CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 03/29/2024 Arena México [AS, Cagematch, CMLL, El Universal, ESPN Deportes, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Excelsior, FDDE, Fuego en el Ring, Kaiser Sports, La Prensa, Publimetro, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) Magnus & Rugido © b Brillante Jr. & Neón [MEX TAG] 
9:45. 4th defense.
2) Esfinge © b Zandokan Jr. [MEX LH]
9:57. 4th defense
3) Averno b Bárbaro Cavernario © [CMLL LH] 
10:01. 4th defense (1st in six months)
4) Pequeño Olímpico L Angelito, Pierrothito, Acero [mask]
13:11. Four way. Rules were the first two pinned were eliminated from the match, and then the loser of the next pinfall would win the mask. Pierrothito pinned Acero, Olimpico pinned Pierrothito, and Angelito beat Pequeno Olimpico. Pequeno Olimpico is Andres Munoz Andrade, 58, from Mexico City. Acero wore Mazinger Z gear.
5) La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale b Lluvia, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
11:15
6) Máscara Dorada & Rocky Romero b Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. [natl pi, final]
tournament final, teams undecided
7) Blue Panther, Místico, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Matt Sydal
16:35. Matt Sydal replaced Wheeler Yuta on 03/25. Moxley beat Ultimo Guerrero, Mistico beat Sydal (captain) with La Mistica for the win. Danielson said he wasn’t satisfied with the match and demanded a 1v1 with Blue Panther next week. Panther accepted but said he felt Danielson was holding back and wanted to see 100% from him in that match.
Friday’s main event was the kind of match you follow professional wrestling for years – decades – to watch. It’s the type of match you’d put in front of a non-wrestling fan to understand what’s so exciting about it, except you’d set their expectations too high for every other match. It was dream, on top of a very great wrestling show.
This was a different feeling show than usual for Arena Mexico. There were almost no tourists, no foreigners. The building filled up early; the Gradas fill up already because those are general admission, but even the reserved seats were more full than usual for a CMLL show. Those fans seemed much more knowledgeable and willing to go their own way on wrestlers than the usual audience. “Esto es Lucha” is a chant heard at lots of Mexican wrestling shows, but rarely in CMLL. Atlantis Jr. was booed anytime he did anything. The “Yes” chant was loud, and plenty of fans knew the AEW guys well (though perhaps more from their WWE runs more than the AEW time.) It’s an Mexican wrestling audience that exists but doesn’t come to many CMLL shows – that audience doesn’t even show up to Homenaje a Dos Leyendas every year. Some of them were there strictly for the AEW (ex-WWE) people, but it’s a win for CMLL if they can get some of them to stick around. CMLL will get by find with the more tourist heavily mix, but it was an indication that there’s a pool of wrestling fans that CMLL hasn’t been tapping into regularly who still can be talked into coming with the right matches.
If there were two disappointments with the main event, it was that the least important person who got beat on the AEW side and that they really didn’t deliver on the big Panther/Danielson match they promised. The second part was addressed right away after; they teased it because they’re actually doing it next week. That also may address the Sydal issue – if Danielson gets beat next week, they’re again just making people wait a few more days for it. This is one of the tradeoffs dealing with AEW; their booking strategy is creating a class of wrestlers who almost never get beat, so it’s a big money match when people in that class wrestle each other (and so it’s a big deal when someone not in that class beats them.) AEW’s respectful the other way – they haven’t beat Mistico and they’re not going to beat Mistico unless it’s a big match. It’s just not the way CMLL fans are used to seeing wrestling, where everyone can get beat but it only really matters when something is on the line. It’s a paradox I can’t really explain: it would’ve not hurt the BCC guys at all to take a pin there, but also it would’ve been huge for the fans to see one of them get pinned. Perhaps they’re just making everyone wait one more week for it.
The AEW crew played it off like the match was a draw that should continue – Moxley beat Ultimo Guerrero, Sydal lost to Mistico – and they, confused foreigners, didn’t understand these CMLL rules. They all talked about coming back; you can tell this was even more than what they expected. Moxley outright says he did this match just to help Danieslon to live out his dream and now he can’t want to come back.
The rest of the show would’ve still been a great show on it’s own, though it might not have the same atmosphere. That atmosphere contributed to the tag tournament final, where decades long diehard dislike of the Atlantis family led to him getting booed on every move (and Dorada getting cheered every time hit him.) I don’t think there’s anything to do about that until/unless this crowd sticks around, because Atlantis Jr. is just going to be back cheered as soon as it’s over. The idea of the match was to have a really good match and to get over the Los Principes idea, and they hit on both.
