Big Lucha Phase 2 tournament, CMLL regular show post Gran Prix, Rosa out of action

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.