Vikingo/Flamita, AAA in Merida, CMLL women’s tournament

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/11/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores]
1) Enfermero Jr. & Nitro b Leono & Robin 
Rudos took 14:44.
2) Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. b Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Okumura  
13:37. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote, Negro Casas, Templario   
11:09. Straight falls, due to Templario betraying Negro Casas in the second fall. Challenges followed. Volador offered Templario a spot in Los Depreadores, Templario did not give an answer.
4) La Seductora & Tiffany b Dalys, Dark Silueta, Amapola, Reyna Isis, La Metálica, Stephanie Vaquer [battle royal, relevos suicidas] 
4:46
5) Dark Silueta & Lluvia b La Metálica & Marcela [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
4:46
6) Dalys & Skadi b La Magnifica & Stephanie Vaquer [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
3:21.
7) Amapola & La Guerrera b La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
3:41
8) La Jarochita & Tiffany b La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
4:56.
9) La Magnifica & Stephanie Vaquer b La Metálica & Marcela [relevos suicidas, semifinal]  
5:54
10) La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit b La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [relevos suicidas, semifinal]   
7:11.

My expections for this tournament weren’t high and they still weren’t met. The CMLL women’s division has some decent to good luchadoras. They do not go sixteen deep. A Gran Prix can hide some of them, because they’re only needed to get in for a few minutes before being eliminated. (And a Gran Prix includes a lot of outsiders who take the spots of the shakiest.) A normal tournament also can discard the least impressive after a single match. A reverse elimination tournament forces some of the least capable luchadoras to wrestle multiple times in one night, exposing them. This was the worst of all setups. No final meant the show ended on a flat note after one of the worst “main events” CMLL’s produced without someone wrestling under the influence. Asking Seductora to wrestle three times in one night in her first action after being out half a year after nearly dying from COVID was unthinking; she was badly blown up for the final match and needed medical attention after winning. Others didn’t have the excuse for the poor performance Tiffany was particularly terrible. She has a position of power managing the women in CMLL so maybe she’s insulated from any consequences, but any other wrestling promotion would’ve moved her on from a full-time in-ring spot long ago. There are others who had bad nights. The Arena Mexico crowd was hot for the atomicos (which should’ve been last to give the show some sort of ending) and the women’s tournament just quieted the crowd. Next week’s matches should be better with few people involved and a full week to work on the two matches. This night was a bad one for the CMLL women’s division.

CMLL ran both Metalica versus Marcela and Vaquerita versus Isis as singles matches on Tuesday in the last few weeks. They ran no other women’s singles match before this tournament was announced, so CMLL had been planning this final for a while and it’s tighter booking than usual. The Metalica/Marcela vs Isis/Vaquerita final allows CMLL to say the resulting singles match will be a mask versus hair match for sure. Vaquerita seems very likely to lose. CMLL hasn’t put up the full poster but the lineup listed on the website has the women’s match as the second on the card.

The Templario/Casas issue just popped up randomly. It’s a good match for Templario at this point, though a bad idea long term. The last couple of Casas hair match losses have turned him into a modern-day Brazo, the guy no one takes seriously in a big match because they know he’s going to lose. There was no indication or challenge of mask versus hair match here but any tease of Casas losing his hair is going to be loudly rejected. Templario has a title to defend, maybe it’ll go to that end only, but just the tease of something had me worried CMLL’s headed a bad road again.

CMLL (SAT) 03/12/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Minos
2) Eléctrico, Sangre Imperial, Suicida b Cholo, Grako, Inquisidor
tecnicos took 2/3
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., Stigma
Halcon Suriano Jr. replaced Pegasso. Ola Negra took 2/3.
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., Pegasso
Halcon Suriano Jr. replaced Stigma. Ola Negra took 2/3.
4) Dragón Rojo Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr. b Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Star Jr.
rudos took 1/3.
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
Guerreros took 2/3, Gran Guerrero defeating Hechiceor to set up a CMLL HEAVY match next week.

With Hechicero and Euforia as champions, Gran Guerrero has been elevated to default heavyweight challenger.

