Angel o Demonio, Jaula de las Locas, Andrade/AEW, irrelevant CMLL shows

Angel o Demonio (1964-2021)

Angel o Demonio’s career probably should’ve ended when he nearly killed Cuervo de Puerto Rico with a brick thrown at the back of Cuervo’s head. Angel o Demonio instead was accepted back ito the ring in a short time, and I can think of no greatest statement about how fondly his fellow wrestlers thought of him. Mexican wrestling lets a lot go, but this situation seemed to about the luchadors refusing to believe what everyone saw at that moment represented the kind, friendly man they’d known for years.

Angel o Demonio (Héctor Pérez González, 56) died from COVID on Saturday. He had been battling it at home for a week, seemingly afraid he’d go to a hospital and never return, as his tag team partner Ovett did back in February. One of his last Facebook posts mentioned how he’d been unable to sleep for five days due to the illness and felt he had no choice but to go in. Angel o Demonio soon ended on a ventilator and remain in grave condition for over a week before expiring.

There’s a lot of ways where Angel o Demonio’s professional life could’ve turned out differently. He was originally a UWA trainee, taught by Villano I and Shadito Cruz, and could’ve become a technical wrestler in undercards of El Toreo shows for years – except he debuted when the promotion was in its final hours. Many luchador faded away from the wrestling scene or ended up being the famous person at very infamous gyms. Angel o Demonio remolded himself as a hardcore wrestler, building a following on the patchwork of indie promotions trying to fill the gaps left behind the indies. In the ring, Angel o Demonio built the Los Porros faction – most notably with Ovett, Leon Rojo, and Perico – as a group of wrestlers who right and bleed against anyone, including each other. Outside that ring, Angel o Demonio was the guy who was a friend and mentor to all the younger independent wrestlers who came after, someone who had lived that lifestyle for many years and knew the struggles that came with it. He was a guy who knew how to keep things light and happy on yet another long bus trip, a good drinking friend for after the shows were over. Angel o Demonio had some brushes with major leagues – infamously as part of AAA’s Payasos Diabolicos failed trios that got rethought with new wrestlers as Psycho Circus a few months later – but mostly he was the indie guy going from show to show to find more work. The brick incident quickly became just a new way to hustle a few extra bookings for promoters. His fellow wrestlers accepted as just work, not what they believed he truly really was.

El Cuervo de Puerto Rico doesn’t appear to have made any public statement on Angel o Demonio’s passing on his Instagram. Cuervo seemed to get away from social media after the incident, seemingly due to Angel o Demonio and his friends harrasing him about speaking against him for the incident. Angel o Demonio may have been doing it to build a feud – and Zona 23 did hint they were going to book an unthinkable rematch last year before the pandemic shut down shows again – but it came off horribly.

I went to Angel o Demonio’s Facebook to link to his final posts, but it’s impossible at the moment. There’s an avalanche of thoughts, condolences, and memories posted to his page by friends and fans. It’s overwhelming. I can and am critical of how he acted in that situation with Cuervo, but I also can’t deny that he must’ve done many positive acts in plenty of other times to endear himself to so many people.

Angel o Demonio’s daughter posted two videos of a service in his memory. R de Rudo pulled together more posts from fellow wrestlers. Furia de Titanes’ Sergio Trejo posted his memories of working with Angel o Demonio.

(Note there’s another person using the name Angel o Demonio in Tamalupias at a local level – unrelated and still alive.)

IWRG Jaula de Loca

IWRG (SUN) 06/06/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha, Mas Lucha (Video)]
1) El Bendito b Hellboy
the former Blue Monster Jr. debuting under the new Bendito name.
2) Aster Boy, Legendario, Puma de Oro b Dick Angelo 3G, Rey Halcón, Tonalli
3) Black Terry & Karaoui b Avisman & Eragón
techinical match
4) Blackgoncito, Fly Warrior, Toxin b Freelance, Mexica, Mini Rey Misterio
Pasion Kristal was honored after the match. Mamba, otherwise not on the show, appeared to take part.
5) Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Máscara Sagrada Jr. b Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Fulgor
Originally a EDM TRIOS semifinal, but the tournament has been abandoned after Pasion Kristal’s death. Los Sencillos were originally replaced by Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Sinaloa, but instead a team of Juniors faced them. First appearance for Guerrero Maya Jr. (long ago Multifacetico) on an IWRG show since 2009.
6) Jessy Ventura b Diosa Atenea, Sussy Love, Zorayita, Diva Salvaje, Diosa Quetzal, Mary Caporal, Estrella Divina, Bengalee, Zoy Raymunda [cage, hair]
Pasion Kristal was originally announced for this match, though the poster wasn’t published until after he had passed away. Order of escape: Mary Caporal, Bengalee, Sussy Love, Diosa Atenea, Diosa Quetzal, Zoy Raymunda, Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina and Jessy Ventura took Zorayita’s hair to win.

