TripleMania Mexico City lineup, Mistico wins international cibernetico, CMLL/AEW

CMLL

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

Templario beat Takahashi is a surprise; CMLL’s booked him strong against the outsiders. Virus did get one submission victory in the three falls against Sabre but not the overall victory. This show will stream against hour 3 of AEW Forbidden Door, so 50/50 I remember to screen record it.

Neon was said not to look good in his title match. He hasn’t a lot of singles matches, but also missing the next day’s show suggests there may have been an illness or injury. Neon is scheduled to return to England to defend the RevPro Undisputed Cruiserweight Championship on Sunday against Will Kaven.

CMLL (TUE) 06/25/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Aéreo, Fantasy, Galaxy b Full Metal, Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico
10:28
2) Kira, Sanely, Skadi b Hera, Metálica, Olympia
Tecnicas took 2/3. 13:38.
3) Soberano Jr. & Zandokan Jr. b Magnus & Rugido
11:37.
4) Místico b Hiromu Takahashi, Volador Jr., Zack Sabre Jr., Máscara Dorada, Taiji Ishimori, Templario, Flip Gordon, Rocky Romero, Titán, Fugaz, Star Jr., Dark Magic, Okumura [cibernetico]
31:17. Sides set by battle royal. Fugaz replaced Neon. Elimination order: Dark Magic (by Hiromu), Okumura (Star), Fugaz (Mistico), Star (ZSJ), Flip (Volador), Hiromu (Romero using the ropes), Titan (Taiji), Romero (Dorada), Dorada (Templario), Tempalrio (Volador Jr.), Volador Jr. (Taiji), Taiji (Mistico), ZSJ (Mistico) leaving Mistico as the winner. Salvador Lutteroth, Jose Luis Feliciano and Villano IV (new commissioner) presented Mistico with a trophy.

The cibernetico was good, especially down the stretch. I’m surprised the CMLL wrestlers have gotten this many wins over the NJPW guys; I would’ve wagered this was a victory for one of them to balance the scales a bit.

Whoever decided Fugaz and Dark Magic should work together must’ve wanted to see them fail (and got their wish.)

I liked the semimain but I was on a very lonely island on that one.

CMLL (TUE) 06/25/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Mas Lucha]
1) Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Rumbero b Fúnebre, Mortis, Ponzoña Jr.
2) Draego & Persa b Optimus & Trono
3) Cris Skin, Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr. b Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther b Bárbaro Cavernario, Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Zeuxis b Lluvia [lightning]
Zeuxis won in 12:40 (lightning matches are 15 minutes in Guadalajara for some reason)
6) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero b Averno & Mephisto
Guerreros won cleanly after being cheated last week

They’ve kept the raised prices – not as much as last week, but still higher than they were before – and attendance was still up with nothing too special on this show. People like to go these shows right now. Referee Willy Estrada was honored a couple weeks after his passing.

Friday’s full lineup:

CMLL (FRI) 06/28/2024 Arena México
1) Chamuel, Kemalito, Micro Sagrado vs Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Tengu [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Futuro & Max Star vs Raider & Vegas
3) Lluvia, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Persephone, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Templario & Titán vs Star Jr. & Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Esfinge, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Averno, Euforia
6) Kyle Fletcher vs Atlantis Jr. [ROH TV]

Kyle Fletcher was originally scheduled for AAA’s TripleMania in the three way tag. He was replaced (and then replaced again) likely because he took the booking through The Crash perhaps without realizing there would be an issue, and NJPW explained to him that there’s an issue.  Fletcher ends up main eventing Arena Mexico out of it. I wish Jeff Cobb got a random CMLL main event too, can someone please work on that. The Ring of Honor World Championship has been defended three times in Mexico, but I believe this is the first time their TV title will be defended in Mexico.

Semimain has both Esfinge/Euforia and Volador/Averno. I don’t think anyone would be very happy with a Volador/Esfinge vs Averno/Euforia Aniversario main. Some of Star Jr.’s biggest mistakes have come in Ultimo Guerrero matches, so it’s odd to see them teaming.

CMLL Informa today has

• Mistico (on being Mistico)
• Atlantis Jr. (Kyle Fletcher match)
• Esfinge (Euforia?)
• Brillante Jr., Futuro (Leyenda de Plata)
• Audaz, Vegas (also maybe Leyenda de Plata but Block B?)
• Hera & Olympia (CMLL Pekes?)

