Titán advances to CMLL Universal favor, Jeff Jarrett back in AAA, Latin Lover, Big Lucha

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/12/2024 Arena México [CMLL, FDDE, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Legendario b Forneo [lightning]  
9:20
2) Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther  
15:10
3) Flip Gordon b Euforia [lightning]  
7:37
4) Titán b Gran Guerrero, Averno, Templario, Stigma, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Dragón Rojo Jr., Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja [CMLL Universal, semifinal]   
29:33. CMLL champions block. Order of elimination: Stigma (by Titan), Dragon Rojo (Niebla Roja), Gran Guerrero (Averno), Terrible (Angel de Oro), Averno (Templario), Niebla Roja (Cavernario), Cavernario (Templario), Angel de Oro (Titan), Templario (Titan) leaving Titan as the winner.
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Octagón b Hechicero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
8:48

A good show. The main event wasn’t much, but that’s fine given who was in it. The cibernetico was better than last week over all, though the Titan/Templario final wasn’t strong. They seemed to be unsure of what each other was planning to do. The Villanos/Panther match was as good as usual, maybe not their peak but still pretty good.

Both lightning matches were good. Euforia is great at knowing when to shut down Flip.

Stephanie Vaquer retained the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship against AZM on Friday’s New Japan Windy City Riot show. RevPro’s Alex Windsor asked for a title shot and will get on their 05/11 show in Los Angeles. Vaquer is so popular with that crowd that it’d be surprising if she lost the title lost it any time soon. Vaquer is announced for the 05/19 RevPro FantasticaMania show and is oddly the only CMLL woman announced. Can’t totally rule out the 05/11 match could set up something for a week later.

CMLL (SAT) 04/13/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
11:27
2) Diamond, Leono, Valiente Jr. DQ Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
10:55. 3rd fall went 25 seconds with Olimpico DQ-ing the rudos for something not shown on the stream (and leaving everyone confused.)
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Okumura b Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray
14:16.
4) Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero b El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring
14:16. Bucanero is now also wearing the Felino stripes on his gear.
5) Hechicero b Valiente [lightning]
9:31
6) Esfinge, Titán, Volador Jr. b Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
11:39

Totally skippable show; even Hechicero/Valiente wasn’t really a standout. Rey Bucanero, Felino and Felino Jr. may be another set trio.

The end of the second fall was bizarre on the stream; the rudos were confused, the announcers were confused, the fans were confused. I will still be confused if someone smarter hadn’t explained it to me. Ola Negra had been doing a spot where they pull up the trunks of the tecnicos, giving them a wedgie. CMLL didn’t like it, told them to knock it off, and told the referees to call it as a DQ if it happened again. No one watching the video could tell, but one of the rudos did the wedgie spot again and Olimpico ended the match right then and there. That’s what Olimpico’s pants pulling up signal about; the rudos knew why they were in trouble but played dumb.

CMLL (SUN) 04/14/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Inquisidor, Nitro, Sangre Imperial b Leono, Novato, Robin
3) Capitán Suicida, Legendario, Volcano b Alom, Infarto, Kráneo
Capitan Suicida replaced Futuro (head injury) on Wednesday
4) Espíritu Negro, Neón, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Pólvora, Sagrado
Neon replaced Dulce Gardenia.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Mephisto DQ Gran Guerrero, Star Black, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Straight falls. Gran Guerrero refused to break Pulpo Guerrero on Atlantis and so was DQed.
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible b Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr.
Cavernario used a mask pull to win, setting up a singles match next week.

Cavernario/Dorada sounds fun. CMLL posting the clips now makes it easier to figure out what’s happened – Gran Guerrero did leave that hold on way too long.

