CMLL
CMLL (TUE) 11/16/2021 Arena México [CMLL, De Lucha TV, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Kaiser Sports (2), Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia 
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma DQ Cholo, Disturbio, El Coyote
Stigma replaced Sangre Imperial earlier in the day, then Pegasso replaced Retro at show time. Coyote fouled and unmasked Stigma. Mask challenges followed.
3) Akuma, Espanto Jr., Okumura b Diamond, Flyer, Panterita del Ring
TV character Dona Margara Francisca (Eduardo Espana) brought out the card for the third fall in this match.
4) Dark Silueta b Reyna Isis © [MEX WOMEN]
Reyna Isis falls on her 3rd defense. 22nd defense
5) Fugaz, Místico, Star Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Templario
Star Jr. challenged Templario to a MEX MIDDLE title match.
Dark Silueta’s year:
- switched to being a ruda (and Dark)
- won the revived Occidente (Guadalajara) women’s championship
- won the revived Queretaro women’s championship
- runner up in the CMLL Universal de Amazonas tournament
- won the first-ever CMLL Women’s Gran Prix
- won the Mexican National Women’s Championship
Dark Silueta has also generally been good in those big matches. It’s not an overwhelming year for women’s wrestling in Mexico (or any wrestling in Mexico) but Dark Silueta is the obvious luchadora of the year now. It is very unlike CMLL to give one person all these wins, but it makes sense to do if you’re trying to build someone into a bigger star and they’re doing it was Silueta.
All CML title matches appear to be one fall, at least until CMLL changes their mind again. They haven’t announced this policy, it’s just what’s happening. Friday’s main event will also be one fall. It’s an inversion of what you’d see elsewhere, where one fall is normal and you might get three falls in an important match.
MarcaClaro streamed this on their YouTube channel. CMLL never promoted it, but it looks like MarcaClaro is going to air Tuesday shows on the regular going forward. I didn’t think to check until the show was already over.
The bigger issue is MarcaClaro geoblocks all of their live content. It’s not a CMLL specific issue; they have local Mexico rights to events like the Olympics that can’t be aired worldwide, and so they just leave the block up for everything. I would not recommend getting a VPN to watch geoblocked YouTube content, because YouTube seems to be identifying blocking VPNs – both ExpressVPN and VpyrVPN do not work for me going to these channels. The best way I have of getting around these blocks at the moment is to download something like the free Tor browser, and then follow instructions like these to set your ExitNodes to Mexico. It’s not hard to do but it requires a bit of tech knowledge. I will also be putting these up on the Google Drive, though the process to do so is ponderously slow – this show will not be available until late tonight or tomorrow.
I don’t know who Margara Francisca is but I’m sure it’s important to someone that she walked out with a ring card.
CMLL (FRI) 11/19/2021 Arena México
1) Oro Jr. & Sonic vs Grako & Inquisidor
2) El Audaz, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs El Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
4) Atlantis, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero
5) Atlantis Jr. & Volador Jr. vs Jeff Cobb & TJP (Teddy James Perkins)
That’s an odd main event for Atlantis Jr., but perhaps that’s the point – getting fans to accept that Atlantis Jr. is now a top level star. He may take the pin but he’ll remain in the mix. It is very CMLL to book a big angle about Atlantis Jr. joining the Guerreros, have him back as a tecnico back, and have another old Guerrero partner in his place.
Dulce Gardenia hasn’t been around for a while – the last streaming appearance I see is June. No sign of the Cometa/Akuma ossie this week.
Writing “FantasticaMania is not happening in January” should elicit a “yea duh” response from you, the reader. Japan has recovered quite a bit from COVID and started to pull back restrictions, though they’re still not back to normal. NJPW still hasn’t announced plans for any new foreigners and that sure wasn’t going to restart with two dozen CMLL wrestlers coming in January. NJPW and CMLL did not make any statement on FantasticaMania, NJPW instead announced their January tour will be the “New Years Golden Series”, the beginning of celebration for the promotion’s 50th anniversary. It’s possible NJPW might have done this sort of anniversary tour at this point of the calendar in a normal year anyway, but it takes the calendar space of what would be the CMLL/NJPW tour. This week’s Wrestling Omakase podcast starts out with a detailed discussion about the state of COVID regulations in Japan; the shorter version is late March/early April is the best guess at when the country might be fully open to travelers. It’s possible individual Mexican wrestlers might make it in before then, but any full-scale tour would probably have to wait until after that point.
