CMLL
Today’s CMLL show starts a couple of important items. Copa Independecia begins tonight, where Mistico seems the heavy favorite. Niebla Roja, Terrible, Dark Panther, Gemelo Diablo III, Panterita del Ring, Star Black and Magia Blanca are also involved. Soberano and Dragon Rojo as Aniversario frenemies also starts tonight; they’re on opposite sides of a trios. Dragon Rojo teams with Ultimo Guerrero and Voaldor Jr. against Soberano, Mesias, Avenro. Two more trios matches round out the card.
The show is on Ticketmaster Live like usual.
CMLL (MON) 09/05/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Asturiano, Leono, Sangre Imperial vs Black Tiger, King Jaguar, Sombra Diabólika
2) La Guerrera & Marcela vs Olympia & Reyna Isis
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Samuray vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo I, Sagrado
4) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Soberano Jr. vs Hechicero, Stuka Jr., Terrible
5) Cavernario © vs Averno [CMLL LH]
1st defense
Cavernario/Averno is a first time title match. Cavernario doesn’t figure into the Aniversario plans, isn’t part of the night of champions. Averno probably should win, though that seems unlikely.
Ticketmaster has a low ticket warning for the Aniversario upper level. On Informa, CMLL said they had sold 70% of the balcony and 50% of the “gradas” section.
CMLL did announce the Noche de Campeones show plans on Informa. The important facts
- the show is on 09/30 (two weeks after Aniversario)
- it’ll be a six-match show (and probably all one fall matches)
- the match with the most votes will main event once again
- each category has just 3 options (it varied from 3 to 9 depending on the category)
- you can vote every two hours this year, instead of just once a day
- we don’t know when the voting closes
The titles and possible challengers:
- CMLL Pequeno Estrellas Championship (Mercurio): Pierrothito, Ultimo Dragoncito, Minos
- Mexican National Women’s Tag Team Championship (Lluvia & Jarochita): Dark Silueta & Amapola, Marcela & Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis & Metalica
- CMLL World Trios Championship (Los Malditos): Los Infernales, OneAtos Team, Ola Negra
- CMLL World Tag Team Championship (Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja): Ultimo & Gran Guerrero, Dulce Gardenia & Espiritu Negro, Volador Jr. & Magia Blanca
- CMLL World Welterweight Championship (Titan): Suicida, Rey Cometa, Negro Casas
- Historica Middleweight Championship (Mistico): Soberano Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., Rugido
Dark Silueta being included is notable; whatever knee injury she picked up must not be too serious. It’s also a positive sign about Esfinge’s hand injury recovery. I wonder if Templario was scheduled to defend his title in one of these categories; I guess we probably won’t know. This idea last year got sabotaged by people leaving CMLL and people getting hurt. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be that sort of dramatic this month, but keep in mind this could change.
I’m rooting the strongest for Rey Cometa to win his category of any of these. I have no doubt Suicida & Negro Casas would try, but Cometa/Titan could be one of the best match of the year for CMLL. Mistico’s group is the most interesting: they’re all tecnicos, but very different guys producing very different matches. The other four don’t produce strong emotions.
Vote totals as of midday Friday
- 4805: NWA Middleweight
- 4315: CMLL Welterweight
- 3983: CMLL Men’s Tag
- 3949: CMLL Trios
- 3804: CMLL Minis
- 3081: Women’s Tag
I’m surprised to see the Women’s Tag last but it’s early. Rugido has a lot of fan support, and has picked up first place in his pole after being in second on day 1.
The 08/28 CMLL Ladies Ring streamed on Nicovideo Friday morning and will be available on the site for a week. I guess that sort of makes it the first CMLL PPV available on VOD in years (though that’s a stretch to call it CMLL.) The show costs 2,500 points for non-members, roughly $18 USD.
AAA
AAA TV this week on Space is the remaining matches from Saltillo
- Latino & Toxin vs Antifaz del Norte & Pierroth
- Aersostar, Baby Extreme, Komander vs Argenis , La Parka Negra, Villano III
- Charly Manson, Pagano, Zorro vs Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernetico, Rey Escorpion with a special referee
The Komander match was said to be the best of these three live. I will stream at 6:30 pm though I’m beginning to wonder if I might be better off just recording it on my own, fixing the audio, and then streaming later if the stream issues keep happening.
