AAA luchadors jump to the The Crash, FantasticaMania wraps up

CMLL (SAT) 01/21/2017 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Bengala & Leono b Artillero & Camorra
2) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi b Amapola, La Seductora, Tiffany
3) Blue Panther, Stigma, The Panther b Puma, Tiger, Virus
said to be a very good match
4) Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Vangellys b Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Valiente
5) Carístico b Mephisto

Carsitico submitted Mephisto clean before their title match on Friday. (They have a title match on Friday!) Angel de Oro is shown on a stretcher during the fourth match but it’s not clear what happened.

Sunday results aren’t up complete from CMLL yet; how can I go on without knowing who won the minis match. Maybe tomorrow.

CMLL NJPW (SUN) 01/22/2017 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan [NJPW, Strong Style Story, thecubsfan]
Attendance: 1592
1) Blue Panther Jr., Henare, Soberano Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Gedo, Jado
7:44. Cavernario submitted Blue Panther Jr.
2) Jushin Liger, Stuka Jr., Tiger Mask b Hechicero, Okumura, Raziel
6:58. Tiger Mask beat Raziel.
3) Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi b Dragón Lee & Titán
9:07. BUSHI pinned Titan with a foul and the BUSHIROLL. Lee & Takahashi fought post match, with Takahashi taking Lee’s mask.
4) Juice Robinson, Máximo Sexy, Ryusuke Taguchi b Ephesto, Okada, Will Ospreay
8:17. Okada beat Taguchi with the Rainmaker.
5) EVIL, Naito, Rush, Sanada b Atlantis, David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kushida
9:58. Evil beat Finlay with the Out of Control
6) Mistico b Euforia
11:24 via La Msitica
7) Volador Jr. b Último Guerrero
15:50. Volador Spanish Fly.

This was better than I thought it would be, with the two last matches delivering more in Japan than they might have in. I thought this tour would peak with the first night, but it’s been steady thru, towards the usual bit of the Sunday show being the biggest deal. These shows all were fun, as they are every year.

 

The Crash (SAT) 01/21/2017 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [+Lucha, El Tijuanese, TKD]
1) Arkángel Divino b Black Danger © [The Crash JUNIOR]
Ultimo Maldito & Mirage are the seconds. Black Danger falls on his third defense.
2) Ángel Metálico, Black Boy, Oraculo b Ryan Kidd, Tiago, Tony Casanova
Kidd replaced Douglas James
3) Bestia 666 & Jinzo b Jack Evans & Rey Horus
Jinzo replaced Mr. 450 (injury) on 01/21. Two mystery men in Fishman & Canek masks ran in and attacked Rey Horuz, leading to Bestia 666 getting the pin. The mystery men attacked the referee and the other wrestlers after the match, with Super Crazy & Juventud Guerrera rushing in for the save. Fishman and Canek unmasked as Garza Jr. & Daga as the Perros del Mal music played. Rey Fenix, the Hardys and Nicho all ran in for a standoff, and the luchadors from the match were there too. No one (in the ring) was quite sure who with, and Juvy pointed out Rey Fenix was without a partner. The Perros music played again, and a man rode in standing on the back of a motorcyle seat, with his face obscured by a helmet. Fenix brought him into the ring and introduced him as cero miedo – it was Pentagon. Pentagon announced he was forming a team with his brothers
4) Flamita © b AR Fox [The Crash CRUISER]
second defense. Very good match.
5) Brian Cage & Scorpió Sky b Jeff Cobb & Willie Mack
Scorpio Sky replaced La Mascara, and this was turned into a tag match.
6) Fénix El Rey & Penta el 0M b Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy and Juventud Guerrera & Súper Crazy and Bestia 666 & Nicho el Millionario and Daga & Garza Jr.
Originally a 3v3 with Fenix & the Hardys vs Mexicools (Juvy, Nicho, Super Crazy), eventually a five way tag match. This was announced for the now vacant The Crash Tag Team titles (Garza & Ultimo Ninja.) Pentagon beat Bestia, leading Crazy & Juvy to protest since those two guys weren’t even supposed to be in the match. They called out Konnan, who decided Fenix & Penta would instead get a title shot some point down the line and they’d hold a Hardys vs Crazy/Juvy match now to determine the new champions instead.
7) Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy b Juventud Guerrera & Súper Crazy [The Crash TAG]
The Hardys won with their trademarks. Jeremy Borash was filming from ringside (so this will likely air on a future Impact.)

