CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 04/05/2024 Arena México
1) Rayo Metálico vs Dragón de Fuego
2) Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. vs Crixus, Okumura, Vegas
3) Star Black vs Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca, Futuro, Magnus, Rugido, Disturbio, Cholo, Apocalipsis [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Rocky Romero, Templario
added on Monday
5) Blue Panther vs Bryan Danielson
Blue Panther has been a great Tuesday luchador, wrestling in trios matches where he has exciting two minute runs in the end of trios matches. He hasn’t had a lot of singles match. He had two singles matches last year, a 9:04 match with Virus and 9:52 with Panterita del Ring. There’s been a few indie singles match, and one longer singles match with Atlantis, but you almost have to go back to Panther’s match with Sam Adonis for a full main event length match. That’s going to be the big test here; both men have a great knowledge of wrestling, but Panther’s age is also a big challenge.
CMLL streamed a press conference with Blue Panther and Bryan Danielson (separate interviews) on Friday; I guess we should expect Friday press conferences when AEW wrestlers come in. Blue Panther’s line is that he’s not “preocupado”, he’s “ocupado”. He’s not worried, he’s busy. He’s been posting workout videos on Instagram for weeks, appears to be the getting in the best shape possible. Blue Panther also explained the permission he got to wear a mask was for 30 days, not one show, so he’ll be masked again tonight if CMLL wants that.
Bryan Danielson says he was transfixed by Panther’s style – he wrestled different, moved different. He also loved the energy and fire. Danielson said he would love to do a tour of CMLL’s arenas, but there are no plans to do so right now and there are schedule constraints for making that happen. Danielson said he was excited by the idea of making the match submission rules but didn’t want to do it – Panther has too big of an advantage with surprise submission. Danielson thinks the US fans would be excited to see him wrestle if it also happened there; he feels there’s more US interest in CMLL now than for in a long time. Teaming with Blue Panther would be a dream if that happened eventually. He’s not worried about being booed or cheered, he just wants a strong reaction. (He’d be cheering Blue Panther if he was in the crowd.) Danielson ended the promo by apologizing in advance for hurting Blue Panther.
The semi-main looks like a good match just to have another bunch of names on this show. Mistico and Averno may be a little tired from a long day of traveling. (Come to think of it, it’s a bit surprising Rocky Romero is here and not in Philadelphia for the entire weekend.) The opening matches are also just matches, and less exciting matches. The intrigue is in the Universal tournament, where none of the wrestlers feel important enough to make that final but someone’s got to. CMLL has plans for someone, or they would’ve just done a title change at some point. Maybe it’s Star Black, maybe it’s Esfinge. It’s going to be a big moment for whomever is in it, more so for being on the final than even winning this.
The tickets for this show have moved very well by the standards of Friday night, though not nearly as fast they did for H2L. There were about 20-30 scattered first floor seats left this morning. CMLL put the Balcon tickets on Ticketmaster in the last few days, they weren’t their originally. This show may sell out, it’s just not there yet and it’ll depend on the walk up.
Note that his is on the 25 USD middle tier of CMLL subscription. I can’t imagine many people are going to sign up now who didn’t sign up last week, but you ought to save 10 USD if that’s you. H2L will hit the first/second tiers on Sunday night. The press conference pushed that fans have to sign up on computers, not phones – it sounded like CMLL just realized the iPhone/Apple issue this past week and are trying to steer people around it.
CMLL (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Forneo & Novato vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
2) Legendario vs Xelhua [lightning]
3) Andrómeda, La Catalina, Skadi vs Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Akuma & Espanto Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG]
1st defense
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico vs Soberano Jr. & Templario
This lineup was announced about a month ago and has always looked like a good show. The fourth match might be a title change, and the lightning match is interesting. It’ll be on the Fan Leyenda tier live. (Coliseo shows start at the same time as Tuesday Arena Mexico shows if you’re planning; it’s 7:30 pm local.)
This week’s Coliseo uploads were Dark Panther/Espanto Jr. and Los Principes against Atlantis Jr., Mistico and Star Jr.
