Extreme Tiger out of AAA, Electrico’s road back to CMLL, Diamante Azul & Rush to Japan

Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is headlined by Diamante Azul vs Tama Tonga (Azul wants to prove himself a star) and Polvora vs Mascara Dorada for Dorada’s CMLL Welterweight Championship. Dorada is the easy favorite in his match, but Tonga vs Azul is more up in the air. Usually (but not always), the NJPW guys have lost in their big Arena Mexico singles matches, but Tonga has a big title match on Tuesday vs Azul & Atlantis for the tag team title mach. If CMLL’s different weekly shows work in unity, Tonga should win tonight to build up Tuesday, but CMLL’s weekly shows have operated without paying attention to each other in the past. The match itself is an interesting inversion of usual CMLL tecnico vs rudo ones – here, the high flyer is the rudo and the strong guy is the tecnico. Diamante Azul just went thru that match with Volador Jr., but I suspect there won’t be as much Mije involvement tonight.

Electrico, who’s been out of action since August after a bad leg injury, says he will not be able to return this year. The prognosis was a four month recovery, so he wouldn’t have enough time and it seems like it’s going slower than expected. The injury had a domino effect; he missed out of “being part of the 20 year celebration for the pequeno estrellas” (maybe being in an apuesta?), was supposed to challenge Demus for his title (which Astral won instead), had been offered a trip to Japan by Ultimo Dragon, can’t participate in the bodybuilding contest, and lost an opportunity to teach engineering at a college. Electrico says he’s not complain, and has learned to appreciate what he does have in life.

MedioTiempo mentions a promotion named WASP is planning to debut on 11/23 in Queretaro, promising ex-WWE, ex-ECW, US Indy and AAA wrestlers. It’s 12 days out and they haven’t announced any names. It’s the same arena that’s hosting the Rey Cometa headlined show the weekend after, and that show is a free show. This is probably not going to end well.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Rob has highlights from mid March 2000 AAA.

Lucha Libre in Japan

11/11 REINA X WORLD: Amapola defeated Mia Yim (taking falls 1/3) to keep the REINA International Championship. Match was said to be good. Crowd appeared to be minimal.

NJPW announced the teams for it’s World Tag League, a 14 team heavyweight tag team tournament. CMLL will be represented by the team of Rush & Diamante Azul (as “CMLL ASESINOS”). They should enjoy teaming with each other, not sure how their opponents will feel. The other teams in the group are Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (previous champs, though they may be going in different directions soon), Strong Man & Manabu Nakanishi (Nakanishi is recently returned from neck surgery, Strong Man is Strong Man), MVP & Shelton Benjamin (MVP was meant to be regular semi-important guy but has been sparingly used the last six months, and his contract runs out after the Tokyo Dome), Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka (rudo b-team), Masato Tanaka & Yujiro Takahashi (also rudo b-team), Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (current tag champs.) It’s not impossible to for Rush & Azul to do well, because there are a lot of average teams here, but history tells us lucha teams finish mid table. We can figure Rush is probably back in Japan for FantasticaMania and they’ll need a few matches for that show, so stealing a win over the tag champs to set up a rematch might be possible.

The tournament runs from 11/20 to 12/02. Rush & Diamante Azul would probably be back in Mexico in time for the usual year end show, but probably not involved in any major match.

Lineups

JUNIORS (SUN) 12/02/2012 Auditorio Miguel Barragan de San Luis Potosi [El Sol de San Luis]
1) Lady Dinamita & Rossy Moreno vs Esther Moreno & La Sádica
2) Lobito & Octagoncito (original) vs Mini Conde Bartock & Mini Maniaco
3) ? vs ?? [cage]
particpants (including number) to be announced
4) Decnnis, Extreme Tiger, Oriental vs Black Terry, Pirata Morgan, Scorpio Jr.
5) El Hijo Del Santo & Villano III vs Angel Blanco Jr. & El Hijo del Solitario

FWIW, this is a SLP Juniors promotion different from the Gallo Tapado Jr. one. It’s essentially the dormant TxT guys plus whoever is in the cage match (to be announced this week, but I’d guess locals.)

