CMLL Universal Block B, AAA TV, Vikingo, Mistico/AEW

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/13/2023 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
3) Magnus & Rugido © vs Futuro & Neón [MEX TAG]
3rd defense
4) Lluvia vs Zeuxis, Dark Silueta, Amapola, Tiffany, Sanely, Skadi, Hera, Náutica, Maligna, Sexy Sol, Andrómeda [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal]
5) Místico vs Templario

Mistico in big singles matches has been fun all year, and Templario will likely be no different. It still seems either Dark Silueta or Zeuxis in the Universal tournament. The third match has a high ceiling. This seems like a reliably good CMLL Friday night. It’s the usual 6 USD on Boletia.

(A thing to watch is CMLL hasn’t put up the 10/27 Gran Prix show up yet, so that may be a 12 USD event. Budget appropriately.)

La Malgina, Zeuxis, and Lluvia did press to promote this block. Zeuxis criticized La Catlina harsher than normal for these interviews. Zeuxis said Catalina needs to be put in her place, she was in WWE but did nothing there, blowing kisses isn’t lucha libre Mexicana, and the only real Diva del Ring is Martha Villalobos. Zeuxis also said she’d prefer team with Lluvia as Las Infernales, which is a strange thing to say when you’re world tag team champions with another woman. Zeuxis said that as much as she’d like to be Universal champion, winning the Gran Prix for Team World is actually her bigger goal. Lluvia has many plans on how to defeat Catalina if she gets that far. They’re all secret plans that she didn’t want to tell the press. Maligna talked about wanting to show her ruda side. She’s from a family of rudo luchadors, she’s mostly wrestled as a tecnico in Mexico City, but she’s also primarily been booked in Guadalajara this year. This is her first Arena Mexico match since July.

CMLL (SUN) 10/15/2023 Arena México
1) La Vaquerita & Lady Metal vs Hera & Tiffany
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Difunto, Luciferno
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring vs Felino Jr., Kráneo, Misterioso Jr.
4) La Jarochita & Sanely vs Reyna Isis & Stephanie Vaquer
5) Atlantis, Fugaz, Valiente vs Felino, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero
6) Esfinge, Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Euforia, Mephisto, Terrible

Volador keeps working, though probably in a limited fashion if the last few matches are a sign. Nothing really going on except continuing to have two women’s matches per show. It is producing more clear tiers in the women’s division because they can actually be split up that way.

CMLL (MON) 10/16/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Hella, Lady Metal, Shitara vs Astoreth, Diablita Roja, Lady Amazona
2) Blue Shark vs Hijo del Perverso [lightning]
3) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
4) Pegasso & Stigma vs Felino & Felino Jr.
5) Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia, Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada vs Último Guerrero

Dorada/UG sounds fun, will be interesting if they do the same finish here. Match 3 seems to be setting up the first world tag title defense for Vaquer & Zeuxis.

the CMLL Puebla 8-person women’s division appears to be

• Lady Metal
• Mayahuel
• Shitara (father Tigre Rojo and brother Tigre Rojo Jr. both used to wrestle here)
• Lady Amazona (the former Adelita with Rey Apocalipsis and Toro Blanco
• Hella
• Astoreth
• Diablita Roja (actually from Chilpancingo)
• and one more, because the articles about the training class said it was eight deep

There is an Astaroth in Guadalajara but the Puebla woman spells her name Astoreth. I got it wrong last week, will try to get it better this week. Shitara is actually putting up her mask this Sunday in a singles match, seems likely to still have it on Monday.

On Informa, Julio Cesar Rivera made a point of saying that the only women from the Guadalajara who are “Amazonas”  are Sexy Sol, Nautica, and Valkiria and everyone else is still trying out. (A lot of women have worked a match or two in Guadalajara this year and I presume someone angered CMLL by claiming they were part of the roster. Don’t know who.) I presume that means these Puebla women are also not “Amazonas” yet, with the exception of perhaps Lady Metal.

Tuesday’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will be a legends show, similar to the Dia de Luchador show in Arena Mexico. No matches have been announced yet, though there is a talent list and you can sort of work it out. An early poster had Fuerza Guerrera pictured, and Americo Rocca is now in his place. Rocca was participating in a wrestling match in 2021 but never actually got in the ring. He hasn’t been a regular wrestler since 2000.

