Month: January 2022

Today’s the last day to vote in the Tapatia awards.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 01/28/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, Estrellas del Ring, Furia de Titanes, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo & Chamuel  
12:28.
2) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Eléctrico, Flyer, Oro Jr.  
20:58. Depreadores took 2/3. Oro Jr. replaced Pegasso
3) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Dark Panther, Esfinge, Espíritu Negro   
13:58. Rudos took 1/3. Dark Panther replaced Rey Cometa
4) Stuka Jr. DQ Titán, Gran Guerrero, Soberano Jr., Templario, Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Volador Jr., Negro Casas, Dragón Rojo Jr. [Reyes del Aire]  
25:03. Tecnicos versus rudos. Order of elimination: Negro Casas (by Titan), Dragon Rojo (Soberano), Titan (Cavernario), Soberano (Gran Guerrero), Cavernario (Volador), Templario (Atlantis), Volador Jr. (Gran Guerrero), Gran Guerrero (Stuka), then Atlantis was DQed for unmasking Stuka seconds later. Stuka won, but the focus was more on demands for a restart (which didn’t work) and challenges for a mask match.
5) Místico b Último Guerrero   
12:29. One fall. UG rolled through the first La Mistico attempt but was caught clean a second time for the win. Mistico said the win means it’s him, not UG, who is in charge of CMLL and so he was going to demand a mask versus hair match with Ultimo Guerrero. UG refused to answer and walked out instead.

Stuka Jr. versus Atlantis Jr. will likely be a mask match sometime this year. It may be a title match first, it will definitely be led to them teaming in the incredible pairs tournament. I’m not sure if the match will happen in March or September (or get scuttled by another COVID wave), but I’m sure it’s happening – it follows the normal pattern of an out of nowhere feud stemming from a major tournament in the first few months of the year. Atlantis Sr. won big masks early and often; Stuka Jr. will likely be to Atlantis Jr. as Talisman or Hombre Bala were to Atlantis Sr. Stuka has a son he’s trying to get into CMLL, and agreeing to lose his mask surely will help a lot with that. Stuka Jr. is enough over to the CMLL loyalists that they’ll care about the match, even if few would believe Stuka Jr. has a chance. That match-up is also a great explanation for the Atlantis Jr. rudo bits – he’s going to be booed for being a young wrestler in that spot, they might as well have a plan for it.

Mistico doing his own challenge to Ultimo Guerrero got the headlines, even though it probably is going nowhere. The people covering the shows latch onto it because it’s the biggest names, but it’s a “boy who cried wolf” situation to the people who follow CMLL closely. Mistico makes a challenge for a mask match about every third show and has had no mask matches since returning to CMLL. Mistico/Ultimo Guerrero in an apuesta match would draw big, UG would be unhurt by losing, but CMLL doesn’t seem interested in actually booking it.

The first and last match of the show was good, the rest is skippable. I’m glad there is a big angle coming out of the Reyes del Aire because it would’ve been a big disappointment with how they laid it out without a reason. The first ten or so minutes were really hot, and then all the guys you’d want to see in a final of a tournament started getting eliminated. The unmasking DQ came off strangely like maybe they were going to end up in the same place but didn’t mean to do it so quickly. The Micro Gemelos Diablos looked good and Mistico and Ultimo Guerrero tried in the main event. There were portions of the other matches that worked but not the whole way.

CMLL also announced the torneo incredible de parejas is returning. In WWE, they push the idea that certain major shows are “the only time Raw and SmackDown superstars will meet”, but most of the people watching stopped taking that seriously a long time because it turns out there’s a lot of times where wrestlers from different brands will meet. That’s kind of where CMLL is with rudos & tecnicos; when it happens on pretty much every show, there’s no specialness left for a tournament where it happens.

CMLL announced the tournament would take place on February 25th, which will be a PPV. Everyone, myself too, presumes this means blocks on February 18th and February 11th. CMLL didn’t actually say that though and the promotion has thinned out that there’s a bit of a chance this just a one-night deal. Stuka Jr. & Atlantis Jr. are favorites to go the final but lose to continue Atlantis Jr.’s streak of losing in every tournament final. (This runner-up deal is something that is definitely happening but the press hasn’t hyped it and CMLL isn’t pushing it yet.)

CMLL (SAT) 01/29/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia b Fantasy & Kaligua
2) Grako & Inquisidor b Eléctrico & Leono
rudos took 1/3
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Dalys, La Metálica
tecnicas took 1/3
4) Cavernario & Gran Guerrero b Blue Panther & Dark Panther
rudos took 2/3
5) Atlantis Jr. & Último Guerrero DQ Templario & Volador Jr.
Team UG took 1/3, the last when he tricked Olimpico into believing Templario had tricked him. Templario challenged UG to a singles match next week and UG accepted.

The Templario/UG match seems to actually be happening now, and the idea of Templario ending up outside of Los Guerreros has some momentum with Atlantis Jr. being the rudo in an ongoing feud. It’d be weird to do a permanent breakup angle in a lesser Arena Coliseo show, but that’s where CMLL did the Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero breakup many years ago. The pattern is Templario winning after losing two weeks in a row, though Ultimo Guerrero doesn’t win much.

CMLL aired a minute highlights of the top two matches from this show before the Friday night stream. The main event highlights had previously aired on Informa, I think the other highlights may have aired on there as well. It’s just a single camera video, though I can’t figure out why they don’t try to monetize this stuff. Maybe it wouldn’t be many people subscribing to a CMLL site, but there can’t be many people paying for Ticketmaster Live right now. (And if there is, all the more reason to put more paid content out there.) I think the TicketMaster Live stuff must only happen because CMLL had the existing relationship there and they simply just need to stream the show, so a subscription site would also require someone who already works with CMLL doing most of the work. The killer part is it seems like CMLL has a partner like that – it’d just require inputting some information on the YouTube channel they already run to add a subscription section – but it hasn’t happened.

CMLL (SUN) 01/30/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Pequeño Polvora & Pequeño Violencia
Tecnicos took 1/3. Debut of Pequeno Polvora.
2) Diamond, Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial b Cholo, Grako, Inquisidor
tecnicos took 2/3
3) Flyer, Magnus, Robin DQ Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
Magnus replaced Guerrero Maya on Thursday. Tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Akuma unmasked Robin
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Felino Jr., Rugido, Sagrado
Sagrado replaced Felino on Thursday. Team Virus took 1/3.
5) Cavernario, Euforia, Mephisto b Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Niebla Roja
Dragon Rojo replaced Terrible on Thursday

Pequeno Polvora made his debut. Not much else notable here.

Puebla has Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, and Ultimo Guerrero against Cavernario, Euforia and Mephisto.

CMLL (TUE) 02/01/2022 Arena México
1) Aéreo & Fantasy vs Mercurio & Pequeño Pólvora
2) Eléctrico, Robin, Sangre Imperial vs Diamond, Leono, Oro Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, La Metálica, Reyna Isis
4) Dark Panther & Esfinge vs Dragón Rojo Jr. & El Coyote
5) Blue Panther, Fugaz, Volador Jr. vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

This day of the week was building towards a Star Jr./Coyote match on this show and now Star Jr. is nowhere to be found. Hope he’s OK. Not sure if they’ll just run a Coyote/Dark Panther match next week or if this the end of his run. Coyote might end up staying near the top for lack of other options.

Mas Lucha posted an interview with Shocker where he said he was out of CMLL and a free agent. Shocker has not wrestled on CMLL show for at least 14 months; he appeared on TV shows in October and November and had otherwise been missing during the pandemic. Shocker seems long gone, if the only way you interact with CMLL is watching it on a screen, but he also runs a food truck that’s often operating near Arena Mexico on show days and perhaps that’s why fans still think of him as being in CMLL.

(Shocker and his food truck went viral about two weeks ago over a negative interaction – Shocker yelling at someone for taking a photo of him while he was serving foods – first showed up on Tiktok and then various news sites. Shocker apologized in a later video.)

Shocker also has had a visible jaw injury for years, and it is always possible CMLL finally decided to bench him until it was fixed but hadn’t cut ties until recently. Shocker’s performance had dipped greatly in prior years, but he might still be around if he was healthy because CMLL is so low on names. The change here is Shocker pushes’ that he’s willing to wrestle anyone – in other words, he’s taking bookings wrestling AAA people and others CMLL might’ve gotten angry with him for wrestling.

Milenio has an interview with Stephanie Vaquer; this may be the same interview that was in Playboy Latin America this past week. She talks about the struggles of coming from Chile to Mexico to become a wrestler, a place where she had no family to lean on. Her worst experience was a very bad injury that left her out of wrestling for a year. Vaquer took a title match in Merida, says she wasn’t experienced enough for it, and ended up with a nose broken in three places from a knee smash and a concussion from a chair shot to the head. The promoter paid for the hospital trip but she had no way of getting home if she stayed; she has no idea how she got out of the hospital but she made it to the airport and back to Mexico City, where she had someone watch her to avoid a blood clot. Vaquer spent a year out of wrestling recovering – she worked as a waitress at a restaurant near Arena Mexico.

