CMLL early week results, AAA/Space/TripleMania

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 04/08/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, El Sol del Puebla]
1) Dreyko & King Jaguar b Amnesia & Astro 
2) Espíritu Maligno & Multy b Asturiano & Rayo Metálico
3) Arkalis, Novato, Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Xelhua b Fuego, Raider, Robin, Valiente Jr., Vegas [Reyes del Aire Puebla] 
Arkalis beat Vegas to win it (for the home team)
4) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Flip Gordon, Gran Guerrero, Stigma [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Hechicero, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero b Ángel de Oro, Máscara Dorada, Místico [Relevos Increíbles] 

CMLL’s Puebla highlights included the normal TV graphics, which obviously they’re not doing just for Twitter clips. The show is airing somewhere, and neither CMLL nor the TV network (content outlet?) has promoted it yet. Only in Mexico.

(lucha) things that are currently slowly driving me mad

• this Puebla TV situation
• MLW promoting CMLL wrestlers while making it accidently clear they don’t know who these guys are
• any and all talk about the AEW event called “Forbidden Door”

Another strong turnout for a Puebla show, and they’re now far past holidays.

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubfsan]
1) Astro Boy Jr. & Rayo Metálico b Emperador Jr. & Platino Kid
6:34.
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Micro Dito & Periquito Sacaryas
7:20. Straight falls. Gemelos have won their last 14 CMLL matches.
3) Dark Silueta, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard b Lluvia, Skadi, Tabata
14:45.
4) Brillante Jr., Futuro, Max Star b Crixus, Difunto, Vegas
15:30
5) Titán b Stuka Jr. [lightning]
6:34.
6) Esfinge, Místico, Neón b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
14:01. Rugido beat Neon with a mask pull (and some help from KeMalito), but Mistico submitted Magnus to win. Neon demanded a match with Rugido next week and ended up with his mask pulled off again.

The top 3 were all fun and all could’ve been better on another day. Titan/Stuka was the biggest disappointment of the three; they were in and other of there quick.

Futuro went for the big flying headscissos to the floor on Vegas but a) Vegas is good but not that good and b) it’s a Tuesday, man, maybe don’t risk your life. Futuro ended up knocked out and was stretchered away, but reported on Instagram that he was doing better.

(ROH aside no one cares about: it was really hard to take the Billie Starkz injury angle on that show seriously when I’m so used to seeing CMLL shows with people who are even slightly hurt strapped into eight ways to a backboard with six people on them. It is doing the fake MMA spots when you’re used to seeing MMA, in a fashion.)

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL] Attendance: 0
1) Eclipse Jr., Rav, Temerario b Avispón Negro Jr., Obek, Último Ángel 
2) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica b Estrella Maldita, Sexy Sol, Valkiria 
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama 
4) Disturbio & Virus b Akuma & Dulce Gardenia [Relevos Increíbles] 
Virus won with a foul on Dulce, who wasn’t much helped by his partner.
5) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. b Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte 
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Star Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario 

Guadalajara was back to being free – but it was on the CMLL channel, and they split it up so only the first three matches aired on Facebook. The Facebook free matches is something you already have to be watching to know it exists, CMLL doesn’t promote it much. But right now the deal is:

• Tuesday Arena Mexico: first two matches air for free on CMLL’s Facebook
• Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara: first three matches air for free on CMLL’s Facebook
• Friday Arena Mexico: first (1) match airs for free on CMLL’s Facebook

Today’s CMLL Informa has

• CMLL champions (Stigma, Titan, Templario, Averno, Gran Guerrero, Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Barbaro Caveranrio, Terrible, Dragon Rojo) talking about the Universal tournament
• Magnus talking about winning last week’s block
• Volcano talking the Kid’s Day tournament?
• Los Villanos talking winning the Arena Coliseo Tag Titles

CMLL (SAT) 04/13/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Diamond, Leono, Valiente Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Okumura
4) El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Valiente vs Hechicero [lightning]
6) Esfinge, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

Match 2 is the first appearance of Dr. Karonte II since January (if he appears.) I’m not dying for any two matches here but the lightning match would be nice.

CMLL (SUN) 04/14/2024 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Leono, Novato, Robin vs Inquisidor, Nitro, Sangre Imperial
3) Futuro, Legendario, Volcano vs Alom, Infarto, Kráneo
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs El Coyote, Pólvora, Sagrado
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Mephisto vs Gran Guerrero, Star Black, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible

The Torneo Escuelas guys are more mixed in with the regular crew on this show. Not a lot going on though.

