Marvel Lucha Libre on Disney+, CMLL results, Shocker update

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/17/2022 Arena Puebla [@Tribunadeportes, Arena Puebla]
2) Angelito & Shockercito b Mercurio & Pierrothito
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso b Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Dalys & Reyna Isis [MEX WOMEN TAG]
11th defense (9th on CMLL shows)
5) Negro Casas, Octagón, Stuka Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Fuerza Guerrera Facebook video (posted by )
Atlantis Jr. fouled Stuka Jr.

Atlantis’ mask was ripped up so much that he had his hand in front of his face as he kicked Stuka for the foul.

CMLL (TUE) 10/18/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua b Minos, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia 20221018cmll_match1Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua vs Minos, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Aéreo, Acero y Kaligua superan a Pequeño Violencia, Minos y Pequeño Pólvora (posted by mluchatv) Martes de CMLL en Arena México: Aéreo, Acero y Kaligua Vs Pequeño Violencia, Minos y Pequeño Pólvora (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
2) Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider b Astral, Leono, Valiente Jr. 20221018cmll_match2Astral, Leono, Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Arena México del CMLL: cuñados Valiente Jr y Astral con Leono Vs Disturbio, Raider e Inqusisor (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Inquisidor, Raider y Disturbio se llevan la victoria sobre Leono, Astral y Valiente Jr (posted by )
Rudos took 2/3.
3) Avispa Dorada, La Guerrera, La Magnifica b Amapola, Hera, Metálica 20221018cmll_match3Avispa Dorada, La Guerrera, La Magnifica vs Amapola, Hera, Metálica.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Amapola, Hera y Metálica Vs La Magnifica, La Guerrera y Avispa Dorada, martes de CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa 20221018cmll_match4Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Los Dulces Atrapasueños son derrotados por Pólvora, Rey Bucanero y Felino Jr (posted by ) Rey Bucanero, Felino Jr y Pólvora Vs Dulce Gardenia, Rey Cometa y Espíritu Negro en el CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Rudos took 1/3. Dulce Gardenia’s return after a couple of weeks off. Polvora replaced Felino (Sr.)
5) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Stuka Jr. b Hijo del Villano III, Mephisto, Terrible 20221018cmll_match5Atlantis, Negro Casas, Stuka Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III, Mephisto, Terrible.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Atlantis, Negro Casas y Stuka Jr. Vs. Terrible, Mephisto e Hijo del Villano III; Lucha estelar (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero y  Volador Jr, vs   El Mesías, Soberano Jr; y Stuka Jr. (posted by )
Hijo del Villano III replaced Hechicero on Monday. Tecnicos took 1/3.

The Gardenia fake head injury spot slipped my mind until the people covering the show noted his return. He did a promo saying all was well. Everything but the main event was said to be enjoyable on this hsow.

CMLL (TUE) 10/18/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, thecubsfan]
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Logan, Mr. Samurai b Destello, Destructor, Minotauro 20221018cmll_match1Avispón Negro Jr., Logan, Mr. Samurai vs Destello, Destructor, Minotauro.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
2) Persa, Raven, Temerario b Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel 20221018cmll_match2Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
3) Jkr, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. b Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico 20221018cmll_match3Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Jkr, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. DQ Zandokan Jr. 20221018cmll_match4Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Zandokan Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Zandokan hit the referee, then tossed his mask to Maya to draw a less serious DQ. Maya reacted angrily.
5) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono 20221018cmll_match5Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido vs Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Rugido pinned Halcon Negro Jr. and challenged him to a title match.
6) Blue Panther, Cachorro, Dark Panther b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Satánico 20221018cmll_match6Blue Panther, Cachorro, Dark Panther vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Satánico.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Panthers all got pins on nudos at the same time. Dark Panther & Cachorro asked for a OCCIDENTE TAG titke match.

The referee stuff in the singles match was not well done. They set up a lot of matches on this one and may do some of them.

CMLL (SAT) 10/22/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Neón & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita vs La Seductora, Olympia, Tiffany
3) Crixus, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin vs Dark Magic, Halcón Negro Jr., Nitro
4) Fuego, Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
5) Místico, Star Jr., Valiente vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible

Fuego is just working Saturdays. The Crixus/Halcon Negro Jr. feud from Queretaro and Guadalajara finds its way here.

CMLL (SUN) 10/23/2022 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo & Chamuel
2) Cachorro, Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Stigma, Suicida, Volcano vs Felino, Kráneo, Okumura
4) Místico, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Felino, Hijo del Villano III, Sagrado
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II [CMLL TAG]
6th defense

Please no Diablo champions.

CMLL held media interviews for the American members of the Gran Prix team on Monday and Tuesday.  Lady Frost and Alex Gracia hyped the event, Avispa Dorada mentioned she almost feels like she’s on the wrong team because she’s a tecnica who trains with the Mexicans all the time. The Gran Prix crew will be going to Arena Puebla on Monday, then to Guadalajara on Tuesday. Ivelisse & Stephanie Vaquer talked on Tuesday; I haven’t seen those posted yet.

CMLL Informa today has Lluvia & Jarochita (Universal final), Mesias (vs UG), Sagrado (new heavyweight champ), Valiente & Fuego (returns), Los Gemelo Diablos (tag titles) and Amotlamini (Dia del Muerto) as guests.

Late night Televisa show Mas Noche is having a special event Thursday 10/27 at Arena Mexico with music performances and lucha libre.

AAA

El Dragon posted Tuesday he was being released from the Mexico City hospital and headed home. That is a big relief, considering how bad his injuries were feared to be on Saturday.

The Marvel Lucha Libre trailer debuted on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/disneyplusla/status/1582778936152317956

There are more details in a press release: It’s a five-episode run, all becoming available on December 21st. (It’s talked about only as being for Mexico/Latin America; it’s possible it could be in the US, but it doesn’t appear that way.) There are overarching ideas that make it feel a little like “Marvel+Lucha Underground” but the presentation is different than LU. It’ll be a mockumentary style, with comedian Franco Escamilla narrating the stories “with humor and irony.” They’ll also include actual people involved in lucha libre to talk about the history of lucha libre and the importance of the mask. The show focuses on a PED-like substance called “the Symbiote” and builds to a title match at the end. AAA’s scheduled to hold their Marvel Lucha Libre tournament match on December 28th, so maybe one might spoil the other.

AAA’s going quiet on Marvel Lucha Libre the last few months makes a bit more sense; they were using the televised matches as part of the show, and they probably filmed all they needed or season one. There looks to be extra taping at different venues; the still with the press release shows Arena Naucalpan as an example, and there’s non-wrestling stuff as well. I’m not sure if they got actors for those roles or if it was the wrestlers all the way. December 21st is an ideal release date for a streaming show – lots of people home a lot more and looking for something to watch – so Disney seems to be giving this a chance to succeed. This show might also explain the quick demise of “Ultra Violet and Black Scorpion”; Disney may have just not wanted two shows in the same lucha libre space.

AAA and Psycho Clown did bring a child who went viral for wearing a Psycho Clown to his vaccination to TripleMania, as they had promised back in July.

IWRG

IWRG , FILL (THU) 10/20/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Legado & Osogbo vs Chef Benito & Skanda
2) Jhon Tito, Rey Minos, Spider Fly vs Kenji, Rey Aztaroth, Súper Boy
3) ABC & Troyano vs Perseo & Yoruba and Fly Star & Torito Negro and Hijo de Payaso Purasanta & Payaso Purasanta and Dick Angelo 3G & Legendario and Güero De Tijuana & Taurio and Alom & Historico and Comando Strong & Neza Kid
Gym Ultimo Guerrero vs MSLL vs MexaWrestling vs WTMB vs FILL vs Zeus vs Argentino vs Freelance

The big FILL 100 is – a tag tournament? an elimination match? I’m not entirely sure. It was announced on two days’ notice, which is normal. Maybe back on Mas Lucha.

Nacion Lucha Libre

We have results from the first TV show! Or, accurately, Planeta Wrestling has results and I corrected it a bit.

NLL (SAT) 09/24/2022 Unidad Cuauhtémoc, Naucalpan, Estado de México [Karii_909, Planeta Wrestling]
?) Súper Nova & Texano Jr. b Travis Banks & VIP and Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Fishman Nación ‘22 (posted by Karii _909)
Planeta has this as a trios match, but video shows it as a tag match
?) Jessy Jackson & Miss Delicious b Hija De Fuerza Guerrera & Princesa Azul
?) Alberto el Patrón, Cinta de Oro, Dr. Wagner Jr. b Aj Farat, Carlito, Primo Colon
Travis Banks and Jessie Jackson were with the Colons. Super Beast interfered to stop Cinta de Oro at one point, and Galeno del Mal distracted Wagner to set up a Carlito backstabber on Wagner for the win.

The show doesn’t seem to be posted in full anywhere, or not anywhere I’ve been able to find. The only place to find comments was on Nacion’s Facebook page; Alberto fans seemed to like it, some people complained about too many promos on the show (they did a big Mexico vs the World thing to kick off the show) and most people just questioned why they were airing it against TripleMania.

Shocker

Los Destrampados (a clown comedy act touring Chiapas) posted a video of post-jailed Shocker, who appears to have trouble standing on his own feet before launching into this wrestling character and mocking the car attacks that got him arrested in the first place. The idea of the video is “look, he’s free, he’s fine!” and it comes off more as a guy who is very much not fine. Los Destrampados seemed to say they bailed out Shocker.

This is disputed by the local promoter, in a video posted on Ring Chiapas Facebook and summarized by MedioTiempo, who says he bailed out Shocker. Promotor Jose Manuel Cotino said Shocker arrived in Tuxtla Guiterrez with Scorpio Jr., both attended a press conference, and Shocker left to go find something to eat. Manuel Cotino didn’t hear from Shocker again until others let him know Shocker was causing a scene in Parque de la Marimba, and then found him in jail. Manuel Cotino backs up the police report of Shocker banging his head on the bars and throwing himself against the walls, saying the police put handcuffs on Shocker to stop him from trying to kill himself again. Cotino contacted Shocker’s wife, who advised them not to give Shocker sedatives and let him tire himself out. (That may indicate how often this has happened.) Shocker did fall asleep, and the promoter bailed him out. Shocker wrestled on Sunday night. The owner of the car Shocker hit actually came to the show and wanted to take Shocker out to dinner, but the promoter said no because Shocker had an early flight. Scorpio called the promoter up the next morning to say Shocker had instead disappeared again and missed the flight. Manuel Cotino said Shocker was a sick person who needed help.

There’s a significant amount of social media comments about CMLL needing to do something to help Shocker. They may, but I believe they have in the past and I believe others have as well. It’s great people continue to try but Shocker’s got to find the strength to accept the help.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha returns on Friday. Announced so far

  • Accion Jackson vs TBA
  • ah nothing else yet.

The 11/05 Big Lucha show in Ecatepec has been canceled “due to reasons not do with the promotion.” Full refunds will be offered.

Other Notes

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

El Hijo del Santo did a series of media interviews to celebrate reaching 40 years of wrestling. No real news in them. Yahoo! Deportes has a typical bio. Mas Lucha did a long interview but it released very late Tuesday night due to some YouTube issues and I haven’t gotten a chance to watch it. I’ll report back if he takes a shot at Sammy Guevara or something.

GALLI announced Arez & Shun Skywalker vs Latigo & Toxin, Flamita & Gravity and TBA vs Emperador Azteca & Flamita and TBA, and Aeroboy vs Ricky Banderas for their GALLIMANIA show on Sunday. This will air on IWTV. The show was moved to GALLI’s normal location in Villa Park today.

RIOT announced their next show will be 12/17. RIOT is currently five shows behind at releasing events.

Santos Escobar is doing press for the WWE tour. TripleMania didn’t draw well in Arena Ciudad de Mexico and Superboletos lists more tickets unsold for WWE, so that looks like a big challenge.

Ciudad Victoria promoter Antonio Quilantan was arrested in the Missouri for traficating coacine. I haven’t seen a poster from his building, Arena Warrior, in at least a year. I guess he was busy.

A Blue Demon exhibit opens in Mexico City’s Museo del Estanquillo today.

