CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 01/26/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, La Presna, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Capitán Suicida & Halcón Suriano Jr. b Diamond & Oro Jr. 
10:13
2) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. b Guerrero Maya Jr. & Hombre Bala Jr.
12:14. Villano III Jr. accidentally smashed a knee into Maya’s head on the finish
3) Zandokan Jr. b Akuma [lightning]
8:59.
4) Futuro & Guerrero de la Muerte b Draego, Furia Roja, Max Star, Neón, Valiente Jr., Vaquero Jr. [Gran Alternativa, semifinal, battle royal]
5) Furia Roja & Último Guerrero b Valiente & Valiente Jr. [Gran Alternativa, 8F]
6:03
6) Max Star & Volador Jr. b Soberano Jr. & Vaquero Jr. [Gran Alternativa, 8F]
8:05
7) Máscara Dorada & Neón vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Draego [Gran Alternativa, 8F]
8) Atlantis Jr. & Futuro b Averno & Guerrero de la Muerte [Gran Alternativa, 8F]
6:18
9) Max Star & Volador Jr. b Furia Roja & Último Guerrero [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
7:34
10) Máscara Dorada & Neón b Atlantis Jr. & Futuro [Gran Alternativa, quarterfinal]
5:23
11) Máscara Dorada & Neón b Max Star & Volador Jr. [Gran Alternativa, semifinal]
10:05
I liked matches 2/3 as good weekly matches, nothing extraordinary. The tournament was better than last week and finished better, though there were still some bumpy moments in a few matches. It’s a tournament of rookies, that’s sort of to be expected. Neon & Mascara Dorada had great gear; the colors and outfits made them look otherworldly. Max Star so blew his teased Phoenix Splash before the main event finish that it was actually a sort of relief he didn’t win. I’ve come to the conclusion that Furia Roja is better than Guerrero de la Muerte in that team.
Tampa Bay Ray Randy Arozarena visited Friday’s show. Arozarena was born in Cuba and defected to Mexico. Last year, during the World Baseball Cup, he wore a Mistico mask in the clubhouse for fun. He got to meet the actual Mistico on Friday.
CMLL (SAT) 01/27/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Leono & Retro b Príncipe Odín Jr. & Sangre Imperial
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr. b Dr. Karonte I, Enfermero Jr., Inquisidor
3) Dark Panther b Felino Jr. [lightning]
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto DQ Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
Averno unmasked Hechicero for the DQ.
6) Místico b Soberano Jr.
Averno/Hechicero sounds like the next singles match here.
Mistico and Soberano worked Arena Lopez Mateos early in the night. (Hechicero & Solar defeated Virus & Negro Navarro in the semimain, which has gotten good reviews.) The building looked about 75% full, which is better than the last show that featured CMLL wrestlers but still not a big number. That building will be full next weekend when the Trauma I/Wotan mask match is scheduled. There’s always been some separation between the fans who attend CMLL shows (even the diehards, not just the tourists) and those fans who attend indie shows. There seems to be more cross over between AAA & indies.
CMLL (SUN) 01/28/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Mije & Periquito Sacaryas
2) Halcón Suriano Jr. & Robin b Grako & Nitro
3) El Audaz, Pegasso, Stigma b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Kráneo, Raider, Sagrado
5) Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán b Crixus, Euforia, Zandokan Jr.
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Místico b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Nothing jumps out as important here.
CMLL’s AMX show aired matches from the 01/14 show. (As always, they’re on the drive.) Live results noted Bengala left early with an injury. The video explains it: Dr. Karonte I tried to suplex Bengala on the apron, failed to put own Bengala down flatly, and Bengala ended up with a knee injury because of the bad landing. Dr. Karonte I seems to have far more of these incidents than anyone else in CMLL.
CMLL (TUE) 01/30/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy & Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal & Minos
2) Halcón Suriano Jr. vs Diamond [lightning]
3) Andrómeda, Marcela, Skadi vs Amapola, Olympia, Persephone
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
5) Flip Gordon vs Ángel de Oro
6) Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán vs Euforia, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
The Villanos have caught back up with Atlantis Junior! That feud seemed long gone a year ago, but Villano III Jr. coming over sure has changed the arc of things.
