normal CMLL Friday night show, Roldan on trademarks, El Hijo del Santo teases unmasking

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 08/09/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Eléctrico & Leono b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial  
9:35.
2) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Okumura b Capitán Suicida, Legendario, Valiente Jr.   
14:44.
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma   
4) Dragón Rojo Jr. b Difunto [lightning]    
9:53
5) Atlantis, Octagón, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero    
11:25
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario b Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Soberano Jr.    
18:29

The main event was pretty good; otherwise, this was an easily skippable Friday show. Nothing happened; most stuff was just OK, and some stuff was not at the level of other Friday nights.

Chris Jericho sent in a video talking up his match with Mistico. Mistico responded after his win. Nothing much new ground, except Jericho was doing some of his Learning Tree bits. He had done a stripped-down basic rudo bit in his previous appearances, and only the most dedicated Mexican AEW fan (the ones subscribing to AEW+ on Triller) would have any idea what Jericho was trying to do with his catchphrases.

CMLL (SAT) 08/10/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito 
8:13.
2) Amapola, Candela, Metálica b La Vaquerita, Magia Azul, Maligna 
16:49. Candela debut
3) El Audaz, Volcano, Xelhua b Crixus, Okumura, Vegas 
14:36.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. TLDRAW Felino Jr. [lightning] 
10:00
5) Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa 
14:18
6) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Soberano Jr. 
12:28

Nothing extraordinary, but slightly better than usual for a Sunday show.

Felino Jr. works in such a disinterested style that I never realized they were working for the draw until after they got nine minutes. He always wrestles as if he’s going for the ten-minute draw.

Candela and Magia Azul had some good moves but looked lost between those moves. Candela was the better of the two. Both need a lot more ring time, but they’re not completely hopeless, either.

CMLL (SUN) 08/11/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) KeMalito, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo, Chamuel, Periquito Sacaryas
2) La Catalina, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard b Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis
3) El Cobarde, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Brillante Jr., Hijo del Pantera, Hombre Bala Jr.
CMLL debut of Cobarde.
4) Titán b Flip Gordon [lightning]
5) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther
6) Averno, Euforia, Valiente DQ Esfinge, Hechicero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Hechicero unmasked Euforia, Valiente, and his partner Esfinge.

A clip of the main event finish shows Hechicero and Esfinge unmasking Valiente and Euforia. Esfinge decided to swing at Hechicero as they were both celebrating, and Hechicero ended up unmasking him, too. Esfinge is a poor stragetical mind.

AMX is the station that streams some of the matches from this weekly Sunday show on an internet stream, but that stream was down all weekend. It’s back up Monday, but the 07/28 taping is lost to time. That show does exist on CMLL’s YouTube channel, but in a private video that the promotion has decided to make available at any price.

CMLL (MON) 08/12/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Meyer, Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno, King Jaguar, Rencor
2) Milenium, Robin, Xelhua vs El Malayo, Multy, Raider
3) Panterita del Ring vs Virus [lightning]
4) Kira & Skadi © vs Hera & Olympia [MEX WOMEN TAG]
2nd defense
5) Esfinge, Hechicero, Titán vs Averno, Euforia, Valiente
6) Místico, Soberano Jr., Templario vs Máscara Dorada, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

CMLL booked the normal amount of rudos and tecnicos for the top matches, but the main event is messed up on both sides because the semi-main is messed up on both sides.

I’d like to see Virus/Pantera, but I doubt it’ll make it to TV. Women’s tag match should be fun.

