TripleMania XXV lineup (08/26, Mexico City) – Wagner/Psycho, Mesias/Pagano

AAA TV (SAT) 08/26/2017 Arena Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
TripleMania XXV
1) ? vs ?? [Llave a la Gloria]
Finals of the tournament. Number of participants, format, and the actual participants TBA.
2) Big Mami, Dinastía, Estrella Divina, Máscara de Bronce vs Hernandez, La Hiedra, Mamba, Mini Psycho Clown
3) Sexy Star vs ? [Reina De Reinas]
winner decided in Aguascalientes. First TV defense, 2nd overall.
4) Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria vs Aerostar & Drago and Monsther Clown & Murder Clown and Gfw 1 & Gfw 2 [AAA TAG]
3rd defense
5) La Parka vs LashleyMoosePsicosis IIIntocableScorpió Jr.Pimpinela EscarlataLanzeloth9101112131415161718182021222324252627282930 [Copa TripleMania]
will include people who are not in AAA but maybe have worked in the past. Pirata Morgan, Sangre Chicana, Blue Demon Jr., Villanos mentioned as possibly being in the match, and AAA luchadors not otherwise booked may be in as well. Lanzeloth earned his spot from the Golden Opportunity match.
6) Johnny Mundo © vs Texano Jr.Hijo del Fantasma [TLC, AAA HEAVY, AAA CRUISER, AAA LA]
third defense for Cruiserweight/Heavyweight, fifth defense for Latin American title.
7) Pagano vs El Mesías [street fight]
8) Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr. [mask]
members of their families (Brazo de Plata mentioned, Maximo & La Mascara teased) may appear at this match

Vampiro, Dorian Roldan and a Roshfrans rep went thru all the matches, on a stream aired on Facebook Live. I was not able to watch the whole thing and there were a few techinical issues with the stream, but I think we got pretty much all of it.

Pagano & Mesias was treated as the biggest match they were announcing today. They closed the press conference by trying to get in a fight with security (and, occasionally, Vampiro) getting in between them. Vampiro talked of the extreme matches he had with Mesias elsewhere. This is clearly going to be the same sort of weapons and stunts spectacle match.

Maybe that’s the bigger theme here: the top 4 matches are all spectacle matches. They’re each a different kind of spectacle. They might be good matches, but the focus is more on being remarkable happenings.

Texano Jr. and Hijo del Fantasma appeared to talk about the triple title TLC match. Unlike Pagano/Mesias, these two tag partners turned enemies were not emotional. Hijo del Fantasma even spoke of wanting to be friends with Texano again after this, though that seemed unlikely. Vampiro confirmed Johnny Mundo had not actually relinquished the title, and blamed it on fans and media misunderstanding what was happening (and not the participants doing a poor job of doing the story in a way that the audience could follow.)

Aside 1: Vampiro’s Facebook explanation for taking the Reina title away from Taya was that Taya had won it by referee stoppage after an illegal choke, they were taking titles seriously now, and they really had to change hands by pinfall or submission. Vampiro has now made a match where the men’s titles will change hands not via pinfall and not via submission. This is reason #14 why Vampiro shouldn’t have made that Facebook post, it just keeps looking dumber.

Aside 2: the TLC stip allows for all sorts of weird finishes, especially when AAA want to be known as exciting creative storytellers. There are three belts, maybe they begin splitting them back up by having someone grab two but not one of the others. Maybe Kevin Kross, conspicuously missing from the lineup, completes his betrayal of Mundo by grabbing the belts himself. Maybe Mascara de Bronce gets the briefcase back, cashes it in during the match, and gets the belts himself. Maybe it’s just a normal finish.

Aside 3: I think Taya being caught off guard by AAA taking the Reina de Reinas title from her and giving it to Sexy Star was very real. I think Mundo & Taya’s anger over the situation is real. And I also think Taya & Mundo reached a decision that the best revenge would not to be to quit the company early, but to make sure AAA paid Mundo every dollar that was owed to him and satisfy themselves with clowning Vampiro on social media in the meantime. AAA has shown they’re not going to stop working with Mundo whatever he & Taya say about Vampiro; they’re untouchable as long as they keep on Vampiro. They’re also smart enough to be using this for attention and sympathy, but the storyline there is seems more to build them up for other promotions than one with AAA. AAA’s not deviating from their original plan, and it doesn’t seem like it was a big question from the media.

