CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 12/17/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Publimetro, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Grako & Nitro b Oro Jr. & Robin 
10:34.
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, Hijo del Villano III, Okumura
15:01. Tecnicos took 2/3. Dulce pinned Okumura with a distraction from Espiritu, build to the cage match.
3) Diamond & Espanto Jr. b Disturbio, Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr., Inquisidor, Magnus, Sangre Imperial [Gran Alternativa, seeding battle royal]
2:31
4) Magnus & Terrible b Dragón Rojo Jr. & Inquisidor [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
6:17
5) Atlantis Jr. & Sangre Imperial b Ángel de Oro & Halcón Suriano Jr. [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
6:25
6) Disturbio & Último Guerrero b Atlantis & Eléctrico [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
6:46. UG blatantly unmasked Atlantis but the referee missed it somehow
7) Espanto Jr. & Hechicero b Diamond & Titán [Gran Alternativa, 8f]
3:12
8) Atlantis Jr. & Sangre Imperial b Magnus & Terrible [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
4:11
9) Disturbio & Último Guerrero b Espanto Jr. & Hechicero [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
4:14
10) Atlantis Jr. & Sangre Imperial b Disturbio & Último Guerrero [Gran Alternativa, semifinal] 
8:00
11) Averno, Cavernario, Templario b Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr.
15:44. Rudos took 1/3, Averno cleanly submitting Mistico to set up a title match next week.
Sangre Imperial advancing to the finals of the Gran Alternativa is an indictment of CMLL. There’s no point where Sangre Imperial has looked like a future star; he’s instead looked like someone who barely belongs in the promotion, and likely wouldn’t if he wasn’t Sangre Chicana’s son. That’s also probably the reason he won – the idea of an Atlantis and a Sangre Chicana teaming is too tempting to a promotion focusing on its past – but there was no moment in this run where Imperial looked better than the below-average wrestler he’s always been. No one in this group really demanded to be in the final, that was a problem with both the design of this block and the idea to this tournament, but CMLL putting a guy they’ve never pushed and never looked deserving a push into a final is a sign the cupboard is empty. Either Imperial or Coyote is going to have quickly improve or this is going to go down as one of the least impressive Gran Alternativa winners.
The main event may be worth a look when it turns up on YouTube but there’s nothing important otherwise. Next Friday’s show is a Saturday show at 5 pm. The 01/01 show remains listed as a PPV, the 12/25 show is not.
I don’t have full results for the Lucha Memes show, but results don’t really matter with Lucha Memes. Aeroboy/Negro Casas and Volador/Ricky Marvin were said to be the best two matches. Negro Navarro/Mistico was short and Mistico got thoroughly booed even as he won the match. The photos show the first few rows full on both levels, though it appears to be very empty past that. That still seems better than Memes has done in Coacalco in the recent past. I’d say we would know if Memes considered it a success if they run it again, but it is CMLL and they could just decide not to allow anyone to run again for mystery reasons.
The Memes show may be the final Arena Coliseo show until 01/08, since CMLL is running Saturday Arena Mexico shows the next two weekends.
CMLL (SUN) 12/19/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Leono & Retro b Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Arkalis & Panterita del Ring Jr. b Eléctrico & Halcón Suriano Jr.
Team Panterita took 2/3
3) Luciferno, Misterioso Jr., Okumura b Cachorro, Espíritu Negro, Hombre Bala Jr.
Rudos took 2/3, more cage match set challenges followed
4) Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero b Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring, Volcano
Rudos took 1/3
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Negro Casas b Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Titán
Rudos took 2/3, Negro Casas beating Titan and challenging him to a match
CMLL didn’t phrase it as a title match – Titan is CMLL Welterweight Champion – but that also doesn’t matter much. Titan/Casas usually is good, and a match that may benefit from the one fall focus.
Today’s Arena Puebla show has Felino Jr. & Polvora defending the Mexican National Tag Team titles against Audaz & Esfinge.
CMLL (TUE) 12/21/2021 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Arkalis, Eléctrico, Grako vs Halcón Suriano Jr., Inquisidor, Robin [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Diamond, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca vs Dark Magic, Misterioso Jr., Okumura
4) Dark Panther, Místico, Titán vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Stuka Jr. © vs Mephisto [NWA LH]
6th defense
If Mephisto won, he might become the oldest person to ever hold this belt (but I’m not doing the research.) It seems unlikely he’ll win but this title isn’t all that important.
