#champions: lucha libre aaa | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wrestlingisfake · 1 year

Text

Supercard of Honor preview

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston - Castagonli is the defending ROH men's world champion. Kingston has had it in for him since...well, look, Eddie has it in for everybody, one way or another. So I could look up their whole history in CHIKARA or whatever but that isn't going to make it make more sense. They really hate each other, ladies and gentlemen.

Kingston dramatically "quit" AEW earlier this month to get away from all the snakes and liars. Then he showed up at the ROH tapings (okay technically him showing up was taped before he quit) to bitch about how Claudio is a snake and a liar or whatever. Listen, Eddie is hella cool but his decisions don't make a lot of sense to me. "I do me, partna"--yeah, you sure do, my guy.

Conveniently, Castagnoli has quietly turned heel to support Jon Moxley's heel turn in AEW, so he can actually be the asshole Kingston makes him out to be. Unfortunately, the storyline amounts to Claudio attacking Eddie for blaming everyone but himself for his problems, which...actually yeah, he's right. The story isn't great. I mean, it's better than Edge vs. The Judgment Day, but that's a low bar to clear.

In spite of everything I'm rooting for Eddie, and he did a great go-home promo on March 30. But I just can't convince myself he's going to beat Castagnoli right now, at the peak of the Blackpool Combat Club's heel run. Something tells me this match won't settle anything, and we'll be seeing it again before long...

El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Komander - Vikingo is defending the AAA mega championship. From 2016 to 2021, Ring of Honor was part of a tight alliance with CMLL, which made it impractical for ROH to work with other Mexican promotions, or really any Mexican wrestlers that had heat with CMLL. So even hearing "Triple A" on an ROH show is weird enough, let alone seeing a AAA title match.

AEW/ROH fans will mainly know Vikingo from the big dream match with Kenny Omega on March 22. It's been notoriously difficult to get dates on him in the US, which has added to the allure of seeing him on an American broadcast. For example, AEW wanted Vikingo for the big ladder match on March 1, but they couldn't get him. Instead they brought in Komander from KAOZ, who proceeded to put himself on the map for people who don't watch lucha libre. People who do follow lucha went nuts the second this match was announced, so expect a lot of hype for this. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman may both pass out just from calling the action.

In a funny twist that probably won't get mentioned on this show, these two already had a AAA title bout yesterday, at Wrestlecon's Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow. It was a three-way with Taurus, and I haven't watched it yet but I bet Taurus took the pin. That's the kind of wacky situations you get during Wrestlemania weekend.

I believe AAA and KAOZ have a working relationship, so it wouldn't be totally implausible to see a title change here. But AAA knows they've got a golden goose with Vikingo, and I don't think they're going to let Tony Khan job him out twice in one month.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia - Garcia was penciled in to face Will Ospreay here, but Ospreay is on the shelf and it looks like Tana has been sent in to fulfill his commitments. Garcia is probably still stinging from his big loss to Adam Cole on March 29, followed by a weird angle where Jericho helped him to the back and seemed protective but also weirdly bothered about something. I don't know if this match will play into that or not. Either way, Garcia has something to prove.

I suppose Garcia has a slightly better chance of beating Tanahashi than I thought Mike Bailey had last night. If Garcia was a New Japan regular in line for a push, he might score a huge upset win in a situation like this. But New Japan is more careful about who they send to do a job in an interpromotional match against a midcarder. If the plan was for Garcia to beat a New Japan veteran, they probably would've sent Tomohiro Ishii or Satoshi Kojima. Like Bailey, Garcia will have to make do with Tanahashi making him look good in defeat.

Wheeler YUTA vs. Katsuyori Shibata - Yuta's ROH pure title is at stake, which means "pure rules" are in effect. The rules are designed to discourage outside interference, closed-fist punches to the face, and going to the ropes to escape a hold. The championship can change hands on a disqualification or count-out. In the event of a 60-minute draw, the decision will be awarded by a panel of judges.

Shibata is the head trainer for New Japan's LA Dojo, but more importantly he was a key NJPW guy until he suffered subdural hematoma during a 2017 match. He shockingly returned to action in 2021 for an exhibition match, but after a second exhibition in 2022 New Japan evidently grew wary of letting him compete. He later faced Orange Cassidy in AEW and Tom Lawlor at an Antonio Inoki tribute show. I still get scared when I see him wrestle.