(The names and dates are kept vague, maybe on purpose. A quick look at the luchadb shows Stephanie Vaquer/La Sadica title match in Merida in October 2014, then Vaquer showing up barely at all for a year.)

CMLL (TUE) 02/01/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Cosmos, Estrella de Jalisco II, Micro vs Carlo Roggi, Gran Kenut, Persa
2) Capitán Cobra, Cris Skin, Quka vs Mr. Apolo, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Adrenalina, Crixus, Fantástico vs Demonio Maya, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Bestia Negra & Difunto vs Exterminador & Maléfico
5) Joker, Star Black, Zandokan Jr. vs Flash, Principe Daniel, Ráfaga [Relevos Increíbles]

Shows resume here on Tuesday (and will likely be back to streaming live.) Locals only and they’ve had a big poll of them, so it’s tough to be sure which people are still out. Estrella de Jalisco II hasn’t been said without his partner, though. Guadalajara classes also re-opened Monday.

AAA

Arez & Latigo versus Laredo Kid & Aramis from this week’s AAA TV is just as good as you’d think with those four involved. It’s up on Google Drive and worth watching. AAA should have it up on their YouTube channel next Sunday if that’s what you prefer. It’s a shame Latigo doesn’t have a visa, he’s just as good as those other three guys who are all over the US indies at this point. Every AAA PPV in 2022 needs to have a match like this one, because it’s something AAA can do on a major league level that almost no one else can do, and it’ll be something to fall back on upon if the typical surprises or legends don’t come through.

Argenis/Myzteziz was just Keyra interfering a lot and Argenis cheating to win. Maybe they’re setting up a mixed tag out of it but mostly it was just the weirdness of the audience supposed to know Myzteziz & Keyra are a couple without the promotion outright saying it. The match wasn’t going to be good regardless of how they worked it, but it could’ve used a promo to explain what context we were supposed to see it in. NGD and Poder del Norte got a lot of time and NGD worked hard enough by the end for it to be one of the better matches yet.

I still have no what AAA’s airing this upcoming week. They may have no new content again until February 19th for Rey de Reyes.

Mas Lucha Radio did mention that the 2022 Space plan for covering AAA major shows is the same as 2021, where they’ll be split up over two shows. That makes sense for TV. It’s a terrible idea if they do it for FITE PPVs, which seemed to be the idea for TripleMania Regia before AAA lost all track of time. Hopefully, AAA has worked that out this time, but also it’s not a thing I would bet on.

Still no update in the court file for the AAA/FMV lawsuit, though AAA’s still outwardly acted like it’s settled or close to it. FMV seems required to post an update every three months, so the next update is due around March 8th.

Canek assured local paper Diario Presente that he will not lose his mask in the TripleMania tournament. He’d like to wrestle Rayo de Jalisco.

Other News

IWRG (SUN) 01/30/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Mini Canis Lupus & Mini Spirit b Mini Raider & Relampaguito 
2) Bengalee & Sagitarius b Baronessa & Satania 
3) Black Dragón & Tortuga Leo b Big Mike & Hell Boy 
hair match challenges (Mike/Leo, Hell Boy/Dragon) continued
4) Puma de Oro & Tonalli b Asterboy & Freelance 
Puma & Tonalli want title matches
5) Accion Jackson & Travis Banks b Dick Angelo 3G & Fulgor 
6) Hijo del Alebrije & Relámpago DRAW Hijo del Fishman & Hijo del Pirata Morgan  

I had forgotten that Black Dragon/Hell Boy was meant to be a feud and it seems like their must be a big show coming up with a lot of stuff set up. IWRG’s focus turns to the Tryout series for the next week, with shows airing every night at 8 pm. That many shows seems like too much to me, though it’s more normal in Mexico with daily series.

The Crash (FRI) 01/28/2022 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [El Imparcial, TJ Sports, Zona Ruda]
Attendance: 3500
1) Mirage, Próximo, Terror Azteca b Gravity (Indie), Ryan Kid, Toto
Proximo and Toto fueded.
2) Sexy Star b Lady Maravilla, Lady Flammer © [THE CRASH WOMEN]
title change
3) Black Danger, Dinámico, Oráculo b Black Destiny, El Dragón (Chihuahua), El Impostor (Chihuahua)
4) Hijo Del Vikingo b Flip Gordon [The Crash HEAVY]
Fenix showed up to challenge Vikingo and Konnan said the match would happen in Tijuana. Konnan also challenged Toto & Proximo to prove they beloned in the company.
5) ACH, Rich Swann, Willie Mack DQ Bestia 666, Mecha Wolf, Rey Horus
Mecha Wolf DQed for excessive violence, which seemed to surprise even his partners; Mecha Wolf said he was angry the fans were supporting Willie Mack over them. Microman came out with the Willie Mack team and was attacked by the rudos.
6) Penta 0M b El Bandido, Dragón Lee (Indie), Jack Cartwheel 

All the matches had money thrown in. Konnan promises for matches don’t always come true, but I specifically don’t think that Vikingo/Fenix match is happening on the next The Crash show. Hijo del Santo, Octagon and Fuerza Guerrera were announced for 02/18. Santo & Octagon seem unlikely to work shows with AAA wrestlers.

TJ Sports says Fenix was supposed to be in the main event originally; maybe it would’ve been Lucha Brothers vs Bandido & Dragon Lee?

Nominal Tijuana group Cholo de Tijuana ran shows in Arena San Juan on Friday and Arena Lopez Mateos on Sunday. They’ve never run the Mexico City area before, so it was a little bit of a surprise they did so well. It looks like a full house in Arena San Juan and maybe a little less than that in Arena Lopez Mateos; that seems better than the Robles shows have done in that venue. The Cholo de Tijuana shows are typical name indies where nothing of importance seems to happen; Blue Demon Jr., Dralistico and the latest Rey Misterio clone were the headliners. The Shocker story came from his appearance on Saturday’s show. The group was scheduled to run in Iguala, Guerrero on Sunday; the video I found shows a spare crowd, but I have no real context of how that compares to most Iguala shows.

Vanguardia’s show this Saturday was meant to have a Miedo Extremo versus Ultimo Guerrero main event, as well as an unnamed CMLL wrestler appearing in an undercard match. Instead, Ultimo Guerrero sent a video in the day before announcing he was off the show through no fault of Vanguardia. It certainly came off as if CMLL blocked Ultimo Guerrero from working for the group, and even UG couldn’t get it reversed. Vanguardia announced Cibernetico as a replacement, though the main event eventually turned into a trios with Abismo Negro & Latigo showing up. The show also included a Jimmy/Brazo de Oro Jr. match that got a good review and an explosion match. The explosions look good. This show will probably turn up on Mas Lucha in two or three weeks.

Big Lucha’s December show ended with Demonic Flamita’s new heel group (Black Generacion) winning control over Bandido Gym and kicking all the tecnicos out. Big Lucha’s January show was canceled due to COVID. The promotion instead apparently decided to tape an empty arena show to continue the story – a Black Generacion show where the tecnicos had a chance to win back control) and posted it last night on their YouTube channel. I’m guessing it was taped in early January since the group of Canadians are part of it and they’ve since disappeared. (Flamita is also given an excuse not to be around for the matches, so maybe those were taped when he was out with COVID.) It is good storytelling and there’s more noise than most empty arena shows, though none of the matches really stand out. They’re back with a regular show on 02/20

Big Lucha (SUN) 02/20/2022 Bandido Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Limbo, Reina Dorada, Viajero vs Eclipse, Orbita, Sussy Love
2) Accion Jackson, Mil Almas, Potro vs Cometa Maya, King, Kong
3) Éxtasis vs Skayde
4) Bendito & Elemental vs Gravity & Komander
5) Yutani vs Arez
6) Emperador Azteca & Flamita vs Dragón Lee & Dralistico and Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & El Bandido

The main event is the standout, though the fourth and fifth might be really good as well.

Daniel Garcia won the 2022 PWG Battle of Los Angeles. Matches between Aramis & Rey Horus, Speedball Mike Bailey & Bandido, and Black Taurus & Aramis were said to be among the best of the tournament. The shows will be out on DVD in the new couple of months.

Mr. Leo won the IAW Junior championships from Ciclon Infernal on their show on Saturday. IAW does a lot of title defenses and the champions hold on to those titles for a long time, so it actually feels like noting when one of them changes hands.