AAA also tapes Saturday in Torreon. Bandido, Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid vs NGD is the main event, Dragon Lee & Dralistico vs Abismo Negro Jr. & Flamita is the other possible great match on the show. Pagano & Ciberentico team with Shani & Tormenta to build towards their hair match. Escorpion, Taurus and Villano III Jr. face Murder Clown, Dave the Clown and a mystery person in the tercera; a vignette on AAA’s YouTube introduces a new clown for them team with. Iguana & Hamburguesa face the newly evil Crazy Boy in the segunda, with Sexy Star, Carta Brava Jr. and La Hiedra rounding out the match. Brazo de Oro Jr. & Komander face Dinamico & Empeardor Azteca in the opener. It looks like a good taping, if one feeling mostly disconnected from TripleMania. This taping will air starting next week.
AAA also has a vignette with Mr. Iguana, Nino Hamburgesa and Microman up later tonight.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirms Thunder Rosa is off of TripleMania. AAA would like an AEW replacement but hasn’t got a name confirmed. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be Flammer getting the title shot AAA announced a while back, which may frustrate some Mexican fans. It’s appears to me that it’s a spot to try to sell PPVs to non-Mexican fans and they’re going to pick whomever they can get to do that.
The WON also followed up on my recap of the Conrad Thompson/Jeff Jarrett podcast recap last week. There’s no deal with Jarrett (yet) but there are talks with Thompson about the perennial plans for AAA US expansion. The paragraph also mentions AAA has TV deal offers (not said with whom or where) but implies they’re not for much money and AAA is hoping to do better.
I’d been told AAA may have an early October taping, AAA usually releases lineups a month in advance, so a poster should turn up in the next week if that happening. It’s also now September and AAA has another press conference for TripleMania sometime this month.
Tu Plan de Juego has a recap of the AAA spot show in Orizaba last week. It reads like attendance wasn’t great, with the previous disaster show turning people off from attending another show soon. There was talk of an AAA TV taping in the city coming in October, which hopefully will do better. AAA originally had two tapings scheduled for October: TripleMania and Korakuen Hall. A scheduled Orizaba date would confirm the trip to Japan is off for this year (and it was already looking unlikely.) This doesn’t appear to be the early October date mentioned above.
IWRG
LLB (THU) 09/01/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Esparta & Hijo De Esparta b Azteca & Hijo De Centauro 
2) Arturo Gaona Jr., Gravedad Zero, Sparta b Federal I, Federal II, Federal III
3) Demencia, Hijo De Brazo De Platino, Milagro, Platino b Dankar, El Divino, Jhon Tito, Juan Diego
4) Puma de Oro b Tonalli, Aster Boy, Cerebro Negro Jr., Hijo De Carta Brava, Hijo del Alebrije, El Mafioso, Águila De Oriental
Puma de Oro defeated Tonalli
5) Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera b Chico Che, Freelance, Pinochito
Pinochito repalced Pantera I and missed a dive spectacularly
6) Lunatik Xtreme, Toto, Venganza b Chicanito, Fly Star, Sobredosis
7) Místico b Atlantis Jr., Averno
Atlantis Jr. repeatedly unmasked Mistico post match. Mistico challenged him to a singles match.
This was the delayed due to Mistico’s injury. The delay was a good call: Mistico sold out Arena Naucalpan on a Thursday night, a hard feat. He was obviously fired up about it in the main event. They did a post match bit where Atlantis Jr. would rip Mistico’s mask, a ‘fan’ would immediately throw in a new mask, and Atlantis would keep ripping them off.
Sunday’s IWRG show is the Rockers versus the Pandemonium.
Big Lucha
Big Lucha (FRI) 09/23/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Elipse & Orbita vs King & Kong and Sol & Torito Negro Jr.
2) Viajero vs Éxtasis, Forneo, Galeno del Mal, Fulgor, El Potro de Oro, Elemental, Yutani, Cometa Maya, Radioactivo, Tirano, Mr. Win [Torneo Alas de la Independencia]
3) Catalina & Sussy Love vs La Hiedra & Sexy Star
4) Bendito, Carito, Emperador Azteca, Gravity, Komander vs Accion Jackson, Jack Evans, Mentallo, Shocko, Shun Skywalker
5) Blue Demon vs Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Skayde
6) El Bandido vs Flamita [BL WORLD]
Big Lucha’s independence day show is about a week late. Flamita is the more interesting champion but they have to do rematches if Bandido loses and I think they should move on for a bit, so maybe Bandido’s the right pick.
