Mascara Dorada & Rocky Romero advance to H2L, Megachampionship vacant, Lucha Libre Elite rises from the dead (again)

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/15/2024 Arena México [CMLL, FDDE, Fuego en el Ring, Kaiser Sports, Telediario, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Halcón Suriano Jr. & Leono b Emperador Jr. & Platino Kid    
10:35.
2) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus   
13:55. Fuerza Poblana took 2/3.
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible    
Barbaros took 2/3. 12:47.
4) Atlantis Jr., Hechicero, Volador Jr. b Averno, Templario, Titán [Relevos Increíbles]    
11:52. Seemed to be a relevos incredibles only because Averno & Hechicero are meant to still be enemies.
5) Akuma & Rocky Romero b Ángel de Oro & Gran Guerrero [Torneo Increible de Parejas, battle royal]
2:28
6) Ángel de Oro & Flip Gordon b Euforia & Gran Guerrero [Torneo Increible de Parejas, quarterfinal]  
6:02
7) Máscara Dorada & Rocky Romero b Akuma & Dulce Gardenia [Torneo Increible de Parejas, quarterfinal] 
6:47
8) Máscara Dorada & Rocky Romero b Ángel de Oro & Flip Gordon [Torneo Increible de Parejas, semifinal]   
8:30. Dorada & Romero advance to the final on 03/29 despite having issues.

A disappointing undercard. CMLL seems generally seems to be in a little bit of a cold spell following FantasticaMania, with matches looking better on paper than how they turned out. The torneo saved it a bit on this night. Dorada/Romero versus Akuma/Gardenia was two teams that don’t interact much normally and figured out some good moments to go against each other. The midcard team made the most of their chance. It carried through a solid final, with Dorada/Romero barely holding it together against their opposition.

Again, not much on the rest of the show. Match four was the best of the bunch but it didn’t come close to the ceiling. Los Barbaros (or at least Cavernario) are getting over as an act but the two teams didn’t mesh. First two matches were forgettable.

CMLL (SAT) 03/16/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Diamond, Novato, Rayo Metálico b Grako, Multy, Sangre Imperial
2) Alom b Infarto [lightning]
3) Difunto, Felino Jr., Misterioso Jr. b Astral, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr.
4) La Catalina & Marcela b Amapola & Reyna Isis
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b Hijo del Villano III, Magnus, Zandokan Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada & Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario & Templario

Nothing to say here.

CMLL (SUN) 03/17/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Astro Boy Jr. & Hunter b Dragón de Fuego & Forneo
2) Persephone b Tiffany [lightning]
3) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b El Audaz, Futuro, Max Star
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Gemelo Diablo II, Pólvora, Sagrado
5) Panterita del Ring, Valiente, Volcano b Felino Jr., Kráneo, Mephisto
6) Niebla Roja, Rocky Romero, Stuka Jr. b Flip Gordon, Místico, Star Jr.
Niebla Roja snuck in a foul on Flip.

The Chavez brothers hate on Flip almost as much as an average Twitter poster.

Persephone should be beating Tiffany at this point but it still sort of surprised me that happened. Checking the numbers, Tiffany just almost never wrestles singles matches – she had one last year, and the one prior to that was in the empty arena taping. When she does have singles matches, Tiffany’s record isn’t so great. My record of Tiffany 1v1 matches in Arena Mexico had her losing all but one – but then I checked video of her September 30th, 2004 match with Princesa Sugehit and the result was just wrong, she lost that one too. (She did beat Lluvia in Arena Coliseo when they were doing a lot of singles matches.) I completely fell down a rabbit hole here; did you realize that Tiffany has been in CMLL longer than she was in AAA? I will always think of Tiffany as an AAA wrestler who happened to be in CMLL because her biggest career highlights came in that promotion – but she’s been in CMLL for so long.

Titan won the Vive Latino festival championship. In other words, he won a random three way match over Euforia and Prometeo for a title that may appear this week and then not again until maybe next year. CMLL says their shows at the music festival were successful; it’s hard to tell.

CMLL (TUE) 03/19/2024 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Micro Dito & Mije
2) Legendario & Xelhua vs Felino Jr. & Okumura
3) Acero & Angelito vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
4) Futuro, Max Star, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Valiente vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán vs Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Templario

The unnamed Romero, Soberano, and Templario unit finally team up. The minis feud is finally back in match 3. So is Micro Dito. Match four could be good but it’s a Tuesday.

