CMLL announces trios tournament, WWE Mexico, CMLL TV lineup, WM Weekend notes

updated CMLL 04/24 (Saturday) PPV card.

CMLL , Ticketmaster (SAT) 04/24/2021 Arena México
1) Microman & Perico Zakarías vs Chamuel & Gallito [Relevos Increíbles]
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ???, ????, ????? [MEX TRIOS, final]
3) Carístico & Místico © vs Ángel de Oro & Terrible [CMLL TAG]
4th defense
4) Atlantis, Euforia, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero

Caristico & Angel de Oro did a bit on Informa, changing the originally planned NWA Middleweight Historic championship singles match into a tag. (No Niebla Roja, who presumably is still in the US and unable to travel to Mexico.) I think the tag match is a little bit better and a little bit of a bigger draw than the singles match, but it’s not much. Mistico moving into the title defense created an opening in the main event, so Euforia gets his first match against Ultimo Guerrero since they broke up.

CMLL will run four-team single show tournaments on Televisa over the next two weeks to determine who faces off on the PPV. CMLL has been better about airing their TV in some logical order, but it’s also very lagged behind the PPVs. CMLL only announced the first block so far:

• Blue Panther, Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr.
• Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr., Star Jr.
• Mephisto, Ephesto, Lucifierno
• Polvora, Dragon Rojo Jr., Misterioso

Four more teams will be added next week. I don’t know that anyone’s going to care about these teams – these are all midcard trios and the midcarders haven’t generally been allowed to have trios matches since the start of the pandemic, so there’s no momentum to any of them. This match only matters if you really care about the people involved, because winning a title this way means nothing. I think the Maya team would provide the best matches, but the Panther team is far overdue for getting a significant victory.

The relevos increibles bit can be used to freshen up stale matches. The micros have appeared twice in the last five months, so they’re pretty fresh. The stipulation seems entirely unnecessary unless they’re building to something (and CMLL rarely is building to something.)

This card still seems like short a match. CMLL hasn’t put up the usual full card poster, so something will be announced in the next week. I’m getting this PPV more for archival purposes than because anything here sounds interesting. I don’t plan on writing a long preview for it. I believe the show will be successful because they’ve got Atlantis’ return, but it isn’t interesting.

CMLL remains hopeful of having fans in attendance, still hasn’t gotten permission. Mexico City announced they will remain at health code orange for the ninth week. If it changes to yellow (or CMLL otherwise gets a change in policy) next week, they’ll be able to sell tickets. It’ll be too late after that.

Atlantis, in his virtual press conference, says he originally believed he wouldn’t be able to return to lucha but felt better through rehabilitation. Atlantis believes he would’ve returned in August or September without a pandemic, and waiting longer has helped him get stronger. It’s not clear why he ended up sitting out six extra months; my guess is CMLL was holding him back until they had fans because they keep pushing the idea they might yet have fans for this 04/24 show.

Barbaro Cavernario, in his CMLL virtual media interview, said he still doesn’t feel 100% in his return from injury. It’s not the injury itself, it’s the lack of ring time – finding a ring and getting practice time in has been an issue – and he has gotten to the point where he mentally trusts his body post-injury. Cavernario feels defeating Felino for his hair would be the perfect capper to his return, but he has no idea when that match will happen or if it’ll be a hot deal after being gone for so long.

the regularly scheduled WWE Mexico talk

WWE President Nick Khan appeared on the Colin Cowherd podcast to talk about his role with the WWE. Khan represented Cowherd before he took the WWE job. Fightful transcribed a relevant section about Khan’s aspirations for Mexico: the shorter version is he believes there are two “smaller promotions” which exist in the country and he believes if WWE combined their abilities with an authentic Mexican promotion with local stars, they could do a promotion that would draw over 30 million viewers for special events on over the air TV. Khan says he’s got a “hyper-focus” on the Latin American region. “Latin America” as a WWE target also came up very briefly on Stephanie McMahon’s interview with Bill Simmons, though with no more detail than saying “Latin America.”

WWE should be looking at Mexico; there’s obviously money to be made (and currently being made) on wrestling in Mexico. Nick Khan is new to the wrestling business and it’s always good to have fresh eyes; this is a region where WWE’s been content to run a couple of shows each year, and he’s bringing in a new & aggressive perspective. It’s the right time to target Mexico; I bristle at calling AAA & CMLL “smaller promotions”, but they’ve both been crippled by the pandemic and may take years to regain what they’ve lost in the last 12 months. It’d also potentially be better for at least some wrestlers if WWE money came into the equation.

