CMLL Dia de Luchador show, AAA Heroes Inmoratales, Santo retirement tour begins this weekend

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 09/20/2024 Arena México
***Dia de Luchador, 2024***
1) Legendario & Rayo Metálico vs Alom & Infarto
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Flip Gordon, Neón, Pelon Encapuchado vs Magnus, Rugido, Vegas
4) Atlantis Jr., Templario, Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Místico vs Averno [lightning]
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Valiente vs Esfinge, Euforia, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

“The guy who lost the Aniversario apuesta match beats the winner on the following Friday show” is one of those facts stuck in my head. It’s also a ‘fact’ that was worth checking out, because it’s been a decade since it was accurate:

• 2023: Dragon Rojo unmasked Templario for the DQ
• 2022: Stuka Jr. wins main event but Atlantis Jr. not booked
• 2021: COVID year/Night of Champions format so no apuesta
• 2020: COVID year/Night of Champions format so no apuesta
• 2019: Negro Casas not booked after he lost his hair
• 2018: neither Volador nor Matt Taven are booked after they lost their hair
• 2017: Niebla Roha and Gran Guerrero are booked but two weeks of shows are canceled due to the earthquake
• 2016: La Mascara unmasked Dragon Lee for the DQ
• 2015: La Sombra beat Atlantis in a trios match

So I guess bet on Euforia unmasking Hechicero for the DQ (or maybe some terrible disaster.)

Mistico/Avenro should be good and should get Mistico cheered, if that’s an issue. Match 4 looks great. Fuego as Pelon has been a lot of fun so match 3 should be good as well. The Panthers will see if Ola Negra can work their formula, and the opener will be a good test of Rayo Metalico’s readiness for what looks to be a big match next week. That 09/27 is the Night of Champions show, so there isn’t much room to set up stuff here.

The most striking portion of this week’s CMLL Informa was the interview with Mistico at the end. I didn’t time this one, but he and Julio Cesar Rivera spent roughly 30 seconds talking about Aniversario and about 5 minutes talking about Misitco’s matches in MLW. Mistico talked about being happy to give the fans the faceoff they wanted to see with him and Chris Jericho. He later obliquely mentioned hearing positive and negative comments and trying to learn from both. Everyone knows the match was not a success, there’s no real attempt to pretend it was something it was not. What they learn from it is up to them, but there’s no point in harping on it any more. It happened, and everyone’s moving on.

Near the end of the interview, Julio Cesar Rivera revealed that Mistico would be going to NJPW to celebrate his 20th anniversary. Details are to be announced “soon.” Mistico on the January 5th, 2025 multi-promotion WrestleDynasty show is the easiest explanation, though I’m not sure that’s going to be announced soon. The most tantalizing idea is NJPW seeing Mistico invent his own title match challenge with DOUKI back at FantasticaMania USA, deciding that wasn’t a bad idea, and bringing Mistico to Japan to do the match there. But who knows, they were very unspecific. (That NJPW announcement and the MLW Opera Cup recap might have been the other intended message of this segment: whatever happened Friday, Mistico is still an international star in demand and doing well.)

Sanely announced she was officially switching to the ruda side on Informa. She’ll face Tessa next week in a singles match, and she’s on Team Mexico for the Grand Prix. CMLL also announced Zeuxis would be in the competition Grand Prix. On CMLL’s podcast, Zeuxis talked about wanting to be on Team Mexico at some point, so it would free up an additional spot for an international wrestler. Zeuxis has a Puerto Rican father and Mexican mother. I think CMLL intentionally had people like Zeuxis and Dalys on the international side so they wouldn’t have to find and pay to bring in one more international person. The economics has changed this year, so Zeuxis is now Team Mexico.

The Gran Prix teams for now

• Mexico: Lluvia, Zeuxis, Sanely
• World: Tessa Blanchard, La Catalina, Sayaka Unagi

The full teams will be announced next week. There are 7 spots left on each team. The national champions (Reina Isis, Skadi and Kira) are a lock for Team Mexico, which leaves four spots. Hera, Olympia, Dark Silueta and Princesa Sugehit seem the safest guesses there. Persephone is from El Paso, so she’d go on the World team, but I think she’s the only other CMLL foreign woman to add. That leaves six spots there. CMLL’s usually booked 3 Japanese women and then filled the spots with random US based wrestlers, but that math may change with AEW, ROH, MLW and RevPro all possibly being included.

Informa also revealed that the Noche de Campeones matches will be announced next week; that means there will be no lineup for that show until less than 48 hours before the show—though we’ll know the champions, and it won’t be hard to figure out the matches from the poll results for the truly possessed. I think CMLL did this last year, and I blanked on it.

