Copa Junior, FantasticaMania Mexico, even more CMLL tournaments

CMLL

Tonight’s show.

CMLL (FRI) 05/24/2024 Arena México
1) Átomo, Chamuel, Kemalito vs Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Tengu
2) Kira, La Catalina, Skadi vs Persephone, Tessa Blanchard, Valkiria
3) Kojima & Okumura vs Magia Blanca & Rugido
4) Star Jr. vs Templario [lightning]
5) Místico vs Atlantis Jr., Ángel de Oro, Mephisto, Esfinge, Felino, Stuka Jr., Magnus, Dark Panther, Hijo del Villano III [Copa Junior VIP, semifinal]

Mistico and Atlantis Jr. are nominal favorites, but Star Jt. winning the other block likely means a rudo opponent and a maybe a untraditional final. It may also just mean something else will be the main event next week. Star Jr. should beat Templario and should look good doing it. Los Depredadors winning should not be rules out, since part of the draw here for MLW is getting video of their titles defended in CMLL and that’s a route to a match next week.

CMLL (SAT) 05/25/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
2) Diamond, Leono, Robin vs Inquisidor, Metálica, Sangre Imperial
3) Hera, Olympia, Tessa Blanchard vs Amapola, Metálica, Reyna Isis
4) Difunto, Kojima, Okumura vs Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
5) Terrible vs Hechicero [lightning]
6) Atlantis, Flip Gordon, Valiente vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

There’s the Hechicero singles match people are asking for.

CMLL (SUN) 05/26/2024 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) El Audaz vs Legendario [lightning]
3) Lluvia, Sanely, Tessa Blanchard vs Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Brillante Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Volcano vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
5) Blue Panther, Esfinge, Fugaz vs Averno, Kojima, Okumura
6) Máscara Dorada, Neón, Star Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

New champ Neon gets a main event. Kojima wrestling Fugaz and Esfinge seems weird.

CMLL (MON) 05/27/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Meyer & Millenium vs Black Tiger & Centella Roja
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray vs Crixus, Difunto, Raider
3) Astoreth, Lady Metal, Lluvia vs Hela, Lady Amazona, Tessa Blanchard
4) Esfinge vs Bárbaro Cavernario [lightning]
5) Hijo del Villano III, Stigma, Villano III Jr. vs Averno, Kojima, Okumura [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Gran Guerrero, Místico, Último Guerrero vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

So many rudos booked. Match 2 is a rematch but not a title match.

Puebla was only available on the Leyenda tier this past week. CMLL originally said they make it available for the Champion Mundial tier as well.

The Xelhua/Judas el Traidor match on the 05/19 Lucha Memes show is up on IWTV.

CMLL Informa announced the lineup from FantasticaMania Mexico. It’s got some drama.

CMLL (FRI) 06/21/2024 Arena México
***FantasticaMania Mexico 2024***
1) Astro Boy Jr., Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II vs Futuro, Max Star, Vegas
2) Magnus & Rugido vs Bad Dude Tito & Che Cabrera
3) Stephanie Vaquer © vs La Catalina [NJPW STRONG WOMEN]
fourth defense when announced
4) Máscara Dorada & Templario vs Rocky Romero & Taiji Ishimori [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Averno & Volador Jr. vs Michael Oku & Zack Sabre Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Hiromu Takahashi vs Místico

The main event is rematch from last August, when Takahashi and Mistico went to a double pin draw for Mistico’s title. Takahashi’s now on a run of losing to non-NJPW wrestlers, so Mistico will surely end the night happy. This is as much a Mistico celebration as a FantasticaMania, with his family in the opener. Both a Mistico 20th anniversary and a FantasticaMania Mexico shows are strong enough concepts that they could’ve been their own shows. It might have been better that way too, but CMLL wanted to do a big Mistico/foreigner match and so this had to be the card.

The attention is really on the semi-main. ZSJ and Hechicero went back and forth in promos this year, and CMLL fans assumed that 1v1 match was happening as soon as ZSJ was announced. That may never have been the plan, but CMLL never did anything to warn their fans it wasn’t happening. The social media response to that match and this show has been intensely negative. It’d actually be the perfect set up for CMLL to say “we’re listening to the fans and making a chance”, but CMLL is also the last company to do something like that. NJPW is heavily hinting they’re going to run that ZSJ/Hechicero match in San Jose, which is only going to make the Mexican fans even angrier. CMLL obviously doesn’t rate Hechicero as high as people on social media, but it’s had to understand why were so tone deaf to not see this reaction coming. There’s a month before this show is happening, maybe those fans will get over it, or maybe they’ll make their voice loudly heard during the match.

