Month: August 2022

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 08/30/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Marca, The Gladiatores]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia b Kaligua & Pequeño Magía 
2) Hera, La Seductora, Metálica b La Jarochita, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita 
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. 
Depredadores took 2/3
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Felino, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora 
Tecnicos took 2/3
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Titán b Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto  
Tecnicos took 2/3

Nothing of note that I caught here. The recaps mention some issue between Magnifica and Vaquerita leading to their defeat, and it looked like just a normal bit of holding someone too long for a dropkick and getting hit themselves.

CMLL (TUE) 08/30/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (1), Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (2-6), thecubsfan]
1) Bello Antuan, Luminoso, Minotauro ?? Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Quka 
video cuts off near the end of the match
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel b Persa, Raven, Temerario 
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono b Asturiano, Éxtasis, Prayer, Siki Osama 
GDL vs Puebla
4) Astral, El Coyote, Suicida b Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico 
5) Pegasso, Perverso, Rey Samuray (Puebla) b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Joker 
GDL vs Puebla
6) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma 
GDL vs Puebla. Difunto got away with a mask pull on Maya

The Guadalajara team worked as rudos in the main event. Crowd still was very happy when the hometown team stole a win in the main event. (Challenges followed, but the announcers talked right over them to wrap up the show.) The Puebla guys worked hard in their chance to have away match; I think the third match was also said to be a standout.

CMLL officially announced Dragon Rojo as Templario’s replacement in the mask tournament on 09/16 Tuesday night. They also offered to refund anyone who no longer wished to attend, which is a nice gesture and should cut off complaints. Ticket buyers have until 09/09 to ask for the refund.

KeMonito announced he underwent “minor surgery” and will be out about two weeks. That means he won’t be seen until the Aniversario show.

CMLL (SAT) 09/03/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo, Chamuel, Periquito Sacaryas
2) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy vs Minos, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Volcano vs Cholo, Disturbio, Raider
4) Cavernario, Felino, Rey Bucanero vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Terrible vs Panterita del Ring [MEX HEAVY]
2nd defense

I don’t think there’s a title change coming. Bala & Robin still are the Coliseo Tag champs so it may be important whenever they team here.

Today’s CMLL Informa will reveal all the Night of Champions information: date, which titles will be on the line, and who will challenge. Voting will open immediately. I’ll probably be driving to AEW Dynamite while these are being announced so we’ll have to wait on any campaigns to fix the vote.

Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero are scheduled to face Mecha Wolf and Bestia 666 on October 22nd. La Rebelion is appearing on AAA TV every few weeks and may have a significant match at TripleMania the week prior. They’re probably technically not under AAA contract but that’s close enough that I’m surprised this is being allowed. I did see an Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero video promo for it so it’s a match they’re aware of.

AAA

AAA’s television intro has been a little bit interesting this year. They’ve updated the opening video as the roster has shuffled this year. The exoticos section started as Maximo, Pimpinela and Mamba last year, and now is Mamba and Dulce Kanela. Poder del Norte have been replaced by La Empresa. I’ve been keeping an eye on the “tecnica women” section the last few: it started the year as Lady Shani, Faby Apache and Big Mami, it’s been only Shani & Apache for a few months, and I was always checking to see if it’d be Lady Shani and someone else that week. Maybe it’ll change this week; Faby Apache announced she’s left AAA and gone independent in an Instagram video Tuesday. She’d given that away about two weeks ago in an Instagram comment, backtracked on it when asked about it, and could always backtrack again. The situation probably was she was booked with AAA through the end of this month (and through the AAA spot show in Orizaba this past weekend) and wanted the story to pause until then. Apache is booked on future AAA spot shows into November, but may or may not work them while booking her own schedule. There’s nothing new to say here that I didn’t write last time – this was inevitable for months if not years, a separation is probably best for everyone involved, it’d be an impressive deal if CMLL brought her in but I don’t count on that happening, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she ended up back in AAA again down the road.

Big Lucha

Tonight’s Big Lucha World

• Extasis vs Jack Evans vs Accion Jackson
• Flamita open challenge
• Verzal vs Viajero

Jack Evans has mentioned on Twitter repeatedly that he’s living in a gym. Maybe he’s literally living in Bandido’s Gym at this point.

There will also be a press conference Friday at noon to hype the Flamita/Bandido match. I’m not entirely certain of the point of press conferences when half of what they said at the last one turned out not to happen but maybe someone will ask about that.

Big Lucha (FRI) 09/16/2022 Auditorio Municipal, Amecameca, Estado de México
1) Mexicano & Viajero vs Elipse & Órbita and Sol & Torito Negro Jr. and King & Kong
2) Catalina, Estrella Del Ring, Sussy Love vs Diosa Nix, Hatana, Metal Shadow
3) Forneo & Skayde vs Ricky Marvin & Tirano and Fulgor & Karaoui
4) Carito & Gravity vs Shocko & Yutani
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Cometa Maya (Indie), Éxtasis, Radioactivo
6) Komander vs Jack Evans vs Bendito
7) Dr. Wagner Jr., El Bandido, Galeno del Mal vs Elemental, Emperador Azteca, Flamita

This is a spot show on the originally announced tournament final date. It’s very much a spot show lineup but it did strike me how Big Lucha feels like it has an actual roster now. There’s a couple of new names added to fill out matches but most everyone here has worked a Big Lucha World or a normal Big Lucha, and that sort of continuity is rare. I hope Fulgor sticks in Big Lucha if he’s not working in IWRG; this is young crew that could benefit from having another experienced rudo around.

Previous Big Lucha spot shows ended up on Mas Lucha. It’s harder to be sure this one will turn for reasons including it being on Independence Day; that weekend is going to be insanely busy and shows may slip through.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 09/04/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental & Jhon Tito vs Rey Aztaroth & Súper Boy
2) Genex & Spider Fly vs Limbo & Vértigo
3) Brillante RB, Noisy Boy, Zumbi vs Leo, Paymon, Puma de Oro
4) Rey León & Therius vs Maniacop 360 & Satania
5) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Laredo Kid vs Fly Warrior, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Mafioso
6) Heavy Metal, Hell Boy, Rocky Casas vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.

Heavy Metal and Rocky Casas are thematically matching partners for Hell Boy, though all Hell Boy matches seemingly will end with Caballero de Plata getting involved anyway. Laredo Kid coming in just to work a random trios match seems odd.

IWRG teased a new Canis Lupus character debuting soon. It’d be their fourth or fifth Canis Lupus depending on if you want to count the mini who shows up a couple of times a year. They just really want to keep the character alive. I’d expect he’ll debut on the 09/16 show.

Other Notes

LuchaWorld has the latest news update and this week’s Poster-Mania.

Messages left at the remains of Lepra and Maremoto included that criminal group taking credit for Juventud Rebelde’s murder earlier this year, so all three deaths of Irapuato luchadors are related. The good news is the messages also say they’re not specifically targeting lucha libre wrestlers, just people in the government who support the rival criminal organization. I would still stay far away from lucha libre shows in Irapuato and maybe the entire state of Guanajuato; it’s unlikely this is over.

Mascara Dorada vs Alex Zayne airs on Impact tomorrow.

AAW has Laredo Kid vs Gringo Loco vs Mike Bennett vs Dante Leon on Thursday.

AEW’s All Out will air on Cineapolis theatres in Mexico on Sunday. Those shows have aired in the US and Canada theatres for the last few years – it’s how I prefer to watch them if not in person – but this is the first time they’ve added Mexico. Cineapolis theatres aired the 2020 AAA TripleMania and other wrestling events in the past.

09/03 NOAH has Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. in an atomicos, Dragon Bane vs Alpha Wolf, and Super Crazy vs Hajime Ohara. That’ll be the 8th time those two have a singles match in NOAH. Before leaving, those two did an interview about being given chances in Japan that they didn’t have in Mexico. I think they would’ve been very unhappy if a Mexican promoter kept asking them to wrestle each other in a singles match in the middle of the card.

10/16 Zona 23 has Pagano vs Joey Janela. That’s the show the day after TripleMania.

Alberto el Patron, again on a self-promotion tour that happens to mention the upcoming Nacion Lucha Libre show, says the promotion will be airing on Launch TV in the US and Canada. I can’t find a network called Launch TV that isn’t about rocket launches. I presume someone got the wrong name and it’ll be corrected later but who can be sure with Alberto.

 

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 08/26/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronistas del Ring, El Grafico, Estrellas del Ring, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (videos), thecubsfan]
1) Astral & Leono b Grako & Inquisidor 
15:01
2) La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Tiffany b Dark Silueta, Lluvia, Marcela [Relevos Increíbles]  
15:15. Tiffany replaced Amapola. Silueta suffered a knee injury (missed by the cameras) and left the match early.
3) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Negro Casas   
18:18. Both Casas & Panther suffered bad falls on dives in the last few minutes.
4) Fugaz, Stuka Jr., Titán b Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr.  
14:16. Fugaz replaced Soberano Jr. Straight falls. Atlantis Jr. unmasked Stuka in the first, the other four finished the second fall.
5) Averno, Místico, Templario DQ Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
17:03. Averno faked a foul. Templario suffered a shoulder injury after an Ultimo Guerrero move.

A disaster of a show. There were injuries in the three matches, with Silueta and Templario leaving their matches and Blue Panther and Negro Casas taking bad falls in their matches. Templario’s injury, coming off a bad Guerrero Special, left him in need of shoulder surgery. He’ll be out at least six weeks (and likely longer), and that mean the CMLL Aniversario main event will change. We don’t know anything at this point beyond Templario definitely being out and Soberano definitely being in; he said he signed to put his mask on the line and doesn’t want to back out. It’s a rough blow for Templario, who would’ve been part of an Aniversario main for the first time ever and isn’t high enough on the card to assure he’ll be back in the same spot again.

CMLL posted a video of Soberano on Sunday saying he signed to put his mask on the line, and he still wants to honor that, even without Templario. Dragon Rojo put his name forward for the spot on Monday. CMLL hasn’t confirmed Dragon Rojo is in the spot, but that appears to be the case that based on the 09/02 lineup. Rojo pointed out he beat Soberano for the CMLL Middleweight Championship back in April, and elevating him to this position makes something of the win over Robbie Eagles. It’s even possible to argue Dragon Rojo makes for a more dramatic match. 2022 Templario is much better than 2022 Dragon Rojo, but Dragon Rojo’s a guy much closer to the end his career – his career was actually over for a while already – and adds another realistic outcome to the tournament. I’m not sure how CMLL fans would react to a replacement losing his mask, even if it’s a known quantity like Dragon Rojo.

Templario missing the Aniversario is the cover of this week’s Box y Lucha.

Silueta’s injury hasn’t been revealed – she was waiting for her own medical report on Saturday – but it’s serious enough that she was taken off the Arena Puebla show. Silueta did a silla to the floor and neither the CMLL cameras or the fan cams what actually happened.

The matches weren’t much good either. The second and third match fell apart near the end due to finishes. Fugaz messed up his ramp spot. Tiffany hasn’t been on a Friday night since May, probably won’t be on another Friday night until CMLL needs women for a tournament, and really shouldn’t be in-ring for a major promotion at this point in his career. She’ll be there as long as CMLL keeps calling (and she may have some behind-the-scenes responsibility in addition.) There’s a lot of ways CMLL isn’t great to wrestlers, I don’t want to paint them as a wonderful promotion, but the best thing you can say about them is they’re very loyal to people who’ve been around forever, and they’ll sacrifice some business sense to keep a lot of people working.

