CMLL Reyes del Aire & Mistico versus Ultimo Guerrero tonight, AAA TV, GCW, IWRG Tryout

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.