CMLL (TUE) 04/16/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Metálica & Valkiria vs Hera & Olympia
3) El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs Crixus, Difunto, Pólvora
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs El Coyote, Felino, Felino Jr.
5) Neón vs Rugido
6) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible

Neon/Rugido is listed just as “mano a mano”, which probably means three falls. Neither man has wrestled a three fall 1v1 match in CMLL. It’s going to be a test. Match 2 is the sixth match Valkiria has wrestled in Arena Mexico – the other five have all been ciberenticos.

CMLL (FRI) 04/19/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Legendario vs Vegas [lightning]
3) La Catalina, Lluvia, Marcela vs Persephone, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Titán vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
5) Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto, Templario
6) Místico vs Máscara Dorada, Atlantis Jr. [Copa Universal, semifinal]

Lots of intrigue in the main event. Was Atlantis Jr. getting booed just a two week AEW/WWE fan influx thing? Which of these top tecnicos is going to be the pick as The top tecnico? Mistico is the normal choice, but CMLL ran Mistico/Titan as the Universal final two years ago, would they go for a (near) repeat so quickly?

The all rudo semimain balances out the all the tecnico main event. Villanos and Zandokan step up the later with bigger name competition. Legendario is getting a bunch of lightning matches.

Rocky Romero is now the New Japan of America Vice President of Show & Talent Coordination. He also reportedly joined the AEW’s front office back in February. Romero does not have a position with CMLL – yet???

(More seriously, Rocky didn’t wrestle on the NJPW US show on Friday. He’s been involved in the CMLL matches so the visa issues probably scrapped that match. I’m sort of curious what match it would’ve been – that show seemed to have too many matches as is, so something would’ve had to be replaced or changed.)

Mundo Deportiva talks to Xelhua, who says he started training for wrestling at the age of 3 (three). His name comes from the Azteca god who was said to have built the great pyramid of Cholula, where he’s originally from. Ultimo Guerrero, Volador and Hechicero are wrestlers he looks up to now but he says he’s real idols are wrestlers who don’t wrestle any more – he wants to represent the wrestling of yesteryear, so he watches old (and now retired) wrestlers for inspiration.

A preview of the 04/27 CMLL show in Xalapa mentions former Xalapa lucahdor Legendario is now training in Volador’s Los Depredadores class. Volador’s importance as a trainer is catching up to his importance as a wrestler.

Templario is opening a taco shop in Tlaxcala. Or at least lending his mask to it.

AAA

I don’t know what’s going on with the creative role in AAA but one thing for sure is Latin Lover was not supposed to publicly say he was taking over the spot at TripleMania. Latin Lover, in a new interview with La Tijera, claims he never said he was taking over as creative director for AAA. His story now is he’s in talks with AAA for that position, but that the only sure thing is he’ll be at TripleMania Monterrey. Latin says no contracts have been signed. Latin says he knows what the people want to see, because he’s a person who filled up buildings for every promoter he worked for. That line has me very concerned, but I’m trying not to evaluate the consequences of this change until it’s clear there’s actually a change being made.

Latin Lover is technically correct in his rebuttal; in the previous interview, he said their was a plan for him to be creative director. He also said it like that was the plan they had agreed on, not as if it was something still up for debate, so I don’t have any trouble with the reporting. Latin Lover spoke without thinking about the consequences of his words and then looked for a real life undo button. The modified version is better for Latin but worse for AAA – if Latin Lover is truly just debating taking the job, what happens with the current team (Konnan and whoever else) if he says no? Is it going to be someone else replacing them? Is just going to current team sticking around very unhappy about what just happened? This happens in sports sometimes, and management people treated like this will just move on because there’s 29 other teams, someone will find a spot for them. There’s not that chance in wrestling, and it forces some tense marriages.

