AAA full Night of Champions card, coming Big Lucha cage match, Soberano versus Vincent

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/11/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo]
1) Halcón Suriano Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Leono b Apocalipsis, Disturbio, Raider   
15:55
2) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Felino Jr., Okumura, Rey Bucanero  
17:07
3) El Mesías, Vincent, Yota b Blue Panther, Soberano Jr., Valiente    
Vincent fouled Soberano Jr., setting up a singles match next week.
4) Místico, Negro Casas, Titán b Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto   
17:22
5) Atlantis Jr. b Volador Jr.    
17:55.

Atlantis Jr. defeating Volador Jr. struck me as a big deal. It wasn’t just the win, it was a totally clean win, no questions. Atlantis Jr. did it before in May, though tournament matches are a bit weird. In normal Arena Mexico singles matches, Volador’s only lost to Hechicero and Rush in the last two years. Atlantis Jr. is not someone who will be a top guy in the future, he’s a top guy right now.

The semi-main was best on the show. Yota looked like he might be a useful guy if he’s around for a while.

CMLL (SAT) 11/12/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL]
1) Fantasy & Pequeño Magía b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora 
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. 
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus 
4) Último Guerrero, Vincent, Yota b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Soberano Jr.
Vincent unmasked Soberano after the match
5) Místico b Ángel de Oro 
typical challenges followed

It looks like Vincent is winning all his matches until Friday. Well, until he lost on Sunday.

CMLL (SUN) 11/13/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Dalys, Metálica, Stephanie Vaquer b Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit
3) Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring, Volcano b Magnus, Pólvora, Rugido
Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Euforia, Niebla Roja, Vincent b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Team Vincent took 2/3, Vincent cheating Sagrado
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Euforia, Niebla Roja, Vincent
Los Malditos took 1/3, Sagrado cheating Vincent
5) Atlantis Jr., Titán, Valiente b Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.
Team Titan took 2/3.

Mexican senator Ricardo Monreal visited the show for social media purposes.

CMLL (TUE) 11/15/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia
2) Asturiano, Halcón Suriano Jr., Neón vs Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Raider
Panterita del Ring (double booked in GDL) and Suicida replaced by Asutriano & Neon shortly after card was announced.
3) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Ángel de Oro © vs Hijo del Villano III [MEX LH]
2nd defense
5) Negro Casas, Stuka Jr., Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

Hechicero seemed to lose his heavyweight title because CMLL likes spreading out titles. Angel de Oro is a double champion, also holding the tag team titles with Niebla Roja. It would be terrible if CMLL gives Hijo del Villano III the title here. He’s not ready, especially not after his most recent Friday appearance, and it’d be a deceitful message to him that he’s already graduated to a high level and doesn’t need to get better. The titles don’t matter but it’d be terrible for his career if he took a title win as evidence he’s already proven himself. I’m not giving up on the kid, and he shouldn’t give up on himself either, but CMLL would be doing a disservice to Hijo del Villano III if they rewarded him with a title he doesn’t deserve yet. That’s part of the harm of having two dozen titles, lots of people who shouldn’t be champions will have a title to make up the numbers.

Asturiano getting random Arena Mexico appearances is a nice lifetime achievement award even if probably came too late for his in-ring abilities. I’m just more curious on how he and Neon (the lowest ranked guy on the regular roster) ended up as subs instead of the 20 other regular CMLL prelim guys. Is CMLL doing an actual lightweight pool of wrestlers and so it had to other lightweights getting Suicida & Panterita’s spots?

CMLL (FRI) 11/18/2022 Arena México
1) Hombre Bala Jr. & Oro Jr. vs Disturbio & Zandokan Jr.
2) Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Marcela vs Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota
4) Soberano Jr. vs Vincent
5) Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Místico vs Gran Guerrero, Titán, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

Mil Mascaras will also appear.

If you are going to use someone on the level of Vincent, this is the best way to use him. Bring him in for two weeks, go right to the singles match, likely give Soberano a nice win over a foreign wrestler, and get it done before something happens to make it hard to happen. If he does well next week, bring him back in the future, but don’t do long builds for people who may not be available or may change what they want down the road.

Guadalajara’s Zandokan making a Friday show is a surprise; CMLL must really see him as a prospect. The next NJPW tour starts on 11/21, so this is probably TItan’s last match for now (and I’m mildly surprised he’s sticking around this long.)

