Antifaz injury, Marcelo complains about the commission, CMLL notes

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 04/17/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Black Tiger, Brave Star, Rayo Metálico b Dark Soul, El Hijo Del Perverso, Sombra Diabólika
2) Espíritu Maligno, Nitro, Prayer b Astral, Eléctrico, Neón 
3) Stigma b Zandokan Jr. [lightning] 
4) Atlantis Jr., Titán, Valiente b Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Niebla Roja
5) Averno, Euforia, Hechicero b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero 
Averno got away with a foul on UG. Guerreros wanted a rematch

Ultimo Guerrero might be able to win a feud with Averno.

The Puebla Cathedral turned 374 years old on Tuesday. Fuerza Poblana posted some photos of dramatically posing in front of the cathedral.

CMLL (TUE) 04/18/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito b Acero & Aéreo 
2) Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis b La Guerrera, Sanely, Skadi 
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa 
4) Yota b Esfinge [lightning] 
Yota made belt motions (and is ineligible to challenge for the Mexican National Tag Team championship)
5) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring 
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Atlantis & Octagón [CMLL TAG] 
Octagon submitted Niebla Roja, but Angel de Oro snuck in a foul on Octagon and Niebla Roja (with help from an accidental Octagon distraction) fouled Atlantis to help Angel de Oro get the win. 8th defense.

The title match was no miracle. Octagon seemed to be moving the better of the two (and definitely didn’t seem to gas as bad as Vampiro did on Sunday.) They really protected the veterans with the finishes; you don’t often see two fouls in a CMLL match. Yota/Esfinge was fine and so was the fifth match, but the stuff that came before was not good.

I didn’t realize this was an all rudo night until looking at the results together. The colors do work sometimes.

CMLL (TUE) 04/18/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Estrella de Jalisco II & Último Ángel b Misterio Blanco & Misterio Negro 
2) Barboza, Draego, Persa b Multy (Puebla), Perverso, Rey Samuray 
3) Crixus, Futuro, Neón b Bestia Negra, Cris Skin, Gallero 
4) Arlequín, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte b Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. 
5) La Fashion, Misterioso Jr., Tonalli b Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel, Ráfaga 
6) Averno & Místico b Bárbaro Cavernario & Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 

Nothing jumped out as far as angles as I was scanning through this. They’ve got a private (no tickets) show on Sunday, and those often stream.

CMLL (SAT) 04/22/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
2) La Vaquerita vs Hera [lightning]
3) El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
5) Atlantis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota
6) Atlantis Jr. vs Último Guerrero

UG’s not going to win this one. The two new rudo groups match up in the third.

CMLL returned to Twitch with Octagon’s return match in Arena Coliseo from February. That’s proof the Arena Colieso shows are being taped and broadcast somewhere; I’ve believed they’re probably on HeraldoTV but we didn’t really have proof until now. It’s the same as the Sunday shows: CMLL tapes them, airs them on TV, and almost never uses the footage again. The difference is the channels that air the Sunday shows (AMX, sometimes MVS) have internet streams and HeraldoTV’s internet stream is offline on the weekend. If someone is in Mexico, can record that channel, and wants to share it, I’d be interested in working out a deal.

CMLL (SUN) 04/23/2023 Arena México
1) Leono & Retro vs Bengala & Cachorro
2) Robin, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Flyer, Hombre Bala Jr., Pegasso vs Grako, Nitro, Okumura
4) Princesa Sugehit vs La Magnifica [lightning]
5) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Titán, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Yota

Main event could be good. Not much going on here.

CMLL Informa has Templario (Universal), Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja (tag title defense, Hechicero and Stigma (Univesal) and La Magnifica (lightning match on Sunday.)

AAA

Antifaz del Norte, on a public Facebook page under his (apparent) real name, says he suffered six fractured ribs from Laredo Kid’s elbow drop. He posted x-rays and ugly bruise photos. His doctor says he’ll need 4-6 weeks to recover but hopes to beat that. Anitfaz joins Toxin (injury) and Komander (GCW) as people AAA continues to advertise for Saturday’s Tijuana show who don’t appear to be wrestling on that event. Local promoter EMW continues to say the show is 100% confirmed.

I don’t have it 100% confirmed, but the general belief is Antifaz suffered an injury prior to TripleMania and the Laredo Kid elbow drop was a way to write him out of the match. Argenis’ unhappiness with the mask loss might have to do with him not originally expecting to lose his mask on that night. There weren’t really any great options.

