CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 12/22/2023 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, thegladiatores.com]
1) Pierrothito & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico & Shockercito [Relevos Increíbles] 
5:31
2) Futuro, Max Star, Neón b Crixus, Difunto, Raider
13:46
3) Andrómeda, La Jarochita, Marcela b Metálica, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis 
10:01. Straight falls. Jarochita pinned Vaquer to set up a title match next week
4) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario b Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
15:34
5) Soberano Jr. b Atlantis Jr.
19:30
6) Andrade el Idolo, Brillante Jr., Espanto Jr. b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Volador Jr.
17:09. Andrade snuck in a foul on Volador. Andrade’s wife was seated in the front row.
Andrade was asked about possibly going to Japan, and mentioned he would’ve like to work FantasticaMania, but had a date conflict this year. He suggested maybe he’d do in 2025. It’s a great thought. He also noted he has a lot of open doors to him right now and he’s not sure which one he’ll choose. Andrade’s wife at ringside served as a reminder of the other day he could (and likely will) be stepping through. My hunch is Andrade will make an appearance in NJPW at some point in 2024, but I don’t expect him to be part of FantasticaMania 2025.
There’s a lot more Andrade could do in CMLL, and he sounded interested in returning in 2024. It looks like this week’s flurry will be the end of it though. Andrade will have had five matches as of Friday, and that’s the number the WON had reported. He’ll have wrestled Mistico, Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., gotten his relatives a main event match, and gotten one more singles match with Volador. Again, there’s much more Andrade could do, but it also fits as one last run in CMLL.
Just like there was an increase in press attention on last Friday’s CMLL show because Andrade returned, there was an extra amount of press attention all focusing on Charlotte Flair seated at ringside. She came to her seat during the semi-main and was on crutches. CMLL showed and identified her on the stream, though they were careful to use her real name and not her WWE character identity. Flair comes to Andrade’s matches often when available – she was spotted at his The Crash appearance in Tijuana – though I haven’t heard of her being at an AEW show. It certainly is a different landscape when a AEW star is show kissing a WWE star on a CMLL landscape, though it might have to do with those specific people more than anything.
Atlantis Jr/Soberano Jr. was still pretty good and a matter of getting used to the new Soberano style. He’s playing a much more dramatic character – definitely been watching NXT to get their trademark shocked face down – and he’s replacing big moves with taking wilder bumps. Atlantis came up with a couple of new ideas on his side, which follows Soberano being critical of him “only doing quebradoras” in his World Tag League matches. I was stunned Soberano lost clean, seems well too early after the rudo character. Those sorts of wins and losses don’t matter as much in CMLL, but I would’ve done whatever I could do to keep Soberano hot.
Stephanie Vaquer got noticeable boos on Friday. It wasn’t much of the crowd, but it was enough that tell who it was pointed at and have a good guess why. CMLL women, tecnicas or rudas, hardly ever get boos for character reasons. They may get booed if they’re having a bad match or if the crowd is restless and wants to see something else, but neither of those happened on Friday’s show. I can’t see into the hearts or minds of those doing the booing, but it seemed the first case of the Cuatrero supporters making themselves heard in Arena Mexico. Maybe it’ll be a one-week thing, but next week could be tough. The natural selling point to the Jarochita/Vaquer title match is Jarochita trying to bring back the championship to Mexican arms. That same xenophobia is also one of the selling points of the Cuatrero supporters – they feel the justice system should always support a Mexican over a foreigner – and maybe CMLL will stay away from it instead. They’ve stayed far away from this story.
The undercard of this show was disappointing. Both 2/4 had the young guys having lots of idea and middling success at how to do them. Villanos and Zandokan could use better idea of when to put all the stuff together too. (They were so good with the Panthers because those guys have that stuff figured out really well.) The opener was not much; hopefully, one year, CMLL will come up with more ideas for a cage match beyond “every match ends in a DQ.”
