AAA to Saltillo, Latin Lover teases (obvious) return, CMLL early week results

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/21/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Fuego en el Ring, Grada, Mano a Mano]
1) Blue Shark & Rey Samuray b El Malayo & Siky Ozama
2) Pegasso, Rayo Metálico, Volcano b Kráneo, Multy, Okumura
3) India Sioux b Samantha Black [lightning]
6:50.
4) Maligna, Metálica, Olympia, Tabata, Zeuxis b Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Viva Van [cibernetico] 
Order of elimination: Maligna, Sumika Yanagawa, Olimpia, Metalica, Sayaki Unagi, Viva Van, Tabata, Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, leaving Zeuxis as the winner
5) Místico, Stigma, Xelhua DQ Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. 
rudos unmasked the tecnicos, then had a game of baseball with the masks.

The baseball bit was funny. I haven’t been linking the Puebla/MVS stuff here (and I might still be behind in posting it on DailyMotion), but the Neon/Stuka match from last Monday is worth watching. Puebla only aired two matches last week and I suspect it’ll be the same this coming week with the cibernetico. Those hoping to see India Sioux & Samantha Black may be out of luck.

CMLL (TUE) 10/22/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Diamond & Eléctrico b Grako & Inquisidor  
9:50
2) Futuro, Max Star, Volcano b Hunter, Infarto, Kráneo  
11:54. Futuro messed up a springboard and hurt his shoulder on the landing, though he didn’t seek medical attention.
3) Princesa Sugehit b Amapola [lightning] 
6:38
4) Barboza & Zandokan Jr. b Magia Blanca & Vegas  
16:01. Match came down to Zandokan and Vegas, and Zandokan used the ropes to foul Vegas before the winning move.
5) La Catalina, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard b Persephone, Reyna Isis, Sanely  
13:14
6) Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero b Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr.  
14:29

A nothing much to show. I guess the main event was the best. Match 4 had moments but didn’t hang together. There was some fun small/big stuff in Match 2, but everyone looked lost after Futuro got hurt. Tessa always does this bit where she gives a cutter to everyone on the other team, and every single woman took the bump differently. Reyna Isis flipped around to her back somehow.

CMLL (TUE) 10/22/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha Jr.]
1) Magia Azul & Universys b Atenea & Quetzal
2) Hatanna & Zorah b Miss Panther & Queen Panther
Queen Panther replaced Lady Puma
3) Candela & Metálica b Emperatriz & Luna
Luna replaced Alondra
4) Lady Shadow & Miss Guerrera b Adira & Nexy
5) Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Viva Van b Dark Silueta, India Sioux, Maligna, Olympia, Tabata, Valkiria
Red Velvet beat Dark Silueta

Team World and Team Mexico split the two lead-up ciberneticos. Red Velvet and Zeuxis are among the bigger names on each team, though their early wins suggest it’ll be someone else holding the trophy.

This show drew worse than a typical Tuesday Guadalajara show, as apparent in videos. I’m not even sure “all women’s wrestling” was the issue as much as the specific women used. There’s Dark Silueta, who is the local star. There’s Olympia, who is halfway pushed. And then there’s India Sioux, Maligna, Tabata, and Valkiria, all of who are among the least popular CMLL women. I’m not sure the bigger main event women would’ve drawn much better, but I think men at a similar level would’ve also struggled. There’s probably some interest in the guest women, but not an overwhelming amount – the “50 people only” meet and greet still hadn’t sold out as of Wednesday. Whatever the reason, CMLL main evented a show with mostly secondary/preliminary women, and it went about as well as it should’ve been expected.

There was a point where CMLL was essentially doing the Grand Prix twice a week, with most of the same names as part of the match in Guadalajara before Arena Mexico. I think someone in CMLL figured out they were giving away the match for free to anyone who had access to YouTube since the Guadalajara shows were always broadcast for free, and so CMLL dramatically cut down on the Mexico star power on these preview matches. But they’ve also put these Guadalajara shows behind a paywall on Grand Prix weeks, so they’re not really giving it away for free. They should look at just shifting back to the original idea if they’re going to keep putting these shows behind a paywall anyway.