The rest of the show was good, but was more visibly truncated by the time limitations. Most matches went ten minutes when they would’ve gotten fifteen on a normal big show. Moving the minis match to another show would’ve worked out better, maybe given that match more of a chance on it’s own while giving everything else more time, but it would’ve robbed Pequeno Olimpico of a big payday. As it was, taking those guys off Friday shows in the lead up to this mask match really hurt – no one knew who was feuding with who or why they were supposed to care. (And even if they did, the idea was Angelito & Pequeno Olimpico as partners against the other two.) The rules were baffling as well. They worked with CMLL’s internal logic – it’s a honor, not a punishment, to wager your mask in the cathedral of lucha libre, so wrestlers always win their way into a mask match – but they so failed to get that message over that the announcers seemed confused. It was too bad a long career like Pequeno Olimpico didn’t get a better mask match.
Pequeno Olimpico says he won’t look for revenge on Angelito – there’s no way he can get back what he lost. He would’ve liked to retire masked and figured he would have lost it against Pierrothito if anyone. It sounds like plans on continue wrestling – “if you fall, you must get up and start again.”
The women’s match came together well. I didn’t have it on my list for “possible best match of the night” and it got in that conversation. Everyone got big moves, and they really did a lot to showcase Willow – CMLL’s been good at featuring the outsiders to make them feel like a big deal. Willow beating Vaquer could lead to something – that Windy City Riot match still isn’t announced – but she’s also busy with AEW TBS championship match coming up.
Averno/Cavernario was the best of the three title matches, with Cavernario throwing everything he had at Averno but the old rudo being just a little too crafty for him. A Cavernario/Averno hair match is such an obvious direction coming out of that match. Zandokan and Esfinge was too young guys taking big risks, and it worked to get the crowd into near falls soon. The inverted rana-type piledriver near the end didn’t really work as well. Neon & Brillante versus Magnus & Esfinge is like the fourth or fifth version of that match; still good but something they could’ve done a little bit better.
The “seeing CMLL different than before” production comment turned out to be a drone camera. CMLL used it a lot in the opener, and then sparingly the rest of the show. The video quality of a drone camera is not going to be the same as normal – the colors were a bit off – but it did give CMLL more angles than they had before. CMLL missed a couple of dives early trying to take advantage of all the angles had to choose from, then settled down. The music completely derailed during the women’s matches entrances, leading almost everyone to walk out to Willow’s song. It was more hilarious than harmful.
It does seem like CMLL pulled in a lot of new YouTube members for this show. There were plenty of people who found the show through other means, of course, but it all added up to a lot of people talking about the promotion this weekend. Those who did subscribe are getting an extra singles match out of it, so it’s not a bad deal. (We’ll see how they feel about it if their subscription turns renews around April 29th.)
Apolo Valdes, who took a Blue Panther mask and video message to Bryan Danielson in 2016 that helped pushed this match along, ran into Panther before Friday’s show. Panther told Valdes he’d been asking other reporters about meeting him, because Panther wanted to thanks Valdes for making this match happen.
La Tijera talked to Blue Panther before Sunday’s show, and quote him as saying he would like his singles match with Bryan Danielson to be win by submission only.
CMLL (SAT) 03/30/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Micro Ditto & Mije
2) Rayo Metálico & Xelhua b Alom & Dragón de Fuego
3) Dark Panther b Espanto Jr. [lightning]
4) La Catalina, Lluvia, Marcela b Dark Silueta, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale
5) Star Black, Valiente, Volcano DQ Gemelo Diablo II, Gran Guerrero, Kráneo
Kraneo fouled Volcano and wasn’t caught, Volcano did the same and was cuaght
6) Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Templario b Atlantis Jr., Místico, Star Jr.
This too appears to be a sell out. It’s rare to see two levels of Arena Coliseo filled, much less all four. I don’t think that top level is even open to the public most weeks.
Match 4 and 5 (since it has the foul) are the most likely to go up on YouTube, but I’d like to see 2/6.
CMLL (SUN) 03/31/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Astro Boy Jr. & Novato
2) El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Magia Blanca b Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
3) Persephone, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale b Andrómeda, Marcela, Skadi
4) Euforia TLDRAW Hechicero [lightning]
Euforia gave Hechicero a super powerbomb but could not cover him before time ran out.
5) Atlantis, Titán, Valiente b Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Ángel de Oro & Templario
The Sunday Arena Mexico show doesn’t look to have drawn quite as well as others – the gradas weren’t opened up – but still a good turn out for that day of the week. CMLL seemed proud of it.
