Lucha Libre USA schedule, Blue Demon Jr.

Lucha Libre USA announced the dates for it’s 2013 tour. Cities seem to be the same as leaked out previously as the sponsor, but the dates are new

04/12: San Jose, Ca
04/14: Los Angeles, CA
04/19: Houston, TX
04/21: Phoenix, AZ – RJ Brewer homecoming show!
04/26: Austin, TX
04/27: Laredo, TX
04/28: San Antonio, TX
05/03: Chicago, IL
05/05: Dallas, TX

No buildings are announced on the press release, but they’ve separately announced the Phoenix show will be at Grand Canyon University Arena. Texas promotion RCW mentioned they’ll be working with LLUSA on some shows.

The list of luchadors looks generally the same; Marco Corleone wasn’t listed on the lineup and for the first show and isn’t shown on the poster but is mentioned in the press release as appearing on shows. Maybe the CMLL guys are going to change around depending on schedule conflicts? The press release makes it sound like the main feud will be RJ Brewer & partner TBD vs El Solar & Blue Demon.

The last name is interesting. On yesterday’s Figure Four Daily, Dr. Lucha said the long term plan is for Blue Demon to be the top act for AAA US. The greater plan is to run mostly split rosters, so there would have to be a lot of new names brought in and Demon would theoretically draw in the US. The general idea makes sense, but Demon specifically has some problems with this to me. One, Blue Demon is a well known enough name for getting attention for your first time time a town, but he isn’t interesting enough on his own to draw you back to come back again. The case against Blue Demon Jr. is overstated, he’s alright, but he’s someone who’s only going to work on top if you have a lot of interesting things going on around him to cover up his weakness (or if he’s taunting Santo.) Demon’s already worked a lot in the US; he’s not going to have much novelty for those fans AAA US would try to draw.) If these LLUSA shows draw with Demon vs RJ Brewer on top, I’d assume it’s because the popularity of lucha libre and because of the RJ Brewer gimmick, Demon coming in third most important. You may be able to do it with Demon, but you’d ideally like not to need to help the top guy as much.

The bigger issue with Demon is he’s obviously still under contact to LLUSA, and AAA is well aware how strongly LLUSA enforces their contracts. They’re also aware how long they last. Rocky Romero is not listed as working this set of shows and hasn’t worked for the promotion since last May (not that they’ve run a lot of shows), but ROH still had to make a deal with LLUSA to use him on their shows last weekend. AAA’s obviously not going to get that permission if Demon is still under contract because of the competition between the companies. It’s possible Demon could have gotten himself a different deal, but LLUSA is using him like they expect him to be there for a while.

It is a fun thought experiment to figure out who could headline an AAA US group, if you’re splitting the two groups and no one’s going back and forth. Among the guys who are in AAA now, maybe Mesias would be the best pick – he’s probably not getting the AAA title back soon and there’s not much new for him, he’d have no visa issues as a Puerto Rican, and he’s bilingual. If you had to go out of the current guys, maybe Hijo de Rey Misterio, though maybe there’s cost issues there and I’d guess WWE would try to cause problems for using the name even if they have no right to complain.

Anyway, that’s nine LLUSA shows announced for 2013. If you’re in Denver, you can see Mascara Dorada, Dragon Rojo, Marcela and a possibly bald Amapola this weekend. Guys from NGX – a small Monterrey promotion – are somehow ending up in Chicago next month. Lucha Va Voom will be announcing their Cinco de Mayo schedule soon. The Los Angeles FMLL probably has some shows, GALLI has shows that I’ll forget to mention because I’m horrible at that, and there’s other small lucha groups dotting the world. Lucha Libre AAA has not announced a show in the US.

Volador & Henry won the main event in Arena Aficion, which didn’t seem to draw much more than usual with Mr. Niebla and Volador in.

MedioTiempo interviews the four guys in the AAA Fusion final on Rey de Reyes. Daga wants to be the only double champion in the family. Crazy Boy says he’ll demonstrate Alto Impact. Juvi talks about being in big events before, and has no memory of ever facing Crazy Boy before. Fenix notes he’s had other title changes and hasn’t succeed, but will this time. No one vows to break up pinfalls for no logical reason (except they’re doing acrobatic performance art and not a simulation of competition), but I think we can safely assume that one.

CMLL’s Provincia page has been updated for the first time in months with a show later this month in Torreon. Mistico, Rush and Sombra face Euforia, Mr. Niebla and Mephsito in the main event.

Rob has highlights of 02/12/2013 CMLL.

Bill has highlights of mid November 2012 CMLL Guadalajara.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Links

7 thoughts to “Lucha Libre USA schedule, Blue Demon Jr.”

  1. I was never under impression Blue Demon signed anything with LLUSA. Always thought he was independent and could work anywhere.

    Just thought LLUSA owned trademarks/gimmicks.

    LLUSA gets big venues to buy or co-promote or simply let them in based on the concept of “Lucha Libre” the generic without really understanding it’s a souped up indie fed with no tv, and no names who have no chance of drawing a decent crowd in Mexico or here.

    This damages legit feds like CMLL and AAA if they ever really do something in the US.

  2. PR Powers(Aeroform, indy tag team consisted of Louis Lyndon and Flip Kendrick) will not on this tour. On twitter, Flip Kendrick was tweeting with hastag #RIPPRPOWERS . When I asked him did he get booked or not he said “Not” Such a pity because I love this team

  3. I wish LLUSA or something similar would come through Florida. Nothing against TNA but I really enjoy lucha libre and I’d be more than happy to pay to see an event like that.

  4. I wish they’d come this way too but that’s highly unlikely. The demographics they’re hunting are in Cali, Texas, and AZ which is exactly where they’re going. Sadly most people in Alabama would have no clue wtf Lucha Libre is.

  5. @Ruff: The rumor (started by Teddy Hart) was that Flip & his brother were coming into AAA in February. I wonder if he lost his spot to Angelico? Something happened b/c even Konnan mentioned on a podcast he’d be coming in and thus far… nothing.

  6. @BamaBoyJosh: Hasn’t Alabama beenin the news a lot in recent years because local politicians wanted to pass laws aimed at the exploding Mexican population there?

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