Blanchard wins Gran Prix, CMLL/NJPW Strong, AAA TV

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/27/2023 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, Mexico AS, Posta, Reforma, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (videos), thecubsfan, Tribuna]
1) Diamond & Valiente Jr. b Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II   
2) Futuro, Neón, Pelon Encapuchado b El Coyote, Inquisidor, Pólvora    
16:21.
3) Averno b Virus [lightning]    
8:44.
4) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario    
15:35.
5) Johnnie Robbie, La Catalina, Makoto, Mei Suruga, Stephanie Vaquer, Sumie Sakai, Tessa Blanchard, Zeuxis b Amapola, Andrómeda, Dark Silueta, Hera, La Jarochita, Lluvia, Reyna Isis, Skadi [Gran Prix de Amazonas]    
50:18. Order of elimination: Makoto (by Amapola), Zeuxis (Lluvia), Andromeda (Suruga), Hera (Catalina), Sakai (Isis), Skadi (Robbie), Amapola (Vaquer), Suruga (Jarochita), Silueta (Blancard), Catalina (Lluvia), Isis (Robbie), Robbie (Jarochita), Jarochita (Vaquer), Lluvia (Vaquer) – this left Vaquer & Blanchard as the final two, both on Team World, and Blanchard beat Vaquer to win.

This is the first time since CMLL’s restarted these Gran Prix that it’s come down to two people on the same team. CMLL’s must’ve thought Vaquer/Blanchard would provide a great final. They did have a good US style match, with lots of near falls. It was just not what the Arena Mexico fans wanted to see; a final between two foreigners wasn’t going to get over unless one (or preferably both) are already really over with the crowd. Vaquer definitely has picked up popularity this year but not enough to keep this from feeling flat. I think it’ll be a long time before CMLL tries a final two with both from Team World again.

The match was generally good. These are obviously well worked through matches prior to happening and they have enough big moments to keep the crowd into it. (Lluiva and Zeuxis, who spent much of the week wrestling elsewhere in Mexico, participated less in this match.) Andromeda colliding with the ropes on her middle rope tornillo was a scary moment, and there were other parts that weren’t smooth, but it was still good in a vacuum.

Tessa Blanchard told the press that winning the Gran Prix was one of the big moments of her career, she’d like to challenge Stephanie Vaquer for her title and generally return to Arena Mexico. Blanchard said she didn’t know for a long time if she wanted to return to wrestling and that she found what she needed in this match. She said she prayed for a long time if she continued in wrestling or took another path in life, and the win convinced her to stay in wrestling.

Tessa Blanchard being the choice to win was not a surprise after the big introduction CMLL gave to her. I expect she’ll be back, probably having that match with Stephanie Vaquer, among other matches. CMLL is probably high on Tessa Blanchard for all the reasons all the promotions in the US seemed high on her from about 2017 to 2019, and only time will tell if they end up washing their hands with her like everyone else did. If you don’t like Tessa Blanchard, I think you’re going to be stuck with her making Romero (or Oraculo) like occasional visits to CMLL for the time being.

The Posta article was the only Mexico article I saw that noted the issues Tessa’s had that led her to be out of major US promotions. The flipside was watching the NJPW World show the next day, where the announcers pushed that all four women were in the Gran Prix just the day before but were (obviously) careful not to mention Blanchard’s win.

On the same show, CMLL honored Sumie Sakai on her impending retirement with a plaque and a ceremony. Sakai has worked a grand total of ten matches for CMLL in her life. They really didn’t have to do anything. It was a thoughtful gesture considering the world outside of CMLL, while at the same time ignoring it when it came to Blanchard.

The Mistico trios was really well done. Averno/Virus was quite good. The segunda had some good moments. This was another good CMLL show beyond the main event.

This was the second straight week with stream issues. Neerme wasn’t sending out links to the stream for most of the evening. I got mine after the opener, others didn’t get theirs until just before the main event. There’s VOD now, so anyone affected could go back and watch the whole show later, but it’s still frustrating not to know what’s going on or if it’ll get fixed.  CMLL was seemingly the only company using TicketmasterLive for the last year of that run. They appear to be the only company still streaming on Neerme if their “top streams” lists is accurate. (It’s six “test stream” and the two Pesos/Dollars streams for Friday.) No company is going to spend many resources working on something when there are few people using the service; I suspect whatever happened this Friday wasn’t hard to fix once it was found, but there is no one there ready to fix the problem because the service is a low priority. The long term future is Boletia/Neerme will get out of this service if it’s only CMLL paying for it, and either CMLL will find another home or move the shows to their YouTube channel (as everyone hopes.) Between now and then, we just have to cross our fingers and hope these issues never pop up in a match that actually goes well.

(The YouTube channel has its own issues. This week’s subscriber upload was missing the Dulce Gardenia, Magia Blanca, Panterita del Ring versus Espanto Jr., Luciferno, Misterioso Jr. match from 10/20. CMLL had promised they would upload the full Friday shows, and this at least the third time where they’ve posted an incomplete show for subscribers.)

