Copa Junior VIP (take 2) card announced, CMLL & NJPW proclaim their friendship, TV/streaming lineups for this weekend

Mexico City will remain in Orange health condition this upcoming week. Movie theatres and museums can open to 20% but must close at 7 or 8. Gyms can also open at 20% with specific rules. I think there’s a long-shot chance places like Arena Mexico will be able to have limited attendance in the next month, though the restrictions on hours might make a traditional Friday show still impossible for a while. The first Arena Mexico show with fans seems more likely a Sunday, and maybe an early Sunday show. They’re still a while off but it is trending in a positive direction.

Nuevo Leon restrictions are being lifted slightly. Lucha Libre shows are still banned, though Kaoz and Lucha Time have continually taped.

Copa Junior VIP card announced

CMLL announced the Copa Junior VIP card on Informa. It will largely be the same card as originally announced, including the NGD/Guerreros trios title match and the frequently-delayed Volador/Bandido bout. There are just two changes Dragon Rojo Jr. has his first match in over two years by participating in the Copa Junior VIP, taking the spot of Niebla Roja. Also, Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer challenge Jarochita & Lluvia for the national tag titles instead of the originally announced micros match. The show is up for purchase on

A cibernetico might actually be the right way to work someone back; Dragon Rojo’s only going to need to wrestle for a couple of minutes with rest breaks. On the other match, if CMLL had just made world women’s tag times instead of needlessly latching on the ‘tradition’ of national tag team titles, they wouldn’t look silly every time two women born outside of Mexico challenge for them. Dalys & Vaquer teamed in the initial tag team tournament and lost by typical Dalys DQ; CMLL including her on this show suggests they think he’s a draw. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself that Dalys matches are actually a determinant for making me watch a show.

The show is up for purchase on Ticketmaster for 173 pesos; that’s a little over $8 USD, and the same price they offered this show back in December. That was the original discounted price, with the idea it’d go up as it gets closer. CMLL hasn’t said if or when the price will go up this time yet, but it will go up. The November show started at 201 and ended up at 270. Ticketmaster seems to have changed their credit card portal since December; Ticketmaster list American Express as an accepted card but the payment page they direct you to doesn’t allow that service.

Ticketmaster hasn’t changed their awful policy of making the show only viewable live. There is no VOD. This policy costs Ticketmaster & CMLL (and the wrestlers in theory) money. It doesn’t appear anyone cares. I probably should set up a paid VOD service for people who are going to ask me for the link the next day but that seems vaguely illegal. More illegal than usual for me.

Not new news, but something I didn’t grasp last week: CMLL’s next PPV and Ring of Honor’s next PPV is March 26th. Bandido is expected on both. Ring of Honor may present their show as live, but it’ll be part of their monthly bulk tapings. CMLL is expected to be live. They’ll start around the same time. I’ll watch the CMLL show live (and have the ROH show on out of the corner of my blog) because this blog but I suspect most people who are willing to pay to watch some lucha libre action will actually pick the ROH show; Mexican fans haven’t shown an interest in paying for internet content in any great numbers, and there’s nothing here beyond Volador/Bandido that’ll appeal to US casual fans. Perhaps those fans might buy the CMLL show later if it was an option, but it is not an option. This date itself costs CMLL money.

CMLL and NJPW give their relationship the dreaded vote of confidence

CMLL and NJPW also jointly announced they’re still working together. You can read this in Spanish from CMLL, in English, in Japanese from NJPW or even just watch a video. This was answering a question no one was asking; there had been no indication of a breakup. The statements refer to FantasticaMania 2021 not happening, and so this sort of statement would’ve made a lot of sense to come out in December or January before the usual FantasticaMania tour, not a month after it usually takes place. NJPW has continued to post locally dubbed CMLL shows on NJPW World throughout the pandemic; the next two episodes air March 2nd and 3rd.