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) Blue Panther vs Bryan Danielson
A brief advantage of having a lucha libre database is you can say “what was the highest price for a ticket for every Friday show this year” at 12:16 AM and then actually look it up:
| Date |
concept |
Pesos |
| 04/05 |
Panther/Danielson |
600 |
| 03/29 |
H2L |
1464 |
| 03/22 |
TIDP Week 2 |
600 |
| 03/15 |
TIDP Week 1 |
700 |
| 03/08 |
Women Show |
600 |
| 03/01 |
Tiger Mask/UG |
600 |
| 02/23 |
Escuelas Final |
600 |
| 02/16 |
GDL vs Puebla |
600 |
| 02/09 |
CDMX vs Laguna |
600 |
| 02/02 |
GA Final |
700 |
| 01/26 |
GA Round 2 |
700 |
| 01/19 |
GA Round 1 |
600 |
| 01/12 |
Best of 2 |
600 |
| 01/05 |
Best of 1 |
600 |
Panther & Danielson is priced cheaper than two block weeks of tournaments and Neon & Mascara Dorada vs Mistico & Brillante. It is so cheap, and also so random what CMLL picks to be 700. It also sticks out that every Friday show so far has had some sort of obvious concept. It’s not always the main event, but there hasn’t been a Friday show where it’s just “here are all random matches” as CMLL normally books.
The rest of this Friday’s show is really not much though; it’s be an exceptionally weak card if not for that main event. There are no big stars with the national titles this year, making it really hard to pick a winner. The opener are Torneo Escuelas guys, the second are some good wrestlers who don’t normally get Fridays. (And also, Okumura conspicuously in Raider’s spot.) I know the ROH show is this Friday and I know a bunch of CMLL talent is in Philadelphia that week but I don’t think that’s the issue. At last word, all the CMLL wrestlers were scheduled for a flight back to Mexico on Friday morning.
I usually skip relationship unless it feeds into something more directly relevant. There were a couple of those this weekend. Esfinge and Tessa Blanchard revealed they’re a couple, which might explain why Blanchard is around for the long haul. La Catalina and El Elemental revealed that they weren’t just keeping it a secret that they were a couple, they’ve actually gotten married. That may have influence Elemental’s decision to try to move to CMLL, where he’s hanging around on the Guadalajara card this Tuesday.
The Guadalajara YouTube page has a 20 minute documentary on local Furia Roja.
AAA
Silver Cat (Antonio Hernandez Herrada, 53) passed away on Friday. He used multiple names in AAA and was pushed hardest as Hijo del Espectro – he was supposed to lose his mask to La Parka AAA at Rey de Reyes 2000 – but his later unmasked character ended up sticking around a lot longer. He was a founding wrestler as Reptil and, not so coincidentally, a cousin of Antonio Pena. The family relationship is probably the only thing that kept Silver Cat his job, and allowed him to transition into his unmasked role as Los Vatos Locos, a Kiss-themed rudo group. He was a regular in AAA, stopped appearing on TV before Antonio Pena passed away in 2006, and then just faded out working spot shows before leaving the promotion in 2008. Pagano, Charly Manson, and Mecha Wolf officially brought back the Los Vatos Locos name for their group at the most recent AAA TV taping. Original Vatos Locos member Nygma has also popped up on the Origenes tour, as has son of original member Hijo del Picudo. It’s likely Silver Cat was about to be mentioned a lot more on AAA TV, but now the circumstances have changed.
AAA TV was Vampiro heavy. The Vampiro stuff is the difference between producing a live event and a TV show. Vampiro getting a win and tearfully thanking the fans with the whole roster out there to salute him would be a fine farewell. It is instead only a farewell to Saltillo, and AAA’s doing this same bit in every city they’re running. It’s great for the live crowd to have that moment and it’s probably great as a draw. It’s not as great when this is the fourth goodbye speech Vampiro’s done in the last eight or so weeks of TV. They’re going to keep coming until August as long as it keeps drawing.
Everything’s a balance and doing the same Vampiro bits over and over would be more tolerable if there was other good stuff on the show. There wasn’t this week. The women/exoticos match wasn’t interesting. The goal of the main event seemed to be to have Iguana and Octagon to do a lot to distract from what Vampiro was doing; it wasn’t enough but you could see the idea. There was no distraction from Hator & Antifaz versus Toscano & Zorro, it was just not good. The success of the early Origenes shows has AAA looking to pull back any one from the 00s they can find. Hator barely wrestles nowadays and looked like it. Nygma gets his chance next week. They teased a big angle to come with Zorro (who has the ability to see the future, but only in vague and unspecific ways) telling Konnan that someone was going to betray him soon. That may be the first bit of the Eye storyline.
(Less obvious in non-good TV: AAA’s upcoming events continues to not advertise the dates for the upcoming Mexico City and Showcenter tapings, where tickets are on sale. It’s tough to square the long term goal of AAA getting a big US media deal with the lack of effort shown on their weekly TV.)
