CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 05/31/2024 Arena México
1) Capitán Suicida & Valiente Jr. vs Alom & Infarto
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I © vs Chamuel [CMLL MICRO]
1st defense
3) Persephone, Tessa Blanchard, Valkiria vs Reina Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Templario vs Akuma, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
5) Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro [Copa Junior VIP, final]
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Volador Jr.
The main event looks centered around the Mistico/Magnus feud. That might be a singles match in upcoming weeks; it’s hard to imagine. Star Jr./Angel de Oro could go either way, though I suspect it’ll be Angel getting a win before his title match. Micro Gemelo Diablo I seems likely to keep his title, since he’s around more than Chamuel. I think Chamuel winning would probably mean they’re setting up KeMalito to challenge next, getting around Diablo/KeMalito being a bad match up. Tessa Blancahrd always is feuding with Stephanie Vaquer, but they haven’t done a tag team title match in a while and that’s something easy to set up there.
Informa Notes
CMLL (SAT) 06/01/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Astro Boy Jr., Leono, Retro vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Grako
2) Kemalito & Micro Sagrado vs Periquito Sacaryas & Tengu
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) La Catalina vs Tessa Blanchard [lightning]
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Fugaz vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
6) Atlantis Jr. & Máscara Dorada vs Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr.
A rare 2v2 main event, could be good. Los Atrapasuena back together for the first time in a while. Show up late for that opener.
CMLL (SUN) 06/02/2024 Arena México
1) Astral & Diamond vs Enfermero Jr. & Inquisidor
2) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. vs Dark Magic, El Coyote, Espanto Jr.
3) Max Star vs Difunto [lightning]
4) Kira, Sanely, Tessa Blanchard vs Lluvia, Olympia, Stephanie Vaquer [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Flip Gordon, Star Black, Valiente vs Hechicero, Sagrado, Zandokan Jr.
6) Esfinge, Místico, Star Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
Max Star/Difunto could be something. Sagrado seems out of place on that level, but CMLL seems to have split up Los Malditos.
CMLL (MON) 06/03/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Blue Shark vs Espíritu Maligno & Sombra Diabólika
2) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
3) Lluvia & Sanely vs Persephone & Zeuxis
4) Crixus, Difunto, Raider © vs Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray [OCCIDENTE TRIOS]
first defense
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Gran Guerrero, Místico, Último Guerrero vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Raider seems to be in the doghouse based on his lack of bookings, so a title change there isn’t out of the question. Soberano and Ultimo Guerrero get to avoid each other in the main event.
CMLL announced Puebla shows will start airing on Televisa Puebla in June. The shows will air on Sundays at 8 pm, then repeat on Tuesdays at 5 pm. It’s unclear when it starts, how long each episode will run, if it’ll be the previous Monday’s Puebla show, or if the shows will continue to stream. Televisa Puebla has an internet stream, though it’s usually just repeats of their news shows.
CMLL announced the Monday & Tuesday lineups for the Mistico 20th Anniversary celebrations. He’s going to have a singles match at each stop.
CMLL (MON) 06/17/2024 Arena Puebla
***Mistico 20th Anniversary***
1) Amnesia, Blue Shark, Millenium vs Rencor, Rey Apocalipsis, Sombra Diabólica
2) Rayo Metálico vs Dragón de Fuego [lightning]
3) Astral, Diamond, Eléctrico vs Multy, Perverso, Prayer
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Xelhua vs Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón
5) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Bad Dude Tito, Che Cabrera, Michael Oku
debut of the foreigners in Mexico
6) Místico vs Averno
Tito, Cabrera and Oku start in CMLL there. (It’s looking like Takahashi and Sabre are Friday only and then probably off to AEW land.) Nice to see Xelhua get a higher than usual spot in a good match.
CMLL (TUE) 06/18/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
***Mistico 20th Anniversary Celebration***
1) Ángel Rebelde, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr. vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Príncipe Drago
2) Adira & Náutica © vs Hatana & Valkiria [OCCIDENTE WOMEN TAG]
3) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
4) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Valiente vs Hechicero, Soberano Jr., Templario
5) Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Místico vs Volador Jr.