CMLL (TUE) 08/13/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito & Galaxy vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Capitán Suicida vs El Audaz [lightning]
3) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Dragón de Fuego vs Legendario, Retro, Emperador Jr., Rayo Metálico, Infarto, Alom, Hunter, Vegas, Crixus [cibernetico]
winner becomes new Depredador
5) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Terrible

Putting aside training situations, Vegas seems like the best fit for Los Depredadores: physically talented, solid worker, lacking a lot of personality. Teaming with those guys may bring it out to him. Crixus is going to get pushed before he’s ready – because he looks like CMLL’s dream wrestler, he gets a good reaction, and also he may never actually progress to ‘ready’ – but he doesn’t seem to fit along Magia Blanca, Rugido and Magnus. Legendario’s the other person in this group that’s over, but he’s a more tecnico character, and it seems a missed chance to turn him rudo here.

Match 3 is the new trios champs against Los Chacales. Coyote’s been missing for about three weeks.

CMLL (FRI) 08/16/2024 Arena México
1) Astro Boy Jr., Eléctrico, Leono vs Grako, Nitro, Sangre Imperial
2) La Catalina, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano vs Akuma, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Neón vs Robbie X [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Mansoor & Rocky Romero
6) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Místico vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Valiente

The foreigners start trickling in for the Gran Prix, though Mansoor and Rocky are headed back to the US for Collision on Saturday. Neon in a singles match is always a necessary test. I do no know if the Mansoor male model gimmick will get over with this crowd. (It’s not my thing, but it is also beside the point.) Leono making two straight Fridays is odd; that opener seems like getting people their scheduled work hours on an unusual day.

CMLL released the Friday show lineup on Saturday, which they did normally until the last year or so. Not sure if it’s a one-time thing, but CMLL also released the Gran Prix card:

CMLL (FRI) 08/23/2024 Arena México
1) Fugaz vs Villano III Jr. [lightning]
2) Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard vs ? & ??
Opponents to be announced
3) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón vs Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Soberano Jr.
4) Akira, Claudio Castagnoli, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon, Kyle Fletcher, Mansoor, Robbie X, Rocky Romero, Yota vs Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Euforia, Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario, Titán, Último Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. [Gran Prix]

Putting Villano III Jr. on a big show sounds fun, though I wish he had a better opponent. I’m less thrilled about seeing Octagon there. Lluvia & Tessa’s opponents sound like a CMLL Informa deal, which is strange if it’s just meant to be two CMLL rudas. Perhaps there’s a chance it will be someone else.

This weekend, a weird bit of timing ended with MLW and CMLL airing taped Magnus versus Mistico matches. MLW aired one taped on 07/12 on YouTube on Saturday, CMLL’s show on Televisa Puebla aired the one taped 08/05 on Sunday night. I have the Puebla one as slightly better, though it takes longer to get there because of the three fall format. The crowd knows the story, Mistico makes a better and more substantial comeback in Puebla.

The announcing hampers the MLW version of Magnus/Mistico. MLW has had CMLL people in for months now, and the announcers still don’t know them beyond their Wikipedia profiles and have no sense of what’s going on in their home promotion. They were trying to sell it as Mistico and Magnus normally got along until the Opera Cup got in the way when these guys had been feuding for months and were doing their normal CMLL feud match. If the MLW guys were as oblivious to an NJPW rivalry between their wrestlers, it would’ve gotten fixed after one show – I guess they can be grateful they don’t have 100 people yelling at them on social media when they get something like this wrong. I wish they cared about being authentic to the brand they’re trying to represent, but so it goes.

Mistico is next scheduled to wrestle Atlantis Jr. in the Opera Cup tournament. That’s one where there’s no obvious finish – Mistico is Mistico, but AEW would probably prefer Atlantis Jr. not to lose matches while ROH TV champion. MLW has strangely announced that TJP will be a replacement if anyone happens to leave the tournament, which likely means TJP is facing Mistico.

After that Puebla show, Magnus declared he’s on the side of anyone against Mistico, pledging to help Chris Jericho at the Aniversario should he ask for it.

