CMLL Universal de Amazonas begins, Heroes Inmortales, AAA/GLEAT

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/04/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Magia Blanca vs Virus [lightning]
3) Kira, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard vs Hera, Persephone, Sanely
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Templario vs Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Princesa Sugehit vs La Catalina, Zeuxis, Amapola, Náutica, India Sioux, Maligna, Olympia, Dark Silueta, Metálica [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal]

There’s a bit of patience to like about CMLL this month, even if you don’t care much about women’s wrestling. Other North American promotions seem to exist in just two modes: “We’ve got to micromanage every quarter-hour to win this week manically, and I guess we’ll figure out next week next week” and “We’re contractually required to put this TV show, but we’ve long stopped caring about it.” CMLL is running this month of women’s wrestling without the typical frantic concern of what one (or four or sixteen) less than normal gates will do their bottom line, and they’re also doing them with the hope that it’ll be an investment to pay off in the long term. A wrestling promotion can make stars only by putting people who are not yet stars in star positions and helping them succeed. That always means a step back, hoping you’ll take a step forward later. This month’s main events are carefully planned elimination matches and big singles matches; there will be a big winner to close every show. CMLL hopes those memories stick with the fans the next time they see those women.

Focusing on women may not succeed for CMLL. This is the third year of this strategy (not the first) and there are small signs of progress CMLL can point to. The biggest success of CMLL’s increased focus on the women’s division is Stephanie Vaquer, a person who no longer exists in CMLL because she was too good at her job. CMLL’s women’s division is gradually getting better. They’ve been able to lower the age, increase the level of performance, and widen the talent pool by tapping into wrestlers from elsewhere in Mexico. Some women seem like they could develop into stars, but they’re not quite there yet, nor has there been a noticeable fan base that comes in to support the women. The women’s wrestling concept is at best on par with the Leyenda de Plata/Leyenda de Azul tournaments, annual bits that CMLL diehard fans understand are important because of their history, but no one’s thinking all that much about when it’s not coming up. The long-term goal here makes it more challenging to measure success, but that perception is the best measuring stick: this women’s wrestling concept will be a success when CMLL has people excited for this month, and some women’s stars people want to see the rest of the year.

The Universal block looks like Sugehit, Catalina, Zeuxis, and Dark Silueta as the final four. Dark Silueta got hurt this month last year when it seemed CMLL was about to do more with her. My guess is they try to fix that this year.

The semi-main is a rare Hechicero match where he’s not facing someone he’s directly feeding with. Kira and Persephone will probably do some fun stuff. Magia Blanca and Virus could be weird. Tecnicos will try for a lot in the opener. The other three Friday shows in Women’s Month will have bigger matches but this should be easy enough to watch.

CMLL Informa revealed the mystery women’s matches for Saturday and Sunday

• Saturday: Bengalee & Centinela vs Candela & Mulisha
• Sunday: Tabata, Dulce Tormenta, Jazmin Allure vs Amapola, Metalica, Candela

Vaguely familiar people are mixed in with the new names and the regulars. Candela has appeared several times, and she could be a plus. Centinela is the army soldier turned luchadora who once popped up on AAA TV and has seemingly been part of the CMLL system lately; she’s originally from Chiapas but seems to have resettled in the Mexico City area. She wrestled in Guadalajara on Tuesday.

Bengalee was probably most visible as an IWRG wrestler, though she hasn’t been there since June’s La Jaula de las Locas. She participated in last year’s CMLL bodybuilding contest, which probably opened the door for her to wrestle here. She also seems pretty good at networking. She seems anecdotally good at networking, making connections, and building a powerful social media following. She has also been pretty consistently poor at actually wrestling in matches. She comes off as less than wholly trained, prone to mistakes, and frequently annoys her opponents. I don’t even remember the context of Keyra losing it on her, and I’m not sure it’s particularly relevant; similar issues have happened with others wrestling Bengalee. Maybe she’ll make some great strides in the CMLL system, but she doesn’t seem to be at that level of someone who should be getting a shot.

Dulce Tormenta is a El Paso based luchador who wrestles US indie and a bit in northern Mexico. She seems to be a somewhat in-demand indie luchadora despite being an ex-AAA/CMLL one and not getting a lot of TV coverage somewhere. I saw her at the GCW show in Los Angeles a few years back; she seemed good. Jazmin Allure is originally from Flordia and has worked many ndies (and WOW, apparently.) She’s worked Texas shows with lucha libre names, so that’s probably the connection. I’m sure I’ve seen her wrestle at some point, but I have no impression of her.