AAW announced Laredo Kid will challenge Mat Fitchett for the AAW Heavyweight Championship on Friday. This came out of nowhere for me – Laredo hasn’t been in AAW since the first day of October – but it may be one of those situations where they booked a match just because it’ll be a really good match. Fitchett isn’t known much out of the midwest but he’s very good.

GCW announced Mascara Dorada vs Gringo Loco for their 02/26 show in Los Angeles. Nothing is for sure until it’s announced, but that seems like a decent place to make up that missing Negro Casas match. Dorada faces TJP the next day in Oxnard.

Pachuca’s Arena Aficion turns 70 years old today. That article is useful for both the history of the building and where it fits in the city; all the other spots buildings build that long ago have been torn down or repurposed. Arena Aficion was built by Francisco Flores & Benjamin Mora, who used their success to construct other lucha libre arenas, then used those arenas to power the promotion best known as UWA.

Diaro de Colima has a history of lucha libre in Colima. They call 70s/80s luchador TNT as the biggest name who’s come from the small state. TNT was a traveling opponent of Mil Mascaras when he wrestled in Mexico, a wrestler who’s probably underplayed in history because much of his work came away from Mexico City and didn’t make it into the magazines. A Box y Lucha column had a weekly reoccurring joke about TNT misinterpreting something each week.

Angel Garza announced he’d have a child soon. Garza had been posting a specific date on Twitter a few times and the general WWE atmosphere suggested it might be a contract thing, though the surprise instead turned out to be an ultrasound.

Segunda Caida watched some El Santo & El Hijo de Santo.

Box y Lucha 3499D covers the Friday CMLL show, continues the Year of the Tiger feature they’ve been doing on their Facebook page.

The 2021 Tapatia Awards close Monday at midnight CT. You’ve got all weekend to get in your vote.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 01/28/2022 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo & Chamuel
2) Eléctrico, Flyer, Pegasso Oro Jr. vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
3) Esfinge, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
4) Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Soberano Jr., Templario, Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Volador Jr., Negro Casas, Stuka Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr. [Reyes del Aire]
5) Místico vs Último Guerrero

This seems like a good value for a 99 pesos (5 USD) Ticketmaster show. I’d be more excited for it if it felt there was going to be something novel here; the top matches will be solid if unsurprising.

Mistico versus Ultimo Guerrero is a dish from a fast-casual restaurant. You know exactly what you’re going to get whenever or wherever you get it, and it should be fine if you’re in the mood for it.

Reyes del Aire includes a couple of people who aren’t exactly high flyers, though it could just be who’s available rather than who fits best. The roster is just thin at this point, which is even more obvious on these other lineups.

CMLL (SAT) 01/29/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Fantasy & Kaligua vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Eléctrico & Leono vs Grako & Inquisidor
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, La Metálica
4) Blue Panther & Dark Panther vs Cavernario & Gran Guerrero
5) Templario & Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr. & Último Guerrero

Templario and Ultimo Guerrero don’t meet in a singles match quite yet, though it still seems like it was headed there.

It looks like CMLL’s cut these shows down to 22 luchadors for the time being, which might explain a couple of the cutbacks last week.

CMLL (SUN) 01/30/2022 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Polvora & Pequeño Violencia
2) Diamond, Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial vs Cholo, Grako, Inquisidor
3) Flyer, Magnus, Robin vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus vs Felino Jr., Rugido, Sagrado
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Niebla Roja vs Cavernario, Euforia, Mephisto

This one underwent changes just after it went up: Terrible out of the main event for Niebla Roja, Felino out of the semi-main for Sagrado, Guerrero Maya out of the tercera for Magnus. Those are most likely COVID positives but it could be other issues. Flyer, Magnus and Robin was the opening card trio (Compadres del Mal) that group wanted to do and CMLL clearly didn’t want to do, now getting accidentally put together because CMLL just needs bodies. I wonder if the idea of the semi-main was to team Rugido with the other two cat characters. It sounds crazy enough to be true.

Cavernario continues the Hechicero fill-in. Felino Jr. took Hechicero’s place on Televisa this week, which continues to point towards Hechicero being out with COVID since a normal injury wouldn’t stop him from commentary. CMLL lead announcer Julio Cesar Rivera was also noticeably missing from both CMLL Informa and last Friday’s broadcast. That show last Friday had only Leobardo Magadan and Miguel Linares Jr. as announcers when they’ve had three or four people talking in past shows. I’m not sure if that’s COVID issues or further cutbacks.

Note that out of the 18 people in the top three matches on Sunday, there are only four tecnicos. One of those is Niebla Roja, who’s labeled a tecnico though he usually works as a rudo. I’m entirely unsure what Rugido and Magnus are meant to be from show to show, and I’m not sure if they’ve been given consistent direction either.

Lluvia disappeared from Tuesday’s Arena Mexico lineup but did a TV appearance on Thursday, so it’s not a COVID issue for her.

Andrade was interviewed on Escorpion Dorado‘s YouTube channel. Infobae latched onto one part, talking about wrestler pay. Andrade said he was very poor when he was starting out in Mexico City, having to choose between buying clothes, food, or paying rent. Note that he was a CMLL wrestler right away after coming to Mexico City wrestling in Arena Mexico fairly regularly in better times than now. Then, as is now, wrestlers are paid on the percentage of the attendance – he says he started out at 2000 to 3000 pesos per match and found he ended up getting paid more as he wrestled less (because he moved up the card.) Andrade didn’t talk about his WWE pay, just noting he got paid more and got paid even when he didn’t wrestle, but also everything costs more in the US.

Those Arena Queretaro shows which appeared to be an extension of the Arena Coliseo Guadalajara office are being rebranded as “QROLL“, Queretaro Lucha Libre. The next show is 02/19.

AAA

AAA airs one hour than usual this week on Space, a 5:30 CT start time. I’ll stream it on Twitch, The remaining Mexico City lineup

• Myzteziz Jr. vs Argenis
• Aramis & Laredo Kid vs Arez & Látigo
• Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón

That seems better than last week.

This weekend was supposed to be the AAA show in Merida, only the pandemic got worse and the lucha show, a boxing show, and a bullfight were all canceled. Except now, the boxing show is still going on. Just weird.

You should watch the Hijo del Vikingo versus Aramis match from MLW TV. You should just expect an MLW finish. The match is the important part, the weirdness around is usual MLW. The promotion used The Crash Heavyweight championship belt as the AAA Megachampionship, even with the ring announcer calling it The Crash Champion. MLW is built on this idea that their fans are vaguely familiar and positive towards AAA but don’t really know much about it, it’s a strange needle to thread.

If I was AAA, I’m not sure I’d want my wrestlers working for MLW on these Tijuana tapings again. It gets their wrestlers a little US attention, but they’re mostly used as fodder to MLW’s contracted guys. It’s no different from how Laredo Kid was used by MLW during their empty arena era, something that wasn’t supposed to happen again. I don’t fault MLW for focusing on their guys on their TV show, but they could just as easily do it with the local Tijuana crew who wouldn’t be seen otherwise. AAA hyped the recent Reina de Reinas defense on Impact and didn’t say a word about this MLW match or any of these shows, so maybe I’m making a case for a decision that’s already been made.

GCW

I didn’t mean to have a GCW section, it happened. There’s just a lot of lucha libre announcements. I had ordered words and paragraphs here but now we’re going to descend into bullet points first

• 02/04 GCW in Houston
  • Mascara Dorada vs Gringo Loco vs Blake Christian vs ASF – new.
  • Matt Tremont vs Sadika
• 02/05 GCW in Dallas
  • Laredo Kid vs Blake Christian – new
    • The two had a good match on Before the Impact Thursday
  • Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Joey Janela
  • Psycho Clown vs Gringo Loco
• 02/19 GCW in Atlantic City
  • Mascara Dorada vs Joey Janela – new
• 04/01 GCW in Dallas
  • The Wrld on Lucha, a GCW lucha libre themed show at 8 pm at the Collective venue WM weekend

All shows air on FITE TV, the lucha one will likely be included in a package with the rest of GCW’s shows.

Stacking these together, you can see there are shows with Mascara Dorada and shows with Psycho Clown and Laredo Kid, but not shows with all of those names. (Drago Kid was listed for Houston at one point, hasn’t been named in recent posts.) This continues to point towards Dorada returning to CMLL in the near future and also GCW learning from the Negro Casas situation. Booking shows without AAA talent would also allow them to make up that Casas show if they can find a date that would work.

Mascara Dorada returning in a four way is a good start, though the Janela match was an eeye raiser. It’s a challenging match for both of those guys to give what people are expecting out of each of them individually together.

