Heroes Inmortales to air over two weeks, CMLL Gran Prix lead up, IWRG wekeend results

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/01/2021 Arena México [CMLL, DeLuchaTV, Estrellas del Ring (highlights), Kaiser Sports, mas Lucha, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores]
1) Disturbio & Inquisidor b Eléctrico & Sonic   
2) Dark Magic, El Coyote, Okumura b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma   
Rudos took 1/3. Magic & Okumura invited Coyote to join their team in the post match promo
3) Momo Kohgo, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Tsukushi b Amapola, La Jarochita, Marcela    
Japanese visitors took 1/3 in their first match on this tour.
4) Fugaz, Star Jr., Valiente b El Felino Jr., Felino, Pólvora  
Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Euforia, Hechicero    
Tecnicos took 1/3.

The idea of a Mistico/Atalntis Jr. team was pushed with masks (and makes the cover of Box y Lucha.) It’s a decent idea, but CMLL were just playing around with the concept of rudo Atlantis Jr. a couple of weeks ago. It’s impossible to know which idea will stick, if any. Even more so with Coyote and the Embasadors – that just seems like Volcano & Kraneo’s quest for a three Gorila that never went anywhere.

CMLL (SUN) 10/03/2021 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO]
1) Fantasy & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
2) Dalys, Metálica, Stephanie Vaquer b La Jarochita, La Vaquerita, Princesa Sugehit
Rudas took 2/3
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus b Akuma, Disturbio, Espanto Jr.
Depredadores took 1/3.
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Blue Panther, Dark Panther, El Audaz
Dark Panther replaced Blue Panther Jr. Rudos took 1/3.
5) Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible b Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Titán [Relevos Increíbles]
Team Cavernario took 1/3.

and Barbaro Cavernario joining the Los Ingobernables also went nowhere…

CMLL (TUE) 10/05/2021 Arena México
1) Bengala, Leono, Retro vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Angelito, Kaligua, Shockercito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus vs Cachorro, Panterita del Ring, Sangre Imperial
4) Reyna Isis © vs Marcela [MEX WOMEN]
second defense, first in 2021
5) Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Terrible vs Felino, Negro Casas, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]

… though they’re doing it a lot again. Niebla Roja hasn’t been here since the end of July, and was only aroun one month before his last disappearing act.

I presume Isis is getting the win over Marcela to retain the title and that’s the sort of results they need to do if women like Isis & Jarochita are now meant to be the stars of the decision, but I’m not confident of a direction. Tercera is Depredadores versus unaligned CMLL young guys. Retro seems to have fallen behind other people of his experience level; I forgot he was even around until I saw him on TV this past weekend.

Puebla tonight has Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro defending the national tag team championships against Felino Jr. & Polvora. A title change there would be shocking.

CMLL lists Friday’s Gran Prix de Femenil as another $13 PPV. I went as far in the order screen as I needed to see if there was still a regionblock – there is not, at least so far – and haven’t actually ordered it. CMLL hasn’t advertised the PPV portion at all, just focusing on tickets.

It’s gobsmacking to sell a PPV based on international names the very next show after you cut off the PPV for everyone outside of Mexico without telling them in advance. Just no thinking at all about what they’re doing. I’m sure the women will work very hard in the Gran Prix. You should go buy a ticket if you’re in Mexico City to see it. You should not buy this show on PPV. If someone else puts it out there for free, well, it’s going to be free in two weeks anyway so might as well go watch it. I think I need to buy it for archival purposes but even then I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to do it.

The Friday Dia de Muertos tickets go on sale Wednesday. That’ll probably be the next PPV.

Silueta won the Queretaro Women’s Championship, so now she’s a rare two-region champion after previously winning the Occidente Women’s Championship.

The match with Momo Kohgo, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Tsukushi in Arena Jaguar was streamed on Facebook; their match starts around 1h18m.

