CMLL Universal tournament kicks off, AAA Fire Fire, LA Park/MLW

CMLL

Today’s Arena Mexico show kicks off the CMLL Universal tournament with eight national champions. Terrible, Termplario and Angel de Oro have the best chance of winning on paper, with Fugaz, Esfinge, Panterita Jr., Virus and Cancerbero being more long shots. CMLL tournament shows are rarely good. The rest of the card includes another Atlantis Jr./Stuka trios (Stuka with Dragon Rojo and Mistico, Atlantis Jr. with Ultimo Guerrero and Volador), plus a women’s trios and the lightweight crew facing Ols Negra. Like all Friday shows, this is a TicketmasterLive PPV, will air on TV next week, and will air on YouTube in two weeks.

CMLL explained on Informa how the Universal tournament is working this year:

• the eight national champions will have a one-night tournament tonight
• the eight CMLL champions (excluding those who also hold national champions) will have their one night tournament next week
• the NWA Champions (Stuka, Volador Jr. and Mistico) will have a three-way match on April 22nd to determine that winner
• the three winners from each title category will meet to determine the winner on April 29th.

This format is more logical than I’d would’ve guessed. On the other hand, CMLL struggles at doing three ways that make any sense, so back-to-back weeks of them might not go well. Still, at least there’s no elimination tournament on one of these weeks.

CMLL (SUN) 04/10/2022 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Eléctrico, Leono, Sangre Imperial vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Arkalis, Robin, Stigma vs Espanto Jr., Luciferno, Nitro
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Felino, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Terrible vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

A rudos vs rudos main event.

CMLL (MON) 04/11/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Fénix SO & Millenium vs Black Tiger & Rey Apocalipsis
2) Disturbio, Perverso, Prayer vs Sangre Imperial, Tigre Rojo Jr., Valiente Jr.
3) La Vaquerita vs Reyna Isis
4) Dulce Gardenia, Kráneo, Stigma vs El Suicida, Guerrero Maya Jr., Volcano
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero vs Euforia, Hechicero, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

The Atlantis/Stuka feud has been heavy in Puebla, at least based on the lineups. Kraneo is still a tecnico on this show; I wonder if they’re just going to do the rudo turn in multiple locations since the only people who’ve seen it are those in attendance in Arena Coliseo.

This is probably old news to some, but I just didn’t know: Arena Puebla’s Facebook page been streaming the Monday main event for months. It’s not every week (not this one), and it’s just someone shooting it with their phone, but it’s something for people looking for it. I’m working at archiving these on the Google Drive just so it doesn’t disappear.

CMLL can’t exactly announce a full card for the Arena Mexico Anniversary show at this point, since about a third of the men’s roster is in play for the Universal tournament at the moment. They did announce two matches in addition to the tournament final:

CMLL (FRI) 04/29/2022 Arena México
Arena Mexico 66th Anniversary
4) Dark Silueta, La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit, Stephanie Vaquer vs Dalys, Lluvia, Marcela, Reyna Isis
5) Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Mephisto
6) ? vs ??, ??? [CMLL Universal, final]

Satanico created Averno & Mephisto in 2001 – like, he used his supernatural devil powers to transform them into those gimmicks, you had to be there – with the idea they’d wrestle his previous proteges Bucanero & Guerrero. Only, Mephisto broke his arm in training and so it was Averno & Satanico in the tag program. These two long running top rudo CMLL pairs of the 00s had one known match as a team in 2002 in Arena Puebla (probably before Arena Puebla was taped), and this is the retro match. Averno & Mephisto teamed a couple of times in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, this will be their first Arena Mexico. The most surprising part of this is CMLL can announce this match now because somehow none of these four guys are champions.

The women’s match is the usual random pairings so CMLL can promote it as a “lucha ineditio” – a never before seen match – which is technically true but no one has a reason to care.

CMLL (TUE) 04/12/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra, Cosmos, Último Ángel vs Destello, Relámpago Azul, Thunder Boy
2) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. vs Estrella Oriental, Explosivo, Fantástico
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Crixus, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
4) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
5) Flash & Gallo © vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno [OCCIDENTE TAG]
2nd defense
6) Esfinge, Fugaz, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel

Titan teams with the new national tag champions against the local trios champs. Flash & Gallo defended these same titles against this same team in July, maybe they’ll get to the next step after this match. Queretaro wrestlers are back in the tercera.

