CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 04/19/2024 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Excelsior, FDDE, Kaiser Sports, Publimetro, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio & Pierrothito b Galaxy & Shockercito 
8:48
2) Legendario b Vegas [lightning]
9:51
3) Persephone, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Lluvia, Marcela, Tabata 
11:51. Tabata replaced Catalina
4) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Titán b Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
15:29
5) Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero b Averno, Euforia, Mephisto, Templario
12:42. Straight falls, Templario DQed for fouling Angel de Oro in the first, Angel de Oro getting away with a mask pull on Templario in the second. Sets up a singles match.
6) Máscara Dorada b Místico, Atlantis Jr. [Copa Universal, semifinal]
18:35. Mistico beat Atlantis with La Mistica, then Mascara Dorada beat Mistico with his own La Mistica to win. Dorada, Magnus and Titan meet in the final next week.
It seemed like Mascara Dorada was destined to win after Mistico got the submission elimination of Atlantis, and even more so after Mistico became the first person to kick out of Dorada’s shooting star press. It was still entirely shocking to see Dorada beat Mistico with his own La Mistica. CMLL is not taking any half measures here, they’re going all the way with trying to make Mascara Dorada a shining star.
The action prior to the finish was strong. Atlantis Jr. did indeed get booed, but it came off more as the crowd’s preference for the other two (especially Mistico) than the anti-Atlantis vibe of the recent shows. He had a couple of great two on one spots, and a lot of the match was fought with all three men involved at the same time. I think others liked this match a bit better than me – I’m tired of three way matches, this was still an elimination match built around illogical pinfall breakups and I thought the Rey de Reyes one was better for the direct Laredo Kid/Vikingo segments – but I still liked a good deal
For all you can say about Mistico and his ego (which is a lot), there’s few other top guys who would’ve been as giving as he was with that finish. He sold it big and true afterwards, selling the disappointment and the pain.
This entire show was a good watch. The semimain really never got going, but all the other matches were at least good. La Escuadra were fantastic in their match, tons of energy and ideas, and I liked that match better than the main event in some ways. The women’s match was super solid; Persephone’s quickly becoming one of the better CMLL women and totally kept up with her partners. Galaxy is another one one the fringes of the roster who keeps getting better. Vegas is missing something for me, but he remains a perfectly solid midcarder for these matches.
CMLL (SAT) 04/20/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Emperador Jr. & Platino Kid b Hunter & Infarto
11:07
2) Legendario, Leono, Retro b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
12:25
3) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio b Astral, Diamond, Robin
15:15
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa DQ Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
11:01. Akuma fouled Dulce
5) Kráneo, Niebla Roja, Rey Bucanero b Fugaz, Panterita del Ring, Volcano
12:51
6) Atlantis, Star Jr., Valiente b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Volador Jr.
11:42
Nothing you have to go out of your way to see here. Match 4 might have been the hottest, but the finish was one to build to towards Friday. Fugaz got completely lost in semi-main and time stood still for so long.
CMLL (SUN) 04/21/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Kaligua & Pequeño Magía b Pequeño Polvora & Pequeño Violencia
did not air on the stream
2) Capitán Suicida, Eléctrico, Valiente Jr. b Forneo, Inquisidor, Sangre Imperial
13:51
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Sagrado
11:02
4) Dark Silueta, Lluvia, Zeuxis b Kira, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles]
12:04. Kira is the new name for Andrómeda
5) Máscara Dorada b Bárbaro Cavernario
15:02, win via SSP
6) Averno, Flip Gordon, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Místico, Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
9:49. Straight falls; Templario and Angel de Oro had issues following Friday, and Templario beat up Angel de Oro after the match.
CMLL announced on Saturday that this show would air live, and only live. I took that personally. Dorada/Cavernario was an exciting match, with both men pulling off big moments flawlessly. It didn’t have quite the drama as the Niebla Roja/Flip Gordon match, but the crowd as more with these two from the beginning. I’d rate it at about the same level. There were good standout performances but not another match you really missed out on here.
CMLL’s live only bit failed in execution – they didn’t get the stream working until the opener was about over – and as a concept. The idea of a “live” only stream misses the point of a subscription VOD service. It also antagonizes everyone who had something else to do or lives in a time zone where watching live is not an option. “Live only” was the biggest reason everyone hated Ticketmaster, and always having VOD was a major CMLL selling point in their moves to both Boletia and YouTube. The only solace is CMLL clearly has changes their plans for YouTube so many times and every change has come closer to what should’ve been the original plan: “everything CMLL tapes for one price.”
