Month: August 2022

In a CMLL Informa episode full of misdirection and early stream issues, CMLL announced the biggest matches for their most important show of the year.

The headliner is a resolution of the four different men’s feuds circling around. CMLL teased the idea that all four feuds would be settled on the show before revealing the actual concept: a one night tournament where the winning team will get to have their apuesta match. The four teams are no surprise if you’ve been following along

• Averno & Ultimo Guerrero, the only pair who will have their hair on the line
• Atlantis Jr. & Stuka Jr.
• Soberano Jr. & Templario
• Atlantis & Fuerza Guerrera

The first round matchups will be set by a battle royal during the show; we won’t know the bracket until midway through the night. The losing teams are done for this year, the two winning teams move onto the final, and the winning team after all that meets in an apuesta match to end the night. This follows the precedent of the 2013/80th Aniversario, where Volador & Sombra won the rights to have their mask match by defeating Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero. Being in the main event of the Annivesary is an honor, so the logic is wrestlers shouldn’t ‘earn’ that honor by costing themselves matches.

Luchadoras La Jarochita and Reyna Isis will also meet in a mask versus mask match, which has been built up over the year.

CMLL also announced the return of Copa Independencia. The patriotic tournament will have blocks on September 2nd and September 9th, with the final also talking place on the 09/16 show. (There’s not room for much more of note at this point.) Last year’s Copa Indepndencia saw Volador Jr. defeat Gran Guerrero.

CMLL also announced the full 08/19 Gran Prix card. The biggest news is Mistico is cleared to return and has been added to Team Mexico. To balance it out, Mesias is returning to CMLL as part of Team World.

CMLL (FRI) 08/19/2022 Arena México
1) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Hijo del Villano III, Okumura, Pólvora
2) Dark Silueta, La Jarochita, Lluvia vs Metálica, Princesa Sugheit, Reyna Isis [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Hechicero vs Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]
second defense
4) El Mesías, Kenny King, Lince Dorado, Matt Taven, Oráculo, Robbie Eagles, Rocky Romero, Tiger Mask IV vs Atlantis Jr., Místico, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Templario, Titán, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Gran Prix]

Mistico returning from injury to be on the team seemed to be known – at least Rocky Romero kept bringing up his name for some reason. The 7v7 format always felt like something was missing.

Mesias was part of CMLL as recently as the 2020 parejas increibles tournament; his last match is about a month before the shutdown. He was “Gilbert el Boricua” then, and he was very specifically Mesias now – even making a point in his promo that he belongs to no promotion, AAA included. Mesias has talked about gaining the rights to his name, though a lot of wrestlers seem to say that with nothing actually happening. CMLL seems to feel safe that they can call him that, we’ll see how it goes.

Hechicero finally gets his title match. Standard building stuff in the women’s match, and an opener that exists.

CMLL

Today’s CMLL Informa will have announcements on the 09/16 CMLL Aniversario show. The description says “we’ll reveal all the details”, which sounds like finally an answer to the main event riddle. CMLL usually gives out the lineup just before tickets go on sale, and tickets are not not yet listed on TicketMaster. The August PPVs aren’t listed either, so there just may be an update to come. I will try for another post with whatever gets announced in a few hours.

CMLL (MON) 08/01/2022 Arena Puebla [@Tribunadeportes, Box y Lucha]
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Dark Silueta & Reyna Isis
3) Kráneo, Magnus, Rugido b El Audaz, Suicida, Volcano
4) Euforia, Fuerza Guerrera, Hechicero b Atlantis, Titán, Volador Jr. 
Fuerza (weakly) fouled Atlantis and pinned him for the win. Rematch challenges followed.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero [CMLL TAG] 
4th defense

I haven’t been putting the Puebla Facebook matches on the Google Drive because they’re usually just three minutes of a match and three minutes of a post match. For whatever reason, the main event streamed mostly complete last night, just a few minutes missing from eh start.

CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del RIng, Kaiser Sports, Marca]
1) Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr. b Leono & Retro  
2) Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Violencia b Kaligua, Pequeño Magía, Shockercito  
Rudos took 1/3
3) Amapola, La Seductora, Olympia b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi  
Rudas took 1/3. Olympia replaced Hera on Monday
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Felino, Rey Bucanero  
Atrapsuenos took 2/3.
5) Euforia, Hechicero, Templario DQ Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado 
Templario replaced Mephisto on Monday. Hechicero submitted Sagrado for the win, but didn’t let go quickly enough for Olimpico and was DQed. Infernales and Templario left the other team unmasked.

The main event seemed to be leaning more towards a trios title build than a singles title build.

CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara]
1) Jabalí, Ponzoña Jr., Relámpago Azul b Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Cosmos 
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel b Destello, Destructor, Temerario 
3) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel & Perico Zacarías 
4) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono DQ Huitzil, Omar Brunetti, Sangre Azteca, Vaquero Jr. 
Sangre Azteca returning to CMLL (as an outsider) for the first time in 3 years, teaming with his son Huitzil. Crixus interfered for the DQ.
5) Tonalli, Troyano, Último Guerrero b Persa, Raven, Satánico 
Team UG snuck in fouls on Persa & Raven.
6) Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero b Rugido & Volador Jr. 

Didn’t have a chance to actually watch much of this, but the semi-main seemed to set up a rematch. Tonalli and Sangre Azteca both talked to Mas Lucha about being excited to come to this Guadalajara show. I forgot that Huitzil is Sangre Azteca’s son, so teaming with together in a CMLL ring is a big deal for both of them.

CMLL (FRI) 08/05/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit vs Dark Silueta, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible
4) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Fuerza Guerrera, Stuka Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Gran Guerrero, Robbie Eagles, Último Guerrero vs Averno, Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

It didn’t sound like Robbie Eagles was going to be in Mexico for a long time when he mentioned this trip to the Super J Cast, but I guess three or four weeks isn’t a long time if you’re used to staying in Japan for three months. Eagles/Volador seems a possible title match, one where Eagles would be favored to win if it happened before the Gran Prix.

All four feuds are on the show over the top two matches, so we should get the usual challenges. The Jarochita/Isis issue hasn’t been talked about in months but they’re in the second match as well. Ideally, this is setting up a press conference next Wednesday where CMLL finally explains the plan.

This CMLL Friday show overlaps with AAA’s Verano de Escandalo. That’s not an issue for most people – Mexican wrestling fans typically stick to one promotion – but it’s a significant problem for the person who is typing these words and has made it his job of trying to track and record them both. I’ll do my best.

CMLL (SAT) 08/06/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala & Neón vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Maligna vs Amapola, La Seductora, Olympia
3) Arkalis, Astral, Sangre Imperial vs Disturbio, Nitro, Okumura
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Felino, Kráneo, Pólvora
5) Panterita del Ring, Robbie Eagles, Stuka Jr. vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero

Eagles is in as tecnico, which isn’t as clear on the Friday show.

Mascara Dorada faces Misterioso on the 08/21 NJPW Strong show in Hollywood. That’s interesting given all the Misterioso issues. Robbie Eagles is also on that show, so maybe he’s out of Mexico right after the Gran Prix.

AAA

Sam Adonis had a tweet up last night encouraging fans to check out his title match at Verano de Escandalo on FITE. He then quietly deleted it, likely after being told the show is not actually airing on FITE. It’s still just on Space and only the second half. It’s unlikely to change at this point. His match will likely air on Space on 08/13 and on YouTube sometime in September, which is not ideal.

Dorian Roldan will appear at the NextvSeries conference on September 28th, on a panel named “live sports distribution in the era of streaming.” Topics include “Protecting premium live sports from streaming piracy” (shhh) and “PPV vs subscription models in sports OTT”, which could answer questions about why AAA is going the route of a few events on FITE rather than some sort of larger subscription service. That panel, about streaming at a TV conference, is listed as a live in-person event only. That sometimes changes as it gets closer (and if tickets are moving for the conference.)

Pirata Morgan attempted to set Mr. Iguana’s stuffed animal Yeska on fire in a bit surely intended to go viral. It worked only to a mild degree, it was not a hot enough flame. Pirata Morgan plays at being an old school guy and surely is on some level, but he’s always more so a worker who is also working at creating attention for himself to get booked more.

