FantasticaMania/Mistico 20th Anniversary, AAA/WWE, UG versus a mask

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 06/21/2024 Arena México
***FantasticaMania Mexico 2024***
1) Astro Boy Jr., Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II vs Futuro, Max Star, Vegas
2) Magnus & Rugido vs Bad Dude Tito & Che Cabrera
3) Stephanie Vaquer © vs La Catalina [NJPW STRONG WOMEN]
fourth defense when announced
4) Máscara Dorada & Templario vs Rocky Romero & Taiji Ishimori [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Averno & Volador Jr. vs Michael Oku & Zack Sabre Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Hiromu Takahashi vs Místico

This show is going to sell out. This crowd is going to be amped. They’re going to play Me Muero (or Ameno or both) before the main event, and the crowd is going to wild. Someone’s going to post the clip on X or IG or somewhere and a bunch of people who don’t watch CMLL are going to get the impression CMLL is the hottest promotion in the world. There’s a pretty good argument it will be on this day. I don’t know that there will be any match on this card that people call one of the best in the world of 2024, but it should be among the best feelings watching wrestling you’ll get this year.

I wrote a long preview on Voices of Wrestling, though it’s more just a bunch of takes that are sort of attached to these matches, because it’s not a story show. Oku cheated Volador but that’s not a big deal. Templario and Rocky Romero are supposed to be partners but that hasn’t been played up as a big deal. This is more of an all-star show, where it’s just about seeing an unusual collection of names in one place. I think it’ll work on that account (and maybe more so if you skip the opener.)

Mercedes Mone will be in attendance for this show.

Mistico’s mass took place on Thursday. He did press on the way there. He’s done so much press for these shows that I think he’s going to appreciate the moment and also appreciate the break when it’s over.

CMLL held a press conference for the FantasticaMania foreigners on Friday afternoon. It was a lot like the AEW one before Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, an amusing and interesting listen. The one one really notable thing that popped out to me was Rocky Romero doing a normal rudo bit about how everyone is going to pay if he loses and threw in a line (in Spanish) of “I already paid a penalty for breaking that trophy.” That trophy would be the incredible pairs trophies that both Rocky and Soberano broke at the end of that tournament. Rocky hasn’t been back in CMLL since his tour around that show ended, Soberano disappeared from Arena Mexico for some time. I’ve been wondering if those guys broke the trophies without approval and have been downplayed as punishment for it. Romero said that’s what happened, though he was also in character the rest of the time.

CMLL (SAT) 06/22/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado vs Átomo, Chamuel, Kemalito
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Kira, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Hera, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
4) Ángel de Oro vs Rocky Romero [lightning]
5) Hechicero vs Zack Sabre Jr.
6) Místico & Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi & Volador Jr.

This is the “put your money where your mouth is.” CMLL is running the biggest possible Hechicero match, will people show for it? I think this match will be better off for being in front of this crowd and with a looser time control than on a packed Friday show.

CMLL (SUN) 06/23/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) El Audaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. vs El Coyote, Kráneo, Okumura
3) Sanely & Tessa Blanchard vs Olympia & Persephone
4) Averno vs Rocky Romero
5) Hiromu Takahashi, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Hijo del Villano III, Taiji Ishimori, Villano III Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico vs Magnus & Zack Sabre Jr.

This seems like the most random card of the weekend. Match five could be great if the foreigners are into it but I’m least worried about missing this one.

CMLL (MON) 06/24/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Asturiano, Black Tiger vs El Malayo, Fénix SO, King Jaguar
2) El Audaz, Futuro, Xelhua vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Multy
3) Guerrero Maya Jr. © vs Neón [MEX MIDDLE]
fourth defense
4) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Virus
5) Templario vs Hiromu Takahashi
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico vs Rocky Romero & Taiji Ishimori

Friday’s show will have better vibes but this might be the better card if everything hits. I don’t know how much the foreigners are going to be in their fourth match in four days but Templario/Takahashi and ZSJ/Virus have high ceilings. Neon/Maya could be great too, and why not the main event. Plus there’s Xelhua wrestling so ZSJ can learn some new holds. The issue is – unless CMLL makes an announcement – this is a Televisa Puebla show only, which means just the top three matches will air. Hope Porra Fresa has a good view of the title match.