In terms of star power, Yuta really has no business beating Shibata, particularly for a "just very good at grappling" belt. But you can't have Shibata win the title without a plan for him to return and defend it, which is probably not going to be easy. So I have to assume this match is going to be about Shibata passing the torch, which is a little awkward since Yuta recently turned heel and he's being a huge prick about stuff like that.

Reach For The Sky ladder match - This is a five-way tag team ladder match, with the ROH tag team championship at stake. Jay & Mark Briscoe won the title in December, but Jay was killed in a car accident back in January, so Mark announced this as sort of a Jay Briscoe memorial match. Both tag belts will be suspended above the ring, and ladders will be placed around ringside for the competitors to use. Whoever is first to climb up and retrieve either belt will win the championship for his team.

The announced participants are: the Lucha Bros. (Penta El 0 Miedo & Rey Fenix), Top Flight (Dante Martin & Darius Martin), the Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett), Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher), and Rush & Dralistico. The Kingdom and Top Flight have been feuding for a while, so for all we know this may be their blowoff match.

Anyone could win this, really. If this was for the AEW tag belts, I'd lean towards putting them on the hottest team under contract, and that'd be the Lucha Bros. But for all we know the plan is for the ROH tag champs to be a lesser team that primarily works ROH tapings, which favors the Kingdom or Top Flight. It could work to put the belts on Aussie Open or Rush/Dralistico, but it's harder to see what the plan would be. Guess I'll just have to sit back and take in the chaos.

Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe - Briscoe is challenging Joe for the ROH television title. They've played up the idea that Mark has always wanted this championship, but has never held it. Normally I'd say he's a huge underdog against Joe. But Mark isn't going back to tag team wrestling after the death of his brother, and he'll never have as much fan support as he does right now. Also, Joe never made a lot of sense as the TV champion; now that they've got a weekly ROH show, I think he should move up to chasing the world title. So Tony Khan has a zillion reasons to just give us the feel-good moment and give Mark the title.

Athena vs. Yuka Sakazaki - Athena, the ROH women's world champion, called out Sakazaki for this title match. Athena's heel run has been great but I've kinda lost the plot with her complaining that all the other women are "porcelain" or whatever. Sakazaki would probably work as champion but I honestly forgot she was even still with the AEW, so I don't know if that kind of commitment is feasible. Athena should probably retain.

Brian Cage & Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona vs. AR Fox & Blake Christian & Metalik - Cage and the Gates of Agony are defending the ROH trios championship. Fox's team has been little more than jobbers in AEW/ROH thus far, so I wouldn't normally give them much of a chance here. But Cage's contract reportedly expired, and he's supposed to be on a handshake deal to finish up at this show. So unless something really wild happens, I think we'll see a title change. Just as well, I think Kaun and Liona work better as a duo anyway.

#roh #ring of honor #claudio castagnoli #eddie kingston #njpw #aew #aaa #lucha libre aaa

0 notes

thesuperkickshow · 1 year

Text

Last night at AAA’s AAA Noche de Campeones, Dragon Lee and his brother Dralistico beat FTR for the AAA World Tag Team Titles. The big news is that Dragon Lee announced his signing with WWE after the match. He vacated the Tag Team Titles after winning them with his brother.

Many fans and industry insiders had speculated that Dragon Lee would be a great asset for AEW. His other brother, AEW star RUSH signed with AEW full time recently. It’s been speculated that Dragon Lee would be joining his big brother. And his decision to join WWE instead is seen as a potential blow to their rival promotion.

Dragon Lee, is a Mexican professional wrestler who has made a name for himself in the world of Lucha Libre. He is a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a two-time CMLL World Lightweight Champion amongst other accolades.

He made himself known to American audiences when wrestling for Ring of Honor. In ROH, he won the TV Title and Tag Team Titles. His high-flying, high-energy style has made him a fan favorite in Mexico and around the world.

With his signing, WWE has added yet another talented and popular wrestler to its roster, and fans are excited to see what he can do on the grand stage of WWE. He’ll be reporting to NXT and he could make himself into a household name. WWE has been looking for the next Rey Mysterio for years and Dragon Lee could very well fit that roll.

Overall, the signing of Dragon Lee is a big win for WWE and a bad thing for AEW. If Dragon Lee lives up to his potential and gets over with the American audience, this may be a huge win for WWE in the battle with AEW.

Let me know your thoughts on the signing over on Twitter. Huge signing for WWE.

#AEW #WWE #NXT #WWENXT #AAA #WRESTLING

1 note · View note

skelltan · 2 years

Text

Indie Promotion Round Up - Edition 1 Part 2 - MLW Fusion

This is a continuation from my last post. Check it out here!

