TVC Deportes has two special shows on Sunday:

• Tercera Caida Presents airs the ChilangaMask show at 10 am CT
• The second IWL show airs at 10pm the same day.

Check TerceraCaidaNet for both shows after the fact.

== AAA ==

AAA-Televisa: My hunch is the top two matches from Puebla, since the run-ins are connected. Women’s match is probably headed to UTDN/Regional.

AAA-Fusion: The remaining matches from Puebla – the other IWRG/Maxima Velociad, and Mirreyes vs Perros.

== CMLL ==

Galavision/Televisa: Sombra vs Nakamura in trios, Tuareg vs Pegasso/Starman/Triton

FOX: Namajague/Cometa, Rush/Porky/Thunder vs Averno/Mephisto/Volador

52MX: Whatever Del Aire vs Negro, Niebla, UG, and Atlantis, Panther, Porky vs Zavala, Dragon, Escorpion

C3: TRT vs Azul/Mistico/Thunder

MegaCable (Guadalajara): if it aires, it’s Whatever Del Aire vs Guerreros

TVC Deportes (Puebla): Whatever Del Aire (this joke wasn’t funny the first time) vs Ephesto, Mephisto and Stigma if they’re still running in order.

Terra: Whatever Del Aire (still not funny) vs Averno, Felino and Negro Casas, plus a mini Cibernetico.

== Other ==

IWRG-AYM Sports: Negro Navarro & Trauma I vs Piratas for the tag titles.

Noches de Coliseo: Diamante’s appearance?

AAA on Televisa (Regional): 2013-04-27
taped 2013-04-15 @ Domo de la Feria de Leon
Dinastía, Máscarita Divina, Rey Celestial vs Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Charly Manson, Mini Histeria

Shows Watched But Nothing Made The List

- CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX 2013-04-27
- CMLL on CadenaTres: 2013-04-27
- CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2013-04-27
- CMLL on Televisa: 2013-04-27
- AAA Fusion: 2013-05-01

Matches Worth Consideration But Will Be Watched Later

I was going to say ‘you couldn’t pay me to watch UG vs Mistico from Guadalajara’, but I think I’m willing to do it for like $20US. It’s a wrestling match, let’s not go crazy.

AAA TV (SUN) 06/16/2013 Arena Ciudad de Mexico
***TripleMania XXI***
1) Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Silver King, Taya Valkyrie vs Dinastía, El Elegido, Faby Apache, Pimpinela Escarlata
2) Angélico & Jack Evans vs Drago & Fénix and Halloween & Psicosis and Crazy Boy & Joe Lider and Mr. E & Sexy B [AAA TAG]
championships are vacant. Winners will . Mr. E & Sexy B are from WWL. Winners will become 11th champions.
3) El Mesías vs Blue Demon Jr. [AAA LA]
championship is vacant. Winner will become third champion.
4) Chessman vs Heavy Metal [#1 Contenders, AAA HEAVY]
5) Winner Of Chessman Versus Heavy Metal vs Texano Jr. [AAA HEAVY]
Texano Jr. is champion, attempting his sixth defense.
6) el Hijo del Perro Aguayo vs Cibernético [hair]

05/23 Update: Blue Demon vs Mesias official, but surprisingly for the Latin American championship.

This is only the card announced so far. Other matches strongly hinted at:

• Los Villanos (or at least a Villano IV lead team) vs La Parka, Octagon and a partner TBA – announced, just not yet placed on TripleMania
• Atomic Boy vs Gran Apache, mask vs hair – built towards, but uncertain if it’ll happen on this card

WWL’s Monster Pain has also been billed as appearing by WWL, and AAA has hinted at TNA involvement. Canek is part of the TV tapings leading up to the show, so he may be involved. Dr. Wagner Jr. would also be expected on the card if he’s indeed returning in the next week. TripleMania usually runs between 7 and 9 matches, which wouldn’t leave any room for anything not mentioned so far. AAA has been releasing a match a day this week every afternoon. AAA will also hold a press conference on Tuesday, and the full lineup should be announced then.