CMLL (SAT) 10/28/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Enfermero Jr. & Grako b Bengala & Leono
2) La Guerrera & Tiffany b La Maligna & Olympia
3) Difunto, El Coyote, Pólvora b Arkalis, Rey Samuray, Xelhua
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
5) Amapola & Tessa Blanchard b Dark Silueta & Reyna Isis
6) Máscara Dorada, Star Jr., Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Terrible

CMLL’s recap praised the El Triangulo team in a loss, stronger than they usually do for these for the events.

NJPW Strong’s Fight Spirit Unleashed happened on the same night. Neither of the CMLL matches were ones you need to go out of your way to track down, but they both achieved what they were going for. Stephanie Vaquer did a lot of cool Stephanie Vaquer things enroute to her and Zeuxis defeating Lluvia & Johnnie Robbie. The Atlantis 40th Anniversary match was more or less the Black Cat tribute matches on the FantasticaMania shows, only with more NJPW Strong names involved. It mostly went well, though Adrian Quest made a heroic attempt to get into the Atlantida and ended up falling on his own head. That should probably not be tried any more outside of experienced CMLL people, but Atlantis may not have too many matches left against non-CMLL people.

That NJPW Strong show was busy on setting up matches, as their next show is just two weeks away. these are now official matches for the 11/10 show in Garland, Texas

• Mistico vs TJP
• Mayu Iwatani vs Stephanie Vaquer for the IWGP Women’s Championship

NJPW had previously announced Mistico, Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero appearing, so I was just assuming we’d get those guys in a trios or something along those lines. Mistico versus TJP is a great bonus, something that would work well in Arena Mexico but might never ever get booked. Vaquer/Iwatani should be pretty good as well. It is also exactly the match Dave Meltzer reported a week or so ago, with everyone pretending like it was a surprise.

The flipside here is NJPW fans want these shows to be like NJPW Japan, and three matches including CMLL wrestlers is not NJPW. I sensed a little push back when it was just two on this past show, and that may be stronger if it keeps up.

CMLL (SUN) 10/29/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Brillante Jr. & Max Star b Sangre Imperial & Vegas
2) Kráneo & Raider b Hombre Bala Jr. & Volcano
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Makoto, Olympia, Tessa Blanchard
Olympia replaced Makoto
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto b Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Valiente
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

Zeuxis’ recent schedule is crazy, because she was one of those people on the northern Mexico tour and now has all these women’s matches to close the month:

• 10/20: Universal final vs Catalina
• 10/21: Mexico City (special women’s showcase at UNAM)
• 10/22: Saltillo, Coahuila
• 10/23: Nuevo Laredo, Tamaluipas
• 10/24: Piedras Negras, Coahuila
• 10/25: a day off!
• 10/26: Gomez Palacio
• 10/27: Gran Prix
• 10/28: NJPW in Las Vegas
• 10/29: Arena Mexico
• 10/30: Puebla
• 10/31: Guadalajara

That’s 10 matches in 11 days. Zeuxis gets some time off starting Wednesday – unless they rope her in to talk on Informa, which seems possible. Lluvia and Catalina have a similar schedule, but Lluvia seems to be off this coming week and Catalina got this past weekend off. I hope Zeuxis gets some rest and/or video game time soon.

Monday’s Arena Puebla show is their first all women’s show. They’ll feature a group of local luchadors who’ve been training there for months. Pegasso is the lead trainer. El Sol de Puebla asked him if he felt this was a like a graduation for the Puebla luchadors, and he disagreed. This is a positive moment for them, but he feels like they can go further. Some of the women (Lady Metal) have already gone on to wrestle in other CMLL arenas and he feels they should all aspire to that. Pegasso again credits the idea to Benjamin Mar, who felt Puebla women should be represented in CMLL and asked Pegasso to lead the training. The list of luchadoras participating is listed as Diablita Roja, Mania, Astoreth, Lady Amazona, Lady Metal, Shitara, Hella, Mayahuel, and Enigmatica; Mania is the one who hasn’t been on Arena Puebla shows yet.

The Arena Puebla women’s show seems closely tied to the Arena Coliseo Guadalajara women’s show the next day, as if it’s the Guadalajara branch taking the lead on this. That also means it’s possible the Guadalajara crew could be traveling to Puebla to broadcast the show; it might be worth checking on their YouTube/Facebook channels on Monday night.

Tuesday’s Arena Mexico show starts the Dia del Muertos events. The big match is the Rey del Inframundo cibernetico, winner to face Stuka Jr. on Friday. Esfinge and Maya, as the only two tecnicos, seem like they have decent shots. If they go rudo/rudo, Barbaro Cavernario, Averno and Gran Guerrero seem the most likely.

Titan & BUSHI are now 3-3 in NJPW’s Super Junior Tag League. There’s a mass of teams with three or four wins and only one with five wins, so the LIJ group is still alive. They have DOUKI and Taka on Tuesday, then Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita on Wednesday before the next news post. Either I’ll have a long bit about tiebreakers on Wednesday or they’ll be eliminated by then.

