CMLL has invited a bunch of outsiders in for their annual Gran Prix de Amazonas tournament. You may be interested in watching and don’t normally follow CMLL. Here are some details:
the quickest version
The most important show is the Gran Prix. It takes place Friday October 28th. It will stream live (and ONLY live) via TicketmasterLive for 200 pesos. That’s just about 10 USD. The show begins at 8:30 pm Central Time (and all times in this post are Central Time.) CMLL will post highlights of the match later that night on their YouTube channel. CMLL will also post the match in full on their YouTube channel about two weeks later, Sunday, November 6th.
The easiest show to watch is the Guadalajara show. All outsiders in for Gran Prix (and most of the women they’ll face) will be part of the main event on Tuesday night October 25th show in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. This show is now available on Facebook and and remains there indefinitely.
the details
What is the Gran Prix?
CMLL runs annual men’s and women’s Gran Prix cibernetico matches. They’re a borrowed Survivor Series elimination match concept, stretched to eight people on each side. Eliminations happen via pinfall, submission, or disqualification (usually mask removal.) These Gran Prix events have been “Mexico versus The World” themed since the concept was brought back in 2016. Winning for Mexico is the most important thing for the home side. The last remaining person is declared the overall winner of the match and gets a giant trophy.
The Mexican men are 4-1 since this concept was brought back. The Mexican woman won their inaugural version last year. The 2022 women’s Gran Prix also serves is the climax of an unprecedented month of CMLL shows focused on their luchadoras, with a tie-in to breast cancer awareness month.
Who is in the Gran Prix?
The two teams are
Team Mexico
- La Jarochita (Mexico Tag Team champion)
- Lluvia (Mexico Tag Team champion)
- Dalys (CMLL Lady’s Ring/Japan champion)
- Marcela
- Reyna Isis
- Princesa Sugehit (CMLL World champion)
- Amapola
- Faby Apache
Amapola is a replacement for Dark Silueta (Mexico National Champion), who aggravated an existing knee injury and is out of action. Dark Silueta won last year’s Gran Prix and would’ve likely had a big role in this match. Princesa Sugehit’s title is the most important, but it’s Lluvia and La Jarochita who are doing best at the moment. “Las Chicas Indomables” just passed two years as tag champions, La Jarochita defeated Reyna Isis in a mask match last month, and Lluvia defeated Jarochita to win the CMLL Universal de Amazonas this past Friday. Marcela and Amapola were the dominant top of the division rivalry from about 2005-2015 and have taken a step back in recent years.
Faby Apache, going by just “Faby” in CMLL, is the biggest media story of this show and the person likely to get the most attention. Faby spent 23 years in AAA, becoming at times the best and most beloved luchadora in the Mexico. She won everything AAA had to offer, was part of one of the most remembered storylines/melodramas AAA’s told, and had one of the best all time AAA matches against her sister Mary. Faby finished up with AAA a few months ago – they wanted to focus on newer women, Faby’s never happy taking a secondary role, it was time for both sides to move on – and announced she was wrestling as an independent going forward. CMLL announced Faby on Team Mexico as a surprise. Faby Apache in CMLL is a ‘you never thought you’d see it’ situation and this might be the only time to see it. As of right now, this is her only announced CMLL appearance.
Jarochita is probably the best wrestler on her team, someone’s who gone from just a face in the crowd to a standout over the last three years. Sugehit is just behind her. Isis and Lluvia can be good in the right situations. Amapola and Marcela were great, but age and a thousand matches have taken their told, more so on Amapola of the two. Faby Apache is also not as great as she was a few years ago, but still pretty good. She has a reputation of holding matches to high standards and taking it out on opponents when they don’t meet her standards. Dalys can look impressive on offense and clueless or disinterested in taking other people’s offense. CMLL’s women’s matches often feel rehearsed, but they’re consistently solid and sometimes pretty good when they can stick on their plan. They can also derail pretty badly when someone forgets the plan, and those have happened a few times lately.
Team World
- Ivelisse (Puerto Rico)
- Lady Frost (USA)
- Alex Gracia (USA)
- Avispa Dorada (USA)
- Stephanie Vaquer (Chile)
- Mei Surgura (Japan)
- Tae Honma (Japan)
- Hikari Shimizu (Japan)
You probably know many of these women better than I do, that’s why you clicked on the post, I won’t re-explain them to you. A couple of them are CMLL regulars. Avispa Dorada is likely unknown to you if you don’t watch lucha libre; she’s a Pacific Northwest wrestler who joined CMLL in late 2018 and was a regular until the pandemic shut shows down. She came back in October last year and returned again this year. Stephanie Vaquer became the first Chilean wrestler in CMLL history when she joined in 2019 (and took the nickname “La Primera” in reference to the achievement.) Both are fun additions; Avispa flies more than other luchadoras and Vaquer has developed into one of the best all-around wrestlers in the division.
There are some other Mexico connections. Ivelisse of course was part of Lucha Underground but actually has only wrestling rarely in Mexico. Alex Gracia appeared briefly in CMLL in 2020. Tae Homna toured CMLL for a week back in 2019.
Tae Honma and Hikari Shimizu have been announced as appearing on an 11/06 Arena Mexico show, so they appear to be sticking around for a while. Nothing has been said about Ivelisse, Lady Frost, Alex Garcia and Mei Sugura, so they’re likely staying in CMLL just for a week – Monday to Sunday.
What’s the schedule?
CMLL runs a weekly schedule with events just about every day of the week. CMLL also has weekly media spots on television and radio shows to promote their events, and even a hosted bus tour to their Mexico City and Guadalajara shows. You’ll probably see these women popping up on social media in more places than the ones I’ll cover here.
