Month: April 2024

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.

CMLL

Tonight’s show

CMLL (FRI) 04/12/2024 Arena México
1) Legendario vs Forneo [lightning]
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
3) Flip Gordon vs Euforia [lightning]
4) Gran Guerrero vs Averno, Templario, Titán, Stigma, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Dragón Rojo Jr., Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
CMLL champions block.
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Octagón vs Hechicero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

I’m never looking forward to an Octagon main event. It will make Dorada look even springier. Magnus was a semi-surprise last week to advance last week. Averno, getting into this tournament at the last moment by beating Barbaro Cavernario for the CMLL Light Heavyweight championship, would fit the same; it could end up Mistico versus two rivals. Cavernario, Titan and Templario are the most pushed on paper. Any of the first three matches could really pop.

I won’t be following this one live, hope to catch up on Saturday.

CMLL luchadors (Guerrero Maya, Neon, Cirxus, Retro, Reina Isis and KeMalito) are at the Acapulco Tianguis Turistico tourism expo, as part of promoting TuriLuchas. There’s been a CMLL presence there for the last few years.  That expo goes through today, so KeMalito may not an Arena Mexico appearance tonight.

CMLL (MON) 04/15/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Centella Roja & Hijo de Centella Roja vs Fénix SO & Sombra Diabólika
2) Meyer vs Prayer [lightning]
3) Diamond, Fuego, Robin vs El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama
4) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Multy vs Difunto, Raider, Vegas [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Ángel de Oro vs Hechicero [lightning]
6) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Stuka Jr., Templario, Último Guerrero

A normal Monday night.

CMLL (TUE) 04/16/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Johnny Dinamo & Minotauro vs Shezmu & Temerario
2) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Trono
4) Hatanna, Lluvia, Tabata vs Adira, Dark Silueta, Dulce Kitty
5) Brillante Jr. & Star Black vs Bestia Negra & El Gallero
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

Less CMLL CDMX wrestlers than usual. Hatanna and Tabata are still tag champs, but Tabata hasn’t been here since becoming Tabata.

CMLL announced Wednesday that Saturday Arena Coliseo shows will now air live for Fan Leyenda/35 USD members. CMLL’s previously been posting two matches from those shows the following Thursdays for fans on that level. Last week’s live broadcast may have been a test run. CMLL also may have decided it’s simply easier to stream the show live than to upload parts of it a few days later.

CMLL is running six shows a week currently: the 3 Arena Mexico shows, and 1 each in Arena Coliseo, Arena Coliseo Guadalajara and Arena Puebla. All of those shows are being taped for TV. Four of them are now airing on CMLL’s YouTube channel.

(I’m not sure what I’m going to do for coverage. Three weekly streams was definitely too much before; I’m already running thin without adding another show. Arena Coliseo, AAA and Big Lucha will overlap on their current schedules.)

CMLL Informa’s other big announcements were around the Kid’s Day shows. As previously mentioned, CMLL is running special events on both 04/28 (Sunday) and 04/30 (Tuesday, the traditional Kid’s Day date.) They encouraged children to dress up like Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Mascara Dorada, Mistico, Templario and Titan on Sunday; the best dressed of each will get to come back on Tuesday to walk their wrestler to the ring. The first 10 kids will also get to hang around with last year’s Kid’s Day Championship winner Volcano. This year’s championship will be decided on 04/28, with the same general idea as last year. Fans can vote on CMLL for their pick of wrestlers from six different themes, the six winners will have an elimination match on 04/28, and the winner is this year’s champion. The groups:

• Espectacular/Spectacular: Max Star, Neon, Futuro, Brillante
• Aterrador/Scary: Difunto, Coyote, Akuma, Kraneo
• Rudo: Espanto, Raider, Magnus, Zandokan
• Fuerte/Strong: Blue Panther Jr., Diamond, Crixus, Astral
• Tecnico: Guerrero Maya, Robin, Virus, Rugido
• Original: Rey Samuray, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr., Esfinge

CMLL updated Futuro’s status: he’s home and resting after getting knocked out on Tuesday. He will be out at least a week. Capitan Futuro will replace him on Sunday’s show.

CMLL Informa itself will be moving to an 8 pm start time starting next week. It’s been at 4 pm previously. No reason was given for the change. (This may slightly affect how I’ll handle news posts.)

It had been bugging me for days that CMLL hadn’t put up Homenaje a Dos Leyendas for their 9/25 tier; that’s what supposed to happen after it airs on TV for Friday shows. Chat messages during CMLL Informa explained no, that’s not that is happening: any show that steams live on the 35/Fan Leyenda tier will only ever be available on that level. They will never go up on the other levels, they will never accessible outside of that 35 USD tier. (Until this policy changes, as it all polices do.) H2L was the first Friday show to go up on that tier; there may not be another until FantasticaMania.

Magnus, hyping a potential CMLL Universal final, claimed that Mistico’s father didn’t even want him and that’s why he left him with Fray Tormenta to raise. He also joked that everyone claims he’s getting ahead because he’s Tony Salazar son, and so now he’s angry with Tony Salazar – why did he take 15 years to help him? In reality, Magnus says he was an aimless unmotivated wrestler until the birthday of his daughter and getting into religion and credits Volador Jr. for getting behind him.

At one point, Fuerza Guerrera said he wanted to retire on Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2024. That timeline has changed many times, and he’s since he has no plans to retire because he felt he would die if he retire (and/or he was getting more well paying work and didn’t want to retire.) Still, enough fans apparently asked him why CMLL didn’t book him on H2L anyway for Fuerza Guerrera to talk about in a video; he says he had operation and isn’t ready to wrestle, but plans to come back.

MLW announced Barbaro Cavernario versus Mistico for the MLW Middleweight Championship on their 05/11 show in Cicero, Illinois. The Big Idea is heel lucha libre managers Cesar Duran (Dario Cueto) and Salina de la Renta pitting members of their teams against each other to battle for a mysterious key. That probably means more CMLL versus CMLL matches.

Other wrestlers announced:

• Magnus
• Fuego
• Atlantis
• Atlantis Jr.
• Villano III Jr.
• Virus
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Guerrero Maya Jr.
• Star Jr.
• Felino
• Averno
• Okumura

This is a show definitely affected by the visa issues for some CMLL wrestlers. MLW is likely relying on who in CMLL has a visa rather than getting them themselves. No idea of matches yet. Tickets are as low as $10 for this show, and I expect it’ll be a full house.