Let’s change the channel. Over on MLW, we’re picking up from the fallout of Battle Riot IV. The Battle Riot is a battle royale with 40 men that operates by elimination via pinfall, submission or over the top rope rules. Whoever wins gets a future title shot at the MLW World Heavyweight Championship. Jacob Fatu won this, so he gets a shot at Alexander Hammerstone some time. From what I understand these two are the faces of the company, the two main guys they build the company around and are in long conracts for MLW. Fatu was the champion prior to Hammerstone from 2019 and held it til 2021. So, without further ado, let’s get to MLW Fusion episode 154.

We start with a recap of Battle Riot. After that, he SATs arrive. These guys were a tag team in early TNA and ROH, I haven’t really seen them before. They try to enter a building, but a guy with a luchador mask is guarding it. He gets hit in the balls by a mini luchador, so the SATs enter.

MLW’s theme song is better than NWA’s. It’s a sort of hip hop instrumental, but it sounds slightly less generic, hence why I think its better. Still generic, just a bit less than NWA’s theme. We’re introduced to the show by the commentary team, Joe Dombrowski and Rich Bocchini.

Ring announcer Tim Barr prepares us for a 4 way title match for the World Middleweight Championship. Lince Dorado makes his way to the ring. He had a stint in Chikara, but was more well known for his stint in Lucha House Party in WWE. He didn’t really win anything major, and I always got him mixed up with his stable mates, so let’s hope he stands out here. Under his name graphic, it says his style is Lucha Libre – so I’m guessing every competitor has their style in their name graphic?

Next up is La Estrella. He’s from Dragon Gate, which I haven’t seen a lot of, but I’ve heard of Estrella. I hope he impresses. Next is Arez. Arez I’ve efinitely heard of, and may have seen, but not enough to remember him. He’s from AAA. Apparently he’s also in a faction with Gangrel. Finally, the champ, Myron Reed. He’s managed by Mr Thomas, who apparently was known as Blaster McMassive in Chikara. Myron himself has been all over the place, but mostly made his name here in MLW as a three time middleweight champ. So I haven’t seen a lot of these guys, so I hope they all impress.

It’s a four way cruiserweight match, so forgive me if my coverage isn’t great. Lince charges Myron, but is dumped outside. Arez and Myron focus on Estrella, landing some nice chops. Estrella jumps off the ropes onto them, though, and hits a nice tope con hiro on the two.

Lince is back in the ring and takes it to Estrella. They have an athletic back and forth that Lince gets the upper hand on. Arez then charges in, bringing the attack to Lince. He lands a powerbomb for a 2 count.

Myron comes back, breaking it up, though. Reed goes for a cover on Lince, but only gets a one count. Arez and Myron stand off, but Lince gets back up to dropkick them both and hits a handspring stunner to Myron. Estrella comes back for a dive, but misses. Arez with a senton and misses. Lince with a splash and misses. Myron with a 360 splash and misses. Lince locks on an armbar while Estrella gets an ankle lock, but Arez is back to break it up.

Arez and Lince square off, ending in Arez going for a submission. Estrella goes to break it up, but gets hit. Myron breaks it up with a slingshot legdrop. Arez and Lince try to figh Myron, but Myron has the upper hand – at least momentarily, bu they hit him with a buckle bomb. Lince and Estrella fight some, Lince hitting a suicide dive to Arez and Myron on the outside respectively. Lince splashes but gets rolled up by Estrella for a 2. Myron with a double cutter for the win.

Jesus. Christ. I’ll give NWA more of a shot, but this just blew that one episode of Powerrr out of the fucking water. I had more fun with this than I did most other matches I’ve seen on weekly tv wrestling lately. All 4 of these men were amazing and I’d love to see more of. Also worth noting is it felt as if commentary felt a lot more engaged and better at calling action than the NWA team, and while the arena is smaller than one WWE or AEW might run, it’s bigger than the one the NWA ran and looks better – not that the NWA one looked terrible. But one match in and I can actually see me watching this show weekly if it keeps this up, unlike the NWA.

Myron has an interview. He claims to be the greatest of all time and calls on all challengers. He also says fuck, which is a plus of being on youtube, I suppose.

We get a recap on the one other match from Battle Riot a week prior, where Hammerstone beats up two luchadores but gets beat down.

