At some point, I hit undo and WordPress magically removed every edit I had done for the preceding hour; I’m not even sure what I’m still missing right now after trying to put it back, but I’m probably missing something.
CMLL
There’s been three or four CMLL shows that looked great on paper this year that haven’t ended up delivering. Tonight’s CMLL show looks great on paper and maybe they’ll pull it off.
- Soberano vs Templario will continue their rivalry in the Leyenda de Plata final. I’m hoping they building on their rivalry rather than repeat all the big spots they did last time out. I expect they’ll do lots of big spots (and also Destroyers) anyway. Templario seems like solid favorite to 50/50 their feud
- Pequeno Olimpico vs Ultimo Dragoncito is a mask match between two minis who’ve been part of CMLmoderne the modern division was formed. This is going to be great if the crowd cares at all, and I think there’s enough long time fans around left that they will. Ultimo Dragoncito seems the slight favorite – Pequeno Olimpico has been very emotional leading into this as if he knows what’s coming, and Dragoncito remaining masked better sets up an apuesta match later with the third pillar of the division, Pierrothito.
- CMLL put up both the rudos and the tecnico minis ciberneticos on YouTube that set up the match. The tecnico one is the better of the two easily, though Mercurio & Pequeno Olimpico finish the rudo one well. It gave me a lot of hope for the mask match tonight being good; it’s been a while since Pequeno Olimpico had a big singles match but I think he’ll be up to it.
- the rest of the card is fine, nothing great but nothing too bad. Tercera has Averno & Mephisto and Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero on opposite sides again, with Titan and Negro Casas rounding out the trios. Dulce Atrapsuenos will face some rudos who haven’t been on many Fridays in the second; that tecnico trio always gets up. Panterita Jr. & Suicida are included in the opener.
The show will air on TicketMaster Live for 99 pesos/5 USD. It’ll air on YouTube on August 13th. This is a good time to start watching YouTube uploads, starting with this Sunady’s show. That has the first part of the tournament and a great singles match.
CMLL (SUN) 07/31/2022 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Lluvia vs Hera, La Seductora, Olympia
3) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
4) Dark Panther, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Atlantis, Fugaz, Titán vs Cavernario, Euforia, Terrible
A show. Those minis aren’t wrestling Saturday, so this will be the first unmasked match for someone. (And they’re not instantly retiring.)
CMLL (MON) 08/01/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Mercurio & Último Dragóncito vs Angelito & Pequeño Olímpico [Relevos Increíbles]
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Dark Silueta & Reyna Isis
3) El Audaz, Suicida, Volcano vs Kráneo, Magnus, Rugido
4) Atlantis, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Fuerza Guerrera, Hechicero
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © vs Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero [CMLL TAG]
4th defense
This would be a great streaming show because a) the Chavez have been great this year and b) we’d be living in fear of Los Guerreros taking away their titles (and making it less likely they’ll have chances to have good matches.) Olimpico & Dragoncito is going around the loop.
CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena México
1) Leono & Retro vs Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Kaligua, Pequeño Magía, Shockercito vs Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Violencia
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi vs Amapola, Hera, La Seductora
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs El Coyote, Felino, Rey Bucanero
5) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
A normal Tuesday show after last week’s ciebrentico.
CMLL’s Guadalajara card isn’t out yet, but there are two interesting names. Sangre Azteca, who’s been out of CMLL since 2019, is listed as appearing. I’d guess that’s only a Guadalajara thing for the moment, though also a sign of how much autonomy that office has to bring in their own people. There’s also a teacher/student trios match led by Satanico and Ultimo Guerrero. UG is teaming with Troyano and current IWRG Middleweight Champion Tonalli. Tonalli also faces Templario on the upcoming Arena Puebla Lucha Memes show and it seems like he’s got a better chance of coming to the main roster sometime this year.