Pretend for a moment that Hechicero, Virus, Guerrero Maya, and Xelhua are on a space mission to Mars during FantasticaMania and so can’t exchange llaves with ZSJ. Volador and Averno are still a weird team to put together as the semi-main of a big CMLL show. Volador usually gets to be part of these events, Averno not so much. It’s a rudo spot that makes more sense going to Angel de Oro given his involvement with Oku. It’s a spot that would’ve gone Ultimo Guerrero in past years. It probably should be a Soberano spot this year, except Soberano’s clearly been downplayed since winning the incredible pairs tournament. Averno’s on the list of people for that spot, but he normally wouldn’t be the pick unless there was some other factor to it.

Vaquer/Catalina are having their fourth singles match in the last year in Arena Mexico. Vaquer won the first two, then “lost” by excessive violence in the third match. It makes a lot of sense to defend a NJPW championship on this show but they could’ve used a fresher challenger.

Normal practice is to come as close as possible to split the wins between CMLL and NJPW/outsiders. Mistico and Vaquer are strong bets to win their match. Oku & Sabre will probably win theirs. Dorada is very protected so he and Templario are likely beating Romero & Ishimori, though I wouldn’t wager a lot of money on it. Does that mean the Zaddy Daddys are defeating Los Depredadores to give NJPW a second win? Maybe?

Copa Dinastia returns in June. As last year, it’s a Sunday only tournament featuring families (and all father/son this year). The entire tournament will take place on Father’s Day, June 16th. It’s an eight team tournament, with

• Stuka Jr. & Hijo del Stuka jr.
• Felino & Felino Jr.
• Euforia & Soberano Jr.
• Blue Panther & Hijo de Blue Panther
• Panterita del Ring & Mascara Dorada
• Valiente & Valiente Jr.
• Atlantis & Atlantis JR.
• Octagon & Hijo de Octagon

One more tournament: the Leyenda de Plata returns in July. Block shows on July 12 and 19th, final on 26th. It’s a little bit early to announce a July tournament; maybe Santo being in the news motivated it.

A couple of injury came out through talk on CMLL Informa and Instagram posts. Niebla Roja‘s injury on Friday sounds like a bicep rupture. Angel de Oro described his brother’s injury as Niebla Roja’s bicep rolling up on him. Roja underwent surgery this week to repair. The recovery for that can run between two and six months. The Chavez are the current tag team champions and were attempting to break the defense record. It would be a shame for their title run to end via injury. CMLL’s gone long with titles not being defended, but they may vacate them if an idea comes up.

Tabata is also out of action following surgery. She originally hurt her left elbow wrestling in Japan during FantasticaMania, but then returned to wrestling after coming back to Mexico. It seems like she’s just now getting it taken care of.

AEW’s Double or Nothing is this Sunday. Death Triangle challenges the Bang Bang Gang (real name) for the AEW/ROH Unified Trios Championship. Normally, I’d assume PAC, Penta and Rey Fenix are not winning the titles. The victory rate for Mexicans in AEW is not great, and Forbidden Door season means people CMLL perceives as AAA-aligned tend not to be around, so it’d be tough to make the champs and then have them disappear. (Likewise, Rush has been around now for a bit but has no directly, probably because he’s about to go back on the shelf for a month.)

The flip side is that CMLL people may start popping up again in AEW as soon as this Wednesday. AEW is running a “Forbidden Door Gauntlet Match” on Dynamite. They’ve only done this type of match once before. The idea was a royal rumble format where new people get added every minute or so, but the match ends immediately ends after the first person gets pinned/submitted. For this section’s purposes, the ending isn’t as important as the beginning: “Forbidden Door” implies outside wrestlers, like those from NJPW. I feel safe guessing there will be CMLL involvement as well.

