I’m trying a new setup to block the comment spam that’s shown up lately; if it’s blocking you from commenting, please let me know via email or twitter.
CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 09/23/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, Estrella del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Minos, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito b Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito 
12:04.
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Sangre Imperial, Suicida b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
17:42
3) Blue Panther & Dark Panther DCOR Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. 
Blue Panther & Panterita Sr. were eliminated, then neither Panterita Jr. nor Dark Panther could make it back in after a Panther tope.
4) Atlantis, Hijo de Octagón, Octagón b Ángel de Oro, Felino, Fuerza Guerrera
13:43.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Místico, Stuka Jr. b Euforia, Soberano Jr., Titán
18:04.
The Panthers/Panterata was great and greatly laid. Blue Panther is a fan cheer machine but also smart enough to know the point should be to get over Panterita Jr. (and Dark Panther) and they laid out the match to make the younger guys the stars in the end. Dark Panther didn’t really connect on his tope over the barricade but it still kind of worked. CMLL seems committed to doing making Panterita Jr. a top guy and I hope it works.
The attendance was nowhere near last week, not that anyone should’ve expected that. It seemed a little bit up from the usual Friday night. The CMLL iPPVs, for about a year, start off with a segment where the TV announcers in the ring and talking about the big matches on the show to hype the top matches (and probably actually let them know what’s on the show for the people who speak Spanish but don’t really follow the promotion.) Octagon’s name got a noticeable big reaction when he was brought up in that segment. He weirdly didn’t seem as over in the actual match, which was about exactly what you’d expect with the people involved. The Atlantis/Fuerza feud was completely dropped to go back to Fuerza/Octagon. There were no challenges after and no indication if these guys were in for one night or more often.
The rest of the show was generally good if not particularly substantial. Both Pierrothito & Suicida got winning pinfalls before their fan-driven title shots next week, which is more care to booking than usual. Euforia did take the loss in the main event.
CMLL did not mention Starman on the show. Arena Neza did have a moment for him.I’m not sure if I should read into it any more than “CMLL didn’t consider him on the roster like Razie or important enough to mention”, but it felt strange. Between Starman, Raziel, Toro Bill Jr. and Guerrero Espacial, there’s been a run of 40-50 year old CMLL adjacent luchadors who’ve passed away in the last five months.
The Gladiatores mentioned Starman’s real name is Othoniel Trejo.
CMLL (SAT) 09/24/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Full Metal, Mercurio, Pequeño Violencia b Acero, Aéreo, Pequeño Magía 
Rudos took 1/3.
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita b La Seductora, Olympia, Tiffany
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Akuma, Magnus, Pólvora
Akuma replaced Okumura. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Dragón Rojo Jr. b Fugaz
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Esfinge, Negro Casas, Star Jr.
Fugaz remains not built for singles matches.
CMLL (SUN) 09/25/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr. b Bengala & Neón
2) Cachorro, Leono, Valiente Jr. DQ Disturbio, El Consejo, Raider
Consejo is Nitro reprising a short lived gimmick from five years ago. The live results still called him Nitro when he got the win.
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Audaz, Diamond, Halcón Suriano Jr.
Rudos took 1/3
4) El Coyote, Felino, Hijo del Villano III b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
Rudos took 1/3.
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Los Ingobernables took 1/3.
Wins and losses don’t matter much in CMLL but Los Malditos losing to every other top trio seems like a reason they shouldn’t be trios champions. They do seem like someone’s pet project and maybe that’ll win the day.
We are still guessing about what the Consejo thing as we were did five years ago. I feel good about the guess (“copyright reasons”) but CMLL didn’t give a reason this time around either.
Puebla has Mistico vs Atlantis Jr. scheduled, though I’m not sure i that’s the match happening given the next change:
CMLL (TUE) 09/27/2022 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Angelito, Kaligua, Shockercito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Polvora
3) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita vs Hera, La Seductora, Tiffany
4) Dark Panther, El Audaz, Panterita del Ring vs El Hijo del Villano III, Felino, Rey Bucanero
5) Star Jr., Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Angel de Oro replaced Stuka on Tuesday
An unexpected day of the week for an Atlantis/Stuka rematch. Or it would’ve been, but Atlantis Jr. got pulled from this show Monday morning. Guerreros and Volador aren’t working a lot of Tuesdays, but they’ve got to pick up a match somewhere since they didn’t make the night of champions show.
Would you like to watch a video of Mexico City police working an Arena Mexico show accompanied by dramatic music for no reason?
