Month: May 2023

CMLL

Titan made it to the finals of the Best of Super Juniors tournament. I am not making this up, it really happened. Titan defeated El Desperado in a fantastic main event and will meet Master Wato (old CMLL friend Kawato) in the final on Sunday morning. The full show from this morning is free on NJPW World; you don’t need to register. The Wato/Bailey match preceding it is also well worth watching.

Titan’s story inside this tournament has been the Llave Inmortal – his Mutalock variation – being completely unbeatable and inescapable once fully locked on. I was sure Hiromu Takahashi would be the one to escape it in the league final finally. He tapped out. I was sure El Desperado would get out of it this morning. He tapped out. Titan still seems like an underdog against Wato; even with all of LIJ rooting him out, Titan is the outsider. Titan would be the favorite in any other situation, and he’s got a decent chance of winning this.

I think it was Chris Charlton who speculated, right after the main event finish, that 90% of the fans walked into the building expecting to see Mike Bailey versus El Desperado set up as the final. I was definitely in that 90%, was slightly surprised when Wato beat Bailey and then was shocked in the end. It’s a big risk to put Titan and Wato, two guys who’ve never been headliners in NJPW, against each other in what’s traditionally a big drawing show. I have no feel for how well it worked today or how well it will work tomorrow, but it’s a tremendous endorsement given to Wato & Titan to headline in this spot.

(Post Wrestling translated a Proresu-TODAY interview with NJPW’s Takami Ohabri earlier this week. The president of NJPW said that promotion was close to shutting down during the worst of the pandemic; he could count the months on one hand. NJPW’s profits relied a lot of ticket sales and in-arena purchases, like AAA & CMLL. They’ve spent the last three years diversifying and growing their sales outside of the I’ve event as well as cut expenses and he believes they’ll just barely make a profit when their fiscal year ends in June. I don’t know if anyone could get CMLL or AAA to talk with numbers about their business during the pandemic, but I suspect they might have similar stories. As far as the BOSJ, NJPW seems like they’re in a place where they can’t yet afford to experiment – both this final and Yota’s return seem like things that they’re needing to work.)

CMLL (FRI) 05/26/2023 Arena México
1) Angelito vs Galaxy [lightning]
2) Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Volcano vs Crixus, Kráneo, Raider
3) La Jarochita vs La Catalina [lightning]
4) El Audaz vs Rugido, Guerrero Maya Jr., El Coyote, Hombre Bala Jr., Felino Jr., Rey Samuray, Zandokan Jr. [MEX MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]
vacant title (Templario won CMLL MIDDLE)
5) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
6) Soberano Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr. [Copa Jr. VIP, final]

Templario got the title win, Dragon Rojo got the tournament win, maybe it’s Soberano’s turn.

The Mexican Middleweight tournamenti s a bigger question mark. Guerrero Maay Jr. is the closest guy to being pushed, but the ‘final 2 advance’ format gives CMLL a big opener for someone unusual to get a spotlight match. Maybe CMLL will go with Zandokan Jr. as hard as theorized. Maybe it’s Coyote’s big night. Maybe it’s Rugido continuing to get shots. Not really sure.

Not really sure about this card. Everyone seems like it has a chance to be good if it breaks right but nothing is a for sure great match. The PPV is up as usual. It’ll air on YouTube on 06/11.

Audaz says he feels fortunate to be in this tournament after dealing with personal problems and falling of his motorcycle and injuring his ankle. (That’s the first I’ve heard of any of that, but Audaz did disappear earlier this year.) He feels he’s fallen behind others like Titan, Hechicero, Esfinge and Templario and wants to catch up, though he really wants a match with Virus first.

Hombre Bala says winning the middleweight title would be the biggest moment of his career. (Correct.)

CMLL (MON) 05/29/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Brave Star vs Espíritu Maligno & Sombra Diabólika
2) Acero, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Minos, Pequeño Polvora
3) Perverso, Prayer, Siky Ozama vs Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
5) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja

The main event is a rematch.

CMLL (TUE) 05/30/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Dulce Kitty, Karisma, Sexy Sol vs Atenea, Nexy, Valkiria
2) Mágico & Metatrón vs Estrella de Jalisco I & Estrella de Jalisco II and Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno and Gran Kenut & Jabalí
3) Bestia Negra, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel vs Ángel Rebelde, Optimus, Trono
4) Crixus vs Halcón Negro Jr., Ángel Negro, El Gallero
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dulce Gardenia, La Fashion vs Arlequín, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis © vs Hera & Olympia [OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG]
first defense

Women’s tag match was set up last week (and women main eventing here is getting normal.) Match 4 is a four-way.

The Estrellas de Jalisco who are regulars were originally Estrella de Jalisco Jr. I & Estrella de Jalisco Jr. II; the Juniors got dropped quick. I think the ones in the second match are the mid 2000s versions of that character, who obviously may be related to the ones around now. It’s an all old guy match.

CMLL Informa ended with a new wrestler teaser. The wrestler wasn’t named nor fully shown, but it appeared to be someone in a Mascara Dorada mask. Metalik confirmed this is not him, though he still hopes to make it to Arena Mexico again. CMLL ended the video by teasing more information soon.

My first guess on the wrestler – and this is just a guess, I don’t have hard info on this – was Panterita del Ring Jr. based on the body type and based on him giving up his title earlier in the episode. Others have fairly pointed out Panterita is still booked on upcoming shows, which is unlike what CMLL does in these situations. Max Star and Futuro have both not been seen in a couple of weeks, though CMLL’s not booking any of the Torneo de Escuelas wrestlers frequently so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

A very long digression about a related thing that may mean nothing but is still slightly interesting

Is this a good time to talk about the Mascara Dorada trademark and drop a minor scoop in an unrelated bit? Sure, why not. Please keep in mind that, as far as I can tell, nothing about CMLL has or is going to change. CMLL is still going to keep on keeping on. Just, when we talk about “CMLL owns the name Mascara Dorada”, that fact appears to be in legal dispute.

There are two trademarks filed for “Mascara Dorada” in Mexico. One was filed by “PROMOCIONES MÉXICO COLISEO Y REVOLUCIÓN, S.C.”,  which what the Salavador Lutteroth’s have been mentioned as running since they took control of the company in 2019. (There’s never been an explanation for this specific name.) Their Mascara Dorada trademark was filed in 2021 and is listed as “In Process” in Mexico’s trademark database. The other “Mascara Dorada” trademark is registered to “MARIA SOFIA ALONSO PERCHES” (better known as Sofia Alonso.) This second trademark was filed back in 2010 originally under Paco Alonso’s name and is listed as fully registered. That trademark, along with 174 other Paco Alonso trademarks, were transferred to Sofia Alonso in 2019 following her father’s death upon her legal team’s request. This batch of trademarks includes other items we would consider “CMLL” property (including the name and logo itself.) It’s always been unclear why the names were registered under the Alonso name, but there’s been no outward sign of any issue with their usage through the changes of power.

Sofia Alonso is listed as renewing those registrations in September 2020. That’s almost a year after the Lutteroth’s appeared to cease control of the promotion from here. If you don’t remember or weren’t around, the brief version is Sofia Alonso took over CMLL following her father’s death in August 2019, then was apparently pushed out of power by other members by November of the same year. Alonso lost power but apparently kept control of her family’s trademarks. The Mascara Dorada record, and others in this batch of trademark renewals, list three more recent documents. Those all refer to a civil lawsuit between Lutteroths and the Alonsos over those trademarks. It doesn’t appear to be the renewal itself that caused the lawsuit, but instead Sofia Alonso signed an agreement with “Intellectual Property Assets Management, Inc.” in February 2021. Alonso appears to have licensed all her CMLL trademarks to this company. The full agreement doesn’t seem to be posted to the trademark site; we don’t know what she received from this deal. My presumption is the IPAM would’ve tried to extract a fee from the Lutteroth’s from using all those trademarks (which, again, include fundamental IP like “CMLL” and “Mistico” and “Mascara Dorada”.) The Lutteroth’s lawsuit was to stop all of thhs from happening, arguing Paco Alonso was not legally allowed to pass down his trademarks and they should’ve instead be invalidated. In theory, invading those trademarks would open a path for the Luttertoth’s pending trademarks to become the only official ones.

