Joe’s Lucha Libre Weekly: News & Opinions

CMLL Grand Prix Teams

Team World

David Finlay

Mark Briscoe

Jay Briscoe

Dark Magic

Flip Gordon

Michael Elgin

Okumura

Glibert El Boricua

Matt Taven

Team Mexico

Sanson

Cuatrero

Ultimo Guerrero

Diamante Azul

Caristico

Hechicero

Euforia

El Terrible

Volador Jr

Next week is when this goes down.

Here and There

AAA on Impact

I believe Faby Apache will be challenging Tessa Blanchard for the impact women’s title. I don’t know what else there will be involving AAA talent but based off last week’s show I can guess there might be some undercard guys in preliminary matches. They teased the idea of AAA’s La Parka facing Eli Drake on twitter. There will also be storyline advancement for the LAX stuff and the main event program which is setting up Johnny Impact vs Austin Aries.

MLW

I believe we are going to get the match Hijo Del LA Park was involved in this week on MLW. Which means next week we will be seeing the Mexican death match involving LA Park and Pentagon Jr. I will be attending MLW next Thursday on October 4th, so I will have reports for this website if they need, and will naturally report on everything Lucha Libre related. If you’re not excited for LA Park vs PCO then perhaps…you’re not human. More notes from the Fury Road show, will be seeing Daga face Low Ki for the title. There’s a storyline there between the two. It feels like a weird inclusion because I don’t believe he’s ever appeared on MLW. But it’s a niche show right now so it’s a esoteric fan base that’s aware of the small workings of the independent scene. Hijo Del LA Park will also be facing Sammy Guevara. Another match that has the potential to be good.

Things I Wonder About

I wonder what it would take for the two top Mexican promotions, CMLL and AAA to become bigger in America. I think CMLL has the more crisp technical wrestling. Everything looks very smooth and well done and they rarely botch. The problem I feel with CMLL is it’s super in ring, even moreso than New Japan and I do think because of the success of WWE and WCW that the United States fans have become accustomed to a certain kind of wrestling. And that kind is more glitz and glamour, pop and circumstances. More sports entertainy. Having promos set up storylines and occasional backstage segments. I think for CMLL to expand, which I don’t believe they want to or intend to, I think they’d have to make dramatic changes to their show. They could have a niche audience like Impact and MLW have right now probably though. Even with Lucha Underground which features a lot of Mexican talent, it’s more of an entertainment show than wrestling.

Another important factor is a TV Deal and for that to happen in the United States and to expand the fan base, English would have to be incorporated. Another strike against CMLL. I do think, there is a path for AAA to make that expansion though. Konnan has talked about trying to land a television deal in the United States and when you think about it, even if you don’t truly want to be over exposed in the United States, when you see the absurd amounts of money being thrown around for the UFC and WWE, a rights fee deal that’s somewhat large in American money would do great wonders for a Mexican promotion. So I feel like that’s something that would make you want to look into a TV deal. The rights fee. AAA has shown that they’re willing to add English related content and a lot of their talent does speak English, so if a show is being taped for English television they could also tape backstage segments twice, and maybe even do promos in both languages. You can have some Spanish, it is a very spoken language in America.

Just something to wonder about. AAA has tried the American expansion before and it was very successful until WCW took a bunch of their talent. Konnan wants to run MSG which might not be a smart move financially, but getting a good crowd there would turn some heads. I’m sure AAA will try to make a move. CMLL, however, seems content being the Memphis territory of their country. Meaning they’ll draw that same house every week and do successful business.

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