CMLL (MON) 04/22/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Porra Fresa]
1) Black Tiger, Blue Shark, Hijo de Centella Roja b Espíritu Maligno, Fénix SO, King Jaguar
2) Mije & Periquito Sacaryas b Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II
a very rare loss for Micro Gemelos, after one dived on the other on accident
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring, Volcano b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Stephanie Vaquer b Tessa Blanchard [lightning] 
5) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Titán b Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Pegasso [Relevos Increíbles]
Pegasso replaced Gran Guerrero
6) Máscara Dorada, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. DQ Averno, Flip Gordon, Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
Templario fouled Volador, probably setting up a singles match next week. (Edit: nope!)
Arturo Wencesalo Rodiguez hosts a lucha libre radio show in Puebla called Mano y Mano; he’s done it for about 15 years. As of Monday, he appears also to be one of the announcers for the (still very unclear) broadcasts of Arena Puebla shows. The Guadalajara announcers were also doing a lucha libre radio show when they got pulled into do the actual shows. Adding a Puebla local announcer means one less Mexico City one has to travel to Puebla (and then travel back very late at night.) Arturo’s comments on getting the job give no more information about where or when that Arena Puebla show airs.
CMLL (TUE) 04/23/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico b Fantasy & Pequeño Magía
2) La Vaquerita & Olympia b La Maligna & Metálica [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Valiente Jr. b Difunto, Disturbio, Pólvora
Rey Cometa and Espiritu Negro replaced Audaz and Fuego earlier on Tuesday. Disturbio appeared in place of Misterioso.
4) Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
5) Niebla Roja b Valiente [lightning]
6) Atlantis Jr., Flip Gordon, Místico b Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
Did not get to this one yet in my CMLL catch up. Sounded like 4 and 6 were the best ones and the women’s match had some issues.
CMLL (TUE) 04/23/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Mas Lucha]
1) Cris Skin, Draego, Persa b Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
2) Gallo Jr. & Rafaga Jr. b Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
3) Adira & Náutica b Hatanna & Tabata © [OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG]
Champs fall on their first defense (and Tabata’s first appearance here since winning the belt)
4) Atlantis & Panterita del Ring b Rey Bucanero & Satánico
5) Lluvia b Dark Silueta © [OCCIDENTE WOMEN]
Dark Silueta falls on her first defense (since winning this title in July 2021)
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Guadalajara ran a four show tournament to crown Hatanna and Katara as the new champions. Katara then unmasked to become Tabata, and didn’t return to Guadalajara until losing the belts here. That’s not exceptionally weird for lucha libre, but fits with other changes of direction in Guadalajara. Lluvia winning her belt may have been more a result of Dark Silueta ending up with the CMLL Japan title, not needing another one, and Lluvia no longer being a tag champ.
Speaking of changes of direction: this stream went 1h40m, when shows a couple months ago were going an hour longer. The announcers used to shout out and respond to the chat in between matches, and now they’re going silent like the Mexico City people. There are probably big stories we never pick up from this side of the screen because the effects are too subtle. The changes in Guadalajara are anything but subtle.
CMLL (FRI) 04/26/2024 Arena México
***Arena Mexico 68th Anniversary***
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Acero & Aéreo
2) Capitán Suicida, Futuro, Max Star vs Crixus, Okumura, Raider
3) Sanely, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Dark Silueta, La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Dulce Gardenia vs Virus, Akuma, Disturbio [hair]
5) Templario vs Ángel de Oro
6) Máscara Dorada vs Titán vs Magnus [CMLL Universal, final]
We kind of know what it would mean if Dorada or Titan won the Universal final. What would it mean if Magnus won that?
Templario/Angel de Oro should be solid. The hair match seems like Dulce Gardenia or Disturbio losing. Match 2 could be pretty good.
Tickets are moving fast for this show; the floor is close to full, and they’ve opened the other sections on Ticketmaster.
Daniel Aceves (now being listed as Dr. Daniel Aceves) announced the winners of the 2024 Copa Bobby Bonales award: Satanico, Averno, Dark Silueta, and Pequeno Pierroth. They’ll all receive their cups on Friday’s show
Other Informa segments included
- Magia Blanca talking abut promoting shows in Torreon’s Arena Coliseo Tony Arellano, including the one coming up Sunday with Torneo de Escuelas wrestlers.