It’s just also very unlikely WWE would be able to pull this off. The issues with WWE, Mexican talent, and the lucha libre style are well-trodden at this point. (In reality, WWE would be better off doing their own style rather than an inevitably patronizing attempt to do lucha libre.) The business issues are less well known. WWE once had over-the-air TV deals like those Nick Khan alluded to, only for the initial fad to burn out and those stations to apparently pass on them for future offers; their flagship programming now airs on cable Fox Sports channels, and often the secondary one. It’s a long way back there to over-the-air TV, especially if they’re doing it with a lesser brand. WWE would also be trying to make money off TV in a market where wrestling has only gotten paid for TV rights in the last few years and has generally been treated as interchangeable; there’s no reason to expect WWE’s going to get a premium for being WWE. WWE’s goal would likely be something like creating their own Canelo Alvarez; the actual Canelo Alvarez appears to have gotten about 9 million viewers over two different channels for their last fight (check Las Estrellas & Azteca 7 on Nielsen’s page.) I’m sure the 30 million figure comes from somewhere but I’m not sure where. Nick Khan’s success so far has come from making high-value content deals, and he’s going to have to work some similar magic in Mexico to make this idea viable. There are obvious creative challenges to WWE Mexico, even if WWE somehow figured that out, they don’t have a strong enough outlet to grow it into something sustainable. WWE could have a NXT UK-level group in Mexico tomorrow that just exists and doesn’t drive interest or money if they wanted too quickly, but that doesn’t seem to be the vision. This is a real thing only when they get that outlet.

It’s worth considering WWE Mexico as a blue sky idea and maybe not something close to happening. If this was an active plan, it probably would’ve come up in one of Andrade’s exit interviews as a WWE lure to keep him around. WWE has had concepts about coming to Mexico for a decade and a half and they’ve never really fully committed to this plan.

this week’s TV

04/09 CMLL AMX

• Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Okumura, Vangellys
• Mistico vs Titan

Only two matches listed. Maybe they’re giving Titan a lot of time. Maybe they’re using the extra time to promote the PPV?

04/10 CMLL MVS

• Inquisidor vs Grako
• Espiritu Negro & El Audaz & Cancerbero (likely repeat)
• Angel de Oro, Terrible, Niebla Roja vs Volador Jr., Diamante Azul, Negro Casas (repeat)

This continues the pattern of MVS getting one new prelim match and two repeats.

04/10 CMLL Televisa

• Estrellita, La Vaquerita vs Metalica, La Seductora
• Block A of the Mexican Trios Championship: Blue Panther, Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Mephisto, Luciferno, Ephesto vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr., Star Jr. vs Dragon Rojo, Polvora, Misterioso
• Ultimo Guerrero (c) vs Diamante Azul for the CMLL Heavyweight Championship

Weird they’re doing a title match with no build. Less weird if it’s just Ultimo Guerrero getting a win back after taking the loss in the trios title match.

04/10 AAA hasn’t been announced as of yet. It might be either the last week from Valle de Bravo or the second AutoLuchas show.

ROH will have Flamita & Bandido versus Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal on their TV show this weekend, with the story being about either side of usually teammates having issues. Gresham & Lethal have a singles match next week in honor of ROH reaching 500 TV episodes (with Sinclair), while Flamita & Bandido are iffy following their issues on the last PPV. ROH TV in two weeks will have Rush, Kenny King, Bestia del Ring versus Homicide, Chris Dickinson, and Brody King.

WrestleMania Weekend Update stuff

Shockingly, three Mexicans advanced to second-round of GCW’s Acid Cup. Dragon Bane and Laredo Kid both won their first-round match-ups, while Arez defeated Aramis in the only luchador contra luchador match. (Arez’s knee went out during the match, a reoccurring issue which always seems to get fixed; he’s said to be good for today.) GCW isn’t announcing a bracket, so we don’t know who faces who in the next round. The Florida heat and an uncovered ring made it a rough day for a lot of the wrestlers; it would not be a shock if all three Mexicans lost in the next round so they’ve got something left for their trios match on GCW rSpring Break later tonight.

The heat also seemed to play a factor in the Gino Medina/Hijo de Canis Lupus match on an earlier show. It’s not totally clear how much of the situation was the Medina suffering heat exhaustion versus a stiff Lupus lariat, but Medina didn’t seem in good condition during the match. An attempted powerbomb spot didn’t come off and the referee stopped the match. Gino was joking about it on Twitter so it seems like he’s fine.

Laredo Kid won the CRAB Wrestling tag team championship with Timo Cruz. CRAB Wrestling is a Maryland-based group not really known before deciding to run WM shows.

Jack Evans versus Tony Deppen on the VXS show on Friday is off.

Other News

AAA had a third week of AutoLuchas scheduled for today, Friday. That was postponed Thursday, with a rescheduled date TBA. No reason was given. It doesn’t seem an issue with the venue, since they’re replacing the late show with an airing of Lalaland tonight (and those with AAA tickets can get in for free.)

