Mistico wins Leyenda de Azul, Volador is a rudo, Panther/UG

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/29/2024 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estadio Deportes, Fuego en el Ring, Gladiatores, Kaiser Sports, Telediario, thecubsfan]
1) Astral & Legendario b Alom & Hunter    
9:37
2) Capitán Suicida, Futuro, Max Star b Crixus, Infarto, Okumura    
12:36
3) Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther    
12:47. Gemelos pulled a switch to get the win. Akuma and Los Gemelos appear to be a regular team.
4) El Hijo del Villano III, Valiente, Villano III Jr. b Neón, Star Jr., Titán    
13:12.
5) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Rocky Romero b Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr.    
7:30. Straight falls, with Volador causing partner Templario to win. The two post fought post match, with Templario demanding a singles match and Volador saying Templario isn’t on his level. Rocky appealed to Volador to team with him (“father and son”) – Volador said he’d focus on Templario first, and then unmasked him again. KeMalito, who had put on a Depreadores t-shirt, also unmasked KeMonito in the brawl.
6) Místico b Hechicero [Leyenda de Azul, final]    
27:12. First Leyenda de Azul win for Mistico, who had previously won the Leyenda de Plata 3 times.

Hechicero lost the match but won the battle. He pulled Mistico into his match style and got something deeper than expected. Mistico’s matches can be fun too, yet it says something about how Hechicero’s ascended this year that this wasn’t just his big moves plugged into a formula – like Hiromu Takahashi earlier this year – and instead a long battle to grab the winning hold in Hechicero style. Hechicero kept fighting off and countering La Mistica and, as a submission wizard, even had a plan when Mistico finally got it on. Mistico had plenty of big Mistico moments throughout the match, but he had to find something a little extra to put Hechicero away. That’s the change he’s made this year.

There were solid arguments for a few people as in-ring Mexico MVP in 2023. This year, it seems like Hechicero is far above everyone else. Maybe you’ll remind me of someone else I’m overlooking, but his three big matches – this one, this Aniversario, and the Coliseo match with ZSJ – seem like an unbeatable run. I didn’t find Xelhua/Hechicero from Lucha Memes to be quite at the level of those other three, though it’s a solid addition for the resume. He still has the Claudio Castagnoli match in two weeks.

Mistico, in his post-match interview, said he was happy to prove he knows how to wrestle on the mat well as fly. One press member asking Mistico if he would like there to be a Copa Oro y Plata someday, and he absolutely likely that idea. He was asked about the Aniversario again, and stuck to his message of being very thankful to Tony Khan and Chris Jericho for allowing that match to happen.

Mistico wore a Blue Demon-themed mask for the match and seemed to be uncomfortable with the eye holes. It didn’t appear to affect the match.

Friday’s angle left Volador’s status a bit unclear, but his actions and words on Sunday were definitely of a rudo. It feels a bit out of nowhere, but there seems to be decent logic for it. CMLL’s got plenty on the tecnico side, with Mistico, Mascara Dorada, Atlantis Jr., and Templario as top guys, but it’s less deep on the rudo side. Volador switching to rudo avoids the awkwardness about all the other Depredadores being rudos. And, if Volador needs to do fewer high spots because of leg issues, he should be on the rudo side.

This would be the first time Volador has turned when CMLL’s plan was for him to turn. Volador turned rudo in 2010 because CMLL started a feud with him and Mistico, turned Mistico rudo as part of it, and then got cold feet about that idea within a couple of weeks. Volador had to either switch sides or look very silly. Volador turned tecnico in 2013 because the CMLL fans lost their minds about La Sombra beating him for his mask instead of getting the Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero feud, and those fans forced both he and Sombra to switch sides. Volador has always worked a tecnico style but seemed to have a lot of fun in those three years a rudo, and whenever he’s been on the rudo side of mixed matches in the year since.

