Wagner/Demon set for TripleMania, Cody on Rey de Reyes, Lucha Bros off H2L, Super Astro

The TripleMania XXVII press conference went as expected: Blue Demon will defend his mask against Dr. Wagner Jr. and his hair. The show will take place on August 3 in Arena Ciudad de Mexico.

Blue Demon (with one son) and Dr. Wagner (with two sons – it’s an arms race!) appeared to cut promos and shove each other. Demon is expected to win. This match had been originally announced as LA Park versus Dr. Wagner. LA Park stopped working with AAA soon after. There was no mention of him.

Blue Demon Jr. was asked about his son, said he’s training but not ready to debut and was only there because he knew Wagner would bring his sons (Galeno del Mal and Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., who was feuding with his father last time we saw him.) He does not have an official name. Alejandro Munoz, on CMLL Informa, happened to mention that Blue Demon Jr. only owns the right to that name, so perhaps this appearance had been in someone’s mind for a while. And maybe he’s not even really Blue Demon’s son.

Dr. Wagner mentioned he’ll be in a traditional all-white look in tribute to his father, which Blue Demon requested. The idea here is you’re getting the real wrestler Dr. Wagner here, not the Instagram model. (And also he’s going to bleed a lot.)

Blue Demon versus Dr. Wagner should be good for a drawing and media attention going into AAA. It’ll probably even better than LA Park in that spot, because the Demon mask is just that much more culturally relevant. They’ll have a hard time convincing people that Demon has a chance to lose, but that would’ve been the same case with LA Park in there too. It probably won’t reach the peaks of a crazy Wagner/Park apuesta match (and that match is now unlikely to ever happen as an apuesta match), but AAA figured out how to make a Demon/Wagner match entertaining in Tepic. They can probably do it again in Mexico City. It’ll be fine.

This mask versus hair match is part of a “six main event matches”, as hyped by AAA. None of the other matches were announced today, though they did say there will be a Copa TripleMania and a Llave a la Gloria match featuring new wrestlers on the pre-show. Psycho Clown, La Parka, Lady Shani and Texano were introduced as people who will be on TripleMania. They talked a little bit of past TripleManias and what they’d like to have this year. Texano still wants the Mega Championship. Psycho Clown wants a gimmick match. Lady Shani wants a title match with Taya and later suggested a title or mask match with Keyra. Vampiro and Konnan were there but didn’t get to suggest their own loser must leave AAA forever match. In a post-show interview, Konnan said he planned on wrestling in Mexico this year.

Tickets are on sale already at Super Boletos. Tickets (with fees) run from 7,054 to 251 pesos. That’s about $367 USD on the high end; TripleMania will set the highest ticket price for a Mexican wrestling show in Mexico for a third straight year.

2016 TripleMania 240-2160 Pagano/Psycho
2017 TripleMania 264-4680 Wagner/Psycho
2018 TripleMania 305-5124 Park/Fantasma/Psycho/Pentagon
2019 TripleMania 251-7054 Wagner/Demon

They didn’t fill the arena last year, so reducing the low end makes a lot of sense. I guess the people who paying for ringside will pay anything, or at least a whole lot. Twitch is still free.

The press conference included some non-TripleMania news.

