CMLL
Tonight’s lineup, which changed Thursday:
CMLL (FRI) 10/11/2024 Arena México
1) El Audaz, Rey Cometa, Volcano vs Crixus, Hijo de Stuka Jr., Okumura
Rey Cometa (returning from injury) replaced Hijo del Pantera on Monday night.
2) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider vs Barboza, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
3) Dark Silueta & Zeuxis vs La Catalina & Samantha Black
replaces scheduled Toni Storm/La Catalina match
4) Volador Jr. vs Hechicero
5) Tessa Blanchard vs Lluvia, Sanely, Reina Isis, Skadi, Kira, Tabata, Valkiria, Hera, Persephone [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, semifinal]
Toni Storm is off the show. CMLL Informa explained she was in doubt to make the show due to Hurricane Milton. She’d already had multiple flights canceled but would try again on Thursday. Both Tampa and Orlando’s airports remained closed Thursday, so it just wasn’t going to happen. CMLL sent out a press release Thursday afternoon officially confirming Storm off the show, and promising that the match would be rescheduled for a future date. CMLL should get credit for being upfront about this situation with the fans and media.
Samantha Black was already in Mexico – she appeared on Informa – so CMLL will do a Grand Prix preview tag match as a replacement. She’s going to be an interesting one to be on a Friday night following last week’s struggles. Costa Rica Embassay is about a once a month promotion and she’s the least experience person in the tournament.
Volador and Hechicero should be good, though they’ve never really had a great match with each other. Maybe the main event will be better than last week. I still suspect Blanchard is winning.
CMLL (TUE) 10/15/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Eclipse Jr., Shezmu, Temerario vs Fúnebre, Mortis, Ponzoña Jr.
2) Exterminador, Kráneo, Maléfico vs Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Volcano
3) Alondra, Emperatriz, Lady Shadow vs Miss Guerrera, Nexy, Quetzal
4) Kira & Skadi © vs Hera & Olympia [MEX WOMEN TAG]
3rd defense (all against Hera & Olympia)
5) Atlantis & Blue Panther vs Felino & Satánico
6) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Euforia
Kira & Skadi should defend against someone else at some point but this match will probably still be good.
CMLL announced the full lineup for the Gran Prix
CMLL (FRI) 10/25/2024 Arena México
1) Dulce Gardenia vs Difunto [lightning]
2) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Magnus & Rugido
non-title match
3) Averno © vs Zandokan Jr. [CMLL LH]
2nd defense
4) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario vs Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr.
5) Amapola, Dark Silueta, Hera, Kira, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis, Sanely, Skadi, Zeuxis vs Alex Windsor, La Catalina, Persephone, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa, Tessa Blanchard, Unagi Sayaki, Viva Van, Willow Nightingale [Grand Prix de Amazonas]
Nothing huge supports the main event, but everything should be fun. Difunto’s on the rise of late. Match #2 is made up of two efficient and well-coordinated teams. March 4 could be great. Averno and Zandokan had a good match back in Coliseo in August, with Averno out rudo-ing fellow rudo Zandokan. That’s sort of what I expect here.
Informa also had Guerrero Maya and Dragon Rojo Jr. on in separate segments. Maya was insistent he wasn’t turning rudo while everything else he said to Xelhua was rudo-tinged. Julio Cesar Rivera asked if Xelhua wanted to join Fuerza Poblana; Guerrero Maya Jr. later declared he’d quit the group if they ever added Xelhua. (Stigma replied on Instagram, pointing out Maya is the one causing problems and Fuerza Poblana existed before he came aboard.) Maya doesn’t think Xelhua has earned what he’s been given so far. Dragon Rojo felt Los Barbaros fell apart after the trios title loss and wasn’t sure if he’d end up being tecnico or rudo.
Amapola said this Grand Prix may be her last or second to last because she feels her retirement is soon. My guess is it’ll probably take some injuries for her to make the field next year. I still think Olympia should be in the match and Marcela probably is in this if she’s healthy (though who knows how that’ll go.) Luchadors aren’t really good at sticking to retirement ideas.
Tessa Blanchard says she wasn’t sure how well she’d be liked turning tecnica and feels the fans have totally embraced her. She says speaks Spanish well enough that she gets mistaken as latina on the street.
Lluvia and Tabata are on the CMLL podcast this week.
Stuka Jr. attacked Neon during a post match promo in Puebla on Monday.
MLW announced Titan vs Mistico vs Averno for the MLW Middleweight Championship for their 11/03 show. It’s more possible there’s a title change if they can do a finish without Mistico getting pinned, though my guess it is more about MLW already running Averno/Mistico twice and wanting to do something else.
Hechicero is among those announced for NJPW Strong’s 12/15 show in Long Beach.
AEW
Fox Sports Mexico announced they’d air AEW, starting with this Saturday’s WrestleDream show airing on Fox Sports Premium. The subsequent PPVs will also air on that added-cost service. Fox Sports Mexico will also air Dynamite, Collision and Rampage at some point. No start dates are listed on the press release, but there’s a graphic floating around that indicates they’ll start on TV on Monday. (An AEW source also indicated they were hoping to start on Monday.) The shows are airing on Fox Sports 2 and Fox Sports 3. Dynamite and Rampage look to be airing live, Collision on a three hour delay. I’m told this deal covers Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay.
