CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 10/18/2024 Arena México
1) Futuro, Max Star, Pelon Encapuchado vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
2) Amapola, Metálica, Olympia, Sanely vs Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Viva Van
3) Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard vs Sayaka Unagi & Sumika Yanagawa © [CMLL WOMEN TAG]
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Neón vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Toni Storm vs La Catalina
6) Zeuxis vs Persephone [CMLL Universal de Amazonas, final]
CMLL changed the card order on Thursday, with Persephone/Zeuxis now as the final. I don’t know if that’ll be a great match – Zeuxis didn’t quite deliver on Aniversario and Persephone is in a spot she hasn’t been in before – but they’ll have the advantage of working on their match all week.
Zeuxis is the favorite to win the tournament final. Catalina defeating Zeuxis was a big surprise last year, and Persephone isn’t featured even as much as Catalina was at that point. I can’t rule out Persephone, CMLL’s really into giving wins to new people, but it would be a shock. I don’t get the sense that Toni Storm is as big a deal to Mexican fans as past ex-WWE AEW people, and I’m not really sure what the outcome will be.
Match 4 is just a good match for the sake of a good match. Matches 2 and 3 will give some insight into how smoothly that Grand Prix is going to go. (A title change seems unlikely.) Ola Negra get another Friday night appearance in the opener, again a group of wrestlers likely to want to do a lot.
Toni Storm did the usual AEW guest star press conference on Thursday. I didn’t watch this one; I heard it had some streaming issues.
CMLL (MON) 10/21/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Blue Shark & Rey Samuray vs El Malayo & Siky Ozama
2) Pegasso, Rayo Metálico, Volcano vs Kráneo, Multy, Okumura
3) India Sioux vs Samantha Black [lightning]
4) Maligna, Metálica, Olympia, Tabata, Zeuxis vs Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Viva Van [cibernetico]
5) Místico, Stigma, Xelhua vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.
Xelhua gets his first main event. It may be a product of trying to squeeze him onto the show when there are few men booked – he’s definitely ahead of the three tecnicos in match 2 – but they could’ve also just booked someone else and they trust Xelhua in the spot. The Mexican side in the women’s cibernetico are women not in the Gran Prix and Zeuxis.
No Tuesday Guadalajara lineup yet. They have announced it’ll be just women’s matches, no men wrestling.
I’m now semi-obsessed with checking the graphic for all wrestlers on CMLL shows, checking to see if CMLL (or whoever runs the graphic department) has decided they’re actually CMLL wrestlers or not. I don’t know exactly what it means – is it an administrative thing? A union thing? – but it sure means something to someone. Candela, Hijo del Pantera, and El Elemental have all appeared in Mexico City with the generic “Luchador(a) Profesional” tag, so they’re not considered on the roster. While scanning through the Guadalajara show, I noticed Adira is listed as “Amazona del CMLL”, so she is part of the CMLL roster. Everyone else in her match was “luchadora professional.” Satanico is “luchador professional”, while the other people in his match were Luchador del CMLL. Lady Shadow is listed as Amazona del CMLL, and that one seems so surprising that I’d want to see it a second time, to be sure. (Especially because they also list Olympia as Lady Shadow.)
CMLL Informa announced some of the Dia del Muertos plans. The emphasis is every show that week will have both that theme and also a special match. The Monday and Tuesday shows have the qualifiers for the Rey del Inframundo, the Friday show has the final, Saturday will focus on historic rivalries, and Sunday will be all unmasked wrestlers wearing their masks for one last show.
The qualifiers for the Rey del Inframundo are city-centric. Puebla, Guadalajara, and Mexico City will determine a winner each, and they’ll join last year’s winner, Barbaro Cavernario, in a final on Friday.
- 10/28 Puebla qualifier: Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Xelhua, Multy, Perverso
- 10/29 Guadalajara qualifier: Barboza, Malefico, Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Bestia Negra, Furia Negra, Arlequin, Gallero
- 10/29 Arena Mexico qualifier: Vegas, Crixus, Difunto, Espanto Jr., Villano III Jr., Magnus, Coyote, Zandokan Jr.
The Rey del Inframundo stuff started with the semi-main wrestlers, and now seems to be moving down a level. Whoever comes out of the Guadalajara branch is getting their biggest Friday night appearance of the year, and it may be the same with the Puebla branch.
All shows that week will stream on Fan Leyenda. If you’re willing to give CMLL money for streaming content right now, it probably should be Fan Leyenda or don’t bother. CMLL appears to moving the next two Friday shows to Fan Leyenda, and likely the 10/29 shows. Fan Leyenda will also get two bonus shows (10/28 Arena Puebla and 11/03 Arena Mexico.) The Guadalajara show is likely also to be behind the Fan Leyenda wall – and not posted for free – the next two weeks.
