FantasticaMania, Black Taurus, lots of CMLL announcements, Vaquer/Hiedra

I’m busy this week on work that actually pays me, so this post is late. Friday’s post may be Saturday’s post or non-existent. For time considerations, I’ll have the more obvious news from the last few days today and dig deeper late on. In the meantime, you can hear me talk about the year in lucha libre over on popular video streaming site YouTube and vote in the Tapatia awards

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 01/15/2024 Arena Puebla [Grada]
1) Amnesia & Blue Shark b Espíritu Maligno & King Jaguar 
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel & Periquito Sacaryas
3) Rey Apocalipsis & Siky Ozama b Capitán Suicida & Diamond 
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Star Black b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Zandokan Jr. [Relevos Increíbles] 
5) Esfinge © b Stuka Jr. [MEX LH] 
3rd defense. Stuka hit Esfinge with his boot, with the title, and with a foul, but it wasn’t enough. Stuka demanded a rematch in Torreon.
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Star Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario 
Templario unmasked Mascara Dorada for the DQ, setting up a singles match next week.

Stuka just needs a few more weapons and he’ll get Esfinge for good. Glad CMLL is running the big singles match in Puebla after they’ve run it on a stream, instead of the other way for once.

CMLL (TUE) 01/16/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Eléctrico & Oro Jr. b Grako & Inquisidor
2) Capitán Suicida, El Audaz, Max Star b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Andrómeda, Marcela, Skadi b Amapola, Persephone, Reyna Isis
4) Volcano b Zandokan Jr. [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. [CMLL TAG]
22:07. 13th defense (nearly exactly two years in)
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Volador challenged UG again, UG said they’d do the match Sunday

I’d have last weeks’ Panther/Villanos match a little ahead of the tag final, but both are worth going out of your way to watch. Panthers match was just a little bit better building to the final (though that’s the one case where the tournament helps.) The Chavez said their goal now is to set the tag team defense record; what the record actually is may be a harder to figure.

Volcano/Zandokan ended up being the “heavy guy is too heavy for other guy to lift” match with a twist; it looked like Volcano was legitimately too heavy for Zandokan to lift and that bit wasn’t the actual plan. It didn’t go well.

CMLL (TUE) 01/16/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [De Golpes y Caidas]
1) Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy b Destello, Destructor, Jabalí
Black Boy’s debut unmasked
2) Hatanna & Katara b Emperatriz & Miss Guerrera [OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG, semifinal]
Katara & Hatanna advance to the final
3) Adira & La Pantera b Lady Amazona & Lady Metal [OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG, semifinal]
Adira & La Pantera advance to the final
4) Barboza, Draego, Persa b Bestia Negra, Cris Skin, Ráfaga
5) Arlequín, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte b Futuro, Max Star, Neón
Rudos cheated to win
6) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther DQ Euforia, Hijo del Soberano, Soberano Jr.
Hijo del Soberano unmasked Blue Panther Jr.

Added here for completeness; I’ve not seen a single second of the show and have nothing to add.

CMLL went nuts with events announcements on Informa:

• Rey del Aire will return on February 6th (a Tuesday) and will include 12 wrestlers
• The Torneo Esuelas returns on February 9th and runs through the 23rd. It will change to a tag team format, but will still include the same four schools as last year.
• The Parejas Increibles tournament returns on March 15th, with a final on March 29th
• That same March 29th will all be this year’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. The legend to be honored is TBA.

Another way of looking at this is the Friday night schedule for the next couple of months:

• 01/19: Gran Alternativa Block A
• 01/26: Gran Alternativa Block B
• 02/02: Gran Alternativa final
• 02/09: Torneo Escuelas Part 1
• 02/16: Torneo Escuelas Part 2
• 02/23: Torneo Escuelas Final
• 03/01: nothing announced yet
• 03/08: nothing announced yet
• 03/15: Parejas Increibles Block A
• 03/22: Parejas Increibles Block B
• 03/29: Parejas Increibles Final, Homenaje a Dos Leyendas

Hope you like tournament blocks with tag teams.

We also now know all the tag teams for the Gran Alternativa

Gran Alternativa Block A (01/26)

Gran Alternativa Block B (01/26)
Neon & Mascara Dorada
Futuro & Atlantis Jr.
Valiente Jr. & Valiente
Max Star & Volador
Guerrero de la Muerte & Averno
Vaquero Jr. & Soberano Jr.
Furia Roja & Ultimo Guerrero
Draego & Cavernario

Box y Lucha #3586 has the Gran Alternativa.

