My posting schedule will be irregular for the rest of the week. Or even more than it already has been.
CMLL
CMLL (FRI) 05/12/2023 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Micro Sagrado b Átomo, Chamuel, Periquito Sacaryas 
11:31.
2) Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Amapola, La Jarochita, Skadi
11:06. Amapola replaced Princesa Sugehit (and late, Sugehit indicated she’d still be on this show a couple of hours prior.) Zeuxis beat Jarochita.
3) Magia Blanca b Fugaz [lightning]
10:00. time limit draw (though there was a clock malfunction.) Fugaz was closer to winning at the end and asked for a MEX WELTER title match next week. Magia Blanca accepted.
4) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto 
11:44.
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. © b Templario [CMLL MIDDLE]
10:45. Dragon Rojo falls on his second defense. Templario is the 22nd champion, first person to hold both this title and the MEX MIDDLE at the same time. (Normally, this means he’d have to vacate the MEX MIDDLE title.) Dragon Rojo went for a foul, Templario avoided it, unmasked him and cradles him for the win. Mask match challenges for the Aniversario followed.
6) Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
11:59
Dragon Rojo/Templario was the best version of the match they’ve had so far, except for Templario hitting the ropes on his Sasuke Splash finish. It’s still missing the spark to feel like an Anniversary main event. They’re going through the motions of a big feud, it just doesn’t feel that way.
Templario is the first person to hold both the CMLL and Mexican National Middleweight championship because (in part) that national title had been an AAA title for most of the last thirty years. It left CMLL with Octagon, and came back when Octagon left AAA. In theory, there’s a tournament for the title coming up now.
The rest of the show was easy good stuff. A pleasant if unmemorable watch. Soberano and Ultimo Guerrero are still not allowed to make contact. Fugaz had an OK night but a lot of crowd support; the crowd didn’t seem especially numerous but it was especially loud through the show.
CMLL (SAT) 05/13/2023 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL, Mas Lucha]
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora 
2) La Vaquerita, Sanely, Skadi b Amapola, Hera, Olympia 
3) Ángel Rebelde b Difunto [lightning]
4) Espíritu Negro, Hombre Bala Jr., Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
Diablos pulled a switch to win
6) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Último Guerrero b Místico, Panterita del Ring Jr., Soberano Jr.
Angel de Oro unmasked Soberano and pinned him for the win, setting up a singles match between the two.
Angel de Oro/Soberano sounds like a fun match we won’t see.
CMLL (SUN) 05/14/2023 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía b Minos, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Astral b Oro Jr. [lightning]
3) Futuro, Max Star, Vegas b Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma
4) Kráneo, Rugido, Zandokan Jr. b Capitán Suicida, Fuego, Volcano
5) Atlantis, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Averno, Hechicero, Templario
6) Gran Guerrero © b Yota [CMLL HEAVY]
2nd defense
I watched all of the third day of NJPW’s BOSJ tournament. Yota came up during Titan’s match – but only as wondering if Titan knew if Yota was actually joining LIJ. This heavyweight title match never came up and was never promoted by NJPW, which seemed like a clear indicator it wasn’t part of the story NJPW is telling. It would’ve been a cool story to go the other way. Oh well.
CMLL (TUE) 05/16/2023 Arena México
1) Pequeño Magía vs Minos [lightning]
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Maligna vs Metálica, Olympia, Tiffany
3) Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) El Audaz vs Virus [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Star Black, Volcano vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
6) Esfinge, Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Yota
Audaz/Virus was set up last week. I guess Audaz is a warm-up for ZSJ and Bad Dude Titto.
CMLL (FRI) 05/19/2023 Arena México
1) Robin, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. vs Difunto, Dr. Karonte I, Zandokan Jr.
2) Magia Blanca © vs Fugaz [MEX WELTER]
third defense
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr. vs Espanto Jr., Felino Jr., Misterioso Jr.