CMLL (FRI) 03/22/2024 Arena México
1) Fuego & Hombre Bala Jr. vs El Coyote & Pólvora
2) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
3) Lluvia, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis vs La Catalina, Reyna Isis, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Flip Gordon, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rocky Romero
5) Atlantis & Soberano Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr. & Templario and Hechicero & Stuka Jr. and Disturbio & Virus [Torneo Incredible de Parejas, battle royal]

Final Friday before Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. Match 3 is a preview trios; they’ll run it back with Willow in Isis’ spot next Friday. Zandokan and Esfinge also meet up before their title match. The main event figures out the last two spots on the card, and it’s be a shock if anyone besides Soberano and Atlantis Jr. make it through.

The Star Jr./Magnus match from MLW is up on their YouTube channel. It was good. MLW also advertised a Virus versus Star Jr. on 03/29. The graphic itself had Virus and Star Jr.’s names swapped, and gives away that Virus isn’t advancing in the Torneo Incredible de Parejas this week. Not that’s a surprise, but both errors are tells no one in charge in MLW is actually watching CMLL; they just read in the WON that it was hot and called Rocky Romero for some names.

AAA

AAA will have a press conference in a few hours to announce the full TripleMania lineup. I’ll be a follow up post today, if it streams.

AAA TV (SAT) 03/16/2024 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [AAA, IG: Orizabaluchalibre]
1) Adelicious, Belcegor, Taurus b Colmillo de Plata, Garra de Oro, Reina Dorada
Adelicious appeared to be the former Miss Delicious.
2) Faby Apache, La Parkita, Mr. Iguana, Pimpinela Escarlata b Bengala, Dalys, Jessy Queen, Parkita Negra
Faby/Dalys are feuding.
3) Oscar Sevilla & Súper Caló b Charly Manson & Nygma
4) Laredo Kid b Octagón Jr., Aerostar
Octagon Jr. got moved up and AAA didn’t replace him, just switched this tag to a three way.
5) Octagón Jr. © b Mecha Wolf [AAA LA]
Earlier, a segment officially introduced Pagano, Charly Manson and Mecha Wolf as the new Vatos Locos. Pagano is still out of action due to an arm injury and this was made a title match instead. Octagon Jr. retrained, then the debuting Parker Boudreaux attacked everyone.
6) Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Dark Scoria b Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown
Secta won after putting Murder Clown through a table. Mesias showed up and had a secret conversation with La Secta.
7) El Patrón Alberto b Psycho Clown, Cibernético [AAA MEGA] 
Earlier, Konnan announced Vikingo was stripped of the Megachampionship due to injury, and the winner of this match would fight for an opponent TBA at TripleMania Monterrey. Vampiro appeared and asked to be added to the match; Konnan said no, but introduced the return of old friend Mesias, who said he’d team with Vampiro on his retirement tour. La Secta ran in the match to help Cibernetico, Psycho Circus ran them off. Alberto submitted Psycho to win. Three masked men attacked everyone after the match, while an eye logo appeared on the screen.

By my guessing, this airs April 13 and 20th. Attendance looked slightly down from January but still about 90% full.

I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up but AAA might actually have been building TripleMania matches here. They should know the lineup if they’re announcing it two days later. The main event is obviously building to it, but maybe Mesias saying he’s going to team with Vampiro and getting in front of Parker Boudreaux will set something up.

On one of the many episode of his podcast, Konnan said Hijo del Vikingo told him he was planning to work through 2024 and then get knee surgery in December. The knee didn’t hold out that long, AAA’s vacated Vikingo’s Megachampionship, and Alberto is one of the people who will fight for it. My hunch is Alberto was penciled in to beat Vikingo for the championship some point later this year; most likely at TripleMania Mexico City. It’s the match Alberto has been pushing for since the moment he made his latest return, and it also would’ve given AAA about half the year to see if they could trust Alberto. That’s all out of the window now, and Alberto seems likely to get the title at TripleMania Monterrey. A lot of international fans are going to be upset with that decision. A bunch of similar Mexico fans are going to be happy; they’ve wanted a “real heavyweight” champ for a while and now they believe everything in AAA will be much better. (These two groups of fans have no concept of each other.) I’m just relieved I don’t have to see the match where Alberto beats Vikingo.

Hijo del Vikingo posted a message on Instagram talking about how proud he was to take the Megachampionship to new places, how disappointed he was to leave it vacant, and how it’s now his goal to win it back.