(You could never run this match stip in Mexico, the luchadors would not grasp the concept that not everyone gets to be in the match and do their spots. It’s a factor why every Copa TripleMania Rumbel sucks; everyone has to get in their spots, and it’s impossible to get people to leave the match early.)

Neon will return to RevPro on June 29th and 30th. My guess is he’s not champion by the time the big Rev Pro Anniversary show happens, that RevPro will want it to be bigger names or a battle between “their” guys, but going back this early may mean Neon gets in at least one defense in Rev Pro proper.

RevPro mentioned “FantasticaMania UK is intended to be an annual event.” Again, I may be reading too much into it, but that sounds like 2025 plans are still undecided. RevPro says they also have the license to sell CMLL merch in the UK. MLW similarly says they now have CMLL merchandising rights in the US and will be selling licensed shirts on Pro Wrestling Tees.

Long time Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Willy Estrada is hospitalized and in need of blood donations.

AAA

AAA on Space this week will start the 05/11 taping. It’s unclear what matches will air. The show airs at 3 pm local, three and half hours early.

IWRG

IWRG didn’t post results for Thursday’s show.

Sunday’s show:

IWRG (SUN) 05/26/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Canibal Kid & Xtreme Kid vs Fobia & Shura King
2) Cosmic, Felino Boy, Laberinto Jr. vs Carnicero, Milagaro, Skanda
3) Arceus, Bumbu, Sacro vs Fauno, Terror Golden, Thunder Storm []
4) A. Jolotol, Auzter, Histeriosis, Pequeño Centauro, Rey Astaroth, Sky Man, Tornado, Vudu Max vs Azteka, Cisne De Plata, Escarlata Negro, Ice Killer Jr., Pentagoncito Black, Príncipe Arión, Rayado, Steel Rock [Torneo FILL 113]
IWRG vs Lucha Libre CM
5) Bengalee, Estrella Divina, Veneno vs Bugambilia, Ivan Rokov, Vangellys

Other News

Big Lucha has a show with INJUVE this afternoon. Not sure if this will stream.

I watched a few more post-press conference Hijo del Santo interviews. Nothing huge, but there are a couple of small interesting bits. Santo is definite that he’s not wrestling for CMLL or in Arena Mexico. He always does in a way where he’s polite about it, talking about having great experiences there; he’s conscious about not letting the press blow it up to a bigger issue. Santo was also more definite about doing retirement shows in the US in the follow up interviews, like he’s certain that’s going to happen.

If I was in charge of WWE – say if my name was Nick Khan instead of whatever it actually is – I would 100% offer to honor El Hijo del Santo on their upcoming WWE shows. Bring him to the middle of the ring, congratulate them, maybe even let him mention his retirement shows in those same venues if WWE’s local promoter is fine with it. It would be massively disruptive to the local Mexican scene (always a goal) and it would give WWE a little bit more of the credibility they’d need if they’re ever serious about coming into Latin America.

If I was AEW, I would absolutely want to get Hijo del Santo one of their Arlington Collision shows. He’s drawn well there with Martinez Entertainment in the same size rooms, even against a WrestleMania. It’d have to be done carefully not to cause problems with CMLL.

(If I was Impact, I’m probably not reading a blog about lucha libre.)

Flamita, back in Dragon Gate, looks like he’s going to win a shot at their Brave Gave championship tomorrow morning. Flamita held the Brave Gate title in 2014. Dragon Gate has loved to bring him back to challenge for it over the years. He got a title shot in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Mas Lucha has a show from Orizaba on Saturday for their paid subscribers. They’ve been pushing the Negro Casas & Scorpio Jr. versus Alan Stone & Intocable relevos suicida hard. Casas is probably not losing his hair off TV but the other three all have a shot. The match probably doesn’t have much a shot of being good.

Lucka Libre was scheduled to run in Tijuana this Saturday and have now moved that show to July 27th. That’s when they’d normally be expected to run after show, so this may actually be more a cancelation than rescheduling.

GALLI has a CMLL heavy show on October 6th. When Hechicero showed up on the FantasticaMania USA show, I was pretty he had a US visa. I do not have the same confidence here; I was told straight up that some of these people would not be able work this show if it happened today. The good news is it’s not happening today and there’s still a lot of time before this show happens for those visas to get resolved, but keep that situation in mind.