Month: October 2023

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.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/13/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito b Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía
2) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
15:36.
3) Magnus & Rugido © b Futuro & Neón [MEX TAG]
13:40. 3rd defense
4) Zeuxis b Lluvia, Dark Silueta, Amapola, Tiffany, Sanely, Skadi, Hera, Náutica, Maligna, Sexy Sol, Andrómeda [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal]
25:09. Order of elimination Maligna (by Sanely), Nautica (Andrómeda), Sexy Sol (Skadi), Tiffany (Amapola), Andrómeda (Zeuxis), Sanely was medically eliminated, Hera (Silueta), Skadi (Silueta), Silueta (Lluvia), Amapola (Zeuxis), Lluvia (Zeuxis) leaving Zeuxis as the winner. She’ll face Catalina next week.
5) Místico b Templario
20:46, Mistico taking 1/3 (though not by La Mistica)

Templario/Mistico was pretty good. I think there was more nuance to some of Mistico’s other big matches while Templario is more a guy who’s just going to beat people up with big move, but he did a lot of big moves. Mistico’s pulled out the secondary submission a lot lately where he might have done a springboard senton or a Spanish Fly instead in the past. (He should still use la Mistica on Friday.)

The Universal block came down to Dark Silueta, Amapola, Lluvia and Zeuxis, and it was clear who was winning once Silueta got pinned. Not just because Zeuxis was the only one who made sense in the final, but because the 1 in the “1 on 2” finals of a cibernetico wins most of the time. The match itself was better than last week. The fans were more into it, the action had it’s flaws but not as many, and it just moved a lot better. Andromeda got a few spots to look spectacular and did exactly that. Her flying style is uncharted territory for a luchadora in CMLL and so it’s impossible to know if she’ll hold up or if the other women will be able to work with her, but there’s a lot of potential. She was easily more impressive than any of the other new women, and stood out more than a lot of the regulars. Wrestling always needs new people who are different to bring in new fans, and Andromeda’s different.

Sanely seemed to suffer a knee injury on her own dive, but it’ “seemed to” because it didn’t stand out as an injury from what we saw. She just did nothing else after that point. Sanely’s had major knee issues in the past. There’s no word on the severity for Sanely this time, though that’ll come up on Informa.

Zeuxis again brought up Martha Villalobos as the only real Diva of the ring in post match interviews. Villalobos was a regular in EMLL after the prohibition of women’s wrestling in Mexico was dropped in the mid-80s, then became a star in AAA when she jumped there as the promotion got going. Villalobos briefly returned to CMLL in 96/97 before going back to AAA and is strongly associated with that promotion. Villalobos was one of the more famous Mexican woman wrestlers of her time, been retired for many years, though she resurfaced as few months ago restarting her small promotion. Catalina’s “La Diva del Ring” is a play on her WWE time, but it is the same nickname Villalobos used (and pre-dates WWF/WWE adopting that term for their women’s division.) It’s relevant that Zeuxis brought up Villalobos, but it also feels like it might be something more – maybe a Villalobos appearance next week.

The tag title match exceeded any reasonable expectations for it. New guys like Neón and Futuro are supposed to be spectacular, but also aren’t expected to pull off everything they attempt. They somehow did it all here, including Neon’s amazing ramp running springboard dive. Magnus and Rugido went with them, especially Rugido being the suplex monster (lion?) he’s shown signs of in other matches. Neon and Futuro looking so good was the big takeaway from this match, but the Depredador title reign has been a quiet success too. 

CMLL (SAT) 10/14/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Grako b Retro [lightning]
2) Metálica & Olympia b La Guerrera & Lady Metal
3) El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora b Diamond, Hombre Bala Jr., Magia Blanca
4) Amapola & Reyna Isis b Andrómeda & Skadi
5) Fugaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Black b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Atlantis, Soberano Jr., Titán DQ Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
Soberano replaced Volador Jr. (double booked), but didn’t want to fight Los Infernales. Straight falls, Infernales DQed for foul/mask removal in the second.

Volador (and Cavernario and Virus) were scheduled for a show in Los Angeles. I think I miss more of those Los Angeles lineups with LuchaWorld not running any more. CMLL seems to have missed it to, since Sobreano as a replacement violates their policy against fathers and sons wrestling each other; that had to be a late decision (or realization.)

CMLL (SUN) 10/15/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Hera & Tiffany b La Vaquerita & Lady Metal
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, Difunto, Luciferno
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring b Felino Jr., Kráneo, Misterioso Jr.
4) Reyna Isis & Stephanie Vaquer b Andrómeda & La Jarochita
Andromeda replaced Sanely on Sunday afternoon
5) Atlantis, Fugaz, Valiente b Felino, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero
6) Euforia, Mephisto, Terrible b Esfinge, Octagón, Star Jr.
Octagon replaced Volador Jr. on Sunday afternoon. Straight falls, Mephisto beating Esfinge to set up a MEX LH title match between them next week.

Mephisto/Esfinge doesn’t sound too exciting. Mephisto used to be a frequent title challenger/holder and was generally as interesting as his opponent made the match. He’s now doing these about once a year.