(There are a lot of questions of where this will leave Vikingo when he returns. Vikingo became champion because Kenny Omega wanted to wrestle him, and then no longer could wrestle him. Omega would’ve been happy to lose to Vikingo if that match had happened, but we’ll never been sure if AAA would’ve gone along with it. I don’t know if Vikingo gets that chance again. I don’t know how this affects Vikingo’s booking in AEW, where it’s seemed AAA hasn’t wanted him losing while champion but AEW was disinterested in using him in any sort of important role if they couldn’t occasionally beat him. We’re still months away from knowing the answers to any of this.)

Parker Boudreaux is a name wrestling insiders and some fans have been obsessed with despite him never panning out. Boudreaux started out in WWE’s NXT in 2021. He got a lot interest from fans because of his looks – he looks like a smaller Brock Lesnar and was assumed to have similar potential. Historically, half of wrestling has just been looking the part, but he hasn’t demonstrated much more beyond that. He wrestled on TV as Harland, but didn’t wrestle much – just very short matches. Harland rarely lost, so it was a surprise when he was part one of WWE’s mass cuts in 2022. Reporting on his release mentioned Boudreaux was injury-prone and wasn’t showing progression. Still, he was highly regarded at one time, so MLW brought him in for a one shot, then AEW signed him to a contract. Boudreaux once again spent most of his time on the developmental show (this time AEW Dark) wrestling short matches. He was briefly allied with Swerve Strickland, had a TV match where he looked unready for the spot, and has never appeared on TV again. Fightful Select reported in June that Boudreaux suffered an (unspecified injury), then noted in December that Boudreaux was seen at the Jacksonville taping but still has no return date.

Boudreaux is someone who is going to need a lot more work if he’s ever has a chance of getting better, but AAA is not a place where Boudreaux is going to work a lot (or get better.) AAA also not a place where AEW is going to send someone to get better right now; those two groups do not appear on good terms. It’s reasonable to wonder if Parker Boudreaux is actually still in AEW at this point; he still on the website. Parker Boudreaux would have next to no name recognition from AAA fans.

For AAA, Parker Boudreaux is their Killer Kross: a heavyweight American who looks the part, who will likely squash all the unimportant people on the roster, and who they hope develops into something. Someone who’s washed out of WWE and AEW for just not being good enough is unlikely to improve in AAA, but AAA is also unlikely to attract foreign wrestlers who don’t have a major flaw or three. (If they’re better than that, there’s much better options for them.) The pattern with Kross was AAA repeatedly teasing they were going to put him in an important match and then never ever actually doing it. Boudreaux facing off with Mesias right away suggests they’re throwing him in to the fire right way. Boudreaux’s post-debut promos with Mas Lucha and Lucha Libre Online suggest he could use a mouthpiece.

(Sidebar: I have many more found memories of El Mesias than most people coming back for this Origenes tour, from both his AAA run and his Lucha Underground time. He also has looked as physically shot the last couple of years and then had health issues at the end of 2023. I hope he’s better now, but “broken down wrestler” versus “guy too green for NXT 2.0” may not go well.)

Adelicious/Miss Delicious was part of Luchatitlan before that shut down. Anyone new getting thrown on TV with AAA is going to get a name they own at the moment. Even if it feels like they spent ten minuts on it.

AAA is back in Juan de la Barrera on May 11th. It seems like they’re going to run most of their tapings this year in Juan de la Barrera or the Showcenter. That cuts down on travel costs, since the Mexico City crew is all local and half the Monterrey shows are local wrestlers. AAA says they’re doing great, but seem to be making a lot decisions based on keeping costs down.

AAA TV started off the 02/18 taping. It was mostly built around Chessman and Alberto, who each laid out a group of preliminary wrestlers after the match. (Vampiro ended up doing it after the main event, so AAA booked the same angle three times in one show.) AAA debuted the new Taurus and acknowledged him as new, though most people would’ve noticed it was a new guy because Taurus suddenly got a lot worse at wrestling. I was told the issue is the mask, the former Dick Angelo 3G had trouble seeing on it, but it was a poor performance. The opener might have been the best match on the show, though the best sequences were between Epydemius and Estrellato in the segunda. Rey Leon, wrestling under the name of El Original for whatever reason, had a night to forget.

Alberto, in that TV main event, took out of his baseball jersey top to reveal – another shirt underneath it. It was odd to take off a shirt to reveal another shirt. He seems to have wrestled in a shirt on the TV taping too.