AAA
AAA TV this week was the first of the two Hard Rock shows. It kind of felt like the 2021 TV shows, the amount of resort footage was reminiscent of the luchadors visiting various cultural and historical sites last year. The opener, Arez & Aramis vs Komander & Latigo, was a spectacular match. Not everything worked right but the stuff they did was impressive. The other two matches were the usual house show level matches more the norm on these resort shows.
There were two storyline vignettes on this show. Las Toxicas confronted Taya and demanded she stop defending it against foreigners and defend it against Flammer, so the title stays in AAA. Taya pointed out she doesn’t make the matches. This didn’t seem to satisfy Las Toxicas, who attacked Taya after her match. Another video had a Laredo Kid & Aramis discussion interrupted by Johnny Caballero, who told Aramis he should be listening to him instead since Johnny has all the WWE success (and the AAA Megachampionship) and Laredo does not. Johnny is also carrying around a stickhorse named Lorenzo de Llamas, a fun joke that makes it hard to take him seriously when he talks about his achievements. Caballero claims he’s starting a group. Like all AAA, wait and see if it goes anywhere.
AAA playing Psycho Clown’s music for Pagano and not bothering to fix it later was a great example of the effort level put into these TV shows. There was a moment in the opener tag where all four guys were frozen after something went wrong, and they kinda figured it out. It was a moment to edit out if anything is ever going to be edited, and it was not edited out. So it goes.
Space did run an advertisement saying they’re airing TripleMania but didn’t list a start time. My impression from the press conference is the show starts at 7 live (and on FITE) and Space picks it up around 8, but I know other people were confused. AAA might make this clearer closer to the show.
A few more TripleMania thoughts with a weekend to think about it
- It’s every TripleMania card for the last decade, no better or worse. It should go well. They’ll be all sorts of angles and surprises in the opening matches to make them seem less pointless. One of them will be great. You can also really just tune in for the last three or four matches and see all you need to see. I wish the formula got shaken up but I also can see why they don’t feel like they need to do that.
- Plenty of fans seemed frustrated there was no FTR appearance (or, to a lesser extent, no Sammy/Taya one.) Like I said before, it doesn’t serve AAA’s purposes to explain why they couldn’t get their tag team champions to appear on a date they should’ve had booked for six months; no one cares the reason why. It would be good to say when they’re going to bring them in. That would assume AAA has a date and who knows.
- Kamille from the “NWA” probably doesn’t mean anything to almost all Mexican fans; the Billy Corgan era of the NWA has had no obvious reach in Mexico outside of super invested fans who pay attention to everything. It’s possible you could count on two hands the number of people in Mexico who watched the previous NWA match between Taya & Kamille. Kamille, “tall striking human being”, probably does mean something to Mexican fans and it was a good idea to bring her to the press conference to get that size over.
- I believe doing AAA doing a copromotion with NWA means almost nothing as far as additional international attention. There definitely will be NWA fans who buy the TripleMania show, but I believe most people who pay for the NWA are the level of fans willing to buy pretty much any ‘major’ wrestling show and the TripleMania Mexico City already fits as a major wrestling show. FITE probably has the numbers to find this out better than I do though.
- Argenis posted a photo from the Arena Mexico stage on Friday. It’s the usual “look, I might show up in another promotion” social media post that luchadors do whenever they’re unhappy about something. They never actually act on it. Mistico might be able to get his brother back in CMLL but it doesn’t seem like that’s actually the plan. Argenis is likely disappointed about not being on the TripleMania card. AAA’s strategy of bookings TripleMania shows so as many wrestlers as possible get booked still leaves a bunch of people unhappy. I vote for less people involved and more meaningful matches but I’m not the person who has to deal with angry wrestlers.
AAA ran their latest Showcenter event on Sunday. Posting the results more out of habit than usefulness. These aren’t being taped and the tournament long stopped making sense.
AAA (SUN) 09/25/2022 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon
1) Mamba b Baby Love, Viva Van
Baby Love and Mamba replaced Goya Kong
2) Aramis b Baby Extreme, Dulce Kanela
Scheduled as a tag match, Mamba was moved to the next match.
3) Puma King & Toscano b Murder Clown & Panic Clown
Toscano (replacing Carta Brava) beat Panic Clown (surprise partner)
4) Toxin b Antifaz [Showcenter Tournament]
money thrown in
5) Aerostar, Octagón Jr., Vampiro b Dinámico, Rey Escorpión, Taurus
Octagon Jr. (return from injury) replaced Drago. Dinamico replaced Villano III Jr.