Thursday, AEW announced their 2024 calendar of PPV events. Including in those dates is AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door show on June 30th. Last year, Forbidden Door took place on June 25th. CMLL/NJPW ran FantasticaMania Mexico on June 30th, taking advantage of NJPW people already being in the North America. July 5th is the likely FantasticaMania Mexico date this year if we assume they’ll follow the same pattern, though maybe you should just expect “somewhere around that time period.

(That Forbidden Door show is hyped as NJPW/AEW. It is safe to assume CMLL people will be in it. The slight difference is NJPW seems to be part of promoting that show, while CMLL is likely just sending wrestlers.)

DMCAs, Twitch and the Google Drive

Thursday, I got a DMCA strike on Twitch for my most recent stream from CMLL. I’ve been streaming the CMLL Sunday matches. My mistake – besides blatant and obvious copyright violations – is leaving the VOD up to get a takedown notice. Twitch lets you clear a strike if you go through a training seminar, which took about three minutes.

A few hours later (but by the time I was asleep), CMLL also went to the Google Drive and filed takedown notices on the six Homenaje a Dos Leyendas match videos. On Google Drive, that means the videos are permanently changed to user only, and can’t be shared with the public. I saw the DMCA notifications when I woke up, and decided to lock the Google Drive.

That’s where everything is now. I don’t know if this extends to all CMLL content; they’ve given out strikes to people on YouTube this week, but CMLL also seems to have a secret “if it’s under two minutes it’s fine” policy and plenty of other YouTube content remains. I don’t know if it’s strictly a H2L issue, since the other videos weren’t touched. Maybe they would’ve if I just left it up, I didn’t want to find out. I don’t know if this affects GIFs or short videos on other platforms, though I’d guess they’re fine. CMLL could explain what they’re thinking here, but they never do. They have no requirement to do so.

I don’t know what my next step is. There are always options to keep putting CMLL matches out there when and how I’d like. The cat and mouse game has gotten tiring. I was bummed when the YouTube channel got nuked, but I felt like figuring something else out a few days later. Thursday, I exhausted with everything. I’m putting a lot hours in things will inevitably fail. Building a sand castle on the beach is fun for a bit and then dumb later; that tide’s coming in no matter what. Today I feel a little better about it, but I’m also trying to just leave it be for a few days. (If you’ve hit the “request access” button, it’s filtering to a folder I won’t check for a while.)

I appreciate everyone who reached out and said nice things about the Drive and other stuff I’ve done.

AAA

Latin Lover, in Mexico City for the premiere of theatre production Roomix Thursday, talked to YouTube channel La Tijera on the red carpet. In the midst of talking about his different jobs and his podcast, Latin mentions he went out to dinner with Dorian Roldan Wednesday night and they agreed for him to be the creative director for AAA starting with TripleMania Monterrey. That is Konnan’s job with AAA, so this is huge (if true.) I have no idea what that means for Konnan’s status with AAA. Latin could just be contributing ideas and Konnan’s still the main person handling the day to day, or it could mean much more. Latin talked about it for about ten seconds, who knows. Half the people in the comments assume it’s just some angle, which is unlikely given the context but still reasonable given it’s AAA. We’ll no doubt here more about this soon if this is the big change some people want it to be, so further discussion can be saved until then.

Konnan usually is part of the AAA/EMW shows in Tijuana, and there’s one tonight. Hijo del Vikingo is also supposed to appear on that show, his first post-surgery appearance. Since most AAA info seems to come on media interviews, it’s possible we may learn Vikingo’s estimated return date.

That EMW show probably will include some follow up to AAA wrestlers showing up on The Crash’s last show in that city. I didn’t really think about it enough then, but the reason why Dorian Roldan was the AAA rep for that and not Konnan may be because Konnan & The Crash management aren’t yet on good terms; Konnan will take the very occasional shot at “Nacho de la O” on his podcast. It may have been easier on everyone just to have Roldan as the rep.

AAA this week starts the Mexico City taping. This will also be the first time any match for next week’s TripleMania gets mentioned on screen. No knowing which matches will air.

In a recent TripleMania media interview Faby Apache, when asked about Dalys’ comment about one day main eventing an AAA show, says she would love to see it. She also says she doesn’t think it’ll happen any time soon, because there are no women with discipline or wrestling level to be in that kind of match. They’re trying, but they’re not trying hard enough. Faby always says that kind of thing about all other women’s wrestlers but it just stuck me as funny this time.

Octagon Jr.‘s big goal is to be double champion – hold both the Latin American championship and the Cruiserweight championship. Komander is the current Cruiserweight champion has not defended the title in an AAA ring since winning it last September, and no longer is mentioned as champion on AEW TV. He has nothing but generic things to stay about his TripleMania match.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 04/11/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Puma de Oro b Shamila 
Random match
2) Jessy Ventura b Pig Decapitador 
Random match
3) Arez & Látigo b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly 
Random match. Started as Arez vs Noisy but both partners got involved and it was switched to a tag.
4) Vangellys b Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus 
Vangellys won via foul
5) Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan, Pirata Morgan Jr. DRAW Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool [super libre] 
challenges followed

The idea of these random matches is the participants not selected until a random name picker plays on the screen. Prior to match 3, IWRG put the Mala Fama logo on the screen for a brief second and then the random name picker just happened to choose Arez. I think wrestling may not be on the level.

(That match is on the list of stuff to watch later.)

IWRG (SUN) 04/14/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Bumbu & Sacro vs Águila Oriental & Drakula Ng
2) Candy Swing & Shamila vs Danessa & Diosa Quetzal
3) Fussion, Golden Power, Sky Man vs Águila Roja, Rey Aztaroth, Rey Halcón
4) Multifacético & Tornado vs Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. © [IWRG IC TAG]
fifth defense
5) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly vs Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Látigo, Toxin
6) Axel, Hell Boy, Máscara Sagrada vs Gannicus, Ivan Rokov, Vangellys

Axel’s also in Naucalpan for an expo this weekend.