The big news is Extreme Tiger showing up on a lineup here, which is about as much confirmation we’re going to get. (AAA still has said nothing, probably will say nothing, social media is pointless if you can’t say anything worthwhile on it.) In the long run, I don’t think Tiger leaving hurts AAA much – historically, they’ve shown the ability to replace high flying guys who leave with newer unknown ones, and Tiger was in the group of guys who rarely had feuds but was often thrown into a random match on a big show. (The TripleMania team with Halloween was the best example of this.) I wouldn’t be surprised if CMLL gave Tiger a shot, and he’ll probably work Tijuana a lot. It seems unlikely he’ll be better off outside of AAA then he was in it, and that seems like an indication of how frustrated he must’ve been to make this move.

Electroshock vs Mascara, AAA in Puebla, CMLL, Extreme Tiger, Guerra de Titanes

photo by Black Terry Jr.

IWRG (THU) 11/08/2012 Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), Estrellas del Ring, The Gladiatores]
1) Matrix Jr. b Johnny Rivera
single fall
2) Miss Gaviota & Niko b Araña de Plata & Jack
Miss Gaviota’s first match here since April.
3) Carta Brava Jr., Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro b Dinamic Black, Golden Magic, Relampago
straight falls
4) Factor, Rayan, Spartan b Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Trauma II
straight falls
5) el Ángel, Electroshock, Trauma I DQ Cien Caras Jr., Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Máscara Año 2000 Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3, Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. fouling Electroshock after trying to avoid him most of the match. Angel is apparently still a tecnico.

Did I miss something on TV that explained why Angel changed his mind about hating the Traumas? Perhaps he just had a bad day?

The big show tonight is AAA’s taping in Puebla. It’s the first main show taping in nearly a month and should set up the main matches for Guerra de Titanes. The main event is Mesias & Cibernetico vs Texano & Perro Aguayo Jr., which should set up the two biggest matches for the December AAA show. In the undercard, Consejo face Psycho Circus again and Secta Bizarra meet the Infierno Rockers in two group vs group battles. Mary Apache & Halloween were scheduled to defend the mixed tag titles versus Halloween & Faby Apache & Cuervo until Halloween broke his ribs. Gran Apache will replace Halloween, and AAA still lists it as a title match. The show opens with a mini/women/exotico mixed match, where Taya Vaklyrie makes her in-ring debut on the main show.

Over in Arena Mexico, the Guerreros vs Guerreros feud seems to be done for now. Victorious Ultimo Guerrero will instead team with Terrible and Volador versus the current world trios champions Bufete del Amor in tonight’s main event. The semimain looks to continue the new Averno vs Titan feud, while the special includes another Rey Cometa/Puma King battle. The minis match, the second on the card, looks like it could be quite good but is more interesting to see who’s actually able to participate. Demus, Olimpico, and Pierrothito were mentioned as suffering minor injuries in Tuesday’s cage match, while Astral was strechered off after suffering a bad fall, and there’s been no info on any of their status.

The rumors of AAA departures returned last night, with Alan Stone, Decnnis and Extreme Tiger gone. Alan was probably just in for one night to drop the mixed tag titles (and even that much was a surprise) and there was no reason to expect him to stick around. Decnnis already announced he left, and the Extreme Tiger leaving AAA story might have been started by Decnnis. Tiger is not announced for any future AAA card, and this story has going around for a week without Tiger or AAA denying it. It sure does look like Extreme Tiger has left AAA, but we’re still stuck waiting for him to show up somewhere else to confirm it.

[tweet https://twitter.com/InfiltrAAAdo/status/266780766715916288]

AAA put out it’s Guerra de Titanes poster, featuring Chessman, Perro Jr., Cibernetico, LA Park, Vampiro and Dr. Wagner. It’s just a poster, so it’s not the most definite thing – Abyss was on the TripleMania poster but only ended up doing a run-in – but no sign of Mr. Jeff Jarrett.