This is not new and not news, but it struck me this week how CMLL uploads their weekly show on YouTube to little notice. You know it’s there if you’re a diehard CMLL fan but most people are not. A week like this, where a lot of people who aren’t normally following in CMLL might want to dip into see the women’s Gran Prix, is a great week to promote the upload. CMLL didn’t because they never do. Compare that to Informa, that’s plugged frequently on Wednesday and then followed up with social media bits on Thursday. That’s the one they’re concerned about if people watch; they feel their talk show gets their wrestling product over more than their actual wrestling product.

AAA

This week’s AAA on Space show was bad. The opener should’ve been thrown into the recycle bin. The Octagon/Abismo/Villano match was a ludicrous finish. NGD lost their win streak in the main event, in something that’ll probably never be seen again. There were so many missed spots and people redoing sequences after they messed up the first time. Next week’s show looks better on paper but this taping was so thrown together that it’s no great bet.

The only positive thing AAA should take from this episode is the five or so minutes they spent playing clips and interviews from the Acapulco press conference. A big missing piece from AAA’s TV presentation is important data like “what’s the next big show?” and “when is happening?” is missing. It can’t even be in a lot of these episodes because the TV is taped so far ahead of when it airs and AAA doesn’t know what they’re doing that far in advance. (Every match that airs on AAA TV in November will be at least a month old.) It’d help AAA a lot if they carved 3-5 minutes of every episode and dropped in the old Noti AAA segments, and airing the press conference was a good first step in that direction.

Of course, it’s AAA, so they announced a different set of matches during the Space broadcast (and had earlier said those matches would be announced before the show.) The full lineup is a couple of paragraphs down but it was a distracting few minutes in real time.

Next Saturday’s Space show is about 90 minutes early. Space has boxing and prefers to have a movie lead-in instead of AAA, so AAA has to squeeze in before the movie.

The full lineup for Noche de Campeones on December  28th

AAA TV (WED) 12/28/2022 Arena GNP, Acapulco, Guerrero
1) Arcano vs El Engañoso, Gran Mazo, Picadura Letal, Leyenda America [MLL CHAMP]
2) Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo © vs Lady Shani & Octagón Jr. and Komander & Sexy Star [AAA MIXED TAG]
3rd defense, 1st in AAA
3) Aramis, Myzteziz, Willie Mack vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón © [AAA TRIOS]
2nd defense
4) Dave The Clown vs Panic Clown, Murder Clown, Vampiro, Pagano, Aerostar, Blue Demon Jr., Niño Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Parka Negra [Copa Mundo Imperial]
5) Arez vs Taurus vs Villano III Jr. [AAA DEMON]
new title
6) Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood © vs Dragón Lee & Dralistico [AAA TAG]
fifth defense
7) Hijo Del Vikingo © vs Bandido [AAA MEGA]
Eighth defense, third on TV

The main event should be good. I liked FTR/Hermanos Lee before the dumb finish but I’m not sure they’ve clicked in Mexico; they’re definitely not as good a fit as the Young Bucks were for their run. Arez/Taurus/Villano 3 should be good if random. There’s no drama for the trios title finish but there are good names there. I have no idea what to expect from the Marvel match but there’s certainly a chance it could be a positive in-ring bit besides the gimmick. As something I’d like to see on TV, this is a good taping. As something that’s going to draw in 10K+ seat arena, I dunno.

A year ago, AAA had Omega/Vikingo planned and Omega pulled off the show. AAA booked a strange five way match as a replacement, seemingly because they didn’t feel Vikingo versus Bandido alone was strong enough to headline the show. It’s 2022 and they’re now going with it as the main event with little help. TripleMania Regia had Cain Velasquez and LA Park in a crazy trios match, as well as FTR/Lucha Brothers. This has FTR/Hermanos Lee and some title matches with no juice. They’re going to be good matches, I hope we get to see this live (and I truly hope it’s not me who’s streaming it live) but this is a big building and a big test for the drawing power of Vikingo, Bandido and the AAA Megachampionship. All credit to them if they can pull it off.

AAA posted a FTR promo that was effective in that promos are supposed to make you feel something and I was annoyed after I watched it. They’re faces in AEW now, so forget all the xenophobic stuff they said, they’re faces in AAA too. Just hardworking guys who want to win all the belts and are generously giving Hermanos Lee one last chance at the AAA ones after Vickie Guerrero interfered last time. (They forgot it was Penta who interfered at the finish last time, and didn’t know or didn’t care Hermanos Lee earned the title match and did the promo as if they were granting Dragon Lee & Dralistico the chance.) I would’ve said thanks but no thanks to airing a promo where FTR was too checked out to remember their storyline, but it’s AAA and they just wanted to prove FTR knew they were in the match. They vaguely do. FTR clearly believe they’re finishing up in AAA with this match. I hope they’re correct.