- Disturbio, Akuma, Virus and Dulce Gardenia previewed their hair match
- KeMalito announced he’d debut as a Micro luchador on 04/30. He teams with Chamuel and Micro Sagrada against the Micro Gemelos and new name in Tengu. CMLL didn’t explain Tengu or advertise him as a debut, so it may be a new name for Micro Dito.
- The 04/28 Kid’s Championship match will include Fuego, Robin, Neon, Zandokan Jr., Crixus, and Akuma
- Sanely talked about being cleared to return from her (second) knee injury. Tessa was there to talk about teaming with Sanely and not about any story a few paragraphs down.
- and FantasticaMania México will take place on 06/21
- That’s probably the next Friday show as a Fan Leyenda exclusive
- I saw the teaser for this and dumbly thought Lion emoji = “Chris Jericho” when Lion emoji
- No details on who will appear, yet.
CMLL (MON) 04/29/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astoreth & Enigmática vs Hela & Lady Amazona
2) Meyer & Novato vs El Malayo & Siky Ozama
3) Arkalis & Okumura vs Dark Magic & Rey Samuray and Fuego & Multy and Enfermero Jr. & Pegasso [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Gran Guerrero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Magnus, Niebla Roja
5) Hechicero, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Flip Gordon, Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
Volador and Templario again with mix partners. Match 3 – a CMLL four way tag match with incredible partners = is surely strange. Match four is maybe another Gran Guerrero/Magnus title match if there’s any reason it’s happening now.
PW Insider’s subscription side reported there’s talk of Tessa Blanchard returning to TNA. Blanchard have a bad falling outing with management to end her run there 2020, in addition to her fellow wrestlers denouncing her a few months prior. Time has past, she’s made peace with La Rosa Negra, the TNA management team has changed since then, the roster’s turned over a bit, and Blanchard being on a bunch of unusually highly visible CMLL shows probably all work in her favor. (Is she a changed person? Impossible to know.) The TNA structure also seems to be changing: according to Fightful Select, they’re offering per date deals and not contracts to veterans. That means bringing back Blanchard to TNA c0uld be as simple as “one weekend of tapings to see how it goes” and not a long term deal. For her part, Tessa was asked about rumors on Informa and said she was very happy in CMLL, had lots of rivals to face, and one day soon she was going to move to Mexico.
Most CMLL foreigners leaving to work with TNA (with their vaunted agreement with AAA!) would no longer be booked in CMLL. Tessa Blanchard could be an exception, CMLL seems to love here – Julio Cesar Rivera once again went on about Tessa being the most beloved luchadora to come to Arena Mexico – and it’s possible she’ll operate under . There are some people who’ve liked Blanchard in CMLL, there are many others who would be thrilled to see the end of her in this promotion. I don’t think her showing up in TNA is definite ending to her CMLL run.
05/11 MLW
- Mistico vs Barbaro Cavernario for the MLW Middleweight championship
- Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis Jr.
- Star Jr. & Fuego vs Averno & Magnus
- Satoshi Kojima & Okumura vs Matthew Justice & 1 Called Manders for the vacant MLW Tag Team Championship – new
- the previous champions were “injured” (in reality are booked elsewhere)
Virus vs Star Jr. from MLW’s previous taping is now up on YouTube.
Box y Lucha 3600 has a story on the Universal final and, weirdly, WCW Nitro versus WWF Raw. It would be cool if Box Y Lucha wrote more about Mexican wrestling (or even boxing!) but there’s a lot in there that’s something else.
AAA
AAA on Space aired a TripleMania special, essentially a Best Of episode with some promos for Monterrey this week. They did a similar bit prior to Rey de Reyes. It’s an odd ball tactic to air a filler show in the “go-home” spot and I’m struggling to understand it. My best guess is AAA doesn’t see TV or specifically Space’s TV spot as valuable. AAA airs on a bunch of networks, including Azteca, but all of those are a week behind Space for whatever reason. Could AAA see the Azteca airing (and/or the similarly timed YouTube upload?) as the shows that really get seen, so the go home week is the week prior?