CMLL (TUE) 10/17/2023 Arena México
1) Andrómeda & La Vaquerita vs Persephone & Tiffany
2) Astral, Brillante Jr., Oro Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Raider
3) Espíritu Negro, Pelon Encapuchado, Rey Cometa vs El Coyote, Kráneo, Pólvora
4) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Skadi vs Amapola, Dark Silueta, Zeuxis
5) Star Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

Mistico working a normal schedule next week, including a Tuesday main event before heading out to Houston. That match could be fun, as could the semimain. Brillante Jr. and Raider seem made for each other.

CMLL (TUE) 10/17/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Luna & Universis vs Dulce Kitty & Venus
2) Ángel Rebelde, Arhgo, Trono vs Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico
3) Crixus, Star Black, Vegas vs Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus
4) Adira, Alondra, Lady Shadow vs La Pantera, Miss Guerrera, Nexy
5) Dulce Gardenia, La Fashion, Soberano Jr. vs Bestia Negra, Cris Skin, Draego
6) Atlantis vs Blue Panther, Felino, Panterita del Ring, Satánico, Américo Rocca, Solar I, Pantera, Negro Navarro, Black Terry, Águila Solitaria, Rocky Santana [cibernetico]

Same idea of a legend’s match as in Arena Mexico. Octagon is out, Fuerza Guerrera was briefly pictured as replacing him, and Americo Rocca ends up in that spot.

I’ve seen the strangely spelled “Arhgo” on posters from Michoacan for years. That’s also where some of the luchadoras have come from, so there’s some connection there.

CMLL (FRI) 10/20/2023 Arena México
***Blue Panther 45th Anniversary***
1) Brillante Jr. & Halcón Suriano Jr. vs Misterio Blanco & Misterio Negro
2) Johnnie Robbie, Mei Suruga, Sumie Sakai vs Dark Silueta, Reina Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
TBD after the Universal prelim rounds
3) Espanto Jr., Luciferno, Misterioso Jr. vs Dulce Gardenia, Magia Blanca, Panterita del Ring
4) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Gran Guerrero, Hijo de Stuka Jr., Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Hijo de Stuka replaced Dragon Rojo (shoulder) on 10/14.
5) La Catalina vs Zeuxis [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, final]
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Euforia & Soberano Jr. [CMLL TAG]
12th defense

The tag title match didn’t appear to be the main event original, but it is now. That could be as good as this past week’s tag title match, just in a different way. Catalina/Zeuxis could be a challenge. The younger Stuka gets his biggest-ever CMLL match as a fill-in (though he makes more sense as a match up for Cachorro/Hijo de Blue Panther.) Robbie is in earlier than CMLL seemed to have originally announced.

KeMonito appeared on Nacion Deportes earlier this week to talk about his fight with CMLL. A standout moment from the interview actually had to do with the interviewer, Marco Antonio Ocampo. He attended KeMonito’s press conference back on September 25th, then saw a message on his phone informing him he’d been kicked out of the CMLL media (Whatsapp) group and understood it as punishment just for going to the press conference. Antonio Ocampo send a salute to “Hugito and Sandra”, the CMLL press people he expects were responsible.

Fuerza Guerrera says his retirement has been indefinitely postponed, because he believes he would immediately die if he retires. He thinks he should keep wrestling, I think he should look into some therapy. This article actually turns into an ad for tequila and mezcal that Fuerza Guerrero is promoting.

AEW & CMLL are officially working together

On a Forbidden Door media call last June, Tony Khan was asked if there were any promotions he’d like to do cross-promotional shows with or just work in general. Khan brought up Conjseo Mundial de Lucha Libre, recollecting his time in watching the promotion in the early to mid-00s, and his fandom of Mistico and Los Guerreros del Infierno in particular. (“I heard Mistico is doing well.”) He stated he’d like to work with CMLL too, but both didn’t want do anything to hurt existing partner AAA’s business and didn’t want to get involved in any promotional war between AAA and CMLL. Khan’s bigger goal was to work with everyone and hoped CMLL could be a part of that.

The idea in June that AEW would be working with CMLL was a “LOL, no.” It is now a “LOL, yes!?!” CMLL announced an official relationship with AEW in a press release on Friday. They mentioned the Romero/Mistico match on Rampage and talked about the start of a new era between CMLL and AEW. AEW’s Collision included a Romero narrated video package talking about Mistico and their feud. It was well done. Wrestling Observer Radio reported that there idea for Friday is to give Mistico an autethnic CMLL presentation, including music. There’s no great consensus on what that music should be but the effort is good. All I really ask is all trampolines be banned from the building.

CMLL acknowledging the relationship is a significant jump, moving this from a one-off novelty to a real relationship. I still think people are expecting more out of this than they should. AEW’s closest ties are with NJPW and their talent is appearing in AEW on an infrequent as needed basis. AEW is appearing in NJPW even less than that. It’s safe to expect both sides will try to make Bryan Danielson’s dream match with Blue Panther happen. It is unsafe to expect Soberano Jr. matches on every Saturday Collision. (US audiences couldn’t handle him.) It should still be considered a bonus if AEW wrestlers come to Arena Mexico, not a guarantee. 