CMLL (TUE) 06/25/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Fúnebre, Mortis, Ponzoña Jr. vs Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Rumbero
2) Draego & Persa vs Optimus & Trono
3) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Cris Skin, Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr.
4) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Lluvia vs Zeuxis [lightning]
6) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Mephisto

Back to normal. Euforia unmasked Gran Guerrero last week but Mephisto replaces him this week.

CMLL Informa had it’s usual bit of announcements:

The Felino shows in July will be headlined by Felino and Felino Jr. against other father/son teams

• 07/01 Arena Puebla: Felino & Felino Jr. vs Octagon & Hijo del Octagon
• 07/02 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara: Felino & Felino Jr. vs Blue Panther & Dark Panther
• 07/05 Arena Mexico: Felino & Felino Jr. vs Pantera & Hijo del Pantera

(Internacional) Pantera has been in CMLL for legends matches in recent years. This will be Hijo del Pantera’s CMLL debut. CMLL pushed the idea that Pantera is Felino’s greatest rival, which there’s a fair case.

CMLL will have the first leg of the Leyenda de Plata on July 12nd. This tournament is open to lightweights, welterweights and middleweights. Those in the first block are Volador Jr., Mascara Dorada, Flip Gordon, Angel de Oro, Brillante Jr., Futuro, Villano III Jr. and Stigma. I don’t think Flip or Angel fit the weight categories, based on how CMLL’s booked them before, but it’s not too important.

The full FantasticaMania USA lineup

CMLL , NJPW (SAT) 07/13/2024 Mt. Pleasant High School, San Jose, California
1) Adrian Quest vs The DKC, Viento, Cucuy
2) Stephanie Vaquer vs Lluvia
3) Yota Tsuji vs Bárbaro Cavernario
4) Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero & Virus
5) Último Guerrero vs Gabe Kidd [NJPW STRONG]
6) Okumura & Satoshi Kojima vs Magnus & Rugido [MLW TAG]
7) Douki & Místico vs Rocky Romero & Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

It’s not an overwhelming show. It should be a fun one, though I can see CMLL people who are already spending $35/month not feeling like it’s totally necessary to pay another 20 for this (if that’s what it turns out to be.) Tickets are still available; I thought it would be a quick move given the size of the venue, but maybe 30% of tickets are still left.

CMLL also debuted a new podcast, the first episode talking to Mistico and all the other participants in his first match. The podcast is 2 hours and 30 minutes long.

Michael Oku, Amira Blair and Okumura visited with officials at the UK embassy in Mexico.

AEW

Saturday’s AEW Collision will include Kazuchika Okada versus Ultimo Guerrero. The match was said not to go well. AEW promoted Ultimo Guerrero under his masked identity. Ultimo Guerrero has not been a masked wrestler in 10 years come this September, though he was masked when AEW CEO Tony Khan was watching CMLL. Khan’s interview style is like lucha libre, where he repeats not moves but full sequences, and so I think I’ve heard/read some of the same greatest bits many many times. His go to story about CMLL is talking about watching Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy and many others in the early 2000s – about the same time I started doing the same – and explaining that fandom to the various Mexican wrestlers who come to CMLL. As he has so warm memories of that time, that was my guess as why AEW asked Ultimo Guerrero to wrestle masked. Another theory is someone in AEW just grabbed the wrong Ultimo Guerrero graphic and, once he was shown as a masked man on Dynamite, AEW felt like they had to present him that way.

FantasticaMania viewers know Ultimo Guerrero wrestling masked is usually not an issue – as best I know – Ultimo Guerrero was not aware he was going to be asked to wrestle masked and did not bring one with him. That led to a mad scramble to find a mask or mask up a mask, and Ultimo Guerrero ended up wearing a mask that wasn’t really suitable and would not stay on his head. It appeared Guerrero tried to cut out a lot of spots that would’ve risked his mask coming off, which resulted in a lower quality match – and the mask still came off multiple times during the match. The match was not what Guerrero and Okada are capable of doing, and even editing around the mask issues probably won’t work. I hope UG gets another chance to show what he can do.

