CMLL debuts new KeMonito (claims it’s the old one), Guerra de Titanes, CMLL/MLW

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/08/2024 Arena México [CMLL, El Heraldo, El Imparcial, El Universal, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Fuego en el Ring, Kaiser Sports, La Verdad Noticias, QuieroTV, thecubsfan]
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito    
6:57. (Clean finish!) Challenges followed. Scorpio Jr. was honored after the match.
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider    
13:49.
3) Esfinge © b Rugido [MEX LH]    
12:16. 7th defense. CMLL honored paralympic athletes after the match.
4) Flip Gordon & Villano III Jr. b Neón, Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Difunto [NWA MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]    
23:24. Order of elimination: Guerrero Maya (via Dragon Rojo), Dragon Rojo (Flip Gordon), Difunto (by Neon after Difunto got his leg caught in the ropes on a ramp running spot) and Neon (via Villano III), leaving Flip Gordon and Villano III Jr. to advance to next week. UFC fighter Jiri Procházka walked Flip Gordon to the ring.
5) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico b Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Soberano Jr.   
16:21. Tecnicos nearly won in straight falls, but KeMalito dropkicked Mistico after he locked Hechicero in La Mistica. A moment later, KeMonito (clearly a new one) ran out to attack KeMalito and helped the tecnicos even the sides. (Whistle never actually blew to start the third fall, because the ring announcers was busy doing a big introduction for KeMonito.) Tecnicos won the third fall. KeMonito challenged KeMalito to a singles match next week, which KeMalito accepted. The announcers and Mistico talked about this being KeMonito’s return home.

The KeMonito bit was a big, big story. It must seem crazy to people who don’t follow Mexican wrestling that a mascot showing up would be important, but it’s by far the biggest lucha libre story of the weekend – all of those media articles are about KeMonito showing up and barely mention the rest of the show. It’s almost a Mexican cultural story; KeMonito is a weird iconic Mexican character totally associated with CMLL and lucha libre. It’s that tight and important connection this whole mess of lawsuits and fake original KeMonitos is happening.

A history of QueMoniito:

• Tinieblas introduced a Star Wars Ewok-looking creature as his mascot, Alushe, around 1988. The two characters are together for about 14 years. Alushe accompanies Tinieblas to matches in Mexico City. Elsewhere, he occasionally gets physically involved in the matches, but that stuff never makes TV.
• Tinieblas and Alushe part ways in 2002.
• The now ex-Alushe goes to the CMLL office to see if they have any work for him. They offer him some work in a small blue monkey outfit.
  • QueMoniito later claimed CMLL sketched the outfit, he created it, and Alfonso Morales came up with the name. CMLL holds a trademark on the outfit.
• KeMonito accompanies wrestlers to the ring and stands on the apron watching, but doesn’t do much the first two weeks. No one, the wrestlers included, have any idea what to make of him.
• Someone in CMLL decided it’s OK for the rudos to start bullying/attacking KeMonito during matches. It’s the same basic stuff he had been doing away from Mexico City, but it hadn’t aired on TV and these fans hadn’t seen it, so the fans are surprised and amused by the gimmick.
• Shocker adopts KeMonito as his mascot, and a lot of memorable KeMonito angles happen over the next few years – the Ultimo Guerrero dropkick that sent KeMonito flipping out of the ring, the evil monkey who attacked KeMonito the following week, and the Vampiro martinete on KeMonito. These end up as viral clips in the 00s wrestling internet and beyond.
• KeMonito continues to become a mascot through the 00s and 10s, though he’s clearly slowing down and taking far lesser violence as time goes on. Shocker leaves and KeMonito ends up with Maximo for a while, then Mistico, then just becomes a friend to all the top tecnico as company mascot.
• During the 2020 COVID lockdowns, KeMonito went viral in Mexico again – being inserted into famous photos or pictured doing heroic things. He appreciates the support (and all the fake birthdays that seem to get invented.) There’s little to no wrestling income for KeMonito at this point – he’s still sidelined when CMLL starts running empty arena shows – but the viral publicity leads him to start selling merchandise and souvenirs on his own (outside of CMLL’s sphere), and that’s where he starts making his real money.
• Advertisers also decide they want to jump on the KeMonito viral trend; he’s used some in ad campaigns, including one for the Karate Kid TV show and another for Bimbo bread. The Bimbo people send the payment for KeMonito to the CMLL office, which keeps some or all of that money. This turns into a dispute between KeMonito and CMLL about who owns the character and what the split should be for use of the character  – both in these commercials and the merchandise KeMonito has been selling.
• KeMonito has also publicly discussed retiring for years as his health worsens. In a radio interview in January 2023, he said he plans to retire that year and wants it to be part of that year’s Aniversario show. CMLL initially publicly supported the decision but then went very quiet on it and give the impression he’s going to keep wrestling.
• KeMonito stops appearing on CMLL shows by July 2023. He works outside shows, and neither side acknowledges there’s an issue for months. KeMonito starts using “QueMoniito” as his name in social media, and the CMLL logo starts to vanish from the merchandise he’s selling.
• There’s no KeMonoito retirement ceremony on the Aniversario show. Instead, at a post-show part, a new character debuts – the mascot that would eventually be known as KeMalito.
• QueMoniito deduces this must mean a new KeMonito is coming – and goes to the press with his complaints. He says he’d wanted to retire for years, but Salvador Lutteroth and Gala Lutteroth both convinced him to keep on going. He mentions his pay being cut off during the pandemic, and claimed he was being brought back at a reduced price and with harder restrictions about outside work. KeMonito also said CMLL was upset with him for publicly talking about retirement; they had no problem with the idea, but they wanted him to do it only quietly so they could put someone new in the suit without the fans realizing it. QueMoniito says CMLL first demanded he sign a new contract, which he refused unless he was paid what he felt he was owed from those advertising deals. They refused, and so he decided to sue CMLL over the money and the character.
• CMLL responds with a press release, claiming they still want to make a fair contract with QueMoniito and that they’ve shown him proof that they own the gimmick.
• CMLL sidelines KeMalito for a few weeks, waiting for the QueMonito story to cool off, before having him interfere in a match to help the rudos as an introduction. They do bits in matches, on CMLL Informa, and in stand alone Christmas skits to get over KeMalito as a troublemaker and with the idea there needs to be a counterbalance.
• Los Micro Gemelos Diablos are tabbed to be the new KeMonito – the idea is they’ll take turns – but never actually debut. CMLL may still be negotiating or battling with QueMoniito at this point, but the bigger issue is KeMalito is really good at his gimmick and gets over strong with CMLL fans. The gimmick designed to get the new KeMonito over has actually become the over character first.
• CMLL starts to put KeMalito in normal micro matches, and it’s not a great idea. KeMalito is good at running in, hitting someone, and running away. He is not good at taking bumps safely or remembering a sequence. This is super frustrating for the Micro Gemelos Diablos, who were the stars of the division and are now charged with putting over someone who’s not as good at them and has also seemingly cost them their big money mascot deal.
• The Micro Diablos act unprofessional in matches – “Shawn Michaels in late 90s” displays of character-breaking frustration – and are suspended at least once. There’s also no start date in sight for them becoming KeMonito. They eventually quit, show up as a surprise on TripleMania Mexico City to attack Mascarita Sagrada, and then are never seen or mentioned again.
• That seems to end the KeMonito II concept – except CMLL is undaunted, scouts the indies, and quietly recruits micro Chaneque for the role.
• A short documentary about QueMonitto, which had been shown at film festivals for the last few years, debuts on Netflix in Mexico. It was filmed before his fall out with CMLL, though the circumstances of his life and his treatment are evident in the film. This re-ignites discussion about the character and the current legal situation. (Ultimo Guerrero and KeMalito also do a spot the following Friday to play off the famous GIF.)
• Record puts out a story claiming QueMoniito will have to give up the gimmick and will retire in mid-October as a consequence of a settlement with CMLL. QueMoniito and his lawyer respond on Instagram, saying nothing has been settled and the court case is ongoing. Nothing happens in mid October, QueMoniito keeps on making appearance, and Record doesn’t address the discrepancy.
• The November 8th Arena Mexico match seems like a return to the original plan, a year removed: KeMalito’s interference has seemingly cost the tecnicos the match, only for “the returning” KeMonito to fight him off and help the tecnicos win. This KeMonito is Chaneque, but the announcers, the wrestlers and the promotions refer to him as the original KeMonito returning to the promotion. Pretending it’s the same guy is what CMLL had wanted a year ago and why they were upset with him talking about retirement.
  • Of note, this KeMonito II outfit looks slightly different than QueMonito’s —the face on the mask is slightly different, and the fur color is a different shade. It appears CMLL is using something closer to the original 2002 costume, which QueMoniito had modified over the years.
  • It’s clear to most, but not all, fans that there’s a different human being under the mask. Some, but not all the media mentions it’s a new character. It’s a much younger and mobile person doing the gimmick now.
  • CMLL flashed a legal statement on air as the angle was happening, and reposted it on social media attached to video of the angle. The statement reads: “Las marcas y la reserva de derechos del personaje KE MONITO®️ son propiedad de Promociones México, Coliseo y Revolución, S.C. y son signos creados y utilizados desde el año 2002.” Translated, CMLL says they’ve always owned Ke Monito and they’re the ones who created it back in 2002.
    • This did nothing but make people who were already unhappy with CMLL even more unhappy
• As KeMonito II was “returning” to CMLL, QueMoniito was signing autographs prior to a The Crash show thousands of miles away in Tijuana. Even if someone only saw photos of KeMonito in CMLL, it’s fairly obvious it can’t be the same person at both shows.