CMLL also announced that the annual minis cibernetico in honor of “people of lesser height” day on 10/27 will include, uh, every healthy mini. There are normally 16 of them, Minos is out, CMLL said it’d be a 16-person match anyway. I presume Rostro de Acero wrestles again to round out the match, but CMLL listed everyone besides him. The micros will also be in action on that show. This cibernetico is a Sunday show and is not normally streamed.
Mistico was on to talk about his trip to Japan. He was announced as in the Leyenda de Azul – it’s something he hasn’t won, but that’s also because it’s been meant for the bigger weight classes in recent years. Julio Cesar Rivera did mention the hair/mask challenge with Hiromu, and Mistico quickly blew it off while focusing on other things. The idea that Hiromu and Mistico are having a hair versus mask match in 11 months is not a real thing at this point.
Sanely is this week’s guest on CMLL Informa.
AAA
I caught up with Heroes Inmortales. I guess that’s a good thing? It’s a good thing in that I can sit around and do anything else Friday before CMLL starts and I’ll probably enjoy that more than I will enjoy AAA Heroes Inmortales.
The overarching story to this episode is that the Eye team and Latin Lover are both trying to recruit people to their sides. It’s totally unclear what they hope to accomplish in doing this, just like it’s totally unclear what the Eye team is trying to accomplish. (JBL almost gets to it but he gets cut off.) Konnan and Alberto try and fail to recruit El Fiscal. Latin Lover tries and fails to recruit Flammer. Vampiro, a whole bunch of prelim wrestlers, and Negro Casas & Mecha Wolf (since they were in the next match) end up standing with Latin Lover at some point. The Eye Team just sort of wanders away. JBL was there and part of the segment to say some racist stuff for heat, most of which Jose Manuel Guillen was taking out or softening when he was translating it to Spanish. It’s still not clear what JBL is contributing in the racism department that Konnan can’t provide himself, though they did tease a Latin Lover/JBL match this time. It’s probably not happening.
A weird bit in that segment was Pagano’s music playing, then Konnan revealing he had set it up as a prank, Pagano wasn’t there to back Latin Lover up. Psycho Clown’s music played, and Konnan revealed it was the same bit done twice. The big reveal was Vampiro’s music playing and him being there, but he was the center of the show advertisement, of course he was going to do. It did draw attention to Psycho and Pagnao not being at this taping (they worked a lightly attended Arena Neza show) and not being on a lot of AAA tapings this year. The lack of star power on the AAA roster was showcased in the Copa Antonio Pena, stocked with people who are seldom on TV: Mini Vikingo, Black Andromeda, Money Machine, and Brazo de Oro Jr., among them. When Pierroth Jr. (just introduced on the last taping) and Panic Clown (the least important member of the Psycho Circus) are the bigger names, it looks like a promotion in trouble. Chik Tormenta won because AAA had an angle in mind, but there also were many other choices – maybe it would’ve been a present for Dalys otherwise. I think there’s potential in these prelim wrestlers, and I can work out how they ended up with a battle royal with just prelim people – some people in Japan, some people not brought from Japan, and the Retro guys seemingly dropped after TripleMania – but it looked like a sad state of affairs to a regular viewer.
The casual crowd who goes to those big Guadalajara shows seemed to have little awareness of the Chik Tormenta/Latin Lover social media controversy. They tried to play it up big on TV with multiple Chik Tormenta promos. It’s also a classic modern AAA angle where there’s no discernible payoff to any of it.
Laredo Kid tried as hard as you’d expect out of him in the main event, with an Alberto who is still looking for every shortcut he can to get through these matches. This time, it included Mesias coming out and seemingly interfering in half the match. It’s tough to get a good match out of either immobile Mesias or generally washed Alberto in 2024, and it’s a credit to Laredo that he was having a good one with both of them at the same time for a while there. The in-ring bit with the Eye guys and the rest got great heat for the racism and profanity, but it didn’t translate to the match. AAA’s hard camera shot right at the stage, and that stage was looking barren during that main event (even as the rest of the arena was fine.) The Vampiro match was either the last thing they needed to see, the show was too long, or they didn’t care much about who the mega-champion was. This match also played off a weird pattern for the night: apparently, fouls are legal, though everyone’s meant to be still using them to get heat. The mixed tag match (nothing special) ended with Crazy Steve fouling Abismo Negro before Havok chokslammed Steve on top of Abismo for the title switch. The trios match ended with Takuma fouling Epydemius and then doing a top rope poison rana for the win. Laredo fouled Alberto – in front of the referee, just like the other two – but he was unable to get the win. They may have meant to do more post-match, but the earlier in-ring promo went very long. So did the Copa Antonio Pena; AAA has never figured out how to time those out.