CMLL (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena México
1) Robin vs Diamond [lightning]
2) La Maligna, La Vaquerita, Magia Azul vs Hera, Metálica, Persephone
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Felino Jr., Pólvora
4) Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
5) Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. vs Euforia & Mephisto
6) Flip Gordon, Místico, Valiente vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja
CMLL’s back to two healthy Gemelo Diablos (if they actually appear.)
CMLL (MON) 04/08/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Astro vs Dreyko & King Jaguar
2) Asturiano & Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno & Multy
3) Arkalis, Novato, Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Xelhua vs Fuego, Raider, Robin, Valiente Jr., Vegas [Reyes del Aire Puebla]
4) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Flip Gordon, Gran Guerrero, Stigma [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Ángel de Oro, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Hechicero, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Hechicero will have to weave his magic to get his partners to get along. Volador teams with the Depredadores. Third match could be a very good version of a smaller Reyes del Aire.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions “other AEW stars” wanted to go to Arena Mexico after seeing H2L. Chris Jericho is said to among them. There’s no mention of firm plans for this happening – WON points out Jericho wrestling CMLL people on AEW TV the same that’s been mentioned here.
Thursday, CMLL cut the ribbon on a remodeling of their gym. You’ve probably seen it in documentaries and the occasional vignette. It looks like a new coat of paint. It also looks so crunched that it’s easy to understand why their wrestlers end up spread out among other gyms in the area.
AAA
AAA’s got part two of Saltillo
- Drago (II), Epydemius, Estrellato vs Hijo del Picudo, May Flowers, Nygmaa
- Aerostar, Charly Manson, Myzteziz Jr. vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Dark Scoria
- Negro Casas & Psycho Clown versus Sanson & Forastero for the AAA tag team titles
It’s been the second Drago for a while but now I feel like I need to specify it since they’re bringing back so many other people. None of these matches sound that exciting, unless this is a show where NGD decide to try.
AAA has a media day on Thursday to hype TripleMania Monterrey. AS has an interview with Aerostar, who once again says he wants Parka Negra’s mask. He also says he feels championships are worth less than they used to be, though that’s part of him building up value of a mask match.
AAA is part of an “Expo Lucha” in Monterrey the weekend of TripleMania. TripleMania adjacent events seem like they should exist similar to WrestleMania ones, but it hasn’t caught on previously. This one has AAA involvement, so maybe that’ll make the difference.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 04/04/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Rey Halcón b Galvánico 
2) Puma de Oro b Spider Fly
3) Águila Roja b Keyra
4) Hijo de Canis Lupus b Aramis
5) Hell Boy b Aster Boy, Tonalli
6) Pig Destroyer b Hijo del Pirata Morgan
Pigs want a trios title match
This is no more Mexican wrestling thing than to announce “we’re going to five surprise matches” and then running six matches. The Canis/Aramis match was said to be good, will try to check it out this weekend.
Sunday’s show is a Lucha Libre Boom show with Mascara Dorada & Mistico versus Soberano Jr. & Templario. It may stream on IWRG’s social media.
The Vampiro retirement show is now up on Mas Lucha’s channel. I don’t think I’m getting to that one.
Big Lucha
Big Lucha (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Cósmico & Nordico vs Argus & Gaius
2) Platino & Skayde vs Avisman & Golden
3) Mr. Win & Tirano vs Big Tao Tao & Bogdan Klimov and Alas de Acero & Iron Kid
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo vs Latino, Rey Espartano, Ryu
5) Flamita & Ricky Marvin vs Aero Boy & Tonalli
This is a combo show with Lucha Memes, so there’s a bunch of people who tend to work those shows (and are good) showing up. The main event is going to be as great as they want to be, I guess slightly dependent on if Black Generation is doing a run-in.
Other News
(The next paragraph deals with suicide.)