A ripple effect of Volador’s turn is that all 12/13 top matches – Hechicero/Clauido, PAC/Volador, and the four-way International Women’s Cup match – only have rudos. I’m guessing CMLL will break up the singles matches with a “get the big names booked” trios match with some tecnicos, because it’s odd as it is is now.

The rest of the matches were good if not great, and it was an easy to watch show. The Gemelo switch involved them convincing the referee that “I” was pinned, not capitan “II”, and then “I” easily sneaking back in to get the winning pin. A CMLL refereeing making an obvious mistake is a believable situation.

CMLL (SAT) 11/30/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Fantasy b Acero [lightning] 
6:59
2) Diamond, Leono, Retro b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio 
14:21
3) Espanto Jr., Kráneo, Okumura b Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma 
14:12
4) Lluvia b Sanely [lightning] 
8:21
5) Barboza, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. 
16:44.
6) Blue Panther b Último Guerrero 
21:37. Panther grabbed the middle rope for leverage to win after UG tried and got caught multiple times. Both praised each other post match

Blue Panther versus Ultimo Guerrero was one of those CMLL matches where they were playing to the crowd a lot and not totally locked in, but it just kept going and going until it felt like a big deal. Part of Blue Panther’s appeal is he looks so old and yet he does so much more than people expect from him. I can’t recall which Japanese promotion had someone pretend to be an old man with a cane and then he’d do incredible things. Blue Panther is that character but in real life now. It works best on the Tuesday shows, where there’s a lot of tourists who have no idea why this old man is still wrestling and then are amazed, but the more experienced crowd in Arena Coliseo loves him all the same. He’s still good, it’s just that his appeal is far beyond that and stronger because he’s unmasked. (The best comparison is to Atlantis, who is supposed to portray the CMLL standard but in reality is broken down and get positive reactions more out of respect. Atlantis is closer to being the worn down old man that the fans expect Blue Panther to be.)

Neither Guerrero nor Panther would’ve been hurt by the loss. It came off as Ultimo Guerrero was not supposed to lose but he also wanted to put over one of his heroes – the announcers talked about a young Jose watching Panther wrestle in Torreon, and Jose isn’t a young man either now – and so they found a set of circumstances in the rope grab bit where CMLL would be fine with it.

The semi-main was the next best. The women’s match wasn’t good, but match 3 had real problems. Espanto Jr. wasn’t the biggest issue for once.

CMLL (SUN) 12/01/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Pequeño Olímpico b Mercurio [lightning] 
9:45
2) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Fuego, Oro Jr., Volcano 
14:01
3) Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero b Brillante Jr., Rayo Metálico, Xelhua 
10:16.
4) Persephone & Reyna Isis b India Sioux & Princesa Sugehit 
14:32.
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Star Jr. 
13:14. Atlantis gave up in the third fall while being stomped by all three Infernales.
6) Ángel de Oro, Difunto, Hechicero DQ Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. 
15:00. Volador often did not help his partners and laid down to get pinned in three falls. Atlantis & Mascara Dorada won fall 2 without his help. Angel de Oro faked a foul from Mascara Dorada in the third, setting up a singles match between them next week.

CMLL surprised me by streaming this show for free. It was so surprising that I didn’t realize it was on, leaving to do something else after the earlier stream. They welcomed in the holiday season with a show where all the rudos won, and none of the matches were remarkable; you don’t have to go back and watch this one.

CMLL production went to show replays of dives three times in the opener. There was a production gaffe all three times. I would’ve probably given up after time two so I guess I respect their courage.

The tree lighting ceremony preceded the Sunday show. As last year, this was truly a special Year in Review edition of CMLL Informa with some happy talk in between interviews. No appearance from KeMalito or KeMonito; KeMalito was around later for the wrestling.