The Tokyo Bad Boys vs Dinamico, Hamburguesa, Epydemius trios match was a good match, uninterrupted every 20 seconds for a lumberjack strap bit. The lumberjacks walked to the back in the last two minutes for no reason other than pro wrestling being fake and AAA being the fakest pro wrestling possible, the lumberjacks left so the guys could do spots to the outside again. Vampiro was the usual Vampiro match and the usual retirement speech. The Riddle/Fiscal match seemed to be worked at a slow speed to accommodate Fiscal’s level, but he still gassed and blew spots near the end. It didn’t seem like these fans had any particular who Riddle was – or Havok or Steve were either. They all won their title matches, then disappeared in to the background as Fiscal and Abismo fought. AAA is all in on that feud.
AAA on TV this weekend
- Space: Monterrey part 1
- Unimas: Monterrey part 2
- Charro Negro, Drago, Dianamico, Redimido, Toscano in a five way
- Los Vipers versus Psycho Circus
- Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Octagon Jr. versus Belcegor, Emperador Azteca, and Taurus
- YouTube: Guerra de Titanes part 2
I was critical of AAA and Unimas’ work at promoting their weekly show earlier this week. AAA people – Alberto, Octagon, Dorian, Roberto – are in Miami today to appear on Unimas and Univison shows to promote their shows. That’s great. The issue is not fixed by one day of publicity. It’s fixed by promoting the show every week, and there’s no immediate sign that’s changed. AAA could’ve been pushing “Hijo del Vikingo returns to US TV this Saturday on Unimas” all week in a myriad of ways, and the most they’ll end up doing is a still photo.
TNA officially announced Hijo del Vikingo versus Mike Bailey for the TNA X Division championship on their 10/25 Bound for Glory show. There’s a very good chance Vikingo will win that title; he doesn’t lose often when AAA sends him places.
IWRG
IWRG , LLB (THU) 10/17/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, thecubsfan]
1) Ángel Kid & Titanium b Fobia & Haku 
2) Argus, Máscara De Hierro, Súper Boy b Águila Dorada, Argus Fly, Gaius
3) Lunatik Fly b Águila Roja, Skayler, Príncipe Centauro, Diablo Fly, El Cometa, Sol, Águila Oriental
4) Black Terry, Carta Brava Jr., Fandango b Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano García
5) Hell Boy DDQ Tonalli, Aquiles, Puma de Oro, Lunatik Extreme, Toto
Hell Boy unmasked Tonalli, Tonalli fouled Hell Boy
6) Dr. Wagner Jr., Hijo De Silver King, Simon Blanco b Hijo de LA Park, LA Park, LA Park Jr.
Looks like it drew well, as typical. IWRG managed to give results of about four of these matches, though didn’t explain the changes in at least of them.
IWRG (SUN) 10/20/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Felino Boy vs Legado
2) Águila Oriental & Vudu Max vs Drakula Ng & Príncipe Centauro
3) Multifacético & Shamila vs Demonio & Puma de Oro
4) Noisy Boy & Tornado vs Águila Roja & Látigo
5) Aquiles, Luka, Veneno vs Abigor, Cerebro Negro, Vengador [super libre]
6) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo De Silver King, Máscara Sagrada vs Ayden Cristiano, Toxin, Vangellys
Ayden Cristiano is Houston-based.
Other News
Open the Voice Gate had me on to talk about Gran Hamada’s career in Mexico and case for the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. I think that his importance to the UWA, especially the early years, as well as his long run of quality wrestling, merits his inclusion. Even if you’re not interested, you should click the link for a great run of Hamada matches. The 12/16/96 5v5 was my favorite; some of the earlier matches are technically proficient, and that match was where the feud felt like it had shifted into a more heated personal fight. The tight room, the weird green walls and the loud crowd made that one specifically feel more like a very long lunch room brawl.
Rob appeared on the Flagship Patreon’s discussion of WON HOF candidates from Mexico. It’s behind a paywall but, if you pay up, you’ll be able to hear the same very detailed pro-Volador Jr. takes I’ve had to hear for the last 12 months.
(I think I’m going Gran Hamada, Sangre Chicana, Huracan Ramirez and Mascarita Sagrada but I haven’t sent it in yet and I can be moved more than in past years.)
Karis La Momia confirmed he’ll continue wrestling, just under a new name. Record had reported the opposite. There are about two days left for QueMoniito to reach a settlement with if Record is going to be correct on that story.