There is a rare show in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara this Saturday

Indy (SAT) 09/21/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Amon Ra, Colorado, Giro, Sureño Fly vs Albatros, Ave de Fuego, Golden Silver, Surgeon Clown
Arena GDL
2) Centauro, Demencía, Dragón Kid, Zigma vs Aquiles, Dark Power, Neptuno, Olimpo
Arena Roberto Paz
3) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica vs Atenea, Estrella Maldita, Valkirya
4) Destrucción, Frayle De La Muerte Jr., Reycko vs Destino, Kaiju, Santi Betancourt
Arena Jalisco
5) Astro Oriental, Draego, Makara, Persa vs Eclipse Jr., Rav, Shezmu, Temerario
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
6) Obek © vs Continental [GDL LIGHT]

This appears to be a commission show for Dia de Luchador, with the four major local arenas participating. The Guadalajara Lightweight championship is an inter-promotional title they’re trying to get going,

CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Gallo Jr., Makara, Rafaga Jr., Shezmu vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Draego, Persa
2) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Felino Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Robin
3) Lluvia © vs Valkiria [OCCIDENTE WOMEN]
first defense
4) Atlantis, Pantera, Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
5) Star Black © vs Gallego [MEX HEAVY]
fifth defense
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Averno, Furia Roja, Soberano Jr.

A rare Pantera appearance in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara; his last match in that building was in 2016 for another promotion.

CMLL announced they’ve opened an Amazon store. There are a lot of designs here. Whoever put this one together put a lot of work in and came up with some great ideas. It’s a limited selection of wrestlers – maybe about a dozen – but it’s much better than the usual logo-only stuff. They appear to be shipping these from the US, which is good if you want to buy them there, but maybe they are a bit pricey if you’re ordering in Mexico.

CMLL’s podcast this week has Soberano Jr. as a guest. I guess recapping these is now mandatory, or maybe more interesting to you all than my AAA recaps. The show was posted late Thursday; I’ll try to catch up on it on the weekend. There are some obvious topics (Ultimo Guerrero and also Ultimo Guerrero) where they probably won’t directly address things, but I want to see what they talk about anyway. These usually have some sort of announcement, and I’m not sure what that would be for Soberano. The teaser has Soberano mentioning WWE saw him on NJPW World and offered him to come to their tryout in Chile. WWE scouts sure don’t like watching Mexican wrestlers in Mexico. Soberano did not appear at that tryout, so there’s probably more to that story.

Jornada decided to do an article about the life and working conditions of luchadors for Dia de Luchador, which is sound enough. They did it by interviewing Octagon about this (seemingly non-existent) union and his (always coming soon, never actually happening) re-possession of AAA’s office after his court victory. This article suggests Octagon is the first luchador to appear in commercials; it is an article entirely reliant on the author’s belief in everything Octagon has to say and do no additional research. (This is normal.) Octagon has been doing these same interviews for about seven years, and they’ve only changed in one significant way – he used to talk about all the big promotions being bad, and now he praises CMLL for how they take care of wrestlers since he’s working with them.

Speaking of unchanging legal issues, KeMonito has been asked about his case against CMLL and says nothing has happened in the year since he announced he was suing. There are much bigger issues with the Mexican court system at the moment than KeMonito, but he remains hopeful for a positive outcome once things get moving again.

MLW is doing daily announcements for their 11/09 show in Cicero. Mistico and Lluvia have already been announced. Lluvia is announced as a CMLL Women’s World Tag champion. Her partner is left unmentioned. MLW is selling GA tickets at $10, which means they’re going to sell out, the gate isn’t too important to them and everyone else in the area might struggle to sell tickets for a while. (I bought a $10 ticket.)

Reina Isis told the press that many great international women wrestlers have come to Mexico, and it’s great that those doors are open, but CMLL needs to make sure they’re still supporting the Mexican wrestlers because they’re the best.

La Fe has an interview with Okumura, who says he converted to Catholicism following his neck injury, and it gave him the strength to continue. He said he was told he’d be out two years after neck surgery but returned in nine months.

LuchaTalk recaps the CMLL Aniversario.

CMLL on AMX (taped)

• Astral, El Audaz, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
• Hijo del Pantera vs Hijo de Stuka Jr. in a lightning match
• Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Vegas

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo did press at AAA’s office in the last couple of days, saying he’ll be back in the ring by the 09/29 show. (He also said that was his plan on Tuesday, though it wasn’t reported then.) He’s happy and prepared but still nervous about how his moves will go. Mas Lucha also caught up with La Hiedra and, of course, asked her about Latin Lover’s comments about AAA’s women. La Hiedra went with pretending she had no idea what Latin Lover said and didn’t really care, but everyone in AAA knows how strong she is.