Nacion Lucha Libre is back (for now)

Tuesday, Nacion Lucha Libre (Alberto el Patron and director Daniel Leal) held a press conference to announce their return show. It was great, in that it was a great example case of a dead-on-arrival Mexican lucha libre promotion. There’s been so many of them over the years, but here are some modern telltale signs a group has no idea what they’re doing:

• The promotion fails to provide the basic details about their show. A fan watching (and a media telling the fans) needs to know when the show is happening, where the show is happening, why they should attend the show, and how they can buy tickets to the show. The Nacion Lucha Libre press conference last a half hour and they either never put over the date of the show or did such a poor job of it that it wasn’t clear. Nacion put over the fact that they’re running five shows in the same location without really explaining what that means – are they having shows once a month? once every two weeks? I have no idea and I’m not sure they do either. The point of the press conference is to sell tickets and they couldn’t get that done.
• It’s immediately clear no one rehearsed the presentation and caught the obvious mistakes. Nacion Lucha Libre had a video board rotating three images. If anyone at Nacion Lucha Libre had practiced the presentation prior, they might have noticed that the artwork didn’t work – they were really graphics that belonged on social media, and much (like that ticket info) of it was hard to read because it was so low to the ground that everyone’s feet were in the way. Someone who should’ve spotted that and just added it on another slide. A slide to announce the date and the location might’ve been wortwhile. Instead, you could see Alberto and the money guy reading through the printed format notes as other speakers were talking because they were still trying to figure out if they had covered everything. (You could also watch Alberto’s children run and play on the stage, bought brought up their to convey a certain vibe and also utterly bored with the thing after 5 minutes.) There was so little quality work done that the wrong name for a wrestler was in the lineup: Rey Espectro has been using that name for two months but he’s still Hijo de Espectro Jr. to Nacion.
• The promotion makes a big deal of showing off title belts. Nacion Lucha Libre had nice ones, that’s great. I also wish Mexican fans cared about title belts. They don’t – modern Mexican wrestling has repeatedly taught fans those are meaningless – and few buy tickets just to see a title match. They buy tickets to see a big match and they know not every title match is one of those. (See: Big Lucha’s tournament, or every IWRG title match.) A DOA Mexican wrestling promotion spends a lot of time on costume pieces that don’t yet mean anything. The wrestlers and the promoters care intensely about the title belts, as do a small minority of fans, but an initial press conference appealing to them is a bad sign.
• The promotion makes a big deal of about their style of promotion (alternative! third major!). People on in Facebook comments will forever talk about care and wanting these things, but fans purchase tickets in mass to shows that they believe are a big deal. The people and matches that are booked will show if a promotion is different.
• The card is a mix of random tag matches without something people have been clamoring to see. You can keep scrolling past this to see the card, but you don’t really need to. Two trios matches, two straight tags, and a couple of singles matches that seemed more about the number of people to book than any plans. A DOA mexican wrestling promotion takes fan interest for granted, dimly assumes that fans are going to just stick around for the big matches later on. In reality, a wrestling promotion can only count on having one chance to hook fans into sticking around and needs to deliver on a big match that fans have been demanding to see. I’m not sure Alberto vs Wagner or Alberto vs Cinta de Oro is that sort of big match; maybe Alberto vs Samuray del Sol would come close. Any of those are more tempting than those three guys against three guys who are there just to bump for them. It may be uncomfortable to book outcomes for those big matches, but a first show should never be able booking comfortable matches.
• Their social media is barren. Nacion Lucha Libre is ahead of most of these groups by having a TV deal with Imagen TV. (Though, they had the same one last time and it didn’t help, and they didn’t say exactly when Saturday the show was airing.) That’s helpful, but there’s an increasingly large world of potential ticket buyers who aren’t watching TV and need to be reached in other ways. Nacion Lucha Libre didn’t seem to have a YouTube plan, and relied on media outlets to put out the information for them. That debut lineup, with all the date, location and a link to buy tickets today while it’s in mind, should’ve been out on any every social media platform the moment the press conference started. The most they’ve been able to do is change their Twitter header to a graphic with the date. I’m actually not convinced the digital stuff is vitally necessary, but it’s a solid brown M&M test; if they’ve studied what works elsewhere and are prepared to make a new thing work, they’ll easily have an image ready to drop on Twitter. They’re definitely just winging it if it’s just a quick photo of the press conference and a few RTs of media reports.
• The lineup is a mix of friends and the same names that are on every other Mexico City area card. I enjoy Texano and Super Nova. They should take all the work they can get. They appear to do that; if you told me that they were facing the Wagner brothers in Cholo de Tijuana or in Robles or in whatever promotion is running Arena Lopez Mateos that week or whatever other promotion this weekend, I’d believe it. That match just happens to be in Nacion Lucha Libre this time. The card is the usual names and Alberto’s ex-WWE friends. There’s no one person on the show anyone is surprised to see.
• Family members are booked in prominent positions. The only promotion booking Hijo de Dos Caras in a big singles match is a big one, just like the only ones booking Vangellys & Bestia del Ring in high positions are the ones where Rush has a lot of control.
• Alberto El Patron is involved. Even without any other baggage, Alberto has been part of so many failed launches that he’s sort of a reverse stamp of quality at this point – the track record is what it is. Alberto is and probably always will be famous as a Mexican WWE World Champion during the peak of WWE in Mexico, and no one’s been able to have the success in WWE and then leave to push him out of that role. Doors will always be open for him that aren’t open for others, though maybe not doors he should be opening. Wealthy people money and little idea about wrestling will often see him as the star in the moment. In reality, he’s now a guy from the past who doesn’t sell tickets, who’s done a dozen of these press conferences with nothing ever lasting. You can give him every excuse he wants for failing, but failure is what he’s been associated with for the last decade in Mexican wrestling.

