Atlantis Jr. advances in CMLL Universal tournament, Vikingo’s opponents announced, Marcelo match in trouble?

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/07/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Quadratin, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, thegladiatores.com]
1) Acero, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Minos, Pequeño Polvora  
9:47
2) La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b La Jarochita, Lluvia, Sanely  
12:02. Zeuxis beat Jarochita with some outside help from Vaquer. Tecnicas demanded a rematch for next week.
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma   
14:07.
4) Panterita del Ring Jr., Templario, Titán b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Niebla Roja [Relevos Increíbles]   
19:00
5) Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero [lightning]  
9:11
6) Atlantis Jr. b Místico, Rocky Romero [CMLL Universal, semifinal]   
22:34. Atlantis Jr. bled during the match. All three in the ring elimination rules. Rocky unmasked Mistico but Mistico kicked out, got his mask back, and beat Rocky with La Mistica. Mistico immediately ran into La Atlantida, giving Atlantis Jr. the submission win. Atlantis advances to the final on April 28th.

I really don’t like the “one person gets eliminated, then someone else gets eliminated” bit CMLL does, and they do it too often, but the main event was pretty good. The show was pretty good. Maybe the minis was the weakest match but it was still watchable. Match 4 was really good and continued the Templario/Dragon Rojo feud. Rey Samuray looked good in a big Friday test. The woman’s feud seems to be working.

CMLL had a big crowd for this show and knew it. I want to guess 10,000 but I’m bad at guessing these. The crowd was into the show, though I’m thinking the uptick may have been more to the holiday weekend than any of the matches booked. It’s strange that the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show was the only ‘down’ show of the recent stretch.

CMLL (SAT) 04/08/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Grako, Nitro, Raider b Neón, Robin, Sangre Imperial
3) Reyna Isis DQ Lluvia [lightning]
Lluvia DQed for shoving referee Olimpico
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Valiente Jr., Volcano b Difunto, Furia Roja (Jalisco), Zandokan Jr.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Mephisto b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Yota
6) Panterita del Ring Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Rocky Romero, Último Guerrero
Volador escaped the Diablo Armbar and gave Romero a powerbomb for the win. Volador demanded a NWA WELTER title match, Rocky said he could get it – if Volador beats him next Saturday in DC on the NJPW US show.

I like Volador’s chances. That match next Saturday’s been changed due to other card issues. It’ll be Rocky Romero, Chuck Taylor, The DKC, Lio Rush, and Clark Connors vs Volador Jr., Mike Bailey, Gabriel Kidd, Kevin Knigth and KUSHIDA. Romero talked about wanting to run a show with CMLL, NJPW, AEW and Impact, and they’re all in that one match. Volador will team with El Desperado versus Kevin Knight and Delirious on Sunday.

CMLL (SUN) 04/09/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado b Micro Ángel, Mije, Periquito Sacaryas
2) Neón b Valiente Jr. [lightning]
3) Crixus, Magia Blanca, Magnus b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Cancerbero, Felino Jr., Virus b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Atlantis, Panterita del Ring, Valiente b Felino, Rey Bucanero, Yota
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Titán b Dragón Rojo Jr., Rocky Romero, Stuka Jr.

Not much going on. Romero went from winning all his matches to losing most of them, which sure seems like his time here is closer to the end than the start. Crixus isn’t a Depredador but he felt part of the group in the post-match promo. He trains with those guys so it’s really more about making it official.

CMLL (TUE) 04/11/2023 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy vs Full Metal, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Retro vs Sangre Imperial [lightning]
3) La Guerrera, La Maligna, Skadi vs Amapola, Hera, Reyna Isis
4) Dark Panther vs Zandokan Jr. [lightning]
5) El Audaz, Star Black, Valiente vs Cancerbero, Rey Bucanero, Virus
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Octagón vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota

This is not an appetizing card but I’m locked in on that Dark Panther/Zandokan match. Dark Panther has good lightning matches with everyone and we’re going to learn a lot about how good Zandokan can be right now.

CMLL (FRI) 04/14/2023 Arena México
1) Angelito vs Pierrothito [lightning]
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Sanely vs La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
3) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Rugido [lightning]
4) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Ángel de Oro vs Templario, Panterita del Ring Jr., Sagrado, Fugaz, Esfinge, Magia Blanca, Dulce Gardenia, Rey Cometa, Espíritu Negro [CMLL Universal, semifinal]

This is the National Champions block; we’ll have to wait and see if Angel de Oro gets his wish to be in both this and the world title block. I’m still thinking Templario here. Angel de Oro and maybe Rey Cometa are the other ones who seem like they have a shot. The fourth match should be solid (though is Titan ever going back to NJPW?) Maya/Rugido is a good test for Rugido. The women’s match is probably setting up a tag title match next week. Angelico vs Pierroth should be fine.