The WON has said AAA and CMLL wrestlers can be on the same show but not in the same matches. I don’t believe that restriction will ever change; CMLL won’t drop it and AEW will part ways with the relationship if CMLL asks them to block contracted wrestlers. They’re already getting the Mistico match, if they get the Panther one too AEW has already checked their big items off the list. Forbidden Door makes everyone lot of money, so AEW and NJPW would be motivated to work things out if they ever had issues. AEW and CMLL are just at the start of that road. 

Vikingo’s status is the one AAA/AEW question I’ve seen. CMLL won’t care about him as long as he’s not pictured alongside CMLL wrestlers, and it’s still in AAA’s best interest to keep working with AEW. Of course, sometimes promotions don’t act in their best interest, and AAA always has the option of pulling Vikingo from AEW. I remain unconcerned; the most likely outcome would be a few months of drama and Vikingo ending up back in AEW anyway. 

(There’s a thread of this fandom that wants to see AEW working with CMLL as some karmic justice against Konnan, more over his comments about AEW things than even anything AAA’s done. I’m sure that makes a great story, but I don’t think that’s what happening. AEW working with CMLL is motivated by wanting to bring in CMLL guys – and very specifically Mistico and Panther – and wanting to work with all companies in general. AAA doesn’t have Mistico and they don’t have Blue Panther, and so AEW will go get them from elsewhere, but they still do have Vikingo and they’ll have other guys AEW wants to use, and AEW will keep working with AAA for them. It’s hard for people living with the CMLL/AAA issues for 30 years to wrap their around a third company working with both and everyone getting along – history has shown that usually ends with one or the other Mexican companies pulling out. AEW is going to try it anyway, and it’s going to stay open as long as the Mexican companies are willing to do business..)

Rocky Romero won the MLW Middleweight Championship from Akira and retained the CMLL Historic Welterweight championship in the process on Saturday in MLW. He completely cheated but that’s OK, MLW doesn’t seem a rules based organization. This aired on FITE+ and will pop up on MLW’s YouTube channel in upcoming weeks. It doesn’t seem like CMLL needs to be working with MLW if they’ve got something going with AEW, but it’s just an extra booking for some people once a month. It’s not going to hurt.

It was only a few months ago when I wrote here that, even with CMLL getting some buzz, there weren’t really any places for CMLL wrestlers to get booked outside of Mexico. Everything besides small shots in NJPW (US & Japan) seemed blocked off. Coming up soon:

• Mistico on Wednesday’s AEW taping
• Mascara Dorada on Saturday’s RevPro British J Cup.
• Mistico, Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Zeuxis, Stephanie Vaquer and Lluvia on next Saturday’s NJPW Strong show in Las Vegas

MLW will theoretically announce someone from CMLL for their 11/18 Philadelphia show at some point. This situation has changed drastically in a short amount of time.

Tickets for Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite/Rampage are moving well since Mistico announcement, though reasonable people would give much more credit to the steep ticket discount in certain areas. I still think Mistico is a little part of it. I may have to end the blog, end the twitter account, shut everything down after this week. Mistico in AEW and doing well feels like the end scene of a video game more than a real thing that should be happening. I may just be wandering around and finishing out sidequests after this one, there’s no more main story to be found.

AAA

AAA on Space aired the two tag matches from Jalisco and the fourway women’s match from Mexico City. That meant AAA aired two different Dalys matches, both of where she ended up getting DQed. It came off as ridiculous. Dalys attacked Tirantes Sr. in the first aired match, and the idea was she was totally out of control by attacking the referee and a sign she was going ruda. Dalys attacked Hijo del Tirantes in match three, and was treated as her actions being totally justified. Those matches were taped in the opposite order and set up opposing directions for the promotion. I’m not sure if the plans changed or if there simply are no plans, just whatever they felt like doing that day. The matches themselves were fully designed to put over Dalys as the best even though she technically didn’t win. The three way tag match in the middle was the best of the matches, where everyone worked hard but it was just a collection of spots.

AAA says they sold out Friday’s special Luchatitlan show with AAA wrestlers. That Friday was also the last day of the Cancun Travel Mart, an expo promoting activities for travel agencies. It’s possibly the reason why AAA brought in extra people for the Luchatitlan show and wanted that event to go well.

Fenix took a booking on The Crash’s 11/03 12th Anniversary show. That caused AAA to sever ties with Fenix, at least for now. This might be the third different time Fenix and AAA have severed ties, so it doesn’t seem too alarming. It also seems for naught; Fenix’s injuries (as seen on recent AEW shows) will keep him from wrestling on that 11/03 The Crash show after all. Andrade will replace him.

If you’re expecting some big explosion from AAA about the AEW/CMLL deal, you’re going to have to keep waiting. Nothing has been said publicly and that didn’t change with Konnan’s podcast.  I’m not certain the timing of the recording; there was no lucha minute, and they could’ve done the rest before that news started to roll out this past week. The only AAA topic I noticed was a listener-prompted discussion of AAA’s title belts; Konnan felt like they were all pretty good. He thought the tag title belts could use a reissue; the design is still good but the physicals belts themselves are old and could use new versions. The Reina de Reinas title didn’t come up and I would suggest that’s the one that badly could use a refresh. I don’t believe there was any discussion about the MLW/CMLL deal, but I haven’t been diligently listening to that podcast.

