Reyna Isis wins CMLL Grand Prix, Fantastica Mania 2025 roster, lots of injuries, Parka Negra no more

A couple of reminders

Mexico doesn’t use DST anymore, but you may still use it. Various European countries turned their clocks back this past weekend, and the US and various North American countries will switch this coming weekend. Whenever your clock switches, the start time for streams coming from Mexico will be one hour earlier.

CMLL has indicated they’ll stream all the Dia del Muertos shows for Fan Leyendas this week. Since it’s Mexican wrestling, we don’t know for sure if they’ll do it live, but keep an eye on CMLL’s YouTube for Puebla tonight if you’re intereste.

CMLL

This was a tough weekend for CMLL injuries.

• Willow Nightingale suffered a concussion on Friday
• Both Lluvia (left eye) and Pequeno Magia (unspecified) left matches on Sunday with injuries
• Sayaki Unagi finished her match, but later revealed she also suffered a broken rib on Sunday

Willow missed the rest of the weekend’s shows. Unagi and Lluvia were scheduled for a title match on Tuesday and are both out. The biggest one is the AAA injury, which I’ll get to later.

CMLL (FRI) 10/25/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Estudio Deportes, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, Reforma, Telediario, The Gladiadores, thecubsfan]
1) Dulce Gardenia b Difunto [lightning] 
8:43
2) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja DQ Magnus & Rugido 
12:22. non-title match between two champion tag teams. Straight falls; Magnus was eliminated but came back in to save Rugido in the second.
3) Averno © b Zandokan Jr. [CMLL LH] 
2nd defense. Zandokan toped into the barricade when Averno dodged. Doctor and ref tried to stop the match, Averno brought in Zandokan anyway, Averno covered, Zandokan kicked out. Averno covered a second time and got the pin, though the cameras missed it showing a replay. Averno attacked Zandokan as he was loaded onto the stretcher. F1 driver Kimi Antonelli posed with Averno and Mephsito before the match.
4) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario b Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr. 
14:27
5) Amapola, Dark Silueta, Hera, Kira, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis, Sanely, Skadi, Zeuxis b Alex Windsor, La Catalina, Persephone, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Tessa Blanchard, Viva Van, Willow Nightingale [Grand Prix de Amazonas] 
Order of elimination: Kira (via Sumika, 20:50), Hera (Catalina, 24:31), Black (Amapola, 29:15), Sumika (Silueta, 32:50), Sanely (Windsor, 35:33), Amapola (Unagi, 38:13), Silueta (Tessa, 40:29), Van (Zeuxis, 41:53), Windsor (Lluvia, 42:49), Isis (Unagi, 44:42), Persephone (Zeuxis , 45:50), Sugeith (Catalina, 47:32), Catalina (Lluvia, 48:34), Tessa (Zeuxis, 50:15), Zeuxis (Nightingale, 51:36), Nightingale (Lluiva, 52:30), Lluvia (Red Velvet, 53:29), Red Velvet (Reyna Isis, 58:25), leaving Reyna Isis as the winner. AEW’s Aubrey Edwards debuted as referee for the match.

This Grand Prix is a hard match to rate.  The crowd was into it, especially to start and and when it got down to the final two. It was also a match with some inescapable flaws, like the mistimed guillotine spot in the final two. Reyna Isis can rise to the occasion in big matches, but I don’t think she really did it here. There was still plenty to like in an hour match, but that length was an issue. Those who did stick around were into it, but it was visibly apparent some decided an hour match was not for them and left early. I think there has to be a real consideration of cutting the fields back to 8 a side or cutting down the pre-elimination portions of the match after this year’s effort to get close to a 40-minute match. This Grand Prix will be interesting to fans of these women but I think they had potential for a better match and didn’t execute to the best of their abilities.

The Zandokan concussion spot appears to have been a bit. Avenro’s done this same bit before, most memorably with Titan early in his career. That time build to a moment where Titan survived another missed dive and came back to beat Averno later for the title, and that may be the long term plan with Zandokan.

Match 4 was the best match of the show, in exactly the ways you’d think it’d be great. Match 2 had good work, but a weird layout. Difunto did very well in the opener, but I’m still not sure he’s a rudo.

CMLL’s hype about the crowd on Friday seemed overinflated.  They teased they were close to a sell-out to move some tickets, but it didn’t seem truly close to a sell-out. There were visible upper level sections completely empty, never having been opened. It still seemed like a pretty good turnout, just not what they were pretending it’d be.