CMLL (FRI) 02/02/2024 Arena México
1) Acero & Pierrothito vs Angelito & Pequeño Olímpico [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Crixus, Raider, Vegas vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
3) Katara, La Jarochita, Lluvia vs Hera, La Catalina, Reyna Isis
4) Tessa Blanchard vs Dark Silueta [lightning]
5) Atlantis Jr., Flip Gordon, Volador Jr. vs Soberano Jr., Templario, Último Guerrero
6) Brillante Jr. & Místico vs Máscara Dorada & Neón [Gran Alternativa, final]
The Gran Alternativa is always interesting for which rookie is going to get the big spotlight. It seems more interesting this year to see which veteran is going to win. Neither Mascara Dorada nor Mistico lose big matches in Arena Mexico right now. It’s a tag match and not a singles match, so the rules are a little different, but it’s a fascinating match up.
The semimain is the first time Soberano and Ultimo Guerrero have been in the same match since Soberano became a rudo. Will they both be tagging Templario?
Tessa Blanchard has to be winning this time, right? It doesn’t seem worth flying her in to lose all of there singles matches.
Katara, who just won the Occidente Tag Titles with Hatanna, is a third generation wrestler making her Arena Mexico. A lot of people know who her second generation is and I suspect CMLL will make it clear on Informa.
The opener is a bit strange. The mins feuding has largely been dropped after the cage match (which always happens.)
CMLL’s digital video strategy is changing again
This is the third change in about eight months. CMLL jumped onto Ticketmaster Live during the pandemic. They switched to a combination of a YouTube subscription and Boletia/Neerme in July 2023. It’ll be only the YouTube subscription tier beginning in February 2024.
Everything in one place on YouTube is the good news. The bad news is, instead of adding the content to the current plan, CMLL is adding new and very expensive tiers.
- 199 MXN/9 USD per month: Tuesdays live, Fridays on 9 day delay
- this is the pre-existing plan
- 499 MXN/25 USD per month: Tuesdays & Fridays live – EXCEPT for the special shows
- 699 MXN/35 USD per month: Tuesdays & Fridays live, the specials (listed as Aniversario, Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, both Gran Prixs, and Dia de Muertes) live, and “two matches a week from Arena Coliseo”
It’s a lot. The difference between the two plans is 16 USD just to watch the live Friday shows, and that doesn’t cover all the Friday shows. 25 USD is more expensive than any wrestling streaming service than I can think of, more than most general streaming services. That’s 25 USD for about 4.5 hours of live TV a week (and not all weeks.)
It’s technically cheaper with these plans than it was under the old system, if you were buying every single PPV. The YouTube subscription cost 9 USD, and each of the 4* January PPVs cost 6.31 USD with fees and tax. That’s 34.23 USD under the old system, and 25 USD under the new system. The difference is going to be less for Special Show months – they’re charging 10 extra for those when it was more like 6 on PPV – but there’s still some savings in there. There’s also the removal of the bizarre “show is only available for 48 hours” VOD rule – it’ll be up forever – and whatever value you put on the Saturday Coliseo shows.
(* CMLL actually did 5 PPVs in January, but one was free to anyone who bought the previous week and one was a non-Friday holiday show.)
The biggest plan is a plan, but only if you buy every single PPV. Very few people do that. CMLL was getting their money before and may still get that money now. They will no longer be getting the person dipping in for a show once a month. A 5-6 USD price is an impulse buy. $25 is not. You’ll get more content for 25 USD, but that’s not the calculus when you’re just interested in one show. Those people and their money are just going to be gone. Even for people who were buying most or all the PPVs, they were paying in bits and pieces. I can explain how it’s actually cheaper for those people, but “$25” or “$35” is a big sticker shock.