IWRG/Mas Lucha

Mas Lucha (SUN) 10/15/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Keyra b Bengalee, Zuzu Divine, Sádika, Lilith Dark, Shamila, Quimera, Dulce Luna [Copa Sahori] 
2) Hell Boy b Súper Caló [Torneo Supremo, quarterfinal] 
Claudio Yarto (of the Calo group that inspire the Super Calo gimmick) seconded him for this match.
3) Súper Crazy b Súper Fly [Torneo Supremo, quarterfinal] 
4) Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. b Mr. Leo [Torneo Supremo, quarterfinal] 
5) Zorro b Último Legendario [Torneo Supremo, quarterfinal] 
Charly Manson and Reina Dorada attacked Zorro after the match, as members of the RCH promotion.
6) Súper Crazy b Hell Boy [Torneo Supremo, semifinal]
7) Águila Roja & Relámpago b Spider Fly & Tonalli 
8) Princesa Azul & Reina Dorada ?? Jessy Jackson & Mary Caporal 
match happened, neither IWRG nor Mas Lucha posted a result
9) Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. b Zorro [Torneo Supremo, semifinal]
10) Diva Salvaje, Intocable, Jessy Ventura b Chris Stone Jr., Scorpió Jr., Zumbido
Zumbido replaced Shocker
11) Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. b Súper Crazy [Torneo Supremo, final]

The attendance seems decent for this show, maybe better than last year. I haven’t invented the time machine that would’ve allowed me to watch this, but I was told there were a lot of short matches on the free portion of the card.

Neither IWRG nor Mas Lucha has a finish for the women’s tag match. IWRG gave up reporting results before thhe main event. The RCH promotion has not run a show since 2019, though they’ve teased running shows prior.

Mas Lucha says Shocker missed the show “due to a grave sickness that he’s battling day by day“, which reads like a reference to his substance issues.

Big Lucha

I’m still catching up through the most recent show (and the Big Lucha World card.) I’ve made it through the first three matches, which are all fine for people at their experience level.

The Copa Independencia was heavy on story, to the point where I’m sure not all of it sunk in. “M Double R” is the new name for Potro de Oro’s previous manager “Maximiliano Rivera Romero”. He and Steel Dragon are feuding after eliminations, Viajero and El Brujo kept brawling after their own. Loco Evans’ Iku seemed to repeatedly eliminate his allies but that wasn’t played up too much. The fans were into Andromeda getting the win and joining Black Generation as Black Andromeda. (Carito/Carolina was nowhere to be seen, not sure if that’s another person who’s out of here.) The opening matches were inexperienced guys getting some work. The matches all are obviously heavily worked out in advance and they’re really good when they can remember their spots and really lost when something goes wrong. Especially with the second match, you could make some great highlights that would disguise what actually happened in the match.

Flamita had his nose operation on Saturday.

Field Trip: GALLI’s GALLIMANIA in Waukegan

I went to GALLI again last night. I had last minute thoughts about going to Berywn for Lucha Libre Total instead; I hadn’t seen the poster until Sunday and didn’t realize all of Atlantis Jr., Blue Panther and Villano III Jr. were going to be there. I’ve found the GALLI shows to generally be better and it was at a place I hadn’t seen before, so I ended up there. Lucha Libre Total seemed to do pretty well anyway.

The big draw on the GALLI show was a four-way with Vikingo, Aramis, Aeroboy and Rey Hours. Vikingo is over huge to this audience – they know and are into the other three guys because they’ve been here many times over the years, but I think Vikingo being a TV star (and being Vikingo) helps make him clearly the biggest star. They worked hard and it was a pretty good four-way match, though they’ve done the fourway style of match so often you can kind of figure were things are going ahead of time. I did not see Aramis getting the clean win coming, and post-match promos explained it meant Aramis would get a title show at Psycho Clown at a GALLI show in December.

I generally liked the show better than last week; there was more variety. The Discovery title match was complete US style and worked fine. Mechawolf versus Toxin was pretty good. This was a GALLI promotional anniversary show, I was watching it thinking about MechaWolf coming in as a special guest. Then I remembered that long ago he was “Mr. 450 Hammet” and worked a bunch for them in the early years under that name before relocating elsewhere.

The show moved along for the most part and I got home at about the same time I usually get back from GALLI shows despite this venue being much farther away, so it worked out for me. Attendance seemed around 150, with few empty seats, so I assume it worked out for the promotion too. Like all GALLI shows, they were taping it and doing announcing; they’ve got a Pluto-like FAST channel that some of this shows up on, though I don’t pay enough attention to know the timing.

The “Brothers of Funstruction” clowns tag title match had lots and lots of ideas and felt like it went too long to get through all of them, though the crowd was definitely into the idea early on. Yabo and Ruffo earlier attacked Mecha Wolf, then did a post-match interview connecting it to their NWA feud with La Rebelion. It was unusual building up an NWA match on GALLI show, especially when that NWA show is happening in Cleveland. The clowns asked fans if they were watching and more people cheered than I would’ve guessed so maybe it’ll sell some PPVs (and maybe it’ll circle back around to GALLI at some point.)