The Mulisha name vexed me. It’s rare for someone Mexico-based to come into CMLL without me being at least familiar with the name, so I thought maybe it was another American. I wasn’t sure of the correct spelling, and I couldn’t find any social media with spelling variations. I found a single appearance on a Starman Gym show in April. It turns out Reporte Luchistico had a video interview with Mulisha from the Mexico City wrestling tryouts earlier this year. I vaguely remember one woman passed the test to get licensed this year, and Mulisha was that woman. She lists one of her trainers as Arkangel de la Muerte, which sends up a flag – Arkangel died in 2018. Her story is she started training 15 years ago, then “retired” 11 years ago. (She says it’s a long story; she also has photos of a son that looks about 10.) She started back training again in December 2023. Mulisha been training with Hijo del Gladiador since returning to wrestling. Her social media is all under her real name, Jessica Sanchez; she appears to be a personal trainer who takes a lot of gym selfies.

Toni Storm sent in a very Toni Storm promo to Informa. It got the reaction it was looking for.

CMLL (TUE) 10/08/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Astro Oriental & Último Ángel vs Thunder Boy & Yaky Boy
2) Alondra, Diosa Roja, Emperatriz vs Miss Panther, Mujer Demonio, Queen Panther
3) Adira, Náutica, Nexy, Valkiria vs Bengalee, Dulce Tormenta, Jazmin Allure Zorah, Mulisha
4) Kira & Skadi vs Hera & Olympia
5) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Magnus, Rugido, Vegas
6) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Neón vs Hijo del Villano III, Soberano Jr., Villano III Jr.

Allure was on the original poster, and Zorah replaced her a few hours later. Zorah may be a local.  Match 4 has been pretty good when they’ve got it going, and match 5 looks promising. That’s a group of Monterrey women showing up in match 2. CMLL is going so wide and far that I wonder if there’s something like a torneo escuelas for unsigned women coming.

Brillante Jr. has appeared in Arena Mexico once since August 11th.

CMLL (MON) 10/07/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astoreth & Centinela vs Enigmática & Lady Amazona
2) Pelon Encapuchado vs Pólvora [lightning]
3) La Catalina, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard vs Hera, Olympia, Persephone
4) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma
5) Esfinge © vs Valiente [MEX LH]
6th defense (rematch from 08/02)
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Neón vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

That main event could be great. Either Fuego or the person booking can’t figure out from show to show if he’s meant to be doing that gimmick or Pelon Encapuchado. Arena Puebla will be running the same two women’s matches like the other venues.

Record reports people close to QueMoniito say his lawsuit with CMLL will wrap between October 10th and 15th. There are very few details about the situation outside of he’ll no longer be “KeMonito”, and that phrasing is important there. He’s been using the slightly different name QueMonitto name since leaving CMLL, and it’s not mentioned if he’ll continue to be able to appear and sell items under that name. He’s still selling them Que Monnito shirts on his Facebook. He’s announced for appearances later in October.  The ‘better’ result still isn’t great, but there’s a world of difference between “he can’t be that exact blue monkey” and “he can’t be any blue monkey”; the article hints at the second result but doesn’t just say it, which is suspicious. Also suspicious is Record saying this is going to happen between a few certain days and knowing the outcome. They wouldn’t know the outcome if this was still waiting for a legal decision, and they would have a specific cut off date if a decision had already been made. My underinformed guess is that CMLL and QueMoniito have reached a settlement and are waiting on lawyers’ sign-offs to go through, but I shouldn’t be that confident about understanding the Mexican legal system. The only things I’m sure of is a) there’s more that article isn’t telling us and b) the wrestler is getting the bad end of the stick as usual.

This fiasco only happened because CMLL wanted to replace one KeMonito with a new KeMonito. The last year has strongly proven that was the wrong idea for business reasons. KeMalito is over, and far more over if he had to battle against the idea of being KeMonito II. CMLL’s monetized KeMalito just as well, and they would’ve gone the other gimmick. It wouldn’t have worked out like this if CMLL had gotten their way.

A sequence of events

• 07/26: Atlantis Jr. wins the Survival of Fitest match on the ROH Death Before Dishonor, narrowingly beating Brian Cage to close it
• 08/22: Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage and Toa Liona defeat Atlantis Jr., Serpentico, and Fuego del Sol on ROH TV
• (nothing happens for a long time, Atlantis Jr. stops appearing on ROH TV for a month)
• 10/12: Atlantis Jr. will defend the ROH TV championship against Brian Cage on the pre-show of WrestleDream

You have to have a comprehensive knowledge of recent Ring of Honor TV (not the most exciting subject) or some time to dive into match databases to figure out this idea, and even then, it may not come off as impressive to someone who just wants to see people on Ring of Honor face other people on Ring of Honor in big matches. You could also be in the head of the person putting this together. Everyone else appeared surprised by this announcement. The match will be good. I was hoping that Ring of Honor would have a stronger purpose put on it once the AEW TV deal was announced, but the AEW TV deal said nothing about Ring of Honor and it exists in the same limbo as it has for a while.

