CMLL
Soberano Jr. won a five-way with KC Navarro, Lio Rush, Dragon Kid, and Fugaz at the All Star Junior Festival on Saturday. I saw very little discussion of this show in English; I couldn’t even find English recaps with more than just the results on the weekend. When I searched on Twitter during the show, it was like 95% kanji. Soberano teased surprises in the post-match interview, the way all luchadors tease surprises when they have nothing to say.
CMLL (SUN) 08/20/2023 Arena México [CMLL, La Tijera]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía DQ Mercurio, Minos, Pequeño Polvora 
Mercurio unmasked Angelito
2) Astral, Cachorro, Robin b Dr. Karonte I, Enfermero Jr., Inquisidor
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Volcano b Akuma, Crixus, Raider
4) Sagrado b Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
eight minutes
5) Dark Panther, Star Black, Star Jr. b Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
Villanos and Zandokan, but they attacked Star Jr. after and stole his trios belt.
6) Místico, Octagón, Valiente b Euforia, Fuerza Guerrera, Mephisto
Valiente and Mistico ended up pulling off Fuerza Guerrera’s mask in a post match exchange, after the rudos had ripped up Misticos’ mask earlier.
This might have been a night of people shooting their own angles. CMLL mentions the main event mask ripping, but not whatever happened with the trios title in match five. I’d love to see that world title trios feud but I wouldn’t expect to see it unless they run another angle. Meanwhile, Mercurio has the longest hair I’ve ever seen on him and he’s getting ripping off a tecnico’s mask, so that seems more likely to set up something.
I missed Friday’s card in the update on Sunday (there was an update on Sunday)
CMLL (FRI) 08/25/2023 Arena México
1) Brillante Jr., Leono, Oro Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Raider
2) Fuego, Robin, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
4) Valiente vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Terrible vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Hiromu Takahashi, Soberano Jr., Titán [Relevos Increíbles]
The main event could be great. Soberano appears to be lowercase ingobernable, which is enough to team with Titan and Takahashi. The Hechicero/Infenrales split returns from a few weeks off in the semimain. Vailente versus Misterioso Jr. is a match that is happening. Villanos/Zandokan continue to be fun a trio. Brillante (the man going 200 KMH at all times) against the Dr. Karontes (men who struggle to keep up at normal speed) could be something. It’s a good show for a regular Friday night.
Wrestling Observer Radio mentioned Stephanie Vaquer may face Stardom’s Giulia on the 10/28 NJPW Strong show in Las Vegas. NJPW previously announced CMLL wrestlers would appear on that card. Giulia is the current NJPW Strong Women’s champion, so the idea is she’d be defending the title against Vaquer.
Giulia being in North America in October opens the possibility she’d come to Mexico for the Women’s Gran Prix that month, similar to how NJPW names doubled up with the Men’s Gran Prix and the All Star show. I’m skeptical that’s actually the plan though; Dark Silueta is wrestling in Ice Ribbon and elsewhere on her current tour, and they’ll probably announce some women are coming back with her when that tour concludes.
AAA
AAA did not post results from the Showcenter card, but long-time Monterrey source Lo Mejor de Lucha did:
AAA TV (SUN) 08/20/2023 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [Lo Mejor de Lucha]
1) Baby Love b Reyna Sahori
2) Dulce Kanela b Ultra, Gemelo Tapia
3) Delta, Niño Hamburguesa, The Mummy b Mafioso, Medico Brujo, Toscano
4) Mr. Iguana b Epydemius, Belcegor
Belcegor replaced Octagon Jr. about a week before the show, then broke three toes after a tornillo to the floor.
5) Sexy Star b Centella, Lady Maravilla
Added in late July when this was made a TV taping.
6) Pagano & Vampiro vs Antifaz & Chessman
Vampiro replaced Dave the Clown about a week before the show. Alberto el Patron interfered to help Vampiro win. Vampiro left his boots (well, sneakers) in the ring after the match as part of his retirement. It was his second one in Monterrey this year so far.
AAA announced the crowd as close to full, and it did look that way in photos.
AAA didn’t mention Vampiro’s retirement in their (few) tweets about the show, so I’m unsure if even they believe this it. It always seems like he wants it to be it and then he just comes back again. Vampiro just started in NWA, sent out a promo a few days ago, and presumably isn’t going to be leaving that gig.
AAA continued doing live commentary. Their story now appears to be is AAA is aware knowledgeable fans hate it, but they need to do it to help the casual fans. Every wrestling promotion has casual fans who seem to understand the show fine without people explaining every little thing to them. No one has more casual fans than CMLL, they seem to get by OK. (Actually, maybe WWE does have more casual fans because they just have so many more fans. They get by in a totally different way than CMLL but still different than live commentary.) If AAA’s belief is they need the announcers to explain storylines in a way that no other wrestling promotion is doing, that seems like an admission their storytelling is a mess and this is just putting a bandaid on a bigger problem.
AAA also announced they’ll return to the Showcnter on 11/26. Originally, AAA said they were going to run five events in the Showcenter this year. 11/26 would be only the third so five seems unlikely.