The CMLL statement highlights that NJPW will only work CMLL in Mexico, which points to what this is really about. NJPW is now working with multiple companies in the US, including some who work with AAA. CMLL agreement with NJPW is one of the more valuable relationships it has, and they want it clear it’s not changing. This announcement doesn’t mention any specific plans for the future, any talent exchange, any length of a deal they’ve extended, any hard information at all. There’s not even a nod at the CMLL shows on NJPW World as a sign of the continuing relationship. Instead, it says they’re working together now and for the immediate future, same as what we knew yesterday, only now we know they were concerned enough about the perception of the relationship to put out a big release. In sports, this sort of statement is a curse – the owner only publicly needs to give the coach a vote of confidence if there’s some realistic belief the coach might be about to be fired. An actual stable relationship doesn’t need to say they’re doing well, because it’s obvious to all.

The press release is also notable says NJPW will only work with CMLL in Mexico without saying anything about who from Mexico will work for NJPW. The most recent Mexicos working for NJPW on their Strong show have been Rey Horus and Misterioso. Dragon Lee’s the most recent Mexican to work in Japan. I don’t know if CMLL’s fans in Mexico pay enough attention to NJPW to notice that, but I’m certain their wrestlers do. If anything, this seems a message to the CMLL wrestlers, telling them It also seems like a message that would’ve been unnecessary if CMLL had been honest with them about the status of FantasticaMania 2021 all along. CMLL hid the reality of the situation, they were found out when the shows didn’t happen, wrestlers came up with their own reasons why it didn’t happen, and now they’re at a point where they have to issue a public press release to shoot down an internal rumor. This was expectations mismanagement.

Salvador Luttertoth Lomeli (III) appears in the video as CMLL’s boss. He’s been referred to that way for quite a while now, but I think this might be the first time he’s been pictured on screen in a skit like this. NJPW refers to him as President of CMLL, while CMLL continues to use the lengthy “Director de Promociones Coliseo, Mexico and Revolucion” title that no one understands. Likely Sofia Alonso got to keep her title if not the power, and Lutteroth has a strange description that only makes sense if you know deep CMLL lore.

The press release mentions the NJPW/CMLL relationship started in November 2009. That doesn’t seem correct; Mistico won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title earlier that year and had been a regular. Others had gone to Japan prior, Rysuske Taguchi spent time in Mexico in 2005, NJPW’s entertaining series of interviews with Tanahashi most recently talking about his own 2005 trip to Mexico, Shibata was in Arena Mexico in 2003. There had been some level of working relationship between CMLL & NJPW for most of this century. There was a very official meeting between NJPW and CMLL in Mexico in 2009 – some blog entries from here, here, and here – but even then, the talks were about continuing the existing relationship following a year Mistico’s championship year. Maybe the relationship crossed into a handshake into a written deal around that time and this is the first we’re hearing about it.

TV and other streaming notes

CMLL on AMX Friday (Google Drive)

Sanely & Vaquerita vs Tiffany & La Seductora
Polvora vs Guerrero Maya (likely a repeat, but could be 11/07 Televisa or could be 01/16 Televisa)
Mistico, Mephisto, Valiente vs Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja and Terrible

CMLL on MVS Saturday (Google Drive)

Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Universo 2000 Jr. (possible repeat)
Estrellita & La Jarochita vs Amapola & Stephanie Vaquer (possible repeat)
Mistico, Volador, Diamante Azul vs Mephisto, Templario, Ephesto (possible repeat)

A very vital broadcast.

CMLL on Televisa (YouTube next Sunday)

La Jarochita vs Dalys (possibly a repeat)
Stuka Jr., Star Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno
Black Panther vs Okumura
Volador Jr., Soberano Jr., Titan vs Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero

CMLL on YouTube (Sunday)

Oro Jr. vs Akuma
Super Astro Jr. & Sonic vs Grako & Nitro
Rey Cometa vs Raziel (likely repeat but it was quite good, watch it)
Valiente, Titan, Stuka Jr. vs Negro Casas, Forastero, Templario

AAA on Space (starting Saturday) has

Arez & Latigo vs Dinstia & Aramis
Taurus vs Hijo del Vikingo
Flammer, La Hiedra, Lady Maravilla vs Big Shani, Hades, Lady Shani
Laredo Kid & Pentagon Jr. vs Texano Jr. & Chessman

That episode is listed as going up on YouTube on March 14th. (It may be a typo, last week’s episode was also listed as March 14th.) AAA on YouTube will have the second part of TripleMania.