NLL (SAT) 09/24/2022 Unidad Cuauhtémoc, Naucalpan, Estado de México
1) Mr. Leo vs Rey Espectro
2) Diosa Quetzal & Princesa Azul vs Satania & Sucii Love
3) Toscano, VIP, Zumbi vs Cobarde Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Hijo del Pirata Morgan
4) Samuray del Sol vs Hijo De Dos Caras
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Súper Nova & Texano Jr.
6) Alberto el Patrón, Cinta de Oro, Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Carlito, Mecha Wolf, Primo Colon

That’s the lineup Nacion Lucha Libre announced but it doesn’t appear to be the full. This was announced as a five TV episode taping, so either running about triple the amount of the matches or they’re airing some very short episodes. The “second season”, which will air on Imagen TV sometime in October on Saturdays, will run for fourteen episodes. That means two more live events if they’re taping at the same rate; Alberto says all second episode episodes will be taped in Mexico State for production cost reasons. Tickets for this first show will run between 200 and 500 pesos, with an additional VIP area for 50 fans. If this is an indoor show and that venue’s theatre, there’s space for about 1000 fans. There’s an adjacent outdoor soccer field that can seat 2,000. The venue is not a usual lucha libre location; Nacion Lucha Libre has a deal with government agency IMSS and it’s their building. Nacion Lucha Libre will have an Absoluto title, as well as women’s, men’s tag, and cruiserweight titles. Chavo Guerrero Jr. was mentioned as coming in on a later event in addition to the names listed. ImagenTV has a live stream on DailyMotion, but I’m not sure how often it runs or if it’ll include Nacion Lucha Libre.

In a longer sitdown interview with Mas Lucha, Alberto claims Nacion Lucha Libre has been on pause due to “COVID and other issues.” Nacion Lucha Libre’s last show was in November 2019, which is noted by the interview. That was before COVID was known to exist in Mexico. Alberto has in-between run shows with Robles Promotions; the claim here is that partnership was only meant to be a one show deal to help his friend Robles grow the promotion, and any suggestion that there’s drama between them is lies.

Alberto’s general viewpoint is the second season will be similar to the first because the first was a “resounding success”, and they’re presenting something completely different than CMLL or AAA. He claimed the Nacion Lucha Libre show on Imagen TV beat CMLL every week it was on last time and beat AAA in their first week (but not the subsequent ones.) It’s hard to believe that’s true – ImagenTV is a smaller station than Azteca or Televisa – but it’s also barely relevant. Wrestling promotions caring about weekly TV ratings is mostly a US obsession; the most important Mexico metric is ticket sales and Nacion struggled there. The previous ImagenTV was so unknown that there are major news sites talking about it being the ‘new’ home of Nacion Lucha Libre.