It was a busy weekend for F1/CMLL crossovers. CMLL had an F1 driver in the ring, Mistico met with the Mexican F1 driver, and the race day broadcast kicked off with a scene from Arena Coliseo. AAA was running matches at the venue – the same venue that hosted the AutoLucha shows a few years ago – but didn’t get the same attention. Other CMLL wrestlers (and Salvador Lutteroth) attended a 5/10 KM race at the military camp that AAA’s run tapings from lately.

CMLL (SAT) 10/26/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Leono & Retro b Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Crixus, El Coyote, Pólvora b El Audaz, Principe Daniel, Valiente Jr.
3) India Sioux, Samantha Black, Tabata b Hera, La Maligna, Olympia
4) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black
5) Zeuxis b Skadi [lightning]
6) Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Terrible

Sounded like it continued the run of not very good Saturday shows.

CMLL (SUN) 10/27/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas b Mije & Tengu
2) Sayaka Unagi b Dark Silueta [lightning]
3) Shockercito b Último Dragóncito, Pierrothito, Pequeño Olímpico, Fantasy, Mercurio, Angelito, Pequeño Violencia, Kaligua, Full Metal, Pequeño Magía, Pequeño Polvora, Acero, Aéreo, Galaxy, Rostro De Acero [cibernetico]
elimination order: Aereo (via Galaxy), Acero (Full Metal) Fantasy (Pequeno Olimpico), Pequeno Violencia (Kaligua), Rostro de Acero (Mercurio), Full Metal (Pierrothito), Ultimo Dragoncito (Galaxy), Pequeno Magia (injury), Pierrothito, Angelito (Ultimo Dragonicto), Ultimo Dragoncito (Mercurio), Mercurio (Shockercito), leaving Shockercito as the winner.
4) Lluvia, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis b Persephone, Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa
Persephone replaced Willow Nightingale (concussion), Lluvia suffered a left eye injury and left early, but her team still won.
5) Místico, Neón, Volador Jr. b Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.

Neon is back to normal after his dive mishap.

Sanely’s been added to the Arena Puebla show to replace Unagi, though it’s Catalina who takes her place on the team so CMLL can do a Mexico/World trios match.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena México
1) Eléctrico, Robin, Valiente Jr. vs Cholo, Grako, Sangre Imperial
2) Hera & Olympia vs Samantha Black & Sumiaka Yanagawa
3) Sayaki Unagi © vs Lluvia [CMLL JAPAN WOMEN]
3) Zeuxis © vs Reina Isis [CMLL WOMEN]
4) Zandokan Jr. vs Magnus, Villano III Jr., Difunto, Crixus, Espanto Jr., El Coyote, Vegas [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
5) Atlantis Jr., Neón, Templario vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

CMLL officially announced Lluvia and Unagi off the shows on Monday morning, about 18 hours after it happened. It doesn’t take long to get a medical update out to the public, if that’s what you’re interested in doing. CMLL also could’ve replaced that match with any sort of women’s match, and decided to run the current world champion against the person who just won the Grand Prix; definitely a match of equal value or greater.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Adira, Hatanna, Zorah vs Candela, Emperatriz, Magia Azul
2) Nexy & Valkiria vs Lady Shadow & Miss Guerrera
3) Dulce Gardenia, Fantástico, Pelon Encapuchado vs Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono
4) Futuro, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr. vs Lince Del Bajio, Prince Drago, Rayo Metálico
5) Furia Roja vs Gallero, Arlequín, Barboza, Maléfico, Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Bestia Negra [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
6) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

I guess Barboza is winning that cibernetico but I really don’t know. Futuro and Rayo Metalico being on opposite sides of match 4 may be setting up something.

I haven’t watched much CMLL this weekend (only the three hour show), but you can watch more CMLL

AMX 10/13 CMLL

• Arkalis & Stigma vs Disturbio & Pólvora
• India Sioux, Náutica, Skadi vs Amapola, La Maligna, Olympia
• Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Puebla 10/21 CMLL

• India Sioux vs Samantha Black
• Maligna, Metálica, Olympia, Tabata, Zeuxis vs Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Viva Van
• Místico, Stigma, Xelhua vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Capitan Suicida and Tiger Mask are 0-3 so far in the Supr Junior Tag League so far. They’ve got two more chances to pick up a win.