Negro Casas will be honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club with their 2024 Lucha Libre award.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (SAT) 03/16/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Big Lucha, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) La Bomba & Reiyel b Depaysmen & M2R 
7:45.
2) Mr. Win & Tirano b Caballero de Plata & El Potro de Oro 
10:41. Caballero was upset with losing in his first match teaming with Potro de Oro, but Potro welcomed him to the promotion (full time?)
3) Big Tao Tao & Bogdan Klimov b Cometa Maya & Morfosis 
14:34.
4) Elipse, Iku, Orbita, Vengador b Atómico Jr., Black Skayde, Brujo, Zenky 
15:06. Elipse and Orbita had problems once again, and Atomico (who seemed to suffered an ankle injury) too advantage for the win. Zenki replaced Auzter.
5) Flamita & Ricky Marvin b Emperador Azteca & Limbo 
9:20. Limbo replaced Emperador Azteca; he and Torito Negro seemed to be now part of Black Generation. Marvin pinned Limbo. Flamita called out Emperador Azteca for not appearing, then asked Bendito if he had picked the wrong side. Bendito thanked Flamita for all he had done for him since forming Black Generation, pretended to ally with him, but then attacked both Flamita and Marvin.

The main event was good while it lasted. The post match came off like a possible write-off of Emperador Azteca, but he seems to tight with the promotion to disappear like that. I think it’s Elipse who’s the tecnico and kicked out of the group and Orbita who’s the rudo who is staying, but I have to keep checking it every time. Match 3 was up and down, Klimov wasn’t a great partner. Tirano had a rough night.

This was the first Saturday show and attendance seemed down. May have been a one week thing, may have been going against the AAA TV taping. Still, these have to be successful to be worth these guys losing the best day to pick up a match elsewhere.

Ricky Marvin’s mom opened a restaurant.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 03/17/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, thecubsfan]
1) Galvánico & Torbellino b Dracula Ng & Vatopilas
2) Pequeño Centauro, Sacro, Sky Man b Fussion, Rey Aztaroth, Rey Halcón
3) Keyra & Shamila b Gema Andrade & Satania
4) Noisy Boy, Spider Fly, Tornado b Diamante Jr., Puma de Oro, Tarzan Duran
5) Ivan Rokov & Vangellys b Águila Roja & Multifacetico Jr.
6) DMT Azul b Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hellboy
Hell Boy and DMT Azul worked together to beat Canis Lupus, with Hell Boy allowing DMT Azul to win (and then walked out of the ring and the arena.) Vangellys came out post match and challenged DMT Azul to sign a contract for an apuesta match. Both DMT Azul did, though he wanted two unspecified clauses. Canis Lupus also signed on, though he wanted DMT Azul 1v1.

Top few matches got changed around, in part because some of the names were over working the AULL show in Sala de Armas. Might as well put those results here.

AULL (SUN) 03/17/2024 Sala de Armas Magdalena Mixhuca, Ciudad México, Distrito Federal [La Tijera, Mas Lucha, Zona Ruda]
1) Chicanito b Osiris, Impulso, Freelance, Sádico, Felino Boy [Trofeo Rey Aereo] 
2) Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico Jr., Brazo De Oro Jr., Sagitarius b Jessy Ventura, Mamba, Máximo, Quimera 
3) Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Trauma I, Trauma II b Pig Decapitador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool 
4) Forastero (NGD) & Sansón b Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. and Dralistico & La Bestia Del Ring and Galeno del Mal & Simon Blanco [Copa Dinastia]  
Legado Wagenr added; unsurprisingly, Simon Blanco took the pin.
5) Rush b LA Park, Blue Demon Jr., DMT Azul [Copa Honor y Gloria] 
The usual level of screwiness leading to Rush fouling LA Park for the win. LA Park wrestled the last couple of minutes without a mask. Rush challenged LA Park for a hair/mask match in Estadio Azteca.

Mas Lucha has video of the post match. It’s was comical how much LA Park’s face was exposed, even as he’s talking about putting it on the line (for a match that’ll never happen.) I’m not sure how to read attendance; there seemed to be more seats filled on the floor than usual for this building, but one side of the bleachers was completely unfilled. They’d need to do 10-20x time this turnout to make an Estadio Azteca show worth doing.

