Fugaz/Volador set up in CMLL, Psycho/Gringo GCW, IWRG

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 02/04/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronistas del Ring, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Suicida DCOR Inquisidor
9:10. Inquisidor took a header out on his own apron headscissors dive about eight minutes in. Sonic was fine but sold outside the ring while doctors checked on Inquisidor and Edgar counted both out.
2) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi b Dalys, La Comandante, Reyna Isis 
21:02. Tecnicas took 1/3. Reyna Isis replaced Tiffany.
3) Gemelo Diablo I, Hijo del Villano III, Sagrado b Dark Panther, Esfinge, Espíritu Negro   
13:15. Rudos took 2/3. Hijo del Villano III replaced a Diablo, never acknowledged which
4) Fugaz, Negro Casas, Niebla Roja b Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
20:47. Team Fugaz took 2/3, the last when Fugaz pinned Volador to set up a NWA WELTER title match next week.
5) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Atlantis Jr., Místico, Titán   
20:05. Infernales took 2/3

It looked like an ordinary CMLL show and it turned out to be one. The top two matches were the best; Fugaz had good sections of the semi-main to set up their match, and the main event was the most complete match. It’s nothing you need to spend $4 to watch live, though that seems like the pattern going forward: TicketMaster Live has the 02/11, 02/18, and 02/25 shows each already up for 100 pesos. Next Friday’s show should be the first part of the incredible pairs tournament if CMLL is doing blocks.

Volador worked total rudo in his match. It is probably the best way to get a good match out of Fugaz and it often seems like Volador would prefer being back on the rudo side. Isis and Vaquerita are feuding on Tuesdays but barely interacted on Friday. Inquisidor was clearly booked to win the opener and Sonic appeared concerned he’d get in trouble if he won the match, so he just stayed dizzy on the outside. Inquisidor was back posting on Instagram so he must be doing OK.

CMLL (SAT) 02/05/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Polvora & Pequeño Violencia
Pequeno Polvora replaced Pequeno Olimpico. Tecnicos took 2/3
2) Robin, Sangre Imperial, Volcano b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Hombre Bala Jr.
Rudos took 1/3
4) Hechicero, Titán, Volador Jr. b Cavernario, Negro Casas, Sagrado [Relevos Increíbles]
Tecnicos (& Hechicero took 2/3)
5) Templario DQ Último Guerrero
Templario took 2/3. Templario faked a foul to win, which UG appreciated and congratulated Templario for it.

On video, referee Edgar kept moving out of the way of what appeared to be ref bump set up spots, then turned his head for no reason when Templario faked the foul. Templario faking the foul fits the story of the last two weeks so maybe that’s where they were going eventually. Templario and Ultimo Guerrero appeared to be friends after the match, so the breakup tease is just a tease.

CMLL (SUN) 02/06/2022 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Kaligua b Acero & Aéreo
2) Akuma, Espanto Jr., Raider b Enfermero Jr., Grako, Nitro
Raider’s return to CMLL (after a one match run back in 2019). Ola Negra took 1/3.
3) Dark Magic, Disturbio, Magnus b Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Stigma
Rudos took 1/3
4) Atlantis, Esfinge, Panterita del Ring b Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Místico, Niebla Roja, Templario DQ Cavernario, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Originally Místico, Niebla Roja, Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Último Guerrero, changed with Templario replacing Atlantis Jr. on Thursday afternoon. Tecnicos took 1/3. UG faked a foul in the second, Mistico in the third. The mask/hair challenges followed.

They will continue doing the challenges forever.

Monday’s Arena Puebla show has a Cavernario/Atlantis Jr. main event. We probably won’t know the outcome but it’d be interesting to find out how CMLL books those right now.

CMLL (TUE) 02/08/2022 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Pequeño Pólvora vs Full Metal & Pequeño Violencia [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Sangre Imperial, Stigma, Suicida vs Akuma, Disturbio, Espanto Jr.
3) La Vaquerita vs Reyna Isis
4) Atlantis, Dark Panther, Dulce Gardenia vs El Audaz, Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr.
5) Fugaz, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

Fugaz and Volador team three days before they have a title match. Should be a good match at least.

Full Metal is the latest mini to show up, following Pequeno Polvora, Pequeno Magia and Minos this year. The later two have disappeared since the pandemic shut down. Pequeno Olimpico hasn’t appeared this year; he was scheduled for Saturday’s Coliseo show but got replaced by the omnipresent Pequeno Polvora. Pierrothito is also missing from shows though he’s believed to be in the US. Full Metal has worked Mexico City area shows since 2016, including a Mr. Niebla tribute show in 2020. CMLL desperately needs new faces but this, along with the Raider return, feels like CMLL calling in anyone who can fill-in the short term.

CMLL (TUE) 02/08/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Obelisk vs Persa, Raven, Temerario
2) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Crixus, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Exterminador & Maléfico vs Bestia Negra & Difunto
4) Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel, Zandokan vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
5) Flash, Gallo, Star Black vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga

It took a while before CMLL CDMX began sending people after the first restart, so that may be the wait again.

