CMLL (FRI) 10/22/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Furia de Titanes, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito 
2) Hijo del Villano III, Luciferno, Okumura b Dark Panther, El Audaz, Flyer 
3) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado 
4) Místico b Último Guerrero
mask vs hair match challenges followed
5) Titán & Volador Jr. b Templario & TJP (Teddy James Perkins)
tecnicos took 2/3. TJP’s first match here since 2003.
(This laredaly airs on Televisa next Saturday and YouTube on 11/07)
Backstage, Mistico said he was looking for Ultimo Guerrero & Averno’s hair and Mephisto’s mask in 2022, so he’s not acting like he expects that UG match to happen any time soon. Mistico told the press he hopes to see Averno in Arena Mexico soon.
TJP talked about wanting to bring the full United Empire someday, helpfully pushing the idea that all the NJPW wrestlers want to come to Arena Mexico. I’m guessing both matches this weekend were good, but the thing CMLL really wanted out of this is someone from NJPW to show up in Arena Mexico and tell the media, the fans, and CMLL itself that NJPW really cares a lot about the relationship. Reenforcing that credibility feeds a CMLL need and TJP came through for them every time he asked. The media questions also wanted TJP to say Templario would be worthy of going to NJPW and/or joining United Empire to fuel that relationship but it got lost in translation.
Gran Metalik tweeted about wanting to face TJP in Mexico like a man who expects to be back in Mexico soon. I think we all expect Metalik to be gone from WWE sooner rather than later but it’s still a little startling for him to essentially be talking about his post-WWE plans while he’s still under WWE contract. Metalik’s social media has always seemed like a WWE blink spot – they never got him verified on Twitter and they do that for everyone – so maybe he continues to feel free to post whatever.
CMLL (SUN) 10/24/2021 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Furia de Titanes, Kaiser Sports]
1) Cholo & Oro Jr. b Eléctrico & Inquisidor [Relevos Increíbles]
Oro’s father, Plata, passed away earlier in the day. Oro dedicated the match to him. Electrico suffered an injury and abandoned the match. Plata was honored with a moment of applause after the second match
2) La Comandante, La Metálica, Tiffany b Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Skadi
Rudas took 1/3
3) Akuma, Enfermero Jr., Espanto Jr. b Diamond, Magnus, Stigma
Rudos took 2/3
4) Esfinge, Kráneo, Star Jr., Volcano b Dark Magic, Gran Guerrero, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 1/3
5) Cavernario & TJP (Teddy James Perkins) b Atlantis Jr. & Fugaz
rudos took 2/3
Former CMLL luchador Plata (Esteban Hernández Silva, 60) passed away Sunday. Box y Lucha mentions Plata passed away due to a heart attack. Plata’s career largely took place in the 90s as part of a brother team with Oro, and later a trio with the unrelated Bronce as Los Metalicos. Plata’s career, the career of his entire family, was shaped by the life and sudden death of Oro. Tuesday will be 28 years to the day when Oro passed away after landing badly in a match in Arena Coliseo. Oro was the star of the team, had started to break out a singles wrestler, and seemed to have the potential to be a top star. There was a huge empty space left without Oro. Plata changed his name to Oro II as a tribute and others in his family have also taken up the Oro name, through Plata’s son Oro Jr. All have had respectable careers but none have found great success. Plata/Oro II left CMLL around 1996 though he’d be in and out for a decade more. He had a run at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in 2009, the usual one last run by a masked man looking for the ultimate mask match. He got and lost to Averno.
Plata and Oro had matching mask designs, just using silver and gold colors. CMLL brought back the design, modified it slightly, and gave it to a young Torreon luchador who would be known as La Sombra. (Arena Mexico has had previous La Sombras, but with different designs.) La Sombra was created to evoke Oro, with an origin story of him wrestling so much like Oro that he could be his shadow (“sombra”.) La Sombra wore his mask in many colors, but the black and silver design seemed to be the favorite. The silver features meant he was actually paying homage to Plata too.