This lawsuit is all old news to the people involved and there’s not much more info on it. The US has public electronic records of civil court cases, allowing us to track things like the AAA vs Lucha Libre FMV case. Mexico does not, at least as far as I’ve been able to discover. The lawsuit was filed in 2021, and the most recent update is from 2022 (which seemed to be a ‘don’t do anything with this until the court case resolves’ statement as best I can tell.) There’s no apparent resolution to be found in the status of the trademarks: the Alonso trademarks are still active, the Lutteroths remain pending. The Lutteroth’s actions suggest they’re unconcerned; they wouldn’t be giving someone the Mascara Dorada name if they thought they were about to lose it. Most of these cases get settled, and maybe there’s some discussion happening outside of what we’re seeing in the documentation.

Panterita del Ring Jr. did give up the Mexican National Lightweight championship earlier in Informa. He said he was gaining weight, moving up to welterweight, and wanted to challenge Titan or Rocky Romero for one of the world welterweight championships. In reality, lightweight is a division CMLL has never been interested in for its 90-year history. They don’t want Panterita thought of as a lightweight if they’re going to push him big, they’re not going to have anyone that size beat Panterita in a title match, and that meant giving up the title was always the likely ending.

Those future Panterita matches include the Copa Dinastia, coming to CMLL in June. This is different than usual tournaments in that it’s a Sunday show event so it can have the final on Father’s Day. Seven of the eight teams are father/son. There will be two blocks of four teams:

• June 4th: Euforia & Soberano Jr., Valiente & Valiente Jr., Stuka Jr. & Hijo de Stuka Jr., Misterioso Jr. & Misterio Negro
• June 11th: Mistico & Dr. Karonte I (brothers), Atlantis & Atlantis Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr. & Panterita del Ring, Felino & Felino Jr.
• June 18th: final

Euforia & Soberano beat Gran & Ultimo Guerrero last year. They’re the only returning team from that version of Copa Dinasita; CMLL has so many related people that they can reload the tournament year to year.

CMLL Informa also included Barbaro Cavernario, Virus and Stephanie Vaquer talking about their matches in New Japan Strong. They were all pleased how it went, how they got cheers from the fans (maybe not the people up close but Virus thought the fans a little farther back knew them) and the praise they got from their fellow wrestlers. Cavernario said Okada, Tanahashi and Juice Robinson completed him for their match. Vaquer said KENTA complimented her work, and Vaquer told KENTA she had actually taken a seminar with him way back when she was first starting out in Chile. KENTA did not remember her, they hadn’t run into each other in the decade-plus since. They brought up Virus/ZSJ, Vaquer/Mone and even Bad Dude Tito/Cavernario happening in Arena Mexico – it sounded like something CMLL would like to do and said they would work on, but they weren’t promising any of it actually happening yet.

La Maligna talked to MedioTiempo about balancing lucha libre with her home life. She took four years off or her most recent child (a daughter), because she just didn’t want to miss important moments. She had missed birthdays (including her older son’s) in the past. Maligna’s father passed away back in October; he wrestled most often as Chavo Lomeli, but used the name “Maligno” for a while, and that inspired her name.

Electrico led a discussion at his university about lucha libre. There’s a photo of him and his right hand is heavily wrapped. Electrico last wrestled on May 9th.

AAA

AAA TV (THU) 05/25/2023 Feria Santa Rita, Chihuahua, Chihuahua [AAA]
1) Genio del Aire, Kamik-C, Skalibur (Baja California) b Arkángel Divino, Fantastik, Último Maldito
Fantastik replaced Drago Kid (moved up)
2) Chik Tormenta, Kempo Jr., Maravilla b Dalys, Drago Kid, Sexy Star
Drago Kid & Kempo Jr. added to the match. Maravilla and Sexy Star are feuding. Pagano appeared after the match to announce his return from injury. He was attacked by a mystery man again.
3) Aerostar, Arez, Octagón Jr. b Parka Negra, Psicosis, Villano III Jr.
mask ripping
4) Argenis & Gringo Loco b Myzteziz & Zorro
5) Emperador Azteca, Látigo, Toscano b Aramis, Mr. Iguana, Willie Mack
Tosscano snuck in a foul on Willie Mack
6) Sam Adonis b Psycho Clown [flag]
Gringo Loco, Argenis, and Samuray VIP all got involved.

There’s not much on this taping either, but it’s only been a few hours since it happened. The few camera angles shown suggest a low turnout, but I think that’s just how the venue was set up: it’s a small area relative to indoor AAA tapings and there were no risers, just people standing farther and farther back. (The fair said the space was ‘close to full’.) It may not look good in-ring on TV but it’s a free show at a fair, they may have gotten a lot of scenery footage to dress it up.

Pagano had a cane, but it seemed to be for fashion reasons rather than medical needs.

Maravilla and Sexy Star haven’t wrestled on TV since February and weren’t feuding them. AAA needs to publish its chart of rivals so we can discover who’s been assigned to whom.

The AAA Aguascalientes promoter also officially announced Verano de Escandalo for July 21st. Dorian Roldan had previously mentioned the show would take place in Aguascalientes. AAA’s taping schedule is wild for early summer. There’s one taping in the next 44 days, then three tapings (including a TripleMania) in 13 days.

AAA on Space this week has the first part of the Tijuana taping from April 22nd. No idea what will air this week. What was taped:

• Arkángel Divino, Fantastik, Rayo Star, Último Maldito vs Dinámico, Genio del Aire, Kamik-C, Skalibur
• Aramis & Willie Mack vs Látigo & Parka Negra
• Dalys, Octagón Jr., Persephone vs Chik Tormenta, Flammer, Villano III Jr.
• Hijo Del Vikingo, Jack Cartwheel, Komander vs Emperador Azteca, Puma King, Taurus
• Juicy Finau, Negro Casas, Rey Horus vs Forastero, Hijo de Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
• Laredo Kid, Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown vs Nicho el Millionario, Rey Escorpión, Sam Adonis

GCW in Las Vegas (Fite+) tonight has Hijo del Vikingo vs Komander vs Gringo Loco.

Northeast Wrestling has Hijo del Vikingo vs vs Toxin vs Komander on June 9th in Connecticut.

Gringo Loco defends the Dreamwave Alternative Championship against Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Arez and Aramis on 06/17 in LaSalle, Illinois. This show airs on IWTV.

Jersey Championship Wrestling announced Mike Bailey vs Psycho Clown for their July 9th show. Those shows always air free on YouTube.

(All these AAA matches outside of AAA sound far more interesting than anything going on in AAA. It’ll be better at TripleMania.)

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 05/25/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Legado b Súper Boy 
2) John Tito & Spider Fly b Histeriosis & Mr. Mike 
3) Lolita, Rey Halcón, Satania b Aeroqueen, Danessa, Éxtasis 
4) Aster Boy, Hell Boy, Noisy Boy b Dick Angelo 3G, Elemental, Legendario 
5) Cerebro Negro Jr., Nosaki, Shocko b Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba 
Nosaki injured Jessy Ventura

I presume the main event is setting up Jessy Ventura being in peril in the upcoming cage match.

IWRG (SUN) 05/28/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ei Bi Ci vs Rey Aztaroth
2) Éxtasis, Fussion, John Tito vs Águila Roja, Mr. Mike, Rey Halcón
3) Demasiado, Sagitarius, Zoy Raymunda vs Bugambilia, Mary Caporal, Óscar El Hermoso
4) Caballero de Plata, Relámpago, Spider Fly vs Elemental, León Dorado, Mr. Leo
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Canek Jr., Nosaki, Shocko
6) Hell Boy & Puma de Oro vs Heavy Metal & Rocky Casas

The Casas/Hell Boy feud continues. Extasis and Elemental are working more than with Big Lucha but they’re not in great spots now.

IWRG announced Laredo Kid would be the sole Mexican rep in their upcoming World Lucha Libre Championship. IWRG’s been announcing names for the 16 wrestler field periodically, a mix of obscure foreigners who’ve been in IWRG in recent years and people I’ve never heard of; Laredo is the first interesting person. I’ll go over the list once they have a full field.

Big Lucha

It exists. They have shows on Friday and Saturday, which is the Gym show. They’re back on their own production starting with this show, and I’ve got no idea if that means both shows air, or if they’re still even airing live. It doesn’t feel like a great idea to preview these shows not knowing if they’re really going to be available.