Participants and matches to be announced for Gringo Loco’s The Wrld on Lucha for April 1st at 9 pm. That show is months away yet that time slot is now pretty packed for lucha libre stuff already

• 8:00 pm: ROH Supercard of Honor
  • Bandido versus Jonathan Gresham
• 8:30 pm: a Martinez Entertainment Legends show
  • Hijo del Santo, Matematico, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Ultimo Dragon announced
• 9:00 pm: The Wrld on Lucha
• 9:00 pm: Impact Wrestling
  • nothing’s been announced, but they’re presumably planning on AAA wrestlers given the relationship there; Laredo Kid & Black Taurus seem locks.

There should be a lot of luchadors in Texas, maybe the most ever for a WrestleMania weekend, and some of them are going to be very busy.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 01/30/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Raider & Relampaguito vs Mini Canis Lupus & Mini Spirit
2) Bengalee & Sagitarius vs Baronessa & Satania
3) Big Mike & Hell Boy vs Black Dragón & Tortuga Leo
4) Asterboy & Freelance vs Puma de Oro & Tonalli
5) Accion Jackson & Travis Banks vs Dick Angelo 3G & Fulgor
6) Hijo del Alebrije & Relámpago vs Hijo del Fishman & Hijo del Pirata Morgan

The main event was set up last week. Travis Banks is around even without Los Golepadors as opponents.

IWRG & Mas Lucha introduced the teams for their Tryout competition late Thursday night, which will begin airing next week. This is broadly modeled on the WWE Tough Enough/UFC Ultimate Fighter concept, with hopefuls split into teams coached by a familiar face, and one winner who will earn a spot on the IWRG roster and a title match. Other standouts will probably be added as well; it’s an efficient way to find new (and cheap) talent for the shows. The teams, heavily borrowing from Mas Lucha’s list

• Team Hijo del Alebrije: Baby Daddy, Efecto, Gran Felipe Jr, Heredero Maya, Huitzil, Poison, Reina Marina, Ska Boy
• Team Apolo Estrada: Alkymia, Diabolous, Kid Fuego, Poético, Lugia, Rey Eclipse,Rey Sultán, Visitante del Futuro
• Team Cerebro Negro: Alkaid, Águila Roja, Amnesia, Estrella de Oro, Mandíbula Jr, Prince Turbo, Sexy Flama, Uzumaki Otai
• Team Fulgor I: Arcángel de Oro, Backter, Joey Chaos, Nativo, Rey Mortis, Sumed Black, Tadashi, Tiger Man
• Team Lolita: El Hijo del Astro, Khavall, Kid Jaguar, El Potro, Príncipe Kira, Resplandor El Elegido, Tláloc
• Team Jessy Ventura: Iron Love, Iron Strong, Lemuria, Nicky Star, Pyrot, Trueno, Tito Morán Jr, Tigre Blanco
• Team Toxin: Aztec Fly, Demon Boy, Engendro Negro, Genex, Krimen, Lady Drago, Paramédico Jr., Príncipe Bengala
• Team Veneno: Acústico, Bichota, Gato Salvaje Jr, Tony Díaz, Rey Amon, Vudú Max, X Boy, Yorvak

That’s 64 people. I’ve watched reality show competitions were twelve people in the cast is too many to remember. Tryout attempts to handle that by focusing on one team an episode, though in practice that means the attention is on the coaches leading the session and the judges (Karaoui, Terry and Ivannia Moreno, with Hip Hop Man, Big Mike and Aster Boy also participating) making the cuts. It was a great vehicle for Eterno to get over as the mean judge last year, more so than any of the prospects. Most of the names up there will end up as just faces in the crowd and it may take a while before the eventual winner gets some spotlight. It is a statement about how many people are training in and around Mexico City that they could find 64 people who are generally unknown (though many are from far away from Mexico City.)

The Tryout show has a recap show tomorrow on Mas Lucha, then will start airing new episodes daily. Those episodes appear to have been taped this past month, not sure if they still have more to tape beyond the final. The timing works out for Mas Lucha; this show luckily starts to air during a time when the indies are a little slow due to COVID shutdowns.

Affiliated Monterrey promotion Lucha Time is also doing their own tryout in February. Some of their wrestlers participated in this IWRG competition.

Yahoo! Deportes has an interesting read about IWRG’s Mexico State trios champions La Pandemia, who came out of obscurity to become a fun team. Most people logically assume these are existing names doing a COVID-themed gimmick, but it turns out they’re actually a family that’s been using the name since 2008 (just before the swine flu pandemic.) Manuel Garcia was an ex-wrestler/programmer in Arena Santa Maria Aztahuacan, and his son started wrestling as Pandemonium after a time as a tecnico. He decided he wanted to retire in 2019, and his oldest son asked to take over the gimmick and create a new trio. The three who are in IWRG are Pandemónium Jr. (31, 8 years a wrestler), Gran Pandemónium (27, 7 years a wrestler), and Hijo del Pandemónium (23, 4 years a wrestler). There’s a fourth brother training, and the father wants to get back in after seeing how well his sons are doing. The trio did a tryout with Black Terry, who approved of them, they got a test match in June, did well there, and have become regulars since. La Pandemia hasn’t been around of late because Pandemónium Jr. suffered a lumbar injury in December. He’s on bed rest but says he feels better, hoping to beat a stated return time of “between March and April.” It reads like IWRG would be willing to book the other two in the meantime, but they want to only appear as a unit.

Other News

The Crash originally announced Microman for their show tonight in Tijuana, then didn’t list him on the poster. He will be appearing at the Meet & Greet after all. The main event on that show is Penta vs Bandido vs Dragon Lee vs Jack Cartwheel, with Vikingo vs Flip Gordon. As with most The Crash shows, it’s only the bootleggers who stand to make money off video of the show. Bandido, Aramis, Rey Horus and Black Taurus head to Los Angeles on Saturday for BOLA. It’s a long shot for any one of them to win it, but they should all have great matches.

GALLI will beat GCW to the Psycho Clown/Gringo Loco match by a weekend.

West Coast Pro Wrestling will have Arez vs Gringo Loco vs Nick Wayne on 02/11, airing on IWTV. 17-year-old Nick Wayne seems a bit old to be a lucha libre rookie but he has good padrinos.

Vanguarda has Ultimo Guerrero vs Miedo Extremo Sunday in Pachuca.

Lucha World has the latest Lucha Report.

Segunda Caida watches some 1992 Andre in UWA.

(the 2022 Tapatia awards voting is closing in a few days, vote now)

This post is the annual summary of hundreds of hours of work building and maintaining a database of every known Mexico and lucha libre event in the past year. The number of those shows remains down from 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will likely remain down for 2022 as well. You can find the typical list of disclaimers at the end of this post and can see the complete win/loss records and other data on this Google Sheet. It’s all on one sheet, I thought to just set up filters this year.

Shows for each year, over the last ten. (Number in parenthesis indicates the change since I ran these numbers a year ago – ‘new’ shows discovered or duplicates removed.)

Year: Shows
2012: 2901 (0)
2013: 2879 (+20)
2014: 5589 (+1)
2015: 6424 (+4)
2016: 7117 (+6)
2017: 6108 (+4)
2018: 6346 (+1)
2019: 6922 (-5)
2020: 2162 (+5)
2021: 3993

It seemed like the difference between 2020 and 2021 was even bigger than that number. It’s still a long way off from normal. This number felt like maybe I hadn’t done as much as I thought in 2021.

Events Actually Added To LuchaDB In During The Year (No Matter What Year They Happened)

2015: 11,536
2016:  9,774
2017:  8,629
2018:  9,682
2019:  7,696
2020:  5,909
2021: 12,315

I was stunned to discover that 12,315 number. I can put together what happened – I got through the 80s lucha libre magazines, where the Box y Lucha weekly calendar of events becomes standard, and I worked on them to the exclusion of a lot of other work – but I didn’t anticipate it going up that much. I really don’t know what I’ll do once I finish the rest of those magazines, and I’ve only got a couple of dozen left from the original set at this point.

Most Matches

2008: Ultimo Guerrero (228)
2009: La Parka Jr. (211)
2010: Mistico (204)
2011: Último Guerrero & La Mascara (188)
2012: Último Guerrero (189)
2013: Último Guerrero (205)
2014: Atlantis (215)
2015: Atlantis (207)
2016: Atlantis (217)
2017: Último Guerrero & Psycho Clown (204)
2018: Último Guerrero (205)
2019: Caristico (223)
2020: Joe Lider (67)
2021: Psycho Clown (138)

I don’t count US ‘mainstream’ indie events like GCW and AIW, so Psycho Clown may have nudged over 150 for the year. It’s an incredible amount of matches given how little work there was for most people, but it’s consistent with Psycho Clown’s work ethic.