We then get a segment with Cesar Duran. Alright. Cesar Duran was known as Dario Cueto in Lucha Underground and was the authority figure who loved violence. He recently showed up in MLW, but because he was only in Lucha Underground as Dario, he didn’t own the rights to the name, so he’s now Cesar. For all intents and purposes, he is the same character, though, and is an authority figure here too. MLW also has Azteca Underground which is their take on a continuation on Lucha Underground. I think it’s a separate show from Fusion, but I’m not sure.

Anyways, Cesar is mid phone call, but hangs up. The luchador from earlier holds a platter with drinks on it but jumscares Cesar, who tells him that he’s creeping him out and to stop that. Richard Holliday and a woman associate of his ask for an apology. Holliday is also one of the main MLW guys from what I can tell. Cesar tells them he’s trying to chill and to fuck off, but they say he owes them gratitude for saving him from Hammerstone. He demands the world title, so Cesar gives him a falls count anywhere match in 2 weeks. Cesar than sings New York, New York. He then tells Holliday that he better not fail. Cesar then instructs the luchador to take out Microman, giving him a chain to do it with.

Ok, let’s unpack this. The camera quality is good, but something about it still feels amateur – the framing or something, I guess? But still, not bad. Cesar flubs his lines a few times, so it gives off the impression they filmed one take, which is not as good. He’s still entertaining, though, so it’s not the end of the world. Holliday looks like a fuckboy and a better Ethan Page, so I hope he lives up to it in the ring.

We get a video package on EJ Nduka. He’s apparently undefeated (not counting Battle Riot) and is one of the tag champs and wants a world title match. That information is relayed to us in mere seconds, which was a bit messy and ideally they give us more time to parse new information like this in the future.

We then cut to the ring, where KC Navarro is mid entrance, which is also a bit awkward. He’s a more recent export from CZW and in 2021 had 8 matches on AEW Dark. Mini Abismo Negro is here, and I thought he would be a mini from that name, but he’s just as big as KC. Apparently the original Abismo Negro was a notable Rudo (heel) in AAA and CMLL.

The match starts with KC taking the action to Abismo, ending with a tope before rolling him back into the ring. He goes to the top rope, but Abismo knocks him and hits a huricanrana for a two count. Abismo has the lead and hits a suplex for a two count. KC then hits a tiltawhirl DDT for another two count. They then exchange strikes. KC gets the lead and wins with a move he calls the Jesus Piece. That felt really sudden. I don’t mind matches ending suddenly, but I feel it works better when theres more impact or it’s a bit longer. It was an alright match, both men got to show off their stuff. Not as impressive as the opener, but more entertaining than any of the NWA matches. It could’ve stood to go a little longer, but like NWA, we have time limit constrictions.

Speaking of said constrictions, the second the match ends, we quickly go to an injury update on Hammerstone after he got attacked at Battle Riot. Apparently he suffered a rib fracture and will impede his movement and power for 2 months, giving us some stakes going into his match with Holliday. I’m sure it has happened before, but I don’t recall the last time I saw kayfabe injuries be used to stack the odds against someone, especially the champ, like this – I like it!

Again, with breakneck speed, we move on to an interview with Mance Warner, who returned recently. Mance made his name in MLW, but also GCW as a part of the Second Gear Crew, and had a match on Rampage against then AEW Champion Jon Moxley. I liked his brawler style, so I look forward to seeing more of him.

Apparently Mance had been gone from MLW for 2 years. He rambles a bit about where he’s been and calls out Mads Krugger. He’s another MLW mainstay and is a huge masked monster in the vein of Kane, no rhyme intended. I’m bad at describing how he’s specifically different from other southern characters, but Mance is a down to Earth southern babyface. I thought his promo package in AEW was good, but he further showed off how entertaining he is here – better than Aron Stevens!

We then again cut to footage from Battle Riot with no warning. Real 1 (I’ll get to him later) attemps to eliminate Kross, but fails. Alright. Elephant in the room. Unlike the NWA, or any promotion, really, MLW tapes their shows MONTHS in advance. This, and all upcoming shows, were all taped back in June. So, here we see Killer Kross. At the time, he had been released from the WWE. Now he’s back there, despite us seeing him from 6 months in the past here. Funny, that.

Anyways, Fatu eliminates Kross and then Real 1 to win. Well, the refs are busy, so they can’t see it, so then Real 1 comes back and try to get the ref to think he won, but before he can get the ref’s attention, Real 1 is eliminated.