CMLL (TUE) 12/21/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Estrella Del Jalisco I, Estrella Del Jalisco II, Obelisk vs Destello, Persa, Ponzoña Jr.
2) Crixus, Optimus, Trono vs Ángel Rebelde, Estrella Oriental, Halcón Negro Jr.
3) Adrenalina, Omega, Valiente Jr. vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Explosivo, Fantástico, Gallo vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Atlantis, Felino, Negro Casas vs Al Carrillo, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
That’s a very old main event. I presume Blue Panther is already back home for the holidays so Rey Bucanero has to fill is a young spry 40+ year old.
CMLL announced they’d start carrying some NJPW merchandise in their store. It’d been notable lately how few interactions CMLL gets on Twitter nowadays; the Gran Alternativa final results tweet got 40 likes and 6 RTs. This Friday’s lineup got 70 likes and 16 RTs, which is pretty high for them. The CMLL Twitter post announcing NJPW merchandise had 203 likes and 43 RT when I checked this morning.
AAA
the bonus TV taping aired on the 19th.
AAA TV (SUN) 12/19/2021 Pepsi Center WTC, Benito Juárez, Distrito Federal [@DONDEIRweb, ESTO, Record]
1) La Parkita & Octagoncito b La Parkita Negra & Mini Gronda
Empresa beat up the tecnicos, Dave & Murder made the save
2) Goya Kong & Pimpinela Escarlata b Big Mami & Faby Apache and Keyra & Lady Maravilla
Pimpinela beat Goya
3) Argenis b Myzteziz Jr.
Keyra helped Argenis win
4) DMT Azul & Puma King b Dave The Clown & Murder Clown
Empresa took the Clowns masks
5) Aramis & Laredo Kid b Arez & Látigo
Arez replaced Toxin (injury)
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
La Empresa and the tecnicos ran in after
Just a generic taping: some tecnicos get beat up, other tecnicos make the save, those tecnicos lose as well. Keyra betraying her significant other is also standard AAA bits. Fith match was said to be very good. I think Goya Kong might actually be a tencico if she’s teaming with Pimpinela and Poder del Norte are tecnicos, but I dunno for sure. This taping probably won’t air before January 8th and it may be even longer; there’s no point in restarting new shows until they have a next taping scheduled, and there’s no sign of one of those yet.
Pimpinela apparently got busted open trying to kiss someone, wrestled the match with a bandage on.
There’s footage of an injury Parka Negra suffered back on 12/10 in Xalapa on Facebook and it’s a freak-looking thing. Parka Negra was doing a routine backward leap out of the corner over a charging opponent, where he intended to backward roll on the mat into the next spot. Parka Negra falls on his back for the roll and just doesn’t get up, like he’s knocked out. Maybe he banged his head, maybe something else was going on. He’s wrestled since. Hopefully he’s fine.
Other News
IWRG (SUN) 12/19/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, Mas Lucha]
1) Shalom b Spider Fly 
2) Artemiz & Sagitarius b Hija Del Vikingo & Satania
3) Hell Boy, Legendario, Rasputín b Black Dragón, Fly Warrior, Fulgor I
Hell Boy & Black Dragon continue to feud
4) Akbal, Diva Salvaje, Hijo De Dos Caras b Heddi Karaoui, Kb6, Sweet Daddy Soul
5) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Freelance b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
6) Jessy Ventura b Cerebro Negro [IWRG IC WELTER]
advertised as Ventura challenging Toxin for the IWRG MEXICO, but Toxin was already listed for the AAA taping the same day by the time this show was announced (and didn’t wrestle in either)
The IWRG description for the live stream had Toxin/Jessy Ventura on it, so someone thought that match was still happening when the show started. My understanding is Toxin was injured after his appearance on Thursday’s show and it may have been a late decision if he was going to be able to wrestle on this show. Cerebro Negro would’ve been around to watch his son (Shalom) wrestlers he’s an easy sub. Maybe they’ll do Toxin/Ventura in January.