This was a Mas Lucha Premium show, so there’s a lot less out there about this show than usual. (I wouldn’t have had time to watch it myself yet anyway.) It sounded like everyone was happy with the main event finish, which was the outcome that had to happen given the events of the last week.

Guerrero Maya Jr. is believed to have turned up in IWRG with CMLL permission; he hasn’t left Arena Mexico. Others from CMLL may show up in future weeks, though don’t expect big names – it’s the usual “if you want to book a CMLL guy you have to also book me” crew. CMLL wrestlers worked IWRG regularly for many years until IWRG booked El Hijo del Santo once and CMLL declared them off-limits. There have been sporadic CMLL appearances since. It would be good news for CMLL luchadors if they could get back here more often.

Mas Lucha’s results don’t mention it (and a video they had showing it seems to be removed), but there was an angle on this show where Los Traumas returned to the promotion. Demonio Infernal and Fresero Jr. have generally taken the Navarro brothers’ place, so that seems like the match to book – except they announced they were all four going to become a faction instead. (They did a similar bit on the Arena Lopez Mateos show the prior night.) Fans wanted to see them fight and the union was said to get a poor reaction. I’m not sure if the poor reaction is why it was deleted, but it’s strange either way.

That same night, GALLI mentioned Las Shotas, Los Negocinates, and Los Traumas as coming to the Chicago area in August. That suggests the relationship between the Traumas and IWRG has been patched up for a bit, long enough to start loaning them out elsewhere. Between the Guerrero Maya and the Traumas appearance, it does feel like IWRG went above and beyond to put some bonuses on this show for IWRG fans to get their money’s worth (if by ticket or by subscription.)

IWRG announced Friday they were canceling the Mexico State Trios Championship. Pasion Kristal, Jessy Ventura, and Diva Salvaje had advanced to the final prior to Kristal’s death. They were likely going to win the titles. Putting someone in Kristal’s spot or having another team beat them even just in the final would’ve been hard. The announcement didn’t mention what would become of the belts again. Los Traumas returning may mean those IWRG IC Trios belts will be back in play with them.

Furia de Titanes collected photos from Pasion Kristal’s service at Arena Tabasco, the local venue he wrestled in.

CMLL Friday Night PPV and other notes

CMLL , Ticketmaster (FRI) 06/04/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sport, Mas Lucha, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores]
Attendance: 500
1) Akuma & Espanto Jr. b Sangre Imperial & Sonic  
2) Magia Blanca b El Coyote [lightning]  
7:05
3) Marcela & Princesa Sugehit b Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer  
Tecnicas took 1/3.
4) Dark Magic, Okumura, Vangellys b El Audaz, Fugaz, Guerrero Maya Jr. 
Rudos took 1/3.
5) Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, Valiente b Cuatrero, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II  
tecnicos took 1/3.
6) Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]  
tecnicos took 2/3

Nothing at all happened on the show. They’re just back to doing matches for the sake of matches. I guess that’s good as far as returning to normal, but it also makes me feeI great in not buying it. I don’t know of anyone who bought this show. (All the press photos are from media people seated in the upper levels, though media seems to rarely watch Mexican wrestling shows on TV or other screens so that’s normal.)

You may still be able to see these PPVs anyway: CMLL aired Copa Dinastia on Televisa this week. CMLL’s also been putting up their Televisa show on YouTube on about a one-week delay during the pandemic. If that continues, these PPVs will be on YouTube for free (in edited TV form) about two weeks after they take place. CMLL has said they’re not streaming this Tuesday Arena Mexico show, and I suspect that’ll also start turning up on their TV shows in a couple of weeks.