One upside is this episode ran through all the matches on TripleMania, a basic concept almost never does. They still didn’t git it right; the preview was apparently taped before they knew Satnam Singh was added to the Mexico versus US match.
The upside of AAA airing these “special” AAA episodes means AAA needs to tape even less TV. AAA released the lineup for their May 11th taping in Mexico City. It’s likely that’s the only TV taping AAA runs in May, and the only one between the Monterrey and Tijuana TripleManias. If there’s a special before every TripleMania, then AAA may be running as few as 18 tapings (or around 112 televised matches.) Is a promotion that is averaging one taping every three weeks a major league promotion? Sure, if they’re still drawing 10,000 for some of them.
That May 11th taping:
AAA TV (SAT) 05/11/2024 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Karis La Momia Jr. vs Noisy Boy vs Bengala
2) Adelicious, Centella (Aaa), Faby Apache vs Dalys, Flammer, Tiffany
3) Octagón Jr. © vs Dinámico, Taurus, Drago, Australian Suicide, Belcegor [AAA LA]
3rd defense, 2nd on TV
4) Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Dark Scoria vs Abismo Negro, El Fiscal, Psicosis
5) Charly Manson, Mecha Wolf, Pagano vs ?, Electroshock, Zorro
6) El Patrón Alberto & Vampiro vs Cibernético & Dr. Wagner Jr.
No real idea what this will have to do with the next TripleMania. Probably won’t. It’s a bit interesting for the TV arrivals. El Fiscal is the actual son of Abismo Negro Jr., who first got attention blasting AAA for daring to put someone else under the mask. He ended up starting to wrestle to take the name for himself, which didn’t much work – AAA’s not giving up the name and El Fiscal wasn’t much good. (He came off like a guy who rushed into wrestling without much training, and that seemed like the actual story.) Fiscal and AAA made peace at some point and he was part of the Luchatitlan cast. That project still appears to be done, but this will be an interesting measure to see if working daily – though having the same match every time out – has helped El Fiscal improve.
Karis La Momia Jr., the son of La Parka Jr., was similarly working those Luchatitlan shows and has been working AAA shows this year. He’s forever been expected to get the La Parka name, but AAA has been in no rush to do it or even put him on TV much.
Centella was the extremely short lived 2023 identity of the wrestler currently known as Kira. She worked two tapings and then told AAA she was quitting on the day of the third taping. My guess is it’s a Lady Wind’s new name, as the one Lucha x el Barrio winner who hasn’t returned after the concept. I have her down as “Centella (AAA)” to keep my database from confusing her with the indie male Centella who’s wrestled in the Mexico City area forever. There are also “Centella”s in Baja California, Jalisco, Morelos, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Yucatan. (The military luchador who’s been in both AAA and CMLL is Centinela.) It’s a generic and colorless name; AAA should’ve given something flashier to Kira back then. There’s no real reason to bring it back, it has no value to it. Maybe AAA registered the name somewhere and wants to recoup the spent value, but it seems more useful to create something memorable if they’re going to do something with the character. Maybe they’re just not.
Tiffany’s almost certainly showing up at TripleMania Monterrey on Saturday, it is her hometown. She’s also not an addition that’s going to help those matches; Flammer is going to need to work for three. Octagon Jr. seems the most likely young guy for AAA to go with to prove they’re going with any young guy, but then they do things like “a six way with five guys who are not pushed” and it clearer they’re not actually doing anything with him.
The returning Australian Suicide and Noisy Boy join the big pool of people of infrequently working prelim matches here, with Takuma & Kento and the Money Machine guys and Radioactivo & Extasis and maybe even Kamik-C & Skalibur and who knows even Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito and others I’m not thinking of. Noisy Boy told Mas Lucha it was his dream to wrestle in AAA. I’m happy he’s getting to live his dream. AAA would probably be a better promotion if they had 30 people that were mainly those on TV, rather than the 60-80 who cycle in for a show here or there.
