IWRG (WED) 02/01/2017 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Atomic Star & Enigma b Fireman & Geo
Fireman replaced Fly Star. First match for Geo & Enigma in summer.
2) Araña de Plata & Keiser Dragón b Odín & Shadow Boy
Shadow Boy’s partner is an unnamed novato
3) Alfa, Aramis, Omega DQ Adrenalina, Avisman, Diablo Jr.
Diablo Jr. fouled Aramis. Avisman’s first match here since last August.
4) Hip Hop Man, Mosca (Argentina), Pibe Alfajor b Black Dragón, Dragón Fly, Pantera I
Mosca sneaked in a foul on Dragon Fly. Pantera I replaced Freelance.
5) Chicano, Hijo del Alebrije, Imposible b Cerebro Negro, Demonio Infernal, Eterno
Eterno replaced Relampago (injury), which allowed him to feud with Demonio Infernal. Eterno cheated to beat Demonio Infernal.
The Gladiatores will probably have the mystery novato’s name. Edit: they did! Eterno seems back to give previous novato Demonio Infernal a big feud, which is a better way of using veterans than usual. They have a singles match on Sunday
There’s not much news except AAA news. It’s not positive news! You may want to skip if that’s now if you don’t want negative stuff.
Last Tuesday, the same day as the Psycho/Wagner press conference at Arena Ciudad de Mexico, AAA filed trademarks on the names “PENTA 0M” and “FÉNIX EL REY”. They’ve previously trademarked “CERO MIEDO”, “FÉNIX EL REY” and “REY FÉNIX”, as well as the original Fenix and Pentagon Jr. names. (The name “Penta El 0M” name is not trademarked. It’s hard to link directly to this, but you can go here and punch in those names; make sure to include accents.) The lawyer at that press conference was an intellectual property lawyer, which was a pretty good clue of what else AAA was up to that day, and another lawyer from that firm has their name on the trademark applications. These trademarks are not listed as approved, just as “nominated” (requested), so it’s possible they can be fought or rejected. If approved, AAA could force those guys to stop using those names, but the process usually takes a long time and all AAA can do is make threats at the moment.
This does not surprise me at all, this is simply what AAA does when someone leaves and they’re angry about it. It seems like poor behavior – trying to own the names they used in AAA seems fair enough, trying to own new deriviations is murky at best and probably meant more to be a nuisance than any legal standpoint. The bigger surprise is there’s not applications filed by Penta El 0M, Fenix el Rey and/or their representatives. This is AAA’s move, this is always AAA’s move, and so I would’ve guessed the Rebelion guys would’ve been ready for it. I’m not a trademark lawyer and I’m definitely not a Mexican trademark lawyer, please do not use me as advice on what to do.
La Rebelión is not trademarked. Garza Jr. trademarked his own name. Daga’s name is curiously not trademarked; he used it before AAA, but that hasn’t stopped AAA from at least attempting to trademark for others. There are no trademarks currently listed in the US for those names, though that may be in progress.
I caught up with AAA TV last night. A recap will turn up someday, but the one thing you need to know is there’s little chance Pentagon/Mundo or Fantasma/Garza will ever be aired. They aired the cage match as this week’s main event, with some video and audio edits. Daga is listed in the match lineup screen, but the bit where he added himself to the match is edited out completely. Later, when Daga is escaping the cage, they briefly cut to a shot of Angelico walking to the back while Jesus Zuñiga talks about Angelico instead of Daga escaping. It’s so bad that it seems like it might be a normal AAA production error, but the audio definitely is not. AAA’s commentary is generally done live at the shows, but the next couple of minutes are all Jesus Zuñiga doing new audio from a studio, doing his best not to acknowledge Daga as he tries to stop Australian Suicide from interfering. This is all kind of mitigated by Arturo Rivera marking out for Daga early on and screaming “Daga” loudly a few times, but they tried with the rest. AAA clearly are very upset about this situation.
It’ll be much easier just not to air the matches with the other two guys, and just only the opening mixed tag and the semimain trios match with Wagner & Psycho this week. I’m hoping we get a classic match and not just the same half hour Wagner/Psycho stuff from this past week as filler, though I imagine that’ll be it. Both Mundo/Pentagon and Garza/Fantasma have fan cams on YouTube if you really want to see them.
You won’t be seeing Drago in New York, at least on the Tier 1 Wrestling show on 02/19. He will now be replaced by both Matt Cross and Rey Horuz, which should still be good. It’s not said why Drago is off the show. I don’t see him on an AAA show in Mexico right now, though there’s enough shuffling that it’s possible. Drago (and probably AAA) would seem to make more off US bookings right now than Mexico ones. It’s possible, though not confirmed, that AAA is forcing promoters to pick between their guys and La Rebelion wrestlers since Pentagon is also booked for that show. I guess we find out if that happens with other shows.
02/18 in Tijuana has a main event is Texano & Joe Lider vs Dr. Wagner & Pagano vs Monster & Murder Clown. Taya is in the semimain; it would be her first non-TV AAA show since about August, since she relocated to the US. Tijuana is an easier trip from LA than, like, San Luis Potosi would be so maybe that’s it.
WXW announced Pentagon, Vampiro (not wrestling?), Drago, Angelico, and Fenix for their 03/13 show.
Pentagon Jr. faces Davey Richards on 04/07 in Seattle. That one made me think of Arturo Rivera saying those guys would be out of work in a month and a half. April is a lot farther away than a month in a half!
Roshfrans is teasing a surprise deal with AAA & Record. It might have with all those photos they were shooting a while back. It also could be something to do with a national talent search Leo Riano mentions in his column. AAA could definitely use some new people, but they could really more use it in the middle and the top, and past talent searches usually have only added people at the bottom. It’s another thing if it’s just supposed to be part of a marketing campaign.
Shocker broke his jaw. He must’ve broke it over the weekend, and is out of action for the time being.
Lucha Memes has been announcing matches for their 02/19 Coacalco show.
They’ve also mentioned two title matches will take place on the show.
Daniel Tibbets, GM of El Rey, was on a panel of niche (or small) networks, talking about how they can remain viable in cable when money is starting to shift elsewhere. Tibbets is quoted as saying you can find other revenue streams as long as you have a “engaged, niche audience.” Judging from the many tweets asking Netflix UK, Netflix Latin America and other Netflix affiliates about Lucha Underground, they may have that.
There’s still no official news from Lucha Underground about Netflix or anything else. Netflix Canada confirmed they’d have the show on the 15th and people who work for LU say it’s coming on the 02/15, but there’s no press release about it or the return date. There really should’ve been one already, but maybe they’re got a lot of things getting done at the same time. Season 2 (and only Season 2) of the series is on Amazon US right now. It’s in the same style as iTunes, not an addition to their own Netflix like service. I looked around at other similar services and didn’t see anything.
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report . Alfredo was also on the latest edition of The Winter Palace.
Mas Por Mas has another series of quick interviews with people who work in Arena Mexico. Bobby Z mentions he was training with Santos Laguneros but preferred lucha.