Chavez keep tag titles, AAA in Merida fuzziness, Gulliver/Chucky (1954-2022)

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 03/08/2022 Arena México [Box y Lucha, CMLL, Cronistas del Ring, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Apocalipsis & Cholo b Bengala & Retro  
2) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo, Chamuel, Perico Zacarías   
Team Diablos took 2/3. One of the Diablos challenged Chamuel to a CMLL MICRO title match
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring  
Virus offered a spot in Los Cancerberos to Luciferno (who’s been teaming with them frequently in place of the injured Raziel)
4) Atlantis, Fugaz, Soberano Jr. b Cavernario, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero  
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo I [CMLL TAG]   
1st defense

The main event got positive reviews from the live reports, though the Chavez brothers on a Tuesday seems not exciting. A spot near the finish of the Micros match went wrong, which happened a lot Friday though not to the point where it seemed like someone got hurt. Chamuel versus one of the Micro Gemelo Diablos should be much better, they’ll cut out the week links and the team spots that don’t go as well.

CMLL (TUE) 03/08/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara]
1) Espíritu Negro Jr. & Samuray Azteca (Queretaro) b Persa & Raven
QRO students vs GDL students
2) Bello Antuan, El Divino, Mágico b Destello, Destructor, Quka
3) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro b Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Fúnebre
4) Dark Silueta, Náutica, Sexy Sol b Hera, Miss Olimpia, Valkiria
5) Demonio Maya & Principe Daniel b Javier Cruz Jr. & Omar Brunetti
6) Maléfico, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno b Explosivo, Fantástico, Gallo
The Truenos pulled a switch and rolled up Gallo. Rematches followed.
7) Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Trono
QRO vs GDL

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (and less often Arena Queretaro) has been hosting a feud between these two states for months. It’s never seemed like a huge deal, just an inventive way of Guadalajara getting in some new names at a time where they’re getting few or no CMLL CDMX wrestlers. It is a rivalary and one where I expected eventually a Queretaro wrestler would take a big loss, just not something super heated. It does take on a different feel this week, after the violence at a LigaMX game between Queretaro and Guadalajara-based Atlas on Saturday. Neither of the two matches played into that story at all; they were just normal matches. It appeared they were setting up a Trono/Zandokan title match last week and that seems to have been dropped for at least this week.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara is advertising Titan for next week. CMLL CDMX wrestlers haven’t appeared here since the January 2022 shutdown.

CMLL (FRI) 03/11/2022 Arena México
1) Leono & Robin vs Enfermero Jr. & Nitro
2) Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. vs Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Okumura
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote, Negro Casas, Templario
4) La Metálica & Marcela vs Dalys & Skadi and Dark Silueta & Lluvia and Amapola & La Guerrera and La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis and La Jarochita & Tiffany and La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit and La Magnifica & Stephanie Vaquer [battle royal, relevos suicidas]

This is the weakest of the recent CMLL shows. Even if you enjoy the women’s matches, they’re just doing the lesser parts of the tournament this week. The atomicos could be fun, though it’s not exactly what they were building up last week. The other two tag matches are generic matches; it’s nice to see Guerrero Maya and Hombre Bala on a Friday but it’s not much.

Vaquerita & Reyna Isis and La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit seem the most likely to meet in next week’s final, though there are other options.

CMLL Informa today has Euforia, Ultimo Guerrero and many of the women scheduled for the tournament.

CMLL made a slight change for the 03/18 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on Monday. Oro Jr. is out of the opener, Cachorro is in.

Avispa Dorada was included in CMLL’s International Day of Women collage, so she’s meant to be back at some point.

AAA

Yesterday marked three months since the last court filed update in Lucha Libre FMV versus AAA case. There’s no news today, just that reaching that gap between updates may force a conclusion soon. Everyone assumes some some settlement has been worked out between AAA & FMV and they just haven’t gotten to informing the court; perhaps there are details left to work out, maybe it just got missed. The court previously urged FMV to post updates every three months or they’d move to dismiss the case. The court likely will urge FMV to do it again in a week or so after FMV missed the informal deadline, and that may trigger some news. We’re unlikely to get details but we might soon know by the end of the month that it’s over.