CMLL.com mentions the upcoming CMLL luchador trips to Japan: Amapola this weekend to defend her REINA title, and Stuka & Arkangel on Mr. Cacao’s FUKUMENMANIA (show on 11/25, but they’ll be gone from 11/22 to 11/28.) There’s also a note on FantasticaMania expanding to three days. NJPW announced announced tickets would go on sale 11/22 (with a pre-sale a couple days prior.) Friday and Saturday shows start at 6:30 local (3:30 Central) and Sunday at noon (9pm). If any of these turn up on iPPV, it’s possible I may do live coverage at an odd hour.

Rey Cometa is getting a title shot – at the Queretaro Welterightweight championship on 11/30. It’s the usual Arena Queretaro crew, but running the AAA venue of Auditorio General José María Arteaga, Queretaro.

DTU’s 11/20 show in SLP includes Eita defending the Alto Impacto, and a mask vs hair ladder match between Astro Latino & Alex Guajarado.

A promo hints at Joe Lider possible showing up in a Monterrey hardcore show on Saturday. He’s in Monterrey on Sunday, so good shot at at that.

Rob has his top 5 spots of the week.

Porra Fresa celebrates four years of existence and Centella de Oro in a play. El Sol de Puebla has info on Centella de Oro’s school.

Estrellita says Kung Fu gave her that name, and she wanted to be a surgeon before getting into wrestling.

Reyes del Atlantida win trios titles back, Bufete del Amor keep theirs, CMLL minis cage match

CMLL (MON) 10/29 Arena Puebla [Porra Fresa]
1) Ares & Centauro de Fuego b Dinámikoo & Tigre Rojo Jr.
Rudos took 2/3, early falls went very quick.
2) Höruz b Cholo [lightning]
Cholo dominated the match, but Horuz pulled it out with an armbar.
3) Asturiano, Metálico, Molotov vs Bobby Zavala, Disturbio, Espiritu Maligno
Tecnicos took 2/3. Molotov submitted Espiritu, Metalico pinned Disturbio.
4) Dalis la Caribeña, Goya Kong, Marcela b Amapola, Mima Shimoda, Tiffany
Tecnicas took 1/3.
5) Namajague, Shigeo Okumura, Tama Tonga b Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo del Fantasma
Rudos took 2/3. Tonga beat Maya to win in his debut and the best match of the night Maya had to be strechered out. Delta tried to help with that, but Tonga attacked him too.
6) Atlantis, La Máscara, Mistico DQ Averno, Felino, Mephisto
Felino replaced Ephesto. Mascara pinned Averno in the first, then Mephisto pulled Mistico’s mask in the second in a disappointing match. Mistico challenged Mephisto a singles match.

Mr. Aguila/photo by CMLL

Was Ephesto hurt on Sunday and I’ve forgot about it?

CMLL (TUE) 10/30/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Metatrón b Exterminador
2) Pequeño Warrior b Shockercito and Aereo and Pequeño Halcón and Astral and Último Dragoncito and Fantasy and Demus 3:16 and Pierrothito and Mercurio and Pequeño Olímpico and Pequeño Violencia [Mini Reyes del Aire]
Pequeno Warrior won the match, which set up a cage match next week! Shockercito may have been hurt on a dive.
3) La Máscara, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada b Kráneo, Olímpico, Psicosis
4) Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush b Averno, Mephisto, Tama Tonga [CMLL TRIOS]
Tama Tonga replaced Ephesto. Love Buffet came in as champs, and took falls 2/3 to keep the titles. Last week’s match was Maximo vs Averno, and this week Maximo kissed and cradled Averno to keep the titles.