No sign of Mistico yet. He was supposed to be back this Friday at the last by his original timeline. CMLL may have had him wait until the down week between tournaments. He keeps getting brought up in these Gran Prix interviews.
CMLL is holding interviews with the foreign Gran Prix members in the weeks leading up to the match. Rocky Romero’s recent one was full of highlights, with lines such as “no one knows Volador Jr. outside of Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo”, and saying he had no respect for Mistico or Volador because they could never beat him. He also had no Soberano Jr. or Atlantis Jr. because they’re young and haven’t done anything. Romero likes Titan and has heard good things about Templario, but the only two people he respects in CMLL are Virus (who did beat him) and Negro Casas (who traveled the world and learned things and added it to his own.) Romero vowed to change CMLL, saying they haven’t grown and need to learn things from other promotions in the world. This was an in-character promo but it may have cut a bit to close to the bone in a promotion where people are used to hearing such negative things.
Matt Taven and Kenny King did less explosive interviews. Taven really wants to be CMLL Heavyweight Champion and won’t give up on facing Hechicero; his new plan is to win the Gran Prix and then use that to talk someone in charge of booking himself to challenge Hechicero at the Aniversario show. I’ve never rooted for Matt Taven harder.
CMLL , Big Lucha (THU) 08/18/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) King, Kong, Potro De Oro vs Elipse, Orbita, Viajero
2) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus vs Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo
3) Okumura, Shocko, Tirano, Yutani vs Carito, Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Limbo
4) Action Jackson vs Lince Dorado
5) Atlantis & Negro Casas vs Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera
6) Averno & Mephisto vs ? & Tiger Mask IV and Robbie Eagles & Rocky Romero and Aeroboy & Skayde
It’s a bit eyebrow-raising to see CMLL work with Big Lucha, but Bandido isn’t the sole owner of Big Lucha and there are other parties involved. This is similar to the Lucha Libre Real Liger celebration in Arena Coliseo in 2019 using the same Honor y Gloria name, only Lucha Libre Real seems not to exist anymore so Big Lucha is supplying the wrestlers. Bandido, Flamita and Komander all appear on AAATV so there was no chance they’d be able to be here. The four-way tag is weird, but less weird than “everyone wrestlers Lyger for a minute.” The second match is the one big CMLL vs Big Lucha trios, and I wonder if that’ll go better than the recent IWRG vs Big Lucha match. Okumura mentions there were plans for a show like this prior to the pandemic, so this might be an annual thing if it holds up. Atlantis also declared he will die in three months if he retires so he can never retire. He should probably get that checked on.
CMLL Informa announced October will be a women’s wrestling focused month, with both that division’s Gran Prix and the Universal tournament happening that month. I wonder if they’re really going to run two women’s ciberneticos in a short period or if there’s something else going on there. I’d expect there might be some foreigners to come in for one of the tournaments just to make them different. Dalys and Stephanie Vaquer also mentioned they’re wrestling about 15 times in Japan and will be gone until October 3rd.
CMLL Guadalajara wrestlers helped with a COVID children’s vaccine campaign.
AAA
AAA TV this week should be the last half of Mazatlan
- Jack Cartwheel & Willie Mack vs Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf
- Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa, Pagano b Gringo Loco, Látigo, Toxin
- Hijo Del Vikingo & Pentagón Jr. vs Dragón Lee & Dralistico
I’m planning on streaming this at 6:30 pm on Twitch as long as the stream works.
Parka Negra and Hijo del Vikingo did promotional work in Vikingo’s home of Puebla on Wednesday. They were pushing the on-sale date for the 08/06 Puebla show, which doesn’t appear to be a scheduled TV taping but is presented in a similar fashion. The press conference gave the impression these will be monthly Puebla shows similar to the Monterrey Showcenter ones; they’re really added regular tour stops in slightly unconventional places.