Psycho Clown matches each year:
2015: 130
2016: 191
2017: 204
2018: 200
2019: 208
2020: 57
2021: 138

Ten wrestlers had at least 100 recorded matches

138 Psycho Clown
134 Hijo del Espectro (Laguna)
126 Místico (Myzteziz, Carístico)
126 Jessy Ventura
113 Último Guerrero
112 Atlantis Jr.
111 Volador Jr.
107 Pagano
102 Toxin
100 Joe Lider

Joe Lider’s done media interviews where he said he did crazy things in matches because he wasn’t sure if he would get booked elsewhere and wan’t sure what was there for him when he left for AAA. What’s turned out be there are a lot of bookings. Most low level show, but he’s hustled.

Most Wins

2008: Blue Panther (97)
2009: Mistico (110)
2010: Mistico (128)
2011: Último Guerrero (90)
2012: Atlantis (93)
2013: La Mascara (102)
2014: Atlantis (99)
2015: Volador Jr. (113)
2016: Volador Jr. (120)
2017: Volador Jr. (120)
2018: Caristico (115)
2019: Caristico (126)
2020: Caristico (37)
2021: Mistico/Carisico (68)

As always, this is a measure of which tecnico is both at the top and wrestling the most. Volador, Atlantis Jr., and Titan are right behind; I guess the mystery here is if/when Atlantis Jr. gets to the lead. IWRG wrestlers fared well simply because we get those results and very few other results turn up.

Most Losses

2008: Averno (84)
2009: Negro Casas (86)
2010: Negro Casas (75)
2011: La Mascara (72)
2012: Último Guerrero (79)
2013: Último Guerrero (84)
2014: Último Guerrero (82)
2015: Último Guerrero (80)
2016: Último Guerrero (91)
2017: Último Guerrero (92)
2018: Último Guerrero (99)
2019: Mephisto (91)
2020: Stuka (29)
2021: Toxin (38)

Poor Toxin makes the list not because he’s a big loser, but because he shows up in a lot of places that actually bother to put out results of their shows (or air on TV and I pay attention to them.) Atlantis Jr. & Mephisto are right behind at 36.

I don’t do yearly draw stats. I’ll note here Demonio Infernal ended up with 9, nearly 20% of his matches with finishes. Fresero was right behind at 8. Los Negociantes have a lot of matches where neither side feels like losing, even in a scene where there are plenty of cheap and meaningless wins and losses.

Best Win % (with at least 10 known results)

2008: Psycho Clown & Zombie Clown (100%)
2009: Psycho Circus (100%)
2010: Tondar (GDL) (100%)
2011: Mini Monster Clown (90%)
2012: Rayo de Oro (Guatemala) (97%)
2013: Tinieblas Jr. (90%)
2014: William Rock/Pequeno Violencia (92%)
2015: Súper Muñeco (93%)
2016: Huracán Ramírez (85%)
2017: Huracán Ramírez (90%)
2018: Tinieblas Jr. (91%)
2019: Microman (87%)
2020: Muerte Extrema (90%)
2021: Estrella de Jalisco I (2021) (90%)

Estrella de Jalisco I (or maybe Estrella de Jalisco Jr. I) is an Arena Coliseo Guadalajara guy I added to the database just before doing these stats. He’s mostly a prelim guy, usually teaming with Estrella de Jalisco II. An Estrella de Jalisco I of a previous era became Guadalajara mainstay Gallo, so there’s a decent chance those are his sons. 90% here translates to 9-1. Brazo Celestial, one-third of Los Bad Boys, went 8-1-1.

If we raise the minimum matches to 25

77% Ultimo Dragoncito (21-6)
75% Psycho Clown (26-8-2)
73% Chik Tormenta (20-7-1)
70% Mistico (68-28-2)
68% Legendario (29-13-1)
68% Vangellys (17-8)

Worst loss % (with at least 10 known results)

2008: Carrona (0%)
2009: Espectrito (0%)
2010: Metailk II (GDL) (11%)
2011: Akron (13%)
2012: Mini Talisman (8%)
2013: Estrella De Fuego (5%)
2014: Psicosis I/Nicho el Millionario (0%)
2015: Lady Shani (5%)
2016: Nahual (Morelos) (10.53%)
2017: Pitbull I (Jalisco) & Flayer Boy (9%)
2018: Rey Muerte (Guerrero) (0%)
2019: Mije (0%)
2020: La Guerrera (CMLL) (0%)
2021: Quca (0%)

Quca/Quka/Cuca is a prelim Arena Coliseo Guadalajara wrestler who was on both tecnico and rudo sides and didn’t win either way.

with a minimum of 25 decisions:

24% Electrico
29% Noisy Boy
30% Drone/Hombre Bala Jr.
31% Blue Panther
31% La Metalica

Events by State (at least 100 events)

648 Estado de México
413 Jalisco
406 Coahuila
395 Distrito Federal
255 Veracruz
190 Nuevo León
157 Tamaulipas
153 Baja California
152 Puebla
140 Texas
139 Durango
115 Hidalgo

There’s been a half dozen arenas running regularly in Coahuila and Jalisco, where that hasn’t been possible Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Or, they’ve kept it quiet.

Events by arena

176 Arena México
 81 Arena Naucalpan
 56 Arena Lopez Mateos
 54 Arena Roberto Paz, Guadalajara, Jalisco
 49 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
 47 Arena Olimpico Laguna, Gomez Palacio, Durango
 44 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
 44 Arena Azteca, Torreón, Coahuila
 42 Arena Lucha Time, Monterrey, Nuevo León
 41 Arena Colon, Torreón, Coahuila

Arena Roberto Paz runs twice a week when it can get away with it.

Most Matches on AAA TV Tapings

27 Octagon Jr., Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid
23 Latigo & Abismo Negro Jr.

Most Arena Mexico matches

45 Volador Jr.
40 Mistico/Caristico
37 Euforia
36 Terrible
34 Titán/Ángel de Oro

Negro Casas, who was 61 most of 2021, was sixth at 33.

Most Arena Naucalpan matches

53 Aster Boy
49 Puma de Oro
47 Tonalli
41 Dick Angelo 3G
40 Jessy Ventura
40 Toxin
37 Rey Halcón Jr. (2017)
36 Legendario (Estado de México, 2013)
33 Satania (2015)
33 Sol (2017)

This includes the Tryout matches, or at least the Tryout matches I was able to record. It probably helped Aster Boy get all the way into first. A lot of midcard guys on this list; the top guys come and go.

Specific limiting factors

• As with 2020, 2021 saw a fewer amount of shows run because it was either unsafe or unprofitable to run events. It also saw an unknown but likely significant amount of shows run with no or minimal only advertising to escape notice from the authorities.
• I’m doing this a little earlier than usual, so there are some lineups being added (usually because a video posted on YouTube for a show I wasn’t previously aware of and may have led to other lineups)
• CMLL numbers remain messy, brought on by the unknown taping dates of the empty arena shows. Most empty arena matches are recorded on the date they first aired, though we know these tapings were combined into weekly mass tapings. The last round of empty arena matches was recorded in the luchadb instead with a single taping day per month. (That’s the new plan going forward if CMLL is forced to return to empty arena tapings in 2022.)
  • There are also a few indie promotions with similar taping date issues from the first three months of the year, though far fewer than last year. Monterrey’s KAOZ and Lucha Time are the two that stick out the most.
• AAA records are potentially missing a handful of empty arena matches taped but never aired on Space. A couple aired on Azteca that didn’t air elsewhere. There may be more didn’t air elsewhere, though probably less than 10 total.
• Up until 2019, I’d do an end of year check where I’d look at buildings that had 25 shows, determine if there were running on a regular schedule, then look to see if there were obviously missing shows in that schedule. I’d know to hunt in Facebook if a building was running every Thursday and there was a couple of Thursdays missing. That usually found 50-100 extra events. I haven’t done this check the last couple of years because schedules have been to erratic to find those patterns.
• I’ve tried to mark matches as canceled (no match) on shows which did not take place, and those matches are not counted before. Cancelations aren’t always announced or recorded, so many of them are probably in the ? (unknown outcome) pile.
• There’s also general exhaustion and lesser curiosity on my part; I’m putting in the posters that get to me (which still is a lot) and not as much rooting through Facebook to find missing venues. If I’ve got extra time devoted to typing in lineups, I’ve shifted it towards the old magazine research project I’ve been doing – it seems more sound to spend that time adding missing lineups from big promotions rather than obscure groups that don’t exist to me outside of a hastily designed JPG.
  • In the same vein, there are a lot of matches where no one posted results and I could’ve still worked if I spent a minute watching video of the match I have in the database, but those minutes collectively felt better spent elsewhere. This is probably always going to be a one-person project but I’ve hit the ceiling on what one person can do and that ceiling seems like it’s coming downward.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 01/25/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Pequeño Violencia b Kaligua
2) Cholo, Oro Jr., Robin b Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Leono [Relevos Increíbles]
team Cholo took 2/3
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi b La Comandante, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
Marcela replaced Lluvia on Monday. Tecnicas took 1/3.
4) Dark Panther, Kráneo, Volcano b Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) El Coyote, Gran Guerrero, Templario DQ Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán
Coyote tossed his mask to Star Jr. to draw a DQ (and set up a singles match between them)

Coyote getting a singles match with Star Jr. seems a fair reward for winning the Gran Alternativa. It also seems very low-wattage; not the fault of the guys as much of the few wins they’ve gotten to build them to this point. Suppose most of everything in CMLL is right now, guess they might as well try.

