CMLL
CMLL (MON) 10/16/2023 Arena Puebla [Grada, Mano a Mano, Porra Fresa]
1) Hella, Lady Metal, Shitara b Astoreth, Diablita Roja, Lady Amazona 
Shitara’s side are the tecnicas, and they won this opener with many debuts.
2) Blue Shark TLDRAW Hijo del Perverso [lightning]
3) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
sets up a rematch for the new CMLL Women’s tag title match
4) Pegasso & Stigma b Felino & Felino Jr.
5) Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja b Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia, Terrible
sets up Angel de Oro/Barbaro Cavernario in a CMLL LH title match
6) Máscara Dorada b Último Guerrero
Ultimo Guerrero is usually winning the lightning match he and Mascara Dorada had in Arena Mexico in years past. If he doesn’t win there, he’s absolutely winning the rematch. Times have changed.
I’ve finally split “1990s AAA Shitara” and “2010s Puebla Shitara (Tigre Rojo family member)” in my database. A big achievement. That’s a strange enough name that I’m sure they have to be connected somehow, but I’ve never seen a mention.
CMLL (TUE) 10/17/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores]
1) Andrómeda & La Vaquerita b Persephone & Tiffany
2) Astral, Brillante Jr., Oro Jr. b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Raider
3) Espíritu Negro, Pelon Encapuchado, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Kráneo, Pólvora
4) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Skadi b Amapola, Dark Silueta, Zeuxis
5) Bárbaro Cavernario b Star Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Everyone worked a bit harder than you’d expect in the main event given the big week ahead. Barbaro Cavernario/Star Jr. was good, though it was mostly Barbaro Cavernario. Star Jr. had a couple of dives and was off on a lot of headscissors. There was a large group of and from Hershey’s in green t-shirts at the show. They produce the candy that Pelon Encapuchado is named after, rooted loudly for their guy (and got some fans booing them.) CMLL has never gotten on the same page on the spelling of match 2 rudo “Raider”; his sign board had it spelled “Rider.”
CMLL (TUE) 10/17/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Mas Lucha]
1) Dulce Kitty & Venus b Luna & Universis
2) Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico b Arhgo, Ráfaga, Trono
3) Adira, Alondra, Lady Shadow b La Pantera, Miss Guerrera, Nexy
4) Crixus, Star Black, Vegas b Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus
Star Blaclk Jr. won via mask pull (on Optimus?)
5) Dulce Gardenia, La Fashion, Soberano Jr. b Bestia Negra, Cris Skin, Draego
6) Blue Panther b Atlantis, Felino, Panterita del Ring, Satánico, Américo Rocca, Solar I, Pantera, Negro Navarro, Black Terry, Águila Solitaria, Rocky Santana [cibernetico]
Bringing in the legends didn’t seem to do anything as far as drawing in extra fans for this show. Alondra in match 3 is Torreon’s Raven. She needed a new name because they already had a Raven/Rav here.
CMLL (SAT) 10/21/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala vs Leono [lightning]
2) La Guerrera & Maligna vs Andrómeda & Lady Metal
3) Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., Volcano vs Akuma, Crixus, Dark Magic
4) Amapola, Dark Silueta, Sanely vs Johnnie Robbie, Mei Suruga, Sumie Sakai
5) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Black vs Magnus, Rey Bucanero, Rugido
6) Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Valiente vs Averno, Terrible, Virus
In addition to the tecnicos heading places this weekend, there’s also a tour of northern Mexico with a bunch of CMLL people. That may contribute to some of the weird pairings here.
CMLL (SUN) 10/22/2023 Arena México
1) La Guerrera & Lady Shadow vs Miss Guerrera & Tiffany
2) Capitán Suicida, Eléctrico, Valiente Jr. vs Grako, Inquisidor, Vegas
3) Halcón Suriano Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Neón vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
4) Andrómeda, Hera, Metálica, Olympia vs Johnnie Robbie, Makoto, Mei Suruga, Sumie Sakai
5) Esfinge © vs Mephisto [MEX LH]
2nd defense
6) Octagón, Soberano Jr., Star Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Terrible
Makoto joins the foreign women on Sunday. She and Suruga did a press conference earlier this week; I believe Makoto said something along the lines of hoping she won the Gran Prix and then she’d celebrate with a photo shoot in Cancun. Still the same person as the last visit. Still no word over who will replace Sanely (if she needs a replacement) in the Gran Prix.
Esfinge getting Misterioso and Mephisto as title opponents isn’t the greatest breaks.