TripleMania will air on PPV, in movie theaters, and on worldwide iPPV. The costs for these, and method of iPPV, have not been discussed. TripleMania’s listed start time is 6:30 pm (Central Time), though the first half hour would likely be a pre-show and the PPV would start at the top of the hour. The length of the show is unknown. AAA blocked out four hours for the last TripleMania to be on PPV, which sounds about right for this show.

The show should not be expected to air as part of AAA’s regular TV. AAA is taping just a couple days before the show in Leon, which remove any need to use TripleMania on TV. You’ll probably have to pay to see this any time soon.

Daga being Psicosis’ partner – instead of Halloween or even Ricky Marvin – is a surprise since that would mean his match with Axel is not happening at TripleMania. Axel/Daga was one of the few midcard feud AAA’s been building on TV (some of the tag teams have been facing off, but there’s been no suggestion a title match was coming) and it’s weird how much of a disconnect there is between TripleMania and the TV before TripleMania. It still is possible Daga gets pulled out of this match to face Axel. Also, contrary to what WWL was saying, Los Mamitos aren’t going for the WWL Tag Team Titles on this show, so it’s quite likely Monster Pain is on the show but not defending his title either.

It sounds like the press conference for TripleMania is Tuesday in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. It’s likely we’ll have more of the card then (though they seem to be rolling it out a match a day on the web this week.) If Dr. Wagner is headed back to AAA TV – and Dr. Lucha seemed to think so too on his podcast – he probably should be making an appearance there.

AAA’s also put up an English language version of their TripleMania commercial.

Pesadilla announced on last night’s Tercera Caida that he’s giving up the DTU championship because he’s headed to NOAH for three months. Pesadilla has been missing from DTU for a while (even missing the last title defense), and he seems to quickly mention an injury at the beginning of the interview. DTU isn’t really a promotion built around their main title, so it’s a little unclear why he had had to give up the title. Pesadilla said it was the title match in Veracruz which got him this opportunity. A three month tour (I’ve seen two elsewhere) would include NOAH’s Junior Tag Team tournament in July. If Nieto del Santo is over in NOAH by then, maybe there’s a very strange tag team of Pesadilla and Nietro del Santo coming. DTU says they’ll fill the title at their show Saturday; I’d assume the match with Joe Lider, Cíclope, Crazy Boy, Jhony, Dement Extreme, Black Fire and Sick Boy is now for the vacant DTU title, but it’s not said.

Perros del Mal announced they’ll run a 5th Anniversary show on 06/09. That’s not that far away. No location is announced. Perro, Canek, Wagner, Cibernetico, Psicosis, Daga, Ricky Marvin, Trauma I, Trauma II, Faby Apache, and Mary Apache are announced for the show.

The Gladiatores have a post and a video celebrating their seventh anniversary. Congratulations.

Black Terry Jr. has a clip of the Black Terry/Traumas vs Tuareg brawl, where Black Terry slaps Isis so hard she loses her mask.

Rob has his debut of 04/23/13 CMLL, early February 2001 AAA, and June 2001 AAA.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

This week’s AAA Fusion is also up.

The new Arenita went to a “soulless draw” in a “disastrous debut”.  Oops!

DJ Spectro writes about luchadors who had great early success and then disappeared.

Magazine Roundup

Luchas 2000 668 (2013-04-22)
- JCR’s usual opening page recap of randomly chosen past Arena Mexico Anniversaro shows is useful for figuring out which were meant to be Anniversary shows. Here, the 12th (04/26/1968, Huracan Ramirez takes Enfermero’s mask), 19th (05/25/1975, Perro Aguayo takes Ray Mendoza’s hair), 20th (04/23/1976, Fishman unmasks el Faraon), 36th (04/03/1992), Blue Panther unmasks Love Machine) and 50th (04/14/2006, Dark Angel unmasks Amapola) are all mentioned.
- a 2 page feature on Pro Wrestling Revolution, introducing the group (before Santo & Demon won their tag titles)
- Apolo Estrada talks about his upcoming appearance for AAA, feels more loyal to IWRG than Monterrey but notes he’s been in IWRG for two years without getting a title shot.
- A face to face interview teasing a feud between Angel and R-15, like it was 1997 all over again. R-15 wants to come to IWRG to confront Angel, but that’s gone nowhere.
- Signo thinks his son can beat Metalico.

