CMLL
CMLL (TUE) 06/14/2022 Arena México [Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha]
1) Átomo, Chamuel, Periquito Sacaryas b Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Mije 
new spelling for Zacarias. Mije replaced one of the Micro Gemelos (and CMLL quietly mentioned the change in the afternoon)
2) Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Polvora b Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua
3) Esfinge, Star Black, Suicida b Cancerbero, Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora
Suicide replaced Flyer (injury)
4) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja b Guerrero Maya Jr. & Star Jr. [CMLL TAG]
third defense
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto b Gran Guerrero, Terrible, Último Guerrero
Euforia challenged Terrible to a MEX HEAVY match, UG challenged Averno to a hair match again
I was wiped out last night, so you’ll likely see the tag title match before I do. I heard it’s worth watching.
Ultimo Guerrero latches onto things and doesn’t let them go, but I’m a bit concerned about the Averno feud. Stuka, Atlantis Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero and Averno is six people, they’re just one more feud away from having enough people for a typical CMLL cage match main event. It would be very disappointing if that happened (or if we had to watch Atlantis and Fuerza Guerrera try to climb a cage.)
Part of the joy of following lucha libre is a man could spell his name one way for a decade, then show up with a completely different spelling and no explanation. I couldn’t figure out any trademark reason why Perico is changing his name, but it appears to be happening.
Ticket sales looked poor for this show.
CMLL (TUE) 06/14/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Mas Lucha]
1) Obelisk, Persa, Raven b Espíritu Negro Jr. (Querétaro), Samuray Azteca (Querétaro), Temerario
2) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Trono b Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
3) Bestia Negra, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte b Destructor, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cris Skin, Crixus, Flash
5) Dark Magic, Okumura, Zandokan Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
Cavernario left the match with a knee injury but seemed relatively fine when he returned for post match challenges. Appears to be setting up an Occidente Trios match.
I scanned through the main event and couldn’t find a specific incident that caused Caveranrio to leave. He came back after and was walking relatively fine, which makes me think it’s a reoccurring issue (or a storyline device to set up the opposition win.)
This week’s Puebla semi-main seemed to set up a Negro Casas/Fuerza Guerrera match, though maybe not for next week.
CMLL (FRI) 06/17/2022 Arena México
1) Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr., Robin vs Enfermero Jr., Nitro, Raider
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Titán © vs Fugaz [CMLL WELTER]
3rd defense, 1st in nearly a year, with a next scheduled defense of tomorrow
4) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero and Blue Panther & Dark Panther and Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II [Copa Dinastia, battle royal]
5) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Copa Dinastia, quarterfinal]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Copa Dinastia, quarterfinal]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [Copa Dinastia, semifinal]
It’ll be a tremendous surprise if anyone besides the Guerreros advance to the Copa Dinasita final. Fugaz is less experienced than anyone Titan faced in the BOSJ, so this might be a bigger test.
CMLL (SAT) 06/18/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Angelito, Fantasy, Pequeño Magía vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Bengala, Leono, Retro vs Disturbio, Grako, Inquisidor
3) Arkalis, Oro Jr., Suicida vs Diamond, Magnus, Rugido
4) Magia Blanca, Stigma, Volcano vs Kráneo, Luciferno, Okumura
5) Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Hechicero, Mephisto
Magia Blanca gets moved up while the other Depreadores team in the tercera.
There’s no lineup for Sunday yet. CMLL usually tries to do something for Father’s Day and that may be a Informa announcement
CMLL (TUE) 06/21/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Cris Skin, Crixus, Flash vs Bestia Negra, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
2) Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Difunto, Fúnebre, Zandokan Jr.
3) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel & Perico Zacarías
4) Lluvia, Náutica, Sexy Sol vs Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Valkiria
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Negro Casas vs Fuerza Guerrera, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Soberano Jr. vs Averno, Hijo del Villano III, Mephisto
No big match for the 63rd Anniversary, though some big names. Some big names: that main event looks like Templario was busy Tuesday so they pulled Villano III’s name out of the hat. Semi-main is a legends match. Zacarias is spelled ‘normally” here.
The Mexican national welterweight championship, vacated by Soberano Jr. when he challenged for the CMLL world version, will be filled on the June 24th show. It’ll be an eight person tournament, with Magia Blanca, Inquisidor, and Diamond announced to start. The rest will be announced Informa. That’s the same date as Copa Dinastia final, so the show will be mostly tournament matches.
Dalys she’s leaving for her Japanese tour soon and will be gone two months.