AEW will eventually take WWE’s place on the station. WWE programming in Mexico will move to Netflix starting on January 1st, and Fox Sports Mexico is bringing AEW on board as replacement wrestling content. I was amazed that WWE didn’t have some exclusivity deal on the network; both AEW and WWE programming will air on the network for the next three months. Fox Sports Mexico produces a WWE recap show called Saturday Night Slam, and that’ll flip to being “All Elite Show” with this new deal; that’ll start airing this Monday following WWE RAW. AEW’s been hoping WWE going to Netflix would lead to international channels looking to AEW to fill that gap, and that seems to be exactly what’s happened in this case.
Fox Sports Mexico seems a stronger outlet than Space, which carries AAA and carried AEW for a time. (It’s definitely stronger than VIX, Televisa’s attempt at creating a streaming network that’s never really taken.) Fox Sports Mexico doesn’t have as strong sports content as they did when WWE first came aboard, but they do have some stuff that’ll still draw eyeballs, and Space is 95% reruns of old movies. AAA’s deal with Azteca has downgraded from an afternoon over-the-air slot to a late night over-the-air slot to back being in the afternoon but on a digital subchannel. AAA is also on less visible channels like ClaroTV and Multimedios. AEW and AAA are at least in each other’s neighborhood and I’d need a better understanding of those digital channels to really tell which one more people do watch. CMLL would still have a lot more exposure than both; they remain on a traditional over-the-air next work. Anyone with a TV can watch CMLL’s Televisa show. Anyone with a TV can watch AAA’s show, but it’s on a channel that may take some work to find. Mexican fans still need a cable (or equivalent) subscription to watch AEW.
This seems like slightly good news for CMLL, whose fans may be more interested in and knowledgeable about AEW wrestlers when they come in. It’s also obviously good news for AEW, which gets visibility in Mexico and some more revenue. An AEW show in Mexico is now a possibility.
AAA
AAA announced the lineup for Guerra de Titanes.
AAA (SUN) 11/10/2024 Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
***Guerra de Titanes, 2024***
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
3) El Fiscal & Reina Dorada vs Crazzy Steve & Havok
4) Mecha Wolf, Pagano, Vampiro Canadiense vs Abismo Negro, Psicosis, Taurus
5) Dinámico, Drago, Laredo Kid vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
6) Octagón Jr. © vs El Mesías [AAA LA]
7) Hijo Del Vikingo vs El Patrón Alberto [AAA MEGA]
The main event looks like Patron getting past Vikingo on the way to the seemingly inevitable Latin Lover match. (Dorian Roldan and Latin Lover will be the seconds.) A brawl in Monterrey set up Mesias and Octagon. Pagano wrestled in the Vampiro TripleMania “match”, but hasn’t had a real match on TV since August and is still dealing with shoulder injuries. He’s also just never going to miss a big Juarez show. TNA never seemed to acknowledge Havok and Steve winning the AAA titles and neither has worked there since May, but they’re still RT-ing TNA content. I still don’t know the story there.
AAA previously announced a Mexico City TV taping on 10/26. They usually announce tapings in order, so I’m unsure if something’s changed. I’ll figure this back out when I watch the TV.
AAA TV this weekend
- Space will have the preliminary matches from Heroes Inmortales
- Unimas will have part 1 of the Monterrey TV taping, which hasn’t aired in Mexico Yet
- YouTube will have the top matches from Heroes Inmortales
I liked Wednesday’s Hologram/Komander match from AEW’s Dynamite show. An amusing subplot was Jeff Jarrett, on commentary for the week, losing his mind whenever they didn’t go for a pinfall after a big move. Jarrett has a very traditional, back-to-basics approach to pro wrestling, and his brain must explode every time he comes to AAA.
Lady Shani announced she had her son on Monday.
Dave the Clown teased he’d be the new Parka and then chided people for believing he’d be the new Parka.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 10/10/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental & Black Dragón Jr. b Arceus & Legado 
2) Multifacético, Shamila, Tornado b Argus, Datura, Fandango
3) Vangellys b Príncipe Centauro
4) Rock Power b Spider Fly, Noisy Boy
Rock Power is apparently unsuspended three shows early.
5) Águila Roja & Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus
Misc
The Quien Mato a Shocker documentary premiers this weekend. El Planchitas talked with the film’s director, Alejandro Carper, who described it as a film school project that turned into something more. He was a fan of Shocker growing up, saw him featured in the Lucha Mexico documentary, and Shocker wasn’t very honest about what was really going on with him at first. The original plan was the story was just going to be out his jaw injury – how it happened, getting the surgery to fix it, and betting his hair against Diamante Azul’s mask for revenge. It turned it into a more personal relationship, Carper being on of the last people sticking with Shocker as he sunk deeper and deeper into his addiction. Carper says he tried to keep the truth of the situation in there; he didn’t want it to be the type of the biography where all the bad things are cut out or ignored. Shocker is still in rehab in Culician and Carper feels this documentary isn’t really successful until Shocker gets a chance to see it.
Daniel Aceves has a column in Excelsior asking for a national wrestling commission. He’s got about as much chance of getting it to happen as anyone, but people have been asking for a national commission since the 1950s. Aceves makes the case the regulations already allow for one (and os it just needs to be funded.)
ESTO has a big interview with Fresero Jr.
Tu Plan de Juego has a profile of Veracruz luchador Jack Lee, grandson of Tirantes and nephew of Hijo del Tirantes.