I’m uncomfortable writing about this part, but it is too big of an elephant not to mention in this discussion. The big turnaround in CMLL international perception in 2023 had much to do with the wrestlers’ great matches. It also took the programmers putting them in situations to have those great matches. It also had to do with international fans having an easy-to-access, low-cost way to watch those matches. “2023 CMLL” would’ve been thought of a lot differently if there was nothing like my Google Drive and if the two people who consistently post on Twitter about CMLL vanished. Dave Meltzer, when he’s giving some star rating to a CMLL match that causes hundreds of people to seek it out, didn’t watch that match through a PPV he purchased on Boletia. Voices of Wrestling Joseph Montecillo, or whomever your favorite review person who wrote talked a lot about CMLL this past year, aren’t hustling to watch every Friday PPV within 48 hours on VOD. And none of those people are about to start paying for a 25/month plan to keep up. I want to say AEW, RevPro, MLW, and whoever else would’ve figured out CMLL was doing good on their own with those sorts of people creating buzz for the promotion, but that’s the reality is that doesn’t happen. Most people outside of Mexico ignore Mexican wrestling unless those who watch it are super loud about it and make it easy to watch. I can be as loud as I want, but no one’s watching it if it only exists behind a 25 USD paywall. CMLL loves the international attention they’ve got, the fact they’ve got people like AEW asking to use their wrestlers, and that’s not a result of a bunch of people paying CMLL directly to see it. CMLL has the numbers; they know how many people are watching compared to how many people are paying, and they should know what is working to get people to watch their shows and what isn’t.
Put me and that morally complex Google Drive to the side for the moment. The match that woke people up to CMLL in 2023 was the January 20th Rocky Romero versus Volador Jr. match. It alerted people because those two wrestlers had a great match and because CMLL made it a free YouTube stream that anyone could watch after word got around about it. Both parts had to happen for it to hit like it did. That doesn’t happen with shows locked behind a 25 USD plan without someone finding a way to make those matches more accessible.
A bunch of questions I have about these CMLL plans:
- Is that list of special shows the full list? Will other shows be added? Is there a guaranteed amount? Will the schedule remain the same? CMLL currently has one major show in March, then shows in August, September and October. Is there going to be anything extra (beyond the two Coliseo matches) for the highest tier people during those long stretches without the shows?
- What happens to the “bonus” shows that occasionally show up, like the Arena Coliseo and Arena Puebla anniversary shows? Will they continue? Will they be on all three tiers? Just a higher one?
- Which plans will have the New Year’s Day PPV? Will the Christmas Day show remain free? Are all the “Dia del Muertos” shows on the higher tier, or just the Friday one?
- Which two Saturday matches will be posted? Will it always be the top two? Why is it two and not the entire show? When do those Saturday matches go up? Does this start this week or include this past Saturday?
- What happened to the ‘new’ historical content, promised in the July 2023 launch and never delivered?
- Why aren’t the Sunday shows, which are broadcast on TV, included? Why aren’t the Puebla shows included?
- When will those two Saturday matches go up? Will there be a regular schedule? Will CMLL keep to a regular schedule, which they’ve struggled with on Friday->Sunday uploads?
- Is CMLL aware that people on Apple devices (phones, etc) aren’t allowed to pay for a YouTube subscription on their device? Are they going to have to make other people aware of this?
- Does this affect the Guadalajara streams at all?
- How can we get answers to any questions? CMLL’s communication is one-sided messages on CMLL Informa if there’s any information. “No more PPVs” was stated on one of Alexis Salazar’s personal Instagram pages in a quickly disappearing story. It is great to know, but not a place where most people will see it, nor is it a useful communication strategy. Are they prepared to get by people asking why the show isn’t available on PPV this Friday?
- How much of this pan solely relies on Alexis Salazar doing everything? If he goes to FanasticaMania – I think he is – does this content stop going up for a week or two?
This is a lot of thinking by me on something CMLL probably didn’t do much thinking. It may have been a short talk – “How much did these PPVs cost? We’ll just make a new tier about that much and make it higher for big shows.”
I will probably get the 35 plan*, because archiving all the content is part of what we do. It’s hard to imagine almost anyone else paying the 35 USD monthly fee. 25 USD is more the “normal” person plan, but I don’t think there are many people – normal or otherwise – who will pay 25 or 35 USD a month for CMLL. It’s just not realistic; it’s only going to be a few people who do so, and then it will be a question if CMLL feels like keeping their promises when they’re not making much money on it. There’s also no compelling reason to pay for that highest plan most months of the year; eight extra matches isn’t worth 10 USD.