The Copa TripleMania was said to be a “ruleta rusa”, which is usually a multiman match or tournament when the winner escapes and the loser has to keep going until the last person loses their hair or mask. It’s 30 people, so I think it’s really just a royal rumble this time. AAA kind of announced this back in May when Lanzeloth won a shot for a dream battle royal at TripleMania. It was explained here as a match celebrating the different eras of AAA for the 25th Anniversary. (They should’ve made advertised it as a 25 person match!) The AAA website lineup lists only La Parka, Scorpio Jr., Intocable and Psicosis (II) in the match. However, they seemed say Lashley and Moose would be participating at the press conference, and Dorian threw out Blue Demon, Villanos, Pirata Morgan and Sangre Chicana names as possible. Chicana appeared on AAA TV this week in a cameo that seemed to foreshadow him being part of this, and Pirata is a semiregular on TV.

Psicosis being there was actually the biggest surprise of the night. The luchador also known Ripper left AAA in 2009, and was part of a group of wrestlers (Kraneo/Alebrije and Morphosis/Histeria most notable) who fought AAA for the rights to their names in court. There was no dispute that AAA created the characters, but they argued they had given value to them by carrying them for many years and should be able to keep them. They joined CMLL in 2010 as Los Invasors, but eventually changes to their current names because CMLL decided they no longer wanted to be part of any lawsuit. It appeared these guys never won the rights to names, but could still get away with using them off TV and out of CMLL. Showing up in this press conference means quitting CMLL, but I don’t think it necessarily means Psicosis will be appearing in AAA full time – like Scorpio and Intocable, it may just an AAA special appearance or two and headed to the indies. Histeria/Morphosis has barely been used in CMLL the last few years and I’d suspect he’ll be in this match if AAA is interested. I’m doubtful Kraneo will do the same.

Aside 4: Psicosis and Sexy Star returning to AAA shows that AAA is willing to make a deal with anyone, no matter what happened before, if they like the deal. I don’t think Fenix or Pentagon or Daga or Garza want to go back to AAA right now or any time soon, but there will be an offer if they ever change their minds. Never say never because never is a very long time.

Despite probably being in the middle of a Best of 5 Series, the Aerostar/Drago/Raptor vs Poder del Norte feud won’t appear here, with Aerostar & Drago challenging (and unlikely to win) for another team title. The Poder del Norte and OGT have been large focuses of TV time the last three months and they’re maybe in the battle royal but didn’t even get announced for it.

Dorian talked around not having a specific GFW tag team to announce for the tag title match. Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards had been announced as appearing at TripleMania months ago and they may have been planned to be the team, but Davey Richards had said he wasn’t staying with GFW just this week. (Richards & Edwards had also broken up and been feuding, but that’s probably a lesser concern here.) They’ll probably find someone else to team with Edwards.

AAA has a 2v2 women’s tag match on their poster for Aguascalientes, but the two women most likely to get that title shot – Faby Apache & Ayako Hamada – are not booked in it. AAA could easily acknowledge who’s in the #1 contenders match, which might be an added reason for people to come to show to Aguascalientes. This year has shown AAA will obstinately continue to promote the lineup they’ve acknowledged is false, and it’s probably not a smart idea for to be spending this many words on this lineup too.

Aside 5: Big Mami & La Hiedra being announced as in the Relevos AAA is an oversight, since I’d assume they’re still going to be in the contender’s match and we’re supposed to believe they have a shot at winning it.

I’m still not quite sure what’s going on with the La Llave a la Gloria contest, but they did announce dates for things. The final tryout is Saturday in Celaya. They will select the finalists in Arena Naucalpan in August (probably the 12, but Record has it as the 15?). The finalsts will appear on TripleMania. Not sure if the means two teams of finalists facing off or some AAA wrestlers being added to an opening match.

Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner did not appear at the press conference, with the idea that they’d appear at a future press conference and this was more about the rest of the card. They did mention Super Porky and perhaps other members of both families in the corners of both men. That’s a tease of Maximo & La Mascara, though Maximo’s already said he’s taken a booking elsewhere. One of the reasons to bring Sexy Star back would seem to be these sort of media events, but she did not appear either.

This show will probably air live at least in Mexico, but AAA was not ready to say when or how. It certainly appears Leo Riano’s claim that Televisa would be broadcasting the show is at least on the table, since that’s the only non-PPV option. There’d be a certain strangeness about Televisa airing the show. AAA never can refer to the Arena Ciudad de Mexico building by name on TV because the building is owned by rival Azteca, so Televisa broadcasting a show from there would be unusual.

