CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 03/22/2024 Arena México [CMLL, FDDE, Kaiser Sports, La Tijera, thecubsfan]
1) Fuego & Hombre Bala Jr. b El Coyote & Pólvora 
11:07
2) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black 
11:25. Zandokan said he’d beat Esfinge next week too, that time for the title.
3) Lluvia, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b La Catalina, Reyna Isis, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles]
9:25
4) Flip Gordon, Místico, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rocky Romero
13:25
5) Stuka Jr. & Templario b Atlantis Jr. & Disturbio [Torneo Incredible de Parejas, battle royal]
6) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. b Disturbio & Virus [Torneo Incredible de Parejas, quarterfinal]
8:18
7) Hechicero & Stuka Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr. & Templario [Torneo Incredible de Parejas, quarterfinal]
6:31
8) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. b Hechicero & Stuka Jr. [Torneo Incredible de Parejas, semifinal]
9:19. Atlantis Jr. and Soberano Jr. advance to the final on 03/29
Disturbio & Virus went all out in their brief semifinal, and that made that the most fun match of the night. I thought everything else was profession if not extraordinary, and I didn’t remember a lot about it by Sunday night. The Mistico match was a good Mistico match, the Zandokan & Villano team remains fun if out of control. Next week’s the big one.
Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. fought after the match, though CMLL cameras missed it. They felt like the correct team to advance, as much as Stuka and Hechicero were the better functioning unit. Soberano just has to be on the big show, it would be strange to not have him.
The women’s match had Vaquer & Blanchard trading victories in the first two falls, then not at all factoring into the third fall finish.
Mistico wore a Perros del Mal tribute mask to the ring, as he typically does around the anniversary of Perro Aguayo Jr.’s passing.
The top of CMLL’s barricades had ads for Netbet, the first time they’ve had a gambling sponsor. It looks like a generic gambling site with a sports book; you can not currently bet on CMLL.
CMLL (SAT) 03/23/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Dragón de Fuego b Astro Boy Jr.
2) Astral, Robin, Valiente Jr. b Enfermero Jr., Grako, Inquisidor
3) Raider & Vegas b Capitán Suicida & Diamond
4) Amapola, Dark Silueta, Tessa Blanchard b Andrómeda, Marcela, Skadi
5) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther
Espanto Jr. cheated to beat Dark Panther, setting up a singles match next week
6) Flip Gordon, Místico, Star Jr. b Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
CMLL’s restarting using their building specific Twitter accounts of late; there’s video clips on the long dormant Arena Coliseo and Arena Mexico accounts. It stuck out to me that Arena Coliseo clips were from a video feed of the show – CMLL’s streaming that show somewhere. It’s possible it’s just some internal video feed because and Arena Coliseo doesn’t have a stable enough internet connection to put it on YouTube, but that would be the only thing holding it back. Even with just an internal video feed, it’s typically not hard to chop that video up and put up two (or more) matches on to a YouTube channel in a matter of minutes. There’s no obvious tech issue preventing CMLL from posting those shows, it’s just not a priority.
(Worth pointing out here that CMLL did not put up the Arena Coliseo matches last week, so anyone who was on the 35 USD level wasted their money more than usual this week. They were late in posting the Friday night show, as happens fairly often.
CMLL (SUN) 03/24/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Novato & Rayo Metálico b Hunter & Infarto
2) El Audaz, Eléctrico, Volcano b Inquisidor, Kráneo, Vegas
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa DQ Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
straight falls, Virus getting DQed for excessive violence on Dulce Gardenia in the 2nd fall
4) Persephone & Tessa Blanchard b Hera & Olympia
5) Flip Gordon b Niebla Roja
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr.
Maybe CMLL will give a better idea of where that fourway midcard feud is headed after H2L. My best guess still is the Arena Mexico Anniversary show on 04/2.
Tonight is the Mascara Dorada/Rocky Romero title match in Puebla. Porra Fresa often streams matches (from his phone) on Facebook.
CMLL (TUE) 03/26/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal, Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora
2) Eléctrico, Fuego, Robin vs Dr. Karonte I, Enfermero Jr., Grako
3) Lluvia, Marcela, Tabata vs Hera, Olympia, Tessa Blanchard
4) Fugaz vs Virus [lightning]
5) Atlantis & Octagón vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja
6) Flip Gordon, Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Templario
Tabata was listed on the Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, then pulled off that show hours later. Guess she was booked here. Los Principes team up in the main event, the Chavez have to handle the team of Atlantis & Octagon again. Virus has made Fugaz look silly in the past.