Crime reporter (and now reoccurring figure in this blog) Carlos Jimenez posted photos of a satanic altar set up in the apartment of some drug traffickers. They were all recently arrested, and the photos of this set up got out. Jimenez pointed out their satanic items included a KeMalito doll. I didn’t notice it at first, but it also appears there’s a Taurus mask hanging on the wall. Jimenez’s point (?) was neither the devil nor KeMalito prevented them from getting arrested.

Mistico is on the cover of Box y Lucha 3609. Mistico joined charity SimiMETI. It got lost in the FantastcaMania talk, but Mistico’s MLW Middleweight Championship defense against Star Jr. aired on MLW’s YouTube channel this past weekend.

AEW

Titan teams with Himou Takahashi and Shingo Takagi against Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta on Dynamite tonight. That’s a match set to build Takagi/Danielson (on commentary) and Moxley/Naito (will arrive fashionably late.)

Stephaine Vaquer will wrestle Lady Frost on Saturday’s AEW Collision (which will be taped immediately after Dynamite. ) Vaquer and Frost have wrestled in CMLL, and Frost is there to lose to people who are getting pushed, so that always seemed the most logical first opponet.

Hechicero is probably showing up on one of these shows. MJF has a promo on Wednesday, so that’s the most likely time.

There’s still no announcement about that last person in the TNT title ladder match (or if it’ll involve a CMLL person.) Mistico and Atlantis Jr. being on Informa means they’re probably not involved in that match and are less likely to be on Forbidden Door.

Penta addressed his contract situation on Lalo Elizarrarás (Tlaloc!)’s “Comiendo Carnitas” YouTube interview show. Fightful has a translated transcript of the relevant parts. Penta confirms his contract comes up in the August/September range, but says he didn’t know that until Lucha Libre Online report about his impending free agency – he had to check with his agent to see if it was true. Penta says he didn’t put out that story. He says he’d look at deal from WWE but hasn’t talked to them yet (and legally can not.) Penta feels the next contract he signs is probably the last big one and he has a lot of people who rely on him, so he’s going to look at everything, but there’s nothing he can look at right now.

AAA

AAA announced the preliminary lineup for TripleMania Mexico City. As often with first TripleMania card announcements, it’s full of TBA spots. This is by design, they want to have more stuff to announce later on.

AAA TV (SAT) 08/17/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal
1) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 [Copa Bardahl]
2) Flammer © vs ? [AAA REINAS]
3) Laredo Kid vs Matt Riddle
4) Negro Casas & Psycho Clown © vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal and Raj Dhesi & Satnam Singh [AAA TAG]
5) Vampiro Canadiense vs ? [casket]
6) Nic Nemeth © vs El Patrón Alberto [AAA MEGA]
7) Dark Cuervo vs Dark Ozz, Cibernético, El Fiscal, Abismo Negro Jr., Psicosis II, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 [dome cage, hair, mask, cage]

Part of the issue with the TBAs is the 08/02 Verano de Escandalo card still has to both be announced and actually happen. Match 7 will feature two more teams, to be set on that Verano de Escandalo show. Flammer’s opponent will be set from an elimination match at Verano de Escandalo. Copa Bardahl is back to being a Royal Rumble of surprise names, some from the past and some from current roster. Those names probably will be surprises on the day of the show. There was no indication of when Vampiro’s opponent will be announced.

Los Apostoles del Mesias (Mesias, Espiritu, Escoria) would make sense for the cage match based on feuding with Cibernetico, but Espiritu has no hair and Escoria lost his in a match earlier this year. Psycho Circus also fought with Los Vipers on the most recent AAA TV taping. Carlos Garica on Twitter suggested Sam Adonis, QT Marshall, and Parker Boudreaux as a unit for the cage match. That didn’t occur to me because those guys have been isolated from the rest of the rudos. It would still be very strange to feature them on two straight PPVs without them being in the third.

Mexican wrestling cages matches are both universally awful and seems to be a gimmick that draws, especially in Mexico City. The dome cage match is worse – it’s tough to climb out, it’s hard to do teases of climbing out – but it’s also a novelty the fans rarely see and so it’s probably even more of a draw. That match will be a whole lot of nothing for a long time and it doesn’t matter much. AAA’s had discussions about Psicosis II losing his mask previously; I think fans will expect someone like Cuervo to lost their hair as the least painful option, and Psicosis being unmasked would be seen as overdelivering to close the show.