When we were all counting out the matches on this Night of Champions show and the titles AAA had to put on the line, no one figured out “AAA will make up a random title rather than book Taya or Fenix.” The three way should be good, not sure AAA needs another belt they’ll do nothing with, but it’s just an excuse to honor Blue Demon on this show. It’s odd AAA’s doing the Blue Demon title match in Acapulco when the Tempe show is built around celebrating Blue Demon; makes it come off as if there was a scheduling conflict and things got moved around.

If AAA announces a lineup for the Tempe show and Taya/Flammer is also not on there, I’d advise them to close their social media replies for a day or two.

This AAA mixed title reign has been a flop. It’s meant nothing for AAA, Guevera & Melo seem less over in AEW than when it started, and there’s no indication a preliminary feud on AEW TV has helped AAA’s visibility. (If these belts come up at all, it’s as part of lists of titles AEW fans wish would disappear because they feel the promotion has too many belts.) Lady Shani repeatedly mentioning wanting to win the mixed tag titles in media interviews out of nowhere makes me think she’s got a hint on the outcome.

Note AAA didn’t actually name anyone in the Marvel Lucha Libre match. I am assuming the people who were announced as winners at TripleMania to advance to the final will be in the final, but that’s not a safe assumption. Especially with Furioso/Dragon getting hurt, plans might have changed.

There’s still no word on if this will air anyplace besides FITE.

Nothing has been announced for 12/03 Tempe. There is a commercial airing in English locally.

AAA , EMW , ICON (SAT) 11/12/2022 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [TJ Sports, Zona Ruda]
1) Fantastik & Mirage DQ Ju Dizz & Ryan Kidd and Kal Herro & Rayo Star and Kamikaze & Skalibur
Skaklibur & Kamikaze unmasked Fantastik & Mirage in the never ending Tijuana/Mexicali rivalary for the DQ. Rayo Star also was unmasked.
2) La Hiedra & Maravilla b Reina Dorada & Sexy Star
Mr. Iguana helped Hieda.
3) Máscarita Sagrada & Viva Van b Mr. Iguana & Niño Hamburguesa
La Hiedra helped Iguana.
4) Vampiro b Nzo
Ryan Kidd & Ju Dizz got involved. Vampiro declared he’d have his final Tijuana matches in 2023.
5) Arez & Rey Horus b Flip Gordon & Marty Scurll
money thrown in.
6) Taurus b Komander, Argenis, Gringo Loco (Indie)
early in the show, Hijo del Vikingo appeared with birthday boy Jackson Jacoby and apologized for not being able to wrestle due to injury. (He said he’d be out 4 weeks.) Moose, Marty Scurll, and Gringo Loco went to attack Viking and the kid until Psycho and Pentagon made the save, but they all ended up unmasked anyway. Gringo Loco was moved to this match and Vikingo using crutches (though he had an arm injury) attacked him.
7) Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown b Moose, Sam Adonis
Vikingo & Gringo Loco scheduled for the main event, switched to a tag match (no replacement for Vikingo), so this was a 2v2.

This is a non-taped Tijuana show, but it’s also Tijuana so about three YouTube channels will have these matches in the next week or so. You will likely be able to experience Vampiro versus nZo if you can be patient enough. EMW seems like they did well. This is a show that would get no attention out of Mexico (and hasn’t gotten much inside of Mexico) if it wasn’t for the blackballed Marty Scurll being booked.

Do you remember the Hard Rock Hotel show this year, where there was an adorable little boy shown dressed up as Hijo del Vikingo? That’s Jackson Jacoby. His father is the owner of American Icon Autographs, who’s been working with AAA thier wrestlers for some time now. (That’s also the “ICON” labeling that appears on some masks and gear, especially the women.) As part of that AAA/Icon partnership, American Icon essentially got to book the people he wanted to see on this show. That list probably includes Moose, Flip Gordon, NZO and Marty Scurll. AAA has deniability – they’re not responsible for these people, Icon may have even been paying them themselves – but they also didn’t say not to it, and they had to know they’d get blamed for it because they’re the name people recognize on the poster.

(I don’t want to say AAA is some cartoonishly evil company either. They’re not using Scurll on their own shows. I don’t know this as a fact but I’d bet large sums of money they’ve been pitched on using Travis Banks many many times in the last year and have said no because of the anger they’d get. Still, part of the price of doing this show is eating the complaints over running it.)

Vikingo saying he’ll be out four weeks is either making it especially clear he’s not wrestling again until Tempe or a concerning sign his recovery time is going to be really close. The ideal AAA Tempe show has Vikingo in a big singles title defense match, but it may be safer to put him in tag or trios.