The normal next step is for QueMoniito to use social media to declare that he wasn’t in the ring in Arena Mexico and mention he’s still in a legal dispute. QueMoniito (or whoever runs his social media) has not said anything about all of this. His accounts have posted photos from The Crash show and the convention he worked at this weekend, but there is nothing about what happened in CMLL. Lawyers aren’t working many weekends, it took them about four days to respond to the Record story, maybe they’ll have something to say later this week. If he doesn’t eventually say something, it’s a signal something was worked out legally. What’s happened now doesn’t seem to match Record’s version of the story – QueMoniito is still out there taking bookings, giving no indication he’s hanging up the gimmick – and it’s hard to be sure what the legal situation is.

Even more of a mystery is why CMLL is so dead set on pushing the idea that this is the same KeMonito. The tourist fans and the casual are going to believe whatever CMLL tells them and will go along with CMLL if they’re billing him as the original KeMonito. Those same fans absolutely wouldn’t care if CMLL instead announced this guy was a new KeMonito, or if they just didn’t make any big deal about it either way and let them believe whatever. The other side is there are always going be fans annoyed when CMLL (or AAA or any lucha libre promotion) introduces a new version of an old popular act – Dralistico certainly felt that resentment upon taking the Mistico gimmick. That resentment will be worse if the promotion attempts to tell the hardcore fans a lie they’re not willing to believe. All those hardcore fans immediately figured out this was a new guy and that CMLL was lying to them. Those fans are going to be heard, they’re going to be a thorn in CMLL’s side and I’m not sure what the benefit is in having a percentage of CMLL fans booing this new character. There’s no apparent reason why CMLL can have many successor/second versions of wrestling characters, but the KeMonito character has to be the same person. CMLL set foot for a battle they can not win and to no apparent benefit.

The best case scenario is some spin on Wednesday where Julio Cesar Rivera explains they meant the ‘character’ of KeMonito was returning, but of course, it’s a new person under the mask; it’ll still be a lie, but maybe people will be more willing to buy that one.

KeMalito did post show interviews to build up the match next week; he says this is now the new era of KeMalito and not KeMonito. That focus is another part of it. CMLL, the serious stable promotion, is building the biggest show of the week around an Antonio Pena invention. Mascots and mascots fighting were a Pena idea considered too silly and disrespectful to lucha libre by those running and supporting CMLL. It is now a central part of CMLL’s appeal. CMLL’s never going to become completely the AAA of the late 90s, but a heavily promoted KeMonito vs KeMalito match is a sign of how much they’ve moved in that direction and found success in doing so. 

There was a show too! The main event wasn’t high intensity, which was weird at the moment but made complete sense after the angle – anything was completely lost in the excitement and interest around the KeMonito character. The cibernetico got a decent amount of time, but struggled in the last moments. Difunto’s hit rate on his ramp dropkick is not great and Villano III Jr. managed to flip onto his head and neck a moment later. Jiri Procházka appears to be hanging around Mexico on his social media, so I presume Flip or someone else happened to meet him at a gym and just invited him to the show. Esfinge/Rugido was solidly good, hitting about the ceiling of where I’d expect them, but neither are exciting wrestlers to me. Rey Cometa was as good as Espanto Jr. was bad in match 2. The minis didn’t get much time in the opener.

CMLL honoring Scorpio Jr. but not putting out a generic graphic on social media is weird, but that’s one of those things that reflect more on CMLL than Scorpio Jr. The presentation came off as if CMLL knew they got unhappy people about not honoring Villano V in this way so they were going to do it for Scorpio, but still more perfunctory than something with heart in it. They seemed to give far more time to the Paralympic athletes. I’d gladly trade all in-ring acknowledgement of a wrestler’s death for better care for aged wrestlers (and aged people in general) if that deal was on the table; that deal is not on the table.

Attendance seemed good for a show with nothing special. Next week’s turnout for the mascot match will be closely observed.

CMLL (SAT) 11/09/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro De Acero DQ Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito 
2) Astral & Eléctrico b Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II 
Calavera II was hurt on a missed dive
3) Futuro & Max Star b Stigma & Xelhua 
4) Reyna Isis & Zeuxis b La Catalina & Tessa Blanchard India Sioux 
5) Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black b Barboza, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. 
Explosivo is a new member of Fuerza Tapatia.
6) Máscara Dorada, Neón, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Niebla Roja 
Angel de Oro suffered an arm injury (or the existing one got worse again.)

I haven’t watched this one yet – plan is later today – but haven’t heard positive things and I’ll probably not have anything to say on Wednesday. Match 1 is building towards the yet-to-be-announced cage match.

