CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 03/03/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, Record, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (video)]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía b Mercurio, Minos, Pierrothito 
10:39. The minis tecnicos are the Pequenno Sky Team or the Mini Sky Team. Minos needed medical help after a Kaligula 450 attempt ended up with his foot hitting Minos’ jaw.
2) La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit 
10:17. Vaquer beat Sugehit. CMLL debut of La Catalina
3) Virus TLDRAW Satánico [lightning]
Mije and KeMonito interfered. After the match, “Ghostface” from Scream appeared to lead into a trailer for the upcoming movie.
4) Futuro, Historico, Max Star, Neón, Tonalli, Vegas b Adrenalina, Ángel Rebelde, Crixus, Explosivo, Fantástico, Vaquero Jr. [Torneo de Escuelas, final] 
29:24. CDMX vs Guadalajara. Historico replaced Principe (COVID positive) on Thursday. Order of elimination: Historico (via Fantastico), Adrenalina (Futuro), Neon (Vaquero Jr.), Explosivo (Max Star), Max Star (Crixus), Fantastico (Tonalli), Futuro (Crixus), Vaquero Jr. (Vegas), Crixus (Tonalli), Vegas (Angel Rebelde), Tonalli (Angel Rebelde), leaving Angel Rebelde as the winner for team Guadalajara. The team members and Satanico all got medals.
5) Soberano Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario [lightning]
8:43. Soberano seemed to be dealing with a lower back injury.
6) Ángel de Oro, Místico, Volador Jr. DQ Atlantis Jr., Oráculo, Rocky Romero [Relevos Increíbles]
10:25. straight falls. Rocky fouled Volador and taunted him again. Angel de Oro high fived each other. Atlantis Jr. also challenged Mistico and two briefly followed.
The schools match was the best of the night once again. I liked the one on the previous Friday before, though that might be because that one surprised me and this one I knew that I was getting into. Both are worth watching. Soberano seemed banged up in his match and that wasn’t much. The women’s match went fine (and the foreigners keep winning.) Virus & Satanico was good but they also had Mije & KeMonito out there to give Satanico some rest breaks.
Tonalli was limping for the last few minutes of the match. He was stretchered out, but CMLL now stretchers out anyone with any injury. Tonalli says he’ll be out at least a week recovering.
La Catalina’s WWE stint was not long or super notable, but because she had that ex-WWE stamp (and because that’s more novel in CMLL), there was a bit of extra media attention on her debut. She did fine and indicated she’ll be around CMLL more.
CMLL has promoted movies before – there was once a free show in Arena Mexico promote a Hulk movie, with Rey Bucanero wrestling as the Hulk and Terrible as the Abomination (no photos sorry) – but this Scream promotion came off stranger than usual. It wasn’t clear it was meant to be a non-wrestling thing when the Ghostface figure came out up until the trailer started to play. It also added about five minutes onto the longest show in months. (Although a ‘long show’ by CMLL standards is 2h30m, much shorter than a long show anywhere else. I’m writing most of this post on Saturday night because of how long another promotion is surely going to go.)
CMLL (SAT) 03/04/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado b Chamuel, Micro Ángel, Periquito Sacaryas
Gemelo Diablo II is back
2) Hera, Olympia, Tiffany b La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita
3) El Felino Jr., Kráneo, Pólvora b Capitán Suicida, Hombre Bala Jr., Volcano
Volcano replaced Fuego (moved up.) Rudos took advantage of a friendly fire tope between Bala & Volcano to get the win.
4) El Coyote b Fuego [lightning]
Fuego replaced Dulce Gardenia, and lost to a mask pull.
5) Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Oráculo DQ Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr.
Angel de Oro fouled Oraculo
Just a normal Saturday show.
CMLL (SUN) 03/05/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Pequeño Violencia
2) Leono, Retro, Sangre Imperial b Dr. Karonte I, Inquisidor, Príncipe Odín Jr.
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Flyer, Robin, Volcano
4) Pólvora b Fugaz [lightning]
5) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Black b Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Rey Bucanero
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Rocky Romero DQ Ángel de Oro, Oráculo, Templario
straight falls, Dragon Rojo unmasking Templario for the DQ.
Standard stuff here as well.
Today’s Puebla show has two title matches; a title match would be a surprise in either case.