Johnny Caballero was scheduled for Northeast Wrestling’s show on Sunday, then it was changed to just signing autographs due to injury, and Wednesday it was announced Johnny wasn’t healthy enough even to fly. Johnny is scheduled to wrestle Friday in Aguascalientes on Friday in the “dream match” four-way with Willie Mack, Laredo Kid, and Bandido, but it’s hard to believe he’s going to make that show if he can’t even get on plane right now. Hope he gets better but figure on that match changing. I’m sorry if this is disappointing news to all of you who’ve spent years hoping for that dream match.
The WON had two interesting news bits from the most recent Showcenter event. Natalia Marakova missed that show due to flight issues, and the WON confirmed she actually had flight issues. The previous show she missed, two months ago, she didn’t have flight issues. Marakova plays a Russian character and really is Russian. Mexico changed their entry rules for Russians following to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, it required some extra clearance to get her to an AAA show and it reads like AAA was caught unaware that first time. (Mas Lucha later mentioned they knew Sussy Love was replacing her days ahead of time, which always suggested it was something other than flight issues) They had it the second time, they just didn’t have the plane.
The more interesting bit is on the scheduled Dralistico/Latigo match. The story in the WON is it was switched to Vazco Jr./Latigo because Dralistico considers himself a tag team guy and didn’t want to be in a singles match. That seems hard to believe and goes against him asking for more singles match while in CMLL, but Dralistico is weird enough for this to be true. The bigger problem for Dralistico is he might be back a singles guy if ROH ever does sign Dragon Lee.
IWRG
Mas Lucha (THU) 07/28/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Princesa Águila (Chihuahua) & Sakura (Chihuahua) b Lady Amazona & Luna Mágica and Bengalee & Zuzu Divine and Artemiz & Princesa Azul 
sets up a LLM TAG title match
2) Yorvak b Atómico, Radioactivo, Calibus
3) Alas de Oro & Alas De Plata © b Imposible & León Dorado [AULL TAG]
Leon Dorado & Imposible had problems
4) Rey León © b Travis Banks, Kempo Jr., Karaoui, Sam Adonis [915-656]
5) Brazo Cibernetico Jr. & Villano V Jr. b Brazo Celestial & Rokambole Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Villano V Jr. suffered a knee injury of a (seemingly poorly applied) move from his brother Rokambole Jr., stopping the match for a bit. Brazo de Oro Jr. interfered and both teams stopped working with each other.
6) DMT Azul b Groon XXX
Groon was accompanied by new group El Culto (Yoruba, Kundra, Fly Star, there to take bumps for DMT Azul). Adonis interfered to help his La Empresa teammate and Azul beat Groon with a release German suplex.
Attendance was good for a Thursday show, though not a sell out (and I think Mas Lucha shows have done better in the past.) The first three matches are available for free on YouTube; they cut it off with the surprise of Adonis joining match 4.
IWRG (SAT) 07/30/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Rosel & Último Caballero vs Milagro & Rey Fuego
2) Rey Minos & Steven Manson vs Súper Boy & Súper Cometa
3) Ajolotl, Cheff Benito, Heredero Maya vs Balak, Rey Eclipse, Skanda
4) Sol, Spider Fly, X-Devil vs Águila Oriental, Kenji, Rey Aztaroth
5) Estrella de Oro, Genex, Jhon Tito vs Black Dragón, Vertigo, Wagner Kid
6) Cerebro Negro Jr., Dick Angelo 3G, Garra Mortal, Hell Boy, Legendario, Leo, Limbo, Rey Halcón vs Aaron Sykes, Abc, Charly Madrid, Lasser, Pasion, Tackle, Troyano, Último Rebelde [Torneo FILL 98]
GYM FILL vs Gym Ultimo Guerrero again. This will air on IWRG’s channel on August 5th.
