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.