This week’s Box y Lucha indicates both the 10/30 Puebla and the 10/31 Guadalajara show are “Lucha Femenil Naciones.” Guadalajara’s been promoting that show under that name for quite a while. Their announced talent lineup suggests the Guadalajara show will be an all-women show. Maybe the shared name means the 10/30 Puebla (or even the 10/2 Arena Mexico card) will also be women only.
CMLL Informa is pushed back tonight until 7:30 pm. They’ve done this in years past for the Dia de Muertos announcements – CMLL wants more media there to sell the ambiance of the special shows in person. It’s fair to expect the lineup for the Rey del Inframundo cibernetico, and CMLL will probably toss out a few more matches during the show.
Wrestling Observer Radio mentioned Stephanie Vaquer is scheduled to wrestle Mayu Iwatani, likely for the IWGP Women’s Championship on 11/10 in Texas. That match probably would be officially set at next week’s NJPW show in Las Vegas.
Mistico/AEW
Mistico debuts in AEW tonight in Rosenburg, Texas. His match against Rocky Romero airs Friday night on Rampage. AEW may promote the match on Dynamite tonight in some way; I don’t know it for a fact, but I just assume that’s what they’ll do. If you’re a lucha libre fan who really wants to stay unspoiled, you’ll probably need to stay off social media for a couple of days, I don’t expect it’ll be easy to avoid otherwise.
Tickets for this show have sold very well in the last week, which bucks a trend in AEW of late. Discounted ticket prices and strong local promotion probably are big reasons for the ticket sales, but those surge of ticket sales also is after Mistico and Rocky Romero were announced. I was skeptical of Mistico being a significant reason at first, but that factor seems inescapable now.
This is also one of those situations where ticket sales are a combination of all those factors and not one single reason. Wrestling discussion struggles with these sorts of situations, where the answer is more complicated than one single answer. You can see that today, with people saying the reason “has to be” the ticket discounts in the reply to any post that says it “has to be” Mistico. It’s all of those things, and it’s great for Mistico to just be part of it.
Mistico likely has made a difference, but the true test is going to be what kind of reaction he gets and how that match is received. That’ll be closely watched. I’m not at all worried about the quality of a Rocky Romero versus Mistico match itself. I’m sure it’ll be good (just as sure I’m there will be a report trying to say he’s still WWE Sin Cara.)
Mistico is scheduled to go to Xalapa on Thursday, but it’s possible he’ll end up being replaced there. He, Volador Jr., Templario and Atlantis Jr. are scheduled to be in Denver for a meet and greet on Saturday and a match on Sunday. (It seems unlikely Mistico is going to do all those border crossings in a short time, but who knows.)
In other traveling news, Titan is off to NJPW for the next month following that Tuesday’s show. Mascara Dorada is heading to the UK for the British J Cup either today or soon after. He’s also sticking around to wrestle Wild Boar on Sunday in Sheffield.
AAA
There’s an AAA TV taping tonight in San Luis Potosi.
AAA TV (WED) 10/18/2023 Palenque de la Fenapo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
1) Brazo de Oro, Drago, Reina Dorada vs Diva Salvaje, Dulce Kanela, Jessy Ventura
Reina Dorada replaced Centella (quit the promotion)
2) Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa, Sexy Star vs Chik Tormenta, Látigo, Toxin
3) Octagón Jr. & Willie Mack vs Forastero & Sansón
4) Negro Casas & Zorro vs Abismo Negro & Psicosis
5) Dralistico vs Laredo Kid vs Taurus [#1 Contenders, AAA MEGA]
6) Pagano & Psycho Clown vs Sam Adonis & Texano Jr.
Wednesday is historically lucha libre night in SLP, but it’s been unusual for AAA to run midweek tapings since the post-COVID restart. They had the Thursday show in Chihuahua earlier this year that was linked to a fair. My best guess is this show will air on Space on November 4 and 11th.
There are more obvious connections between this taping and the next one than has been common with CMLL this year. The main event here is the semi-main on Guerra de Tiantes, the #1 contenders match leads there, the third match features the two other people challenging for titles in Juarez. Shani and Tormenta set up a six person cage match back in May that never happened, but I suspect it was to be something like these teams. They have a 1 v 1 in Juarez too.