+LuchaTV posted a TV version of the big angle:

The main event stuff might inform the timeline a bit. In a segment yet to air on Impact Wrestling, the Hardys talk about going (well, teleporting) around the world to prove they’re the best tag team, and there’s a reference to them appearing in Tijuana. That’s referring to this show. Only, the main event as announced could not have appeared on Impact, since Rey Fenix’s Lucha Underground deal would specifically prohibit that. (Impact had to remove many segments including Heranndez when he showed up still under Lucha Underground contract, so they would be hyper aware of this issue.) This suggests the Hardyz/Impact were told at least ten days ago that they’d be getting a TV usable match like what ended up being the main event. Penta 0M, who I’m probably still just going to call Pentagon, already had redesigned masks to sell on Facebook today. Those masks must have taken some time to create. Maybe he just had them ready as a precaution for a while, but it also points towards Penta knowing he was leaving AAA well in advance. It appears those involved had been planning this for a while and were able to keep it quiet.

SuperLuchas has an interview with Daga, who is complimentary towards AAA but says his time there is at an end. Daga clearly had issues with how he was used, saying he feels he’s at the best moment of his career but has to go elsewhere to grow his career. Daga brings up only being scheduled as a second at Guerra de Titanes and it’s clear that disappointed him. Garza Jr.’s Facebook post about leaving AAA also implies he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere in AAA. He seems excited about being a rudo going forward. Garza also solicits ideas for a new team name, should they not get permission to be the Perros del Mal. (I think they’d be better off creating their own identity at this point, for image and merchandising reasons. Penta/Fenix/Daga/Garza as Perros del Mal will be a hot group, but what name they use will be a hot group if they’re booked well, and they’re better off controlling the name)

Of the three guys who jumped this weekend, Daga seems primed for the biggest Mexico indie run. Pentagon’s a bigger deal, but he’s also more likely to be in the US. Promotions like Cara Lucha have so far had no issues booking matches with Fenix against big CMLL names like Volador and Mascara Dorada. Daga was a popular indie guy before going to AAA and still retains a lot of that interest. Daga versus Volador, Daga versus Dragon Lee, those kind of Daga vs CMLL matches seem like possible in indie promotions this year. And that’s in addition to matches against other indie luchadors – Daga versus Flamita or Daga vs Ronnie Mendoza could go pretty well too. (That said, Daga mentions wanting to travel to the US and Japan this year.)

Maybe Pentagon had them made up well before he decided to leave AAA, but it definitely suggests this plan was in mind for a while. He and Fenix are booked as a tag team elsewhere, which may have happened regardless of him leaving AAA.

AAA has been silent officially, with their own posts on social media promoting a previously recorded segment on Televisa Deportes. Arturo Rivera wished those who left well when asked about the situation, but has pointed out AAA is more than three wrestlers to those predicting doom for AAA. The best defense for AAA right now is these guys are all leaving because they felt underutilized in AAA, which means AAA doesn’t exactly need someone as good as them to replace them. Hijo del Fantasma says he’s staying in AAA. Taya’s written messages supporting her former teammates for looking out for themselves while saying she’s planning on staying in AAA.

Sexy Star said she hoped she and Pentagon could be tag team champions again. Didn’t Sexy Star say she thought the won an award and not a championship to be defended? Maybe someone just explained it to her later, that’s got to be it. Rey Mysterio Jr. seems to be supporting the defections. Seems unlikely he’ll be back in AAA this year.

