TripleMania Regia to air 6 matches, AAA LigaMX jersies, CMLL announces another (middleweight) tournament

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 11/30/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Esrellas del Ring, ESTO, Kaiser Sports, Marca, Mas Lucha]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia 
2) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi b La Comandante, Metálica, Tiffany 
tecnicos took 1/3
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Disturbio b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa 
Rudos cheated to win, taking 1/3. Akuma, Disturbio, Dulce and Espiritu all made challenges.
4) Felino, Hechicero, Negro Casas b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Stuka Jr. 
Rudos took 2/3.
5) Místico b Euforia  
Mistico took 2/3 (and this was back to being a three fall match). Generic mask/mask challenges followed.

My internet was out Tuesday night, so I saw none of this live. I did breeze though enough this morning to see Marca has fixed the sound issue – in that the sound now has the same issues as the video so they don’t get out of sync as they both play badly. Can’t ask for too much.

Everyone who follows CMLL knows these midcard match challenges are heading to a cage match because there’s always a cage match this time of year. Likewise, everyone knows Mistico/Euforia isn’t happening no matter how much they agree because CMLL doesn’t do those type of matches this time of year.

CMLL (TUE) 11/30/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (Facebook), Fuego en el Ring]
1) El Divino, Mágico, Mr. Samurai b Bello Antuan, Gran Kenut, Rumbero
2) Bestia Negra, Carlo Roggi, Difunto, Fúnebre DCOR Cris Skin, Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
mask/hair match challenges followed
3) Lluvia b Dark Silueta
sets up a MEX WOMEN title match
4) Rey Bucanero, Satánico, Último Guerrero b Cancerbero, Maléfico, Virus
Malefico replaced Raziel (who also missed Saturday’s show.) Cancerbero was hurt on a dive outside of the ring.
5) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. b Averno & Mephisto
Averno and Mephisto snuck in fouls and mask pulls to win.

I couldn’t tell what happened with Cancebero’s dive – he seemed to go through the ropes fine, but they did a camera switch and the impact on Ultimo Guerrero was hard to see. The main event seemed to set up a Soberano/Averno match, though maybe the women’s singles title match is the one that’ll happen next week.

Princesa Sugehit says she retained the CMLL Women’s championship in Puebla on Monday. The only way we get results from this venue is when someone is happy or sad after a title match.

CMLL will run a cibernetico for the vacant CMLL middleweight championship on Friday. This is the title Cuatrero held before he left in August. The phrasing sounds like it’ll be a cibernetico with the final two coming back next week for the final, so 12/10 will be a special CMLL show with two tournaments (Gran Alternativa) happening at the same time. The full list of names will likely be revealed on Informa; Templario has been announced so far. The Micro Gemelo Diablos will also debut.

CMLL Informa has Soberano, Star Jr., Virus, Raziel and Guerrero Maya Jr. on Informa. Some of those names are probably in the middleweight tournament; the card will be revealed on the show. Raziel missing shows this week had me thinking he picked up an injury, but maybe not if he turns up on Informa.

Satanico mentions his role as president of the Zapopan boxing, MMA and lucha libre commission continues until 2024. His post talks about it one more term, so I guess he already had this position; I hadn’t read much about him doing it until now.

AAA

TripleMania Regia will now include 6 matches and is listed as starting at 6:30 pm CT start time. There are no separate English and Spanish purchase links now. I assume buyers get both audio tracks in one stream now but who knows. FITE is promoting this show and AAA’s effort has been a couple of RTs. Both the Empresa/Psycho Circus and the three way trios matches have been added to the show. That starting time seems unlikely; the live show starts at 6 pm and it’s hard to imagine AAA getting the Marvel match and the women’s match both done in a half-hour.

AAA posted a video charting Hijo del Vikingo’s journey in AAA, from guy showing up at an open tryout through winning Copa Antonio Pena two years ago, to hype him for the title match. It’s good, and also good that’s it not region-blocked, though it feels like it was something meant for the Omega match. I did notice that the Roshfrans logo seems to be blurred out during the video package and I’m not sure what happened there. CultIcon also has an article about Hijo del Vikingo’s journey to this point.

