Arena Coliseo 80th Anniversary, WRLD on Lucha

CMLL

CMLL (SAT) 04/01/2023 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL, ESTO]
***Arena Coliseo 80th Aniversario***
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Minos  
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit b La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis  
3) Rey Samuray b Crixus, Ángel Rebelde, Max Star, Tonalli, Brillante Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Vaquero Jr., Multy, Neón [Torneo Nueva Generacion]  
Order of elimination: Multy (by Max Star), Max Star (Brillante Jr.), Tonalli (Vaquero Jr.), Crixus (Stuka Jr.), Neon (Angel Rebelde), Brillante Jr. (Rey Samuray), Neon (Crixus), Crixus (Vaquero Jr.), Vaquero Jr. (Rey Samuray) leaving Rey Samuray as the winner. He had a new look mask.
4) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón b Felino, Satánico, Virus  
5) Ángel de Oro, Místico, Soberano Jr. b Averno, Templario, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
Mistico’s latest idea: a three apuesta way match with him, Averno, and Volador

This show drew exceptionally. The lower bowl was sold out in advance, which hasn’t happened in Arena Coliseo in many years. CMLL’s beauty shot of the attendance doesn’t show the top deck completely, but you hardly ever see the top two levels in use and they’re pretty full. The most recent capacity number known for Arena Coliseo is 5,250 and I would guess 5,000 for this show. (ESTO has it as 6,000) This was more a special show rather than a special lineup/ I thought CMLL should’ve done more. It turned out they did enough.

CMLL’s also doing a bit where they’ll put the show up on YouTube if their Instagram post gets 5,000 likes. It was about 500 short last I checked. No one in wrestling asking for likes has ever not ended up doing the thing anyway; it’ll probably go up next weekend.

 

Salvador Lutteroth Lomeli did a number of short (2 minutes-ish) press interviews at the show to promote it. Maybe the most notable thing he said was they planned on celebrating the 100th Arena Coliseo, suggesting they will keep running here for the foreseeable future. It’s not like they will mention something negative on an Anniversary show, but that’s a more positive outlook on Arena Coliseo than usual.

This show made the cover of Box y Lucha 3545.

CMLL (SUN) 04/02/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Retro b Cholo [lightning]
2) Astral, Cachorro, Diamond b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Luciferno, Magia Blanca, Rugido b El Coyote, Pegasso, Stigma [Relevos Increíbles]
Team Luciferno took 2/3.
4) Valiente & Valiente Jr. b El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Stuka Jr.
Valientes took 1/3.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring b Euforia, Mephisto, Niebla Roja
Tecnicos took 2/3.
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Rocky Romero b Atlantis Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr., Titán
Rudos took 2/3.

Rocky returning with a win is the most notable thing on this show.

AAA

AAA did air the 2nd half of NWA/AAA show this week. I haven’t seen it yet; I know I have one match on the first airing and maybe the other parts in the second half. They did air a bunch of vignettes and I’ll try to catch up on those Wednesday.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 04/02/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Súper Boy b Kenji  
2) Hip Hop Man, Karaoui, Shocko b Baby Star, Jhon Tito, Spider Fly   
Baby Star left the match early due to medical issues. IWRG wrestlers ran off the GIR team after the match.
3) León Dorado b Imposible 
mask challenges followed.
4) Asterboy & Hell Boy b Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. 
Later, Hellboy and Hip Hop Man agreed to a match where Hellboy put the IWRG MEXICO championship on the line, but Hip Hop Man must dress up as Excelsa (an Argentinean comedy character on Mexican TV)
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. b Hijo de Canis Lupus & Travis Banks 
Travis Banks replaced Gianni Valetta
6) Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Morgana, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. b Pig Decapitador, Pig Desenterrador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor  
Morgana rebuffed Pig Destroyer’s romantic advances; Morgana fouled him and got the win

They’re really all in on the Hip Hop Man group as lead (regular) heels. Attendance seemed better than the last few shows. Guerra de Golfo is the next big event.

Other Notes

GCW (SAT) 04/01/2023 Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California [thecubsfan, Voices of Wrestling, Zona Ruda]
1) Jack Cartwheel b El Mago, Willie Mack, Bobby Flaco, Jimmy Lloyd, Shane Mercer
2) Dulce Tormenta b Sexy Star
3) Cíclope (Indie) & Miedo Extremo b Bestia 666 & Damián 666
4) Aramis, Komander (Indie), Rey Horus b Arez, Black Taurus (Indie), Látigo
5) Negro Casas b Tony Deppen
6) Gringo Loco (Indie) b Psycho Clown
7) Hijo Del Vikingo b Laredo Kid

This was a good show and somehow that ended up being a disappointment. The Wrld on Lucha was on Day 2 of WrestleMania weekend last year, going up against multiple other events including what turned out to be the first AEW ROH show. It ended up on Day 3 this year with no competition. The problem was it was Day 3 of a long weekend and the luchadors are now the guys carrying a lot of shows on Day 1 and 2. It left this event as one where many guys were trying to get through their last tough match of the weekend. Those who stood out the best had worked the least; I don’t think Tormenta and Star had worked in Los Angeles previously this weekend and they got a lot of time for an “let’s just do everything” sort of match that went well. There were a vocal group of latino fans flirting with Sexy Star before the match, but the crowd largely didn’t know either and the women won that crowd over. Psycho Clown too didn’t wrestle much this weekend, so was fresh to have a crazy hardcore brawl with Gringo Loco, who snuck out a win with a cradle in the end while also bleeding a ton. Vikingo/Laredo was more a story telling match (“Laredo has Vikingo’s number”) than Vikingo doing a lot of crazy stuff. It was pretty good, but didn’t touch their best work. The trios match was the same. I liked Casas/Deppen better than Casas/Ultimo Dragon, though obviously the latter meant a lot more to the fans. The scramble was fine, the tag match was fine. This just had a sleeper chance of being the best show of the weekend and had to settle for being one of the better shows of the weekend because everyone was kinda done. It’s still easily worth watch at FITE+ prices.

I spotted WWE’s Angel Garza, Humberto Carrillo and Cruz del Toro (ex-Jinzo) at this show. There may have been others; this show felt packed and it was hard to see who was all there. This was the only GCW show I went to on the weekend, so maybe Spring Break or Bloodsport had more people but it’s hard to believe they could fit more people into that building.

WWE and UFC will be one company by the end of the year, as announced today. Vince McMahon will officially be back in charge of the wrestling portion, though he’d quietly reasserted some level of control there over the last few months. No one knows exactly how this is going to play out but everyone can have a guess. My hunch is this will lead to a heavier push into a base in Mexico and more aggressive competition against both CMLL and AAA.

Saturday’s Arena Lopez Mateos show isn’t particularly interesting on paper. The card completely changed, they ended up with a Wagners/Traumas/NGD main event, it seemed to draw pretty and the results are unimportant. It did get some attention because of multiple fights in the crowd during the fan. Mas Lucha has a video showing the fights while decrying them; they later turned the video private. La Tijera has a glimpse of one of them. Skirmishes in the crowd during a lucha libre match are uncommon but do happen, there just seemed to be more of them than usual on this show.

A viral video from Saturday shows the aftermath of Shocker getting into a fight with a fan and trying to get away while the police get involved. Shocker was reportedly drunk.

Box y Lucha reports Bolivian luchadora Carla Greta (25) passed away on Monday.