The Crash announced their next show in Tijuana is on 02/25, and Ricochet will be on the card. There’s been talk about The Crash running many times more show this year, which would involve running in other places. Garza Jr.’s greatest help to the group is his name value in Monterrey, so it seems a good bet that’ll be another stop. Roberto Figueroa returning to Konnan’s podcast and mentioning he’s not working with AAA any more means he could now be working with Konnan in that area. (It also may be a situation where the shows are promoted using local promotion names instead of the Crash everywhere; this 02/12 show in Juarez seems like Konnan booked show.)

The official opening of the lucha libre display at the Metro Guerrero station in Mexico City was Sunday. There’s some photos here and Black Terry Jr. has a gallery. Much of the display had been up for a little while, but they brought in luchadors from CMLL, AAA and the indies the official ribbon cutting. This was an amusing temperature taking moment: Mil Mascaras and Hijo del Santo are apparently on good enough terms to show up on CMLL social media, while they were careful not show to Hijo del Fantasma. Sofia Alonso Lutteroth was the CMLL representative on hand. (AAA didn’t mention the event at all, so either Fantasma just went on his own, or AAA was trying to keep a low profile today.)

The loaded 02/17 show in Xalapa is probably a fraud. Alberto mentioned he was being falsely advertised last week, and Black Terry Jr. says the promoter hasn’t talked to his father, much less booked him for the show.

LuchaWorld has also has the latest Lucha Report and tries to answers questions about the jumps. Alfredo raises a really good point: Fenix & Penta are in a good spot if LU uses them, and in as good or even better spot if LU lets them go. They’d be right at the top of the list for any WWE Latin American project, and probably would get picked up even if there wasn’t one. They might prefer doing their own thing, but they’d have options. The only other option is for LU to keep them under contract and not use them, and we don’t know enough about their contracts to know if that’s even possible.

In a lot of ways, LU’s compelled to find a way to make keep using Penta & Fenix because those guys are more valuable to LU than LU is valuable to them now that it’s a bunch of people on the outside. I mean no offense to anyone else who works in front or behind the cameras, but Lucha Underground without Fenix, Pentagon, Sexy Star and (for unrelated reasons) Prince Puma is not Lucha Underground. There still would Dario and Mil Muertes and other characters we enjoy and who are a core part of the brand, but there’s no way to rip out that many key characters out of your story without severely damaging the feel of the show. There’s no other Penta or Fenix LU can grab from AAA and stick in there either. More tangible, there’s storyline reasons by the end of Ultima Lucha 3 which would make it very jarring if those people all were not part of a season 4.

El Rey/Lucha Libre FMV would be better off starting off fresh with a new concept than continuing without all those people. They surely could continue, but they’ve got an uphill climb in so many other areas that adding another obstacle to overcome pushes the entire concept towards being a waste of time or money. I think everyone wants Lucha Underground to make it work, which means tLucha Underground is going to have to make a way to work with Fenix and Pentagon. And if they’re going to work out something with those guys, maybe Sexy Star or Daga or Jack or even Flamita might find their way back into the fold. I still think what happened this weekend wouldn’t have happened if LU was filming or close to filming, but the long delay until they film again gives them plenty of time to work this out. There’s got to be a positive solution here if everyone works to find it.

Ohtani’s Jacket watches Volador vs Cavernario from the Rey del Aire.

Lineup

CMLL (FRI) 01/27/2017 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Stukita vs Demus 3:16 & Mercurio
2) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, Zeuxis
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs El Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
4) Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy vs Pierroth, Ray Rowe, Rush
5) Mephisto © vs Carístico [CMLL WELTER]
4th defense
6) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

I’m still going to be surprised if Cavernario works next week. He probably shouldn’t.

Caristico did ask for this title match last week, but he asks for a lot of things. Seems unlikely he’ll get a CMLL title but can’t rule it out.

Ray Rowe teams with the man he’s facing on Sunday. That might not end up well for them.

Mascara 2000 moved down quite a bit on this appearance; he’s at the Nueva Generacion Dinamtia’s level instead of them being moved up.