IWRG’s Golfo de Guerra will take place on 04/21. This is another two stage cage match, where the loser of each cage match wrestle each other in a mask match. Hijo de Canis Lupus will also defend the RGR Heavyweight Championship on the show.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (SAT) 04/13/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) Reiyel & Zenky vs Depaysman & La Bomba
3) Marishka & Ryu Orochi vs Helios & Sussy Love
4) Caballero de Plata, El Potro de Oro, Mr. Win, Tirano vs Auzter, Black Skayde, Bogdan Klimov, Brujo
5) Elipse, Iku, Vengador vs ?, Big Tao Tao, Cósmico
6) Flamita vs Argenis
7) Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Jack Evans

Pirata/Jack could be interesting but I’m not sure where the title story is going (if it’s going.) Argenis hasn’t been here in a while (and I guess that confirms the Big Lucha/CMLL thing is dead dead.)

Flamita is listed as wrestling on a pair of Dragon Gate shows in Hong Kong on May 18th and 19th. Big Lucha’s logo is also on the poster. Flamita and Big Lucha had been working with GLEAT, which is very much an opposition promotion to Dragon Gate. Flamita hasn’t worked in Dragon Gate since 2019. This may be a Hong Kong deal instead of a Dragon Gate one; this is a group Ricky Marvin works with, Marvin’s now a part of Big Lucha and maybe Flamita’s heading over to Hong Kong for a spell.

Field Trip: NJPW Press Conference

Thursday, I took in the NJPW Windy City Riot press conference in Des Plaines, Illinois. I though it’d be interesting to go see something like that once. It turned out I was correct, in that once is all I really needed. It was simply wrestlers cutting promos (and/or throwing a chair and threating to shoot someone in the head) in front of an audience that would cheer.

The press conference took place in what was essentially two conference rooms with a divider removed; it was packed but it was also very small, so many fifty people hanging out. Almost all the people were actually there for the paid meet and greet. (The press conference wasn’t really a press event – no questions, no interviews – but it was free so I feel I got my money’s worth.) I had wondered if it would be more AEW fans or NJPW ones, and it was a bit of a mix – or at least a group who were into the names from both promotions. Gabe Kidd took Eddie Kingston from zero to attempted murder very quickly, Nic Nemeth seemed eager to prove himself against a different style opponent than he ever has faced, and Tetsuya Naito was both respectful of Jon Moxley’s abilities while still resolutely trolling him in the photo op.

I’m heading to this show tonight. I feel more like I should go – it’s a big NJPW show in driving distance, CMLL’s Stephanie Vaquer having a match so that seems important, they might actually change the big title in the main event – than excited for the show. I think that main event will be an event, I’m just not there with the rest of the show.

Other News

Actress Lorena Velazquez (86) passed away Thursday. The role that comes up most first in her obits is “Santo Contra Los Zombies“; she was the female lead in the first El Santo movie. El Hijo del Santo sent out condolences on Twitter.

Lucha Memes has Hechicero versus Aeroboy on 04/21, which sounds great.

ELITE announced tickets for their 04/21 show would have a 2×1 deal on Thursday. Tickets haven’t moved much at all since they went on sale. The seat map on Thursday lists a bunch of empty seats, but that central section and the ringside area were never put on sale. They’ve moved maybe a couple hundred; far less than this same lineup would’ve done in a place like Arena Lopez Mateos or Arena Naucalpan. As much as Elite gets treated like a big deal, the brand name hasn’t moved tickets Going to a 2×1 ticket sale suggest ELITE really needs to move some tickets now or else, and I don’t know what “or else” is going to be.

TNA is coming back to Cicero on June 14th and June 15th. So that’s a month after the MLW show in the same building, where MLW is selling tickets at unusually discounted prices. TNA’s press release hypes it around Mustafa Ali; there’s no mention of (promotional partner?) AAA or even Laredo Kid. TNA threw out a token trios match featuring Mexican wrestlers last time out to draw in latino fans and surely will do at least as much again; match announcements will be made in “late May.”

El Sol del Cordoba has an interview with local luchadora Libna Maciel.

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.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/05/2024 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Esquina Caliente, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Fuego en el Ring, Heraldo de Mexico, Kaiser Sports, Publimetro, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, Vanguardia]
1) Rayo Metálico b Dragón de Fuego   
8:30
2) Crixus, Okumura, Vegas b Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr.   
11:35
3) Magnus b Star Black, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca, Futuro, Rugido, Disturbio, Cholo, Apocalipsis [CMLL Universal, semifinal]  
26:45. Order of elimination: Apocalipsis (via Magia Blanca), Guerrero Maya (Rugido), Futuro (Cholo), Disturbio (medical elimination; hit head on apron on dive), Futuro (Esfinge), Star Black (Magnus), Magia Blanca (Rugido), Rugido (Esfinge), Esfinge (Magnus) leaving Magnus as the winner. He advances to the final on 04/26.
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Volador Jr. b Averno, Rocky Romero, Templario 
11:36. Added on Monday.
5) Bryan Danielson b Blue Panther [submission]   
25:37. One fall, must win by submission. Panther got Danielson in the fujiwara but Danielson was under the ropes. Danielson submitted Panther after. Panther asked for a rematch in the US, Danielson agreed and called Panther his idol. He also thanked the fans of Arena Mexico.

Danielson/Panther was everything it was hoped to be and more. Panther is an old man, in a way that played into the story, but Panther was able to keep up. Danielson was Danielson, as perfect for this style of wrestling as he is for pretty much any style. He was visibly enjoying every second of this while still taking the match as serious as everyone wanted it to be. The Arena Mexico crowd admired Danielson and never cheered against him, but strongly rooted for Panther to get the incredible win. The time flew by; they didn’t need to go longer than they did but no one would’ve minded much. The ending came quick, but that was a bit of the story – it just took one lapse of attention to cost it at all. The post match show of respect felt real and emotional. There will be matches people will give higher Star Ratings too, and understandably so, but no match will best Danielson/Panther in accomplishing what it set out do. This was a perfect match.