Penta & Vikingo big winners on TripleMania, El Dragon injury, Fuego returns to CMLL, Shocker arrested

AAA

AAA TV (SAT) 10/15/2022 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal [AAAESPNESTOSuperLuchasthecubsfanVoices of Wrestling]
1) Arcano, El Engañoso, Gran Mazo, Picadura Letal b ?, ?, ?, El Furioso
Dark match.=. Marvel Lucha Libre match, with the winners moving onto a title match on 12/28. El Furioso suffered a serious injury during the match. AAA aired a trailer for a Marvel Lucha Libre show following this.
2) Taurus b MicromanChessmanSexy StarNiño HamburguesaMr. IguanaLady ShaniFlip GordonDiva SalvajeJessy VenturaAerostarJack EvansElectroshock [Copa Bardahl]
Dark match. Jack Evans and Electroshock returned to the promotion, at least for one night. Taurus beat Electroshock to win.
3) Dragón Lee & Dralistico b Látigo & Toxin and Komander & Myzteziz and Arez & Willie Mack [AAA TAG, #1 Contenders]
10:22. Dralistico beat Myzteziz to earn a title shot against FTR at some point. A ‘fan’ threw Willie Mack a Dr. Simi doll, then many dolls fell on Dr. Simi from the ceiling, leading to a Mack/Dr. Simi mascot dance off as a promotional bit.
4) Bandido, Laredo Kid, Psycho Clown b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón and Brian Cage, Johnny Caballero, Sam Adonis [AAA TRIOS]
13:26. First defense. AAA announced NGD would have to be defeated directly to lose the belts. Caballero fouled Laredo Kid to win, but did not win the belts.
5) Taya © b Kamille [Reina De Reinas]
16:47. Kamille replaced Thunder Rosa (injury). Taya submitted her to retain the title, her fourth defense and first in AAA. Arez & Flammer were seconds. Las Toxicas attacked Taya backstage.
6) Pagano b Cibernético [hair]
22:03. Los Vipers helped Cibernetico thru the match, Pagano had no second. Hijo del Tirantes was taken out by an errant Pagano lighttube swing. Vampiro replaced him as referee. Konnan, attacked earlier by Los Vipers, beat up the Vipers. Pagano pulled Cibernetico off a ladder in an Air Raid Crash through the stage for the win. Ciberentico got his hair cut backstage.
7) Hijo Del Vikingo b Fénix [AAA MEGA]
19:30. Arez & Hijo del Vikingo’s father were seconds. Hijo del Vikingo’s sixth defense, second on AAA TV. Both men showed respect post match (though Fenix wanted a mask vs hair match.)
8) Pentagón Jr. b Villano IV [mask]
25:22. Villano V and Arez were seconds; this was Arez’s 3rd appearance as a second on the show. Both Penta and Villano got visual submission wins which ruled not to be submissions. Penta won after a third armbreaker. Villano IV unmasked as Tomas Diaz Mendoza, 57 years a wrestler, 42 years a wrestler. He said he would retire soon and asked for Penta to face him in his final match. Penta agreed.

I have a full recap over at PostWrestling.

The last two matches were exactly as great as fans hoped they would be, maybe even more so. Villano IV has had a long career in many places, and these three tournament matches and the end of his run are going to be the ones everyone remembers him by. They were so good, so effective at making every match feel important. AAA completely nailed the post match mask removal presentation, and that’s a moment lucha libre has that no other style of wrestling can match. Fenix versus Vikingo was the battle it needed to be, both spectacular and something to show how tough Vikingo can be. I thought Fenix should win to help build Vikingo up in the fans eyes when he came back to win a rematch, but the fans already believed in Vikingo here and were choosing him over Fenix by the end (or at least that’s how it came across on the stream.) The idea of a title match is the winner comes off looking as one of the best guys in the world and maybe the best, and Vikingo looked that way at the finish. This show is worth buying just to see those two matches, should be part of any discussion about the best stuff of the year, and was a creative success just for having those matches.

The rest of the matches was a lot of stuff I will not remember much about in a year’s time. Maybe Pagano/Ciberentico will stick out, because Pagano’s performance. I’ve found Pagano OK by the standards of Pagano lately, it’s only when he tries to do something a bit too complex for his reach where he falls apart. On this show, doing dive without hitting the ropes was out of Pagano’s reach. He was bad by his own standards. Ciber and Pagano seemed lost for a while, and I’m not sure if Pagano got hurt or they just blanked in the moment. The fake out with the table and the stage at the end was clever, as long as you’re willing to put aside the two people holding the ladder, the fact they were climbing a ladder for no reason and the music guy being psychic (or the camera guy missing the shot, I dunno.) Kamille/Taya was fine, nothing that was memorable after all the stuff that came after. They probably could’ve gotten the same sort of match out of Flammer, but the real answer if it matters is in FITE’s numbers and we don’t know those.

The three trios match built to a finish around a stick horse, which is not the most ideal concept for the biggest show of the year. The “titles only change if NGD wins” bit being announced right before the match was incredibly weak, like something a low level indie would do. It would’ve been just as easy to make it elimination and have the tecnicos cost the Gringo team the match; was there a reason the Cage or Adonis or Caballero couldn’t take a screwy loss? Ultimately this was a minor part of the show and not worth caring too much about. The tag title match had a lot of stuff but maybe too much. Everyone looked cool but it just didn’t have time to sink in. It’s also obvious in retrospect the match existed, and Willie Mack was in it and not the Copa TripleMania, as a set up for a Dr. Simi cross-promotion bit after the match. (They did another viral bit later with Las Toxicas.) AAA plastered the pharmacy mascot everywhere, so they must’ve made some nice money on the deal.

Jack Evans and Electroshock turned up in Copa TripleMania. I’m not sure if they’re in full time, or the occasional appearances like the Charly Manson guys, or just a one off. Electroshock had said he was asked to come in earlier and just was booked elsewhere. Jack has been adding a lot of muscle as if he was preparing for a bigger run than just Big Lucha.

El Dragon, wrestling as Marvel Lucha Libre character El Furioso (Hulk) was severely injured in the pre-show opener. He caught one of the luchadoras going for a plancha, carried her to another corner, and was knocked over by a top rope silla by a male luchador. Dragon laid on the mat unable to move with ringside people looking extremely concerned as they tended to him. Dragon posted a photo of himself in a hospital bed wearing a cervical collar, which fits with stories Dragon suffered some level of paralysis. He’s scheduled to get operated on today and they’ll know more about how bad it is afterward.

That Marvel match was meant to air next week. It sets up the final on 12/28, so it probably has to air unless AAA finds a venue to retape it quickly this week. AAA has aired worse injuries in the distant past, and I expect they’ll air this one as well. I didn’t go through the photo to figure out who exactly was in the match because it didn’t seem like most people understood the match and I’m not confident it ended up as a 4v4. It’ll make more sense after we see it, and I assume we will.

You have to watch the Spanish feed if you’re watching this show. The English announcers were fine and just completely let down by the production. The audio mix was as terrible as it’s been for these shows as a result of AAA airing the commentary in the arena. (I heard from people there who hated that; maybe there’s some entertainment where that works, but it does not work for wrestling.) The English feed also had the video drop out, and their announcers were seconds behind the action. It was like watching a Twitch stream of someone reacting to a video game rather than people announcing a wrestling show, complete with the announcer’s faces on screen. (The announcers are usually filmed, so they can internally signal to each other, but they had no idea that would be onscreen for this show.) Many of these problems would’ve been fixed or improved by having the English announcers on site as AAA did on the last two TripleManias. AAA did not do that. You should watch the Spanish feed.

Villano IV told Box y Lucha he planned to retire in January. There was a story going around he would retire immediately after this match but it never seemed right – he actually wrestled on Sunday in Hidalgo as scheduled. It’s a good business move to stick around for at least a few months after a mask loss, becuase people will very much pay to see him in the aftermath of this tournament.

A trailer aired for “El Origen de la Mascara”, a Marvel Lucha Libre show airing on Disney+ on 12/21, during the opener. That trailer goes up on AAA’s YouTube page on Monday night. We know nothing more than it’s the Marvel Lucha Libre characters. No idea if it’s worldwide, no idea if it’s one show or a series. I did find out that saying “X airs on Disney+” gets a lot of people asking questions. AAA and Disney haven’t announced anything else. It obviously explains why AAA is still focused on this project, that’s an actual end product beyond these matches.

A Rey Mysterio message wishing AAA well for 30 years aired during TripleMania. In the context of NJPW wrestlers showing up on WWE Raw this week and other cross-promotional bits, this looked like it could mean the start of some bigger relationship. Rey Mysterio has done videos (and even a live appearance) for AAA while still under WWE contract in the past and those have meant nothing to the relationship beyond that, so I wouldn’t read more into it beyond that for now. AAA would absolutely work with WWE if that option became open to them.

AAA did not release an attendance figure for this show. It looked disappointing and it mostly looked dark, with AAA keeping the lights low. My guess is Aniversario ended up out drawing TripleMania, but I’m not confident about that guess. There were rows Superboletos marked as sold that were empty, as close as the second row. AAA got paid if those are unsold scalper tickets, but it didn’t help the luck and suggested softer demand. The last two matches were outstanding, and for all the normal people who don’t care about the business of AAA, that’s plenty good enough. But for AAA, this lineup didn’t attract people as they hoped, at least at the ticket prices AAA offered. I presume the recent the English announcers were doing the show from home is AAA looking to save money at the last minute, but I wish they’d found a different way to send money.

The presentation was overall great. I liked the military orchestra playing classic AAA themes, the giant hanging “XXX” below the screen looked impressive. The giant entrance video wall was also impressive, but maybe too much. AAA had a hard camera set up to capture that whole screen, and it was so wide that it left the wrestlers looking tiny. They cut down the use of that shot as the show went on, for the best. The entrances were elaborate and people brought their best gear. AAA  wants those big showcase elements to be part of their TripleMania brand and they did well with them on this show.

AAA put in a lot of energy on social media on this show, with the Dr. Simi bits and social media wrestling personalities Falbak and Denice Salcedo doing backstage interviews that only aired appeared on social media feeds. Those bits were a lot of stuff that’s been on TV (a very similar Toxicas/Taya segment as they did back at the Hard Rock show, Adonis & Psycho having a fight, and Gringo Loco (and Alex Colon & Joey Janela) attacking Hijo del Vikingo. It got those feuds to a new audience, though maybe it wasn’t always clear where they were going. It was evident most GCW fans had no idea Gringo Loco had been feuding with Hijo del Vikingo and came away thinking it was part of some bigger GCW/AAA angle, which it does not appear to be. That’s actually a good sign, that these were successful in enough reaching people who don’t pay attention to AAA. The trick is getting them to continue caring about AAA.

The Dr. Simi tossed-in mascot bit actually took place first in CMLL by fan, and CMLL (both wrestlers and security) clearly didn’t like it. CMLL has done sponsored characters and content before, but there’s not a chance in a million years they would’ve done a bit with dancing Dr. Simi mascots as a follow-up. It is the great advantage AAA has in forming these partnerships.

Konnan on his podcast mentioned Kenny Omega was unable to send a video for TripleMania because of ongoing legal issues. Hugo mentioned Omega was unable to appear on TripleMania due to legal problems as the Fenix/Vikingo match was going. AAA seems very concerned their fanbase will rebel if they don’t give them Omega and so they’re constantly reassuring that Omega is coming back someday, often to the detriment of the people who are actually on the show. I didn’t catch a reason why FTR or even Sammy & Tay didn’t send in videos. Tay and FTR did mention AAA after the show had taken place.

There wasn’t much promotion for anything next on this show; if you tune in for TripleManias only, you’re checking out until the next time that word is said. (The Disney story, the Rey story, the GCW/Vikingo bit, and “how the Lucha Brothers are booked in AEW” were the big talking points coming out, not as much AAA itself.) The Acapulco show came up on the Spanish broadcast as a place they’re going this year near the end of the show, but there was no sell. The Tempe show came up on the English broadcast, but it wasn’t pushed as a point of emphasis. It’s a function of AAA being a live events focused business; they’re not coming back to Mexico City any time soon, and there’s no reason to promote shows in Tempe or Acapulco to people who aren’t likely to travel to that area (or are such superfans that they don’t need the promotion.) This is also why most complains about this show will be shrugged of as “well, you should’ve been there live to get the experience” – they strictly see value in live attendance, no matter what they may say about wanting to increase media rights.

TripleMania was great as a spectacle, and great for those last two matches. If the Tempe show happens, it’ll probably also be great. (Copa TripleMania suggests that the long overdue Vikingo/Taurus Mega title match might be happening, and Tempe is the place to do it.) That Tempe show may also happen in front of about 800 paying fans, or maybe it won’t happen at all. AAA passed on their chance to promote that in front of their largest possible audience. AAA will either continue to quietly promote the show (they’re now up to one social media post about it a day) until quietly canceling the show, or they’ll hit a point of being concerned about how poorly it’s doing and suddenly start going crazy about it. I’m assuming AAA will figure out the Acapulco show much better I’m not sure why I’m that confident of that.