(I liked that Mas Lucha interview. I think it was Jorge Livan asking the questions. He asked all the reasonable questions to ask in a polite fashion. He didn’t challenge Alberto, but just letting Alberto say Alberto things was enough for him to go in some unuseful directions for promoting a wrestling show. Alberto seemingly did a sitdown for every YouTube channel but I didn’t have the energy to watch them all.)

Zumbi was one of the wrestlers who complained about not being paid the last time Nacion Lucha Libre folded shop. He was happily back on board again, even appearing at the press conference.

Nacion Lucha Libre planning on running three shows very low bar, but I’m not convinced they’re going to pull it off. They don’t look like they have the ability to do so, and I’m not bringing in some great insight to point it out. Everyone really wants there to be more alternative options in Mexican wrestling; most people inside the ropes of Mexican wrestling want this (and every project like this) to work out so well that they’re going to gloss over the obvious flaws. Doubtlessly no one beyond the money guy believes this is actually going to work, it’s just the latest thing for the wrestlers and others behind the scenes to find a few dates this fall, and then move onto the next guy.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 08/04/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Rey Minos & Spider Fly vs Rey Aztaroth & Súper Boy
2) Destiny & Noisy Boy vs Garra Mortal & Vértigo
3) Fantasy, Mega, Tony Rivera vs Avisman, Bombero Infernal, Dr. Karonte
4) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro vs Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr., Dr. Cerebro
5) Laredo Kid vs Aster Boy vs Aramis

The main event could be great and the rest of the show looks problem free. Bombero Infenral in the retro tercera sticks out; he hasn’t worked a normal IWRG show since 2019.

Other Notes

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

Big Lucha World tonight has

• King vs Radioactivo
• Limbo vs Black Skayde
• Elemental & Bendito vs  Komander & Gravity for the CanAm Tag Championship

GCW announced a “GCW vs Vanguardia” show for 10/14 in Pachuca. It’ll air on FITE TV and pairs with the Zona 23 show two days later. (TripleMania is in between.) Ciclope and Miedo Extremo winning the GCW tag team titles before GCW comes to their home promotion is fortunate timing. My interest in Vanguardia has fallen off this year, but there’s guys like El Mago and Fresa Club that I hope get more eyeballs on them.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 07/29/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, Estrellas del Rng, Kaiser Sports, Lucha Cnetral, R de Rudo, Record, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Astral, Panterita del Ring Jr., Suicida b Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider 
19:59.
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, Hijo del Villano III, Luciferno 
13:18
3) Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero b Averno, Mephisto, Titán [Relevos Increíbles] 
12:22. Averno & Ultimo Guerrero shook hands on a hair match.
4) Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico [mask]  
14:20. Pequeno Olimpico cradled Dragoncito to win the one fall match. Dragoncito is Miguel Ángel Arciniega Peña from Guadalajara.
5) Templario b Soberano Jr. [Leyenda de Plata, final] 
19:55. Templario gave Soberano his own Fire Driver and Templario’s powerbomb backcracker to finally put him away. The two agreed to a mask match.

The top two matches were great. Templario and Soberano mixed it up from their previous matches and it kept their match a different feel. It was also a different audience than the previous matches; Soberano went from a crowd favorite to booed strongly by fans who wanted to see Templario get his win. They were very happy when he pulled it off. Dragoncito & Olimpico was two old guys throwing everything they had left at each other, and pulled it of pretty well. The finish was shocking for both the outcome and the moment it happened; it came out of nowhere but it felt more jarring than anti-climatic. Both matches are strong recommendations for when it turns up on YouTube in two weeks.

The rest of the show was fine. The tercera was mostly a setup to get Averno and Ultimo Guererro agreeing on an apuesta match, which happened again with Templario & Soberano after the main event. I suspect we’re getting the other two feuds this coming Friday again; I’ve got no sense when CMLL might actually announce the real plan here. Atrapsuenos got over well. Panterita looked like a rookie in the opener, with some sequence between him, Suicida and the rudos falling apart for a long moment. The first match being three falls after being one fall every Friday night for a while was confusing. Maybe they decided only two one fall matches?