I think Arez/Latigo vs Dinastia/Aramis replaces the originally announced Arez/Latigo/Aramis match. If AAA’s going to air four matches a week, they only have two more weeks of TV to last them through March 12th (and would likely be taping that weekend.)

ROH TV (starting this weekend, online Monday)

Dragon Lee & Kenny King vs Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal (c) for the ROH Tag Team Championship
Rush (c) vs Shane Taylor for the ROH World Championship

It would be a surprise if either title changed hands.

CMLL’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara announced they were streaming a new show on Tuesday. They promoted the show on Tuesday. No show appeared and, typically for a lucha libre promotion, no acknowledgment of an issue was made. Wednesday, a video with just the main event appeared. Satanico cheated Fugaz again, and that appears to be a singles match whenever they can run again.

Mas Lucha will have the most recent Indy Army Wrestling show on Sunday. That’s the show with Jimmy versus Latigo, which should be great. Welcome to Mi Barrio is closing out their season Friday with a Pantera Jr./Hijo del Pantera/Camuflaje vs Tiago/Skalibur/Kamik-C match, which might be pretty good. I haven’t gotten around to posting a review, but the Pantera Jr./Hijo del Pantera vs Skalibur/Kamik-C match from January was Great, a match that hit the stuff I like in wrestling matches, so I’ve got high hopes for that trios.

Laredo Kid faces Calvin Tankman on MLW TV next Wednesday. Tankman is undefeated, though mostly wrestling in short matches. I would be surprised if Laredo Kid won. I don’t have much interesting to say about the WON Reader Awards, but I did not earlier Fenix winning Mexico MVP makes no sense given his small amount of Mexico work. It’s people who didn’t watch Mexican wrestling outside of TripleMana voting for Fenix for his AEW work. On the other hand, Laredo Kid is never going to win Mexico MVP because of his US work; he can every great match possible in Mexico but being a guy who exists to loses matches on the tenth or eleventh most important US will put a ceiling on him. If we cared enough to work this, 2021 is the year to get behind Taurus because he’s going to get over in Impact too. But Fenix has probably already won 2021 Mexico MVP before a single match of his from Mexico has aired.

Other News

WWE’s recent signings this week included Mexican powerlifter Jessica Cantu, though she wasn’t listed on their website. SuperLuchas mentions she’s a second-generation wrestler, the daughter of the Monterrey-based Bronco, a wrestler in EMLL during the mid-90s. (His mask match is here.) She was around the Monterrey wrestling scene and trained a bit – there’s a photo of her with CMLL’s Tony Salazar in one of CMLL’s practice rings – but she had not wrestled in Mexico. Cantu is said to have had Olympic aspirations, but the Tokyo games getting postponed changed her plans.

WWE often recruited athletes who’ve been successful in other sports and hit some sort of roadblock (health or lack of support in the sport most often.) It’s not as big a percentage of their recruits as years past, but it’s still an element. It’s not a thing in Mexican wrestling at all – new wrestlers are either people who can afford the low wages of being a novice wrestler or those who are so dead set on being a luchador that they’ll pay whatever price it takes. There are no developmental deals in lucha libre and so there is talent that might be an asset that’s never going to consider participating. That’s not likely to change a year into a pandemic, but I suppose it’s something AAA would like to try if they could achieve their own goal of their own training facility.

Konnan talked about his hospitalization on Keepin’ It 100, which PostWrestling transcribed. One doctor told him he had a 60% chance of his heart-stopping, another told him his kidney failing, as some sort of medical intervention. The lesson I took from that is don’t give Konnan a medical intervention because it makes him very angry. He was still angry on the podcast, and I would not recommend being the next person who annoys him. (I’m not sure I’m smart enough to take my own advice though.)

Lucha Libre Online had an interview with Fenix; Planeta Wrestling recaps some of it (in Spanish.) Fenix seems very happy with AEW.

Excelsior has an interview with Arkalis (from CMLL media day?), who was encouraged by his father to not settle for just being a local wrestler and instead work hard to become a star if he was going to be luchador at all. Arkalis is a rare wrestler who came through the Arena Puebla to wrestle in Arena Mexico (explained as being selected by Ultimo Guerrero here), but just getting to Puebla itself was a challenge. He’s from San Martin Texmelucan and was taking six-hour round trips for matches that paid 150 pesos.

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