Luchas 2000 669 (2013-04-29)
- The Hector Garza show gets a nice two page spread.
- Oriental is interviews about his independent career. He’s happy with it and pointed out he’s traveled to the US (for Lucha Libre USA) and is headed to Canada
- Mini Cibernetico celebrates 10 years of being Mini Cibernetico.
- a recap of the 04/21 CMLL Sunday show gives special mention to Mangus, saying he’s a great luchador and it’s only a question of time.
- Fantasma wants Mephisto or Dragon Rojo’s mask.
- Dinamiko was thrilled to team with his maestro Black Tiger (Puebla.) Tiger is happy guys from he’s teaching – Meyer too – are making their way to Arena Puebla. He’s been wrestling for 25 years and would like to wrestle for five more.
- Namajague says he’s not returning to Japan until he gets revenge on Rey Cometa.
- Rey Escorpion says he considers Bobby Zavala a Revolucionario del Terror, but hasn’t actually asked Dragon Rojo or Polvora about the idea. Isn’t this exact thing why you quit Ultimo Guerrero’s group?

Luchas 2000 670 (2013-05-06)
- an interview with Amenaza Infernal Jr. includes no quotes, but does include him his IWCL Heavyweight Championship belt with the name tag “Vacante” on it.
- The TxT show gets 12 pages. The magazine is 40 pages, including the covers. It does mean we get get a detailed interview with the mystery Posiedon from the opener. He’s 18 years old, from Torreon, and says he was taught by Diabolico I and Arana del Futuro. Poseidon explains he was watching a Stukita match one day, was impressed, and then found out he and Stukita were the same age so he was old enough to be able to professionally wrestle. He lists Mascara Dorada, La Sombra and Stukita as his heroes. There’s no mention of a previous name, but he must’ve been using something else in Torreon.
- Joaquin says he’s happy with his roster. A fool! He says it was all LA Park’s decision to leave because he had better opportunities elsewhere. Joaquin says LA Park’s contract actually ended on April 30th, so his TxT press conference appearance should not have happened, but they’ll talk it out and not take it to court.
- 70s/80s luchador el Rams was a guy with the St. Louis Rams logo on his chest and as his mask.
- Electrico says he returned at 85%, and singles out thanks to Metalico and Charly Montana for supporting and helping with his rehab.
- interviewer asks Atlantis if there’s anything he’s yet to win. Atlantis turns the silly question into claiming his mask match versus Ultimo Guerrero is the biggest of his career.

Box Y Luchas 3127 (2013-04-22)
- Titan explains he got the idea for the handwalk moves from seeing CZW wrestler Ruckus. He was very inspired by something Ruckus did, worked very long and hard to get it down, and is glad he did because he think it made him stick out and people always want to see him do it.
- Hombre Bala, talking about his family, mentions a Gato del Ring (who actually may just be a student, it’s phrased oddly) soon to debut and says India Sioux will return soon. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
- Hector Garza, promoting his benefit show, says he doesn’t consider himself retired and it’s possible he may return to the ring.

Box Y Luchas 3128 (2013-04-29)
- Not a lot. A lot of the same interviews from the Arena Mexico Anniversary show
- Magico claims to have won 36 masks and 25 hairs. He also says he only lied 1% during the interview.

Box Y Luchas 3129 (2013-05-06)
- Results from the sponsored show on 05/04. Nothing too interesting happened.
- Bobby Zavala talks about all the support he gets from auto parts store Auto Panda. (You get the impression that place might be his other job.)
- Sadica talks about her trainers – Pirata Morgan, ATM, and now Tony Salazar in hopes of making into CMLL. That’s surprising, because her style on the indies has been extreme matches. She’s going to Japan in May to face Ayako Hamada.