4) Stuka Jr. vs Euforia [lightning]
5) Místico vs Volador Jr., Atlantis Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Soberano Jr., Averno, Panterita del Ring Jr., Hijo del Villano III [Copa Jr. VIP, semifinal]
final two advance
The theme here seems to be an all second (or great) generation show. Some of the “second-generation” wrestlers are actually worked relations (Guerrero Maya Jr., Misterioso Jr., Dragon Rojo Jr..) but are close enough. It’s a final two advance to next week so everyone is going to be annoyed at the end of the night as always. This does not seem like an important tournament and pretty much any two wrestlers could avance. Well, maybe not Hijo del Villano III.
Stuka/Euforia sounds fun but a different match than it would’ve been two years ago. Star Jr. has been out six months after getting hurt in the Rey del Inframundo tournament; it’s good to get him back. Magia Blanca has a grandfather who wrestled but we don’t know his father’s wrestling name (if he did wrestle?) He’ll probably keep his title.
On Saturday, the Benito Juarez’s mayor celebrated Atlantis for his upcoming 40th anniversary. They held it at a swimming pool, with divers doing dives in Atlantis masks. Atlantis’ offcial fan club was part of the presentation, as was Daniel Aceves. A pickleball court will be named in his honor this upcoming Friday, and the mayor is holding an Atlantis drawing contest for children. The mayor’s office announced that CMLL will celebrate Atlantis in June and July at their arenas. Atlantis says he doesn’t have a retirement date and thinks he might wrestle for twenty or twenty-five more years. (He was not being serious.)
Titan is 2-1 in the Best of Super Juniors, losing to Taiji Ishimori and defeating KUSHIDA since I last checked in. (Somehow, he’s the only 2-1 wrestler in his block.) He faces Taguchi Tuesday morning, then Mike Bailey and Lio Rush the following two days. Those matches will likely decide if he’s a real contender this situation.
Difunto has talked about being trained by his father (Monje Cavernario) in the past, but the situation is a little more complicated than that. In a Mother’s day interview, Difunto says his parents (wrestlers Monje Cavernario and La Mestiza) separated when they were five, and he had no contact with his father. His mother would work during the week and still wrestle on the weekends, which meant young Difunto was left alone for days and just wandered the streets. That is a tough life. Difunto talked to his father when he decided to become a wrestler and that’s when their relationship (re)started.
AAA
AAA turned 31 today. They posted a graphic with various wrestlers, current and present. Some current people are not pictured and so there will be drama over a random graphic.
AAA TV returned this week. The opening four way had lots of spots. The idea was to build the show around the Vipers: destroying the opener people, defeating Psycho Circus, and defeating Perros del Mal. This would be good if anything more would happen with the Vipers soon. AAA TV is very far behind reality so I can already see nothing is happening with the Vipers. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Latigo and Jack Cartwheel now are feuding as part of AAA’s apparent goal to link up everyone with a rival.
AAA had a spot show in Martinez de la Torres, Veracruz on Saturday. It rained so much that the outdoor arena was flooded. The show went on anyway. Vikingo, Myzteziz and Komander had a lot of fun in the water. Yes, they probably shouldn’t have done what they did but it seemed like they have a memory and the fans got to see something special.
Konnan was a guest on Wrestling Observer Radio today. The one news item here is Konnan talks about AAA working with “billionaires”, who are love AAA’s vision, are going to upgrade AAA’s production and bring in big name celebrities for big money. On his own podcast, Konnan previously talked about AAA working with “the people who own F1” for a reality show. The people who own F1 are billionaires, Liberty Media, but I’m not sure if those are the people involved. (It’s been those to me elsewhere that it’s not those billionaires, but I can’t confirm who it actually is.) Knowing the name of people investing money into a major wrestling promotion would be great. No follow-up question was asked. It was just something Konnan said. Everyone moved on to the next topic.