We then see a promo from Real 1. Alright, so Real 1 was known as Enzo Amore in WWE and was super over, part of a tag team with a guy now known as W Morrissey who recently had an IMPACT stint, but is now in AEW. They were even more over and people saw more potential in them than the aforementioned Damien Sandow. However, Enzo was released due to attitude problems and made a bit of an ass of himself, but since has been clean as far as I can tell and here in MLW.

This promo was filmed on a phone, which is a bit awkward, but eh, MLW is basically an indie and the camera quality is fine, so I’ll take it. He rapid fires a promo on Jacob Fatu – some of it is entertaining, some of it is cringeworthy – he just keeps rambling, and sometimes he stumbles upon something good, but then he keeps going and trips a bit. He needs to learn a bit of self control, but other than his pitfalls, he was engaging enough. If this is something to judge him off of, I don’t think he’s as amazing as others thought he may have been, but he’s better than most.

Backstage, Lince Dorado is walking wih Savio Vega. They encounter someone (Bud Heavy?) who was found collapsed in a closet with a card with odd symbols on it on top. We have a mystery.

Jacob Fatu talks to Microman, who’s eating some mcnuggets. The luchador from earlier attempts to attack Microman as Jacob walks off, but Jacob comes back and spots him, causing him to run.

Now another match. Here’s Clara Carreras, who is apparently making her debut. She has a sort of Carnivalle thing going on. Now Scarlett Bordeaux, who went back to WWE with Kross. She looks very different than what I’m used to in WWE. Scarlett attacks Clara before the bell rings. Clara gets the upper hand, attacking her back. She looks quite athletic. She gets a headlock, but Scarlett breaks out, whipping her to the corner and hitting her with a splash. She then taunts with her ass and uses ass based offense on Clara.

Scarlett hits “the Scarlett Letter” (it’s like Hangman Adam Page’s Deadeye) for the win. She then licks Clara after the match. C’mon, are these two really a ripoff of Mil Muertes? Anyways, the Featherweight (Women’s) Champ comes down for an interview. Taya says Scarlett is the kind of woman they need in the women’s division. Oops. Brittany Blake attacks Taya, however. She’s got a cool scene look going on. She’s also a former CZW alumni, but has mostly worked Shimmer in recent years, as well as a couple of AEW Dark matches.

The refs break them up. From the way it was shot it felt as if it was right after the last match, but they talk about Scarlett as if she wasn’t there and Scarlet doesn’t do anything so I assume it was filmed at some other point?

Anyways, more Battle Riot recap. Davey Richards got attacked by the Bomaye Fight Squad (Myron Reed’s group). Bomaye Fight Squad then cu a promo on Davey. Alex Kane calls him out for a submission match. Alex is the Openweight champ. Also next week, Killer Kross faces Matt Cross.

We see another promo, this time Jacob firing back on Real 1. Now time for the main event, those two go at it. Jacob makes his entrance, but Real 1 ambushes Fatu from behind with a steel pipe. Real 1 gets a mic and says if Fatu doesn’t face him, he’s soft. So here comes Fatu.

Real 1 charges him in the corner and despite a bit of fight back, Real 1 keeps control, working Fatu’s previously injured leg. Real 1 goes for a dropkick, but Fatu counters with a dropkick of his own. Real 1 hits a low blow for the DQ.

That was a bit of a wet fart, but much like the Powerrr main event, it serves to further a story, and this one feels like the build is a bit better. That’s the end of the show.

Alright, I’ve got mixed feelings. That opening match was genuinely great and I’d love to see more of that, but much like NWA, due to the limited time, MLW doesn’t have a lot of time to show off its full roster. I don’t know how to alleviate this – adding more time is probably costly, and I’m not sure how big their roster is/who they want to focus on.

The only reasonable suggestion I have is to cut back on the backstage segments. I understand they want to balance it with the matches and I enjoyed the little running story with Microman vs the luchador, but other than being vaguely entertaining and letting us know this is a feud that is happening, it didn’t add a lot. Same for the constant replays of footage from Battle Riot. I’d stick to just mentioning relevant info from previous shows on commentary during a match. I’d probably create recap packages for relevant moments and have all those extra interviews and upload them separate to episodes of Fusion. That would then allow you time for 3 decent sized matches per show.

Another issue that came from time management was how much they tried to squeeze into it. Like I said, most, if not every time we finished one segment, the next one just instantly started, giving us little time to process what we just saw or what we’re about to see.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the first match and the promos had me engaged and interested to see how the stories unfolded, so even if I wasn’t doing this series, I’d definitely want to watch more MLW.

Want to read more? Continue here!