The turnout seemed to be up significantly for the show. CMLL put out the “look at our big crowd” tweet, though they didn’t show it as much on the stream.

CMLL (SAT) 07/30/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL]
1) Pequeño Polvora & Pierrothito b Fantasy & Kaligua 
2) Disturbio, Dr. Karonte I, Grako b Cachorro, Leono, Neón
Disturbio replaced Dr. Karonte II
3) Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis b La Guerrera, La Vaquerita, Skadi 
4) El Coyote, Kráneo, Rey Bucanero b El Audaz, Flyer, Volcano
Rudos took 1/3.
5) Panterita del Ring, Star Jr., Volador Jr. b Euforia, Felino, Mephisto 

Nothing of note.

CMLL (SUN) 07/31/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Bengala & Retro b Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Lluvia b Hera, La Seductora, Olympia
tecnicas took 1/3
3) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
Ultimo Dragoncito first match unmasked. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Dark Panther, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr.
Malditos took 1/3
5) Atlantis, Fugaz, Titán DQ Cavernario, Euforia, Terrible
Euforia unmasked Atlantis

I’m not sure CMLL needs to be doing any additional Atlantis feuds, though Euforia is going to make him look as good as possible.

Puebla tonight has Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Los Guerreros for the tag titles.

CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Cosmos vs Jabalí, Ponzoña Jr., Relámpago Azul
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Destello, Destructor, Temerario
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Huitzil, Omar Brunetti, Sangre Azteca, Vaquero Jr.
4) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel & Perico Zacarías
5) Tonalli, Troyano, Último Guerrero vs Persa, Raven, Satánico
6) Rugido & Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero

Rugido getting a rare main event. You can tell this isn’t the normal CDMX person doing the poster because Zacarias is still getting spelled the ?old? way.  Troyano was supposed to be on the AVE/Arena Lopez Mateos show on Saturday with NGD on top and didn’t appear – but then he was also booked in Arena Rey Bucanero the same night, so maybe it was just a double booking.

Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer won their debut tag team match in Japan.

Milenio has an interview with Los Gemelo Diablos.

Star Jr. is participating in a karaoke battle on Thursday.

AAA

Both episodes of AAA in Mazatlan are up on my Twitch channel. Dragon Lee/Dralistico vs Penta/Vikingo (week 2) was the best match of the taping. The Aramis/Komander vs Empeador/Mini Abismo and Aerostar/Myzteziz/Shani vs Parka/Argenis/Tormenta were good from week 1. The venue, and the announcers’ voices echoing around in the emptiness, really made it difficult for me to enjoy it much; it felt at times like a COVID era show with a worse set.

The angles on the show were just keeping things in place; Penta’s promo building up his match with Villano IV was the most effective. That obviously has a destination and AAA’s being clear Cibernetico/Pagano and Vikingo/Fenix are meant to be thought as TripleMania matches, though they’re also waiting to make that official on Verano de Escandalo on Friday. Aerostar/Parka Negra, Arangis/Mytzeziz, even Mr. Iguana’s romance with La Hiedra continue to exist without the benefit of an end point. This was AAA’s first taping in Mazatlan in three years and AAA ran a video package looking at the previous show, which was interesting in what has and hasn’t changed. That time feels like it would’ve been better used promoting what’s going on now, but not much is actually happening now. AAA did air the Hard Rock lineup from the press conference and had plugs to buy Verano de Escandalo tickets all show, though the only time that lineup comes up is the Space commercial for airing it next week.

Verano de Escandalo is coming up Friday night, with Space scheduled to air the top 3 matches starting at 9:30 pm. It’s not a FITE PPV. It does not feel like a PPV lineup so I was against it airing as a PPV. I’m kinda flipping on that. Going to June to October with no English language AAA content is a hard way to build momentum. AAA does at this moment have some momentum – the Laredo/Fenix/Taurus/Bandido fourway on the Ric Flair show Sunday was easily the best match of the night – and getting a show in front of people where Vikingo and Fenix fight and also set their match for October would be taking advantage of the situation. AAA doesn’t do live free streaming anymore, and there’s probably reasons for that, but this would be an opportune time to go back. (I’m planning on streaming on Twitch if they’re not.)