Bryan Danielson, speaking after the match, revealed he’d flown into Mexico on Thursday. He was impressed with Hechicero after wrestling him in AEW, and decided to train with him to prepare for the Blue Panther match. Danielson would love to wrestle Hechicero in Arena Mexico and Danielson also mentioned Mascara Dorada and Mistico mask versus hair – somewhat joking-  as possible matches. (Mistico liked that idea.) He hoped he would return. Danielson also was hopeful, if not definite, that the Danielson/Panther match would happen again in AEW. He wished that all the American fans would see the match and encourage AEW to book it.

There were other matches on this show too! The semimain was an easy trios match you can probably figure out in your head. Match 2 was fine enough. Match 1 was young guys doing all the same moves everyone else does but doing them reasonably well.

The Universal tournament block had the only other drama, and a puzzle to figure out. Disturbio landed head first on the apron on a dive. Star Black, standing on that apron, seemed to think it was a fake out dive and that he was supposed to kick Disturbio on the way over to send him bumping back towards the center of the ring. Disturbio seemed to think it was a real dive, and Esfinge (the target) seemed to as well. Disturbio didn’t have much on his leap and erroneously hit the top rope with his midsection before Star Black kick even connected. It’s up to interpretation if Star Black’s movement threw Disturbio off enough to mess up the dive prior to the kick. In true lucha libre fashion, the best place to see this is Disturbio’s Instagram. He also indicated he’d be wrestling as scheduled Tuesday.

That injury threw off the middle of the match. The end of the match lined up as all three Depredadores against Esfinge for a moment, then Esfinge survived two of them and seemed sure to advance. Magnus getting the big win was a surprise. I wonder if getting that AEW win and PPV appearance convinced CMLL decisions makers to do something with Magnus; other promotions have pushed people for less.

CMLL (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Forneo & Novato
11:57
2) Legendario b Xelhua [lightning]
7:26.
3) Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Andrómeda, La Catalina, Skadi
12:55
4) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG]
20:00. Ola Negra fall in their first defense. Villanos are the 13th modern champions.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón b Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
12:14
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Soberano Jr. & Templario
18:22.

The 81st Arena Coliseo Anniversary bonus stream was an enjoyable show, if not a must see. The Villanos title win was the best and most memorable match; the Coliseo crowd wanted to see the Villanos crown and got their wish.

They did well, Akuma did well, I’m OK not seeing Espanto Jr. in a big match for a while.

The main event was a fun exhibition match, like the previous night’s semi-main. Legendario/Xelhua was a strong showcase for both guys. CMLL’s slow playing all the 2024 Torneo de Escuelas guys, basically roping them off into their own matches for the time being, but those two are clearly ready to be mixed in the main group. Los Calaveras are really good at what they’re doing too. I’m less sure if they’re going to get a real shot at their weight, but those guys are getting over doing prelim matches.

This looked like a second straight sell out for this building, which is rare. May not happen again for a year.

CMLL (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Robin b Diamond [lightning]
9:58, just short of the limit
2) Hera, Metálica, Persephone b La Maligna, La Vaquerita, Magia Azul
3) El Coyote, Felino Jr., Pólvora b Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma
4) Difunto, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo b Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón
Difunto replaced Gemelo Diablo I
5) Euforia & Mephisto b Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr.
Guerreros took fall 1, got DQed in the second and Infernales took the third
6) Flip Gordon, Místico, Valiente b Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja

Gemelo Diablo I is actually not back. They were still advertising him up to show time.

CMLL luchadors participated in a Luz Por La Paz ceremony in Mexico City, part of an international day for peace through sports. There was a similar moment during the Saturday Arena Coliseo show.

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena México
1) Astro Boy Jr. & Rayo Metálico vs Emperador Jr. & Platino Kid
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Micro Dito & Periquito Sacaryas
3) Lluvia, Skadi, Tabata vs Dark Silueta, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard
4) Brillante Jr., Futuro, Max Star vs Crixus, Difunto, Vegas
5) Titán vs Stuka Jr. [lightning]
6) Esfinge, Místico, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido

Neon and the Depredadores getting a rare main event, though it may only be rare for now. Titan/Stuka is a luxury VIP match. Tessa is bac after being gone for a few days. Micros get a rare match 2 and so a three fall match,. The Torneo Escuelas division is even lower on the totem pole (and pay chart presumably) than them.

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Obek, Último Ángel vs Eclipse Jr., Rav, Temerario
2) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica vs Estrella Maldita, Sexy Sol, Valkiria
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama
4) Akuma & Dulce Gardenia vs Disturbio & Virus [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. vs Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario

Puebla’s Battalion del Terror lose the Guadalajara trios titles and then return to Guadalajara a week later. I can’t figure it out. Match four is a straight preview of the four way hair match, unusual to see in another building. Match six is the team that beat Ola Negra for the Arena Coliseo tag titles versus the team that lose to Ola Negra for those same titles.

CMLL (FRI) 04/12/2024 Arena México
1) Legendario vs Forneo [lightning]
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
3) Flip Gordon vs Euforia [lightning]
4) Gran Guerrero vs Averno, Templario, Titán, Stigma, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Dragón Rojo Jr., Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
CMLL champions block.
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Octagón vs Hechicero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

There’s no chance this show is going to be viewed as much too and it has the handicap of Octagon in a main event, but the rest of it looks pretty good. It’s a pretty good group of names in Universal block with no sure winner. (Maybe Titan, Cavernario and Templario as the favorites?) Flip has matched up well with Euforia. The Panthers have definitely matched up well with the Villanos. Legendario/Forneo is among the best in the Torneo Escuelas division.

If you are on the CMLL 9/25 USD plans, you did not get to see H2L live. That was only for the 35 USD plan. The cheaper two plans were to get a VOD version of the CMLL show on Sunday night. As of Monday afternoon, it hasn’t gone up.  It should not be hard to get a video file up on YouTube by Sunday night, especially when a version of that show is already on that same channel. Thanks to the CMLL Informa credit screen, we can see CMLL has at least two Community Managers employed to do it. It just isn’t important enough to get done. They’ll put it up whenever. (I would also assume no bonus matches on Thursday this week since they already aired the Arena Coliseo show live.)

NJPW announced the field for their 2024 Best of Super Juniors tournament (May 11th to June 9th). Every year, I think “maybe this year they’ll again put at least two CMLL luchadors in the tournament.” They did not, as is the case most every year; 20 wrestlers and only one from Mexico. Titan is back and that’s it. It’s unlikely Titan will do as well as his runner up finish last year, but it was unlikely for him to do that well to begin with and that happened.