If CMLL results were meant to be taken seriously, Los Depredaores losing so often would be a bad sign. They don’t matter so it’s fine.
CMLL (TUE) 10/26/2021 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Eléctrico, Oro Jr., Robin vs Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Nitro
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Cachorro, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr.
4) Blue Panther vs Negro Casas
5) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Valiente vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
That’s the first singles match on a CMLL show with Panther & Negro Casas since 2014. They did wrestle a 1v1 on the recent Nike-sponsored show about six weeks ago, which may have given someone the idea to run it again. It’s probably been even longer since Sagrado was booked in a main event.
Rugido makes his Arena Mexico debut in Magnus spot, as CMLL continues with the Deperadores versus tecnicos matches. Oro Jr. was announced for this match before his father passed away so that may change.
Super Astro Jr. says he left CMLL because to try and wrestle more in the US, where he feels wrestlers are valued better. He’s thankful for his time in CMLL but felt stagnant, and didn’t want to end up like injured and broke like older wrestlers (including his father.)
Leo Riano’s column in the Record states CMLL is in the process of a generational change; I guess that’s correct if you count going back a generation.
AAA
This week’s TV episode was largely good, you should watch the first couple matches either on my Twitch or when it appears on YouTube next week. Arez & Chik Tormenta won the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship on AAA TV in a match with a few mistakes, but a lot of action. They did enough extra to make it feel important as a title match compared to the normal TV fare. It would’ve been a bit more exciting had the finish not been given away ahead of time, though I think people would’ve guessed the new Vipers were probably winning in their first title match.
Arcano/Venenoide (in full here; Twitch doesn’t like uploads I’ve learned) was fun because it was Taurus & Vikingo, though the Marvel Lucha Libre stuff coming back cold after not being seen since TripleMania was odd. If Vikingo got the wins “Arcano” did, it’d probably help him a bit.
La Empresa versus Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, and Murder Clown was a mess. Not a complete mess, there were times where it seemed like these people could have a good match. It just was never meant to be a good match, it was meant to be La Empresa getting heat in usual AAA fashion. It didn’t even work on that level – the attention went towards Estrellita, and the unnamed masked La Empresa henchmen doing most of the stuff. It’d be one thing if this was meant to be a mystery and the masked guy would be revealed as Super Astro Jr. or Vangellys or whomever, It wasn’t presented as a mystery though, just some guy. I know the idea is for Empresa took appear evil for cheating, but it just makes the promotion look dumb when people are freely interfering in matches, especially one week after extra people getting in the ring was a DQ. Some of the spots went quite bad – the table bit was most memorable but there were other moments as well. This was a taped show, AAA seemingly had time to redo it entirely or edit out the biggest of the mistakes, and they choose not to do it. I watch single-cam YouTube fan videos of wrestling matches and the people uploading them edit their matches, it’s unclear why the self-proclaimed biggest promotion in Latin America can not do the same.
I’m not a fan of this Xalapa venue. It’s a fully indoor museum, which probably makes it by far the easiest place for production but there’s a tremendous echo that emphasizes the emptiness. There are a few things hanging from the ceiling, though it mostly feels like an empty greenhouse instead of the more colorful locations. AAA’s got to make due with what they can this year and I’ll be glad if they’re just back in arenas after a few more weeks of these shows.
Other News
IWRG (SUN) 10/24/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Limbo & Shalom b Chef Benito & Sol
2) Lolita b Satania, Diosa Atenea
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Dick Angelo 3G, Puma de Oro, Tonalli [EdM Trios, semifinal]
Aster Boy cost Puma de Oro the match
4) Aster Boy & Toxin b Medico Brujo & Villano V Jr.
5) Hijo del Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan Jr. b Galeno del Mal & Hijo De Wagner
6) Sick Boy b Big Chico Che [hair]
Villano V Jr. seconded Chico Che, betrayed him and asked Sick Boy & Medico Brujo to form a trio.
Reviews on the hair match were unkind.