AAA

AAA announced Heroes Inmortales will air at 8 pm CT on Saturday. Just the last four matches on the show will air live on Saturday, with the rest of the show airing next week. This requires AAA to get those three matches done before 8 pm (as well as any local matches; one local poster says there are three of those.) AAA hasn’t tried this before with a live broadcast so it’ll be an adventure.

The current lineup also has the Lucha Brothers versus Vikingo/Laredo as the TV opener. I think that’ll probably change, but you may want to tune in straight at eight just to be safe. The Copa Antonio Pena is listed as 12 names and only 9 people have been announced so far.

I’ll be streaming this on Twitch like always. I’ll probably start streaming before 8 pm just in case they show up early, though it’s equally as possible the taping runs late and the live stuff starts late as it did it on Heroes Inmortales.

Nothing too great on this week’s TV. AAA’s switched from none of the matches mattering at all to the outcomes being so important that they can’t actually have finishes for half the matches. There’s also so much interference that none of the interference means anything. The opener and the second match were watchable, though that second match might have been a 4v3 match since Goya Kong was just doing spots whenever. The main event seemed like it was going along better than expected until it got cut for the world running. NGD, Puma, Diamante Azul, and two masked people holding the entire locker room to a standoff was something. I’m still not convinced NGD found the spark they lost in CMLL; there’s probably more money in NGD beating Poder del Norte but I’m not sure that’s the right outcome. Actually, based on what we’re seeing on TV, I think I should expect no finish.

All the Heroes Inmortales matches have stories. Good or explained stories? No, not really, but they do have stories.

Other News

IWRG , FILL (SAT) 10/02/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Desastre & Último Caballero b Blue Star & X-Boy 
2) Blue Win, Rey Minos, Súper Cometa b Perseo, Rey Azaroth, Súper Boy 
3) Baby Star Jr., Garra Mortal Jr., Spider Fly b Carnicero, Cyber, Vudu Max 
4) Amnesia Jr. (Baja California), Gallo Extreme (Baja California), Taliban (Baja California) b Black Dragón, Death Metal, Rey Halcón 
5) Aster Boy, Caballero de Plata, Fussion, Sol, Tonalli, X-Devil b Golden Fly, Gran Arak, Hannibal, Mercury, Pantera Blanca Jr., Rey Marte and Dragón Boy, Falcón, Jeff Killer, Lobo Blanco, Rey Dragón, Símbolo Azteca 
Kingdom vs FILL vs Vanguardia. Aster Boy won despite injuring his nose and bleeding badly, defeating Lobo Blanco in the end. Team Vanguardia and Sick Boy & Medico Brujo fought near the end, setting up the Sunday main event.

This looks like a usual trainee show – a lot of young kids trying big things they may or may not be able to pull off at this point.

IWRG (SUN) 10/03/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Vudu Max b Guerrero Olímpico  
2) Kenji & Rey Halcón b Baby Star & Sol 
Halcon & Kenji talked about forming a rudo team.
3) Puma de Oro & Satania b Diosa Quetzal & Toxin and Bengalee & Relámpago 
Relampago replaced Aster Boy (nose)
4) Fly Warrior, Halloween, Hijo del Fishman b Arkano, Bobby Lee Jr., Hijo del Alebrije 
5) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro, Puma de Oro b Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Villano III, Veneno, Villano V Jr. 
Hijo del Villano III (the CMLL one) showed up as a surprise. Puma de Oro worked twice. Officals and Villanos feuded.
6) Medico Brujo & Sick Boy b Cíclope & Miedo Extreme 
Halloween Jr. helped the Monterrey duo to win.

The third lineup of the week wasn’t released until very late. Hijo del Villano III seems to be doing a “I’m better than you because I’m a CMLL guy” bit, so he’s not leaving CMLL off of this. We rarely see CMLL luchadors in IWRG but there’s no one they’d have an issue with on this show. Puma de Oro working twice does suggest this was a late decision (or someone else no showed.)