They went 1 out of 5 announced matches, even switching around a match where they had everyone there. I don’t know why they announce lineups. Toxin vs. Antifaz was the only match that stayed as it was announced. Neither of those two people was in the tournament bracket when it was originally announced.
AAA’s been pretty consistent on announcing the next show date during the event every month, and the plan was for a show every month. The next show would be 10/30 by the usual pattern and I’m sure they’re still running there. WWE’s Monterrey show is on 10/29, so maybe that’s the issue.
Vampiro did a lot of press to highlight his appearance on this show. In Posta, Vampiro said he’s in his late steps as a luchador but will keep working in the AAA office. I don’t know that it’s public that he’s been working back in the AAA office. Vampiro also has a full array of projects outside of wrestling as always. He says his Alzheimer’s condition is stage 4 but he wants to live his life to the fullest as long as he can.
Big Lucha
Big Lucha (FRI) 09/23/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Estrellas del Ring, Mas Lucha, R de Rudo]
1) Sol & Torito Negro Jr. b Elipse & Orbita and King & Kong 
2) Yutani b Viajero, Éxtasis, Forneo, Galeno del Mal, Fulgor, El Potro de Oro, Elemental, Cometa Maya, Radioactivo, Tirano, Mr. Win, Wagner Kid, Huby [Torneo Alas de la Independencia]
Yutani won a title shot in the future
3) La Hiedra & Lady Shani b Catalina & Sussy Love 
Lady Shani replaced Sexy Star
4) Bendito, Carito, Emperador Azteca, Gravity, Komander b Accion Jackson, Andrew, Hannya, Jack Evans, Shocko
Hannya & Andrew replaced Mentallo & Shun Skywalker. Emperador won the match. The Tiger confronted Azteca after the match and was joined by Los Creatures del Kaoz (Cibernetico, Charly Rockstar, Diosa Quetzal, Steel Angel (ex-Hijo del Angel)) and they fought with Black Generation. Ciber introduced Mr. Electro as the new member of the group, which upset Rockstar into walking out.
5) Blue Demon b Dr. Wagner Jr., Skayde
Demon beat Wagner with a foul
6) El Bandido b Flamita [BL WORLD]
Bandido beat Flamita to become the first champion. Flamita gave him credit but said he still wanted the mask match. Yutani confronted Bandido post match.
I’ve watched everything but the fourth match from this show. Mas Lucha’s initial airing had the video dropping out from time to time; it seems better in the individual match uploads they’ve put up.
Bandido/Flamita looked like it might get derailed early due to a Flamita foot/ankle injury. They killed some time by throwing each other into chairs and Flamtia seemed to be more comfortable once they got going again. They then really got going, an intense clean title match that went back and forth and had a very vocal crowd involved. It was everything you’d want out of the first title match in the promotion. I’m sure it comes off as as questionable to have Bandido the champion of the Bandido wrestling federation to people who don’t follow the group, but it came off as the right decision in watching the show.
Demon, Wagner, Skayde was not good at all. Everyone looked slow and old and the crowd wasn’t into it. The wrestlers, especially Wagner, seemed unhappy with how it went. The women’s match was fine. It was a novelty to me to see Hiedra & Shani in just a normal match instead of fighting guys or doing hardcore or a multiperson situation.
The Copa went very long, had some good moments, had Cometa Maya crashing and burning badly on a dive. I’m starting to really like Forneo based on his work here and in the recent tournament. Galeno del Mal had a great stretch of looking like a monster. Yutani was a good pick for a winner and first challenger. It was clear Big Lucha hadn’t given the announcers a list of participants. No one knew who “Juby” was and I’m still not sure.
The opener was the usual good effort match with a few moments that could’ve gone better. I’m not sure if there’s a different method of preparation going on but X-Devil and Sol look a lot steadier in Big Lucha than they do in other groups.
Big Lucha is the “It” indie promotion in Mexico right now, which has benefits and downsides. It is clear other groups are trying to work with Big Lucha in hopes of using that bit of attention to help themselves. Everything after the 5v5 seemed to be angles just to get over matches for KAOZ wrestling, a promotion that does not run shows. (The Tiger, in a post show interview, made it clearer that he wanted Emperador Azteca’s mask but back in Monterrey for KAOZ.) I suspect KAOZ paid for this all to happen but it felt like an intrusion on a Big Lucha event. The Big Lucha people are going to get a lot of offers for co-promotion as long as they stay the “It” group and they can afford to be choosier about them.