AAA TV (SUN) 10/06/2024 Auditorio Benito Juárez, Zapopan, Jalisco
1) Crazzy Steve & Havok vs Abismo Negro & Flammer © [AAA MIXED TAG]
4th defense
2) Dinámico, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
3) ? vs ??, ???, ????, ?????, ??????, ???????, ???????? [Copa Antonio Pena]
4) El Fiscal vs Matt Riddle © [AAA CRUISER]
first defense
5) Mecha Wolf, Negro Casas, Vampiro Canadiense vs El Mesías, Forastero, Sansón
6) Laredo Kid vs El Patrón Alberto © [AAA MEGA]
first defense. Latin Lover and Konnan will be seconds

AAA hasn’t officially announced this lineup. Mas Lucha had it on Wednesday, and others were passing it around. It’s a little strange that AAA hasn’t put it out yet, but maybe it’ll turn up when you see this.

The top 3 matches will air live on 10/06 on Space, and the rest will air on 10/12. Laredo Kid’s role is to get a good match out of a wrestler who seems unlikely to have exceptional matches. Laredo has no chance to win, but will surely do something crazy given a main event. (It’ll be overshadowed by the Eye bit.) It’s going to be weird to have Vampiro back wrestling normal matches after that TripleMania bit.  El Fiscal has limited experience, and most of it is really wrestling the same match over and over again. Matt Riddle has limited experience with people working that style, and is clearly a diminished worker from years ago. I’m sure that match is happening because it’s a numbers thing and because AAA believes they can get heat by having Abismo cost Fiscal a title match, but the reasons people care about that feud aren’t about title matches. It seems like a waste of a plane ticket to fly Riddle in for this, but they get to say he’s actually defending the belt. Likewise, I’m sure Crazzy Steve and Havok will give it their all and good for them to get two paydays out this, but bringing in people to work a mixed tag opener that’s not been promoted much seems like an unwise use of funds for a company making obvious cutbacks. This is one place where CMLL is far ahead of AAA; if they’re going to fly someone in, they’re going to present them as a big star and they’re going to use them in important positions, no matter who it is. The Japanese guys – who may be going by the Tokyo Bad Boys – make two straight TV tapings.

AAA this weekend

• Space: part 2 of the 09/07 Showcenter card
• Unimas: part 3 of TripleMania Mexico City
• YouTube; part 1 of the 09/07 Showcenter card

AAA posted a video update with Roberto Figueroa and Jose Manuel Guillen, talking about upcoming AAA events. There’s nothing new in there, but it’s a good summary of all the stuff AAA has going on (taping in Monterrey, Verano de Escandalo in Guadalajara, GLEAT, Flammer defending her title in Australia, Spain) for people who aren’t paying attention to everything. Most people aren’t, so this stuff is needed and fills a needed gap.

Sexy Star is still mentioning upcoming AAA shows in her Instagram stories. Luchadors are fairly terrible about communicating about what’s going on with them, but it seems like she’s working those shows.

Abismo Negro Jr. and El Fiscal are back to shooting promos on each other in media interviews and on social media. It’s going to be a month and a half between TripleMania and the next time they’re on TV, they might as well do something if the company isn’t going to do much.

Karis La Momia Jr. may be out of AAA and retired, but he’s still showing up in AAA promotional partnerships.

IWRG

The Mexico State Commission has suspended Rock Power for “10 shows.” How you can suspend someone for 10 shows which no one seems to keep track of shows and he’s booked irregularly – is 10 IWRG shows regardless of if he would’ve been booked? Do other Mexico State shows count? (This is why most wrestling suspensions are for days instead of shows.) I’ve put too much thought into this.

IWRG (THU) 09/19/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental & Shamila b Fauno & Kali
2) Avisman b Calibus
3) Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado b Hysteriosis & Rey Halcón
4) Noisy Boy b Aquiles, Bendito, Águila Roja
5) Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus © b Jessy Ventura & Mamba [IWRG IC TAG]
first defense

Noisy Boy did a cool dive.

Todo x el Todo

I guess I should flag this lineup since it’s this weekend.