No CMLL Marca stream last night. I have to use a specific obscure VPN to access YouTube in Mexico – they seem to be blocking the bigger ones – and it actually expired last night. I guess I don’t need to renew if AAA is no longer going to be region-blocked and Marca is just not going to keep airing these shows.

 

CMLL started to announce names for Reyes del Aire (Atlantis Jr., Titan) and then seemed to switch to a generic promo. I presume we’ll get the full field on Informa. No list of people appearing as of press time.

Stephanie Vaquer teased she’s in the current issue of Playboy Latin America. No, I haven’t seen it. I would assume this is probably a story about her being a luchadora from Chile.

Former CMLL Guadalajara prelim luchador El Pirana passed away according to Pasion Luchistica.  He would’ve wrestled there under that name from 2012 to 2015. I have him also wrestling as Dakota, Indio Brujo, Galaxy, and Payasito Luchin – he appeared to be active under that name as recently as the 16th

El Sol de Puebla visited the Arena Puebla restart and noted few people were there when they arrived early, though it was expected given the restart and the current situation. The building is still open to 50% capacity – the local laws haven’t changed – but they’re in no danger of hitting that number. The turnout looks like it turned out pretty decently by the time the show started from one angle, and not so full from others.

CMLL (MON) 01/31/2022 Arena Puebla
1) El Asturiano vs Sombra Diabólika
2) Cachorro & Robin vs El Malayo & Rey Apocalipsis
3) Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys & Metálica
4) Atlantis, Dulce Gardenia, Fugaz vs Cancerbero, Negro Casas, Virus
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Cavernario, Euforia, Mephisto

It turns out the Arena Puebla Instagram has been posting these lineups on Tuesdays. And now it’ll probably go away since I noticed it. They’re additionally doing a discount where the first 100 children (with an adult ticket) get in free. Cavernario continues to be in the spot intended for Hechicero.

Mascara Dorada, Negro Casas and Mistico are advertised for the 03/06 Mucha Lucha Atlanta show. That suggests Dorada is on good terms with CMLL and may be heading back to Arena Mexico.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will reopen next Tuesday. The building will now require a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination, as mandated by the state. The poster only has three local names on it. CMLL kept the Guadalajara roster isolated from the CDMX one when they restarted last year, so it would not be too surprising if it while before we saw Mexico City names go back to Guadalajara.

The main event of the 01/29 Arena Mamas Lucha show has CMLL’s Dulce Gardenia, Stuka Jr. and Rey Bucanero along with Texano Jr. Texano is no longer in AAA so perhaps CMLL wrestlers are allowed to work with him, though he and AAA wrestlers do work together on Robles shows in the US.

AAA

Mas Lucha has a post-press conference interview with Dorian Roldan, but there’s not much new there. He mentions they didn’t announce dates for their non-TripleMania plans because those are a bit of flux. When talking about the Tony Khan appearance, Roldan admits to being a bit skeptical they could pull off their plans when he first met with AEW, then came away from the Las Vegas (Double or Nothing) and other early shows totally impressed, as well as being impressed at how much they’ve grown in a short time.

Space set out a press release announcing they’d air Rey de Reyes, all three TripleManias, and the not yet announced Verano de Escandalo live. They aired all the big AAA shows live in 2021, though they didn’t air them complete and I suspect that’ll remain the same. It’s an obvious workaround if you don’t want to pay FITE, at the exchange of probably missing the undercard on most shows.

This part is nothing new but worth restating for 2022: if a show is airing on FITE or another outlet where anyone can just go buy it, I’m not going to be streaming it. If the AAA show is not airing on PPV or any other easily reachable outlet, I’ll stream it on Twitch. That means that my Twitch schedule will be very irregular this year – I’ll be back on this Saturday but maybe not again until after Rey de Reyes. I will do my best to mention here and on Twitter when I know I’m on streaming.

Mobile game Free Fire showed off some of the cosmetic additions as part of their tie-up with AAA. Wrestlers referenced include La Parka, Psycho Clown, Mr. Iguana, and (oddly) Venom.

Other News

Laredo Kid versus Blake Christian will air on Before the Impact this Thursday. That show used to air on AXS and now it’s a YouTube show starting around 6:30 pm CT.

Fenix, arm in a sling at all, showed up on The Crash’s Facebook to say he will appear at their show this Friday for a meet and greet. That’ll be his first public appearance since suffering the arm injury. I expect he’ll be asked roughly one hundred times about when he’s coming back.

IWRG ex-ninja turtle Teelo was involved in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago. His brother, who wrestles as Mike, told Mas Lucha Teelo had 11 surgeries but the doctors were unable to save Teelo’s left foot; it was amputated.

IWTV added the 01/09 Lucha Memes show. This show had Komander versus Mike in the main event, which sounds pretty good.

Republic of Lucha is having a one-year anniversary celebration on March 19th. That includes a wrestling show, with the Lucha Brothers, Taya, John Hennigan, Black Taurus, Rey Horus, Dragon Lee, Dralisico, Arez, Thunder Rosa, Jacob Fatu, Dante Martin, and Zokre announced as wrestling.

GCW announced Dr. Wagner Jr. versus Joey Janela for their 02/05 show in Dallas and versus Homicide for Los Angeles. Those are definitely GCW matches.

On Mas Lucha’s En+Carados, Lucha Time (and sometimes IWRG)’s Hijo del Enfermero announced he’ll be using the name Enfermero del Mal. This situation was prompted by CMLL (and Jaque Mate) giving the rights to the name to the former Yago, and was something I totally forgot about until now.

IWRG is now airing on the Adrenalina Sports Network, which is apparently different than AYM Sports though it’s still the same AYM production and nothing else seems to change. IWRG continues to air on Mas Lucha YouTube channel, and I’m fairly certain more people are seeing it there than the actual AYM cable channel. Not as sure about this new channel, though it appears to just be another anonymous sports network deep in the channel listings. Hi! Sports is a similar obscure channel and Mas Lucha mentioned some of their content is airing there.

LuchaWorld has the latest Poster-Mania.

An article on Zacatecas lucha libre mentions Lucha Time is having auditions for their roster. Dark Star, Clown Extreme, Mini Saga, Norteno Jr., Trueno de Aguila, Dragon Man, Mr. Acero and Extranjerito will participate from Zacateas.

A profile of Xalapa luchador Payacumba.

AAA will run three TripleMania shows in 2022

• April 30th (Saturday) back in the Monterrey baseball stadium
• June 18th (Saturday) in Tijuana, in the Xolo’s soccer stadium
• October 15th (Saturday) back in Arena Ciudad de Mexico

As I was reminded on Twitter, the original idea behind “TripleMania” was to run three of these shows a year and this is a return to it on their 30th Anniversary. The Tijuana show looks to be the biggest capacity of the three; Estadio Caliente is listed at over 27,000 seats. The show has a decent chance of drawing US spillover fans due to how close it is to the border.

This is the first time TripleMania Mexico City has been scheduled outside of August since 2013. I’m curious if Arena Ciudad de Mexico has a date conflict or if AAA is busy somewhere else.

I did a really quick look at WWE and UFC PPV dates and don’t see any conflicts, but many schedules aren’t complete that far out.

The spine of the three TripleMania will be an eight-man, ruleta de la muerte tournament. All eight names were announced

• Ultimo Dragon
• Blue Demon Jr.
• Psycho Clown
• Pentagon Jr.
• LA Park
• Villano IV
• Canek
• Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

That’s four singles match in Monterrey, two singles match in Tijuana, and the last two in a mask match in Arena Ciudad de Mexico.

Villano IV is the likely loser. Let’s be clear here: there are other names on this list who should absolutely take a loss at TripleMania 30 if they are ever going to give up their mask because it’s unlikely they’ll ever get this big of a payday again. Either AAA will go in a different or what’s left of their ability to give in the ring will leave them. There will probably be a lot of fame and attention to go along with that mask loss, as Dr. Wagner Jr. found out. Still, Villano IV sticks as a guy who would never be in a TripleMania mask match without this tournament, and anyone who cares to think this out will assume he’s getting unmasked. AAA’s big advantage over most companies is they draw a section of fans who just want to show up and be entertained and aren’t going to be bothered by ‘knowing’ the outcome in advance.