KAOZ Lucha Libre announced a press conference with Cibernetico for later today, which Cibernetico promising chismes. AAA continues to put out a teaser with a silhouette of Cibernetico for TripleMania Regia. Cibernetico is listed on at least one December AAA spot show, though he says he’s there as an independent wrestler. Cibernetico has also said he’s not showing up at TripleMania Regia. Most people who care enough to have an opinion think Cibernetico’s showing up at TripleMania Regia anyway and it’ll be hard to convince them otherwise, but that may be what that press conference is about.

Psycho Clown saying Mexican futbol has more clowns than lucha libre quickly seemed to be part of a promotional bit because the teams were coming back with wrestling-themed promos. It turns out to be one; AAA and jersey manufacturer Charly Futbol introduced six lucha libre-themed alternate jerseys at a presentation Wednesday. It’s a good tie-up for AAA. The teams (Santos Laguna, Leon, Atlas, Queretaro, Tijuana, Pachuca) involved are the ones in Liga MX who already get their jerseys from Charly Futbol. They aren’t the biggest teams but they’re still in the most popular sports league in Mexico and the designer came up with some good designs. The jerseys cost $80 USD and can be ordered internationally. Each team had a luchador representing them; not sure if they’re going to be seen more like the Marvel Lucha Libre characters. Santos Laguna is the Torreon soccer team; Ultimo Guerrero and others from that area have worn their jerseys as entrance gear in CMLL, though I suppose they won’t be wearing these.

AAA held a press conference for their 12/19 non-televised Mexico City spot show. No real news from it, just talking about the lineup already announced. This still doesn’t appear to be televised.

Other News

On the odd chance you are all of a) a Dragon Gate watcher, b) trying to avoid spoilers on a show you haven’t watched yet, and c) reading a blog about lucha libre hours after a mask match happened, I’ll put any talk about the Diamante mask match at the end. You’ve been warned.

IWRG (TUE) 11/30/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Blue Win & Gran Felipe Jr. b Mini Vikingo & X-Boy 
2) Perseo & Rey Aztaroth b Calibus & Rey Minos 
3) Carnicero, Garra Mortal Jr., X-Devil b Águila Oriental, Spider Fly, Súper Cometa 
4) Black Dragón, Limbo, Rey Halcón b Caballero de Plata, Hell Boy, Sol 
5) Noicy Boy b Asterboy © [IWRG IC Light] 
5) Asterboy © b Noicy Boy [IWRG IC Light]
second defense

The main event was said to be good.

IWRG (THU) 12/02/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sol vs Shalom
2) Black Dragón & Legendario vs Limbo & Mosca
3) Artemiz (Laguna) & Sagitarius vs Lolita & Satania
4) Apolo Estrada Jr., Billy Jones, Chris Stone Jr. vs Cerebro Negro, Dick Angelo 3G, Puma de Oro
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Toxin vs Kb6, Orión, Sweet Daddy Soul

Toxin is wrestling here as much as he did before his contract was switched from IWRG to AAA.

El Vikingo (Manuel Galaviz Macias, 84) passed away Thursday night. La Sirenita posted the news on Facebook. No cause of death was mentioned, though all the articles mention him being in poor health for years. Vikingo was a 60s/70s CMLL star, frequently teaming with Renato Torres as the colorful Los Hippies rudo team. The magazines seemed to love the duo, though they were more the foils for the tecnicos rather than successful on their own. SuperLuchas has an obit.

(AAA wrestler Hijo del Vikingo is not related to this El Vikingo as far as I know.)

Box y Lucha 3496D has Soberano, Volador and Dark Silueta on the cover. The cover mentions only Bandido challenging for the AAA Mega championship.

