AAA in Cancún, AroLucha returns (?!?), CMLL weekend results

AAA TV (SAT) 03/07/2020 Plaza de Toros, Cancún, Quintana Roo [+LuchaTVAAAthecubsfan]
1) Ángelus, Joker, Súper Kim ?? Gladiador M, Pibe, Tiger Fly
dark match, not shown.
2) Big Mami, Mr. Iguana, Octagoncito b Australian Suicide, Parkita Negra, Vanilla  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
9:51. Big Mami beat Parkita with a middle rope splash
3) Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Villano III Jr. b Dinastía, Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
13:53. Villano III Jr. beat Dinastia with a hanging double stomp. La Hiedra ran in the match early for no particular reason.
4) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. b Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr.  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
7:59. Hijo de LA Park beat Carta Brava Jr.
5) La Hiedra, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. b Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr.  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
11:23. Texano & Escorpion defeated Myzteziz Jr. with a Magic Killer. Suicide attacked Vikingo after.
6) Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly b Fénix, Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
15:56. Averno fouled and unmasked Pentagon for the win. Psycho Clown replaced Drago
7) Blue Demon Jr., Drago, Laredo Kid b La Bestia Del Ring, LA Park, Rush Toro Blanco  (posted by Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
26:37. Drago and Demon couldn’t along, leading to their loss.

A good show if nothing great, and still with the feeling they’re building towards matches that may never come (or may just be people in a larger cage match.) Rey de Reyes feels increasingly like TripleMania Regia – a couple of built matches but mostly something off to the side of the bigger issues. It’ll probably be better than TripleMania Regia at least.

The TripleMania press conference was mentioned but there wasn’t anything particularly set up as the main event. AAA could announce something like Chessman vs Pagano or Averno vs Pentagon but it wouldn’t feel the level of Demon/Wagner or previous main events. It also wouldn’t feel the level of LA Park vs Rush, which is a bit of the problem of having them around in a holding pattern.

It’s clear Los Ingobernables get to work main events for however long they feel. LA Park likes long matches. It’s still working at this point.

There were plenty of empty sections in the seats; I don’t think AAA’s ever done particularly well in Cancun and this was no different. I’d guess 4,000 if the capacity of 6,000 is right, but my guesses aren’t great.

There were noticeable production issues in getting the video (and sound) from the arena to the screen. Not sure if they got the missing video and will edit it or if they’ll just try to show a lot less of it. Tapings start to stack up again at the end of the month and they may have some freedom to skip some of this.

Next taping is Rey de Reyes on the 21st at a 9pm start time.

CMLL (SAT) 03/07/2020 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, De Luchas TV]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Pequeño Universo 2000 & Pequeño Violencia
2) Disturbio, Hijo del Signo, Nitro b Magnus, Oro Jr., Robin
rudos took 1/3
3) Átomo, Gallito, Microman b Chamuel, Guapito, Perico Zakarías
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Esfinge, Pegasso, Volcano DQ Misterioso, Okumura, Sagrado
Tecnicos took 2/3. Okumura unmasked Esfinge.
5) Atlantis Jr., Carístico, Valiente b Ephesto, Hijo del Villano III, Mephisto
6) Niebla Roja © b Forastero [CMLL LH]
Niebla Roja took 2/3. 8th defense. Hijo del Signo seconded Forastero and got involved a lot.

Hijo del Villano III and Atlantis Jr. hype Friday’s title match. Niebla Roja talks his title defense.

CMLL (SUN) 03/08/2020 Arena México [CMLL, De Lucha TV]
1) Halcón Suriano Jr. & Sonic DQ El Coyote & Grako
Tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Grako unmasked Halcon Suriano Jr.
2) Akuma, Espanto Jr., Nitro b Retro, Sangre Imperial, Súper Astro Jr.
Rudos took 2/3. Retro & Sangre Imperial replaced Rey Cometa & Stigma (and the match was moved below the women’s match)
3) Mystique, Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer b Amapola, La Infernal, La Seductora
Tecnicas took 1/3
4) Fuego b Tiger [lightning]
Fuego won with a top rope frankesteiner
5) Diamante Azul, Kráneo, Stuka Jr. b Felino, Hechicero, Terrible
Diamante Azul replaced Soberano on Wednesday. Terrible replaced Shocker. Tecnicos took 1/3
6) Ángel de Oro, Diamante Azul, Niebla Roja b Cuatrero, Sansón, Terrible
Tecnicos took 1/3. Sets up a trios title match next week.