LuchaWorld has an obit for Raziel, including a few lesser-known characters he used.

Felino Jr. hasn’t wrestled since losing the tag team titles on 03/20; I’ve stumbled across some Puebla results and he got replaced by Espanto Jr. last Monday. That tag title match turned up on video, and it looks like the ex-Tiger might have suffered an injury near the end. There’s an unusual slow fall from the ropes and then he doesn’t move a whole lot. Felino Jr. posted an Instagram story teasing a return soon.

AAA

AAA (THU) 04/07/2022 Auditorio BlackBerry, Cuautehmoc, Distrito Federal [Record]
1) Drago, Mr. Iguana, Myzteziz Jr. b Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
2) Pagano & Psycho Clown b Abismo Negro Jr. & Parka Negra
3) Aerostar & Lady Shani b Reina Del Ring & Tigre Dorado
the two AAA wrestlers and the two created characters had appeared in a promotional animated video

This was a special sponsored (and maybe invite-only?) show to promote the AAA/Free Fire alliance, which seems to have gone well. The main event was the two AAA wrestlers and the two created (Free Fire?) characters who faced of the animated trailer posted recently; team AAA didn’t need La Parka’s help this time. You can see that video and some production info here.

Space lists this week’s AAA show as “Merida/Tijuana”, so it’s a rare show covering two different tapings. AAA has two unaired matches left from Merida (Vipers, three-way trios), so figure those will air. They taped seven matches in Tijuana, so that’s enough for a match this week and two more episodes. The show is scheduled to air at 6:30 pm – Mexico & US are back synced on DST – which is a problem for me because I’m busy once again at time. My streaming service also still isn’t working well, with the video jumping back a few seconds in irregular periods. I may just link to the other Twitch feed that’s out there and leave everyone on their own for this one.

AAA held interviews in their office to promote TripleMania Monterrey this week, which will start turning up over the next few weeks. Record posted their interview with Canek, who is as interested as the rest of us in finding out how much of Canek is left. Canek feels like Psycho Clown is not used to facing a wrestler of his (power) style, just small and skinner guys. Canek expects Psycho Clown will do more flying to counter him and hopes to pull him towards some middle crowd. Psycho Clown trying flying moves on Canek seems like a really bad idea so let’s hope not. Canek makes a point of saying he doesn’t choose the opponents he faces, he’s always had people coming at him (because he’s such an important guy.)

AAA put up a Young Bucks promo for the TripleMania Monterrey main event. They talking about how they’re definitely going to win the AAA tag team titles before the show (they definitely didn’t win the AAA tag team titles) and otherwise do a very Young Bucks promo.

There’s also a profile from Tay Conti & Sammy Guevera, confused at Arez & Chik Tormenta not being in Tijuana (and Conti is confused at Arez not being Austin Aries.) This is build towards TripleMania Monterrey, though Conti & Guevera are also not wrestling Arez & Chik Tormenta in Monterrey on the lineup AAA has out.

LA Park fired again

LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, and La Park Jr. are out of MLW following an incident on the 03/31 taping. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports the Parks were fired when a scripted attack on Alex Hammerstone and Jacob Fatu turned unscripted and left both men in need of medical assistance. You can see the incident around 18:10 in this video, assuming MLW doesn’t get it taken down. Not sure if you should use me to judge what is real and fake because I think I would’ve seen that as “wow, they’re really making it look real” and not “that actually is real”; it’s fairly violent though maybe not as out of control as you might imagine.

In the WON, Hammerstone was said to have challenged Park to a fight backstage and Park claimed he couldn’t speak English. I’ve elsewhere heard it was closer to the entire locker room who wanted to fight LA Park. Both Fatu & Hammerstone worked on the 04/01 show I attended, where LA Park and his sons were announced as all being out “injured”; word had already leaked out that something that man the Parks unwelcome by that point.