Record says they’re hearing the Elite return is in January 2022. Mas Lucha had said December, so that’s about the same thing. Elite still hasn’t said anything except for the video teaser of returning to Arena Mexico.
CMLL Informa will have Los Gemelos Diablos, Volador Jr., Jeff Cobb, TJP, Atlantis Jr., and Soberano Jr., who scheduled but did not appear last week. TJP is listed on next Tuesday’s Guadalajara show so he may be sticking around longer than a weekend this time; a California indie says TJP is booked for four dates this time around. Maybe Friday/Sunday/Tuesday/Friday?
I’m not sure if this is a decline of local journalism thing or a decline of lucha libre popularity thing, but none of the Puebla news sites I normally check had a story on Estrella Blanca beyond a wire story heavily borrowing from SuperLuchas obit. If they did something to honor him on Monday at Arena Puebla, it hasn’t been reported.
AAA
There have been reports for months about Kenny Omega being some level of injured from years of a hard wrestling style. It goes back to when he won the AEW title last year if not further. Those reports have picked up in intensity in the last few days, with PWInsider’s report saying Omega will likely need shoulder surgery and be out for an extended amount of time the latest in the string. That report says Omega/AEW are hoping to figure out what they’re doing this week. The context of the reports is Omega is no longer AEW champion, AEW has plenty of other people who can carry the load now, and there’s nothing stopping him from taking care of his own health. Those reports appear oblivious to the fact TripleMania Regia Omega/Vikingo match; no one’s saying that match is no longer happening because they don’t know/remember it was scheduled in the first place. (Such is the low level of awareness of AAA in the US; the promotion has a tremendous amount of work to do if they ever want to rebuild their place there.)
My guess is Omega will wrestle the TripleMania Regia match unless a doctor tells him he absolutely can not. It does make it slightly more likely Vikingo is winning the title, though it is important to remember Omega’s made three defenses of this title in the last two years and AAA has kept on AAA-ing. Having the Mega title around often hasn’t a big deal to them. There probably will be further reports on Omega’s health in the upcoming days, though the thing to watch is if AEW/Omega sends a promo in to AAA to hype the match. I wouldn’t get too concerned about the match unless there’s a specific report that Omega’s out or it gets to a week before the match and there’s still no sign of Omega doing anything to promote it. I have no idea what AAA would do if they couldn’t do Vikingo/Omega. They have plenty of options before even figuring out if AEW might send someone else, everyone’s ideas are good, there’s no obvious one that they’d have to do.
Speaking of injuries, Fightful’s Select Patreon reported Dax Harwood was knocked out or nearly knocked out during the AEW Tag Title match; he was notably absent when his partner ran-in later. They also mention there was some unhappiness about Fenix not checking out Harwood after the match, though no heat. The two teams are scheduled to meet again at TripleMania Regia and haven’t really gelled in their matches.
While trying to figure out if CMLL’s show on Friday was an iPPV or not (still don’t know), I noticed a listing for a 12/19 AAA show at Mexico City’s Pepsi Center. AAA ran there in 2019 and 2020 for TV tapings and the plan appeared to be to make it their Mexico City TV home. I though the 12/19 show must be Guerra de Titanes. Then I saw the lineup.
AAA (SUN) 12/19/2021 Pepsi Center WTC
1) La Parkita & Pimpinela Escarlata vs La Parkita Negra & Látigo
2) Big Mami & Faby Apache vs Keyra & Lady Maravilla
3) Dave The Clown & Murder Clown vs DMT Azul & Puma King
4) Aramis, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr. vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana and Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
That’s a spot show lineup. I’ve since got it confirmed it was a non-televised show. I’m not sure why this is happening at an expensive venue to run, but it should be a fine AAA spot show.
