Bandido returns to CMLL, Gardenia/Kawato agree to hair match, two AAA shows this weekend (but only one is airing)

CMLL (FRI) 11/29/2019 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Lucha Central, Marca, thecubsfan, TUDN]
1) El Coyote & Espanto Jr. b Oro Jr. & Sonic 
9:36. Rudos took 1/3.
2) Chamuel, Microman, Perico Zakarías b Átomo, Gallito, Guapito [Relevos Increíbles] 
11:52. Team Microman won in straight falls, though Chamuel and Microman were fightning by the end. Rudos beat up tecnicos after.
3) Dulce Gardenia, Star Jr., Stuka Jr. DQ Kawato San, Vangellys, Virus 
8:47. Straight falls, DQ in second fall for Kawato fouling Dulce. Hair match challenged were made and accepted.
4) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Místico, Titán, Valiente 
14:18. Bandido appeared before the match, saying he had returned from CMLL. NGD confronted him, with Bandido eventually headscissoring Sanson and escaping. NGD took 1/3, though Sanson was hurt by the finish.
5) Soberano Jr. © b Negro Casas [MEX WELTER] 
12:53. 10th defense, 3rd against Casas
6) Carístico, Felino, Último Guerrero b Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles] 
10:49. Team Felino took 2/3. Angel de Oro and Felino continued to feud.

CMLL Promos: Microman, Chamuel & Perico, Kawato San, Dulce Gardena, Bandido, Soberano Jr., Angel de Oro, and Felino.

Pressroom interviews

• Felino (Box Y Lucha)
• Angel de Oro (Box Y Lucha)
• Dulce Gardenia (Box Y Lucha)
• Microman (Box Y Lucha)
• Bandido (Box Y Lucha, The Gladiatores, +LuchaTV)

Bandido “signing with CMLL” may actually be “agreed to work some dates.” This appears to be something close to the Fenix/Penta CMLL run. It is the dream of most luchadors to main Arena Mexico. Like the Lucha Brothers, Bandido gets to do it on his terms. Bandido’s probably not going to be working Tuesday Arena Mexico shots, but selected Fridays and other big shows. It seemed strange to run this when they did – the legends show is already announced next week, Bandido’s booked the following two weeks – but CMLL made a lineup change to get him on the card next week.

Bandido signing with CMLL after winning The Crash championship suggests he’s not expecting to go to WWE to start 2020. Flamita signing with ROH and Bandido signing with a ROH affiliated promotion hint towards Bandido extended his relationship with ROH, though I don’t think it’s a done deal. AEW seems open to letting people work where ever else they want on off days. I do think a decision on Bandido’s US future is probably going to have to be made soon, prior to Final Battle.

The introduction bit made it very clear the plan was for a Bandido & Sanson match. That won’t be happening any time soon. Sanson was strangely missing from the NGD post-match interview, which was due to a ride to the hospital. Sanson posted a photo of a wrapped left foot on Instagram and suggested he’ll be out until FantasticaMania. NGD have been heavily featured on Friday shows for a while, so this is going to change some plans. They can’t just put Universo 2000 Jr. in the spot.

This was a better CMLL show than recently on Fridays, though the emphasis was definitely on building matches for the future than having great ones tonight. Gardenia/Kawato joins Espiritu Negro/Principe Diamante in the “happening barring injury, just need a date” pile. Angel de Oro/Felino isn’t far behind, though the crowd wasn’t much into this week. The weird main event there seemed to be setting Angel de Oro up as the rudo in that feud. There wasn’t as clear an explanation for the weird micros match.

AAA has two big shows this week. Only tonight’s show in Veracruz is scheduled to air on Twitch. It is a regular taping, six trios matches with nothing on the line. A regular taping in AAA is still often good, but this is the show of the weekend no one’s really talking about.

The main event has Pagano & Psycho Clown teaming up with Puma King against Averno, Chessman, and Taurus, which should continue the Pagano/Chessman feud. There’s some loose alliance with the OGTs and the Mercenarios, though AAA’s rudo groups are always working together to beat up the tecnicos at the end of shows, and they’ll probably do it again here. Myzteziz is scheduled to return in the semi-main, though he wasn’t at last night’s ELITE show in Xalapa. His partners are scheduled to beat Vikingo & Octagon against the Mercenario trio of Texano Jr., Rey Escorpion and La Hiedra. She’s an odd fit for this match in name but did OK the last time they had her face high flyers.

Aerostar & Monster Clown meet one more time before the cage match in the fourth. Or are at least scheduled to meet. Aerostar, who has seemingly gotten hurt in every TV match for the last three months, posted a photo of himself in a sling (and with a finger in a brace!), vowing to keep wrestling this weekend. Lucha Capital included a bit where Aerostar had an arm injury and was submitted by Puma King armbar, so this is probably a story. Drago, Maximo, Super Fly and Super Crazy are supposed to be in the match, though +Lucha mentioned Crazy has a booking elsewhere.

Faby Apache & Nino Hamburgeusa team with a mystery person against Absimo Negro, Keyra and VIllano III Jr. in a match not following any of the current feuds. Poder del Norte seem likely to pick up a win over the makeshift team of Bengala, Eclipse and Draztick Boy. Lady Maravilla & Big Mami square off in the opener before their hair match in two weeks, with Dinastia, Iguana, Suicida, and Vanilla involved. The show airs on Twitch at 8 pm CT.

