07/11-12 lucha times

box.

Still no sign of any CMLL show on TV Mexiquense.

== AAA ==

AAA-Televisa: Part 1 from Xalapa. No official preview yet, so I’ll guess minis, mixed trios, and Angelico/Electroshock/Fenix vs Fantasma/Mascara/Pentagon. That actually looks decent when I look at the match order but not when I look at who’s in them. Alas.

== CMLL ==

FOX2: moved to 9:30 AM on Sunday, a slot no one expecting the show will be able to find it unless they scroll thru the programming guide to find it. This is by far the least reliable schedule show in CMLL’s array of shows and yet the one where all the angles intended to draw big crowds are put. It makes no sense, especially now that it’s a Fox Sports 2 show. The Friday night shows really should be airing on Cadena3, unless that would require CMLL Production giving up control (announcing and otherwise) and that doesn’t seem in the cards. They’d still do better by putting the Friday night matches on 52MX and leave the random GDL matches too this show.

If you can find it, this show will air Indeseables versus Niebla, Caas, Shocker, Guerreros vs Atlantis, Titan, Valiente and Terrible vs Blue Panther.

52MX: the Malefico/Stuka title match, a Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis match, and a match with Negro Navarro, Solar and Gran Guerrero.

Claro: build to the Arena Coliseo Tag title match, build to Volador/Dragon Rojo

C3: Atlantis, Rey Cometa, Valiente vs Dragon Rojo, Euforia, Polvora

TVC Deportes (Puebla):

Lucha Azteca: En Busca de un Idolo cibernetico, Indeseables & UG vs Atlantis, Niebla, Shocker

Terra Sunday: the Arena Coliseo Tag title match, Volador/Dragon Rojo

== Other ==

Noches de Coliseo: More Mr. Nice.

IWRG (LAS/AYM): Seems like the Myzteziz show is not airing, and this will be Sunday’s show with Hijo del Dos vs Hijo de Mascara.

top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. CMLL announced the Negro Casas vs Rush hair match would finally take place on 08/01. There’s also a women’s double apuesta match, but it’s the men’s match which should draw one of the bigger crowd of the year.
  2. El Rey’s AAA lucha libre show will debut on Wednesday, October 8th
  3. The first of three AAA tapings took place in Queretaro on the 27th. One match was announced for TripleMania: Daga putting his Cruiserweight championship on the line against Aerostar, Bengala, Fenix (who’s own Fusion championship will be unified out of existence) and Daga’s usual allies of Steve Pain and Eterno. Jeff Jarrett and Electroshock battled in the main event and have talked up the possibility of a hair match for TripleMania, for some reason.
  4. TripleMania will be on iPPV – maybe. The TripleManiaTV.com website is advertising the iPPV. It’s being done by a company with no known iPPV history, and AAA hasn’t promoted the iPPV. The price of the iPPV is also ever changing – it’s gone from $8 to $1 to $15 to $13.
  5. Meanwhile, CMLL and/or Terra quietely canceled the Friday night broadcasts. The braodcasts came to end right after the annual internet-exclusive En Busca de un Idolo tournament concluded, which suggests it might have in the works for a while. Despite that, neither CMLL nor Terra actually said anything about the show being canceled until CMLL was questioned about it the following week. (CMLL promoted a new television show as a sort of replacement, but it doesn’t seem to actually exist yet.)
  6. AAA’s second taping took place in Xalapa, and added Taya Valkyrie vs Faby Apache for Faby’s Reina de Reinas championship for TripleMania. (It’ll be the first women’s title match ever at TripleMania.)
  • CMLL’s main feud continues to be centered around the Indeserables (or the Ingobernables if you’re Sombra) versus Shocker, Mr. Niebla and Negro Casas, part of the Rush/Casas rivalary. Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero continue to feud as a tease to being the Anniversary main event, but it’s still uncertain if/when it’ll happen.
  • After Dragon Rojo beat Rey Escorpion in an everyone versus everyone cibernetico, Escorpion and Polvora turned on Rojo in their matches. Rojo has decided to switch to the tecnico side. This was a lot quicker transition than usual, so much so that they still have Rojo main eventing as a rudo this Sunday.
  • AAA ran a third TV taping as part of resort weekend vacation package. Nothing of note happened on the show. AAA’s since announced they’re taking the next two weekend off from taping, returning on 07/27. That show will have to set up the TripleMania matches for the top guys, since many of them have nothing and the card will be announced prior to the next taping.
  • Puebla regular Asturiano defeated Pequeno Black Warrior in Arena Puebla. Warrior announced he was leaving CMLL after the match.
  • People who won titles: Dr. Cerebro, Malefico
  • People who kept titles: Estrellita

AAA to debut on El Rey on October 8

Not kidding.

El Rey held a press conference as part of the summer Television Critics Association press tour. Among the announcements was a new Wednesday night of “original unscripted content”, to start on October 8th. AAA is one of two hours of programming.

