CMLL (FRI) 07/16/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, WDeportes]
1) Pequeño Violencia b Angelito [lightning] 
3:52. No injury, Violencia just won quick.
2) La Guerrera, La Jarochita, Lluvia b Amapola, Dark Silueta, Reyna Isis 
9:10
3) Fugaz, Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Cachorro Lagunero, Dark Panther
16:17. Originally listed as Blue Sr/Dark/Cachorro, then Blue Sr/Dark/Blue Jr., and finally Cachorro/Dark/Blue Jr. Fugaz return from a shoulder injury (still taped.) Paneritas took 2/3, though Panterita Jr & Cachorro went to a double pin before the finish.
4) Euforia, Felino, Felino Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]
10:28. Team Cavernario shoved Olimpico for the first fall DQ. Cavernario pinned Felino in the second fall with outside help from Angel de Oro. Felino pinned Cavernario with the superbomb in the third, then asked for the hair match soon. Cavernario declined.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Templario b Volador Jr., Místico, Mephisto, Star Jr., Espíritu Negro, Raziel [Leyenda de Plata, battle royal]
6) Star Jr. b Mephisto [Leyenda de Plata, 8f]
3:42.
7) Místico b Espíritu Negro [Leyenda de Plata, 8f]
2:16
8) Volador Jr. b Raziel [Leyenda de Plata, 8f]
3:12
9) Templario b Dragón Rojo Jr. [Leyenda de Plata, 8f]
2:45
10) Mephisto b Místico [Leyenda de Plata, quarterfinal]
3:57
11) Templario b Volador Jr. [Leyenda de Plata, quarterfinal]
4:12
12) Templario b Místico [Leyenda de Plata, semifinal]
7:51. Templario advances to the final on 07/30.
It was not clear Leyenda de Plata would be a singles elimination tournament until the battle royal was announced as seeding the tournament. Leyenda de Plata is always a cibernetico and it’s a braindead move to switch it to a series of small matches. I thought the eight generally worked hard and tried to make the most of the time, but there’s not much you’re getting across in 2:45. It served no purpose except to make for worse matches.
Templario winning was a nice surprise, and he did it impressively. He’s still the underdog versus whoever comes out of the other side – likely Caristico, maybe Titan.
Nothing too major on the rest of the show. Felino pushing for the hair match to happen now is noteworthy; CMLL probably hopes to be running it in 8-9 weeks instead, though there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to do so. They’d be better off getting it in quick just to be sure, except Felino probably would be expecting a bigger payday than about a 1,500 capacity crowd would provide.
CMLL (SUN) 07/18/2021 Arena México [De Lucha TV]
1) Leono & Sangre Imperial b Bengala & Sonic
2) Espanto Jr., Grako, Magnus b Diamond, Drone, Eléctrico [Relevos Increíbles]
Listed as Relevos Incredibles but CMLL also said Magnus was debuting as a rudo. Grako replaced Akuma. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Dark Magic, Okumura, Vangellys b Pegasso, Stigma, Volcano
Embajadores took 1/3
4) Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus © b Dark Panther, Esfinge, Star Jr. [MEX TRIOS]
first defense, Cancerberos took 2/3. Dark Panther replaced Audaz.
5) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.
Guerreros took 2/3. Ultimo Guerrero pulled Atlantis’ mask and beat him, the first defeat for Atlantis in this month long Sunday run of main events honoring him.
Of course Ultimo Guerrero defeats Atlantis on the shows meant to honor Atlantis. The title match should air on AMX July 30th.
Barbaro Cavernario announced he was a new first-time father on Instagram.
Sunday was Arena Puebla’s 58th Anniversary, which normally would mean today is a big Arena Puebla show. No show, no date of a return, just an article talking about the history.