The CMLL talent list for the 11/09 MLW show is up to:

• Mistico
• Lluvia
• Titan
• Atlantis
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Hechicero
• Okumura
• Magnus
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Atlantis Jr.
• Esfinge (new)
• Felino (new)

Arena Rey Bucanero, a space in Neza the luchador used to train wrestlers and run wrestling shows, is closing down in its current location. Bucanero was renting and the owners wanted to turn the space into a bar. He’d run the place since 2017, though not as much lately – only two shows since April. The plan is to find a new place, but Bucanero doesn’t have one at the moment.

AEW Head of Wardrobe Chris Estell was on the promotion’s podcast this week. He is the man responsible for that Ultimo Guerrero match on AEW. The version of the story told here is AEW promoted Ultimo Guerrero as masked, so AEW (and very specifically Tony Khan) believed they had to deliver a masked Ultimo Guerrero. UG did not bring a mask, AEW desperately searched the area for anyone with an Ultimo Guerrero mask, and Tony Khan (via Jimmy Jacobs) asked Estell to make a mask within two hours. Estell figured he’d need two days to something like if he had all the right materials, which he didn’t have. Estell also didn’t want to disappoint the boss (Khan, but also UG) so he did his best. The hosts give him credit for what he was able to put together; it sounds like Estell’s biggest regret is he didn’t have time to get laces on to tie the mask together and thanked the production people for trying to hide the issues with the masks. Estell is very appreciative of Ultimo Guerrero’s Facebook post praising his effort and that Guerrero wore the mask as an entrance mask for a couple of matches.

Nitro noted he’s reached 40 years in wrestling. He posted photos of himself as Dragon Rojo and Dragon Dorado in the 80s; the luchawiki also mentions him as wrestling as el Cimarron.

Reyna Isis was this week’s guest on the CMLL podcast. I didn’t listen to it yet.

Skadi & Kira want to be known as “SKari, La Cazadora del Aire.” I’m willing to go as far as SKari.

Angelito visited his hometown.

AAA

There is no AAA TV show on Space this Saturday. Instead, they’re airing Heroes Inmortales on Sunday. That show starts at 4 p.m. local time, and TV coverage picks up at 6.

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

Both matches seem set to end via interference. Abismo Negro Jr. will probably shoot fire in El Fiscal’s eyes – that’s a bit they did in Monterrey. Laredo/Alberto will probably have a Mesias and other parts of the Eye faction involved. Both will go through the pretense of being a ‘good match’ until the finish, though I’m not sure how close they can get to achieving that. This’ll probably be another show where all the tecnicos get laid out, and maybe Latin Lover will be standing at the end.

There’s an AAA fanbase sentiment that Vampiro’s match at Arena Ciudad de Mexico was his retirement match, leaving them confused as to why he’s still wrestling. AAA promoted this farewell tour as lawyers, leaving them legal room to say it was only his farewell in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. (And, now that I think this out, it occurs to me that AAA’s announced him as retired as in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera and in Arena Ciudad de Mexico but not in Mexico City itself; I’ve been assuming AAA was running their next final two tapings of the year in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera but I suppose they could go back to the Pepsi Center and then Vampiro can retire again.) I think Vampiro will still get a great reaction in a place where he’s lived for many years. He also just might lose again.

The first three matches of this show will air on 10/12.

Tickets for this show are free in GA, and up to 400 pesos at ringside. (4oo pesos would get you in row 13 tonight in Arena Mexico; even the tickets they’re charging for are rather cheap.) Ther are no tickets left online, which I can’t figure out is an error or because they’ve already been sold out.

Based on upcoming advertising, Crazzy Steve and Havok appear likely to win the mixed tag titles. The local Juarez promoter released a poster for Guerra de Titanes, and both foreign wrestlers are pictured. So is Mil Muertes, a character on a show named Lucha Underground, which went off the air six years ago. Maybe the more significant news is that the show is now November 10th; it was listed as November 17th previously. That one-week move will likely lead to more out-of-order airings; each part of the October Mexico City taping will sandwich Guerra de Titanes.

AAA on Unimas will have part 2 of the most recent Showcenter, and AAA on YouTube will have the totally irrelevant Road to Heroes Inmortales show.

