CMLL early week results, El Rostro, Fenix to the Crash?

CMLL

CMLL announced Monday night that the Aniversario is sold out. They released some additional lower bowl tickets early on Monday. Those went quick. I expect they’re will still be plenty of resellers outside of Arena Mexico on Friday, as usual for a big show.

CMLL (MON) 09/11/2023 Arena Puebla [Grada, Porra Fresa]
1) Dreyko & Rey Apocalipsis b Amnesia & Millenium
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo & Chamuel
3) Meyer b Disturbio [lightning]
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Stigma
5) Máscara Dorada, Soberano Jr., Titán b Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3
6) Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Niebla Roja b Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr.
Rudos want a CMLL Trios title match

That main event finish was probably also about Angel de Oro beating Volador leading into the Aniverasrio. I’m still pretty set on Ultimo Guerrero beating Averno on Saturday, but CMLL keeps going back enough to Angel de Oro and Volador that I’m willing to believe they might actually do it someday soon.

CMLL (TUE) 09/12/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Acero, Aéreo, Galaxy b Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía   
2) Hera, Olympia, Reyna Isis b La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Skadi   
3) Pelon Encapuchado b El Coyote [lightning]   
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado vs Fugaz, Star Jr., Valiente  
Malditos took 2/3.
5) Star Black & Titán b Bárbaro Cavernario & Terrible   
6) Atlantis Jr., Hechicero, Máscara Dorada DQ Euforia, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]   
Soberano unmasked Mascara Dorada for the DQ, and leading to a singles match next week.

I just caught part of the semimain and the main event. Both were fun. Soberano Jr. is still in rudo mode against Mascara Dorada, and a singles match between them next week is pretty exciting. The guys in the semimain were working very hard too.

CMLL (TUE) 09/12/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Mas Lucha]
1) Adira, Alondra, Lady Shadow b Hatanna, La Pantera, Sexy Sol 
2) Centinela, Nexy, Valkiria b Katara, Magia Azul, Náutica 
Nexy replaced Perse (who ended up doing commentary instead)
3) Barboza, Draego, La Fashion, Persa DQ Bestia Negra, Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. 
Dulce Gardenia ran in from the crowd save La Fashion, teasing a feud with Vaquero & Bestia Negra.
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia DRAW Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis 
double pin with Vaquer and Lluvia.
5) Averno & Dragón Rojo Jr. b Templario & Último Guerrero 
6) Místico & Volador Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja 
Angel de Oro fouled Volador

The main event might have been leading to something next week, but they cut away while the promos were still going. Dulce Gardenia ran in through the crowd and wearing a baseball cap, so it very much looked like a fan hit the ring until he started doing lucha libre spots. It’s good he turned up somewhere.

Today’s episode of Informa is interviews with many Aniversario participants: Dragon Rojo, Templario, Volador, Angel de Oro, Averno, Lluvia, La Jarochita, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis, Rugido, and Esfinge. No idea why Ultimo Guerrero got out of it.

In a 90th Anniversary article, sports marketing professor Javier Balseca tries to figure out how much money CMLL makes on a normal show. It’s a lot of guessing, some of which are far off my guesses (5,000 PPV buys a week?) and some that make more sense. He doesn’t actually reach a conclusion because there are so many costs to owning Arena Mexico that can’t really be known from the outside.

I can’t remember if I posted about this, but it’s been a while if I did. TicketmasterLive used to include an order number on every PPV purchase. If you faithfully bought the CMLL PPV at around the same time, you could get an a estimate about how many people bought PPVs in the previous week. CMLL was generally the only thing being offered on TicketmasterLive, so it worked as an imprecise buy count. The order number went up between 100 to 300 most weeks, so my hunch is that the PPV buys were about the same. Neerme/Boletia doesn’t have that sort of tell, or at least I haven’t dug deep enough to find it.

Ultimo Guerrero says he has had his current hair style since high school and he wouldn’t leave his house if he got shaved bald.

Euforia talked about his love of baseball to Telediario. His hometown Laguna team is playing Puebla in the championship finals. He played first, second and third baseman growing up, but now feels he only has the mobility to play first.

Mistico hypes his Aniversario match.

Box y Lucha 3568 focuses on the Aniversario.

Heraldo de Mexico’s list of the 10 best Arena Mexico matches are slightly more varied than usual.

At an indie show over the weekend, Tiffany mentioned her retirement was coming close. She’s noncommittal on the timeline – she says “one or two years” – but it was a rare occasion where the wrestler brought up the idea of retirement unprompted.

AAA

Space will air a marathon of TripleManias on Friday, starting with TripleMania Monterrey around 7:30 AM. I believe all these shows are now up on YouTube now.

Record has an interview with Negro Casas, which is the usual bit: he’s so happy he’s in AAA, he never imagined teaming with his wife, he’s got a lot of great new opponents.

Other News

El Rostro (Jaime Urra Medina, 76) passed away on Tuesday, as first announced by Dos Caras. El Rostro was a EMLL regular in the early 70s, then appeared off and on in El Toreo through the rest of the 70s and the 80s. He was a bodybuilder beyond wrestling and had a mask that borrowed from El Santo’s design (and looks like a like what Axel would end up using.) He was familiar but never really made it big; a hair match win over Manuel Robles in Arena Coliseo is his biggest recorded victory. In trying to confirm his real name, I found El Rostro among those listed as past winners of the Mr. San Luis Potosi bodybuilding contest. He won the 1965 contest. Miguel Reducindo mentions El Rostro worked as a lucha libre commissioner at one point; he’d work the Arena Coliseo shows.

The Crash announced Fenix for their 11/03 anniversary show. Fenix has not worked since last year’s TripleMania Mexico City; he hasn’t wrestled internationally since March 2023. The belief is that Fenix is attempting to establish US residency, and the requirements include remaining in the United States during the process. (He’s never publically explained the situation, so this is more an assumption than a fact.) Fenix taking that booking Tijuana means he’s completed the process – or he’s just hopeful it’ll be resolved in two months. It also means that, unless he’s a surprise on one of the upcoming tapings, Fenix will work with AAA’s rival before coming back to AAA. Unlike the rank-and-file guys, I don’t think he’ll be in trouble for working The Crash.

Monterrey’s RIOT launched a Patreon, replacing the Pivotshare that closed down in August. It’s $5/month for their library of videos, with the idea that the 2022 La Rina tournament will (finally) go up this week. RIOT also will continue to appear on IWTV.

GCW announced Arez vs Shigehiro Irie for their 09/22 show in Germany. Arez was originally supposed to face Francesco Akira but that match was quickly deleted. Arez and Latigo are working in Europe for a few promotions in the remainder of September.

Lucha Solos and Vinnie Massaroface Hijo del Vikingo, Misteiorso and Cucuy on 10/28 in San Juse.

An El Paso story about Cassandro mentions he’s suffering from aphasia after his stroke in 2021, and is in therapy to regain the ability to speak.

The San Luis Potosi government will hand out lucha libre awards on September 21st.

SuperLuchas writes about the 1934 death of El Santo’s older brother, Pantera Negra.

This relates to nothing, but you know who has the most pleasant Twitter account? Deathmatch star Miedo Extremo. It’s just a pleasure, especially if you do like you should do every professional wrestler and turn off retweets.