American Icon Autographs actually paid for two shows, not one. The actual birthday party was the next day in the US. Lucha libre shows for children’s birthday parties are uncommon but not rare in Mexico. I actually have results.

AAA , JACKSONMANIA (THU) 11/03/2022 Poway, California [RL] Attendance: 250
1) Sam Adonis b Ju Dizz
2) Viva Van b Juliana Miller, Sexy Star
3) Geo Martinez & Vampiro b Enzo & Richie Martinez
4) Komander b Black Taurus , Flip Gordon
5) Kal Herro, Máscarita Sagrada, Mr. Iguana b Anton Carrillo, Gringo Loco, Ryan Kidd
Gringo Loco and Hijo del Vikingo made challenges
6) Arez & Pentagón Jr. b Marty Scurll & Moose

AAA is promoting Tempe as Hijo del Vikingo’s debut in the US. Had he not got hurt, his actual US debut would’ve been at this birthday party instead. Vikingo’s making as many of his dates as possible while hurt, which he seems to do whenever he’s hurt, and so he was here for him and Gringo Loco to continue to build towards a match.

Hugo Savinovich made the choice to post a photo of himself with Marty Scurll and nZo on Lucha Libre Online’s Twitter. Sometime later, someone decided it was better to close replies on that post. They were still cool with posting an interview with Hugo and Scurll on Lucha Libre Online’s YouTube channel. (It’s not a useful interview, though I learned that Marty relaunched his vlog for some reason.) The reality is a lot of the people on this show are probably still happy associating with Scurll despite his accusations, most of them are just savvy enough not to do it for public consumption. The local part of this arrangement, EMW, put out “[X] will be there” like graphics for every person on this show, and made sure not to do one with Marty Scurll. They’re aware.

DEFY announced Hijo del Vikingo vs. Nick Wayne for their 12/17 Seattle show. This was the other booking I had heard about for Vikingo in December. It’s a great opportunity for Nick Wayne, who already has a big spotlight on him and will get a bigger one with this match. I wish that, if promotions are going to spend the significant expense of bringing in Vikingo, they’d bring in someone who’s already used to working with to make sure that first match works great. Fenix & Penta got over on their first indie run wrestling each other so fans could see the best of them, before throwing them against the US Indie stars of the moment. It’s not that Nick Wayne will do bad, it’s that Vikingo versus someone like Taurus or Gringo Loco is going to give people want they want to see out of Vikingo, and that’s what his first US matches should be out.

Hades returned to wrestling for the first time in a year and half this past Friday in Acapulco. It was a show with AAA wrestlers, and she’s advertised as working other shows with AAA wrestlers, but I think she’s doing them as an indie wrestler. Of all the people she could’ve fought, she ended up wrestling Mini Vikingo. She doesn’t seem to hate the entire family, that’s nice.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (FRI) 11/11/2022 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Big Lucha, Mas Lucha]
1) Andy Panda Jr., Estrella Del Ring, Sussy Love b Diosa Nix, Metal Shadow, Zenky   
INJUVE offer match
2) Black Skayde & Hijo De Skayde b King & Kong   
King and Kong continued their breakup, setting up a match on 12/02.
3) Carito & Skayde b Action Jackson & Potro   
The guys in the match feuded over would get a date with a woman named Lupita after the match. Potro’s team lost but he won the date. Maximo attacked Carito after the match
4) Galeno del Mal b Limbo   
Originally Galeno del Mal vs Bendito
5) Forneo, La Estrella, Sol, Torito Negro Jr. b Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo, Viajero   
La Estrella replaced Hannya. Hell Flyers and Delta Forced agreed to a TLC match for 12/02.
6) El Bandido, Gravity, Komander, Rey Horus b Bendito, Elemental, Flamita, Yutani   
Black Generation beat up Jack Evans at the start of the show. Originally Emperador Azteca was in the match, replaced by Bendito hours late. Black Generation added Yutani to the match before it started, and Bandido brought Rey Horus out as a surprise. Bandido beat Yutani. After the match, Bandido announced the formation of the Golden Guns but both teams were attacked Jack Evans and his new Loco Evans group. (Most members appeared new to Big Lucha, identities unclear.) Galeno del Mal made the save, joining Bandido, Gravity, Komander and Horus in Golden Guns. All three teams agreed to a cage apuesta match on 12/02.

The top two matches aren’t perfect but they are worth watching. Galeno versus Limbo is good for the story they’re telling. The undercard is more iffy.

Not sure who Jack Evans recruited. That seems to be part of the bit; they didn’t mention their names in backstage interviews. Oni the micro is there, so it may be other people from the recently concluded INJUVE talent search concept. The attack on him started actually before the Big Lucha/Mas Lucha stream started (you can see it here); the show starting on time seemed to throw everyone off.