IWRG is skipping Tuesday (scheduled as the second high flyers show) and Thursday, with their next show on Sunday. No reason given, could be as simple as trying to take some time off before Castillo del Terror to ensure a bigger turnout on the higher-priced show.
IWRG (SUN) 10/31/2021 Arena Naucalpan
Castillo del Terror, 2021
1) Noicy Boy & Sagitarius vs Lady Lee & Limbo
2) Akbal & Mexica vs Medico Brujo & Sick Boy and Fly Warrior & Halloween Jr.
3) Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro vs Dick Angelo 3G & Tonalli
4) Puma de Oro © vs Aster Boy [IWRG IC Light]
1st defense
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. [EdM Trios, final]
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Diosa Quetzal, Galeno del Mal, Satania, Toxin, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Alebrije, Lolita, Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Diosa Atenea, Pirata Morgan Jr., ? [cage, mask, hair]
IWRG teased a thirteen person for the cage match and hasn’t said whom, though I think they’ll probably announce it sometime this week as added a promotional bit.
Mamba stepped in for Jesus Ventura in Sunday’s Arena Lopez Mateos, so I’m not sure if she’ll be OK to go next Sunday after breaking her nose on Thursday.
Super Fly also showed up on the Arena Lopez Mateos show as part of the Freak Family, which includes a lot of ex-big two wrestlers. Super Fly is believed to have finished up with AAA at Heroes Inmortales. Neither he nor AAA has officially said he’s out of AAA and Faby Apache previously showed up with the Freak Family without leaving AAA, but Super Fly had been teasing leaving on Twitter for months. He’d been notionally teaming with Parka Negra against Aerostar & Drago, but it was one of the half dozen feuds AAA appeared to be doing with no plans to go anywhere and Super Fly had been long enough to know they weren’t moving him out of his prelim spot right now.
I was really high on Super Fly around 2017 and he’s declined slightly in the last few years, but I think he’s a guy who can still go if given the right opponent. I’d ideally like to see him hook back up with Averno again as a team. Also, he shouldn’t actually join the Freak Family because they and Negocio Traumado got suspended by the Mexico State commission for their match getting out of control (which may have just been the latest bit to get out of doing a finish.)
Other AAA wrestlers are also believed to have finished up with AAA at Heroes Inmortales, though no one has publically stated it.
The 10/30 show MexaWrestling card started with Flamita versus Travis Banks versus Toxin on the card, changed that to Flamita versus Aramis and Iron Kid versus Travis Banks versus Toxin, and now has landed on Toxin & Latigo vs Iron Kid & Bendito with Banks not booked at all. MexaWrestling seemed to say Banks removal was due to outside politics, which is curious – if anyone in Mexico cares about Travis Banks and the allegations that have made him a persona non grata elsewhere in Europe, they’ve kept it quiet. It could be a group outside of Mexico.
Travis Banks, as Kiwi Buzzsaw, did lose to Ricky Marvin in the main event of the lightly attended Cueva de Dragon show in Coliseo Coacalco on Sunday. The attendance wasn’t as bad as a photo made it seem, but it was not much better. The Coliseo Coacalco Anniversary show the week prior, featuring Abismo Negro Jr., Los Cancerberos, and Hip Hop Man, greatly outdrew the show. (And got away with CMLL and AAA wrestlers on the same show.) Travis Banks is not any sort of draw in Mexico outside a very small amount of people, it just happens that most of those people are luchadors who want to work with someone who has experience in NXT UK and similar level promotions. Most of the indie promotions seem like they’re being run more to entertain the wrestlers more than the fans anyway, so I don’t expect changes.
The new Tijuana Lucha Libre Commission held its first meeting. The commission is now being led by Julio Cesar Casillas, who you may remember as TJ Boy. El Enfermero, Fobia and Hector Ruvalcaba also now make up the commission, which was separated from the boxing/MMA one earlier this year. The article mentions they’re evaluating suspensions for unnamed wrestlers on a recent Cholo de Tijuana show.
Segunda Caida went to the IWC Legacy show this weekend.
LuchaWorld has its latest podcast.