CMLL has a cast of thousands on the Informa show today. Of note is Blue Panther Jr.’s first appearance after announcing his medical issues. He’s there with the rest of the Panthers to talk about last year’s Copa Dinastia and Blue Sr. & Dark participating in this year’s event. Lluvia, La Jarochita, Olympia and Hera are all announced, which might be a tag title match setup for that Father’s Day show.
Arena Coliseo Acapulco posted a video of Sagrado promoting a June 25th appearance on Sunday, so either he’s back soon or they’re out of the loop.
Templario, doing press to promote the CMLL Pekes kids-focused project, mentioned he’s working on a foundation to support children dealing with cancer.
Something happened with the 06/18 QROLL that I’m not sure I’ve seen often in lucha libre. The show was supposed to be headlined by Mistico & the Dr. Karonte brothers versus Dulce Gardenia & Los Atrapsuenos. Mistico & the Karontes are off the shows for reasons the promotion says are outside of their control. QROLL not only announced the changes, but they cut the prices of the show and offered partial refunds or seat upgrades to everyone who had bought a ticket. They’re also going to do a free meet and greet for the people who are affected. RIOT did something like this for their recent show – they sold first row tickets, then their venue changes caused the “first row” to not meaningfully exist, so they refunded those affected – but this sticks out extra because QROLL is loosely CMLL related. Wrestling promotions aren’t great at taking care of wrestling fans, and this is a case where they’ve done well.
AAA
AEW announced Jeff Hardy was suspended on Tuesday. Hardy also has a pending court hearing for July, which likely takes the decision for using him on TripleMania out of AAA’s hands; Jeff may not be able to leave the country. AAA had previously scheduled press conference on other matters Wednesday midday and indicated Matt Hardy will still appear at TripleMania and AAA will announce more tonight.
Monday night, Wrestling Observer Radio reported the current AAA plan is just to replace Jeff in the scheduled tag match with Matt Hardy, Dralistico, and Dragon Lee, which fits with that announcement. WOR said lots of people had been reached out to and it was going to be hard to get someone this late. AAA did not hint at a name, though announcing Wednesday will lead to people believing it’s AEW name. (AAA may be waiting for a promo from the replacement name, and that’s something that was taken care of at Dynamite for the December changes.) AAA and TripleMania fans always hope for some giant name to come through in these situations – my Twitter replies were full of people expecting Jon Moxley or Darby Allin with Sting – but that rarely occurs and it obviously didn’t occur with Kenny Omega back at TripleMania Regia. I expect people much lower down on the totem pole.
AAA has told ticket purchasers that the meet and greet with the Hardys is still on. I suspect it’ll be ‘on’ until they can announce how they’re handling it.
AAA’s press conference was actually about the return of the Hard Rock Hotel shows. AAA’s periodically ran shows and hosted fan groups at resorts going back to 2014. They’re returning to the Riviera Maya hotel on September 9th and the 10th, with a show on the 10th. I believe that show on the 10th is a TV taping; AAA said 30 people would appear, including both finalists in the mask tournament and two foreign stars. I would like to bet, with no evidence at all, that the two foreign stars are Killer Kross & Scarlett Bordeaux.
I totally missed on it, but AAA actually pulled Poder del Norte off the 06/24 Domo Madero lineup almost two weeks ago. Ciberenetico, Abismo Negro Jr. and Latigo are in their place. That seems to confirm Tito Santana & Mocho Cota Jr. are on their way out. There’s no update for the Showcenter card, though AAA advertised that without a lineup on Tuesday. NGD are still listed in the 06/24 main event. On Mas Lucha, Jose Manuel Guillen pointed out NGD had said last August that they signed a one-year deal with AAA so they should still be under contract for a while longer.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 06/16/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ajolotl & Nativo vs Súper Boy & Súper Cometa
2) Estrella de Oro & Genex vs Chris Stone Jr. & Wagner Kid
3) Tonalli vs Cerebro Negro
4) Aster Boy & Noisy Boy vs Fly Warrior & Fulgor
5) Puma de Oro vs Freelance [IWRG REY DEL AIRE]
2nd defense, rematch from March 20th
That’s a slimmed down Thursday card, but 3/4 could be good. Freelance, always an up and down wrestler, has seemed more down of late.
Other News
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.