AAA

AAA TV (SAT) 04/08/2023 Auditorio Miguel Barragan, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí [AAA]
1) Jack Cartwheel b Mini Vikingo, Fulgor, Baby Extreme
Jack Cartwheel was added to the match, won, and got beat up by the Vipers (Tormetna, Ciber, Psiscosis, latigo and Abismo Negro Jr.)
2) Chik Tormenta, Látigo, Psicosis II b Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown
Psicosis II replaced Toxin (injury). Vipers survived the Fiesta Sorpera to win.
3) Puma King b Mr. Iguana [lumberjack]
Guest referee La Hiedra helped Iguana win, then Konnan overturned the decision.
4) Dalys & Negro Casas b Argenis & Toscano
changed to a 2v2 match, Casas won, Hiedra attacked Dalys.
5) Dralistico, Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid DQ Antifaz del Norte, Dinámico, Gringo Loco
Antifaz unmasked Laredo Kid for the DQ. Dinamico replaced Flamita (GLEAT).
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernético, Taurus b Damián 666, Pentagón Jr., Psicosis I
Psicosis I was a surprise replacement for Daga (injury), but they lost due to the Vipers interfering

I don’t believe even AAA knows when this show is airing; they may have a date in mind, but it may not be set. It’ll definitely air after TripleMania Monterrey, when the Laredo Kid/Antifaz bit may be way out of date. They honored Perro Aguayo Jr. during the show and then used that to get heat on the Vipers by beating up the remaining Los Perros at the end.  Semi-main still sounds the best; I still can’t believe Dralisitco made it here, but he has the Instagram photos to prove it. Even with him making it, five out of six matches changed.

AAA’s show in Acapulco on Saturday drew appeared to draw as poorly as the December show. I hope they’re sold shows. Maybe that’s even a credit to Alberto and the others who appeared because it should’ve been worse with a lesser card. (On the other hand, this was on a Saturday, and the last one was on a Wednesday.) The building indicated AAA would be back again in December.

AAA apparently has a Mega title match for TripleMania. Early Monday morning, FITE put up a listing for the Monterrey show with Vikingo defending against Komander, Rich Swann, and Shane Strickland. AAA themselves hadn’t announced the match, but it seems official. It could be AAA’s waiting for some promos to be sent to them;  that’s what they did the last time they threw together a mega title match in Monterrey with people who hadn’t appeared in AAA. You can buy the standalone show on FITE, or you can get all three shows for 60 USD (saving 9 USD) in a package deal. TripleMania is listed as a 6 pm CDT start time. AAA’s tickets have said 4:30 pm local (CST), so that seems about right.

Rich Swann wrestled for the Mega championship on the 2018 Mexico City TripleMania. That was a situation where the title was going from Jeff Jarrett to Fenix, AAA didn’t believe a singles match between the two would be good, so they just added some random other people. Swann also appeared in the 2019 Lucha Capital tournament and holds a win over Hijo del Vikingo from 2019 Impact TV. Impact has a PPV the same day as TripleMania Monterrey and I’m surprised Rich Swann is available. Shane Strickland worked the opener of that same 2018 Mexico City TripleMania; the AAA special of a bunch of guys doing big moves and then a heel group attacking them all after the match. Strickland had an amusingly bad spot during the match and was otherwise fine. My impression is non-Mexican fans are generally happy with these names; Strickland is seen as someone really good in AEW but not doing much there, so getting a match with Vikingo is a big deal. The news hasn’t really reached Mexico, the expectations there have been Omega/Ibushi levels of names, and these guys aren’t on that level. Even Komander hasn’t been pushed as a Mega championship-caliber star in AAA until this match. Komander is no more important than Octagon Jr. or Myzteziz Jr. in AAA’s booking, he’s in this spot because he got over in a bunch of match that the regular AAA fan probably did not see and only may have heard about. The match is going to be great, it’s enough to get Vikingo curious people to seek out the show, but the live reactions to the match might need some help.

My own thought is I don’t want to see fourways with no build for the top title in a promotion. Strickland/Vikingo would’ve been fine, even though it would’ve been weird not to see Komander on this show. But I think I’m in the minority there.