IWRG (THU) 08/11/2022 Arena Naucalpan
Hip Hop Man 20th Anniversary
1) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 [royal rumble]
2) Adrenalina, Ángel Del Amor, Caballero de Plata, Guerrero Olímpico, Historico vs Calibus, Epidemia, Gárgola Xtreme, Steel Heart, Zenick
team Sencilito (Bambuchito) vs team Coacalco (Justiciero)
3) Ajolotl, Ciclonico, Mr. Jerry vs Dragón Yuki, Vantvert Jack, Vantvert Negro and Freelance, Paymon, Yorvak
4) Dragón Fly, Hijo de Payaso Purasanta, Maradó, Payaso Pura Santa Jr. vs Canibal Jr., Capo del Norte, Hijo De Mr. Niebla, Pistolero Negro
5) Aster Boy, Diva Salvaje, Hip Hop Man, Zumbi vs Black Terry, Heddi Karaoui, Maldito Jr., Mosca
Hip Hop Man, who’s 20 years goes back to his time wrestling in Argentina, is using his anniversary show to book all his friends. There are worse ideas. Tinieblas Jr. & Alushe will also appear. Bambuchito is Mas Lucha announcer Hip Hop Man, so there’s probably a comedy bit here I haven’t grasped yet.
Orizaba
Veltorr Producciones posted a statement Wednesday night, which came off more defensive about their image being hurt than trying to address people angry about their show not happening. They are offering refunds, but only in person in Orizaba, only Monday and only between 12-5 pm that day. They shift the blame onto the wrestlers for not working even though they were mostly paid. The promoter claims everyone who asked for a guarantee ahead of time were paid (and wrestlers who did get guarantees noted they were paid) and “80%” of the wrestlers were paid by the first match. He blames the difficulties on wrestlers not accepting “movimientos en transferencias” (they wanted cash, he wasn’t paying cash), calls the wrestlers unprofessional for not wrestling and wants the commission to punish them. Mamba and the promoter are now in a war of words, including a 22 minute YouTube video retort.
Latin Lover says he was told 10 of the 30 people booked for the Veltorr Orizaba show didn’t show before the show, and he had been told it was because they weren’t paid. Latin Lover himself was paid, but saw the fans start to throw chairs after the show paused for an hour, and went to the ring to explain the reality of the situation in hopes of calming them down.
Other
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.
Bendito won the Big Lucha World qualifying tournament on Wednesday in a good match over Extasis. That puts him in Friday’s Big Lucha Phase 1 tournament for their new world title. The quarterfinals are
- Flamita vs Super Nova
- Cometa Maya vs Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.
- Texano Jr. vs Bendito
- Rey Horus vs Emperador Azteca
The semifinals and finals of this phase will also take place on this show. The winner just gets into another tournament, not the belt. The only other match announced is a mixed tag. I wonder how well this show is going to do; those are Names and there could be good matches but it doesn’t feel like a normal Big Lucha card. This may stream live on Mas Lucha.
GCW’s The People vs GCW in late night Friday; it starts a little before CMLL finishes. Banido vs Jordan Oliver and Black Taurus, Gringo Loco, Jack Cartwheel vs ASF, Koamnder, and Laredo Kid is on the show.
The Ric Flair’s Last Match show with Bandido vs Taurus vs Rey Fenix vs Laredo Kid is on Sunday.
IWTV put up the 07/16 Lucha Memes show. That’s a quick turnaround. Tell me who wins if you watch it, I still don’t know. Lucha Memes turning around a show in 12 days is quicker than the 175 (and counting) days since the first day of RIOT’s La Rina took place. It is still not available.
Black Taurus challenges Brian Meyers for the Impact Digital Championship on next Thursday’s Impact.
Arkangel Divno faces Ultimo Maldito on 09/23 in GCW in Los Angeles. Do not share any GIF with any GCW people, let them go in knowing nothing.
Zona 23 announced a co-promoted show with GCW on 10/16, the day after TripleMania Mexico City. Indie promotions running big shows around TripleMania or Aniversario to pull in traveling fans has made sense for years, it’s just funny to see Zona 23 be the one to jump on it. Zona 23 is also teasing something with AAA.
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