Fulgor seems to have disappeared from the King/Kong storyline and the idea now is Kong is teaming with the evil Skayde team.

No word was given why Hannya the Ghost was not on this show. I’m not sure why I’m writing this sentence, but Dragon Gate’s Takuma Fujiwara wrestled early that day on a NOAH show. Fujiwara is expected back in Mexico soon. Getting back to relevant material, Big Lucha said that 12/02 show would be its final one of their year, so the Hannya/Radioactivo match is off indefinitely unless Mas Lucha or someone else is running their own show in Bandido’s Gym.

Don’t like using Maximo, wouldn’t be using Maximo right now.

Bandido beat Rush on Friday’s AEW Rampage and will face Ethan Page on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite. He’s unlikely to win that match. AEW also officially announced Bandido’s signing Friday night.

A past version of me would’ve been mostly concerned with how Bandido is going to fit in with AEW, and how he can find success, and what’s his chance of being lost on a Dark show. Of late, I find myself more pragmatically being happy for Bandido getting three years of contract no matter what happens during it I feel much the same about Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wild and Cruz del Toro over in WWE. I hope everyone does great, but I’m more concerned with people getting paid closer to what their worth, and signing with this company gets all of them closer. And Bandido will still be wrestling outside of AEW, so we’re still should see plenty of good matches with him.

WXW announced Komander for their WXW 16 Carat Gold tournament, March 10-12. That’ll be his first trip to Europe.

El Grafico has an interview with occasional Big Lucha wrestler El Mexicano, about the famous photo he appears in. He’s the baby a masked La Briosa is feeding on the cover of Lourdes Grobet’s Espectacular de Lucha Libre photo book. His father (the original El Mexicano/Halcon 78) was an office worker and programmer for AAA for many years, and this Mexicano is training wrestlers at Bandido’s Gym.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 11/13/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, IWRG]
1) Paymon, Spider Fly, Stelaris b Kenji, Limbo, Súper Boy 
2) Lolita b Mary Caporal [IWRG IC WOMEN, quarterfinal]  
3) Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr., Dr. Cerebro b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. 
win via foul, setting up a title match
4) Galeno del Mal, Hell Boy, Rocky Casas b Hijo De Canis Lupus, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Relámpago  
Hell Boy beat Pirata Morgan to set up an IWRG Rey del Ring title
5) Diva Salvaje & Jessy Ventura b Bugambilia & Máximo  
win via fouls. Maximo and Pimpinela will appear on Thursday’s show.
6) Dick Angelo 3G & Puma de Oro b Aster Boy & Tonalli 
Tonalli and Aster Boy had issues. Tonalli signed a mask match contract for IWRG’s 60th Anniversary show but Puma de Oro refused to sign.

It looks like IWRG’s heading to a December mask match with maybe all four people for this main event, which at least explains why the feud has run in place for so long. In the meantime, if you’re in Naucalpan and search around, you may be able to find a contract to wrestle Tonalli in a mask match. Tonalli is hinting that he’s going to CMLL as soon as the match happens, and his appearance in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara makes that plausible.

The IWRG Retro show went up on Friday. Those two matches that I said were unseen matches were definitely unseen matches. Also I found out I did have them in the luchadb, just labeled wrong. One had a wrong spelling, one had a wrong participant in the match.

IWRG also put up last Saturday’s Mexico City show complete on YouTube.

Other News

Puebla luchador el Caudillo (Roberto Hernández García de la Cadena, 24) passed away Friday. He was honored in a retirement show on a September show in Tehuacan, which Mas Lucha reposted following his passing. No cause of death is mentioned. I saw that clip of the farewell skimming through that show previously and I was dumbstruck to find out he was only 24; whatever illness he’d been battling left him moving like a much older man. That’s a sad situation

A free show in San Luis Potosi will honor Dos Caras on 11/19. Alberto and Cinta de Oro have been pushing this for a couple of weeks, I keep waiting for a card to turn up and none has.

TJ Boy talked to El Sol de Tijuana about his first year about being commissioner of lucha libre in Tijuana. No great scoops, but I didn’t know Fobia (Nicho’s brother) was also on the commission.

The local promotion in La Joya, Guanajuato hasn’t run a show since September. Local officials recommended they stop until they were better certified in first aid. They’ve got that certification but are waiting until January to resume.

A story about the past and decline of lucha libre in Panama.

A column wishing Arena Aficion was like the old days.

Queretaro’s Ursus talks about his career and mentions he also runs a pizarria.