CMLL’s show on Heraldo Television has been airing one new empty arena match and two “classic” (random four-year-old) matches a week over the last few months. They switched to all new empty arena matches, suggesting CMLL’s sure they can start burning through the empty arena stuff as quick as possible because they’ll have plenty of shows with fans going forward. I think the AMX/MVS shows will continue to have empty arena matches this weekend and then they’ll be airing shows with fans after that.

(Also, the Televisa Rey Cometa, Espiritu Negro, Flyer versus Raziel, Cancerbero, Virus feud got suddenly shifted over to Heraldo Television, so the empty arena matches will end with the same lack of quality control they’ve been known for all along.)

CMLL’s next Friday show has sold out, according to TicketMaster’s website. That’s still only 500 tickets, which will be the case under June 24th based on the rules announced by Mexico City’s Friday. (Friday June 25th would be the first 1,500 capacity show.) Tuesday’s show still has a few tickets available.

CMLL’s Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara lineup

CMLL (TUE) 06/08/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Captain Cobra, Tigre Blanco, Último Ángel vs Paymon, Persa, Thunder Boy
2) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Príncipe vs Javier Cruz Jr., Joker, Vaquero Jr.
3) Principe Daniel vs Difunto [lightning]
4) Flash, Gallo, Star Black vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Mr. Apolo
5) El Gallito, Guapito, Microman vs Átomo, Chamuel, Perico Zakarías
6) Atlantis Jr., Cachorro, Fantástico vs Espíritu Negro, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Cometa

Whoever’s booking people out from Mexico City is totally unconcerned if they’re sending the right amount of tecnicos or rudos. Atrapasuenos are rudos this week as a result. Arena Mexico’s show takes the approach of just many relevos increibles matches. CMLL seems headed to a less interesting world where tecnico/rudo denominations cease to mean anything. It’s not that they’re going to become characters more complex than that binary coding, they’re just going to lose one more personality aspect. Mexican indie wrestling is already largely that way.

The PUBG/CMLL tie-up has a fun video with KeMonito & Micro Man, and a disappointing reveal about it being about an in-game McLaren car. Microman and KeMonito are not in the game.

Andrade to AEW

Andrade debuted in AEW on Friday night’s Dynamite show and appears to have signed a contract with the promotion. No terms have been announced. Andrade has the chance for fantastic matches with many new opponents; almost everything is a fresh opponent since he’s spent most of his career in the cloistered CMLL and WWE environments. The possibilities for the future are strong.

The present wasn’t so great. Andrade’s debut was flatter than Kansas. The “Andrade el Idolo” name is wordy, pairing him up Vicky Guerrero seems ineffective, and his introductory promo was as generic as it comes. It felt like all the same mistakes TNA/Impact would make when introducing ex-WWE stars, positioning them as knockoff versions of their own ultimately unsuccessfully WWE characters rather than something fresh or something that worked. Andrade appearing as a masked wrestler would’ve been regressive, though not so much more than Guerrero rehashing a character that had its biggest success a decade ago and hasn’t evolved in any noticeable way since. (Guerrero has been managing Nyla Rose; it’s hard to identify a way in that partnership helping Rose, or any reason to do the Andrade/Guerrero pairing outside of rehashing Andrade’s work with Zelina Vega/Thea Trinidad.) That entire episode of Dynamite had a struggle, but that introduction may have been the coldest part. These things can be overcome – any lucha libre fan has become normalized to bad names given enough time – but a good debut shouldn’t include a thing to overcome

WrestlingInc reports Andrade asked for creative control and veto power over losing in discussion with AEW, which eventually was bargained to some creative control over finishes. I’m a little skeptical – not any shot at WrestlingInc, but because it’s so unusual that details about creative control come out that it’d take a couple of times hearing it to believe it. Good on Andrade for asking if he did get it; if he got it, it was a good request. Andrade undoubtedly will have some degrees of creative control in anything else he works, up to and including TripleMania. The Omega/Andrade finish remains interesting because the lay of the land

• Andrade’s probably not losing both to Omega and to Psycho Clown
  • would lose one at most and would obviously prefer neither
• if AAA can get one loss out of Andrade, they’d rather it to be to Psycho rather than Omega.
• AEW doesn’t seem included to let their world champion lose while champ
• AEW’s next PPV isn’t until after TripleMania and it’s unlikely Omega will lose the AEW belt before then
• Psycho Clown keeps talking like he knows Andrade’s winning the AAA belt at TripleMania
  • Psycho barely mentioning the existence of Omega as champion to the point that this should be promo material if anyone on Omega’s side was paying attention to AAA (they are not)

There’s no solution there to keep everyone happy, outside of a screwy finish that’d leave the fans upset. Maybe match judges return for TripleMania? (Maybe worth thinking about: if TripleMania has to be pushed back, it might have a better title match finish.)