Just a night to forget. The most notable non-injury thing might have been fans throwing in Dr. Simi dolls during a break in the main event. Dr. Simi is the mascot of a ubiquitous chain of Mexican pharmacies, fans started throwing in at concerts as a weird sign of respect, and the bit came to lucha libre. CMLL’s not thrilled with people throwing things to the ring nowadays, and also probably not thrilled with wrestlers throwing those dolls back to the crowd.

CMLL (SAT) 08/27/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL]
1) Bengala & Retro b Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr. 
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita b Hera, Olympia, Tiffany
3) Arkalis, Cachorro, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. 
4) Fugaz, Star Black, Stigma b Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora
5) Panterita del Ring, Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible 
Panterita defeated Terrible, asked for a heavyweight title match

I don’t think the title is going to change hands, but this challenge set up the odd possibility of the Panterita father holding the championship in the heaviest division and the son holding the championship in the lightest active division.

CMLL (SUN) 08/28/2022 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO]
1) Átomo & Chamuel b Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II
2) Leono, Neón, Oro Jr. b Cholo, Nitro, Raider
Tecnicos took 1/3
3) Cancerbero, Magnus, Okumura b El Audaz, Flyer, Pegasso
Rudos took 1/3
4) Kráneo, Misterioso Jr., Rey Bucanero b Dark Panther, Star Jr., Volcano
Rudos took 1/3
5) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Panterita del Ring b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Tecnicos took 2/3

Nothing happening here.

CMLL (FRI) 09/02/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Fugaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr. vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. vs Averno, El Mesías, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Místico vs Panterita del Ring, Magia Blanca, Star Black, Terrible, Gemelo Diablo II, Dark Panther, Niebla Roja [Copa Independencia, semifinal]

It’s Mistico and a bunch of people who appear to have no shot at winning in the Copa Independencia. We don’t know yet if it’s a single elimination or a cibernetico.

Dragon Rojo goes right into Templario’s spot and seems as much a lock to come out looking strong from his match as Mistico in his. Mesias is making good on his plan of sticking around to be annoying to Ultimo Guerrero. Virus is finally back from injury. It’s nice to see him.

No sign of Atlantis and Fuerza. I wouldn’t risk them taking a bump until 09/16 if it were me.

On a CMLL Lady’s Ring show Sunday in Japan, Tae Honma won a tournament’s finals to earn a trip back to CMLL. She’ll be part of the Gran Prix in October. Before then, she’ll challenge Dalys for the CMLL Japan Women’s championship on 09/25. Stephanie Vaquer is challenging Saori Anou for an Ice Ribbon championship on an upcoming show.

Astral & Olympia represented CMLL at the Mexico City marathon.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara held a private show for families of DHL on Sunday, as Arena Mexico did last week.

AAA

AAA TV aired three matches from Saltillo

• Chik Tormenta defeated Maravilla and Sussy Love
  • a hard-working match, the best Maravilla’s looked in a while. Sussy Love fits in with this crew. Tormenta seemed to hurt an elbow on the finish.
• La Rebellion & Gringo Loco beat Nino Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, Crazy Boy and Microman
  • Crazy Boy earlier tried to recuit Hamburguesa into reforming the Mexican Powers, leaning on him that Crazy Boy helped Hamburguesa when other were bullying him. (That was actually Hamburguesa’s introduction vignettes a long time ago.) Hamburguesa and his partners had their own idea for a group and rejected the idea. Crazy Boy was unhappy, though still he waited about 13 minutes into the match to betray Hamburguesa for being ungrateful. Match was generally good but there were two Gringo/Iguana spots (including the finish) that didn’t go well.
• Hijo del Vikingo & Aramis defeated Fenix & Dragon Lee
  • Great match. Slightly under a MOTYC level but still about as good a normal TV match you’ll see. Dragon Lee & Aramis did a lot early for a match that was and ended up being more about their partners. Vikingo did one spot no one else can do, as normal. Fans were very into the match and the back and forth between Fenix & Vikingo at the end.

There was a promo with Fenix saying it should be Vikingo’s dream to face a wrestler the caliber of Fenix as a pitch for the TripleMania match. The real focus for a Vikingo feud was not Omega or Fenix but Gringo Loco. The second match literally paused to show a vignette with Vikingo being concerned about Gringo Loco and Aramis trying to get him to the main event. The close of the show was a Vikingo interview disrupted by Gringo Loco attacking him, sending him through a door and a table. Gringo Loco did specifically say “I’m coming for you after you’re done with Omega and Fenix” but those matches haven’t been pushed to the near degree. Omega’s name keeps getting brought up but there’s no sign of him on AAA TV or any social media hint he’s aware this TripleMania Megachampionship search is going on.

Fenix really shouldn’t be in the running now because he just got cleanly defeated. That was a stunning decision since it seemed like Aramis being in the match made it easy to pick someone to lose. There’s no logic in Fenix being a challenger now. Luckily, AAA doesn’t operate on wrestling logic. I took it as a sign that Fenix is getting that win back soon.

Former AAA luchadora Hades announced on Twitter that she won’t be returning to the ring any time soon. Hades was a very promising luchadora and hasn’t wrestled in the last two years. In an Instagram post, she says she’s very unhappy in life and can’t be a luchadora while going through emotions. She’s been doing a lot of hinting at personal things without actually saying them in her Instagram stories and some of her posts over the last few months on the service. Those Instagram stories have specifically hinted at a tumultuous domestic relationship and her previous Instagram post is a picture with an anti-domestic violence message. There’s been enough there to both speculate and also not enough to know for certain what’s going on.

Hades hasn’t wrestled in two years because she became a mom. Hijo del Vikingo is believed to be the father. Hades and he were very public about their relationship before and during the pregnancy. They’re not public about their relationship in recent months. Vikingo was previously involved with a woman outside of wrestling from Puebla and has a child with her as well. That Puebla woman posted dramatically (and occasionally erratically) about her relationship with Vikingo via Instagram and other social media and eventually accusing Vikingo of abandoning both him and their child. Vikingo hasn’t talked much about that relationship either.

We shouldn’t assume we know what’s true from Instagram stories and posts about anyone. They’ve tiny slices often intentionally distorted. We also can’t really ignore them when they’re hinting at serious events. I really liked Hades as a luchadora, I hope whatever’s actually going on in her life works out best for herself and her kid.

IWRG

IWRG (SAT) 08/27/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Kaluc & Magic Boy b Adamatio & Rey Fuego
2) Milagro & Osogbo b Cosmic & Nubilus
3) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Rey Minos b Súper Cometa, Último Caballero, Yetti
4) Güero De Tijuana & Nativo b Rey Eclipse & Skanda
5) Ajolotl, Genex, Paymon b Kenji, Vértigo, Wagner Kid
6) Alan Extreme, Baby Star, Black Dragón, Cerebro Negro Jr., Hell Boy, Limbo, Rey Halcón, Tortuga Leo b Feroz, John Tito, Noisy Boy, Rey Aztaroth, Sol, Spider Fly, Súper Boy, X-Devil [Copa High Power]
Torneo FILL 99

IWRG’s recently announced when these Saturday show would be airing. They said nothing this time. Not sure if they don’t have a date or if it’s just not turning up. The next Copa Higher Power will be the 100th, which seems like an obvious set up as a big deal.

Caballero de Plata and Hell Boy have been headed to the 09/16 hair match for quite a while, and now it’s official.

IWRG (SUN) 08/28/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Rey Halcón & Vértigo b Sol & Spider Fly 
2) Feroz, Paymon, Tortuga Leo b Alan Extreme, Brillante Rb, Jhon Tito 
3) Caballero de Plata b Hell Boy [super libre]  
These two fought outside the arena before the show, then bled a lot here. They agreed to a hair match on 09/16.
4) Imposible, Relámpago, Tonalli b Acorazado Del Norte, Fly Warrior, Travis Banks 
Acorazado del Norte replaced Puma de Oro (moved up)
5) Jessy Ventura © b Puma de Oro [IWRG IC WELTER]  
3rd defense. Scheduled as Fulgor challenging with Puma de Oro moving up to replace him. Aster Boy got involved.
6) Diva Salvaje, Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Hijo del Fishman, Mafioso, Maniacop 360 

IWRG’s story is Fulgor didn’t show up for the title match; Ventura called Fuglor too scared to show up multiples before and after the match. Fulgor indicated he quit IWRG. A source indicates IWRG wanted Fulgor to sign one of their contracts, Fulgor was not interested in the terms of the contract, and that was the end of the relationship. It’s IWRG and everyone who leaves ends up passing through again someday; Fulgor himself was on his third stint since going through their training school.

Caballero de Plata vs Hell Boy will be a big match on 09/16; I expect they’re selling on the building even running at an overlapping time with Arena Mexico

This Thursday’s show in Arena Naucalpan is the Lucha Libre Boom show with Mistico vs Atlantis Jr. vs Avenro.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (FRI) 08/26/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Estrellas del RIng, Mas Lucha]
1) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo b Forneo, Sol, Torito   
Sol’s Team wants to be known as “Heel Flyers”
2) Diva Salvaje, Dulce Canela, Jessy Ventura b King, Kong, Tibiri Tabara   
3) El Bandido b Galeno del Mal [BL CHAMP, Block B, semifinal]   
4) Ricky Marvin b Arez [BL CHAMP, Block B, semifinal]   
5) Gravity, Komander, Skayde, Viajero b Accion Jackson, Emperador Azteca, Flamita, Yutani    
Gravity and Komander were surprise wrestlers. Flamita announced he was bringing in Blue Demon to fight Skayde on the 09/23 show.
6) Carito & Tirano b Maximiliano Rivera Romero & Shocko [TLC]   
Romero replaced Potro de Oro (injury). Carito challenged Shocko to a hair vs hair match, Shocko accepted.
7) El Bandido b Ricky Marvin [BL CHAMP, Block B, final]    

Big Lucha originally announced this title tournament ending with the winner of each phase joining other selected international names for a final round as ending on September 16th. It’s now ending on September 23rd with no international names, just a Bandido/Flamtia singles match. That’s going to be a great match but it’s deflating that they set up a more interesting scenario and dropped it. (In typical Mexican indie wrestling fashion, none of these changes have been acknowledged.) Flamita & Bandido also teased a mask match again, which comes off as lame because they’ve made the challenge so many times. It would’ve been more excited if they went the other way and billed the tournament final as the last time we’d see Bandido vs Flamita in Big Lucha for a long time, so there’s some finality to a story.

I only caught bits and pieces of shows (and didn’t catch up with it like I should’ve over the weekend.) The opener and the main event sound like two matches which went the best. The TLC match was weird, like they had exactly one table and one ladder to use, but also a rope swing that they tried to make into a pinata spot.

This was not a good night for production. Mas Lucha missed the start of the main event while doing interviews. The microphones weren’t working well when close to masks, which is a problem with Flamita & Bandido doing most of the talking.

Tibiri Tabara was a 2000s indie luchador. He claimed he’s been in the Dominican Republic all this time, which translates to him being an indie wrestler who moved around gimmicks.

