Mistico defeats Atlantis, weekend results, Vaquer/Cuatrero

Daylight Savings Time

You should’ve moved your clocks forward on Sunday. Mexico did not and will not. Mexico generally is no longer doing DST; they got rid of the law last year, and only towns that border the US will change their clocks. Mexico City will not change, and that’s where most of the TV and streams come from. That means all streams from Mexico from until November 5th is one hour later in the US and anywhere else that changes their clocks.

Going over the frequently seen streams

• CMLL Friday
  • 8:30 pm Mexico City Central Standard Time
  • 9:30 pm US Central Daylight Time
• CMLL Tuesday
  • 7:30 pm Mexico City Central Standard Time
  • 8:30 pm US Central Daylight Time
• AAA on Space
  • 6:30 pm Mexico City Central Standard Time
  • 7:30 pm US Central Daylight Time

March to November is most of the year, so these are now essentially the time you’ll get used to seeing these shows. The people who are jumping in for a show every once in a while will struggle more. AAA would help themselves out if they made it clear when the Lucha Libre World Cup is airing in various time zones, because it’s just a confusing period. The good part is you’ll just be early if you get confused on the times, you’re not going to miss anything.

(If you’re a Mexican fan who watches WWE or AEW and lives away from the border, those programs now air 1 hour earlier for most of the year.)

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/10/2023 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Cachorro, Leono, Sangre Imperial b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. 
11:05.
2) Diamond, Oro Jr., Valiente Jr. b Disturbio, Inquisidor, Raider 
11:15. Diamond wrestled only sparingly in the match and had an obvious finger injury
3) Capitán Suicida, Dark Panther, Hijo del Villano III b Felino Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma [Relevos Increíbles] 
14:13.
4) Stephanie Vaquer b Lluvia [lightning] 
9:05. Vaquer cleanly submitted Lluvia.
5) Oráculo, Templario, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Rocky Romero [Relevos Increíbles] 
17:55. Angel de Oro was eliminated by Oráculo, came back in and attacked Volador Jr. (as he was about to beat Romero) for the win. Everyone fought after the match, and Templario and Dragon Rojo ripped masks during it.
6) Místico b Atlantis Jr. [lightning] 
9:45. Teased the timelimit draw with Mistico getting La Mistico just before the ending. No angle after.

This show was fine for a random Friday night show. Mistico and Atlantis tried to squeeze in a much bigger match in 10 minutes and it went well. Lluvia and Vaquer did well with the opportunity. I don’t think the outside-the-ring story has changed Vaquer’s in-ring story – the foreigners have consistently won leading into Copa Irma Gonzalez – though perhaps it changed how it was accomplished. Vaquer was still the rudas but less overtly so. She won cleanly. Suicida getting the win in the third match was a good sign for him, though it’s bad to read too much into a single CMLL match booking.

The semimain was strange for Romero team ending up as the tecnicos at night. Oraculo seems most likely to lose his hair, the usual setup is him winning the week before, and he indeed beat Angel de Oro. At the same time, they teased Volador finally getting that win over Rocky Romero before getting it taken away. Oraculo’s losing is the least exciting finish next week, Volador beating Romero the most exciting, and they booked towards both directions.

CMLL (SAT) 03/11/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito b Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito
2) Apocalipsis, Disturbio, Nitro b Astral, Eléctrico, Robin
Rudos took 1/3. Grako was scheduled to have his first match since September but was replaced by Disturbio.
3) La Catalina, Metálica, Zeuxis b La Jarochita, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita
Rudas took 2/3.
4) Fugaz b Dark Magic [lightning]
5) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Infernales took 1/3.
6) Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Oráculo, Rocky Romero
tecnicos took 2/3

A show that occurred. Fugaz reversed something Dark Magic did for the win and we will never see what it was. Or maybe you went to Arena Coliseo or gets the mysterious Heraldo TV show and know, I shouldn’t assume.

CMLL (SUN) 03/12/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado b Átomo, Chamuel, Micro Ángel
2) Misterio Blanco & Misterio Negro b Eléctrico & Leono
Misterios take 1/3 in the first match officially on the roster.
3) Espanto Jr. b Difunto [lightning]
4) El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
Team Coyote took 1/3.
5) Atlantis, Panterita del Ring, Valiente b Felino, Kráneo, Niebla Roja
6) Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero b Dragón Rojo Jr., Oráculo, Rocky Romero

Sumie Sakai made it into Mexico early enough to wave to the crowd on this show. She starts tonight in Puebla.