LA Park’s stints in promotions rarely end with a handshake and a hardy farewell. Park might have sensed his farewell was coming. The 04/01 main event was himself with Jacob Fatu. I’m not sure if Fatu is was going over though it’s possible Park thought that was the case, that he was losing his way out of the promotion and tried to do something that would get him attention even with an impending loss. LA Park has recently had issues with MLW, leading him to miss the tapings in Tijuana. My understanding is it was more on the financial side that time around, but I could see both sides independently realizing Dallas might be it and it boiling over with Fatu & Hammerstone being the unlucky victims.

Earlier this week, LA Park told Record he was in need of knee surgery, which matched MLW’s public explanation. LA Park surely does need work done on his knees, he’s a very large man who has done crazy things for years, but putting that out there when he did was more about explaining why he was no longer in MLW and he’s likely in no danger of missing any TripleMania match due to the existing knee injuries. LA Park is unlikely to suffer any real consequences for his familiar actions in Mexico – I got a “oh, they did it again!” reaction when explaining this to someone there this morning. LA Park’s behavior does illustrate the risk of AAA working with him for the TripleMania tournament; LA Park in the final would be a huge deal but there’s no guarantee of what he’d do in the situation. His actions in MLW makes him less likely to get picked up by an English-focused US promotion in the near future, but it’s not like there was a TV promotion outside of MLW who’d bring him in, and this might have been thinking he was done with MLW anyway. I guess there might be some interest in a Park/Hammerstone or Park/Fatu match, maybe in GCW or even back in MLW, if this story has legs. I’m not sure it’d deliver what people would want to see.

MLW also told the WON that they sold out both those tapings, which came off very strange to me – it felt less than half full on 04/01. Tickets for a pandemic canceled show were applied to this show, which explained some of it to me. Still, I was able to easily buy GA tickets the week of the show and I didn’t get the feeling it was sold out when I was there. There had to be a lot of people who bought tickets and didn’t end up using them if that’s the case.

Other News

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucah Report.

In 2018, Mexico City passed a resolution declaring lucha libre as an intangible part of Mexico City’s culture. It was akin to saying wrestling wasn’t simply athletic theatre for the poor, as it has been disregarded in past decades, but instead an important and respected part of Mexico City’s identity. Arena Mexico put up a plaque celebrating this resolution in a ceremony, and it’s a thing that looks good on a powerpoint presentation if you’re trying to convince a business to work with you. It doesn’t really mean anything, but it makes lucha libre people feel good about lucha libre. This week, there was a resolution to spread this resolution to the entire country of Mexico (and to also include boxing in this version.) It’s got a long way to go before it passes.

Hijo del Santo will appear on Televisa/Univision series “Albertano contra los mostros”; his family has a history of fighting monsters. It reads like it’s along the lines of a cameo rather than a regular role.

Lucha Memes 03/06 Arena Queretaro show is up; IWTV has put up three Memes shows in a short time, so this is a decent time to jump onto the service if you’re just binging them. I had the last 3 PWGs shows in my mailbox, so I may not be able to get to them for a while. I did hear good things about Mike/Cometa and Hechicero/Makowski, and just was generally happy to get any information on a Memes shows at all. The Ace of Base show sounds like it didn’t go as well; sometimes the big concepts don’t work out.

I definitely misunderstood what RGR was doing with Psycho Clown and Hijo del Santo. They have a show this weekend, on 04/10, but that’s a normal show not including those two. They’re instead giving out information about when/where that Psycho/Santo show will happen to those fans in attendance. I presume the information will be posted online later, but perhaps not due the politics involved.

Republic of Lucha teased their next show will be June 19th (06/19, probably not including Rey Mysterio.) That’s the day after TripleMania in Tijuana.

Juventud Guerrera says he’s got an open door to return to AEW after he recovers from a leg injury, but he’s working for Robles Promotions for the moment. I’m not sure if anyone besides Juventud Guerrera believes Juventud Guerrera will be returning to AEW.

AEW TV will soon begin appearing on NJPW World for Japanese IP addresses only. It’ll be an unusual situation where CMLL and AAA title matches will be appearing on the same paid service; I guess that hasn’t happened since Televisa/Galavision, though this is a bit different.

Hidalgo luchador Dr. Brown (72) passed away on Tuesday.