CMLL (TUE) 07/20/2021 Arena México
1) Cholo vs Apocalipsis [lightning]
2) Drone, Robin, Sonic vs Disturbio, Espanto Jr., Magnus
3) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca vs Dark Magic, Okumura, Vangellys
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Stuka Jr. vs Cavernario, Euforia, Terrible
5) Dulce Gardenia, Místico, Star Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero
The names are split between the three weekly CMLL shows evenly at the moment but Tuesday seems to be the third most important show at the moment. Sunday’s getting slightly more angles.
CMLL (TUE) 07/20/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Fúnebre
2) Leo, Mr. Samurai, Príncipe vs Bestia Negra, Demonio Maya, Rugido
3) Isis Queen, Náutica, Sexy Sol vs Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Valkiria
4) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Difunto, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
5) Crixus, Flash, Gallo vs Mr. Trueno, Nitro, Rey Trueno
6) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Principe Daniel vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
Guadalajara continues going to their own beat – Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja are handsome tecnicos here. Though it’s a nice touch that they’re teaming with Cavernario’s brother, after generally teaming with Cavernario back in Mexico City. The fourth match is the Queretaro/Guadalajara rematch. I presume “Isis Queen” is Reyna Isis put through Google Translate, but I don’t know if that’s a mistake or a change. The only Rugido I know is the one who used to be Dizzy and used to be working for AAA, so that’s a strange name to see in a Guadalajara segunda.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 07/18/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Black Shadow II & Rey Halcón Jr. b Cheff Benito & Hellboy 
2) Alas de Oro & Alas De Plata b Iron Kid & Noicy Boy
3) Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera, Pantera Jr. b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium
4) Aster Boy, Freelance, Redimido b Mr. Puma, Oficial AK47, Zumbi
5) Canek Jr. DQ Hijo De Dos Caras
6) Hijo del Alebrije, Murder Clown, Myzteziz Jr. b Abismo Negro Jr., Tonalli, Toxin
Hijo del Alebrije did work this show as normal after partnering with the Negocido Trauma’s the night prior. Didn’t hear much about this otherwise.
Prior to the show, Negocido Traumado’s Demonio Infenral, Fresero Jr. and Trauma I held a press conference a little ways away to talk about their issues with IWRG. This aired on Mas Lucha’s YouTube channel, just before the IWRG show aired on YouTube. It’s up on other YouTube channels too, but Mas Lucha working with both sides of what appears to be a legitimate dispute is unusual for wrestling.
R de Rudo recapped the opening of the press conference, starting with what we know: Los Traumas quit IWRG because the promotion was paying them on 30% capacity and they believed they were selling more tickets than that. (It has never visually looked like IWRG has limited themselves to 30% or any capacity number outside of maybe the first few shows after they’ve started.) Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. were suspended from working Arena Naucalpan due a chair break brawl, but still forced to work dates through IWRG’s office. They worked an Arena Lopez Mateos show where they walked out wearing Trauma masks, and that was enough for IWRG to blow up at them again. They claimed this greatly differed from how the promotion treated Hijo de Canis Lupus & Dragon Bane, saying they were not punished after an out of control match including an ugly spitting incident with CIMA & Tomahawk in 2020 which almost cost IWRG that relationship.
Rob has more highlights from the press conference on Twitter. IWRG is trying the network of non-Mexico City promotions talent share put together by Francsico Flores which lead to UWA in their PALL group. Getting those groups to work together probably was tough back in the 70s and it may be tougher now. The luchadors talked about being caught between promotions said to be all part of working with PALL but also working against each other. The Monterrey situation, where KAOZ and Lucha Time are both said to be working with PALL but not with each other, came up specifically. Roberto Figueroa, who is notionally a journalist but has essentially become the Konnan of Monterrey in trying to work with every group at once, came under fire for telling falsehoods and getting wrestlers caught in the middle.
The wrestlers were asked about the likelihood of lawsuits over contracts the various wrestlers have been signing. Baby Xtreme did not appear at the press conference, and he’s the one that’s come up most as possibly seeing legal action. Fresero Jr. said he didn’t believe it was an issue; these promoters aren’t putting much money into their wrestlers, so they’re probably not going to put much money into lawyers either. The general luchador sense is these contracts are no more than a publicity bit.