Friday’s stream was a fiasco. Neerme started playing the show about 30 minutes after the show started. They also never made the VOD available, even two days later. (I think, technically, Neerme failed to realize the show was over two days later and was still airing the ‘live’ stream.) CMLL said the late start wasn’t their fault. They appear to be telling the truth. If you hunt around Neerme’s server – in simple ways that would impress no one who does that for a living but still might get your computers seized – it was straightforward enough to find the full broadcast as sent by CMLL. They did their part, the problem is whatever software controls Neerme had to turn on and turn off the stream failed, and there’s no human backup keeping it on it when CMLL’s the only show they’re streaming.
Neerme/Boletia is more willing to do refunds and make goods when things fail, so maybe that’ll be coming this week. Neerme is better than Ticketmaster Live – that show would’ve been lost forever – but it’s still a substandard experience.
CMLL (SAT) 12/23/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Eléctrico & Oro Jr. b Enfermero Jr. & Príncipe Odín Jr.
Principe Odin’s first match since August.
2) Astral, Capitán Suicida, Diamond b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) El Audaz, Stigma, Volcano b Cancerbero, Felino Jr., Kráneo
4) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Valiente b Rugido, Sagrado, Virus
5) Flip Gordon b Hechicero [lightning]
Flip Gordon used an STF
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible b Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán
Cavernario snuck in a foul on Dorada
CMLL’s recap noted Flip Gordon used the STF of Lou Thesz, making for the first time Flip Gordon and Lou Thesz were positively compared. Not as joking, I think there was a point in the last few years where I thought Flip Gordon might become NWA champ.
Principe Odin Jr., previously as Artillero and Chamaco Torres even earlier, has been around CMLL regularly since 2002. Every time he turns up I wonder if it’s the last time he’ll turn up.
CMLL (TUE) 12/26/2023 Arena México
1) Meyer & Xelhua vs Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Valiente Jr. vs Grako, Inquisidor, Sangre Imperial
3) Neón vs Raider [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
5) Flip Gordon, Star Jr., Valiente vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
6) Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs Andrade el Idolo & Soberano Jr.
CMLL’s schedule is bonus stream on Monday, normal stream on Tuesday, PPV on Friday, and probably another bonus stream on New Year’s Day. Andrade will be gone by then, but they’re making sure all of his matches air one way or another.
Neon/Raider is a rematch from September, was great then, should be great again.
CMLL (FRI) 12/29/2023 Arena México
1) Diamond, Oro Jr., Robin vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
2) Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Volcano vs Cancerbero, Kráneo, Vegas
3) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Stephanie Vaquer © vs La Jarochita [CMLL WOMEN]
3rd defense
5) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Volador Jr. vs Andrade el Idolo
The main event result has some intrigue. Andrade does not lose outside of AEW much, like most AEW wrestlers. This is one where he really ought to lose; Volador’s the guy sticking around. Again, wins and losses don’t mean as much here but it seems like an easy decision to keep the right person hot. It’ll also go a long way to frame how we think about AEW people coming into CMLL going forward.
CMLL had that story this summer about Los Infernales splitting and that Satanico needed to come in to declare who could use the name now. Averno ended up teaming with Mephisto and Euforia and it just seemed to be missing Satanico walking out with them to give the thumbs up. Never happened, not sure why. Julio Cesar Rivera called them Los Infernales as if it had been set for a while, and they’re listed as such on this poster. They should be good opposition for those tecnicos.
The women’s title match is about as good as CMLL can make with who they have around on a regular basis. Match three is the face Guadalajara team against the Guadalajara rudos who’ve solidified themselves in Mexico City this year. Suicida, Fuego, and Volcano are a comedy team going against Kraneo and a couple of unusual partners. The opener seems like a way to get Los Indestructibles one last week for the year.
(Note Andrade will be squeezing in another match in Arena Olimpico Laguna on Thursday. I wonder if he’ll be on Informa on Wednesday.)