CMLL (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia b Angelito & Último Dragóncito
2) Cachorro, Halcón Suriano Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cholo, Inquisidor, Raider
tecnicos took 2/3
3) Diamond, Okumura, Volcano b El Audaz, Misterioso Jr., Nitro [Relevos Increíbles]
Team Okumura took 1/3.
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Jr. b Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 1/3. Esfinge & Fugaz challenged Felino Jr. & Polvora to a MEX TAG title match.
5) Místico, Stuka Jr., Titán DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Sagrado, Terrible
tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Dragon Rojo unmasked Titan

The results came off like Fugaz/Esfinge is on the 20th, and maybe Rojo/Titan after that.

Nothing too important on Monday in Arena Puebla. Guadalajara has the return of CDMX wrestlers. Tuesday Arena Mexico has both the micros and the super lightweight match. It’s possible I may stream that somewhere – not on Twitch because I’m concerned CMLL may strike any of their content there, and maybe not at all because my VPN isn’t working half the time – but maybe because things are at least happening on that one.

Coyote explained he took the name because he would hear (but rarely see) coyotes when he was growing up on a ranch in Tamaulipas. One earned the ire of his grandmother for eating her chickens, but he thought they were very tricky and strategic animals, plus tough. All the skill you need for a rudo luchador. Coyote was originally tecnico Antaris, didn’t want to be a rudo, but adapted to it.

AAA

Rey Fenix missed another weekend of advertised matches. He and Penta were scheduled to defend the House of Glory tag team championships on Friday in New York against the Briscoes. Instead, Fenix and Penta brought out Arez as a replacement, the Briscoes also put the ROH tag titles on the line, and Mark Briscoe pinned Arez to win both titles. It’s unclear if Fenix even appeared in Merida, but he definitely didn’t wrestle there. Fenix’s next known match is Saturday’s Republic of Lucha one year anniversary, which is will be streamed on FITE. Fenix has said nothing about when he’s expected to be back. The Republic of Lucha store is owned at least in part by Fenix & Penta, so you’d think he’d find wrestle on it. Can’t be sure unless he says something, and Fenix has made a choice not to say anything.

AAA did have lots of TV to talk about beyond Fenix. The Space show on Saturday night aired the first half of the Madero taping. The matches came off better than they read on paper; the five-way match survived Drago Kid’s near-death to have a lot of fun spots, the three trios match was chaos but a better sort of chaos than the Rey de Reyes multiteam matches, and the trios title match was the best La Empresa match since they’ve been in AAA. At least for this half of this show, AAA cut way down on the interference and the general run-ins, though Estrellita was still freely interfering in the Empresa match. It was an easier watch.

The Space show includes brief backstage vignettes in between matches. Piero talked about returning to his hometown “El Imperio de Las Shotas” which seemed to be recruiting Dulce Kanela in their bit. Nino Hamburguesa told Crazy Boy & Extreme Tiger it was great to team with them once again but he’d be focusing on his team with Mr. Iguana, which seemed to slightly miff the Mexican Power members. Hamburguesa was wearing a t-shirt for the group that still had Joe Lider’s name (and seemingly not his own!) as the group members, so maybe Lider’s still coming in at some point. The show ended with La Empresa beating up Mr. Iguana after he foolishly tried to yell at them.

Jessy Ventura is only using the name “Jessy” in AAA, probably to avoid legal trouble with other Jesse Ventura. AAA actually had a “Jesse” years ago, who was doing more of a boy band gimmick and is the brother of Tiffany. Maybe he’ll complain about his name being stolen instead.

AAA’s Saturday night live event was the first Showcenter event near Monterrey. The card aired on FITE. There were Multimedios production people there and the network did help promote the show, but there was no indication of when (or if) this would air on Multimedios TV.