I really would like a Sunday home all night so I can work on this post a bit more, so hopefully no one runs anything interesting.

Other Notes

Hijo del Vikingo’s weekend also included appearing in Yakima for DEFY. Vikingo took a rare US loss to Shane Strickland on that show. Cagematch lists 26 Vikingo singles matches in the US, and he’s only lost to Kenny Omega in AEW and this match in DEFY. (He also has the draw with Metalik in GCW.) The DEFY show will go on their VOD service eventually.

Hidalgo luchador Dayami is currently wrestling in Canada, after getting recommended there by Sexy Eddie when they were both wrestling in Africa.

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.

This is a rather quiet middle of the week for lucha libre. Maybe there’s some big announcement coming on Informa today I don’t see coming, but all I’ve got right now is some results and not much news.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/09/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol del Puebla, Porra Fresa]
1) Astaroth & Lady Amazona b Mayahuel & Shitara 
debuts for all four women, part of a training class alongside Lady Metal and led by Pegasso.
2) Blue Shark & Rayo Metálico b Espíritu Maligno & Fénix SO
3) Meyer, Retro, Valiente Jr. b Perverso, Prayer, Siki Osama
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis 
5) Felino, Felino Jr., Hechicero b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. DQ Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero 
Ultimo Guerrero unmasked Mascara Dorada for the DQ

Porra Fresa believes this is the most debuts of Puebla based wrestlers in any year. There’s no way of knowing for sure, our Puebla records aren’t that complete, but it sure feels true with four more women starting. Match 4 could be setting up a tag title match, though the foreigners might actually be in first.

CMLL (TUE) 10/10/2023 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel & Mije 
9:55. Mije replaced Periquito Sacaryas
2) Olympia & Persephone b La Guerrera & La Vaquerita 
11:07.
3) Pegasso, Pelon Encapuchado, Stigma b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio 
12:16.
4) Amapola & Metálica DQ La Catalina & Stephanie Vaquer 
12:13, Vaquer DQed for using the rope hanging armabr for too long
5) Máscara Dorada b Último Guerrero [lightning] 
9:08, Dorada winning clean with the SSP
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Stuka Jr., Terrible b Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr. 
17:31. Cavernario pulled Star Jr.’s mask and cradled him for the win, setting up a singles match next week

Cavernario whipped Star Jr. hard with his own mask after the match, and then beat Star Jr. up when he tried to rush the rudo for revenge. Cavernario is in a mean mood.

Dorada and Guerrero were good, it seemed like they could have a significantly better match with more time, will get that time next Monday probably. Dorada winning clean over UG is surprising but consistent with about the last twelve months: Ultimo Guerrero is not protected in results like he used to be. He still wins a fair bit of the time but nothing like the old days. He has one draw and two losses in his Arena Mexico singles matches this year.

CMLL (TUE) 10/10/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, thecubsfan]
1) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Yemaya b Atenea, La Pantera, Maldita Estrella 
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Eclipse Jr. b Destello, Pesadilla, Shezmu 
3) Halcón Suriano Jr., Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro b Obek, Rav, Último Ángel 
4) Demonio Maya, Kráneo, Nitro b Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Volcano 
5) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono b Crixus, Max Star, Neón, Vegas 
6) Barboza & Zandokan Jr. b Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. and Felino Jr. & Vaquero Jr. and Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte 
four way elimination tag match, though Villanos and pirates worked together as a team. Pirates beat Zandokan/Barboza, Villanos got DQed for dropkick the referee, Barboza & Zandoakn beat Vaquero Jr. for the win.
7) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario b Arlequín, Averno, Sagrado 

The semimain was listed as four way tag, then listed as just eight people in a match, then finally as an 4v4 match – and ended up back being a four-way tag. Someone just didn’t want the Villanos and Zandokan to fight.

The most interesting running bit is Zeuxis making it clear she’s not a fan of La Catalina, despite both of those women teaming with Stephanie Vaquer.

AAA

There is no AAA news. Next taping is a week from today in San Luis Potosi.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 10/12/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Blue Win & Tornado vs Águila Roja & Rey Astaroth
2) Amazonika, Bengalee, Glamurosa vs Golden Girl, Lolita, Satania
3) Tonalli & Último Legendario vs Puma de Oro & Relámpago
4) Ivan Rokov, Súper Comando, Tito Santana vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
5) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. vs Hell Boy & Shocko [IWRG IC TAG]
3rd defense

Hell Boy and Shocko seem much more like a team put together to break up and feud than a title team.

Other Notes

Daga’s Ring of Honor match actually airs this Thursday. I don’t know the Ring of Honor taping schedule, apparently.

Box y Lucha 3572 has a lot of CMLL luchadoras, including La Catalina, on the cover.

There’s a new lucha libre photography exhibit in Leon.

Mini Charly Manson (Nestro Armando N., 43) was arrested in Ecatepec on charges of rape. This is not the more famous Mini Charly Manson who appeared on AAA TV and has since switched to wrestling as Tiago or the Chicago based Mini Charly Manson, but a third person who took over the gimmick. This is one where 99% of people would have no idea who it was based on their fame (or lack there of), but it got picked up on many news sites because “luchador” was in the police report.