Results were from radio station Canal58, which appears to be doing live PBP of Tuesday and Sunday Guadalajara shows. Satanico joined the commentators a couple times.

new/old champs
photo by CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 10/30/2012 Arena Mexico [CMLL, CMLL Gaceta]
1) Akuma & Camorra DQ Freesbe & Oro Jr.
Camorra fouled Freesbe
2) Artillero, Hooligan, Súper Comando b Camaleón, Pegasso, Sensei
Camaleon replaced Angel Azteca Jr. Isis was with Hooligan. Rudos took 1/3. Sensei was strechered out with a knee injury and Pegasso was hurting (as usual.)
3) Fuego, Sagrado, Triton b Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
Tecnicos won in straight falls when Arkangel and the Cancerberos turned on each other.
4) Rey Cometa b Sangre Azteca [lightning]
Cometa won with a 450 splash in 8:10.
5) Euforia, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero b Diamante Azul, Mistico, Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 2/3, Euforia & Niebla getting the pins while Mistico dove onto Mistico.
6) Atlantis, Delta, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Black Warrior, Mr. Águila, Volador Jr. [MEX TRIOS]
Volador, Mr. Aguila, and Black Warrior came in as champs. Delta & Maya took 1, Volador took the second with a backcracker on Atlantis, and Atlantis won the match with an Atlantida on Volador (again!) Reyes del Atlantida are champions as a team for a third time, Atlantis has won the titles three times.

Shocker & Brazo de Plata beat Terrible & Dragon Rojo in Arena Queretaro. In the undercard, Amapola (replacing Tiffany) was beat by local luchador Reyna Azteca in a tag match. The Quereatro wrestler challenged for a title match.

The semi-official Noti AAA Facebook site confirmed Decnnis was leaving AAA, then took down that post, put up another post saying all the rumored people leaving AAA (Tiger, Wagner) were not true. That’s totally not confusing. In the comments of the last post, they say Wagner is joining going back to being an independent who works with AAA. (The difference there is if AAA controls his booking for non TV shows and what cut they need; someone the level of Wagner doesn’t need AAA for that.) As for Extreme Tiger, he’s scheduled to work tonight’s Halloween show in Arena Lopez Mateos, which would be an easy time for him to confirm or deny rumors.

Arena Neza’s Facebook writes Vampiro will miss this weekend’s AAA Fusion taping. Vampiro’s said the same, going on to say he’s busy with another show and AAA never told him he was on this show. Same thing happened last time Vampiro missed a taping. Mesias will take his place, which greatly improves the match. AAA hasn’t acknowledged the change yet.

Quien Pinta Por La Corona held a press conference in Guadalajara for the event there on 11/10 and 11/11. QPPLC also posted profiles of some of the finalists: Rey Maya (nephew of Canek!), Forajido (inspired by Cibernetico and Gronda), Full Back Jr. (snuck off to train with Canek), Demoledor (36 years old), and New Fire Jr.

Samuray del Sol was on Figure Four Daily yesterday (subscriber only) in a really good interview where he talked a lot about his career. His story about being in last year’s QPPLC contest was my favorite part. Samuray never actually signed up for the contest himself, Crazy Boy just invited him to come to Veracruz, then signed Samuray up without him knowing to get Samuray in front of AAA people. Samuray was under the impression the talent contest – at least by the final – was set up for Daga to win, saying AAA officials wanted him specifically to work with Daga since he could do the style Daga likes to do and Daga would look like a star.

Rob has highlights of 04/13/12 CMLL and has updated his MOTYC list.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update.

Lucha Libre in Japan

Fabi Apache, Sexi Star, Lolita and Jennifer Blake are headed to WAVE for their AAA Reina de Reinas on 11/27. The Japanese promotion had previously announced the show, this is the first time the Mexican promotion has acknowledged it. The article is mostly talking about Fabi Apache’s training and previous time in Japan. WAVE also mentions Pimpinela and Fenix working on the show in a bonus match with CIMA, which hasn’t yet been announced by AAA.

Links

Lineups

CMLL (TUE) 11/06/2012 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Sky Kid & Virgo vs Èvola & Thunder Boy
2) Esfinge & Gallo vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Espectrum
3) La Máscara, La Sombra, Mistico vs Felino, Psicosis, Rey Escorpión
4) Shockercito vs Último Dragoncito, Pequeño Halcón, Aereo, Astral, Fantasy, Pierrothito, Demus 3:16, Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Warrior, Pequeño Violencia [cage, hair, mask]

Cage match, just not at all the one I thought. Warrior winning the Reyes del Aire means he’s a favorite to lose here.

