Elite defeats AAA, Puma King, Pagano, Ultimo Ninja, CMLL weekend results

a very high splash

AAA TV (SAT) 07/21/2018 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [AAA, ESTOEstrellas del RingLucha CenralMeditoTiempoR de RudoRecordThe Gladiatoresthecubsfan]
1) Faby Apache, La Hiedra, Vanilla b Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Zeuxis  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Zeuxis, Lady Maravilla y Keira vs Faby Apache, Vanilla Vargas y La Hiedra en AAA vs Élite (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Team AAA (Faby) vs team ELITE (Zeuxis). 9:46, Faby pinning Zeuxis when Zeuxis had a shoulder up (finish was messed up). Lady Shani attacked Faby with a kendo stick, Faby bled a tiny bit, Faby hit Shani with a chair, and Hijo del Tirantes very obviously bladed Shani.
2) Trauma I & Trauma II b La Máscara & Máximo  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Los Traumas I y II vs la Máscara y Máximo en AAA vs Liga Élite. (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Team AAA (Alvardos) vs Team ELITE (Traumas). 5:07. Traums submitted both Alvardos after Maximo screwed up again. La Mascara seems to be splitting from Maximo and heading to a team with Fantasma. Mamba came to the ring to console Maximo after the match, then Kevin Kross and Brian Cage destroyed everyone. The rest of MAD came out to taunt the fans. Vampiro interrupted, trashed Konnan, and was beat up by MAD. OGT made the save. Vampiro declared himself the biggest and best OGT of all suggested they team up to face MAD.
3) Hijo de LA Park & Taurus b Aerostar & Argenis  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Hijo de L A Park y Black Taurus vs Aerostar y Argenis en AAA vs Liga Élite (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Team AAA (Aerostar) vs Team ELITE (Taurus). 11:05. Argenis was the surprise wrestler and was pinned by Taurus. Parka Negra ran out to attack Hijo de LA Park, then was brushed aside as Cage & Kross ran out to beat everyone up again.
4) Jack Evans & Teddy Hart b Joe Lider & Pagano  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Pagano y Joe Llíder vs Jack Evans y Teddy Hart en AAA vs Liga Élite (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Team AAA (Pagano) vs Team Elite (Jack). Moved down a spot. 12:38. Jack Evans pinned Joe Lider with a 630 senton. Pagano was injured attempting to take a Destroyer on the apron and landing on the floor instead.
5) Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. b Golden Magic & Laredo Kid  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Texano Jr y Rey Escorpión vs Golden Magic y Laredo Kid en AAA vs Liga Élite (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Team AAA (Texano) vs Team Elite (Magic). 9:40. Kross & Cage ran in for a third time, this time during the match. Their attack was not called a DQ, and neither was La Parka leading a group of AAA people no otherwise booked for the show to back them off. Murder Clown and Dave the Clown grabbed Cage & Kross but Taurus (attacked earlier by MAD and seemingly not part of that group to this point) saved them. Texano pinned Golden Magic after a chair shot. This match was declared for the World of Warcraft championship and Escorpion & Texano were awarded a belt for this win.
6) Electroshock, LA Park, Puma King b Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch)) Psycho Clown, Hijo del Fantasma y Rey Wagner vs L.A Park, Puma King y Mr. Electro (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
20:31. Team AAA (Wagner) vs Team Elite (Park). Puma King was the surprise wrestler. Wagner appeared despite saying he would not. LA Park & Psycho Clown fought for most of the match, with LA Park pinning Psycho after Fantasma betrayed him with a foul. Elite won the show 4-2.