The 11/19 Clase Mundial (Hijo del Tirantes) show in Xalapa will raise money for a local food pantry.

Ludark will appear in a panel discussion about women in wrestling on Sunday in Neza .

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/06/2023 Arena México [AS, CMLL, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Capitán Suicida & El Audaz b Difunto & Grako   
2) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Neón b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido   
Futuro & Neon beat Magnus & Rugido and asked for a MEX TAG title shot next week.
3) Esfinge b Misterioso Jr. [lightning]   
8:50
4) La Catalina b La Jarochita, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, Persephone, Lady Shadow, Miss Guerrera, Metálica, La Vaquerita, La Guerrera, Valkiria, Olympia [CMLL UNIVERSAL DE AMAZONAS, semifinal]   
order of elimination: Lady Shadow (by Olympia), La Vaquerita (Valkiria), La Guerrera (Metalica), Valkiria (Vaquer), Metalica (Isis), Olympia (Jarochita), Persephone (Catalina), Isis (Vaquer), Vaquer (Jarochita), Jarochita (Catalina) leaving Catalina the winner
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario b Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán   
straight falls, Templario sneaking in a foul on Mistico. Templario unmaked Mistico after the match and declared himself the new star of Arena Mexico.

The main event was good, though the point was more to build to Templario/Mistico. Templario argued post-match that because he won the 90th Aniversario main event, he’s the new Idol of CMLL. Mistico disagreed. Templario and the Chavez brothers were an effective team.

The women’s cibernetico was a lot of women who aren’t much over and didn’t do much to get herself over. Persephone did the best of the new faces, at least in getting over a personality, but there were a fair amount of moments that didn’t go well. There’s a lot of youth being injected at once, which may work out in the long term if CMLL sticks with it. Catalina winning the block as a newer face may be part of that, though it seemed a step beyond what she’s ready for at this point.

Neon looked very impressive in the tag match, just playing off his big leaping ability as much as possible. He keeps landing the jumps. Difunto worked well with both Audaz & Capitan Suicida in the opener.

There was a 5.9 earthquake in Oaxaca about a half hour after this show ended. No major damage was reported. It was a distance from Mexico City but still felt there, enough to activate the emergency evacuation procedures for those still in the building. A TikTok video captured Mistico, forced to flee like everyone else, talk to fans and reassuring them it was nothing to worry about.

CMLL (SAT) 10/07/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Cachorro, Diamond, Eléctrico b Dr. Karonte I, Enfermero Jr., Inquisidor
2) Lady Metal & Lady Shadow b Hera & Miss Guerrera
CDMX debut of Lady Metal
3) La Catalina b La Jarochita [lightning]
Jarochita argued there was a fast count and biased refereeing.
4) Fugaz, Star Black, Valiente b Cancerbero, Kráneo, Luciferno
5) Akuma & Espanto Jr. b Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte © [Arena Coliseo TAG]
Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte fall on first defense. 12th modern champion
6) Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero DQ Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón
straight falls, DQ when Ultimo Guerrero unmasked Atlantis

It didn’t seem as if CMLL had plans for Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte beyond the tag title win back in March. La Catalina should be defeating La Jarochita this week if she’s in the Universal final but it’s still surprising to see it happen.

CMLL (SUN) 10/08/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Miss Guerrera & Persephone b Andrómeda & Lady Shadow
CMLL debut of Andrómeda
2) Histórico & Pelon Encapuchado b El Gallero & Raider
3) Reyna Isis b Lluvia [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Dark Magic, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Volador Jr. b Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

CMLL is calling the Villanos and Zandokan “El Triangulo” in their results, so that appears to be official.

CMLL (TUE) 10/10/2023 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel & Periquito Sacaryas
2) La Guerrera & La Vaquerita vs Olympia & Persephone
3) Pegasso, Pelon Encapuchado, Stigma vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
4) Amapola & Metálica vs La Catalina & Stephanie Vaquer
5) Máscara Dorada vs Último Guerrero [lightning]
6) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Stuka Jr., Terrible

Stuka Jr. replaces Dragon Rojo for the title match that isn’t one. Dorada/UG could be interesting. Match four is Mexico versus Chile.

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

This will be the sixth full-length Mistico singles match in Arena Mexico this year (Stuka, Titan, Hiromu, Soberano, Virus), plus a lightning match with Atlantis Jr. That’s a very active year by CMLL standards. I probably should find a few extra hours to research this.

La Catalina is a ruda, which would normally signal a tecnica coming through the other block. CMLL must be going another direction: Lluvia won last year so she’s not making the final and Sanely  or Skadi would be stretches. Either Zeuxis or Dark Silueta work as overall winners, and Silueta returning from injury to go to the top makes the better story. Andromeda does indeed make her Arena Mexico debut. It’ll take years to see if going from AAA to CMLL was really the right move, but the signs are good for here here (and the signs for women in AAA are not promising.) Notably Puebla’s Lady Metal does not make the cut here; I think that means she’s turning up on a Friday later in the month.

AAA

AAA announced the Guerra de Titanes card a little earlier than usual.