That singles loss to Persephone last Sunday was apparently Tiffany’s farewell to the promotion. She made a surprise appearance on the Crash show on Friday night, then announced she left CMLL after 14 years and would be an independent wrestler. This has been in the works for a while; she’ll the mystery woman on a lot of upcoming Robles shows. Tiffany had talked about wanting to wind down her career in a year or so. Wrestlers rarely actually retire when they say they’re going to retire, but, if she believes she’s finishing up, Tiffany leaving CMLL makes a lot of sense. She’s likely to get more bookings and be in better spots in the short term, working with people and in places she hasn’t worked for a while. That effect wears out after time, but that’s not an issue if she’s truly planning on wrestling just a short while longer.
Tiffany at her peak in AAA was a great personality and a good worker. Age was catching up to her on both points by the time she jumped to CMLL. She’s been a poor wrestler for a number of years, and there was little chance CMLL was ever going to push her at this point in her career. Her matches being reallocated to a newer woman is a positive for CMLL. I had heard she had a leadership role within the CMLL women’s division, which always surprised me given she came from outside the system.
Tiffany is married to Kraneo. There’s no word about his status; he doesn’t seem to post on social media much (at least under his wrestling accounts.) He did wrestle Sunday in Arena Mexico, taking the pin.
Halcon Suriano Jr. posted a video statement about his CMLL departure. The overall themes aren’t a surprise: Suriano thought he should be pushed, CMLL’s programming department wasn’t interested in him, he got frustrated. It’s unsaid if he was fired or simply suspended for his previous comments and decided to quit, but it’s clear he had a meeting with someone from that programing department and then was gone from the promotion. Suriano specifically said he was told not to do certain moves or wear outfits because others were doing so, and the programming department just didn’t like him. (He still likes Sr. Lutteroth and believes they’ll work together again.) Suriano seems to cite Astral & Electrico as others in similar situations, their abilities not properly recognized by the promotion. Suriano mentions he was suspended last year for working a Costa Rica promotion (Riot Wrestling Alliance, which is not the Costa Rica Embassy that’s partnered with CMLL.) He plans on working on the independents and proving his value there. It’s almost as hard to change your slotting on independents as in CMLL – everyone seems slotted at the same level and there’s not much movement – but he at least gets a chance to be slotted higher to start.
AEW’s Jose the Assistant posted photos/video of being at Arena Mexico Friday night, and thanked them for the VIP treatment. Dralistico talks in every interview lately about how much he loved his time in CMLL and would enjoy going back. He’s never bad mouthed CMLL, but the idea he’d ever go back was not an idea brought up as recently as the start of the year. The game here is to convince people that LIJ and CMLL are all good. I don’t think CMLL cares about former Elite wrestler Principe Orion/Jose the Assistant one way or the other. Rush is the problem, or CMLL’s dislike of Rush is the problem. Jose tweeting photos doesn’t indicate any of that has changed, just that they’d like it to change and quickly. You’re welcome to guess if this is related to Rush & Dralistico not appearing in AEW lately.
AS Chile has a profile of La Catalina. New detail in here is that AAA approached her about coming in while she was in Mexico (probably around the time of her wrestling in Big Lucha), but she rejected them. She later went to the CMLL offices about coming in and was accepted right away.
Stephanie Vaquer looks to be defending the NJPW Strong title against STARDOM’s AZM next, probably at NJPW’s Windy City Riot.
The Crash
I try to choose what promotions to cover more closely here based on a few factors
- The influence they have on the rest of Mexican wrestling.
- The ease of footage of the promotion that’s both in good quality and timely, so the people I’m sharing this info with (you) can actually check out the thing I’m talking about
- The presence of something novel or intriguing; maybe it’s just good matches, maybe it’s a different approach
This criteria means I’ll never stop covering AAA. AAA has an immense gravity that affects the rest of Mexican wrestling (and frequently beyond), no matter how interesting or good it is. IWRG goes in waves of quality, but it has some influence and is really easy to find. Big Lucha has some affect on the wider landscape – mostly through it’s own drama – but they’re usually easy to find and are doing things in a different way. Attendance hasn’t been a reason to cover a show or promotion closely for me. There’s Arena Neza or Arena Lopez Mateos shows that draw reasonable well, numbers that would stand out positively if transferred to US or Japanese scenes, but they have no relevance to the rest of the world. The last typically has no relevance to the next; they are events that happened and then are largely immediately forgot.