The main event is the match if you’re going to watch any of them. Matches 1/3/5 are worth checking out. They’re pushing the idea that Psycho Clown is in immense danger in the main event because everyone wants to see him beat. (That included a fair amount of the fans.) Pencil in an OGT/Vampiro vs MAD match for TripleMania; AAA might not be building up a title match is because Jarrett was already booked for something else. There’s a chance of a separate La Parka versus MAD match too. Although this was the AAA versus Elite show on paper, MAD was the outsider group AAA was focused on getting over on this show. Elite’s 4-2 win went barely mentioned (with AAA getting a belt anyway), while MAD was involved in most of the matches.

Elite won four matches. The two they lost were Zeuxis getting pinned when she a shoulder up, and Escorpion & Texano winning after Kross & Cage had attacked the Elite team (which normally would be a DQ but couldn’t because AAA had to win that match to get the belt.) Elite could’ve swept this whole show with better referee work. All the Elite fans should be hyped today, except there didn’t seem to be any people who were particular fans of Elite. They liked some of the luchadors grouped onto that side, but AAA is starting around ground zero if they’re going to rebuild that name.

I have no better idea when this will air on TV or where it’ll air on TV. The Televisa announcers were at the show like normal, so maybe that means it’ll just air like normal and AAA will start to build up an incredible backlog.

Someone updated Pagano’s Twitter to say he was stable. It didn’t seem a great sign that it was in the third person, but he was back to posting videos on Facebook tonight, and talking about how getting hurt only makes him stronger. I guess he’s fine. Pagano is going to keep doing not just dangerous stuff, but also stuff that is relatively safe if you do it right and dangerous when he does it poorly until he can no longer do anything. Everyone involved seems OK with that so I guess I shouldn’t actually be concerned.

Puma King told +LuchaTV after the match that he’s 100% independent, not signed with AAA and free to work wherever he wants. He may make more appearances with AAA.

LA Park told everyone on social media to be calm, he’s not going to deceive you.

AAA’s next taping is a week from today in Ecatepec.

KDNA says they’ll have an AAA TV taping on 09/02. KDNA has sometimes teased a TV taping and it hasn’t actually turned out that way, so put that down in pencil. I think my real issue is I was hoping there would be at least a week off from AAA TV tapings following TripleMania, and there may never be a break again. This taping and the Merida taping would mean we’re currently two weeks into nine straight weeks of AAA TV tapings. I watch everything but it may be a good idea for everyone else to start picking and choosing.

CMLL (SAT) 07/21/2018 Arena Coliseo
1) Camorra & Cholo b Bengala & Retro
Retro needed medical attention after taking the Cholo Driver
2) Acero, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Universo 2000, Pierrothito
Pierrothito’s first match in two months. Acero replaced Stukita.
3) La Jarochita, Maligna, Princesa Sugehit b La Comandante, La Seductora, Metálica
4) Forastero, Hechicero, Sansón b Audaz, Niebla Roja, Tritón
5) Atlantis, Diamante Azul, Valiente DQ Mephisto, Shocker, Terrible
Shocker fouled Diamante Azul, angry about Azul causing Shocker’s jaw injury that’s caused him problems for two years now.

Shocker has a point to be mad, though in no way do I want to see that match. CMLL posted promos with both Shocker and Diamante Azul.

CMLL (SUN) 07/22/2018 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Nitro b Acero & Aéreo
Rudos took 1/3.
2) El Coyote, Nitro, Príncipe Odín Jr. b Arkalis, Leono, Star Jr.
3) Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa b Kawato San, Templario, Virus
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Okumura b Universo 2000 Jr. [lightning]
5) Mr. Niebla, Rey Bucanero, Shocker b Ángel de Oro, Kráneo, Niebla Roja
Rudos took 2/3
6) Flyer, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
tecnicos took 2/3.

Promos: FlyerOkumura . Nothing much to this show.

Ultimo Ninja, in a video on The Crash’s Facebook, thanks the promotion and his fans for their support in Mexico. Today’s Revolucha was his final match in Mexico, and he’s moving to the US for a new project. He did a similar speech in the ring tonight during the Revolucha show, saying he was leaving Mexico for international work. He never said NXT, but other people did and the fans picked up on it enough to chant. Ultimo Ninja will be starting with NXT in upcoming days. Getting removed from the RIOT show next Saturday was a bit of a clue.