Marcela is out of the women’s Gran Prix. CMLL doctor Erika Carmona explained on Informa that her rehab from knee surgery was going slower than hoped and she was at risk of reinjury if she returned too soon. Amapola, who replaced Dark Silueta last year when she had a knee injury, will replace Marcela this year.

Titan is the sole CMLL wrestler in NJPW’s Super Junior Tag League. It would’ve been nice to see more CMLL wrestlers but NJPW seems to be going with a mostly in-house lineup. There is technically still a mystery spot, as YOH needs a new partner due to Lio Rush being sidelined due to illness. The tournament runs from 10/21 to 11/02. The heavyweight tag league runs the same time, and I’d be stunned if a CMLL wrestler was included in that.

An article from Denver7 talks about both the local lucha scene and the Denver Broncos/CMLL cross promotion. That one came about simply: some of the Broncos staff went to a show at Arena Mexico in April, had a good time, and though it’d be a cool to work with them on something. The article also mentions luchalibre.life, which promotes the local Denvver lucha libre arenas.

AAA

Gonna be a strange TV show this week. The listings say both Heroes Inmortales and Juan de la Barrera will air. Left to air from Jalisco

• Abismo Negro Jr. & Flammer vs Dalys & Negro Casas
• NGD vs Psycho Circus vs Chessman & Parka Negra, winners get a shot at the men’s tag team titles

I’m just guessing at the additional match from Ciudad de Mexico; my guess is either the TV opener (Cachanillas versus Drago Kid, Dulce Kanela and Mini Vikingo) or the Octagon Jr. vs Drago vs Bestia #1 contenders match – but that’s just taking a guess.

AAA did tape 7 matches in Juan de la Barrera, so they had this scheme planned out. They’ll have three matches in the next two weeks, just like normal. It’s a weird plan, but it’s a plan nevertheless, and I want to make sure to note they have a plan when I’m usually critical about them not having such.

Hijo del Vikingo defeated Gringo Loco in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall Thursday for GCW. That match was said to be great. Los Macizos also won the GCW Tag team titles on that show. It was startling how few fans GCW seemed to draw for that show.

DEFY will hope to do a lot better with their PrimoLucha show in Yakima, Washington tonight. Vikingo faces Swerve Strickland on that show, and Gringo Loco wrestlers Arez and Galeno del Mal for the Primolucha title. Vikingo is scheduled for GALLI on Sunday in Waukegan, Illinois, in a four-way with Aramis, Rey Horus and Aeroboy. That’ll be pretty good.

Penta appears in an ad with San Francisco 49er’s George Kittle for the Chubbies clothing line.

AEW is bringing in Mistico [exploding head emoji]

Just the facts:

• Mistico and Rocky Romero have been teasing a 1v1 match since the Gran Prix
• Mistico and Rocky Romero will be having that match
• in the US, but not for NJPW Strong or MLW – for AEW.

Mistico versus Rocky Romero will air on AEW, Rampage October 2oth (so next Friday). It’ll be taped three days prior, in Rosenberg (near Houston), Texas. AEW is calling it for “Mexico’s Poud for Pound Crown.” Romero is the (NWA) CMLL Historic Welterweight Champion, Mistico the (NWA) CMLL Historic Middleweight Champion, and so AEW’s rolling it out like a boxing or MMA match between different weight division champions. The CMLL name has come up on AEW (and more in ROH where Romero’s wrestled a bit) of late, but Mistico had never been mentioned before in AEW to my knowledge. They’ll have a week of shows to talk about.

It’s unusual for AEW to announce a match this far out, especially for Rampage. I wonder if there’s a hope of pushing some people on the fence into buying a ticket. Houston does have a lucha libre scene – Laredo Kid is working Coliseo Houston this weekend. AEW’s also going through an attendance downturn, and throwing something like this at the wall like is always a worthwhile try in those situations. I’m not sure it’s truly about attendance – AEW likes to see if they can bring in a hot wrestler or match from elsewhere in wrestling if they can, and Rocky and Mistico have gotten a lot of praise this year – but announcing it so early is unusual enough to wonder at a great purpose.