Other News

With AEW & NJPW’s Forbidden Door around the corner, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter posted a list of the Mexican wrestlers in AEW as speculation they may all not be able to appear on that joint show due to NJPW/CMLL alliance. It’s an educated list but not yet official. It’s a safe bet those on upcoming AAA TV like Vikingo and Rush aren’t going to be allowed on a NJPW show, but it’s less clear about Andrade. He was upset with AAA about this situation last year and clearly wants to fix it somehow – maybe he’s had time to work on it. (I wouldn’t bet on it, but CMLL people seem like the ex-La Sombra a lot more than other people who’ve left and I wouldn’t rule out something quietly being fixed either.)

AEW fans who absolutely do not care about either CMLL and AAA outside of the way they impact these four weeks of television are up in arms a 30 year old Mexican feud hasn’t be resolved to make booking the undercard matches for a US-based promotion. It’s annoying. It’s also distances from reality. AEW could’ve booked whatever they’d like for this weekend’s show, there’s no NJPW/CMLL relationship holding them back, and the Mexicans who are booked are in a ‘get everyone on the card’ battle royal. (Vikingo isn’t booked; still holding out hopes he makes the pre-show, but again that’s the pre-show.) AEW is still the preferred option for Mexican wrestlers in the US in my eyes, because they’ll pay better Mexican wrestlers than anyone outside WWE, and they’ll give Mexican wrestlers more regular chances to get over than WWE or any of the other group, and they have been more open to Mexican wrestlers on the Ring of Honor brand. But they’re also not so featured in AEW proper that it’d be a sure thing that any of them would be certain to make Forbidden Door. I know Andrade said he was going to face Ospreay last year, but he’s in a different place now than then. Maybe the Lucha Brothers would defend their tag titles in a multiperson match, that’s about the extent of it. A lot of that isn’t a NJPW decision.

RIOT says their next show is on 07/22.

An interview with Salvador Rodriguez, author of the “Olvidemos el Circo, Maroma y Teatro” book. He started out writing about lucha libre on the old El Martinete board of all things.

A profile of sponsored wrestler 4 Aseses.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 05/15/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Dreyco & Mercurio b Angelito & Rayo Metálico
2) Fuego, Neón, Valiente Jr. b Hijo del Perverso, Perverso, Prayer
3) La Magnifica, Sanely, Skadi b La Catalina, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer 
La Magnifica replaced Princesa Sugehit
4) Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Averno, Mephisto, Templario 
5) Místico b Bárbaro Cavernario  

The El Sol de Puebla recap is a strange mood. They felt it was a very good show for women who like to look at male wrestlers.

CMLL (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports]
1) Inquisidor b Leono [lightning] 
2) Amapola & Tiffany b La Maligna & Sanely 
3) El Perverso, Pegasso, Stigma b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora 
4) Dark Panther, Fugaz, Star Black b Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado 
5) Esfinge b Ángel de Oro © [MEX LH] 
Angel de Oro falls on his fourth defense
6) Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. b Atlantis, Místico, Panterita del Ring 

The title match was just OK and that’s Esfinge’s normal level. CMLL has a two dozen titles, might as well give some to people who don’t quite seem at the level and see if something clicks, but there’s a lot of people I would’ve rather seen as champion first.

CMLL (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Infierno b Avispón Negro Jr., Celeste, Cosmos
2) Flash & Pepe Aguayo DQ Hijo del Calavera & León Blanco and Exterminador & Maléfico and Bobby Black & Neutrón
Los Truenos ran in for the DQ.
3) Vaquero Jr. b Brillante Jr.
4) Hera & Olympia b Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
Hera & Olympia wanted a title match
5) Panterita del Ring Jr. b Soberano Jr.
Soberano fouled Panterita but had taken down the referee earlier. Soberano had to stir the referee, and then got cradled by Panterita for the win. Panterita seemed to challenge Soberano to a title match next week.
6) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico © b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. [OCCIDENTE TRIOS]
first defense

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara had streaming issues; the show isn’t up on YouTube at the moment and the video pauses a lot on the Facebook feed. They’ve uploaded a clean version of the show on YouTube later on when this has happened in the past, so maybe wait a day to see if it gets cleared up. Soberano/Panterita was hard to watch in the current form from what I was able to watch. Lots of matches set up on this show with the building’s anniversary show coming up.

Titan advanced to Best of Super Juniors semifinals on Tuesday morning, surprisingly submitting Hiromu Takahashi in the main event “winner moves on” match. For NJPW, it’s an unexpected gamble: the last two rounds are bigger buildings and they will run them without their biggest star (Takahashi) in spotlight singles matches. The first of those two shows, with the semifinals, takes place early Friday morning. Titan will face Desperado, who won the other block. Desperado is the heavy favorite, but Titan has a history of getting much farther in tournaments than people expect from him.

(I have to eat it on multiple things. I thought the best possible outcome for Titan was to beat Hiromu Takahashi on the final day to cost Takahashi the spot. That did happen but I didn’t figure on Titan going through in the process. I also said there was nothing important Soberano would’ve missed if he went to the BOSJ instead, and he is main eventing an Arena Mexico show with Aniversario implications the same day as the semifinals. They could’ve run this tournament at any other time, though.)

CMLL (SAT) 05/27/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero, Aéreo, Shockercito vs Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Polvora
2) Valiente Jr. vs Sangre Imperial [lightning]
3) Amapola, La Guerrera, Skadi vs La Magnifica, La Vaquerita, Metálica
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Difunto, Luciferno
5) Euforia vs Yota
6) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Fuerza Guerrera

That still feels like Yota getting a singles win NJPW can promote before Dominion, but they also can quietly ignore it if they’d like. Fuerza Guerrera opposite Blue Panther instead of Octagon in the main event.

CMLL (SUN) 05/28/2023 Arena México
1) Cachorro vs Dr. Karonte II [lightning]
2) Astral, Neón, Oro Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Robin vs Diamond [lightning]
4) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Okumura vs Arlequín (Jalisco), Furia Roja (Jalisco), Guerrero de la Muerte
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo vs El Hijo del Villano III, Felino, Misterioso Jr.
6) Panterita del Ring Jr., Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Hechicero, Stuka Jr., Yota

Maybe they’re rotating threw a Guadalajara trio each Sunday. They’re about to get busier.

The World Boxing Council holds a regular Tuesday press conference at various venues. That venue happened to be Arena Mexico this past Tuesday. Atlantis and Salvador Lutteroth attended among the wrestling career. The Lutteroths promoted boxing in their arenas for many years, holding weekly events Saturday night in Arena Mexico until folding the boxing promotion in 2002 due to poor turnouts. Arena Coliseo has a large boxing history, and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara has had some pre-show amateur boxing matches this year (including last night.) CMLL’s rented out their building to boxing promoters (and TV networks airing boxing in recent years.) Saturday night Arena Coliseo wrestling got pre-empted from time to time for boxing cards pre-pandemic. It’s been longer for Arena Mexico: the last boxing show there was 2018, and you have to go back to 2013 to find one before then. (All this info from boxrec, which is like the luchadb for people who wear gloves.)

The WBC/CMLL meeting on Tuesday was to drum up interest in resuming boxing in CMLL venues. WBC’s Mauricio Sulaiman wants shows held at both Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo as part of bringing back boxing cards on Fridays and Saturday. Salvador Lutteroth wants them there as well. (I believe it was his father, the second Salvador Lutteroth, who was running the boxing side of the family business when it existed.) He also made it clear they’re still in the planning stages, lots of things have to be figured it out. It sounds like CMLL’s part in this is to be a (historic) venue and WBC is the sanctioning body, but they’re still missing an actual promoter. The idea of a Golden Gloves tournament taking place in Arena Mexico was brought up, but there’s no dates booked for any of this. It’s boxing, so it’s a lot of talk until something happens. The WBC also honored Atlantis with a commemorative mini belt for 40 years of wrestling. This is not the full-size belt El Hijo del Santo got many years ago, so he’s still the only true wrestling champion of this boxing promotion.