#mlw #mlw fusion #mlw battle riot #mlw battle riot iv #nwa #nwa powerrr #wrestling #pro wrestling #indie wrestling #my reviews

1 note · View note

bronva · 2 years

Text

Cain Velasquez will wrestle at Lucha Libre show while on $1,000,000 bail for attempted murder charge

Cain Velasquez will be allowed to wrestle for Lucha Libre AAA next month (Picture: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) A judge has ruled Cain Velasquez can perform at a pro wrestling event next month despite being under house arrest. The former UFC heavyweight champion is on $1 million bail on charges including attempted murder, and Judge Arthur Bocanegra has decided to waive his…

View On WordPress

0 notes

imvgeswrestling · 2 years

Text

》》》

#deonna purrazzo #tna impact #champions: lucha libre aaa #aaa reina de reinas championship #in ring #post match #wrestling #female #singles #*mine #champions: roh #roh womens world championship #tv show

24 notes · View notes

aewmoves · 8 months

Text

#aew #all elite wrestling #aew collision #samoa joe #roh world tv champion #willie mack #ring of honor #lucha libre aaa #aew gifs #wrestling gifs #10/14/23

16 notes · View notes

wrestlingmgc · 2 years

Photo

Campeona Reina de Reinas de AAA & ROH Women's World Champion Deonna Purrazzo

#AAA #ROH #Campeona Reina de Reinas de AAA #ROH Women's World Champion #Deonna Purrazzo #Campeonato Reina de Reinas de AAA #ROH Women's World Championship #Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide #Ring Of Honor #Lucha Libre #Women's Wrestling #Women's Title #ROH Wrestling #AAA Reina de Reinas Championship #Pro Wrestling #20s

12 notes · View notes

breezy737 · 7 years

Photo

Taya Valkyrie:

Taya Valkyrie is from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She was trained by Lance Storm at the Storm Wrestling Academy. Before she began her pro wrestling training, Valkyrie was a fitness model. Valkyrie is currently signed to Impact Wrestling. She has wrestled for the Mexican independent circuit, Lucha Underground, and Lucha Libre AAA, where she won the Reina de Reinas Championship twice and was the longest reigning champion.

Valkyrie was signed to WWE in 2011 under a developmental contract, but the company decided to pull her contract.

I think WWE missed out on Taya Valkyrie back then. It also would have been nice to see her in the Mae Young Classic. Hopefully, she succeeds in Impact.

7 notes · View notes

ijustthinkevilunoisneat · 2 years

Text

"and at Rebellion, I will become a 4, yes 4 times Lucha Libre AAA Reina de Reinas Champion"

Bonus:

I just realised that if she wins, she'd be tied for most reigns if Wikipedia is correct.

#taya valkyrie #impact wrestling #aaa wrestling

5 notes · View notes

gdwessel · 3 years

Text

Jay White, FinJuice Make Surprise Appearances At Impact Slammiversary PPV 7/17/2021, Kojima Does Not; Podcast Recording Today

Last night’s Slammiversary PPV from Impact Wrestling had a couple of NJPW flavored surprises. The biggest one coming at the end of the show, once Kenny Omega retained the Impact World Championship in a No-DQ hardcore match against *spits* Sami Callihan. The lights went out, and Jay White’s entrance theme and video start playing, with Switchblade himself coming to the ring, holding the NEVER Openweight Championship. Once in the ring, Omega, Don Callis and the Good Brothers (”Machine Gun” Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, who regained the Impact World Tag Team titles earlier in the show) tried to throw Too Sweets at Jay, but did not return the gesture before the closing titles faded up.

Honestly, it would be more interesting if the Bullet Club itself were to war with the Elite once more, because a) they’d already been going that way, mostly on social media, but also on-screen on AEW Dynamite, with KENTA’s infamous “Shut the fuck up” to Omega b) it never had a proper ending the last time, with the Elite just deciding they were done with the feud on the Jericho Cruise in 2018. Since then, of course, there’s been a LOT of alluding and name-dropping of the Bullet Club on AEW and Impact programming, even before the whole “Forbidden Door” thing was made official. We’ll see where this goes. Jay has a win over Omega as it is, going back to 2018, beating Omega for the IWGP US Heavyweight title, in the early days of the Switchblade character.

Earlier in the show, former IWGP and Impact tag team champions Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr. made a surprise appearance as well, taking on and defeating Madman Fulton & Shera in a very short (1:15) impromptu match. Coincidentally, two of these NJPW surprises have a NEVER Openweight Title match coming up at NJPW Resurgence in about a month’s time, so luckily here’s a venue for them to do some build for that match!