AAA Rey de Reyes (03/18/2011)

taped @ Plaza de Toros Monumental Aguascalientes, 03/18/2011

recap: here
file: here (via WarriorsX2000)

professionalism

I’ve got links to the TV versions of the two matches that have aired, but the PPVs are complete. WarriorX2000 has them up, though they may be in his PPV section.

Gran Apache, Mari Apache, Octagoncito, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Hijo de Tirantes, Mini Histeria, Sexy Star, Yuriko: Told the Apache/Tirantes story well, everyone else played their part. Tirantes took the loss but still made the eventually singles match meaningful.

Jack Evans, Joe Lider, La Parka, Nicho el Millionario vs Billy el Malo, Cibernético, Escoria, Nygma: Usually bit of slight of hand to allow Cibernetico to wrestle about 1 minute of a 19 minute match. Not sure if Parka is actually the guy in better shape in the feud (doubtful) or if Cibernetico’s just decided the best thing for this feud is for him to not have to sell much (likely). The whole bit with the fire was reckless but unsurprising.

Dr. Wagner Jr., Monster Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs Damián 666, el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Halloween, Super Crazy: Again, the same hardcore match they’ve been doing nearly weekly, with a few ‘special’ spots for shock value. (Shocked the cameraman, who missed the table being on fire right in front of him.) If this is end for Perro Jr. for now, he goes out with a clean (as they go here) win over Dr. Wagner; they were clearly building both Wagner/Perro and Perros/Clowns (for the masks) for future matches, and at least one of those is now off.

Zorro vs Charly Manson for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship: Horrid. Back at Guerra de Titanes, I was confused as to why they didn’t let Dr. Wagner and Zorro have any semblance of a match without constant interference. They had much less interference (at least during most of the match) and let these two guys work. These two were just very bad at it. Charly tried, but there’s only so much Charly can do. Zorro – I have no idea what the actual deal with Zorro here was, but he performed a lot like a guy in no condition to perform. The Mr. Aguila/Rey Bucanero match had a crowd that came in only caring about Tirantes and the two guys weren’t good enough to get them when Tirantes left. This crowd was totally willing to get into Zorro & Charly, and that crowd was quiet by midway thru.

Tiger wins

Electroshock vs Heavy Metal: announced as a bull terrier match, but it turned out to just be a three falls match. And a three falls match where the first two falls were relatively pointless, so who knows. I think they had a lot of ideas, but did not do the best job of putting them together in a coherent manner (Like: Pepe Casas gets bumped at the end – and then it changes absolutely nothing.) There was a story they were telling with the guitars, but sometimes it was a lethal match ender, and sometimes it was just a bit at the start of matches. This was okay, but didn’t feel like the best match in the series. Seemed like this should’ve built to Metal & Electroshock teaming up from here on out, but Metal might have driven himself out of that spot.

Extreme Tiger vs El Mesías, LA Park, Carlito for the Rey de Reyes Tournament: Piero is pretty patient in starting his countout. The big bump was not big by Mesias crowd brawling standards, but the brawl was good enough to make up for it, and they gave Carlito and Extreme Tiger enough time to get the crowd to start paying attention to them and not the fight they just saw. Tiger’s win was marginalized by Wagner walking out to the ring and essentially cutting his promo for him – TIger at least needed to say a few words, and it was a lot better when they just cut that off in the TV version. Still, if they wanted Tiger to come off as an AAA star, he should’ve beat an AAA star, rather than just a guy passing thru.

07/27 AAA TV Results (Cd. Madero)

Previous: 07/06 (Puebla), 07/15 (TripleMania), 07/16 (Leon)

AAA TV (FRI) 07/27 Centro de Convenciones de Ciudad Madero [aaa photo blogger]
1) Cinthia Moreno, Octagoncito, Oriental, Pimpinela Escarlata b Alfa, Fabi Apache, Gran Apache, Mini Histeria
2) Extreme Tiger b Laredo Kid, Aero Star, Super Fly, Escoria, Hombre Sin Miedo, Rey Cometa, Pegasso [Torneo Alas de Oro]
3) Alan Stone, Scorpio Jr., Super Calo, Zumbido b Alberije, Brazo de Plata, El Elegido, Zorro
4) Crazy Boy, Joe Lider, Juventud Guerrera b Head Hunter I, Scoria, Shryu Dragon, X-Pac
5) Kenzo Suzuki, Mesias, Ozz b Charly Manson, Chessman, Cibernetico [cage]

Air Date (assuming everything airs)
Mex: 08/12
US: 09/01

The recap doesn’t exactly list results, but you can put it together based on the pictures.