I never wrote about the CMLL matches in the UK from the weekend, but there wasn’t much to write. All the matches were ok/good. Mascara Dorada/Tsuji (Lio Rush had travel issues) was more a cool idea than a cool match. The LIJ vs Dorada/TMDK match on Sunday was a lot of LIJ comedy, and then it felt like it ended early, perhaps because they were run out of town. There was a lot more in that match if they went for it, but it was not a show where they were going for it.

Capitan Suicida’s Super Junior Tag League adventure begins tomorrow morning. He and Tiger Mask face BUSHI & Hirmou. Suicida might not win a match on this tour and that is OK.

No CMLL Informa lineup as of yet. CMLL previously said they’d have both Grand Prix teams on this week.

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

No Dragon Rojo/Barbaro Cavernario match after all. Skadi/Willow is exactly the weird match I like to see in these Grand Prixs. Principe Daniel, one of Cavernario’s brothers, makes his first appearance in Mexico City since 2022. He’s barely appeared in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara the last few months so that he may have relocated to Mexico City.

Viva Van, Alex Windsor, and Red Velvet appear to finish up on Friday based on this lineup (so some or all might be on Collision that Saturday.) Unagi & Yanagawa are headed to Monterrey instead, which seems to be an annual bit for the Japanese contingent to the women’s Grand Prix. That show has a bunch of CMLL people on it, which may account for this show being a little weak on star power.

CMLL (SUN) 10/27/2024 Arena México
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas vs Mije & Tengu
2) Dark Silueta vs Sayaka Unagi [lightning]
3) Último Dragóncito vs Pierrothito, Shockercito, Pequeño Olímpico, Fantasy, Mercurio, Angelito, Pequeño Violencia, Kaligua, Full Metal, Pequeño Magía, Pequeño Polvora, Acero, Aéreo, Galaxy, Rostro De Acero [cibernetico]
4) Lluvia, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis vs Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa, Willow Nightingale
5) Místico, Neón, Volador Jr. vs Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.

Rostro de Acero is indeed the last person in the minis cibernetico. CMLL’s promoted that tournament for a month and it is in the same match 3 position as ever. Outside of Mistico & Hechicero, it’s not like there’s a super compelling reason they’re in match 3 either. Silueta/Unagi is a rematch of the CMLL Japan title match.

Reyna Isis faces Viva Van on Thursday’s Ring of Honor show. I guess that’s sort of a Grand Prix preview match. The Brian Cage/Komander ROH TV title match also airs this week. Reyna Isis also taped a match with Lady Frost, which will probably air next week.

MLW 11/04

• Titan vs Averno vs Mistico for the MLW Middleweight Championship
• Esfinge & Kevin Knight & Ultimo Guerrero & Hechicero
• Atlantis, Altantis Jr., Star Jr. vs Barbaro Cavernario, Felino, Magnus
• Lluvia vs Persephone vs Jania Kai for the MLW Featherweight Championship – new

They’re still missing an Okumura match but everyone else is accounted for. At the prior show, MLW taped another full episode of their YouTube show without any luchadors, then sent out the CMLL guys for the live broadcast. I presume this will be the same.

A story on Angelito mentions the CMLL bodybuilding contest will be on 11/27. There’s also a Mr. Mexico bodybuilding contest on 12/01, which sounds like it may include some CMLL wrestlers. Angelito is aiming for top three.

I knew Fernando Valenzuela was a big deal to Mexican fans. I did not expect CMLL to put out a message marking his passing.