Hechicero and Matt Menard also had a match on Saturday’s Collision. Not as much drama there.

06/30 AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door

• Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs Mercedes Mone for the AEW TBS Championship and the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship
• MJF vs Hechicero – new

Thursday’s Ring of Honor show included a promo with Atlantis Jr., apparent taped backstage an AEW/ROH event. (CMLL doesn’t use the red lighting.) Atlantis Jr. challenged the winner to the Kyle Fletcher/Lee Johnson TV title match to defend it again him in Arena Mexico. Fletcher won – match was said to be great – so he’ll be coming to Mexico City at some point. Kyle Fletcher was one of the many foreigners scheduled to appear at TripleMania who didn’t end up appearing; it would’ve been tough for him to appear in Arena Mexico if he did work TripleMania, so maybe he got a heads up. (Fletcher is managed by Don Callis, who has appeared in AAA and I suspect will not be in CMLL.) Atlantis Jr. has not yet returned from his minor leg injury, but I believe ROH ran this promo expecting this match will happen soon. Maybe we’ll find out on next week’s Informa. AEW’s booking is the their guys nearly always beat the CMLL guys in AEW, but the CMLL guys tend to beat the AEW guys in Arena Mexico. I expect Atlantis Jr. will be the next ROH TV champion.

In non CMLL related stuff, Metalik was back in AEW this week. He had not wrestled in AEW/ROH since October, when he had a falling out with management about taking too many losses. AEW’s booking suggested they were just looking for another available luchador to be a partner of Komander for the week, so maybe Metalik made some amends. It’s notable that AEW brought Metalik back and that AEW didn’t pick someone else – Dralistico for one. He hasn’t been used by AEW since November, and it certainly seems like the promotion is moving away from the LFI idea.

AAA

AAA tapes TV Saturday in Mexico City

AAA TV (SAT) 06/22/2024 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Adelicious, Jessy Queen, Nobu San vs Bengala, Black Andrómeda, Chik Tormenta
2) Aerostar, Brazo De Oro Jr., Karis La Momia Jr. vs Abismo Negro Jr., El Fiscal, Taurus
3) Octagón Jr. vs Drago, Dinámico [AAA CRUISER, #1 Contenders]
4) Cibernético, Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz vs Dark Scoria, Dark Spíritu, El Mesías
5) Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown vs ?, Scorpió Jr. (original), Zumbido
6) Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Matt Riddle

Matt Riddle was back in training, so presumably he’s good for this match. That main event remains weird: not sure why it’s happening, not sure if the fans will care, not sure if they’ll work well together.

Decnnis is likely the mystery person in match five. Scorpio Jr. was pretty close to being done when they originally did this gimmick so I’m not sure bringing him back is going to be pretty. Match four is the rematch from Tijuana, so maybe Cibernetico’s getting his pin back and then they’ll make some match for Mexico City. I’m advocating for going all in with Octagon Jr. – it would help if someone here was to be a rising star – but AAA may just spread the wins around. Maybe match 2 is a good, maybe match 1 just a collection of people. Maybe there will be a direction for TripleMania, I don’t know. This taping won’t air for 3-4 weeks; AAA has the rest of TripleMania Tijuana and the Juarez taping prior to it.

Space this week will have some of the TripleMania Tijuana undercard. Unimas will have a couple of matches from TripleMania Monterrey.

The WON said “the building” reported attendance for TripleMania Tijuana at “13,000”, and fans in attendance as between 10,000 and 13,000. It certainly looked like less than 10,000 in the overhead shots AAA used.

Nic Nemeth will indeed be defending the AAA Megachampionship at least once between TripleManias. It’ll just be in Puerto Rico’s WWC, not AAA. He’ll defend this Saturday against Eddie Colon (the former WWE’s Primo Colon.) Some WWC shows have been iPPVs, this one doesn’t appear to be at this point. AAA has not acknowledged this title match as of yet.