TripleMania Regia is this Sunday. Ticket sales seem to be trending towards 10,000 attendance, short of a sell-out but still a lot of humans. There feels like less hype for this show than expected. I’m not sure if not announcing a stream dampened interest, but it does feel like something people outside of the lucha libre bubble forgot existed within a day of it being announced. Maybe I’ll get a 1000 questions about it tomorrow, but I haven’t really gotten much yet.

Again, no official stream has been announced and no official stream is expected to be announced. We’ll probably be passing around fan live video links all night on Twitter, but you might also just wait for it to air on TV in a couple of weeks to watch it.

TripleMania Regia’s main event is an eight man cage match, loser loses hair or mask. Monster Clown is the favorite to be this loser. His feud with Aerostar seems as though it is coming to a conclusion, and a lot of the other issues (Psycho/Escorpion, Chessman/Pagano) seem like they’d be better served in a standalone match. It is impressive Dr. Wagner is putting up his hair again after losing it at TripleMania and no one’s complained, but they are more used to that sort of thing in Monterrey.

Pagano, LA Park, and Rush meet in a three-way match. Back at the press conference, Pagano talked about how he wanted this to be an extreme match. It’s Rush & LA Park, so it always was going to be one.

Kenny Omega defends the AAA MegaChampionship against Dragon Lee, prior to the ring being torn up. Dragon Lee was definite about being signed to AAA for only this match, which heavily suggests the outcome. I’m not sure that matters; this seems more about people wanting to see these two guys wrestle for the first time. The issue is many of the people who would care to see them wrestle aren’t living close to Monterrey and there’s no way for them to see it live. This is a match trying to make AAA appealing to a crowd that can’t watch the show.

The rest of the card are the usual TripleMania bits. A Copa TripleMania will have all surprises (though most from the regular AAA roster.) Taya defends the Reina de Reinas championship in a five-way. AAA hasn’t built to someone winning the title, but it’s been a hot potato all year. A four way tag match exists just to have a really good multiman match, though it’s now interesting to see if Bandido is here after announcing his return to CMLL last night. Poder del Norte face the LA Park kids and cousin Hijo de Remo Banda (Hijo del Volador), in the contractually obligated match of the night. Lady Maravilla & Big Mami lead teams in the opener, in their last big meeting before the hair match.

The show is scheduled to start at 5 pm, right in the middle of two soccer games. Again, there’s no official stream.

Other shows this weekend

Saturday

• WWE visits Mexico City, with Rey Mysterio challenging (and likely losing) for the big title. Cain Velasquez wrestles his only second match in the promotion, and maybe his last before knee surgery. Ticket seemed to be moving decently well.
• Arena Coliseo has a regular show.
• CAR The Crash has the weird main event of Latigo & Halloween vs Tritton & Histeria, who hasn’t been seen much if at all since his heart attack. Maybe it’s a different Histeria?
• Tritton, this time listed as Rey Triton, also teams with Sangre Azteca to face Trauma I  Super Nova in Gimnasio Hercules.
• Super Nova, in turn, continues his feud with Neza Kid in Arena Neza. Argos, Karonte and Dr. Karonte face Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, and Karonte Jr.
• Arena Lopez Mateos has an extreme main event.

Sunday

• Arena Coliseo Guadalajara has a cage match with seemingly two weeks of build.
• Arena Mexico has Caristico vs Forastero and starts the welterweight tournament. Templario seems a lock for the final, just a matter of determining who will face him.
• Fresero and Demonio Infernal headline a busy Arena Naucalpan show. This is probably going to stream live. I encourage you to pass this show off as TripleMania Regia and see how long it takes for the non-lucha people to catch on.

Zadkiel, Mason 33 and Valkiria in the bodybuilding contest are luchadors from Morelos.

Taurus was announced for the WXW (Germany) 16 Carat tournament, from March 6 to the 8th.

Lineups

CMLL (FRI) 12/06/2019 Arena México
1) Ricky Boy, Skayde, Súper Muñeco vs Gallego, Mr. Cóndor, Rocky Santana
2) Atlantis Jr., El Audaz, Star Jr. vs Misterioso, Sagrado, Tiger
3) Blue Panther, Negro Casas, Virus vs Mano Negra, Negro Navarro, Súper Astro
4) Solar I vs Satánico
5) El Bandido, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
6) Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Tinieblas Jr., Villano IV vs Canek, Fuerza Guerrera, Máscara Año 2000

Bandido replaces Caristico on the original lineup. Someone’s still got to replace Sanson – both in the match and in the feud.

Tinieblas mentioned he’ll be bringing Alushe. KeMonito was the original Alushe, I’m not sure if he and Tinieblas have been on many shows together since they split.

If they were US heels, Misterioso & Sagrado would be doing promos all week about how they’re the true legends of the show.

IWRG (SUN) 12/15/2019 Arena Naucalpan
1) Legenadrio & Puma de Oro vs Dick Angelo 3G & Kamikaze
2) Alas de Oro & Alas De Plata vs Avisman & Fulgor I
3) Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal, Soy Raymunda vs Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro, Toxin
4) Big Chico Che, Big Mike, Big Ovett vs Capo del Norte, Capo del Sur, Fresero Jr.
5) Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. vs Trauma I & Trauma II and Dragón Bane & Hijo de Canis Lupus
6) Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Canek, Máscara Sagrada
7) LA Park vs Blue Demon Jr.

The Arena Mexico main event might be the worst match this year, or it might get beat by that semi-main. IWRG is charging high prices for this show. It probably costs a lot to get LA Park and Bleu Demon but this is a situation where I’d be thrilled if I didn’t blindly pay for some discount.