CMLL (SUN) 11/10/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Leono & Retro b Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Dragón de Fuego & Legendario
3) Capitán Suicida, Hijo del Pantera, Volcano b El Elemental, Kráneo, Okumura
4) Persephone b Reyna Isis [lightning]
5) Hijo del Villano III, Magia Blanca, Valiente b Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Titán
6) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Templario b Gran Guerrero, Hechicero, Stuka Jr.

Nothing built up here.

Dragon de Fuego replaces Astro Boy tonight in Arena Puebla. Astro Boy is working a Karonte Promotions show in Mexico State.

TV from this weekend, all of which is on DailyMotion, some which show up on the channel page, and some don’t

• 10/27 Arena Mexico
  • minis cibernetico
  • Lluvia, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis vs Persephone, Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa
• 11/04 Arena Puebla
  • Flip Gordon, Rayo Metálico, Stigma vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Okumura
  • Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
  • Místico vs Ángel de Oro

CMLL (TUE) 11/12/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro De Acero
2) El Audaz & Valiente Jr. vs Alom & Infarto
3) Capitán Suicida, Futuro, Max Star vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Arkalis, Stigma, Xelhua vs El Elemental, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo del Villano III
5) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Star Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Valiente
6) Volador Jr. vs Averno

Volador/Averno on this show, and probably six days later in Puebla. Roster de Acero is suddenly on the “India Sioux in October” schedule.

Xelhua told El Sol de Puebla that he had two thoughts in choosing his name: something that expressed confidence and something that would be easy to change.

AAA

The matches that aired on the live portion of Guerra de Titanes:

AAA TV (SUN) 11/10/2024 Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua [AAA, thecubsfan]
***Guerra de Titanes, 2024***
5) Dinámico, Drago, Laredo Kid b Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
13:50
6) Octagón Jr. © b El Mesías [AAA LA]
21:20. Octagon had the match won, but Pierroth pulled out referee Sonrias and Mesias eventually clocked Octagon in the head with a chair. Octagon falls on his 8th defense. Mesias is 15th champion.
7) El Patrón Alberto © b Pagano [AAA MEGA]
21:20. Pagano replaced Vikingo on Tuesday prior (knee injury). 2nd defense. Tirantes was referee and messed with the counts. Dorian Roldan interfered and mostly was not stopped by Latin Lover. Roldan hit Pagano with a guitar to the head (twice), Alberto put on the armbar, and Tirantes counted it as a pinfall even though Pagano was in the ropes. Alberto & Roldan hurried to the back after the match.

Laredo Kid, Dinamico and Drago versus Nobu San, Takuma, and Kento was would’ve fit as 4th/5th match on Friday Arena Mexico – everyone did their big moves, it was a fun time, and there was nothing attached to it to make memorable. The difference with AAA is the rudos had to immediately foul and unmask the tecnico “to get their heat back.” This is so routine that no one actually gets lasting heat from it; people boo and stop thinking about five seconds later. This is the one match of the three that’s worth watching when it turns up on YouTube next Sunday.

Mesias moves very slowly and can’t do a lot, but he can punch and kick well, so that was a lot of the match with Octagon. There was also a terrible Canadian Destroyer exchange that didn’t get a reaction – most of the match didn’t get much of a reaction, even with the TV angles to build it up. It picked up after Octagon put Mesias through a table on the floor with the 450 splash. Pierroth appeared to pull and attack the referee on a three count, Laredo dove on him (mostly missed by the camera), and Mesias clocked Octagon in the head with a chair just in time for Tirantes Jr. to show up and count the pin. Octagon is the one regular roster member AAA’s built up this year – almost by accident as they needed a fill-in for Vikingo – and he’s supposedly getting a Mega title shot at some point, but this was one of those reminders that AAA doesn’t seem him as a rising star. He’s just another stepping-stone guy.

Alberto and Pagano was the match the fans were really interested in seeing, and most of the match was about antagonizing the fans into reacting: Alberto running from Pagano, Dorian Roldan interfering, Hijo del Tirantes slow counting and then fast counting. Pagano tried to show off with Vikingo-like springboard moves but also looked very banged up. They did one big near fall where Latin Lover took out the rudos and Pagano got Alberto with the Air Raid Crash on the ubiquitous cookie sheet. Hijo del Tirantes was out of it, then counted two slowly and waiting for Alberto to kick out instead of hitting three. (You have to suspend your disbelief at Hijo de Tirantes counting semi-normally the rest of the match.) They also did a bit where Alberto appeared to be submitting to Pagano’s hold but Tirantes didn’t see it – not that he would’ve called it if he did. The finishing sequence was not long after. No idea why Dorian Roldan used a guitar beyond it being part of an angle 30 years ago in another promotion that AAA can’t stop referencing. No idea why the finish on armbar was a pinfall. AAA’s live shows tend to meander around and go very long; this one got out right at the top of the hour so I wonder if Space put them under some time limitation they haven’t before. It’s not like there was something really important on the other side, just another one of the 50 old movies the channel airs repeatedly. The match was not good in terms of being a fun thing to watch but it was also not meant to be.