CMLL’s Lady Ring announced Dark Silueta and Amapola will wrestle on their 06/28 show in Tokyo. Silueta will start a tour in Japan in early May, and Amapola will head over in mid-June. I don’t understand the economics that have two women going to Lady’s Ring and one man going to NJPW.

AAA

NGD versus Psycho Clown/Negro Casas from this week’s TV should be added to the list of AAA matches actually worth watching. NGD seems like they’ll try if they believe the match is actually important. No shot at Pagano, but I think they saw it as bigger for having Negro Casas teaming with Psycho Clown; there was more creativity and they just generally worked harder. Maybe we’d feel differently about NGD’s AAA run if they were given more thing to do than “hold a title and go undefeated for a while against people who don’t matter” or maybe it’s on them to find this motivation more often. The tag format allowed Negro Casas to measure his minutes better; this is what he should be doing at this point in his career.

The other matches were inoffense and forgettable. The Vatos Locos (Hijo del Picudo, May Flowers, Nygma) version didn’t look good, and the teased feud with La Secta is not promising. Charly Manson helping these Vatos Locos and being part of the Pagano & Mecha Wolf group seemed like it was meant for all those people to be working together but I’m not confident I understand it.

Chessman says he’s aiming for Mesias and the Megachampionship. Those are good things to aim for, though it seems unlikely he’ll get either.

Dalys says her goal is for the luchadors to headline an AAA show. It seems unlikely that’ll happen in AAA any time soon. The luchadoras aren’t forgotten (that’s the minis) but they’re almost always in the first half of the card. AAA seems to view Las Toxicas as attractions but none of them as top level stars. There’s also fewer AAA TV shows, so fewer chances for anyone to main event. On the other hand, it’s a wrestling promotion, they could put the women as a main event for a TV taping if they decided they wanted to do that day. Anyway, Dalys says she’s encouraging the women to work as a team and she came to AAA to help them learn that.

Reina Dorada said she’d be willing to put her mask on the line.

Hijo del Vikingo will appear on the 04/13 AAA EMW show. I believe that’s his first post-surgery appearance. That EMW show has a lot of people announced but only one match advertised a few days out.

SI has a story about WWE’s Nick Khan, talking up what he’s done for their business.  It’s a very complimentary article There’s a paragraph in there discussing Khan opening the door to working with other promotions, bringing up the the TNA women’s champion showing up in Royal Rumble this year. I don’t have any news and I’m not meant to be hinting at things, but I think that’s worth keeping that story in mind when it comes to AAA this year. It sure seemed like there was AAA interest in working with WWE around the time of Dragon Lee’s departure, where AAA risked their AEW relationship in hopes of getting a WWE. It both ended in the worse possible outcome but that wouldn’t stop them from trying again, in the usual fashion. Things have also obviously changed with WWE since that time. Any sort of WWE connection would be a boon to AAA (extra star power for TripleManias, AAA marketing itself to young wrestlers as a place that can get them on a path to WWE) that I’d guess they’d jump at it if offered. I’m not sure that would be a great long term idea for AAA but it AAA so you can’t rule it out. Again, there’s no news here, but just something to think about.

IWRG

IWRG , LLB (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena Naucalpan [La Tijera]
1) Macho I, Macho II, Macho III b Argus, Demencia, Rocky Bulldog 
2) Príncipe Centauro b Hijo De Sparta, Gravedad Cero, New Level, The Crow, Corazón Guerrero, Sparta, Karma I, Súper Pinochito 
3) Águila Oriental, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly b Cometa, Sol, X-Devil 
4) Águila Roja, Fandango, Hellboy, Puma de Oro b Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Lunatik Xtreme, Súper Boy, Toto 
5) La Catalina & Mary Caporal b Reina Isis & Shamila 
6) Hell Boy © b Ivan Rokov [AIWF LA] 
Surprise match. Hell Boy won the title back.
7) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Soberano Jr. & Templario 

This appeared to be the usual sell out for bringing in big names to this arena. I watched the main event: Soberano and Templario unsurprisingly work really well as rudos in this environment. The top rope was looser than they’d wanted – you could spot the other guys grabbing it hard to keep it tight at key moments. Otherwise, it was like 80% of what you could see on the CMLL subscription shows without having to pay anything.

IWRG aired a vignette clarifying that the former Dr. Cerebro Jr. is now Multifacetico Jr. Fans had figured it out, but it’s rare they’ll acknowledge a gimmick change like that.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [thecubsfan]
1) Argus & Gaius b Cósmico & Nordico 
12:19
2) Avisman & Golden b El Potro de Oro & Platino 
18:45. Potro replaced Skayde (double booked in Chicago.)
3) Big Tao Tao & Bogdan Klimov b M2R & Mr. Win and Alas de Acero & Iron Kid 
14:26. Tirano replaced M2R.
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo b Latino, Rey Espartano, Ryu 
20:48. Other members of the Lucha Memes team attached Delta Force after the match, with Flamita & Marvin eventually making the save to lead into the main event.
5) Flamita & Ricky Marvin b Aero Boy & Golden 
15:46. Flamita buried Tonalli for not appearing (double booked in Arena San Juan) and challenged Golden to take his place. Flamita reversed a Doomsday Device into a Spanish Fly on Aeroboy for the win, though both teams fought more after.

This was a Big Lucha versus Lucha Memes show, and one that worked out well. This was a group of the Lucha Memes guys who do more of Big Lucha’s style – missing the guys more likely just to punch people in the nose – and they were all working hard like it meant something to them to make an impression here. The Big Lucha guys co-operated with them, and it made for good if sometimes overindulgent matches. The newer names came off as acceptable wrestlers at this level, which may sound like faint praise but hasn’t been a guarantee for people coming into this promotion from elsewhere. There were the usual problems of every match going longer than it need to, though it’s possible this time they were fruitlessly stalling for Tonalli to make it over from his other booking. I would’ve liked to see Tonalli in this environment, but I liked what Golden brought in both matches. Iron Kid looked good too, and I wish he was around more in promotions I make an effort to watch. (Alas de Acero did not fare as well.) The end of the show sort of teased the idea of the Big Lucha guys going to Coliseo Coacalco for the reverse fixture, which would probably be a good experience.