IWRG did not respond directly to the press conference. They did lead off their show with a charity food giveaway.
The Sad COVID cancelation section
Both Vangaudria’s Saturday show with GCW and DTU’s Sunday show were indefinitely postponed after Pachuca reached COVID color light red and sports venues were to be closed. Both promotions operate in the state of Hidalgo. Less well-known local Pachuca group CLLT also canceled their shows; local reporting says all lucha libre shows in the state were postponed except for Arena Aficion, who are just haven’t been caught.
DTU’s show is an outdoor show and they were rained out last month. Their press mentions unnamed people in and around the roster have caught COVID and are in quarantine, and others are suspected positives. Despite those cases, it still wasn’t until the day prior to the show, with new rules in place, when DTU announced the postponement.
Vanguardia’s cancelation seems more directly about the government saying no fans were allowed. Vanguardia (and DTU) ran during shutdowns with no fans prior, but the added expense of the GCW wrestlers probably made that untenable this time around. Vanguardia says they hope to bring back the GCW wrestlers someday.
Ciclope & Miedo Extremo was scheduled to defend the GCW Tag Team titles on the Vanguardia show. They ended up losing them to G-Raver and Jimmy Lloyd on the Zona 23 show Sunday instead. That ends Los Mazisos three year reign, most of it when they were unable to come to the United States.
Arena Queretaro says they’ll be forced to go back on hiatus if conditions get worse in the state. They’re currently open at 50% capacity, would be limited to 30% if COVID cases continue to rise in Queretaro. They can’t generate enough ticket revenue at 30% capacity to run, so the shows there would be canceled again. The next show in the venue is scheduled for July 25th, with some Guadalajara wrestlers coming in.
RIOT’s 08/20 & 08/21 La Rina tournament has been postponed due to COVID situation in Monterrey. Those shows are still a month away, but they’ve decided to call the show off early rather than have a last-minute change of plans as they did with their March 2020 show.
Puebla’s Arena Coliseo San Ramon appears to have been shut down for overcrowding Sunday night.
These situations are all away from Mexico City. The message on Friday from Mexico City’s government was to focus on vaccinations and not shut things down. The case count is approaching the December 2020 total when Mexico City did shut down for a second time, but the death count is much lower at the moment. The government doesn’t want to hurt businesses again by doing a shut down, but both those case and death counts figure to continue to rise over the next month. There’s obviously a case AAA should follow RIOT’s example and announced a postponement now before they spend more and get caught off guard by another shut down, but there’s no guarantee there will be a shutdown and figuring out dates for Omega/Purrazzo/Andrade might be a challenge.
Other News
AAA Azteca, around 1 AM, aired a Kenny Omega/Andrade confrontation. They did put it up on YouTube, so I did as well. I thought this had the same silliness issue as some of Omega’s recent stuff with Jungle Boy in AEW. AAA also posted a vignette where Abismo Negro Jr. is now getting the same mystery messages as Arez, Latigo, Chik Tormenta, and Toxin. It’s strange to be putting these on the internet and not in their main TV show where people might see them. It’s also weird to be spending storyline time on a mystery about a group of midcarder rudos, none of whom are currently booked on TripleMania. I’m happy to see guys I like getting attention, it just sticks out as noteworthy when AAA has an interest in progressing maybe two storylines at a time and this is one of them.
The only other notable thing that happened on TV was another Psycho Clown/Rey Escorpion brawl, but it appears they’ve run out of creative ways to do them for the moment.
Bandido’s BIG Lucha debuted on Saturday
Big Lucha (SAT) 07/17/2021 Bandido Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [R de Rudo]
1) Chaman, El Bendito, Elemental b Cometa Maya, Gravity, Orbita
win via interference
2) Mil Almas b Skayde
win via foul/evil referee
3) Dementor, La Bestia Del Ring, La Máscara DQ Demonio Infernal, Hijo del Alebrije, Trauma I
Dementor was the surprise teaming with Bestia & Mascara. Hijo del Alebrije replaced Trauma I, seemingly joining Negocio Traumado (but he was back in IWRG the next day.) Win via foul.
4) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Komander b Emperador Azteca & Látigo [super libre]
Latigo replaced Flamita (worked Martinez instead). Rudos unmasked Komander and pinned him.
5) El Bandido DQ Rush and Fresero Jr.
Rush gave Bandido a martinete for the DQ. A three way brawl broke out between members of Negocio Traumado (Fresero), Los Ingobernbles and Bandido’s Gym after the match, spilling into the crowd.
They drew well and the crowd likely left thinking about the riot that broke out after the main event. Still, it’s an auspicious start for a promotion where every match has interference/cheating finish somehow. Bandido got over in the US because people cared when he won and when he lost; those results meant something to those watching. None of those resuls up there meant much. Bandido “won” the main event on the scoreboard but lost it in any meaningful fashion.
Rush worked twice on Saturday. He was scheduled to main event the Arena Neza show in a tag with Puma King against Espectro & LA Park. The Big Lucha show ran very late, leaving a long gap between matches in Arena Neza waiting for Rush to show up. They eventually sent out Espectro, Puma and Hijo de LA Park (working twice) to have a three way to eat up some of the time, but they were still killing time after that. Rush ended up facing LA Park in a singles match, which would’ve been a huge match had it been the planned one. I’ve not seen the video, but the reports of the match say it was great. LA Park beat Rush clean, which was not a finish Bandido could get out of Rush in his own promotion.
Deonna Purrazzo retained the Impact Knockout Championship on Saturday’s Slammiversary show, which means the Faby Apache/Deonna Purrazzo match is still on for TripleMania. Impact and the NWA seemed to set up a future Purrazzo/Mickie James match for September. That would suggest Purrazzo is winning at TripleMania (and that was already the more likely outcome) but they didn’t specifically say that James/Purrazzo match would be for a title.
Impact also announced an October show in Las Vegas with AEW, AAA, and NJPW participation. AAA and NJPW being on the same show makes sense with Impact’s relationship but flies counter to the NJPW/CMLL relationship. A poster by NJPW’s Rocky Romero suggests heavily NJPW isn’t interested in working with AAA.
Psycho Clown was among those scheduled to wrestle on an outdoor show Saturday in New Jersey. There was a drenching thunderstorm. They wrestled anyway. It was said to be a very memorable match.
Lady Shani & La Hiedra did wrestle in Guatemala on their scheduled Robles Promotion booking, which didn’t seem a certainty after Texano jump from AAA to Robles Patron. CMLL would’ve pulled them for sure. AAA could be thinking Robles isn’t long for this world, at least in “3rd national promotion” form, so why make a fuss.
Pirata Morgan & Damian 666 agreed to a hair match at one the RGR shows in the Los Angeles area this weekend. Neither man has much left to lose.
Ultimo Guerrero unsurprisingly got pulled from the Martinez Entertainment show on Saturday, seemingly due to AAA wrestlers (Laredo Kid) also being booked. Laredo Kid versus Danny Limelight was on the few matches advertised for the show – they never listed Guerrero in anything specific – so I guess that made the decision simpler for them. Rush, Psycho Clown, Bestia del RIng, Psicosis (II) and Samuray del Sol are advertised for the 09/24 show, which is the first Samuray del Sol in-ring I’ve heard about.
The Crash announced Andrade will appear on their first show back, though no date was announced. Given The Crash’s style of working with big names and Andrade being available, that was a foreseeable ending.
Masked Republic will be part of a Comic-Con@Home panel talking about Video Games, Art, and Mexican Culture Friday at 4 pm CT.
Lucha Central has a good interview with Gabe Ramirez of Pro Wrestling Revolucion.
NVI Noticias has a profile of local wrestler Endeavor, who started wrestling as Atlantis before being informed there was one of those already. He switched to Discovery and found out about that one too.
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