EMW is now listing their next show as 11/12, not the 12/03 date they advertised. It reads like something to do with the Tempe show but may have been correcting a mistake. The Crash told people they believed they had the 12/03 date on the building, not EMW. I’m not sure how that sort of mixup happens. Before this announcement was made, Konnan mentioned on his podcast that Vikingo & Psycho would appear in Tempe on 12/03, not Tijuana as originally announced. He said he had lineups for both shows and confirmed the Lucha Brothers wouldn’t be on either of them. He mentioned he was actually more excited about the EMW show, which will feature a lot of area talent. (So will the yet-to-be-announced Mexcali taping.) Vikingo & Psycho may end up back on the EMW show after all if stays on 11/12.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/14/2022 Arena México [CMLLEstrellas del RingKaiser SportsR de RudoThe GladiatoresThe Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Astral, El Suicida, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cholo, Disturbio, Inquisidor Astral, Suicida y Panterita del Ring Jr. derrotan al Cholo, Inquisidor y Disturbio (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) CMLL-ASTRAL-SUICIDA - PANTERITA DEL RING JR. VS CHOLO - INQUISIDOR - DISTURBIO/ARENA MEXICO/14-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
13:48
2) Avispa Dorada, Lluvia, Marcela b Amapola, Hera, Stephanie Vaquer Lluvia, Marcela y Avispa Dorada derrotan a la Stephanie Vaquer, Amapola y Hera (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
12:42. Tecnicas took 1/3. Hera replaced Silueta on Tuesday (injury)
3) El Mesías, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos IncreíblesCMLL - VOLADOR - G. GUERRERO - U. GUERRERO VS STUKA JR.- SOBERANO JR.-MESÍAS/ARENA MEXICO / 14-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) El Mesías, Soberano Jr y Stuka Jr derrotan a Último Guerrero, Volador Jr y Gran Guerrero (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
13:55. Team Stuka won in straight falls, Mesias faking a foul UG in the second to set up a singles match (though UG still wants a hair match.)
4) La Jarochita b Princesa SugehitLa MagnificaSexy SolValkiriaDalysReyna IsisLa MetálicaTiffanyLa SeductoraOlympia [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal¡Jarochita pasa a la Gran final por el Campeonato Universal de Amazonas! luego de derrotar a Dalys (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) CMLL - SEGUNDA FASE (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
battle royal set teams as Princesa Sugehit, La Magnifica, Sexy Sol, Reyna Isis, La Seductora, Olympia (6) vs La Metálica, Tiffany, Valkiria, Dalys, La Jarochita (5). Order of elimination Valkiris (9:23, by Seductora), Olympia (15:44, Tiffany), Seductora (18:14, Metalica), Magnifica (19:57, Jarochita), Tiffany (23:05, Isis), Sexy Sol (25:17, could not continue after dive), Metalica (25:29, Princesa Sugehit), Princesas Sugehit (28:03, La Jarochita), Reyna Isis (30:01, Dalys), Dalys (32:49, Jarochita) leaving Jarochita as the winner. She will face Lluvia in the final.

The men’s Universal tournament typically includes most of the really good CMLL wrestlers and some lesser acts who just happen to be champions. The women’s cibernetico has every woman available, the ones who are good and the ones who are not very good. The first half of the cibernetico this week was worse than Pagano/Cibernetico, often as a result as the lesser depth of the division being in the ring. It wasn’t just them – Magnifica and Dalys had a horrendous sequence all their own – but it made a very strong case to leave the Tiffanys and Seductoras on the sidelines next year. The Arena Mexico crowd is usually supportive to women’s matches and seemed very close to turning on this match and Sexy Sol’s comedy was the one thing that was working. It got much better with the final four, which only argued that maybe they should just use the good people.

There’s no update on Sexy Sol’s status. It seemed like a knee injury. It was asking too much for the other women to be able to catch the dive she did, and they did not catch it well. It didn’t seem too serious, but then neither has the Dark Silueta injuries.

The rest of this show wasn’t strong; you can safely skip this show when it comes up on YouTube in a couple of weeks. The men’s trios were alright. The semi-main trios existed just to build up Mesias/UG. (Soberano and Ultimo Guerrero didn’t interact much, for what it’s worth.) The opening tecnicos look good when they could but didn’t click completely with the tencicos. The women’s trios was better than the women’s tag, though Avispa Dorada looked to be on a different page than her opponents. The Vaquer/Lluvia stuff was good.

CMLL (SAT) 10/15/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLLEstrellas del Ring]
1) Cachorro & Neón b Bengala & Leono Lucha de técnicos: Cachorro y Neón Vs Leono y Bengala en la Arena Coliseo (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Neon went for a SSP to win, but went wildly off target, hitting the top rope and falling to the floor.
2) Astral, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. Facebook video (posted by ) La Ola Blanca del CMLL Vs Valiente Jr, Sangre Imperial y Astral en la Arena Coliseo (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
3) Fuego, Magia Blanca, Magnus b Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. Facebook video (posted by ) Fuego, Magnus y Magia Blanca Vs Bestia Negra Jr, Difunto y Zandokan Jr, Arena Coliseo (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Fuego’s first match in CMLL since March 2020. KeMonito appeared as apart of this match.
4) Blue Panther & Dark Panther DCOR Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. Facebook video (posted by ) Luchón!!! Blue Panther y Dark Panther Vs Panterita del Ring y Panterita del Ring Jr en Arena Coliseo (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Blue Panther 44th Anniversary show. A second straight draw between them after a Panther tope.
5) Negro Casas, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero Facebook video (posted by )
Valiente’s first match since November 2020 (knee injury). His team took 2/3.

I’ve never seen someone miss on the shooting star press quite like Neon did. Marek Brave just went up and down, Neon flew to the side somehow. The Panther/Panterita thing feels like it’s building to something, not sure what.

Fuego told the press that he moved to the US during the pandemic, working construction jobs in Chicago and Dallas. He needed to find a way to make money for his family and was focused on that. He used the money he made to build a small home back in Oaxaca. Fuego insists he had no problem with CMLL, CMLL had no problem with him, and they kept in regular touch during his absence. Fuego feels 90%, still needs to get all the way back, but he expects to be wrestling regularly. Fuego’s not listed on any upcoming card at this point. His chest was heavily marked; his opponents welcomed him back with hard chops.

Valiente says he lost 29 kg (63 lbs) and dealing with his depressoin during his year-long recovery. (It sounds like he weight went up while he was laid up post-knee surgery, not that he lost 29 kg from what he weighed when last active in CMLL.) That’s a lot of weight. He puts himself at 60%. Valiente also says he didn’t have anything to do with his three children getting jobs in CMLL while he was out. He thanked Herodes Jr. and Volador Jr. for helping him out when he was sidelined.

 

CMLL (SUN) 10/16/2022 Arena México [CMLLKaiser Sports]
1) Angelito & Shockercito b Minos & Pequeño Violencia
2) Átomo & Chamuel b Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II
Chamuel snuck in a foul on one of the Gemelo Diablos
3) Felino & Felino Jr. b Arkalis & Pegasso [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
4) Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II b Blue Panther & Dark Panther [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Hijo del Villano III b Cancerbero & Luciferno [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
6) Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
7) Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II b Felino & Felino Jr. [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, semifinal]
8) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Hijo del Villano III b Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, semifinal]
9) Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II b Dragón Rojo Jr. & Hijo del Villano III [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, final]
10) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Dalys, Reina Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
Tecnicas took 2/3

Los Gemelos Diablos are going to be constant contenders to the tag team titles as long as they exist but it’d be a big downgrade if they win next week.

The booth to sign up for the free mammograms was set up on the street right next to the mask vendors. It’s an odd visual. I presume they did the actual mammograms elsewhere.

Today’s Puebla show has Jarochita & Lluvia defending the national tag titles against Dalys & Reyna Isis.

CMLL (TUE) 10/18/2022 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua vs Minos, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia
2) Astral, Leono, Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider
3) Avispa Dorada, La Guerrera, La Magnifica vs Amapola, Hera, Metálica
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Stuka Jr. vs Hechicero, Mephisto, Terrible

Just a show.

CMLL (FRI) 10/21/2022 Arena México
1) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
2) Avispa Dorada, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Gran Guerrero, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Último Guerrero vs El Mesías
5) Lluvia vs La Jarochita [CMLL UNIVERSAL DE AMAZONAS]

Lluvia versus La Jarochita is a very Universal tournament match; I think only doing the Aniversario rematch would be bigger. I think they’re going to be set on having a great match, and they’re going to get the chance to do it. I’ve got more faith in it than Ultimo Guerrero/Mesias, which has replaced Ultimo Guerrero/Ciber the Main Man as the UG hair match that just keeps getting teased.

Averno appeared on the Dia de Luchador show and then hasn’t been back since. It’s not quite the Atlantis Jr. disappearing act because that’s just the Averno schedule now.

The 09/25 CMLL Ladies Ring show is up NikoNiko as part of a 550 Yen ($3.7 USD) subscription.

Titan & BUSHI will face Francesco Akira & TJP for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on 11/05.

Felino, Tigre Metalico and Ultimo Guerreor tell ghost stories about Arena Mexico.

Mistico says he’s going to retire – around 2030. He also said it in a non-serious way.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (FRI) 10/14/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Mas Lucha]
1) King, Kong, Potro b Carito, Tirano, Viajero EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha) King/Kong/Tyrano vs Potro de Oro/Viajero/Mr. Win BANDIDOS GYM/BIG LUCHA (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Potro gave Tirano a martinete. Fulgor convinced Kong to cheat to win, and he appeared to break up with King after the match.
2) Ayako Hamada & Faby Apache b Catalina & Sussy Love EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha) Faby Apache y Ayako Hamada vs Sussy Love y Catalina BANDIDOS GYM/BIG LUCHA (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
3) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo b Forneo, Sol, Torito Negro Jr. EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha) Torito Negro/Forneo/Sol vs Éxtasis/Radiactivo/Cometa Maya BANDIDOS GYM/BIG LUCHA (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Hannya, now healthy, attacked Radioactivo and the two agreed to do their mask match in Big Lucha.
4) The Tiger (Indie) b Emperador Azteca [KAOZ CRUISER] Emperador Azteca (a) vs The Tiger CAMPEONATO CRUCERO KAOZ/BANDIDOS GYM/BIG LUCHA (posted by Estrellas del Ring) EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha)
Azteca had been champion since May 2019. The Tiger said he’d beat Azteca again in their upcoming mask match.
5) Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Dark Scoria, Dark Spíritu b Accion Jackson, Bendito, Elemental, Flamita Cuervo/Ozz/Espíritu/Escoria vs Flamita/Action Jackson/Bendito/Elemental BANDIDOS GYM/BIG LUCHA (posted by Estrellas del Ring) EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha)
rematch challenge followed
6) El Bandido b Yutani [BL WORLD] Bandido (c) vs Yutani (r) CAMPEONATO MUNDIAL BIG LUCHA/BANDIDOS GYM (posted by Estrellas del Ring) EN VIVO: Dark Night, Bandido vs Yutani y Secta vs Black Generation | Big Lucha (posted by Big Lucha)
a brawl broke out between Black Generacion and Bandido’s tecnicos afterward

The attendance seemed a little down from the last show. I thought Yutani/Baniddo was good but that didn’t seem to be the consensus. I did come over from watching the CMLL show so maybe my standards were lowered. The third match, between the Hell Flyers and Delta Force, was a lot of fun. The direction out of this show was unclear.

IWRG

IWRG (FRI) 10/14/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Shocko b Águila Roja
2) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako b Jhon Tito & Spider Fly
3) Freelance b Aster Boy
4) Diosa Quetzal b Keyra
5) Oficial 911 b Maniacop 360
6) Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Hell Boy
Hell Boy asked for a rematch
7) Hijo De Canis Lupus b Tonalli

Mas Lucha didn’t cover the Friday show, at least not live. That usually means it’ll turn up on the IWRG channel later.

