The annual Nacional Increible de Parejas concludes tonight in Arena Mexico. Volador & Cavernario are slight favorites over Forastero & Caristico, but either outcome seems possible. There are no great dramatic stakes to the outcome so far, just a trophy win which might not be mentioned after a month. It could be a great match; Volador’s most enjoyable work of late has come in tag situations, Cavernario is great, Caristico has been in good form. Forastero hasn’t shown a lot in his run of single matches the last four months, but his best effort was against Cavernario and they’ll be back against him either.
CMLL’s resisted having Felino & Cavernario interact during the course of this tournament, but there’s always a chance of tonight’s finish involving some interference. Homenaje a Dos Leyendas currently feels like an appointment on a calendar, not anything people are hotly anticipating. Felino walking down and distracting Cavernario into a La Mistica won’t fix that, but it is something CMLL might try anyway.
The bulk of the show focuses on another tournament to decide new Mexican National Tag Team championships. As a +Lucha column points out today, it’s just the same people who win these CMLL tournaments all the time. Fuego & Dulce or the Panthers would be fun picks but Soberano Jr. & Titan are the clear favorites and it’s hard to see a different outcome. It looks like a big spot for Hijo del Villano III, who hasn’t been around much in recent months but now is teaming with Templario in a block without many rudo teams. They could end up going far and working with good opponents.
Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, and Diamante Azul take on Negro Casas, Terrible and Felino in the only trios match tonight. It serves as a buffer between the two tournaments. Halcon Suriano & Sonic are an exciting prelim team against less exciting Espanto Jr. & Akuma.
The show will stream at 8:30 pm and I’ll be streaming it for US/Japan viewers.
Lucha Central has a preview of the show.
Fuerza Guerrera is signing autographs, so his appearance last week doesn’t appear to be a one-off.
CMLL has a dueling sit-down interview with Felino & Cavernario about why they started feuding in the first place. It’s produced unlike anything else CMLL’s done and feels effective. Cavernario makes the case that Mr. Niebla brought him and “another person” (Herodes Jr.) into Peste Negra, Mr. Niebla teamed with him when he won the Gran Alternativa tournament, so Peste Negra was Mr. Niebla to him and there’s no one anymore. There’s also a Momentos Estelars video, this time using clips from all the streams. I wish they showed both of these during the actual shows instead of just the stream, though even three minutes may be too long for in-between matches. (30-second content that could replace one of the four Roshfrans commercials a night would be nice.)
Ring of Honor is also streaming tonight on their Honor Club service. Matches with Mexican wrestlers include
- Dragon Lee challenging PCO for the ROH World Championship
- Bandido vs Marty Scurll vs Slex
- Kenny King & Rush vs Brody King & Flip Gordon
- Rey Horus vs Alex Shelly
The show is from Nashville and will stream at 7:30 pm, an hour before CMLL. They’re also streaming Saturday. Dragon Lee is current the ROH TV champion and it would be a massive surprise if he won the main ROH title tonight. I’m not even sure how that match is going to work, but it should be a spectacle.
This is not really lucha, but Ring of Honor announced a 2020 ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Tour after very smart people thought last year would be the final one for months. Those smart people were not dumb (and may have predicted it now if they had any reason to think about it again recently), but it’s more our collective ability to see where things are going even twelve months from now is not always very strong.
Azteca will air an interview with Maximo today on the AAA show, teasing that he’s out of the promotion. It’s airing on as part of the AAA show, which seems like a good sign he’s not actually gone. Maximo remains on AAA spot shows this weekend. He’s just not been on TV more than once since TripleMania.
Speaking of TripleMania, Dorian Roldan reportedly appeared on TV to say the TripleMania date will be announced in two weeks. I would think that means they’re sticking with 08/22, since it doesn’t leave much time to move it.
There are other shows of note today, though far away from Mexico City. The annual ExpressMania show tonight in Ciudad Madero has Blue Demon & La Mascara taking on Alberto el Patron & Hijo de Dos Caras. Alberto hasn’t been around much this year. Dr. Wagner is leading a weekend swing of shows in Zacatecas starting tonight. Lucha Time has a TV taping tonight, though it looks like they’re changing into a normal promotion rather than the time TV show they’ve been doing, including handing out random titles that will mean nothing.
wXw 16 Carat Gold first-round matches (03/06, Oberhausen, Germany, eventually on VOD)
They’re in the midst of announcing all the matches on Twitter. Taurus’s match should be out soon.
AAA is now listing the 03/28 show in Torreon as a TV taping. Meanwhile, there’s a poster for an Ecatapec show on 03/08 that lists it as a TV taping, but it not actually one.
WrestleCon announced Arez vs Aramis vs Laredo Kid vs Black Taurus for their 04/02 Mark Hitchcock Memorial Super Show in Tampa. That makes me wish I was going (I am definitely not going.) It is more-importantly a near repeat of the excellent Hijo del Vikingo vs Arez vs Aramis vs Taurus match from AAA last year, with Laredo Kid stepping in for the guy who can’t step in the US.
Psycho Clown appears in Cleveland’s AIW on April 24th. I think that’s a good fit with promotion and luchador, AIW is going to do something weird/great/different with Psycho Clown because they make a point of doing those things.
Some tickets are 15% off this weekend for the AAA 05/23 Verano de Escandalo show.
Rey Fenix is working as an ambassador for California’s upcoming census.
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.
Discover more from luchablog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Who do you think wins the Wotan/Fish match? I don’t know what Fishman would be without his mask, but Wotan wouldn’t lose much without his.