Coyote wins his main event, Dragon Lee makes challenges, possible CMLL cards changes

The 2022 Tapatia awards are now open for the best of 2021.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 01/04/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha]
1) Pequeño Magía & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Minos  
debuts of Magia & Mimos
2) Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Retro b Arkalis, Cholo, Oro Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
3) La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi b Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis  
Reyna Isis replaced Comandante. Tecnicas took 1/3.
4) Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring, Stuka Jr. b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa  
Team Laguneros took 1/3
5) El Coyote, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas b Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Star Jr.  
Rudos took 2/3, Coyote pinning Fugaz for the win.

Nice to give Coyote a win in his main event. It’s more important where Coyote is is three months from now, but at least they’re starting off trying. CMLL now has a Pequeno Magia and Magia Blanca, two unrelated characters.

CMLL (TUE) 01/04/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (video)]
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Bobby Black, Capitán Cobra b Destello, Gran Kenut, Jabalí 
2) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro b Destructor, Persa, Quka 
3) Bestia Negra, Crixus, Omega b Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. 
Bestia Negra used the ropes to beat Joker
4) Blue Panther, Cachorro, Niebla Roja b Maléfico, Satánico, Zandokan Jr. 
Niebla Roja replaced Dark Panther on Monday
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel © b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga [OCCIDENTE TRIOS] 
first defense
6) Averno, Difunto, Templario b Dr. Karonte I, Explosivo Dr. Karonte II, Místico 
Difunto replaced Dragon Rojo. Averno, with a heavily taped left shoulder, pulled off Mistico’s mask and cradled him for the win. Challenges followed.

Not an ideal time for Dragon Rojo to also be missing. Cavernario’s family keeps the trios titles.

CMLL (SAT) 01/08/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Leono & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) El Gallito, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel, Micro Ángel, Perico Zakarías [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Panterita del Ring Jr., Stigma, Suicida vs Diamond, Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr.
4) El Coyote & Sangre Imperial vs Hombre Bala Jr. & Robin [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Felino, Místico, Titán vs Atlantis, Cavernario, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

The semi-main is the finalists from the Gran Alternativa against the finalists from the Gran Opurtindad elimination match on Arena Coliseo’s reopening. This is another re-opening, the first Saturday show here since the Lucha Memes show on 12/18 due to the holidays.

Those four names tournament finalists names are the only ones announced for CMLL Informa, which promises to have news on the Friday show as well. Volador Jr., Ultimo Guerrero, and Lluvia are all announced for Friday’s Best of 2021 card and all have missed every show they’ve been booked in since Saturday. Volador was pulled late from Monday’s show, Ultimo Guerrero missed a Sunday booking in Saltillo. CMLL has not said they’re COVID positive, but they’re treating these absences exactly like past COVID cases, taking them off shows one day at a time in hopes that they’ll get a negative test in time for the negative appearance. Ultimo Guerrero was announced for Saturday’s show even after he was pulled from the other ones, so it’s doesn’t appear to be another sort of injury. CMLL may not still hold out hope for negative tests Thursday or Friday, but they have been fair about announcing possible changes when it gets this close to a pre-advertised show.

Friday’s show is scheduled to be a 99 peso Ticketmaster PPV. Ticketmaster now lists the 01/28 show as a 230 peso PPV, so that’ll be a tournament final of some kind. This may also be an Informa announcement today; it doesn’t seem to have come out through the virtual media interviews.

CMLL (MON) 01/10/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Dreyko & Meyer vs Black Tiger & Siki Ozama
2) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Perverso, Prayer, Toro Bill Jr.
3) Dulce Gardenia vs Disturbio
4) Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
5) Místico vs Soberano Jr.

This show, which will not be aired anywhere as far as I know, is better than some lineups CMLL’s put on PPV. We’re still getting no results from Puebla – the only reason we have full results from Guadalajara a few paragraphs is that the show streamed and I can just quickly watch finishes – but photos on social media suggest Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. have been working as rudos against Mistico the last couple of weeks to set up the single match. Dulce/Disturbio is the cage match follow up.

MatchWornShirt mentioned that proceeds from the CMLL masks they’re selling will go to Reinserta, which helps children who’ve been exposed to trauma. The masks remain on sale for a week more.

Titan would like a mask versus hair match with Barbaro Cavernario.