Sam Adonis is advertised for Indianapolis on March 12, and GALLI on March 13th, so it’s a pretty safe bet he will not be in Merida on March 13th for AAA’s TV taping. Los Shotas are similarly listed for shows in the US this weekend and on the Merida show; I think they’re also staying in the US. AAA’s even still advertising the NGD vs Mercenarios vs Poder del Norte match still as for the trios titles La Empresa won last week. It was a big red flag when AAA just moved the January show to March without making any changes; AAA knew there would have ot be changes, they just weren’t going to announce them even if it makes them look like idiots.

The Merida match most people care about is likely the FTR versus Lucha Brothers main event. The Lucha Brothers are also scheduled in New York’s House of Glory on Friday against the Briscoe Brothers. FTR is usually pretty active in promoting matches and they’re not talking about being in AAA this weekend. I’m skeptical either of those matches are going to happen as scheduled. It would take seeing Fenix on Dynamite tonight to change my mind.

AAA re-announced lineups for the Vive Latino festival on March 19th and March 20th. They had announced the same lineup for both shows prior, which seemed weird though not unheard for festival shows. They’ve now got a different lineup for March 20th, with Dave the Clown vs Cuatrero as the headliner. That’s truly a never seen before match. Mini Psycho Clown, who hasn’t worked on TV since before the pandemic but does work house shows, is on this show. These shows haven’t aired in past years, though they show up on fancams reliably.

The Mexico secretary of tourism met with AAA on Monday. They were the government group working with AAA about their tour of historic/scenic places in 2021 and had said they’d be working on a project with CMLL this year. The Twitter post mentions AAA future plans, so maybe they’ll be working with AAA after all.

Other News

Angel Mondragon Arias (67) passed away Tuesday. No cause of death was mentioned. He was a microluchador before those were really a division and he ended up using many different characters, especially later in his career. His biggest success as an in-ring wrestler was as Gulliver in the 70s and 80s. Gulliver along with Arturito, Gran Nikolai, Pequeno Goliath, Fili Estrellas and others were ‘midget’ wrestlers who’d travel around Mexico to do their match and usually were positively received. They wouldn’t stop around long, but they’d be in for a show or a couple of weeks before moving on to the next town. The group would appear similarly in CMLL & UWA during that time period. Gulliver, as Pepe Gomez, even appeared on a WWF Madison Square Garden show. The micros of that era ran into the same issues as the modern-day CMLL micros: there wasn’t a lot of variety to the act and running it too often in the same place would make it less of a novelty, and the toll on their bodies was high.

Antonio Pena’s introduction of the modern more athletic minis division, with Mascarita Sagrada and Espectrito and others, supplanted Gulliver’s group of micros. Pena did seem to have an appreciation for those original tiny wrestlers, bringing them in for a short-lived micros division or giving them second/mascot roles. Gulliver may have been a few short-lived characters (including Pogui, a Yetii mascot) before settling in as horror movie character Chucky, the mascot of The Monster. The characters existed primarily as foils for Alebrije and Cuije and were a regular staple of the late 90s/early 00s AAA. Gulliver/Chucky appeared rarely since that point. He was honored on Hijo del Signo’s show back in November, where he was in a wheelchair but seems thrilled to have been part of it based on his Facebook post.

IWRG , NGT (TUE) 03/08/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Perseo & Último Caballero b Steven Manson & X-Boy 
2) Blue Win, John Tito, Villarreal b Carnicero, Súper Boy, Súper Cometa 
3) Karma I, Karma II, Magnético b Ajolotl, Amnesia, Príncipe Bengala 
Tryout 2022 vs Mi Sagrada Lucha Libre
4) Big Mike, Puma de Oro, Rey Aztaroth b Noicy Boy, Rey Minos, Spider Fly 
5) Aster Boy, Billy Jones, Caballero de Plata, Chris Stone, Fussion, Garra Mortal, Hell Boy, Kenji b Backter, Estrella de Oro, Genex, Nativo, Príncipe Turbo, Rey Eclipse, Vudumax, Yorvak 
Tryout 2021 vs Tryout 2022, winner gets in the next Copa Higher Power

The semimain was a firework show between the Mexa Boys (Noicy Boy’s team) and Los Ministeriales (Mike’s team). Different combinations of these teams had spectacular matches in Arena San Juan. I didn’t think this was quite as good – probably hurt a bit by the typically small & quiet Tuesday card – but there still were a lot of crazy moves. It definitely feels stylistically different than most IWRG matches. The two teams are scheduled to meet again on the 03/25 Big Lucha show, if not before then.