This situation blends in with this week’s AAA TV: the end of the episode was different people blaming Konnan for bad things happening in AAA, and Konnan claiming it wasn’t his fault. In this case, both Cibernetico (and La Secta) and Psycho Clown assumed the Eye bit is another Konnan plot and Konnan insisted he has nothing to do with it. Cibernetico also took Konnan bringing back El Mesias as a personal attack towards him and La Secta. Earlier, La Secta and Mesias had a confrontation with tension but no touching. It feels like AAA’s setting up a turn there – Zorro promising a betrayal is explicit – but whatever direction they’re heading may be changed or dropped if Laitn Lover truly is getting involved. The best outcomes for peace are Latin Lover has actually already agreed to take the job but word wasn’t supposed to get out yet, or that Latin Lover is telling tall tales, AAA is aware and is fine with it, and nothing is changing. Everything in between is filtering with disaster.

Mecha Wolf & Octagon Jr. worked very hard to have a memorable match, and it was about as good as you could expect that to be. It was helped by AAA’s audio changes; hearing the crowd react and get into the near falls was a big improvement over last year. Not all issues are fixed; Octagon got to celebrate for roughly two second before he was wiped out by the debuting Parker Bourdeaux. Mesias faced off with Bourdeaux while Octagon Jr. ceased to exist. That is the bit with Octagon Jr. right now: AAA gives him these TV wins as if they’re going with him, and then immediately make him the third or fourth most relevant person. They don’t want fans to mistake Octagon as someone meaningful. Mesias, who appeared in three segments and was talked about in a fourth, is the important person.

Flipside is AAA has decided that Parker Bourdeaux is important, when neither the fans nor the announcers had any idea who this guy was. He was just some foreigner who showed up. Konnan, on his podcast, explained they didn’t do any introduction or explainer because AAA wanted it to be a surprise. Surprises only work if someone cares. Hopefully AAA will course correct and do something to get him over. Bourdeaux will be part of an AAA press conference today in Monterrey, so there’s something. AAA will likely announce Negro Casas and Dr. Wagner’s partner as well.

Wolf/Octagon went very long for an AAA TV match, and Secta/Circus went short. It was just setting up weapon spots, some of which didn’t look much good. The main event had interesting reactions: they were into Cibernetico, they booed Psycho Clown, and they were ambivalent if slightly positive about Alberto. The Mexico City fans for the Retro shows see the guys from that era as the real stars, so Cibernetico good, Psycho bad. Cibernetico wrestling is bad though. Alberto noticeably tried a lot more here than has in most of his matches. It couldn’t have been because he’s winning, because he’s always winning – he seemed to win to make a good impression with the right people.

In addition to Parker Bourdeaux, Jeff Jarrett and Santam Singh will also be appearing at the AAA press conference. Jarrett and Santam seemed about to split from Jay Lethal in Z-tier angle on AEW TV when that story appeared paused, and then all the characters involved have disappeared from TV for the last month. (That oxygen for that story seems to now be used on Daddy Magic’s partner feuding with Saraya’s brother, for context.) Jarrett has a long and sometimes complicated history with AAA and his involvement here is a good reminder that no matter who is the “creative director”, the person making the big decisions is Jarrett’s good friend Dorian Roldan. Jarrett’s last appearance was the 2022 TripleMania, where he and Latin Lover got into a fight. That bit was never followed up on, but maybe that’s direction if they’re both back in the fold.

Later day Jeff Jarrett has becoming a counter-culture wrestling hero. Some of it is clearly dripping in irony, and some of it is because he’s a novelty and off to the side. He’s no longer in a position of power with the ability to damage something people like, he’s just a weird out-of-time character, doing stuff that no one else does because he’s from like five generations ago and all that stuff faded out. AAA instead uses Jarrett as if he’s the biggest foreign name possible and maybe he is for them right now.

That press conference should also announce Negro Casas & Dr. Wagner Jr.’s partners. Earlier, Negro Casas talked to AS about the timeline of his jump to AAA. Casas says it started when Dalys was in Japan, and he was babysitting Psycho Clown’s kids. They were playing wrestling, including booking their own matches. Casas told them to book him too but they said they can’t, he’s not in AAA. That’s the start of it, Casas says he started thinking about maybe moving. Psycho and his wife sold Casas on the idea a couple of days later and got him in touch with Dorian Roldan. Dalys, still in Japan, told her husband to wait a until she got back until they could discuss it. They agreed to the idea when Dalys returned.