• The first broadcast of Lucha Azteca AAA on Azteca7 was said to have drawn more than 4 million viewers. They’ll start airing repeats on Azteca’s A+ on March 10th, which has already been advertised on the network for a bit.
  • That seems like a good number, but I’m lacking context to put it in. And of course, it matters a lot more how many people stick with it by week 3 or 4.
  • This was part of the discussion of all the different platforms AAA is on. Lucha Capital came up when talking about Facebook but there didn’t seem to be any definite mention of a return
• AAA will be returning to Colombia for a six-city tour. No dates or cities were mentioned. AAA had been talking about expanding to two cities next time and more down the road, so the local promoter must be pretty enthusiastic about their chances after the first show.
• A video from AEW’s Cody was shown, talking about the partnership between the promotions. AAA wrestlers will appear on Double or Nothing, and Cody himself will be at Rey de Reyes. Cody is recovering from knee surgery so it is unlike he’ll be wrestling.
  • Plenty of possibilities for AAA/AEW dream matches were suggested but nothing was mentioned as for sure happening. The AAA wrestlers going to Double or Nothing are still not being mentioned (and may not have even been decided yet.)
• In the Q&A portion, a reporter from Record brought up Cain Velazquez’ comments to the newspaper saying lucha libre is fake. This has been coming up in the press for about week. La Parka was still angry about it, challenging the former UFC champion to face him in the ring. Psycho Clown was a bit calmer but also offered to demonstrate it being real to Velazquez.
  • I’m pretty sure this started with Velazquez (and his UFC PR people) not understanding the difference between US and Mexican wrestling scenes – a UFC fighter said WWE was staged would not get nearly the same reaction – and was not meant to be build to a match. And I’m pretty sure La Parka is very angry about it. But it was also evident that AAA would bend over backwards to turn it into a match if Velasquez would be up for it.
    • He’s probably not going to wrestle.
• Lucha Underground actually came up when they broke into individual interviews, but only as far as Konnan saying Erik Van Wagnen told him they got 3x as many complaints about that show as any other one he’s worked on, as an example of how much wrestling fans complain.

CMLL news

CMLL removed the Lucha Brothers from the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas lineup yesterday. No seemed to notice until another update his morning. CMLL acknowledged the change in a Tweet with the top two matches, though they didn’t explain any change.

The card has been shuffled to accommodate.

CMLL (FRI) 03/15/2019 Arena México
1) Audaz, Esfinge, Tritón vs Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Vangellys
Audaz replaced Titan (moved up) on 02/27.
2) Átomo, El Gallito, Microman vs Chamuel, Mije, Zacarias el Perico
3) Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Titán vs Ephesto, Mephisto, Templario
Diamante Azul & Titan replaced Caristico & Dragon Lee (moved up) on 2/27
4) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gilbert el Boricua, Negro Casas
5) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero © vs Carístico, Dragón Lee, Volador Jr. [CMLL TRIOS]
2nd defense. King Phoenix & Penta were pulled from the show on 02/27, replaced by Dragon Lee & Caristico.
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs La Bestia Del Ring & Terrible [hair]

Dragon Lee & Caristico are good, but I suspect a lot of people who might have taking a risk on a shaky CMLL internet PPV of this show are now going to take a pass. It is also strange Mistico isn’t in the trios title match given CMLL hyping Mistico, Caristico and Volador as the Dream Team just past Friday, not that I mind seeing Dragon Lee.

It is fair to wonder if this is the end of the Lucha Brothers in CMLL. They already have a busy schedule beyond whatever feelings there are about this change. CMLL adressing this or not talking at all on Informa today will be telling.

CMLL (TUE) 02/26/2019 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha Central, Ovaciones, The Gladiatores]
1) Akuma & Inquisidor b Retro & Sangre Imperial 
11:20. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Disturbio, Nitro, Sangre Azteca b Oro Jr., Star Jr., Súper Astro Jr. 
10:00. Straight falls, ending early when Super Astro was hurt on a slip.
3) Fuego b Universo 2000 Jr. [lightning] 
5:49. Fuego won with a huracanrana.
4) Esfinge, Titán, Tritón b Kawato San, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora 
Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Ephesto, Luciferno, Mephisto b Kráneo, Stuka Jr., Volcano 
Rudos took 1/3.
6) Atlantis, Místico, Valiente DQ Hijo del Villano III, Último Guerrero, Villano IV 
Tecnicos took 2/3. Villano IV unmasked Atlantis.

