TripleMania to air for free on Twitch, huge Lucha Underground episode tonight

Mistico doing the other Mistico’s plancha

CMLL (TUE) 08/22/2017 Arena México
1) Apocalipsis & Cholo b Bengala & Sensei LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
2) Cancerbero, Raziel, Sangre Azteca b Oro Jr., Príncipe Diamante, Starman LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
3) Puma, Tiger, Virus b Drone, Fuego, Stigma LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
rudos took 1/3
4) Blue Panther Jr., Stuka Jr., The Panther b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
tecnicos took 1/3
5) Ángel de Oro, Titán, Valiente b Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
tecnicos took 2/3
6) Último Guerrero b Mistico LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 22 DE AGOSTO DEL 2017 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
UG took 2/3, using the ropes to win the third fall

I’ve only seen the main event, which was good. The rest of the show got better than usual reviews.

They appeared to have Tirantes wearing a body camera on the show. Maybe highlights will turn up later. The referee cameras haven’t turned out well in the past, but those have been higher up (like glasses) and maybe a different angle will make it work.

It sounds like the Guadalajara bus broke down on the way back to Mexico City.

CMLL has an introduction to Flip Gordon. The Anniversario match will be his first match in CMLL.

TripleMania on Twitch

Twitch & AAA announced TripleMania will air on the streaming video platform on Saturday for free. They’re going to do seven hours of a live show, with both Spanish and English commentary. The show will began at 5pm Central Time with a 2 hour pregame show (a “best of TripleMania” marathon.) The show is scheduled to start at 7pm CT and run until midnight.

The Spanish language stream: https://www.twitch.tv/luchalibreaaa

The English language stream: https://www.twitch.tv/luchalibreaaa_en

No one is specifically mentioned as English language announcers. There’s also no word if the show will be live only, or if will be available to be watch after the fact. It’s possible with Twitch and it’s also definite that someone (not me) will upload the thing to YouTube the moment it’s done anyway, so I’m assuming it’ll be an option.

(a quick What Is Twitch aside: Twitch became famous as a super popular video game streaming platform. They restricted it to only games for a while, and have started to open it up to other types of programming in the past year. That means wrestling program is so novel that this announcement has been picked up by places that don’t cover wrestling like Engadget and Venturebeat. You do not need a Twitch account to watch the video, you just need to go the page and it’ll be normal streaming video. If you have some device which casts video to your TV, you probably can do that with Twitch as well. Twitch streams may include commercials and ads, and AAA may make some of the money from them.)

(a quick schedule aside: Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner is scheduled to happen after Mayweather/McGregor. The idea is to let people in Mexico see both on Televisa, and so will you if you choose so.)

The preshow bit is a Very Good Thing. I don’t know that you or I actually need 7 hours of TripleMania (or of any wrestling show), but I love the idea because it gives them two hours to make sure the feed is actually running before something new actually happens. We’ve seen problems in that area many times before and any precautions are great news. AAA could really use TripleMania being a good show, in the ring and in the presentation.

As part of their tapings, GFW mentioned TripleMania (or highlights) will air on Impact at some point.

Lucha Underground

Lucha Underground 3×32 has “the Cueto Cup”. This is not a season finale, but it is one of the bigger shows in the history of the show

  • Sexy Star versus Veneno in a mask vs mask match (clip)
  • Pentagon Dark versus Prince Puma in the Cueto Cup final ((clip)
  • Rey Mysterio versus Johnny Mundo (c) for the Lucha Underground Championship

The winner of the Cueto Cup final will face the winner of Rey/Mundo on Ultima Lucha. The people who’ve seen the mask match have indicated expectations should be set very low. I have not seen this episode (though I believe it did make it to torrents this week), but I did see a clip from a vignette in Dario’s office which will convince you it was taped in the last few months, not last year.

Look at that list of names again: the two biggest ex-WWE stars on the show are having a match, the two biggest “homegrown” stars are having a match and their most favorite female star putting up her mask. Sexy Star/Veneno hasn’t really gotten more than 10 seconds of attention (they weren’t even part of last week’s brawl), but Mysterio/Mundo and Pentagon/Puma have had nearly 3 months of build. It’d be tough to draw up a bigger non-Ultima Lucha one hour TV show.

I’m not a really big believer in the importance of the week to week Lucha Underground ratings. The numbers are so low that most of the week to week variation is more about the margin of error than what happens. (That’s why they get tossed off with a single tweet and not mentioned here.) Still, if Lucha Underground is every going to pop a number based on a show, it’s this show: it’s got big names, a good build and is coming off a hot segment to end last week’s episode. No one’s knows the definite future of Lucha Underground, and one rating number shouldn’t define it’s future, but this does seem like a situation where really good viewership might be a point in favor of continuing and a disappointing number might lower the value people are willing to pay for a season 4.