AAA’s given no indication of when that press conference is. Could be five minutes after I post. Could be later tonight.

A thing about that story: Dalys’ Japan trip was in October 2022. Dalys and Negro Casas didn’t show up in AAA until February 2023. That’s a big gap. Maybe there was more thinking that got compressed, or maybe Casas and AAA decided to have him just wait in CMLL until the moment they were ready.

Don’t have anything on Saturday’s EMW show. I presumed they were going to follow up the angle with The Crash, but either it didn’t happen or no one felt it was interesting enough to talk about. AAA didn’t post any teaser. I found one instagram story that night; Mecha Wolf walking to the ring, shooting only his feet. There is the required “promoter posts shot of full building” Facebook post and not much more.

That show hyped an appearance by Vampiro. Both EMW and Vampiro announced Friday that he would no longer appear on the show due a “doctor’s appointment in Florida.” Vampiro says he got his days confused. A doctor appointment on a Saturday is hard to figure.

El Sol de Hermosillo has a story about a La Parka tribute show in his hometown, said to be the first time Karis La Momia Jr. has wrestled there. He and his grandmother thanked the crowd supporting their family during the show; Proyector Puente has video of the ceremony.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (SAT) 04/13/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Big Lucha, Estrellas del Ring, thecubsfan]
1) Magnetron & Medieval b Astro Magnetico & León
a dark match (one that actually didn’t air!)
2) Depaysman & La Bomba b Reiyel & Zenky
9:50
3) Helios & Sussy Love b Marishka & Ryu Orochi
11:12.
4) Caballero de Plata, El Potro de Oro, Mr. Win, Tirano b Auzter, Black Skayde, Bogdan Klimov, Brujo
15:44
5) Elipse, Iku, Vengador b Big Tao Tao, Cósmico, Orbita
15:30. Orbita was the surprise wrestler, now a tecnico against Locos Evans. He beat Elipse for the win.
6) Flamita b Argenis
12:54. Earlier, Big Lucha’s ring announcer said Argenis was not able to wrestle on the show due to AAA stopping him, and Flamita would face someone else. That someone else turned out to be Argenis, angry with the ring announcer for saying he wouldn’t be wrestling. Argenis shoved the ring announcer down and the match started there. Flamita won with a phoenix splash. Argenis tried to convince Flamtia he was better off being a rudo, but was unsuccessful.
7) Jack Evans b Hijo del Pirata Morgan
11:08. Jack Evans cleanly defeated Pirata and then demanded a title shot. Mr. Big made the match.

Big Lucha announced they’d be returning to having (uh) Big shows, with the next one on May 4th. They also ended this show by saying “we’ll return May 4th”, so it looks like the weekly shows are going away too. (There was a mention of another event at the Mexico City race track, so that may account for one of the missing weekends.)

I liked the two singles matches, though I was pretty full on wrestling for the week by the time I got the main event and may be underrating it. Jack and Pirata did a good job of playing of each other’s usual moves, knowing each other well. Maybe that upcoming Dragon Gate appearance has gotten something into Flamtia, but he was wrestling more like he did in those days than he has for a while; I don’t know when I last saw that finish from him. The Argenis angle was really weird. Elipse and Orbita are finally easy to tell apart, since the good one is wearing white with “BL” on the boots and the evil one is wearing black with “LE” on the boots. I’m still not into the feud but they did a reasonable job with it. The 4v4 got money thrown in but I wasn’t nearly as high on it; the Russian dude almost landed on his head on a bad spot with Tirano, and that wasn’t the only mishap. Match went way long for my tastes. The announcers said Marishka was a one year vet, but she came across better than that. She and Sussy worked better as opponents than most of the people they’ve brought in. (There was also a slight chat about a Big Lucha Women’s championship.) The opener was hit and miss, but they hit on their biggest spot.