That one show is not what most people are concerned about; that’s what it means for AEW’s relationship with CMLL and AAA. The real answer is probably “everyone involved will see how this match goes and then figure it out”, but that requires more patience than allowed for discussion of wrestling matters. I’ll go with what I know right now. These are two different relationships:

The AEW/AAA “partnership” has always been overstated. AEW will use AAA’s titles when it suits them for an angle and will talk it over with AAA first. AEW will allow their wrestlers to take a booking from AAA if they want to work there. That’s about it. AAA’s not sending wrestlers to AEW, and AEW’s not sending wrestlers to AAA, they’re just giving a free path for their wrestlers to take work from the other company. They’re friendly with each other, but AAA and AEW aren’t sitting down to plan combined shows like NJPW does with CMLL and AEW, or even does AAA with the NWA. They may be a little less friendly after AEW booked a CMLL wrestler, but I don’t see AAA giving up on QT Marshall because AEW booked Mistico – they’re neither that tight nor that reliant on each other. It’s been obvious for a while that when AEW needs Mexican wrestlers for a bit, they’re doing their own thing and not working with AAA on the idea. Drago does not leave AAA and show up on AEW TV as Dios del Inframundo if AAA has any influence in the decision, and they’re not reaching out to AAA for info on Lince Dorado or Gravity. AEW’s not opposed to using AAA wrestlers like Aerostar or Daga, but they’re doing their own thing.

(It’s worth noting here, for like the umpteenth time, that most of the luchadors AEW employs aren’t under contract to AAA. It might just be Vikingo. Komander is famously under contract only to AEW. He, and others like the Lucha Brothers and LFI, will take dates with AEW but are really no different than any other AEW wrestler appearing in AAA – they’ll work for the Mexican promotion but aren’t tied to them long term. AEW is their number one and what they’d be require to pick if there’s ever a conflict. If AAA were upset about this situation and forced people to choose between AAA and AEW, they’d just lose some people. That’s also why AAA’s not going to make much of a fuss about this, even if it did annoy them – it’s an argument they can’t win.)

The “AEW/CMLL” relationship is really “CMLL has an unprecedented amount of faith and trust in Rocky Romero and will go along with (most) anything he suggests.” A few days ago in this space, I wrote how the Wrestling Observer Newsletter should combine “best booker”, “best promoter” and “best promotion” awards, because their voters treat them essentially as the same category. I suggest, as a replacement, the newsletter adds a “best front office person who’s not the promoter or booker” award and then just give it to Rocky Romero by fiat the first year. This doesn’t happen without him and exists for now only as long as he can keep everyone satisfied with the agreement. CMLL (the Lutteroths, the programming department, who knows who else) have given a lot of trust in Romero making good deals for them in the US and must be pleased with what they’ve seen so far with both the increasing wrestlers on NJPW Strong shows and the MLW deal. They’re allowing him a little more rope.

Maybe Tony Khan and Salvador Lutteroth will sit down in a room and chat at some point, but this is not yet that. This is a toe in the water to take the temperature so far. It’s a dip so tentative dip that CMLL is treating this no different than that GALLI show last week or any other of Mistico’s irregular US indie bookings – CMLL so far has not even acknowledged the AEW match is happening. It is a huge step in the relationship for AEW and CMLL to get even this far, but it’s just one match so far. Maybe AEW can get a Blue Panther or a Mascara Dorada or whomever in if it goes well. It is still likely to be AEW calling CMLL (or more likely, AEW calling Romero) for a particular wrestler on a particular date, and not some big partnership beyond that. That’s more how AEW seems to work with outside promotions, and it fits CMLL as well.

One relationship doesn’t preclude the other. AEW clearly wants to work with everyone willing (maybe except for WWE and, somedays, I’m not even sure if he’s building an angle there.) AAA will work with AEW as long as AEW has wrestlers they want to use and are willing to come to Mexico. CMLL, in allowing Mistico to appear on a live event with AAA’s Penta (scheduled for Dynamite), is showing an unprecedented willingness to bend their own rules. Maybe it never bends more than this – AAA & CMLL can be on the same US live event but not on the same TV show – but even that much is breaking longstanding tradition.

(Sidenote 1 that only interests me: the answer to “will Mistico help Rampage’s TV ratings?” is “probably no, and does it even matter, it is Rampage, it’s just cute they’re running a very CMLL match on a Friday night.” Rampage seems to live in the 300,000 viewer range regardless. I presume Mistico appearing on Rampage will be billed as his return to US TV, and then you’ll have to mentally fill in “English speaking” because people who report on these things forget that CMLL has had US TV on some Spanish TV outlets and post-WWE Mistico was on some of that. Even if we throw that out, I think it’s possible Mistico’s matches in 2019 Ring of Honor TV (over a few cameos) might have bene seen by more people than Mistico on a 2023 Rampage. That era of Ring of Honor was on local stations around the country, there was no real easy way to find out how many people saw them, but ROH people claimed they were drawing 250,000-500,000 people on those shows. Everyone not in ROH seemed to doubt that reach, so who knows.)