Other News

Lasser/Gato Volador (Jorge Vega Oriel, 66) passed away Monday. Someone using the “Gato Volador” name has been active in northern Mexico, but I believe the most famous wrestler has been retired for many years; his name recently would come up only when mentioning his health battles. Vega Oriel had been battling diabetes, though he officially died of a brain clot. As Lasser, he was a champion as part of Los Arqueros and as a singles in the early 90s. He was mainly a UWA/LLI/Mora luchador for the best portion of his, though he appeared in EMLL at times through their talent searching. That run as champion in the 90s came as the El Toreo promotion started to go downhill and was sped up by the emergence of AAA. Lasser became one of many refugees from that UWA’s slow collapse, working everywhere under a variety of identites. He was a Sagrado before the current one, he was a Angel Azteca, he was a (Super) Elektra paired with Skayde, he was a Power Ranger and eventually settled on the Gato Volador identity as he became based in Monterrey. Lasser was at the level where he would’ve been forever celebrated as part of his company’s history had the company had a present and a future and sort of quietly slipped from view without the UWA existing. SuperLuchas has a longer obituary.

Apcaulco luchador Super Loco (Alejandro Alvarado Diaz, 52) passed away Monday. He also was listed as Crazy Loco. He had a run as an AAA prelim luchador in 2002 and popped up on other tapings in the area through the years. He’d been active in wrestling as recently as January. He is no relation to Super Crazy but he is mentioned to be part of the same family as Polvo de Estrellas, Butterfly, Kid Silver, Ludwig Star Jr and La Chiva. There was a local Acapulco benefit show for him just this Sunday. AAA acknowledged his passing; he was teaching a school name in Antonio Pena’s name.

Irapuato luchador Maremoto (Raul Salazar Santillan, 50)’s body was found Saturday morning. This was a sad and expected outcome; the note left next to Lepra’s presumed remains indicated the same group had either killed Maremoto or was about to do so. There were more messages left near his body. (I haven’t had the misfortune of seeing those.) The local government says the remains haven’t been identified, which doesn’t say much for the state they’ve been left in. A lucha libre show in Irapuato scheduled for Sunday was postponed, officially out of due to respect to Maremoto and Lepra’s passing. It’s probably hard to feel safe at a lucha libre show right now. Maremoto is the third luchador from that city to be violently killed this year. It appears it’s government officials accused of corruption who are being targeted, not necessarily local luchadors, but the two may be tied enough together that others may be pulled in.

Maximo was knocked out during a match Saturday in Orizaba. A similar thing appeared to happen with him in Arena Neza recently.

Impact’s tapings in Dallas this weekend included a lot of NJPW Strong talent for whatever reason. That NJPW Strong crew included Mascara Dorada. He’s still supposed to be coming to CMLL, just stuck waiting indefinitely for the proper paperwork that’ll allow him to travel freely between Mexico and the US. Dorada originally was being very particular about what bookings he’d take in the US, not wanting to work shows with AAA-affilated wrestlers. This wait to go back to Mexico has dragged on, the work isn’t as available as it once was, and so Dorada found himself working a weekend of tapings with Laredo Kid, Black Taurus and Taya. He didn’t appear to get in the ring with any of them – Dorada faced Alex Zayne on one show and Mike Bailey on another – but he did take part in the usual Mexican group photograph.

La Rebelion are once again NWA World Tag Team champions. They were supposed to face (and likely defeat) Doug Williams and Harry Smith, Smith didn’t appear due to illness, and they defeated Luke and PJ Hawk instead. I think there’s a better chance the NWA Tag Team championship gets defended on TripleMania than the AAA titles.

Nacion Lucha Libre has a deal where buying a ticket for their TV taping gives you a ticket to an auto race on 09/03.

Segunda Caida watched a 1983 El Dandy match.

CMLL

CMLL drew really well for the Gran Prix. They’ve sold tickets outstandingly well for the Aniversario. CMLL can convince people to attend in large numbers for major events. It’s everything else that’s still a struggle. Today’s show is an ordinary card; some bigger names than Tuesday or Friday, some of the current rivalries, no important matches. As of 11 am, CMLL listed about 3000 tickets distributed, half the lower section. It’s better than some shows, better than those Tuesday or Sunday numbers surely, but last week’s success was about concepts working and not the entire promotion.

The show is, as always, on Ticketmaster Live. I think I like tonight’s CMLL lineup more than most but if you’re just looking for something from Mexico to watch tonight, the Big Lucha show airing on Mas Lucha seems more promising of the two.

Amapola got pulled from Friday and Monday cards on Thursday. Tiffany replaces her tonight. There’s no word as to why.

CMLL (SUN) 08/28/2022 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo & Chamuel
2) Leono, Neón, Oro Jr. vs Cholo, Nitro, Raider
3) El Audaz, Flyer, Pegasso vs Cancerbero, Magnus, Okumura
4) Dark Panther, Star Jr., Volcano vs Kráneo, Misterioso Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Panterita del Ring vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

I’m not sure I would trust the Gemelos to work with Atlantis & Casas but they’re all probably not going to do anything so it’ll be fine. Not a promising show.

CMLL (MON) 08/29/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Leono, Retro, Valiente Jr. vs Espíritu Maligno, Fuerza Chicana, Sombra Diabólika
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Marcela vs Dark Silueta, Olympia, Reyna Isis
Reyna Isis replaced Amapola on Thursday
3) Dulce Gardenia vs Okumura [lightning]
4) Atlantis Jr., Averno, Negro Casas, Stigma vs Cavernario, Misterioso Jr., Stuka Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Volador Jr. vs Último Guerrero

Dulce/Okumura seems unfair to Puebla. Note the three locals on Monday’s show are the ones who aren’t going to Guadalajara (though Stigma is.)

CMLL (TUE) 08/30/2022 Arena México
1) Kaligua & Pequeño Magía vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) La Jarochita, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita vs Hera, La Seductora, Metálica
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Felino, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Titán vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

The main event could be fun but this is another Tuesday show you don’t need to watch. It is possible for CMLL to do stuff on Fridays and also other days at the same time, but that’s not the route they’re going.

CMLL (TUE) 08/30/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Bello Antuan, Luminoso, Minotauro vs Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Quka
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Asturiano, Éxtasis, Prayer, Siki Osama
GDL vs Puebla
4) Astral, El Coyote, Suicida vs Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico
5) Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Joker vs Pegasso, Perverso, Rey Samuray (Puebla)
GDL vs Puebla
6) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. vs Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma
GDL vs Puebla

The better Tuesday show, just because the Guadalajara/Puebla stuff should be interesting. The fourth match might be good too, might be a new way for Suicida to live up to his name. Big Lucha Extasis did confirm he’s the Extasis appearing here.

NJPW announced Blake Christian & Mascara Dorada vs Mistico & Alex Zayne for their 09/11 show in Las Vegas.

Tickets went on sale Thursday for the balcony and bleacher levels sections on the 09/16 Aniversario show. There was about a half hour delay from the scheduled start but it’s worked fine since. The tickets are 180 ($9 USD) for the highest level and 240 ($12) for the balcony. Ticketmaster is assigning locations but doesn’t have at ticket map, so it’s tough to tell how the tickets are moving. I’d be absolutely stunned if those sold out before the day of the show.

CMLL Informa was a good news edition. Julio Cesar Rivera mentioned CMLL set their TicketmasterLive PPV buy record with the Gran Prix. They didn’t said the number. I suspect it wouldn’t take a big one to surpass previous shows, but also that they will break that record again in a month. He also said CMLL was impressed with many of the foreigners who came in for the Gran Prix and they have plans to bring some back. This played into Volador being on the show. He brushed off Rocky Romero’s harsh comments in the lead-up to the Gran Prix and then wouldn’t stop talking about Romero after the match was over. I’m not sure if Volador was actually bothered or just building up a match, though it felt a little bit of both.

The other Informa announcement is all the Night of Champions will be revealed on Wednesday. That show must be happening soon then. They’ll have the date, the titles, and the challenger candidates all announced next Wednesday, with voting opening as well.

Volador Jr. would like to face Ultimo Guerrero in a hair vs hair match in the main event of the 90th Aniversario. That probably won’t happen.

Dr. Wagner Jr.’s column this week complains about the lack of true heavyweights in the Gran Prix.

AEW stole the Soberano/Templario injury match for Punk/Moxley. I mean, I’m sure this is a false statement, it’s probably actually some MMA thing I’m not aware of and don’t want explained, but the length and the injury was familiar to those who’ve watched CMLL this year. The big difference was Moxley finished Punk off (because it was a plan) while Templario had to stand in the corner while Soberano got counted out repeatedly (because it wasn’t a plan.) Templario should learn from this: next time, hit Soberano with a big move and then cut a crazily impassioned promo afterward instead of being sad.

AAA

AAA TV is listed as starting at 6:08 pm on Space’s guide and 7:08 on another guide. AAA hasn’t talked about a start time. I’m leaning towards the 6:08 being correct. It should be the first part of the Saltillo taping, though we won’t know what matches that’ll be until AAA releases a preview.

On Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, Thunder Rosa announced she was injured and would be unable to defend her AEW Women’s Championship in two weekends at All Out. PW Insider said it’s a disc issue in her back, and there’s no timeframe on her return. The Wrestling Observer agreed with the back injury and said she’s not expected to be out long. Thunder Rosa then went onto the Busted Open radio show and said she’d be out “probably two months.” That would put her return just past TripleMania. AAA has a TripleMania press conference coming up in early September and I wouldn’t expect any news about this.

Thunder Rosa missing TripleMania would be yet another incident of AAA planning (announced or just internally) a big match with an outside wrestler only for it to fall apart due to injury or otherwise absence. This has been some really bad luck and it’s shouldn’t keep going this way forever; it was smoother before and it’ll be smoother again. It still is the risk inherent to building AAA’s big matches around people who don’t work for AAA and a frustrating part of watching AAA this past year.

Konnan was asked about Juventud Guerrera’s campaign to get in the Megachampionship match at TripleMania on one of his recent podcasts. He went through the long and sometimes unpleasant history of his relationship with Guerrera (firing him from AAA four times, anger over Guerrera making rude comments about Rey Mysterio, anger over Guerrera saying Konnan hurt guys on purpose) but also positive memories of starting out together in AAA and their times together in WCW. Konnan said he’d was heading to a production meeting the next day and would ask if Guerrera was really getting fan support and would be open to having Guerrera on TripleMania, but thought there was no chance they’d put him in the title match with Vikingo. Guerrera continues to tweet.

Jeff Jarrett’s podcast this week is about AAA. The intention seemed to be to cover his whole time in AAA, but there’s too much ground to cover. This one ends up focusing on the TNA/AAA relationship while Antonio Pena was alive. It’s also done in the context of AAA, Jarrett and maybe Conrad Thompson getting back into business with each other soon. Thompson mentions he and Jarrett will be going to Mexico in three weeks (presumably part of the next TripleMania press conference), and Jarrett posted a photo of himself, Thompson, Eric Bischoff and Dorian Roldan at a dinner in Dallas. The first three were in town for a podcast expo this week. Of the course of the podcast, Thompson denies he and Jarrett starting up a promotion yet intentionally hints at various different business meetings to set up like wrestling events. It’s part of the game. At the least, AAA was over the moon about the reception for their match on the Ric Flair show, Thompson is believed to running similar events in the future, and AAA certainly will want to be part of those. AAA also generally burns through US partners quickly and Jarrett could be their newest partner in their next stab at northern expansion.

