Leyenda de Plata Block B, Death Triangle to CMLL, Gran Prix, Fresero Jr./AAA

CMLL

Tonight’s show:

CMLL (FRI) 07/19/2024 Arena México
1) Capitán Suicida & El Audaz vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
2) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
3) Lluvia, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Hera, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis
4) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Hechicero vs Euforia, Último Guerrero, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Místico vs Titán, Templario, Neón, Star Jr., Fugaz, Magia Blanca, Virus [Leyenda de Plata, battle royal]

I’m not at all excited for the content of the Leyenda de Plata tournament after last week’s weak effort. What gives me a little hope is CMLL’s been better about tweaking things that don’t work. They’re not great at it, but they didn’t do that at all previously. Maybe this show will get laid out a little better this week to allocate more time for the tournament. Templario is the heavy favorite, and any match between him and Mistico or Titan or Neon would be pretty strong if there’s still eight minutes to wrestle at the end of the night. he more likely of the two.

The only other match with a direction is that semimain, where Hechicero, Euforia, Esfinge and Valiente will bring their feuding from other shows on this show. That seems likely to be two falls and/or lots of DQs.

The women’s match is a random combination of people missing their tag team partners. The Chacales have a rare team up in match 2. Match 1 looks like sneaky fun.

CMLL (SAT) 07/20/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Astral & Eléctrico vs Gallo Jr. & Ráfaga Jr. (Jalisco)
2) Hera & Olympia vs Adira (Jalisco) & Náutica
non-title
3) Espanto Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Raider vs El Gallero, Explosivo, Halcón Negro Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Leo (Jalisco), Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
5) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Bestia Negra, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Esfinge, Titán vs Ángel de Oro, Máscara Dorada, Místico [Relevos Increíbles]

The Guadalajara/Mexico card was announced a month ago; Hombre Bala kind of looks out of place now. They’re running this card about a year to the day of the first one; there must be a holiday reason that’s flying over my head. Last year’s card didn’t turn out interesting, though this one is better on paper. CMLL is sending the Guadalajara crew all over Mexico City to promote this show; here’s interviews with Furia Roja, Halcon Negro, and Vaquero Jr. Nautica was doing morning TV on Thursday.

CMLL (SUN) 07/21/2024 Arena México
1) Diamond & Robin vs Grako & Infarto
2) Arkalis, Valiente Jr., Xelhua vs Dark Magic, Inquisidor, Nitro
3) Hijo de Blue Panther vs Okumura [lightning]
4) Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring, Volcano vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Valiente vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Mephisto

Hechicero and Valiente matched up again in the main event.

CMLL (MON) 07/22/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astoreth & Lady Metal vs Diablita Roja & Lady Amazona
2) Kemalito & Mije vs Periquito Sacaryas & Tengu
3) Meyer & Rey Samuray vs Multy & Rey Apocalipsis
4) Pegasso, Stigma, Xelhua vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Atlantis Jr., Hechicero, Místico vs Euforia, Magnus, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

Valiente is on the rudo side in the semimain. He teased the idea of making that a permanent switch on Informa, with that segment ending with the idea that they would see what the fans thought about Valiente changing sides. That probably means he’s going to turn in front of the fans sometime soon.

CMLL (TUE) 07/23/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Draego, Persa, Rey Diablo vs Maximus, Minotaruo, Rey Urano
2) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Crixus, Difunto, Raider
3) Satánico vs Virus
4) Adira, Kira, Náutica, Tessa Blanchard vs Hatanna, Persephone, Valkiria, Zeuxis
5) Dark Panther, Furia Roja, Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Magnus, Mephisto, Soberano Jr.

Match 2 is the rudo Occidente Trios champions against the most likely challengers. The main event has the Atlantis/Soberano and Magnus/Mistico rivalries.

CMLL announced Death Triangle (Fenix, Penta, PAC) as appearing on their 07/26 CMLL show. No opponents were named. Mistico teamed with Fenix & Penta on the Forbidden Door pre-show, then teased Penta coming back to Arena Mexico to wrestle Mistico in a post match interview. Mistico’s probably one of the opponents, but can’t be announced while he still has a chance to win the Leyenda de Plata and be in that match instead. The rollout of that match announcement is going to be interesting; CMLL’s been dropping that lineup late on Monday nights recently, would seem to want to get that specific match out sooner. Maybe there will be a video released on Friday’s show directly after the main event.