CMLL Informa today has the group who went to NJPW (Caveranrio, Virus, Vaquer), Dragon Rojo (Copa Junior), Felino Jr., Rugido, Zandokan Jr. (Middleweight tournament) and Minos (CMLL Pekes?)

AAA

AAA has a taping at a fair in Chihuahua on Thursday. It won’t start airing for 30 days.

AAA also announced a taping on 07/08 in Orizaba. By my estimate, that won’t air until August 5th and August 26th. (TripleMania Mexico City goes between.) If you want to understand the current AAA problems, this means the go home TV for TripleMania Mexico City will occur before the previous TripleMania happens. I’m not thrilled about the usefulness of AAA TV but also it seems impossible to have meaningful contunity when the TV is going to be out of order; no creative team is going to do well in these circumstances.

IWRG

IWRG , FILL (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Cosmic & Payaso Pandillero b Centella Salazar & Rey Gato 
2) Candy Swing & Danessa b Dehyna & Kali 
3) Arceus, Arquo, Chef Benito b Carnicero Jr., Milagro, Skanda 
4) Fussion, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly b Thunder Storm, Torito Negro, X-Devil 
5) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Baby Star, Jhon Tito, Kenji, Legado, Rey Aztaroth, Superboy b Black Sturman, Cristal De Acero, Dinamic Fly, Gimm Boy, Mala Fama, Príncipe Barush, Sexy Makumba, Tadek [Copa Higher Power] 
FILL (Black Terry) vs San Juan (Toro Negro). Aguila Roja defeated Dinamic Fly.

This card was announced Monday, happened on Tuesday and still all the undercard changed. Maybe the main event did too, no one listed participants.

IWRG (THU) 05/25/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Legado vs Kenji
2) John Tito & Spider Fly vs Histeriosis & Mr. Mike
3) Aeroqueen, Danessa, Éxtasis vs Lolita, Rey Halcón, Satania
4) Aster Boy, Hell Boy, Noisy Boy vs Dick Angelo 3G, Elemental, Legendario
5) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba vs Cerebro Negro, Nosaki, Shocko

Mamba back in IWRG as their Jaula de las Locas exoticos cage match approaches.

Other News

MLW will air the 02/10 AAA/EMW show as “the 2023 Super Series.” The pattern here is AAA tapes occasionally in Tijuana as standalone shows, saves them for whenever they need to plug them into a taping gap, and then airs whatever they need to get through to the next taping. So far, they’ve only advertised Juicy Finau versus Damian 666. That match also included Crazy Frank according to live results.

(This is NOT the same taping AAA will start airing this week.)

MLW had the video uploaded on Monday, ready to premiere, only with Sexy Star I in the thumbnail. Someone pointed it out in the comments, and MLW replied to assure them they had Sexy Star II. I walked through the two Sexy Star for the millionth time on Twitter, and MLW deleted the video and reuploaded it.

On Instagram, Latin Lover revealed he underwent spinal surgery recently. He mentions he’ll need cervical surgery as well. AAA ran an angle with Latin Lover and Jeff Jarrett on last year’s TripleMania Monterrey seemingly to build to a match. Jarrett’s short WWE stint seemed to end that, but it’s possible Latin Lover wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway if he was that hurt. It sounds like Latin Lover is going to be better off after these surgeries but it seems to me unlikely he’d come back to wrestle again at this point in his life.

Martha Villalobos announced her Reyes del Ring promotion would return. The 90s/00s women’s promotion was most active from 2009 to 2012. They’d use other old AAA names and lesser-known local wrestlers for family friend shows. Some of the minis from that group joined CMLL’s division around 2010 and didn’t stick for long. (Current CMLL mini Aereo came in with them and it’s always been unclear if he was a different gimmick in Villalobos’ promotion or if the timing was coincidental.) The restored promotion said they’re running a show in Oaxaca, though I didn’t catch a date.

DTU was scheduled to run a show in Arena Jalisco on Sunday. Sunday also now has the LigaMX final with Guadalajara’s Chivas, and running up against that is rough. Arena Jalisco announced they’re postponing the DTU show to a future date.

Segunda Caida writes about more Panamanian lucha libre.

Box y Lucha 3552 has Soberano Jr. & Dragon Rojo on top.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 05/19/2023 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Difunto, Dr. Karonte I, Zandokan Jr. b Robin, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr.
2) Magia Blanca © b Fugaz [MEX WELTER]
third defense
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr. b Espanto Jr., Felino Jr., Misterioso Jr.
4) Euforia b Stuka Jr. [lightning]
8:44.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. & Soberano Jr. b Místico, Volador Jr., Atlantis Jr., Averno, Panterita del Ring Jr., Hijo del Villano III [Copa Jr. VIP, semifinal]
Cibernetico rules, final two advance to final next week. Order of elimination; Villano (Panterita), Averno (Mistico), Panterita (Atlantis), Mistico (Atlantis), Atlantis (Soberano), Volador (Dragon Rojo) leaving Soberano and Dragon Rojo as the finalists. Rocky Romero jumped out of the crowd and attacked Dragon Rojo in an attempt to help Volador win, but Volador refused to win that way. Dragon Rojo took advantage of the argument to foul Volador for the victory. Volador still wants his title match with Rocky, who stalled on answering.

Rocky attacked Dragon Rojo right in front of the referee, who did not call a DQ. Can’t imagine another person who’d be allowed to get away with that, or even just jumping the rail to do a surprise attack. (Security didn’t seem completely briefed on that part of the bit.) The main event never found a high level; all these matches built around Dragon Rojo are just not going to do that.

Rocky Romero pushed for his title versus Volador’s hair, though no one committed to it happening (or when or where.) Volador already won a title shot and so it doesn’t exactly make sense for him to put up his hair. I wonder if this is sort of a retry on the 1v1 hair match that happened but really didn’t happen in the way it was planned.

Back on Informa, Soberano brought up how he still wants Templario’s mask and CMLL shouldn’t be hasty to make the Dragon Rojo/Templario match. Soberano and Dragon Rojo next week may move more in a three way mask match direction.

Euforia/Stuka Jr. was the best match of the night, just a professional wrestling match between two pros. Fugaz is so one dimensional that he has to be exceptional at his flying to stand out, and he was merely good on this night. Nothing else really stood out.

CMLL (SAT) 05/20/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio b Astral, Diamond, Fugaz 
Fugaz replaced Electrico. Los Indestrucibles took 1/3.
3) Crixus DRAW Okumura [lightning] 
double pin
4) Esfinge, Kráneo, Star Black b Magnus, Rugido, Volcano [Relevos Increíbles] 
Team Kraneo took 1/3.
5) Euforia, Mephisto, Niebla Roja b Dragón Rojo Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Yota 
Hijo del Villano III replaced Stuka Jr. Team Euforia took 1/3, Euforia sneaking in a foul on Yota.
6) Soberano Jr. b Ángel de Oro 
Soberano beat Angel de Oro with a martillo negro, Angel de Oro was strechered out (which always is how that move is sold in singles matches.)

Yota beating Euforia on his way out, which seems to be the result set up by the finish, is a bit unusual. Maybe a make good for the Gran Guerrero finish.

CMLL (SUN) 05/21/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Pierrothito b Aéreo [lightning]
2) Cachorro, Neón, Oro Jr. b Grako, Nitro, Raider
3) Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. b Explosivo, Fantástico, Gallero
Tecnicos took 2/3 against the visiting GDL trio
4) Magnus, Rugido, Zandokan Jr. b Espíritu Negro, Fugaz, Rey Cometa
Fugaz replaced Dulce Gardenia. Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Valiente b Cancerbero, Kráneo, Rey Bucanero
6) Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr., Star Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Niebla Roja

El Sol de Leon has an interview with Gallero. He’s originally from Leon (and was already on the luchawiki, as pointed out in the comments.) He was trained by Prisonero 13 and Universo 2000. Over on Instagram, Adrenalina revealed he’s dealing with an injury.

Stephanie Vaquer, Virus, and Barbaro Cavernario also appeared on the NJPW Strong show on Sunday, which is available as a PPV via NJPW World. Virus & Barbaro Cavernario defeated Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr. in the PPV opener (Cavernario submitted ZSJ), while Vaquer lost to Mercedes Mone in the semifinals of the NJPW Strong Women’s championship. Both matches went very well. Virus and ZSJ battled for holds just as everyone hope, and there was a definite tease of a singles match between them at some point.