Legion won the main event cage match with some outside help from X-Pac. Chessman took a big move off a ladder thru a table. Hell Brothers had a valet, but I’m kinda expecting it to be a one time deal.

No Ron Killings in the semimain. I’m not sure that Head Hunter I and Scoria were both supposed to be in the match replacing him, but it effectively worked out that way. Extreme Tiger ran into help his side, and it was very much your usual Mexican Powers match. Shryu Dragon is another indy hardcore wrestler – he fits the Sabu tease without actually costing Sabu money. It looks like Crazy Boy got hurt by the end of this match, and Joe Lider really should be as well. After multiple tables being broken and Extreme Tiger coming off a balcony with a dive, the finish was X-Pac trying to Tombstone Juvy, and Extreme Tiger knocking Juvy on top with a dropkick. Makes you wonder what the point of everything else was.

Super Calo appears to still be wrestling under that name, but as a member of the Guapos. This match was the usual between these sides, and I think Calo picked up the win with a guillotine legdrop (and some help from Alan.) Zorro’s been eating a lot of pins for a guy who seemed to be their new top star.

Tons of dives in the Alas de Oro tournament; that should be interesting to see. Extreme Tiger beat Super Fly to take it.

Oriental won the opener by giving Alfa a German suplex, a reverse of the TripleMania finish and an indication that this will be ongoing. Figure a title match at one of the next two tapings.

Announced Future Tapings
– 08/03 Auditorio Jose Maria Artega de Queretaro
– 08/16 Gimnasio Agustin Millan de Toluca

06/08 AAA TV Taping Lineup (Coumel, QR)

Previous: 05/20, 05/26, 05/30

AAA TV (FRI) 06/08 Parque de Beisbol Rojo Gomez, Coumel, Quintana Roo
1) Laredo Kid & Super Fly vs Gran Apache & Super Calo
2) Cinthia Moreno, Estrellita, Sexi Star vs ??, ???, Fabi Apache
3) Crazy Boy, Joe Lider, Juventud Guerrera vs Espiritu, Extreme Tiger, Scoria
4) Alebrije, Intocable, Oriental vs Alan Stone, Scorpio Jr., Zumbido
5) Chessman, Cibernetico, La Parka Jr., Zorro vs Abismo Negro, Kenzo Suzuki, Mesias, Ozz

Air Date
Mex: 06/17
US: 07/07
(I’d be more than happy to add Japan if I knew they were still airing in Japan and which episode they’re on now.)

Some strange stuff on this one. Odd to have Ozz and Scoria booked but not Cuervo. Perhaps he’s the Abismo back up/replacement. Obviously, the story of the main event is having two top tecnicos teaming up willingly with the Hell Brothers to take on the axis of evil. THIS is La Parka Jr.’s return match, it seems.

Semimain is teased as pushing Intocable/Alan again, but I suspect they’ll try Alebrije/Cuije vs Scorpio/Guapito as well.

Either I missed something with the Mexican Powers which would explain why Extreme Tiger is opposing them already, or someone screwed up on this listing. (Maybe Cuervo goes here?) You know, based on all the pre-released lineups before Extreme Tiger actually showed up, it sure seems likes he was scheduled to be a rudo.

Mystery women in the second match should be the same women as the next taping – that’s what you do with one day in between! AAA’s recap teases TNA women, though the names previously mentioned aren’t from that group.

Opener should lead to some mask/hair match challenge.

Known Scheduled Future Tapings
06/10 Merida
– 06/17 Toluca
– 06/20 Tijuana
– 06/21 Mexicali
(some more between here?)
– 07/15 TripleMania