I don’t like Skayde’s odds in the semi-main. The fourth match is a Mexico vs the World match, which means Jackson is against his usual teammates. Shun is visiting once again from DragonGate; I’m fairly certain his involvement here is a carry-over from when the title picture on this show was said to include international wrestlers. (Maybe everything changed after that July show tanked?) Mentallo is a Canadian wrestler who actually appeared in CMLL in 2008 and has been on some of the same shows as Elemental & Bendito. Catalina is the ex-WWE Chilean wrestler Katrina, who was briefly allied with Sin Cara on Raw. She’s been in Mexico for the last few weeks according to her Twitter and has been training at Bandido’s Gym recently. I’d guess we’re getting a Nix/Hatana vs Sussy/Catalina match on an upcoming Big Lucha World based on the angle in the mixed tag match this past week. Match 2 could be wild.
This taping is a day before the Nacion “season 2 premiere” and I wonder which show will actually draw better. Nacion is a TV taping and has ex-WWE names and Alberto is doing interviews with every TV outlet, it shouldn’t be close. And yet, it could be close.
Other Notes
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Rpeort.
Dr. Wagner Jr. says he plans on putting his mask back on. He says the commission rules allow for a wrestler to put a mask back on five years after they’ve lost theirs, it’s about five years after he lost his mask, and he’s going to put his back on. Lucha libre commission rules do state something like that. The length you have to wait seems to vary from commission to commission. More importantly, they usually state the wrestler can put on a new mask, not the one they lost. The intention seemed to let promoters off the hook for remasking young wrestlers who lost early in their career. Like most lucha libre commission rules, enforcement is on a case by case basis. Wagner’s brother Silver King lost his mask and infamously found ways to just put it back on with slight name variations or just working in places where no one cared about those rules all that much. Silver King seemed to do it because he felt he was more marketable as a masked wrestler and I’m guessing that’s Wagner’s belief as well. Lots of people are going to heckle him about doing it, though plenty were heckling him about losing his mask to Psycho Clown anyway. Wagner has been wearing his mask to start most of his matches lately, sometimes taking it off during the match. I think remasking is lame and it damages the importance of mask matches when things like this happen, but I don’t think Wagner is all that concerned about that.
There’s actually two “why I’m wearing the mask I took off” stories today. El Manada asked International Pantera why he still wears the mask he lost to Misterioso in 2004. His story here was IWRG asked him to wear it for a show in 2007 with the idea he’d take it off after the match, but the fans demanded he keep it on. He’s previously said he’s stayed masked because he wasn’t paid what he believed he was owed for the mask loss and so didn’t feel he had to honor his side of the deal. In many cases, wrestlers put their mask on because they believe they pick up more work as a masked character.
Mascara Dorada won his debut Impact match in Impact over Alex Zayne yesterday. He will challenge Mike Bailey for the X-Division championship on a future date. Dorada appearing in Impact has no relevance to his CMLL status (or AAA’s relationship to Impact); he’s there as a NJPW wrestler.
Mas Lucha announced they’d have their Torneo Supremo on 10/06 from Arena Naucalpan. This has been a one-night eight person tournament. They’ve made a point of choosing a completely different group of people when they’ve done this in recent years.
Alberto, still on the Nacion Lucha Libre media tour, told Universal Deportes that their tapings will be on September 24, November 5 and December 3. Though he gets the September date wrong, so don’t hold him to those. The plan he explains here is to sell these shows to other networks in Latin America and he believes going to these short season concepts makes the shows more attractive. They plan to break for “only one week” before coming back for a Season 3. (The linked to interview says Alberto is answering a question about ex-WWE Paige, but his comments appear to actually be about the girlfriend after who accused him of other crimes.)
HHH said something about a NXT Mexico in the far future. We get this every six months and nothing is moving on it. I’m skeptical WWE’s new proposed “NXT Europe” is anything other than a way to tell a positive story on the week of the big WWE UK show and suspect it may be quietly shelved once everyone moves on. NXT Mexico is a plan for post NXT Europe, so we can worry about NXT Mexico only if/when an NXT Europe actually exists.
India Sioux, on a public Facebook post under her real name, announced she was separating from husband of 18 years Maximo. The post does not paint a pretty picture of their relationship – she calls him a drug addict and an alcoholic in particular, which fits alongside Maximo collapsing at a couple of recent shows. His life looks to be going in a bad direction from the outside.
Wrestlers and promoters in Leon will meet to discuss increased security at lucha libre shows following the death of three luchadors in Irapuato (same state, about an hour away.) It’s mostly to make fans feel and wrestlers safe in coming to shows, though it doesn’t actually address the incidents. Two of the wrestlers were killed or kidnapped away from events, the third was kidnapped well after a show had ended.