Adrian Marcelo versus Chessman is in some sort of peril. Marcelo quitting his licensing exam on Wednesday was a real event, not planned by AAA or Marcelo as part of this story, and that’s the peril. I believe AAA still wants to run that match, and this strict Monterrey commission isn’t going to look the other way for someone wrestling without a license. Marcelo will be at TripleMania Monterrey and I’m not sure what exactly happens beyond that. I believe AAA’s stopped promoting the match because they don’t yet have a solution, and announcing Marcelo wrestling until they have a solution will cause the commission to blow up on them and everything will spiral into a bigger mess.  I think we might not know what’s happening with that match until it happens.

In addition, the Nuevo Leon prosecutor’s office said they’re investigating the accusations against Adrian Marcelo. This would be a great time to cut AAA’s losses and move on, but they don’t have a big attraction for this TripleMania show without Marcelo.

The FITE listing also has Hijo de LA Park listed in the Copa Triplemania Monterrey vs Mexico City 5v5 tag match. It probably wasn’t ever supposed to be a ‘mystery’, but listing Hijo de LA Park would’ve given away LA Park’s addition later in the press conference.

AAA’s TV usually starts with highlights of the previous action – some matches, some vignettes. The show from two weeks ago started including Estrellita talking on the phone about joining a group Pagano was forming and the Vipers taunting Arez before a show. The Estrellita bit aired back on the military show. The Arez/Vipers bit had never aired; AAA showed a flashback of something they never aired in the first place. This week’s show kicked off with the graphics misidentifying the people on screen. It’s just AAA.

Anyway, last week’s AAA TV had a bit of Pagano (using a cane to get around and still looking to be in some pain) asking Charly Manson to join his new group. Charly accepted the offer, so add him to Estrellita to this potential group. The NWA/AAA matches were moreover in the week one but not memorable; maybe Flammer/Kamille was the best. Crowd didn’t care about Daga/Tyrus at all before the injury. The announcers loudly claiming Tyrus was a pop culture figure in the US and hyping him appearing on “Gutfeld!” to an audience of Mexican rock fans who just wanted the wrestling to end so they could go see the next concert was amusing. Tyrus was the NWA guy in the NWA/AAA match but also somehow the face, so they had him wave the AAA flag after his win.

This week’s AAA show also included a two-minute interview with Jose Manuel Guillen and Hip Hop Man to get his character. I’m not sure Hip Hop Man is booking again in AAA any time soon. There was also a vignette with Pentagon Jr. showing his truck had been defaced by a mystery attacker. AAA got cold feet about that one. It’s clear in the video that someone wrote “puto” on the truck, and AAA’s tried (and didn’t completely succeed) to blur it out.

Space is airing part of TripleMania on Sunday; the commercial doesn’t list a start time, but it’ll probably end up being the last half of the show as usual. It appears they’re not airing any AAA on Saturday, though their schedule often changes during the week.

In an interview promoting Luchatitlan, Dorian Roldan said the next big star of lucha libre will be a woman. The article suggest Lady Shani and La Hiedra as possibilities. This was a throwaway comment to help a writer fill out an article, someone not to think about, but I couldn’t help it. On paper, the next big star of Mexican wrestling as a woman makes sense – it’d be something that hadn’t been done, and the success of Ronda Rousey in MMA suggests it could work huge if the right woman came along. I’m not sure that the right woman is in Mexican wrestling right now, and I’m more skeptical AAA (or CMLL) would push the right person to that level even if they did make themselves obvious. She’d either get run off by lecherous behavior, or plateau as an interesting midcarder who gets nothing to do or get swooped up by WWE before the Mexican promotions got it because those women are the one an aspiring star wants to follow.

This really isn’t connected to that but did you know Kamille has appeared in AAA as often as Taya since their title match at TripleMania Mexico City? Both did the World Cup, Taya did the military show, Kamille did the NWA show.  Two shows for each in the last six months. They might as well have had Kamille win the title at TripleMania, she could’ve defended it with the NWA title. This situation is also a more specific reason why AAA’s next big star won’t be a woman, they’re way too comfortable with just tossing away a year of doing anything with the women they had. The only two women booked on TripleMania Monterrey are in the throwaway ten person tag.