When Parker Boudreaux showed up, I (perhaps loudly) mentioned somehow should double check to see if he’s still employed by AEW. There’s not a lot of AEW/AAA cross over of late. Fightful’s Select Patreon did do the work, confirming Boudreaux is still under contract with AEW. The report goes onto mention AEW gave him permission, and Boudreaux’s still under contract for a “a few months.” Boudreaux (or his people) must’ve heard about that reported, because he made a rare for him twitter post to say he was both AAA and AEW. Boudreaux coming in briefly came up on Konnan’s podcast this week; Konnan met Boudreaux and was impressed, so he’s giving him a shot in a match where he feels like the other five guys can cover for his weaknesses. AAA didn’t run video packages to introduce for him because they wanted him to be a surprise. One of the other hosts asked if Boudreaux would be a heavy for QT or Sam and Konnan rejected that idea. The other voice suggested AEW’s Nick Comoroto was suggested for that spot, and Konnan retorted “why would I use someone even they [AEW] aren’t using?”
IWRG
AAA , ROSALES (FRI) 03/29/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Cobre, Dragón Suicida, Golden Jacket b Belzebu, Calibre Star, Kingoo
2) Daimo, Galio, Máscara de Bronce b Belcegor, Rey Halcón, Rey León
3) El Fiscal & Joe Lider b Dizzy & Karis La Momia Jr.
3) Faby Apache, La Parkita, Lunatik Fly, Niño Hamburguesa b El Elegido, Estrellita, Mini Charly Manson, Pimpinela Escarlata
5) Cibernético, Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria b Myzteziz, Octagón Jr., Vampiro
Cibernetico snuck in a foul on Vampiro
This did not stream on IWRG’s YouTube and wasn’t covered much, but it did appear sell out. Again, while the repeated Vampiro retirement is not great TV, it seems to be working very well as a live event draw.
IWRG (SUN) 03/31/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Fobia & Shura King b Indra & Silver Hawk 
2) Atómico, Hijo de Rey Pantera, Mariachi b Drakula, Pequeño Drago, Viral
Radioactivo defeating ULLO
3) Alan Star, Baalzephon, Impacto b Argus, Dezzendiente, Sparta
Gym Mexico defeating Lucha Libre Boom
4) Adam Del Castillo, Dardo, Rey Azteca b Anara Haki, Giako, Gigante Karoshi
Gym Infiero defeating Gym 23 de Junio
5) Oficial AK47 & Oficial Fierro b Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado
Fierro 30th anniversayr match. Win via foul. Oficials said they were coming back to IWRG for more.
6) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Ajolotl, Auzter, Fussion, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón, Tornado b Bumbu, Charly Boy, Dragón Suicida, Emperador Slayer, Energía, Hauzer, Jitsu, Zoom Driver [Copa Higher Power]
FILL vs Gym Lucha MX. Aguila Roja got the win.
The Radioactivo guys are said to have done well.
Other Notes
Nayarit luchador/referee Rey David Hernandez passed away on March 29th after a battle with diabetes.
AEW is off Vix in Latin America, and those markets will once again have access to AEW through FITE/Triller’s special plan. To recap the status quo: Vix is the Televisa owned streaming service, they were streaming some AEW shows live, others on delay and not at all with Battle of the Belts. Solowrestling received a email saying Vix was off LATAM – except for Mexico. I posted that story on Twitter Sunday afternoon. Later that day, AEW reached out me to confirm the AEW/VIX story and said they believed AEW was also leaving VIX in Mexico immediately. (They were working to confirm that at press time.) The AEW/VIX deal had some good interest in both sides at first, then VIX really didn’t seem to deliver the way AEW fans had hoped – shows were on delay, a back catalog of AEW PPVs never materialized. It’s possible the next LATAM deal could be wrapped up in the eventual next US deal but know one knows at this point. There is a point out here about how LATAM media companies don’t treat any sort of professional wrestling well and how that hurts CMLL and AAA but this paragraph is already too long.
Maximo lost his hair to Super Nova in Arena Neza. That looks like a full (2000ish) crowd, though Maximo’s lost his hair in front of much bigger crowd in the past.
El Siglo de Torreon has an article talking about the rise in numbers of luchadoras in the region. The article takes some detours getting to that point, and mentions an important fact I hadn’t seen before: the June 25, 1954 edition of El Nacional reported “a businessman” was blocked from running an all women’s show in Arena Coliseo by the Box y Lucha commission and the Mexico City government. I’ve always read “women’s wrestling was banned/vetoed in the 1950s, around the same as the TV ban” but I don’t recall ever seeing a specific date. Getting back to Torreon, it’s estimated there were about five luchadoras pre-pandemic, and now 22 who have licenses. The article talks to some of the luchadoras – Lady Shadow, who wrestled a few matches for CMLL last year, is said to “barely reach the age of 16” to get a license – but doesn’t explain why the jump in numbers.
Big Lucha is back this Saturday with a good lineup; I’ll go over it Friday.
LA Park and family say they’re building an arena in Monclova.
Segunda Caida has a review of some 1989 CMLL.