CMLL back on PPV for Ticketmaster
CMLL , Ticketmaster (FRI) 05/28/2021 Arena México
1) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Virus [lightning]
2) Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Hechicero vs Fugaz, Stuka Jr., Titán
3) Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs Flyer & Volador Jr. and Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero and Forastero & Sansón and Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa and Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II and Felino & Felino Jr. and Black Panther & Blue Panther Jr. and Blue Panther & Cachorro and Panterita Del Ring & Panterita Del Ring Jr. and Flyer & Volador Jr. [Copa Dinasitas]
debut of Panterita del Ring (19); Mexico City debut of Cachorro
The show will air live only on Ticketmaster at the normal start time of 8:30. It’s up to 230 MXN ($11.50 USD) if you’re buying it today.
CMLL Copa Dinastias is a ten-team tournament with a structure so complex that it requires a flow chart to explain. A team can lose twice and still win the tournament, though that’s unlikely to happen. I recorded a four-minute video explaining it and there are still subtleties I didn’t get right. (The second battle royal ends in a single fall match and has to include the people who weren’t in the first battle royal.) A shorter version is a ‘normal’ ten team would include nine matches plus the initial seeding battle royal. This structure will have thirteen plus that battle royal. It’s going to be a very long show with short matches. Maybe it’ll play out better than it sounds but I can not get in the mindset of why CMLL would decide to do this.
Forastero replaces Cuatrero in the tournament. Julio Cesar Rivera, on CMLL Informa, explained Cuatrero and Angel de Oro missed this past Friday’s show due to COVID issues. Cuatrero tested positive, though he’s said to be doing fine. Angel de Oro had close contact with someone who tested positive; he hasn’t tested positive himself but he’s still sidelined by their protocols. There had been a strange rumor of Angel de Oro leaving CMLL – the tease of Federacion Wrestling having one more Ingobernables and general gossip – though the only place I had heard it was Mas Lucha’s show shooting it down. Cesar Rivera nodded it on Informa to also shoot it down. (It’s a rumor that would’ve never existed if CMLL announced the reason for those replacements last Friday rather than wait most of a week.)
Julio Cesar Rivera mentioned the Angel de Oro absence in the context of why the Chavez brothers were excluded from Copa Dinasita. It seemed at one point Cesar Rivera was going to update on Niebla Roja’s mysterious situation but got off track. (Given how long Roja’s already been said to be in the US, there’s a decent chance Niebla Roja’s trying to establish US residency similar to Daga. Don’t know that for sure though.) Cesar Rivera also explained Soberano & Euforia weren’t entered because Soberano is out due to an injury Soberano had been trying to work through. Soberano had indicated the same on Instagram a while back, which hadn’t stopped people speculating he had left as well.
The two preliminary matches look strong if they get the time. I guess that’s more likely early in the show; the later part of the tournament is more likely to be hurried. It’s hard to care about who’s going to win when none of these things matter. It’ll probably be one of the Atlantis, Guerrero or Volador family. Ultimo Guerrero wins too much but that’s the only team of those I’d like to see in four matches.
CMLL will resume running Tuesday shows starting June 8th. Tickets for both the June 4th show and the June 8th Tuesday return went on sale Thursday. They’re under the same limitation as the other shows so far: 500 tickets, only through Ticketmaster, fans have to wear face masks. It’s surprising for CMLL to bring back Tuesday shows before Sundays; the Tuesday shows seemed to be mostly tourists, who aren’t likely to be back yet. The demand for tickets and the limited amount available is such that any day of the week is likely to do well at first. It is at least possible they’re bringing back Sunday the same week and haven’t announced it yet. The Tuesday tickets are running from 180-300, compared to 300-480 for Friday tickets.
No idea if either these will air on YouTube or continue to be on TicketmasterLive. Two shows a week should be enough to eliminate the need for the empty arena tapings, though CMLL has always been taping more matches than they need. They could continue to do so.
TV lineups
- Acero vs Mercurio
- Magia Blanca & Drone vs Akuma, Espanto Jr.
- Volcano & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Vangellys & Dark Magic
The main event is at least a two-alarm fire
- Oro Jr. vs Robin
- Angel de Oro, Titan, Terrible versus Euforia, Templario, Soberano Jr.
Two match MVS shows means both matches got a lot of time. That actually might be a good thing for the main event; I’m looking forward to seeing it. Angel de Oro wrestling on TV must be vastly confusing to the people who both know he’s out with COVID and don’t know about CMLL taping in advance, but I’m not sure there’s much overlap there.
05/29 CMLL Televisa
- Halcon Suriano Jr. & Sonic vs Nitro & Yago
- Audaz & Stigma vs Polvora & Okumura
- Lluvia, Jarochita (c) vs Dalys, Stephanie Vaquer [MEX WOMEN TAG]
- Rey Cometa, Espiritu Negro, Flyer vs Virus, Raziel, Cancerbero
Both the opener and the main event are one person away from being exciting matches, which is above average for pandemic era CMLL. The women’s tag match was probably taped before Lluvia Jarochita defended those titles in Cuernavaca. The Mistico/NGD program here seems to have gone missing (with the Templario/Bandido one, though I suspect for different reasons.)
