CMLL
CMLL (MON) 04/10/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Genickbruch]
2) Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II b Black Tiger & El Hijo De Centella Roja
3) Enfermero Jr. b Valiente Jr. [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Samuray, Stigma DQ Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
Zandokan unmasked Stigma
5) Atlantis, Octagón, Titán b Bárbaro Cavernario, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
6) Soberano Jr. b Templario 
Arena Puebla has more of the main event than recent weeks, which is good timing because it seemed and we wouldn’t be able to see any other way. Porra Fresa (and family) went on vacation to Acapulco, so no video from the rest of the show and the undercard results are only because a reader of one of the German wrestling sites sent them in.
CMLL (TUE) 04/11/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Porra Fresa]
1) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy b Full Metal, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia 
2) Sangre Imperial b Retro [lightning]
3) La Guerrera, La Maligna, Skadi DQ Amapola, Hera, Reyna Isis
Amapola DQed for grabbing the referee to stop a count. Seemed to be an unplanned DQ. Maligna’s first match here this year.
4) Dark Panther b Zandokan Jr. [lightning]
5) Cancerbero, Rey Bucanero, Virus b El Audaz, Star Black, Valiente
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Octagón b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota
Atlantis & Octagon won, then asked for a tag title shot!
Atlantis & Octagon is a good marketing idea as a special tag team title match challenge. Maybe too good for a Tuesday, feels like it should be on a better show. As a match, it’s going to be a test to see how good the Chavez are at carrying people. Octagon, Atlantis and Mascara Sagrada were trios champions 32 years ago, the only time they’ve been champs together.
(Next Friday is supposed to be the CMLL champions in the Universal tournament, so Octagon and Atlantis could find their way in at the last second. A title change seems unlikely.)
Dark Panther/Zandokan was a disappointment. Zandokan did a lot of heel stuff and didn’t look as impressive here. This stream had some issues (it’d slow down and get far behind, then go double speed to catch up.) The Friday stream had issues too.
Amapola was so stunned by the DQ. I think that’s the first time they’ve called that in a woman’s match, but the roster is still getting used to that being a rule. Bestia Negra didn’t even seem to realize it was a DQ at first, and I wonder if someone in his earpiece insisted on him calling the DQ.
CMLL (TUE) 04/11/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, thecubsfan]
1) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Hijo del Calavera b Demonio Rojo, Mágico, Metatrón 
2) Atenea, Nexy, Valkiria b Dulce Kitty, Náutica, Sexy Sol
3) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Ráfaga b Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro, Misterioso Jr.
4) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b Crixus, Max Star, Vegas
5) Arlequín, Dulce Gardenia, Gallero b Bestia Negra, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono b Bárbaro Cavernario, Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
Nothing notable as far as angles here. Max Star was said to look good in his match; he did well on the 04/01 Arena Coliseo show as well.
Sagrado and Angel de Oro talked about the Universal tournament. There’s an interview with Panterita del Ring Jr. too, who did Olympic wrestling from the age of 9 always with the plan to go to CMLL one day. The pandemic may have sped that day up; his wrestling gyms were closed during the pandemic, the Arena Mexico one was open, so he started doing lucha libre just to stay active at first.
CMLL (SAT) 04/15/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Minos & Pequeño Polvora
2) La Magnifica vs Olympia [lightning]
3) Flyer, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Rey Samuray vs Difunto [lightning]
5) Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring, Volcano vs Felino, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Valiente vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Rey Samuray vs Difunto could be a thing.
CMLL Informa has Atlantis Jr. (last week’s Universal tournament), Sagrado, Magia Blanca, Panterita del Ring (this week’s Universal tournament), Stuka, Gran Guerrero, Audaz and Hera.
NJPW says they’ll announce the Best of Super Juniors lineup during their April 27th show. I have no inside info, but Titan is a NJPW guy so he should be in it and I think it’s fairly likely Soberano Jr. will be in instead.
AAA
AAA’s poster for the show lists Chessman versus a mystery person. Adrian Marcelo’s silhouette is still on the poster, leading most fans to believe that the match is still happening and AAA is just doing it as a surprise. On Monday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said AAA’s current plan is to run an angle on Sunday and then hold the match at one of the other two TripleManias. I’ve been told there’s a decent chance Marcelo will not appear at all; failing the wrestling test is one thing, but the sexual assault allegations are more concerning to him personally, and he’s being advised to get out of the spotlight for the moment. (He’s been quier on social media outside of Instagram stories, which tend towards picturing him as a nice family man.) AAA themselves probably wants to do an angle with Marcelo and Chessman to keep it going, but they’re not going to go against the commission on this one and they’re going to have to convince Marcelo to show up still. Marcelo’s Multimedios TV show airs on Wednesday nights, and that could clarify the situation. It’s also AAA, so nothing is absolutely certain until they get to the ring.
