Leyenda de Azul, Flip Gordon, Guerra de Titanes

CMLL

Tonight’s show:

CMLL (FRI) 11/17/2023 Arena México
1) Andrómeda & Skadi vs Hera & Olympia
2) Mercurio © vs Último Dragóncito [CMLL MINI]
7th defense
3) Atlantis vs Ángel de Oro, Star Black, Esfinge, Hechicero, Volcano, Último Guerrero, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Stuka Jr., Niebla Roja, Sagrado [Leyenda de Azul, semifinal]
final two advance
4) Gran Guerrero © vs Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]
3rd defense
5) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Star Jr., Titán, Volador Jr.

The main event should be good, though I liked it better in the previous form. I can only understand putting that semi-main on a Friday night show if a title match is planned. The Leyenda de Azul ciberentico could be many combinations, and might be good. Mercurio/Ultimo Dragoncito should be good. Andromeda on a Friday night seems like fun. It’s a 6 USD PPV.

Flip Gordon

The big news from Informa was CMLL introducing Flip Gordon as returning to the promotion on tonight’s show. This will be Gordon’s first match in CMLL since 2018. (He was scheduled on the March 20th, 2020 Arena Mexico card, among the first canceled by the pandemic.) Gordon said he wasn’t in CMLL for a tour, but for a “long season.” Gordon got married to a Mexican woman and moved to the country earlier this year, so he will be around for a while.

Gordon’s last appearance with a major Mexican promotion was with AAA in 2022, teaming with Daga against Pentagon Jr. & Hijo del Vikingo in the latter’s US debut. Gordon was an inexplicable inclusion, and never worked for AAA again. AAA seemed to be saving bigger Vikingo matches for another show; they also have not run in the US since that show.

Flip Gordon was a very popular US indie wrestler five years ago, peaking around the time of the first All In. Gordon’s growth in popularity was due in large part to the surge of interest in the Being the Elite YouTube show. Gordon re-signed with Ring of Honor before the idea of AEW fully came into existence, and largely floundered without that connection to the Elite. He’s not had much visibility post-ROH either, with some brief stints in NWA as the most high profile work. There still are a batch of wrestling fans who became fans (or became bigger fans) during that era where Gordon was a hot star, and they hope he’s the next surprise signee every time AEW teases a new name. This news is explicitly not that; Gordon is not signing with CMLL to get to AEW. There is a much larger (and vocal) group of fans who believe Gordon is a complete idiot, due to a pattern of underinformed and thoughtless social media posts over the years. Lots of wrestlers – lots of people – have similar thoughts, few were also dumb enough to put those thoughts out on Twitter for everyone to read. Maybe a bit more now. Those things seem to matter a lot less to Mexican audiences.

As a wrestler, Gordon doesn’t obviously offer anything that many current CMLL wrestlers already provide (and offer better) in a skill set. He is different from most of the people who are around by being an English-speaking American, and variety always helps a bit. Gordon also has friends and supporters; there are plenty of Americans who came to Mexico and want to get in CMLL, and almost none of them end up in an Arena Mexico main event.

Other CMLL

MLW on Saturday has Rocky Romero & Barbaro Cavernario vs Mascara Dorada & Ichiban. Their show streams live on FITE+ (and stays up there in case you’re watching another PPV that happens to be at the same time.) It does not look like Cavernario or Dorada are booked for the TV portion of the taping, unless they’re in a battle royal.

CMLL (SUN) 11/19/2023 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Minos & Pequeño Polvora
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) El Hijo De Blue Panther, Hijo de Octagón, Star Jr. vs El Hijo de Stuka Jr., Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III
5) Máscara Dorada vs Hechicero [lightning]
6) Místico, Octagón, Titán vs Averno, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr.

This is the Sunday show that’s not streaming. Mascara Dorada versus Hechicero may air on 11/29.

Stephanie Vaquer told the press she wants to defend her singles women’s title against Tessa Blanchard, Thunder Rosa, or Mayu Iwatani. Vaquer also responded to a week-old Thunder Rosa match on Twitter, accepting a match. Rosa is still out of the ring; reports seem to differ if she’s healthy or not, but she’s not wrestling yet. Iwatani is probably not coming to Mexico outside of Gran Prix and (for political reasons I don’t understand) CMLL doesn’t seem to use Stardom women on their shows. Blanchard is booked on the CMLL-affiliated Lucka Libre show on 12/02 in Tijuana; CMLL figures to book her back in Arena Mexico around that time.

Denice Salcedo also has an interview with Stephanie Vaquer.

Crixis’ is an industrial engineer, or at least it was until he moved to Mexico City to wrestle full time. He would get in workout sessions during lunch break, sometimes wearing his training gear under his work gear because he didn’t have time to change.

