Fantastica Mania kicks off tonight. Here’s the schedule for those shows the next week, all times Central
- 01/11 Friday 3:30 AM – from Osaka
- 01/16 Wednesday 4:00 AM – from Chiba
- 01/18 Friday 3:30 AM – from Tokyo Night 1
- 01/20 Sunday 3:30 AM – from Tokyo Night 2
- 01/21 Monday 3:30 AM – from Tokyo Night 3
You can see the entire crazy schedule for the next couple of weeks here. I believe there’s boxing on that Saturday.
Tomorrow morning’s show is a basic build-up show, with all tag matches. It’s going to be notable as Atlantis’ official debut, teaming up with his father against Sanson & Okumura. The fourth match (Angel de Oro, Dragon Lee & Mistico vs Cuatrero, Gran Guerrero and Ultimo Guerrero) and the fifth match (Kushida, Mistico & Soberano vs Barbaro Cavernario, Caristico, and Namajague) are the two most promising matches. The main event is all NJPW regulars + Terrible, which just seems weird for a Fantastica Mania tour. I’m not sure I’m going to lose sleep over watching this; a recap will be up later.
I’m still confused at what happened with AAA’s press conference on Tuesday. I thought perhaps I had overinflated in my mind, assuming it’d be like previous year opening press conferences when AAA had really barely promoted it. They never really did promote it leading in as they do with most major press conferences – I had to go back to the previous press conference just to confirm the date.
Maybe it was supposed to be something and plans changed. Leo Riano talked about that Media Day press conference in his (sometimes) weekly Record column today, only he talked about things that definitely did not actually happen at that press conference as if they did. This seems like it was a column written days ago after having been told what would happen, and then not updated when plans changed. The three key points:
- Konnan and Vampiro will have a retirement tour, and retire at the end of the year
- AAA’s big goal for 2019 is to run Madison Square Garden
- AAA already has shows scheduled for Queretaro, Veracruz, San Luis Potosi, and Monterrey; they’ve got a calendar for the year worked out similar to past years.
Again, I think Riano was probably told by AAA what they planned to announce, so these were real plans for AAA and might still be real plans for AAA whenever they get around to announcing things again.
The last one seems likely to be still already done, just not announced. A taping for May in Queretaro popped up on sale yesterday, which confirms AAA probably has many dates set already. They’ll change a bit and it’s probably not solid past September if it’s like the last couple of years.
Vampiro & Konnan teased a match where one of them would have to leave AAA wrestling forever, which doesn’t quite fit with the idea of both of them retiring. But it’s AAA and retiring, so it probably won’t make sense in the end. Vampiro posted on Facebook that he was hospitalized for three days with pneumonia, which also might explain why he wasn’t at the press conference and the focus of it changed. (Vampiro was also asking for advice on the best boxes to steal cable in the US during the period he was hospitalized, so who even knows with him.)
The Madison Square Garden idea has been coming up for the last six months. It would help to hear a solid idea of how they plan to accomplish what seems very risky and incredibly unlikely. (If you aren’t following the story, just getting access to the building for an event seems harsh. It appeared WWE attempted and did block NJPW/ROH from running the event until ROH’s parent company got their lawyers involved. AAA would need a similarly strong partner to get in the door.) This is AAA, so even if it was announced, I’d expect no real details about how they’re getting it done, just aspirations.
Perhaps there will be another press conference next week to actually announce these details? AAA’s going to have trouble getting people in for press events if there’s not much to talk about, so there’s gotta be something to announce next time.
AAA did announce a 02/16 taping in Morelos. That gives AAA six announced tapings for 2016 and zero matches announced. At some point, AAA is going to send a card to (for example) the Mazatlan taping with orders of them not revealing it, then they’re going to reveal it anyway, and we’ll have some lineups.
Mexa Wrestling mentioned Carxyus’ YouTube will be the only place fans will be able to see full matches of their shows going forward. I assume that means they’re not working with +LuchaTV any more (and people will still be bootlegging them.) They’ve announced Garza Jr. & Mecha Wolf for their 02/23 show.
Super Muneco was honored in Cuatula. The title of the article teases Super Muneco being close to retiring, but retirement doesn’t come up in the article at all.
WWE has filed a trademark for the word “Worlds Collide” according to SEScoops. WWE announced the event today. For our purposes, this is interesting because WWE usually puts up themed shows around events, and there’s obviously a lucha show by a similar name, AAA’s When World’s Collide That show was produced by WCW and presumably purchased by WWE as part of that purchase. (I think the famous mask match turned up on a Eddy Guerrero DVD.) You can find the show uploaded in places, but WWE’s never put the full show up on their WWE Network service. Perhaps this announcement is a hint of them putting it up as one of their Hidden Gems in upcoming events.
Sanchez Promociones says they’ll have the debut of LA Park Jr. at Arena Neza on 01/27, which I think is earlier than the Kaoz debut.
WrestleZone has an interview with Gringo Loco. It’s really good. Gringo Loco being at Mistico versus Black Warrior explains a lot.
Mystique says her goal is that people said she did something for women’s wrestling when she’s retired. She did not find out about Metalica’s title win until she returned from Japan and wants to get a championship match with her.
Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground 4×13. This is the Catrina/Melissa fight episode. They have thoughts.
An interview with Nacho Zapata, the trainer at Arena Coliseo Reynosa.
Hijo de Fishman will be in a movie.
Funcion Estelar pulls out a whole article from two very generic Kronoz quotes.
Lineup
CMLL (MON) 01/14/2019 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Millenium, Rey Samuray vs Black Tiger, Perverso, Sombra Diabólika
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Robin, Tigre Rojo Jr. vs El Malayo, Policeman, Toro Bill Jr.
3) Súper Muñeco, Súper Pinocho, Súper Ratón vs Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano García
4) Niebla Roja, Stigma, Stuka Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto
5) Rush, Vangellys, Villano IV vs Euforia, Kráneo, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
Last week’s Puebla main event was a stupid match where Hechicero didn’t get along with Kraneo & Valiente and cost them the match. This week’s Puebla main event appears to be a stupid match where Euforia won’t get along with Kraneo & Valiente. I hate you so much, Arena Puebla programmer. SO MUCH.
Do you think they’re building to a singles match with Trio Fantastia and Los Diabolicos? I think that would be a terrible thing in practice so I expect it to happen.
Long rant:
I don’t understand the MSG goal. AAA has no pulse in the US right now. CMLL had a little bit last year because of Trump and the angle they were doing with Sam Adonis that generated some mainstream pub.
MSG owns the Forum in LA which was always AAA’s best market and I always thought AAA should run their first, do well, then use that to springboard into a date at MSG or it’s HULU Theater.
I also think all the stuff about Sinclair attorneys to the rescue to get NJPW/ROH into MSG is bullshit. MSG was available on a Saturday on Wrestlemania weekend for a reason. MSG wanted a wrestling show. WWE would not share the wealth so MSG booked ROH and Vince challenged it. Not sure how much of a case WWE had but the story of Vince fighting the booking only adds to the aura of the event.
WWE actually should have given MSG the NXT Takeover because it would sell out fast because so many out of town fans would love to attend a live show at MSG and attend Wrestlemania.
MSG also manages Prudential in Newark and owns LA Forum and is looking to nurture relations with other wrestling companies because Forum needs a big wrestling partner because relations with WWE are not as strong as they used to be.