Vaquer put herself on the mat with a strong performance. A lot of credit has to go Mercedes Mone, who is a big enough star that she could play these matches out like another double MM (Mil Mascaras), refusing to sell for anything and instead going through routine spots to general approval. Mone instead seems intent on bringing out the best of her opponents, resulting in great matches and those opponents coming out of the match as bigger names.  (Mone appeared to suffer a leg injury in the final, which would be disappointing at any point and especially so given how that night was going for her.) Vaquer was able to show what she could do and made the most of it. I am sure she’ll be back in NJPW Strong again. I know Twitter people were hoping to see her in AEW or ROH after that match, but those seem unlikely due to AAA involvement. WWE giving Vaquer a call might be a possibility.

Maybe Cavernario would’ve been on these NJPW Strong shows if Rocky Romero didn’t come to CMLL this year. He gets used on FantasticaMania likely, someone in NJPW might’ve suggested the name. Virus coming to NJPW Strong absolutely feels like Rocky Romero seeing his old rival still has it and wanting to use him. It’s hard to imagine Stephanie Vaquer would’ve gotten this spot if Rocky Romero wasn’t on the CMLL shows here. Romero also mentioned Panterita del Ring Jr. among those possible for the upcoming All Star Junior festival. In a more equitable world, it wouldn’t take people being booked on in CMLL to notice the good wrestlers there. But it does seem to have helped CMLL (and more so their wrestlers) to have Rocky Romero around.

Stephanie Vaquer and Mercedes Mone both brought up the idea of a rematch in Arena Mexico. That seemed unlikely even before the injury, but I guess not impossible. Virus/ZSJ definitely teased a singles match in-ring. I heard, earlier this year, there are plans for some sort of bigger NJPW participation in CMLL this year, and Romero said he “heard rumors” of something like that on Wrestling Observer Live this past Friday. CMLL has said nothing so far.

(Regular NJPW fans seemed underwhelmed by the NJPW Strong production. The picture wasn’t great, but they caught all the moves and the stream never went out, it’s better the low bar we have around here.)

Titan also won his Best of Super Juniors match on Sunday, defeating DOUKI to reach a personal record of 10 points. Titan amazingly still has a shot to advance to the semi-finals. On Tuesday, Titan needs Mike Bailey to beat Lio Rush and he himself has to beat Hirmou Takahashi. It’s unlikely for him to advance, but Titan has definitely been booked stronger in this tournament than he has ever before. Titan defeating Takahashi to stop him from advancing to those playoff rounds is definitely in play.

CMLL (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena México
1) Leono vs Inquisidor [lightning]
2) La Maligna & Sanely vs Amapola & Tiffany
3) El Perverso, Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Dark Panther, Fugaz, Star Black vs Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Sagrado
5) Ángel de Oro © vs Esfinge [MEX LH]
fourth defense
6) Atlantis, Místico, Panterita del Ring vs Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr.

These used to be called Nuevo Valores shows. They don’t appear to be using the name on the poster this week, and for good reason.

CMLL (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Celeste, Cosmos vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Infierno
2) Flash & Pepe Aguayo vs Hijo del Calavera & León Blanco and Exterminador & Maléfico and Bobby Black & Neutrón
3) Vaquero Jr. vs Brillante Jr.
4) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis vs Hera & Olympia
5) Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Soberano Jr.
6) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico © vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. [OCCIDENTE TRIOS]
first defense

Matches 3, 5, and 6 have been set up by recent feuds. Soberano/Panterita sounds good on paper but Guadalajara Soberano is never locked in. Pepe Aguayo goes back to the 90s in this arena but hasn’t been around much in recent years; his last appearance was 2019, and it was 2015 before that. He’s billed as Perro Aguayo Sr.’s nephew.

CMLL Informa clarified that the upcoming June return to Sunday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara shows is meant to be full-time.

CMLL (FRI) 05/26/2023 Arena México
1) Angelito vs Galaxy [lightning]
2) Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Volcano vs Crixus, Kráneo, Raider
3) La Jarochita vs La Catalina [lightning]
4) El Audaz vs Rugido, Guerrero Maya Jr., El Coyote, Hombre Bala Jr., Felino Jr., Rey Samuray, Zandokan Jr. [MEX MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]
vacant title (Templario won CMLL MIDDLE)
5) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
6) Soberano Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr. [Copa Jr. VIP, final]

Soberano and Dragon Rojo will tell a bit about September plans. Star Jr. seems to be in a good spot on his return from injury. Guerrero Maya, Felino Jr., and Rugido seem like the best bets to win the vacant title. (Like the Copa Junior VIP, this appears to be top 2 advancing to a final.) Both lightning matches are tests for wrestlers with relatively little CMLL experience (Galaxy & Catalina) versus people who are among the best in their division (Angelito & Jarochita.) They could be exciting in different ways. It’s rare to see three singles matches on a CMLL show without them all being part of the same tournament.

A pickleball court was named in Atlantis’ honor on Friday.

Porra Fresa has a profile of Amnesia. He didn’t have a name when he was about to get his license, grabbed a dictionary and picked out a word. Only in Mexican wrestling. Amnesia’s been in wrestling (including pre-debut training) for 16 years. He’s trained under Pegaso since 2017 and in the official Arena Puebla sessions with Black Tiger since 2018. He found out he was booked on this card when he saw the poster on social media.

AAA

AAA TV (SAT) 05/20/2023 Palacio del Arte, Morelia, Michoacán [AAA]
1) Dulce Kanela, Estrellita, Mini Vikingo b Demus, Látigo, Toxin
2) Flamita & Villano III Jr. b Brazo De Oro Jr. & Sexy Star
3) Chik Tormenta b Lady Shani [hardcore]
Konnan and Tirantes got involved.
4) Arez & Komander b Octagón Jr. & Rey Horus and Jack Evans & Myzteziz [AAA TAG]
vacant titles (Dragon Lee to WWE)
5) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf b Aramis & Negro Casas
Estrellita accompanied La Rebelion.
6) Dralistico & Gringo Loco b Hijo Del Vikingo & Pentagón Jr.
Gringo Loco powerbombed Vikingo through a table for the win. Gringo also attacked Vikingo earlier in the night.

Couldn’t find a non-AAA source on this so might be missing some details. I did see some videos the promoter put up and turnout seemed weak. I assume some of those matches were good but I don’t have enough info. I believe this is the first taping since TripleMania Mexico City where there was no card change.

Arez/Komander could be fun as a team. Komander is another AAA champ signed to AEW and that may affect getting dates on matches. AAA not doing much with titles may be a bigger issue.

On Konnan & Disco’s Keepin’ it 100, Konnan explained the tag title situation as him working under a budget now, and wasn’t working under a budget previously. (The implication is bigger names were meant to be involved.) He acknowledged it was all new teams but AAA would handle that before theshow. (So probably quick promos.) La Rebelion weren’t involved because their feud is with Vampiro, but would be involved with the tag titles later.

In other notes from that podcast, Konnan mentioned the mystery flying woman soon to debut in AAA is originally from Torreon. I got a suggestion of that woman being Sussy Love, who is on Luchatitlan duty at the moment. Suzzy Love is originally from Zacatecas, but (last I knew) she’s dating Gravity and he’s from Torreon, so it’s possible. Estrellita is officially part of Pagano’s group. Konnan chided Larry Dallas for not seeing it on TV, but Esterllita and Pagano haven’t been seen onscreen together. There was a segment (back on the military show) where Estrellita got a phone call from Pagano and considered joining his group, but that’s it. AAA TV is so lagged that maybe something was taped, hasn’t aired yet, and Konnan just wasn’t aware. Konnan also was asked if Bandido working 06/02 The Crash show means he’s done in AAA, and Konnan said Bandido would be if he did work it. Bandido’s booked opposite of Flamtia, so I guess Flamita would be done too – but he just worked this taping, so maybe they’re all still figuring it out.

Only the main event was worth watching from this week’s Space show. Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Dralistico versus Antifaz del Norte, Dinamico, Gringo Loco had good action and Vikingo doing Vikingo stuff. Antifaz/Laredo was the actual focus. It’s possible Antifaz’s injury may have come from taking a Laredo Kid tope – he didn’t do much the rest of the way and the finish felt improvised – but I’m far from certain. There was a Gringo Loco promo where he seemed to talk about the Vikingo match happening in three weeks. That obviously hasn’t happened and it’s still unclear when it might.