The fourth match might be good, but it’s really just that and the main event. The foreigners seem to be working Arena Mexico on Tuesday, which isn’t how it usually goes for visitors.
CMLL announced a bunch of dates for other upcoming special shows:
- 07/02 (Tuesday): Felino 40th Anniversary show
- 07/20 (Saturday): Arena Coliseo Guadalajara vs Arena Coliseo Mexico City
- 08/23 (Friday): Men’s Gran Prix
The Gran Prix is the probably the date where you want to plan to get on the 35 USD Leyenda tier, if you’re someone willing to even consider that. You’ll get that show and probably Aniversario (though there’s still no known date for it; that’s the next big show to announce.) FantasticaMania will also be a Leyenda show, but there’s nothing else major between now and the Gran Prix.
Right now, Mistico is in the midst of at least nine matches in nine days. He wrestled in Merida last Saturday to start, and is booked at least through upcoming Monday in Arena Puebla. It would be even longer if the Lucka Libre show in Tijuana on 05/25 still happened. That stretch includes appearing in MLW’s Battle Riot on Saturday, which will stream on their YouTube channel for free.
Michael Oku did a virtual media day with the CMLL press on Thursday. ESTO and Kaiser Sports have recaps; Oku positioned himself as a fighting (tecnico) champion who would like to fight clean but is ready for Angel de Oro if he cheats. He mentions Mistico as someone he’d like to fight and Black Magic as an inspiration. Che Cabrera and Bad Dude Tito did one as well, and went with the ugly American personality.
TJP defeated Titan in their final block match of this Best of Super Juniors, knocking Titan out of the tournament. I am now share the same hatred for TJP as the rest of wrestling fandom. Titan is booked on the 06/15 All Together card so we won’t see him back in Mexico for a while regardless.
RevPro officially announced they’ll be running the FantasticaMania UK shows again in 2025 in a Twitter Q&A Friday morning. They’d previously talked, both on screen in and previous chats, about wanting to do it again but hadn’t committed to it yet. That’s positive news for that relationship.
07/13 FantasicaMania USA has Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero, Stephanie Vaquer, El Desperado, Zack Sabre Jr., and Yota Tsuji announced. Their announcements keep cycling through those seven names and no more.
AEW
As teased by CMLL, Stephanie Vaquer, Mistico and Hechicero appeared on AEW Dyanmite. AEW aired a Vaquer introduction video and she later confronted Mercedes Mone after a title defense. That seems likely to be a match at the June 30th Forbidden Door show. Hechicero and Mistico appeared in the Casino Gauntlet match for a shot at the AEW Championship at Forbidden Door. Neither one, but both are likely to turn up again in AEW between now and that PPV.
The idea of the Casino Gauntlet was that everyone was an international star and everyone was a surprise. Announcing Mistico would’ve hurt the surprise. Announcing Mistico would’ve sold some tickets, and I think that would’ve been an easy decision to me make. You can’t let your fun ideas get in the way of the thing you set out to do, assuming that thing is to run a successful business.
Reina Dorada wrestled Thunder Rosa on the AEW Collision taping Thursday. It’ll air Saturday. I don’t think it’s widely understood that the AEW taped shows have regularly clean up matches with editing, because the AEW editors do a good job of hiding their work. That editing staff will have a lot of work to do on the Dorada/Rosa match; those who saw the match said it had a lot of issues. Editing may be able to salvage the match as it has for other matches, but I expect this will be one match and no more for Dorada in AEW. In grand Mexican wrestling tradition, she’ll be listed on posters as “AEW wrestler Reina Dorada” for the rest of time regardless.
Reina Dorada is one of the least impressive luchadoras in AAA; I would put just about every other woman regularly working in that promotion ahead of her, and it’s not even a good women’s division right now. AAA would be hesitant to put Reina Dorada in a singles match on their TV against people she normally works with, and she doesn’t work many singles away from AAA either. There’s no CMLL people on Collision so there’s no AAA/CMLL conflict there, but it’s strange to put someone new from AAA given CMLL is a focus going into their next PPV. AEW does do some scouting of other promotions, and they could also easily test someone out for ability before the show. Either would’ve told them Reina Dorada might be a lovely person but not really someone ready for a US TV show. So how did Reina Dorada get on AEW TV? That’s a red flag.