IWRG (SUN) 10/16/2022 Arena Naucalpan [La Tijera, Mas Lucha]
1) Súper Boy b Águila Oriental Mano a Mano: Águila Oriental vs Súper Boy | IWRG en la Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
2) Brad Alexis & Tortuga Leo b Jhon Tito & Sol Aguila Roja Brad Alexis y Leo Vs John Tito y Aguila Roja en IWRG Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) La Tortuga Leo y Brad Alexis vs John Tito y Águila Roja | IWRG en la Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
3) Epydemius, Juventud Aérea (Tamaulipas), Rey Halcón Jr. b Noisy Boy, Relámpago, Spider Fly Rey Halcón Jr., Juventud Aérea y Epydemius Jr vs Noisy Boy, Spider Fly y Relámpago en IWRG (posted by mluchatv) Rey Halcón, Epidemius Jr. y Juventud Aérea Vs Noisy Boy, Spider Fly y Relámpago en IWRG Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Relampago switched places with Shocko
4) Aster Boy & Cerebro Negro b Garra Mortal & Hell Boy Cerebro Negro y Aster Boy Vs Garra Mortal y Hell Boy, relevos sencillos de poder en IWRG Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Cerebro Negro y Aster Boy vs Hell Boy y Garra Mortal | IWRG en la Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
Garra Mortal replacd Puma de Oro
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Luka, Shocko b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. Hijo del Alebrije y Shocko vs La Pandemia | IWRG en la Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv) Luka, Shoko e Hijo del Alebrije Vs La Pandemia en IWRG Arena Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Shocko switched places with Relampago
6) Aramis & Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Laredo Kid & Rey León IWRG vs RGR Lucha Libre: Hijo del Pirata Morgan y Aramis vs Laredo Kid y Rey León (posted by mluchatv) Laredo Kid y Rey León Vs Hijo del Pirata Morgan y Aramis, lucha estelar en IWRG Arena Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Aramis replaced Hijo de Canis Lupus, who was hurt but still appeared to cost Rey Leon the match.

Puma de Oro actually took a martinete from Aster Boy before the match started and sold it as a seizure. It was lucky Garra Mortal just so happened to be around to replace him. Everyone’s going to try to copy the Dulce Gardenia thing forever.

Other News

Humberto Garza (Mario Humberto Garza, 85) passed away on Sunday. He’d been in bad health for a while. He was a star in northern Mexico, and wrestled in EMLL in the 60s, 70s and 80s. He’s was the oldest member of the Garza family, notable the father of Humberto (Jr.) and Hector Garza, and the grandfather of Humberto Carillo and Angel Garza. Humberto Sr. is credited with innovating the tope suicida. WWE acknowledged Garza’s passing, which seems like part of a change in people WWE acknowledged at all.

Chiapas police arrested Shocker after he attacked multiple cards and insulted nearby people in Tuxtla Gutierrez. A video of Shocker smacking a car and refusing to move from it’s path went viral on Saturday night. The police’s report says Shocker was drunk and on drugs, and tried to attack other inmates. The police say they moved Shocker to his own cell, where he repeatedly hit his head on the bars, then undressed and tried to commit suicide, which the police say they stopped. Shocker was released on bail Sunday morning, apparently paid by the local wrestling promoter who used him in the main event on Sunday. There are explicit photos of a bloody and naked Shocker in a jail cell circulating on social media (you can find them, I’m not linking to them) as proof he was mistreated; the police statement exists mostly to declare it wasn’t the police who put him in that condition. I’m not sure what could be the legitimate reason for those photos getting out and it does make me question the police’s story slightly. Shocker’s been public with his substance abuse issues, having moments of sobriety and others low moments. I don’t know how it will end up for Shocker but it doesn’t seem like it’ll end well.

Joey Janela won the Lucha Libre Vanguarda title on Friday’s show, pinning Adrenalina (and not former champion Jimmy.)

I wasn’t able to record the Nacion Lucha Libre feed. ImagenTV said they were streaming it, but the stream wasn’t running when I checked (during the main event of TripleMania, a less-than-ideal time.) Nacion hasn’t uploaded the show anywhere and the only discussion I can find about it is in the comments of Nacion Lucha Libre’s Facebook post. Most of the discussion there was complaining about the show airing against TripleMania.

Diva Virtual took Lady Amazona’s hair Saturday night in Arena San Juan. Those Cholo de Tijuana shows do pretty well, but that show against TripleMania looks to have drawn very poorly.

Reynosa’s Arena Coliseo Reynosa had Komander vs Rey Astral announced for Sunday. That arena runs 1 pm shows, so that must’ve been a long day for Komander. That’s not the story. Fans were excited for Komander vs Rey Astral, they got the start of that match, and then they got El Divo and friends running in to attack Rey Astral with a guitar. This was a bit to set up a Rey Astral/Divo match, but it angered the fans enough to throw garbage at the ring, which also hit people sitting in the first couple of rows. (The garbage really starts flying at about 17:15.) Fans were upset about getting hit with stuff and about an increasingly rare Komander appearance in his home city ending like this, enough so that Rey Astral posted a sort of apology on Facebook.

Segunda Caida writes about Canek vs Riki Choshu from UWA.

TripleMania XXX this Saturday, a busy weekend of shows, CMLL Universal Block B

AAA

It’s TripleMania week, AAA maybe should be up first in this post.

I wrote a preview of TripleMania from Mexico City. I struggled with this one, and not just because I totally messed up the recent Copa TripleMania winners.

AAA really can do much better with the people they have, they’re forever chasing after people who aren’t that as interested in them, and they assume too much that everything’s going to be waiting for them when they get around to it, when the world is around them is moving much faster. 2022 should’ve been the year of doing everything possible with Vikingo with a realization that he may not be around for them forever. Instead, 2022 was a year of a slow build to a Fenix match, one AAA didn’t seem sure they even wanted to do, and nothing for Vikingo to do in the mean time. You could put Arez and “Lucha Squad” or a half dozen other storylines that AAA surely believes they’re going to eventually but there’s no urgency in getting done and track record suggests AAA will just forget about it before they get to the end. It’s not great for building interest in a promotion or brand.

But the flip side is that sometimes all lucha libre or wrestling needs to be is really talented people having really cool matches and it doesn’t matter what else is going on. TripleMania is a show with really talented people having really cool matches, assuming AAA stays out of the way of them. (And AAA has stayed out of the way of the matches they needed to stay out, to AAA’s great credit.) AAA, especially internationally, is a promotion that only exists on their biggest show of the year. If TripleMania goes as well as it looks on paper, most fans are going to walk away thinking AAA has a really great year. I’m not sure they’d be wrong, and I’m struggling to wrap my mind around the situation.

AAA confirmed the TripleMania broadcast will begin at 8 pm with the four-way tag match. The Marvel Lucah Libre match and Copa Baradahl will be taped to air next week on Space. Kinda figured this was happening when the press conference mentioned a 7 pm pre-show. I believe that any match you’re taping that day should air if you’re charging to watch the show, but that’s not a universal standard. (Impact’s been taping matches before their recent PPVs to later put up on their digital service, and we know this because it’s usually Laredo or Taurus involved.)

This pre-show does mean an earlier night and a knock-off effect on what airs elsewhere. FITE will likely get the four-way tag, the three way trios and the Kamille/Taya match exclusively. Space & Claro will likely air the three men’s singles matches. The show might be over by 11!

I’ll have a recap of the show over on Post Wrestling.

Space is airing Saturday a marathon of all three TripleManias, plus a half hour special about the history of AAA. They usually do one of these half-hour leadup specials to TripleMania each year and it eventually gets posted on their YouTube page.

It’s difficult to tell actual ticket sales on the SuperBoletos map without spending a half hour going through every section individually. It doesn’t look like any section has completely sold out in the last week or so, though tickets are moving. The cheapest sections remain the ones with the most available tickets, and those figure to have the best day of show sales. I thought AAA might get more advance ticket sales given how unexpectedly well CMLL’s Aniversario did last month but it seems more like a normal ticket-buying pace. (Arena Ciudad de Mexico is bigger than Arena Mexico so AAA should end up with the higher attendance, though I’m not sure they’re there yet.)

Conrad Thompson and his AdFreeShow Network have been promoting TripleMania through the network’s social media accounts for the last few days. The English language videos they’re producing, relying heavily on Hugo interviews are well done, there’s just no central place where you can see them all. There’s one on AAA and lucha libre in general, on Fenix vs Hijo del Vikingo, on Villano IV vs LA Park, and on Kamille vs Taya.

It’d probably be helpful for AAA if their current champions who weren’t appearing at TripleMania put up social media posts mentioning the existence of the show. Maybe that’s just not part of the deal. The Lucha Brothers weren’t on Dynamite and don’t appear to be on Rampage this week, so TripleMania isn’t going to come up there ahead of time. They’ll likely bring it up Penta’s match at least next week. I guess they’ll absolutely have to bring it up if goes badly for Penta.

The El Mister newsletter has a “Lucha Libre AAA 4.0 Dossier” on the business of the promotion, leading into TripleMania. They interview both Marisela & Dorian, and most of the numbers seem to come straight from their side. It’s glowing coverage of the promotion they must be thrilled to have; I had to double-check at the end if it was meant to be a press release. The most eye-catching numbers seem to come from the authors instead, who ballpark the average ticket for TripleMania at 1,100 pesos and says math says AAA could have a gate of 24.5 million pesos. There’s something I’m not getting there because that would mean an attendance of 22,000+ in a building even AAA believes will only fit 19,000. (This is a number Forbes Mexico quoted, and I quoted them on it, and I’m less sure about this number knowing more now.)

Other expense numbers that come up

  • it cost 14.5 million pesos to run the three TripleManias
  • Each TV taping costs between 1 and 1.2 million pesos, an estimated 30 million pesos cost per year
    • A later factoid mentions Lucha Underground episodes cost 300,000 USD (6 million pesos)
  • AAA had spent 68 million pesos on operating the promotion from January to August this year.
  • AAA says they had 200 million pesos (10 million USD) of revenue in 2019.
    • There’s a factoid saying that AAA makes their money equally from sponsors, live events, and media rights, which implies a implausibly amount of money from media rights; even this dossier notes AAA was paying for air time at the end with Televisa. I’m sure they’re making money now and they’d like it to be 33% of revenue but that sounds like more a goal than a current reality

The big push for on-screen after TripleMania is the 12/28 Acpaulco show (and the 12/03 Tempe show, if that is really happening.) The big push behind the scenes is the Cancun project, Luchatitlán, that’s come out in bits over recent press conferences. It seems more a sure thing here than it has before, a definite plan to run regular shows in Cancun in time for Spring Break 2023. The goal is to make this a tourist destination in the same way Cirque du Soleil is in Las Vegas (and, unsaid, like Arena Mexico is in Mexico City.) The shows will seat 350 people, will have gimmicks specifical for the venue, and everyone will be able to pay in US Dollars if they so choose. AAA and other investors are putting 200 million pesos into the project.

The article also reminded me of the scheduled AAA/Orange Cometa NFT launch, which was announced and never seemed to launch. The market may have fallen out on that idea.

Both in this article and generally, one innovation AAA seems to have picked up this year is from wrestling in Japan. You can just announce numbers and figures and it’ll mostly get reported on as a fact. It helps to get the word out there that you’re doing good business, which helps the image of the company in turn and only weird cranks like me are going to even think twice about them. AAA’s been very direct about getting out attendance totals for the two previous TripleManias (as well as Verano de Escandalo) and I expect they’ll be just as direct about announcing a figure for Arena Ciudad de Mexico. Dorian Roldan has said 19,000 so often that I expect to be the announced number.

Allure has an article about the makeup AAA luchadoras use to highlight their characters. Lady Shani, Taya, Chik Tormenta and Dulce Kanela all are talked to about their choices.

Radio Disney Mexico is giving away tickets to TripleMania on Instagram. The ticket giveaway isn’t news, there are always a few of those, but it’s an explicitly Marvel Lucha Libre tie-in by a Disney company and I’d been wondering why those weren’t visible lately. That one is visible.

CMLL

Today’s CMLL show has the second part of CMLL Universal de Amazonas, with the winner facing Lluvia next week.

  • has a real chance to win: La Jarcohita, Princesa Sugehit, Dalys, Reyna Isis
  • weirder things have happened: La Metalica
  • probably no: La Magnifica, Sexy Sol, Valkiria, Tiffany, La Seductora, Olympica

Four possible winners is more open than usual for this sort of competition. The weird number is “11” participants, an odd number for a match with two sides. I anticipated CMLL would explain what their plan is on Informa, but that was all Dia del Muertos focused. CMLL had a complicated plan for an odd-numbered cibernetico back in July, where the battle royal would go to one person, and then the last two people would choose teams like a pickup basketball game. The overly complex setup bothered me at the time, but today I’m thinking more about how it’ll look for someone if they’re the last person choosen. Guess we’ll know tonight if CMLL runs with that format.