Stuka Jr. apparently had COVID, based on a reply on Twitter. He hasn’t been seen since the Rey del Aire final. CMLL’s not going to announce COVID failures unless forced but that’s one where it would’ve been helpful to explain why the Stuka/Atlantis Jr. stuff was dropped (even if they don’t plan on going anywhere with it.)

Something may be up with Zacarias’ status in CMLL, but I’ll get to it in a different section.

AAA

It’s been really quiet for AAA, but it’ll start to get busy in a couple of weeks. AAA’s upcoming TV taping schedule is now:

• 02/19 Veracruz (Rey de Reyes)
• 03/05 Ciudad Madero
• 03/26 Tijuana – new (EMW local promoter)
• 03/31 Dallas – probably live on PPV, airing on TV at some point

The weeks don’t line up quite right for TV purposes; AAA needs to get three weeks out of Rey de Reyes or add another taping in late February. The Merida promoters talked about that show tentatively being booked in March, there are a couple of open weekends left but nothing’s been officially announced. AAA’s only acknowledged Rey de Reyes show as airing live. The other shows will probably not air live on Space, though Veracruz & Dallas will likely be PPVs on FITE. (Rey de Reyes show is not listed on FITE at the moment, though it’s AAA so we’ve got to give them another week before caring about it.)

For Twitch streaming purposes, I think I’ll resume on 02/26, and then it’ll be every weekend until the first TripleMania. (Streaming Saturday of WrestleMania will be a challenge but I think I’ll be OK; it’ll be more remembering to do it than anything.) This week’s AAA Space was a collection of matches from Heroes Inmortales and the TV taping directly after, and that’s what I expect for next week.

The 03/26 Tijuana date is one of the scheduled make-up days for RIOT’s weekend of shows, which may cause more changes on RIOT’s side. That’ll probably be the biggest AAA show in Tijuana until the second TripleMania show, maybe they’ll set up something for the return.

AAA did not air on Azteca this past Saturday night/Sunday morning; they went straight from boxing to infomercials. The Azteca Twitter usually promotes the show and said nothing, though AAA still did promote it. This is about when the AAA/Azteca deal has renewed in past years, so maybe there’s a bigger story than a random pre-emption, but there’s no other sign of something going on yet. I didn’t see anyone point out the show was missing, though I rarely see feedback about lucha libre TV on Twitter.

Nino Hamburugesa was mentioned in passing as getting hurt at the AAA/EMW show on Saturday but it didn’t sound serious. Vikingo was added as a sub for Chessman and got the win over Abismo Negro Jr. in the trios main event. There was another slight tease of a Rebelion breakup, which follows them doing something similar on The Crash show last week. Maravilla replaced Hiedra in a mixed tag; Hiedra hasn’t wrestled since the injury angle last month.

The in-game Free Fire/AAA co-promotions looks like it’ll begin on the 9th. AAA luchadors (Parka Negra, Argenis, Hijo del Vikingo and Aerostar) appeared on a stream playing the game on Friday night.

Other places

The 38th anniversary of El Santo’s death was Saturday. As he does most years, El Santo visited his father’s statue as part of a press event, an increasingly rare one. Hijo del Santo says he was feeling very good going into his booking for the Crash and other matches in February and March, though he didn’t know who was in The Crash match for sure until he was asked about it. Hijo del Santo is always asked if his son if he going to take up the name, and usually says he’s telling his son to finish university before wrestling. This year, Santo said his son had finished but was still deciding if to come (back) to the ring or work on another career. He pushed the idea of keeping the legacy of El Santo alive via things like his YouTube channel instead. Hijo del Santo played down the rivalry with Blue Demon Jr., saying the ones with Negro Casas & Fuerza Guerrera were more important and he didn’t want to associate with toxic people. He’s referred to Demon as toxic in the past, though the specific reasons aren’t clear.

Longtime CMLL parrot mascot Zacarias worked the Arena Mexico show in a forgettable position – he and Mije accompanied the teams in tercera for no reason other than get them on the card – then showed up at Arena Neza to second Hijo del Mr. Niebla and his knockoff Peste Negra group. That show included DMT Azul, so that’s normally a prohibited event for a CMLL wrestler to work. Zacarias hasn’t wrestled in Arena Mexico since November; he’s worked as a second for random groups of rudos as normal. Zacarias is also listed for a Neza show with the same group on the 02/26, so either he’s got special permission or he may be leaving CMLL. Karis La Momia Jr. is also listed on that show, with a bunch of people who aren’t on good terms with AAA.

Blue Demon won his singles match with DMT Azul on that Neza show, by a disqualification of course. Just as predictably as the DQ were the mask versus mask challenges that followed, which have about 0% chance of happening. That’s a match that needs a TripleMania level building to make it worth doing, AAA already has their TripleMania mask match, CMLL isn’t going to bring those guys back, and no one else can actually do it. It’s the only thing for them to say, the money they’re trying make is taking that feud to other buildings, so they’re just leaving the idea open.