Sandra Cuevas, the mayor of Cuauhtémoc, held a political rally at Arena Mexico to announce she was forming a new political party starting in 2025. You may remember her from the press conference to announce the CMLL Tunel. Cuevas did a wrestling style entrance to Eye of The Tiger, which is Konnan’s theme song (and so unlikely to be played in Arena Mexico.) Other lucha libre fans mocked the ceremony by comparing Cuevas’s entrance to Shawn Michaels all white wrestling gear.

Mistico will wrestle on Highspots’ Mark Hitchcock Memorial show (part of WrestleMania weekend) on 04/04 at the ex-ECW Arena. There will be other CMLL wrestlers booked (and so that means no AAA wrestlers booked.)

2024 Fantastica Mania

The lineups came out late Wednesday night. Overall, I was very wrong on my guesses. I’m a little disappointed about not having more big matches or different stuff than they’ve done before, but this is a tournament for people who get to see these guys once a year and the promotion(s) gives those fans the greatest hits package. There are seven shows scheduled.

CMLL, NJPW (MON) 02/12/2024 OSAKA PREFECTURAL GYM 2, Osaka, Japan
1) Difunto & Douki vs Gedo & Taiji Ishimori
2) Tiger Mask vs Magnus [lightning]
3) Brillante Jr., Desperado, Ryusuke Taguchi, Stigma vs Bushi, Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Titán
4) Dark Panther, Pegasso, Satoshi Kojima vs Master Wato, Okumura, YOH [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Atlantis Jr., Templario, Volador Jr. vs Hechicero, Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr.
6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Francesco Akira, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

The opener has the usual FantasticaMania tropes: a random non-Mexican foreigner being included for the week (Akira) and Tiger Mask versus undercard rudo. Templario is on the tecnico side but still a rudo for this tour. All his matches are Relevos Incredible, including the one I forgot to list there. (Titan’s matches are not.)

Hiromu Takahashi claims the Kamaitachi appearing on this tour is a new Kamaiatchi and definitely not him since he already lost the mask. (“Namajague” used to do the same bit on these shows.)

CMLL, NJPW (TUE) 02/13/2024 Towa Pharmaceutical Ractab Dome Sub Arena, Osaka, Japan
1) Difunto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
2) Pegasso & Tiger Mask vs Magnus & Taiji Ishimori
3) Brillante Jr., Satoshi Kojima, Stigma, YOH vs Bushi, Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Titán
4) Atlantis Jr., Dark Panther, Master Wato vs Gedo, Hechicero, Okumura
5) Desperado, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Francesco Akira, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Douki, Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

Romero & Soberano team here, and continue to do so all tour. NJPW US commentary pushed the idea that Soberano & Rocky had talked about forming a team in CMLL. I didn’t recall that, but it looks like the NJPW idea at the moment.

CMLL, NJPW (WED) 02/14/2024 Takamatsu City General Gymnasium 2, Kagawa, Japan
1) Brillante Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi vs SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
2) Difunto & YOH vs Gedo & Taiji Ishimori [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Dark Panther, Master Wato, Pegasso vs Douki, Magnus, Okumura
4) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima, Stigma, Tiger Mask vs Bushi, Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Titán
5) Máscara Dorada, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Atlantis Jr., El Desperado, Místico vs Francesco Akira, Hechicero, Último Guerrero

A lot of this shows are just random tour shows; there will probably be a good match here (match 5?) but nothing neccesary. I really need to fix the tecnico/rudo sides on some of these NJPW folks.

CMLL, NJPW (FRI) 02/16/2024 NAGOYA CONGRESS CENTER EVENT HALL, Nagoya, Japan
1) Difunto & Tiger Mask vs SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
2) Dark Panther & Satoshi Kojima vs Francesco Akira & Okumura
3) Brillante Jr. & El Desperado vs Kamaitachi & Tetsuya Naito
4) Atlantis Jr., Hiroshi Tanahashi, YOH vs Hechicero, Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario vs Brillante Jr., Douki, Rocky Romero [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Magnus & Volador Jr. vs Pegasso & Stigma [Faction, semifinal]
7) Bushi & Titán vs Stuka Jr. & Último Guerrero [Faction, semifinal]

LIJ is the other fourth faction team I just could not figure out. The winner of this tournament is likely coming out of their semifinal match.