Jarrett described this period of being in AAA as fun; he got to be talent in front of big crowd with none of the responsibility or stress that that came with running Impact. He credits Antonio Pena with giving him tortillas to throw out (something that other foreign heels had done previously) and Jarrett talks up Pena as a wrestling genius. There were pay issues but Jarrett said he understood AAA wasn’t going to always be want or be able to pay what he’d normally get in the US. AAA going to Impact was more stressful. Jarrett counts getting Konnan and Pena to work together in Impact and then back together in Mexico as a great success and felt having lucha libre styled wrestlers was important to his vision of the X-Division. Konnan is also specifically praised for his work and star power. The problem came in dealing with AAA; the office wouldn’t respond or Pena himself would disappear from days. Pena missed meeting intended to set up US plans (including a AAA PPV in San Diego), sometimes with explanation and sometimes without. Pena also grew sour on the relationship when he felt the difference in Mexico/US payscales was causing some talent to want to stay working Impact but leave AAA, in a repeat of the WCW/AAA/Promo Azteca situations from the 90s. The discussion ends right around the last show Pena worked (and with the briefest possible discussion of the Impact/CMLL relationship) with plans to talk more about AAA in a future podcast.

Chik Tormenta posted a series of comments on social media pleading for the Guadalajara lucha libre commission to remove their ban on men vs women matches. I was unaware once was in place. AAA has been able to run mixed matches on their tapings from 2005-2009. (They’ve only taped once in Guadalajara proper since.) CMLL of course, doesn’t run mixed matches; this mostly affects the indie promotions in the commission’s jurisdiction. Tormenta & husband Reycko faced Flammer & her husband The Tiger back in July in Guadalajara’s Arena Jalisco, playing off their TripleMania mask match, so something must’ve happened in follow up to that but not clear what.

A Lucha Brother shirt has shown up in Target as part of latino heritage month.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 08/25/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Súper Boy & Súper Cometa b John Tito & Rey Minos 
John Tito replaced Aguila Oriental
2) Rey Aztaroth, Rey Halcón Jr., Vértigo b Dragón Yuki, Ventvert Jack, Ventvert Negro 
3) Mafioso, Maniacop 360, Paymon b Brillante Rb, Caballero de Plata, Noisy Boy 
Hell Boy cost Caballero de Plata the match
4) Tonalli b Travis Banks 
5) Hijo del Fishman, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro b Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Hijo del Pirata Morgan 

Oficials and Cerberos are feuding but when are they both in the same place and not feuding? IWRG is all but saying Hell Boy & Caballero de Plata is their independence day match, so we’ll see what actually happens there.

IWRG (SAT) 08/27/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Kalu & Magic Boy vs Adamatio & Rey Fuego
2) Cosmic & Nubilus vs Milagro & Osogbo
3) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Rey Minos vs Súper Cometa, Último Caballero, Yetti
4) Ajolotol, Güero De Tijuana, Nativo vs Balak, Rey Eclipse, Skanda
5) Estrella de Oro, Genex, Heredero Maya vs Kenji, Vértigo, Wagner Kid
6) Alan Extreme, Baby Star, Black Dragón, Cerebro Negro Jr., Hell Boy, Limbo, Rey Halcón, Tortuga Leo vs Feroz, John Tito, Noisy Boy, Rey Aztaroth, Sol, Spider Fly, Súper Boy, X-Devil [Copa High Power]
Torneo FILL 99

The weekly IWRG news/interview show airs Wednesdays nights, right between the end of Dynamite and Big Lucha World. I’ve started to at least scan through it to grab the Sunday lineup, just to not feel totally unproductive while waiting for Big Lucha to get going. They did have the Thursday and Sunday lineups this week. They did not appear to mention this Saturday show at all. IWRG is so weird. This show is a lot of rookies, all from the IWRG school, so they should be better at working with each other than most of these shows.

IWRG (SUN) 08/28/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sol & Spider Fly vs Rey Halcón & Vértigo
2) Alan Extreme, Brillante, Noisy Boy vs Feroz, Paymon, Tortuga Leo
3) Caballero de Plata vs Hell Boy
4) Imposible, Relámpago, Tonalli vs Fly Warrior, Puma de Oro, Travis Banks
5) Jessy Ventura © vs Fulgor [IWRG IC WELTER]
2nd defense
6) Diva Salvaje, Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Hijo del Fishman, Mafioso, Maniacop 360

The third match will have a lot of blood. IWRG seems to be building towards a Morgan/Fishman rematch among other rivalries. Feroz in the second match appears to be a Ciudad Juarez/El Paso wrestler who’s been around for a few weeks.

IWRG announced a talent-sharing agreement with Los Angeles’ RGR promotion. The RGR groups have been using AAA talent along with local luchadors on their shows, though they’ve been going directly to the talent and not through AAA typically and that’s caused headaches when AAA needs to people. Working with IWRG wrestlers seems less expensive and likely fewer headaches. I’m not sure if the IWRG wrestlers are going to mean much to Los Angeles fans and likewise to LA wrestlers coming to Naucalpan. That’s probably not a problem for IWRG – they have foreigners in all the time who don’t seem to mean much – but going from Psycho Clown and Pentagon showing up on the previous RGR week of shows to anyone from IWRG is an adjustment. It is a good deal for the wrestlers involved to get to wrestle in more places.

IWRG also announced they signed Paymon to one of their nebulous contracts.

Tempestad, Latino, Espartaco retained the IWRG trios titles in Saltillo. This title reign continues to be unrecognized by IWRG.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (WED) 08/24/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Mas Lucha]
1) Maximiliano Rivera Romero b Carito 
Potro de Oro was scheduled to wrestle Carito but claimed to suffer a arm injury in training. Maximiliano Rivera Romero made his debut replacing him. Max won with help from Potro & Shocko and announced he’d be taking Potro’s place in Friday’s match.
2) Elipse & Orbita b Mexicano & Viajero 
3) Ricky Marvin b Radioactivo [BL CHAMP, Block B, quarterfinal] 
4) El Bandido b Gravity [BL CHAMP, Block B, quarterfinal] 

Both tournament matches were good. The brothers wanted to have a memorable match in the main event did that. Marvin gave Radioactivo a lot early and then brutalized him by the end. Everyone, referee included, was lost in the tag match. Accion Jackson was in a neckbrace following his fall last week; I’m sure his neck was bothering him but he was also playing it up for the cameras amusingly.

Big Lucha (FRI) 08/26/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo vs Forneo, Sol, Torito
2) Diva Salvaje, Dulce Canela, Jessy Ventura vs King, Kong, Tibiri Tabara
3) Accion Jackson, Emperador Azteca, Flamita, Yutani vs ?, ??, Skayde, Viajero
4) Carito & Tirano vs Maximiliano Rivera Romero & Shocko [TLC]
5) Ricky Marvin vs Arez [BL CHAMP, Block B, semifinal]
6) El Bandido vs Galeno del Mal [BL CHAMP, Block B, semifinal]
7) ? vs ?? [BL CHAMP, Block B, final]

The Big Lucha show is listed as starting at 8:30 CT pm. It’s started an hour after that time the last two episodes, prepare accordingly. It’s expected to stream live on Mas lucha.

Ricky Marvin is 6-0 against Arez in singles matches with known results. Lucha Memes was building towards a hair match between the two – and perhaps Arez finally getting that win – but the pandemic derailed things and now Arez may be too busy with AAA. It’ll be interesting if Arez finally gets that win in this tournament or if they’re still holding it off for another day.

Galeno del Mal (man shaped like a refrigerator and perhaps weighing the same) versus Bandido (man who likes to do impressively strong things) is a secretly fun semifinal.

The final, either Bandido/Arez or Bandido/Marvin, looks very strong on paper. I’m near not as excited about the rest of the card but the tournament itself makes this the Friday show to check out. The winner joins Flamita in the final bracket along with unnamed other participants; maybe we’ll get those names too.

It’s kinda weird a manager character’s second match is a TLC match but I’m not sure why that match was ever a TLC match. I thought Potro de Oro injury was a work – who wears a sling and no-shirt? – and a setup for a spot on this show. Others disagree.

Last month’s Big Lucha show was one of the least attended they’ve had, and bringing in Las Shotas is probably an attempt to fix that.

Other News

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

The 09/02 GCW/BLP show announced Gringo Loco, Toxin, Latigo vs Laredo Kid, ASF and Drago Kid. That’s a late night show following Rampage, I absolutely didn’t want to go to that show, I may have to go to that show now. Latigo is going to do do good with Drago Kid, as he always does. Latigo would make every young high flyer and every scramble go better and he should be booked on as many shows as possible that weekend, but he’s only listed on that one show at the moment.

The remains of Irapuato luchador Lepra (Salvador Garcia Soto) were found Thursday. He’d been reportedly kidnapped early Sunday morning leaving a lucha libre show. “Several black bags were found with human remains” very early Thursday. A sign was left next to the bags that identified the remains ofLepra, and called the murder a response to the municipal president disturbing drugs and weapons. (If you really want to see the note, it’s made it to Facebook.)

Fellow Irapuato luchador Maremoto (Raul Salazar Santillan, 55) was kidnapped Tuesday morning. These situations appear to be connected; Maremoto is referenced in Lepra’s note as also being on the murder’s list. Maremoto was also a government worker, though a different department than Lepra. He wrestled on the same show Lepra was kidnapped on, and reports had him being “taken with great violence.”

Volaris, a Mexican airline who’s sponsored both AAA & CMLL at times, held a day of celebrations at Mexico City’s new AIFA airport. That included some lucha libre matches. The AIFA airport opened earlier this year despite seemingly not being ready to open and hasn’t really changed public perception since then.

Monterrey luchador (and Showcenter tournament participant) Baby Love opened her own OnlyFans this past week. She’s charging $15/month. Other luchadoras have announced plans to do the same. Mystique’s announcement of her Only Fans ($20/month) got a lot of attention, getting mentioned on news sites for weeks. Lluvia’s announcement got one day (and her site is still free.)  Baby Love’s got no notice outside of her Facebook fans; this is already old hat and mentioning each one seems as low news value as announcing new t-shirt designs. Many luchadoras will going to give this or similar services a try in the next few months hoping for the immediate. Few will be successful; content is hard work and unfairly supported. Women’s wrestling fans seem to be lower in number than men’s wrestling fans but also many times more passionate about their favorites and more willing to support them directly financially in ways like OnlyFans.

The next story about all of this is likely going to be some incident between a woman who has a popular OnlyFans and someone who resents the idea, seeing it as disrespectful to women’s wrestling. It’d probably be a lucrative feud if done as a work, but I don’t think it’ll start as a work.

Alberto el Patron, in theory doing promotion for Nacion Lucha Libre show, explained most Mexican wrestlers wear masks because they are fat and ugly. They can’t compete with the US wrestlers because they’re all tall and look like movie stars like himself and other US stars. In other interviews, Alberto bemoans the lack of new drawing stars in lucha libre, names Hijo del Santo, LA Park and Alberto as among few people who can sell tickets.  I think Alberto is meant to be a face. Nacion Lucha Libre is playing in a small venue on 09/24 and plenty of tickets are still available.