Lideres Mexicanos has a 40 minute interview with Dorian Roldan. The interview was conducted about two weeks ago; the AAA appearance at the King’s League just happened and the taping in Juarez was about to happen. I listened it very late at night and tried to gather some of the key points.

Early on, when talking about Roldan’s transition into the lead role, the interviewer assumes he was criticized early on and then less so as people got used to him in the position. Roldan redirects by saying he wants criticism, he tells all his work teams he wants honest feedback on what’s working and what needs to be better. He goes onto say he’s very concerned about feedback from the fans, and what they say about the show, because they’re trying to get them leave a smile and hook them to keep buying tickets for the next show in their town.

Roldan talks about all the work that goes into putting together and producing a show, with maybe 90% happens before a show happens – but the most important part is that last 10%. They can have the best graphics, the best pyro, the best presentation, but if the luchadors don’t have a good match for the 10-20 minutes it lasts, none of that matters. Roldan says the three biggest Revenue sources for AAA are sponsorships, media rights, and ticket sales.

Roldan’s asked about one time he had a big failure, and he says he believes he’s had more failures than successes. I think he was joking. Roldan talks in the usual way about how they learn and improve from all these failures. The example he brings up is an US agreement they signed that turned into a big lawsuit, but that led them to create Lucha Underground – which also ended up in a big lawsuit, but also led them to the great partners they had today. (I think he meant Unimas here.) Roldan also brings up Luchatitlan as a notable failure. He says all the investment bankers they talked to, all the people in that industry, all of them saw it would be a great success. Then, the numbers came in, now how they expected, and he had to accept that it was a failure. He compares it to losing a child, they put so much energy and hope to it and it didn’t work out. It sounds Luchatitlan isn’t totally dead – they’re talking to people about it, and maybe they’ll be able do something in a few months or at the end of the year. Roldan notes it’s an equally valid possibility that project is just done, and they don’t want to make the mistake of getting on something that’s not working.

Roldan mentions the changes in the ways young people are consuming content. Not on TV is one thing, but also more where they’re consuming it from. His comparison is that a young Mexican football fan a couple decades would have America or Chivas or Pumas or one of the other big Mexican league teams as their favorite. Today, that same young fan may be supporting Barcelona or Miami or other teams outside of Mexico due to globalization. Roldan noted that when AAA wrestlers went to the King’s League games, he noted there was a full stadium of Mexican fans of teams from Spain and other countries (and not Mexico.) Roldan said there were a lot of famous Mexican brands that don’t really exist any more as outside brands have replaced it. He sees WWE as the same challenge for his industry; AAA has to get stronger to be able to defend themselves if WWE ever comes to Latin America, and getting on Unimas is part of that. Roldan mentions they’ve also had discussions with private capital about an influx of money to help them better compete, but he’s got to weigh that against trying to preserve the family DNA of the company.

There’s a bit more, but “private capital” stands out to me as a big big deal. The usual bit is someone gives the company a bunch of money, expects to that chunk plus a lot more back in a few years time and gets some control on how the company goes about making that extra money. That may mean directing the investment of that capital, strategy shifts, big cut backs, and/or risky moves with little long term concern past the length of the deal. Sometimes private capital helps a business really grow, and you can read your local news source to find plenty of times people from the outside suddenly directing things hasn’t worked out great. I think considering private capital it’s telling about the spot Roldan sees AAA in – they’re at risk at losing the essence of AAA if they let other people have control, but he must feel they’re at the risk of losing WWE bigfooting their way into Mexico and losing AAA that way.