AAA

AAA did release that lineup for Saltillo

AAA TV (SUN) 11/17/2024 Lienzo Charro Prof. Enrique Gonzalez, Saltillo, Coahuila
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) Mr. Iguana & Niño Hamburguesa vs Andrómeda & Belcegor
3) Flammer & La Hiedra vs Chik Tormenta & Dalys and Julissa & Valentynna Reis
4) Dinámico, Drago, Laredo Kid vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
5) Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown vs Abismo Negro Jr., Psicosis, Taurus [AAA TRIOS]
6) Hijo Del Vikingo & Octagón Jr. vs Alberto el Patrón & El Mesías

Mesias and Octagon are meant to have a title match at some point, but AAA hasn’t made it clear when it’s happening.

The Psycho Circus have vaguely been feuding with the Vipers since before TripleMania Mexico City, but that trios title match is mostly about the Viper falling apart. It was actually Abismo Negro, Psicosis and Toxin won the trios titles. Toxin quit, so Fiscal became a trios champion. Fiscal got hurt, so the new Taurus became a trios champion. (Fiscal is strangely still booked in Juarez the week prior.) The Vipers won the belts because Sanson Cuatrero is currently in jail and AAA needed new champs. NGD won the belts because DMT Azul quit AAA. What I’m saying is these titles are bad luck and Psycho Circus should think twice about winning them.

Match 4 is a repeat from Juarez the week prior. Vikingo/Alberto in the tag match plays off the title match. Match 3 is the Hiedra/Julissa stuff, which is definitely a storyline and also probably more than a storyline issue. Andromeda got a write-up in the WON following Heroes Inmortales where he didn’t actually do as much as normal, so he appears to be the new Konnan favorite of the moment.

Fuerza Guerrera was Latin Lover’s podcast guest this week and asked Latin Lover if he’s going to wrestle. Latin Lover said he has an offer from Dorian Roldan to return for one match against Alberto on a PPV. Latin made it sound as if he hadn’t made a decision yet. Everything on AAA TV is building towards that match, so either he’s actually said yes or AAA believes they’ll get him to say yes when the time comes. AAA could theoretically run Latin Lover and Alberto without the title, Vikingo winning in Juarez and defending it against someone else, but it’s hard to imagine Alberto losing in AAA any time soon.

(AAA did a TV angle where Latin Lover revealed he could strip Alberto of the Mega title if he’s unprofessional, a play on Alberto’s many outside-the-ring incidents over the last decade. I think that’s more AAA wanting to prove they’ve thought this angle through rather than a setup for a direction; he did beat up and bloody Latin Lover after winning that title and I guess that wasn’t unprofessional enough to lose the belt)

INJUVE officially announced the rules for this year’s Lucha Por El Barrio contest. Participants must be Mexicans between 18 and 29 years old. The first session is November 4th. The winner will get 10,000 pesos and a one-year contract with AAA for 2025. 2nd and 3rd get the same contract and less money. This year’s winners were Dick Angelo 3G -> Taurus, Legendario -> Bengala and Lady Wind, who never wrestled for AAA past the tryout (and local Xalapa bookings.)

El Planchitas column this week speculates on a possible AAA return to Televisa. Nothing he mentions seems different from when this was brought up this past summer around the Unimas start date: there is a synergy to AAA’s US and Mexico programming being with the same broadcaster, and AAA’s pretty much forgotten on Azteca. (They’re on secondary channel A+, a channel so low profile that even just confirming AAA’s still on that channel is tough – the show is listed as Lucha Azteca with no mention of AAA.) AAA’s not going anywhere new over the air until they’ve finished their Azteca contract, and no one’s saying exactly when that contract ends. The news we’ve gotten about the AAA/Azteca deal in the past an end-of-year/early next-year renewal date in the past, so perhaps there’s movement in the last few months. At this point, I would be surprised if AAA stuck with Azteca even if they don’t immediately have a Teleivisa deal in hand; the AAA/Azteca relationship seems poor at this point. Televisa seems to be treating CMLL pretty well and my guess is they wouldn’t boot them to take AAA, it would more likely be a return to the original status quo of the network airing both promotions.