Ciudad Juarez declared September 25th “Dia de Lucha Libre.” Pagano appeared as part of the ceremony.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 08/22/2022 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Comisión Box y Lucha Puebla, El Sol del Puebla]
2) Perverso & Prayer b Rey Apocalipsis & Siki Osama 
3) Audaz, Dulce Gardenia, Star Jr. b Felino, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
4) Atlantis Jr., Hechicero, Templario b Ángel de Oro, Stuka Jr., Titán [Relevos Increíbles] 
Angel de Oro left the match a couple minutes early on his own power with an injury. Atlantis Jr. said Stuka would be unmasked at the Aniversario
5) Averno, Negro Casas, Volador Jr. DQ Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
Volador blocked a foul from UG, then faked a foul anyway to draw the DQ. May set up a singles match next week.

Just the last couple of minutes of clips on all thoe matches. Angel de Oro seemed bothered but not drastically hurt.

CMLL (TUE) 08/23/2022 Arena México [Box y Lucha, CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Marca, The Gladiatores (video)]
1) Fantasy & Kaligua b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Disturbio, Nitro, Raider b Diamond, Sangre Imperial, Suicida
3) La Seductora, Metálica, Reyna Isis b La Guerrera, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit 
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, El Coyote, Luciferno
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible b Dark Panther, Star Black, Star Jr. 
Star Black replaced Guerrero Maya Jr.

Suicida fell hard to the floor near the close of the third fall of his match but apparently only ended with a headache.

Somehow I only managed to upload two of these.

CMLL (TUE) 08/23/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Mas Lucha]
1) Persa, Raven, Temerario b Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel 
2) Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono b Omar Brunetti, Ráfaga, Vaquero Jr. 
Cris Skin replaced Angel Rebelde (moved up)
3) Crixus b Halcón Negro Jr. [QRO MIDDLE] 
4) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b Ángel Rebelde, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin 
Star Black was announced and thne immediately replaced by Angel Rebelde
5) Difunto, Euforia, Hijo del Soberano b Dragón Rojo Jr., Furia Roja, Misterioso Jr. 
6) Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr., Volador Jr. b Averno, Hechicero, Zandokan Jr. 

Mistico’s return here drew well. Misterioso had a rough night.

Next week’s show will feature Arena Coliseo Guadalajara and Arena Puebla wrestlers. Those two CMLL arenas have rarely (maybe never) sent local wrestlers to the other buildings, so this is an unseen concept. Matches strongly hinted by graphics

• Asturiano, Prayer, Extasis, Siki Osama Jr. vs Halcon Negro, Optimus, Trono, Angel Rebelde
• Perverso, Rey Samuray, Pegasso vs Furia Roja, Joker, Guerrero de la Muerte
• Guerrero Maya Jr., Arkalis, Stigma vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.

There’s no Extasis wrestling in Arena Puebla. I think it’s Big Lucha’s Extasis, who is from Puebla and did wrestle on indie shows with some of this crew. (That also suggests he was training to debut in Arena Puebla and never got a spot.)

Salvador Lutteroth (the young one) was in attendance at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. He’s rarely seen publically at shows.

CMLL (FRI) 08/26/2022 Arena México
1) Astral & Leono vs Grako & Inquisidor
2) Amapola, La Jarochita, La Magnifica vs Dark Silueta, Lluvia, Marcela [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Negro Casas vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
4) Fugaz, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr.
Fugaz replaced Soberano Jr.
5) Averno, Místico, Templario vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

The Copa Independencia tournament starts on 09/02 so this is just a break between competitions. The show still might be good.

CMLL (SAT) 08/27/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita vs Hera, Olympia, Tiffany
3) Arkalis, Cachorro, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
4) Fugaz, Star Black, Stigma vs Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Pólvora
5) Panterita del Ring, Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible

There are names here – Panterita del Ring and Cachorro come to mind – who never seem to be making to Friday shows. CMLL’s much more specific about which guys wrestle in the top half of the card on Friday. It means some prelim guys are showing up on Fridays but midcard guys seem to have a harder path.

Aniversario tickets for the first level of Arena Mexico show are sold out. CMLL’s taken a couple of unusual steps in response

• The upper-level seats (balcony and bleacher seating) will go on sale Thursday morning.
  • Those areas are usually only sold at the Arena Mexico box office and only sold even there if CMLL thinks there’s enough demand to open the area up. It was always going to be open for this show but I don’t think they expected to put them online and definitely not online this quick.
  • A CMLL press release says this is the first time these zones of tickets have been put on sale via Ticketmaster but I’m not sure that’s true. I remember it happening on past shows, and I’ve mentioned it in passing in at least this 2011 blog entry. It’s been a while, at least.
• The CMLL Aniversario iPPV is also already available to purchase on Ticketmaster. It’s the same 198 pesos price as the PPV.

The first full-capacity Aniversario, with Atlantis involved in the main event and either a mask or a big name hair loss in the main event, should be a big deal. This seemed like a show that was going to do full capacity or pretty close as long as the prices were reasonable and they would end up with those numbers. It’s just the pace of ticket sales that’s been stunning. It doesn’t entirely feel like CMLL was expecting this pace of sales either. CMLL’s Guadalajara broadcast was running a generic “tickets now on sale” promo Tuesday night when there were only a couple of dozen tickets left. CMLL itself doesn’t feel hot, but CMLL fans (and AAA fans too) are willing to spend on shows they consider big, and CMLL’s done a good job making this Aniversario feel big.

CMLL Informa today has Volador Jr., Los Ingobernables, Volcano and Neon. I wonder if they’re doing a CMLL Pekes Volcano video. He’s sort of a cartoon already.

AAA

AAA sponsor Magnichater unvieled Pentagon Jr. and Villano IV planes on Monday. These are charter planes that are in normal service and will have Penta/Villano decals on the planes for the next few months as they fly around Central and South America. It’s a neat design, but it was more intended as a media event to promote TripleMania and their mask match for a fresh run of press. Villano IV shed tears thinking about his family being remembered through this plane design, which continued the streak of Villano IV crying at press conferences. Those acts originally seemed like a sign he knew he was losing his mask at the end of this, but maybe he’s just a man very in touch with his emotions.

Mr. Iguana announced his US work visa got renewed.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 08/25/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental & Rey Minos vs Súper Boy & Súper Cometa
2) Dragón Yuki, Ventvert Jack, Ventvert Negro vs Rey Aztaroth, Rey Halcón, Vértigo
3) Brillante, Caballero de Plata, Noisy Boy vs Mafioso, Maniacop 360, Paymon
4) Tonalli vs Travis Banks
5) Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Hijo del Fishman, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro

Not sure which of the many Brillantes is showing up in IWRG Thursday. Dragon Yuki is a Japanese indie wrestler who spent a lot of time in Mexico in the 2010s and brought along the Ventverts for a tour over the last month. (They’re “Van Vert” in Japan; it hasn’t translated well.) Jack’s Cagematch comments say he’s 17 and a promising high flyer, so he’ll fit in IWRG easily.

Rey Espectro, billed as too hurt to wrestle in IWRG on Sunday, wrestled in Leon on Monday. Obviously, there’s some other issue there and I’m guessing we won’t see Espectro back in IWRG for some time.

IWRG has already put on tickets for their 60th-anniversary show. (It’s the anniversary of the Morenos promotion shows, which far pre-dates using the IWRG name.) That 60th-anniversary show is on December 16th. I guess you can make your plans early if you want to save 50 pesos.

Big Lucha

Today’s Big Lucha World show has Gravity versus Bandido and Ricky Marvin torturing Radioactivo, the final two quarterfinal spots in phase B of the Big Lucha World tournament. Their normal monthly show is this weekend, so Carito and Potro de Oro wrestle before their tag team TLC match

Flamita’s match today in GLEAT aired for free on YouTube. GLEAT announced Bandido and Komander as coming in for their 10/09 show.

Other Notes

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania and the latest Lucha Report.

Zona 23’s July show will air on FITE TV on Friday. It’s part of their FITE+ package ($5/month). Some of this show has turned up on YouTube but not all of it. It’s rare for a Mexican wrestling promotion to end up on FITE. GCW has copromoted Zona 23 shows on FITE, but I don’t recall seeing Zona 23 by itself (though maybe GCW is still facilitating this behind the scenes.)

MLW was scheduled to have a TV taping in El Paso on 08/27. On 08/12, MLW told their wrestlers that local promotion 915-656 would not be bringing in as many MLW talents as expected and the show would not be a TV taping. Other reports had MLW’s TV deal not being completed in time for this show. At rate, “not as many as expected” turns out to be “close to none” depending on the way you slice it. The announced lineup has Microman, Hernandez, El Dragon, and Mini Abismo Negro as the MLW reps. Microman and Mini Abismo have been regulars this year in MLW, Hernandez was in on the last couple of tapings and Dragon has worked WrestleMania weekend, but all those names might be on a normal 915-656 show. All the names on the show were pictured in a teaser post way back on July 13th, suggesting the local promotion weren’t planning on bringing in much other MLW talent a month before the rest of the MLW talent were informed. It’s strange. 915-656 focus for this show is on Villano III Jr. being general manager (and Konnan as creative lead) and less the MLW stuff. It comes off like the MLW portion was completely canceled, not downsized, but canceling a taping would look bad and maybe a few curious people will get sucked in by the MLW name anyway. It doesn’t seem like an MLW show but it may still be a good show.

MLW’s next TV taping is 09/18 in outside Atlanta with Mucha Lucha Atlanta and hopefully that goes better. They’ve also announced a 10/30 taping in Philadelphia.

10/08 RIOT “Nuestra Raza Nuestra Lucha”

• Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf vs Prometeo & Kratoz

Mazatlan luchador Serpiente Marina says he’s retiring from wrestling next year, maybe in April. He’s been wrestling (and promoting) for 34 years in the area.

Irapuato government worker Salvador Garcia is believed to be a kidnapping victim. Garcia is also a luchador. The article doesn’t reveal his identity, just says he’s well known. He was leaving a wrestling event on 08/20 when he was approached and taken by unknown men. Nothing more was known on

Irapuato luchador Lepra attended the Saturday show at Arena Xirichucho, and got in his car early Sunday morning after the show ended. Unknown armed men got him out of his car, put him in another car, and he hasn’t been seen since. The early media reports carefully did not refer to it as a kidnapping; they’re not sure if Lepra (real name Salvador Garcia) willingly got in the car with them. Later reports mentioned the armed men had a symbol linked to an organized crime unit. Lepra isn’t much known outside of his home area (probably the biggest match elsewhere is working a FILL cibernetico once) and doesn’t seem to be a particular star there, but the concept of “luchador gets kidnapped” has gotten this story publicized in many places.