Nothing much that looks notable on the rest of the card, which makes sense because the Universal tournament and then the Gran Prix are driving this month. Los Guerreros team with Volador against Mesias, Soberano, and Stuka. (Not sure if Satanico is ready to go tonight.) Lluvia teams with Avispa Dorada and Marcela against Amapola, Hera and Stephanie Vaquero. The fun trio of Panterita Jr., Suicida, and Astral take on Cholo, Disturbio, and Inquisidor in the opener. It’s on Ticketmaster Live as usual and will go up on YouTube on 10/30.

How seriously is CMLL taking breast cancer awareness month? A charity will provide free mammograms before the Sunday Arena Mexico show for women over 40. They have the capacity for 270 exams. I can’t recall that at a wrestling show before, it’s a very kind offer. I’m not sure if CMLL is contributing more than the venue but that’s a help too. In a more conventional bit, fans can take photos with Lluvia & Jarochita at that show too.

CMLL (MON) 10/17/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Centella Roja & Millenium vs Dark Soul & Rencor
2) Angelito & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Dalys & Reyna Isis [MEX WOMEN TAG]
11th defense (9th on CMLL shows)
5) Negro Casas, Octagón, Stuka Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Fuerza Guerrera

Dalys & Isis are absolutely a team that could end up dethroning Las Chicas Indomables, it’s just a question is if CMLL will do back to back weeks of title changes in Puebla.

CMLL’s liked booking Octagon in Arena Puebla. He worked there three times in 2018, three times in 2017. No Hijo del Octagon this time around. Atlantis Jr. is back, still not wrestling in Arena Mexico. The Guadalajara rudo trio seems to be sticking around for a bit.

CMLL (TUE) 10/18/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Logan, Mr. Samurai vs Destello, Destructor, Minotauro
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Jkr, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Zandokan Jr.
5) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido vs Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono
6) Blue Panther, Cachorro, Dark Panther vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Satánico

More Satanico wrestling, this time against Blue Panther in a trios. Maya/Zanokan in a singles sounds interesting. I’m unsure if the copyright police came for Joker or if it’s just a weird typo to get him to “Jkr”.

CMLL Informa announced some plans for the upcoming Dia del Muertos shows. These announcements are always timed right before tickets go on sale, and tickets are now on sale.

  • November 1st (Tuesday) will have a 10 person Rey del Inframundo contender cibernetico. The field is Rugido, Esfinge, Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring (Sr.), Star Jr., Rey Bucanero, Sagrado, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., and Dragon Rojo Jr.
  • November 4th (Friday) will have the winner of that cibernetico against the reigning king of hell Terrible.
  • November 6th (Sunday) will have all of the unmasked luchadors wrestling under their masks for one night. Most of the card is here; JCR said “only the Micros were missing” when going over the people on the card, which I took literally as the Micros were missing from the announcement but would be on the show.
    • CMLL is pushing “remaking luchadors for only one night” as an innovation, an idea IWRG and others have done in the past.

All Dia del Muertos shows streamed live in past years; only Friday is listed on Ticketmaster so far. (The Gran Prix de Femenil show is still not listed while I’m on the page.) CMLL must be expecting a big turnout for the Friday show because they’re put the upper-level tickets on sale in addition to the regular seats, which was unusual when they did it for the Anniversary. The theme of these shows is the draw, but those tickets suggest they have something bigger planned than just Terrible versus Dark Panther.

Titan started as an LIJ member early this morning, teaming with BUSHI and Naito to defeat TJP, Francesco Akira, and Gideon Grey, a show that is available for free on NJPW World. I wrote that result on Thursday and I didn’t need to edit it, though I do have to add this part “Titan got the pinfall win over Grey.” Titan getting actual direct victories in NJPW makes the rest of this paragraph a bit obvious: Titan is still a CMLL wrestler, but his schedule is going to be much more NJPW-focused going forward. This is not just a couple of month thing to get through a tag tournament, Titan is going to be a regular presence in NJPW for the foreseeable future. He’s expected to be back in Mexico after this current tour ends (November 5th) but will likely turn right back around for another tour starting on November 21st.

NJPW’s posted CMLL shows on NJPW World since early on in their service as part of the relationship between the two promotions. NJPW does their own commentary, usually with Miki Moto, another NJPW announcer, and a guest NJPW wrestler. They’ve stuck with two shows a month in recent years. Starting this month, one of those shows will go up for free on YouTube. Only those with a Japanese IP address will be able to see it. You’re not really missing out much – it’s similar to those go up on CMLL’s YouTube channel with a different commentary track. NJPW does appear to be getting the full Arena Mexico show instead of the TV version; you can dig around on my drive to find missing from YouTube matches if you don’t want to get around the region ban

This weekend is busy

There sure are a lot of notable shows on TripleMania weekend even in addition to the usual CMLL stuff

Nacion Lucha Libre’s “Season 2 debut” TV show also airs Saturday night. I hope I remember to record it, if ImagenTV does stream it. Nacion said they’d put the show on all the social medias as well, though nothing’s been said about that since.

IWRG

Wasn’t sure there was an IWRG Retro this week but one did air:

  • 2005-03-10: Los Strippers (Marco Rivera & Star Boy) vs Los Cerebros (Dr. Cerebro & Cerebro Negro)
  • 1999-04-11: El Matador, Salsero, Súper Parka vs Bombero Infernal, Maniacop, Shiima Nobunaga
  • 2005-03-10: Blue Demon Jr., Blue Panther, LA Park, Máscara Sagrada vs Black Tiger, Pentagon Black, Scorpió Jr., Veneno

IWRG (SUN) 10/16/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental vs Súper Boy
2) Jhon Tito & Sol vs Brad Alexis & Tortuga Leo
3) Noisy Boy, Shocko, Spider Fly vs Decimus, Juventud Aérea (Tamaulipas), Rey Halcón
4) Aster Boy & Cerebro Negro vs Hell Boy & Puma de Oro
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Luka, Relámpago vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
6) Laredo Kid & Rey León vs Hijo De Canis Lupus & Hijo del Pirata Morgan

It’s RGR versus IWRG, except IWRG also promoted Canis is going to RGR soon and Pirata’s been there before. I saw those guys in the third match at the lightly attended Lucha Maniaks show WrestleMania week.

IWRG also announced the 10/30 Puma de Oro/Tonalli match would be for both the Middleweight and Mexico championships. I did think they had too many titles for that level of guys.

Other

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

The remaining people in the INJUVE Mexico City “El Lince a la Victoria” talent search contest are Night Fury, X-Devil, Sol, Shao, Little Star, Septimo Elemento, Conquistador, Ultimo Azteca, Andy Panda, Rey Quetzal, Boyka, Castor and Candela. The winner gets to wrestle in Big Lucha, so it’s very funny Sol is in a talent search for a promotion he’s already wrestling on. X-Devil is his brother of course, and they wrestle in IWRG and their own promotion (where Boyka also wrestles.) Night Fury is Argenis’ son. Rey Quetzal shows up in Lucha Madre often. Most of the rest are low level Mexico State/Mexico City wrestlers. I can’t find any previous Septimo Elemento matches. They’re doing cut downs on every Thursday until the final on 10/27.

Neither Laredo Kid or Black Taurus won their six way match on Impact this week (and they’re not on next week’s show.) Impact is holding a tournament for the now vacant X-Division championship and they’ll probably both be involved in that. The quiet news is that six way match included the AAA lucahdors and NJPW’s Yuyu Uemura, and no one seemed to raise an issue over it. Maybe AEW should trade Andrade to Impact so he can wrestle the NJPW guys?

There will be a benefit show for children dealing with hearing problems on 10/23 Gimnasio Miguel Hidalgo.

11/06 PWG “Dink”

Tickets go on sale Wednesday.

A YouTube video following Herodes Jr. around for a day.

Sagrado new national heavyweight champ, Fuego returns on loaded Saturday show, TripleMania adds another TV outlet

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/10/2022 Arena Puebla [El Sol del PueblaTribuan Deportes]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Minos
2) Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer b La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso DQ Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Misterioso Jr.
Misterioso unmasked Guerrero Maya Jr.
4) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Stigma b Magia Blanca, Rugido, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Sagrado b Terrible © [MEX HEAVYFacebook video (posted by )
Terrible falls on his third defense. Sagrado is the 69th known champion, winning cleanly with a Dos Caras clutch.

CMLL announced Sagrado’s title win, a rare time CMLL’s mentioned any result from Puebla. Sagrado doesn’t look like a heavyweight, though he does struggle to move around like many historical CMLL heavyweights. This title change feels like an exchange for losing the trios titles, and Terrible might revert to being the one actual heavyweight who gets to challenge for those titles.

CMLL (TUE) 10/11/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser SportsMarca ClaroThe Gladaitores]
1) Bengala & Retro b Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr. 20221011cmll_match1Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Retro y Bengala se llevan la victoria contra Príncipe Odín Jr , y Apocalipsis (posted by mluchatv) Retro y Bengala vencen a Príncipe Odín Jr y Apocalipsis en la Arena México del CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
2) Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito b Fantasy, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito 20221011cmll_match2Fantasy, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Kaligua, Fantasy y Último Dragoncito cayeron ante Pequeño Pólvora, Mercurio y Pequeño Pierroth (posted by mluchatv) Mercurio, Pierrothito y Pequeño Pólvora Vs Último Dragoncito, Pequeño Fantasy y Kaligua del CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Rudos took 1/3
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Diamond, Flyer, Volcano 20221011cmll_match3Diamond, Flyer, Volcano vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Virus, Cancerbero y Luciferno derrotan a Flyer, Diamond y Volcano (posted by mluchatv) Virus, Cancerbero y Luciferno Vs Flyer, Diamond y Volcano en martes de Arena México del CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Flyer replaced Audaz (injury) on Tuesday
4) Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr. b Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black 20221011cmll_match4Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Hijo del Villano III, Felino Jr y Misterioso Jr derrotan a Fugaz, Esfine y Star Black (posted by mluchatv) Misterioso Jr, H. Villano III y Felino Jr tropiezan al One Atos Style de Fugaz, Esfinge y Star Black (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Star Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible  (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) 20221011cmll_match5Místico, Negro Casas, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Místico, Negro Casas y Star Jr derrotan a Terrible, Ángel de Oro y Niebla Roja (posted by mluchatv)
Tooks took 2/3.

Didn’t have a lot of time to look at this but the turnout seemed to be up for a Tuesday and Mistico works best in those situations. Flyer was said to have pulled a Flyer in his match, but it appears it was a planned spot. The rudos cut off Flyer and Diamond from dives, then tossed Volcano off the top rope when going for a splash.

OneAtos Team may now be Fuerza Tapatia according to video title. No idea.

CMLL (TUE) 10/11/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara]
1) Persa, Raven, Temerario b Jhonny Dinamo, Obelisk, Último Ángel 20221011cmll_match1Jhonny Dinamo, Obelisk, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
straight falls
2) Destructor, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno b El Divino, Mágico, Metatrón 20221011cmll_match2El Divino, Mágico, Metatrón vs Destructor, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
straight falls (again)
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero 20221011cmll_match3Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
4) Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Suicida b Cris Skin, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel 20221011cmll_match4Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Suicida vs Cris Skin, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
5) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso 20221011cmll_match5Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Zandokan unmasked Maya to set up a Difunto victory. Maya demanded a rematch.
6) Satánico b Último Guerrero 20221011cmll_match6Satánico vs Último Guerrero.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
unannounced bonus match, Satanico won cleanly
7) Euforia, Maléfico, Soberano Jr. b Furia Roja, Gran Guerrero, Guerrero de la Muerte 20221011cmll_match7Furia Roja, Gran Guerrero, Guerrero de la Muerte vs Euforia, Maléfico, Soberano Jr..mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Scheduled as Los Guerreros vs Los Soberanos, with a whole bunch of other people added.

I noted Monday how much the personal dislike between Soberano (and perhaps Euforia) and Ultimo Guerrero must’ve cooled down now that they were just having regular tag matches. Arena Coliseo Guadaljaara updated its lineup Tuesday afternoon to list the Satanico/Ultimo Guerrero match and the new main event. Maybe things haven’t cooled down? Ultimo Guerrero put over Satanico cleanly and both men praised each other post match.