AAA TV (SUN) 11/19/2023 Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
***Guerra de Titanes, 2023***
1) Arez & Komander vs Forastero & Sansón [AAA TAG]
first defense when announced
2) Lady Shani vs Chik Tormenta
Sexy Star will second Lady Shani, Dalys will second Chik Tormenta
3) Negro Casas & Pentagón Jr. vs La Bestia Del Ring & Taurus
4) QT Marshall © vs Octagón Jr. [AAA LA]
sixth defense as announced, first in AAA
5) Pagano & Psycho Clown vs Sam Adonis & Texano Jr.
6) Hijo Del Vikingo © vs ? [AAA MEGA]
winner from 10/18 San Luis Potosi. 22nd defense when announced, 7th in AAA.

This poster came out Saturday, Arez & Komander’s opponents were still listed as “winners of the elimination match”. Forastero & Sanson won that last week. Vikingo is supposed to face the winner of the Dralistico, Taurus, and Laredo Kid match in San Luis Potosi. Taurus being listed in third match sure suggests it won’t be him advancing. Dalys is listed as seconding Chik Tormenta. Dalys and Chik Tormenta are actually feuding; they just found a poor way to get Dalys onto the card. Whatever, it’s AAA.

Part of this show will air live on HBO Max and Space in Mexico. Unless there’s a late change, there will be no legal way to watch in the US; we can all support the weird Space Twitch stream instead of AAA I guess.

AAA, both in commentary during Heroes Inmortales and in social media, keeps saying Guerra de Titanes will end 2023. AAA’s year doesn’t typically end in mid-November. AAA’s year won’t actually end then, they’ve got the UltraClash Impact show the following weekend, but maybe this is it for regular AAA TV tapings for the year. UltraClash is a seven-match show, AAA can make that stretch for three weeks, and that would take them to the holidays. They’re really just about done. That also means any incomplete work is not getting resolved until March, if ever.

AAA TV shows continue to be forgettable. The top priority is delivering on the live specials for Space/HBO Max/WBD. The second priority is to make sure the live crowd reacts to things. The weekly TV is the third priority, at best. AAA made sure to run a tournament final and the main event on the special to take care of that. They ran the angle and match, building it up for the live crowd. They aired that angle and match this week on the regular TV show, which makes for bad TV but the TV isn’t the important thing. AAA’s never going to fix the TV show, the only ‘fix’ likely is AAA to make the full live shows available again in some method. This week’s episode is just something that had to air to fill the time.

• The Cachanillas and Mini Vikingo all looked impressive in moments and really green in a lot of the rest of their match. One of AAA’s top trope is the tecnicos win a match and then are immediately destroyed by some rudos. They flipped it here, where Dinamico faked a foul for the DQ win and then he and his guys got completely beat up by the tecnicos. Wins and losses do not matter.
• The Copa Antonio Pena was the same royal rumble they’ve done a half dozen times this year, just with all women and one exotico. Faby returning got the biggest reaction, Lady Shani the second. They were there really just to set up Hijo del Tirantes costing them both the match so his father could attack him again. Same as always. Estrellita wrestled poorly but that’s not why she’s there.
• The Cachanillas are still trying to force Sexy Star to join their group, going as far as interfering as Copa Antonio Pena to help them. She’s not interested.
• AAA aired a show opening bit where Konnan came out to praise the Jalisco fans before getting confronted by Sam Adonis, QT Marshall and Harley Cameron about Harley not being in the Copa Antonio Pena. QT forced Hugo to translate for him in the exact same way FTR did last year and Jeff Jarrett has done before; it’s the same angles run over and over with different people in them. Alberto and Octagon ran the heels off in a way that would’ve made clear they were losing the main event had we seen this last week.
• Marshall and Adonis also did a victorious promo and teased naming themselves as Los Gringo Locos for heat. It came off very forced.
• Dralistico tried to explain his position of being a rudo in the US but 100% tecnico in Mexico. La Bestia del Ring thought this was nonsense. It’s hard when Bestia del Ring has the correct take.

AAA put up the first part of Heroes Inmortales on YouTube. They’re back to releasing shows on YouTube a week after they air. They’re also filling in a lot of individual matches that didn’t get posted earlier this year (or last), making it a little more work to find the new stuff.

AAA will have an “AAA versus Luchatitlan” show on 10/13 at the Cancun venue. The side panels of AAA’s ring also promoted Luchatitlan. That seems like the priority at the moment.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 10/08/2023 Arena Naucalpan [Zona Ruda]
1) Fussion & Tornado b Águila Roja & Kurama 
2) Bengalee, Caballero de Plata, Sagitarius DRAW Amazonika, Gannicus, Satania 
3) Cerebro Negro Jr., Karaoui, Rey Halcón b Dr. Cerebro Jr., Noisy Boy, Spider Fly 
4) Tonalli DQ Relámpago 
mask challenged followed
5) Hijo del Pirata Morgan, León Dorado, Mr. Leo b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. 
6) Cerebro Negro b Hell Boy 
7) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura, Sádika b Pig Decapitador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool 
mask challenges followed

Mas Lucha was in Jalisco this weekend and didn’t stream this show. The YouTubers I follow went to CMLL instead too. It is on the IWRG channel.