TXT (SUN) 09/22/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal
1) Heddi Karaoui vs Cerebro Negro
2) Lady Apache, Shamila, Therius vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera, Keyra, Vanilla Vargas
3) El Hijo Del Santo & Fuerza Guerrera vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & LA Park and Bobby Lee Jr. & Cinta de Oro and Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Misterioso Jr. (Laguna) and Solar I & Texano Jr. and Cien Caras Jr. & Rayman and Hijo del Fishman & Máscara Sagrada Ng and Canek Jr. & Súper Nova [ruleta de la muerte]

I have no expectations this will stream. Everyone is a little frightened of Santo’s legal actions but I think it’ll turn up on YouTube fancams nevertheless. I probably would pay for this show on PPV but I’m also silly. Rayman looks like the most likely loser but they could go with some other names here.  There are a lot of advertisements for this show around Mexico City and it seems like either those – or some deep discounts on tickets – has caused tickets to move a bit. They’re not going to do as well as WWE or TripleMania, but it still will look fine.

The El Hijo del Santo media tour has reached El Econimista, who aren’t playing around with hiding his real name. El Santo told him son that he could run any business but he should buy real estate, that money will always work for you.

Santo also was less committed to his plan about retiring in June this year, saying maybe it’d be June or maybe he’d do it in May. He’s really doing the old luchador bit of throwing a lot of ideas out there, without really settling or committing to any of them. The announced shows are dates he’s committed to (unless they don’t sell tickets) but the rest is not locked in.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (SAT) 09/28/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Auzter & Skayde vs Platino & Tempo
2) Mexicano vs Iku
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
winner gets a tag title shot
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo vs Eli Isom, Kento, Takuma
5) Flamita, Mr. Win, Ricky Marvin, Viajero vs ?, Big Tao Tao, Limbo, Tonalli

I’m unclear why Black Generation is teaming with a mystery person instead of Emperador Azteca, but I will take the risk it might be a plus. Eli Isom is a US wrestler (and ex-ROH wrestler) who was around Big Lucha in 2022 and IWRG in 2023.

Lucha Brothers

Wrestlebuddy announced the Lucha Brothers have signed with WWE. Penta told Hugo no, he’s still signed to AEW. Nothing has changed in this story since it broke in August – they’re under an AEW deal and they’re signing with WWE as soon as that changes – and so there’s no point in rediscussing it until they actually show up in WWE or WWE actually admits to signing them.

This is like the AEW TV news this week; I understand why it’s news, but I also have a negative interest in reading a detailed breakdown of the rumored deal when the same people will be doing the same breakdown of the actual detail soon enough.

Other News

Tauro (Antonio Grimaldo, 89) passed away on Wednesday. Two of his brothers were also luchadors. He started under his real name in the early 50s, then switched to the masked Tauro gimmick in the 60s. He wreslted for EMLL from 1964 to 1978, and then spent a couple of years working UWA dates to finish out his career. Tauro was a lightweight when EMLL didn’t have much use for lightweights; he was a decade or so early for the UWA. The magazines seemed to praise him a lot. His biggest break was getting into a mask feud with the popular Estrella Blanca. Tauro lost, but the issue continued, and Tauro ended up winning the national lightweight championship out of it. He kept it for the better part of three years, just missing a six-month switch and back with Dardo Aguilar. Tauro was praised for his skills; El Halcon had his match with Rodolfo Ruiz as the most technical match of 1975. The local paper mentions he ended up promoting back in his home of San Luis Potosi after his in-ring career ended.

There’s a viral video of part of a light tube piercing the arm of a luchador. The video is from the Monday September 16th Arena Queretaro show and a main event of Joe Lider and local wrestler Ursus. Other video of the match shows it was stopped right away to Ursus him medical aid. Ursus posted on Facebook on Thursday, saying he was back home, recovering, and hopes to wrestle again. He thanked everyone for the well wishes.

Masked Republic announced “Lucha Libre Legend of the Mask”, a 2D side-scrolling fighting game scheduled to release March 2025. They’ll use some real people in the game; Mr. Iguana and Konnan are mentioned in the preview art as bosses. It looks good.

The 09/28 MV Promociones show (Metalik vs Dralistico) is said to be canceled. Too many shows and low ticket sales. All the Auditorio shows in Tijuana seem to be struggling the last few months, and this show was from an established promoter who’s previous show had also bombed, coming one day after an AAA spot show and with people those fans don’t see as main eventers. There was little chance it was going to turn out well.

Eduardo Valenzuela, the producer/director of lucha libre movie “El Halcon”, said it debuted in the US theaters with great success on September 13th. Box Office Mojo does not list a move by that name in last week’s gate recipets.

Periodismo & Punta has a story on Martin Karadagain. It’s a bit amazing how often he’s remembered in that culture, given his show went off TV in Argentina in the 1980s, but it is also a lot of writers in their 50s and 60s getting to write about a treasured childhood memory. That also means a lot of writing about their memories and not wanting to look too close at them; in this tale, Karadagain was an undefeated wrestler in the US before returning to his home country.

Imagen Noticias has an interview with retired wrestler El Reo.