It’s weird to announce on Friday that the last show of the year is Sunday but that’s how IWRG seems to work right now. There’s a AAA spot show on Christmas Day in Arena Naucalpan. IWRG will be running another Tryout series of shows in early 2022.
Alberto held a press conference in Mexico City Monday afternoon claiming an investigation proved he was totally innocent of all charges filed by his ex-fiance in the recently concluded kidnapped case. To be clear, he didn’t provide an investigation, his story appears to be that the government investigated it. (If the government had such an investigation, they probably wouldn’t have charged him.) This part of his latest image rehab campaign; his appearance on Lucha Libre Online included Alberto again threatening to release footage that would get other ex-significant other WWE Paige fired if she talked about him again. Again, either Alberto has incredibly poor luck in relationships or is actually the cause of those issues; everyone probably knows where they stands on that already, and press conferences like this just exist to give a shield for those who are already committed to booking him.
Alberto also claimed he would work for one of the three biggest promotions in the US in 2022. A popular twitter discussion topic is “what’s the third biggest US promotion now?” (or “is GCW the third biggest US promotion”.) The reality is there is one giant promotion, one strong secondary group, and everyone else is so far behind that they’re not a competition to the first two and arguing the third is fun meaningless game. That’s the game here too; if Alberto was going to WWE or AEW, he wouldn’t be talking about a third group. People in my mentions guessed MLW as Alberto’s destination quite often, which I would be offended about if i was MLW, but also seems like a good guess. It’s Alberto, so he could just as easily spin Robles or no one else at all; he’s about keeping his name in the news above all else. In slightly more grounded news, Alberto claimed Nacion Lucha Libre would be returning in March.
The last show at Monterrey’s Arena Feminil got attention for not having adequate medical personal at the show after the fact. It should’ve been no surprise that the next show at the arena was going to get a visit from the commission, no matter who was promoting it, and indeed it did. Home promotion’s Lucha Libre Femenil show on Friday was shut down by the Monterrey lucha libre commission after it too had no ambulance or medical personal. The promoter said they’d never been asked for a doctor and an ambulance by a commission in the 20 years of running LLF, and the nurse they scheduled to have on hand was running late. LLF also criticized the commissioner for going into the women’s locker room while they were training, on the auspicious of checking the wrestler’s licenses. LLF feels they should’ve been fined and allowed to continue the show, not shut down, and SuperLuchas makes the case the show should’ve been allowed to go on. Still, it should’ve been obvious that the next people in that venue were going to going to be examed closely for the mistakes Rompiendo Madre’s made so the commission could show they have a reason to exist – they were going to show up if only to check there was an ambulance and a doctor and they were going to shut LLF down if they didn’t have one.
International Mara defeated Payaso Purasanta in a mask match to close out Welcome to Mi Barrio’s year. Payaso Purasanta is Alejandro García, 39, 22 years a wrestler.
Sunday’s Big Lucha show ended with the Demonic Flamita team defeating the tecnicos in a main event cage match. Gravity seems to have replaced Bandido in the match, but Bandido made a run-in to save his brother at some point. (Bandido announced earlier in the weekend that he had tested negative for COVID.) The rudos – Demonic Flamita, Emperador Azteca, Yutani, Elemental, and Bendito – destroyed Bandido and declared they were taking over the Big Lucha Gym under the name “Black Generacion.”
Septimo Dragon, who suffered a life-threatening motorcycle accident, says he plans to return to wrestling in January 2022 though he doesn’t have an exact date yet.
90/00/10ss Mexico City area Super Colt passed away on Friday. He’d been sick for a while; there were recent benefit shows. Super Colt’s highest-profile work came in mid-00s IWRG, and he worked at least one CMLL show (2008-07-20 at Arena Coliseo.) He’d worked as a trainer as well in more recent times.
Box y Lucha reports Baja California luchador Fily Nava (Fernando Nava Alferez, 73) passed away on Friday. He also worked in the Mexicali Box y Lucha commission.
Kurt Brown put up found public domain footage of a 1953 lucha libre match.
Box y Lucha 3496 has Silueta 7 Mephisto on the cover amongst many other issues.
Segunda Caida review some Panamanian lucha libre.