Dos Caras spoke in more details about the accusations of partner violence against him in an interview with MedioTiempo. Caras acknowledged he was having an affair with the accuser, listed here as “Diana N.” He says they got together about three or four times a month. He says he broke it off on February 27th via phone call, and he thought she was OK with it. Later, she started sending “compromising photos” of him, first to Caras himself, and then to his family. He filed a criminal complaint about the harassment on March 8th. Caras said that didn’t stop her, she continued to harass and threaten his family, mostly his wife. Diana N. filed her own criminal complaint about a physical and verbal attack outside of a gym on March 17th. Caras says that can’t have occurred, he was eating with his family and friends at that time, and that he’s got security logs showing when he entered and left his house. Caras says the woman has no proof, and had presented no evidence of her claims. Caras says he filed a second complaint on April 11, specifically for her sending photos of an intimate nature of him. Caras admitted he was at fault for having this relationship, he’s sorry for it, and he has to pay the consequences for it – and says he has already personally and professionally – but the things the woman are accusing him of are untrue.
An AAA show in Morelia billed as Vampiro’s last match in the city reportedly drew 10,000 fans. That number is probably a guess but the pictures show a very big crowd. Quite often, when there are large audiences for non-televised shows outside of Mexico City, the tickets are given away. This seems like a ticket shows; tickets were discounted leading into the show and there was a sponsored element (Merza, a local supermarket chain), but it reads like a normal show. It also was a charity fundraiser: 109,000 pesos were raised to support an autism center.
Laredo Kid defeated Crazy Steve to win the TNA Digital Championship on Saturday’s pre-show. You can see the match on YouTube for free.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 04/21/2024 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring, IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Príncipe Centuro b Sacro, Dracula Ng, Vudu Max, Arceus [IWRG IC Light, #1 Contenders] 
Centuaro defeated Arceus gets a title match with Aguila Roja
2) Ivan Rokov b Spider Fly
a bonus Random match between Spider Fly and Puma de Oro, but Ivan Rokov asked Puma to take his place and Puma said OK.
3) Bengalee b Lolita, Keyra
Scheduled as Bengalee, Keyra, Shamila vs Danessa, Lolita, Sagitarius. Lolita demanded a title match and a cage match with Keyra.
4) Black Terry L Veneno, Cerebro Negro, Mr. Mike, Tony Rivera, Neuorna, Axel, Bombero Infernal, Granjero [cage, loser advances]
Mr. Mike, Granjero and micro Neurona replaced X-Fly & Apolo Estrada Jr.
5) Puma de Oro b Hell Boy, Tornado, Cerebro Negro Jr., Multifacetico Jr., Noisy Boy, Rey Halcón, Águila Roja [cage, loser advances]
6) Puma de Oro b Black Terry [cage, hair, mask]
Puma de Oro shaved Black Terry. Cerebro Negro tried to help Black Terry but was unsuccessful
7) DMT Azul b Hijo de Canis Lupus © [RGR HEAVY]
mask match challenges followed
It’s sad but unsurprising that Black Terry’s now in the role of “veteran who shows up only to lose his hair.” I’m not sure the point of doing a “randomly decided” match and then changing the match – why not just pick Rokov? Can you not randomly pick “special invitees”?
Mas Lucha was back to covering these shows; they’ve bowed out since IWRG took their video off Mas Lucha’s channel. Jose Manuel Guillen had recently appeared in a IWRG panel discussion (about commissions in lucha libre), so they were already talking again. Neither side explained why they stopped working together or started now. No one explains anything.
(Thursday lineup, if I remember to type it.)
The Crash
The Crash (SAT) 04/20/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [The Crash, Zona Ruda]
1) Gallo Xtreme & Psicodelica b Azteca Fly & Rey Furia
2) Mirage b Anubis [bull terrier]
3) Trauma I & Trauma II b Hijo de Canis Lupus & Tonalli and Bamboo & El Rey
4) Carta Brava Jr. (AAA), Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana b Destiny, Noisy Boy, Toto
Poder del Norte earlier showed up and said their goal was to dethrone Destiny, with Carta Brava the next shot
5) Willie Mack b Dralistico, Metalik
Willie Mack replaced Nick Wayne and won the match after shenanigans.
6) Bestia 666, D Luxe, Rey Escorpión (Indie) b Mecha Wolf, Pagano, Rey Horus
The Crash ran the big angle with Dorian Roldan and the eye and Pagano and Mecha Wolf showing up to set up this card – and attendance went down! Both The Crash and EMW have been filling this building for all their recent show, and it’s a genuine shock that this show didn’t do the same. This card didn’t strike me as unusually week. It’s possible the shooting at the other recent lucha show affected the turnout here, but no one seemed to cite that as the reason so I’m just speculating.