Nacion Lucha Libre will stream its “first season” of episodes on FITE. They’re saying it’s 16 episodes for $25. The episodes will roll out three a week until they’re all up and the first two will be free for everyone. Nacion Lucha Libre wasn’t very good and this doesn’t seem worth money unless you must simply buy everything. The “first episode” airing on Friday night appears to be the 7th one that aired when this show was on the air back in 2019, so who even knows what’s actually going on there. Alberto el Patron’s participation seems played down in the solicitation; not sure if that’s because Alberto’s reputation, a sign Nacion isn’t on good terms with him, or just generally lucha libre silliness that led to a photo of Heddi Karoui & Brazo de Oro Jr. being displayed as the headliners. Nacion had talked about coming back earlier this year, but with no firm plans and nothing recently.

The YouTube channel that had all the Nacion Lucha Libre episodes posted has changed its name and hidden all the videos, but they’re just unlisted and available if you have the links.

La Prensa has an article saying Dr. Wagner Jr. will go on a retirement tour in 2022, but it seems weak for even one of those. There’s no Dr. Wagner quote saying he’s retiring – there’s no Dr. Wagner quote at all, it comes off as something Robles Promotions is pushing to get more attention for their shows. Wagner does plenty of interviews and has his own newspaper column, so we’ll know if he plans on doing a retirement tour (which may last for years.)

Super Muneco wrestled this past weekend in Ciudad Juarez in what was said to be his final match in the city. I didn’t see any promotion about this before it happened, or any recent talk about Super Muneco finishing up.

There’s a story with Fox Deportes in Mexico that I don’t totally grasp but that seems OK because no one seems sure what’s going on, and it’s just something to watch for next year. This article tries to sort it out and I’ll do my best. Disney is trying to part way with the various Fox Deportes channels it owns in Latin America, including those in Mexico. A reporter for Azteca & ESPN posted a letter supposedly sent to sponsors where Azteca said they’d be taking over all of Fox Deportes current content starting in 2022 and some would come to their on-air network. That’s relevant because Fox Deportes Mexico is the exclusive home of WWE programming and Azteca is currently airing AAA; this could mean some WWE programming will be back airing on broadcast, maybe adjacent to local competition. However, neither Fox Deportes nor Azteca has officially announced this on their own and they haven’t said exactly what they’re doing. If it’s starting in 2022, then the news will have to be announced soon.

The 11/14 Lucha Memes show has been added to IWTV.

GCW announced Gringo Loco, Demonic Flamita & Low Rider vs ASF, Drago Kid, and Chris Carter for their 12/03 show.

Arena Olimpico Laguna announced an Andrade vs Pagano vs Dr. Wagner Jr. match for 12/23. That will be the first match for Andrade in his hometown since 2014.

PWG announced their Battle of Los Angeles tournament returns on January 29th and January 30th. That has been a three-day tournament in the recent past. Bandido won the 2019 version, which is the most recent tournament to be held due to the pandemic.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.

VAR Deportivo has a Sangre Chicana bio.

NJPW’s continuing series of interviews with Hiroshi Tanahashi reached the first FantasticaMania this week. Tanahashi praises the success and growth of the concept and hopes it returns as soon as possible.

Diamante’s team shockingly won the tag team mask match on Dragon Gate’s show on 12/01. Diamante & Dia Inferno defeated Dragon Dia & Shun Skywalker. Diamante pinned Dragon Dia where the loser of the pinfall would be the only one unmasked. Most people assumed this would be the end of Dia Inferno character and it did turn out they were correct, though not the way they thought: Inferno unmasked himself after the match (as 2020 Mexico visitor Yoshioka) explaining that he was only doing the masked gimmick to surpass Dragon Dia and no longer needed it. Diamante getting the pin is surprising. I think most on the Dragon Gate side believe Diamante’s being set up for an eventual mask loss to Ultimo Dragon at a DragonMania. Diamante doesn’t necessarily need these level of wins for that ending and Ultimo Dragon’s rate of delivering on promised apuesta matches at DragonMania is rather low, so something else may be happening.