Many of these people aren’t big on losing in normal trios matches, so even just getting finishes out of these (yet to be announced) singles matches is going to be some work. The matches themselves are not promising. Pentagon & Psycho can be counted on to be good, LA Park, Ultimo Dragon, and even Blue Demon should be good in the right circumstances. Canek & Rayo de Jalisco struggled to climb a single step as part of this presentation. It’s been so long since we’ve seen Villano IV on this stage that I don’t even know which category to slot him in.

The Rayo de Jalisco Jr. walk-in during TripleMania Regia suggests a Rayo/Park first-round match for this tournament, but that gives AAA a lot of benefit of the doubt in having a plan a while back. That segment built to NGD versus Rayo, which doesn’t appear to be going anywhere for the moment. I’d be tempted to have Psycho/Pentagon to have one conventionally good match in the first round, but they probably need to split them up to minimize very old versus very old. The final four could be Villano IV, Psycho Clown, LA Park, and one maybe Blue Demon, so they can get the less mobile names out right away. On the other hand, are outcomes like Canek beating Psycho Clown really beneficial for AAA in 2022, no matter how it’s done?

Ultimo Dragon is the big surprise name. Wrestling for AAA ends his promotion relationship with CMLL, which stretches back to 2001 for Toryumon Mexico’s first Arena Coliseo show. Dragon worked AAA briefly in 1996 and did return to CMLL after, so it’s not like the relationship is totally dead, but the era of random indie (and foreign) wrestlers working a big DragonMania show in Arena Mexico appears to have ended. Antonio Pena appears to have come up with the Ultimo Dragon character, so there’s longer history here. Ultimo Dragon works primarily with Dragon Gate in Japan, but my understanding (from listening to people who follow it closer) is he’s just there as a freelancer and doesn’t have anything to do with operations nowadays. Dragon has plenty of connections in Japan which could help AAA’s plans to run there. AAA had used CIMA and Stronghearts in 2020 before the pandemic with apparent plans to feature them regularly, CIMA and Dragon have professional issues, so AAA working with Dragon seems to close the door to CIMA’s guys coming back. It’s AAA, they may try to work with both anyway. This is interesting from an international alliance standpoint but doesn’t really affect this tournament, where Dragon is unlikely to lose to be around for more than one match. Just doing this for one match doesn’t really make sense – either CMLL/Dragon were done with each other already and Dragon had no relationship left to break, or there’s something else going on here.

The April 30th date in Monterrey is a logical place for the Kenny Omega versus Hijo del Vikingo match – it’s the first TripleMania, it’s the place where the match was scheduled to happen – but there was no tease of it or mention of Omega. Vikingo appeared at the press conference with the mega-championship, but was treated just as another face in the crowd along the lines of Mr. Iguana & Dave the Clown. Cibernetico, Sanson, and Foratero were given mic time to vaguely threaten people.

No other matches were announced and we don’t know who faces who in the first round of the tournament as of yet. AAA read off a list of places they plan to run: Tampico, San Luis Potosio, Tijuana, Mazatlan, Torreon, Puebla, Ciudad Madero, Leon, Aguasalientes, Saltillo, Monterrey, Cancun, Chihuahua in Mexico, as well as Dallas, Japan and Colombia. No dates for any of them. The first show will be Rey de Reyes on 02/19; they apparently aren’t going to squeeze in another taping to replace Merida, so AAA TV will be back to reruns for a couple of weeks.

The press conference peaked with the announcement of the mask tournament, with the first half-hour all about pushing the various sponsorship tie-ups:

• cross-promotion with NFL Mexico for their 2022 game
• AAA themed skills on Amazon Alexa
• cross-promotion with mobile game Freefire
  • fans of mobile game wrestling ties up may note the company behind Freefire were the ones who did the Contra tie up with CMLL last year; they’ve switched
• promotion of the Charly/AAA LigaMX jerseys
  • Charly announced they’ve also created team jackets and outfits for the AAA roster this year
• Tony Khan sent in a video congratulating AAA on 30 years
  • this was the same sort of video Dorian’s done for AEW
• a new AAA merchandise store was shown off, and the online store promoted
• AAA announced their wrestlers would participate in the Vive Mexico musical festival, March in Mexico City
• AAA wrestlers will participate in musical “The Prom”

Very little of this stuck, it just existed to tell the press what a big deal AAA is right now. (Edit: I swear this is true, because I forgot the last two until after hitting post.) Marisela Pena opened the press conference talking about the history of her brother Antonio in lucha libre and the formation of AAA in the best of the show, which seemed to be the best part of the presentation. No other matches were announced.

FITE followed the Spanish press conference with an English interview with Hugo Savinovich, with the idea they were going to explain what just happened for people who didn’t understand English and explain how those people can watch the shows. It did not succeed. Hugo is a lot like Vampiro: a beloved character who can exude passion and excitement helpful to promote your product, but also not really good on details. This was a details situation. Hugo would answer one question for five minutes but also not really answer the question. He repeatedly had to ask people off-camera – it appeared to be Jose Manuel Guillen & Oscar Manuel – the answers to basic questions he was there to answer. Both of those people speak English and would’ve done a better job, but Hugo is an ex-WWE name so AAA & FITE put him in that role even though it wasn’t suited to in the least.

(In a larger context, I think there are large misconceptions of what Hugo is and what’s good at by English speaking fans and media who saw him at the WWF Spanish announcing desks and have developed their own ideas of who this man is without actually listening to him much in his own language.)

It’s not like all the AAA had all the info there anyway; the FITE host talked about broadcasting AAA monthly, then said it might be a more than once a month, then said he’d been given a schedule but wasn’t sure if it would be the right one. FITE is airing the Febuary 19th Rey de Reyes show, but that either wasn’t said or wasn’t said much. It wasn’t a disaster, especially on the scale of AAA English disasters, but you did walk away wondering what the point of it was.

We did learn things in the Hugo interview, though just not the things we were supposed to. Hugo said himself, Konnan, and two other people currently comprise the AAA creative team. Hugo said he and others are talking to wrestlers about doing fewer things and slowing it down a bit so the announcers have more time to tell stories. (I’m sure makes some sense for the storytelling but is also just about the exact opposite most people are looking from AAA. Also, what stories is AAA telling?) Hugo promised big surprises really soon as possibly the most-vague scoop of all time. Hugo was apparently told off-camera during the interview that FITE would have English commentary, and then declared himself as the guy who would manage all the international commentator teams and make sure they all did the best job possible. This came off like Hugo seizing power over something he didn’t know about – he was under the impression announcers had not been hired – though I think the intent was to promise English commentary would have Hugo’s stamp of approval.

In reality, AAA’s already hired people to announce in English – Joe Dombrowski and Larry Dallas would’ve started this week had the Merida taping gone on. They are an improvement simply by not being the last crew. I think everyone understands that this is a good gig to have – AAA can be a very fun show, and often a very memorable one – but it takes good support from inside the company to make it happen and English announcers tend to have to go outside to find it.

The English commentary will start with Rey de Reyes and they’ll be doing every TripleMania at least. Maybe other shows in between. The shows will be available internationally. My understanding is this is specifically a FITE deal – there are no plans for weekly TV in English – so the number of shows we get may depend on how much interest there is in these.

AAA might release more details in a press conference, but that’s all we got now. Announcing those eight names will get AAA the press attention they wanted, good luck to the rest of us on watching it.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 01/21/2022 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiadores]
1) Halcón Suriano Jr. b Eléctrico  
Halcon Suriano replaced Panterita del Ring on 01/20
2) Dalys, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit b Dark Silueta, Marcela, Reyna Isis [Relevos Increíbles]  
19:32. Team Sugehit took 1/3. Princesa Sugehit replaced Jarochita, Reyna Isis replaced Stephanie Vaquer on 01/20
3) Soberano Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario   
14:43. Soberano won with a small package after each survived big moves. Barbaro Cavernario replaced Hechicero on 01/20
4) Atlantis Jr. b Terrible   
15:53.
5) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero   
26:19. Rudos took 1/3, the last when UG pulled Mistico’s mask to set up a singles match next week

CMLL ‘big match’ style is to do everything you know how to do. It works when there’s some novelty – the opener had ideas I wasn’t used to seeing from each guy, even if it was something clumsily. It works if there’s some intensity and precision, like Cavernario & Soberano had. It doesn’t work for me if it’s just stuff to do more stuff, which happened with both the women’s trios and the Terrible/Atlantis match. And it a struggle if it feels repetitive with little new energy, which was the case of the main event. That was technically good in the same way the two hundred prior matches have been, but it was not one I particularly was enthused by. The opener and the Cavernario/Soberano matches were both Good and there wasn’t much else you had to see here.