CMLL (SAT) 10/15/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Cachorro & Neón vs Bengala & Leono
2) Astral, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Fuego, Magia Blanca, Magnus vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
Fuego’s first match in CMLL since March 2020.
4) Blue Panther & Dark Panther vs Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr.
Blue Panther 44th Anniversary show.
5) Negro Casas, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero
KeMonito will appear with the tecnicos. Valiente’s first match since November 2020

CMLL definitely ignores AAA and doesn’t counter-program TripleMania. Their diehard fans will assure you of this. That’s why this Saturday’s show happening to have the return of two fan favorites, a Blue Panther tribute match, and a rare KeMonito appearance in Arena Coliseo is just an amazing coincidence.

This is not a taped show and every bootlegger will be elsewhere, which makes it sad they’re running the Panther/Panterita re-match when no one except the people in the building will see it. There’s no barrier to stop Dark Panther this time. Valiente’s talked for months about making his return and it’s good it’s actually here. There’s been almost no word about Fuego since he disappeared before the pandemic – just one mention on Informa that he was still coming back at some point over a year ago. Does Fuego’s return mean the pandemic is over? Will AEW fans be very confused about CMLL happily tweeting about a masked man named Fuego wrestling? (CMLL Fuego last wrestled before Fuego del Sol’s first AEW match.) Someone’s going to have to catch Fuego up on what happened to his buddy Stuka.

CMLL (SUN) 10/16/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito & Shockercito vs Minos & Pequeño Violencia
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo & Chamuel
3) Blue Panther & Dark Panther vs Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II and Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. and Felino & Felino Jr. and Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa and Dragón Rojo Jr. & Hijo del Villano III and Arkalis & Pegasso and Cancerbero & Luciferno [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders]
4) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
5) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, quarterfinal]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, semifinal]
9) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, semifinal]
10) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [CMLL TAG, #1 Contenders, final]
11) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Dalys, Reina Isis, Stephanie Vaquer

A women’s main event that’s not a big tournament match is rare. It’s a smart call given who’s booked for this show. A #1 contenders tag team tournament means Niebla Roja & Angel de Oro are defending their belts again soon, which is good news for people who like great matches. Pantera or Panteritas would be interesting, same with Atrapasuenos.

CMLL announced Amapola will replace Dark Silueta in the Gran Prix, following Silueta’s knee (re-)injury on Friday. Hera will replace Silueta on this coming Friday’s show in the prelim trios. It seemed like Silueta was trying to gut through this month before getting the knee fixed, and either the knee couldn’t last or the medical team said no more.

Lluvia is on the cover of Box y Lucha 3522.

CMLL posted a note from the “Carrera Todos Somos Luchadors” 5/10 KM race, declaring CMLL had nothing to do with the organization of the race or the responsibility for managing it. Apparently promised t-shirts and other prizes for participants weren’t given out as promised.

AAA

The AAA march is going on as you read this, so not much news from that yet. The highlight is always figure

Claro Sports announced they’ll be airing TripleMania this Saturday. They’ll be airing the same feed as Space starting at the same time at 9:30 pm, on both Claro’s cable channel and their YouTube page. The YouTube feed will likely be Mexico-only, as everything else they stream, like all their other live feeds. ClaroSports currently airs CMLL’s Tuesday shows, though they struggle at streaming some weeks. ClaroSports pays CMLL to cover those shows, so AAA’s probably getting some money from Claro for their stream. It’s a little bit of a surprise AAA’s deal with Space allows them to sell their show to a competing network beyond Azteca, but it’s a good deal for AAA.

IWRG

IWRG (FRI) 10/14/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Shocko vs Águila Roja
2) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako vs Jhon Tito & Spider Fly
3) Freelance vs Aster Boy
4) Keyra vs Diosa Quetzal
5) Oficial 911 vs Maniacop 360
6) Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Hell Boy
7) Hijo De Canis Lupus vs Tonalli

This is “Inedito”, a show of matches never before seen. Some matches haven’t been seen for fair reasons. Some never before seen matches have actually been seen a few times, though it’s been a while since Keyra & Diosa Quetzal were booked. It’s something different, and really a lot of newer people facing more established people, which is the sort of thing worth doing if you want fans to take the newer people to be taken seriously. This show overlaps with the Big Lucha; it sounds like Mas Lucha is planning on streaming both live.

Other Notes

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

Alfonso Zegbe, part of Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told ESPN that lucha libre masks would be banned from the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. World Cup officials have since clarified that masks are only banned while entering the building but can be worse inside.

Thursday’s Impact has Trey Miguel vs Alex Zayne vs Laredo Kid vs Yuyu Uemura vs Kenny King vs Black Taurus, so the AAA wrestlers will be in the same ring as a NJPW one this time around (I guess unless there’s some big angle I missed.)

11/19 King of Indies

Heraldo Deportes interviews Enjmabre Jr. and Misteryk as struggling indie wrestlers.

TripleMania week upon us once again, Titan to LIJ, Lluvia advances in CMLL Universal

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/07/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del RingKaiser SportsR de RudoThe Gladiatores (text)The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan, Yahoo Deportes!]
1) Angelito, Pequeño Magía, Último Dragóncito b Full Metal, Minos, Pierrothito CMLL - PEQ. MAGIA-ANGELITO - U. DRAGONCITO VS FULL METAL-MINOS-PEQ. PIERROTH/ARENA MEXICO / 7-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL: Último Dragoncito, Angelito y Pequeño Magia derrotan a Pierrothito, Minos y Full Metal (posted by mluchatv) Último Dragoncito, Angelito y Pequeño Magia derrotan a Pierrothito, Minos y Full Metal (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
11:32.
2) Dalys, La Metálica, Reyna Isis b La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Princesa Sugehit ¡Súper triunfo de Dalys, Reyna Isis y Metálica! (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) Dalys, Reyna 1sis y La Metálica se llevan la victoria ante Princesa Sugehit, Jarochita y Magnífica (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Dalys, Reyna I. y Metálica se llevan la victoria ante Princesa Sugehit, Jarochita y La Magnífica (posted by mluchatv)
14:01
3) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Atlantis, Místico, Titán CMLL - TITÁN - ATLANTIS - MÍSTICO VS MEPHISTO - EUFORIA - HECHICERO/ARENA MEXICO / 7-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Los Infernales suman un triunfo más ante Místico, Atlantis y Titán (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Los Infernales: Hechicero, Euforia y Mephisto derrotan a Atlantis, Místico y Titán (posted by mluchatv)
20:19
4) Lluvia b MarcelaLa VaqueritaLa GuerreraNáuticaAmapolaStephanie VaquerDark SiluetaAvispa DoradaHera [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinalAsí fue como Lluvia clasificó a la final del Campeonato Universal Femenil. (posted by ) CMLL - PRIMERA FASE (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Eliminatoria por el Campeonato Universal de Amazonas del CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Lluvia es la primera finalista y espera rival para el Campeonato Universal de Amazonas 2022 (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) Lluvia está en la final por el Campeonato Universal al vencer a Stephanie Vaquer (posted by mluchatv)
Battle royal set sides as Marcela, La Guerrera, Amapola, Stephanie Vaquer, Hera vs La Vaquerita, Dark Silueta, Náutica, Avispa Dorada, and Lluvia, but Silueta left the match due to a knee injury after the battle royal. Eliminations: Nautica (by Hera, 12:26), Guerrera (Avispa, 14:53), Amapola (Lluvia, 17:43), Avispa (Vaquer, 18:50), Vaquerita (Marcela, 20:38), Hera (Lluvia, 21:29), Marcela (Lluvia, 24:06), Vaquer (Lluvia, 26:27) leaving Lluvia as the winner

Vaquer also got stretchered out after the main event, but it was visibly a planned spot. Lluvia didn’t come close to dropping her on her head with a package piledriver. The Dark Silueta injury is less clear. Despite what Silueta said, she seems to have a knee injury. It’s possible CMLL planned to take her out of the match to protect it from getting worse, it’s also possible it flared up at a bad time. (The Silueta knee injury originally became news when Silueta did a normal jump off the apron for a dive, it hasn’t taken much to be a problem.) The cibernetico didn’t seem disrupted for her leaving early, and Lluvia having to go 1 on 3 played into his victory, so I lean towards it being a planned event.

Lluvia did beat Amapola and Marcela on her way to a big victory. Those two veterans probably could pull rank or complain about taking those sort of losses, and they’ve taken steps back to help newer people to get over. That’s uncommon in lucha libre.

Not much of note otherwise on this show. Everything in the undercard was fine if predictable.

CMLL (SAT) 10/08/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha]
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia Facebook video (posted by )
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Príncipe Odín Jr. b Leono, Neón, Retro Facebook video (posted by )
3) Misterioso, Nitro, Okumura b Arkalis, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin Facebook video (posted by )
4) Felino, Felino Jr., Pólvora b Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Volcano Facebook video (posted by )
5) Soberano Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr. b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

Nitro used the piledriver with no stretcher bit, because Misterioso was brought back his his mask removal bit and so Bala had to recover enough to sit up to make the mask untying go a bit easier. I’m not sure if CMLL will bring back the holiday apuesta matches but Misterioso is a ‘favorite’ if involved.

CMLL (SUN) 10/09/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Polvora b Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy
2) Cachorro, Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte I, Enfermero Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Astral, El Suicida, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Akuma, Dark Magic, Magnus
Magnus replaced Espanto Jr. Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Panterita del Ring, Star Black, Star Jr. b El Coyote, Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Stuka Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Tecnicos took 2/3.

Nothing happens on these weekend shows.

Monday’s Puebla show has the Terrible/Sagrado title match.

CMLL (TUE) 10/11/2022 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Fantasy, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito
3) Diamond, El Audaz, Volcano vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr.
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible

A rare Mistico appearance on a Tuesday, as a result of more women’s matches on Fridays.

CMLL (FRI) 10/14/2022 Arena México
1) Astral, El Suicida, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Cholo, Disturbio, Inquisidor
2) Avispa Dorada, Lluvia, Marcela vs Amapola, Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. vs El Mesías, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
4) La Jarochita vs Princesa SugehitLa MagnificaSexy Sol, Valkiria, DalysReyna IsisLa MetálicaTiffanyLa SeductoraOlympia [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal]

Friday’s post showed up on Saturday, as it used to regularly before the pandemic.

It’s a weird 11-person block, which means strange rules to come on Informa. Sexy Sol and Valkiria are in for Guadalajara. It’s beyond weird CMLL has no women in house who they could put in for even numbers. (La Comandante hasn’t been around much, but I’m more wondering why CMLL Mexico City appears to have no female trainees.) Lluvia’s post-match interview indicated she sees Dalys as the favorite in the block. Lluvia vs La Jarochita would be a big deal too. I still would bet on Reyna Isis if I was betting at all.

Mesias back in for the never ending Ultimo Guerrero feud. Still no Atlantis Jr. Women’s match might be good, might need a replacement for Silueta. CMLL may be running two women’s matches on every Friday show through the end of the month.

Titan surprisingly appeared on this morning’s NJPW show, helping out Los Ingobernables de Japon and asking for membership in the group. LIJ, who played like they didn’t know Titan was coming, voted on it and said yes. (Well, Shingo Takagi wasn’t there because he was wrestling later so hopefully he’s good with it.) BUSHI, in a post-segment interview, issued a challenge for the IWGP Junior Tag Championship with Titan against champs TJP & Francesco Akira. There’s a decent chance Titan & BUSHI win; Titan would be first Mexican to hold that belt since Dr. Wagner in 1999. NJPW’s next big show looks to be on 11/05 in Osaka, so maybe that’s the date. Titan is returning to Mexico in early November, though he’ll probably turn around and go back a few weeks later for the Super Junior Tag League (November 21 to December 14.)

There are a few other tentacles to this

  • Titan being in LIJ throws his alignment status in CMLL up in the air. I don’t know if he’s meant to be a rudo or part of the Terrible/Angel de Oro/Niebla Roja. CMLL prefers trios when possible, so Titan might just be in the same role as always, but we may not get an answer until Titan returns to Mexico.
  • I can’t find my notes on it, but I recall it coming out that there was once a plan for a CMLL unit with Rush, La Mascara and Titan. It got changed to Rush, La Mascara and La Sombra and had some success. The Titan version of that unit probably would’ve been a lot different and not Los Ingobernables, but it’s amazing how life circled around to put Titan in the group a decade later.
  • Andrade clearly would like to hang out with Naito in Japan, and that became even more politically difficult if Naito is teaming with a CMLL guy. (Same thing with Dragon Lee.)
  • Doing this angle with Titan in NJPW was probably easier since they had already brought him in for BOSJ (and that travel restriction has eased), but it does marginally increase the odds of FantasticaMania being back on in January. We’d normally hear something about that this month. NJPW’s next big news release is Tuesday morning, so there might be a clue there
  • Adding Titan as BUSHI’s partner sure seems to free up Hiromu Takahashi to be a heavyweight in NJPW but that’s a discussion for some other place.