AAA TV (SAT) 03/12/2022 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [FITE, Lucha Central, Mas Lucha, thecubsfan, thecubsfan]
1) Reina Dorada b Maravilla [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:18.
2) Dinámico & Emperador Azteca b Baby Extreme & Dulce Kanela
7:57. Wrestlers from RIOT stormed the ring afterwards attacking many of the wrestlers. They convinced Baby Xtreme to join them. Konnan confronted the group, said no one knew who they were, then corrected it to no one except the four guys in the front row cheering them knew who they were, but offered them a RIOT/AAA trios match for the next show.
3) Taurus b Hijo de LA Park [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:28. Taurus won cleanly, but headbutted Hijo de LA Park when he went for a handshake. The other LA Parks came out and beat Taurus up.
4) Chik Tormenta b Estrellita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:40. Estrellita’s first official match in AAA in 12 years. She did not win.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr.
12:54. Sanson submitted Myzteziz to keep NGD undefeated. Earlier in the show, Anitfaz del Norte interrupted a Laredo Kid promo to talk about the past – Antifaz mentoring Laredo when he was staring in AAA – and to ask to team with him once again. Antifaz also wanted a Cruiserweight Title shot. Laredo Kid agreed at least to the teaming part.
6) Mamba, Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa b Abismo Negro Jr., Látigo, Toxin
8:18. Hamburguesa splash. After the match, lots of people took turns running in until the Vipers (w/Cibernetico) ended up last in the ring. Cibernetico earlier cut a promo challenging Konnan to come to the ring to talk him, but Konnan did not appear.
7) Hijo Del Vikingo b Flamita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
12:17. Vikingo won clearly with the Cuerno del Vikingo

Flamita and Vikingo is worth going out of your way to see; the whole show was worth watching. Vikingo has a foot injury, he’s also working the foot injury into this match, but he’s also doing stuff no one else can do while having a foot injury. He’s incredible. I both want to see him wrestle every AAA TV possible and also for him to be locked in the safest possible space until someone gives him a big money deal he obviously merits. Flamita was right there with him, working very hard and integrating his rudo personality while not detracting from the match. This was easily better than Vikingo/Johnny at Rey de Reyes, though obviously with much better conditions.

Everything else on the show was enjoyable; the opener was the weakest match but that meant it was just OK. The Dinamico/Emperador Azteca vs Baby Extreme/Dulce Kanela tag was worked incredibly hard, four people on the fringes of AAA’s roster trying to earn more work. Hijo de LA Park is too much of a 2022 Create-A-Wrestler for me, a guy who does all the hot moves he sees without his own personality, but he and Taurus did put together something good. NGD worked hard in the trios match against Los Jinetes del Aire, and it looks like they’re trying to get over a figure four variant as a finish (likely replacing the inverted bear hug spot.) I really liked that most of the matches were in the 8 minute range rather than 10-15 for a normal TV match; it made the show move better and the matches seemed generally better off for getting cut down to better parts.

The Antifaz del Norte’s last few years in AAA overlap with Laredo Kid’s first few years, so the story Antifaz told about getting Laredo in the gym and mentoring him seems real. Antifaz was part of the Vipers at one point and I think people kind of see where that’s going, but it’s a good use of local name for these shows. This show generally seemed like a Monterrey offshoot promotion of AAA; it helps if you know what’s going on in AAA to understand the feuds, but people who watch AAA on Space wouldn’t know these shows are going on and don’t really need to so far. Maybe NXT UK is the good comparison, which segues into:

The RIOT Invasion bit was surreal. The destination is going to be really good – three of RIOT (Baby Extreme, Kratoz and Prometeo?) versus three of AAA is will work. The concept is still weird. This is like if PWG invaded one of the AEW shows in California; it’d feel strange out of PWG to do an invasion angle and it’d be weird they’d have a problem with AEW since half the people there also worked PWG at some point. RIOT’s used a bunch of people from AAA and some RIOT regulars are now AAA regulars. The storyline is RIOT felt disrespected by AAA for unclear and that disrespect definitely continued – Konnan buried them as people he’d never heard of and that no one (except for four fans in the front row) ever heard of – but I’m not sure the angle helped make people more excited for the eventual match. The angle seemed to happen because it’s the only way AAA knows how to integrate outside groups – there was a meme going around about how much AAA loves to do outside invasion angles even before this one happened. It also continued the ever contradictory way Konnan is portrayed on AAA TV: sometimes he’s the evil guy backing La Empresa to take down AAA and this time he was AAA management dismissing the outsiders. The angle would’ve worked better with whomever from AAA is going to face the RIOT guys in that spot. I’m guessing the angle was sold as RIOT guys getting the rub from being in the same space as Konnan specifically and one of the plusses for Konnan was getting to call the promotion that was getting some acclaim for booking AAA guys in better matches than AAA was doing a bunch of nobodies. This is far too many words about something that’ll be like the second or third match on a show two months from now.

