy Star had called the AAA office and told them she was retiring from lucha libre. I still think she’ll try to be part of Lucha Underground; she’s still promoting Lucha Underground on her Twitter, but not talking about AAA. And, given lucha, she’ll probably be wrestling in Mexico again someday. Think of this more simply as her reason not to fulfill her existing dates with AAA, because that’s probably what that is.

The article mentions the current plan, very subject to change, is a TripleMania four way mask match between Blue Demon, Dr. Wagner Jr., Villano IV and Psycho Clown. My hunch is Villano IV would be losing his mask at that match; he’s rarely wrestling, and they started (and forgot) a feud with him and Psycho Clown last year. It’s also been many years since the rumored plan for TripleMania in February has actually been the main event on the day of the show.

The WON also mentions Garza Jr. is under consideration for WWE’s Global Cruiserweight Series, though not sure if he’s directly in or still needs to perform well at a tryout. The newsbite goes onto say “one of his brothers” is also under consideration. SuperLuchas points towards Ultimo Ninja, who is actually Garza’s cousin but makes the most sense – he fits WWE’s mold as a six foot tall wrestler.

There’s a virtual AAA show in Dallas, Texas on March 12. It’s really a local promotion bringing in about a dozen AAA luchadors, but you get to see AAA luchadors the night after Rey de Reyes. Sexy Star is listed on the card, but I’d assume that’s an old lineup.

That’s a bit too early for WrestleMania weekend, but Pentagon Jr. and Fireball/Flamita will be at wrestling at WrestleCon in the days before the show. There’s more AAA names to be announced.

Eddie Einhorn, best known today as partial owner of Chicago White Sox, passed away today. In the 1970s, he set up the IWA wrestling promotion, and the IWA Heavyweight Championship Mil Mascaras still carries around is from that promotion.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

There’s a new Esto es Lucha episode with Super Crazy & Jinzo.

An interview with Rey Mysterio Jr. about how much he likes Lucha Underground (from Ultima Lucha 2)

Villano IV talks about making the Rey de Reyes final.

There’s an amusing Old Amarillo promo on CMLL’s facebook page.

Ohtani’s Jacket reviews El Signo/Villano V and Dandy/Ultimo Dragon.

Kcidis draws La Cavernaria.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 02/28/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) Galaxy & Kanon vs Acero & Power Bull
2) Dragón Fly & Freyser vs Nimrud & Picudo Jr.
3) Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Negro Navarro vs Danny Casas, Diablo Jr. I, El Hijo del Diablo
4) Hijo De Dos Caras, Súper Nova, Veneno vs Mr. Águila, Trauma I, Trauma II
5) Solar I vs Heddi Karaoui

I guess Dos is making it back from Puerto Rico in time for this show. Danny Casas seems to have turned without a turn.