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 05/28/2013 Arena Mexico
1) Bengala & Robin vs Cholo & Zayco
2) Bam Bam, Fantasy, Shockercito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Sagrado, Tritón vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Hooligan, Skándalo
4) Delta, La Máscara, Rey Cometa vs Olímpico, Pólvora, Puma
5) Fuego vs Tiger [En Busca de un Idolo]
6) Stuka Jr. vs Vangellys [En Busca de un Idolo]
7) Diamante Azul, Rush, Thunder vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Rey Bucanero, Terrible

Azul and Bucanero appear to be setting up a match here as well.

CMLL (TUE) 05/28/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Black Metal & Sky Kid vs Rey Trueno & Sádico
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Último Dragoncito vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
3) Dalis la Caribeña, Estrellita, Goya Kong, Lady Afrodita, Luna Mágica vs La Comandante, Mima Shimoda, Princesa Blanca, Princesa Sugheit, Zeuxis [REINA IJ, #1 Contenders]
Silueta is champion
4) La Sombra, Shocker, Valiente vs Felino, Mr. Águila, Shinsuke Nakamura
5) Atlantis vs Mr. Niebla

Niebla didn’t waste any time getting involved in things.

The REINA International Junior championship had some strict criteria when it started – it was only supposed to be for young wrestlers – and that’s been dropped along the way. Still, this seems like a setup to another title match with Zeuxis.

taped 2013-04-15 @ Domo de la Feria de Leon

Jennifer bulldog/dropkick

Fabi Apache, Jennifer Blake, Lolita vs Mary Apache, Sexy Lady, Taya Valkyrie: Good action, and match went the right length and finished at the right time. There were sports which could’ve been smoother, but overall a fine match. Jennifer is winning a lot since turning tecnica; it’s surely just AAA randomness but maybe she can find a partner to get her tag team titles back? Alan Stone is a good guy now, that’ll still work.

Perro has some bad aim (or Ozz moves way too soon)

Alan Stone, El Elegido, Toscano vs Argos, Máscara Año 2000 Jr., Silver King: What the Mirreyes doing seems to be working for the crowd they want it to be, but it’s about three times to much to make for interesting matches. This is not a group I want to see every week on TV, for sure, but they’re great for the live audience. Especially Alan Stone. The Toscano/Consejo issue seems dead – it seems more like a new character starting from stretch.

Halloween’s ribs must be permanently broken

Cuervo, Escoria, Espíritu, Ozz vs Daga, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Halloween, Psicosis: Perro Aguayo Jr. seemed in exceptionally strange and reckless mood. Probably not, no. I don’t think Perro and Escoria went out for drinks after this one. Also probably not Perro and the guy who had to put the set back together after Perro started tearing it apart for no particular reason. This was a crazy brawl. So much so that he when they tried to go back to something resembling a normal match for the Secta dominated section, it really didn’t fit in. This worked for it’s craziness, but probably not for it’s toll. Usual pointless tecnico in where they’re all beat up and the win is ignored after the fact – why did Ricky Marvin wait until after the match to attack the people in it if it was no disqualification? Worth nothing here that the Televisa version of the show edited out a lot, but more Secta stuff to leave in Perro shenanigans, and Ricky Marvin’s run-in was removed totally.

taped 2013-04-06 @ Arena Lopez Mateos

he’s going to keep doing this, I’m going to keep gif-ing it.

Argenis, Dizzy, Zumbi vs Devil Rocker, Machine Rocker, Soul Rocker: Passable match but not at all memorable. I wanted to see more off the Rockers being in control and destroying the técnicos, because these técnicos are best in short spurts. The overall match might have been better with a couple less minutes, or might have not mattered. Dizzy isn’t horrible, but he’s also totally forgettable – maybe that’s why they forget about him for years.

Brillo Atomic?