On Konnan’s Keepin it 100, he mentioned the tentative/not-confirmed/still-could-change date for Rey de Reyes is Saturday, May 1st. That date’s been floating around since the last set of tapings but no one’s set it publically, probably because it could still change. Not sure when AAA will announce; it likely depends on where they’re running and if they’re allowed to have fans (and when they know even if they’ll be allowed fans.) Konnan mention TV Azteca could air Rey de Reyes live; they’ve done that only for TripleMania and for last year’s Lucha Fighter shows. Konnan also said he was interested in using NWA Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, Bestia 666, and MechaWolf on shows. In pre-pandemic times, there was a tease of an Aldis title defense in Tijuana against an AAA wrestler and those other guys work a lot of Tijuana shows, so there’s a chance this could be an idea for an EMW/Tijuana event and not necessarily Rey de Reyes.

Konnan also confirmed Laredo Kid is the AAA Cruiserweight Champion, acknowledged the weird situation, and kazooed himself for it going poorly. The hosts quickly moved on to talk about MLW, and sending Vikingo, Psycho and Pagano once they get their visas. Getting new visas for Mexican wrestlers seems nigh impossible at the moment, but MLW did do the night impossible task of getting a clean loss out of LA Park so I guess I can’t rule them out. Psycho Clown is working in Texas at the end of the month, or at least he’s scheduled to, so maybe he was thrown in the list of people to go to MLW but doesn’t need a visa.

Lucha Libre Boom announced a 05/01 show in Cuautitlan with Caristico & Canek versus Averno & Cibernetico. Canek & Cibernetico is an ancient rivalry. That’s secondary. The focus is obviously on Caristico & Averno facing off the first time since Caristico left AAA six years ago, which even then was a throw-back to their historic 00s rivalry. Averno hasn’t been seen in an AAA ring since pre-pandemic and seemed to be getting phased down even then, though Penta did bring him up in a promo on the first taping this year. Averno has been working in a backstage AAA role, as best as I’ve understood. May 1st also being the tentative Rey de Reyes date seems to point towards Averno quietly having left AAA, but this is weird enough that we should wait and see. Averno left CMLL on good terms, but that was with a different boss and a different economic situation.

Diamante defeated Bokultimo Dragon in a mask match earlier today in Dragon Gate. Bokultimo Dragon is Big R Shimizu, which everyone knew – this was a comedy gimmick around a person who doesn’t look like Ultimo Dragon acting like Ultimo Dragon, and this match was putting an end to that. It is notable Diamante’s advanced to the point in Dragon Gate where they trust him for a match like this, which was said to go well.

Nuevo Leon will now allow wrestling events to have fans up to a 20% capacity. There was a recent day with zero COVID deaths in Nuevo Leon, so the situation is getting better. The policy change seems like it may just be symbolic at the moment; Lucha Time and I believe KAOZ were running shows with fans in Nuevo Leon already. (KAOZ definitely already had tickets out for a show.) Most lucha libre in Nuevo Leon has historically been centered in Monterrey, that city’s commission has been strictly following the COVID policies and threatening punishments for anyone breaking them in their jurisdiction, so I believe KAOZ and Lucha Time have been running outside of Monterrey. (I know that was a reason why RIOT also didn’t run their usual Monterrey venue.) It’s possible Monterey will now allow lucha libre again, but since those groups also haven’t been visibly enforcing capacity limits, I’m not sure they’ll move back to usual venues until those are lifted.

MexaWrestling announced they’ll return with “El Regreso” on 04/17. First match announced

• Centvrion, Metaleon vs Hijo del Espectro Jr., King Charro

Vanguardia announced their tournament for the Extraordinario show will become on their 05/05 show. There will be two groups of 4, where the winners of each group will advance to the final on the Anniversary show. Other people will eventually be in the match. Group A has Ciclope, Miedo Extremo, Jimmy, and Gasparin, Group B will have Jimmy, el Mago, Lobo Blanco, Simbolo Blanco. They’re going to have a press conference on Facebook explaining how this will work tonight.

Puebla indie La Liga de La Justicia announced a secret show, which would be their first since the pandemic. The Facebook post hints they’re selling tickets by Whatsapp. There’s been no show with fans in Puebla for over a year; small groups have been running no fan shows for Facebook content but wrestling with fans doesn’t appear to have been approved by the city of Puebla. It’s also possible this is a Monterrey situation and they’re running some place else without a commission, since there’s no location listed.

Xalapa luchador Full Contac passed away Thursday due to complications from COVID 19. I don’t have an age, but he was active as recently as January. I believe he’s at least the third luchador from that scene who’s passed away due to COVID. Fellow wrestlers had been raising money for his care in the last few days, similar to what’s going on with Hijo del Alebrije.

Starman would like to be part of the new CMLL Space Cadets idea when it was brought up to him in a CMLL media interview.