CMLL early week results, secret AAA TV tapings, political marches

hIf you are an email subscriber (and the email service is actually working), you saw a very early version of this post-Tuesday evening. I hit Publish on the wrong post. Sorry for the wasted email.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 12/11/2023 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla, Grada, Mano A Mano]
1) Dreyko & El Malayo b Astro & Blue Shark
2) Meyer & Xelhua b Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II
3) Arkalis, Rey Samuray, Valiente b Perverso, Prayer, Rey Apocalipsis 
Arakalis replaced Pegasso
4) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Valiente 
straight falls, setting up Rugido versus Guerrero Maya
5) Ángel de Oro & Rocky Romero b Flip Gordon & Titán 
6) Atlantis, Octagón, Volador Jr. b Hijo del Villano III, Templario, Villano III Jr. 

Maya seems to test the younger CMLL rudos in title matches.

CMLL (TUE) 12/12/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II b Bengala & Leono 
2) Andrómeda, Sexy Sol, Skadi b Amapola, Metálica, Olympia 
3) El Coyote b Fuego [lightning] 
Coyote got the submission win with 3 seconds left.
4) Brillante Jr., Futuro, Neón b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. 
Espanto Jr. refused to fight his cousin Brillante Jr. during the match, though it didn’t figure into the finish.
5) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hombre Bala Jr. 
6) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. 

About a normal Tuesday show. The Brillante/Espanto thing pops out on a week where their cousin Andrade is back in town, but it felt more like Espanto reacting to the random match up than laying a seed for a bigger angle. Coyote/Fuego was a good solid lightning match, and I was impressed by them getting to the finish at the right time without even hurrying. Everyone in the opener seemed unhappy.

CMLL (TUE) 12/12/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Espirtiu Maligno, Perverso, Prayer b Astro Oriental, Obek, Persa 
2) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica b Astoreth, Diablita Roja, Mania 
3) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. b Asturiano, Meyer, Xelhua 
4) Dark Silueta, La Pantera, Valkiria b Hela, Lady Amazona, Lady Metal 
5) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico DQ El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siki Osama Jr. 
DQ for unmasking. Batallon wants an Occidente Trios title match, Magnificos accepted
6) Arkalis, Rey Samuray, Stigma DQ Bestia Negra, El Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr. 
Halcon Negro unmasked Arkalis

The Guadalajara/Puebla show didn’t seem to draw anything extra – no surprise, only the most diehard know who the Puebla guys are – but they did set up a match out of it.

Magia Azul, a luchadora seen in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, was part of CMLL’s press day and announced she’d be debuting in Arena Coliseo this Saturday.

Boletia sent out notices canceling orders for the USD PPV airings of the upcoming December CMLL shows and refunded the cost. Those were the shows with a price error. I bought the whole month at once assuming CMLL would just cancel them right away, and I ended up getting 12/01 and 12/08 shows at steep discounts. Now that everything has played out, I’m surprised they’re just doing the normal 99 MXN pesos price for Friday. The audience that’ll pay for La Sombra crosses over well with the audience that’ll buy an iPPV for a few dollars more.

Dave Meltzer on Monday’s Wrestling Observer Radio mentioned Andrade agreed to work five dates for CMLL. That’s a little more than I would’ve expected, but it fits how much they use guest wrestlers. The guest men’s Gran Prix guys were in for 6 matches, though that was all self-contained in a short time. Andrade’s busy on AEW TV so he’ll probably be more in and out, not around for a week at a time. All these agreements can be extended or truncated and are likely to be more informal handshake deals than a written contract.

CMLL Informa has

• Andrade el Idolo (return)
• Volador Jr. (RevPro)
• Mascara Dorada, Rocky Romero (title match)
• Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Zandokan Jr. (World Tag League)

This is the 500th edition of CMLL Informa, so expect celebrations and maybe a surprise.