Shocker wrestled in Oaxaca over the weekend; I saw an article about it, noticed I didn’t get a poster for it, and hoped I’d remember to track it down later. I actually still haven’t tracked the poster down, but there’s no problem remember the show: Shocker once again got arrested and video of it once again went viral. This was the most talked about wrestling story of the week, one of those stories that catch so hard that news sites were trying to find other angles on it to keep pushing out news articles about it. He was undressed, overweight, and dragged away by police on charges of destroying his hotel room. It’s also mentioned that he threated to kill himself. Shocker’s current wife, Gisela Dominguez, explained Shocker gets paranoid when he’s on “substances”, has visual and audio delusions, and believes everyone is out to get him. Dominguez says Shocker’s expressed suicidal thoughts before, but has not acted on them in her presence. She feels Shocker needs to be in a rehab facility, while noting he’s been in many of those in the past.
I caught some of the WrestleMania weekend stuff this weekend.
- Over on WrestleCon, Michael Oku defeated Titan to keep the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship. Titan took his usual a lot of risk, hurt his knee, and Oku seized on it to win with his half crab. I thought it went pretty well. Oku now has title defenses over Hechicero and Titan and would be the logical RevPro guy to show up in Arena Mexico in exchange for the CMLL guys going the other way, if that’s going to happen.
- Team CMLL defeated Team Dragon Gate when Shun Skywalker and Kzy (late sub for Ben-K) had issues and led to their La Mistica demise. This was match was good, but I don’t think it ever hit the higher gear people were hoping from it based on the names. It also suffered from a shift in the crowd that comes to these shows, at least for this event, where they were more there for the nostalgic acts and not as into these guys.
- I made a last minute choice to sign up for IWTV to catch the Action Wrestling Dean show. Arez/Matt Makowski flew by; Cagematch has it as 7:32 but it seemed quicker. They played off having different styles and meshed very well; I’d like to see more of it. I also totally understand why it went so short given how long that show ended up going, no argument there.
- this is a dumb thing: It will forever bug me when people (like Makowski here) do the reverse flip into a choke spot Hechicero invented and no one references Hechicero. What are you going to do.
- Dr. Cerebro/Gringo Loco on was on opposite of the CMLL/Dragon Gate match, so I could tell it was good but I couldn’t tell you much about it beyond the Cerebro tope. I was exhausted from real life stuff by then, so I was only half paying attention to Slim J & Adam Priest (which everyone seems to be raving about) and then had to give up when they ran a tag match after that. I plan to catch the Demus chain match and rewatch Gringo/Cerebro sometime in the next 2.5 days.
- I know nothing about the GCW/JCW show
Still nothing lucha libre related announced for the Ring of Honor show tonight. Like I wrote Wednesday, I was told one luchador was booked. Booked could be wrestling or just doing an appearance, I don’t know. I don’t know that anyone put two and two together but the reason why I was (seemingly the only one) watching Ring of Honor last night and mentioning new matches for that show is the slim chance they would’ve announced something that would’ve actually been relevant to this blog. No such luck. I do get the sense that there’s more stuff to be announced, but that Ring of Honor PPV tonight (6 pm CT fee pre-show, 7 pm Honor Club subscription) is on paper the weakest of any since being bought by Tony Khan – it’s kicked off a hot new round of “why is there a Ring of Honor anyway” discourse that never goes anywhere.
House of Glory is advertising Penta versus Fenix for their 05/05 show. Rey Fenix still hasn’t returned from injury, AEW wrestlers tend to return on their TV before they wrestle elsewhere, so there’s is a little bit of doubt that Fenix appearance will happen before it does. (He’s missed this same indie previously due to injury.) On the other hand, AEW isn’t likely to bring someone back at this point in their PPV cycle; they’re historically likely to hold him off returning until the post-Dynasty PPV on 04/24.
Long time San Luis Potosi building Arena Mexico Rayos de Plata is closing, according to a TV Azteca news report. There’s no indication of this on promotion’s Facebook page, though future shows seem to be listed in a different venue. The report, mostly talking about the history of the building, says it’s closing to do severe financial issues.