AAA does not list a start time, which might be an oversight or it might be up in the air because of the television situation. The ticket website lists an 8pm start and that’s what MedioTiempo reported. It’s possible that’s just when the doors open and it’s 9pm.

AAA claimed they’ve sold 60-65% of the arena. At the last press conference, they were claiming to have sold 80% of the arena. Those numbers seemed like pressure sales tactics and probably still are, but I can’t imagine this being any less than 90% full when it happens

The lineup is – ok? There’s a lot of caveats and a lot of adjusting for what AAA is now as opposed to a few years ago, but it’s a good effort considering what they have. Psycho/Wagner will probably be worth the price of admission, with the high emotion overcoming a likely predictable worked match. Pagano/Mesias will probably be a gory death match but they’ll both go so far over the top that it’ll be memorable. Ladder matches in AAA (and most of lucha libre) don’t usually hold together all that well, but Mundo’s got experience in some very good ones and he could make it work.

The front half of the card isn’t as promising but it’s not death. The Copa TripleMania will probably be jaw dropping bad at points if the likes of immobile 2017 Scorpio Jr. are already being included, but there will at least be the novelty of seeing who else will show up – if they’re giving away Ripper at the press conference, there’s probably at least one more random name being kept secret. The tag title match is actually kind of disappointing: I’d have much rather seen the tecnicos against Poder del Norte, it’s a match that shown to have a higher ceiling and neither Cuervo/Ozz or Murder/Monster have been that interesting with a lot of TV matches this year. I wasn’t sure Dinastia was making this card so I’m glad to endure another Relevos AAA for his 60 seconds of ring time. And the Llave match might steal the night depending on who makes it thru and what limitations they have.

I’m really happy they’re not wasting time with an Alberto match. Moose and Lashley in a battle royal seems a waste of bringing them in, but I’d rather see them wasted then them being wedged into a different program they don’t fit in. (More AAA’s fault for not setting anything up prior.) There’s also no NOAH guys announced, but perhaps they’ll side into the Copa TripleMania too. There’s a lot of OK stuff here but there’s nothing truly terrible, and that’s an improvement. You take what you can get from AAA this year.

CMLL Puebla: 2017-07-10 (yes, from two weeks ago)

bad times for Titan

Recapped: 07/11/2017

All matches aired live from Arena Puebla

Matches: 

Cancerbero, El Malayo, Raziel beat Arkalis, Asturiano, París
(17:20 [7:39, 5:17, 4:24], 2/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Ares, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado beat Blue Panther Jr., Lestat, The Panther  
(17:47 [8:41, 4:37, 4:29], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Dalys © beat Marcela to retain the CMLL World Women’s Championship (9:49, 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

  1. Dalys double wristlock cradle (4:00)

  2. Marcela tapatia (2:29)

  3. Dalys boot counter (3:20)

Cavernario, Euforia, Felino beat Dragón Lee, Titán, Valiente  
(16:06 [4:29, 7:52, 3:45], 2/3, ok via VideosOficialesCMLL)

Niebla Roja beat Último Guerrero
(9:35 [5:12, 4:23], 1/2, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

  1. Niebla Roja huracanrana (5:12)

  2. Niebla Roja small package (4:23)

Pierroth, Rush, Volador Jr. beat  Carístico, Kráneo, Ripper in a relevos increíbles match
(9:01 [1:21, 1:54, 5:46], 1/3, ok, via VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

Asturiano!

Rush snuck in a foul on Caristico to win the main event. Niebla Roja surprised UG to win in straight falls. It seemed like Marcela was meant to kick out on the third fall finish and didn’t in time. Misterioso added The Panther’s mask to his collection.

Thoughts: 

don’t trust Blue Panther Jr. to catch you 

Uploading GIFs to this web site is a pain – it’s one of the reasons it’s down half the time – and writing about boring shows is not fun. I’ve stayed on my usual schedule despite not posting anything but Claro & LU for a couple weeks, I just haven’t bothered to finish writing about them and putting them up. I’m doing more out of guilt of not getting the MOTYC list, but it’s not like those shows are actually adding to those lists.

This was another uneventful show for match quality. Niebla Roja & Ultimo Guerrero was a one sided match set with Niebla Roja just getting a couple of surprise pins. Dalys & Marcela came off as though the third fall ended prematurely. Nothing else really got going.

It’s nice to see Volador back as a rudo – where he belongs!! – but it’s also messed up considering what match CMLL is trying to promote. The early matches had the usual pacing issues. Arkalis & Asturiano do just enough to convince you that they’re probably having good matches far away from here.