Alberto had an extraneous line in his promo on TV this Saturday about “passing the tests.” My theory from the start of the year was Alberto would end up as champion in Mexico City as long as AAA felt like he proved trustworthy the rest of the year. Vikingo getting hurt through a monkey wrench into it. AAA seems to have opted to just make Nemeth a missing in action champion over giving the Alberto this title before they were confident in doing so. It’s made for a boring title year but it was probably the safer option (if those were the only two options.) Alberto has stayed out of negative headline. He’s also shown little to be excited about in the ring. It doesn’t matter, he’s not going to lose twice, and he’ll be going on talk shows with the belt.

(Alberto also continued to refer to himself as Alberto del Rio, and AAA did as well. No one seemed to ask what that was all about.)

Vampiro’s match will be a cinematic match. That pre-taped and edited match fell out of style as soon as fans were back in buildings post pandemic. It’s likely going to be AAA & Vampiro trying to do their version of a Lucha Underground skit; I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it comes anywhere near the mark instead of feeling like an MLW angle. The more likely positive outcome is it’s so hokey it becomes amusing. Being cinematic opens up possibilities in opponents: Mesias fits as a historical opponent, but maybe they could edit one last Vampiro/Konnan match together. Maybe Pagano will be healthy enough to be part of it. Maybe Vampiro could fight a fake Sting. Maybe Vampiro could fight Vampiro. (Vampiro did acknowledge it won’t be Penta.) The opponent wasn’t focused on as a mystery or reveal to come, so maybe I’m thinking it incorrectly as a match. Roldan later remarked that if this match went the way they hoped, it could open up new possibilities for the promotion going forward.  the post show Q&A, Latin Lover mentioned there will be various wrestlers and celebrities’ there to see Vampiro off. Vampiro said he’d still be working wrestling companies around the world in various roles after he retires, and Roldan suggested Vampiro would have a backstage role waiting for him in AAA.

AAA previous announced Vampiro’s match on TripleMania Mexico City would be his final match ever. The graphic now lists Vampiro as his final match in Mexico City. Vampiro himself talked about it being his last match in the press conference. That booking he has in Xalapa later in August and the wording on the graphic sure seems like’s not retiring in Mexico City and likely instead wrestling for rest of 2024. AAA’s had the big show in Guadalajara the last few years, Vampiro has history there. The typical sequence here is AAA lets people believe Vampiro’s final match in Mexico City, people get upset when they realize he’s still wrestling, and AAA gets mock upset about people getting upset. It’d be nice if that could be handled differently once.

Raj Dhesi is former WWE star Jinder Mahal. My knowledge of Mahal is he wasn’t much over even when WWE desperately wanted him to me, and he wasn’t much good at wrestling either. There seems like there’s some post-WWE revision of his his career that he’s was actually good, but I never saw it in him. Dhesi is of Indian descent, so he’s here to team with Santam. Wagners versus Casas straight for the tag team titles would be a stronger match on it’s own, though it’s certainty a match you’d only see in AAA. Singh has won both his previous matches.

Laredo Kid versus Matt Riddle is there to be the great match on the card. Hopefully it will be. I haven’t watched the fan cam of the Wagner match, but Riddle hasn’t impressed me as being great when I’ve seen him on the NJPW US shows. I’d really like to see Laredo Kid win and I’m sure that’s not going to happen; Riddle getting a win and getting next in line to face Alberto seems more fitting for AAA>

(It seems to makes no sense for Wagner3 to beat Riddle last Saturday on their TV taping when Riddle is on TripleMania and Wagner is not. Wagner may have NOAH obligations, he may have even told AAA he couldn’t lose, but why did AAA book that match anyway? Why not book Riddle literally against anyone else he could’ve beat?)

AAA Reina de Reinas matches by year
2021: Faby Apache versus guest star Deonna Purrazo
2022: Taya versus guest star Kamille
2023: Flammer versus guest star Taya

The pattern has been to bring in a foreigner to face a Mexican woman on this show. Perhaps AAA didn’t want to spring for one this year with the other people in there, but there’s no one really built up in AAA as a challenger either. AAA also announced Flammer & Abismo Negro will defend the mixed tag team championship on that Verano de Escandalo show, but no challengers will be announced there.

I’ve been thinking AAA has done a good job with Octagon Jr., picking him as a young star to get behind and get some wins. There’s no spot for him on TripleMania Mexico City show unless he’s in Copa Bardahl, a match where the older wrestler cameos are going to be the real stars. The fans are going to want to one of the older wrestlers to win and they should.