(To make this plainer for people who are drifting but follow other stuff: If someone in the bottom 10 of wrestlers in TNA showed up in NJPW and were called a WWE representative by people reporting on the show. People would fairly have a lot of questions.)
The lesser important story is PW Insider posted a report on the taping, incorrectly listed Reina Dorada as a CMLL wrestler because she was masked Mexican and they had seen a CMLL person the day before. Every other site copying from PW Insider repeated it without checking it or having the basic knowledge of lucha libre to question it. Reina Dorada isn’t an important luchadora in AAA, she’s not a Toxica, but these same sites should know her based on what they write. The only AAA shows they cover are TripleManias, and she was in the first match in Monterrey that they all wrote about last month. Mike Johnson of PW Insider actually writes a preview for of each AAA TripleMania, so he would seem to know who’s in AAA, but he wasn’t the writer for that particular post.
(Reina Dorada has wrestled one match for CMLL, in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in 2019. That makes her about as much a CMLL wrestler as Matt Sydal. Also, if you’re a person who cares about this, go look at the main event and get confronted with where CMLL was five years ago.)
Writing “CMLL” when it should’ve been “AAA” is not important to the 99% of people reading those AEW Collision spoilers. They’re just passing through on their way to read a hot take from a retired 90s personality about today’s wrestling. The issue is that if you don’t even know who’s who and where they’re from, you’re going to miss stories. And there’s a definitely a story behind Reina Dorada showing up in AEW, but one almost no one is going to track down if they assume she’s just there as a random CMLL wrestler.
AAA
This week’s AAA TV show should continue the 05/11 Mexico City taping. Matches left to air:
- Adelicious, Centella, Faby Apache vs Dalys, Flammer, Tiffany
- Octagon Jr defending the Latin America championship against Dinamico, Taurus, Belcegor and Australian Suicide.
- Los Vipers (Abismo Negro, Psicosis, el Fiscal) versus La Secta (Cuervo, Ozz and Scoria) for the vacant AAAA Trios championship
- Charly Manson & Mecha Wolf vs Electroshock & Zorro
AAA isn’t taping again until June 11th. They may split these four matches into two shows, or they may just air them all now and another TripleMania preview show next week.
Argenis announced Wednesday that he was leaving AAA. He was positive towards AAA in his exit. Argenis had been full time with AAA since 2008, usually in minor roles but occasionally filling bigger spots. Being in AAA at the right time got him some work in Lucha Underground, both under his real name and using the Barrio Negro gimmick. it didn’t really lead to the US bookings others got. When Vampiro took over AAA creative in 2016 (and Lucha Underground’s Chris DeJoseph did a lot of writing for AAA), Argenis got a decent push and was the surprising 2017 Rey de Reyes winner. Argenis recent years were focused on a long never much advancing rivalry with Myzteziz Jr.. The original Myzteziz was Mistico’s short lived AAA character, Argenis felt it should stay with the family and not be given to someone else, and Argenis ripped off Myzteziz’s mask a dozen times. They eventually had their mask match as the final of a cage match in TripleMania Monterrey in 2023 (where everyone expected it to be Laredo Kid and Antifaz, but Antifaz had an injury.) Myzteziz unmasked Argenis, though nothing much changed in the rivalry in the way AAA feuds never change. Argenis was squeezed out of TV appearances this year – only appearing on the Rey de Reyes show – an effect of all the Retro guys coming in. It appeared to me that Argenis may have already out of contract. He appeared on the ELITE show, with a lot of people who were already done with AAA. There was also the weird bit on a Big Lucha show where the promotion announced mid-show that AAA would not let Argenis wrestle, and then Argenis showed up later to declare he would do what he wanted and wrestled anyway. Argenis was not included on the AAA roster photo from a couple of weeks ago, for what it’s worth.