(* Even I’m not technically paying the 35 USD myself. Though I don’t solicit it and make it clear it’s unnecessary, some people send me money to defray that cost and ensure the videos remain accessible.)
CMLL’s PPV data should reveal how many people are paying for every single PPV, and are likely to sign up for these expensive plans. I don’t have that data, so my guess that very few people will can only be a guess. I’m sure CMLL would make more money if they offered a single plan that was in line with what (most) every other streaming service does: a single price between 8-15 USD that covers every show; the increase they’d get in people would more than offset the cost drop. CMLL is instead going to keep trying a much less proven road.
CMLL/AEW
AEW introduced CMLL’s Hechicero, Mascara Dorada, Volador, and Mistico on Saturday’s TV show and announced they would debut in New Orleans this Wednesday. Their match will air Friday on Rampage, opposite the usual CMLL Friday night show. This is big news for the relationship, which had simply been “Mistico shows up as one off” previously. My understanding is this CMLL appearance is not a one off.
Notably, AEW didn’t announce a specific match. Volador/Hechicero versus Mistico/Mascara Dorada is the most likely combination on paper, but saying nothing suggests something else may be planned. Rampage matches are usually announced during Dynamite.
I have written this two dozen times and I’m not sure it’s getting through but I’ll write it one more time here: if AAA/AEW split it apart, it’s going to be due to issues between those two promotions, not because CMLL forces AEW to do anything. Another way of putting it is how the Black Taurus situation was handled is a bigger indicator of their relationship than any CMLL announcement. AEW is going to want to keep working with everyone, AAA is going to want to make sure there’s no obstacles to using people like Penta and Taya, they’re motivated to keep the connection alive. If it goes away, it’s about those two companies.
AAA
AAA will have a TripleMania Monterrey press conference today around 5 pm CT. It’s too early to get a whole card; maybe a main event and an Alberto appearance. They should once tease Laredo Kid versus Antifaz del Norte if that’s again the plan.
AAA aired a Rey de Reyes special instead of new matches on Saturday. This episode was a studio show, where the studio was the Luchatitlan ring, and the hosts were Luchatitlan in-house announcers Jesus Zuniga and his daughter Jessibeth. They repeated some basic Wikipedia Rey de Reyes stats, showed the last three Rey de Reyes finals, and set up shorter clips of the previous years. They pushed that Rey de Reyes would air live next week at 8 pm, but didn’t mention any matches or participants. The goal was to sell the event itself as an idea deal instead of anything that might be happening on it.
The upside of an episode of TV like that is it’s one more week AAA doesn’t need to tape. AAA appears to be trying to tape as few television events as possible in the last six months. That’s a concerning sign. AAA makes money by selling their TV tapings to local promoters, and either those local promoters can’t be found or there’s not strong/interested enough to pay for AAA right now.
From a viewing perspective, this means the second half of Mexico City taping won’t air until at least February 17th. Both it and the Queretaro taping will 5-6 weeks after the show has been taped.
AAA’s TV announced they’ll tape in Saltillo on March 9th. They’ve previously said Vampiro’s retirement tour will start there, which I presume means Vampiro will wrestle. Happy to be wrong.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reports Sam Adonis is working without AAA a contract, though he’d sign one. As I’ve written here many times previously, most everyone wrestling in AAA has been working without an AAA contract since COVID. AAA changed tactics in the last few months of 2023 and is now trying to get everyone under a written deal. Adonis fits as someone who probably was on a verbal deal prior, so this report is unsurprising for those in the know. Over the last few weeks, Fightful has reported various foreign wrestlers (most Bullet Club ones) for NJPW are under contacts that expire soon. That too was also unsurprising – NJPW contracts are traditionally are one-year deals that expire at the end of January. The ‘news’ instead came off like the NJPW wrestlers leaking their contract status to see if the added publicity would get open any door for them elsewhere and to manufacture some leverage in their negotiations with NJPW. Sean Ross Sapp does not report on AAA, contracts or otherwise, so it’s seems pretty clear where this news is coming from and why the “but he’s still happy with AAA” message was included. It’s a smart thing to do; most people don’t know what the contract status is for AAA wrestlers and it gets Adonis more attention.