CMLL (TUE) 03/07/2023 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Polvora
3) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi vs Amapola, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
4) Star Black vs Akuma [lightning]
5) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
6) Esfinge, Panterita del Ring Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Oráculo, Rocky Romero
Rocky and Orcaulo haven’t worked too many Tuesday Arena Mexico shows. The poster lists the tecnico minis as Mini Sky Team; they were Pequeno Sky team on Friday.
CMLL (TUE) 03/07/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Eclipse Jr. vs Black Boy, Mortis, Thunder Boy
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel vs Obelisk, Raven, Temerario
3) Kimy, La Catalina, Nexy vs Hera, Olympia, Valkiria
4) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
5) El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin vs Arlequín, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Atlantis Jr. & Último Guerrero vs Capitán Suicida & Dark Panther [Relevos Increíbles]
Main event Capitan Suicida = someone really liked FantasticaMania. Semimain follows the feud from Arena Coliseo Mexico City.
CMLL (FRI) 03/10/2023 Arena México
1) Cachorro, Leono, Sangre Imperial vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
2) Diamond, Oro Jr., Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider
3) Felino Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma vs Capitán Suicida, Dark Panther, Hijo del Villano III [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Lluvia vs Stephanie Vaquer [lightning]
5) Oráculo, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Rocky Romero [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Místico vs Atlantis Jr. [lightning]
I can’t recall ever seeing a lightning match as a main event. I guess they’re saving the real signles match for another day, but it’s still strange.
Semi-main is one last build-up trios. Vauqer and Lluvia follows the recent women’s matches. The bottom half of the card is a bit random but they could be setting up Suicida/Stigma again. This is fine for a pre-major show card.
Ex-Arena Puebla luchador Toro Bill (Jose Roberto Rosete, 59) passed away this past weekend. A post on Facebook mentions he suffered from an extended illness. Toro Bill wrestled as a rudo in Arena Puebla from at least 1987 to 2010, including hair matches with El Jabato (current Arena Puebla head Manuel Robles), Mascarita Magica (Fire), Furia Chicago and Leono. His son, Toro Bill Jr., passed away suddenly last year.
He was active on indie shows as recently as December.
AAA
AAA TV , NWA (SAT) 03/04/2023 Foro Sol, Iztacalco, Distrito Federal [ESTO (part 1), ESTO (part 2), ESTO (part 3)]
1) Komander & Octagón Jr. b Cyon & Homicide
2) Arez & La Hiedra b Aron Stevens & Natalia Marakova
3) Kerry Morton © b Sal The Pal, Jack Cartwheel [NWA JH]
4) Kamille © b Flammer [NWA WOMEN]
5) Chris Masters, Kratos, Thom Latimer b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón © [AAA TRIOS]
6) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf b Blue Demon Jr. & Vampiro [NWA TAG]
Damian 666 helped La Rebellion often.
7) Psycho Clown b Trevor Murdoch
8) Tyrus © b Daga [NWA HEAVY]
short match, Daga suffered a knee injury
The card order is definitely wrong; they moved some of the last few matches to the first session.
This didn’t seem to be a AAA TV taping on the press conference earlier and then was a TV taping the day of the show. Probably some miscommunication there. The NWA also taped the show, no word on when they’ll air it. Daga suffered a left leg injury in his match serious enough to end it early. There was no word on Saturday about the severity of the injury; it seemed like it will keep him out for a while, but it’s too early to know. Not a lot of thoughts about the other matches.
The big news from the taping was a viral video of Chessman slapping social media personality Adrian Marcelo, who responded by throwing a beer at him. This appears to be a planned bit. Marcelo is both popular and controversial, having been involved in similar incidents in the past and does interviews where he purposefully asks stupid or trolling questions to get a reaction. The idea here is Marcelo went too far on that bit and it got out of control. It seems obviously a plan on Marcelo’s side – the person he takes the beer from is planted in place to be ready for that spot – and I guess there’s the slightest chance Chessman wasn’t in on it. I strongly believe he was. The video most people saw was posted by Roberto Figueroa, who’s job is to promote AAA under the guise of being a real journalist. (He was pushing the “Pagano really got attacked by two guys” angle from a few weeks back.) Once Figueroa posted it, it was clearly an angle. Everyone else is treating the incident as real, including Marcelo posting a video demanding AAA make it right or he’ll sue and AAA posting a statement that they’re looking into it. Media stories covering the incident are also covering it as if it’s real, or as if they don’t know if it’s real.
