Dragon Rojo out, CMLL Universal Amazonas begins, AAA

CMLL

Dragon Rojo Jr. is out four to six weeks after suffering an incomplete scapular fracture. There was no obvious moment in his match on Tuesday where he got hurt, and he didn’t indicate what happened on social media. Dragon Rojo has a long injury history, and it was my concern something might happen prior to the Aniverasrio. Dragon Rojo made it through that. It’s disappointing he’s out now but it could’ve been much worse.

CMLL seems to have really wanted to put the trios title on Dragon Rojo, Cavernario, and Terrible to establish them as a new unit. They may have done it already last Tuesday if Volador had been healthy for the first match in the program. They probably were going to do it next Tuesday if Dragon Rojo had stayed healthy. Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., and Volador Jr. are trios champs of necessity more than purpose; they just happened to be the right tecnicos around when CMLL wanted to re-configure Los Infernales. CMLL just happened into Los Indestructibles as national trios champions too, so both their six-man titles are a bit unplanned at the moment. A month or a month and a half is not a long time but sometimes CMLL just moves onto the next idea and doesn’t get back to the old ones.

CMLL (FRI) 10/06/2023 Arena México
1) Capitán Suicida & El Audaz vs Difunto & Grako
2) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Neón vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
3) Esfinge vs Misterioso Jr. [lightning]
4) La Jarochita vs Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, La Catalina, Persephone, Lady Shadow, Miss Guerrera, Metálica, La Vaquerita, La Guerrera, Valkiria, Olympia [CMLL UNIVERSAL DE AMAZONAS, semifinal]
5) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Titán vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario

CMLL goes to pink ropes and breast cancer awareness armbands for the month of October. They also start featuring the women a lot more, starting with this block of the Universal tournament. Persephone will make her CMLL debut roughly six months after making her AAA debut. She showed a lot of personality in her Informa appearance. CMLL tends to list these matches in internal depth chart order, so it’s very notable that they’re at least starting out the new women over a bunch of the established ones. I’d be surprised if it played out that way in the match. Vaquer shouldn’t win this tournament, but Vaquer winning this block to lose to the eventual winner would make a lot of sense.

That main event could be very good. The first two matches have chances. The lightning match is something from a Saturday/Sunday show that we haven’t gotten a lot of on Fridays this year.

It’s the usual 6 USD fee. I’ve got something else going on Friday and may not watch this one completely live.

La Guerrera, La Jarochita, and La Metalica all talked up their participation in the match to Record. Olympia, in doing press with Mundo Deportivo, mentioned her father Valiente forbid her from training in lucha libre until she got a career. Valiente didn’t say anything about bodybuilding, so she got into that instead. She tries to balance wrestling and bodybuilding; she wants to win the Universal tournament but also hopes to win the CMLL bodybuilding competition – not just the women’s category but the overall category.

CMLL (SUN) 10/08/2023 Arena México
1) Andrómeda & Lady Shadow vs Miss Guerrera & Persephone
2) Histórico & Pelon Encapuchado vs El Gallero & Raider
3) Lluvia vs Reyna Isis [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Dark Magic, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Volador Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr. Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

Andromeda makes her CMLL debut in an opener (so, she’s probably in the Universal block next week.) The opening matches are the most interesting: Historico gets another appearance and Gallero turns up from Guadalajara again.

CMLL (MON) 10/09/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Mayahuel & Shitara vs Astaroth & Lady Amazona
2) Blue Shark & Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno & Fénix SO
3) Meyer, Retro, Valiente Jr. vs Perverso, Prayer, Siki Osama
4) La Jarochita & Lluvia vs Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis
5) Felino, Felino Jr., Hechicero vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

The main event is a near rematch. Volador is instead of Soberano, and maybe that was the original plan before Volador got held out one more week. Grada’s recap of last week’s show suggests they’re headed to a Mascara Dorada versus Ultimo Guerrero singles match. The women in the opener are all Puebla locals making their debuts.

CMLL (TUE) 10/10/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Adira & Xenna vs Atenea & La Pantera
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Eclipse Jr. vs Destello, Pesadilla, Shezmu
3) Obek, Rav, Último Ángel vs Halcón Suriano Jr., Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro
4) Demonio Maya, Kráneo, Nitro vs Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Volcano
5) Crixus, Max Star, Neón, Vegas vs Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono
6) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. vs Barboza & Zandokan Jr. and Felino Jr. & Vaquero Jr. and Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte
7) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario vs Arlequín, Averno, Sagrado

Match 6 is listed a four way tag on the Facebook page and just an eight man match with no teams on Instagram. I wonder if there’s a plan to for Templario to take Terrible’s spot with the Chavez brothers or if it’s just a coincidence they’re booked together in the next week.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara announced they’ll hold a tournament to decide new Occidente Women’s Tag Team Champions starting this month. Stephanie Vaquer and Zeuxis gave up these titles when they won the new world tag titles. Guadalajara is also announcing names for their 10/31 show. It already had their version of the Gran Prix announced but the names suggest it’ll also be an all-women’s show.