Silueta & Mystique talk about International Day of Women and the upcoming women’s tag team tournament. Fuego celebrates his win and both NGD and their rivals think they’ll be trios champions next week.

NGD will lose the trios titles someday – it’s been nearly three years now – but it’s hard to imagine it’ll be this tecnico trio after they’ve failed many times prior.

AroLucha announced a return show on Friday, July 10th in Nashville. That’ll be over two years since their last show and two and a half after their pilot taping in Nashville. They hadn’t even posted on Facebook since September; the last time they made any news is when they used their mailing list to pitch a CBD deal. Konnan’s mentioned AroLucha as talking about coming back occasionally, but even he had seemed to give up on them months back. The promotion appeared unsuccessful in 2018 and it’s unclear what has changed or why they’re coming back. The video announcement doesn’t have much to it, just Ron Harris mentioning the date and says more details (and other cities?) would be announced later. AroLucha had started to contact people in the industry about being involved so perhaps they just wanted to make an announcement before someone else beat them to it. It’s hard to figure out who they’ll even use; the freely available talent market was small two years ago. It’s shrunk even more. Will AAA partner with a fourth US group? Will it even use luchadors?

Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. will be part of NOAH’s Global Tag League, starting on April 4th. He teams with former WWE wrestler Rene Dupree. The tournament runs through the 18th, assuming no more shows are postponed.

DoradaFan has a new Komander music video.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Segunda Caida raves about LA Park vs Eddie Kingston from RevPro.

El Universal has a profile of La Heroina.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 03/10/2020 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Divino, Mr. Samuray, Sonny vs Jabalí, Príncipe Odín Jr., Ráfaga
2) Fantástico, Magia Blanca, Oro Jr. vs Demonio Maya, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo
3) Black Panther, Esfinge, Fuego vs Misterioso, Pólvora, Sagrado
4) Diamante Azul, Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Euforia, Último Guerrero
5) Carístico vs Sansón

They did this match a month ago in Arena Mexico, which wasn’t great and ended in DQ. Maybe they’ll be be better here.

Not the poster spells Sonic’s name as “Sonny”; assuming that’s the same phonetic spelling mistake that’d happen when he worked indies and not a name change.

AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07 (Cancún)

Recapped: 2020-03-07

Matches:

Big Mami, Mr. Iguana, Octagoncito beat Australian Suicide, Parkita Negra, Vanilla
(9:51, Big Mami middle rope splash Parkita Negra, good, 00:19:23)

Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Villano III Jr. beat Dinastía, Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa
(13:53, Villano III Jr. beat Dinastia hanging double stomp, good, 00:57:55)

Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. beat Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr.
(7:59, Hijo de LA Park behind the back piledriver Carta Brava Jr., good, 01:23:17)

La Hiedra, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. beat Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr.
(11:23, Texano & Escorpion Magic Killer Myzteziz Jr., good, 01:39:52)

Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Psycho Clown, Fénix, Pentagón Jr.
(15:56, Averno foul/mask pull Pentagon, good, 02:02:06)

La Bestia Del Ring, LA Park, Rush Toro Blanco beat Blue Demon Jr., Laredo Kid, Drago
(26:37, pin Demon & Dragon, good, 00:01:31)

What happened:

Shani gets all of it

The top two matches were adjusted slightly. A pair of vignettes, shown on the stream before the matches, had Vampiro encouraging Drago & Blue Demon to get along in their match. That foretold Drago being in the main event, though there was no explanation for the change. Psycho Clown saved the Lucha Brothers after an argument with the OGTs turned violent, explaining why he was now in the semi-main.

Drago & Demon ultimately did not get along, hitting each other by mistake and arguing over who got to finish off the rudos. Los Ingobernables remained undefeated.

Averno unmasked and foul Pentagon Jr. to get the win. Averno is unimpressed by the Lucha Brothers’ success outside of Mexico, feeling he’s fought the best in Mexico, and they haven’t.