Julio Cesar Rivera brought in a wrestler to talk about an achievement in each of the months of the year. Xeluha was the February representative; JCR talked about him as the big star to come out of Torneo de Escuelas while acknowledging Xelhua didn’t actually win that competition. Fornero was the winner and has since left CMLL; Xelhua was runner-up. Angel Rebelde won the 2023 version and has rarely been seen since. I don’t think it’s a cursed tournament to win, but it does not ensure future success like the Gran Alternativa.

Mercurio’s interview to start the months also reminded me that CMLL’s running a Pequeno Estrellas cage match on 01/01 in back-to-back years. Maybe that’s the simple explanation for why CMLL is doing 12 instead of all 16; they wanted to be able to say they were doing a slightly different match in 2025.

CMLL (TUE) 12/03/2024 Arena México
1) Leono vs Grako [lightning]
2) Diamond, Legendario, Oro Jr. vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Draego
3) Amapola, Metálica, Sanely vs Dark Silueta, Hera, Olympia
4) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
5) Blue Panther, Esfinge, Star Jr. vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
6) Atlantis Jr., Neón, Titán vs Averno, Bárbaro Cavernario, Mephisto

Hombre Bala Jr. returns after about six weeks out of injury. Capitan Suicida has mostly been filling in with Los Viajeros del Espacio, and doing so well that the Friday announce crew was pushing the idea that they should expand the unit to include him. It’s a nice thought that hasn’t worked out well for Vegas. It felt more like Bala would be in danger of losing his spot if he wasn’t already a trios champion.

MLW added Persephone to their 01/11 show in Dallas. Persephone is a Texas native, but from nine hours to the west. Persephone being on this MLW show slightly diminishes her chances of being on WrestleDynasty. The NJPW invitee could be sticking in Japan for a while as part of the usual CMLL women’s tour that time of year, and that’s not happening with Persephone if she’s working MLW. I don’t know for a fact that the winner is doing that stint, just what’s happened in the past. MLW also announced a 04/05 Los Angeles date with CMLL people involved.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara officially announced that the 12/24 Tuesday show will move to 12/27 Friday, following CMLL tradition of not running on Christmas Eve. This came up previously on the broadcast. I wonder if they’re doing a private show on 12/25, which is normally when they’d run. Arena Coliseo Guadalajara probably won’t run on New Year’s Eve either – that building’s fanbase on that day would possibly be the drunkest lucha libre crowd in the history of Mexico – but they haven’t said when they will run that week.

El Occidental interviewed Guadalajara’s Rav and Persa, who explained they were initially unwanted in that training school. They tried to join in 2018 and were rejected “for some reason.” They decided to move to Mexico City and train there, barely scrimping by with enough money. Both eventually returned to Guadalajara, where they were finally welcomed in the Arena Coliseo Guadalajara school and have been wrestling there since 2021.

If you can find a way to watch it, Komander/Hechicero from AEW Rampage was pretty good. The whole show is watchable – I liked the trios match too, and Serpentico/Mortos got more time than I figured. The general context of the show – completely disconnected from everything else, very obviously taped, not a lot of crowd reaction early – hurt the show but it was still a good hour.

AEW unsurprisingly tagged the wrong Mascara Dorada in a lot of social media posts after his appearance on Rampage. As a fan, you can call him Mascara Dorada or “2.0” or whatever. As someone bringing him to wrestle matches, it seems fair to expect you know the name he calls himself and you know which social media handles he uses and which are instead from the guy you no longer employ. It’s not easy for a confusing situation, but it seems like part of the job. I don’t know that tagging people in Tweets actually helps anyone at this point, to be honest. I also live in lucha libre space where people think turning every wrestler’s name into a hashtag is a good idea so I’m way out of the mainstream to think that all of this is a waste of time. I also know that this whole wrong Mascara Dorada thing will keep happening until someone convinces him to create a public Twitter account so social media managers can tag it instead, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone in 2024.