Octagon told Multimedios that he would put up his mask for roughly fifteen million pesos, which people weirdly took seriously. Fifteen million pesos is 734,000 USD, an amount neither Octagon nor anyone else would ever be offered for a mask match in Mexico in 2021. WWE wrestlers have made over a million for individual WrestleMania matches, but no Mexican promotion is making WWE money. Not really any other US ones. I think something like Atlantis vs Octagon would draw a full house at Aniversario prices, though I’m not even sure CMLL would offer him 100K USD at the moment (based on their own thriftiness) and it’d be surprising if AAA and Octagon ever worked together again. That price is just a way of saying he’ll never lose his mask, or he lost track of the numbers of zeros.

Negro Navarro versus Jonathan Gresham did happen in Coliseo Coacalco for Lucha Memes. I don’t think we hear enough about much about what happened until it turns up on IWTV in three weeks, but it’s impossible to cover a promotion that exists as no more than a poster and a few photos.

Mas Lucha announced the first round matches of their Supremo tournament airing Thursday

• Laredo Kid vs Emperador Azteca
• Bandido vs Jessy Ventura
• Rayman vs Cuatrero
• Villano III Jr. vs Sangre Azteca

I’m not sure if those feed into each other in that order. Laredo, Bandido, Cuatrero, and Villano III Jr. all seem like favorites. Emperador Azteca doesn’t lose much, so I think he might be the best chance for an upset. Rayman versus Cuatrero is the old Rayo de Jalisco/Hermanos Dinamitas rivalry (going all the way back to 1984); they met once in a trios match in 2018 but that’s it.

DTU says their next show will be on 10/17 in Ecatepec with many other promotions.

Ricky Marvin faces “Kiwi Buzzsaw” on his 10/24 La Cueva del Dragon show. Kiwi Buzzsaw is obviously Travis Banks. I guess the idea is to hide Banks identity by calling him Kiwi Buzzsaw, he’s from New Zealand, his girlfriend is also booked and his face is on the poster – they’d have to be quite dumb to think this was going to go under the radar. I know other promotions had an interest in using Banks on their shows and have changed their mind, including one who was on the fence until they saw the reaction to the Marvin card and accepted booking Banks wasn’t a good idea. Banks was hanging around the Lucha Libre Expo in Ecatepec on Sunday; a show with lots of promotions and no announced matches seemed like an obvious place for someone to get him booked. I haven’t seen results from that event. The Banks is still not a situation being talked about publically at all in Mexico.

(This is a problem with Mexican wrestling coverage in Mexico; there likely are people as bad or worse at Travis Banks in their own way and it’s well known in some group chat, but it never makes it out of those. Everyone’s so focused on making lucha libre look good that the bad stuff is allowed to fester quietly until it’ll eventually blow up in a bad way. Even Whatsapp being down for hours won’t get it brought up elsewhere.)

ROH announced Jonathan Gresham was now going after the World Championship. The end of the last PPV made it very clear that Bandido’s next title matches are ex-WWE wrestler Alex Zayne (in a couple of weeks), cult leader Vincent and Gresham likely on ROH’s Final Battle show in December. I would be surprised if Bandido remained champion after that match. The promotion has shifted towards Gresham’s style since its pandemic relaunch and Gresham winning the title is the natural endpoint of the last year of stories. I suspect the reason ROH ran with Bandido as champion right now is ROH correctly determined Gresham’s crowning match would be much better against Bandido than it would be against Rush. (Rush’s knee surgery became urgent once his role in this drama was likely only to lose to Bandido again; that may be Zayne’s spot now.) That’s also likely why Alex Shelley won a title shot against Bandido in PWG last week, just PWG being polite enough to not do the Gresham/Bandido match before ROH can get to it.

(This must all be confusing for Mexican wrestling fans, planning title programs ahead of time and not just rushing to throw together that big show with no forethought or direction past it. It’s OK.)

Milenio has an interview with Diosa Quetzal, who says she was a musician who was looking for a way to stay in shape when she took up lucha libre.

Segunda Caida reviews the 1995 CMLL Juicio Final.