The Lucha Brothers have been to CMLL before; fans are excited to see them, and there’s definitely a group that wasn’t paying attention to CMLL at that point (2018-19) who see this as a novel/new thing. Getting PAC too is an unexpected and welcome surprise. Latin Lover, in one of his interviews promoting AAA, pushed the idea of giving fans more than they expect and CMLL is following those ideals by bringing in the full Death Triangle.

07/26 is the same night as Ring of Honor’s Death before Dishonor. It depends on how long that show goes – one never knows with Ring of Honor – but the last half hour of that PPV typically overlaps with the first half of CMLL’s Friday night show. Atlantis Jr. is probably wrestling on the Ring of Honor show, though probably not in that overlap period.

As always, there was a shell game going on. CMLL talked about revealing the participants for the August 23rd, Gran Prix but not all of the participants. They weren’t lying when it turned out to be half the 20 man field:

Team Mexico
Templario
Ultimo Guerrero
Atlantis Jr.
Titan
Mistico
+5 more TBA “soon”

Team World
Ikuro Kwon (MLW/South Korea)
Flip Gordon (CMLL/US)
Rocky Romero (NJPW US/US)
Robbie X (RevPro/UK)
Kyle Fletcher (ROH/Australia)
+5 more TBA “next week”

Gordon’s a regular, Rocky is Rocky, Robbie X has been seen on the FantasticaMania UK shows, Fletcher was in Mexico recently. Kwon is the one unknown name to CMLL viewers. He’s been a part of MLW’s Contra heel unit – global terrorists who’s goals top out at destroying MLW – and Kwon has typically been a fall guy for the group. Kwon wrestles on the indies as Tristen Thai and seems better regarded there. He is going to be hard to beat as this year’s “obscure foreign wrestlers who made this field” bit. I’m sure CMLL is just happy to get to say they’ve had a South Korean in this competition.

On his podcast, Dave Meltzer mentioned Harry Smith will be on Team World as well.

The Men’s Gran Prix is 08/23. RevPro’s anniversary show is 08/24, and I’m not sure it would be logistiically possible to get from the Gran Prix to the start of that show; you can cross out Hechicero and Zack Sabre Jr. off the Gran Prix participant list. AEW’s All In is a day later, and that one may be possible if someone wanted to be an absolute maniac about travel. (Titan’s schedule over the last few months is proof that wrestlers are maniacs though.)

Other news Informa included Angel de Oro mentioning Niebla Roja was 4-6 weeks away from returning to the ring. That’s a quick turnaround for the arm injury he had. CMLL also had a promo from Willow Nightingale talking about her win and coming to Arena Mexico soon. The promo she did directly after her match mentioned Stephanie Vaquer. The promo CMLL used on their show did not.

CMLL posted another one of their emoji teasers, though “time globe american-flag” has me stumped. My best guess is CMLL wrestlers appearing on the upcoming NJPW Strong show, Capital Collision, taking place on August 30th.

Forneo may have finished up with CMLL. His last match was in May. He posted a graphic on Instagram Wednesday announcing he was open for bookings and has posted messages teasing a change in his career. He worked on an indie Arena San Juan show last week (a benefit show where no matches were announced) and has an upcoming trios match against Tonalli, another wrestler who was impressed in CMLL Torneo de Escualas and vanished after. CMLL historically has not paid new wrestlers well; rookies can either work another jump while hoping to move up, or they may just move on. Tonalli was working enough indies pre-CMLL to know what he’d get elsewhere, so maybe he decided that would be better.

Two Tuesday ago, the CMLL stream didn’t start on time, and the CMLL account went into chat to say they’d repost the partially aired match later for subscribers. They have not. Wednesday’s CMLL Informa had an audio sync issue for the second half of the program. A fixed version of that show was immediately reuploaded.