AAA

AAA has Guerra de Titanes on Sunday. The top half of this show will air on Sunday (starting at 8:45 pm Central Time), and the rest will air next week. The show airs live on Space and HBO Max (not in the US.) Matches scheduled:

• QT Marshall versus Octagon Jr. for the AAA Latin American Championship
• ???Pagano??? & Psycho Clown vs Sam Adonis & Taurus
• Hijo del Vikingo vs Dralistico for the AAA Mega Championship

Hijo del Vikingo will be defending the AAA Megachampionship on Sunday for the 7th time on AAA TV show. I was for reluctantly moving the title off Vikingo at TripleMania Mexico City as a necessary evil – at some point AEW is going to sign Vikingo and AAA needs to transfer as much as of Vikingo’s spotlight to someone else while they can. Dralistico is not that person, since he’s under AEW contract as well. There’s a decent chance AAA sees things differently: they have no buzz and a title change certainly would get some. They also don’t really seem to have any direction for Vikingo and this title after the Omega feud. (There’s been attempt to keep the Gringo Loco feud warm in the last three months.) Dralistico is also being featured on AEW TV for this PPV cycle and, as much as the AAA booker may have become infamous for criticizing AEW booking on his podcast, AAA booking often follows AEW’s lead on who to focus on.

I think the general fan sentiment is Vikingo is surely winning, to those who even know this match is happening. I don’t share that confidence after a year of closely following AA.

I have no idea what AAA will do in the semi-main. I assume Pagano’s not wrestling, but the man is crazy. AAA’s said nothing about his status, though I’m not ever sure that helps them disguise the situation to fans buying tickets. It’s Pagano in Juarez, those fans are going to know the real deal. The Latin American championship match is about QT Marshall and Pentagon, and Octagon just happens to be the challenger. The gimmick is pushing QT Marshall as the best champion ever. It works for a heel when the fans are supposed to know he’s not actually defending the title. AAA and Marshall are playing it like he’s a face, heroically defending the belt all over the place. It probably doesn’t make a difference either way.

(No TV show on Saturday because of the live show on Sunday.)

I was wrong; the tryout this coming Tuesday is open to anyone, including those who got rejected this past week. The process for past AAA tryouts has been open auditions for a while, then one or two cutdown stages. The process for INJUVE contest with Big Lucha was one open audition, and then weekly cutdown stages until getting to the winner. This one seems to be going more the AAA method, which is fine if didn’t seem to be what I read in the rules. AAA posted a list of 44 people who did advance, listed by their assigned number instead of a name. Estrellas del Ring has a 38-minute video on the first tryout if you’d like to watch and match numbers with familiar faces.

IWRG

IWRG , NGT (WED) 11/15/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Súper Boy b Steve Manson
2) Black Shadow II & Rey Aztaroth b Águila Oriental & Tornado
3) Noisy Boy b Kali, Danessa, Sagitarius, Mr. Mike, Fly Star
4) Águila Roja © b Cerebro Negro Jr. [IWRG IC Light]
first defense. Spider Fly and Noisy Boy asked for title matches. Hijo del Pirata Morgan came up to support Aguila Roja and challenge the MexaBoys to a tag match.
5) Rey Halcón & Toxin b Dr. Cerebro Jr. & Spider Fly

A lightly attended show. It probably wouldn’t work either way but these might be more interesting if they tried a new concept instead of doing all the normal IWRG stuff with the younger people.

IWRG , LLB (SUN) 11/19/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sparta vs Príncipe Centauro, Hijo De Sparta, Gravedad Caero, Arashi, Oro Blanco, Eurus, Argus, Súper Boy
2) Macho I, Macho II, Macho III vs Demencia, Octacio Gaona, Reptil
3) Bengalee, Chris Stone Jr., Princesa Azul vs Mary Caporal, Medieval I, Reina Oscura
4) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
5) Hell Boy, Puma de Oro, Tonalli vs Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Cíclope, Miedo Extremo and Fandango, Lunatik Extreme, Toto
6) Mocho Cota, Súper Comando, Tito Santana © vs Hijo de Canis Lupus, León Dorado, Mr. Leo [IWRG IC TRIOS]
first defense
7) Hijo de LA Park, LA Park, LA Park Jr. vs Charly Manson, Dr. Wagner Jr., Mr. Elektro

A normal Lucha Libre Boom show. It would be weird if the IWRG trios titles came home on someone else’s show, but not too weird. Princesa Azul showed up at the AAA tryout and seems like name that should be in one of the big 2’s women’s divisions next year.

IWRG said the registration for the 2024 Tryout starts on 11/26. The IWRG 61st anniversary show will be on 12/17.

Other News

TJ Sports has a profile of (Black) Destiny. He’s thinking about relocating to Mexico City next year in hopes of becoming a big star. Zeta TJ also has an interview with a The Crash wrestler, Gallo Extreme.

Big Lucha has its latest show on Saturday. The main event is Black Family versus Black Generacion. Delta Forces versus Los Locos del Evans may be the best match. This will turn up on their YouTube channel later.

Box y Lucha has more 1955 Box y Luchas for sale.

A 300 page book on the life of Blue Demon (Blue Demon: Ídolo mexicano sin límite de tiempo) was introduced at a press conference on Tuesday. The book was promoted on Informa as well. The name is the same as an exhibit last year. The article says the book is available on Museo del Estanquillo website; I can find a story on the exhibit but not the book.

El Sol del Acapulco has an interview with the former El Esclavo. He was a 25 year old fruit vendor who had moved to Acapulco and repeatedly was robbed when he happened upon Arena Coliseo Acapulco. He was blown away by what he saw and decided to become a luchador. It’s not as nice a story that he got the name “The Slave” based on his skin color. He says he lost his mask to El Centauro, and retired after hurting both his legs on a dive.