Australian Suicide attacked Vikingo after the trios match (which was won cleanly by Los Mercenarios.) This attack is a follow up to a Vikingo promo asking for a rematch with Suicide. Suicide beat Vikingo two years ago in a cruiserweight title match (a rare bit of going back to a plot from Vampiro’s time in charge.) AAA showed a clip of an additional Vikingo & Suicide shoving match in the opening recap, which may have aired on TV but hasn’t made the internet.

carts died for this match

La Hiedra ran in on the second match, attacking Shani along with Keyra & Lady Maravilla. This interference happened in full view of Piero, who simply asked Hiedra to leave rather than call a disqualification. The run-in occurred early and didn’t affect the match. There’s a vague hint of Maravilla, Kerya, and Hiedra trio.

There were unusually obvious technical problems. The stream itself was issue-free, but AAA’s production side seemed as if they suffered a partial power outage late in the first match. Only the jib camera seemed to be working, and then the jib was not used for the rest of the show. (It seemed like it was moving, but they didn’t use the angle again.) There was a delay before the second match to fix the issue, though only a couple of cameras seemed to be working at first. There were possibly connected audio issues as well. The streams were also stopped and restarted before the main event, which is it appears as two separate files if you’re watching later on Twitch.

Thoughts:

I liked everything on this AAA show, and it still felt a little unsatisfying. There’s a bit of uniformity in match style and consistency that makes even the right parts feel a bit numbing. The main event was a different beast, but the undercard was a series of rudos beatdowns, tecnico comebacks, tecnico run through their spots in turn, finish, and repeat. A match with all the comedy wrestlers might stand out better than splitting them up among a few matches. An undercard match where something progresses might make them feel more memorable. I like all these matches, and I’m not sure I’ll remember them individually next week. That’s the CMLL feeling it’s best to avoid.

The main event stood out as a strong LA Park style brawl. They even brought back the drink cart spots, though maybe one too many for Laredo Kid’s back. It had a lot of violence and was a bit too oversized, a lot like LA Park himself. The tecnicos just weren’t a great fit for getting their revenge. Drago & Laredo haven’t shown those skills, and Demon showed he needs to be that bloody rudo to work at this point. A distraction spot from others setting the comeback up made it a little too clear these guys aren’t the real stars. Drago’s botched dive also messed up things. Good on Drago on finding a way to get back in the match so they could do the planned spot, but that looked so bad.

broken Octagon

Of the five undercard matches, the Parks/Poder del Norte match might have been the best. It wasn’t deep, but nothing much was. It was the shortest, but the Parks did what they could do best and got it before pushing it too far. The Parks seem a little difficult to wor with, but Carta & Cota can pull together a match with anyone and adapted to being one many short. The Mercenarios match was solid, despite not having a standout Vikingo run. He wasn’t blowing things, just seemed less spotlighted. La Hiedra held up her end of the team, and Los Mercenarios showed improved teamwork leading into the title match. It wasn’t blowing away, but it was useful as a setup to the title match.

OGTs versus Psycho & the Lucha Brothers were similarly effective if not the high-end match, which might be possible with everyone involved. Fenix had the best moments of the night and good chemistry with Super Fly. They stayed away from the Averno/Pentagon stuff until the closing moments but continues to look motivated.

Villano III Jr.’s out of control nature almost broke Dinastia’s neck in the segunda, and also was a near fall to set up a less impressive-looking hanging dropkick spot. Keyra looked the best of everyone in the match. Lady Shani didn’t do her mat wrestling bits and didn’t stand out without them, though her running kick on Keyra looked sharp. The La Hiedra run-in made AAA look silly for it not being a DQ and didn’t seem to mean anything in the match. I’d be willing to believe she was out there just to pass a message out from the back to the people in the ring, but no one’s suggested that.

Suicide pulled out more daring flying moves in the opener than he’s tried of late. He then ended up with a shoulder injury that paused the match for a bit. (Not his fault, on the damage or the pausing – they could’ve just gone on without him for a moment.) Mami was so slow climbing the ropes for a spot and so much better when she was just bulldozing people. I hope someone else sees that way and points it out to her.

usual craziness