Atomic Boy, Lolita, Pasion Kristal vs Gran Apache, Mamba, Sexy Lady: Another match of AAA making the rules be whatever they feel like that day, another case of a Fusion match going on far longer than suitable giving the people involved. Really only 12 minutes, felt a long longer than twelve minutes. This is back to doing very little to make Atomic Boy an interesting character; it’s an Apache feud with Atomic Boy just thrown in.

photo by CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 05/21/2013 Arena Mexico [CMLL, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Espanto Jr. & Herodes Jr. b Fresbee & Magnus
2) Amapola, Mima Shimoda, Tiffany b Goya Kong, Lady Afrodita, Luna Mágica
Listed as Lluvia’s return from knee surgery, but Goya Kong took her spot.
3) Cancerbero, Hijo del Signo, Virus DQ Hombre Bala Jr., Pegasso, Sagrado
Straight falls for the tecnicos. Cancerbero pulled Hombre Bala’s mask for the DQ.
4) Delta, Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Boby Zavala, Disturbio, Vangellys
Rudo side was originally Morphosis, Olimpico and Puma. Unclear why the trio change. Tecnicos took 1/3, Fuego beating Vangellys with a hurracanrana.
5) Hijo del Fantasma b Misterioso Jr. [En Busca de un Idolo]
first match for both. Hijo del Fantasma won with a Phantom Attack into a reverse short armscissors in nine minutes. Fantasma scored a 9 (Porky), 7 (UG), 7 (Salazar), 4 (Tirantes) for a 27. Misterioso, who made it clear he had no interest in anything the judges had to say and tried to intimidate Tirantes after his poor assessment, scored a 5/6/3/1 for a 15.
6) Valiente b Sangre Azteca [En Busca de un Idolo]
Strong match, Sangre Azteca looking very motivated. He landed all his big moves, Valiente survived, Sangre escaped one Valiente Buster but not the second. Valiente scored a 10, 9, 8, 4 (Tirantes calling this his highest score) for a 31 and appears to be a favorite. Sangre Azteca scored a 8, 7, 5, 3 for a 23.
7) Diamante Azul, Mistico, Thunder b Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Tiger
Blue Panther was announced, but replaced within hours by Thunder. Bucanero and Azul are feuding here as well.

About a week ago, Lluvia found out she was booked for this show via Goya Kong twitter message and said her knee was still hurting and she would talk to Colombo about it. So…why was she ever listed as wrestling? CMLL makes no sense.

Valiente is the prohibitive favorite to win En Busca de un Idolo after just one week. The judges love him and he’s getting enough polling support to score well from there as well. He should have no problem winning matches, but will advance even if he doesn’t. The other three finalists will be highly determined by the polling results. Those haven’t been announced for this week, but Misterioso is leading despite losing and getting savaged by the judges. Three more weeks of that, and he’s moving on anyway.

CMLL (TUE) 05/21/2013 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [@acogdl]
1) Espectrum & Infierno b Leo & Metatrón
Rudos took 2/3.
2) Ráfaga & Raziel b Black Metal & Stigma
Rudos took 1/3.
3) Bárbaro Cavernario, Namajague, Shigeo Okumura b Gallo, Starman, Tritón
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Kráneo, Mr. Águila, Psicosis b Máscara Dorada, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr.
National trios champions in non-title match. Rudo champs took 1/3, Psicosis beating Mascara Dorada.
5) Atlantis, Máximo, Rush DQ Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Mr. Niebla
Mr. Niebla replaced Ultimo Guerrero, announced ahead of time, because UG had judging duties. Tecnicos took 2/3. Niebla fouled Atlantis in the third.

IWRG announced tomorrow’s weekly Thursday show is canceled. No reason has been given and I can’t think of the last time IWRG has announced a show and canceled it. They’ve skipped some shows, but usually just don’t even mention they’re skipping them.) The main event was due to be Dinamic Black, Trauma I, Veneno versus Canis Lupus, Carta Brava Jr., Oficial 911, with a Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Eterno semimain.

A local article on Friday’s taping in Tampico lists Eclipse (not that one) in Freelance’s spot and El Patriarca in Eita’s spot in the opener. Patriarca has worked for local promotion KBW in the area (including their shows with AAA & DTU luchadors). There’s an Eclipse who’s worked for that group, but less frequently.

