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.