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
02/1702/19 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.