IWRG (SUN) 02/06/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Kenji & X-Devil b Spider Fly & Villarreal
2) Baronessa & Lolita b Jessy Jackson & Sagitarius
3) Bengalee DRAW Satania
4) Big Mike L Black Dragón, Tortuga Leo, Hell Boy [hair]
Big Mike his hair to Hell Boy
5) Alpha Wolf & Travis Banks b Accion Jackson & Dragón Bane
Banks challenged Bane to an immediate title match
6) Travis Banks © b Dragón Bane [IWRG IC MIDDLE]
7) Hijo del Fishman & Tonalli b Noisy Boy & Relámpago and Hijo del Pirata Morgan & Puma de Oro and Aster Boy & Hijo del Alebrije and Black Terry & Legendario and Dick Angelo 3G & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Caballero de Plata & Veneno and Galeno del Mal & Limbo [El Protector]
Fishman challenged Alebrije for the IWRG JUNIOR, Tonalli to Aster Boy for the IWRG LIGHT

Banks remains well-liked by IWRG management so the only surprise was doing a title match as a surprise instead of announcing it ahead of time. English speaking people on the internet being upset about Banks being used here does not matter, because there’s only a handful of English speaking people on the internet who care about IWRG to begin with; an IWRG apuesta match goes wrestling bubble viral once every two years and that’s about it. You can’t threaten to withhold support from something you’ve never cared about. Mas Lucha, who does seem to care about its international image, did not mention the title change on their social media accounts.

The fourth match is the too cute swerve IWRG specializes in: neither of the guy who are feuding end up in the apuesta match as a surprise, except they do that so often it’s only a surprise when they actually deliver a good ending.

The IWRG Mas Lucha Premium are typically ignored by the other YouTube channels, but Estrellas del Ring looks like they were doing backstage interviews this time. It’s a weird sensation that the biggest IWRG show seem like the least covered.

GCW results from this weekend

• 02/04 Houston
  • Blake Christian beat ASF, Gringo Loco, Mascara Dorada
• 02/05 Dallas
  • Psycho Clown beat Gringo Loco
  • Blake Christian beat Laredo Kid
  • Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Joey Janela

The Dallas show was the talk of the weekend. Psycho Clown and Gringo Loco had a crazy bloody falls count anywhere brawl that was the best match of both shows. It wasn’t Psycho Clown’s only match of the day: he and Dr. Wagner Jr. got into a fight at the merchandise stands before the show. GCW sent out an apology about it. I wasn’t there and didn’t see the fight, but my guess was Wagner/Psycho was a worked brawl and the question was more about if they filled GCW in before shooting their angle. Psycho showed up to challenge Wagner to a mask versus hair match at the end of the show, so it seems like a GCW angle for their lucha libre show on WrestleMania weekend. There’s little chance the hair versus mask stipulation is going to happen; GCW would need to run a stadium to make the money back it’d cost them, and that’s the sort of challenge that those two guys make on every show they work together. (It may also be the sort of challenge they make on their own to talk the promoter in to booking the match.) Fans in Mexico know it’s a bit that’s probably not going to happen, but GCW fans seemed to take it more seriously. The Houston whole show is said to be really good and you can still watch it on FITE.

Mascara Dorada was said to look rusty and a little heavy in his match, which went about eight minutes. They did get some money thrown in, but that seems like a thing done so often as to mean not much anymore; fans are doing it for the experience of saying they were at a match where money was thrown in. It’s going to be a challenge to get back to where he was.

I went to AAW to see Laredo Kid versus Mat Fitchett. It was good, though I think they could’ve done better with some more time; they never got far enough along where Laredo Kid felt like he was going to win the title. I was expecting a Laredo Fly kickout that never came. I was also sitting in a section of fans who were having a lot of fun and making a lot of noise while also being completely and thoroughly annoying. The match might play better on video without the urge to hit someone next to you because they’ve decided Laredo’s name was either “Nacho Libre” or “una mas.” AAW always draws well with a crowd who just wants to go out to wrestling and have a good time, this was just an unusually unpleasant experience. It happens, it gave me a good excuse to bail early.

The most recent Vanguardia show went up on Mas Lucha on Saturday. The match which got the most attention is the explosion match with Damian 666 & El Mago vs Ciclope & Lobo Blanco. The explosions were loud and bright and didn’t seem to actually hurt all that much, or at least they weren’t sold as hurting that much until they did the everyone knocked out the finish. I liked the Gasparin/Perso match on second; Gasparin looked interesting before he suffered an injury last year. The Tromba/Falcon Fire match was good as well. The announcers were really excited about the Jimmy/Brazo de Oro Jr. match but it didn’t work for me. It felt like they had cut and paste moments from other big matches without earning them in the context of the match they were doing, and without doing them in a way that made much sense. A lot of Vanguardia feels like trying to emulate matches and moments seen elsewhere, which everyone does to some extent, but it got rearranged in unconvincing ways here. It also turned into a bit of bad CMLL big matches style, where each guy takes a turn doing a big spot for a very long time, and none of the moves matter until the finish.

Box y Lucha 3500 has Super Muneco and Euforia on the cover.