The draw doesn’t look anything special. Castillo del Terror is coming up at the end of that month and that always draws for IWRG, but I’m wondering if the Pigs have expired. I think they’re still OK against name opponents but shows centered around them in Mexico State the last couple of weeks have drawn poorly. Neza has introduced new groups for them to feud with but it’s possible the concept has passed the novelty point.

Other News

I went to GALLI on Sunday night. I was going back and forth about it. I knew I wouldn’t be much interested in the undercard, and there’s were more satisfying things I could do with that time. But – they had Mistico and Mascara Dorada in the main event, and I felt like I needed to be there just in case. I strategically showed up about an hour late to skip some of the undercard; GALLI ended up starting an hour late anyway. What can you do. I felt right about the undercard; there were three US style 2v2 tag matches that told the same story, a lucha libre trios that I decided I need to walk around and stop watching after they blew one too many spots, and a way women’s match where the most impressive person was the one who’s name I didn’t catch. (I worked it out that it’s Pescadita; she stands out even just being a year in.)  It was in fact not a great use of time.

I want to say the Mascara Dorada/Robin vs Mistico/Dr. Karonte II made it worth it, but that wasn’t really the case. You’re rarely getting the top effort from guest wrestlers on these lucha libre indie shows and it would’ve been pushing it to say they even give a full 50%. The match was a lot of crowd interaction and a few trademark spots, with Dorada doing less than usual as a rudo and Mistico a bit thrown off by the fans randomly cheering for Robin. (They went with teams of friends/brothers, instead of putting Dorada with Mistico and having the better match.) That cruise control match made the finish all the crazier: Mistico climbed the light tower and leaped off for a plancha, as if was the top of a CMLL cage. It went safely and I guess it wasn’t truly so dangerous, but there was no build or context to it, Mistico just decided he wanted to be Aerostar tonight.

The draw for the CMLL guys was nothing special. I think Psycho Clown was more over than Mistico in this same venue. It didn’t feel like anyone knew who Mascara Dorada was, or at least no more than the other three guys. He got to do a couple of cool things but not enough to make a big impression. Vikingo and others are scheduled to be in next week, though in a city about 30 minutes north of Chicago.

Daga appeared on Saturday’s Ring of Honor tapings, challenging QT Marshall for the AAA Latin American championship. His appearance was probably about ROH wanting a Mexican to challenge for an AAA title more than any set long term plan. Daga’s due back in NOAH soon too. Still, even a one match Daga cameo in Ring of Honor has to be a career highlight for a guy so clearly influenced by that promotion. The match should air a week from Thursday.

Big Lucha says “Big Lucha World” will return on Fridays starting this upcoming week. Those were standalone mini shows before, and might be episodes of the monthly big show now

Alberto el Patron wrestled Thursday in Aguascalientes. In a press conference to promote the show, Alberto mentioned it’d be his last match of the year due to the knee injury he picked up Heroes Inmortales weekend. Alberto appeared on the August 20th show Showcenter card, making a big announcement he’d wrestle when AAA returned their on November 26th. He’s obviously not on that card. I don’t think it’s the injury, I think that’s a sign that the AAA/Impact deal came together sometime after August and Impact didn’t want Alberto around. (Alberto also did his usual bit about how he was going back to the WWE last year until Vince McMahon got in trouble and hasn’t heard back from them since.)

Mas Lucha did the drawing for their Mas Lucha Supremo tournament on 08/15. First round matchups

• Super Calo vs Hell Boy
• Super Fly vs Super Crazy
• Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Mr. Leo
• ? vs Zorro

The “?” used to be Elemental. Mas Lucha said he was unable to participate due to commitments with other promotions, which sounds like CMLL (either entirely or just the Guadalajara branch) asked him not to participate.

Wagner seems like the favorite. He’d seem like the favorite regardless but also seems unlikely to lose while he’s a NOAH champion; maybe he could take a DQ.

Vanguardia has a long interview with Pimpinela Escarlata about his life and career. Pimpinela notes some people have told him the Cassandro movie should’ve been a Pimpinela one instead, and he disagrees – he knows how much Cassandro struggled and deserved to have his story told. The movie did sneak Pimpinela in the movie, as someone Saul watched on TV when deciding to wrestle as an exotico. It doesn’t actually make sense if you know the real story, because it’s a clip from an AAA match about a decade after “Cassandro” debuted, so I assume it’s just in there as a nod. Pimpinela is down on current lucha, feeling the crowds are going down and the wrestlers don’t really know how to fight, and does the empty “I’m retiring in two or three years” talk.

KAOZ Lucha Libre promoted former WWE wrestler Yulisa Leon as “Julissa” on their social media. They did it as a link to their website, where the “next show” listed is the February 23, 2020 show. KAOZ hasn’t run since early July 2023. I have no idea why they did that or when they’re running again, but presumably, Julissa is part of the plans for that show. KAOZ used to be very friendly with AAA, then was very unfriendly with AAA and now it’s uncertain. I don’t think we can use this to figure out her plans beyond that appearance.

The Orizaba lucha libre commission says they have 30-40 wrestlers under their jurisdiction, and their goal is to get their wrestlers to international work.

The Food Tech has a story on Pelon Encapuchado.