That media coverage looks silly, because very few fans who are reacting to slap believe it was real. They also jumped to speculating on a Marcelo/Chessman match at one of the TripleManias instead. (Chessman would be a logical AAA pick to help a celebrity through a match; he just worked as a useful opponent for a soldier having a wrestling match on the recent military base taping.) It was still is a great video – even though nearly everyone reacting to it believed it was an angle, they still all reacted to at a huge volume. It follows that Pagano bit as the second nontraditional AAA angle to get that sort of attention. There have been other tries at this lately – Fresero and a musician, Diamante Azul accussing Blue Demon Jr.’s friends of attacking his car’ – and probably more to come. Most of them don’t catch on as well as this one did.
MNI Noticias says the World is a Vampire festival drew 35,000 fans and gave it a strongly positive review. Melo Magazine is positive though a little less so, not happy with the scheduling at times and mostly ignoring the wrestling. Sopitas says the lucha libre was a partial success; the fans generally did not know who the wrestlers were and AAA did not play the commentary over the speakers for the first wrestling session (!), so the fans weren’t into it. They fixed that in session two and fans seemed to enjoy it more.
AAA aired the rest of Rey de Reyes on Saturday. You have to grade AAA on a curve right now. The onscreen viewing experience doesn’t compare to CMLL (either in Mexico or Japan) because of the persistent audio issues, and things like Mr. Iguana’s comedy falls flat when there’s no crowd noise to react to it. Given that context, I thought everyone worked hard in the three matches and they were all in the good range. The opener trios worked a lot better than the lumberjack match back in Queretaro, and Eterno Alacendar did well in his cameo before being finished off. Dalys fit in on the five way women’s match, and the main problem there was there have been so many simliar versions of these matches the last year or two and there was no particular story in this one. (Eliminations would’ve helped both the men’s and women’s matches.) The Sexy Star and Sam Adonis wins made sense in terms of the moves they used, but the endings felt like they were just a product of the rest of the people in the match disappearing after a move on the outside.
Vignettes included a setup for a Chik Tormenta/Lady Shani match in the near future. They didn’t wrestle on the next taping at the military base. They didn’t wrestle on the NWA show. They won’t wrestle on the Lucha Libre World Cup. Maybe they’ll have a singles match on TripleMania Monterrey but a standalone singles women’s match would be unprecedented in recent times.
There’s a 2×1 ticket promotion for the Lucha Libre World Cup, which is standard for AAA big shows.
PWInsider reported Taya is finishing up with Impact Wrestling. Taya’s repeatedly said she’s not actually under contract to anyone, so the only reason for her to finish up with Impact is if she’s signing a contract with someone, like WWE or AEW. Taya is still AAA Reina de Reinas champion, though she hasn’t appeared on AAA TV since TripleMania Mexico City in October. She’ll be back for the Lucha Libre World Cup, but she’s not on the other AAA TV shows. If she’s finishing up (still uncertain!), Taya’s next time to lose the title in AAA would be TripleMania Monterrey on April 16 – except that’s also an Impact PPV date, if she’s still doing those.
(Flammer would get a nice reaction if she won the title from Taya, but I don’t see it as a big harm if it doesn’t happen. Titles don’t mean much in AAA, this specific title has been mostly irrelevant to AAA for years, and life went on the last two times Taya vacated it. Taya vacating a title a third time would make AAA look very silly but I don’t think they care.)
There’s a tribute show for Villano IV on 04/15 in Mexico City. That’s the day before TripleMania Monterrey. Villano IV said he’d retire in January 2023 after his mask loss. There was never a retirement show, but he hasn’t wrestled since Christmas. He is scheduled on some US shows in a couple of weekends.
Stephanie Vaquer & Cuatrero
CMLL’s Stephanie Vaquer filed a criminal complaint against AAA’s Cuatrero over domestic violence recently, according to La Planchitas. The two had been a couple and were public with their relationship for a couple of years. A longer story ran in La Pasala on Sunday, taken from Vaquer’s statement to the police. The incident took place on Thursday and began with a discussion between Vaquero & Cuatrero over who Cuatrero was sending messages to on his phone. It escalated, and Vaquer claims Cuatrero grabbed her by the neck and threw Vaquer into the wall, where a painting also fell off the wall and onto her. (The police report includes photos of bruises on Vaquer’s neck.) Vaquer says she ran to her bedroom, locked the door, and called the police. Cuatrero was gone by the time they arrived. Paramedics treated Vaquer, told her the attack almost broke her trachea and advised Vaquer to file a criminal complaint. The next step in that process is March 10th.