Lepra has a government job inspecting markets in his other life and some of the articles about this case hint this might be related to that and the lucha libre just an aside. Still, Irapuato seems to have some suspicious incidents. Local luchador Juventud Rebelde was killed leaving training this past May, while the promoter of the Generacion XXI promotion Gerardo Martin Landeros Mendiola was shot to death in a restaurant in 2020.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 08/19/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronistas del Ring, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, Record, SuperLuchas, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (videos), thecubsfan, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Black Panther, Fugaz, Star Black b Hijo del Villano III, Okumura, Pólvora  
13:33. Dark Panther replaced Esfinge (hand injury) on Tuesday
2) Dark Silueta, La Jarochita, Lluvia b Metálica, Princesa Sugheit, Reyna Isis [Relevos Increíbles]   
16:09.
3) Hechicero b Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]    
18:45. second defense
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Templario, Titán, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b El Mesías, Kenny King, Lince Dorado, Matt Taven, Oráculo, Robbie Eagles, Rocky Romero, Tiger Mask IV [Gran Prix]     
56:33. Elimination order: Oraculo (Stuka, 23:28), Titan (Lince Dorado, 28:12), Robbie Eagles (Soberano, 35:06), Templario (Matt Taven, 35:33), Stuka (Kenny King, 37:19), Soberano Jr. (Rocky Romero, 42:42), Lince Dorado (Atlantis Jr., 44:10), Kenny King (Mistico, 45:19), Atlantis Jr. (Tiger Mask, 46:28), Matt Taven (Ultimo Guerrero, 48;22), Ultimo Guerrero (Mesias via foul, 49:13), Mesias (Mistico, 50:01), Mistico (Tiger Mask, 50:39), Rocky Romero (53:15, Volador Jr.), Tiger Mask IV (56:33, Volador Jr.) leaving Volador Jr. as the winner for the third time.

Arena Mexico fans sang Cielito Lindo unprompted after the match, a song typically sung after big Mexican sports victories. That kind of tells you about the crowd excitement tonight. It was the loudest I’ve heard Arena Mexico in a long time and stayed that way for the entire main event. They were very into the other matches too, treating the cold Hechicero/Euforia match like some hotly anticipated match. The Gran Prix is probably just a ‘great’ match with the sound off – there was a pretty bad Mistica flub, Tiger Mask IV wasn’t the most dynamic finalists – but it felt like one of the biggest matches of the year. Hechicero/Euforia aren’t far behind.

There’s no way both of them will end up airing complete; the Gran Prix itself might fill up an entire TV episode depending on how much of the ceremony they show. People wanted to see this whole show – there was definite interest in watching this the day after – and CMLL’s just offering no way to do so. Maybe that encourages people to buy PPVs in advance but for now it’s money left on the table.

Attendance looked over 10K, though short of a sell-out. They were completely full in the top section, and the middle-level fenced-off sections don’t appear to be sold. Capacity isn’t 16K or whatever the last number we had the way they’re sitting people.

Tempalrio must’ve picked up an injury; he appeared but didn’t wrestle on Saturday on an indie show.

Volador’s triumph is the cover of this week’s Box y Lucha. A theme of the build up to this Gran Prix was Rocky Romero trashing Mexican wrestling and Volador in particular, and Volador refusing to take the bait. Until after the match, where Volador pointed out Rocky couldn’t back up the talk. Volador referenced Romero “biting the hand of the company” (jumping from CMLL to AAA as Grey Shadow in 2006) and talked about like beating him more than even Tiger Mask. He also challenged Romero to bring him and Los Depereadores to NJPW Strong to continue this.

Hechierco and Euforia said they’re on the same page after their title match, happy to have proven the strength of Los Infernales.

CMLL (SAT) 08/20/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Neón & Valiente Jr. b Apocalipsis & Cholo
Tecnicos took 2/3
2) Amapola, Hera, La Seductora b La Vaquerita, Maligna, Marcela
Rudas took 2/3.
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma b Cancerbero, Disturbio, Luciferno
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible b Kenny King, Matt Taven, Oráculo
Ingobernables took 2/3.
5) Lince Dorado, Robbie Eagles, Tiger Mask IV b Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Foreigners took 2/3.

There was also a sponsored (DHL) show on Saturday in Arena Mexico, which have been rare the last couple of years. It’s another sign their business is coming back a bit.

CMLL (SUN) 08/21/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring]
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Minos, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
Angelito was strechered out after missing Violencia on a dive
2) Enfermero Jr., Inquisidor, Nitro b Astral, Leono, Oro Jr.
Rudos took 2/3.
3) El Coyote, Felino, Kráneo b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
Rudost ook 1/3.
4) Euforia & Hechicero b Kenny King & Oráculo
Hechicero replaced Cavernario quickly after the lineup was announced. Infernales took 1/3.
5) Gran Guerrero, Tiger Mask, Titán b Lince Dorado, Matt Taven, Volador Jr.
Team Tiger Mask took 2/3.

That finishes up the foreigners for now. Lots of them talked on social media about wanting to come back, so it seems like they have a positive experience. No idea if CMLL will actually bring outsiders back. Tiger Mask was pushed the hardest (won every match but the Gran Prix) but logically is unlikely to make the long trip back. Robbie Eagles already took his singles lost. Rocky Romero did a lot of promo work but was in for the least days (he was in Coast Rica winning a title on Saturday.) Everyone else did fine but CMLL didn’t spotlight them in a way where we’re meant to expect more from them.

A fun idea might be to combine that with the night of champions polling; they’d get a lot of Twitter notice if Hechicero’s challenger was a choice between three outsiders.

CMLL (TUE) 08/23/2022 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Kaligua vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Diamond, Sangre Imperial, Suicida vs Disturbio, Nitro, Raider
3) La Guerrera, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit vs La Seductora, Metálica, Reyna Isis
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, El Coyote, Luciferno
5) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr. Star Black, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible

That’s a good looking main event. Virus has now been out for three months; his tibia injury was said originally to keep him out just for one month. Coyote is on fill in duty for this show.

CMLL (TUE) 08/23/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Persa, Raven, Temerario vs Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel
2) Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono vs Omar Brunetti, Ráfaga, Vaquero Jr.
Cris Skin replaced Angel Rebelde (moved up)
3) Ángel Rebelde, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin vs Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico
Star Black was announced and thne immediately replaced by Angel Rebelde
4) Crixus vs Halcón Negro Jr. [QRO MIDDLE]
5) Difunto, Euforia, Hijo del Soberano vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Furia Roja, Misterioso Jr.
6) Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr., Volador Jr. vs Averno, Hechicero, Zandokan Jr.

Zandokan Jr. getting a big spot opposite Panterita del Ring Jr; that has a chance to be a title match to come. Hijo del Soberano returns. Misterioso too; he last appeared here in April and hasn’t appeared in Arnea Mexico since March. The local advertisement pushed the idea of Hombre Bala Jr. and Robin as tag team champions, so that could be a title program too. The second match follows up on run-ins from last week.

Star Black was pulled very quickly. He wasn’t booked on Arena Mexico originally, then showed up in the lineup a day later. Seems like some miscommunication there.

CMLL put their tickets on sale for the 09/16 CMLL 89th Aniversario show and simultaneously released the complete lineup Saturday afternoon. There a couple of surprises:

CMLL (FRI) 09/16/2022 Arena México
1) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa © vs Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma [MEX TRIOS]
third defense
2) Negro Casas, Star Jr., Titán vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
3) ? vs ?? [COPA INDEPENDENCIA]
winner of 09/02 vs winner of 09/09
4) La Jarochita vs Reyna Isis [mask]
5) Atlantis & Fuerza Guerrera vs Averno & Último Guerrero and Atlantis Jr. & Stuka Jr. and Soberano Jr. & Templario
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [relevos suicidas, semifinal]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [relevos suicidas, semifinal]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [relevos suicidas, final]
9) ? vs ?? [mask]

It’s a little bit of a surprise to see Los Inferanles make the cut. Star Jr. has had a good year to make it here. Fuerza Poblana is a bigger surprise; maybe winning the Puebla versus Mexico City cibernetico paid off for them. (Or maybe the stronger pushed OneAtos Team still won’t have a healthy trio by this time.) That should be a fun opener. Everyone – Volador and Mistico most notably – have to win their way to the final of Copa Independencia or sit this one out. Nine matches is going to make for a long show, though this has the early 5 pm start time.

The lower section and the restaurant tickets are the only ones on sale. (CMLL’s sold the upper level tickets only at their box office this year.) Those lower bowl tickets run from 360 to 2160 pesos (about $18-106 USD). Those are the lowest prices since 2017, when Niebla Roja & Gran Guerrero and Zeuxis & Princesa Sugehit were the two big matches. Those prices are low enough that it Averno losing his hair seems slightly more likely. They’re much lower than the 3724 pesos record high price for the Ultimo Guerrero & La Sombra mask matches.

The Anniversary tickets appeared to be about 80% scooped up within a day according to Ticketmaster’s map. It’s never always sales to fans, but that’s a lot of tickets for an opening day. CMLL may have underpriced this show. It seems incredibly unlikely Fuerza Guerrera or Atlantis are losing their masks, especially at those prices, but I wonder if even the slight threat that they might (and the fear of missing out) may have driven some of those sales. CMLL does feel hotter at the moment and putting these tickets out after a very well received show is great timing, but it’s hard to imagine tickets moving this quick if it was just the Atlantis Jr/Stuka match or Averno/Ultimo Guerrero one with no mystery.

Most of you reading this are not going to Aniversario. Quick ticket sales are still good news for you. CMLL’s played strange games with the broadcast of the Aniversario in pre-pandemic times, often not explaining if or how the show would be available to watch until as late as the day of the show. It wasn’t confirmed, but my assumption was CMLL didn’t want people to stay home and watch the show when there were still tickets to be bought. That might not be an issue this year with tickets moving so fast, and so maybe CMLL will be more timely with the streaming information. The last two Aniversario have aired on TicketmasterLive, though those were a no-fan show and a limited-occupancy show.

El Universal has a regular column written by a collection of urban planners, and they happened to write about Arena Mexico today. They consider it a historic site, but a deteriorating one. The restrooms, concession stands, parking lots, lighting, and seats need fixing. They consider it a historical site and want it to be preserved in great condition for future generations, the same way a monument that’s owned by the public. They also believe Arena Mexico should hold more boxing and concerts in addition to the wrestling, so more people visit. The urban planner doesn’t want to see Arena Mexico torn down and feels it’s headed that way if they don’t make improvements. CMLL’s pushback here would probably be “we just had two very hard years, we’re just trying to dig out of a hole right now”, though it’s not like those improvements were noticeably happening before the pandemic.

My guess is the Lutteroths would be happy to rent out the building for more activities, and it’s not their choice it’s going elsewhere. It may have something to do with that lacking maintenance and improvement though. Arena Mexico is better maintained than most buildings (or outdoor venues) I’ve gone to see lucha libre in. Just having a 100% working public restroom puts it ahead of most. The owners of a lot of lucha libre buildings don’t seem like they’ve put a lot of money into the sort of amenities you’d expect for a fan venue in 2022.

AAA

AAA on Space was a filler episode of TV, but it turned out to be a good thing this time. About a third of the show was dedicated to promos for TripleMania. Cibernetico & Pagano’s press conference confrontation aired, as did extended sit-down interviews with Villano IV and Pentagon about their mask match. 2022 is a year where only TripleManias matter to AAA, but those TripleManias have often felt completely disconnected from the rest of the TV product. This presentation turned the TV show into a vehicle to hype those matches, which is a better use of it than running in place trios matches they normally air. It still had it’s flaws. Video packages hyped the Showcenter events and the AAA art exhibit without giving any actionable information about those events; you’d have no idea that there was a Showcenter event this weekend. A lot of AAA video content seems primarily intended to enhance the image of the promotion without giving viewers any direction on what to do if they actually do want to go to AAA, so at least those TripleMania video features did have a direction. AAA has no taping lined up to cover the October 8th show and that should also be TripleMania hype in a similar fashion.