CMLL’s medical report says Super Astro Jr. reported mild head and neck pain as well as a chipped tooth. The tooth might have not happened on the fall, but when Disturbio made the unfortunate choice to throw a man with a head injury out of the ring, and Super Astro ended up going face first into the middle rope instead. The veteran rudos seemed shaken by the injury. Super Astro is scheduled to get an MRI to check for other damage. He posted a positive message on Instagram.

There’s also interviews with Fuego, “Guanatos” (not even a style) and the main event rudos.

CMLL’s also started a video series with Blue Demon, which will probably start appearing on the streams (and replacing a dance number.)

CMLL (TUE) 02/26/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo, Metatrón, Rielero b Carlo Roggi, El Chakal, Mr. Apolo
tecnicos took 2/3
2) Cancerbero, Difunto, Raziel b Arkalis, Magnus, Star Black
rudos took 2/3.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Vaquero Jr. b Okumura, Tiger, Virus
Vaquero Jr. replaced Drone. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. DQ Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
tecnicos took 2/3, Terrible fouling Angel de Oro for the DQ.
5) Cavernario, Euforia, Gran Guerrero b Carístico, Diamante Azul, Volador Jr.
Caristico replaced Dragon Lee (off because he was flying to Japan in the morning?) Rudos took 1/3, with Cavernario challenging Volador to a title match.

Cavernario is a light heavyweight champion challenging for a welterweight title, two divisions down. CMLL weight divisions are so dumb.

Alberto el Patron was at the show and introduced to the crowd. Combate Americas is running an MMA show at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on March 8th and he was there to promote that. There’s no indication he’ll be wrestling for CMLL any time soon; CMLL didn’t even acknowledge him on social media. At the Arena Lopez Mateos show this past weekend, Alberto told R de Rudo that he’s not really keeping up with wrestling now.

Dragon Lee is headed to AAW on 03/16. Dragon Lee was scheduled to debut in the Chicago promotion last September until he got trapped on an island. I’m going to be watching Rey de Reyes while Dragon Lee is having a cool match about 75 minutes from my house.

There’s a show in New York with Rush, Dragon Lee, Cibernetico and Teddy Hart on 03/23, though I’m not sure how well it is going to with $30 prices on tickets for kids.

San Lusi Potosi wrestler/promoter Vaquero de Texas passed away suddenly from a heart attack yesterday. He had wrestled in Monterrey and on an AAA spot over the weekend and was photos of his trip on Facebook just hours before his death was reported. He ran the Dinastia de Texas shows in his hometown.

Lucha Central has its fan voted award winners.

+LuchaTV has a sit-down interview with Terrible.

Segunda Caida watches the most recent Lucha Libre Real show.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

If you want to hear Sexy Star talk about how she didn’t hurt Rosemary again, here’s an ESPN interview.

Heavy Metal talks about his lucha libre school.

Chamaco Valaguez is now the Cuernavaca Box y Lucha comissioner.

Periodico La Voz interviews Super Muneco & Super Raton.

Lineups

KAOZ , RLL (SAT) 03/09/2019 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Torito Negro & Warrior Jr. vs Moria & Toto
2) Diva Salvaje & Sexy Star vs Miss Gaviota & Zeuxis
3) Galactar, Rico Rodríguez, Silver Tiger vs Imposible, Súper Nova, Yoruba
4) Fresero Jr., Mr. Iguana, Tequilita vs Drako, Ovett, Sobredosis
5) Emperador Azteca, Hijo del Volador, The Tiger vs Demus, Golden Magic, Ricky Marvin
6) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Galeno Del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.
7) Carístico, El Mesías, Garza Jr. vs Cibernético, Sharlie Rockstar, Último Guerrero

This is an overcrowed card that’s billed as Kaos versus Revolucion Lucha Libre (who has run two whole shows.) I was thinking about the silliness of some of these promotion versus promotion shows where the wrestlers have no real attachment to either side and it occurred to me that this might be WWE influence. Did a generation of promoters grow up thinking those Raw versus Smackdown – red shirt versus blue shirt! – shows were actually good and are trying to replicate it?