Box y Lucha has La Sombra on the cover of issue 3581

AAA

AAA ran a show with sponsored Bardahl at their headquarters in Toluca on Tuesday. Record mentions it. AAA mentioned it Wednesday morning. Their wrestlers have it all over their social media. It appears to be a TV taping with the six sided ring. I can figure out some of the matches:

• Takuma, Kento, and Kuukai versus Mr. Iguana, Nino Hamburguesa (?) and ?
• Lady Flammer & Abismo Negro Jr. vs Drago ?, ?? for the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship
• Octagon Jr. vs Argenis vs Mecha Wolf for the AAA Latin American Championship
• Dalys, Maravilla, Argenis vs Lady Shani, ??, ???
• Psycho Clown, Negro Casas, Laredo Kid vs Texano, Taurus, La Bestia del Ring

Photos show they used a six sided ring and it appeared to be a TV taping. Lady Flammer posted on Instagram that she and Abismo Negro retained their mixed tag titles. Psycho Clown, Texano Jr., Octagon Jr., Psicosis and Lady Shani were mentioned as appearing.

Vaquer/Cuatrero

I don’t live in Mexico. I’m an outsider to all of this. I think that even if I did live in Mexico, I’d still be an outsider – there would still be important stuff that would fly over my head. (I live in the US and often feel this way here.) This is not a new piece of information, but it cropped up again in the last few days. Anyone could notice the “6 AM” start time on the Cuartero march poster, but a true Mexican might have put together the location and the time and realized what it meant. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a daily 7 AM (ish) press conference; he started doing it during COVID and just never stopped. At one of those press conferences about a week ago, a reporter obliquely brought up Cuatrero’s imprisonment and wanted answers about the shadowy people using their influence to keep him in jail. President AMLO didn’t answer the question, taking the response instead in a different direction. The plan for the Cuatrero protest on Wednesday morning was to get that answer and a lot of attention by interrupting the president’s press conference.

The plan didn’t go far. Cuatrero, Forastero, La Hiedra (who is dating Cuatrero Sanson), and about 20-30 fans appeared to be there at 6 AM Zocalo with the idea of marching towards the press conference – only to realize there were police roadblocks set up to stop anyone from getting close. The roadblocks are because of an unrelated protest. It didn’t seem like the Cuatrero group had known this in advance or figured out how to handle the situation; they just figured they’d show up and work it out from there. The group protested at the edge of a secured area, with more people showing up during the morning. Mascara 2000, Lady Shani, DMT Azul, Piero, one of the Mascara Sagrada kids, and lesser-known indie wrestlers were among the later arrivals. A few more fans arrived. It was not a big turnout; it was one of those internet things that everyone talks about doing but don’t actually do.

I didn’t think they’d ever make it, but I thought the wrestlers might make trouble (mostly for themselves), and instead, it seemed like it worked out peacefully. The expressed idea of this protest is demanding justice for Cuatrero without causing trouble for others but, if you look at the signs they were holding, the fans who showed up knew it was more about exposing the conspiracy holding Cuatrero in jail and criticizing the government for favoring the word of a foreigner over a Mexican. I was watching the AMLO press conference this morning to see if a reporter would ask about the situation again, and they did not as long as I could stick with it. I didn’t see it mentioned later. There were more important issues in Mexico today.

The Cuatrero/Vaquer situation (somewhat) got noticed by the English-language Twitter wrestling audiences this week. This situation is now nine months old, because many people who are now fans of Stephanie Vaquer don’t actually follow anything that happens in Mexico, all the stuff with Cuatrero and Vaquer was unknown to them. It became known because someone screengrabbed a section of Monday’s post, rudely didn’t attribute it, and then everyone decided they knew everything they needed to know. It also meant that all the AAA wrestlers posting the #JusticiaParaCuatrero meet-up graphic suddenly were on the radar of fans who knew that meant they were supporting someone in jail for attacking his girlfriend. This caused problems for the people who work for US promotions. Rush posted the graphic and then deleted it when he started to get negative attention. Dralistico tried to defend himself as not picking sides by posting a graphic that supported a side. (No one bought this.) Those are the ones who were noticed.