In a recent interview, Lucha Por Lucha asked Mascara Dorada if we’d see him go after Rocky Romero again, either in Mexico or elsewhere. Dorada said he hopes so. He acknowledged he had a problem with his work visa and seemed hopeful about it being resolved shortly – he plans on taking international trips to close out 2024.

AAA

On Wednesday, Latin Lover introduced Fresero Jr. as the mystery person in the Verano de Escandalo cage match. He’ll be teaming with Forastero & Sanson in the three way. Latin Lover had talked positively about bringing Fresero into AAA since the indie wrestler appeared on Latin’s podcast back in May. Fresero claimed more members of his group, El Negocio Traumado, would come to AAA. Latin said that if Fresero won the Verano de Escandalo cage match, he could be added to the TripleMania one. That TripleMania show is an apuesta one, Fresero Jr. is bald, so Latin offered to put his own hair on the line if Fresero Jr. lost. There was no mention of the “eye” attacker angle that Fresero Jr. has been linking towards. Fresero was later insistent he was a free agent, not signed to AAA, and it’s still possible he’ll be working with CMLL people or Hijo del Santo.

El Negocio Traumado has been one of the dominant Mexico City area indie acts since around 2021. All five core members – Trauma I, Trauma II, Fresero Jr., Demonio Infernal and Atomic Star – quit IWRG over issues with pay and where they were allowed to work. The situation was a high profile fiasco at a time where everyone was looking for something to talk about, and the wrestlers cannily used that controversy to reframe themselves as an exciting rebellious group. (Los Traumas had already been seen that way, this was more the other three leveling up.) They wrestle as lesser Paganos or LA Parks – lots of brawling, lots of weapon spots, and finishes where all sides get to claim they’ve were the true winners. They almost never take a real loss; it’s usually Atomic Star who does lose when there’s no choice in the matter. El Negocio Traumado appeal very strongly to the type of fans who come to lucha libre specifically for blood and up-close violence. They appear to be very good at connecting with their fans, and they have a loyal (but small) group that follows them from promotion to promotion. El Negocio Traumado are seen as stars and ticket sellers, so they’re wrestling fairly frequently and there’s a lot of acts trying to copy what they’ve done. Fresero Jr. previously wrestled in AAA in 2013 and 2014, always in the prelims. In a follow up interview (from outside Arena Naucalpan), Fresero Jr. credited his mother for helping him get into AAA at that time and feels proud he was able to return on his own ten years later. El Fresero, his father, was a long time AAA referee. The Fresero and Konnan had some long unclear beef from the past for many years, but social media posts suggest it may have finally been resolved earlier this year. None of the others have been a regular part of AAA before to my knowledge – the Traumas have shown up in angles but never wrestled. Bringing in Fresero does give Latin Lover some evidence he’s changing AAA as promised. Fresero noted that Latin Lover positioned the Verano de Escandalo booking as a trial run for Fresero, but Fresero pushed back to call it a trial run for AAA – to see if it’s a good idea for him to be there.

I wrote that long refresher on El Negocio Traumado because I hardly write about them here despite how ever-present they’ve been for years. They’re not an act where there’s a lot to actually write about them. They don’t have exceptional matches, or at least matches I find interesting. Once you’ve seen their act once, it’s largely the same – and usually worse than others who do the same act. They’re doing Mexican City indie wrestling, so there’s no attempt at storylines or evolving the characters, it’s about just doing the same thing over and over again until some other act gets hot and pushes it’s way to the top. I want to be specific on that there are five core members, because they frequently talk about so-so becoming a new member of the group seemingly as an attempt to pretend new and exciting things are happening. It rarely goes anywhere. There’s also dozens of post match interviews with them where they’ve teased they’re going to AAA and CMLL really soon, and at least one of those are happening. Adding these guys will help AAA’s perception with some of the social media complainers, but it’s another short term fix. Fresero has found his most success by protecting himself and his friends, and I’d be surprised if he was coming in to AAA to put people over or make someone a star. There’s the same concerns with an LA Park (and he’s probably far more of a headache), but at least LA Park appears still capable of having a great match. I’m not so sure the same about these guys.

