Vaquer & Zeuxis new Occidente tag champs, Vikingo/Omega tonight

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 03/21/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora  
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio b Astral, Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial  
Apocalipsis, Cholo, and Disturbio seem to be a regular trio
3) Raider, Tonalli, Vaquero Jr. b Brillante Jr., Neón, Valiente Jr.  
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. TLDRAW Dark Panther [lightning]  
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b Felino, Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III  
6) Atlantis, Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Averno, Gran Guerrero, Templario  
Mistico wore a Perro Aguayo Jr. tribute mask (he passed away eight years ago the same day)

I tried to watch this show, but I also tried to get some support on why certain things with luchadb aren’t working (related: luchadb it hasn’t updated for most of the day), and neither quite worked out. Match 3 sounded promising if not perfect, the lightning match was pretty good, minis were their usual level. Hopefully I’ll catch it later

There have been other Perro Aguayo Jr. tributes the last few days, but it just feel like SEO stuff – the same stories that have been told before and no new info – so I haven’t been bothering to link them here. It’s good he’s still being remembered.

Cholo, Apocalipsis, and Disturbio did another group promo, just waiting for a name.

CMLL (TUE) 03/21/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, thecubsfan]
1) Quimera & Valkiria b Dulce Kity, Náutica, Sexy Sol, La Misteriosa, Nexy, Gema Andrade, La Magnifica, Atenea [cibernetico] 
10 women cibernetico where the final two wrestlers would form the eight team in the OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG tournament. Seeding battle royal set sides as Dulce Kitty, Nautica, Sexy Sol, Quimera, La Misteriosa vs Nexy, Valkyria, Gema Andrade, La Magnifica, Atenea.
2) Quimera & Valkiria NF Hera & Olympia [Occidente WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal] 
All eight teams came to the ring as a presentation before the official start of the tournament. The match ran about a minute before Sugehit, Isis, Marcela, Metalica all ran in on the match, telling the women involved to lead. It appears this wasn’t a scheduled first round match and the match stoppage was a way of figuring it. (There wasn’t a seeding battle royal or a bracket.)
3) Princesa Sugehit & Reyna Isis b Marcela & Metálica [Occidente WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal] 
4) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis b Hera & Olympia [Occidente WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal] 
5) La Catalina & La Maligna b Amapola & Tiffany [Occidente WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal] 
6) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Quimera & Valkiria [Occidente WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal] 
7) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis b La Catalina & Maligna [Occidente WOMEN TAG, semifinal] 
8) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Princesa Sugehit & Reyna Isis [Occidente WOMEN TAG, semifinal] 
9) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis b La Jarochita & Lluvia [Occidente WOMEN TAG, final] 
Vaquer & Zeuxis become the first champions.

I could’ve used a whiteboard to explain this one.

• CMLL Guadalajara advertised 12 for this tournament
• Five of them didn’t end up being teams; they all just got put in a cibernetico
• The last two and the seven remaining teams had a normal single elimination tournament
• except CMLL tournaments usually have battle royals to set the bracket and this just had a never explained bracket
• never explained even to the people in the bracket, so two teams started wrestling and then were told to stop wrestling because that wasn’t the first round match

I zoom through this but Vaquer & Zeuxis looked like they were hitting people hard in their matches so that might be fun. Vaquer & Zeuxis are a fun team but I’m not sure the point of having two tag titles when it’s generally the same people who will be competing for both; this title would have more of a purpose if this was a women’s tag title just for the likes of people competing in the cibernetico. But CMLL is just not good at title belts.

I wrote something along the lines of “they run 52 shows here a year so why not run a women’s show ever so often, it’s not like the attendance ever changes.” Well, attendance changed; it was noticeably lower than usual, like what it looks like for the Sunday sold show that happen here occasionally. It also seemed like people left earlier, just weren’t interested in hanging around to see who won. I still think it’s worth mixing in a women’s show ever so often for variety’s sake and to keep the men’s headliners a little fresher, but this concept on it’s own didn’t work.

CMLL (SAT) 03/25/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Pequeño Violencia & Pierrothito
2) Cachorro, Eléctrico, Leono vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Astral vs Halcón Suriano Jr. [lightning]
4) Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma vs Magnus, Rugido, Zandokan Jr.
5) Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Valiente vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
6) Soberano Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Yota

Main event Yota. The Unnamed Polvora Project (UPP, not a real name) is back together in the semi-main. Rey Samuray and Zandokan fill in on trios. Apolo, Cholo and Disturbio continue their group in the second match.

CMLL Informa today has the Zeuxis & Vaquer (new tag champs), Volador & Princesa Sugehit (H2L), Yota (returning) and the Okumura, Coyote, Polvora trio. Maybe they’ll get a name? That Vaquer interview will be her first sitdown one since the Cuatrero situation became public, though I’d be stunned if was discussed.

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo is wrestling Kenny Omega tonight on AEW Dynamite. Not sure if you heard.

On some level, there’s pressure on Vikingo (and Omega) to deliver an incredible match people are going to be disappointed if it’s only “great.” (There are also a loud but few voices who already will be performatively disappointed.) I think it’s going to go fine; Vikingo doing normal Vikingo things will win over the crowd who hasn’t seen him much or at all. There have been some Mexican wrestling matches on the US indies over the last few years where I’ve thought the wrestlers did good with some obvious problems, then checked the internet reaction to see people raving about it. The mistakes become more important to people who see it a lot, the people who haven’t seen it are just blown away by the successes they didn’t see coming. I think Vikingo is going to try to be as close to perfect as possible, but he’ll be fine even if he doesn’t reach that mark.

I noted here previously when AAA was slow to promote Komander and other AAA appearances in AEW. That is much different this time; they are all in on pushing this Omega/Vikingo match, hyping that up as much as if it was happening on one of their own shows. I don’t know they have ulterior motives (AAA’s a bit overdue on the full card for the 04/16 TripleMania Monterrey show) but it’s good to see the promotions working together.

Other

Komander faces Joey Janela on 04/22 in New Jersey for the GCW Extreme Championship. Truly, the man from the heavens versus the man from New Jersey.

Mas Lucha posted a tease for their upcoming Ruleta Suicida tournament, mentioning that the fans will decide who advances. I guess we’re voting for who we’d like to see unmasked, which could be weird – are people going to vote for the most famous wrestler to get unmasked? The worst? It also changes how the tournament works behind the scenes: normal ruleta suicida tournaments have one person who’s losing their mask and seven people who not, and this is eight people who all have to agree they’re willing to unmask if the fans vote a certain way.

Extasis posted his social media information and wrote about “the start of a new story”, which is another way of saying he’s joined Action Jackson and Elemental in leaving Big Lucha. There’s one other name that’s been mentioned who said they’re leaving privately but not publically yet (and it’s indie wrestling so everyone may be back working with each other in three months.)

A story on the Arizona State University lucha libre exhibit.