05/29 CMLL HT
- Titan & Atlantis Jr. vs Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III
I’ve found some grey market sites which allow you to pay for Mexican TV channels – about $15 USD/month. I’ve been thinking about paying up them because it would be in theory higher quality and more reliable than the Twitch thing we’ve been trying, but that’s only in theory – these are resellers, who knows how well they work or when they’ll get wiped off the face of the earth. Those channel packages include Televisa and Space but if they also included Heraldo Television on a week with a Heraldo show, I’d have to consider it. I don’t think they do, though.
05/29 AAA
- Latigo vs Aramis vs Arez (02/04)
- Dinastia vs Drago Kid vs La Parkita [AAA MINI] (03/20)
- Argenis, Chik Tormenta, Mamba vs Drago, Octagon Jr., Pimpinela Escarlata (02/07)
- Taurus & Rey Escorpion vs Psycho Clown & Laredo Kid (03/11)
These are all unaired matches from previous tapings. Or on Space they haven’t aired; at least the first two have aired on the Azteca cut of the show. It’s wild to think AAA had an unaired match with TripleMania main eventers Psycho Clown and Rey Escorpion was taped and didn’t make air until now. AAA likely has enough leftover matches to do at least one more of these filler episodes, maybe two.
AAA’s taping the next set of TV soon, so they may not need another filler episode.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 05/27/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Black Shadow II & Kenji b Águila Oriental & Spider Fly 
2) Anemix & Diosa Quetzal b Lalya & Sussy Love 
Diosa & Sussy want to be added the the Jaula de las Locas cage match
3) Mini Raider, Mini Rey Misterio, Virtual b Blackgoncito, Mini Canis Lupus, Mini Spirit 
4) Dragón Fly, Hip Hop Man, Maradó b Guadalajara, Monterrey, Sinaloa [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
Los Sencillitos were the surprise team.
5) Hijo del Fishman b Hijo del Espectro © [IWRG JUNIORS]
first defense
6) Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. NC DMT Azul & Puma King [super libre]
brawl got out of control and match ended without a finish
The main event went out of control in a usual La Empresa faction. For an CMLL team, they sure do a lot of the crowd brawling that would be frowned upon there (but it works for this gimmick
Sunday’s show has Los Negociantes versus Texano & Super Nova. The semimain continues the Mexico State Trios tournament; the other semifinal is Hip Hop Man’s crew against Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., and Fulgor.
Shows of note this weekend
Friday
- Martinez Entertainment in Fort Worth has Laredo Kid versus Lio Rush, Black Taurus vs Willie Mack and Cinta de Oro, Sexy Dulce, and Aramis on the card.
- They originally had TJP vs Laredo and Lio Rush vs Arez, but Perkins is out with an injury. I read through TJP’s Twitter to see if I could find out the injury and that was a mistake.
- Arena Lopez Mateos features Blue Demon and DMT Azul on opposite sides of a trios. DMT and Puma King are teaming with a mystery person, teased as a La Empresa adjacent wrestler. Mas Lucha will stream this show live starting at 8 pm.
- DTU has a (six month) delayed anniversary show in Ciudad Madero, which they’ve said will stream on their Facebook.
- Lucha Time is bringing in MexaWrestling luchadors for a show in Monterrey.
- I’m only this moment realizing Lucha Time has stopped airing on Mas Lucha ast month; those broadcasts were such a low priority for both Mas Lucha and Lucha Time that they’re not missed.
Saturday
- MexaWrestling runs a show back at home with wrestlers from Lucha Time and Kingdom (Matamoros). Tonalli gets a big chance with a singles match with Toxin.
- IAW runs at an undisclosed venue (probably Gym Mictklan) with Skayde versus Latigo.
Sunday
- Lucha Memes at Coliseo Coacalco with Solar vs Villano III Jr. and Negro Navarro vs Sadico.
Other Notes
Federacion Wrestling announced Shane Taylor and Extreme Tiger for their Copa Federacion. LA Park showing up in Federacion Wrestling seems a logical outcome, though he said on Twitter that he’s not going because they were disrespectful to him. (Credit to Zona Ruda for noticing this exchange.) It’s LA Park so they can probably just offer him more and he’ll show up. Federacion Wrestling also announced you can email them to find out where they might be running a show. Maybe that’s a normal way of building up a mailing list but it’s also what every indie was doing this year when they were running secret shows.
GCW announced Sadika versus Nick Gage for a 07/09 show in Houston. Sadika has Twitter fans because she looks like she’s really hurting people in GIFs. Her trick to make it look real is she’s actually hurting people. I have no idea how a match with Nick Gage is going to work but it does feel like a GCW match.
GCW will also participate on the June 16th (Friday) NGX show in Monterrey and the July 17th (Saturday) Vanguardia show. No names announced. Ciclope & Miedo Extremo remain GCW Tag Team Champions, which seems like a plot point. July 18th is the previously announced GCW/Zona 23 show.
Vanguardia’s Anniversary show is now scheduled to air Saturday at 7 pm.
GALLI announced they’re part of PALL and wrestlers from GALLI will go to Naucalpan in September.
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.
El Sol de Tampico has an interview with Hijo del Jaque Mate.