Garza Jr. had promised good news and bad news on this show. Ultimo Ninja’s deal seems like it was the good news. Garza Jr. did not make an announcement, as far I can find. There’s been no farewells for him, despite both Ninja & Garza originally expected to go together to NXT. I’m sure he’ll say something on his own time, but you can probably figure it out.

Skadi wrestled her first match in 10 months Saturday, in a three-way with her mother Marcela and Lolita. Skadi suffered a terrible leg injury back in September and has been working her way back to wrestling since. I’d assume she’ll make it back to CMLL, though she really struggled when she was there.

The Mexico City government declaring lucha libre a part of Mexico’s culture got picked up as a story everywhere. Here’s Penta talking about lucha libre being as representative as mariachi sombreros. Attendance at the free outdoor show was guessed to be around 20,000. This is definitely going to be a thing that happened that no one remembers happened six weeks from now. The pictures are pretty great, and it’s disappointing no one can ever run a show that matters with this opportunity.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

Lineups

DTU (TUE) 08/14/2018 Arena Aficion
1) Fussion, Hard Boy, Héctor Perfecto, Mini Flash vs Ángel Negro, Hermes, Little Ricky, Lobo Blanco Jr.
2) Hormiga & Jitsu vs Kevin & Moria
3) Miranda Alize & Shotzi Blackheart vs Hana Kimura & Mary Apache and Black Fire & Príncipe Cometa and Diva Salvaje & Jessy Ventura
4) Ace Romero, El Exótico, Tiburón vs Camuflaje, Cobre, Pesadilla
5) Ace Austin vs Aero BoyJimmy
6) Shlak vs ParanoikoMr. Cóndor
7) Crazy King © vs Nick Gage vs Jimmy Lloyd [DTU]

I have no inside DTU information but I think that main event is going to be a title change. Crazy King is not used a lot, DTU really likes the GCW deal, Nick Gage is a big name in those circles.

AAA (vs Elite) on Twitch: 2018-07-21 

Aerostar does the impossible.

Recapped: 07/21/18

Matches: 

Faby Apache, La Hiedra, Vanilla beat Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Zeuxis
(9:46, Faby pin Zeuxis, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Trauma I & Trauma II beat La Máscara & Máximo
(5:07, lo negro de negro on both Mascara & Máximo, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Hijo de LA Park & Taurus beat Argenis & Aerostar  
(11:05, Taurus spinning Michinoku Driver Argenis, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Jack Evans & Teddy Hart beat Joe Lider & Pagano
(12:38, Jack Evans 630 senton Joe Lider, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. beat Golden Magic & Laredo Kid
(9:40, Texano chairshot Golden Magic, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Puma King, Electroshock, LA Park beat Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown
(20:31, LA Park pin Psycho Clown, great, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

What happened: 

Welcome Puma King

LA Park made his return to AAA. Dr. Wagner Jr. made his regularly scheduled booking, which was also his return to AAA. Puma King made his debut as a member of Elite. (Hugo Savonivich inadvertently gave this away a match earlier, read Puma King off a list one of the debuts they’d already seen.) Park & Psycho Clown matched up in most of the main event, though it was Fantasma fouling Psycho which directly led to Park’s win. Fantasma unmasked Psycho after the fact and joined the Elite team in stomping Psycho Clown.

Elite defeated AAA 4-2 in matches. The score wasn’t really played up much. The promotional rivalry wasn’t really played up either. The main event finish was an AAA wrestler betraying a fellow AAA wrestler. A few fans wore red to support, and no more wore blue than normal. The luchadors themselves didn’t seem invested in the concept either, with many Elite luchadors wearing Red (especially Electroshock in the main event.) Many did wear red or blue armbands to signify their team. There was no Elite presence outside of the wrestlers. The referees and announcers were all the same as usual, and the differences in presentation had more to do with the sponsor than Elite.