Tercera Caida says they’ll be airing the fourway between Hijo de Perro Aguayo, Canek, Dr. Wagner Jr. and Blue Demon today. They’re on at 9, after a new episode of Fusion at 8. CMLL Puebla, which was pre-empted at least in part on Monday due to news coverage, repeats at 2AM and 10:30AM on Thursday and the bandit TVC Deportes feed is back working.

Jack Evans is no fan of Silver King. He apparently explain in more depth on Facebook, explaining Silver King pretends to be a good guy, but is really a guy constantly causing trouble, ratting out the locker room to the AAA office except he’s also exaggerating the stories he’s telling, to try and get ahead. Jack’s not even totally angry about Silver King’s “rat” behavior, but Silver King pretending he’s not a rat.

Lucha Libre in Japan

05/22 NJPW: Titan & Barreta [O] b BUSHI & Hirmou Takahashi [X]

Titan again promised to bring home a good result for CMLL. Holding him to it! Tournament starts early Friday morning.

Links

• Cronicas y Leyendas remembers obscure short run NWA Middleweight champion El Jalisco.
• AAA posted part two of it’s an interview with Crazy Boy & Nino Hamburguesa.
• A TV Azteca show is using the Trauma’s masks for characters. Don’t anger the Traumas.
• Rico Rodriguez talks about his upcoming 15th Anniversary show.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 05/26/2013 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ángel Del Amor & Galaxie vs Dragón Celestial & Fulgor
2) Chico Che, Dr. Cerebro, Golden Magic vs Alan Extreme, Apolo Estrada Jr., Imposible
3) Dinamic Black, Fenix (AAA), Trauma II vs Carta Brava Jr., Eterno, Pentagón Jr.
4) Negro Navarro & Trauma I vs Hijo de Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan [IWRG IC TAG]
Navarro & Trauma are champs. Seventh defense, first against the team they beat for the titles.
5) Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Último Gladiador, X-Fly

This is the show which is moved to 4pm to avoid the America vs Cruz Azul LigaMX final (starts at 9pm.) Perhaps an early start will better allow LAS and AYM to air the show in some sort of professional fashion?

CMLL (MON) 05/27/2013 Arena Puebla
1) Blue Center & Centauro de Fuego vs Akrón & Siki Osama
2) Camaleón, Höruz, Leono vs Disturbio, Nitro, Nosferatu
3) Pegasso, Rey Cometa, Sagrado vs Boby Zavala, Namajague, Shigeo Okumura
4) Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo del Fantasma vs Felino, Mephisto, Negro Casas
5) Atlantis, Máximo, Rush vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

CMLL hasn’t posted this yet, but the Puebla commission tweeted it out. (It’d be neat if they covered other Puebla shows as well.) No Azul or Bucanero after their challenge last week.

TxT (SAT) 06/22/2013 Gimnasio Juan De La Barrera
1) Dinamic Black & Imposible vs Golden Magic & Poseidon (TxT)
2) La Chola & Rossy Moreno vs Esther Moreno & Lady Apache
3) Súper Muñeco, Súper Pinocho, Súper Ratón vs Black Terry, Scorpio Jr., Shu el Guerrero [WWA TRIOS]
Trio Fantasy are champions. Appears to be second defense.
4) Blue Demon Jr. & El Hijo Del Santo vs Heddi Karaoui & Zumbi [PWR TAG]
Santo & Demon’s first defense
5) Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Universo 2000 vs Canek & Máscara Año 2000 and LA Park & Super Parka and Pirata Morgan & Villano IV [ruleta de la muerte]

This ruleta de la muerte can only go better than last one. All the hair guys in the pairs are plausible losers, though one would assume Super Parka wouldn’t mind a payoff for losing his hair given how hard Volador Jr. is working to raise money for him.