(Sidenote 2: It’s great AEW is bringing in another cool Mexican wrestler. It would be greater still if the Mexican wrestlers they had any sort of direction or purpose. Currently, your best bet at seeing a Mexican wrestler on AEW TV is showing up on Collision in random combinations to lose to Bullet Club Gold or in the last Ring of Honor match of the night after most of the crowd has gone home. It’s not great. It was cool that Fenix won a title. The coolness was somewhat diminished by it being an unplanned accident and AEW wanting to get it back off him as fast as humanly possible. Maybe we can charitably believe AEW would’ve kept Fenix more in the mix if he hadn’t been hurt, but it’s hard to get there when there’s no way he would’ve been gotten it in the first place if not for a horrible accident. They see him and Penta at the “credible guys to lose to the top guys” level, and they don’t even see the rest of them as important enough to use them as more than interchangeable bodies. If they’re even around to get used; I keep thinking LFI are the answer to a (maybe dropped?) mystery man angle, if only because I don’t understand the point in reintroducing them in vignettes without a plan to put them back in matches. And they’re still not in matches.

If Mistico takes the loss to Rocky Romero, I will also lose my mind, but that doesn’t fix the underlying issue. I know it’s not just a “Mexican wrestling in AEW” issue, it’s “they have way more people than ideas for them or the bandwidth to execute those ideas”. It wouldn’t be hard to plug Top Flight or Action Andretti or whoever your favorites are; it’s an epidemic issue of having such a large roster of interesting people. It just sticks out a bit more when it’s an entire class of wrestlers being treated similarly. I hope it gets better.)

(sidenote 3: AEW’s going to keep people separated here but still my dream is a backstage bit where Mistico is so happy to see his good friend Dralistico again and Dralistico is quietly depressed that he can’t escape this man. I would absolutely not book the Spider-Man point, that’s played out.)

(sidenote 4: I will believe Bryan Danielson wrestles a CMLL wrestler when I see the graphic. I believe he wants it to happen but it also has never happened. I maintain that he is in fact un cobarde.)

(sidenote 5: A previous AAA selling point for wrestlers coming aboard with them is the ability to get them booked in the US, pointing to work with AEW, MLW and Impact as the potential. There are reasons to work for AAA but that one no longer seems a strong point; the AAA wrestlers who are doing well internationally seem to be doing it on their own.)

Lucha Central writes about Mistico being Mistico.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 10/12/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Zona Ruda]
1) Rey Astaroth & Rey Halcón b Blue Win & Tornado
2) Águila Roja, Danessa, Lolita, Satania b Amazonika, Bengalee, Glamurosa, Spider Fly
setting up a Aguila Roja/Spider Fly as a title match
3) Puma de Oro & Relámpago b Tonalli & Último Legendario
Relampago wants a title match with Tonalli
4) Ivan Rokov, Súper Comando, Tito Santana b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
Poder del Norte want a EDM trios title match next weekend
5) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. b Hell Boy & Shocko [IWRG IC TAG]
3rd defense

I know noting about this show but it’s funny they added the guys to the women’s trios to set up their title match.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (FRI) 10/13/2023 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Odisseo Mendoza & Urzus Mendoza vs ? & Sangre Nueva
2) Mr. Win & Tirano vs Auzter & Platino
3) El Potro de Oro & Viajero vs Andrómeda & El Brujo

Big Lucha World is genuinely returning in the old format (or at least that’s the plan.) This should stream on Big Lucha’s YouTube channel at 8:30 pm local, or the same time the CMLL show starts. The main event is a preview of next week’s title match (and the end-of-year Viajero/Brujo mask match.)

Other News

RIOT announced their next show will be 12/09, returning to old home Arena LLF. Fans have to buy tickets to the previous show on 10/21 to be able to buy presale tickets for the December show. The 10/21 show still only has one match announced.

DDT announced that Demus will be coming to their promotion from 11/16 to 11/26. I don’t follow DDT closely but it seems to me they like big characters and Demus is going to fit in well there.

For reasons only understood by the algorithms that control our lives, the video of Kaho Kobayahsi as La Pidita got picked up all over again on news sites. It’s the same video from August and I’m sure some of the same sites are posting it again.