Day: July 9, 2016

07/08 AAA TV Results (CDMX)

thecubsfan
AAA

AAA TV (FRI) 07/08/2016 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [+LuchaTV, AAA, Kronosport]
1) Big Mami, Faby Apache, Mary Apache b La Hiedra, Lady Shani, Taya
Big Mami (indie Big Mama) debuted as the surprise luchador. She got the win.
2) Dave The Clown, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Súper Fly b Garza Jr., Niño Hamburguesa, Venum
Dave the Clown debuted as the surprise luchador. Apache distracted Venum.
3) Fénix b Daga
Very good match
4) Aerostar, Bengala, Drago b Averno, Chessman, Ricky Marvin
Earlier, Averno & Chessman appeared as India Maria to mock the Apaches and insist they’re never getting a title shot. Sure enough, the Apaches music distracted Ricky Marvin into a loss.
5) Damián 666, Nicho el Millionario, Pagano COR Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown
Bestia 666 to help to interfere. Pagano beat Psycho Clown again, Pagano putting Psycho Clown thru a table on fire on the outside, and Psycho was unable to return. Pagano said this was the 5th time in a row he had beat Psycho Clown. He demanded a hair vs mask match at TripleMania. Psycho Clown didn’t respond.
6) El Mesías, Hernandez, Johnny Mundo b Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagón Jr., Texano
Hijo del Fantasma made his return as the surprise luchador. Mundo beat Pentagon and demanded a title match

Air Date: 07/23 & 07/30

AAA’s recap headlines this as a night of challenges. It was not a night of responses. It’s obvious Pagano/Psycho, Pentagon/Mundo and Averno/Chessman vs the Apaches are planned to occur at TripleMania, but none of those matches were agreed up on this show. We kind of figured most of those were happening already, so it was just a matter of the characters voicing the matches the announcers had already given away. It’s possible there’s more to come in some of those stories – Angelico/Jack or other teams being added to the tag match are a possibility. Still, in their last appearance in Mexico City and on a show that’ll air about a month before TripleMania, they could’ve started selling tickets to that show based on matches and opted to wait (probably for the less dramatic choice of announcing the sames matches via press release or NotiAAA segment.)

The surprise luchadors were definitely surprising. Everyone guess Fantasma, but no one guessed Big Mama, who does something not far off from Goya Kong’s character. She’ll get over, even in a secondary role like Shani & Hiedra. Dave the Clown is a more random choice. We’ve seen a lot of people jump to Elite from AAA, and he’s technically a rare jump the other way. Of course, Dave’s Elite match was a disaster, a match so horrendous that the normally mild mannered Guerrero Maya & Rey Cometa appeared to shoot unmask Dave at the end of the match. Dave was not used again. Dave’s appeared on AAA TV before, once as part of circus performers at ringside for a Psycho Circus TripleMania entrance, and once when he went into business for himself, jumping out of the crowd (in full gear) to hug Psycho Clown to try make his own storyline. There are literally 100 other luchadors who would be better pick for this spot than Dave – and maybe Dave wasn’t the pick. I don’t know him, but his history marks him as a guy who’s hanging around, hoping for an extra spot a lot, and maybe was a last second fill in for someone else (or maybe Bestia 666 balked at being in a match with opening card guys, since that was definitely an issue in his last AAA stint.) We’ll see if Dave’s used again going forward or if this was just a one off thing.

It’s strange how much AAA’s present booking mimics WWE rather than LU (more successful in creating stars) or even Pena era AAA (which always seems to bet the goal here.) People dressing up in silly outfits to mock their rivals and people losing simply because their rivals music is playing are very much WWE tropes, and not particularly beloved ones.

At least on this night, they did take the idea of “putting two good wrestlers in a match and letting them have a good match” from Lucha Underground. Fenix/Daga sounds like what we’d hope it would be. Konnan’s podcast (a couple paragraphs down) seemed to be trying to stir up trouble between Fenix and AAA, saying the Roldans don’t like Fenix and want to keep him down. He’s got two big wins in two shows for a guy they don’t like. We didn’t get many quality reports on the other matches, but at least that one seems worth checking out when it turns up. Not a lot about the attendance either; Marislea posted a photo talking about good attendance, but it was shot of all the lights being out while people held up cell phones, and that’s not the easiest way to judge a crowd.