The big missing name is Dr. Wagner Jr. Hijo del Santo posted a Twitter message after the last show implying Wagner was leaving (saying the door would be open to a return) and he’s not on this card. Meanwhile, Wagner has continued to appear on cards with AAA luchadors and AAA is promoting a big name surprise for their taping in Toluca next Thursday. The darkened silhouette on the poster for the show even looks like Dr. Wagner. I am not able to confirm this right now, but I believe there’s a fairly strong chance Dr. Wagner Jr. will be back in AAA in Toluca and appear on TripleMania.

It’s always been much more likely Wagner would return to AAA than CMLL – he’s still under contract to AAA, the people at the very top of CMLL don’t want him, and he can still work indies while working for AAA. It’d be interesting to see how Wagner spins this – a new deal with AAA? the continued tease of jumping to CMLL in September (still not happening)? – but he’ll probably end up okay because he always does.

1. TxT’s monthly show was main evented by a LA Park vs Dr. Wagner no DQ match. It was the usual crazy brawl with a finish where both men claim the won the match (though Park was the one actually declared a winner.) The implied mask vs mask post match signing didn’t happen, for LA Park lost too much blood to appear at the press conference. Park had said the mask match would only happen if they could sell out the 8,000 build they were running in, and they did not come close to selling out. In the days later, Santo hinted Wagner was leaving TxT for now. In the undercard, Esther Moreno won the mask of La Chola in a poorly constructed women’s ruleta de la muerte tournament.
2. AAA officially announced the title match for TripleMania: Texano will defend the Mega title against the winner of Chessman and Heavy Metal, which will happen earlier on the day. That joins Perro vs Cibernetico as the only offical matches for TripleMania, though more matches have been hinted at. La Parka has challenges the Villanos for an AAA vs Villanos (or indepdents) match and Blue Demon and Mesias are suddenly feuding, which both seem like matches for TripleMania. Also, Puerto Rico’s WWL has said their two championships will be defended on TripleMania, but AAA hasn’t acknowledged those matches as of yet. A Twitter message posted by AAA’s guy in chargeof social media says TripleMania would be available on PPV, in movie theatres, and on iPPV, but no further details are available.
3. CMLL started the second edition of it’s En Busca de un Idolo, this time focusing on “midcarders who’ve not made it.” Valiente, who sure appears to have made it as part of a new top tecnico trio, is the favorite to win and leads the complicated scoring system after 1 week. On the other side, Misteroiso received the lowest scores from the judges after all but telling them off – but he may still be among the leaders due to easily manipulated fan poll component. All matches from the tournament are airing live on the Terra.mx website, and may not air on any of CMLL’s many TV shows. One strange note is Shocker is all over the publicity for the tournament, but is instead off participating on a reality show. Rush has taken his place as coach of the tecnicos, though the coaches have yet to actually be shown participating in the tournament in any way. (CMLL might be planning to do the same weekly half hour shows recapping the tournaments which were run last year, but has not shared this plan with anyone.)
4. AAA held two TV tapings, with three more scheduled in the next couple of weeks to fill their 3 hours of weekly TV. Outside of the matches already mentioned, Daga and Axel still seem to be feuding (though a multiman Daga title defense at TripleMania seems more likely) and the lesser Perros del Mal may have started a feud with the new Mirreyes trio.
5. New top CMLL rudo Gran Guerrero and Comadante Pierroth made their debut. Gran Guerrero appears to be the former Taurus, who might become a very good luchador eventually but is being placed at the top way too soon. The latest Pierroth appears to be the former Toro Blanco, a 50 year old retired luchador who wasn’t much good 10 years ago. Both looked poor in their debut; Pierroth was just about edited out of his match.
6. Marco Corleone will miss 3 to 9 months with a knee injury, suffered in his car accident on the way back from Puebla a couple months ago. Rush & Mistico suffered their own recent car accident on the way to Puebla, but both are saying they’re okay.