There was no mention of the Andrade/Omega TripleMania match on Dynamite. AEW’s consistently minimized Omega’s title matches in other promotions. It’s a strategy, though an immensely frustrating one. I would be surprised if Andrade and Omega interacted in any significant fashion to build that match on AEW TV. It’s not their match so they’re not interested in it.

Other Notes

I went to two shows this weekend, one of a few reasons this update is so late. Warrior Wrestling on Saturday saw Aramis win the eight-person match to become the first-ever Warrior Wrestling Lucha Libre champion. I’m not sure if “person who writes a blog about lucha libre” is the most useful person to give you a take about which match on a show with a mix of styles was the best, but that match sure seemed like the best one to me. If you liked the trios match from GCW’s Spring Break show, you’d also greatly enjoy the Warrior Wrestling match. Sunday, Aramis & Arez surprisingly won the GALLI Tag Team Championships from Golden Dragon and Gringo Loco. It was short – maybe eight minutes – but a lot of good stuff for the time it lasted. I was caught off guard by the title change – I was surprised Aramis & Arez were both going to have their finishes kicked out of and then there was no kick out – and I understand now that both are going to be around the US for a while. Laredo Kid beat Black Taurus in a good main event, though not to the levels of what you might see on TV with them. It was a strange finish – Arez pulled out the referee to stop Taurus from winning, despite being the tecnico a match before. They did set up Taurus/Arez out of it for next week, which was good but maybe something got lost in the setup.  Arez has also been added to the AAW show this upcoming Friday.

There were two Bandido’s on the Arena Neza show this past Saturday. The Bandido you’re thinking of won a three-way match with Dragon Lee and Emperador Azteca. Luchador Punker also dressed as Bandido, as a tribute to his father and used the gimmick in early AAA. Bandido/Mohawk passed away in May 2020, one of so many people who didn’t get a moment of applause because there were no shows to hold them and may start to get remembered as shows return to normal. In that vein, there’s a show to remember Ice Killer this upcoming weekend; he passed away in March.

ROH’s TV episode with Rey Horus versus Demonic Flamita is on their website and free for the next week. I’ve been told Demonio Flamita is Good; I’m hoping I can stop typing in this screen and watch it for myself soon enough. My guess is Bandido’s match versus Bateman airs in two weeks, but ROH hasn’t confirmed it yet.

Federacion Wrestling revealed Hijo del Octagon will be the third person in the Rey Horus versus Flamita versus ???? match on their 06/19 show. Hijo del Octagon is close with Dragon Lee, this is a Munoz show, Hijo del Octagon on the card should’ve been obvious. The story they’re pushing is this is the ‘real’ son of Octagon against one of the people who’ve played the role in AAA (Flamita’s brief Octagon Jr. run.) They’ve met once or twice since those times and I believe everything’s professional between them now, but most fans are probably expecting something more. I wonder if someone reached out to Kalisto/Samuray del Sol to make it a three-way of Octagons; this is right about when his 90-day no-compete ends, though it may not cover weird non-TV promotions in Mexico anyway. (It would probably not be a good money idea but so little of this is.)

The most anticipated match on the Federacion Wrestling show is in a bit of question. Fenix hasn’t wrestled since April. A segment on Friday’s AEW Dynamite alluded to the Young Bucks taking out Fenix backstage to explain why he won’t be wrestling any time soon. (That bit aired on Being the Elite Monday.) Bodyslam.net reported Fenix has a groin injury and will be out four more weeks. That’s long after the Federacion show is scheduled to happen. Nothing has been announced on the Federacion side about how the match will change. My first instinct on any match is “call Laredo” but Laredo Kid, Black Taurus, and others are working in Texas that night.