Reina Dorada registered as a pre-candidate representing the “Citizens Movement” party for deputy of District 30 in Naucalpan. I don’t know Mexican elections, consult your local library instead, but I believe this means she’s putting her name in the hat to run for this office, and the party itself will decide which of the interested people they’ll put forward for the general election in June. (That’s done by primary election in the US, and seems to be more the local party leaders decide in Mexico.) The big wrestling questions when a masked wrestler runs for office is always “What name will they use? Will they run masked?” and there don’t appear to be answers to that yet.
The “big” AAA social media of the weekend was WWE wrestler Bayley appearing on screen at the Royal Rumble with a La Parka mask tied to her waist. There was a definite feel of “the cool kids at school acknowledged us!” in the reactions.
Big Lucha
Big Lucha World (FRI) 01/26/2024 Zocalo, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal [Big Lucha, Estrellas del Ring, La Tijera, R de Rudo, thecubsfan]
1) Krissta, Nix, Sussy Love b Ariana Mami, Lolita, Satania
6:00
2) Dragón Solar, Obelyus, Rey Espectrito DRAW Piraña, Reiyel, Zenky
A time limit draw of a different kind; match was stopped due to daily ceremonial lowering of the Mexican flag, and didn’t resume.
3) Éxtasis & Ricky Marvin b Alfa Jr. & Platino
7:31
4) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Cody 1-8, Mr. Win, Viajero b Auzter, Black Skayde, Brujo, Maniacop
6:31
5) Limbo & Torito Negro b Cometa Maya & Morfosis and Sol & X-Devil [BIG LUCHA MIXA, #1 Contenders]
4:41.
6) Súper Nova & Texano Jr. b Trauma I & Trauma II [BIG LUCHA MIXA]
13:09. Trauma I got the Lo Negro de Lo Negro on Texano, Super Nova pulled out the ref, Trauma I argued and then walked into Tornado Texano for the pin.
7) Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Estrella de Oro, Conquistador, Rey Cósmico Jr., Helios, Red Dragón, Krissta, Ruso, Fulgor, M2R, Nordico, Blue Danger [Torneo de la Juventud]
22:39
This went up on Sunday’s Big Lucha show. It was a show of two halves: an undercard where everyone was super concerned about getting everything done in a short time span and a top two where matches had no particular plan or time cue. (Match 2 isn’t on the video.) I liked the first half better. The tag title match was veterans just trying to get through a match with no plan. I could either write 300 words about how bad the rumble was, or I gave up and fast-forwarded through by ten minutes in. My repeated criticism of Big Lucha World shows are the matches are too long for the wrestler’s experience. That wasn’t an issue here: they just had enough time to get their stuff in and no more. Match 5 was probably a lot better than it would’ve been as the 20 minute match in the gym; they had no time to fool around and do a million near falls, they just got to the big spots and first pinfall wins. I liked it a lot and would take more of it.
Match 3 showed that Ricky Marvin is going to be a really useful addition here if he does end up sticking. His style of matches bring some structure to a promotion that could use it. There are going to be clear tecnicos, there are going to be tags, and people are going to stand in their corners when they’re not the legal man (and definitely not blankly in the ring waiting for their next spot, like both teams did in the tag title match.) Marvin is still good at making young wrestlers look much more complete than they actually are; this was a better night for Alfa Jr. then his Lucha x el Barrio performance.
INJUVE and Big Lucha reported “over 10,000 people” attending this shows. It’s an unticketed public gathering, and there’s no normal way to measure those things; it’s just a crowd estimate. It doesn’t look like 10,000 to me in the photos but, if you figure in all the people who may have wandered past and hung out for a while before moving on, it’s certainly possible they had that number in the general area over the course of a couple of hours.