AAA wrestlers are also in GLEAT this weekend. These shows typically stream live for free on GLEAT’s YouTube page and stay there after the show.

10/06 (early Sunday morning North America time) – YouTube Link.

• Hayato Tamura vs Parker Boudreaux for the G-REX Championship
• CIMA & Ricochet vs Soma Watanabe & Hijo del Vikingo
• Lindaman, Octagon Jr., Faby Apache vs MICHIKO, Chris Ridgeway, Sam Adonis
• Issei Onizukia, Junjae, JD Lee, Jessy Queen vs KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Quite Storm, Mirko Mori, Nico Inverardi

10/09 (early Wednesday morning North America time)

• Soma Watanabe vs Hijo del Vikingo
• Kaito Ishida vs Parker Boudreaux
• MICHIKO vs Faby Apache
• Takehiro Yamamura, Junjae, JD Lee, Octagon Jr., Jessy Queen vs Hayato Tamura, KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Quiet Storm, Takaki Iwaski, Sam Adonis

Sorry if I’ve blown those names; I don’t know where to find an English listing of these lineups nowadays. It occurs to me that Parker Boudreaux will have wrestled in GLEAT exactly as many times as he’s wrestled in AAA by the end of this week. (He did have a non-wrestling appearance with AAA, too.)

AAA’s group photo shows Roberto Figueroa and Quetzalli Bulnes are along for the trip; they appear to be doing social media work. Mas Lucha had interviews with the wrestlers before they left. Jessy Queen was surprised to be picked to go on this trip and assumed AAA management was joking. Faby Apache, it’s been six years since she’s been in Japan, and she’s looking forward to seeing the fans again. Hijo del Vikingo noted he went to Japan with GCW and Gringo Loco, and is happy to now also represent AAA this time. Octagon Jr. talks about how this year has been great for him; it’s brought him good things and taken away bad ones. He doesn’t give details on that second portion.

The November Spain tour is on. There’s no new news here; I was just still uncertain they’d happen and checked in to see that they’re still on the schedule. All three shows have a lot of unsold tickets; the last show in Barcelona seems to be selling the best of the three. I’ve probably said this too many times, but the one big thing I’ve learned from WrestleTix becoming prominent is tickets don’t move much unless there’s interesting news (usually match announcements) or the show gets close. The MLW bit of announcing a different CMLL wrestler every day can be a bit much, but it is also probably effective in reminding people that the show exists in a way that repeating the same tour dates every few days is not going to do. AAA seemed to adopt this idea with the Guerra de Titanes lineup but had to wait until so close to the show; people aren’t waiting until a couple of days before to decide based on a match. (This is also an AEW problem.) AAA could use actual announcements for those Spain shows if they’re happening, even just to assure people they’re happening, though that would require AAA to have a firm idea of what they’re doing on those shows.

Mas Lucha also posted interviews following the AAA taping on Sunday. Alonso Botello claimed KAOZ is running in December, with a date to be announced soon. Julissa’s chest has unusual red chop marks for an AAA match; those are chops to send a message. Julissa & Valentina talked about wanting a rematch, and Hiedra & Flammer portrayed them as newbies who weren’t worth their time. El Hijo del Vikingo said he was depressed the first few months he was out; it was a long time and a struggle to return, and Alberto tried to take that way from him by attacking him from behind before the match. He no longer has any respect for Alberto. Meanwhile, Alberto said Vikingo has to go to the back of his line and remains focused on Latin Lover. Mesias said Octagon Jr. is on his blacklist, and he still wants revenge on Cibernetico.

AAA put up Flammer vs Jessica Troy from OPW (Australia, 09/22) on YouTube. I thought it was good. Flammer got an opportunity to have a regular match – not a cookie sheet match, not a Hijo del Tirantes match. There’s stuff I saw from here that I haven’t seen from her much, if at all, in AAA, though I think she could use a bit more offense. Still, Flammer came off as a good wrestler in a way she doesn’t often get the chance in AAA. It appeared OPW gave AAA a no-commentary crowd sound-only version, figuring AAA would add their commentary track. Instead, it was just posted with no commentary.

Todo x el Todo

They’ve got two shows this weekend. Santo Jr. appears to be wrestling regularly as part of the tour. The lineups have shuffled around for that and other reasons; some people seem dropped for now. They’re also adding “the last time in [this city]” text to each poster, perhaps thinking that wasn’t clear prior. And I guess they couldn’t have used that text for the Mexico City show.