The general reaction to that “Dralistico only wants to work tag matches” story is everyone has a hard time believing it’s real. The Dralistico/Penta match at Rey de Reyes (thrown together when Fenix couldn’t wrestle) was the only singles match Dralistico’s wrestled all year as far I can tell.

AAA has some tie up with the Mexico secretary of tourism that’s to be announced on Tuesday. SECTUR has been promoting this for a while.

As far as anyone on the outside has been able to tell, the AAA/FMW lawsuit is no longer an issue – AAA’s been able to put their names on show in the US and their social media video is no longer blocked outside of Mexico. There just never was an official update to their court record acknowledging a settlement and the end of case, but everyone assumed something was worked out. There was finally an update in that lawsuit record on July 28th, it just wasn’t the settlement either. Back in June 2021, the court noted FMW had never actually served AAA with the lawsuit of the case and ordered them to do so immediately or drop the case. FMW spent the following months filling documents proving they were trying to get the lawsuit to AAA in Mexico, culminating in December with proof they’d handed the lawsuit over to Mexican authorities to give to AAA and were just waiting for that to take place. The judge came back and approved of all of that seven months later and said the case can remain open indefinitely. If FMW is still actually purseeing this, that means they can keep waiting indefinitely for AAA to acknowledge the lawsuit. I still tend to believe this is a dead issue; maybe the court notifying it’s still open will get one or both side to notify the judge they’ve solved it.

A thing to throw in at the end here: in talking up the Ric Flair match, promoter Conrad Thompson mentioned he was able to get Jeff Jarrett in the main event tag team match because Jarrett had agreed to the appearance before going back to WWE, still wanted to do it, and WWE allowed him to complete the pre-existing deal. AAA & Jarrett obviously had plans for TripleMania Mexico City based on the Monterrey angle, though we don’t know if Jarrett’s still interested or if WWE would OK that one as well. AAA’s pattern this year is a big event followed by a press conference for the next big event one or two working days later, so I expect we’ll get the first TripleMania Mexico City matches next week and may have more answers then.

AAA (SUN) 08/28/2022 Explanada Pachuca, Pachuca, Hidalgo
1) La Parkita & Octagoncito vs Mini Gronda & Parkita Negra
2) Lady Shani & Sexy Star vs Flammer & La Hiedra
3) Aerostar & Aramis vs Látigo & Toxin
4) Drago, Mr. Iguana, Myzteziz vs Argenis, Dave The Clown, La Parka Negra
5) Dragón Lee vs Taurus
6) Charly Manson & Hijo Del Vikingo vs Abismo Negro Jr. & Cibernético

This is another non-AAA TV show that AAA is promoting on social media card; they must actually be promoting these to some extent. Dragon Lee/Taurus on a house show is probably not as good as Dragon Lee/Taurus on a TV show, but who knowss if we’ll ever get that with the way AAA TV is booked. It is good to see AAA running more non-TV shows after being a bit slow earlier this year.

IWRG

IWRG (SAT) 07/30/2022 Arena Naucalpan
Torneo FILL 98
1) Rosel & Último Caballero b Milagro & Rey Fuego
2) Súper Boy & Súper Cometa b Rey Minos & Steven Manson
3) Ajolotl, Cheff Benito, Heredero Maya b Balak, Rey Eclipse, Skanda
4) Sol, Spider Fly, X-Devil b Águila Oriental, Kenji, Rey Aztaroth
5) Black Dragón, Vértigo, Wagner Kid b Estrella de Oro, Genex, Jhon Tito
6) Cerebro Negro Jr., Dick Angelo 3G, Garra Mortal, Hell Boy, Legendario, Leo, Limbo, Rey Halcón b Aaron Sykes, Abc, Charly Madrid, Lasser, Pasion, Tackle, Troyano, Último Rebelde [Copa Higher Power]
Hell Boy beat ABC to give FILL the win over Team UG.

This was originally supposed to air on Wednesday and now is listed as airing on Saturday.