The Crash has fit into that category the last few years. There was a point where they were doing something novel with the mix of Mexican and foreign talent, and there was enough drama in and out of the ring to make them a source of relevant news. The footage has almost always an issue, but there was a point where it was worth jumping through whatever hoops it took to find out what was happening. The Crash still has been drawing well the last few years – as has it’s forever Tijuana rival EMW – but it’s slipped as relevant without having the same quality of names, and it not doing as much interesting. I’ve putting the results in the luchadb when they come in, but not done much more.
The Crash seems to be changing in ways that handles some of those issues. They streamed a single cam version of Friday’s show on Facbeook, and they’re now uploading full video of those matches on a reactivated YouTube show. The YouTube uploads have gone up for the last couple of shows. The primary way to watch the events prior was through fancams; The Crash says they’re no longer allowing them. The Crash believes they’re about to make money off the videos, or they’ve made some sort of deal already and that’s why all this is happening. There was also a bit on the show that suggested they’ll be a bit more relevant:
The Crash (FRI) 03/22/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [The Crash (stream), thecubsfan, Zona Ruda]
1) Keyra b Julissa ©, Jessica Rodan, Ayako Hamada, Tiffany [THE CRASH WOMEN] 
Tiffany was the surprise wrestler; this was her departure from CMLL. Keyra won thet itle.
2) Ángel Metálico, Mirage, Mr. Maldito b Anubis, Gallo Extreme, Rey Furia
3) Destiny © b Tonalli, Aramis, Nick Wayne, Blake Christian [The Crash CRUISER]
Destiny retained, the D-Luxe challenged him for a title match. La Rebelion came out and invited D-Luxe to join their group, which he accepted.
4) Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane © b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly and Bamboo & El Rey [THE CRASH TAG]
5) Bestia 666, Black Taurus, Rey Escorpión (Indie) b Dralistico, Rey Horus, Rush
Moved down a match. Rush threw a drink at Rey Horus for losing, then he and Dralistico walked out before as the post match angle started. The “eye” emoji video from AAA aired after the match (and earlier in the night), and Pagano and Mecha Wolf hit the ring. La Rebelion left the ring. Dorian Roldan appeared on the stage, and called Pagano (and Mecha) to the back. They walked past La Rebelion, who taunted them but otherwise didn’t ineract. La Rebelion came back to the ring to interact.
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal b Bishop Kaun & Toa Linoa
Moved up a spot; though it appeared a significant amount of the crowd left after the main event.
The AAA angle caused a lot of surprise, but also confusion. La Rebelion acted like they didn’t know what was supposed to be happening and didn’t want any part out of it. Black Taurus being out there for it especially stood out; his recent AAA departure left hard feelings on both sides. There were hints earlier in the day, so I some people had to know. Maybe Rush & Dralistico did – maybe that’s why they got out of there quick rather than be part of an AAA angle at time when they’re trying to be friends with CMLL. It didn’t seem like nearly as many people realized it was Dorian Roldan. (It was unclear who it was on the stream, but that was mostly an issue with the quality of the stream.)
The best guess is this is a setup to some EMW/The Crash matches, probably including the TripleMania Tijuana show. Konnan tried to get the two groups to work together back in 2022, and it immediately fell apart (over a El Hijo del Santo booking.) AAA treated The Crash as the enemy as recently as June, when they stopped booking Bandido, Flamita and Emperador Azteca for working The Crash. It is hard to believe they’ll last long working together, but the hope probably is to keep it together at least long enough for that big show. This angle did get some buzz from both promotions, though maybe not as much as hoped – running an angle on a late night on Friday with little notice is difficult.
The “eye” bit doesn’t seem to fit together. It was treated like mystery people invading AAA on the Mexico City taping. It was some signal of AAA people invading another promotion at The Crash. AAA guys showing up on The Crash show is a big deal, but nothing actually happened – no one said anything, no one really did anything. It was enough to get footage on social media, which seemed was the goal, but there was no clear match direction coming out of it.
I caught the last half of this show after CMLL. (Watching a late night Friday show after CMLL is also difficult for me.) The three way tag was overly familiar and not interesting to me, but seemed to get a good reaction. The semimain was a little more creative, though totally overshadowed by the angle. The main event was nothing and couldn’t follow what had happened earlier anyway. Wagner doing his usual promo – and getting distracted by taunts – as the building was clearing out was pretty flat.
Julissa lost her the women’s title here. Two days later, she lost the KAOZ women’s title also to Keyra. That one was one a direct pin, which seems like it was the first direct pin she’s taken since returning to Mexico. Announcers pushed it as a story of Keyra collecting belts. Julissa losing a lot of title belts and taking pinfalls suggests some change in her career. (Julissa and Tiffany later had a long pull apart backstage.)