I missed it scanning through TV, but AAA announced they’d tape on 09/23 in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera. It’s billed as “La Revencha de TripleMania.” AAA usually announces lineups a month out, so there’s a decent chance of more information coming this week.
AAA hasn’t run a show in Mexico City’s Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera since 2018, and that was a sponsored show with the Emperador chocolate brand. They led off the 2019 year with a show at Pepsi Center, and the idea then was that would be their new more modern Mexico City home. AAA last ran the Pepsi Center in late 2021, and your guess is as good as mine as why they’re moving to the old base. Taping on 09/23 means AAA will probably air another week of TripleMania Mexico City this upcoming Saturday; it’s the easiest way to make the math work. That Drago match may turn up yet.
IWRG
I was wrong; the Angel Mortal Jr. who wrestled Thursday in Arena Naucalpan was indeed AAA’s Parka Negra reverting to his old gimmick. He didn’t really explain why, just saying he uses the character for special occasions. There was no suggestion he was leaving AAA, this was just a one night thing. I wonder if this was some issue with AAA owning the gimmick but Mortal/Parka wanting to participate on a benefit show anyway.
IWRG (SUN) 08/20/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha, thecubsfan]
1) Bengalee & Leo Cristiani b Amazonika & Eli Surge
2) Hell Boy, Puma de Oro, Shocko b Centurion, Gannicus, Rey Espartano [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
3) Lolita, Ludark Shaitan, Satania b Águila Roja, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
4) Cerebro Negro, Hip Hop Man, Ivan Rokov b Noisy Boy, Spider Fly, Último Legendrio [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Caballero de Plata, Imposible, Relámpago [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
Imposible & Relampago didn’t get along with Caballero de Plata and beat him up post match.
6) Toxin b Tonalli, Hijo de Canis Lupus
Toxin beat Hijo de Canis Lupus
I watched this show! Or I had this on while I was reading through 1956 magazines. I thought they were going to do the whole tournament on this show, but the announcers explained the other rounds would happen on future shows. The best bit on this show was in match 4. They played off the recent Cerberos/Mexaboys match, where the Cerberos demanded Spider Fly and Noisy Boy stop doing flips and do llaves because they were in a title match. This time, Cerbero Negro started punching Spider Fly early on and Spider Fly called him out on it, saying punches were not what title matches were about. The match continued for a couple of more minutes, then Spider Fly shocked everyone by reversing a Cerbero Negro hold into a cradle for three. Cerebro Negro lost his mind and had to be held back from murdering Spider Fly. The crowd buzzed because it was way earlier than IWRG matches usually end and everyone figured the team with Hip Hop Man and the Russian guy are going far. And, then it turned out they were right to think that: announcers explained Cerbero Negro wasn’t the captain so the match would continue. IWRG doesn’t typically do capitan fall rules, didn’t do another elimination in the rest of this show, they just did it here so they could do the bit without messing with the results they wanted.
I think Toxin challenged for Hijo de Canis Lupus’ titles but they lost me by then.
Other News
The trailer for the Cassandro bio pic will be released tomorrow.
Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo are teasing something Perros del Mal related in NXT with what they’re putting out on that social media. It would be a big deal to Mexican fans but I think an actual Perros del Mal bit would be lost on most of the NXT audience, who don’t really care much about wrestling outside WWE. (Proof of this is Angel Garza doing this for a week and the English language sites not really picking up on it until I pointed it out.) Kahn-del-Mal controls the Perros del Mal legacy, so it really just takes one person saying yes (and WWE saying yes), but I don’t think it’d end up being what anyone would want it to be. They’d be better off creating something new, but nostalgia plays strong in modern wrestling.
Box y Lucha released another set of 1956s Box y Luchas. They previously released everything from mid August 1956 to mid January 1957, and now they’re going backwards to February and March 1956. I’m kind of in a spot where I’m absolutely buying all of these to recap, but don’t want to post like an August recap incase there’s something in July that lends context to all of this. There may not be full recap posts for a while is what I’m saying.
Site Notes
The “thecubsfan.com” domain is its new home for now. I’ve got until Thursday to cancel the old hosting, but I still need to visually check all the old podcasts are safe before I hit X. It’s just those podcasts and the databases (posts and matches) that I’d really lose sleep over if they ever disappeared. I would suggest is that if you’re ever moving a WordPress site, the DuplicatorPro plug-in was absolutely worth the money. It worked when nothing else seemed to be working.
I’m going to give the new hosting a month or so to make sure it’s OK, but I’ll probably be moving the luchadb and luchawiki sometime this fall. The cost savings is significant and I got to afford those Box y Luchas somehow. (But also that cost savings is so significant that I should probably give it a little time to be sure.) I’ll try to give heads up and pick a slow weekend before any move.
I’m also traveling for work this week and operating on unusual hours, so I don’t know what or when blog posts will look like the rest of the week. It’s not great but I’m just glad I’m not also trying to handle this site move at the same time.