"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles vs "El Mesias" Ricky Banderas! [UPDATE!]

[ABMorales787]

AJ Styles laid down the gauntlet. AAA Vice President Dorian Roldan confirmed it. And now the opponent has appeared.

http://luchalibreaaa.com/noticiasaaa/item/1053-el-mes%C3%ADas-tras-aj-styles.html

The first stop of AJ's World Championship tour will take place in Tonala, Mexico where he faces someone who can be considered the greatest Latin American wrestler of these days, "El Mesias" Ricky Banderas. Being the first AAA Megachampion as well as holding it the most times, he's also won numerous other World titles through the "Lucha Libre" world. He's also appeared in TNA for a small period as Abyss and Joseph Park's brother (as confirmed in One Night Only: Hardcore Justice 2) Judas Mesias.

Personally, I simply expected AJ to just pop up on small indy shows where only dirt sheets would notice. But that's a pretty big place to start. And fast too. AAA is a long time partner of TNA so maybe this was to be expected. Which make WWL and Great Muta's promotions the next likely destinations for "The Phenomenal Journeyman" as he "defends" his TNA World Championship. Not to mention, that's one fuck of an opponent to start against. That would be like going to WWE and facing John Cena or going to ROH and facing Kevin Steen. Banderas has been the top face of the promotion for many years and is noted for a character similar to that of The Undertaker. Amazing entrances, dark theme, but he trades up his style for a less heavyweight one. Simply put, it's no small time match.

The show is a scheduled double taping for AAA's flagship show, "Sin Limite" and should air on delay a few weeks after as their TV schedule for the next few weeks will be airing the matches on their "Heroes Inmortales" supercard event. The 11/3 tapings where AJ will appear will be the first shows following said event.


[UPDATE]

Mesias cuts a promo via Youtube for his match against AJ Styles:

 

[Kris Benwa]

Oh shit I knew that name sounded familiar. I was a fan of Judas Mesias and it should be a good match. Do you know if they'll televise it at all?

 

[Devlin]

It seems they are doing with AJ what WWE should have done with Punk years ago. If they don't rush this it could be very entertaining. Have footage from the matches air during Impact, saying AJ purchased the TV/Commercial time, going to AAA, WWL, OVW, Wrestle-1, maybe even ROH and defending the title, bringing some prestige back to it.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It seems they are doing with AJ what WWE should have done with Punk years ago. If they don't rush this it could be very entertaining. Have footage from the matches air during Impact, saying AJ purchased the TV/Commercial time, going to AAA, WWL, OVW, Wrestle-1, maybe even ROH and defending the title, bringing some prestige back to it.

I agree that they brought Punk back too quickly back in 2011. With the generally slower & more deliberate pace & build up that seems to be part of Triple H's booking strategy, I think there's a chance that WWE would have kept Punk off television for a while if Triple H had the level of corporate power in 2011 as he does now, which is pretty much 2nd only to Vince himself at this point.

However, as far as Punk "defending" the WWE Championship in other promotions, it would've been no benefit to WWE. It'd be along the same likes of the old "WWE & TNA should do a crossover ppv." IF such a working agreement took shape between WWE & any number of other promotions in which the WWE Championship was "defended" in said promotions, the only ones getting anything out of the deal would be the other promotions. That's all the more true if footage of Punk wrestling as WWE Champion in other companies was shown on WWE television. Those other wrestling companies would have their name and some of their top talent talked about before, on average and including DVR viewership, an audience of 4.5 million in the United States alone. Obviously, other companies would have ZERO problem with their names being put over on WWE's time in front of a huge audience they'd be unable to reach otherwise.

 

[Honkey_Kong]

I agree that they brought Punk back too quickly back in 2011. With the generally slower & more deliberate pace & build up that seems to be part of Triple H's booking strategy, I think there's a chance that WWE would have kept Punk off television for a while if Triple H had the level of corporate power in 2011 as he does now, which is pretty much 2nd only to Vince himself at this point.

However, as far as Punk "defending" the WWE Championship in other promotions, it would've been no benefit to WWE. It'd be along the same likes of the old "WWE & TNA should do a crossover ppv." IF such a working agreement took shape between WWE & any number of other promotions in which the WWE Championship was "defended" in said promotions, the only ones getting anything out of the deal would be the other promotions. That's all the more true if footage of Punk wrestling as WWE Champion in other companies was shown on WWE television. Those other wrestling companies would have their name and some of their top talent talked about before, on average and including DVR viewership, an audience of 4.5 million in the United States alone. Obviously, other companies would have ZERO problem with their names being put over on WWE's time in front of a huge audience they'd be unable to reach otherwise.

One of the big things I could've seen happening with WWE letting Punk defend the belt in other promotions was what if the guy he was facing wouldn't let Punk win. Say he's facing a good grappler in like Japan or one of the indies and that guy decides he's going in to business for himself and beats Punk in the ring despite what the agreed finish was going to be? That's a lot to risk and would give quite a few indy stars media attention they wouldn't otherwise ever get.

 

[Slash-LN]

This guy had a good look in TNA during his run. I thought he was cool. Then he was gone. If I remember right he got hurt.

AJ is awesome and if this guy is as good in Mexico as he's said to be it should be an awesome match.

Anyway if you can update us on how we can see this when it airs that would be really cool. I'd probably watch just to see this match. Just as long as I don't have to play that awful AAA video game again.

 

[DDevine]

I was flipping through the channels one night, and there was AAA on the spanish station. I decided to watch it, there wasn't a whole lot else on, and hey, it was wrestling. Now, I don't know Spanish, despite having taken two and a half years of it in high school, I can not understand a good majority of it. But I was still entranced by Ricky Banderas' promo for his match that night. He ended up in a handicap match against these two demonic looking masked luchadores (I think one of them might have been named Halloween something or other). Maybe it was the fact that he was decked out in a blood red outfit, or the fact that he talked with a slight growl in his voice, but I loved it. Sadly, I never saw him again until he came to TNA, and I missed parts of that run. I look forward to finding out how this match goes.