The Arena Mexico crowd seemed quiet and sparse, though it’s tough to expect a big crowd on short notice in times like this. Mexico City will change to Yellow COVID conditions starting Monday, though the city appears reluctant to bring back any restrictions and is only urging people to wear masks and vaccinate. CMLL is going to be able to keep the doors open, but there may not be much they can do to get people to come through them right now.

CMLL announced the Reyes del Aire for next week, along with the Mistico/Ultimo Guerrero match. That’ll be another PPV, though it’s not for sale yet.

CMLL (SAT) 01/22/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Leono b Cholo
Retro & Apocalipsis removed on 01/20
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel & Micro Ángel [Relevos Increíbles]
Gallito & Zacarais removed on 01/20
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus b Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr., Oro Jr.
Magnus & Oro Jr. added to the match to replace Panterita del Ring & Suicida on 01/20 (and names shifted around) Magia Blanca replaced Stigma later.
4) El Coyote & Sangre Imperial b Robin & Rugido [Relevos Increíbles]
Rugido replaced Hombre Bala Jr.
5) Atlantis, Cavernario, Último Guerrero DQ Negro Casas, Templario, Titán [Relevos Increíbles]
Templario replaced Felino on 01/20, then Negro Casas replaced Mistico on 01/21. Ultimo Guerrero faked a foul from Templario, who said it was the saddest moment of his career to have his father figure pull that on him.

The Templario/Ultimo Guerrero sets up a singles match next week. CMLL is teasing this might be the end of Templario in Los Guerreros, though it’s very hard to imagine anything is going to come out of this. If you want to dream, maybe Templario needs to be moved out so Atlantis Jr. can get the trio spot, but moving Templario out of your group seems a bad call.

CMLL (SUN) 01/23/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Fantasy b Pequeño Violencia
2) Halcón Suriano Jr. & Pegasso b Grako & Inquisidor
tecnicos took 2/3
3) El Audaz, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Dark Magic, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Cavernario, Euforia, Mephisto b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Infernales/Cavernario took 1/3.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja b Titán & Volador Jr. © [CMLL TAG]
Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja become the 44th champions. Titan & Volador lose on 1st defense (won titles in September)

CMLL never planned to have Titan & Volador as tag team champions. They had Mistico II & Caristico as champions, they were probably going to lose it to either the Gemelos Diablos or the Guerreros, Mistico II quit, the #1 contenders match was now a title match, and the tecnicos winning was a way to show some stability. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja make sense as a regular team, so a title change is no big surprise. A direction for the titles coming out of this would be.

CMLL has had too many titles for thirty years now – since the moment they added the ‘CMLL’ titles. At this moment, they seem to have more titles than pushed wrestlers. Volador and Titan lost the tag titles and still are singles champions. Niebla Roja also has a singles title he never defends.

Puebla tonight has Volador/Soberano. We may actually get results from a local paper because it’s the first show back.

CMLL (TUE) 01/25/2022 Arena México
1) Kaligua vs Pequeño Violencia
2) Cholo, Oro Jr., Robin vs Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Leono [Relevos Increíbles]
3) La Vaquerita, Lluvia, Skadi vs La Comandante, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
4) Dark Panther, Kráneo, Volcano vs Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán vs El Coyote, Gran Guerrero, Templario

AAA

AAA has a press conference to talk about their 2022 plans on Tuesday morning at 10 AM. Mas Lucha’s radio show mentioned AAA will talk about their schedule and their COVID plans. AAA has a link up to stream the show, and FITE does as well. FITE list the show starting at 10:00 AM CT, AAA at 10:15 CT – because it’s an AAA press conference, expect to wait until 10:30 or so.

topics that will probably be discussed

• general “how we’re handling the pandemic”
  • maybe an update on the Merida taping
• the 02/17 02/19 Rey de Reyes show
  • maybe an update on Fenix
• the 2022 calendar of events, including the date for TripleMania
  • expect special plans for the 30th Anniversary tour
• plans to run internationally (US/WrestleCon, Japan, and Colombia), though we usually don’t get exact details on those until later
• plans for English language content
  • that’s the FITE link; they’ve got new commentators so maybe they’ll be introduced

That’s a lot and there may be more. Taya seemed meant to return to AAA as a surprise on the Merida show and then be advertised for Rey de Reyes, so maybe they’ll make that formal announcement or tease other recent ex-WWE people. The Marvel Lucha Libre show was supposed to take place the first few months of 2022, so that’s due for an update. Mas Lucha’s Radio suggested there may be some TV news; the current concept of pairing AAA up with Azteca’s boxing show and airing it past midnight isn’t well-liked.

I like these press conferences because it gives a lot to look forward to in a promotion that tends to only talk about one show at a time. The dates are always fuzzy the farther it gets out, even more so in COVID, but it’s a good way to get people talking and thinking about AAA again.

This past week’s AAA TV was a house show converted to TV taping days before, and still felt house show-like as a TV show this week. The opener was enjoyable if you’ve been missing some AAA, but none of the three matches were worth going out of your way to see. La Empresa continues to have unexplained henchmen who freely interfere in this match (and, in this case, it appeared to be the same minis they beat upstart the show), which is supposed to get heat but usually takes me out of taking the match seriously. DMT Azul isn’t up to the standards of the rest of the promotion. I think there’s still interest in the climactic match where the AAA team finally beat them (assuming AAA gets around to booking it) but I’m not sure the team’s going has a second act following that loss; once they become just guys on the roster, there’s a lot of more interesting guys on the roster.

Other

IWRG (SUN) 01/23/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, Mas Lucha]
1) Garra Mortal Jr. & Rey Sultan b Halcón Del Astro Negro & Rey Minos
bonus match featuring Lucha Time wrestlers
2) Kenji & Limbo b Spider Fly & Villarreal 
3) Baronessa & Satania b Jessy Jackson & Sagitarius 
4) Ra-Zhata, Shil-Ka, Tortuga Leo DQ Big Boy, Big Chico Che, Big Mike 
5) Dick Angelo 3G, Puma de Oro, Tonalli b Asterboy, Freelance, Legendario 
Legendario replaced Noisy Boy
6) Accion Jackson & Travis Banks b Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane   
said to be a good match, sets up Banks/Bane for the IWRG Middleweight Championship
7) Hijo del Alebrije L Hijo del Fishman, Hijo del Pirata Morgan  
Fishman & Pirata worked together to beat Alebrije, pinning him at the same time. Relampago returned, tried to make the save, got unmasked.

Relampago is back after four months out via injury, which also makes him a likely candidate to lose a mask if it comes up soon. Two people winning a singles match is very weird, even if they’re building a tag match.

Banks did well, everyone involved seems to like him, and will likely be here often going forward. Mas Lucha still avoids mentioning him on social media, but IWRG seems unconcerned with any bad internet reaction, likely because they’d be happy for anyone to notice them. Almost no one notices unless I point it out on Twitter, which riles people up but doesn’t actually mean anything, so all the Banks updates are here. If you are a person who watches IWRG and doesn’t like Banks, I’m afraid to tell you you’re probably going to be stuck with him until he gets picked up elsewhere. It seems like a futile gesture to complain about it, but I’m writing a blog about lucha libre in English in sphere where fans largely don’t care or don’t wish to be informed about lucha libre and that is impossible to reasonably monetize; complaining about Travis Banks is no more or less futile than creating a database to store Arena Coliseo results.

IWRG attendance looked down, as you’d expect with the current COVID wave.

The US began requiring vaccination for foreigners to enter the company starting this weekend. The accepted list of vaccines originally looked like just the normal US ones, but the CDC website lists others more common in Mexico also as approved. I don’t think this is going to be an issue for Mexican wrestlers traveling back and forth.

Microman and Bandido debuted on MLW’s show Friday in Dallas. I think they’re just in for dates at this point, not signed.

Sam Adonis won the Warrior Wrestling Lucha Libre championships from Aramis on Saturday. Aramis is off the 02/12 show and will be replaced by Lince Dorado.

The Bandido, Laredo Kid, ASF versus Gringo Loco, Demonic Flamita, Arez match on Sunday’s GCW show seems to be acclaimed as the best match of the show; it was as good as the trios match on their Spring Break show last year. Psycho Clown participated in a pre-show battle royal and apparently eliminated himself off-camera. The GCW show in general was in the range of expectations I had for it; maybe towards the lower end, but not direly so. It’s an indie that seems to do well for the fans who are into it, I’m not into it, but plenty of people are and not everything is going to be me. There are plenty of those groups, very little is going to be for me. The exception for GCW is they have an outstanding lucha libre trios match every three months as well and that’s enough to get my money. I wish I was getting more of what I liked for that money, but I’m not confused as to what I’m getting when I make that investment.

RIOT announced their La Rina tournament is postponed due to COVID, with a new plan of running it March 25th & 26th.

Segunda Caida writes about a LA Lucha match from 1995.