Fantastica Mania

NJPW announced the roster and schedule for Fantastica Mania 2025

Wrestlers appearing:

• Mistico
• Volador Jr.
• Atlantis Jr.
• Titan
• Mascara Dorada
• Templario
• Stigma
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Hechicero
• Soberano Jr.
• Averno
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Okumura
• Magnus
• Zandokan Jr.
• Neon
• Max Star
• Xelhua
• Rugido
• Raider

Shows

• 02/19 Osaka
• 02/20 Kagawa
• 02/21 Osaka
• 02/22 Nagoya
• 02/23 off
• 02/24 Kyoto
• 02/25 off
• 02/26 Chiba
• 02/27 Korakuen Hall
• 02/28 Korakuen Hall

Eight shows in ten days are going to keep these guys busy. Twenty people are booked, so they’ve got to run a lot to make it work.

The five debuts are all on the younger side of the roster; no Pegasso or Felino Jr. is getting a gold watch tour this time. Xelhua’s started getting some attention out of the CMLL bubble, but Raider’s inclusion strikes me as someone watching the full CMLL shows closely to figure it’s good. Fantastica Mania historically hasn’t done much with the debuting wrestlers; they’re often there just to fill out tag matches. I would caution you not to expect Xelhua to be wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. on these shows. Still, there’s no obvious family tournament this year so maybe they’ll run something else that includes them. (I could guess at a trios tournament: Dorada/Neon/Max, Depradores, Titan/Zandokan/Yota, and then pick three rudos.)

The top half of the card is a lot of familiar faces, which means probably a lot of familiar matches. These shows were originally exciting for CMLL fans because they provided a lot of matches that CMLL itself wasn’t booking. CMLL’s gotten better about that, which means more repeats here. It also doesn’t matter as much to the live fans, who won’t care if NJPW runs Mistico/Averno again in Koruraken after it happened in Mexico already – it’s their chance to see it live.

No luchadoras were announced for this tour, as normal. La Jarochita and Lluvia did end up working a match last year because the separate schedule they were working (for whomever books the CMLL women in Japan) happened to overlap FantasticaMania. If any CMLL women end up going to Japan again during FantasticaMania, they’ll probably be added to a show later on.

Averno versus Mistico is a lock for the final day. That was the final CMLL match on the first version of this tour and the final match Mistico had before surprising CMLL by leaving for WWE. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself. Averno/Mistico doesn’t feel like the tour ending match in 2024. Maybe it’s Volador/Dorada?

CMLL will likely run another Torneo de Escuelas back in Mexico during this tour to fill some of the empty space.

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo left Sunday’s TNA match with an apparent leg injury. The severity has not been reported at the moment. Laredo Kid posted an Instagram reel of the injury and Vikingo being taken to the hospital; his comments suggest Vikingo will be out for a bit. Vikingo did a twisting moonsault to the floor; one of his legs got caught underneath him at a bad angle, and he could not go on. Vikingo himself seemed to be at peace in his Instagram stories.

Hijo del Vikingo is scheduled to headline AAA’s Guerra de Titanes in a title challenge against Alberto. AAA fills that Juarez building every year, usually with weaker main events, so it would be little harm for them to announce Vikingo off this show (if he can’t go.) AAA’s practice is they’ll say zero words about this situation until the show starts and then reveal the main event won’t happen. Maybe they’ll even do it in a way to get heat on the evil ownership. AAA is using Octagon Jr. as the Vikingo understudy so he’d be the logical replacement, but he’s already facing Mesias on the show. Maybe AAA would move up Pagano instead. AAA’s also teased Vampiro challenging for the title a couple of times this year and could just do it, even though the match would likely be awful.

Prior to the injury, Mike Bailey defeated Hijo del Vikingo to keep the X-Division title. My theory for picking Vikingo to win is Bailey is impending free agent who seems likely to go elsewhere and that Vikingo ought to be winning in TNA if AAA’s going to make a big deal out of him going there instead of AEW. What happened is it is TNA and that’s where luchadors go to lose, though Vikingo had a chance to have a better match than Laredo usually does.

(random fact that I don’t think people realize: since Unimas is in so many more homes than AXS TV, AAA probably has more viewers than TNA in the US every week. No one talks about AAA, though.)