TXT (FRI) 10/04/2024 Arena Arteaga, Querétaro, Querétaro
1) Lady Apache & Vanilla Vargas vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera & Ludark Shaitan
Vanilla Vargas replaced Therius, Ludark replaced Keyra on Wednesday
2) Hijo del Solar & Ultramán Jr. vs Canek Jr. & Heddi Karaoui
Super Nova & Alebrije moved up, Verdugo dropped, Heddi Karaoui added on Wednesday
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Cinta de Oro, Hijo del Alebrije vs Bobby Lee Jr., Súper Nova, Texano Jr.
Hijo del Alebrije and Super Nova on Wednesday
4) El Hijo Del Santo, LA Park, Santo Jr. vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Hijo del Fishman
Santo Jr. and Hijo de Fishman added on Wednesday

It’s hard not to read into Keyra leaving these shows and showing up on that AAA-promoted Tijuana show recently. Santo was talking with Leon papers to hype this show earlier this week.

TXT (SUN) 10/06/2024 Palenque de León, León, Guanajuato
1) Lady Apache & Vanilla Vargas vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera & Ludark Shaitan
Vanilla Vargas and Ludark replaced Therius & Keyra on Wednesday.
2) Bobby Lee Ng & Hijo del Solar vs Brazo Celestial & Brazo Cibernetico Jr.
Ultraman Jr. and Herodes Jr. dropped on Wednesday.
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Hijo de Máscara Sagrada, Huracán Ramírez vs Hijo del Fishman, Súpernova, Texano Jr.
Huracan Ramirez replaced Misterioso Jr. on Wednesday.
4) Cinta de Oro vs Bobby Lee Jr.
5) El Hijo Del Santo, LA Park, Santo Jr. vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Fuerza Guerrera, Heddi Karaoui
Santo Jr. and Heddi Karaoui replaced Cinta de Oro & Bobby Lee Jr. (into a singles match)

This is Bobby Lee Jr.’s hometown show, and he and Cinta de Oro are doing a title match later so that singles match is probably about getting him to win.

Mas Lucha has promoted these shows pretty steadily, so they may also be recording these. They’re not saying that up front though.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 10/03/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, thecubsfan]
1) Águila Oriental & Sky Man b Arceus & Fauno 
2) Shamila & Tornado b Águila Roja & Kali 
After the win, Tornado asked Shamila to be his girlfriend but was turned down. Backstage, she explained that she wanted to keep her personal life separate from her wrestling career.
3) Vudu Max b Vangellys 
Lucha Random
4) Aquiles & Spider Fly DQ Hell Boy & Noisy Boy  
suspended Rock Power ran in to attack Spider Fly for the DQ.
5) Hijo de Canis Lupus b Hijo del Fishman © [IWRG JUNIORS]  
Fishman falls on 7th defense

They also aired a video where Noisy Boy is looking at security tape, I guess to find the identity of the mystery second Noisy Boy.

IWRG (SUN) 10/06/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental & Drakula Ng vs Fauon & Sulivan
2) Felino Boy & Vudu Max vs Príncipe Centauro & Rey Aztaroth
3) Caballero de Plata & Ronado vs Puma de Oro & Rey Halcón
4) Diva Salvaje & Keyra vs Estrella Divina & Shamila
5) Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Noisy Boy vs Águila Roja, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Spider Fly
6) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Pig Decapitador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Pool

This main event is different from the other matches between these two teams – it is not 3v3, it is 4v4.

A new Lucha Libre Boom show was announced for a couple of weeks.

IWRG (THU) 10/17/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Ángel Kid vs Titanium, Fobi
2) Argus, Máscara De Hierro, Súper Boy vs Águila Dorada, Argus Fly, Giaus
3) Águila Roja vs Skayler, Príncipe Centauro, Diablo Fly, El Cometa, Lunatik Fly, Sol, Águila Oriental
4) Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano García vs Black Terry, Carta Brava Jr., Fandango
5) Hell Boy & Tonalli vs Aquiles & Puma and Lunatik Extreme & Toto
6) Hijo de LA Park, LA Park, LA Park Jr. vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo De Silver King, Simon Blanco

Other Notes

Voices of Wrestling has a great article making the case for Huracan Ramirez in the WON HOF.

Starting today until the end of the year, WWE RAW and SmackDown will air on YouTube in Latin America – except for Mexico. WWE programming is gradually moving to Netflix internationally, but Netflix won’t start WWE until 2025, the old deals ended with September, and WWE is putting it on YouTube instead of making a short term deal for three months. It’s a limited scope of people who will have access to this stream, but I’m very curious about what kind of viewership it gets – it’ll certainly say a lot about how big WWE is or can be in that market.