• Billy el Malo may be out a year after being a horrendous knife wound by a carjacker (and possibly just as destructive surgery.)
• Shinsuke Nakamura arrived from NJPW in CMLL. CMLL originally teased a Nakamura NJPW IC title match against Rush, but instead seem to be setting up a Sombra/Nakamura rematch on an upcoming Friday night show.
• CMLL luchadors were allowed to work on a show with El Hijo del Santo in Sonora, violating the ban of not working with Santo on shows in Mexico. Brazo de Oro working the show and being head of the luchador union might have had something to do with it, but CMLL overall seems to be weakening on it’s veto.
• A CMLL vs Indepdents show in Coacalco on Sunday sold out the arena (a small tented ring) and had good matches with indecisive finishes. Later that night, Arena Lopez Mateos celebrated it’s 46th Anniversary with a sold out show of it’s own, with Dr. Wagner Jr. besting Canek, Perro Jr. and Blue Demon Jr. in the biggest match of the show.
• WWL also announced they’d be holding another major show in Monterrey on 07/07, which may be an iPPV from Arena Coliseo Monterrey.
• Rey Bucanero vs Diamante Azul in a hair vs mask match was announced for the Arena Puebla Anniversary show, though that date has not been announced.
• Carta Brava Jr. won IWRG’s Junior de Juniors championship and Oficial 911 won the annual IWRG Rey del Ring 30 man match. Both championships were held by Comando Elite’s Factor, who now has no title and no mask.
• Mistico, Volador and Sombra had a title match in Monterrey where Mistico lost the title by time limit draw. Everyone agreed that made no sense.

taped 2013-04-12 @ Arena Mexico

overly complicated Acero finish

Acero, Aereo, Fantasy vs Mercurio, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico: A drag. The editing of the match bugged me – cutting out the comeback hurts always, but hurts more in an otherwise very cold match. A lot of stuff done with no particular intensity or speed. It wasn’t done wrong, but it wasn’t doing interestingly. Moves, a few more moves, and then the match was over.

weekly Rey Cometa tornillo

Rey Cometa vs Namajague in a lightning match: a really definite outcome for something that was designed to set up the hair rematch; Cometa was going to win in five minutes after Namajague had a fair shot. They’re banking on the previous match, the Mexico vs Japan aspect, and this big angle to get people to care and it didn’t feel like enough (both in this feud and this match.) Angry Namajague is not much as fun Namajague, but probably closer to Back in NJPW Namajague. [a month later edit: wait, why didn't Namajague beat Cometa here? If they were going some place with Cometa and wanted him to just run thru people, that'd be one thing, but they're still doing this feud and Namajague probably could've used a real win some place, like right here.]

Monito TKO

La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Mr. Águila, Rey Escorpión: A short match to build up Shocker/Aguila. It came across stronger here, but still just in random insta-feud territory. Marco Corleone, master of the inside cradle, is an unexpected thing to see.

quick thoughts on the rookies in leiu of 5 match match reviews

Ultimo Guerrero is not impressed

Stigma: got in a lot in his one match despite being hurt

Akuma: at least a year away from being okay. Happy Genesis exists.

Oro Jr.: good exhibition for him and his team with Mascara Dorada was super fun. They need to run it back in 2014 (and possibly 2015.)

Robin: okay but had a couple of down moments

Disturbio breaks it down

Taurus: Taurus probably needed a second finisher so everyone wouldn’t have to take a crazy bump every time he wants to win the second fall of a Tuesday night segunda, but that doesn’t appear to be a problem for him anymore. Actually was doing perfectly okay for a segunda level guy but needed to expand a bit before moving up.

Disturbio: got to show off his personalitly to a crowd which hasn’t taken him seriously much before, did well for himself.

Atlantis forgets he’s eliminated from the match, goes for a pin

Ultimo Guerrero: not a rookie, but made sure to get ALL HIS OFFENSE IN. An amazing individual.

Guerrero Negro: talented but really needs a new character and soon if he’s going to be used in a higher position.

Hombre Bala: really didn’t get to do as much as he would in regular matches, making him seem more generic, and probably deserved to get some sort of victory over Ultimo Guerrero instead of a DQ finish, but this match was all just secondary to the Atlantis vs UG feud and we’re just lucky the final was still to come.