TripleMania press conference today (w/Rey?), Rush/Caristico in Puebla

this seems rude

CMLL (MON) 07/24/2017 Arena Puebla [CMLL, CultIcon]
1) Guerrero Espacial & Perverso b Arkalis & París LA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
2) Pierrothito b Shockercito [lightningLA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
The intended person won but the finish seemed screwed up by a Tirantes count. Pierroth gets a title match next week.
3) La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely b La Seductora, Tiffany, Zeuxis LA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
4) Ángel de Oro, Stigma, Stuka Jr. b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto LA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
5) Cavernario, Felino, Negro Casas b Dragón Lee, Mistico, Titán LA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
6) Pierroth, Rush, Volador Jr. b Carístico, Diamante Azul, Euforia [Relevos IncreíblesLA MEJOR LUCHA LIBRE EN VIVO DESDE LA ARENA PUEBLA 24  DE JULIO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
After saying on Wednesday that he had no interest in being in Los Ingobernables, Volador wore an Ingobernable Rush jersey for the match. Rush unmasked Caristico setting up a singles match next week.

Main event was short and not good but the promos to build up next week sound like they went well. It sounds like the fourth match was the best of the bunch.

Today’s CMLL show has nothing important coming into it, but a couple interesting matches. Virus gets a singles match with Rey Cometa seems like the best match on the show. The main event has Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero and Terrible against Angel de Oro, Marco Corleone and Volador Jr., who will probably be right back to normal today. Dragon Lee teams up with Guerrero Maya & Johnny Idol against Dragon Rojo, Polvora & Vangellys. Misterioso goes for another mask, teaming with Polvora and Disturbio against the Panther Brothers & Stigma. The second match is an Arkangel match. The opener has newbies Fiero & Sangre Imperial against Yago & Apocalipsis.

Guadalajara has the more interesting show: the #NGD face Hijos del Infernals for the national trios titles, with the young Dinamitas trying to win a second championship in a week. It’s unlikely they’ll repeat their Arena Coliseo Tag Team chance but it’s a good chance for them. The main event has Diamante Azul, Mistico & Rush against Euforia, Hechicero and Kraneo.

Someone named “El Consejo” replaced Astral on Sunday and Fuego on Saturday in the lineups. Maybe it’s just a place filler. Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre is just boring and uninspired enough to name someone “El Consejo” while genuinely believing that’s a solid name. It’s a terrible name, but CMLL is only naming someone after their promotion if he’s going to be a big deal. CMLL trademarked the name in 2012, probably in response to AAA using that as a name for a faction.

While I was searching around on trademarks, I noticed CMLL’s also filed for design trademarks on a lot of mask designs. CMLL filed trademark for about 25 mask designs back in May. The list on the tradmark site is Volador, Valiente, Ultimo Guerrero, Titan, Sanson, The Panther (or maybe all three?), Rush, Ripper, Polvora, Pierroth, Niebla Roja, Mr. Niebla, Mephisto, Mascara Dorada, la Sombra, Kraneo, Monito, Forastero, Sagrado, Dragon Rojo (in his half Diamante Negro mask), Dragon Lee, Cuatrero, Caristico, Atlantis and Angel de Oro. There’s also a couple cartoons of Rush in there. I don’t know what rights that gives them, or if they’ll be acting on them; they haven’t been officially granted anything yet. They also trademarked Torneo Natalia Vazquez a few days before announcing it.

I also noticed AAA was officially awarded some of the Penta Zero M trademarks but the Penta 0M ones and Fenix ones are still undecided, and they’ve asked for Raptor and Lucha Libre Victoria World Cup – which means that concept is still alive even if AAA’s not mentioned it this year. Maybe they’ll do it later today.

TripleMania press conference this afternoon

AAA will have a press conference today in Mexico City at 3:30pm CT to talk about TripleMania. AAA usually streams their press conferences, so keep an eye on their Facebook. AAA also is usually late, so don’t be surprised if it’s starting more around 4pm or later. The promo says it’ll be “big surprises” for TripleMania. They’d previously said they’d be announcing the full card for TripleMania, but perhaps that’s changed.