CMLL, NJPW (SAT) 02/17/2024 Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall 1, Chiba, Japan
1) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs ? & ??
2) Difunto, Ryusuke Taguchi, Satoshi Kojima vs Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Yota Tsuji
3) Atlantis Jr., Dark Panther, Hiroshi Tanahashi, YOH vs Hechicero, Okumura, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru
4) Brillante Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs Douki & Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Francesco Akira, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs El Desperado, Rocky Romero, Tiger Mask [Relevos Increíbles]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [FACTION, third place]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [FACTION, final]

CMLL is the most powerful promotion in the world; only they can get NJPW to book a women’s match on their shows. (Because no one who cares about uppercase Women’s Wrestling cares about CMLL luchadoras, that’s most a speculation zone about if Stardom wrestlers will appear. Las Chicas Indomables were previously announced as doing their own tour in Japan, and CMLL women tend to work with women from the smaller promotions on most of those tours.

CMLL, NJPW (SUN) 02/18/2024 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Pegasso, Satoshi Kojima vs Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, YOH
2) Bushi, Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Yota Tsuji vs Magnus, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi
3) Titán vs Brillante Jr.
4) Atlantis Jr., Dark Panther, Master Wato vs Douki, Hechicero, Okumura
5) El Desperado, Máscara Dorada, Místico, Stigma vs Difunto, Francesco Akira, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
6) Soberano Jr. vs Templario
7) Volador Jr. vs Rocky Romero

The main event is the big feud from 2023, the semi-main is the big feud from 2022 (and some from 2023.) Brillante Jr. gets his chance to shine again Titan; the outcome is known but what he does with the moment is less clear.

CMLL, NJPW (MON) 02/19/2024 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1) Brillante Jr., Ryusuke Taguchi, YOH vs Francesco Akira, Pegasso, Stigma
2) Bushi, Kamaitachi, Tetsuya Naito, Titán vs Difunto, Magnus, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanamaru
3) Dark Panther vs Okumura
4) Atlantis Jr. vs Hechicero
5) El Desperado, Master Wato, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Tiger Mask [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Místico vs Último Guerrero
7) Máscara Dorada vs Stuka Jr.

Mascara Dorada versus Stuka headlining over Ultimo Guerrero versus Mistico appears a definite statement about NJPW’s plans for the young ex-panther. That match will be great, too. Atlantis Jr. is a quite part of this tournament but could have some fun with Hechicero. (They might as well bill that as “G1 Appeal match”, since those are the two people who might have a chance.) Dark Panther gets the annual Okumura showcase.

As always, I will not be putting NJPW matches on my Google Drive – you have to subscribe to NJPW World to see them. The Tuesday show in Osaka and the following Wednesday show in Kagawa are listed as NOT airing; the rest will stream live at 3 or 3:30 AM Mexico City time.

AAA

“Black Taurus” is no more. The guy under the mask is fine. Let’s call this man “Bert” (not a real name) to make this paragraph less confusing. AAA owns the “Taurus” gimmick, that’s not in dispute. Bert portrayed the Taurus character in AAA from 2015 to 2016. Bert then left AAA, modified both the outfit and the name ever so slightly, and portrayed “Black Taurus” for a couple of years. Bert also registered the Black Taurus name and outfit, and appeared on TV in Mexico (for Lucha Libre Elite) as that character. Bert returned to AAA in 2018. He resumed using the “Taurus” gimmick on AAA shows, but kept the “Black Taurus” branding for his outside and independent work. That outside work included his time in Impact Wrestling, where Bert was billed as “Black Taurus.” AAA appeared OK with that. AAA raised no objections of Bert using “Black Taurus” on indie shows or on merchandise. Bert, again under “Black Taurus,” appeared in an ROH show and an AEW show. AAA has been less OK with that. To me, there are three ways this could’ve gone:

1. AAA could’ve let the “Black Taurus” gimmick go of any issues because of their great friendship and alliance with AEW
2. AEW could’ve decided Bert’s ownership of the Black Taurus character was legally sound, and just stuck with the character over AAA’s objections.
3. AEW could decide to modify the “Black Taurus” character and name to something slightly more distinct from “Taurus” to avoid any legal issues.