That Saturday stretch of time was the plusses and minuses to the AEW/CMLL alliance in the US. That lucha libre Rampage only happened because Tony Khan really liked lucha libre and that hour was going to do terribly in viewers, but AEW still put CMLL people on TNT to have long matches where they cleanly defeated AEW wrestlers. That’s a pretty great, almost unprecedented situation, and something beyond CMLL probably expected from this deal when it started a year ago. AEW also threw Mistico on TV in a random six man tag, teaming with the new tag team champions and facing some of the lowest-ranked people on the AEW roster. That’s not as great a deal. There’s a lot of variance.

AAA

AAA on Space had an episode of TV that existed.

• The Original versus Sick Boy versus King Charro was fine. The easiest thing AAA could do to improve my viewing experience is stop booking so many three-way matches.
• Mr. Iguana & Nino Hamburgesa vs Estrellato & Lider was fine.
• Chik Tormenta and Flammer versus Dulce Kanela and Pimpinela Escarlata was a Pimpinela exhibition, with Flammer and Tormenta remembering they hated each other over the whole mask match thing. The women still defeated Dulce to win. It was fine, but I was done watching non-interesting wrestling at this point and was just staring at the time remaining in hopes it would move faster.

I will never think about this TV taping again. All these matches are the types I don’t bother writing about at all for CMLL, I’m not sure why I do even that much for AAA.

AAA on Unimas aired the remaining top matches from Juarez, including the Vampiro retirement match. The only matches left are the two prelims featuring local people. AAA could air them last week with the Vampiro retirement interview to fill out a very useless hour, or they could move onto Saltillo. The only way to know is closely observe the two or three social media posts that go up on Unimas and see if they use a photo from Juarez or Saltillo.

AAA seems to be doing a lot of press to promote the Mexico City and Monterrey shows this weekend, nearly a TripleMania level. It looks like there are still plenty of tickets available on the ticket websites. That’s happened in the past, and the buildings look pretty full around show time, so it’s not something to be concerned about right now. There’s not much new to it today, it’s just a loud volume. AAA spent October TV focused on the ownership drama storyline and then did nothing much more with on the November ones, and that’s the bit to watch for these December TVs.

Laredo Kid had a very good match with Moose on the TNA PPV Friday. He also lost. He will get a chance to repeat part or both of that combo with Matt Riddle on Saturday. Riddle made a surprise appearance on that TNA PPV, though reporting since suggests it was a one off. It generally appears that US promotions are warming up to the idea of using Matt Riddle again after months of him being in MLW (and AAA) without public issues. (I’d assumed the MLW Riddle/Kojima match was MLW deciding to go with Riddle as their guy, but I guess that also might be a way to finish up his run if Riddle gets picked up elsewhere.) Riddle getting more US work would probably make it harder for AAA to continue to book him, but AAA has used him so rarely I’m not sure that’s a big issue.

I haven’t listened to Laredo Kid’s interview with Latin Lover from this past week, but the clip that’s gotten passed around involved Laredo Kid playing the role of Abismo Negro for one night. Laredo explained Abismo no-showed an event where he was scheduled to face Black Abyss in the main event, AAA had a big crowd, and the AAA staff was very concerned with the fan reaction if they didn’t deliver an Abismo Negro. They had extra Abismo Negro gear – Black Abyss doing the evil Abismo Negro gimmick and all – so the staff convinced Laredo Kid to put on the gear and the face paint while getting permission for all of this from the home office. Laredo Kid dressed up as Abismo Negro, then they had Black Abyss take him out (probably a martinete) before he got to the ring, so they could explain to the fans they got to see Abismo Negor but he was too hurt to get to the ring and wouldn’t notice the guy in the suit was smaller than usual. A day later, the fans realized they didn’t actually see Abismo Negro; the reason he had missed the show was because he had passed away from drowning in a strange incident involving a bad reaction to recreational drug use.