In other related news from this show, NJPW Strong featured wrestler Josh Alexander retained the X Division title, defeating Super J-Cup 2020 participant Chris Bey, Rohit Raju, Petey Williams, Trey Miguel and Ace Austin in an Ultimate X Match. Also, prior to the main event, a teaser was shown for the forthcoming Bound For Glory PPV, which featured the logos of both NJPW and AAA, the lucha libre company that kinda sorta works with Impact. That won’t make NJPW’s Mexican partners CMLL very happy at all. NJPW has all the leverage in that relationship, however, as has been noted before, so CMLL may just have to deal with it if they want to continue that relationship. CMLL already cut ties with ROH earlier this year, more or less on the fly, over talents working for the ultimately-cancelled Federacion Wrestling event, so who knows what they will do.

It should be noted that Satoshi Kojima took no part in this show at all, and there were fans in attendance, Impact’s first such event since the pandemic. I’m not sure if this was pre-taped or not at this point. It would be hard to keep certain spoilers like what we saw here, or like AEW/NWA’s Thunder Rosa appearing as a mystery opponent, under wraps very long.

Myself and @damascenocs will discuss this, and a wholllllllllle lot more, later today, as we record Episode 76 of the Strong Style Story podcast, so stay tuned for that!

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #Jay White #juice robinson #david finlay jr.#david finlay #impact wrestling #Kenny Omega #Machine Gun Karl Anderson #Doc Gallows #don callis #josh alexander #aaa #aaa lucha libre #CMLL #cmll lucha libre #Satoshi Kojima

6 notes · View notes

wrestlingisfake · 3 years

Text

Triplemania XXIX preview

This is traditionally the biggest show of the year for AAA. For the first time since the pandemic started, AAA is doing an indoor show with fans in attendance. The show starts at 9pm EDT tonight, but it's only being streamed within Mexico, because AAA's international broadcast rights are tied up in a lawsuit. Noted lucha libre reporter thecubsfan plans to get around that, though, so you might want to check out his Twitter for more info.

Psycho Clown vs. Rey Escorpion - This is a lucha de apuestas, so if Psycho loses he must unmask and reveal his true identity, and if Escorpion loses he must have his head shaved in the ring. There are no higher stakes in Mexican wrestling that putting your mask on the line, and the only thing that comes close is risking your hair. So if you're wondering why this is the main event and not Kenny Omega vs. Andrade, that's why.

The backstory here goes all the way back to 2013, when Escorpion was in CMLL and defeated Psycho's father, Brazo de Plata, in a hair vs. hair match. That was supposed to lead to another of Brazo's sons, Maximo, getting revenge on Escorpion, but the match never came together. Escorpion ended up going to AAA in 2017, starting a long-running feud with Psycho. So now Psycho has a chance to do what his brother couldn't, and avenge his father. Coincidentally, Brazo de Plata (aka Super Porky) passed away a few weeks ago, and I assume that will be incorporated into Psycho's motivation here.

I don't follow AAA closely enough to keep track of the regulars, but I know Psycho Clown is one of the biggest stars in the promotion and he's no pussycat. I would expect a wild brawl between two guys who can't afford to lose. Of course, in a match like this, I tend to think the favorite is the guy defending his mask, since hair grows back. So look for Escorpion to finally get his comeuppance after all these years.

Kenny Omega vs. Andrade El Idolo - This is Omega's fifth defense of the AAA mega championship since he won it in October 2019. Kenny went on to win the AEW men's world title in December 2020, and the Impact/TNA world title in April 2021, becoming a triple champion with four belts. However, he lost the Impact and TNA belts to Christian Cage yesterday, which has him looking particularly vulnerable. If Andrade wins the AAA title tonight, Omega will have lost three of his four belts in about 24 hours.

Andrade was best known as La Sombra in CMLL until he joined WWE/NXT in 2016. After requesting his WWE release in March 2021, he appeared on a May 2 AAA show and challenge Omega to this match. A month later he debuted on AEW, in a baffling storyline where nobody seems to understand how anything works. As far as I can recall, AEW has never once mentioned that this title match is happening, even though Omega, Andrade, and the AAA belt appear regularly on AEW programming.

Andrade's post-WWE career has not impressed the pundits, raising questions about whether he can reclaim the greatness that got people to care about La Sombra in the first place. If he can't have a great match with Omega, that discourse is likely to dog him for a long time.