Octagon Jr. gave a mask to F1 Driver Sergio Perez, which will be useful next time he sneaks into an AAA show. Perez was at Heroes Inmortales and AAA didn’t mention on the broadcast; I don’t think even AAA knew he was there until photos came out after the fact. F1 drivers are among the most famous people in the world, Perez is an especially popular Mexican driver, and he was just chilling in the front row under a mask without anyone figuring it out. Perez has a lucha libre themed helmet design this week. (CMLL is also getting on this promotion.)

Quetzalli had (new) Taurus on her show this week.

Other News

Silver King passed away on May 11, 2019 in London, due to a heart attack in a match with Juventud Guerrera on a Todo x el Todo show. The current Hijo de Silver King and Juventud Guerrera were both in the Todo x el Todo tag tournament in Monterrey, which Mas Lucha aired this past week. Mas Lucha is now posting post-match interviews from that show including Hijo de Silver King saying he would avenge his father against Hijo del Santo and Juventud Guerrera. Santo unmasked Silver King, and the idea is Juventud Guerrera killed Silver King in their match. It’s doesn’t have any basis in reality – Juventud Guerrera did nothing to Silver King in that match, and just happened to be the opposition that night – and it’s obviously in terrible taste. Hijo de Silver King is a guy trying to get noticed and not really booked much outside his association with the rest of the Wagner family. (I’m not entirely sure he’s a real son of Silver King, as there have been fake Silver King children, but poking around his social media suggests that’s the case.) For his part, Juventud Guerrera’s post-match interview is shooting an angle for a match with his father against Santo and Santo Jr., and doesn’t bring up Silver King at all. (Most of the TxT post-match interviews are wrestlers pitching their matches, either for the rest of the TxT tour or for other indie promoters who might be interested.) There’s no sense anyone’s interested in booking a Hijo del Silver King/Juventud Guerrera match.

Shocker was released from Julio Cesar Chavez’ rehab clinic and was immediately on TV talking about it on Monday. He seemed to be saying the right things. This was his fourth trip to rehab, first getting sent there by CMLL in 2002/2003 for three months after walking off a commercial shoot, but he didn’t take it seriously. (There’s no obvious 3-month gap for Shocker in that time period; maybe the years are hard to remember. 2007 looks more likely.) He sunk deeper into addiction during the pandemic and mentioned he attempted suicide. Shocker says he was more cooperative this trip through rehab. He says he didn’t know it would last six months and joked he wouldn’t have agreed if he knew it would be that long, but he knew he needed it. He says he may return to wrestling.

GALLI announced Aramis versus The Beast Mortos for their show this Sunday in Waukegan. That match won’t be happening. GALLI posted a video with Aramis announcing that he was missing the show due to injury but it was a short term thing, he hoped to be back in a couple of weeks, and he’d make up to the GALLI fans then. Aramis is Hologram in AEW. The (very brief) shot of him getting beat up by Mortos on Collision this week was meant to be an explanation for him disappearing from their programming for a little bit; the timeline I originally heard had him returning after this PPV cycle, but maybe he’s feeling better a little faster on what he said in the video. The injury came near the end of the Mortos/Hologram match and had so far been unreported.

I was going to let that one sit forever and ever until Aramis or GALLI said anything, just to see if anyone would pick it up (nope!) and because there’s no benefit for me in reporting US news. If I were smarter, I would’ve just buried it in a late paragraph, as usual. There’s not any benefit in me reporting anything ever, to be honest, but I don’t have to deal with two dozen crying emojis quote tweets and aggregates who will just summarize it in their tweet. I get internet cred out of it, but I have all the internet cred I will ever need, and it doesn’t get you much. I can not go to the Internet cred prize booth and redeem it for a Slinky or 1980s KO Magazine or something else equally valuable. The only way to take advantage is to burn it in new and amusing ways. You can occasionally win a prize that way but it’s not a great way to go about it.

Arena Jaguar is billing this Sunday’s show as the final one ever for Volador Sr./Remo Banda/Super Parka in Monterrey. The original Misterioso is scheduled to also appear on the show.

Box y Lucha 3262 has too much on the cover.

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