IWRG

AAA , ROSALES (FRI) 04/07/2023 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring]
1) Andressa Del Rey, Ángel de la Muerte, Rey Amon b Calibre, Candela, Estrella Del Ring  
2) Dark Scoria, Golden Jacket, Kinggoo DQ Hellboy, Noisy Boy, Rey Halcón  
3) Lady Shani & Octagón Jr. b Joe Lider & La Hiedra and Galio & Sexy Star  
4) Astuto, Hijo De Dos Caras, Niño Hamburguesa b Kuukai, Nishikawa, Tiago  
5) Taurus b Daimo, Hijo Del Vikingo, Astor  
Joaquin Roldan was rembered before the semimain
6) Alberto el Patrón, Dizzy, Murder Clown b Abismo Negro Jr., Charly Manson, Parka Negra  

This show drew well, which Alberto believed was 100% because of him in an post show interview. The show the next day in Acapulco with Alberto on top tanked, as did the shows he headlined as part of Nacion Lucha Libre. Alberto also declared himself better than 70% of the wrestlers in the WWE Hall of Fame, and demanded HHH let go of their grudges at put him in their Hall of Fame. There was a lot of that sort of stuff in the interview.

The AAA spot shows in Arena Naucalpan always draw well. Promociones Rosales only runs them there once or twice a year, so there must be some other part of the equation that doesn’t work out for them to happen more often.

IWRG (SUN) 04/09/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Rey Astaroth b Águila Roja
2) Dehyna & Satania b Danessa & Sagitarius
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo De Oro Jr.
4) Puma de Oro © b Gannicus [IWRG REY DEL AIRE]
First defense. Puma de Oro still around for a while.
5) Daisuke Sasaki, Gianna Valetta, Hip Hop Man, Karaoui, Kodai Nosaki, Shocko b Asterboy, Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, John Tito, Maniacop 360, Tonalli [Copa High Power]
Cerebro Negro betrayed Team Mexico (and Hell Boy in particular) to give Team World the win.

This didn’t stream after all; Mas Lucha streamed only their own show on Sunday. IWRG says they’ll put it up on their own YouTube channel on Sunday before the next live show.

IWRG didn’t post the losing team’s names in the main event so there could’ve been a sub there.

Other News

Mexico State area luchador Perro de Guerra Jr. (Omar Tacomol Ricardo, 33) passed away this weekend. No cause of death is known, but Guerra wrote about taking a break from wrestling due to some health issues (both physical and mental) back in February. Perro de Guerra Jr. wrestled in a bunch of Mexico state arenas but I’ll always think of him as a regular in Coliseo Coacalco for Lucha Memes the last few years, one of the more constant figures in the promotion over the last few years.

Puebla luchador Gorila Osorio (Raul Osorio, 91) passed away Friday due to “health complications.” He started wrestling in Arena Puebla in the 50s and eventually became a trainer. There’s not a lot of documented 50s/60s Puebla lucha libre history, but he also wrestled in the Mexico City’s Arena Coliseo between 1959 and 1965.

The Lucha Libre Vangaurdia show scheduled for Sunday was canceled a day prior. They said it was due to problems outside of their control, implying the local authorities did something to block it (or at least weren’t supporting them.)

Mas Lucha has the Facebook polls up to vote on which wrestlers should advance in their Torneo Suicida.

• Ultimo Legendario vs Mr. Leo
• Dinastia vs Camaleon
• Dinamic Black vs Dante
• Belial vs Saruman

You don’t necessarily need to watch the show to pick who should advance; you’re just picking which guys you’d think should advance to the next round. You do need to have a Facebook account.

I still have no idea what the voting process is here, but I’ve decided to treat up as an older version of IWRG Tryout and pick which guys I’d most like to see wrestle again. Ultimo Legendario was a nose better than Mr. Leo but I wouldn’t mind seeing either of them again. Dinastia & Camaleon was the opposite; there were a couple of good spots but they were a bad fit for each other. Dinamic Black looked better than Dante, even though Dante got the win with a fake injury spot. Belial looked a lot better than Saruman.

Attendance seemed good in places this week. Arena Lopez Mateos, with a Parks/Traumado main event, seemed close to a full house. Arena Neza, with Psycho Clown, Dr. Wagner, Chessman and Pig Destroyer in the main, seemed to do pretty well. The 2nd New Exotic show in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera seems to have struggled similar to their first show. (Psycho Clown worked that show too; it’s interesting he worked around Mexico City rather than either of the two AAA significant shows they had on Saturday.) The Mas Lucha show at Arena CM didn’t seem to be any special draw for that small building.

Arez replaced Komander against Gringo Loco on the 04/27 Demand Lucha show in Toronto.

DEFY announced Gringo Loco vs Nick Wayne vs Komander vs Arez on 05/05 in Tacoma.

DoradaFan has a Rey Cosmico Jr. music video.