The matches were fine/good. They were all from previous tapings that had been skipped over. Rey Horus versus Gringo Loco from the May Showcenter aired; they just had too many matches to air from that show. AAA had too many matches in Madero there, though Iguana/Hamburguesa vs Carta Brava/Parka Negra match might have bumped because it got changed; La Rebelion were meant to be the rudos and had flight issues that night. Arkangel Divino vs Ultimo Maldito in Aguascalientes actually might have been a last-minute addition once AAA realized they needed one more match for this episode. All the matches were about what you’d expect for the names involved; I liked Horus/Loco the best.

Next week’s TV show will be from this taping:

AAA TV (SAT) 08/20/2022 Lienzo Charro Professor Enrique Gonzalez, Saltillo, Coahuila [Lucha Libre Around the world (FB), Lucha Libre CD. Victoria, Saltillo Al Raz de Lona (FB), Zocalo]
1) Kratoz & Prometeo b Baby Xtreme & Iron Kid [IR TAG]
2) Epydemius b Latino ©, Cabula [IR HEAVY]
3) Chik Tormenta b Sussy Love, Maravilla 
Scheduled as a mixed tag w/Komander, Latigo and Toxin
4) Látigo & Toxin b Antifaz del Norte & Pierroth Jr.
5) Aerostar, Baby Xtreme, Komander b Argenis, La Parka Negra, Villano III Jr.
Komander & Baby Xtreme replaced Drago & Myzteziz. Money thrown in.
6) Bestia 666, Gringo Loco, Mecha Wolf b Crazy Boy, Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa
Earlier, Crazy Boy (again) proposed reforming the Mexican Powers with Iguana, Hamburguesa and Microman. They declined. He betrayed them in the match.
7) Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernético, Rey Escorpión b Charly Manson, Pagano, Zorro
Vampiro appeared to announce he’d referee this Pagano/Cibernetico match. Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf attacked Vampiro after this match for unclear reasons (though they had interacted at TripleMania)
8) Aramis & Hijo Del Vikingo b Dragón Lee & Fénix 
said to be a MOTYC. Vikingo pinned Fenix.

There’s a slightly edited version of the main event on YouTube. It’s a great match, though I wouldn’t go as far as MOTYC. They worked extremely hard, and fans were into the near fall, there was just some emotion missing. It’s hard to put that in these cold matches. Vikingo pinned Fenix totally clean, which is a weird way to build up a title match. I suspect the idea is everyone (AAA included) sees Fenix as the actual higher-ranked guy and Vikingo needs the win to prove he might be able to win at TripleMania, even though he’s the actual mega champion.

Multiple reports I saw had Vampiro announcing he was referring at TripleMania, which is false. I don’t know if something got lost in the promo or if people just weren’t paying attention. AAA seem to be booking in the direction of something with La Rebellion and Vampiro for this show, but it’s tough to tell if AAA is going the same way with this.

Maybe keep the same caution here, but –  you know how most people were concerned CMLL was headed to a cage match to combine the different feuds? This has been a year of AAA doing things we’d hope CMLL wouldn’t do, and I’m wondering if all these midcard feuds are headed to their own cage match at the end of the year. It’s hard to believe AAA would book a Parka Negra/Aerostar apuesta match or the Argenis/Myzteziz match that came up a fe days ago as a solo apuesta match. They hardly book singles matches this year. Combine them all in a cage (or the dome, which hasn’t been used yet this year), and it fits AAA well. The Crazy Boy angle here fits that too, though I’m not sure asking Crazy Boy and his knees to climb a cage is a reasonable request.

The “Pierroth Jr.” here is the one that debuted in KAOZ and has most often appeared in The Crash. It’s believed to be Monterrey/IWRG luchador El Divo under the mask; it was an open discussion on Facebook in recent weeks and I had been told that was likely the person previously. He does seem like a logical person for this sort of regimmicking, someone promoter seemed to like but wasn’t really getting over (or was already typecast as a midlevel guy.) Lucha libre facebook sites are writing this up as “AAA is going to make the new Pierroth an international star”, though it look more they just needed an extra body to hit six matches for TV purposes.

AAA (SUN) 08/21/2022 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [@thekoko666]
1) Artemiz b Zuzu Divine [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
Zuzu Divine replaced Dulce Canela (moved up)
2) Aramis, Charro Negro, Niño Hamburguesa b Argenis, Látigo, Parka Negra
Charro Megro replaced Komander (GALLI) and was hurt hitting the apron on a dive. Aerostar attacked Parka Negra after the match
3) Puma King b Dinámico [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
Puma King returned to being a tecnico (at least for this show)
4) Chik Tormenta b Maravilla [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
5) Bestia 666, Mecha Wolf, Toscano b Aerostar, Drago, Dulce Kanela
Dulce Kanela (moved up) and Toscnao added to the match. V3 Jr. attacked Drago and Aerostar attacked Parka Negra.
6) Myzteziz Jr. & Pagano b Rey Escorpión & Villano III Jr.
Drago attacked V3 Jr. and Argenis attacked Myzteziz after the match. Show ended with a Vikingo appearance, who wanted to defend the Mega championship against the winner of the tournament.

No one knows what’s going on in this tournament but Vikingo was actually a part of it last we knew. Maybe he’s not now if he’s challenging the winner. Big assumption that he’s still going to be champ whenever this ends. AAA has a cool belt for the men’s Showcenter winner. You will see this belt if you travel to the Monterrey area and maybe twice on TV with the winner based on past history. The September show is on the 25th and Vamprio is scheduled to wrestle.

I’m curious to who else is actually booking these. I’m sure Konnan is part of these, but the guy who blunty said “we have 12 women, how many more do you want?” doesn’t seem like the same guy who’s calling in Hidalgo luchadora Zuzu Divine to fill in on a women’s tournament.

Next month’s taping has Vampiro wrestling in the main event.

AAA’s next taping is September 3rd in Torreon.

PWInsider announced Jeff Jarrett left WWE on Friday. Jarrett set up a tag match with himself and Rey Escorpion against Latin Lover & Vampiro back at TripleMania Monterrey. I don’t know if that match will actually happen, but I expect Jarrett will be on TripleMania in some form. Jeff Jarrett’s podcast happens to be talking about TripleMania on tomorrow’s show.

AAA will unveil airplanes with Pentagon Jr. and Villano IV paint schemes tonight at 10:30 pm. It’ll stream on YouTube.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 08/21/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha, Zona Ruda]
1) Mini Canis Lupus & Mini Spirit b Mini Raider & Relampgauito 
2) Noisy Boy © b Yorvak, Sol, Spider Fly, Baby Star [IWRG REY DEL AIRE] 
1st defense
3) Fulgor I b Paymon 
scheduled as Paymon/Jessy Ventura, but Ventura is hurt. Fulgor would get an IWRG WELTER title match with Ventura while Paymon would get a hair match with Ventura depending on who won.
4) Hijo del Pirata Morgan © DRAW Hijo del Fishman [IWRG Rey del Ring] 
1st defense
5) Puma de Oro © b Tonalli [IWRG MEXICO] 
1st defense. Scheduled as Aster Boy challenging but he had an injury and appointed Puma de Oro’s partner Tonalli as an opponent, which caused him to be kicked out of La Jacuan and become a tecnico.
6) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. © b Dick Angelo 3G, Legendario, Tonalli [EdM Trios] 
6th defense
7) Galeno del Mal b Oficial AK47 [IWRG IC HEAVY]
vacant title (Rey Espectro injury). Run-ins by La Pandemina and Los Oficiales.

The second match (part of the free show) has a bunch of spots for GIFs and a bunch of spots that should be deleted from the internet.  Jessy Ventura is out with a second-degree finger strain. This tweet was entertaining.

Galeno del Mal, in celebrating the win on Facebook, noted he’s the youngest ever IWRG Heavyweight champion at 21.

Big Lucha

Full lineup for Wednesday:

Big Lucha World (WED) 08/24/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Carito vs El Potro de Oro
2) Mexicano & Viajero vs Elipse & Orbita
3) Gravity vs El Bandido [BL CHAMP, Block B, quarterfinal]
4) Ricky Marvin vs Radioactivo [BL CHAMP, Block B, quarterfinal]

I wonder if the late night start is going to make Ricky Marvin even more grumpy than usual. Bandido is obviously going to try to make his brother look great.

This past week’s Big Lucha World announced a slight schedule change. This title tournament was originally scheduled to end on September 16. Big Lucha is now running a spot show in Amecameca on the 16th and the title tournament ends on 09/23. I expect that’ll be the biggest show yet as far as international interest in this promotion.

GALLI & Big Lucha have their press conference tonight to talk about talent sharing.

Other News

In a viral video clip from Argentina, a rock band improvised a song “Eduardo, come here to find Juan Cruz” for a boy who had been separated from his children. The fans started singing along until the father appeared and reunited with the child. The lost boy was originally found by former Titanes en el Ring luchador El Caballero Rojo, who does odd jobs in the area and brought it to the band’s attention.

RIOT is doing a pre-sale for their 10/08 tickets today.

CMLL

Tonight’s CMLL card has the Gran Prix. Hechicero/Euforia should be a solid title match, there’s a good group of women (and two feuding ladies) in the women’s match, and the opener should be fine.

It’s the 8v8 main event that’s going to make or break it. And it looks positive there. The world side seems deeper than past years. I’m not sure who the least impressive person is this year, but they’re better than Big Daddy (2019), Dark Magic & Okumura (2018), Johnny Idol (2017), and also Johnny Idol (2016). It’s a lot of wrestlers who’ve had experience working with Mexican wrestlers before, either past visits to CMLL or elsewhere. The finish might play into the CMLL Aniversario plans, but whatever they do is going to be better than the 2019 stuff around Big Daddy and a cage match. (It’s a real interesting question about who’s the last guy for the World Team – Mesias because he’s going to be around more? Tiger Mask because they see him as a legend? Matt Taven because he’s Matt Taven?)

Team Mexico is also almost entirely new from 2019, only Soberano & Volador coming back. Rush, Dragon Lee, Diamante Azul and Forastero are all gone, Negro Casas and & Cavernario weren’t chosen. (Casas was only on that team to set up his hair loss, in retrospect.) Mistico’s returning from injury and always enjoys large crowds. Titan and Templario have never gotten to do a match like this in Arena Mexico. Ultimo Guerrero has, and usually does well with the foreigners. Atlantis Jr. and Stuka Jr. might get spotlighted for what’s to come next. It’s a strong lineup

I always think CMLL is building to the next thing, trying to hook big crowds into coming back in a month for the even bigger show. CMLL doesn’t really work that way all the time; like we saw last week, sometimes they just do what they need to get done that day and let the promos during the week build to the next show. It’d be logical if some of the Anniversario teammates/enemies have issues during the match, but it’d also be CMLL if they just had a straight match with no issues. I still suspect Team World will win – if anything because having the invading group lose the Friday night main event in back-to-back weeks would be strange – but I’m not convinced of it.

The show will be on Ticketmaster live for 198 pesos ($10 USD).

CMLL reported Thursday that Robbie Eagles tested negative for COVID, so he’s back for the tournament. There’s never been any update on Euforia since getting his back cut up on Sunday show, but he’s presumably going to work through it.