I don’t think we’ll get a Chessman replacement opponent name until they turn up. The plan is probably to send out a famous name (think Vampiro, don’t think Goldberg) so it’s not a letdown. I’m not sure how those fans are going to react if the some other match happen. I believe the fans all think Marcelo is going to wrestle, they think the AAA is doing some angle to bring him out as a surprise, and a lot of people are going to be surprised if it doesn’t happen. Maybe AAA could mitigate that by saying Marcelo won’t be appearing (if that is the case) but I think those fans would still believe it’s part of the story.
I think the Tijuana or Mexico City commissions may have been more willing to allow Adrian Marcelo in the ring if AAA had gone to them first, but those are both visible commissions and everyone knows Marcelo failed the first test. The dilemma is now to figure out some way to license Marcelo while those groups don’t kill their credibility. (Maybe it’s as simple as another ‘test’, but with no cameras involved.) Marcelo is also more popular in Monterrey than in other cities, and keeping interest in this is going to be hard. I don’t see AAA letting go of this angle, because they really had something at one point, but it’s obviously not a ideal bit.
Dorian Roldan appeared on the Sport Innovation Society podcast. Roldan’s appeared at the SIS conference in Mexico City in recent years. The episode went up on Tuesday, not sure when it was taped.
A lot of the discussion was on introducing AAA and lucha libre to unfamiliar podcasts listeners, and talking about the Luchatitlan project in Cancun. It originally started as Dorian Roldan wanting an AAA arena in Mexico City for years (feeling they could do the same sort of tourist business CMLL does, but better.) As he talked to partners and investors, the idea of running in Cancun came into shape. Luchatitlan is running one show a night, with a plan to expand to running more often once summer starts. Each show has three matches: an exotico/mini/male trios matches, a woman’s mask versus mask match, and a battle between two brothers over who will take over their father’s famous character. (They’re having lucha libre matches, but this is closer to being a stage show or a theatre presentation where they’re running the same story every night.)
The Luchatitlan project originally was scheduled to cost five million dollars to get off the ground. Costs increased during the project, and the final price was closer to ten million due to pandemic-related shortages and other issues. There was a lot of energy and time spent on the project, and he learned that the best way for him to succeed is to focus on what he does well and work with trusted partners to let them do what they do well. His biggest role in the project was to get investors on board, which was difficult when it ended up costing twice as much as they expected. AAA themselves have a 50% ownership stake, which suggests they put in five million on their own. I was caught off guard by it being that much after previous coverage. Roldan, as he has in that other coverage, expressed hope to take the concept to other beach towns and to the US.
The WWE/UFC new company came up as a major topic in the podcast. Roldan says he was shocked when UFC was valued so highly when Endeavor bought them originally and sees the (high) valuation of the new company as positive news for everyone involved in the industry. Roldan had guessed it’d be either Endeavor or NBC Universal who’d end up with WWE, and believes the new company will attempt to add a boxing component next. Roldan felt WWE/UFC will make a move into Mexico soon, and used it to frame the Luchatitlan project interestingly. He seemed to imply WWE & UFC would offer big events that would be hard to compete with, but Luchatitlan or similar ideas would be compete in the wrestling sphere in a fashion that WWE/UFC wouldn’t easily be able to match.
Roldan notes the Luchatitlan project started in the fall of 2020 and took until April 2023 to complete, as an example about how long these ideas take to get done. He mentioned there was another project AAA’s already been working on for fourteen months, and in expects to finish by the end of 2023. He said it’s going to be big not just for us, “but for a lot of companies in Latin America.” Roldan mentioned he wanted AAA to be half WWE, half Disney, and implied this was something to do with the Disney half. AAA is generally in a growth stage, with their head count increasing.
Roldan also mentioned “a couple of weeks ago”, AAA had signed a new deal to start to develop a project in the US. “I think next year we’ll have a real presence in America.” He later noted previous “failures in the market”, and emphasized the importance of “know how, and know who.” Near the end, Roldan’s asked about his favorite arenas and picks Madison Square Garden; “It’s really iconic, and it was a really difficult show.” It sounded like he could do another podcast just on that experience.