Lucha Underground t-shirts are now available on Walmart.

Other News

Reforma has a video of Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner hanging out in Cancun the last couple of days.

Pagano was on Record duty today. Pagano, Fantasma and Texano did not appear on last night’s Impact tapings, the last of the set. Which was weird, since the AAA wrestlers would’ve worked well on a taping being marketed as Latin Night. I’m thinking they must’ve have flown back to Mexico yesterday, either for press or for a walkthru.

Revista Sidi has an interview with former DTU/Queretaro luchador Money Pack. He was doing well with the group until disappearing after 2010 and only returning for a few matches. The article reveals he was traveling to get English lessons, feeling that he should learn because he had a chance to wrestle internationally, only to be hit by a taxi and break many bones in his foot. He’s clearly frustrated with those who still have the opportunity to wrestle but don’t put in the same effort he believes he would’ve given.

Roberto Figueroa makes the case that weird matches like the upcoming Revolucha main event (Huracán Ramírez, Mistico II, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Jeff Jarrett, MVP, Sam Adonis) draw a lot of interest. This might be right, I hear there’s a weird fight on Saturday that has some interest. But it’s going to be so bad.

DTU announced changes to their card on Saturday. Crazy Boy & Halloween are part of Torneo TripleMania, so Black Fire and Aeroboy have been added to the card to replace them.

Todo x el Todo put their entire poster for their 09/23 Tulancingo show, but hasn’t actually listed

The Gladiatores interviewed Pimpinela, Mr. Aguila and Halloween at the AAA media day.

LuchaTalk has RobViper as a guest to preview TripleMania.

The latest +LuchaTV podcast has Dr. Wagner Jr. & Sharlie Rockstar as guests. They mention Kojima is sticking around after the Gran Prix, thru the Anniversary show.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 08/27/2017 Arena Naucalpan
1) Celestial Boy vs Power Bull
2) Demonio Infernal, Hijo Del Bombero, Shadow Boy vs Lunatic Xtreme, Skanda, Toxin
3) Emperador Azteca vs Hijo del Pantera
4) Bombero Infernal, Chico Che, Leo, Rafy vs Eterno, Gallo Frances, Internacional Pantera, Kanon
5) Danny Casas, Golden Magic, Villano III Jr. vs Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Trauma I, Trauma II
6) Mr. Electro vs Villano V Jr. [IWRG IC HEAVY]
2nd defense

That main event – well, match three in the Azteca/Pantera sequence look sfun.

CMLL (TUE) 08/29/2017 Arena México
1) Fiero & Sangre Imperial vs Grako & Templario
2) Astral, Pegasso, Stigma vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Nitro, Sangre Azteca
3) Drone, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Puma, Tiger, Virus
4) Titán vs Pólvora [lightning]
5) Dragón Lee, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Rey Bucanero
6) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero, Pierroth, Rush

Another promising looking Tuesday card. Titan & Polvora have been great before.

CMLL (TUE) 08/29/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Mágico & Neutrón vs Relámpago Azul & Thunder Boy
2) Oro Jr., Robin, Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Metálico, Raziel
3) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado
4) Johnny Idol, Marco Corleone, Sam Adonis vs Shocker, Terrible, Vangellys
5) Cavernario, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas vs Juice Robinson, Matt Taven, Michael Elgin

One last appearance for the foreigners here before the Gran Prix.

TxT (SAT) 09/23/2017 Palenque de la Feria, Tulancingo, Hidalgo
1) ? vs ??
local luchadors
2) Ángel Blanco Jr. © vs El Bandido (Indie) [WWA WELTER]
3) Crazy Boy, Fishman Jr., Rayman vs Canek Jr., Cien Caras Jr., Heddi Karaoui
4) El Dandy, El Hijo Del Santo, Mil Máscaras, Santo Jr. vs El Hijo del Solitario, Satánico, Silver King, Silver King Jr.

Full card for Hijo del Santo’s celebration of 100 years of his father. El Dandy has been lured out of retirement one again. Bandido is getting all the title matches, which speaks well for him, but I assume they’re saving that title change for Santo Jr.

This show was originally supposed to be in Mexico City, in the city square Zocalo. It sounded like Hijo del Santo couldn’t get a deal done, but they could’ve found another venue to hold it if they had to have it in Mexico City. I wonder if there might also be a desire to keep holding off Santo Jr.’s debut in the capital, because reviews of his performances still are not strong.