In that same press conference, Latin Lover claiming that AAA will be touring the US late this year or in 2025. The idea is they’re going to be able to draw off the Unimas show. So far, no one’s reported a rating number for the Unimas show.

AAA on Space finishes off the June Mexico City taping

• Bengala, Black Andromeda, Chik Tormenta, Pathfinder  versus Adelicious, Jessy Queen, Noisy and Nobu San
• Psycho Circus vs Los Guapos
• Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Matt Riddle

AAA on Unimas will finish up the June Juarez taping. They are exactly four weeks behind Space.

Faby Apache will appear on Saturday’s TNA PPV pre-show, in a four way with Giselle Shaw, Xia Brookside, and TripleMania star Tasha Steelz. Yes, Faby’s getting the Laredo Kid spot. I believe this appearance was in the works for a while, but it was announced just in passing at a press conference on Thursday. TNA tapes TV on Sunday so it’s likely she’ll make an appearance there.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 07/18/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, La Tijera]
***IWRG Festival de Mascara 2024***
1) Panterita, Tortuga Leo, Tortuga Mike b Avisman, Bombero Infernal, Puma de Oro 
2) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly DQ Oficial 911 & Oficial AK47 
excessive violence DQ
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Jack, Pandemónium Jr. b Cerebro Negro, Internacional Pantera, Veneno, Vudu Max 
4) Arez, Látigo, Toxin b Black Mamba (AAA), Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus [IWRG IC TRIOS]  
1st defense. Earlier, Mala Fama offered Hell Boy and Canis Lupus a trios title match if they could find a partner. They found Black Mamba, Mamba going back to their pre-exotico masked gimmick. Black Mamba appeared to have Latigo ready to submit, but Cerbero Negro and Cerebro Negro got involved and caused a distracting. Mala Fama retained. Las Shotas asked for the next shot.
5) Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool b Mega, Omega, Súper Mega  
La Pandemia attacked the Pigs.
6) Cibernético b Dr. Wagner Jr.  
Cibernetico was honored earlier in the show. Hell Boy and Canis Lupus interfered to counter Hijo de Silver King and Simon Blanco. Cibernetico wants a match with DMT Azul and a hair/hair match with Wagner.

Other News

Guatemalan luchador Zombie (Francisco Aguilar) passed away on Wednesday .

El Hijo del Santo talked to Estadio Deportes for about a half hour. I flipped through portions of it and I didn’t spot anything new; the lineup for his shows are still to come, he may still add more dates but he hasn’t confirmed it. That first show in Arena Ciudad de Mexico is on September 22nd, so it’s about two months away with very little info. It’s tougher to get a full ticket map on Superboletos compared Ticketmaster, but you can click around at many sections and find few if any tickets sold. The announcement of this retirement along wasn’t strong enough to move a lot of tickets at the prices that are being asked, and nothing much else has happened. Maybe it’ll pick up when lineups are actually announced but the signs halfway through this lead up are negative.

The most famous Chilean luchador to people outside of Chile is currently Stephanie Vaquer. The most famous Chilean luchador to people inside of Chile – at least until this past week – is former actor and current AEW Spanish commentator Ariel Levy. Chile’s BolaVIP asked Levy to explain the whole deal with Vaquer going to WWE, for an audience who has very little info on wrestling and their contract battles. Levy believes Vaquer’s signing was in a way a response to AEW “defeating” WWE in battles for Mercedes Mone, Kazuchika Okada and Will Osprey – WWE wanted to get a win. Levy is very high on Vaquer’s chances in WWE, feeling that company has changed in a way that’s more open to non-North Americans than it has in the past, and Vaquer has what it takes to reach the top.

The Puebla commission announced 22 new licensed luchadors: women Amber, Mirvan and Pequena Star, and men Thunder Lion, Havok, King Magic, Zodiaco, Hiena, Kronos, Crazy Santana, War Marchine, Hijo de Policeman, Apostol, Rey Azul, Golden Panther, Magic Dragon, Rey Plata, Metal Spider, Angel de Plata, Pequeno Gato Gris, Bemon, and el Noble