Polvora, Coyote, and Okumura had matching gear and did a promo talking about wanting to be a group. They need a name.

CMLL (TUE) 03/14/2023 Arena México
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado vs Átomo, Chamuel, Micro Ángel
2) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Minos, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
3) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita vs Amapola, Olympia, Tiffany
4) Fuego vs Luciferno [lightning]
5) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
6) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring vs Oráculo, Rocky Romero, Sagrado

Weird to see half of the H2L protagonists and not the other half. Coyote, Okumura and Polvora appear to be an unofficial unit, as pointed out to me. CMLL may not be explicitly pushing them as one, but this is the sixth time that combination has teamed up this year already. My hunch is it’s more a booking quirk than a plan though they might as well give them a name if they’re going to keep it up.

CMLL (TUE) 03/14/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Celeste, Eclipse Jr., Mágico vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Hijo del Calavera
2) Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono vs Carlo Roggi, Destello, Destructor
3) Ángel Rebelde & Halcón Negro Jr. vs Crixus & Principe Daniel
4) Reyna Isis, Sumie Sakai, Valkiria vs La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
5) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Bestia Negra, Ráfaga, Zandokan Jr.
6) Hombre Bala Jr. & Robin © vs Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte © [Arena Coliseo TAG, OCCIDENTE TAG]

The description of the main event makes it sound like both titles are on the line, though I’m not completely certain. The Calaveras are part of the Oro family and have shown up ni parts of Jalisco where I don’t get many lineups. There was a Celeste wrestling in this arena in the 80s, so there’s a chance they’re elated.

Milenio has an interview with Virus. He first tried out for CMLL in 1992, passed the test, and then was told he’d be in the Pequeno Estrellas division. (The original CMLL minis had ceased to exist when most of the people involved jumped to AAA; Virus came along as they were looking to restock.) Virus wasn’t thrilled about that as he’d been working as regular-sized wrestler on the indies but it was a way to get into “the best company in the world” so he endured it. He started as Piratita Morgan, Pirata Morgan jumped to AAA in 1993 and told him to come with, but the future Virus declined and got renamed as Damiancito el Guerrero. Virus won the famous cibernetico in 1997 to move to the regular division and says it was meant to be only for three matches. CMLL booking him back as a mini in early 1998 and he fought the idea. He eventually convinced the programming committee to let Virus stay, though Paco Alonso required them to come up with a new name – he couldn’t be a ‘-cito’ as part of the regular division – and that’s where the Virus name came in.

Friday afternoon, CMLL held a panel discussion with female wrestlers and front office staff as part of nationwide International Women’s Day activities. (Recap here if you don’t have the hour.) The wrestlers included were Amapola, Lluiva and Reyna Isis. The luchadoras stories are familar. The staff included Analletzin Diaz Alcala (commentator on ESPN in 2000; that would’ve been IWRG), Sandra Granados (in CMLL’s press department for decades) and Balbina Clasing (“Interinstitutional Relations Coordinator”; she appears to be the liaison with the Mexican government on various projects and has two more jobs on top of it according to LinkedIn.)

AAA

This week’s AAA on Space had no good matches. The main event was low effort and had no finish; AAA’s TV show ran out of time for the first occasion in the program’s history. The women’s match was messy, and the opener had two teams that didn’t gel well. Next weekend is an overloaded weekend and you make some time for yourself by cu

I think AAA might be going with ‘all multi-man matches are no DQ’. That means the weapon shots make sense coming back on the last taping, and the women’s match on this show, fits with AAA’s rules. Still, it’s incredibly challenging to get over the “we’re taking DQs seriously” when most of the matches are under no DQ stipulation.

In a bit that didn’t air on TV (or didn’t air on the version I saw), Estrellita received a phone call from Pagano asking her to join a new group he was forming. Estrellita had not made up her mind yet. An interview with Antifaz del Norte pushed his feud with Laredo Kid did air; I wonder if those two vignettes got swapped. I have no idea what a Pagano/Estrellita alliance would be.