Today was the one-year anniversary of Federacion Wrestling announcing they were postponing their debut show. The post, declaring the show would be run with the same talent and same date, is the last post on their Facebook page. I do not believe ticket buyers were ever refunded; I’m sure those who bought the iPPV were not refunded. Federacion Wrestling appeared funded by a never revealed money guy, though it was Rush and his family actually running it. (The Munoz family denied being anything more than talent when it fell apart, but are generally believed to be the ones making the decisions on who was booked.) Tickets appeared to sell poorly, though there never seemed a chance they’d turn a profit given the cost of the people booked. My belief, and the popular belief, is the money guy realized the show was going to bomb and cut out, Rush and associates pushed it as a postponement in hopes to find some other money guy (and to avoid having to return money that was already divided and spent), and no one else stepped to pay for the damaged brand.
Matt Taven and other ROH wrestlers announced for the Federacion show seemed to be a major reason for CMLL splitting ties with ROH. It’s hardly remembered now, but there was talk of other CMLL wrestlers jumping to Federacion when the first show was announced, though I think the people involved eventually figured out they were better off waiting to see how it played out. (Though, knowing what we know now, the mystery LFI person in the main event was likely planned to be the debut of Vangellys as the masked Dementor.) CMLL was so bothered by the Federacion show that scheduled a loaded Saturday Arena Mexico card and streamed it on Twitch, which they’ve never done again. CMLL’s actually never streamed any live show for free since that day. Fenix, Penta, Andrade and Dragon Lee were all scheduled for the Federacion show.
I don’t think that CMLL is blocking those guys from working Forbidden Door because of Federacion Wrestling. It does exist as an example of how CMLL can get very upset about things that eventually turn out to be minor and might be quickly forgotten. Federacion Wrestling was a doomed promotion from the initial press conference, a show primarily built around getting as many friends and family paid before the money ran out. It was always just a question of if that money would stick around through the first show or not. (The obvious 2022 comparison is Robles Promociones, which seems to have much the same “strategy”, but people are getting paid and the money guy hasn’t given up yet.) The people in charge of CMLL probably saw the same things as everyone else, but were still felt disrespected and acted on that emotion. It does not seem to take a lot for them to go on tilt.
Lucha Libre Online announced they’d interview Andrade on Friday, then deleted the tweet, but left it up on Facebook. I don’t know what it means. Guess we find out Friday. It’s gonna be awkward for Andrade to talk to an AAA announcer if he still has issues with AAA, but I think the idea is they’ll be on the same page at yelling at CMLL for Andrade not being on the Forbidden Door.
Big Lucha announced their 1st-anniversary card:
Big Lucha (FRI) 07/01/2022 Bandido Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) King vs Kong, Orbita, Ellipse, Carito, Foreno, Black Skayde, ? [Torneo de Aniversario la Leyenda Vivient]
other names to be announced
2) Látigo vs Skayde
3) Abismo Negro Jr. & Big Mike vs Éxtasis & Radioactivo
4) Jack Carthweel vs ASF, Komander, Cometa Maya
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Accion Jackson, Bendito, Elemental [EdM Trios]
6) Emperador Azteca vs Galeno del Mal
7) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Villano IV vs Canek & Penta OM
8) El Bandido, Gravity, Sussy Love, Tirano, Viajero vs Flamita, Lady Maravilla, Limbo, Potro, Yutani [mask, hair]
The main event is a cage match set up but Big Lucha isn’t advertising a cage. Not sure what they’re doing. Big Lucha did mention Maravilla will put her hair on the line if she’s unmasked at TripleMania and Black Generacion will face Las Shotas if they win the trios titles from La Pandemia in IWRG this weekend. The first half half of this card sort of interests me more than the top half. The bigger question is if it’s going to interest the fans: tickets are up to 800 pesos for front row, about twice as high usual for these Big Lucha shows. They’re more expensive than a typical CMLL Friday night front row cost. It’s an anniversary show with a lot of names, a good time to try premium prices if you’re ever going to try it.
Tonight’s Big Lucha World show includes Flamita, Emperador Azteca and Bendito against three new wrestlers. Flamita & Emperador Azteca aren’t usually seen on these shows – if you don’t watch, they have the hometeam Big Lucha guys and the Black Generation team at ringside, but not the top guys. It would fit as La Estrella and Takuma Fujiwara from Dragon Gate making their debut; they’re listed as working in Mexico this weekend. MLW also has La Estrella vs Arez vs Lince Dorada vs Myron Reed for their middleweight championship announced for their 06/23 show.
Hijo del Santo (on the Stranger Things/Flamin’ Hot Cheetos media tour) says he’s feeling good, has no injuries and plenty of work, but is thinking of retiring this year or next. I think we’d know if Santo was actually retiring this year.
Haven’t been many mask maker stories lately, or at least ones that weren’t about pivoting to facemasks. Periodico Correro interviews Leon’s Centella Verde Jr. and his wife Lupita about their business.