TripleMania changes, Toro Bill Jr., NOAH

This was supposed to be published Wednesday, did not actually publish, didn’t notice while working on other stuff. There’s some dated material here.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 04/26/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Marca]
1) Acero, Pequeño Magía, Shockercito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Polvora, Pequeño Violencia  
Pequeno Magica was shaken up on a dive.
2) Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. b Astral, Leono, Sangre Imperial  
Sangre Imperial replaced Electiro, still out via injury
3) El Audaz, Flyer, Hombre Bala Jr. b Disturbio, Nitro, Okumura  
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus  
5) Blue Panther, El Coyote, Soberano Jr. b Magia Blanca, Star Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]  
Magia Blanca replaced Panterita del Ring (missed two shows in a row)

Nothing much in the results. Electrico must still be dealing with his neck injury, though he’s doing well enough to post workout videos. Not sure about Pantera del Ring, but a luchador his age could be dealing with any number of injuries. Mas Lucha noted Porra Tepito returned to Arena Mexico on this show; it’s been a while since Arena Mexico has had a drum section.

CMLL (TUE) 04/26/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (videos), Fuego en el Ring]
1) Estrella de Jalisco I & Estrella de Jalisco II b Destello & Destructor
2) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Fúnebre b El Divino, Johnny Dinamo, Mágico
3) Náutica & Sexy Sol b Dark Silueta & Valkiria
4) Cachorro, Misterio Blanco (Laguna), Misterio Negro (Laguna), Panterita del Ring Jr. b Obelisk, Persa, Raven, Temerario
Team Laguneros beats Team GDL
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Fantástico b Misterioso, Satánico, Valiente Jr.
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel b Ángel de Oro, Explosivo, Niebla Roja [OCCIDENTE TAG]
second defense

The team from Torreon beating the home team was a bit of a surprise. Champions retaining a little less so.

Informa has ten people listed, including referee Guero Noriega for some reason.

CMLL (SAT) 04/30/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Minos
2) Sangre Imperial, Suicida, Valiente Jr. vs Cachorro, Diamond, Halcón Suriano Jr.
3) Flyer, Stigma, Volcano vs Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Kráneo [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Dark Panther, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Espanto Jr., Felino, Virus
5) Fugaz, Místico, Titán vs Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr.

A lot of tecnicos on a Kid’s Day weekend show.

El Sol del Puebla visited Toro Bill Jr.’s funeral. They give his name as José Roberto Rosete Tamayo, age as 40, and say his career started in 2002. He leaves behind a wife and three children. Toro Bill Jr. was getting ready to go to dinner when he suffered a massive heart attack in the locker room during the main event of the show. It reads like the injury in the match isn’t thought to be directly related (or may have been a planned spot.) SuperLuchas has a well-written obit for Toro Bill Jr.  CMLL didn’t have a moment of applause for him on Tuesday, probably waiting for Monday.

Media outlets usually post the “Arena Mexico ghost stories” articles around Dia del Muertos, but ESTO breaks one out for the building’s anniversary show. There’s also an article featuring photos of how Arena Mexico looked when they were just finishing constructing it. No entrance area in those days.

AAA

We’ve reached the point in TripleMania week where AAA appears to be trying to break my brain.

Tuesday night, Space posted a graphic for the Young Bucks vs Fenix & Hijo del Vikingo match, conspicuously missing Fenix. AAA was aware of the graphic enough to retweet it. Space deleted the tweet on Wednesday morning. It seems dumb to worry about a TV network putting out a graphic for a match, but AAA’s falsely advertised Fenix twice already, he still hasn’t wrestled, and the slightest hint that he won’t be is going to set people off. All we know is he was back in training in recent weeks and everyone assumed he was wrestling until that graphic was posted, but AAA and Fenix have broken the trust there.

Thursday Edit: Yea, I guess it’s fine now.

Arez & Chik Tormenta added themselves to the mixed tag title match on TripleMania, putting their titles on the line after Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti kept challenging them. This probably won’t end well for their reign.

Alberto el Patron is now off TripleMania. Fanbyte published an update to their story Tuesday saying the same source who told them Alberto was on the show was now telling them Alberto was off the show and a “US-independent wrestler” will be in his spot. Dorian Roldan sort of addressed the situation in an interview with FITE, mentioning that Laredo Kid’s partner would not be anyone who had been talked about online. (The FITE interview debuted after the Fanbyte article but appeared to be taped prior.)

There’s no explanation of what exactly happened to cause the change. It certainly appears like the original source leaked Alberto being on the card in hopes of provoking an expected negative reaction and cause AAA to change their mind. I didn’t sense a negative reaction about Alberto in Mexico, but he’s still heavily disliked in the US, AAA wants attention from the US on these PPVs, and it might have be a situation where AAA would react to criticism when they normally don’t. I don’t know if this was all a plan, but it worked out.

Willie Mack is my first guess for “US-independent wrestler” since he was in the same spot as Laredo Kid’s mystery partner on the last Triplemania show in Monterrey. I have no idea if it’s him or if he’s even free.

Andrade announced Jose the Assistant will be coming with him to TripleMania. Everyone gets a plus one; I’m sure Brandon Cutler will be with the Young Bucks.

Villano IV said that everyone predicting him to lose is underestimating what a luchador will do when his mask is on the line.