CMLL wrestled in a 5KM race on Saturday. Pequeno Polvora was the fastest finisher of the luchadors participating. Dulce Gardenia was part of the race, so he seems fine. Valiente also ran, noting it as part of his comeback to the ring. That one seems to have been “coming soon” for quite a while.

Satanico, talking about his career, says he was fired from training by Diablo Velasco four times because he was so indisciplined.

AAA

It’s TripleMania week. Feel free to scream in joy or terror. FITE’s broadcast begins at 8 pm CT on Saturday. They’ll have English and Spanish commentary, though the English commentary will be done remote. Brian Cage and Flip Gordon will probably do interesting things in their matches but I would’ve kept the commitment to have the English announcers at all the TripleManias (which was the original plan) rather than guys who are just in for one show a year and won’t make a big difference to the show. Denise Salcedo did mention she’ll be at TripleMania and doing some social media stuff for them.

AAA resumes its annual march on Wednesday, which is a great chance to walk the streets with your favorite luchador and to take some good photos.

Vikingo vs Laredo Kid vs Taurus, already up on AAA’s YouTube channel, is a strong recommendation from this week’s AAA TV. I didn’t feel as positive about the other two matches. The thing that stuck out from the show was how unusually hard they pushed TripleMania. AAA TV feels like it operates in a timeless void – it’s often taped well before it airs, and there’s been little relevant or even acknowledgment of upcoming events. That changed a lot this week, with promotion for Vikingo/Fenix (a Vikingo promo), Ciber/Pagano (multiple angles), the three way trios (multiple Psycho/Adonis angles), and Kamille/Taya (a Taya promo.) Even the Jericho/Bandido match came up. It felt like a more relevant AAA show than usual. It was probably just a product of the timing – knowing the episode was going to air right before TripleMania – and not a chance in philosophy but it was a positive change.

AAA taped Saturday in Puebla. I figured out most of the results from Facebook photos/videos.

AAA TV (SAT) 10/08/2022 Explanada Malltertainment, Puebla, Puebla [Anna Torres (Facebook)]
1) Brazo De Oro Jr., Demus, Draztick Boy b Éxtasis, Mini Vikingo, Radioactivo
2) Octagoncito & Sussy Love b Mini Psycho Clown & Reina Dorada
3) Puma King b Emperador AztecaToxin
4) Octagón Jr. ?? Villano III Jr. ?? Abismo Negro Jr.
5) Mr. Iguana & Niño Hamburguesa b Carta Brava & Chessman
6) Murder Clown & Pagano b Cuatrero & Forastero

Villano III Jr. talked to the crowd at one point, possibly to bring up the injury bit he did with Octagon on a previous show in this venue. It was otherwise an evergreen taping that could be slotted in anywhere.

The main event is the first direct loss NGD has taken since coming to AAA, though it’s 2v2 and 3v3 so they’ll downplay it. The opener was an added match to stretch this out two weeks of TV, with Big Lucha’s Extasis and Radioactivo making their debut. That means the end of Extasis showing up in CMLL’s Fuerza Poblana. Brazo de Oro Jr. was supposed to work the main event in Arena Rey Bucanero and ended up here, with La Mascara replacing him in the small arena.

The attendance looks good for this one; a commenter said it was better than the first show in this venue.

Figuring out AAA’s TV schedule is difficult, even for AAA. This is my current guess at how it’s going on Space for the rest of the year:

  • 10/15: TripleMania (live)
  • 10/22 & 10/29: TripleMania matches (that didn’t air on Space, and maybe some that did)
  • 11/05: the remaining GDL matches
  • 11/12 & 11/19: the Puebla show taped Saturday
  • 11/26 & 12/03: the Ciudad Juarez taing
  • 12/10 & 12/17: a TBA announced Mexicali show
  • 12/24 & 12/31: likely best of stuff
  • January: the December Acapuclo show

Dralistico was supposed to be in the AAA Showcenter tournament. He didn’t wrestle in his tournament match, with AAA telling the WON that Dralistico declared he was only wrestling tag team matches. Pro Wrestling Revolucion  & West Coast Pro Wrestling’s The King of Indies tournament announced Sunday that Dralistico will be in their (11/29) tournament as a replacement. It is a singles tournament. I don’t know what the story is there, I’m totally willing to believe Dralistico said all the things and then changed his mind when US money got involved. It’s a very fun Dralistico story as long as you don’t have to deal with him.

Rey Fenix will wrestle Zachary Wentz in Pro Wrestling Revolver on 12/03, which means he’s not expecting to be part of any AAA show in the Phoenix area on 12/03.  AAA has not mentioned that show since the onsale date. It’s not hard to tell where the wind is blowing on this one, but Saturday will tell mmore.

A Facebook user put together a list of fan-submitted votes for Hijo del Vikingo’s opponent at TripleMania. There was never a formal poll, just AAA prompting people to respond to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts, and the user says they counted them up. They have 299 votes for Juventud Guerrera, 152 for Kenny Omega, 56 for Rey Fenix, 40 for DMT Azul and 25 for Bandido in the top 5, and 786 votes in total. I can not independently confirm these numbers are accurate. The count cut out the non-wrestlers joke candidates thrown in, so the total votes are probably a little higher. I’m sure the AAA provided results (listing Fenix first, Omega second and Bandido third) were fiction. I could tell Guerrera did get a lot of votes from casually checking the responses, and I’m sure he did finish first. DMT Azul also getting erased was not something I had considered but seems plausible.

Guerrera campaigned to get the spot, and it doesn’t take much effort to win a vote organized as informally as AAA did theirs, especially when there are less than 800 votes cast. AAA and itself didn’t promote the concept much – the parody of Juventud Guerrera showing up for a split-second cameo was maybe the most it got mentioned on their TV show. (As an unfair comparison, the CMLL Night of Champions title matches all got between 20,000 to 35,000 votes cast.) Guerrera did claim, as part of a back-and-forth with Fenix spilling out of all of this, that AAA talked to him and booking him on the show. This voting idea was always meant to be an angle, where AAA could announce whomever they had access to as Vikingo’s opponent and pass off the responsibility/blame for the pick to the fans. They were always going to pay attention to names that got unexpected support, but they got outfoxed by Juventud Guerrera on this whole process.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 10/09/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Kenji & Rey Aztaroth b Águila Roja & Sol Live (posted by mluchatv)
2) Llmbo & Rey Halcón b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly Live (posted by IWRG tv)
3) Maniacop 360, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro b Caballero de Plata, Luka, Paymon Live (posted by IWRG tv)
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Brad Alexis, Limbo, Shocko Live (posted by IWRG tv)
Limbo replaced Sweet Baby (and must’ve known in advance because a fan brought a Limbo banner)
5) Puma de Oro © b Tonalli [IWRG MEXICO] Live (posted by IWRG tv)
first defense. Puma de Oro wanted a shot at Tonalli’s IWRG Middle title at the Castillo del Terror
6) Cerebro Negro, Hijo De Canis Lupus, Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Galeno del Mal, Hell Boy, Hijo del Fishman Live (posted by IWRG tv)
Canis Lupus pinned Fishman

There’s too many titles in IWRG, as exhibited by how many of them are being defended in the Jacuan/Aster Boy/Tonalli feud.

IWRG announced their Thursday show is getting pushed to Friday this week. It’s another option for people getting into Mexico City early for TripleMania. Hope that means more IWRG Retro.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (FRI) 10/07/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Mas Lucha]
1) La Catalina b Sussy Love LIVE🔴 | Big Lucha World 2, el regreso: Viajero y Gravity VS Yutani y Flamita desde el Bandido´s GYM (posted by )
2) Action Jackson, Bendito, Elemental b Éxtasis, King, Kong LIVE🔴 | Big Lucha World 2, el regreso: Viajero y Gravity VS Yutani y Flamita desde el Bandido´s GYM (posted by )
King and Kong are having issues, with Fulgor trying to convince Kong to become a rudo.
3) Flamita & Yutani b Gravity & Viajero LIVE🔴 | Big Lucha World 2, el regreso: Viajero y Gravity VS Yutani y Flamita desde el Bandido´s GYM (posted by )
Yutani beat Viajero before his title match next week.

This was ‘second season premiere.’ Attendance and interest seemed down from the last ‘season. This was the first show Big Lucha World on this night, the first one in a while, and on a busy night, so that’s not a surprise. It was also heavily building to this Friday’s show at the cost of the matches on this show, also to no surprise.

Bandido & Komander won their match over Kaz Hayashi & Soma Watanabe in GLEAT early Sunday.  (Video here.) They did well. I’m not sure what it means for them long term, GLEAT seems just to be rotating through outside talent from show to show with no obvious plan, but they’ll stay in the rotation.  Septimo Dragon, Flamtia, Yutani are coming in for a 12/18 GLEAT show. Jack Cartwheel, Gringo Loco and Septimo Dragon are scheduled for the 1/8 show.

Other News

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

RIOT results on Sunday:

RIOT (SAT) 10/08/2022 Palestino Libanes, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [@thekoko666]
1) BelialMuerte Extrema
2) Byron & Kaientai b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly (Estado De México)
UnMexicans remain undefeated
3) Aramis, Iron Kid (Estado de México), Tromba (Estado de México) b Demonio del Aire, Jimmy, King Rex
4) Erik Ortiz b Demonic Flamita
5) Aeroboy b Willy Banderas
6) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf b Kratoz & Prometeo
7) Arez b Rey Horus [RIOT]

The show sounded good. There are clips out there that I’m avoiding to be unspoiled when this show gets released in 2025. Riot indicated their next event is in December. I was told it was December 17th, in this same venue.

JCW’s Tony Deppen vs Negro Navarro match ended up as Tony Deppen vs Skayde. It’s on YouTube and it was good.

KAOZ (SUN) 11/06/2022 Arena Coliseo Monterrey
1) Charro Blanco vs Silver StarBaby LoveMerlinaRedimidoGarringoBrillante RbCronic [Copa Noberto Salgado]
2) Galactar, Rico Rodríguez, Vazco Jr. vs Erika Sotelo, Larry Miranda, Yaretzi
3) Dulce Kanela & Mr. Puma vs Oro Negro & Yutani
4) Dinámico © vs Baby XtremeDestinyJimmyNoisy Boy [KAOZ CURISER]
5) Reina Dorada © vs Faby ApachePimpinela EscarlataBlack Widow (Chihuahua) [KAOZ WOMEN]
6) Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. © vs Dragón Lee (Indie) & Dralistico and ASF & Komander and El Cobarde & El Dragón [KAOZ TAG]
7) Emperador Azteca vs The Tiger [mask]
8) Konnan Big & Pierroth Jr. vs Cibernético & DMT Azul

Just to recap: the last KAOZ show was billed as the final show back in this building. This show is billed as the farewell to Konnan Big. Konnan Big is wrestling again five days later in Madero. These shows have aired on Mas Lucha on a delay in the past and I presume this one will as well, though there’s no logo on the poster. The mask match should be good and some of the undercard has a chance.

ImagenTV said Nacion Lucha Libre said their new TV show will begin on October 15th at 11 pm. It’s possibly the dumbest possible time to launch a wrestling show. TripleMania will likely have their main event in the ring and airing on Space at 11 pm, and it may start on Azteca that hour as well. I’m not sure if anyone outside of people employed by Nacion Lucha Libre believe it’s going to be anything and these decisions make it easy to be skeptical. Cinta de Oro also mentioned the next Nacion Lucha Libre taping is on 11/06, so they probably taped 4 weeks of TV.

Pro Wrestling Revolution announced Arkangel Divino, Ultimo Maldito, Bandido versus El Viento, Fatu and Rey Horus for their 10/22 show.

El Sol de Cuernavaca looks back at demolished local arena Arena Isabel.

Sinaloa luchador El Delfin (Jesus Noriega Duran) was honored at a recent show.

A WWS show scheduled for Sunday was postponed due to an issue with the ring.

Dragon Lee wins Mas Lucha Supremo, CMLL Universal de Amazonas tournament begins, Showcenter final

CMLL

CMLL starts a month of luchadora-focused Friday night shows tonight with Block A of this year’s CMLL Universal de Amazonas. This week’s elimination match has Marcela, Lluvia, La Vaquerita, La Guerrera, Nautica, Amapola, Stephanie Vaquer, Dark Silueta, Avispa Dorada, and Hera. The winner moves to the final on 10/24.