Zona Ruda’s report on the show mentioned fans were expecting the AAA stuff to lead to something big, but it was just a normal match, not even a particularly memorable one. The Crash did confirm their wrestlers would appear on TripleMania Tijuana, a safe guess once they ran the AAA angle. That likely means the Copa TripleMania or a pre-show match like the EMW guys worked last year.
Zona Ruda’s report also noted how un-over Metalik is nowadays, getting no reaction to almost anything he did. Willie Mack worked worked AAA last year and hasn’t been back this year. No idea if that means he’s gone with AAA or if whatever’s going on with The Crash & AAA means he’s ok to work both. Even if I did know, it might change again at any time. They also announced Hijo de Dr. Wagner and Daga for their next show on 05/17. They’ve since added a cage match with Bestia, Rey Horus and Mecha Wolf.
The Crash tried to stream this show, including commentary for the first time in this experiment, and the broadcast failed. They gave up early on with audio issues. The Crash has instead started to put the video of the show on their YouTube channel.
ELITE
Elite (SUN) 04/21/2024 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal [ContraReplica, Estrellas del Ring, Mas Lucha]
1) Calibus & Iron Kid b Chris Stone Jr. & Yetti
2) Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo De Oro Jr. DQ Difunto, Rokambole, Villano V Jr.
Villanos unmasked Brazo de Oro Jr. for the DQ
3) Arez, Látigo, Toxin b Argenis, Dr. Karonte Jr., Verdugo
Argenis replaced Bestia 666, had words with Arez after the match
4) Mocho Cota, Súper Fly, Tito Santana DQ Dios del Inframundo, Rey Horuz, Xtreme Tiger
Carta Brava Jr. ran in to unmask Xtreme Tiger for the DQ. The rest of Poder del Norte offered Super Fly a spot in their group as well.
5) DMT Azul & The Beast Mortos b Forastero (NGD) & Sansón
Reports differ if he was Black Beast, The Beast Mortos, Black Mortus or Black Taurus. DMT Azul pulled Forastero’s mask for the win.
6) Dralistico b Komander, Metalik
Dralistico beat Komander with La Mistica.
7) Rush NF LA Park
Commission stopped the match after two referees were knocked down. Challenges followed, Rush said he’ll only do the mask match if it happens in Madison Square Garden.
The finish of the main event comes off as trying to recreate the famous Arena Mexico match between Rush & LA Park. The emotion of the fans helped a lot there, tough to tell if played out again. The live report I got mentions the crowd was very into LA Park and hot for the match. Rush and LA Park has about as good a chance of happening in Madison Square Garden as it does on the moon. The crowd laughed at Rush for suggesting that idea.
Contra Repulica calls it a “full house”, which appears to be a falsehood. There were empty seats and curtained off areas. The word was out about this show being a failure ahead of time, so a lot of energy was spent after the fact in Elite, LA Park and Rush proving they were actually all winners. One person who was there guessed between 1,100 and 1,500 fans. They had significantly more tickets than that on sale (and full capacity would’ve been like 4,000.) If Elite was actually winners, they would’ve put tickets on sale for a follow up show. They didn’t. ELITE director Ernesto Santillan said they’d announce a follow up lineup of “international stature” soon. He had previously said the next show would take place in two months, so that’s the test.
ELITE appeared to be treating this as a taping of some sort. There was live announcing, proving people in Mexican wrestling aren’t smart enough to learn from each other’s mistakes. The usual YouTube channels took video, but only clips on Sunday. La Tijera put up a 12 minute version of LA Park/Rush on Monday afternoon, which I presume is the full match without actually clicking the play button. Mas Lucha posted the carefully framed crowd shot that are usually done only by people involved in producing an event.
Rush/AEW
Rush has pulled off Saturday’s MV Promotions show in Tijuana (versus LA Park) and Sunday’s AVE card in Cuautitlan. Both promotions have acknowledged the change, and explained Rush is under contract to AEW and they called him to work a show so he had to leave the lineups. Rush has not worked an AEW event since the December World’s End PPV show. AEW has not announced Rush as appearing on this week’s Collision show, that sort of announcement is likely to take place during tonight’s show. It’s always possible Rush could be booked for the Ring of Honor show taped the same night. (Or I just have it stuck in my head that Rush could be a great first challenger for Mark Briscoe.)