Production on this show was weird, as if the person usually in charge wasn’t there and no one else knew what to do. (I don’t know that happened, that’s just what it felt like.) The first two matches were just from the hard cam. The floor camera operators were there, their video just wasn’t being used. It seemed like someone tried to figure it on the third match. The video switched to logo screen for a minute during the match, later they kept fading in and out – and they eventually got it, being able to switch video feeds. Completely normal. And then they went back to just the hard camera for match four and five. So weird. The sound was also messed up in the opener, so the crowd was loud and the announcers barely audible. It was the least produced show possible – and that was actually so much better than the over produced shows most groups do. I’ll take zero camera cuts over random camera cuts every two seconds, I’d definitely be fine with a single camera and crowd noise over a flickering black screen and inaudible reactions. Might not be in the majority on all of that, though.

Other News

Black Taurus re-debuted in Ring of Honor as The Beast Mortos on Friday’s Supercard of Honor pre-show. That was the person I was expecting to show up. He’s expected to use that name everywhere going forward, US and Mexico. (I’m sure it’ll take Mexican promotions a year or so to catch up, and they’ll try lots of spellings of “Mortos”.) It’s a modified mask and name,, though familiar enough that most seemed to know who it was. The ROH announcers referenced that we had seen The Beast Mortos before but seemed very careful never to say the words “Black Taurus” – they treated it like was a WWE gimmick that might get in trouble for saying. That’s another sign of the state of relationship with AAA right now.

The Beast Mortos defeated Blake Christian in what was a good competitive match, but not something the commanding win you’d expect for someone making a (re-)debut. The post match hinted at something with Komander; the announcers thought maybe he and Mortos would team. It’s Komander and Mortos, so I assume they’ll instead end up fighting.

I watched so much stuff this weekend that I’m having trouble putting it all together. I did want to mention going back to watch Action Wrestling’s Dean.

The Demus/Mad Dog chain match every bit did it what it accomplished to do; it was just missing the dirt and floor from Coliseo Coacalco. It was hard hitting, intense, and just violent feeling. Dr. Cerebro and Gringo Loco didn’t quite hit those heights (they were very heights), but it was also really good and I think more than most would’ve thought to expect out of Dr. Cerbero in a US match. He went for it, and I’m not sure if he would’ve gone so hard with anyone besides old rival Gringo. Both matches are wroth checking out. The DQ was amusing; Dr. Cerebro is operating on Mexican wrestling indie rules (there are no rules) and hits Gringo with a chair, the US indie referee calls a DQ like he’s no doubt been trained, and there’s a mini drama going on getting the match restarted where that Dr. Cerebro just totally ignores, going on with his match like nothing happened. The other bigger thing on both these matches is the fans really cam to see those wrestlers and really were into them. It was the same a day later on the ETU/Dragon Gate show; those fans who turned up to the H20 building were really invested in the matches they were seeing. It makes a big difference; WrestleCon didn’t seem as fortunate and instead seemed to have a much more “we’re in town already so we might as well go to this show and see if we know anyone” crowd vibe. It’s been a big week or so for crowd atmosphere on wrestling and DEAN had a strong one.

NOAH announced Ninja Mack defending the GHC Hardcore Championship against Alpha Wolf on 04/15. Ninja Mack is in the NJPW BOSJ, sometimes outside promotions take titles off wrestlers before they go into a tournament elsewhere (since they’ll probably lose a bit), but I have no sense of how important the GHC Hardcore Championship is in the big scheme of things.

Segunda Caida reviews more 89/90 lucha libre and Danielson/Panther.

El Sol del Hidalgo has a bio of Aguila Solitaria.

luchadb

I’ve automated the process to upload my event database to the Github archive. It should start running on the 9th day of each month going forward, if I’ve coded correctly. The big idea is that stuff still exists in simple form (one text file per year) and would still exist even if I disappear. That was the plan all along, but doing it manually wasn’t getting it done; I’d remember it but would want to wait until I get one more thing done or I’d forget about it entirely. Figuring out how to automate the process was this weekend’s big win; it took a lot of multitasking this weekend.

The next thing on my wish list of programming ideas is to automate my primary wrestler name identification. One of the issues I run into is deciding when to switch the primary name for someone who changed a gimmick, and so it’s also a thing that never gets done. (Which means weirdness the new Mascara Dorada is still listed under Panterita del Ring Jr. if you’re using the match finder.) It’s Mexican wrestling so there’s no clear lines for these decisions – is is more useful to list Dick Angelo 3G under that name or under Taurus (or even Taurus (2024))? He’s still doing a few indie matches under the non-gimmick name. I still think I can make it a little better if I figure out algorithm and implement it. Any suggestions for other ideas I can make a little bit better are always welcome.

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.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 04/01/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) El Perverso, Multy, Prayer b Asturiano, Capitán Suicida, Valiente Jr.
2) Crixus, Difunto, Raider b El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama © [OCCIDENTE TRIOS] 
Puebla team falls in their first defense
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Gran Guerrero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Titán
Tony Salazar was honored before the match.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [CMLL TAG] 
14th defense
6) Rocky Romero b Volador Jr. 
A one fall main event.

I’m a bit surprised about the trios title change; it feels like it signals the Puebla/Guadalajara stuff is over for now. Attendence was good for this, though not as strong as the week before.

CMLL taped this show, second week they’ve done it. CMLL taping shows exclusively for YouTube is a relatively new and rare format. Most of the announcing has always been done because they’re selling an hour or two to a TV network and YouTube has just been a way to make a little extra out of work they’re already doing. There’s a least a chance CMLL’s got a new TV deal that they haven’t promoted at all, and that’s where the footage is going. Those Puebla shows were being sold as TV footage prior to the pandemic, which was a reason they were being streamed at that time.

(The deals we do know about:

• Friday Arena Mexico -> Televisa/TUDN
• Saturday Arena Coliseo -> Heraldo TV
• Sunday Arena Mexico -> Mexiquenese TV/AMX
• Tuesday Arena Mexico -> MVS TV (sometimes will air Friday instead)
• Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara -> Quiero TV

There’s also a long running deal with “Megacable” but I’ve never been able to find a feed or find a single person who’s mentioned watching that show.)