Watching this show and seeing Argenis in a Perros del Mal mask was strange. This show was taped before Argenis lost his mask at TripleMania Monterrey so he should’ve been wearing a mask. I’m not sure how many people knew that, and it may have been better just not to put Argenis on this taping if AAA knew that his unmasking was the plan.

Puma King/Mr. Iguana was a lumberjack/heel referee bit that didn’t work for me at all. It may be notable that this show had Konnan overturning a finish to help a rudo, just like on that TV taping in Morelia. Konnan seems like one of those guys who wants to be a heel at all times and maybe we’ll look back at these bits as him setting it up again. It doesn’t feel like he’s been a good guy long enough to make another turn effective, but it’s what they know and are comfortable with.

Chessman said a bad word to a Multimedios reporter who was interviewing ringside fans before a match. I think he was being a rudo but also was annoyed with her. I also think most people assume this was a work because it’s Chessman and a Multimedos person again.

Dave the Clown inexplicably appeared on NOAH’s show on Sunday, even getting the pinfall win. Dave used a package piledriver as a finish; I’m not sure he’s used that on AAA TV because I don’t know of a time when he got a pinfall win on AAA TV. This was not announced beforehand, though Dave mentioned he (and his wife) were in Japan on his Instagram earlier in the week. NOSAWA appears to be the person booking in Mexican wrestlers to NOAH; whomever is very chaotic. It looks like Negro Casas is trying to get in on this.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 05/21/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Zona Ruda]
1) Águila Roja b Jhon Tito
2) Aeroqueen, Danessa, Demasiado b Bugambilia, Sagitarius, Satania
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Fussion, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly
4) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. b León Dorado & Mr. Leo [super libre]
both teams want IWRG IC TAG shots (Hijo de Canis Lupus & Rey Leon)
5) Imposible, Nozaki, Shocko b Aster Boy, Puma de Oro, Relámpago
6) Heavy Metal, Hijo del Fishman, Rocky Casas b Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Tonalli
win via unseen foul

I was caught up in the NJPW Strong show and didn’t see much about the show. I didn’t notice until later that was because Mas Lucha streamed the shows but didn’t post any results from it. That’s unusual for them. The main event continued the Heavy Metal & Rocky Casas vs Hell Boy feud, no idea when that’s wrapping up.

Rey Leon is in Mexico City Friday for the RGR show, maybe he’s coming in a day early for a tag title defense.

IWRG (TUE) 05/23/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Cosmic & Último Caballero vs Rey Gatto & Steel Dragón
2) Candy Swing & Danessa vs Dehyna & Kali
3) Arceus & Chef Benito vs Milagro & Skanda
4) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly vs Torito Negro & X-Devil
5) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Baby Star, Jhon Tito, Kenji, Legado, Rey Aztaroth, Superboy vs Black Sturman, Cristal De Acero, Dinamic Fly, Gimm Boy, Mala Fama, Príncipe Barush, Sexy Makumba, Tadek [Copa Higher Power]

Special trainee show on Tuesday. These haven’t been streaming live of late.

Other News

Mexico held elections on Sunday. In Durango city, there was a vote to fund a city owned lucha libre gym.

GCW announced they’re running a show in Tijuana on 08/13. Los Macizos were working with a group in Tijuana for a couple of years that hasn’t been active lately, I wonder if that’s part of it. August 13th is the day after TripleMania Mexico City, so it’s possible they’ll be around and do another backstage angle.

El Destape writes about 1940s/50s EMLL luchador Kid Vanegas’ link to the Cuban revolution. He trained Castro’s soldiers and was willing to go with him in 1956, but Castro told him to stay in Mexico. This comes up from time to time.

Criterio Hidalgo talks to Pachuca luchador Campesino del Valle.

Vanguardia has an interview with Coahuila’s Latino.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 05/16/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Luminoso, Mortis b Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy 
2) Obelisk, Raven, Temerario b Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel 
3) Gallero, Hombre Bala Jr., Robin DQ Barboza, Draego, Persa 
Barboza unmasked Robin for the DQ
4) Brillante Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., Pólvora b Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. 
Brillante Jr. beat Vaquero Jr. (though he messed up his finish.) Vaquero wanted a singles match next week.
5) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico 
Ola Negra wants a OCCIDENTE TRIOS title match
6) Averno & Soberano Jr. DQ Místico & Panterita del Ring Jr. 
Averno unmasked Mistico after a Soberano dropkicked the referee to stop a count and also fouled Panterita.

Soberano is a full rudo in Guadalajara and a tecnico everywhere else. Lots of feuding people with a big show a month away. Guadalajara says they’ll run a Sunday show on June 4th.

Friday’s CMLL lineup:

CMLL (FRI) 05/19/2023 Arena México
1) Robin, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. vs Difunto, Dr. Karonte I, Zandokan Jr.
2) Magia Blanca © vs Fugaz [MEX WELTER]
third defense
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr. vs Espanto Jr., Felino Jr., Misterioso Jr.
4) Stuka Jr. vs Euforia [lightning]
5) Místico vs Volador Jr., Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Soberano Jr., Averno, Panterita del Ring Jr., Hijo del Villano III [Copa Jr. VIP, semifinal]
final two advance

The show will include with the least favorite ending, two people who want to figure who will not be allowed to fight for another week. I’m unsure if they’re doing a cibernetico or a singles elimination. (CMLL Informa is on my watch list, but my watch list hasn’t had much progress in the last few days.) The whole show is Junior themed; they could use some more rudo Juniors. It’s kind of weird that, out of all the young wrestlers CMLL has, they’re really fixated on the Fugaz/Esfinge team.

It’s on PPV as always. It’ll go up on YouTube on June 4th

CMLL (SUN) 05/21/2023 Arena México
1) Aéreo vs Pierrothito [lightning]
2) Cachorro, Neón, Oro Jr. vs Grako, Nitro, Raider
3) Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. vs Explosivo, Fantástico, Gallero
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Magnus, Rugido, Zandokan Jr.
5) Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Valiente vs Cancerbero, Kráneo, Rey Bucanero
6) Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr., Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Niebla Roja

Gallero is a surprising Guadalajara call-up. That’s Adrenalina’s spot in Los Fantasticos, and Gallero hasn’t been around. My luchadb default is to wait for Guadalajara (and Puebla and IWRG) wrestlers to show up in the arena twenty times before tracking them in the database, and Gallero hasn’t hit that 20 mark yet. He just started showing up there, at least under that name, back in December and doesn’t work every week.

CMLL (MON) 05/22/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Astro vs Dreyco & Sombra Diabólika
2) Asturiano & Black Tiger vs Dr. Karonte I & Enfermero Jr.
3) Millenium, Pegasso, Rey Samuray vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja

If I were a terrible person, I’d write “I think Amnesia is new but I can’t remember.” I’m clearly not a terrible person. He’s a Puebla indie wrestler for at least a decade, though not much in recent years.

Templario officially vacated the Mexican National Middleweight championship on Wednesday’s Informa. The long-standing rule is a wrestler is not allowed to be a national and world champ in the same division. Templario winning the CMLL World Middleweight Championship means he had to give up the lesser title. CMLL hasn’t indicated when they’ll fill the now vacant title.

Star Jr. said his six-month injury was a knee (CL) one.

Titán lost to Mike Bailey but defeated Lio Rush to reach 8 points in NJPW’s Best of Super Juniors. That technically ties him for second place, with four other wrestlers at eight points. Bailey leads at ten. It ties Titán’s point total from last year; a single point the rest of the way sets a new high. (It’s rare for CMLL wrestlers to go much higher.) Titán faces SHO early Friday, then DOUKI on Sunday. Both are opponents Titán could theoretically win, but it’s probably time to give some wins to some people who are farther back.