The best thing AAA can do here is have Laredo or Taurus win the #1 contenders match and make Guerra de Titanes available internationally to give potential fans a positive feeling about AAA to close out the year. Right now, the last memory most people have of AAA is a TripleMania that even AAA didn’t think go well. It appears AAA’s strategy for Vikingo and TripleManias is him wrestling foreign names. We can have a (lengthy) debate on if that’s the best use of him but, if AAA’s going to stick with that idea, that means there’s no reason to save a Vikingo/Laredo or a Vikingo/Taurus for a big arena show. Run them now, and run them before something weird happens (which always does with AAA) and you’re unable to run them. Run them in a way where people who still like Vikingo will be able to see them. Run it in a way where when the match gets incredible buzz, there’s a place you can direct interested people to go see it. (“YouTube weeks later” just doesn’t count.)
What I’m afraid is going to happen is either Dralistico wins or AAA does Laredo/Vikingo but doesn’t bother to put it on FITE. The second choice might actually be better for me personally – I’ll end up streaming it on Twitch, and Twitch will end up paying me for doing it – but it’s terrible for AAA if they were to run a match that would get favorable attention and not make it available as wide as possible. The first choice, Vikingo/Dralistico, is just a plain miss and another sign that decisions being made aren’t with the goal of running the best possible shows.
This is a layup of a decision. I shouldn’t even be writing the last couple of paragraphs because it’s too obvious. I have lost all confidence in AAA doing the easy, obvious thing. Put aside everything you’ve seen from AAA this year and just look to the show after Guerra de Titanes; AAA/Impact Ultraclash is this weird show of seven straight 2v2 matches. The matches are all going to be fine but no one would’ve asked for a card like that, and it takes a strange series of decisions to end up with that sort of card. AAA feels like they’re working with an entirely different set of information than we are and making decisions that are impossible to figure out or make much sense of from the outside. I expect another one of those decisions otnight.
WrestleCade (Winston-Salem in North Carolina) announced Hijo del Vikingo versus Andrade for their show on 11/25. SuperLuchas points out this is a bit interesting given Andrade’s past attempts to distance himself from AAA and outright stating that Hijo del Vikingo should leave the promotion. More recent WON reporting has Andrade returning to AAA at some point, though even that was now months back, and there’s no sign of him showing up in AAA this year.
Rey Mysterio Jr. is doing a press tour this week to promote an upcoming celebrity match. ESPN asked him about Hijo del Vikingo, and Mysterio confirmed earlier stories that he talked to Vikingo about trying to do a little less to make it mean more. This conversation is at least six months old, probably longer, and there’s no great indication Vikingo listened. Mysterio noted he also didn’t listen when people told him the same thing at his age, but he had to try nonetheless.
Aerostar talked to Record to say he’s not left AAA and is in fact still under contact to them. He believes they’re just giving his character a rest on TV.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 10/19/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Tornado vs Rey Astaroth
2) Dr. Cerebro, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly vs Centurion, Gannicus, Rey Espartano
3) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. vs Hijo de Canis Lupus & Micltan
4) Tonalli vs Relámpago
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Mocho Cota Jr., Súper Comando, Tito Santana [EdM Trios]
2nd defense
The Castillo del Terror is just around the corner and IWRG is probably loading up for that. Mas Lucha earlier indicated the Cerebro Negros will be defending the tag titles on that show. Poder del Norte winning the these tag titles and doing the rematch in a couple of weeks would work there as well. Tonalli and Relampago are probably headed to the cage.
Big Lucha
I did finish off the last Big Lucha show and the Big Lucha World. Not a lot to report. The Takuma/Kento vs Radioactivo/Maya match was disappointing, all four have done better in other matches. This felt like the Japanese team trying to recreate their match against Aero Panther and Fight Panther Jr. and it just didn’t work out nearly as well. The main event had a lot of strange people and struggle once Flamita left.
You probably should skip the Big Lucha World. The announcers had audio. The other microphones seemed turned off, and it’s just a weird watch. There’s a little crowd noise by the main event but not much. They did promos and no one watching could hear them. The matches were not great, and all could’ve been shorter. A six minute match on a free stream is fine.
(If you are running live video of a wrestling stream, you need someone in another room watching the stream to let you know if it’s working OK. Mexican wrestling promotions don’t seem to do this.)
Big Lucha’s next show is Saturday.
Other News
Ring of Honor Thursday has Komander versus Metalik in a first-time-ever match. Back in May, Metalik lost his mind at the idea of wrestling and losing to AAA’s Hijo del Vikingo in GCW. Times (and places) have changed.
Lucha Libre Vanguardia teased a return in November. They haven’t run since April.
Hidalgo’s Zuzu Divine is headed to Edmonton to wrestle. She mentions Aeroboy made the connection.
A month of lucha libre finished up in Coatepec this past weekend.
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