This is consistent with most Konnan outside interviews. No one’s much interested in talking to “AAA head of creative” Konnan, because they don’t care about AAA outside of maybe one TripleMania a year. They’re bringing on “podcast host” Konnan on and wanted to ask that person questions about the same AEW/WWE topics he talks about for most of his podcast. The AAA questions were for people who don’t have much interest in watching AAA for people who do not watch AAA. Can the Taya, Penta, Fenix crew still work AAA? (Yes, but dates are more limited. No one seemed aware Penta works AAA regularly.) How is the AAA and AEW relationship? (Back on good terms after they worked through the FTR/Dragon Lee situation?) When will there be more AAA English commentary? (Konnan wants Joe & Larry to be there every single show, believes it hasn’t happened due to budget cuts, and believes the policy is changing soon.) Who are the big stars who may be going big stars in the US [instead of this show the hosts are not watching]? (Jack Carthweel, an unnamed wrestler who’s getting an old AAA gimmick soon, and an unnamed woman who can do flying moves debuting soon.) Did you want to do Omega/Vikingo first? (Yes, and he told us he might be a free agent on the day of TripleMania Monterrey so he wouldn’t be available, but we don’t think any of our fans watched it in AEW and it’ll still be new to them.)
The lack of product knowledge shines through on non-AAA questions, like when Konnan is critical of AEW for putting on Japanese wrestlers without video packages to introductions. No one knows to push back about AAA putting on a deluge of foreign wrestlers – Strickland/Swann at TripleMania Monterrey, everyone at the World is a Vampire show, everyone at Lucha Libre World Cup – without a TV video package for any of them. Is that an issue of AAA resources? Is that just a market difference? Did it end up mattering for AAA? Never asked. Again, it’s Konnan the podcast host on so boxing talk and discussing AEW booking strategies is more interesting to everyone participating. AAA just doesn’t really stack up in importance. The show ends with plugs for Konnan’s podcast and Konnan’s Twitter account, and no mention of where and how you might see TripleMania.
TripleMania Tijuana is going to sell itself on Kenny Omega versus Hijo del Vikingo. TripleMania Mexico City is going to sell itself by being the Mexico City TripleMania and thus the one AAA show a year that matters. The rest, I dunno. I want Larry (who may be reading this) and Joe (no idea) to get to go to every AAA show and get paid for it and I don’t really care if it’s a good idea for AAA or not. It’s not my money and it would make my life better. (I am a rare person to be asking for more Larry Dallas in my life.) At the same time, if AAA can’t be bothered to promote themselves to the Wrestling Observer audience – the primarly English-speaking wrestling audience that’ll get behind a foreign promotion – than I’m not really sure there’s a lot of point in investing in that English-speaking internet audience.
Aeroqueen is my guess on the mystery flying woman, for what it’s worth.
IWRG
IWRG (SUN) 05/14/2023 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Kenji b Golden Power
2) Lolita & Satania b Candy Swing & Sagitarius
3) Aster Boy & Éxtasis b Axel Carter & Saime Shan
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Karaoui, Nosaki, Shocko
5) Elemental, Heavy Metal, Rocky Casas b Hell Boy, Tonalli, Travis Banks
more Casas/Hell Boy challenges.
6) Hijo de Canis Lupus b Hijo del Pirata Morgan [IWRG Rey del Ring]
Pirata falls on his 5th defense.
I had this on as video wallpaper while working on other things Sunday. The crowd seemed up and the guys in the main event were working hard (maybe too hard.)
I still don’t know what the Tonalli deal but CMLL pulling Ultimo Guerrero (the implied reason for the match between the two not happening) doesn’t sound promising.
Satania says she and her sister Amazonika are headed to Ivory Coast for shows from June 1st to the 4th. She says they got the spot from Heddi Karaoui, and wrestlers from France, Brazil, the US, Canada, and Lebanon will be attending the show. There is a poster for it on Karoui’s Facebook page.
Other Notes
Andrade is among many names advertised as appearing on a June 15th card in Arena Olimpico Laguna. He’s listed as a “special invitee”; it’s believed he’s probably not wrestling. I’m not sure of a return date from his shoulder injury; his social media posts suggest it’s still months down the line.
Box y Lucha reports Guatemala luchador Corsario I/Ivan Babalu passed away earlier this month. He appears to have been active in the 80s.
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