The next Monterrey press conference is Monday in Monterrey. Not sure of a time; I guess it didn’t happen yet if you’re reading this paragraph. I think that’s still a big deal, but I’m also sure people will want to ask about the Cuatrero/Vaquer situation. It may overshadow what AAA has planned.

The Lucha Libre World Cup is Sunday. There are still plenty of tickets left, but they appears to be moving decently well for this pace of an AAA show. AAA is promoting it a lot on social media. There appears to be no chat about the show beyond that. Maybe it’ll pick up close to the weekend.

The AAA spot show in Aguascalientes on Friday drew very well. The show was headlined by DMT Azul vs Blue Demon, which hasn’t been featured on TV at all. AAA wrestlers were on the show but they weren’t building off TV programs. Sexy Star II wrestled on the undercard and appeared to hurt her ankle at the end of the match,

Rush & Dralistco were pulled from a 03/25 AAA/BARBA show in Saltillo. No replacements have been announced as of yet. I haven’t been following Ring of Honor as close this time around, but I have the impression they needed to tape TV before Superccard of Honor by some quirk, and maybe that’s why those guys got pulled.

On Konnan’s podcast, he mentions Daga will be out two months recovering from his knee injury. He’s also asked about Taya leaving Impact to go elsewhere and mentions Taya has something big coming up soon. There were already fans speculating Taya was the mystery Canadian surprise to face Jade Cargill on Wednesday’s AEW show and Konnan’s comments fit with that idea. Konnan’s belief was AAA would take no action towards Cuatrero unless he were convicted of a crime. The segment was taped before Cuatrero was arrested but I do not expect that will change at this point.

Konnan will appear on WWE TV, inducting Rey Mysterio Jr. into their Hall of Fame. This is the only note of the WWE HOF in this post; I’m happy for the people who are happy but I had also already figured out on my own that Rey Mysterio Jr. was an all-time wrestler. Mysterio didn’t become better because he’s in the WWE HOF, the WWE HOF became better because Rey Mysterio is part of it. Anyway, Wrestling Observer Radio notes that WWE wasn’t going to let Konnan participate if he was under MLW contract (due to the ongoing MLW/WWE lawsuit) and it turns out Konnan was not under MLW contract.

Stephanie Vaquer & Cuatrero

Mexico City police took Cuatrero into custody late Friday after a match in Aguascalientes. He’s been arrested on charges of femicide (an intentional murder attempt with a gender-related motivation) and domestic violence after accusations made by Stephanie Vaquer about an incident on March 2nd. A hearing was held on the weekend, and  the judge ruled Cuatrero would continue to say in jail until the next hearing on Thursday. Cuatrero’s side wants to get him out of jail as soon as possible. ESPN’s report on the situation states that it’s the additional charge of femicide that’s keeping Cuatrero locked up as a preventive measure. We probably won’t know any more until Thursday.

NGD were not listed on any upcoming TV tapings before this announcement. We don’t yet know the complete card for the 04/16 TripleMania Monterrey event, so it’s possible they would’ve been used on that show. Mascara 2000 Jr. filled in for Cuatrero on a show in Juarez and figures to be the replacement as long as Cuatrero is unavailable.

Cuatrero’s side says they have a witness who disputes Vaquer’s side of the story, and will bring audio recordings to the court proceedings to prove it. Cuatrero’s version is it was just a break-up, nothing more. The breakup might be a point of agreement. Vaquer’s version includes her questioning Cuatrero about who he was texting and an argument coming out of it, which also sounds like a breakup. It’s what happened after that’s in dispute.