Konnan appeared on the Haus of Wrestling podcast on Wednesday. Most of the conversation was WWE focused. The host (and me listening) were surprised to find out Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard had reached out to Konnan about a WWE latino project a couple of years ago; Konnan never heard more about it. The only AAA talk was going over the TripleMania mega title match. Konnan’s very positive about Swerve Strickland, likes Rich Swann, thinks it’s going to be a great match, but also made it clear that they were at least the fifth choice to go in the match. Omega was the first choice and told Konnan he couldn’t come to TripleMania because he wasn’t sure if he was going to sign with AEW or WWE. Konnan seemed to believe Omega had signed or would soon be signing with AEW, and so Omega would be available later in the year. Konnan said he talked to “a couple of other people” about coming in but they were both busy, another one was injured, and then he got to Strickland.
A similar sequence of events – Konnan going for a big name, getting turned down, and eventually ending up with someone lower on the list – happened with the Jeff Hardy replacement last year in Tijuana and with the Kenny Omega replacements a year and a half ago in Monterrey. This time, Konnan seems to be coming away with a verbal promise Omega will return to AAA later this year. This is and will be reported everywhere else as “Omega contract news!” but I’m wondering if it’s actually “Kenny Omega isn’t interested in coming up to AAA, and is finding polite excuses rather than bluntly saying no.” Recently, on Konnan’s own podcast, he briefly mentioned trying to book Chris Jericho for AAA a dozen times and Jericho coming up with a dozen different excuses, which Konnan took as Jericho not wanting to work AAA and just not saying it. I have my thoughts but they’re unimportat. We’ll know if Omega is doing the same after the next two TripleManias.
(The other thing is Konnan was talking about Omega not being on this TripleMania but later in the year for a few weeks. It made it to the WON a few weeks ago. There’s still a decent gap of time between that and when the title match happened. Was AAA waiting on other people making decisions? Should they start working on Tijuana today if this process keeps going down to the wire? Maybe this is a thing only important to me and it’s not a big deal to AAA; it doesn’t feel like it’s a big deal to them if they’re letting it keep happening.)
One commonality between both the Dorian Roldan and Konnan podcasts is how little AAA in-ring wrestling came up. They were both working to their intended audience – the SIS podcast wants to hear ambitious business plans, Haus is looking for WWE/AEW stuff – but the only time an AAA match came up between the two was when Haus brought up the mega title match. Roldan plugged Luchatitlan as the thing to see at the end of his interview, Konnan plugged his podcast. I’m used to Tony Khan or Court Bauer turning every answer into a way to plug their next big event.
Space says they’ll be airing TripleMania from 6:30 pm on. That may mean the last four matches, but not sure what’ll end up being the last four matches.
Arez warned Babo that he doesn’t know what he’s getting into if gets involved in the Copa TripleMania match. Babo has to be knocking out someone, I hope it’s Dave for Arez’s sake.
Hijo del Vikingo and Komander wrestle in Defy on 06/24. If you want to see AAA regular wrestlers wrestle each other in singles matches, you need to go watch non-AAA promotions.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 04/13/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Baby Star & Golden Power vs Kenji & Rey Eclipse
2) Águila Roja & Spider Fly vs Rey Aztaroth & Rey Halcón
3) Aster Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo del Alebrije vs Gianni Valleta, Rocky Casas, Shocko
4) Cerebro Negro & Hip Hop Man vs ? & Hell Boy
5) Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
Pigs vs Pandemonium seems like it should be a notable match. Cerebro Negro attacked Hell Boy last Sunday to set up that feud; no idea who the mystery man is.
Other News
Metalik challenges for the ROH World Championships against Claudio Castagnoli on Thursday’s TV show.
Mas Lucha announced Dinasita, Dante, Saurman, and Ultimo Legendario advanced in their Ruleta de Suicida. That’s not a foursome that interests me much.
Another lucha libre themed streaming show, Mascara contra Caballero, is coming to the Disney-owned Star+ service in Latin America. (It’s not caballeo, it’s Mask versus Man.) It’ll be on Disney+ in some countries; Canada and Australia are mentioned, the US are not. It’s an eight episode, thirty minute series. It’s scheduled to be released a week from today (April 19th.)
Meanwhile, El Muerto, a comic book movie starting Bad Bunny as a luchador themed super hero announced last year, appears not to be happening, at least any time soon. Bad Bunny was asked about it an interview with Time and “feigned confusion.” His publicist said the movie was “at a standstill” and “in development.”
Box y Lucha 3546 has Atlantis Jr. & Solitario on the cover.
There’s a new lucha libre exhibit in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
AroLucha updated their WeFunder page for the first time in over a year this past March. In a remarkable coincidence, the funding on their project closes in a few days. They claim to have raised over 300,000 USD, which most likely means someone invested a big number early on to get it rolling based on the number of investors.