My big takeaway from was how much Dorian Roldan sees WWE as a threating invader, and AAA possibly disappearing like other Mexican brands if powerful outside brands come into Mexico. I though it as AAA wouldn’t be a logical NXT partner for Mexico – anything that would help WWE become stronger in Mexico would seem to be a threat to AAA’s existence. All the news that’s come out surprisingly has talk of AAA and WWE working together. A report in today’s WON that Dorian Roldan had contacted WWE about working with NXT, in the context of Lucha Libre Online’s story about AAA wanting to find partners in Puerto Rico and Mexico. Planeta Wrestling adds on to the story saying they’ve heard NXT is talking to AAA & WWC to be those partners, “as a way to highlight the global nature of wrestling.” Shawn Michaels is the point person for NXT, and there’s an idea WWE championships may be defended in these promotions. NXT’s Shawn Michaels is said to be talking to these promotions. Planeta says they’ll have a longer story about all of this in a few hours.

This idea of working AAA working with WWE doesn’t seem to fit with AAA being concerned with WWE coming in to Latin America. WWE’s idea at the moment is proving they’re great partners with promotions around the world. The history is those WWE partnerships are just a way for them to get a sense of the market before they try to take it for themselves. Dorian Roldan is aware of that threat in the podcast, but is still exploring making a deal if those reports are correct. Maybe he sees the risk in one match or one title defense as not a big deal, and worth it at time where AAA really wants to increase their US visibility to get people to the Unimas show. Maybe AAA’s willingness to talk about private capital investment signals they’re willing to talk about any possibility, even if they don’t ultimately go with it. None of the reports say that AAA (or WWC) has agreed to this, though they’re written from the perspective that of course they’d agree to work with the benevolent WWE. Listening to that podcast, I didn’t get the feeling WWE saw as benevolent.

Big Lucha

There is an actual next Arena Big Lucha lineup for next weekend. It’ll end up being six weeks between shows in their building:

Big Lucha (SAT) 06/29/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Depasyman vs Reiyel, Helios, Nordico
2) Átomo & Ryu Orochi vs Epidemia & Uzumaki
3) Lady Apache vs Sussy Love
4) El Cobarde, Mexicano, Orbita vs Elipse, Iku, Vengador
5) Cometa Maya & Radioactivo © vs Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana [BIG LUCHA MIXA]
6) Texano Jr. vs Emperador Azteca (Estado de México), Limbo, Big Tao Tao, Jack Evans, Súper Nova [TLC, Golden Ticket]

“Golden Ticket” is their Money in the Bank type prize. Potro de Oro won it last year and became champion. (Potro de Oro is not on this show.) The tag title match could be good or could be a lot of shortcuts to get heat; I have more hope for it than most of the matches. Sussy Love telling a newspaper “one day I’d really like to face Lady Apache” when she probably knew she was going to face Lady Apache next is actually fantastic.

Big Lucha has a sit down interview with Big Tao Tao.

If you were concerned Black Skayde was leaving Big Lucha, he wants to assure you he’s not.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 06/20/2024 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring, IWRG]
1) Sacro b Fauno 
Sacro suffered a knee injury
2) Shamila b Mary Caporal, Kali 
3) El Bendito b Spider Fly 
This time, the referee screwed up and counted a Bendito pin when “he wasn’t supposed to”
4) Khlan, Misterioso Jr., Vangellys b Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Jessy Ventura 
Khlan beat Hell Boy to set up a title match
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Luka, Pandemónium Jr. b Pig Decapitador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool 
mask mask challenges followed, as ever

They’ve turned last week’s melt down into an angle, but I’m sure if you want to make an angle out of your referee being bad. Oh well.

IWRG (SUN) 06/23/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ajolotl & Sacro vs Luxor & Mursy
2) Sky Man & Vudu Max vs Histeriosis & Rey Aztaroth
3) Freelance, Multifacetico Jr., Tornado vs Mike, Príncipe Centauro, Rey Halcón
4) Internacional Pantera, Jessy Ventura, Veneno vs Imposible, Misterioso Jr., Puma de Oro
5) Hell Boy © vs Khlan [IWRG MEXICO]
6) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Cerebro Negro, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Vangellys

Khlan is a Costa Rican wrestler.

Other Notes

There’s a new mural of Dos Caras in Leon.

A new lucha libre movie, Muerte Negra, will be filmed in Jalisco starting in November.