Johnny Mundo may be playing a Trump supporter on screen, but confirms he’s very much not one in reality in an interview with Record. Johnny Mundo seems like a good guy.

Related: The latest Podcast Boom includes Konnan talking about Sexy Star, Ludxor and Psycho Clown. LigerFever has the translation in one two parts. The Pagano feud is sort of explained as AAA being stuck on finding heavyweight opponents for Psycho Clown. Uro Rocker was intended for that spot, but wasn’t good and hurt people. Konnan mentions AAA looking at a Brazilian wrestler for that feud but he didn’t do well. That would’ve been Xandao, who wrestled a dark match in Naucalpan right before Rey de Reyes. That may also explain why Pagano started feuding with Pentagon Jr. and was shifted over to Psycho Clown with no resolution – even AAA might have not been sold on Pagano being in that spot until he was around for a month. I’m still something less than sold about a guy who normally walks around bald putting up his hair as the main event of your biggest show of the year.

But, that appears to be the cards that we’ve been dealt. And so, this is what it looks like is happening for TripleMania right now

  • Psycho Clown putting up his mask against Pagano’s hair.
  • Texano Jr. defending the Heavyweight championship against either Dr. Wagner Jr. or Cage or both
  • Pentagon Jr. defending the Latin American championship against Johnny Mundo
  • Averno & Chessman defending the tag team championship against Faby Apache & Mary Apache
  • some match to get a whole lot more people on the card
  • maybe Hijo del Fantasma versus Fenix for the Cruiserweight championship
  • maybe some relevos AAA atomicos along the lines of Taya/Mini Abismo/Mamba/Apache vs Big Mami/Dinastia/Pimpi/Venom

Next taping is Sunday in Oaxaca, with the three way tag title match and Pentagon vs Fenix.

Volador defeats Kushida, Caristico injury update, Santo to Tijuana, Leyenda de Plata

thecubsfan 3 Comments
Volador wins
Volador wins

CMLL (FRI) 07/08/2016 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, thecubsfan]
1) Esfinge, Fuego, Tritón b Bobby Z, Hechicero, Virus
15:08. Tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Máscara Dorada, Rey Cometa, Titán b Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Escorpión
17:43. Tecnicos took 2/3 in a great match. Titan replaced Maximo in the second lineup.
3) Mistico DQ La Máscara [lightning]
4:27. Mistico had La Mistica, but the ref had been taken out. Shocker jogged to the ring and attacked Mistico, which led to the DQ.
4) Mephisto, Shocker, Último Guerrero b Johnny Idol, Okumura, Sam Adonis
11:41. Team Mexico took 2/3. Okumura replaced Kushida.
5) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Máximo b Michael Elgin, Tama Tonga, Tangaroa
14:15. Foreigners took 1/3, with Tama fouling/unmasking Diamante Azul to beat him. Maximo replaced Volador Jr.
6) Volador Jr. © b Kushida [NWA WELTER]
21:44. Volador took 2/3 in a great match. Volador’s 10th defense.

Main event and fist two matches are worth tracking down. Kushida looked very good in his title match in Volador while playing a role opposite of what he normally does.

The show did air on NJPWWorld as billed, and there seemed to be a good amount of people talking about the show in Japanese on Twitter. NJPW uses IP fencing to prevent people from outside of Japan to even get to the page where the CMLL feed is on, but it’s possible to get around if you’re patient.

CMLL is back to running on Saturday at Arena Coliseo, with another Mexico vs Foreigners show.  The main event is Volador Jr., Diamante Azul, and Mascara Dorada vs Sam Adonis, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. Semimain is Angel de Oro, Valiente and Stuka versus Okumura, Fujin and Raijin.

Elite aired 7 matches last night – they ended up with an essentially an 1h45m slot with limited commercials. 1 of those matches was where Caristico got hurt on Thursday. There’s no obvious disastrous impact on the spot. Caristico looked like he wanted to continue at first, and then was in increasing amount of pain the longer it lasted. He was quiet yesterday, and this afternoon reported he’s got a tear on his pelvis. That sounds (and looked) like a sports hernia, which normally would put someone out for 4 to 6 weeks. He’s probably going to miss his scheduled matches for a while.