Other News

AAA posted a Dragon Lee promo mentioning his titles won elsewhere by name and saying he was coming to AAA to win four titles (Tag, Latin American, Cruiserweight and Mega.) That promo is not blocked, though AAA’s YouTube channel still remains so. Dragon Lee mentions the singles champions but doesn’t name anyone (FTR) as tag title champions, which again points to FTR dropping the belts back to the Lucha Brothers in Merida. That promo seems like an obvious place for a hint about Rush coming in (why not the trios titles) but there’s not one I caught.

I’ve been told to expect an update in the AAA YouTube geoblock situation soon. I haven’t seen one yet. EdiT: The AAA Facebook page is now available worldwide, so things are moving in a positive direction.

Chelsea Green, in an interview with Fightful, mentions she was slated to be at TripleMania with Deonna Purrazzo. It sounds like she would’ve seconded Purrazzo, so Green would’ve likely done the constant interference spots that went to Maravilla. There’s some logic in bringing in multiple women for that match – there’s definitely a comfort level in having a friend with you when you’re traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language – but it’s long shot that most AAA fans would’ve known someone who barely appeared on WWE TV.

Chelsea Green brought in for that kind of spot is going to be a theme with AAA all this year; AAA’s beliefs lean towards bringing in as many US names as possible, and Konnan in interviews talked far more about the names he hopes to bring in than most people who work full time in AAA. I think this is not a winning strategy – the most successful non-US group at growing in the US over the last decade was NJPW, a promotion that prioritized both weekly English language content and deifying their in-house wrestlers. AAA seems to be going in a near opposite direction. They’re going do to it because they want to do it. The 2022 version of AAA should be more exciting because fans will be there and AAA might be prompted to try to run feuds, but viewers should also brace themself for lots of guest appearances where it’s a mystery why the person was even there.

The reason for the IWRG stream outage on Sunday turned out to be because Arena Naucalpan had a power outage, as Arena Neza did on Sunday. The Naucalpan power outage sounds like it was shorter, just about 10 minutes.

Twitter posts criticizing a Mexican airline for having a luchador (Blue Demon) painted on the side and criticizing the Mexico City airport for having a lucha libre themed bathroom went somewhat viral on Tuesday, mostly from people in and out of the wrestling business pushing back against the comments. There’s no news here – those bathrooms redesigns were announced in July, the story just got recycled  – but wrestlers have reacted strongly on social media and it would not be a surprise to see this criticism answered on shows. I have thoughts but, as someone who is not Mexican, it doesn’t feel like my place to say what does or does not positively reflect Mexican culture.

A Puerto Rico show (promotion OILL) will air their December show as a $20 PPV this weekend. There are Mexican wrestlers mostly from the Robles crew – Alberto, Texano, La Mascara, and Cibernetico – as well as Australian Suicide & Vanilla Vargas. Puerto Rico doesn’t seem much different than Mexico in indie promotions making it hard on themselves; they’re using an obscure (physical) ticket site to sell the PPV, and the page doesn’t have the lineup on the show. I get the sense, from random posts on Twitter (so this isn’t the most reliable evidence), that there are people who are actually buying those Nacion Lucha Libre shows most people have forgotten existed, simply because it’s on FITE and there are people who already use the platform and are willing to sample just about anything that comes on there. I don’t know how much FITE takes compared to Random Ticket Selling but I’m guessing it’s probably worth it for shows like this where there’s not a big built-in audience who will follow you to a random website. It’s possible CMLL’s drilled TicketmasterLive in people’s heads long enough that it wouldn’t make as much difference for them, but don’t know it for a fact.

An 03/19 AAA/Barba show in Saltillo has LA Park vs Psycho Clown vs Pagano vs Cibernetico and Hijo del Vikingo vs Laredo Kid vs Bandido. Those shows seem to get the biggest lineups of any AAA spot show. They’re also taped for Mas Lucha, though they’re one of the slower ones to turn up.

A mugger in Mexico City was using an Espanto mask to hide his identity. It’s not the CMLL Espanto Jr.; the only crimes he’s known to commit are his matches.

Monterrey lucha libre reporter Rafael Ramiro Salinas (Rafiki) passed away on December 28th. SuperLuchas said it was due to a lung disease, not thought to be related to COVID-19.

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