I’ll catch up on AAA TV later this week, but there are two common themes to AAA. One is that they’re doing a bunch of skits where the El Ojo group is trying to recruit various people to join their team. They keep asking the good guys, it turns out the good guys don’t want to join the evil faciton, and the evil faction is surprised by this turn of events every time. Riveting stuff. The other bit is AAA trying to put out vignettes on social media to create a buss – like a clip of Konnan and Alberto trashing Latin Lover for continually asking podcast guests to join his team and mocking Fresero Jr. for being a nothing in their eyes. If you want to get social media attention, Fresero Jr. will get his fans to give it to you, but I don’t know if there’s a plan beyond that. There is about a weekly JBL clips saying racist things, seemingly to get people angry enough to respond them. The reaction I see more often is WWE fans of JBL just being happy he’s around without really knowing or caring much about what’s going on. The goal in all of this is attention, not matches, but it’s not really clear to what end attention is going to go – AAA seems to be at least five months away from the next thing they can sell to people who get mad at them on internet.

The funny bit is aggregators have jumped up on the latest promo where JBL talked taking AAA global as part of his heel promo. Back here in the real world, AAA stopped promoting the Spain tour the day after the story came out that the shows would likely be canceled. AAA hasn’t said the shows are canceled, they’re just doing their usual bit of avoiding bad news by pretending it never happened. Ticketmaster Spain still has the tickets on sale at this point.

UK’s Progress Wrestling announced Hijo del Vikingo versus Cara Noir for 11/24. That obviously depends on his health status, and AAA may not want them to say anything until they get around to it. I haven’t seen Cara Noir since pre-pandemic, but it strikes me as a strange match.

Parka Negra announced he would no longer be using that gimmick. His statement is intentionally unclear on any other aspects of that decision; there’s no indication of the reasons why he’s leaving the gimmick or if this means he’s leaving AAA. Parka Negra originally wrestled as Angel Mortal Jr. and came into AAA in the same talent search that brought them Hijo del Vikingo – Vikingo’s called him the best base he’s worked with. Parka Negra seems talented as a rudo and a comedy figure – he’s someone AAA could’ve moved up to Taurus’ old spot, rather than just dropping a Taurus mask on a less experienced wrestler and hoping it would’ve worked out. Instead, AAA’s gone the other way, and Parka Negra has appeared on AAA TV just once in the last year despite a depleted roster. The default here is chalking up the Parka Negra disappearance act to AAA not evaluating their talent optimally, but this Parka Negra situation has been so weird that I’m willing to allow for the chance there’s more to his story that just hasn’t gotten out.

My first guess upon hearing this story was AAA was revamping all the Parka stuff at once. They’re going to introduce a new La Parka, perhaps they want a new (fifth!) La Parka Negra to go with him, and the old guy is getting the boot. Thinking about it more, the best person on the AAA roster to be the new La Parka is actually probably the old evil La Parka. He knows the gimmick, he does some of the bits, he’s a good wrestler. It’s just hard to know what AAA’s thinking here – where they keeping him off TV because they had some problem with him, or where they keeping him off TV so people would forget about the character when they brought him back under a new gimmick? I guess we’ll know if Angel Mortal Jr. shows up in IWRG again soon.

Cibernetico announced on Facebook that he’s retiring from lucha libre immediately. Cibernetico posts a lot of stuff on social media to amuse himself, and there’s been an increase in luchadors posting things on their social media to trick (?) news sites into posting false stories. This may be a joke about Bengalee’s “retirement,” but I don’t think that post should be taken seriously.

During the Monterrey taping, Dorian Roldan sarcastically referred to KAOZ promoter Alonso Botello as “Mr. McMahon de Monterrey.” Because Mexico and AAA is behind the times, this was supposed to be a joke about how Botello’s this big shot successfully wrestling promoter in Monterrey when he actually promotes two or three shows a year (and must not be that successful if he’s doing it that rarely.) In the reality of the United States in 2024, Roldan referring to Botello as a Mr. McMahon de Monterrey implies he’s a promoter who uses his position of power to take advantage of his underlings, especially women. And that’s where we’ll leave this paragraph.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 10/27/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental b Fauno
Aguila Roja seemed to form a team with Aguila Oriental post match.
2) Demonia, Príncipe Centauro, Rey Halcón b Multifacetico Jr., Shamila, Tornado
3) Luka vs Abigor
4) Diva Salvaje, Mamba, Spider Fly b Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Máscara Sagrada b Águila Roja, Hijo del Fishman, Vengador
6) Vangellys © b Jessy Ventura [IWRG Rey del Ring]
Vengador helped Vangellys

IWRG is running a telenovela-ish story with Tornado and Multifacetico trying to win Shamila’s heart. This week’s chapter featured poisoned ice cream.