El Grafico has more details on the CMLL summer camp that they’ve often promoted on CMLL Informa for the last few weeks. They ran a pilot program last year with just kids of CMLL employees, and they’ve opened it up to more people this year. The kids are at Arena Mexico for five hours a day and get two classes. One is an art class with Ivonne and Cesar Valero, the artists behind the Dia del Muerto promotion and the cartoon history videos CMLL does. The other class is a wrestling class with referee Tigre Infante (Metalico), who’s an accredited Olympic wrestling coach. Infante and his fellow coaches said they’re not trying to recruit the new batch of CMLL luchadors but more to teach them values and discipline. They all have a CMLL wrestler stop by the camp; Titan was there the day Grafico stopped by. This sounds like a one-day camp.

AAA

More Dorian Roldan interviews have come out after the TripleMania press conference, and there’s an interesting spin on the current situation with Penta and Fenix’s names. Roldan confirmed AAA is blocking their wrestlers from appearing on shows with them but frames it as an IP issue—he’s only blocking them because he feels they’re using AAA-owned names, not because they’re working with CMLL or AEW or whomever. He wishes them well but wants to protect the IP.

It’s worth stepping back here to understand the change around this. AAA in Mexico owns Pentagon Jr. and Fenix. Lucha Libre FMV (the Lucha Underground holding company owned by a group including AAA) owns the names in the US. After leaving AAA around 2017, they switched to Penta el Zero M and Rey Fenix, among other variations. The idea seemed they were legally distinct enough from AAA names to get away with them, just as the original La Parka had switched to LA Park. AAA did not appear to fight this battle for years, through times when the Lucha Brothers were working with AAA and times when they were not. Only recently, AAA apparently decided that even the “Penta el Zero M” and “Rey Fenix” names are too close to their owned names and have threatened issues. (At least in Mexico; it hasn’t seemed to affect them in the US.) The timing of the change suggests it was those two men showing up in CMLL that caused the issue, and CMLL was clearly aware there was an issue in how they went with safe alternative names. I suspect it wasn’t actually AAA getting angry about CMLL; I believe whatever AAA is trying to do to get an influx of capital is connected to their owned IP. Either they’re being far more aggressive about threatening legal action to make it more valuable, or whomever they’re working with has requested them to take it more seriously. AAA acted similarly with Black Taurus/Beast Mortos and hasn’t gone to CMLL. It’s still an open question if AAA is going to be this strict on just people who have decided not to work with them, or if they’re going to go after the others who still use gimmicks or names invented by AAA on indies but are just people, AAA’s not interested in. The other Alebrijes, Infierno Rockers, and other minor characters running around may be in trouble, but I wonder what happens to the Electroshock level when AAA is done using them for this Origines tour. Or, it could be a promoter just making decisions to justify his feelings.

Talking with Record, Dorian Roldan said AAA would like to have an alliance with WWE – but in the way where AAA would like to have alliances with everyone, not that they’re specifically working with AAA right now. Roldan says they work with TNA, NOAH and AEW. (Working with NOAH seems like news? Maybe he meant GLEAT? Maybe he’s thinking of past times when they did work with NOAH?) Roldan says he doesn’t know where AAA’s relationship with AEW stands – he thinks it’s solid but believes it may be better to ask AEW that question because he claims not to know what’s going on. He sees the distance between AEW and AAA as a function of NJPW and CMLL only wanting to work together and pulling AEW away from AAA rather than any issue between AAA and AEW themselves. Roldan acknowledged that CMLL is doing phenomenally but feels that AAA is pulling in a different audience and doing great themselves.

AAA on Space was treated as a TripleMania preview. The many “preview” shows AAA’s aired this year run old matches with the idea that they’re relevant to the show that’s coming up. It’s a way to very cheaply produce a TV episode without running an actual taping anything that week, which makes absolutely no sense if those AAA shows are as successful as AAA continually claims – if business is good, they’d be adding more tapings instead of cutting them down. (AAA is on pace to run 18 tapings this year, down from 22 last year.)