La Pasala asked Cuatrero about the situation at the NWA/AAA show; he said that was his personal life and he would only answer questions about wrestling. Vaquer has not commented on the story but did have a Facebook post on Friday (before her match) calling it one of the most difficult days of her life. A lawyer representing Cuatrero posted a statement reminding the media that Cuatrero has not been proven guilty, complaining about media jumping to conclusions and warning people not to use Cuatrero’s real name or face. (I didn’t know this, but media in Mexico is legally not allowed to use the real name and face of someone who’s only accused of a crime; you can use an alias, a first name and a last initial and/or a blurred photo instead. Calling him Cuatrero in this situation is fine, but you’d be open to a lawsuit if you used his real name in connection to this story.) Neither AAA nor CMLL has commented on the situation.
We’ll likely only hear more about this story if either party wants to talk. Similiar situations have been public when the complaint was filed and then little more gets revealed or resolved. These sorts of criminal records don’t seem to be easily publicly available in Mexico.
Vaquer is right to stand up for herself and go to the authorities if her accusations are true. I’m not sure if she can count on having support from all her fellow luchadors against a member of a famous wrestling family, as both a woman and a foreigner. (No one’s stopped using Maximo after India Sioux made her accusations.) The break in her favor is they’re in different promotions, and I doubt CMLL’s office will hold anything against her for accusing someone who left the promotion on bad terms. I hope this works out the best possible for everyone. I have little confidence it will.
When it came to Alberto, Konnan mentioned on his podcast that he was surprised Alberto didn’t end up in jail or otherwise in trouble for his various incidents, and he wasn’t going to punish Alberto if the authorities had not. My guess is that means AAA will also not take Cuatrero off TV or do anything else themselves; they’ll leave it to the law to sort it out.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 03/05/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Fussion b Eddie Rodríguez [IWRG TRYOUT, semifinal]
2) Gannicus b Haziel [IWRG TRYOUT, semifinal]
3) Hijo del Alebrije b Imposible
4) Eli Isom, Hell Boy, John Tito b Estrella de Oro, Genex, Yorvak
Tryout 2021 vs Tryout 2022. Eli Isom replaced Tonalli (injury)
5) Gannicus b Fussion [IWRG TRYOUT, final]
Gannicus is the 2023 winner.
6) Aramis & Hijo de Canis Lupus b Diva Salvaje & Jessy Ventura and Hijo del Fishman & Hijo del Pirata Morgan
Canis beat Pirata, who kicked out before three.
On Thursday, IWRG’s ring announcers said the Tryout finals would be Sunday and the stream announcers declared would be next Sunday. It turned out to be this Sunday after all. I’ve watched every other match so I’ll probably watch this tomorrow. Gannicus is a bit of a surprise, a person who had some coin toss results that could’ve knocked him out earlier, and I’m a little surprised he won. This show built around the tournament didn’t draw particularly well.
The Hip Hop Man, Shocko, Heddi Karaoui group is now named “Group Internacional Revolucion,” with announcer Adrian Mendoza being onscreen credited with the idea to parody the name of the promotion. The idea is “IWRG” itself is unhappy and threatening to sue.
Aramis, Rey Horus, and Viento had a great match with Black Taurus, Toxin, and Latigo on Saturday in West Coast Pro Wrestling (available on IWTV.) Aramis appeared to pick up an injury in that match, but still ended up wrestling here in IWRG the next day.
Other News
Ciclope & Miedo Extremo lost the GCW Tag Team championships to the Motor City Machine Guns on Sunday. I’m surprised they lost before the Wrld on Lucah show. The Vikingo/Zayne match on Saturday was said to be pretty good.
Shocker says his jaw injury is happening at the end of March. I’ve lost track of how many times that’s supposed to have happened.
Animal Politco has a very good interview with luchadora Miku, who actually was a WWE fan when she was a kid (and she’s only 17 so she’s still really a kid.)
An article about debuting wrestlers in Cuatula, including someone who’s starting in wrestling at age 34.