ProWrestling TV also says they’re airing TripleMania on Saturday. Most people who are going to pay for TripleMania are going to get it on FITE and I believe PWTV is simply airing the same feed, but let me know how it goes if you try PWTV.

AAA held a press conference in Puebla to talk about a 05/28 show. Pagano, Murder Clown, Dave the Clown versus Rey Escorpion, Villano III, and Flamita is the main event, which makes it sound like it’s probably a spot show and not a TV taping. AAA hasn’t announced any post-TripleMania tapings so maybe. Thursday Edit: This is a TV taping, I’ll have the lineup posted on Firday.

Psycho Clown says his father was tough towards him (he goes as far as saying bullied him), which helps him now deal with ignoring criticism. Brazo de Plata also encouraged young Psycho Clown to go to arenas to help sell things, to help him get over his insecurity about his size as a child.

Everyone else

NOAH has two major shows this weekend which include a lot of Mexican wrestlers;

April 29 (a Junior focused show) – starts 3 AM CT Friday morning

• Dragon Bane vs Alpha Wolf vs Ninja Mack
• Extreme Tiger vs Seiki Yoshioka
• NOSAWA, Texano Jr., Super Crazy vs Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara, Shuji Kondo

I too am confused by Texano being a junior.

April 30 (a Heavyweight focused show) – starts 1 AM CT Saturday morning

• NOSAWA, Eita, Texano Jr., Kotaro Suzuki, Super Crazy vs HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway, Seiki Yoshioka, Yuya Susumu
• Masato Tanaka & Daiki Inaba vs Rene Dupree & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.
• Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, YO-HEY, Junta Miyawaki vs Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Extreme Tiger, Ninja Mack

Wagner & Dupree were the tag team champions here before the pandemic hit. Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf almost only faced each other in their previous NOAH tour, so seeing them against the NOAH juniors is going to be different. NOAH offers English (and Japanese) commentary via the Wrestle Universe service, which also included DDT, TJPW, and other groups. There’s also VOD. It’s normally a $7/month deal, but they’re offering a two-week trial starting Thursday. You’ll be charged if you don’t cancel before the end of the trial, but it’s an easy way to check out these shows and see if you’re interested in sticking around.

Mexico essentially announced they’re considering the pandemic over as of May 1st. They’re no longer going to put out COVID traffic light maps – they’ve all been green for the last four weeks – and they’re no longer going to recommend that people need to be masked inside. Different states and cities may enact their own rules. CMLL has encouraged fans to be masked for their shows, though they’re also clearly no longer enforcing that as seen in crowd shots.

RIOT lost their new venue, AIRO, for the 06/04 show. The promotion says they had a signed contract for the date and doesn’t explicitly mention what happened in a post, but talks about a hypothetical situation of someone booking a building for a venue only for a richer/more powerful couple also getting married at the venue directing the venue’s owners to cancel the other couple’s booking. RIOT fans saw this as AIRO at fault and started bombing their social media with bad reviews, enough so that RIOT had to ask their fans to delete those comments, saying AIRO wasn’t to blame and they hoped to use the venue in the future. AIRO is part of the same facility as the Showcenter Complex, where AAA is running monthly shows starting in May and possibly believed they had exclusive rights to the facility. RIOT has specifically not blamed or named AAA as the reason RIOT was canceled. The most recent RIOT shows included AAA wrestlers Mr. Iguana, Toxin, Latigo, Aramis, and RIOT champion Arez, with others working past shows. It is certain AAA would immediately block RIOT from using AAA wrestlers if RIOT started a public issue with them. Again, RIOT has not specifically blamed or named AAA as the reason RIOT lost the venue.

Here’s a dumb story: when Travis Banks joined Negocio Traumado, he had no idea they were a group of people who had quit IWRG and were antagonistic to the promotion. IWRG got a hold of him later, asked Banks why he quit, and he had no idea he had quit IWRG. (He’s claim is he thought he was just joining some random group; your trust in Banks’ word may vary.) It appears Banks has quietly quit that group and is back with IWRG until something else happens. It’s very unfortunate there are people fighting over Travis Banks, but that’s appears to have happened.

IWRG also posted a video of a fan dumping beer on Dr. Wagner and then them ejecting that fan out of the building, as proof they’re taking fan misbehavior seriously.

YouTube lucha libre uploader JC Carita and his wife were attacked at a show Sunday in Pachuca. There’s video of the incident on his Facebook page; he says his camera equipment was stolen. JC is one of many lucha uploaders who operate in a gray area, shooting videos of promotions in a fashion not specifically authorized but also not permitted. (There are few Mexican wrestling promotions who actively discourage filming matches, unlikely elsewhere.) They’re not conventional media working for a specific outlet, typically only uploading the video to a YouTube or Facebook page, but they’re also making available shows which might not be available elsewhere. It’s unclear if any of them are making money from these uploads, both if they’re getting enough views to make ad revenue and if YouTube is letting them monetize in the first place. There’s the usual bit of tension and drama between these various YouTubers. Carita typically doesn’t film shows in Pachuca, so these may have been people not used to dealing with each other. Video of the incident makes it appear as though the wrestlers are skirmishing with the videographers. The promotion, CLLT, says they fight we entirely between different media members and their wrestlers only got involved to try and break it up.

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