No one knows how this Showcenter tournament works. The English announcers made a point of saying it wasn’t a single-elimination tournament but had no other details, which smells a lot like the people running the tournament also don’t know how it’s going to work.

There was no date given for the next Showcenter event. AAA had already said they’d skip April with TripleMania Monterrey happening, so maybe think late May.

AAA TV (SUN) 03/13/2022 Poliforum Zamna, Mérida, Yucatán [Podio Noticias, Yucatan]
2) DMT Azul, Puma King, Sam Adonis b Mr. Iguana, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa 
Microman was in the tecnico corner. Hiedra helped Mr. Iguana, the two teased a kiss, and Empresa attacked them both to set up the victory.
3) Flammer, La Hiedra, Maravilla b Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Sexy Star 
4) Laredo Kid © b Willie Mack, Taurus [AAA CRUISER] 
11th defense, first since May. Announced with Dragon Lee and a mystery man (which wasn’t supposed to be Taurus since he was missing this show originally). Mack left the match with an unclear injury.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Flamita, Rey Escorpión, Villano III Jr. and Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana 
Flamita was the surprise partner of Los Mercenarios.
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Látigo, Psicosis b Hijo Del Vikingo, Octagón Jr., Pagano 
Psicosis replaced Cibernetico. Abismo Negro beat Octagon
7) Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood © b Dragón Lee & Dralistico [AAA TAG] 
Harwood pinned Dragon Lee after Penta tried to interfere and instead got rammed into Dragon Lee.
8) Pentagón Jr. b Arez 
Arez/Penta was set up by an in-ring promo earlier. FTR attacked Penta after the match. Dragon Lee & Dralistico ran them off but also attacked Penta, unmasking him. Vikingo, Octagon and Pagano made the save to end the show.

That’s not a complete match list. There’s a local match with no result mentioned. The Yucatan report on the show also mentions a Marvel match taped. It’s eight AAA matches entirely, which is a lot for two weeks of TV. Maybe it’ll be three? It should start airing on March 26th.

The YouTube links there are the same as the Facebook stream a Twitter user helpfully pointed me towrads last night. I was not paying close attention to all of the matches. FTR versus Hermanos Lee seemed like Dralistico & Dragon Lee working an FTR style match in Mexico, though I could see FTR pointing out the moves they took and feeling differently about it. It could’ve been a style mismatch disaster and it was not, so that’s a success. I was surprised FTR held onto the belts, and the destination now looks like a three way tag title match at some point (maybe TripleMania Regia.)

I’m unclear if Flamita is meant to be a permanent Los Mercenarios member; he was likely to be the mystery guy in the Cruiserweight match all considered.

AAA’s case here is they gave Merida a fair replacement match for Lucha Brothers/FTR, added a bonus singles match and made a fair substitution on other changes. They still advertised Fenix for this show long after they knew he wouldn’t be wrestling on it. There were in-ring promos to set up Hermanos Lee/FTR and Arez/Penta, and I’d presume their excuse is they wanted to wait to run the angles to set up the matches before announcing changes. They still could’ve said Fenix was off the show and more would be announced on the card. AAA made the choice not to say anything.