The big Big Lucha spots of the weekend took place over the West Coast Pro Wrestling show on Sunday. Viajero teamed with Aramis & Lee Moriarty against Hallowicked, Jigsaw and Matt Makowski in a bit disappointing match. Not the fault of the work. Aramis hit his finish on Jigsaw, and the referee counted three when he was supposed to notice a pin break up. It felt like it ended well too soon (and Jigsaw’s reaction made it clear it was a mess up.) Cometa Maya, Radioactivo and Oni el Bendito met in a bonus unadvertised match. They all came off super nervous, affecting their performance, but they still pulled off enough crazy stuff that those fans hadn’t seen before that it made a strong positive impression. Oni, if he sets his mind to it, could be a Taurus/Mortos like figure and the finish of the match was put together to make him come off that way.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 04/14/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental & Drakula Ng b Bumbu & Sacro
2) Diosa Quetzal & Lolita b Danessa & Shamila
3) Águila Roja, Puma de Oro, Rey Halcón Jr. b Fussion, Príncipe Centauro, Sky Man
4) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. © b Multifacético & Tornado [IWRG IC TAG]
fifth defense. Cerebros were seconded by new micro mascot Neurona.
5) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly b Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Látigo, Toxin
an Aguila Roja distraction helped the Mexaboys win.
6) Axel, Hell Boy, Máscara Sagrada DQ Gannicus, Ivan Rokov, Vangellys
Vangellys foul led to the DQ. Gannicus and Sagitarius have joined Rokov & Vangellys’ Mafia Rusa

I got nothing here. The photos show a lot of Latigo/Toxin versus Mexaboys stuff, which sounds promising. I did watch the Thursday Arez/Latigo vs Mexaboys match, which was promising but weird because of the impromptu tag match. The best use of the Mala Fama guys for promotions like IWRG (and Big Lucha if they’re reading) is to work with their younger promising guys and help them pick up a few things. It may or not Mala Fama’s own best use of time, but use them way if you can get them.

Other News

There was a shooting prior to a lucha libre show in Tijuana on Sunday. Zeta has the best story I’ve read on this. Mikhael Lucha Libre had their first show scheduled (or at least I’m sure it’s the first under that name.) The show was scheduled for a 5 pm start at Unidad Deportivo Benito Juarez. Zeta says the ring was still being set up at 4:37 pm; it’s a Mexican wrestling show so they were probably running late, but seems likely they may have been letting fans into the building. Two men also came into the building, one wearing a gold luchador mask. That masked man shot three people: promoter Jesus Martinez Lopez and ticket sellers Martin Hurtado Avaloz and Enrique Martinez Lopez. Jesus & Martin are said to be in stable condition, Enrique is in grave condition. Police apprehended two suspects and the weapon in the case. The show was canceled. There’s no word about the motive.

In an interview with Un Round Mas, Hijo del Santo said he never put his mask up against Perro Aguayo, Villano III or Fishman because he was scared those guys would beat him.

Slam Wrestling has a piece on Negro Casas going into the Cauliflower Alley Club Hall of Fame.

Shocker’s wife says he’s gone into rehab. Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, who runs a couple of rehab clinics after his own battles with drug addiction, offered tot take Shocker after his latest arrest went viral. Shocker was booked a lot this past weekend; Pirata Morgan took his place.

Peter Avalon hasn’t been on an AEW TV show, but he popped up on Being the Dark Order this week training in Mexico. He ended up in La Bestia del Ring’s class at the Valhalla Center, and did bits with Bestia and Rush. I don’t know if this is just an internet thing, but it’s the first time Rush has shown up on anything AEW related for a while. If you want to overthink this, maybe this is a set up for Avalon to be in Jose’s spot.

A profile of Cordoba’s Pequeno Dragon.

And one of Oaxaca’s Rasputin.