People disappear from AEW TV all the time, sometimes for injuries that aren’t made public, sometimes for suspensions that are kept quiet, sometimes just because there’s no ideas for them at the moment. Rush did acknowledge there was a visa issue that was keeping him away for a while, but it had become an notable stretch. This week stood out as a key point; Rush is not going to be a significant part of the Forbidden Door PPV cycle, so it’s either AEW brings him back for this Double or Nothing cycle or he would’ve sitting for a very long time. Rush seems like he’s made it back. (Or Rush is pulling a double fake on everyone and working TripleMania, if you want to get crazy.)
(Aside 1: DMT Azul will now wrestle LA Park on Saturday, while Psycho Clown takes Rush’s Sunday booking.)
(Aside 2: Dralistico did not get removed from his shows this weekend as of yet.)
(Aside 3: There’s a similar decision day coming this week with Fenix. Either he’s back this week on AEW TV, or it’s unlikely he’ll work that House of Glory show against Penta on 05/05. The AEW rule of thumb is an injured person under contract returns first on AEW TV, and Fenix only has a few dates left to make that return. Fenix’s injury has been weird even by Fenix standards.)
Big Lucha
Big Lucha (SAT) 05/04/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Helios & Sangre Nueva vs Nordico & Ryu Orochi
2) La Brava & Sussy Love vs Marushika & Sairley
3) Cósmico, La Bomba, Reiyel vs Auzter, Borgdan Klimov, Brujo
4) El Potro de Oro, Mr. Win, Tirano vs Argenis, Limbo, Torito Negro
5) Ricky Marvin vs Australian Suicide
6) Atómico Jr., Elipse, Iku vs Big Tao Tao, Orbita, Viajero
7) Súper Nova & Texano Jr. © vs Cometa Maya & Radioactivo [BIG LUCHA MIXA]
The April 13th show is retroactively being billed as “the Big Lucha World Season 4 Finale” and they’ve switched the format to monthly (?) shows again.
Limbo and Atomico Jr. won a #1 contenders match back in January, the same show these tag belts were last defended. They’re also on the show. Maybe they forgot. Big Lucha’s poster makes it seem as though Atomico Jr. is now in the Lokos Evans. Limbo might be part of Black Generation now, and that could be the bigger issue.
Australian Suicide is obviously back in Mexico for now, so he’s a candidate to be one of the TripleMania Monterrey surprise wrestlers. He’s wrestled sparingly in Puerto Rico since leaving Mexico in 2020, though that may be as much due to struggles in the Puerto Rican scene as anything. I don’t know what to expect with him in 2024 versus Marvin.
Vanguardia
Vanguardia (SAT) 05/04/2024 Paletera Franky, Pachuca, Hidalgo
1) Búho Jr. vs Bayek, Billy, Corcel Blanco Jr., Falkor Kid
2) Zuzu Divine vs Sadia
3) Colmillo Blanco, Dragón Latino, El Intruso, Titan (Hidalgo) vs Deluto, Deluto Jr., Tarasco IV, Tarasco Jr.
4) Lobo Blanco Jr. vs El Mago, Extreme Tiger
5) Cíclope & Miedo Extremo vs Juicy Finau
I don’t really have much to say about the card – there’s nothing I’m interested in watching and I’m not even sure I’d be able to do that. Seeing Juicy Finau reminded me how Konnan and others were raving about how well he did in a couple of matches in Tijuana and they were making him into a big star – and now he hasn’t been booked there for months.
Field Trip: AEW
The plan was to drive to Peoria for Collision on Saturday, drive to St. Louis Sunday morning, go to AEW Dynasty, and then drive home Monday morning after a good night of sleep. The plan changed; I needed to be home Monday morning, which led to me driving hurrying/running out of the venue as soon as Strickland won the title and driving four plus hours in the dead of the night. Everything is now a blur. I’m still tired and not thinking great, as can be told from the quickly deleted twitter post.
It was still a trip worth doing; I came away from the weekend thinking that I’d really like to go to WrestleDream in Tacoma, if that’s the special Bryan Danielson it appears to be. His match with Will Ospreay was outstanding. Danielson perfectly countering the Oz Cutter with a knee is the image that’s seared in my brain from the match, though Bryan Danielson using La Mistica to set up his finish was also pretty memorable. (And also the closest thing to lucha libre on that show.) I continue to be tempeted to post a video of the super serious was CMLL handles a possible head injury – or really any possible injury, down to a hangnail – so people watching AEW will understand that they’re just doing injury angles. I fear someone seeing that video, AEW doing their injury angles a bit more seriously, eating up five minutes of PPV time, and everyone getting angry with me about it.