Other News
IWRG
IWRG (TUE) 11/16/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Carnicero, Pereseo, Rey Astaroth b Blue Win, Mini Vikingo, Rey Minos 
2) Guerrero Olímpico & Súper Cometa b Águila Oriental & Neón 
3) Noicy Boy b Spider Fly, Sol, Billy Jones, Calibus [IWRG IC Light, #1 Contenders]
4) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako b Amnesia & Big Mike
5) Asterboy, Fly Warrior, Hell Boy b Fly Star, Sick Boy, Vudu Max
show was promoted as IWRG vs Big Lucha, but no Big Lucha guys and no explaination given
IWRG announces shows on two days notice. This is an irregularly scheduled Tuesday show (canceled last time it was supposed to happen) with no names; unsurprisingly it drew very poorly. The Big Lucha cancelations seem last minute – there were IWRG and Mas Lucha posts promoting their appearance when the show started, which were quietly scrubbed during and after the show. I only watched a bit of the show and no one seemed to explain what happened there or elsewhere. The simplest guess is there was a pay issue connected to their lack of attendance
IWRG (THU) 11/18/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Calibus vs Shalom
2) Legendario & Sagitarius vs Limbo & Satania
3) Asterboy, Noicy Boy, Rey Halcón vs Cerebro Negro, Lil Blay, Sweet Dady Soul
4) Sick Boy vs Mafioso
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
Oficials and Pandemonium seem headed to an end of year apuesta match.
Mas Lucha announced the first round matches in their Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha
- Sexy Star 2 vs Artemiz
- Sussy Love vs Estrellita
- Cinthia Moreno vs Black Widow
- Keyra vs Chik Tormenta
If I liked the last tournament better, Keyra/Tormenta might be enough to get me to check out this show. I still suspect this is an Estrellita tournament victory, in such the same way that Sexy Dulce was the biggest name in last year’s tournament and won it as well.
One of the challenges on my lucha libre database is dealing with the immense amount of shared names. There’s no universal database of in use character names and most wrestlers don’t seem to pay attention to anything beyond the shows they’re working, so even some of the most popular names get used by multiple people at once. I’ll often come along situations where there’s a “Vengador Jr.” active in Veracruz and “Vengador Jr.” active in Sonora, and I’ll have to look at a map and guess which Vengador Jr. it is that’s wrestling in Guadalajara or if it’s an entirely different person. It’s a messy process and one I’m sure I get wrong all the time, though the consequences of getting a name wrong in a database are slight. It’s much worse if you, let’s say, confuse which wrestler just was accused of murder.
“Carlos Serrano” was arrested in Mexico City for allegedly killing a taxi driver. That is horrible. Serrano was identified as a wrestler who worked under the name Chico Enfermo and had changed his name to the English version Sick Boy in August; He’s a very low level guy – I have no Chico Enfermo matches in my database – but a luchador killing someone is an easy headline to grab attention. When the media started looking for info on “Sick Boy luchador”, they hit upon the more well known Monterrey/Lucha Time/IWRG wrestler and mistook him for the killer. That man isn’t being accused of killing anyone but had his face plastered on TV reports on Monday. Sick Boy took social media and to Mas Lucha’s En+carados show in an attempt to clear his name, then appeared on TV shows on Tuesday for the same thing. The initial story as all over the place, Sick Boy correcting it made it some of the later stories.
Laredo Kid faces Steve Maclin on Thursday’s Impact show. Maclin gets added to the Laredo/Trey Miguel X-Division championship match at Turning Point if he wins. Impact’s presented Maclin as the real rising challenger and Laredo as just a wrestler. Maclin probably is beating Laredo this week and there’s a good chance it’ll happen again on the PPV so Maclin can win the title while saving the Maclin/Miguel match for another show.
Dr. Wagner Jr. got a traffic ticket in Sonora, which was enough to get an article out of it. They tested him for alcohol and he tested negative, so it was just a monetary fine and he was on his way.
RIOT has sold out their 11/27 show before the full lineup has been announced.
12/18 Lucha Memes Universal at Arena Coliseo
- Batillon de la Muerte vs Los Kamikazes vs Astrolux & Jack Carthweel vs Calibus & Mike vs La Fortaleza
- Solar vs Okumura
- Cancerbero & Raziel vs Black Terry & Avisman
- Perro de Guerra versus Freelance, hair versus hair
- Makabre vs Templario – new
Legacy.com has an obituary for Alessi Huelga, who passed away Monday. The obituary briefly mentions he wrestled as Bestia Negra; it seems to be in the 50s and briefly based on the description.
LuchaWorld has the weekly Poster-Mania and latest Lucha Report.