Zandokan Jr. told MedioTiempo a fan interaction story. He says he was once at a show in Tepatitlan where he was insulting a crowd, and a fan started to reach for something out his bag; Zandokan believes the guy was pretending to pull a weapon out as as intimidation beat Zandokan says his instinct was that he couldn’t back down whatever got pulled out, because it would make luchadors look weak. He instead told the fans that he better be ready to use it if he takes it out his bag. (Zandokan says he was later snuck out the back door.) Zandokan also says he previously wrestled as Cain (we had him as Hijo del Bucanero), that his brother wrestled for a short time but didn’t like it, and that he reminds people so much of the previous Zandokan that his aunt – the original Zandokan’s wife – doesn’t like to watch him wrestle because it’s too strange. Zandokan and Difunto are living together in Mexico City, which meant Zandokan leaving behind his wife and his daughters in Guadalajara for now.

Magnus, Rugido, and Magia Blanca helped out with a blood drive at a hospital for premature children and their mothers.

AAA

Space this week has finishes off the 04/08 San Luis Potosi show.

• Mr. Iguana vs Puma King
• Dalys & Negro Casas vs Argenis & Toscano
• Dralistico, Hijo del Vikingo & Laredo Kid vs Antifaz del Norte, Dinamico, Gringo Loco

AAA tapes in Morelia on Saturday. Lineup is here. It’s AAA so who knows what happens, but Vikingo/Penta vs Dralistico/Gringo at least has a chance of being good. The tag title three way makes no sense but maybe it’ll be good. Shani & Tormenta will do big things in their hardcore match. The on paper lineup looks better than the next couple of shows.

AAA announced the full lineup for the 06/18 Puebla taping on Thursday

AAA TV (SUN) 06/18/2023 Auditorio GNP, Puebla, Puebla
1) Baby Xtreme & Mini Vikingo vs Kamik-C & Skalibur
2) Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa, Willie Mack vs Kento, Takuma, Tosscano
3) Abismo Negro Jr. & Flammer © vs Arez & La Hiedra and Látigo & Maravilla [AAA MIXED TAG]
first defense (won in December)
4) Jack Cartwheel vs Daga, Toxin
5) Jack Evans & Vampiro Canadiense vs Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf
6) Lady Shani, Negro Casas, Psycho Clown vs Chik Tormenta, QT Marshall, Sam Adonis

QT Marshall sticks out, and not just because I left him in blue. He’s disliked by the AEW fans primarily because of the feeling that any time he’s on screen is time that could go to someone with more buzz. He’s also got a rap of being in the promotion as a favor to Cody Rhodes (which may not be completely accurate) and he’s just a heel that doesn’t do anything that people will like. Those AEW problems are fine for an AAA Sam Adonis associate. I don’t know how many people in Puebla are going actually to know who he is (no AEW TV in Mexico) There’s no history AAA will do anything to introduce him before the show. Marshall is just going to end up being the latest random foreigner who beats up the tecnicos (after the opener and after the main event), does a promo after the show teasing a match, and then is never seen or mentioned again. Marshall is also a higher-up in AEW, which might have to do with what he’s here and not someone that would be better known in Mexico.

Vampiro is back. I’m sure we’re all shocked that his retirement didn’t stick. This is not the first time I’ve written about this but it’s worth repeating. At least one of two things is happening:

• Vampiro embellished the severity or variety of his ailments
• OR AAA is unfeeling/uncaring enough to put a man with degenerative brain disease in wrestling matches on a regular basis

It’s got to be one of those. I guess it could be some of both. The story Vampiro’s tried to tell is it’s all very real but also it’s still somehow safe for him to wrestle. That’s a hard needle to thread, and harder still when he quit part way through his last match. I wish I felt strong enough about one or the other. I’d like to think it’s a first option. That AAA and Vampiro both know Vampiro’s stated diagnosis is not quite true, and are guessing there’s less heat in continuing to use a double Alzheimer’s/Parkinson’s sufferer than revealing maybe that diagnosis isn’t exactly accurate. I’m guessing the people who follow this blog are accustomed to Vampiro’s tall tales and would have trouble believing him no matter what, but the general fan probably just spend much time thinking through it and assumes everyone Vampiro is saying is largely accurate.

I’m not confident on much except that match will be terrible and every match with Vampiro will continue to be terrible until there are no more matches with Vampiro. I hope he’s getting a big reaction because there’s nothing else to hang on to here.

There’s a repeated social media bit of AAA fans being angry Fenix won both the Latin American and Cruiserweight championships and has never defended them. He’ll reach a year reign with zero defenses when this show happens. Part of that’s just availability – Fenix was supposed to defend (and probably lose) the Latin American title back in December, missed that show, and has been out of action at least some of this year. Still, the biggest factor has to be “AAA doesn’t care much about their titles and neither should you.” The mixed titles going six months without a defense, with two wrestlers who are on most every show, shows the importance of these things. Use your energy elsewhere. (I will not take my own advice.)

Vampiro started a faction with Aramis and Willie Mack, so he’s teaming with Jack Evans instead with Willie booked. Estrellita seemed to be joining a new Pagano led faction, no idea why she’s with La Rebelion. Latigo and Jack Cartwheel began a feud on the last AAA TV, so Latigo is in the mixed tag and it’s Toxin wrestling Cartwheel instead. No particular reason storyline for Las Toxicas to be fighting. (Real reason is probably “no Reina de Reinas title and no trios titles and no ideas beyond that.”) I seem to recall Flammer telling La Hiedra she was welcome to challenge her for the mixed tag team titles but not to settle to team with an ‘ordinary’ luchador like Arez. Maybe she forgot.  I think I’d rather see 2023 Toscano wrestle than 2023 Crazy Boy but I may eat my words on that.

There’s no great emotional investment in any TV AAA produces outside of TripleMania, it only matters if they’re going to produce matches worth seeing. It’s possible match 2 or 4 will be good, and matches 1 and 3 might have GIF spots. The main event will be about heat. I write a lot of about AAA problems but I think the simpler version is I liked AAA better when they had more good matches.

I’m more invested in figuring out AAA’s TV schedule than watching it at this point. What I have at the moment:

taping	airing
04/08 San Luis Potosi	05/20
04/22 Tijuana (TV)	05/27 & 06/03
05/20 Morelia	06/10 & 06/17
05/25 Chihuahua	06/24 & 07/01
06/18 Puebla	07/08 & 07/29?
07/15 TM Tijuana	07/15 (FITE) & 07/22
07/?? VdE Aguascalientes	08/05 & 08/26?
08/12 TM CDMX	08/12 (FITE) & 08/19

(Whatever happened to that Showcenter return?)

On Wednesday, Laredo Kid announced he and Black Taurus were now free agents.  About an hour later, Laredo Kid deleted that post and announced he and Black Taurus were still working with Impact and AAA but were also open to working elsewhere.

They’re probably both still under some agreement, but also very interested in higher-paying opportunities. Impact is believed to pay significantly better than the likes of MLW for guys on Laredo & Taurus’ level. AEW or WWE would pay a lot more. Impact surely pays their top guys comparable amounts, but it seems very unlikely Laredo Kid or Black Taurus will ever be a top guy in Impact. It seem unlikely they’ll even be regular midlevel guys; they’ve been in the same spots since they showed up for this current run, and it doesn’t appear there’s been much effort to change that. (Laredo Kid’s match on Thursday, where he was just a way to get heat for Trey Miguel before Miguel faced off, is about normal.) The potential for an AEW/WWE deal is much bigger, there’s just no knowing if there’s any actual interest there. Unless you loudly leak work that you’re available, I guess.

An AAA spot show in Arena Aficion on Tuesday drew some international action. Dragongate’s Takuma and SB KENTo were listed on the poster. They’re back on that AAA show up there but have otherwise disappeared from wrestling for the last few months, and there apparently are theories about that. At any rate, those two showing up in Mexico would’ve been news, but it was always suspect because the poster designer used a photo of Nishikawa instead of either of those two. I was told (and wrote here) a while back that KENTo and Takuma wouldn’t be appearing. News report on the show still had Takuma & KENTo wrestling, which caused me to go searching around Facebook until I saw proof. Sure enough, it was Nishikawa and Nozaki (of IWRG of late) and most of the people just assumed those two men were Takuma & KENTo. I’m not sure if that’s a media story or a story about the limited power of AAA TV (where Takuma & KENTO were on for a few months earlier this year.) Maybe more relevant: the show seemed to draw pretty well for an AAA spot show in that building. Abismo Negro Jr. cheated to beat Vikingo in the tag match event. I wouldn’t beat Vikingo on house shows but I suppose no one outside of the people reading this blog, the people in Pachuca, and maybe the people who read the AAA section of the WON (if this makes it in next week) will ever know.