Box y Lucha 3598 of course has Blue Panther and Bryan Danielson on the cover.

AAA

As always, Space will be airing half of (04/27) TripleMania Monterrey live. The press release mentions the US/Mexico, Vampiro and Alberto/Nemeth match as airing. It’s always at least those matches, and maybe more depending on timing. Their start time is 8:45 pm. AAA lists a start time of 7 pm. Three matches in the first 105 minutes is normally plenty, but one of those matches is the forever bloated Copa TripleMania and there will likely be ceremonies and talking segments.

House of Glory announced Psycho Clown challenging Mike Santana for the HOG Heavyweight Championship on 05/05 show. (Mike Santana is Santana formerly of LAX if you haven’t kept track of the name change.)

El Fiscal, Black Andromeda, and Noisy Boy all show up on an AAA spot show in Villahermosa on 05/19. It may be AAA’s running more shows that day so they’re reaching out to people who don’t normally work AAA shows, but those did stand out to me. Black Andromeda’s disappeared from Mexico since December; maybe that’s a visa renewal issue? El Fiscal is Abismo Negro’s son who was working Luchatitlan who’s hinting he could show up in AAA at an time. That’s also been the status for Karis La Momia Jr. (La Parka’s son) for 4.5 years; they could show up in TripleMania at point, or they could continue working spot shows indefinitely.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 04/11/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
4) Vangellys vs Hell Boy vs Hijo de Canis Lupus
5) Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. vs Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool [super libre]

The first three matches are all random matches. Match 4 might advance whatever story they’re telling with those three guys and DMT Azul.

Other News

Dragon Bane mentioned he suffered a nose fracture (in 4 places) and he’ll be out a couple of weeks.

The Crazzy Steve vs Laredo Kid match for TNA’s Digital Media Championship airs this Thursday.

Kinda accidentally discovered a missing title change this week. Guadalajara’s Eclipse defeated Flash I for the Mexican National Lightweight championships in the mid 90s in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara; I’m guessing 1994-12-18 but that’s a guess.

The backstory is Voices of Wrestling’s Discord was discussing a Flash/Eclipse mask match because of the real life eclipse, and Joe Lanza asked me to help figure out some details. On the luchawiki, we have a story about Eclipse beating Flash (Sr.) for his mask via martinete and Flash I unmasking Eclipse a week later. That seems like fiction after watching that match. It’s a Flash I/Eclipse mask match and the announcers repeatedly mention it was set up by Eclipse beating Flash I for the Mexican National Lightweight championship the previous week. We have a photo dated “1994” of Eclipse unmasking on the luchawiki, and there are Christmas ads during their show, so my guess is that mask match happened on Christmas and the title change on the Sunday before.

There’s other details in there where what have doesn’t fit with what we have; they mention his brother Flash II having a mask loss to a Septiembre Negro Jr.. It generally feels like we have two generations of a Flash family but three may have exists; the person we have as “Flash I” is listed as starting in 1998, but his title win is in 1991. I don’t really know how to untangle it.

(The luchawiki title histories are badly need in updating for modern stuff; we’ve got lessp people working on the ever and I haven’t done much myself. If you’re using that portion for research, you’re better of using normal wikipedia right now.)

I’ve been enjoying Facebook page Box y Lucha Norte; there’s a mix of historical stuff in there with coverage of Monterrey indies. A recent series of posts are handwritten notes on the April 8, 1984 Arena Coliseo Monterrey show; to be clear, they’re the actual notes he took on that show back fourty years ago. That turns out to be the first show in that venue in three years (there’s a mention in the modern introduction of a strike, not clear who was on strike.) The 1984 notes say there was a rumor of Arena Coliseo Monterrey being torn down for a supermarket or a hotel during that hiatus. It did finally get torn down this year, but I wonder how many times was it supposedly close to being demolished over the years before it finally was.

A generic build up interview for the ELITE show mentions the Brazos and Negociantes will have an apuesta match on 05/02.

Tijuana luchadora Lady Lee is opening a wrestling school. The article notes Lady Lee was a commissioner her – billed as the first female one as the time – but left in 2021 due to “personal issues.”

Lucha Va Voom is running in Las Vegas on 05/19 and 05/20. Pagano, Extreme Tiger and Taya are the big names in addition to the usual crew.

Shocker did media rounds claiming he wasn’t on drugs or drunk at the time of his latest arrest; he’d been off them for a day and a half. He’s booked this weekend, though he’s talking vaguely about going to rehab again.