AAA’s false advertising practices cost them buys on the Saturday FITE show; once word was out Vikingo was questionable, some people weren’t going to pay $19 to find out if AAA to not get the scheduled main event for the second straight show. (Some of those came back around when Vikingo did appear.) The fans in Merida seemed very into the tag title match, but I’m sure there were some people who were hoping to see Fenix and not seeing him will affect their ticket decisions next time AAA’s in town. It’ll be a long while before AAA’s back in Merida for a taping so maybe that’ll be fine, but they’re selling to the same internet audience every month so they might want to be more careful.

Arez ended up being on Fenix substitution duty all weekend, which meant a lot of traveling

• Aguascalientes on Thursday for AAA
• New York on Friday for House of Glory
• Indianapolis on Saturday for Warrior Wrestling
• Merida on Sunday for AAA

That’s at least 6,000 miles of traveling with four matches in between. The Aguascalientes match went well, the Merida match went well from what I saw, and both of the US matches got good reviews. He’s back at it Thursday in Gomez Palacio.

Dragon Lee posted video of getting an elbow stitched up after his on Sunday match. Might have been on his tope.

This Merida date closes up all known AAA unfinished shows from prior to the pandemic. There likely were other dates booked that were never announced, but this was the last show that still had tickets from 2020 waiting to be used.

Attendance for the three AAA show seemed pretty strong. The Aguscalientes show seemed pretty full; the building capacity there is over 7,000 and they may have come close. Monterrey appeared to have many seats traped off. AAA shot from behind those seats for their sell out photo), but if they’re calling it a sell-out then they must’ve been happy with the draw. Merida looked well attended too, though they may have still had reduced capacity there judging how people are seated.

Mas Lucha caught up to DMT Azul to ask him what he thought about the national heavyweight championship ending up with Euforia. This interview appears to be done after last week’s taping in Madero, DMT Azul had just won the AAA trios championship, and so that may be why he’s unbothered by the situation. Azul congratulates Euforia but still believes the commission’s actions in stripping him didn’t correspond to any real rules, that the “national” titles are worthless if they’re kept in one promotion with the same few people challenging for them, and that he’s still the rightful heavyweight champion.

Psycho Clown dedicated his Record column this week to supporting Cain Velasquez and hoping he’s freed soon. Psycho Clown and LA Park have been very publicly pro-Velasquez on social media.

Other News

IWRG (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, Cronista del Ring (videos), Estrellas del Ring, IWRG]
1) Spider Fly & Villarreal b Kenji & Rey Aztaroth 
2) Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy b Backter & Vudu Max 
3) Cerebro Negro Jr., Fulgor, Yorvak b Estrella de Oro, Genex, Legendario 
4) Caballero de Plata & Freelance DQ Puma de Oro & Toxin 
Caballero de Plata replaced Asterboy (injury). Puma fouled Freelance.
5) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Séptimo Dragón b Accion Jackson, Dick Angelo 3G, Tonalli  
6) Travis Banks © b Cerebro Negro [IWRG IC MIDDLE]  

Mas Lucha used a graphic promoting the fourth match in their live coverage for this show, not mentioning the main event.

A new Cuchillo introduced themselves Friday at a press conference. He doesn’t appear to be related to the original but claims he was a student of the original and trained for 15 years. He immediately challenged Hijo del Santo to a mask match; Santo won Cuchillo’s mask 42 years ago. A Santo/new Cuchillo match is incredibly unlikely. Revivial gimmicks like this are usually connected with a promotion, though no one was mentioned at the press conference.

Cuatro Poder has an article about women’s wrestling in Chiapas that’s a little more substantial than most of the women’s day pieces. They believe the first Chiapas luchador was Gata Angora in 1987 or 88, though it’s possible someone started in the area and quickly moved to Mexico City prior. There are six active luchadoras in the city of Chiapas itself right now, plus two more who tried to pass the licensing exam and did not pass but are still training to try again. They’ve added a woman to the lucha libre commission as part of a process of improving gender equity.

Box y Lucha 3502D+ has a million things on the cover.

Segunda Caida watches a 1985 Santo & Black Man vs Blue Panther & Negro Casas match, and a 90s LA lucah match.