I didn’t see many photos of Big Lucha’s tour in the southeast of Mexico. What I didn’t suggests it wasn’t any sort of draw.
Forneo hasn’t appeared here since October and is teaming with Limbo on indie show as “Los Rebeldes”, so I assume he left here and it just got lost in everyone else moving on.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 01/28/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Fussion b Osiris
2) Sagitarius & Tornado b Kali & Rey Aztaroth
3) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly b Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. [super libre]
sets up a (previously announced) tag title match for next week
4) Carnicero, Granjero, Leñador, Minero b Auzter, Caballero de Plata, Dr. Cerebro Jr., Freelance
5) Tonalli b Hip Hop Man [Cofre del Pirata Moreno]
A battle royal. Results don’t list full participants.
6) Ivan Rokov b Hell Boy, Hijo del Pirata Morgan
sets up an Rokov/Hell Boy
7) Hijo del Fishman b Hijo de Canis Lupus [IWRG JUNIORS]
4th defense. DMT Azul helped Fishman win. Crowd chanted FRAUDE.
A promotion noting the crowd chanted Fraude at the main event is something. IWRG also talks about Tonalli returning to IWRG; he was on the show on the 14th. I feel like I’m not understanding a lot. Neither Mas Lucha or IWRG lists the names of the participants.
I’ve really become a strong battle royal hater in general. It’s another thing Mexican wrestling promotions have taken from US wrestling that they don’t understand how or why it works, and so you get nonsense like the Big Lucha one and the IWRG ones usually aren’t any better. It’s also a nuisance from a database standpoint; no one ever mention who’s in battle royals, so it’s just a slow process of watching a match, I don’t like and trying to see if I can figure out all the people involved.
Tijuana
The Crash (FRI) 02/23/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Bamboo & El Rey vs Khavall & Psycodelia
2) Anubis, Gallo Extreme, Rey Furia vs Ángel Metálico, Mirage, Mr. Maldito
3) Alan Stone, Máximo, Toto vs Arandú, Tony Casanova, Zarco
4) Destiny, Noisy Boy, Rey Horus vs Action Jackson, Emperador Azteca (Indie), Flamita
5) Dralistico & Rush vs Black Taurus & Rey Escorpión (Indie)
6) Bestia 666, Blue Demon Jr., Mamba vs D Luxe, DMT Azul, Pierroth
That card doesn’t look so great. The main event is supposed to be built around the DMT Azul/Blue Demon Jr. feud, which is in the same place it was a year ago (except maybe in a slightly different promotion) and will have teh same outcome.
Rey Escorpion showing up looks like he’s another one out of AAA. He barely appeared in AAA last year – he hasn’t been on a TV show since April Tijuana taping, and only appeared on one other show. He hasn’t been wrestling much anywhere and it’s unclear if he was hurt or doing something else. I believe “Black Taurus” is no longer supposed to use the world “Taurus” and promoters have been told, but that’s something US promotions would take seriously and Mexican promotions would be too inattentive to notice. Rush says he’s out with a hamstring injury so we can assume it won’t be an issue by this point.
Michael Jackson impersonator/wrestler Santana Jackson was listed as wrestling on the last The Crash show, didn’t appear, and now listed as appearing on the next AAA EMW show in Tijuana. I don’t want to believe there’s a promotional war over Santana Jackson but I also can’t rule it out.
Other News
02/04 NOAH has
- El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. challenging KENOH for the GHC World Heavyweight Championship
- Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf challenging Jack Morris & Anthony Green for the GHC World Tag Team Championship
- Hajime Ohara challenging Daga for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship
This airs on Wrestle Universe. NOAH seems to be marketing this heavily toward Mexican fans. I’m not sure if they will pay 900 JPN ($6 USD/month) to sign up for something (and that’s much cheaper than CMLL.)
The luchador formerly known as Black Taurus is listed as working the 02/23 The Crash show. The Crash does use “Black Taurus” on the Facebook post and in their lineup, but not on the photo. I believe he’s no longer supposed to use the “Taurus” name anywhere, but Mexican promotions don’t always care about things like that.
An article about (a) Vampiro Metalico, who now works as a stuntman.