Both Team Mexico and Team Rest of the World traveled around on the Mexico City tourist buses and talked at the World Trade Center to promote the match. There are clips on YouTube of them actually yelling at each other as the buses passed each other. The WTC promos seemed in line with those on CMLL Informa this week, though the CMLL wrestlers got to be confrontational when the foreigners were trashing them in their faces.

All of this promotion seems to have worked. It’s possible this Gran Prix will be the third highest attended Mexico City show of the year. TripleMania and Aniversario will be 1 and 2 outside of anything truly unexpected. There were no attendance restrictions on Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, but people are more comfortable going to shows now and that show didn’t have a strong lineup. The Gran Prix has some familiar names and a concept that’s worked well in past years. There were scattered tickets available on the lower level when I checked around noon. They should cross 10K with the walk-up tonight. CMLL’s strategy this year to focus on Friday shows even more (to the exclusion of doing much on the other three Mexico City shows) has worked out. It’s made CMLL a bit of a one-show-a-week promotion, but if the one show everyone watches is pretty good, then maybe they’ll watch the other ones once there’s something interesting on them.

Those Anniversario tickets go on sale Saturday morning. CMLL has not announced prices; it’s likely they won’t be public until the tickets go on sale.

CMLL (SUN) 08/21/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Minos, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Astral, Leono, Oro Jr. vs Enfermero Jr., Inquisidor, Nitro
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido vs El Coyote, Felino, Kráneo
4) Bárbaro Cavernario & Euforia vs Kenny King & Oráculo
5) Gran Guerrero, Tiger Mask, Titán vs Lince Dorado, Matt Taven, Volador Jr.

Sunday appears to final day for the foreginers. And not all the foreigners; Eagles is at the NJPW Strong taping. (That show also may explain why Rocky Romero is not sticking around long.) CMLL never books just a normal 2v2 match as a semi-main match, but I guess that’s how the numbers work.

CMLL (MON) 08/22/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Oro Jr. & Valiente Jr. vs Espíritu Maligno & King Jaguar
2) Perverso & Prayer vs Rey Apocalipsis & Siki Osama
3) Audaz, Dulce Gardenia, Star Jr. vs Felino, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
4) Atlantis Jr., Hechicero, Templario vs Ángel de Oro, Stuka Jr., Titán [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Averno, Negro Casas, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

So many relevos increibles. It’s strange the locals are ahead of the match with CMLL wrestlers.

Halcon Negro challenged Crixus to a title match on Tuesday in Guadalajara. I have to admit that I had no idea what title they were talking about; I didn’t think either of them held a Guadalajara title. They did clarify it on a preview graphic; it’s the Queretaro middleweight championship. Crixus won it from Halcon Negro back on Christmas Day in Queretaro. It’s hard to imagine many fans in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, who don’t seem to pay much attention to the matches in front of them to become with, are familiar with a title change that happened 8 months ago in a different state. Those two guys have been feuding forever though, and they may under that much. They wrestle again in Queretaro this Sunday.

AAA

AAA tapes Saturday night in Saltillo. Dragon Lee & Fenix vs Aramis & Hijo del Vikingo is the main event and should be an outstanding match. Pagano and Cibernetico feud in the semi-main. Aerostar, Drago, Myzteziz vs Argenis, Parka Negra, and Villano III Jr. continues some feuds that have been hanging around for over a year now. The rest of the AAA portion seems like already booked names are just being wedged into spots, though the matches look fine. This is a co-promotion with local AAA promoter BARBA, they have two title matches as extra bonus matches, and at least one of them will likely air. Space should have these episodes on August 27 and September 3rd.

Space this weekend is a big I dunno. There’s nothing left from Verano de Escandalo except a pre-show Arkangel Divino/Ultimo Maldito match. I will at least start off streaming whatever they have on Twitch, but I’ll probably just cut it off quick if it looks like it’s no new matches so everyone can get on with their Saturdays. Space is listing the show as starting at 5:09 pm CT so it’ll probably be over before most people even realize it’s promoted hasn’t promoted the time shift.)

AAA has a Showcenter event on Sunday. These are just house shows that draw moderately well, and the routine is pretty set at this point. There will be some photos or videos posted on Sunday to show some action, a carefully framed photo to show the crowd, and the September lineup will be out instantly after this show is over.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 08/18/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Amakuza & Baby Star b Kenji & Rey Aztaroth 
2) Feroz & Vértigo b Caballero de Plata & Jhon Tito 
Hell Boy cost Plata the match, the two agreed to a super libre match
3) Big Boy, Big Chico Che, Big Tackle b Andy Boy, Danger King, Tony Rivera 
4) Abc, Laser Jr., Troyano b Dick Angelo 3G, Legendario, Tonalli 
Laser Jr. replaced El Rebelde. Troyano beat Tonalli, and challenged him to a title match.
5) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro b Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr., Dr. Cerebro 
Oficials snuck in a foul on Cerebro Negro

It’s possible the Hell Boy/Caballero de Plata feud is moving forward. Maybe they’ll finally have their hair match on an Indepdence Day show. Troyano made his challenge a couple of days too late to get on the title match show, unfortunate timing from him.

IWRG (SUN) 08/21/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Raider & Relampgauito vs Mini Canis Lupus & Mini Spirit
2) Noisy Boy © vs Yorvak, Sol, Spider Fly, Baby Star [IWRG REY DEL AIRE]
1st defense
3) Hijo del Pirata Morgan © vs Hijo del Fishman [IWRG Rey del Ring]
1st defense
4) Puma de Oro © vs Abismo Negro Jr. [IWRG MEXICO]
1st defense. Scheduled as Aster Boy challenging but he had an injury
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. © vs Dick Angelo 3G, Legendario, Tonalli [EdM Trios]
6th defense
6) Galeno del Mal vs Oficial AK47 [IWRG IC HEAVY]
vacant title (Rey Espectro injury)

This is a Mas Lucha premium show.

It seemed like the Puma de Oro attack on Aster Boy was a work to set up an injury, but Aster Boy is actually in an arm cast now, so he did get hurt at some point. IWRG put out the poster with his name on it and simultaneously announced he was out of the match. I guess they couldn’t get the poster changed?

It took me only like 10 episodes to notice, but the mid-week IWRG talk show on their YouTube channel has these Sunday lineups a couple of days before they’re posted.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (WED) 08/17/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Big Lucha, Mas Lucha]
1) Mr. Win b Sparta (Zacatecas) 
first victory for Mr. Win
2) Gravity & Komander b Emperador Azteca & Yutani 
3) Radioactivo b Forneo [BL CHAMP, Block B Qualifying, final] 
Radioactivo wins the qualifier, faces Ricky Marvin next week
4) Galeno del Mal DQ DMT Azul [BL CHAMP, Block B, quarterfinal] 
DMT Azul unmasked Galeno del Mal for the DQ. Galeno del Mal will face Arez in the next round.

Radioactivo/Forneo was a match that justified all these nesting tournaments. It was a great match between two young guys, who wouldn’t have had a chance to have a singles match with this much meaning without all of this. Radioactivo won but both guys felt like they gained something from the match. And not just the beating Ricky Marvin is going to give Radioactivo next week. It’s really hard to break out of the pack with so many young guys in Big Lucha (and not a lot of defining personality traits between them), and matches like this help.

DMT Azul/Galeno del Mal was the opposite. There’s something I’m just not getting with Azul. He wasn’t good, he didn’t take the tournament seriously and he obviously would not take a loss here. It didn’t make sense to book him for a role he wasn’t going to do well in. Yet, that guy is in more demand than ever as an indie talent. Maybe just being really big is impressive enough, it’s hard to figure out what else is going on here.

The Mas Lucha announcers did the first match in both English and Spanish. Jose Manuel Guillen described referee/wrestler Mr. Win as a guy no one knew anything about. Only in Mexican wrestling can the guy with no mask and just plain gear be the most mysterious person around.

Next week’s show should have

• Ricky Marvin vs Radioactivo in a quarterfinal
• Bandido vs Gravity in a quarterfinal

CMLL , Big Lucha (THU) 08/18/2022 Arena Coliseo [Mas Lucha, SuperLuchas]
1) Blue Danger, Nix, Timida b Aqua, Dulce Luna, Shamila
2) Elipse, Orbita, Viajero b El Potro de Oro, King, Kong
3) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo b Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus
4) Okumura, Shocko, Tirano, Yutani b Carito, Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Limbo
5) Lince Dorado b Action Jackson
match ended early due to Jackson injury
6) Atlantis & Negro Casas DDQ Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera
Atlantis and Fuerza Guerrera unmasked each other
7) Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask IV b Averno & Mephisto and Rocky Romero & Skayde and Aeroboy & Dr. Wagner Jr.

A decent crowd, though not a full house or anything. Wagner meant some fans but Wagner alone (even wearing his mask most of the night) wasn’t going to sell out this arena. Some of the CMLL fans there still saw Wagner as an AAA enemy, taunting him for selling out by losing that mask to Psycho Clown.

I’m also not sure if it matters; this is “CMLL” and “Big Lucha” because that’s the talent being used, but it seems to really be lucha libre collector Christian Cymet making it happen; as long as he’s enjoying putting on these shows (and as long as there’s a new outside name to spotlight), we’ll get one of these a year.

Accion Jackson’s injury looked terrible on video. He went for an Arez-style quick corner moonsault, but instead just slipped off the ropes and fell hard. Jackson was said to be relatively fine and the match was stopped more out of caution than need. He was making fun of the incident in his Instagram stories.

This show seemed to be under CMLL video rules (outside ‘media’ can only put up a minute or two of clips per video) on YouTube. CMLL doesn’t seem to police Instagram the same way and you can find a lot more there. Mas Lucha was in the building to do their coverage but I’m not sure if this is showing up complete on YouTube; the previous Lucah Real/CMLL/Cymet show in 2019 didn’t appear to go up. I didn’t hear positive reviews of the matches so it’s probably fine.

Komander won and Gravity lost in the first round of the West Coast Pro Wrestling West Coast cup. Both wrestle on today’s second show, Komander part of the tournament against Vinnie Massaro and Gravity in a match TBA. Both shows air on IWTV. Those two then head cross country to face Latigo & Arez on Saturday for Garden State Pro Wrestling (on FITE, $13 USD) and then Komander, Gravity and Bandido head to GALLI on Sunday. Their match there hasn’t been announced yet.

Also, Big Lucha and GALLI have a press conference on Monday. I assume this will be like the Can-Am deal where wrestlers might be going back and forth.

Other News

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

We may have Blue Demon’s birthdate wrong. Blue Demon Jr, at a movie screening to promote the 100th anniversary of his father’s death, said Blue Demon was actually born on October 12th, not April 24th as it is usually listed.

Nacion Lucha Libre has an outdoor show at the Mexico City race track on 09/03.

The original Nacion Lucha Libre press conference included Alberto explaining that IWRG’s Moreno family had generously given Nacion Lucha Libre authorization to run in their neighborhood. It turns out Alberto may have said something that wasn’t exactly true. IWRG’s Marco Moreno, speaking at that Blue Demon movie screen, said that they had talked to Nacion but didn’t give them authorization. Moreno also notes Nacion used IWRG’s logo during the press conference without permission.