Other Notes

(I’ll catch up on IWRG later.)

WWE CEO Nick Khan spoke at the Moffetnason TMT Conference. Wrestlenomics (subscription) and Fightful both note Khan spoke of interest in doing a “lucha libre” show. He noted here, as he’s done in other interviews, that WWE over-indexes Hispanic fans and it’d be interesting the growing documentary. (“Over-indexes” means the WWE fanbase has a higher percentage of Hispanic fans than the general TV population.) This was Khan speaking to potential investors and media partners. The purpose here is to demonstrate ways WWE can/will continue to grow even after their new TV deals are locked in and the upcoming UFC merger is complete. Investors want to know there are always new ideas to raise profits that are reasonable viable, and WWE extracting more value out of underserved areas is one way to do that. (Same with Khan mentioning India plans in this interview.) Demonstrating that you have growth ideas is more important than executing those ideas, though Khan has brought up the idea of going after Hispanic fans frequently enough in these interviews that I believe it’s probably one of his favorites. I think most people reading this blog are skeptical WWE could do that well, but that’s also beside the point. Khan frames the ideas as after the merger is complete and everyone’s settled into what they’re doing, so that’s probably a year or more from even getting past the concept stage.

Andrade says he is indeed wrestling on the June 15th Arena Olimpico Laguna show, facing Psycho Clown and Cibernetico. It appears to be his first post-injury match. AEW’s Collision show will debut two days later, June 15th, Andrade was listed as appearing on it, and perhaps that’ll be his return to AEW TV. (Perhaps not; he appears to have been a late sub for CM Punk, and whatever’s going on there is a much bigger story than if Andrade is wrestling on an AEW show in a month.)

Dragongate is doing a bit where Ultimo Dragon refuses to wrestle Diamante in a singles match. People who follow the promotion closer than me believe they’re headed to a mask match, and that wouldn’t be good for his mask. The latest part of the story had Dragongate suspending Ultimo Dragon from the promotion until he wrestles Diamante. That’s gotten a bit of attention in Mexico, notable because almost nothing from Japanese wrestling outside of occasional NJPW stuff gets mentioned in Mexico.

The Ciudad Juarez lucha libre hall of fame will add Trovador Solitario (current president), Serpiente Blanca, La Sirenita, Sombra de Plata, La Bestia, Rossy Solis, Arana Negra, Rocky Star, el Tupamaro and Master. It’s Juarez, so Pagano appeared to endorse the lucha libre activity.

Blue Demon Jr. received an award from the Mexico City Tourism Commission.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 05/15/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Dreyco & Mercurio b Angelito & Rayo Metálico
2) Fuego, Neón, Valiente Jr. b Hijo del Perverso, Perverso, Prayer
3) La Magnifica, Sanely, Skadi b La Catalina, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer 
La Magnifica replaced Princesa Sugehit
4) Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Averno, Mephisto, Templario 
5) Místico b Bárbaro Cavernario 

It sounded like attendance was up for the Mistico singles match.

CMLL (TUE) 05/16/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Magía b Minos [lightning] 
2) Metálica, Olympia, Tiffany b La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Maligna 
Rudas took 2/3
3) Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma b El Coyote, Luciferno, Okumura 
Luciferno replaced Povlora on Tuesday morning. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Virus b El Audaz [lightning] 
Switched from a lightning match to a standard singles match a few hours before the show. Virus took 2/3.
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Blue Panther, Star Black, Volcano 
Malditos took 2/3.
6) Esfinge, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota 
Esfinge baet Angel de Oro in falls 2/3 to set up a title match.

Virus/Audaz was alright. Virus seems in good spirits for the NJPW sohw. Audaz wrestles like someone who has had a significant injury and had to tone down his style after returning to the ring, but I don’t know of any injury. He’s got to find some way to stand out more than he’s doing now.

I’ll go over the Guadalajara results on Friday. The news there is they’re talking about restarting regular Sunday shows again. No start date was mentioned. The last time this came up, it turned out to be just one show.

Titán picked up his third win in the Best of Super Juniors on Tuesday, defeating Ryusuke Taguchi. Three wins is usually the mark for Titán in the BOSJ. He’s ended up with 6 points in three different tournaments, only getting to 8 points last year. The glass half full way of looking at this is he’s poised for a breakthrough. The glass half empty one is Titán may be out of wins already. He’ll have wrestled Mike Bailey by the time most of you read this.

CMLL (SAT) 05/20/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia
2) Astral, Diamond, Eléctrico vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Crixus vs Okumura [lightning]
4) Magnus, Rugido, Volcano vs Esfinge, Kráneo, Star Black
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Stuka Jr., Yota vs Euforia, Mephisto, Niebla Roja
6) Soberano Jr. vs Ángel de Oro

The main event seems fun. Sure a lot of rudos booked.

Box y Lucha 3551 has Atlantis as the top image.

AAA

A new taping has emerged

AAA TV (THU) 05/25/2023 Feria Santa Rita, Chihuahua, Chihuahua
1) Arkángel Divino, Drago Kid, Último Maldito vs Genio del Aire, Kamik-C, Skalibur (Baja California)
2) Dalys & Sexy Star vs Chik Tormenta & Maravilla
3) Aerostar, Arez, Octagón Jr. vs Parka Negra, Psicosis, Villano III Jr.
4) Myzteziz & Zorro vs Argenis & Gringo Loco
5) Mr. Iguana & Willie Mack vs Emperador Azteca & Toscano
6) Psycho Clown vs Sam Adonis [flag]

This lineup has been floating around for a while. It had TV taping logos but it’s a Thursday show with a not especially strong group of names (Emperador Azteca is working the semi-main?) that I wasn’t 100% sure it was a real show. No idea why it took until 9 days before the show to get confirmed by AAA. Note that match three is the first time Arez and Psicosis will have wrestled since the Vipers broke up with Arez one year ago.

Match four follows up on Myzteziz/Argenis (so Myzteziz is getting beat.)

These shows look to be airing June 24 and July 1st. A month between taping and airing is about normal for AAA this year outside TripleMania. Those dates also take AAA to one week before TripleMania Tijuana. They’ll probably air one episode from the Puebla taping first.

IWRG

Thursday’s show is a Lucha Libre Boom one, announced a while back.

IWRG , LLB (THU) 05/18/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Crazy Clown, El Reptil, Hijo de Súper Brazo, Sparta vs Gato Eveready, Gravedad Cero, Power Bull, Príncipe Centauro
2) Hijo De Brazo De Platino & Sangre Suicida vs Demencia & Soria
3) Oro Blanco, Steve Manson, Voltio vs Eurus, Rey Azteca Jr., Súper Boy
4) Fantasy, Mike Segura, Pantera vs Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera
5) Puma & Tonalli vs Lunatik Xtreme & Ovett Jr. and Brazo Celestial & Brazo De Oro Jr.
6) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. vs Hijo del Alebrije & Hijo del Pirata Morgan
7) Pirata Morgan vs LA Park vs DMT Azul

This should air on Mas Lucha live. LA Park in the main event means a likely full house.

The Tonalli mystery may be solved; he’s not going to CMLL at the moment. Tonalli appears on an upcoming trio of RGR cards (Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas) with a whole bunch of AAA wrestlers. That’s a no-no for CMLL wrestlers, so he picked those dates over CMLL at some point. Not sure if that’s no Tonalli for now or forever. Tonalli’s a guy AAA should look at if he’s now going to be available to them, though I can’t imagine they’d get around to doing anything with him.

Other News

Big Lucha says they’ll only be airing shows on their own channel starting with the 05/26 Ecatepec show, which means no more Mas Lucha. Big Lucha did their own production earlier on, which was alright, not at the general level of Mas Lucha, but that was before this current era of Mas Lucha shooting every show with a malfunctioning floor cam. The bar has been lowered.

Rey Fenix vs Gringo Loco airs on ROH’s Honor Club this Thursday.

Defy has Hijo del Vikingo, Ultimo Dragon and Juventud Guerrera on 10/13 in Yakima, Washignton. It’s a big building they’re running from “Primolucha.”