Brian Cage & Kevin Kross ran in three separate matches to destroy everyone. They never wrestled on the show, though they oddly wore the blue armbands of Elite as if they needed to declare which side they belonged with. (It’s possible all of MAD is meant to be part of Elite since Jack & Teddy were grouped that way. It’s less clear with Konnan and Jarrett.) They attacked AAA & ELITE wrestlers regardless during their interference and seemed to have no particular goal with it.

golden moonsault

Their first run in, after the second match, set up a MAD promo segment. Konnan and Vampiro argued, Vampiro was ready to fight Konnan right there, and MAD attacked him much the same way they did La Parka on the last show. Just like that show, OGT ran MAD off. Vampiro declared himself the biggest and best OGT of all and suggested they all team up to fight MAD. Pencil that won in for TripleMania.

Argenis was the surprise wrestler in the tercera. Parka Negra attacked Hijo de LA Park after his side won. There was no obvious reason for his attack except for the whole Parka/Park thing. It didn’t last long before Cage & Kross destroyed both of them and everyone else.

Pagano intended to take a Canadian Destroyer on the apron at the end of the fourth match, but missed and fell head and neck first towards the ground. His knees might have ended up taken the brunt of the blow, but he and the doctors seemed very concerned and Pagano was rushed to the back on a stretcher. Joe Lider also needed medical attention after a 630 senton, though it’s possible Lider was selling and trying to distract from the Pagano situation.

The third Cage/Kross run-in was in the semimain, where they attacked everyone while the match was still going. (The others had been after the match.) No disqualification was called for that, or for La Parka and random unbooked members of AAA running Cage & Kross to the entrance. Dave and Murder Clown grabbed Cage & Kross from behind, only for Taurus to save them. Taurus had earlier been attacked by those two but got over it pretty quick. La Parka, wearing a half white/half black mask, briefly argued with Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. before seemingly being on the same page with them because they were defending AAA. That match was declared as being for the World of Warcraft championship, so AAA may be able to declare themselves winners after all.

LA Park meets Psycho Clown

Vignettes showed La Mascara airing his frustrations to Máximo – he’s upset about Psycho Clown not teaming with them as originally promised on their arrival – and picking Hijo del Fantasma over Psycho Clown to drive to a show. Máximo was again responsible for he and La Mascara losing. Mamba appeared to console Máximo, and everyone was destroyed by Cage and Kross.

The finish of the opener was messed up. The plan appears to have been something like Faby powerbombing Zexuis near the ropes and using them for leverage, only they weren’t close enough and things fell apart to the point of Faby pinning Zeuxis with one shoulder up. (Zeuxis still had the complaint.) Lady Shani ran in with a kendo stick to attack Faby Apache, who bled very little. Faby made a comeback to hit Shani with a chair, and one of the more obviously blading moments you’ll ever see took place, complete with the camera zooming in on the blading. We never really saw Shani bloody either. An earlier vignette showed Taurus and Faby training together, with Taurus trying to recruit Faby to the Elite side.

Thoughts:

that’s a bad place to leave a table!

This was what is normal for AAA right now, a crazy show with surprises, way too much stuff going on and occasionally some good matches. It didn’t have the great opener of some recent show, even though the women were pretty good. It had everything else. It had a ton of extraneous people – it seemed like Cage & Kross were doing multiple run-ins in attempt to justify the cost in flying them into a show where they weren’t going to have a match – and one extraneous promotion. The concept of Elite made for a smoother fit with what the sponsor was getting over. It doesn’t have much value otherwise; even while winning this show, no one took them seriously as some invading promotion, they were simply another group who wore some t-shirts. AAA may want to use Elite again to get their ‘revenge’ victory, but the concept of Elite on its own didn’t seem any attraction to get people to come to this show and didn’t have a strong identity going forward. It’s just another t-shirt (that’s not sold.)