Alberto’s backstage promo signaled Ciberentico as the next challenger, which will be equally terrible. That also suggests AAA won’t be making up the Vikingo title match any time soon. It’s possible Vikingo is out for longer than expected and Ciber is a replacement. My hunch is Cibernetico/Alberto was always the plan for the next title match and making up for the the Vikingo/Alberto match is not important enough to get them to change their plan. For the style of match AAA wants to do – heavy heat and interference – Ciber’s fine and probably the guy I would rather see in the spot. AAA really can plug in any tecnico into the challenge spot, because there’s no expectations of a good match and the current challenger to Alberto is the least important person in the story. The stars are Alberto, Latin Lover and whichever heel is seconding Alberto for that match. They’re going to keep running this same play until they get to Alberto versus Latin Lover (and may still run in with him a time or two.) AEW is kind of doing a similar bit right now with Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy, where it’s clear Cassidy is just a liked challenger to get for Moxley to put down in building towards someone like Kenny Omega or Will Ospreay or Swerve Strickland being the one to finally stop Moxley’s plan. Latin Lover is better known in Mexico than most of those guys are in the US, but Latin Lover is also a fifty something mostly retired wrestler who’s probably not going to wrestle all that much after this comes to an end. I’d feel a lot better about this AAA stuff if the end result was Alberto losing to someone who regularly wrestles in AAA and that they were going to build around going forward, but I don’t think that person is Vikingo and I don’t see anyone else who is being set up for that spot. I’d rather see Vikingo in matches that are going to use his talents, and getting in three spots with a guy who’s probably not going to a good mix with him seems like a waste. Having him get cheated by Alberto and then never getting revenge (because that’s not the plan) also seems like a poor idea.

Vampiro’s match did not air on the live portion of the show despite it being his Mexico retirement match. AAA waited until this show started to announce it would be Vampiro’s final match in Mexico. (They were still promoting it as his final Ciudad Juarez match that afternoon .) I’ve been writing here that this Juarez date must be the final date if he’s retiring – he’s already had his final matches in all the other places AAA planning to run – but I thought there must be some surprise coming if AAA wasn’t promoting it. I was wrong; AAA just dropped the ball while promoting Vampiro’s last match as an attraction. The match is airing next week, AAA could spend the rest of the week pushing the idea that this will be the last time to see Vampiro wrestle on AAA TV. I don’t expect they will.

I’m sure few in AAA believe this is Vampiro’s final match in Mexico, but that didn’t stop them from promoting the rest of the retirement tour. This was just getting thrown an easy pitch and opting not to swing.

AAA was back to not posting results of their shows on social media. I didn’t easily find the taped results and it didn’t seem like a good investment to track them down. Brazo de Oro Jr. did replace El Fiscal in the mixed tag match; that’s one where it feels like AAA didn’t announce the change because they’re too disorganized to know what change they were making.

AAA announcers did mention the upcoming schedule during a break in matches. Jesus Zuniga mentioned they had two shows left, in Saltillo and Mexico City. Jose Manuel Guillen gently corrected him, saying they had Saltillo, Mexico City, and Monterrey left. Neither mentioned the dates of the shows, though they did encourage people to check the website. There was no onscreen graphics for these dates, but there weren’t onscreen graphics for much of anything. Maybe a budget cutback.

Lo Mejor de Lucha had the poster for the Monterrey show right after the Juarez show ended, so it and the Mexico City lineup should be released by AAA at any moment:

AAA TV (SUN) 12/08/2024 Gimnasio Nuevo León Unido, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
1) Drago vs Bengala, Belcegor, Taurus [Torneo Rey del Kaoz]
2) Dinámico vs Tigre Universitario
3) Estrellato, Oro Negro, Tosscano vs Dark Zorro, Redimido, Tigre Universitario Jr.
4) La Hiedra & Mr. Iguana vs Crazzy Steve & Havok © [AAA MIXED TAG]
first defense
5) Flammer & Sussy Love vs Julissa & Valentynna Reis
6) Emperador Azteca, Hijo Del Vikingo, Oni El Bendito vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
7) ?, Cibernético, Octagón Jr. vs El Mesías, El Patrón Alberto, Pierroth

This is indeed a TV taping. AAA has run fewer taping this year and never tapes shows back to back days, and apparently is to close out this year. Again, I have no idea what’s going on. There isn’t an obvious name for that main event spot. Semimain should be pretty good. Sussy Love seems booked so someone will take a pin in the women’s tag match. Hiedra/Iguana would’ve been a bigger deal as mixed tag champions a year or more ago; they haven’t done much with that pairing in 2024. The rest is a lot of KAOZ filler, and KAOZ is probably paying for this taping again.