The one thing that seems worth doing on a TripleMania preview show is to run through the matches on the card. AAA’s done this with their past preview shows. They did not do it here; the show just ended with Psycho & Casas celebrating their tag title win in Juarez. My guess is AAA edited this episode together at the same time they did the Verano de Escnadlao preview show (aired on 07/27), and they didn’t have the TripleMania lineup locked in at that point. That’s a bizarre way to produce a TV show, and it’s equally strange they couldn’t have taped an extra two minutes this past week to jam at the end of the episode with the lineup. They didn’t make the effort.

(Space cares about getting people to watch TripleMania more than AAA actually does and has been promoting the top three matches in an ad for weeks.)

One other thing bugs me. AAA choosing to air an old Faby Apache match instead of the one they taped last week is idiotic. I know that’s harsh, but there is no point in arguing it. Faby won a #1 contenders match on Verano de Escandalo, which will now not air for weeks until after her title match happens. That kind of goofy behavior makes everyone involved with the promotion look dumb. They shouldn’t bother to air it if they couldn’t air it this week, but AAA treats their TV show as an irrelevant obligation rather than a marketing tool.

The AAA on Unimas show is as dumbly produced. We still don’t know the ratings numbers for that AAA show, and it doesn’t appear AAA knows either – Konnan mentioned on his podcast that they haven’t been able to get numbers from the network, with the network saying they’ve been busy with Copa America and the Olympics. Still, based on past numbers on that channel, AAA on Unimas has in the range of 200K viewers. If even 0.1% of those watching Unimas were convinced to take a chance on a TripleMania, that’s 200 extra buys. I think that’s a useful amount for a promotion that seems to use the money. Unfortunately, this is AAA, so there’s no mention there’s a TripleMania a week away, and definitely no mention that someone could pay to watch the show on Triller TV. Perhaps they’ll pound it home at the last second next week, but history suggests the TV will continue to just exist for TV’s sake.

Fresero Jr. claims his time in AAA has ended after just one match. Could be true, though Fresero Jr. just says a lot of things.

ELITE

ELITE (SUN) 08/11/2024 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal [Mas Lucha]
1) Forneo & Torito Negro b Mexica & Olmeca  
Torito Negro replaced Halcon Suriano Jr.
2) La Hiedra & Lady Flammer b Julissa & Valentina  
3) Black Warrior Jr. & Verdugo b Argenis & Tonalli  
4) Travis Banks b Gravity, Rey Horus 
Horus picked up a shoulder injury, Banks defeated Gravity
5) Fuerza Guerrera b Negro Casas 
Casas lamely bumped the referee, Fuerza fouled Casas, Fuerza faked a foul, and the referee awarded the match to Fuerza after a long period of back and forth. Hair versus mask challenges followed.
6) Metalik b Laredo Kid  
Laredo was playing up being with AAA as a rudo move. Metalik beat Laredo Kid using an inside cradle and with both feet on the ropes.
7) Pagano NC DMT Azul, Demonio Infernal 
Pagano left with a shoulder injury (which seemed to be an angle), and then a mystery man ran in to attack both men. The stream ended here. There appeared to be no finish live.

My best guess is the idea was you were supposed to think Soberano Jr. was the mystery man, but it was also clearly not Soberano Jr. That sentence doesn’t really make sense, and neither does this promotion. The previous ELITE show (from April) went up on Mas Lucha’s YouTube channel on Saturday. That one is visibly a TV pilot, so perhaps we can read the long break between the shows as ELITE hoping to get picked up, and it just never happens. This stream was a (lesser quality) Mas Lucha production, including mics that were way out of sync and the stream ending prematurely. The matches don’t look good, and the finishes in the top matches are all stunk. ELITE previously indicated they’d be back in September, but they didn’t actually announce a date here.

There were very few tickets sold to this show on Ticketmaster map, just like last show. There are a decent amount of people in the seats by mid-show, just like last time. I presume Elite is just papering these shows. Mas Lucha set up the hard camera to face a wall instead of the stands, so they must’ve believed those stands would be pretty empty.