Argenis wrestled in CMLL in 2005 and 2006. His brothers (Mistico and the Dr. Karontes) wrestle there, and so it would seem like there’s an opening for Argenis to show up. CMLL’s roster is crowded already so it’s not a given. Argenis is better than either Dr. Karonte but not so good that he needs to be on CMLL shows. Argenis also has a son who wrestles under the name Night Fury, though less so this year, and that might factor into his next move.
El Hijo de Dr. Wagner is pictured on the poster of the 06/16 NOAH show. He is not on the published lineup. It would be near impossible for him to do both that show and participate in TripleMania Tijuana. (That’s why it didn’t seem like Wagner 3 would be in AAA to begin with, and presumably something must’ve changed.)
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 05/30/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Príncipe Centauro & Súper Boy b Águila Oriental & Sky Man
Mala Fama attacked everyone until Hell Boy and Canis Lupus made the save.
2) Rey Halcón & Sol b Águila Roja & Tornado
Worked under elimination tag rules which IWRG doesn’t usually do, but did allow Rey Halcon to get eliminated and cheat to help Sol beat Aguila Roja. Sol & Aguila Roja want a singles match.
3) Spider Fly b Noisy Boy
“Random” match where partners Spider Fly and Noisy Boy “randomly” to fight each other. Spider Fly beat Noisy Boy to set up a title match.
4) Látigo & Toxin b Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr.
Arez helped Mala Fama win. Cerebros wanted a rematch in superllibre.
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo Del Silver King b Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus
Toxin, Latigo, Arez, and Spider Fly all got involved, setting up a trios match for Sunday.
I don’t know who’s in charge of putting these shows together but it sure feels like it was constructed by people who were recently in Lucha Libre AAA. The prelim guys getting beat up by the main event rudos is the signature AAA beat; it’s just the guys doing the beating used to be the guys getting beat up.
IWRG (SUN) 06/02/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Príncipe Centauro vs Sacro
2) Rey Aztaroth & Rey Halcón vs Auzter & Sky Man
3) Bengalee, Estrella Divina, Shamila vs Bizhota, Diosa Quetzal, Mary Caporal
4) Imposible, Misterioso Jr., Sangre Azteca vs Bugambilia, Caballero de Plata, Shocko
5) Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Noisy Boy vs Arez, Látigo, Toxin
6) Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo Del Silver King vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.’s ability to draw to Naucalpan will be interesting when he’s headlining Gimansio Juan de la Barrera in a couple of weeks.
Misterioso Jr., Sangre Azteca and Dragon Rojo were part of a CMLL trio Poder Mexica in 2009 and 2010. Dragon Rojo and Misterioso betrayed Sangre Azteca in 2011, sending Azteca to an stint as a tecnico. (Azteca later called that tecnico run as the worst time of his career.) Sangre Azteca hasn’t wrestled much in the last few years, about a match every two weeks, but the press asked both he and Misterioso about putting the Poder Mexicano team back together now that Misterioso is on the indies. They seemed open to it. Impossible can be a patroitic Mexican character when he wants, so that could be a new Poder Mexica trio. It also could be old friends restarting a feud again each other.
The Crash
They’re back on 06/28, after TripleMania Tijuana
The Crash (FRI) 06/28/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Gallo Extreme © vs X-Devil [The Crash Junior]
first defense
2) Anubis & El Rey vs Mirage & Mr. Maldito
3) Mamba, Tigre Blanco, Toto vs Hellboy (Estado de México), Herodes Jr., Tony Casanova
4) Destiny © vs Carta Brava Jr. [The Crash CRUISER]
fourth defense
5) Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane © vs Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. [The Crash TAG]
fourth defense
6) Mecha Wolf & Rey Horus vs Bestia 666 & D Luxe
7) Matt Riddle vs Penta 0M, The Beast Mortos
Any show that close after TripleMania is going to have trouble to draw, so that’s probably factor while Penta and Riddle. Carta Brava used to be pretty good but it’s been a while where hasn’t had chances to show it; that title match could be something but may just be a lot of shortcuts.
Other News
Veracruz luchador Ferrarito (Jose Alejandro Tellez Rosales) passed away Tuesday. The obit mentioned he started as a wrestler in the 90s as Richard Moreno, then changed to the mini gimmick because that was the hot thing in AAA.