This is old news but new to me: Botchmania pointed out that TNA promoted El Hijo del Vikingo as the new X-Divison champion during the last TNA PPV in an advertisement for an upcoming match. I guess it’s possible the graphic people aren’t told who’s winning, have both sets of graphics ready for whatever result, and used the wrong one by chance. The easier explanation is Vikingo was actually winning that title at some point, TNA changed their minds to have Moose win the title later for reasons only known to TNA, and someone forgot to let the graphics person know.

The Crash

The Crash (FRI) 11/08/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [TJ Sports, Zona Ruda]
1) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. © b DMT Azul & Raj Dhesi [The Crash TAG]
2) Gallo Xtreme © b Rey Astral [The Crash JUNIOR]
3) Tonalli b Destiny ©, Dinámico, El Enviado, Chris Carter [The Crash CRUISER, TLC]
Carter fell off a ladder onto the barricade hard, but was said to be OK. Tonalli won the title.
4) Anubis b Negro Casas, Cinico, Valentino, Emperador Azteca (Indie), Keyra, Niño Hamburguesa, Mamba, Electroshock, Que Moniito, Peluche [Copa The Crash]
Royal rumble rules. Peluche is a referee. Negro Casas was a surprise, and lost to Anubis in the end. Bleu Demon Jr. presented Anubis with the trophy. He noted he had his first match in this building and will have his last there as well.
5) Súper Crazy L Heavy Metal, Charly Manson, Juventud Guerrera [hair, cage]
Mr. Aguila no-showed, replaced by Charly Manson. Guerrera and Metal escaped, then Manson, leaving Super Crazy to get his hair cut. The Crash had trouble setting up the cage, causing a long delay, and the fans quickly turned on this match. They then also had trouble taking down the cage and a section of it fell into the crowd onto fans. Four fans were said to be hurt.
6) Dr. Wagner Jr., Extreme Tiger, Rey Horus b D Luxe, Pierroth, Rey Escorpión (Indie)
Fresero Jr,. Demonio Infernal and Nuevo Laredo promoter Roxana Cantu sat in the front row for this match, with Fresero & Demonio antagonizing Pierroth (Pierroth beat Fresero for the KAOZ title last week in Nuevo Laredo.) The distraction led to Wagner’s side winning. Pierroth and company brawled with Pierroth, then Wagner’s side was critical of Cantu for hanging out with those guys and also brawled with Fresero & Demonio.
7) Mecha Wolf b Bestia 666 [hair]
Familia de Tijuana members Rey Misterio Sr., Damian 666, Halloween, Rey Misterio Herdero, and Lady Victoria appeared to support the match. Mecha Wolf beat Bestia with a 450 splash. Bestia reluctantly got his hair cut. Halloween declared tonight was the end of Familia de Tijuana and encouraged Mecha, Bestia and Misterio Herdero to start a new group (which they kind of already have with La Rebelion.)

I’ve been really critical towards the Mecha Wolf/Bestia 666 feud all year: AAA gave it time early in the year, it’s been the focus of these The Crash shows, and it really hasn’t drawn. On the promotion’s anniversary, with more expensive than usual prices, it was an absolute success: sold out building, and that was the match they wanted to see. (There were just two matches properly advertised, just the main event and the cage one were announced, and the fans turned on the cage match.) That feud didn’t help the other shows, but it worked out exactly as they’d hoped. That match and the rest of the show may eventually turn up on The Crash’s YouTube page – they’re still missing matches from the last show.

The commission claimed The Crash was fined last month for a match that turned into a brawl outside the building between Pierroth, Rey Escorpion, Fresero and Demonio Infernal. The idea in the match 6 was The Crash was refusing to use Demonio or Fresero because of it, and so they bought ticket to create a disturbance. The Tijuana commission hasn’t participated in angles in many years but it appears they’re back to doing so.

There’s no update on the people who were hurt about the cage falling on them. Other fans saw those people leave for medical treatment during the following match, so my guess is it was painful but not serious. I’ve never heard of an incident like that before but there seemed to be some issue with the cage assembly given how long it took to set it up.

Mr. Aguila is a prolific Facebook poster and seemingly not doing it completely sober. There’s a running bit where a wrestler or promoter will hype an upcoming match, and Aguila will turn up in the comment to post “Y yo nada?” (“and nothing for me?”) That gag has been going on for years. This week, Aguila wrote messages critical of Latin Lover’s latest podcast, saying it was nothing but gossip and Latin should’ve asked Tiffany how many guys she and Estrellita slept with. That’s typical of a Mr. Aguila Facebook post. He got a reaction, so he went further and said he’d start a podcast in a week that would reveal the dark side of Latin Lover. Aguila put himself in a spotlight, then he no showed, hasn’t said a word about it, and is getting relentlessly mocked.