AEW 

I drove three plus hours to Cedar Rapids on Saturday to watch AEW Collision. Seemed like the thing to do. There’s stuff I’d normally have in this post that I won’t get to until later this week because I spent a lot of time driving through the farmlands of Iowa, so I might as well make up for it by posting some thoughts on that show. It’s a better idea than putting it on Twitter.

• a common refrain of the pontificating class is “AEW needs to run smaller buildings (until they get hotter)”, so that their crowd don’t feel swallowed up by the big buildings. This Cedar Rapids building was in fact a smaller building, and those takes were partially proven right. This was one of the least attended AEW shows (outside of COVID times) but it didn’t feel as empty or depressing as the better-attended show in Dynamite in Champaign I also went to.  The sound bounced around better in the smaller building, and this was a group of fans who were excited to be at the show. The fans were into Johnny TV ROH squash matches before the show even started, that’s what we’re dealing with. Many people left before the ROH tapings concluded, but those who were left had enough enthusiasm to chant for Komander and chant for Abadon/Athena to fight forever. (They did not fight forever, thankfully.)
  • A regular bit at these AEW shows is Tony Khan polling the crowd about how many are returning fans and how many are new fans. The new fans have been a smaller and smaller percentage on the shows I’ve gone to in Illinois and Wisconsin, but it was close to 50/50 in this show. AEW has run Iowa before, but it did seem like there were a lot of people who hadn’t gotten out to one previously.
• The turnout still wasn’t good. The promotion is cold, this wasn’t a strong lineup, and it was happening around the same time as the biggest sporting team in the state, the University of Iowa, was playing a home football game about 30 minutes away. Perhaps AEW should consult college football schedules when planning their fall tour. (If only to help booking hotels.)
  • They should also plan the event posters better. The Cedar Rapids show had 9 people pictured: Willow, Darby, Jericho, Mark Briscoe, Hologram, Orange Cassidy, Daniel Garcia, Thunder Rosa and Kris Statlander. None of those people appeared before the crowd. Thunder Rosa appeared in a pre-tape, which may have been taped that day or may have been taped two weeks ago for all I could tell. I think most people have long figured out the images on those posters are just random people thrown on by a social media person (plus anyone who has ties to the area) and don’t reflect at all who’s going to be on the show, but 0 of 9 in the ring is pretty terrible and shouldn’t be considered acceptable. Either take the photos off the posters or make sure those people are on those shows.
• AEW’s recently found religion about promoting matches for upcoming shows and running video packages to build those matches. Those are good things. This Collision seemed to be a leftover from the before times, with no much built beyond the main event. We spent a fair bit of this episode watching videos for matches that were happening some other time. There were a lot of little things that made it clear we were attending the secondary show. This was a show that really could’ve used a special off camera appearance by top level AEW stars after the live show ended. As much as I enjoyed Athena/Abadon and Komander/Ari Davari, that wasn’t really it.
• Dralistico can do a cool crucifix bomb. I can also show you about four dozen other Mexican wrestlers who can do that spot. He is not great at the other parts of US TV wrestling (like remembering which side of the corner to stand in so your back isn’t facing the hard cam), but he’s Rush’s brother so he’ll be around for a while longer.
• I didn’t like the idea of The Beast Mortos joining LFI because it inherently makes him the second or third most important guy in a group and I think he’s got more potential than that. Sure enough, he was just used as a heater on this show. The other, less safe for Twitter, reason I didn’t like the idea of The Beast Mortos is AEW is unlikely to push LFI besides the middle “beats up on the scrubs, loses to the people who are actually on PPV” level. I am generally leery of groups on US wrestling TV that are all latino or latino-centric, because the history of major US wrestling promotions has to keep them in that exact middle spot no matter the potential. You can see in WWE, where the LWO and Legado factions had a moment and now are stuck being in the middle or lower middle. Those who’ve had the most success in WWE are Dominic Mysterio and Damian Priest, who still have their Latino heritage in the work they do but got in a group where that’s not the sole identity. (And also are tall and/or get a big reaction.) We can come up with our theories as to why this happens, but it’s inescapable that it does happen. The program with FTR & the Outrunners against LFI looks to be ongoing, but it’s hard to believe the LFI is coming out the winners; they’ll be where they are. It may be a waste of Rush, but Rush seems to believe he’ll make it work, and it’s hard to convince Rush of anything else. It’s definitely a waste of Mortos to be on a team that may not make many PPVs.