For what it’s worth, the Liga Elite standings now list Rey Escorpion, not Negro Casas, as in the tournament.

Hijo del Santo is appearing on the August 13 The Crash show. This is part of the tour he and Santo Jr. are doing, and it’s listed as being taped for TV (though your guess is as good as theirs as where.) Santo’s most recent match was November in Puebla, and he’s only had 2 since 2014.

Pentagon Jr. was announced for PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles, joining Fenix as AAA luchadors. It’s going to be politically interesting, since there are NJPW wrestlers also in the tournament and those two groups don’t work together normally.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Drago and Fenix are interviewed about their recent international trips.

TKD talks about his rating scale.

GALLI confirmed Triton is coming to Chicago to work for them on August 14.

Lineups

ELITE (THU) 07/14/2016 Arena México
1) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Príncipe Diamante vs Cancerbero & Raziel
2) Jinzo & Súper Crazy vs Felino & Tiger
3) Hijo De Dos Caras, Hijo de LA Park, Rayman vs El Hijo del Medico Asesino, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Karonte Jr.
4) Carístico vs Diamante Azul [Liga Elite]
5) Máscara Año 2000 & Universo 2000 vs Atlantis & Dos Caras Sr.
6) Rush vs LA Park [Liga Elite, super libre]

The top matches were announced on last night’s show the moment the main event ended, which was weird but makes some sense. Diamante Azul is listed in Liga Elite, which makes no sense but probably doesn’t matter since Caristico is likely not wrestling. Whoever’s booking Carisitco’s programs (Caristico?) is really set on a Caristico/Diamante Azul feud.

Tercera is Mexico’s obesseion with juniors, utterly regardless of quality, all in one trio. (Medico & Karonte looked awful in last week’s match.) Jinzo makes his first appearance here since appearing on the Cruiserweight Classic, though his match does not air until next week (and the following tapings are the day before this.)

CMLL (FRI) 07/15/2016 Arena México
1) La Vaquerita & Skadi vs La Seductora & Tiffany
2) Ángel de Oro, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Hechicero, Luciferno
3) Máximo Sexy, Súper Crazy, Valiente vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys
4) Mistico vs Negro Casas, Volador Jr., La Máscara, Titán, Mephisto, Tritón, Cavernario, Guerrero Maya Jr., Ripper, The Panther, Virus [Leyenda de Plata]
5) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Rush vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

Foreigners are all gone, but Rush is back. The only CMLL show he’s worked in the last six weeks was the Gran Prix.

On last night’s broadcast, and on the video promo, CMLL announced this as the first part of the Leyenda de Plata. It’s listed more like it’s one night and done tournament on the poster, but maybe they’re back to doing it where the final two come back for a match the following week. Negro Casas is the former champion and the former champion is supposed to face the winner, but CMLL can’t remember the rules to their own tournaments. (And maybe he won’t be able to return by then and it’ll work out!)

My complaining aside, that’s an incredibly stacked match and should be great. Second match has a chance to be good. First match is troubling.

CARALUCHA (SAT) 07/23/2016 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Astrolux vs Black Metal
2) Demasiado & Fiero vs Adrenalina Fly & Gladiola Negra
3) Lady Maravilla, Templario, Wasson vs Brian Villa, Chik Tormenta, Willy Banderas
4) Andy Boy, Rayo Star, Sky Man vs Crazy King, El Enviado, Estrella Oriental Jr.
5) Danger & Guerrero Mixtico vs Makabre & Rayman © [CASANOVA TAG]
6) Diamante Azul (CMLL) & Hechicero vs Herodes Jr. & Trauma I

CaraLucha’s next show is the other half of the home and home series with Guadalajara’s Mucha Luchas promotion – the names you’re less familiar with are from there. I’m not sure which are the Casanova Tag Titles. The poster doesn’t make it clear, but my best guess is these are actually the Jalisco state titles Rayman & Makabre hold. Main event is an all heavyweight match, which is actually a CMLL/AAA battle.