Mas Luchas posted their Turiluchas interviews with Gran Prix women a little late for me to include on Friday. One worth checking out after the fact is with Andromeda, who says she thought hard for many days about “debuting in Guadalajara.” She doesn’t say “choosing with AAA or CMLL”, but it’s clearly what she meant. It sounds like the Andromeda name was announced before even she knew it was her; she talks about meeting with people in Arena Mexico and being told that was going to be her CMLL name and then finding out it would be here. It also sounds like she was assured she’d be on the main roster quickly, not one of the many women training in Guadalajara hoping to make it that far. None of that was surprising, but it’s useful to get more information on the story. Andromeda says it was her dream to wrestle in CMLL, which is probably the dream of a lot of luchadors from Torreon given it’s strong connection with the promotion. Andromeda’s next big dream is to go to wrestle in Japan for a few months to learn their style.

I don’t know where to put Penta talking to Mas Lucha about AEW & Mistico but I guess it’s a CMLL thing. Penta is for it; it’s good for the fans, it’s good business for the wrestlers. He and Mistico have been friends for years; Penta is happy with him and would like to wrestle him. Penta hopes “the politics” get broken down and everyone can work with everyone. (That is unlikely to happen.) Penta says his own deal with AAA is on a per night date basis, and he’s open to working for any promoter in Mexico.

Denise Salcedo had an interview with Atlantis to hype the NJPW Strong show.

AAA

I’m not a television editor, so I don’t know exactly what happened technically with the production on this week’s AAA show. What it appeared like was that the live action was on one video track, the replay and other secondary elements were on a secondary video track, and that secondary video track was about 10-15 seconds behind all episodes. The TV show would do the replay video transition, then come back to live action, and then maybe five seconds later, the replay would actually happen. Bits like showing a wrestler’s graphic before their entrance would instead appear halfway as they walked through the ring. It didn’t really affect the show, it just made added to the image of AAA feeling second rate. This episode was from a taping a month ago, so there should’ve been plenty of time to notice the mistake and fix it. That just doesn’t get done with AAA in 2023.

The AAA TV show already feels so low effort and half-thought that I kinda wish they’d just go full no effort with the booking – like stop running most of the angles and just roll out generic matches. There was no real angle with the three way match, including Octagon Jr., Drago and Bestia and it was fine. They got rid of Kento and Takuma before the main event four way match, they just had a normal elimination match, and it was pretty good. The lumberjack had lots of interference but it was just exactly the match everyone expects when AAA runs a lumberjack match, and that was OK too. It says something that AAA is a much easier watch when they stop doing most of the big stuff they’re trying to do.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 10/29/2023 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Águila Oriental b Rey Gato Jr.  
2) Rey Aztaroth (Estado de México) b Auzter, Súperboy  
3) Centvrión, Gannicus, Mr. Mike b Dr. Cerebro Jr., Fussion, Noisy Boy  
4) Ivan Rokov, Puma de Oro, Relámpago b Hell Boy, Shocko, Tonalli 
5) Big Mami b Kali, Satania, Mary Caporal, Sagitarius, Gizelle, Lolita, Danessa, Estrella Divina, Amazonika [Copa Reina del Ring]
Mas Lucha announced Big Mami as first participant in their upcoming Torneo Suprema
6) Águila Roja b Spider Fly © [IWRG IC Light] 
5th defense, 3rd against Aguila Roja

The women’s match here wasn’t the Gran Prix, judging from the clips. Big Mami isn’t great but few people have looked as out of their depth as Gizelle in an IWRG ring. There’s no point in the match where she does better than any fan pulled out of the crowd would’ve done. If you’re serious about wrestling – not just women’s wrestling, but any sort of wrestling – you can’t put people who are doing that badly in your matches.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha posted both the first half of their most recent show and Big Lucha World this weekend. I have not had the time to watch them. I mean, I guess I had that time, but it went to other vital tasks (playing Spider-Man 2, sleeping.) I’ll get to it over the next few days.

Other News

Arturo Adan Morales, who wrestled as both Bello Adan and masked man The Rose, passed away on Saturday according to Box y Lucha. He was 67. His career went from about 1977 to about 2007, spending time in LLI, CMLL and AAA in bits and pieces. He briefly had the Black Man II gimmick but mostly played exoticos and typically lost the apuesta matches.

El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. lost the GHC National Championship to Jack Morris on NOAH’s Sunday show. Los Golpeadors retained the GHC Junior tag team championship over Tadasuke & YO-HEY on the same show.

Ke Monito received an award.

Referee Yayito was honored in Tamaulipas.

RIOT 12/09 in Arena Femenil

• Takuma & SB Kento vs Arez & Latigo
• Erik Ortiz vs Bandido – new

Those are two good matches. It’s RIOT so it might be the only two matches they announce. That’s now the earliest announced return match for Bandido.

La Razon visits Arena Olimpico Laguna.

Brigada Dos de Tres Caidas is producing a series of features on young Mexico city wrestlers; the latest is on Extasis.

NviNoticas has an interview with Estrellita.