Current Lucha Talk

[El-P]

Meanwhile, CMLL last Friday had a legit MOTYC with Los Guerreros Laguneros vs Caristico, Volador & Dragon Lee. Just awesome from start to finish. The hair vs hair main event was good but nothing special, Bestia Del Ring just isn't that kind of epic worker, and while I like Terrible quite a bit, Ange de Oro & Niebla Roja are not gonna have that great of a match against those two. Seems like part of the crowd was shitting on the technicos too, I guess the Ingobernables are that popular. And really, if Angel is Pillman, Niebla is definitely Z-Man, not overly charismatic. Excellent show overall, best CMLL Friday night show of the year thus far.

[sek69]

On 3/17/2019 at 2:55 AM, Tim Evans said:

I found it interesting that Cody was a babyface but the Bucks were heels. It was funny seeing the Bucks win and the crowd not give a shit because they had no idea who they were. It reminded me of when the TNA guys used to come in. Bucks winning is good for AEW business but man did Escorpion and Texano look weak losing so fast. The OGT match was my favorite cause they were killing each other with nutty bumps. Poor Super Fly.

 

Konnan kind of admitted they screwed up, the Bucks were super over in Tiajuana and he thought it would carry over. Lucha fans tend to be very territorial still so someone big in one city might not get a peep in another. 

[El-P]

That card was kinda crazy when you think about the fact it had both Jeff Jarrett (WWE), Killer Kross (iMPACT) and Cody & the Bucks (AEW) on the same show. The fact every damn match is a garbagey brawl does get tiresome after a point, but I did like the cage match. It's still amazing to me that the biggest star of the company is basically a guy doing the Doink gimmick. Super Porky is sad to watch. Jarrett is fun to watch in this context. The Fabi Apache face turn was well done. Superfly didn't die and he's lucky, because it was one of the most horrendous bumps I've ever seen. Lucha Bros v Young Bucks was quite the spotfest, the match at Vegas could be great with more time. AAA is still an odd company with all these guys dressed in military/anti-riot squad outfit (a look I really can't stand), a dozen factions and the fucking urn being presented at the beginning of every show. The woman is kinda freaking me out BTW, she looks like Medusa.

[sek69]

It was funny to see that there were people Very Mad Online over the involvment of AEW, saying it's somehow going to "ruin" AAA.  This is the promotion that thought they could run a year long angle with LA Park for this year's Triplemania (spoiler alert: he didn't make it that long), and also spent time building up Hijo del Fantasma before he quit due to the lawsuit he filed about LU. AAA have been messing up their own plans long before any of the AEW guys were in the business, they're professionals at stepping on their own dicks. 

 

[Mrzfn]

Anyone who thinks the Bucks will ruin AAA should be forced to sit and watch the entire run of Vampiro's booking tribute to WCW Russo that was going on before Konnan came back to the company last year.

[sek69]

AAA just announced that Cain Velasquez will be on the card for Triplemania this year.

[El-P]

Omega making fun of the Bucks for not getting a pop in AAA in this week's BTE was pretty funny. "You really got that crowd going mild."

[NintendoLogic]

When reporters asked Velasquez about his recent comments calling wrestling fake, he said that he was talking about that WWE shit and that AAA was real.

[sek69]

So it came out in the Observer that Cuatrero of the New Generation Dinamitas is in a relationship with Sofia Alonso, and Forastero is married to Ultimo Guerrero's daughter. The joke in CMLL now is that it's good that NGD is a good trio that deserves to be on top since they're going to be on top anyway.

[El-P]

Damn, Wagner Jr. and Blue Demon Jr. managed to have quite a compelling last part of the cage match main event at the big show earlier this month. Those old mofos sure have done a much, much better job than Trip & Batista (then again, we're talking about Wagner Jr., who ruled, and Blue Demon... ok, who apparently never was that good) as far as pushing a hundred years inside the ring and having a blood feud. I guess this is gonna main event Triplemania this year ? Well, I'm invested in this one now. Good job.

Also, Fantasma is gone for good then ? Meltz talked about him showing up in NJPW, which would be interesting.

[sek69]

Fantasma left AAA since he was part of the Lucha Underground lawsuit, and since AAA and LU are (were?) sister companies, it turned into a "AJ Lee working for WWE while Punk was in a lawsuit with them" level of awkwardness.  His dad is the Lucha commissioner for Mexico City still, so it might help out if NJPW wants to do any Mexico based shows to have a guy who can grease the wheels if need be. 

[El-P]

Not keeping track of anything, but Barbario Cavernario vs Forastero from 03/29 was easily a MOTYC, and maybe the best mexican match I've seen this year (single match at least). A must-see, really.

[SteveMPunk]

Yeah that was absolutely brilliant. Hoping to watch the tag finals from Friday soon

[sek69]

So La Mascara announced he left AAA and is a free agent, there's probably zero chance he goes back to CMLL due to the nature of his departure there.  It seemed like they wrapped up his angle with Maximo already and had nothing else for him.  I never would have expected him to end up the lucha version of Bret Hart,  where a company gets handed a big star from the competition and totally dropped the ball. 

[SteveMPunk]

Gonna be a slow week waiting for this 

[El-P]

I never quite got how Hijo del Santo basically ended up being "banned" from both CMLL and AAA. Shouldn't he be the biggest masked legend in activity still ?

[SteveMPunk]

You would think so 

[aaeo_]

 

This is the show of the year.

[sek69]

10 hours ago, El-P said:

I never quite got how Hijo del Santo basically ended up being "banned" from both CMLL and AAA. Shouldn't he be the biggest masked legend in activity still ?

He's really only banned from CMLL, Paco holds grudges for life + 10 years*. AAA just doesn't do business with him because he's a pain in the ass to deal with (and his wife/business manager is said to be just as bad). 

 

 

*CMLL did work with LA Park who was also on Paco's "dead to me" list and it didn't end horribly (it was more AAA's doing than Park's) so maybe there's a chance Santo could come back. 

[NintendoLogic]

Park and the Lucha Brothers were brought in at the insistence of the wrestlers because the main event scene had gotten stale. Pentagon and Fenix expected a raise for helping to revitalize business, but they got the runaround instead, so now they're gone. When you get right down to it, CMLL and AAA are both Mickey Mouse operations, just in different ways.

[SteveMPunk]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:38 PM, aaeo_ said:

 

This is the show of the year.

 

I absolutely have to see a show at this venue 

[El-P]

Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Adam Brooks & Mecha Wolf 450 (from The Crash) at Arena Mexico from May 3rd is an easy MOTYC. 

[joeg]

I'll make sure to hunt it down. I half expected it to be a dumpster fire, looking at the card for that show it felt like CMLL trying to get the same buzz they got bringing in some of the outsiders they brought in last year but without having to spend money on bigger names and quality talent. 

[El-P]

The latest AAA big shows have been pretty damn BAD. I feel this is the promotion that gets the least of of its talented workers, having them work constantly clusterfucky garbage matches or directionless spotfests. Enjoying the whole Lady Maravilla / Nino Hamburgesa saga in the undercard though, with usually fun tag matches. Killer Kross working gringo heel monster is quite cool too. But man, too many clows and too many people in anti-riot jackets (hates those).

[El-P]

Well, I must say Pagano vs Chessman from 05.19 is fun for various reasons. Pagano is not good at much apart from taking punishement, but Chessman holds this together for a while. He looks like a creep and acts like a douche, he also bleeds all over the place, so there's that. And you get classic AAA shitty camera work, with an amazing close up on Pagano holding his blade, and a wonderful miss of the biggest spot of the match, which Chessman basically shakes off anyway.