Blue Demon Jr. recently talked about retiring “soon”, but this show was the first time he’s talking about specifically doing in Tijuana. I wouldn’t put much stock into it, but running retirement shows in arenas this size make a lot more sense than what Santo was doing. Carter’s fall looked very bad but he said he was OK over Instagram. Penta talked to the crowd before the show, put over how much Tijuana meant to his career, and suggested he might not be wrestling there any time soon as he goes off to new things. (He’s signing with WWE as soon as both he and Fenix are able to, obviously.)

MLW

I went to MLW. It was too long. I’m not sure I’ll go back in May. I got in line to get in the venue at 6:45, it took me to 7:20 to get in the building at to my seat, and the main event didn’t finish until 11:20. They were still doing post match stuff with Mistico when I (and most people) were quickly leaving the building. I’ve definitely gone to AEW/ROH tapings that are just as long, but it didn’t feel like I had to endure as much stuff I wasn’t that interested in. This show just had a lot of people I had to sit through.

It also, bizarrely, had a TV Taping (“MLW Slaughterhouse”) prior to the show that gave away three of the results on the live portion of the show. Maybe keep scrolling to Other News if you don’t want to get MLW spoilers, but I need to go over this:

• they made it clear Mistico was retaining his title in live main event because they taped an interview with Barbaro Cavernario declaring himself the next challenger
• Same thing with the women’s (featherweight) title – the live show had Janai Kai defending against Lluvia & Persephone, but we already knew she won because the taped portion ran to set up Delmi Exo as the next challenger
• the live show had an impromptu Kojima/Riddle versus Kwon/Suzuki MLW tag team title match, where it was fairly obvious the titles weren’t going to change hands because Kwon (and maybe Suzuki) still had them on the taped portion.

All that stuff is easy to clean up if it is important: both of the title match angles could’ve been done backstage, and the tag champs could’ve just left their belts in the back. MLW seemed to want the crowd reactions to the angles, which worked with Exo – she waved around a Mexican flag to make sure people cared – and not at all with Barbaro Cavernario (who’s promo was hard to understand and done in English.) It was just lazy.

The crowd seemed like 85% fans showing up for a lucha libre show and about 15% MLW fans. Combined, they sold out the card but were basically watching different shows. Only ex-WWE star Matt Riddle got both fanbases to react when he appeared, though not to his promo. An announcement that the big title match MLW had been building to for months, Kojima versus Riddle, was finally happening got zero response from the crowd. A commercial for Eric Bischoff acting as the producer for the next MLW show got less than that. No one cares about the Salina de la Renta/Cesar Duran stuff. The other stuff I understand why MLW believes there’s an audience for it, but the Duran/Salina/LU-ish stuff seems like it’s for an audience for the one – either the person booking it or the person paying the person who books it.

The lucha libre fans reacted to few MLW matches. Tape traders of the 00s would’ve been depressed over how little reaction the idea of a Paul London/KENTA match got, and then more understanding when neither man working hard. There is a formula to getting over with these crowd. Lucha libre fans know to yell at the manager as he’s talking, they get excited for some dives (Kevin Knight was a hero) and they’re happy with a bit of silliness. Yelling a few curse words in Spanish will get a reaction, and so all the heels tried that, but it’s one that only lasts for a short time before they want to see something else.

I wouldn’t recommend much from the taped portion of the show, which will probably air in a couple of weeks under the name MLW Slaughter house. Maybe the Kevin Knight/Donovan Dijak match, but I’ve found Dijak offputting in this post-WWE run. Of the “live” portion, I would recommend CMLL matches and no more. They’re not re-inventing the wheel in Hechicero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Kevin Knight/Esfinge and Cavernario/Felino/Magnus vs. Atlantis/Atlantis Jr/Star Jr.; it’s just the good solid medium-effort performances lucha libre fans expect from visiting Mexico star in that building. I feared Kai/Lluvia/Persephone would be a disastrous mix of styles, but it was fine, so that was nice. Titan/Mistico/Averno had all the things I don’t like about threeways, there was a lot of strikes not close to hitting and it seemed like they were mailing it for the first third. The effort picked up, and they went longer than I expected. (Maybe too long, given the length of the show – I saw a decent amount of people packing it up and heading home before the match even started.)

MLW’s other issue from the night is the stream just didn’t stream. Voices of Wrestling talked to MLW people at the show and were told the stream was an issue on YouTube’s side. That’s plausible, it’s happened before with CMLL. The result still looked Major League wrestling look minor league. I’ve written before that CMLL needs to have a backup streaming plan if YouTube ever messes up on a big show, because they’re a small fry to YouTube and won’t get much timely help if something doesn’t work. I’m sure CMLL’s plan is the same as MLW’s here – they’ll just apologize, record the show, and upload it some other day. It’s not a great plan. That streaming issue was the one bit that made me happy I was there live; I didn’t need to see this show, but there was no way I was going to be able to squeeze it in on Sunday night.