CMLL is holding their monthly polls for the match of the month. As I write this, the current leader for the best match of August 2023 is Esfinge versus Misterioso. The current leader for the best match of September 2023 is Esfinge versus Rugido. This sounds like a serious problem, but it’s more a problem that no one votes in this polls. My vote for Dorada/Titan was the 37th vote cast. Not for that match, overall only 37 people had gone to CMLL’s page and voted for anyone in this poll. The problem is no one votes on these things.

The match of the month polls get little attention outside of a mention on Informa; I only looked at them because they stood out as weird to me. All eight nominated matches over the two months are singles matches, none include foreigners and the Aniversario main event (Dragon Rojo/Templario) wasn’t included. That seems like CMLL carefully choosing which matches they can run next January and a bit of which ones they want to run. (Also, I realized I probably can get learn how to automate my night of the champion numbers by testing it on these polls, maybe that’s a weekend project.)

Mistico, Mascara Dorada, Robin and Dr. Karonte II are in the Chicago area for GALLI this Sunday.

There was the usual amount of press for a CMLL announcement in Mexico about Tessa Blanchard on Team World for the Gran Prix. Most mention her successes in the US, winning the male Impact title and previously wrestling in AAA. Almost none of it mentions why she’s not wrestling much in the US. Again, I think there’s a (small) batch of irregularly watching international fans who dip into CMLL for the women’s month of big matches. Many of those will watch less or none of CMLL this year. It probably won’t hurt CMLL in any other way they care about; the KeMonito situation is the real big bad publicity situation hanging over CMLL. I’m also not sure Tessa Blanchard helps in any way either.

This is not news but I’m putting it here so I can be found later for history’s sake. Stephanie Vaquer always talks about wrestling Mercedes Mone in CMLL. It’s not just her bringing it up, interviews push the idea. That match happening in Arena Mexico is completely up to Mone; it will absolutely happen if it’s a dream of hers and probably won’t happen if she’s expecting CMLL to pay her what she’s worth. CMLL themselves have never even hinted Mone is coming in, but they know that bit, everyone knows the story of Vaquer wanting the rematch with Mone in Arena Mexico. CMLL was absolutely playing off that expectation when they teased a mystery international wrestler coming in while talking to Vaquer, and there was about a five-minute window where Mone in CMLL seemed like an actual possibility. I sat there watching the Mexico team announcement thinking about how crazy Twitter could end up being in a moment. CMLL made a very different announcement, and Twitter went crazy in a very different way.

AAA

AAA has the rest of Heroes Inmortales at its regular time on Space

• Mini Vikingo, Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa vs Dinámico, Kamik-C, Skalibur
• Copa Antonio Pena (first round)
• Dalys & Negro Casas vs Abismo Negro Jr. & Flammer for the AAA Mixed Tag Titles
• Forastero & Sansón vs Dave The Clown & Murder Clown and Chessman & Parka Negra for a tag title shot

Mas Lucha posted a lot of interviews from this show.

• Triton and Reycko apparently had a tryout match after the show. It seems weird to interview people having a tryout match but also these are name people to Mas Lucha.
• Faby Apache says AAA invited her to participate in this Copa Antonio Pena match and she happily accepted. She makes a funny face when Hijo del Tirantes comes up and then he busts in their usual argument.
  • Faby Apache did interviews during the week with the Gladiatores and Estrellas del Ring, saying her return to AAA was a one-off. They’re still talking about other appearances but nothing’s been agreed upon as of yet. She would like to start training wrestlers.
• Octagon Jr. says he’s going to bring the Latin American title back to AAA.
• Los Cachanillas do their usual promo
• Absmo Negro & Flammer crow about their victory, and Flammer says Dalys was unprofessional for her actions getting DQed in the match
• Sanson & Forastero say Arez & Komander should say goodbye to those titles
• Dralistico does not want to feud with his father, says maybe they should go separate ways on their career for now. He’s a rudo in the US but he feels like his roots are tecnico and he’s 100% tecnico in Mexico.  (He’s saying this while wearing a black outfit and black facepaint.) Dralistico mentions going back to AEW and that he’s heading to Japan in December – presumably more NOAH.
• La Bestia del Ring is going for the top names in AAA. He’s out for the best for his career.
• Myzteziz thinks Dralistico is a tecnico and the fans want him to be a tecnico.
• Chik Tormenta is really happy to win the first women’s Copa Antonio Pena in her homestate of Jalisco.
• Alberto reels off a list of big names he’s “destroyed” (Cena, Orton, Big Show, the Hardys, Kane) and thinks QT and Adonis are no problem.  “I beat John Cena in 3 minutes in Hell in the Cell!” Alberto, unprompted, talks about all the different things he has gone on and promises a big surprise in 2024.