Option 2 wasn’t a real choice. I think Bert (and AEW) would have a strong case, but AEW recently settled a lengthy lawsuit over the Luchasaurus mask. I expect they’d rather not deal with that for another character, especially one they’ve only recently and barely put on TV. Option 1 seems a great possibility if AAA and AEW were on good terms. It’s going to be Option 3; I’m told Bert was prepared for that to be a possible outcome. I don’t know exactly what Bert will look like or be called when you see him on TV again, but I’m expecting his name won’t have the word “Taurus” in it

TV is the key here. AAA’s probably not this upset if Bert is working untelevised indies, and there’s no reason for Bert to invest into a new character without TV promotion to get it over. It may take a few days for you to read this same information behind a paywall, but this means Bert’s got a AEW/ROH deal.

This Taurus issue may be another aspect of that AAA/TNA announcement; there was a definite spirit of “Friendship Ended with X, Now Y is my best friend” to that deal. It’s also possible someone could end up as the new Taurus in AAA, just as there are new Octagons and Myzteziz. It’s debatable if that strategy helps the wrestlers, but AAA feels it helps AAA.

Space lists “CDMX” as this week’s show description, so they’ll start on the 2024 shows this Saturday

let’s just put the troublesome situations into it’s own area

Antonio Nieto, who lists himself as a columnist for the nmas media outlet in his Twitter bio, posted screenshots of a Whatsapp conversation between Stephanie Vaquer and La Hiedra from right after Cuatrero allegedly hit Vaquer. La Hiedra was dating Cuatrero’s brother Sanson, and Hiedra and Vaquer were friends. Hiedra told Vaquer she needed to cover up the bruises and make sure Cuatrero wasn’t implicated. Hiedra revealed that Sanson had also hit her, only stopping when her sister heard it and got involved. Vaquer comes off as undecided what she was going to do. Nieto says this photos are evidence in the ongoing criminal proceedings against Cuatrero. I’m not a laywer, I’m not sure they actually prove anything directly towards the case -it’s technically still just Vaquer’s side of the incident – but they may be reasoning in why the judge has decided to keep Cuatrero in jail – there’s been pressure to keep Vaquer from talking from day one, and it’d only increase if he was out to participate it. He’s been in jail, and Sanson and Hiedra have been the ones leading the marches against Vaquer. Hiedra, on social media, has claimed these messages aren’t true.

Nieto goes on to say that Cuatrero’s defense is there was indeed a fight between him and Vaquer, but it wasn’t as serious as Vaquer has made it sound. Nieto says Vaquer started the fight, and Cuatrero had “no choice” but to fight back – it wouldn’t be becoming of a macho Mexican man just to let a woman hit him. Cuatrero’s backers – both in public and privately – have been pushing a similar story of Vaquer striking first, and Cuatrero defending himself.

There’s the real problem of domestic violence here, and there’s the far less serious problem of what a goofy wrestling promotion is going to do about it. Sanson & Forastero winning the AAA tag team titles seemed half a belief AAA was going to eventually get something positive out of those guys, and half a gesture of support. It’s not a great look to have Sanson accused of domestic violence and representing AAA now, but I’m not sure that’ll change. AAA took Cuatrero off of TV when he was criminally charged, not just when the accusations were leaked. La Hiedra is unlikely to press charges. NGD haven’t been used on TV yet his year – they do fit the “Retro” concept, but haven’t shown up on the first two TV tapings. I expect they’ll be back anyway.

Juana Barraza Samperio appeared in a new documentary about various Mexican serial killers. Barraza Samperio is better known as La Matavijetas, and claims to have been a luchadora under the name La Dama del Silencio. “Claims” is important; she was involved with the wrestling business as a promoter, but is believed just to have taken a few photos and never actually wrestled a match. It’s hard to believe that someone linked to 16 murders could be telling some lies about her personal life. The “lucha libre killer”  bit isn’t true, but the people reporting on her are more interested in a great story than the truth. The documentary apparently goes along for that ride. Barraza Samperio claims she did a TV interview alongside former CMLL wrestler Tony Rivera at Arena Coliseo, and said something that convinced the police she was killing older people. The odds of a non-CMLL wrestler doing a TV interview at Arena Coliseo are about nil. She goes on to accuse the police of beating a confession out of her and her trial of being corrupt. Those things do happen, though are unlikely.