If MAD come out for another promo in Ecatepec next Sunday, I hope they either mix up how it’s going to work (let someone besides Konnan talk for a while) or they just bury me and anyone else already done with this segments. Just anything different would be great.

LA Park’s chaotic style is a perfect fit for AAA’s main event style. They’re always a rudo controlled brawled, followed by a técnico brawl, followed by some near falls. No one’s going to outbrawl LA Park in 2018, and his thrashing of Psycho was well done (and well appreciated by this crowd.) The surprise is the focus of the fight; instead of being drawn to Wagner like a pair of magnets, LA Park went with Psycho Clown for most of the match. That was the right move from TripleMania, but LA Park doing the right thing for TripleMania wasn’t always a sure bet. Interestingly, Wagner worked with Puma King and not Electroshock as a backup option, and Puma came off as a top-level guy immediately for being able to knock around the former champion. Electroshock & Fantasma disappeared for stretches, though Fantasma at least got in a good dive and played a big part in the finish. LA Park’s intensity and chaos made this feel like it was on a totally different level than the rest of the show.

Vanilla finds out exactly how hard Keyra hits

The semimain was going along pretty good, with Laredo & Golden Magic really on with their moves and Escorpión & Texano being good opposition for them. The run-ins and the match continuing despite it happening right in front of him made it look silly. They still took it home well enough but that hurt the match. Magic was among the Elite people most obviously trying to make a big impression with the dive off the light tower, and this was his best performance of late. Laredo seems to just be passing thru but passing thru with a few big dives. I’d still like to get the version of this match without the interruption.

The fourth match was one totally made as a match for Jack and Teddy. They took the big bumps, they had the most more interesting office – Jack’s bridging German suplex looked really nice – and the AAA team seemed prevented from doing anything hard more than catch a chair. Pagano and Lider weren’t as bad as they were just plain and slow. It was still alright, just not impressive. Joe Lider doing a table spot where he takes 100% of the table bump is to really impressive. I’m sure they didn’t expect that spot to go that Destroyer spot to go that bad, but I’m not sure how they expected it to work.

The tercera was very much an up and down match, ending trending heavily up. Aerostar nearly broke a leg trying a crazy idea, so it was definitely an Aerostar idea, and then Taurus missed Aerostar on his dive. It felt sloppy at that moment, and the crowd didn’t seem into it. They did enough and did enough right, that they got it working at the end. Hijo de LA Park isn’t great at getting into position for other people’s moves, but he has plenty of his own. Argenis remains a perfectly O wrestler who was a good launching platform for Aerostar. Taurus has added a few impact spots to his offense since coming back and the finish looks. This might have been better if they didn’t go to the near fall run quite as soon, but maybe it’ll look better as a highlight package.

maybe this should’ve been the finish

The segunda didn’t last long, just enough for the Traumas to show off some holds, the Alvarados to get in some token offense, and Máximo to screw up to continue the breakup. The Traumas didn’t look their best – one went down way too soon on a superkick, another had his hold not work exactly right – but they won pretty strongly. I’d think they were going someplace with it if they weren’t just cannon-fodder for the técnicos a moment later.

AAA actually has enough women to have good women’s matches, and it made for a match that CMLL couldn’t do if they wanted to right now. These six were having fast-paced action match, giving enough to Vanilla and Zeuxis to showcase them in their debut. Zeuxis had some stumbles even before the finish – her corner double knee was about one knee short. They still positioned her as the most important people on their side and had her kick out a lot before she got beat. The finish was bad, though maybe it was so bad it may have given her out. Keyra continues to kick people very hard, and Vanilla got up and kept going after. The post match angle was totally a mess, with the cameras zooming in on the blading spots like this was some wrestling expose, and the psychological just getting people to cheer ruda Faby.

Los Traumas