Big Lucha did not give a next show date, or a date of when that Bandido/Yutani match is happening if those are two different shows.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 09/25/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Kenji b Súper Boy 
2) Feroz & Rey Aztaroth b Baby Star & Jhon Tito
3) Noisy Boy, Paymon, Spider Fly b Limbo, Nishikawa, Rey Halcón
4) Hijo del Alebrije, Luka, Relámpago b Feroz, Maniacop 360, Yorvak
Feroz replaced Garra Mortal.
5) Hell Boy, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro b Caballero de Plata, Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr.
Hell Boy beat Cerebro Negro via foul.
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Aster Boy, Tonalli b Dick Angelo 3G, Legendario, Puma de Oro
This show was said to be not very good.
Remember how the IWRG tag team title situation was going to get resolved on Sunday in GALLI? Jessy Ventura didn’t make the show due to flight issues. They did run the tag title match anyway, with Joey Marx and Mason Conrad winning the tag titles. I have no idea if that means they’re coming to Naucalpan or if they’re just the newest team to hold the titles around Chicago until a Mexican team can come in.
IWRG announced they’ll decide a new IWRG women’s champion on their 12/16 anniversary show. Amapola was the most recent champion, winning the belt in 2005 and last known to defend it in 2007. That was when CMLL and IWRG were working together, they haven’t for many years now. IWRG also hasn’t been much interested in a women’s division for most of those 15 years, just occasional matches. They’ve made more effort in the last few years, though it’s still pretty inconsistent. At any rate, they’re making a new belt and will decide a new champion on that year end show.
Caballero del Plata did donate his lost hair to a charity.
Nacion Lucha Libre
Their first taping did place on Saturday. There’s not too much written about it; the usual sites aren’t going to cover a show where they can’t take video. I could find scattered video but not really results. Attendance looked decent if carefully arranged to look bigger on TV. It reads like a lot of tickets were given out for free for anyone who wanted them, so I’m not sure the attendance should be considered significant of anything. Nacion’s gameplan seems to make their money on TV, especially international TV, so a taping with lots of people is more important to them if they paid. Giving away free tickets across the street from Arena Naucalpan sure doesn’t help IWRG but I don’t think that’s a Nacion concern.
The main heel group appeared to be some combination of the Colons, Super Beast, and Travis Banks. Alberto sees himself as someone wrongly accused and so it’s unsurprising Banks could convince him they’re the same.
There didn’t seem to be an announcement about when this taping would air; the original idea was October and that’s getting close. (Nacion did film other footage for TV a week back so I believe it’s actually airing, just that they and TV network Imagen haven’t gotten around to promoting it.) There also didn’t seem to be a push for the next taping.
Other
Sniper took Black Fish’s mask in a cage match in Guadalajara. This doesn’t appear to be the Black Fish who was Fishman Jr. for some time. This Black Fish is Juan Manuel Morales.
Lucha Libre CM was to open their own arena in Ecatepec on Sunday with a show. The show didn’t happen; the local government declared they couldn’t run the building. The promotion insisted they had everything taken care of and would run the show that day somehow. It doesn’t appear they were able to run in the end.
The Juarez marathon lucha libre event was said to draw 8,000 people. I believe that was a free admission show.
Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 10/01/2022 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) ? vs ??, ???, ????, ?????, ??????
Arena San Juan school, no names announced
2) Lolita vs Diosa Quetzal
3) Flama Roja & Toro Negro vs Corsario Negro & Drako
4) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly vs Alas de Acero & Iron Kid and Sol & X-Devil
5) Tonalli vs Brazo De Oro Jr.
6) Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane vs Aramis & Toxin
7) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Centvrión & Metaleón
This is the “only good matches” show and I guess every match could be a good match if it works out. I don’t feel confident about six straight good matches. You also probably shouldn’t put Mexican wrestling trainees on a show where the idea is just good matches but maybe that’s part of the deal to get the building.
Metaleon is now Leon Dorado Jr. everywhere but here, because here they were going to do a Centvrion/Metaleon mask match at some point and it just hasn’t happened. It’s by no means hot after the promotion hasn’t run all year, but it’s also overdue for Mexawrestling to either announce when they’re going to run the match or to try focus on something new. I don’t know if Mexa Wrestling really is meant to be anything beyond this one show but it feels like they’re stuck in a dated moment.
10/08 Riot (Nuesta Raza, Nueva Lucha)
- La Rebelion vs Prometeo & Kratoz
- Arez vs Rey Horus for the RIOT Championship
- Aeroboy vs Willy Banderas
- Iron Kid, Aramis, Tromba vs Demonio del Aire, King Rex, Jimmy – new
That could be a really good trios match.
Discover more from luchablog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.