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Astral & Leono b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
11:13
2) Acero & Angelito b Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
10:10
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
12:22. Virus submitted Disturbio to win the match in straight falls. Challenges followed.
4) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
11:54. Akuma used the ropes to pin Dulce, challenges followed.
5) Rocky Romero b Star Jr.
14:51.
6) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
12:04

The midcard trios challenges are going somewhere or I wasted my time today waiting to watch Informa to finish this post. Find out below! Romero/Star Jr. was good, not at Friday levels, and Star Jr. is still just missing something for me. While the crowd reacted well to the last two matches, it had to be a bit of a comedown for the people who signed up for Friday’s show to watch this one.

Zacarias, who’s been working on US micro wrestling shows, was back in CMLL here.

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) Johnny Dinamo, Minotauro, Shezmu b Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Temerario b Astro Oriental, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr.
3) Elemental, Explosivo, Yutani b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
Explosivo replaced Dark Magic (double booked)
4) Andrómeda, La Catalina, Lluvia b Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
Vaquer & Catlina kept fighting after the match
5) Magnus b Villano III Jr. [lightning]
6) Atlantis & Blue Panther b Rey Bucanero & Satánico
7) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Máscara Dorada b Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

My suspicions that something was up here seems well founded. CMLL took the long running Arena Coliseo Guadalajara free YouTube stream and put it behind the paywall at the Fan Leyenda (highest tier.) As with everything lucha libre, there was no forewarning or messaging, it just happened and everyone had to figure it out themselves. The first three matches aired for free on Facebook. I have no idea if this is simply Homenaje a Dos Leyendas related or a full time change, but I’d guess this is not a one time incident. CMLL sells itself as a fun experience and hiding all the live streams that’ll showcase that experience behind an expensive paywall is misreading their appeal.

(The stream itself wasn’t streaming well on Tuesday. I made it through the Villano/Magnus match and there was moves being missed because the video stopped playing for seconds at a time.)

One of the quirks of the Guadalajara stream has been the announcers responding to and mostly shouting out people in their Facebook and YouTube chats between matches, and sometimes during matches. The YouTube chat was turned off on the paid stream, though there’s not a lot of conversation when it’s on for other shows. There were other changes to fall graphics and intros to make it more in line with CMLL’s normal presentation, instead of the Guadalajara self produced style. The length of the shows have been cut down as well; they’ve gone down from around 2:30-2:40 to about 2:00 even. It all feels like there’s been some changes behind the scenes but I lack the sources to know if that’s really true.

(I guess I’m eventually uploading these Guadalajara shows to the drive? I don’t even know. That thing is going to get full quickly again.)

CMLL Informa also officially decided the match between the four feuding midcard teams. It’ll be a hair match with one member from each team: Akuma, Dulce Gardenia, Virus and Disturbio. The rules are the same as the H2L apuesta: the first two people pinned go to the back, and the next person who gets pinned loses their hair. I’m still not in love with that rule set but at least I understand it this time. The trios feud ending with a four way feels a little bit of a switch but it should still be good. Disturbio seems the most likely loser, yet the way he’s lost badly to Virus in the lead up suggests they may be setting up a different ending.

CMLL Informa also announced Saturday’s Arena Coliseo Aniversario show will air live for people on the Fan Leyendas tier. There are a few other shows going on Saturday but only one show will have Los Villanos versus Ola Negra.

Informa clarified the Danielson/Panther match is a one fall match. Friday’s show is back to normal for Fridays – both the Campeon Mundial (middle) and Leyendas (highest) tiers will have access to it. If you’re someone who didn’t buy last week’s H2L and are somehow going to sign up this week, you should really sign up for that middle tier at most.

Box y Lucha has 3567 has Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on the cover.

Stephanie Vaquer will defend the NJPW Strong on their 04/12 show in Chicago. That match seemed set up already, just waiting for this announcement. Vaquer seems likely to retain.

Wrestlers announced for the 05/11 MLW show in Chicago so far

• Mistico
• Star Jr.
• Magnus
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Felino
• Atlantis Jr.
• Guerrero Maya Jr.
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Averno

Back in April 2016, there was a shooting across the street from Arena Mexico at a bar.  Infobae has an update, from a book called “Narcos de Mexico.” The shooter turns out to be Robert Moyado Esparza, nicknamed “El Betito”, who was also involved in drug trafficking. His face turned up on social media, so he fled Mexico City and was captured in 2018 at a beauty salon.

Segunda Caida reviews the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event.

AAA

Octagon Jr. met the Spanish language voice of Dragon Ball’s Goku. Octagon Jr.’s wore a Dragon Ball themed outfit on some recent shows. This is about all the real AAA names this week.

All the other AAA stuff is not really AAA stuff but I don’t have any other place to put it.

a sequence of events

• Parker Bourdeaux shows up in AAA
• I wonder (loudly) what that means for Parker Bourdeaux and AEW
• Fightful, either because they heard me or because they had the same question, asks around about Parker Bourdeaux’s AEW status, reports Monday AEW approved the AAA trip, and he’s still under contract “for a few more months” to AEW
• Parker Bourdeaux, noticing Fightful mentioned him, takes to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to say he’s said in his AAA promo that he’s in both AAA and AEW, everything is fine.
• Tuesday evening, AEW includes Parker Bourdeaux among a bunch of cuts
• Parker Bourdeaux deletes his tweet at some point.

I think AEW figured they had no plans for Bourdeaux going forward, were going to let his contract lapse, and that’s why they were comfortable letting him go get started with AAA. And why they were comfortable letting him go, once they decided to let people go. It’s good news for AAA if he works out for them and doesn’t really affect their plans otherwise.