Media outlets have run with Vampiro’s Facebook post as a retirement announcement. It is not a retirement announcement. The man has been retiring since 1993. He wrote a follow up post where the says he was planning on a three year retirement tour but now it’s going to be sooner and he’ll let everyone know when the official retirement announcement happens. He seems thrilled with the extra attention the ‘retirement’ story was giving him to promote his outside of wrestling plans.

Adrian Marcelo went on the Conversaciones with Bandido Diamante podcast and detailed the background and planning of his feud with Chessman, which means that angle is dead and not coming back. ReporteIndingo has a summary; it’s been talked about on many media outlets. Marcelo’s purpose for doing the podcast was to argue he was the good guy in all of this who wanted to help wrestling and ended up unfairly vilified and bullied by the Monterrey lucha libre commission. He complained they stacked the deck against him for a wrestling license, one he didn’t even want. Marcelo says the plan was for another angle at TripleMania. I’m not sure if maybe Marcelo just doesn’t know the terminology or if that means he wasn’t ever going to wrestle officially. AAA promoted him to wrestle, he still needed the license either way.

Marcelo said he loves lucha libre and would only raise public esteem and attention for it by participating (and also doing a documentary). He accuses old men of lucha libre and the commission of hurting their business by keeping him out of the ring. A non-wrestling talking about how much he was going to help wrestling if just the wrestlers would’ve liked him has unsurprisingly gotten a negative reaction from actual wrestlers, with people from Zorro to Herodes Jr. saying lucha libre didn’t need him, and they’re glad he didn’t wrestle if he couldn’t pass the test. The general sentiment among Mexican luchadors, prior to this, is there are already a lot of unqualified people passing themselves off as luchadors, and they’re not likely to be sympathetic to complaints of wrestling being too hard to get into.

I don’t think the Marcelo angle would’ve done anything much for lucha libre beyond that date. The Marcelo angle was over. It would’ve gotten publicity for one night, people would’ve been upset that a celebrity was wrestling, it would’ve made AAA and Marcelo some money, and it wouldn’t have changed the image of lucha libre all that much. A single match like that is unlikely to change much, especially in Mexico, where the general person on the street is more aware of lucha libre than in most years.

Again, the big news here is that the Marcelo angle looks done – they’re not about to reheat it for Tijuana or Mexico City if Marcelo is spelling out how the slap was planned and talking about training on a podcast it’s just everyone picking over the bones and trying to promote himself as the hero of the story. (Just like the wrestlers ripping him are positioning themselves as the defenders of lucha libre.) Marcelo reads like he was OK with AAA in all of this, so maybe they’ll yet figure out another way to work together. It’ll have to be something different.

The Gringo Loco vs Hijo del Vikingo title match airs Thursday on ROH. Dralistico vs Hijo del Vikingo will air Saturday but will be taped today in Pittsburgh. Komander/Jay White, a real match, will air tonight on AEW Dynamite.

Other News

Thursday’s Arena Naucalpan show is another RGR show with a few more names than usual for an IWRG show. The main event is supposed to be Pigs vs NGD, but NGD is still short one person.

The second half of the Mas Lucha Ruleta Suicida is 04/30 in Arena 2 de Junio. The tournament matches are Dinastia vs Ultimo Legendario and Saruman vs Dante. Again, the results of the match don’t matter, it’ll be up to votes on Facebook to decide which two wrestlers advance to the mask match.

Extreme Tiger got knocked out in a match in NOAH this past Sunday. A Dragon Bane kick to the head seemed to do it, though Japanese wrestler Alejandro also landed a plancha on Tiger without realizing he was out. Dralistico talked to El Planchitas about the situation and said he was scared Tiger was going to pass away by the way he was reacting (and not breathing right.) Tiger hasn’t updated his social media since the injury but Dralistico said Tiger is stable.

Big Lucha announced Action Jackson and Elemntal have officially left the promotion and Black Generation as of April 17th. They really left a month ago, but I think they were keeping it all together until they got down with the Black Generation/GLEAT tour. Extasis also appears to be out of the promotion based on the lineup, but there’s no announcement. It’s also independent lucha libre, everyone goes from friends to enemies to friends again.

Mexico City has a wrestling licensing exam on May 20th.

Box y Luchas 3547 has Texano, Templario and Atlantis & Octagon on the cover.