IWRG (SUN) 07/31/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Baby Star, Sol, Spider Fly b Garra Mortal, Limbo, Rey Halcón 
2) Cerebro Negro Jr., Hell Boy, Yorvak b Caballero de Plata, Noisy Boy, Vértigo 
Yorvak beat Noisy Boy (replacement for Freelance) to set up a IWRG Rey del Aire title match
3) Fly Warrior, Fulgor, Travis Banks b Diva Salvaje, Heddi Karaoui, Rey León 
Galeno del Mal challenged Fly Warrior & Fulgor after the match.
4) Jessy Ventura © b Paymon [IWRG IC WELTER] 
2nd defense. Hair match challenge follows.
5) Travis Banks b Galeno del Mal  
Travis Banks & Fulgor I replaced Rey Espectro (car accident). Monster Clown shoed up to challenge Galeno del Mal.
6) Galeno del Mal b Fulgor I 
7) Galeno del Mal DCOR Monsther Clown  
the two brawled out of the building, then came back to make challenges.
8) Aster Boy & Rey Horus b Puma de Oro & Tonalli  
Rey Horus’ tope con giro wasn’t caught by Tonalli and Horus landed very badly. Aster Boy challenged Puma de Oro to a title match.

The Rey Horus injury was frightning. Tonalli was too close to the corner to catch Horus’ usual top con giro, Horus turned over to try to absorb the blow, and landed violently. Horus was grabbing his shoulder and seemed to be in real discomfort as he was loaded onto a backboard. (Like all luchadors, he was back reposting Instagram stories the next day.) Horus hasn’t wrestled in Naucalpan more than a dozen times but he’s had some bad luck there; he suffered a neck injury wrestling Dragon Lee back in 2016. Horus’ next high profile booking is the Impact PPV on 08/12 vs Bandido; no idea if he’s going ot be able to make it.

It was a bad weekend for injuries. Roberto Figueroa reported Rey Espectro, his wife, his two kids, and fellow luchador Enfermero Jr. were all hospitalized after getting into a car accident on the way to a show in Ciudad Acuna on Friday. Espectro was out of danger but held for observation. No other word on his specific injuries.

Laredo Kid will be on IWRG’s Instagram this week so he must be back in this week.

Other

Recent Arena Lopez Mateos luchador Mysterio (Mario Blancas) passed away on Saturday. No cause of death was mentioned. He was active as recently as January and there was a show honoring him back in April. Misterio was honored for 30 years in wrestling just last year.

Los Negocio Traumado presented Teelo with a check for 11,000 pesos on Saturday’s Arena Lopez Mateos show, money they’ve raised in his quest to get a prosthetic leg.

Cerebro Maligno took Alex Segura’s hair in Arena Lopez Mateos on Sunday.

Hijo del Santo’s match with Ultimo Dragon in Dragon Gate on Saturday lasted just a few minutes before it was turned into a tag match, which also turned into a tag match for Sunday. Santo is now wrestling in NOAH on Friday and back in Dragon Gate on 08/10. I’ve read the Diamante/Skywalker tag match on night 1 of that Dragon Gate doubleheader was outstanding, I hope to watch it today.

Flamita beat Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. to win the first phase of the Big Lucha World championship tournament. The tournament concept (with a couple of other matches but nothing big) didn’t draw well; it looked like the least attended Big Lucha show so far. The middle of the tournament turned into a lot of Black Generation interference, making it all the more surprising that Flamita just cleanly beat Wagner at the end. Wagner ended up joining Black Generation in the post-match and Flamita revealed he was opening his own gym. If you’re going to watch the show, I’d suggest watching the first three matches (Flamita/Super Nova, Cometa Maya/Wagner, Rey Horus/Emperador Azteca) and then skip all the way until the final.

Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) regained the GCW Tag Team Championships Friday night in Nashville. They were previously champions from 2018 to 2021, though the length of that run was extended because of visa and travel issues. Los Macizos were some of the wrestlers who got a work visa, so the rest of GCW has at least the better part of two years to try and beat them. The lucha libre trios match on that show was great.

Box y Lucha #3512 has Ultimo Dragoncito, Templario and the AWF.