That KAOZ show seem to fill Gimnasio Nuevo Leon Unido, just like the Konnan Big show did a couple of weeks ago. I thought there’d be more of the AAA/eye angle there, but nope. They were pushing a feud with Robles Promociones instead.
Mas Lucha streamed the show, and avoided all mention of Marty Scurrl. Disgraced baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer also happened to turn up in Mexico this weekend, signing with Mexico City’s Diablo Rojos because they were playing the New York Yankees in an exhibition game and it was his latest stunt to try to get back into MLB because he loves the history of Los Diablos Rojos so much. Coverage of Bauer’s signing stuck to what he could add to the team (for the five games he signed for) and avoided all mention of the scandals that led Bauer to the point. It is a useful reminder the way Mexican wrestling handles people like Marty Scurrl or Travis Banks is not specifically a Mexican wrestling cultural choice, but a larger Mexico cultural deal.
AAA
AAA TV was not much. Laredo/Antifaz was a ten minute version of the generic AAA singles match – a rudo second interfering frequently, a wood panel destroyed in the finish, the tecnico winning but the rudo immediately beating him up to make sure everyone knows Nothing Is Settled (as nothing is ever settled in AAA.) Laredo Kid did good Laredo Kid things but the match didn’t didn’t much for me. Neither did other two. The women/exotico match was only interesting in that Dulce Kanela was working it as if they were supposed to end up in a team with Pimpinela, and Pimpinela was ignoring that storyline.
Laredo and Antifaz once again talked up a mask match. They’re not booked against each other TripleMania Monterrey either.
AAA shows are put to bed well before they air; there was no mention of the Eye storyline because it probably wasn’t a set idea at that point. The next Showcenter event (June 30th) was a set idea but wasn’t mentioned in the Upcoming Events; neither was the Mexico City event. The Upcoming Events is notable because some AAA wrestlers believe the 04/13 AAA EMW Tijuana show is a TV taping, AAA hasn’t mentioned it as such, but it may just be AAA not getting around to mentioning it. It’s possible they’re taping something for this Eye/The Crash angle and lines got crossed.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 03/24/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Dracula Ng & Xolotl b Arcues & Nival Banks 
2) Príncipe Centauro & Rey Espartano b Golden Power & Sacro
3) Diosa Quetzal, India Mazahua, Kali b Bengalee, Shamila, Zuzu Divine
Quetzal and Shamila are feuding.
4) Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado DQ Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr.
excessive violence
5) Gannicus, Ivan Rokov, Vangellys b Jessy Ventura, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly
Gannicus replaced Puma de Oro
6) Hell Boy b Hijo de Canis Lupus [bull terrier]
Hell Boy and Canis Lupus challenged for a mask match.
Canis Lupus/Hell Boy went a long time and used a lot of weapon. IWRG appears to be building to DMT Azul, Vangellys, Hijo de Canis Lupus, and Hell Boy four way apuesta match but it’s not clear when it’s happening.
It looks like Mas Lucha and IWRG are done for now. Mas Lucha hasn’t been posting new IWRG content since IWRG announced of their shows were exclusive. Not sure what happens next time IWRG runs a big show, since those were going behind the Mas Lucha paywall before. It’s probably a good deal for everyone, since it seems like it’s pushing Mas Lucha to post more content and the IWRG shows are still available on their YouTube channel.
IWRG announced an alliance with Costa Rica’s Riot Wrestling Alliance. The RWA folks are in Mexico doing a tour of shows this weekend. IWRG like to announce these deals and they usually are forgotten in a few months. I am just curious about how many promotions there are in Costa Rica. It’s at least three: there’s the one that works with CMLL (CWE), the one that showed up in Big Lucha (Luchamania) and this group.
Other
Quintana Roo luchador Cachorro Jr. (Marrio Alberto Suaste Mena, 45) passed away Friday.
Mas Lucha is running a benefit show for Nicho & Damian on 03/31. Daisuke Sasaki from DDT is back in Mexico in time for that show.
Azteca has a 18 minute lucha libre video documentray. I didn’t watch the whole thing, it didn’t seem to break any ground over the other 30 lucha libre documentaries.
El Sol de Tulancingo has a history of wrestling in Tulancingo. I liked the story behind El Impostor.
No Big Lucha show this past week, no acknowledgement of it not happening.
Segunda Caida reviews the White Wolf versus Panterita del Ring mask match.