There’s nothing else too notable from the rest of the show. New trios champions Los Infernales face Mistico, Titan and Atlantis. Dalys, making her return from Japan like Vaquer, wrestlers in a trios preview of next week’s block. The show opens with a minis match, which have recently been good. It’s a TicketmasterLive show as always.

CMLL (MON) 10/10/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Full Metal & Minos
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Misterioso Jr.
4) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Stigma vs Magia Blanca, Rugido, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Terrible © vs Sagrado [MEX HEAVY]
third defense

I’m not sure who asked for Terrible/Sagrado but it’s happening anyway. Stigma/Magia Blanca waits for another day. No Puebla local-only wrestlers is highly unusual.

CMLL (TUE) 10/11/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Jhonny Dinamo, Obelisk, Último Ángel vs Persa, Raven, Temerario
2) El Divino, Mágico, Metatrón vs Destructor, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero
4) Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Suicida vs Cris Skin, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
6) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Euforia & Soberano Jr.

Life has changed a lot in a year for those two teams just to have a normal match.

CMLL switched their advertising of Faby Apache to just “Faby” after her debut interview. It’s unclear why. Faby Apache started in AAA and so it’s possible they could make a claim to the name. There’s no trademark listed for Faby Apache on the Mexico trademark site. CMLL does like their one-name characters so I wouldn’t rule out them making that choice themselves. She’s wrestling as Faby Apache on her indie dates.

Reforma goes jogging with the Atlantis family.

TUDN caught up with Minos at his day job as a tortilla baker.

AAA

AAA held its annual mass in honor of founder Antonio Pena on Wednesday. There’s no real news from it, it’s just a nice ceremony that reminds people that TripleMania is coming up. Former AAA referee Pepe Casas was in attendance. So was Heavy Metal, so whatever kept him from being in Guadalajara this week doesn’t seem serious. La Tijera talked to Antonio Pena but didn’t ask him about Andrade.

AAA on Space is back listed as 6:30 pm. It should be week 1 of Guadalajara (Zapopan).

  • Hijo del Vikingo vs Laredo Kid vs Black Taurus
  • probably Pagano, Psycho Clown, Sexy Star vs Cibernetico, Sam Adonis and Chik Tormenta
  • one more match

I’ll stream on Twitch. AAA has said they’ll upload the Vikingo three as a bonus to the regular Sunday upload (part 2 of the Hard Rock show this week.)

AAA announced the Gran Final for Monterrey’s Campeonato Showcenter on 10/23. That’s a change; these shows were originally announced as lasting through December.  I guess it’s possible they could still run more shows after the Gran Final. No matches are announced just images of people who presumably are competing for the final.:

Women

  • Dulce Kanela (beat Baby Love on 07/24)
  • Flammer (beat Chris Jaynes on 06/26)
  • Sexy Star (did not wrestle in the tournament)
  • La Hiedra (did not wrestle in the tournament, was scheduled)
  • Lady Shani (did not wrestle in the tournament)
  • Zeuxis (beast Sussy Love on 05/21)
  • Chik Tormenta (beat Estrellita on 03/12, beat Maravilla on 08/21)

Men

  • Myzteziz Jr. (did not wrestle in the tournament)
  • Puma King (beat Dinamico on 08/21)
  • Octagon Jr. (did not wrestle in the tournament)
  • Hijo del Vikingo (beat Flamita on 03/12)
  • Taurus (beat Hijo de LA Park on 03/12)
  • Toxin (beat Antifaz on 09/25)
  • Latigo (beat Vasco Jr. on 07/24)
  • Villano III Jr. (beat Komander on 06/26)

People who won tournament matches but aren’t in the final: Gringo Loco (05/21), Faby Apache (05/21), Willie Mack (05/21), Dragon Lee (06/26), and Artemiz (08/21).

Maravilla also won on 03/12 but later lost to Chik Tormenta in the only thing resembling a second-round match. Mamba and Aramis also won three ways on 09/25, and it was unclear if they were meant to be part of the tournament, neither were scheduled matches.

Wrestlers listed in the Winners bracket who never participated: Fenix, Flip Gordon, Dralistico (“only tag matches”), Baby Xtreme, Bandido, Christopher Daniels, Abismo Negro, and Arez. Note we never got a women’s bracket, but Natalia Markova was repeatedly advertised and never quite made it. La Hiedra was meant to wrestle her one of those times.

I didn’t believe the tournament would ever make sense. I was not alone in that belief. I don’t think AAA was all that concerned if it made sense; the remit was “run a tournament” and so they did an approximation of a tournament. They’ll have a winner again, and no one pays attention to AAA’s results so it’s fine for them. AAA would be a more enjoyable promotion if what happened on one show mattered on the next show, but that’s not the type of promotion they’ve chosen to run in 2022. The Showcenter final is a fun group of wrestlers, and the belt looks cool. I would purchase a PPV of that show if one were available. There’s no indication it’ll be taped.

AAA has a TV taping in Puebla on Saturday. It’s a strange house show lineup for a TV taping and was switched to one late. I think it’s a reaction to location conditions. There were AAA spot shows in Puebla on September 25th and October 2nd, which makes it really hard to draw people on the 9th with a lesser lineup. I’m not sure why AAA scheduled it that way, but calling this Puebla mall show a TV taping might attract a few people who otherwise felt they saw enough lucha libre. My flimsy guess is this airs on November 12.

Space has been airing their TripleMania ad just mentioning the Pentagon Jr./Villano IV and Cibernetico/Pagano matches. I presumed that was because those were the only two confirmed matches when the commercial started airing. Fernando Salazar of AS Mexico said it’s actually because only those two matches are airing on Space. That would be much fewer matches than usual. Fans would have to buy the show on FITE or ProWrestlingTV to see the rest of the show, including Fenix/Vikingo. AAA hasn’t officially announced this, so the plans could change.

Airing 2 matches on Saturday means AAA could stretch out the show for the usual three episodes of TV. It makes it harder for me to figure out when other shows are airing and may mean an extra week wait to see the whole show if you’re waiting for it to turn up on official Facebook or YouTube pages.

IWRG/Naucalpan

Mas Lucha (THU) 10/06/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha, thecubfsan]
1) Rey Halcón & Súper Boy b John Tito & Spider Fly Kickoff | #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 | MÁSCARA VS MÁSCARA: Radioactivo VS Hannya (posted by mluchatv)
12:01
2) Puma King b Charly Manson [Mas Lucha Supremo, quarterfinalKickoff | #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 | MÁSCARA VS MÁSCARA: Radioactivo VS Hannya (posted by mluchatv)
8:59, Puma won via casita
3) Shun Skywalker b Jack Evans [Mas Lucha Supremo, quarterfinalKickoff | #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 | MÁSCARA VS MÁSCARA: Radioactivo VS Hannya (posted by mluchatv)
11:01, via submission
4) Aeroboy b Black Warrior [Mas Lucha Supremo, quarterfinalBlack Warrior se va eliminado por AeroBoy en la primera ronda del #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 (posted by mluchatv)
7:08. Black Warrior replaced Komander (rescheduled Japan trip)
5) Dragón Lee b Tonalli [Mas Lucha Supremo, quarterfinal]
9:36.
6) Radioactivo b Paymon
7:37. Scheduled as Radioactivo vs Hannya in a mask match, Hannya showed up with his lower left leg wrapped and unable to wrestle. Paymon replaced him. A second Hannya (who looked a lot like SB Kento) fouled Radioactivo to help Paymon win. Radioactivo challenged Hannya to do the match in Big Lucha instead.
7) Aeroboy b Puma King [Mas Lucha Supremo, semifinal¡Se pusieron extremos! | Puma King y Aero Boy quieren llegar a la final del #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 (posted by mluchatv)
8:55
8) Dragón Lee b Shun Skywalker [Mas Lucha Supremo, semifinalShun Skywalker sigue avanzando en el #TorneoSupremo🏆2022 y deja fuera a Jack Evans (posted by mluchatv)
11:52
9) Caballero de Plata, Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr. b Hell Boy, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro Hellboy y Los Oficiales VS Caballero de Plata y Los Cerebros Negros | Así comienza la revancha (posted by mluchatv)
Cerebro Negro beat Hell Boy and the two teased a match. Oficial AK47 returned and attacked his former partners post match. They recovered and beat up los Cerebros.
10) Dragón Lee b Aero Boy [Mas Lucha Supremo, final¡Dragon Lee es el Campeón Supremo 2022 y reconoce a sus rivales! (posted by mluchatv)
11:18

Attendance seemed not as good as last year’s Torneo Supremo but much better from the Ultimo Guerrero/Mesias Mas Lucha show last month.

I liked the tournament better than last year. None of the matches were bad, most were good, the last couple were great. Dragon Lee tends to stick tightly to a formula in his matches and everyone assumed he was winning this, but the teases of people beating him were well done. The never-ending elbow smash battle with Skywalker was a little silly but it was something different. You don’t have to see this but you’ll enjoy if you like these guys.

Hannya is said to have hurt his ankle in training Thursday and still wanted to wrestle. IWRG and their medical personnel said no. This was a Mas Lucha run show but I suspect IWRG didn’t want to risk any liability if Hannya ended up more injured. Radioactivo was pretty definite that the match is happening in Big Lucha at some point.

The building did start to empty out before the tournament final and quickly once it ended. Mas Lucha’s stream wrapped at about midnight. The trios before the main event went long and then the post-match angles were even longer. It really should’ve been much quicker given the context, but it is normal for Mexican indie luchadors (especially in the Mexico City area) to just do whatever and not worry about the larger context. Another larger context is that angle was designed to sell people on coming back for an IWRG show and I had less interest in IWRG than when it started.

IWRG Retro

The 90s matches appear to be completely new, haven’t turned up since they first aired. The 1996 match is different from the match Box y Lucha listed (as a preview, not results) for that date.

IWRG (SUN) 10/09/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Roja & Sol vs Kenji & Rey Aztaroth
2) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly vs Llmbo & Rey Halcón
3) Caballero de Plata, Luka, Paymon vs Maniacop 360, Oficial 911, Oficial Fierro
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Brad Alexis, Shocko, Sweet Daddy
5) Puma de Oro © vs Tonalli [IWRG MEXICO]
first defense
6) Cerebro Negro, Hijo De Canis Lupus, Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Galeno del Mal, Hell Boy, Hijo del Fishman

The title match could be good but the forecast calls for lots of interference. The Canadians are back; maybe they want to check out TripleMania.

IWRG announced Torneo FILL 100 would take place on October 20th. My recollection is these started out as Copa Higher Powers, ciberneticos between normal (or guest) experienced wrestlers, then they carried over the numbering as they switched to trainee ciberneticos. They talked about it on IWRG Revolucionando as if it had always been trainees, so I’m honestly not sure if I’m remembering it right. It will be FILL (the IWRG lucha libre school) against another school for 100, but they did not specify which one.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World is back tonight at 9 with Gravity & Viajero vs Flamita & Yutani.

Both Fightful and the Wrestling Observer reported Thursday that Bandido had signed with AEW. Bandido later that night said he was leaning towards AEW and would likely end up there but had not officially signed yet (and noted WWE had contracted him.) I think this is a situation that probably would be resolved if not for the happenstance of Bandido heading to Japan this week.

Komander and Bandido are wrestling in GLEAT on Sunday morning. facing Kaz Hayashi & Soma Watanabe. That should will air on YouTube for free and their YouTube shows stay on the channel.

Delta Team is teasing a special mentor to help them deal with Forneo’s Hell Flyers group on next week’s show.

The second work of the tryouts happened Thursday in Big Lucha. Estrellas del Ring has video of matches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

Other News

LuchaWorld(‘s server) has returned from the dead for a new Poster-Mania.

Lucha Memes put the Hechicero vs Matt Makowski match from their March show up for free on Facebook.

Nacion Lucha Libre says they’re airing at 11 pm on Saturdays on ImagenTV. The show was scheduled to start this month and the release doesn’t mention a start date. 11 pm on Saturday seems like a terrible time slot – it’s not really worked out for AAA – but Nacion Lucha Libre is going to live or die depending on getting international TV money. ImagenTV is airing a movie in that time slot this week.

San Luis Potosi site El Sabor del Ring has photos of local wrestler Alma Negra Jr. doing a fire swanton bomb – the jacket he was wearing was literally on fire.