News agency EFE interviews Argenis in the lead-up to this show, but it turned out to be more about the life of an independent Mexican luchador. Argenis has just been in that lifestyle for the last year and talks about the tradeoff of having more freedom but not having the support system of a promotion if it goes wrong. Argenis says he’s hoping his TV fame will continue to allow him to get more work, and being independent has allowed him more time with his family. He believes wrestlers who’ve established themselves in a big company should try indie for a while to broaden their knowledge and meet new colleagues.

Todo x el Todo

Bobo Productions posted the Queretaro lineup

TXT (SAT) 10/05/2024 Arena Arteaga, Querétaro, Querétaro
1) Lady Apache & Therius vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera & Keyra
2) Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Solar, Ultramán Jr. vs Canek Jr., Súper Nova, Verdugo
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Cinta de Oro vs Bobby Lee Jr. & Texano Jr.
4) El Hijo Del Santo & LA Park vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera

Nothing special here. They won’t do anything extra on these shows unless/until they tank. Doing nothing more than promising the last match ever in that town has worked for Vampiro, so I guess it’s worth a try for El Hijo del Santo.

El Hijo del Santo’s retirement interview tour took him to ImagenTV’s “El Minute que Cambio mi Desitno” interview show. The big viral bit of the show is after a discussion about El Santo’s unmasking in his final TV appearance, El Hijo del Santo unmasking. It’s 48 minutes in, but you don’t see anything – they turn the lights down, and Santo’s still careful to hide his face from any camera as he hands off one mask to the host and puts another on. Infobae summarizes the rest of the interview and many of the stories are ones you may have heard before. He explains his situation with AAA as him agreeing to a verbal deal to do TripleMania, AAA shortchanging him on money, Santo having no legal recourse because it was a verbal deal, and then suing over the image rights as a way to get the money owed to him in the first place. One thing I didn’t know was his personal family situation. El Hijo del Santo has talked about his wife and two kids but apparently has other kids from a first marriage. Santo claims that first wife was physically violent towards her, he reported her to the police, and they didn’t take his complaints seriously. He has no contact with the children from that relationship after the end of the relationship.

AEW/ROH

ROH matches taped for upcoming shows, in case you’re like me and signed up to watch the PPV and keep forgetting you need to unsubscribe

(via JunkyardAkiyama)

• AR Fox & Komander vs unidentified masked wrestlers
• Fuego del Sol, Serpentico, Altantis Jr. vs Cage of Agony
• the Beast Mortos vs Mark Briscoe for the Ring of Honor championship
• Peter Avalon vs Atlantis Jr.

ROH taped weeks of TV in unclear order over the last few weeks; only the people behind the curtain know the order of these matches airing.

Other Notes

IWRG’s Sundays stream failed, just like Thursday’s stream. They say they’ll have the Sunday stream up as a VOD on Monday. They also didn’t post results from most of their show, though there’s a lineup for next Thursday:

IWRG (THU) 08/15/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sacro vs Rock Power
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Tornado, Willy Banderas vs Fly Star, Hysteriosis, Ovett Jr.
3) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly vs Águila Roja & Puma de Oro
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Flamita & Galeno del Mal

Flamita returns from his Dragon Gate run. It’s notable he’s back in IWRG, as there seemed to be a break between this promotion and Big Lucha after some incidents in a FULL/Big Lucha cibernetico years ago. Mostly I’m curious if the strong performances Flamita’s been putting in for Dragon Gate will also be seen in Mexico.

El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. is out of NOAH’s N1 tournament due to a neck sprain. Dr. Landru says he talked to Wagner3 on Sunday; Wagner originally feared it was a much worse injury, and instead, he’ll just need to rest for a while.

Segunda Caida reviews early Misawa & Koshinika in Mexico.

An author visits Arena Planeta de Campeones in Guatemala City, where the promoter and the wrestlers convince the author that this is the last dying breath of lucha libre left in the country. There’s at least one and maybe three other promotions running in that same city.