IWRG (WED) 06/14/2017 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (Flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Power Bull b Vardeus
2) Fly Tiger & Skanda b Ángel Oriental & Keiser Drago
3) Dowki, Picudo Jr., Vórtize b Dragón Fly, Kanon, Shaolin
Dragon Fly replaced Saruman
4) Atomic Star & Lunatik Xtreme b Black Dragón & Shadow Boy
Shadow Boy was hurt.
5) Aramis, Dinamic Black, Emperador Azteca b Látigo, Metaleón, Mr. Leo
Metaleon was teaming with Indy Nation but is not part of it.
6) Cerebro Negro, Demonio Infernal, Súper Mega b Centvrión, Eterno, Ovett
Centvrion pinned Cerebro Negro, but Cerebro snuck back in and unmasked him to set up Super Mega’s pin. Centvrion challenged IWRG for a Indy Nation versus FILL match. Eterno accepted the match, and Centvrion, Fulgor, Latigo and Mr. Leo took the win to end the show.
Black Terry Jr. has highlights of the post match from the main event and a Indy Nation promo post show. Typically strange IWRG booking for them to introduce Indy Nation and then have them lose two matches on this show (with people they may not even be feuding with?) The cibernetico should still be good and Indy Nation is trying to do this group on multiple shows – they helped Centvrion win in Arena Revolucion and they’ve got a Facebook page, where this lineup looked slightly different.
Yesterday, the Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather boxing match was made official. That match seemed about as likely to happen as the Octagon versus Fuerza Guerrera mask match, but they teased it so well that both believe they’re going to take home a huge amount of money so it kinda had to happen. The match was announced for August 26th. August 26th is the date of TripleMania. TripleMania may be cursed, something happens every year.
It’s likely that someone in Mexico dedicated to seeing both could do so, TripleMania’s the one AAA show run on a normal schedule and stands a strong chance of finishing before the boxing match gets to the ring. It’s going to be more a problem of attention: AAA wants a big spotlight for the week leading up to their show, to sell the show and to build it’s brand, and they’re going to struggle to get it even just in Mexico City. AAA could try to move their show to Sunday to avoid running the same night, but it wouldn’t help getting the notice they’re looking for every year with this show.
(Digression: I haven’t made my sarcasm clear enough about the ticket sales. I believe AAA has already sold a lot of tickets, but AAA rapidly reporting higher sales over a two week period when there was no reason for tickets to be moving that quick means they’re probably just saying those “70%! no, now 80%!” percentages as obvious hype to get people to hurry to the box office before they were all gone. It was definitely positioned like that on TV. My guess is the real sold number was something less than that at that point and AAA’s stopped talking about tickets sold after that couple week blitz.)
The good news for AAA is they announced TripleMania’s date and their main event way back in January, and plenty of people got their decided to come to the show. They’ve sold tickets, people have made plans to come to the show, and they’re all going to do that. There’s a Mexico City and greater Mexico country fanbase who make TripleMania their destination show every year and that’s probably not going to change. This show is still going to probably be AAA’s first $1,000,000 USD gate. It’s also another reason it was very smart & fortunate AAA went with the Wagner/Psycho mask match for this year’s show, because it’s important enough to the fanbase to be a big attraction no matter what else is going on. This would’ve been a bigger blow if it was last year’s Pagano/Psycho match.
The bad news is TripleMania is usually AAA’s one big chance to expand their brand, because it’s the only show AAA can get people who don’t normally follow lucha libre to notice, and and it’s gong to be very difficult to do that if this fight sucks up all the oxygen in the room. I know there were talks about putting it on US PPV again this year. I think having Impact wrestlers on the show was part of the idea there, and to generate some interest in AAA luchadors prior to them being brought onto Impact house shows in the fall. I don’t think that would’ve been a big number of people, but it’s less today, and it’s possible PPV providers won’t even want to carry any show that’d distract from the fight that’s going to carry their whole year. Hopefully AAA still tries, does iPPV and spends some effort getting people out there to talk about the show in multiple languages, but it’s a much harder road.
Psycho Clown did an interview talking about wanting to become a legend of lucha libre, claims he won two “muy grande, muy importante” masks at Verano de Escandalo. That’s generous of him.
CMLL Informa ended it’s show yesterday by revealing the first two members of Team World for the 09/01 Gran Prix: Matt Taven & King Haku. Taven is not popular among most people who read sites like this, but it is logical from the inter-promotion storyline they’re telling: Taven & UG had the match at H2L, Taven & Vinny Marseglia take on Ultimo Guerrero & Terrible at ROH’s PPV next Friday and Ultimo Guerrero and Matt Taven will have another singles match on the TV taping the next day. It may not be an exciting option, but Taven/Guerrero is now even an obvious possibility for the CMLL Anniversario main event since it’s the feud CMLL keeps on going back towards.
There’s no logical defense for King Haku being on the show. King Haku is still a cult favorite, but he’s hardly a luchador at this point. He’s 58 and mostly retired, only wrestling for rare nostalgia appearances or as special cameos teaming with his sons on NJPW related shows. I suspect the latter is what is actually happening here, that Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa are also on Team World for this Gran Prix and it’ll make slightly more sense when they’re announced. Still, this is a guy who is retired and who hasn’t been in Mexico in over two decades, being billed as one of the drawing points for a big CMLL show. There’s no clearer sign of CMLL management being out of touch than deciding believing the return of a foreign star from 1994 is big news.
The Crash says Marty Scurll is coming in soon, continuing the pattern of ROH/NJPW luchadors getting brought into The Crash and not CMLL. I don’t think it was timed this way, but it’s an interesting juxtaposition with the King Haku announcement.
Leo Riano’s column says the current make up for the CMLL union board is Nitro, Arkangel and new addition Dragon Rojo Jr. Riano says all three men love wrestling; having seen Nitro’s recent matches, I’m not sure that’s the case.
Riano also pushes the idea that The Crash/Konnan is trying to get Rush. This is something we talked about when La Mascara was fired, that Rush might follow his good friend. Since then, Rush has shown no interest in leaving CMLL. It totally makes sense for The Crash to float the idea and see Rush’s interest, but I don’t think it’s going to happen at this point. The Crash is only running a couple shows a month, and has new TV outlet – their big selling point to wrestlers is freedom, and no one seems to have more freedom to do what they want in CMLL than Rush (and Riano makes the same point.) I don’t think there’s anything to this right now.
Lucha Va Voom says Diamante Azul is working their August 3rd show, so he’s probably still scheduled to come back to Mexico sometime soon.
AAA started airing in the UK yesterday. It’s simply the same recordings that were airing on The Fight Network but haven’t been airing recently. They started back with the TripleMania 24 show, which is strong in terms of presentation and scale but features a lot of people who were only for that show (Prince Puma, Matanza, Dragon Azteca) and people who are now gone (Pentagon). It’s not going to help AAA much if 10 months behind, but I’m still unsure many people will have seen it any way.
MedioTiempo writes about Caristico needing to finally get a big win in his second tour with CMLL. Apolo also writes about what it’s like for a luchador to travel to a lucha libre show – the travel, the many trips to McDonalds and the exhaustion. It’s one of the best thing he’s written.
TKD and CultIcon review last night’s Lucha Underground. Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground episode 3×14 (first two Battle of the Bulls matches)
The new episode of Lucha Talk is up.
Sanson & Cuatrero talks about being in the Gran Alternativa final.
Miedo Extremo & Ciclope are headed to Freedoms for most of July & August. They’ll join Violento Jack, still on his year long trip there.
Powerbomb.TV talked about how their event went over on Reddit, mentions they’re aiming for their title to be decided in October.