It’s not really AAA but included in those cuts:

• Jose the Assistant – an extra, then Andrade’s assistant, then moved over to being Rush’s assistant. He was previously a journeyman pro-wrestler who wrestled in Mexico a few times. He was active on social media, and appeared to be helping Rush with his stuff the last few months, especially in terms of figuring out what would catch the attention of AEW fans as Rush was off AEW TV. I could see Rush wanting to keep Jose around, but only AAA seems to pay for managers – maybe they’ll talk ELITE into doing it for as long as it lasts. This seems like a message about how important (or not) AEW sees the LFI act to drop part of it.
• Gravity – had an all time bad performance on Collision against House of Black and that was that; went back to wrestling on Ring of Honor but was firmly typecast as a guy who wasn’t ready. I’m not sure Gravity would’ve been hired if he wasn’t Bandido’s brother (which got him on the Dark tapings) and if he wasn’t named “Gravity” (which got him the LOL match with Pac.) There is space on AEW’s roster for a bottom rung wrestler who gets amusingly destroyed and also bottom rung wrestlers who can have have fun competitive matches despite never getting real wins. Gravity didn’t improve enough to fit in either spot. His progression is stuck at the “can be a fun third guy on a trios team”, which works OK for Mexico and not great for CMLL TV. Gravity came up through Big Lucha, which meant he was just mostly working whatever shows Big Lucha was putting on. He moved over to AEW/ROH, which meant he was just those shows and the odd US indie. Gravity’s on his own now, and that’s going to be a challenge.

WrestleMania Week matches

A list of lucha libre related shows you might be able to see from home, taken from this list. It’s not much compared to past years, and mostly of it is happening on Thursday.

(all times Eastern).

Thursday

• Defy (11 am): Schaff vs. Luke Jacobs vs. Galeno del Mal vs. Gene Munny; this airs on TrillerTV
• Stardom (3 pm): Stephanie Vaquer is in a trios match; this airs as a standalone PPV.
• WrestleCon (7 pm): Team CMLL (Mistico, Averno, Barbaro Cavernario, Villano III Jr., Star Jr.) vs. Team Dragon Gate (Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker, Kota Minoura, Ben-K, YAMATO) + Titan vs Michael Oku. This airs on Highspots TV
• DVDVR/Segunda Caida/Action (8 pm): Matt Makowski vs Arez, Gringo Loco vs Dr. Cerebro. This airs on IWTV.
• JCW/GCW (11:59): Los Desperados (Gringo Loco, Arez, Latigo) vs. Team Dragon Gate (YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker) + Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) vs. Amboss (Robert Dreissker & Laurance Roman) vs. Boisterous Behaviour (Man Like Dereiss & Leon Slater) vs. MAO & Yoshihiko. This airs on TrillerTV

Friday

• Battleground (7:30 pm): Tajiri vs. Super Crazy + 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Juventud Guerrera – this is on Titlematch Network.
• ROH (8:00 pm): there’s no lucha libre match currently announced for the Ring of Honor show but I’m led to believe at least one luchador is booked for this show. This is on HonorClub,

Saturday

• GCW (11:59 pm): Punjabi Prison, GCW Tag Team Championship: Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini) vs. Jacob Fatu & Zilla Fatu vs. Bollywood Boyz (Harv Sihra & Gurv Sihra) vs. Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) – part of the TrillerTV subscription.

I’m skipping this WrestleMania weekend. There were only one or two shows I was interested in, and I can catch them as easy from home. It’s fun to hang out with people, but I haven’t had a lot of chances to do actually do that last couple of years. I’m also already planning to go to plenty of stuff locally (or not quite locally) over the next month, so I’ll be good on live shows. It is a weird feeling not going after going to a bunch over the last few years; I’m not sure when the next time I’ll get on a plane to see a wrestling show, which was a thing I was fortunately able to do for a while there.

IWRG

Here’s the lineup for Thursday:

IWRG (THU) 04/04/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) ? vs ??
4) ? vs ??
5) ? vs ??

It’s all random matches from the IWRG roster. The poster has Latigo among the possibilities, which seems hard for him to do given he’ll be in Philadelphia at the same time.

The Crash

The Crash (SAT) 04/20/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Gallo Xtreme & Psicodelica vs Azteca Fly & Rey Furia
2) Anubis vs Mirage [bull terrier]
3) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Canis Lupus Ng & Tonalli and Bamboo & El Rey
4) Destiny, Noisy Boy, Toto vs Carta Brava Jr. (AAA), Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
5) Dralistico vs Metalik vs Nick Wayne
6) Mecha Wolf, Pagano, Rey Horus vs Bestia 666, D-Luke, Rey Escorpión (Indie)

Carta Brava Jr. is making one of his first indie appearances on a The Crash show with special AAA appearances. I can’t figure it out. I also can’t figure out what to call this Carta Brava. It usually to be there was a Carta Brava Jr. (AAA) and a Carta Brava Jr. (Indie) who works almost nothing but Lucha Libre Boom, but now thy’re both indie. These are the things that concern me.

No idea who wins the semimain. Maybe no one.

The Crash did post footage of the AAA angle on their last show, two weeks later.

Other News

Tepic luchado/promoter Rayo Mortal (Ernesto Ruis Medina, 54) passed away recently. This is the second lucha libre figure from that area who’s passed away in the last week (through un related reasons.)

Robles posted a press release saying Gronda removed himself from their 04/14 show after taking his guarantee and will not give it back. There’s also a series of text messages sent by Gronda and his legal representative. Not sure why Robles is only now concerned about paying for wrestlers who didn’t do much for them. Elegido replaces Gronda.

RGR announced a bunch of Mexican luchadors have new work visa through them: Pimpinela Escarlata, Pirata Morgan, Diamante Azul, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Laredo Kid, Faby Apache, Reyna Dorada, La Hiedra, Lady Flammer, Abismo Negro Jr., Nino Hamburguesa, Mamba, Jessy Ventura, Diva Salvaje, Hell Boy, Tonalli, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Gran Pandemonium, Hijo de Pandemonium and Pandemonium Jr. That list including Laredo Kid should pop out – it’s not Impact who’s handling his US work visa situation. (It also notable to me that Pimpinela’s being announced as just getting a visa when he’s been announced for a WrestleMania weekend show for a while; sometimes these are down to the write.)

Back in march, RGR announced they’d have Volador Jr. for their shows this weekend. Volador is not believed to have a US work visa at this point; it’s a lucha promotion, so it’s possible RGR is just not updating their advertising. Wouldn’t be the first time for that, or for a wrestler to slip into US without a valid work visa.

El Siglo del Torreon has a short bio of Gran Markus.