There’s no “CMLL Network” or central streaming service to watch all of CMLL’s matches. They’re instead scattered around to a variety of TV networks and media partners. It can be very challenging to track down everything, and some of the events take weeks (or months) to air. The silver lining is everything is that, if you can find it, much of it is available for free. I also try to archive all the freely available CMLL (and AAA) matches on a Google Drive account, which is free to use for anyone.
CMLL has announced these shows so far. I’ll try to update this as future shows get announced.
Monday, October 24
Alex Gracia, Ivellise, and Lady Frost wrestled Hikara Shimizu, Mei Suruga, and Tae Honma in Puebla. CMLL used to stream these shows live, but discontinued them after the pandemic and doesn’t appear to tape them.
There was a fan cam of this match on YouTube. The video has since been struck off CMLL by copyright. CMLL doesn’t tape Arena Puebla shows so there’s no way to see this match.
Tuesday, October 25
In Guadalajara, Team World (Alex Gracia, Avispa Dorada, Hikari Shimizu, Ivelisse, Lady Frost, Mei Suruga, Stephanie Vaquer, Tae Honma) wrestled slightly different Team Mexico (Dalys, La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Lluvia, Marcela, Metálica, Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis) in a preview of that Gran Prix match.
The match aired on Facebook and remains up for viewing.
This Guadalajara show was a historical first, the first CMLL show to include only women wrestlers. No AAA show has ever been an all-women show, no previous major promotion is known to have have held one.
Wednesday, October 26
CMLL has its weekly “Informa” talk show on Wednesday afternoon. Team Rest of World and Team Mexico appeared on the show for interviews. The segment begins at 57:28.
Thursday, October 27
There is no live event on this day. CMLL ran a big media event to promote the men’s Gran Prix on the Thursday prior to their show, and presumably will do the same with the women. It’ll be similar in style to the Informa chat the day before and clips will turn up on social media
Friday, October 28
The CMLL Gran Prix takes place in Arena Mexico. The show starts promptly at 8:30 and the Gran Prix is the main event. It typically runs between 45 minutes to an hour.
There are two official ways to watch this show (and any CMLL Friday night event.)
- TicketmasterLive streams the show live at 8:30 pm Central Time. It is a LIVE ONLY stream; there’s no VOD, there’s no rewinding, you’re just treated as if you bought a ticket to physically go to the event. The PPV broadcast costs about 10 USD.
- TicketmasterLive shows (and all CMLL shows) are in Spanish only; there is no English language version of any of these streams. TicketmasterLive shows require a credit card (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX) to purchase unless you live in Mexico. TicketmasterLive shows can be Chromecast. TicketmasterLive streams have worked almost all of the time and they’ve (eventually) sent refunds and make goods when they have not.
- CMLL posts an abbreviated version of their Friday events on their YouTube channel on a 16-day delay. This Gran Prix will go up on the afternoon of Sunday, November 13th. (I mistyped that is the 6th before, but it’s the 13th) It’s a free YouTube upload and remains available forever.
CMLL will also post highlights and backstage interviews on their YouTube channel immediately following the conclusion of the show.
(There is a third, unofficial way. Mexico’s Televisa Nueve station airs the Friday shows the following weekend on Saturday afternoons. I upload PPV matches to my Google Drive after they’ve aired for free, so you’d be able to find this show on that drive on the evening of November 6th.)
Saturday, October 29th
Aaex Gracia, Lady Frost, Avispa Dorada face Mei Suruga, Hikari Shimizu and Tae Honma in Mexico City’s Arena Coliseo. These shows occasionally appear to be taped, but strangely don’t appear to be aired anywhere. We’re unlikely to see full matches. Highlights may appear; Box y Lucha’s Facebook page typically posts clips of all the matches.
Sunday, October 30th
Alex Gracia, Avispa Dorada and Lady Frost wrestle Dalys, Mei Surgua and Stephanie Vaquer in Arena Mexico. These shows are taped for TV.
About half the card will air about two weeks later (November 11th) on Mexico public TV station “Mexiquense TV” at 10 pm local time. I record this shows and upload them to my Google Drive; that’s typically the easiest way to find them. There’s no rhyme or reason to which matches will air; I assume they’ll air this match but I won’t know for sure.
Tae Honma and Hikari Shimizu will appear on outside show at Arena Lucha Time in Monterrey and Arena Pavillon del Norte in Saltillo, Coahuila on 10/30. They’ll wrestle Queen Panther and Miss Panther on both shows. Semi-official fan cams of the Saltillo event appear on the Estrellas del Ring YouTube channel. I don’t have any good information on the Monterrey show airing.
Honma & Shimizu appear to be sticking around past this week. Everyone else appears to be finishing up on Sunday.
Monday, October 31st
Dalys, La Jarochita, Lluvia, Reyna Isis will wrestle Avispa Dorada, Hikari Shimizu, Stephanie Vaquer, Tae Honma in Arena Puebla. This match will not be taped for and it is unlikely anything more than clips (if that much) will be shared.
Tuesday, November 1st
CMLL is celebrating Dia del Muertos on all of their Arena Mexico shows the week of 11/01, with a special set and costuming. That also may change the way these shows air; my notes below are based on usual patterns.
CMLL’s Tuesday 11/01 show has La Guerrera, La Magnifica and Princesa Sugehit facing Hikari Shimizu, Metalica and Tae Honma. This show airs live on YouTube, but the transmission is limited to Mexican IP addresses only. (YouTube is very good at sniffing out VPNs and Tor.) I expect to be able to upload this show on my Google Drive by Wednesday.
Future dates
CMLL’s Sunday 11/06 show has Magnifica, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit wrestling Amapola, Hikari Shimizu, and Tae Honma. That match may air on 11/18.