MLW announced Mistico will appear on their Dallas show on 01/11. That’s where the title match with Cavernario is happening; he talked about it being in January in his promo. Mistico is listed in the generic roster graphic for the 12/08 taping in New York but I wondered if that’s an indication they’re skipping CMLL wrestlers for that show. I’d be totally OK with no CMLL wrestlers on the Eric Bischoff show, if only to avoid the inevitable “haha Eric Bischoff is trying to unmask the luchadors again, what a wacky dude” bit. MLW’s creativity is mostly limited to remembering things that happened in far more over promotions and making lame references to them, and it’s not really for me.

Other News

Puebla luchador Roy Calavera (Rogelio Valdes Briones, 40) was murdered Saturday night. He and a second person were shot at his michelada stand by two attackers; Calavera was shot five times. The attackers and motive are unknown. Newspaper reports identify him with Arena Coliseo San Ramon, but he’d stopped working there 18 months ago. He hadn’t wrestled as much in 2024. Any time a wrestler is murdered, no matter the significance, the same story about it appears in dozens of media outlets the next few days. Roy Calavera follows May’s death of Rey Komodo in that fashion.

Scorpio Jr. is on the cover of Box y Lucha 3629.

AVE announced their February 2025 anniversary show will have a four way mask cage match with Trauma I, Trauma II, Hijo de LA Park and Imposible. That obviously means Imposible is losing his mask if the match actually happens like that.

A bio of Cien Caras mentions he fell in love with wrestling when he happened upon a show while living in the US for a year at the age of 19. He returned to Mexico a year later, but his parents wouldn’t let him train wrestling for two more years. It seems odd that his parents were OK with letting him live in another country, but wrestling was too much. He also ended up training with Diablo Velazco in Guadalajara almost by accident; he was training in Leon when his trainer just kept training, and he ended up in the CMLL system instead.

Sean Ross Sapp and Andrew Zarian report ROH’s Final Battle will take place at Hammerstein Ballroom. AEW/ROH still haven’t made an announcement about that show. After writing about Ring of Honor here, someone not with AEW/ROH did mention Final Battle does have a date and was happening. This was so important to me that I’ve already forgotten the date, but the crux of the conversation was Final Battle wouldn’t conflict with the 12/13 CMLL international show. I expect we’ll see someone from CMLL on Final Battle but I have no idea whom, or if those Reyna Isis wins are going anywhere.

(Actually, I think we can work this out without me remembering anything. ROH PPVs are usually Fridays, and Final Battle are December shows, so that means the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th. AEW’s schedule lists shows through December 12th; they’d probably have announced it already if it was the 6th to do some sort of ticket package deal. AEW will not run a ROH PPV the day before the 12/28 AEW PPV, so cross off the 27th. If I’ve been told correct that CMLL has the 13th to themselves, that means Final Battle is likely December 20th. Make your plans accordingly.)

On Bluesky/Twitter

I’ve been on bluesky (@luchablog) since shortly after it launched. I experimented with some stuff early on bluesky, but there just weren’t enough people there for me to find interesting stuff about lucha libre. My usage over the last few months has generally just been

• post the text and link to this blog post manually on Twitter
• post the same text and link to this blog post manually on Bluesky
• click the notifications button to see if there’s anything interesting
• there’s usually not, so I close up Bluesky for another couple of days.

Friday, I clicked on that notification button and saw rows and rows of new followers – like the number of people following me went up in 20% in days. It looks to be up 50% up today – like I’ve gone from about 1000 followers to about 2000 in a week. It took me a moment, maybe a moment too long, to realize what was going on: lots of people decided the results of the US election was a good time close their Twitter account and find somewhere else for short message blogs. (Twitter followers are down about 200 people.) Some people will not be get what they want out of Bluesky or whatever else they switch and end up back on Twitter, but I’m sure a chunk are just done.

I’ve been thinking maybe I should take some of the stuff I’m doing on Twitter and start doing it on Bluesky – but maybe that should be energy should be on Instagram instead because that’s where the Spanish-speaking Mexican wrestling fans actually are. Or maybe I’m just stuck on Twitter because all the news and all the weird stuff is still inevitably going to be on it until there’s a much bigger fall off? Or maybe I should give up on all of this social because the Twitter engagements don’t drive the readers to this blog or the database and those are things I really care about? Or maybe I can never get up that Twitter account because I’ve worked/lucked into some important people in this wrestling business taking what I say seriously – not that they’re always happy about the Twitter posts (they’re rarely happy about the posts) but it’s a tool I’ll probably never have on another system? I’m sure there are a lot of great Discords I could join, but I feel like communicating with a small self-selected audience runs counter to my efforts to make lucha libre more accessible to more people. Typically I have a plan of action here, this is how I will try to handle things. Maybe it doesn’t always get executed as well it should, but I know the direction. I’m not sure of the direction right now, which probably means I’ll keep doing what I’m doing while being increasingly unhappy about it. The part of this can use is maybe some of the stuff I pu ton Twitter will be on other places, or maybe it won’t exist at all.