At AEW shows, they have a camera crew on the floor that sometimes shoots the crowd and other stuff, but seems primarily focused on capturing entrances and other things happening on the ramp. He was easy to spot early, he got in position for Orange Cassidy showing up before his match to face off with Trent Barretta. Once you see the trick, it’s hard not to notice. I bring this up because, mid-way through the Ospreay/Danielson, you could see that cameraman approach the ramp. I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye and I was aghast that AEW would have someone come down and get involved in that match. After a very long second, I realized the cameraman was just trying to get around the ramp to get backstage on the other side, he wasn’t shooting anything. You only get this weirdness live.
PAC/Okada was really good live and there wasn’t anything bad on the show. The Bucks and FTR killed themselves to make sure people cared about that tag title match. That Jericho match came off as a Rorschach test when I listened to podcasts recapping it (and I sure had plenty of time to listen to podcasts that night.) Heard “great heel heat, he’s really over”, “go away heat, they’ve got to stop booking him” and “a mix of positive and negative” all back to back to back. I think they’re going to keep booking him as long as he gets a reaction, and as long as there’s no big turnout during his segments. I was surprised that the Storm/Rosa was universally praised; it seemed to have some issues to me live.
The Collision was surprisingly good too – the bunkhouse match was great and the trios match was good too. Komander had some positive moments in the Rampage fourway, though he and Rob Van Dam weren’t at all smooth in that closing sequence. The Beast Mortos won a good ROH match; Black Christian and AR Fox worked most of the match like it was a handicap match because Mortos was just that powerful. They’re building him up for something, and I’m pretty sure it’s not Vikingo this time.
As far as getting of Twitter for a weekend, maybe it helped a bit. I still ended up refreshing Blue Sky too much during the shows I was at; there was just much less to find when I looked there. I posted a lot on Instagram but that app still can’t get my hooks in me for some reason. I reinstalled Twitter and immediately happened on many dumb debates I hadn’t know what was going and thought were a waste of everyone’s time. It’s still the only place I can find some information I have to have for this blog, so we’re stuck with each other.
I also went to the St. Louis Art Museum and the Peoria riverfront. They were nice, you don’t care about this part. Would you like me to discuss having “Say My Name” stuck in my head for the last day? No? Moving on…
Other News
05/05 GCW “The Wrld on Lucha”
- Arez, Latigo, Gringo Loco vs Jack Cartwheel, Aramis, Gravity
- Speedball Mike Bailey vs Galeno del Mal
- Dulce Tormenta vs Masha Slamovich
- Pimpinela Escarlata vs Effy
El Fantasma, Canek, Super Muneco and many other luchadors appeared at a Morena political party press event Saturday. Candidates for offices in Coyocan and elsewhere in Mexico City also appeared. The political party talked about taking care of retired wrestlers with rehab centers and medical help, the idea that always gets talked about in situations like this. (They can forever talk about this idea because it never actually is implemented.) There was also talk about opening up more places for youth to get into wrestling. A second article says there are about 250 professional wrestlers in Mexico City, which perhaps is true if only AAA and CMLL wrestlers are counted. It’s more a sign people were saying things without thinking.
There’s more details about the shooting before a Tijuana wrestling show. It doesn’t sound great for the police. Video of the attack clears up the situation: the promoter was shot three times while in a pubic bathroom outside two building. A second person with the promotion was hit trying get the attackers, and the third person was just an bystander caught in the crossfire. The shooting happened at 4:35, the police arrested a Luis Enrique N. at 4:44 and a Jose H. at 4:47. Seems quick, turns out to be too quick: video showed Luis Enrique N. walking back through a gate into his neighborhood at 4:33. They arrested someone who couldn’t have been in position to be the shooter two minutes later. Luis Enrique N. was released on bail after the video was released. Jose H. also appears to be a case of mistaken identity, though he has not been released.
Segunda Caida reviews some more 1989 Monterrey.
Doradafan has a highlight video of Cosmico.
Ovaciones has an interview with luchador/future lawyer Sumed Black.