AAA’s annual mass in honor of Antonio Pena took place Thursday. Maricela Pena saying one of Antonio’s last ideas was “lucha libre acuatia” – I guess a ring in a pool like others have tried – and they actually secured a location at the Olympic pool. They still didn’t run it because the wrestlers did not know how to swim.

Hijo del Vikingo is scheduled to come to the Chicago area for GALLI on 10/15. Toxin, Aramis, Rey Horus, Aeroboy, Mechawolf are also listed. Flamita is too but I presume he’s off now.

Psycho Clown, back in Mexico, lost a singles match to Reynosa wrestler Estrellato this past Sunday. That seemed pretty random. It makes more sense now that the arena will run a Psycho Clown vs. Estrellato mask vs. mask match on 11/26. The show will air on Mas Lucha’s channel for members.

Lady Shani and bodybuilder Diego Cruz will be a team in the first Copa Alpha Nutrition, a bodybuilding contest on 10/28 to be held in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera. The pair revealed they’ve been secretly engaged for some time and will be getting married sometime next year. Dalys will also be participating in the bodybuilding contest.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 10/05/2023 Arena Naucalpan [La Tijera, Zona Ruda]
1) Águila Oriental & Tornado b Súper Boy & Thunder Storm 
2) Caballero de Plata, Glamurosa, Último Legendario b Águila Roja, Rey Astaroth, Satania 
debut of Glamurosa
3) Hell Boy, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly b Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr., Rey Halcón 
Hell Boy and Cerebro Negro set up a match for Sunday.
4) Sádika b Sagitarius 
Sagitarius challenged Sadika to enter the Castillo del Terror
5) Mocho Cota Jr., Súper Comando, Tito Santana b Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. 
Poder del Norte out cheated La Pandemia. Teams talked up a double title match.

Lights were turned very low but it didn’t look like there were a lot of people out in the dark.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (SAT) 10/21/2023 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) M Doble R vs Steel Dragón
2) Mr. Win & Tirano vs Helios & Morfosis
3) Elipse & Vengador vs Odiseo & Ursus Mendoza
4) Skayde vs Veneno
5) Viajero vs El Brujo [super libre]
6) Forneo, Limbo, Torito Negro vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
7) Cometa Maya & Radioactivo © vs Súper Nova & Texano Jr. [BIG LUCHA MIXA]
first defense
8) El Potro de Oro © vs Black Andrómeda [Big Lucha World]

This is a better show at giving Big Lucha regulars something to do than the last one, though it’s missing some star power with no Flamita. Andromeda (the exotico, not the woman) hasn’t been built up a lot to be a meaningful challenger, so it’s mostly about if Sangre Texano and La Pandemia draw some extra fans.

Recent Big Lucha shows usually went up by the Thursday after. Not so much this time. Maybe we’re waiting for the GLEAT channel to put it up now?

Big Lucha will also run matches at 11/05 “Speedfest” Nascar Mexico event at Mexico City’s race track. There’s typically lucha libre matches as a side show at that venue whenever they have a race, but the promotion they work with seems to change often and no video ever turns up.

Other News

Polvo de Estrellas got an operation for a “right humeral head fracture” on Thursday after suffering the injury a couple of weeks ago on a Robles show. I read “head fracture” and was very confused at why it why it took so long to get surgery on it. In this case, a “humeral head” is the bone connecting the arm to the shoulder. A different kind of head, still bad.

The former Diamante, now wrestling as Luis Mante, returns to the Dragongate ring this Saturday. He’d been out since losing his mask (and recovering from an injury.)

Tirantes Sr., in promoting his upcoming show, was asked about gender equality in wrestling. He said he believes that in “three to four years”, Mexican wrestling will have more women wrestling than men. It does seem like the number of women in wrestling has increased, but I don’t see it increasing that much that fast and it sort of seems like something you say to put lucha libre in a good light. He has a lot closer view of it than me, though.

La Tijera Lucha Libre caught up with Mil Mascaras at the La Mole comic con last week. He says he’s still training and is at 90 KGs. He’s semi-retired – but because there’s not many matches to be had.

The Guapos/Intocable match on the Mas Lucha show was set up by Intocable sort of trying to dine on dash on Scorpio Jr. “Wey” was said about 100 times in this two-minute segment.

Box y Lucha has started to release 1958 issues. It’s early reviews but I don’t like the “Clinch” monthly magazine as much as the Box y Lucha weekly ones. Fewer results and news, more profiles that feel like they just didn’t have room on the weekly issue.

A new (free) lucha libre school has opened in Leon.

Villahermosa announced a new lucha libre commission.