The fact that the accusations follow a break-up is notable because of a La Pasala follow-up story. A woman reached out to the paper after seeing the Cuatrero/Vaquer report saying a similar incident had happened with her and Cuatrero at the end of their relationship. The woman, whose name is not mentioned, is originally from Brazil and met Cuatrero on a TuriLuchas Turibus trip. (She provided photos to La Pasala to prove they had a relationship.) Cuatrero and the unnamed woman dated from 2015 to 2017 and were close enough that Cuatrero took her to Lagos de Moreno to meet his friends and family. Her description of the relation was of one that had issues: she believed Cuatrero was constantly cheating on her and having affairs with various fans. She also mentions Cuatrero being jealous of Dragon Lee, believing he was stealing women from him, which she read as Cuatrero projecting out his own infidelity. The woman eventually wanted to end the relationship due to the issues, and he reacted badly. She says Cuatrero threw her down on a bed and choked her after hearing the news. She says she faked passing out to trick him into releasing the choke. He later cried and begged her not to report him. She believes that if she had not faked passing out, he would’ve continued suffocating her until she died. The woman did not go to the authorities because she didn’t think people would believe her as a foreigner, and she knew Cuatrero was from a big powerful family of wrestlers who could make trouble for her. She was also just scared and in shock. She and Cuatrero haven’t seen each other since the breakup, and she’s still concerned something might happen with him or his fans. The woman feels partially responsible for what happened to Vaquer; if she had reported it, she believes it wouldn’t have happened again. She pledged to help Vaquer in any way possible.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 03/12/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Baby Star & Kenji b Dariux (Hidalgo) & Súper Boy 
Super Boy replaced Rey Minos
2) Hades (Indie) & Sagitarius b Satania & Therius 
3) León Dorado & Mr. Leo b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly 
4) Dick Angelo 3G, Legendario, Rey Halcón b Chicano, Eddie Rodríguez, Hazel 
Chicano’s latest return to IWRG.
5) Fussion & Jessy Ventura b Gannicus & Hijo del Alebrije 
Alebrije got his shoulder up at 2, the referee counted 3 because he was looking at the wrong shoulder. Seemed to be an angle playing off recent referee legit screwups. Alebrije threw a fit, shoved his partner, and walked out.
6) Diva Salvaje, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Mamba b Aeroboy, Aster Boy, Hell Boy 
Hell Boy replaced Wesley Pipes (done already?)

Doing angles about how bad your referees is never a good sign. The fourth match sure seemed to feature a legit brawl after a dive wasn’t caught. Things don’t appear to be going well here at the moment. They’re not drawing well (but they also probably don’t have as many expenses with this roster.)

IWRG (THU) 03/16/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Roja & Baby Star vs Kenji & Leo
2) Lolita, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly vs Arcángel Divino, Destiny, Lady Lee
3) Joey Marx & Mason Conrad vs Medico Brujo & Sick Boy and Hijo del Fishman & Hijo del Pirata Morgan
4) Coronel Vip vs Hijo de Canis Lupus
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Larry Miranda, Mamba vs Pig Decapitador, Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool
6) Pimpinela Escarlata vs Jessy Ventura

This is a show built on RGR, Lucha Time and GALLI wrestlers coming in (though I’m not sure it’s all that meaningful.) Marx & Conrad are the GALLI/Chicago wrestlers, who were briefly IWRG tag team champions last year. Marx was a Jack Evans clone a thousand years ago, Conrad is a typical midwest heel tag team guy.

Other Notes

Cachorra Flores (Dora Gabriel Vazquez, 44) passed away Sunday. She wrestled in Veracruz from at least 2000 to 2019 and was a second-generation wrestler.

Komander and Arez’s trip to wXw’s 16 Karat went about as expected results-wise: Komander beat Arez, Komander lost in the next round, they wrestled some tag matches to round out the weekend. The performance aspect sounds like it went even better than hoped. Komander was one of the most impressive wrestlers on the weekend, and both the singles match with Arez and the trios match on the final night seem to be well received. Doing well in that tournament seems like a jumping-off point for many more bookings in the general European area, and Komander particularly seemed to earn himself more work. Komander has risen quickly to a position where he can make a nice bit of money just working indies for the foreseeable future and doesn’t necessarily need to sign with AEW or WWE right now, but there’s no also guarantee AEW and WWE will still be interested in him when he’s ready to move on.

Bandido appears to be advertised as appearing both at the La Mole comic convention on Friday and for GCW on Friday. He can’t do both.

Brunoticias has an interview with La Piedad, Michoacan’s Princesa Tiger, who’s recently appeared in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara.

The Tijuana lucha libre and collection museum is adding another floor to its exhibits as it celebrates six years of existence on Wednesday. My memory from going there is the top floor was used for a different exhibition, so they’re probably adding something new.