The rest of the show was said to be good.

The IWRG/Lucha Libre Boom show on 03/17 now has Dr. Wagner Jr. teaming with Fuerza Guerrera against Canek & Octagon. Wagner replaces DMT Azul; 2022 Dr. Wagner is no miracle worker but he’s a much better fit for that match. That’ll save it from being an all-time bad match.

NOAH announcer Mark Pickering announced Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf will be returning to the promotion. No date is mentioned outside of “soon.”

The Crash (FRI) 03/18/2022 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Lanzer vs Kamik-C, Mirage, Terror Azteca, Ryan Kidd [Copa Juvenil The Crash 2022]
2) Séptimo Dragón vs Destiny vs Black Danger vs Skalibur [The Crash CRUISER]
vacant title (Dinamico)
3) Toto vs Próximo [hardcore]
4) Arandú, Star Boy, Zarco vs Bugambilia, Súper Astro Jr., Zumbi
5) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf © vs Dragón Lee & Dralistico and Steve Filip & Tome Filip [The Crash TAG]
6) Penta Zero M vs Cinta de Oro vs Lince Dorado [The Crash HEAVY]
vacant title (Hijo del Vikingo champ)

You can’t be a The Crash champion and an AAA wrestler, so Dinamico & Vikingo join the long list of people who’ve ended up vacating a The Crash title. Sexy Star also probably isn’t The Crash Women’s champion right now, it just may be a moment before The Crash book a women’s match, they didn’t have many non-AAA women on these shows. Bestia & Mecha are likely losing these tag titles if they’re working with AAA often, though it’s not yet clear they are, and Dragon Lee & Dralistico are also obviously part of AAA’s plans.  The Filip Bros are Australian wrestlers who were due in on the show before the pandemic and are finally making it on this show; they’re unlikely to win the titles too.

X-LAW’s return show in Tuxtla Guiterrez this past Saturday saw Fight Panther & Aero Panther win the DTU NEXO (Tag Team) championships in a match with Blaze & Lokillo. The odd bit is Zuzu Divine & Dariux were the most recent DTU NEXO championships and listed on the poster as defending. Not sure what happened there; the X-LAW promotion sent out results but avoided explaining it. LA Park beat Blue Demon Jr. & Juventud Guerrera in the main event via foul and was attacked by new X-LAW character Muerte Roja. This iteration of X-LAW seems to be bringing in southern California wrestlers who aren’t well known outside of that area. This show had Juicy Finay, who has been seen on some GCW shows, appearing to only do a run-in against the Park sons. Their show next Saturday in Arena Lopez Mateos has even lesser-known Ju Dizz, Flex McCallion and Richie Slade appearing alongside Austin Aries.

KAOZ’s 03/27 return show scheduled for Monterrey’s Gimnasio Nuevo Leon Unidos will now take place in Arena Coliseo Monterrey. That’ll be the first show in the historic arena in two years, which was meant to be KAOZ’s home building before the pandemic. The show is headlined by Alberto el Patron vs Konnan Big vs Carlito vs El Divo vs Rey Escorpion

MLW announced LA Park versus Jacob Fatu for their 04/01 2pm taping in Dallas, a rematch of their title match from 2019.

Demonic Flamita has been announced for the 04/01 The Wrld on Lucha show.

Netflix began production on a show called “Contra las Cuedras”, produced by Carolina Rivera, about an estranged mother and daughter. SuperLuchas has an excerpt on the show from a paywalled Reforma interview. The mother is returning from six years in jail and apparently becomes a luchadora to bond with her wrestling fan daughter. Rivera mentions talking to Lady Apache and others about the life of a Mexican women’s wrestler, though the focus is more on the mother/daughter relationship than lucha libre. The filming began on Tuesday, so it’s a long way off from being seen.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.