ELITE

My instinct is for this section just to be the word “no” and to move on. But, I guess I’m supposed to be professional. Here’s the lineup:

Elite (SUN) 04/21/2024 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal
1) Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo De Oro Jr. vs Difunto, Rokambole, Villano V Jr.
2) Arez, Látigo, Toxin vs Bestia 666, Dr. Karonte Jr., Verdugo
3) Dios del Inframundo, Rey Horuz, Xtreme Tiger vs Mocho Cota, Súper Fly, Tito Santana
4) Black Beast & DMT Azul vs Forastero (Indie) & Sansón
5) Komander vs Dralistico, Metalik
6) Rush vs LA Park

The poster lists Fronton Mexico as the venue. Fronton Mexico has no mention of this show at this point. The poster lists tickets on Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster has no listing for this show at this point. (You can see Fronton Mexico’s Ticketmaster page here.) Those could be fixed later, but a competent promotion would have those tickets on sale when they’ve started to promote their show. It’s instead another indicator this might not on the up and up. Their social media was still posting “where will we run?” teasers a day after half the wrestlers had posted the card. There was no mention of where or if the show might be broadcast. Fronton Mexico has been used by various lucha libre promotions over the year – including opposition to EMLL in the 50s – but was most recently the venue for TNA when they were taping in Mexico City.

Elite had a press conference to talk about this show on Saturday. I assume it was planned for a while since LA Park was already going to be in Mexico City, but it didn’t seem like many people knew it was happening. Carlo Colin, who’s been one of the two Lucha Libre Elite promoters in the, fronted the group here. He said their second show would be in July back in Fronton Mexico, that would be their base in Mexico City, and they’d run more frequently in that venue. They have plans to run Monterrey, Toluca and other places near Mexico City. Colin said they’re on good terms with both AAA and CMLL but Elite is doing their own thing this time around

The interpromotional relationships does bring up a good question of how AAA feels about some of ‘their’ people working this show. Komander is AAA champion but not under contract to AAA, so he can work where he wants. Forastero & Sanson are believed to be under AAA contract, but maybe not one that prohibits this if they’re booked. AAA’s rules and thoughts on outside bookings are evershifting – some of the Orignes crew continues to work Robles shows, which was a big no no 12 months ago – so maybe AAA is fine with these appearances.

The top three matches on this show all seem certain to have messy finishes. That’s part of the attraction with Rush & LA Park, and with much of the NGD/DMT Azul indie matches. Metalik reportedly refused to lose to Komander in ROH, was booked once more, and then never again. It didn’t seem to specifically a Metalik issue with Komander – he was just tried of losing, and has gone out of his way to make sure he doesn’t have to lose since leaving AEW. (Metalik’s bookings also have diminished noticably.) AEW wrestlers generally do not lose outside of AEW, which means Komander and Dralistico shouldn’t be losing either. I suspect both the promoter and the other two wrestlers are going to look at Komander and expect him to take the fall, even though he’s the only one of the three on TV regularly and is an actual AAA champion at the moment. The best thing to do would be Dralistico or Metalik losing to each other to set up a feud, the problem is no one trusts those sorts of things to work out long term.

I presume this Difunto is not the CMLL one. Black Beast is not Black Taurus’ AEW name. Carta Brava says he’s an independent now and may rejoin Poder del Norte; he and wife Goya Kong were working on the Luchatitlan show until that closure.

This show is the same day as AEW Dynasty, which means Rush and Dralistico won’t be around for that one. They haven’t been around for a while. Rush hasn’t wrestled in AEW since 12/30. Dralistico hasn’t wrestled in AEW since 11/22. Both say they’re healthy and they have visas. Rush has been trying to keep himself in the news with various social media posts. AEW does have a habit of people disappearing for long stretches for either no obvious reason or no reason at all, so this could all be nothing. It is the Munoz family though, and they seem to be a magnet for weird events. Rush did talk to the press at the Elite press conference and re-iterated that everything is good with him and AEW, he’s signed there for many years, and he’d be happy to work with CMLL again if they wanted to do it. I believe that part; none of the people (Penta, Komander, Rush, Dralistico) potentially being blocked from appearing on AEW have an issue with CMLL or with working with their guys. The issue is all on the CMLL side, and there’s no indication they’re changing.

Other News

A El Hijo del Santo led show in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz (just outside the capital city) drew a huge crowd. It was a free show, and a politician who appears to be involved for it says there were “more than 10,000 people” in attendance. I’m not sure if I’d go that high, but the photos show a very big crowd.

Morelia Film Festival has a long story about the El Halcon movie.

There’s a new book about the history of lucha libre in Monterrey.

ESTO has a profile of trans luchador Ariana Mami.

A profile of Salamanca luchador Tiger King.