I suspect it’s an afternoon press conference simply because people were  flying in this morning. Rey Mysterio checked in around noon, and he’s probably not in Mexico City without being involved in this. Mysterio’s been pretty solidly with The Crash up to this poing, but he’s Rey Mysterio and can work for both places if he wants to – they’ll both be happy to have him. Rey’s on track to work a lot more in 2017 than he did in 2016, working smaller Crash shows and related shows in addition to wrestling elsewhere. I don’t know how this plays in his future decisions, but it would put Rey on the same show as GFW wrestlers.

I also believe Alberto is still in Mexico and one of the big surprises will be him appearing on TripleMania. Promociones Juniors also announced Heroes Inmortales will be on 10/01 in San Luis Potosi, so perhaps the TripleMania match will set up a second match in Alberto’s hometown. I’m not sure AAA needs Alberto, they drew a full house there last week with a normal house show lineup, but it fits.

(AAA scheduling geek side note: a 10/01 date is earlier than usual and means only the Irapuato taping will air before Heroes Inmortales actually happens. Don’t expect a lot for matches on that show. Also, there was no October SLP stop in the schedule AAA handed out at the start of the year, but they were clear about the last third of the year changing as it got closer.)

This will be the first time AAA will be in front of the press since everything that’s happened with Taya, Sexy Star and Johnny Mundo. By this point, they’ve turned it into a storyline and anything they say will probably be furthering that. (Vampiro was on Zona Ruda last night, so I suspect it came up there as well – but no one writes much about Zona Ruda and it’s not put up on YouTube until mid week.) My guess is Mundo is working the scheduled match against Hijo del Fantasma & Texano.

Most of the card is a mystery; there’s stuff AAA has announced in passing, and there’s stuff they’ve pointed towards, but nothing’s been really been treated like an important deal beyond Wagner/Psycho. They’ll be betting on Alberto being a big positive deal if he’s appearing, but I don’t think anything else they matter is going to mean a whole lot to move tickets. It’s really the mask match and the idea of TripleMania that have been selling tickets so far. The rest of the card is interesting in the hopes of getting some good matches (too rare on AAA shows this year) and to see where AAA has everyone positioned (are feuds like Bengala/Suicide or Hiedra/Shani making the show in a meaningful way? is there a reason Angelico is back?) but AAA’s going to live or die with that main event. I guess this is the last real chance of AAA getting out of the mask match by putting someone else it, but I’m not sure they can escape it and I can’t seem them actually doing it.

Other Things

Mucha Lucha Atlanta has Caristico & Rush on their 10/08 show.

Sanson & Cuatrero say it was an honor to beat Negro Navarro & Black Terry for the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championship.

The Winter Palace Podcast interviews Sam Adonis.

LuchaWorld has an interview with Guerrero Maya Jr. and this week’s Poster-Mania.

Segunda Caida watches some Blue Panther/Sam Adonis trios.

SuperLuchas writes about Puma de Oro, who passed away recently.

El Concerto interviews Gallego.

Red Dragon took Barbaro III’s hair in Puebla.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 07/31/2017 Arena Puebla
1) Arkalis, Espíritu Maligno, Rey Samuray vs Ares, Guerrero Espacial, Rey Apocalipsis
2) La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
3) Shockercito © vs Pierrothito [CMLL MINI]
first defense
4) Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr., Stigma vs El Malayo, Puma, Tiger
5) Dragón Lee, Mistico, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Negro Casas
6) Carístico vs Rush

Arena Puebla has gone with a July full of big shows and this is one more with Caristico & Rush in a main event. The title match should be good. Malayo working a fourth match is rare; part of it has to be because the 2nd or 3rd matches are not the men’s division, but it might be more than that since he’s across from Stigma.

new lucha videos for the weekend of July 22th, 2017

Guadalajara took their feed offline Saturday night so no lucha there. AYM did air the IWRG Sunday show, but the feed died during the opener. I’ll put it up if pops up during the week.

07/21 CMLL Claro: mega

07/22 CMLL Azteca:  mega  – US TV skipped over Vangellys/Pierroth (both the hair match and the build up trios match the week before)

IWRG Zona XXI: 2017-07-22
taped 2017-07-19 @ Arena Naucalpan
mega/playlist
1) Climax Jr. & Shaolin vs Lunatik Xtreme & Warrior Jr.
2) Aramis, Gallo Frances, Hijo del Alebrije vs Kempo Jr., Monaguillo, Pantera del Japon
3) Leo, Mike, Rafy, Teelo vs Dragón Yuki, Ovett, Relámpago, Taylor Wolf
4) Black Dragón, Dinamic Black, Dragón Fly vs Cerebro Negro, Eterno, Hijo del Pantera