Within the world of AAA, Omega has planted seeds for a match with Hijo del Vikingo, and Andrade has teased the idea of a match with Psycho Clown. I would think AAA would rather have the title involved in Andrade vs. Psycho, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll go that route, or that they'll start setting it up right now. I'm leaning toward a title change happening, but either outcome won't surprise me much.

Faby Apache vs. Deonna Purrazzo - Apache is the AAA women's champion, and Purrazzo is the Impact women's champion. Both belts are at stake, so it will be champion versus champion, title for title. Deonna is already booked for a title defense on August 28 against Melina Perez, so it's not clear what would happen to that match if she loses here.

There's not much of a story here--Purrazzo just wandered into an AAA show to confront Apache and issue the challenge. This comes across as AAA's big idea to get their belt on international TV by putting it on a top foreigner, similar to what they did with Kenny Omega. It doesn't really feel like Impact is even involved, outside of their office approving the booking. I'm not sure Impact has promoted or even mentioned the match, although I haven't kept up with it lately.

Apache is a big star for AAA, but Purrazzo looks to be the heavy favorite to win. She's gotten a lot of buzz for her in-ring work, and Impact recognizes that and presents her like a big deal. It feels like they've got a destination in mind for her later this year, and I can't believe they'd disrupt that to have her lose her title in Mexico. I can believe, on the other hand, that AAA would send their women's title to the US and forget about it for six months.

Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. Hijo del Vikingo & Laredo Kid vs. Taurus & ? - Hey, remember when the Penta and Fenix defended the AAA tag team title in the ladder match at AEW All Out 2019? They've had those belts this whole time! I totally forgot. Anyway, they're defending them here in a three-way, so whoever scores the first fall will win the title for his team.

Vikingo and Laredo were once teammates in Los Jinetes del Aire, but that was a couple of years ago. Taurus normally teams with Crazzy Steve on Impact Wrestling, and he holds the AAA trios title with El Texano Jr. and Rey Escorpion, but for this match he's got a mystery partner. It remains to be seen if this is the kind of mystery partner that's a big surprise, or the kind where it's just some guy that wasn't worth advertising ahead of time.

I don't keep up with AEW's Youtube shows, and Penta and Fenix haven't teamed on Dynamite in months, so I haven't seen those two really go nuts in a long-ass time. Vikingo and Laredo have a lot of buzz, and I keep assuming they're about to sign with a major American promotion, but they still haven't from what I can tell. So this could get pretty flippy and wild, especially with Taurus there to, like, be huge and catch people and stuff.

If I thought AAA gave a damn about keeping their belts on regulars, I'd expect Vikingo and Laredo to win. If I thought the priority was to deliver a big surprise to pop the fans, I'd expect a win for Taurus's mystery partner. But as it is, these belts belong to the Lucha Bros., and I expect that's where they'll stay.

Pagano & Chessman & Murder Clown vs. Puma King & DMT Azul & Sam Adonis - Azul used to be Diamante Azul in CMLL, but he recently jumped over to AAA to team with Puma and Adonis, who are also ex-CMLL guys. Together they're La Empresa, an unofficial CMLL invasion group. So the other team is fighting for the honor of AAA, but Pagano and Chessman are nuts and hate each other, so the big question is CAN THEY COEXIST~? My guess is that they can't, and La Empresa will pick up a win to build steam for this storyline.

Copa Triplemania battle royale - This is basically an undercard battle royale featuring everybody that isn't booked for some other match. The rules are kind of like WWE's Royal Rumble, but frankly I've watched several of these and I've never been able to figure it out. "Copa Triplemania" translates to "Triplemania Cup" but I can't remember if there's an actual trophy or any kind of stakes to this. As I recall it always comes down to a babyface and a heel and then somehow the heel referee is always in there, but somebody clobbers him and the good guy wins anyway.

Marvel Lucha Libre something something - For some reason Marvel has a promotional deal with AAA, wherein AAA books matches featuring wrestlers dressed up as Marvel superheroes. It's hard to believe this is going to sell even one extra ticket to a Marvel movie, but okay. Anyway, I remember seeing one of these with Captain America and Spider-Man vs. Thanos and Venom, which you'd think would be awesome, but it didn't really hold my attention. I don't know which characters will be represented this time, although if AAA wants to book the Loki and Sylvie vs. Kang and Renslayer, I promise to mark the fuck out.

#aaa #triplemania #triplemania xxix #psycho clown #rey escorpion #kenny omega #andrade el idolo

3 notes · View notes