That Lucha Tour graphic teasing KeMalito and a mystery person revealed the mystery person as Mascara Dorada. That seems like a change of plans. I’ve belatedly realized that if CMLL doesn’t believe Monday’s Arena Mexico show is important enough to stream, it’s probably not important enough to debut a new KeMonito either.
Last Wednesday’s CMLL Informa did a lot of looking back at the year’s events. It’s always worth watching these with lucha libre promotions, just to see what they’ve decided to remove from history already. One look back that stood out was the Torneo de Escuelas. The tournament final saw Team Guadalajara’s Angel Rebelde defeat Team Mexico City’s Tonalli for the win. The broadcast instead presented the Arena Coliseo anniversary show cibernetico as the ultimate end of the tournament, which was instead won by Rey Samuray. Tonalli ended up not coming in to CMLL – he had a chance to work internationally on RGR shows with AAA wrestlers and picked that instead. Angel Rebelde has only wrestled in Mexico City twice since that cibernetico, has spent the year occasionally wrestling in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, and isn’t even really pushed there. I keep thinking how weird it is that CMLL went cold on Angel Rebelde, but maybe the question is why how they were so high on him to give him the win in the first place. The rest of the Guadalajara team didn’t stick in Mexico City either except for Crixus. Maybe the decision was Guadalajara had to go over, Crixus was too unsteady to carry the final of a tournament, and Rebelde could have the most spectacular finish with Tonalli. It should’ve been Mexico City winning, with Neon as the winner, but maybe there are political reasons to reward one of the outlets instead.
AAA
AAA’s TV show was a Best Of, with three matches: Cartwheel/Komander, the Mexico/Japan match from the Lucha World Cup, and Omega/Vikingo. One of those matches was not the quality of the other two. There was less than five minutes of new content, just plugging the 01/06 show and the announcers setting up the matches.
AAA will air a second Best Of next week. That would leave one blank week (01/06) for the Baradhal sponsored show, and then onto 2024 tapings.
IWRG
IWRG sent out a statement demanding Poder del Norte return the IWRG trios belts to their offices by January 5th, and threatening legal action if they defend the belts elsewhere. IWRG didn’t threaten this for any of the previous trios champions who defended their belts outside of IWRG (and seemingly without their authorization.) This would be an entertaining lawsuit, so I hope Poder del Norte goes for it.
Other News
Guanajuato exotico luchdor Bella de Paris (38) passed away on December 21st. This story is getting a lot of media attention not because of the wrestler’s career but because of the sordid death. Bella de Paris ran a beauty shop in Leon in their other life. Two men entered the shop Thursday night and shot Bella de Paris eight times. A relative was also wounded. There’s no word on the motive. As the article notes, there’s been a rash of violent luchador deaths in Leon in recent years. I only have about three matches with Bella de Paris in recent years, usually in prelim roles; I assume there was a previous identity.
Luis Mante, better known in Mexico as Diamante, won Dragongate’s Open the Dream Gate championship, their top title, on Sunday. I believe he’s the first Mexican wrestler to win the top championship of a major Japanese promotion. (Violento Jack has won Freedoms top championship, but Dragon Gate is a more significant promotion.) It’s rare for a Mexican wrestler to even challenge for the most important title in a Japanese promotion. Mante winning is a major achievement, one that’s not gotten its due in Mexico to this point.
This Dream Gate seems a reign more riding off the momentum of Mante’s mask loss earlier this year. It’s unlikely he will become the central figure of Dragongate even as champion. On the other hand, it was incredibly unlikely Diamante would ever win this championship (or do anything of note) when he was brought in as Ultimo Dragon’s designated opponent in 2019.
ESTO has two articles about Blue Demon Jr., one about his holiday memories and one about his painting. In the first, Demon joins the grand tradition of wrestlers claiming they were going to be in the Olympics but some misfortune happened; he claims a shoulder injury cost him from wrestling in the 1984 Los Angeles games.