KAOZ announced they’re running Monterrey’s baseball stadium on June 20th for their 3rd Anniversary show. That’s two weeks from now, and running the baseball stadium seems like a relatively recent announcement. (I haven’t kept up with their YouTube shows, perhaps it’s been made more clear then.) There’s not a full card or a headliner announced yet; they’re starting to announce the card from the bottom

1. Charro Negro (c) vs Komander vs Dinamico vs Toxin vs Villano III Jr. for the KAOZ Junior Cruiserweight Championship
2. Sexy Star (Gatuebla) & Black Widow vs Lady Flamer & Reina Dorada for vacant KAOZ Women’s Tag Team Championships
3. Emperador Azteca, Hijo del Impostor, el Dragon vs Hijo del Vikingo, Octaogn Jr., Myzteziz Jr.

KAOZ also declared their heavyweight championship vacant with a decision match on this show, so that may be the main event. Dr. Wagner Jr. was the most recent champ as best I can tell because the last defense against Mesias took place on a Mas Lucha Premium show and no results turned up. I suppose it doesn’t matter now if it ever did. KAOZ’s deal is having a lot of championships, doing nothing with them but maybe tricking the wrestlers into thinking they’re meaningful. Flamer & Sexy Dulce had been the women’s tag champs when those were created in 2019 and then the belts were never defended. The Junior Cruiserweight titles haven’t been defended this year, and so on. They’re copying CMLL’s strategy without realizing CMLL’s strategy doesn’t work for CMLL.

I suspect KAOZ isn’t doing running the baseball stadium because they’re going for a 10K crowd, maybe they’re thinking a big outdoor venue might allow them to have the 2 to 3,000 they could normally have in Arena Coliseo Monterrey.

Shortly after AAA’s TV show ended, they posted a YouTube promo of Lady Shani challenging Deonna Purrazzo to a match. Shani challenged Purrazzo to a match after TripleMania. Purrazzo responded by saying she didn’t want to wait, demanding the match for the Verano de Escandalo show on 07/03. AAA officially announced that show in the process. It’ll probably air live on Space and so there will be some pirated stream like with Rey de Reyes. I think I may play around with getting my own stream for that show just to see if I can find a service that works before people really care for TripleMania.

Mucha Lucha Atlanta announced the 07/11 Carsitico versus Andrade match is off “for reasons not to do with MLA or Caristico.” The post implies CMLL vetoed Caristico facing the TripleMania main eventer. That’s silly but consistent with how CMLL’s handled these matches – if they notice the matches. Mucha Lucha Atlanta announced Andrade versus Laredo Kid as the replacement match, though that post teases the possibility of a third wrestler. Andrade versus Laredo Kid sounds outstanding, Andrade versus Laredo Kid versus Alberto el Patron (whom Andrade seems eager to rehab everywhere) seems much, much less ideal. Tickets are on sale with just that singles match.

NGX and Zona 23 have announced Nick Gage, Shlak, Alex Colon, and Jimmy Lloyd as the GCW wrestlers coming on their 07/16 and 07/18 shows. Vanguardia hasn’t announced their 07/17 lineup – they’ve got a show before that they’re pushing – but I’d guess all those guys are working there too.

Alberto el Patron made a surprise appearance back on Robles Promotions show May 30th, so he and El Hijo del Santo could chat about how much they admire each other. This is part of the continuing and annoying campaign to rehab Alberto’s image by surrounding him with wrestlers people actually like in hopes it rubs off on him. Alberto versus Andrade vs Penta headlines Monterrey’s Gimnasio Nuevo Leon on August 1st, which must be the show Roberto Figueroa was teasing a month or so back. That’s another Robles Promotions show.

Both Lady Apache and Tinieblas Sr. have gotten less than 1% of the vote in their elections. Almost all of the vote is in, and Tinieblas is not going to get 2,000 votes out of 200,000+ cast in his election. He’s seventh of the eight candidates on the ballot. Blue Demon Jr. & Caristico probably would’ve run had they been allowed to keep their real names off the ballot and probably would’ve done just as badly. They were saved some humiliation by that ruling.

Mas Lucha talked to Aramis about his MLW, confirming it’s a real contract and talking about his goal to go to the top.

Box y Lucha 3747 has Pasion Kristal and Tiger Mask on the cover.

Promociones Big Bear in Zacatecas says they had eight shows scheduled and canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. They’re both a boxing and wrestling outfit and, when they couldn’t use the gym to train, they trained outside on hills.

Radio Nacional de Colombia has a story on people trying to bring back lucha libre in that country.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.