  • But also, it may be a non-issue since AEW is hammering that Mortos may is not fully committed to LFI – it’s taking them a while to get to wherever they’re going, but they seem to have a destination in mind.
  • What is the high water mark for Mortos in AEW? I feel like he can get close to the Lucha Brothers level – off-month singles title challenger, occasional tag/trios champion, and designated “good match opponent” two weeks before a PPV maybe.
  • The whole Rush beats up Preston Vance to show he’s left LFI makes no sense now, it’s a fairly obvious clue plans were changed along the way. But, more importantly, seeing Preston Vance work ROH matches made me wanted desperately to see him confront Rush during Collision to ask “what the hell, dude?” If they’re running an LFI vs Outrunners/FTR 4v4 match they seemed to be building, LFI needs a fourth guy, and so maybe he’ll be patched back in eventually.
• The Grand Prix win over Red Velvet and the ROH appearances suggest Reyna Isis might be getting a TV title shot soon. I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. Diamante, after a squash win on Saturday, made belt motions and I don’t see her facing Athena.
• There were two other ROH matches building title programs. I thought at least one of them made sense for Final Battle and then I realized – it’s late October and nothing has been said about Final Battle. It’s been a mid December show of late, to space it out from the AEW PPVs, so that’s six weeks away. There’d normally be an announcement of a date and a location by now. It’s kind of strange that there’s nothing, but the interest in the day-to-day of Ring of Honor in 2024 is sadly so small that this doesn’t appear to be a story. Most people who watch Final Battle aren’t going to think about it existing until the week prior to the show anyway, because it’s so off the radar even to AEW fans. I think there is a Final Battle, and I think I could work out about half the matches on the card based on what I saw in Cedar Rapids – it had the feel of one of those tapings where it clicked that a PPV was coming soon and they had to start building to it – but I also think interest is so low that it wouldn’t hurt almost anyone’s feelings if I just spoiled the results on Twitter.
  • I have an affinity towards Ring of Honor and the people who work on it, but the status quo isn’t great. This year’s Final Battle ought to be the end of this iteration of Ring of Honor; either there’s a TV deal and a show formatted with more purpose, or the idea goes on the shelf until they’re in position to do this better than post-Collision matches with half the crowd gone. But, I could’ve said the same thing last time Jericho was ROH champion, nothing much changed then. People seem to expect some news is happening because Jericho is champion again, but it could just be Jericho needed something to do and they’ll have the ROH year end with him losing the title again, nothing more than that.
  • I mean, I’ll still sure buy Final Battle and the show will be good but it feels like Ring of Honor is something that should meaningful exist more than three PPVs a year and it simply does not mean much between them.
• If you do watch ROH, you’ll probably like Abadon/Athena this weekend. Also, if you do watch, you should put a list of like five good ROH matches to watch since the last PPV whenever one happens, because that’s time some people are going to pay up to watch. Others will be grateful. Abadon/Athena might make that list.
• I’m glad I went. I wish I left a little earlier so I could’ve seen more of Cedar Rapids. I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday driving through the corn fields and backroads of Iowa. I was struck by the thought that presidential candidates travel around these same backroads every four years to build support among a lot of small communities because that’s how our political system works and how utterly bizarre that is in practice.

In other (sorta) AEW news, the first show Arena del Valle – Penta’s news building – took place Sunday. LA Park won the trios main event, then challenged Penta to a super libre match. Penta’s worked a little bit in the last few months, though it seemed like finishing agreed-on bookings rather than taking on new work. Penta used to work a lot, but any match he has now feels like news. Anyway, Penta was there at the start of the show but didn’t come out to face LA Park at the end, and it was probably LA Park shooting an angle to try to get another booking, not something that was planned.

Arena del Valle said this show sold out. Whoever’s actually in charge of the shows (I suspect it’s not actually Penta) is ahead of most Mexican wrestling promoters; they had the next lineup out as soon as this show ended. Not sure I would call Komander versus Blue Wind an All Star match though.

Other News

Bengalee posted (and then either deleted or hid) a post with her unmasked face and real name. The post claims she’s retiring because she was intimate with Willy Banderas despite being married to someone else. It’s meant to be sort of an apology, but it certainly can be read as though someone else has control of her social media and is using it to defame her. It’s very messy either way. You can find the picture; given that context, I’m not going to link to it.

Segunda Caida watches some Gigante Silva in CMLL.