Those AAA wrestlers defending Cuatrero are friends or long-time coworkers who know him personally, believe he’s a good guy, and can’t accept that he’s capable of what he’s accused of. It’s primarily an AAA wrestler thing, but it’s not being led by AAA itself – they’ve distanced themselves from this and have gone out of their way not to mention Cuatrero since his arrest. It’s also not just an AAA thing; there are CMLL wrestlers who also worked with Cuatrero when he was there and are sympathetic, but also are aware that taking a public stance would be seen as going against their co-worker.

These Cuatrero surprising wrestlers are not pro-feminicide. Obviously. These are people who are family or friends (or friends of friends) of someone who’s been accused of a terrible crime, who haven’t been able to process it so they’re living it out in a strange fashion. This movement is not healthy or positive, but I can understand why it exists. I also, knowing precious little about the Mexican legal system, believe that it’s unfair that anyone is jailed for nine months without a trial. (The most recent update had a court date set for January.) The accused and the victim deserve a timely resolution instead of this very slow process. And people using their political or economic power to influence governmental decisions is not just a problem in Mexico, but I definitely understand why Mexicans are less trusting of their institutions than most.

At the same time, these wrestlers and their fans are supporting someone who was accused of violence, whose victim had visible marks on her, and who was then (anonymously) accused by a previous romantic partner of doing the same thing to her. It looks terrible because it is terrible, and they would see how terrible it looks if they took a second to step out of their bubble. It was just people living in their own worlds, where everything they were doing felt completely justified, and being oblivious that there’s a bigger world out there that hasn’t spent the last month mainlining twenty-minute conspiracy videos with the same three photos repeatedly.

I was critical earlier this week of Cuatrero fans just coming up with conspiracy theories as a way of blinding supporting their favorites. It felt like it went the other way yesterday, people just the same supporting their favorite without knowing or caring to know much more about what was going on. This goes for anything involving famous people disagreeing: it’s a foolish idea to decide which ones are the goodies and which ones are the baddies; you will end up disappointed far more than you’d like. No matter how much you see these people in front of cameras, on social media, or even in person, you don’t know these people or what’s really going on with them.

The #JusticiaParaCuatrero campaign has been nonsense that hasn’t helped Cuatrero and seemed to be specifically the sort of harassment the judge cited as a reason to keep Cuatrero in jail awaiting trial. Yelling at those same supporters on social also isn’t going to actually help anyone. It’s very hard to be patient, especially when the people involved have already had to be patient a lot longer than should’ve been asked, but that’s all there is to do. This behavior is one of the reasons I’ve been extremely reluctant to discuss this story on Twitter; I definitely believe Cuatrero’s side is in the wrong and handling this situation in a self-destructive fashion and also trying to be understanding of them struggling to process a difficult situation. Few want to try to understand why someone else is doing what they’re doing. It’s easier just to treat it like a sporting event and start yelling about how Team Green or Team Yellow is the better one, and that’s what almost any discussion of a complex subject on Twitter turns into.

Other News

Ring of Honor will be adding a notable lucha libre match to Friday’s ROH Final Battle show. I expect it’ll be announced tonight during AEW Dynamite.

MLW announced Azteca Lucha for 05/11 in Cicero, Illinois. The name and the location suggest MLW is bringing in lucha libre wrestler, MLW is currently working with CMLL, so that means some amount of CMLL wrestlers could be on this show. It is also MLW and they seemed to change strategies often, so who knows what’ll be happening six months from now. Mostly, I saw this notice and was filled with dread that I’d have to go to an MLW show.

Japanese Dr. Lucha’s column this week is on the career of Fuerza Guerrera, who is coming to Japan next January for a talk show.

Maximo says one of his biggest goals in wrestling is defeating Ultimo Guerrero in Arena Mexico in a hair match. I may have a better chance of defeating Ultimo Guerrero in Arena Mexico in a hair match than Maximo. Neither Maxino nor the ESTO author of the piece addresses the reason why Maximo is outside of CMLL: he and his vandalized and damaged Ultimo Guerrero’s car to the point where CMLL had no choice but to fire him. That interview theoretically exists to promote this weekend’s New Exotic show.

Republic of Lucha is moving from its current location in South Pasadena on Christmas Eve. They’re moving to a small place in 2024, location TBA.

NVINoticas profiles of the Cisneros lucha libre family of Oaxaca.