The Abismo/Laredo swap happened on this show in Cancun. At the time, the press questioned the promoter about what had happened, and he made up some story about it definitely being Abismo Negro coming to the building and that some switch must’ve happened later. That was an obvious lie, the commission didn’t buy it and said the promoter was reportedly suspended for two years. (It’s lucha libre, I’m not sure he served two years.) Reports seemed to know who actually played Abismo Negro that night but didn’t reveal it, maybe to save him from a suspension or a controversy. 2008 Laredo Kid wouldn’t have been in a position to say no to a request from AAA like that, and it would’ve been unfair if he was punished for it.  Laredo Kid admitting to being the guy is the first time that part of the story has been made public.

Other News

NOAH has El Hijo del Dr. Wagner versus Galeno del Mal on 01/01. WrestlePurists’ Backup Hangman is reporting Wagner is leaving NOAH. I believe others have said similar. They probably know what they’re talking about, but I don’t have anything I can personally add to advance or confirm that part of the story. If they are correct and Wagner is leaving NOAH, then Wagner is probably going to WWE. He fits what WWE has historically looked for in Mexican luchadors – size, has experience outside of Mexico, and speaks a bit of English. NOAH itself has a strong relationship with WWE, which could help. Wagner’s probably been on WWE’s radar for years regardless and I expect he would be happy to sign with them. When the WWE ID plan rolled out, I said Galeno del Mal would most likely be Mexican to get a deal because he fits those criteria. His brother Wagner would be an even better fit – and would probably just bypass all the WWE ID nonsense entirely for a real contract. If Wagner is leaving NOAH because someone else wants him, then he’s going to WWE.

The only other situation going elsewhere is if Wagner will be leaving NOAH because he’s unhappy there. Wagner seemed to have a contract issue with NOAH last year; word got out that he could be finishing up, and then he ended up back in NOAH later on. I’ve heard stories about the pay in NOAH, specifically for foreigners, not being what people might expect for a promotion with the prestige of NOAH. Again, I don’t know the situation, so I don’t know if money is part of the issue here, but if Wagner is leaving because he’s unhappy with what NOAH is offering him, then he’d end up working as a freelancer with AAA. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. defeating Matt Riddle back in the main event of AAA’s June TV taping, when neither had been with the promotion, was an obvious attempt of AAA to sell Wagner on coming to work for them. AAA had not pushed this Wagner as a top guy in his previous stints and put him over even without an assurance he’d ever be back. It didn’t appear to work. Wagner did not return to AAA and told Mas Lucha his preference was to work outside of Mexico. Still, the AAA option is available to him if Wagner has an issue with NOAH. AAA would work with him as a freelancer, so he could still leave if/when WWE or a better NOAH deal came in. Wagner to AAA is the best possible realistic possibility for lucha libre fans, but it’s a long shot and nothing you should get your hopes up about – if WWE wants Wagner, they’ll get him.

I do not see a realistic possibility of El Hijo del Dr. Wagner leaving NOAH to go to AEW, CMLL, NJPW, TNA, or anywhere else. Wagner’s probably WWE, with AAA or staying NOAH as backup options if a WWE deal is not on the table.

Toscano was in a bad car accident on his way home from a show, but his wife says he is doing OK now.

Big Lucha put up a teaser of “coming soon: Totalmente Grande”. The social media for the Bandido’s Gym accounts has similar teasers. Big Lucha itself hasn’t run since 11/02 and hasn’t teased any upcoming shows. I don’t believe this is a tease for a new show; I’ve been told to expect an announcement about the future status in the next few days.

Blue Demon Jr. says he’s never put up a Christmas tree since Blue Demon Sr. passed away in 2000 because the family used to do it together, but will be doing it the year.

Baby Love talks about being a women’s wrestler.

Site Notes

I’ve got some loose plans to do straight up my webhosting situation this month. If it goes well, there should be some minor tech improvements and some cost savings (at that price of me being even more on my own if/when things fail.) The first part is to move this portion of the site (“thecubsfan.com”/”luchablog.com”) this week. You may notice some downtime.