AAA says the show pre-show will start at 7:30 and the actual show at 8:00 pm. It’ll probably be another four hour one.

This is a card that feels much more like a TripleMania than any of the other shows. They’re giving a hair or mask in the main event. They’re doing some bizarre matches. They may have an utter disaster in the cinematic match, the type that people who like to watch AAA for it being terrible will enjoy. They’ll have more of the old names in the opener. This’ll come close enough to satisfying their audience that there will be fewer complaints about the show on social media. It’ll also like be good enough for the group that watches TripleMania for laughs (and probably doesn’t pay for it.) If you’re an international viewer looking for one of the best matches or shows of the year, it’s probably still not that.

The post interview Q&A included Dorian Roldan, when addressing the Televisa story again, mentioned AAA would announce the media partners they’re working with for TripleMania at the next press conference. Maybe that’s a story. That next press conference will be the first week of August (after Verano de Escandalo.) Roldan was asked about a hall of fame induction or tribute, and he implied that would be revealed at that press conference. An interviewer pushed for the idea of a Psycho/Alberto match should Alberto win and they both were OK with it. Roldan teased it might happen later this year but there’s a lot more to go before they get there.

Latin Lover did a scrum after the show. He said the first week on the show was great, everyone was congratulating and welcoming him. The second week everyone started telling him their problems with AAA, their fears about keep a job, and complaints about not getting a work. (In an earlier Q&A, Latin says his new job is much harder than actually wrestling.) Latin’s talked to every wrestler and they worked on creating stories for all the wrestlers. Some stories will start at Verano de Escandalo, some stories will start at TripleMania and a few people will actually not get stories. Those people will be free to leave if they want to find work elsewhere, and be welcomed back later on if they choose to return. Latin insists he’s not wrestling – he notes he gets a good reaction when he runs-in and simply can’t listen to the foreigners belittle Mexicans, but he has no plans of wrestling. Latin did not seem to know Satnam or Raj’s names, mentioned they’ve already sent in videos, and seemed to believe they were actually living in India and could one day bring in AAA wrestlers to work in their promotion.

On the WWE story, Dorian Roldan said he remains open to talking to anyone but felt that was a case of people making assumptions about things that didn’t and haven’t happened yet. He says AAA – or at least him – have not had any conversations with WWE. Alberto seemed to contradict, saying that AAA was opening doors to companies they never thought would work with them, “and you know exactly which company I’m talking about.” Alberto teasing something happening with WWE never ends.

Mas Lucha also posted their usual set of interviews from the AAA Mexico City taping on Tuesday as well. Hijo del Dr. Wagner, when asked about main eventing this show, remembered that he was one a rookie who opened the show in a singles match with Centvrion. I did not remember that. Wagner’s asked about his status with AAA and says he’s under contract with NOAH through January 2nd, he knows he’ll have lots of options, and will wait until closer to that date to make any decision. He’d like to wrestle in Mexico for a couple years but seems to feel he’ll probably end up wrestling outside of Mexico. Wagner is happy his brother Galeno del Mal will joining him in NOAH and that sounds like it may be more than one match. Wagner says he was asked on social media why he didn’t go to CMLL. Wagner says he knows CMLL well, started there, knows every hallway and room, but he returned to AAA for one reason – one day he wants to give his father Psycho Clown’s mask. He can’t finish with AAA until he’s done that. (He also suggests there may be political reasons.)

Octagon Jr. hopes his upcoming trip to GLEAT is the first of many.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 06/27/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Cosmic & Génesis vs Carnicero & Celta
2) Ángel Kid & Tiatnium vs Hijo Del Seminarista & Kato Xtreme Jr.
3) Fobia & Pitbull vs Black Dragón Ng & Shura King
4) Fauno, Histeriosis, Kali, Rey Aztartoh, Súper Boy, Tornado, Vudu Max vs Águila Guerrera, Arceus, Drakula Ng, Príncipe Centauro, Sacro, Shamila, Xoltol [Torneo FILL]
Fill vs Tryout
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool

This is a Torneo FILL show, though the concept – wrestlers who came into IWRG from the 2024 Tryout versus wrestlers who came in from the school – is not the strongest concept. The old bit here was to bring in an outside school so their friends and families would all buy tickets to see them wrestle in an important building like Arena Naucalpan. It doesn’t quite work when it’s two teams that are there all the time. It is a low cost show with the Pigs and Pandemia headlining.

Other News

Sonoran luchador Javi Cortez will have his retirement match Saturday.