The title of the show is “Lucha: Uprising”, though it’s noted in the press release to be a working title. (It’s not far off the name Pro Wrestling Revolution uses for their TV show.) There’s no mention of how many episodes, while the companion show (about eccentric barbers) is listed for an eight episode run. Here’s the blurb in that press release

Long a fan of Lucha Libre, a Mexican franchise that has an 85% market share on television, El Rey is banking on American television viewers being drawn in by the high-flying antics and colorful world of freestyle wrestling.  Each week “Lucha: Uprising” (WT) will bring drama, excitement and action as the masked heroes and villains battle it out in the ring for wrestling supremacy.  The weekly, one-hour series from the producers One Three Media serves as a foundation for a new sports entertainment business, with which Burnett has partnered with El Rey Network, its founder, Robert Rodriguez, Lucha Libre AAA, FactoryMade Ventures and Antonio Cue Sanchez-Navarro.

I don’t know where 85% of market share comes from but I really would like to know.

There’s not much else new here, not even an air time. Still, finally getting a start date for the show is a pretty big deal. This seems to point even stronger towards AAA will starting taping on this show right after TripleMania. AAA won’t need to tape again in Mexico for nearly a month and they’ll be able to completely focus on the US. (Some may suggest they’ve already pretty much been focusing on the US and that’s why the Mexico product has been doing a lot of coasting this year.)

Being on Wednesday is pretty important too. There’s wrestling programs on every other day week, but this gives AAA a night to themselves. That’s a good start.

IWRG, Steve Pain, Pequeno Warrior

IWRG (WED) 07/09/2014 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG Facebook]
1) Electro Boy b Vampiro Metálico II
2) Hijo De La Bestia & Zurdog b Capitán Muerte & Matrix Jr.
3) Rayan & Spartan b Payaso De Plata & Payaso Extremo
main show debuts for the Payasos, who promptly lost in straight falls.
4) Alan Extreme, Golden Magic, Metaleon DQ Apolo Estrada Jr., Avisman, El Hijo del Diablo
Tecnicos took 2/3. Dibalo fouled Golden Magic in the third, which went undetected by one referee but was belatedly caught by the other.
5) Diva Salvaje, Dr. Cerebro, Veneno DQ Canis Lupus, Eterno, Fuerza Guerrera [lumberjack strap]
Apolo ran in and fouled Veneno, but again a ref figured it out after the fact.

Way to run the same surprise finish twice in a row.

Steve Pain says he’s going to win the Cruiserweight championship at TripleMania if he gets a chance, figuring it’s all good as long as the the title stays with a member of Anarquia. (Daga’s plan to add his buddies was really kind of dumb.) Pain mentions in the interview that it’s possible more luchadors will be added to that match.

Pequeno Warrior was interviewed on Tercera Caida, looking for indy bookings. The after the show video is here. Pequeno Warrior mentions he’s available to be booked as Mini Psicosis or Mini Winners too. We’ve never heard him being associated with the later name before. There was a Mini Winners in 1992-1993 AAA who never made TV, though Pequeno Warrior has said he only started wrestling in 1995. That name popped back up in 2006 (when he was just about done with AAA) and 2008 (when he was starting in CMLL.)

LuchaWorld has a recap of this week’s CMLL Informa (which you can see here) and KrisZ’s news update. In addition to the press conference info, CMLL Informa mentioned that the plan is to start uploading the non-televised Tuesday lightning matches and link to it on CMLL’s video page, and JCR said Thunder was still with CMLL but recovering from an undisclosed injury in Australia. Even if that’s not a cover story, I would be surprised if Thunder’s seen again.

Segunda Caida adds the En Busca de un Idolo trios to their best of the year list.

Dragon Azteca, a luchador for Salamanca, is in a coma after banging his head on the floor. The promotion is running a benefit for his hospital expensive. The link includes a clip of the incident.

Ohtani’s Jacket watches some recent lucha.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 07/13/2014 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ciclon Black & Sky Ángel vs Atomic Star & Electro Boy
2) Látigo & Metaleon vs Anubis Black & Hijo De La Bestia
3) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Veneno vs Relámpago, Trauma I, Trauma II
4) Diva Salvaje, Súper Nova, Toscano vs Eterno, Fuerza Guerrera, X-Fly
5) Hijo De Dos Caras & Máscara Sagrada vs Demon Clown & Hijo de Máscara Año 2000

So they are running Sunday, but not with any match I’d like to see. And I have no idea what’s going on in the tercera. Is Veneno a rudo? Is Relampago?

great match roundup, week of 2014-06-21

Great/Excellent matches

AAA on Televisa: 2014-06-21
taped 2014-06-07 @ Plaza de Toros La Concordia, Orizaba, Veracruz
Aerostar, Ludxor, Venum vs Carta Brava Jr., El Apache, Súper Fly: GREAT.

Shows Watched But Nothing Made The List
CMLL Guerreros del Ring on 52MX: 2014-06-21
CMLL on CadenaTres: 2014-06-21
CMLL on Fox Sports (Mexico): 2014-06-21

Matches To Watch Later
CMLL Puebla: 2014-06-22
taped 2014-06-09 @ Arena Puebla
La Sombra vs Shocker: