Author: thecubsfan

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 09/23/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Depor Puebla, Mano A Mano, Porra Fresa]
1) Astro & Black Tiger b Prayer & Rencor
2) Arkalis & Meyer b El Perverso & Multy
Meyer replaced Rayo Metailco.
3) Rey Samuray & Xelhua DQ Felino & Felino Jr. 
Felino Jr unmasked Xelhua, who demanded a singles match
4) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II 
5) Averno, Euforia, Valiente b Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Hechicero [Relevos Increíbles] 
Valiente pinned Hechicero after a mask pull.
6) Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.
Volador & Templario won in straight falls, setting up a tag title match

CMLL’s building matches more in the building frequently; it’s rare to have a show with nothing happening, and this had two matches set up.

CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Shockercito b Galaxy [lightning]
7:45
2) Capitán Suicida, Dragón de Fuego, Valiente Jr. b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
18:44
3) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
16:26.
4) Tessa Blanchard b Sanely
8:58. Sanely loses her first singles match since becoming a ruda.
5) Blue Panther, Flip Gordon, Neón b Stuka Jr., Terrible, Valiente
13:17
6) Esfinge, Templario, Titán b Difunto, Hechicero, Zandokan Jr.
14:51. Straight falls, Esfinge pulled Hechicero’s mask and rolled him up to win the second fall.

Nothing too interesting. The main event was the best if I had to pick. Sanely’s big debut as a ruda saw her lose but the fans cheer her over Tessa the entire match. They also worked lightning match time despite having three falls.

CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha, Mas Lucha Jr.]
1) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Draego, Persa b Gallo Jr., Makara, Rafaga Jr., Shezmu
2) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b Felino Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Robin
3) Lluvia © b Valkiria [OCCIDENTE WOMEN]
first defense. Mexican Paralympic athletes Haideé Aceves (2 silvers in backstroke) & José Arnulfo Castorena (also a swimmer), were honored after the match.
4) Atlantis, Pantera, Panterita del Ring b Felino, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
5) Star Black © b Gallego [MEX HEAVY]
fifth defense. Star Black wants a mask/mask match.
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico b Averno, Furia Roja, Soberano Jr.
Soberano may have picked up a leg injury; he left the match early.

Soberano keeps getting hurt, often looking seriously hurt, and then he’s just wrestling normally 24 hours later. We’ll probably find out if there’s anything to this one later tonight.

CMLL closed the Noche de Campeones voting Tuesday evening and surprise matches in between matches on the Arena Mexico stream. I checked out the totals Tuesday morning, and nothing changed as far as the winners. Below is the vote order (from lowest to highest), corresponding to the match order on Friday.

1. Los Infernales challenging Mascara Dorada, Neon, and Star Jr. [CMLL TRIOS]
2. Pierrothito challenging Ultimo Dragoncito [CMLL MINI]
3. Villanos challenging Magnus & Rugido [MEX TAG]
4. Sanely challenging Reyna Isis [MEX WOMEN]
5. Volador Jr. challenging Templario [CMLL MIDDLE]
6. Soberano Jr. challenging Atlantis Jr. [NWA LH]
7. Rayo Metalico challenging Futuro [MEX LIGHT]

That main event jumps out, though it fits patterns from recent years – the key to winning is race that features multiple wrestlers who wouldn’t get this sort of chance otherwise. Rayo Metalico and Calavera I Jr. voters are pushing a normally forgettable title race to the top, because their fans (and family) believe what a big deal a win is for them.

They’re correct to feel that way, not just for a title shot but what winning the main event spot has meant to other careers. CMLL got behind Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro when they won the first one of these. CMLL started doing more with Jarochita/Lluvia (and the entire division) after they won in 2021. CMLL was probably going to get behind Rugido even before he won in 2022 and Mascara Dorada when he won in 2023, but that didn’t hurt their cause. Rayo Metalico is on the fringes of the CMLL roster as Torneo Escuela guy. He could’ve quickly faded away from the roster – like Vaquero Jr. or the Misteriosos last year – and he may have won a permanent role.

Don’t take that order as final, though. The first three matches were close enough to end up in any order, and the women’s match wasn’t much farther ahead. If Soberano Jr. fans got behind him, they could’ve pushed him to the main event, but it’s pretty unlikely, given the distance they would’ve had to cover unknowingly. These category vote totals are publicly available if you know where to look in the code, but almost no one will seek them out. Soberano fans would have no idea where they were in the rankings, and neither would Rayo Metalico ones.

Tonight’s CMLL Informa will have both the match order for the Noche de Campeones show this Friday and the lineups for the Women’s Grand Prix. (I think CMLL has switched to using “Grand” and I’m still using “Gran”, I’ll try to get that right.) The listed guests on the show are just the poll winners listed above. The foreign names for Grand Prix, especially the women’s one, tend to catch a lot of attention.

CMLL (SUN) 09/29/2024 Arena México
1) Diamond & Leono vs Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
2) El Audaz, Hijo del Pantera, Retro vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star, Volcano vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Kira, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Dark Silueta, Hera, Sanely
5) Terrible vs Dragón Rojo Jr.
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Titán vs Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Niebla Roja

Dragon Rojo hasn’t been teaming much with Los Cavenarios and doesn’t wear the gear when not teaming with them. I thought last Sunday’s match was to set him being out of the group. A match with Terrible suggests that direction, but nothing actually happened in that match last Sunday.

CMLL (MON) 09/30/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia, Black Tiger, El Asturiano vs Dreyko, El Malayo, Siky Ozama
2) Arkalis, Meyer, Rey Samuray vs Capitán Suicida, El Audaz, Fuego
3) Xelhua vs Felino Jr.
4) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
5) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Hechicero vs Euforia, Soberano Jr., Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © vs Templario & Volador Jr. [CMLL TAG]
16th defense (Chavez counting it as 17)

The tag title defense record is 18 (Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero) and the Chavez have talked about reaching it for months. I need to find this extra defense they’re counting but they’re definitely not losing these titles before getting to that 18th defense. Semi-main is Aniversario follow up. Akuma and Zandokan had a little bit of an issue on Monday. Xelhua/Felino Jr. is listed as a full match, not a lightning one. It falls outside the normal TV window, but they’re willing to show match 3 if something is going on. Felino Jr. just praised Xelhua to the media in Guadalajara a few weeks ago, so maybe this is a match he’ll be up for.

Box y Lucha #3622 has Euforia on top.

MLW announced Averno vs Mistico for the MLW Middleweight Championship for their 10/04 show in St. Petersburgh. The two previously wrestled in MLW back in February. MLW says it’ll be “taped only for Bein Sports”, which means it’ll probably air on a YouTube special around October 18th. They’re also up to Mistico, Titan, Lluvia, Atlantis, and Barbaro Cavernario announced for the 11/09 show.

Pep Caro talked with Robbie X about his trip to CMLL (among other topics.)

Only in seeing an Twitter ad for the 09/29 CMLL/Alto Voltage Arena Monterrey show did it click exactly how overloaded that city is with premium events:

• 09/29 CMLL @ Arena Monterrey
• 09/29 AAA TV taping @ Gimasnio Nuevo Leon Unido
• 10/13 Todo x el Todo @ Arena Monterrey

That ad got me to look at tickets for CMLL show. It still looks bad.

AAA

AAA’s posted the cover image for Heroes Inmortales but not the lineup. There’s probably a reason. It’s probably the same lineup. Maybe they’re setting something up on Sunday’s taping, and maybe AAA’s decided that advertising a lineup is meaningless. 

I did catch up with the last two weeks of AAA TV. You don’t really need to do that. The shows covered the 09/01 Showcenter card. These are still mostly non-regular AAA TV performers, though there’s also an increasing amount of non-Monterrey talent. El Original (Rey Leon), Brillante RB, Estrellato, and Epydemius Jr. were all guys coming in from outside the city, some from some far distance. If AAA isn’t paying to fly in more wrestlers from their regular roster for cost savings reasons, I wonder how much they’re paying to those types of guys (and how much of the payment is in the form of “you get to be featured on AAA TV!” exposure.) This was also a taping where neither of the announcers without either of AAA’s (previous) main announcers – Roberto Figueroa and Jesus Zuniga called the show instead – which contributed to a strange feel. Figueroa’s been featured in AAA’s social media often lately, and might be figuring into the Hugo replacement plans.

Kento, Takuma, and Nobu San are going by “Tokyo Bad Boys” now, though the announcers seemed to omit the “Tokyo” part. Their match with Emperador Azteca, Oni el Bendito, and Octagon Jr. (episode 2, will be on YouTube Sunday) was the best on the show, a level above in professionalism. It had a couple of issues and too many rudos, but it was a good TV match. Brillante RB, Reycko, and Black Raven (episode 1) had a very active triangle match, the best of the rest of the taping.

The angles on the Showcenter cards are always minimal. The only bit in front of the fans was the Tokyo Bad Boys attacking Mr. Iguana when he came out in front of the crowd early (Octagon Jr. made the save) and Mr. Iguana (unsuccessfully) trying to get revenge later. Some bits appeared to be taped later, around the press conference on the 09/29 show, and added later. Pierroth Jr. joined Mesias group, while Cibernetico pledged to help Latin Lover against Alberto/Konnan/Dorian. That last one was useful just to remind people that angle was happening; it’s now been six weeks since the big reveal with no follow-up. That’s how AAA TV works.

AAA posted a video promo with Alberto calling Latin Lover out. The footage is remarkably poor quality. I can’t believe they didn’t have him refilm it. However, it still achieved its purpose; when I checked Tuesday night, there were over 500 comments on the video on AAA’s Facebook post. There doesn’t appear to be another recent post with at least 100.

The bigger picture is that AAA is setting up a 2025 Alberto match with Latin Lover, even though he has said he won’t wrestle. It was the only obvious direction coming out of the TripleMania Mexico City angle, and promos like this just re-enforce that plan. AAA probably has the Alberto/Latin scheduled for TripleMania Monterrey and a rematch for TripleMania Mexico City, based on how they usually book things. (It is AAA, and their plans of course don’t always work out..) I think Latin Lover getting back in the ring is the biggest draw AAA could offer right now – he’s a big star out of wrestling, and they’ve spent the last six months making him the top face in the promotion – and Alberto makes much sense as anyone as an opponent. It means everything in AAA should serve to build that match, which translates to an Alberto reign of terror until Latin is finally forced to return to the ring. I can see the business purpose of that and what that means – every notable tecnico losing to Alberto – isn’t going to be something I’m excited to watch.

One aspect of the Keyra/Myzteziz story I ignored on Monday was Keyra putting out an ID photo of Myzteziz in hopes of people being able to find him and then also their child. This seemed normal, not a big deal; the tradition of keeping someone’s masked identity secret for lucha libre reasons seems utterly irrelevant in a situation like this. I did not consider that “ex-partner puts out unmasked photo of luchador” would become a viral story. The “scandal” of revealing a masked luchador’s face proved to be an easier way to get into a story about a custody dispute, and so the situation has gotten picked up in many news outlets. Keyra has gone quiet, and it appears her friends have also stopped pushing for a resolution online. Myzteziz has said nothing.

IWRG

IWRG posted video of Spider Fly being in a hospital – or the Arena Naucalpan medical office – as he recovers from the martinete that Rock Power gave him.

IWRG (THU) 09/26/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Astralis, Cosmic, Sinapsis vs Celta, Indra, Samodeo
2) Ángel Kid, Samoa Kid, Titanium vs Fobia, Pitbull, Shura King
3) Dannesa & Shamila vs Maggie Girl & Miss Fantasy
4) Águila Oriental, Black Dragón Ng, Hijo De Black Dragón vs Ángel Negro, Rayo De Plata Jr., Rey Anubis
5) Fauno, Histeryosis, Príncipe Centauro, Rey Aztaroth, Sky Man, Súper Boy, Tornado, Vudu Max vs As Negro, Black Extreme, Bogar, Demencia Jr., Escudero Jr., Extreme Fly, Geruz, King Pegasso [Torneo Fill 116]
FILL versus San Luis Potosi

There’s a lot of familiar San Luis Potosi wrestlers on this show. Well, familiar if you’ve been entering in a lot of SLP lineups in the last couple of weeks. Notably, the people who’ve actually been in IWRG from San Luis Potosi, like Aster Boy and Dibalo Jr., are not here. “Maggie Girl” is pronounced “Magic Girl”, wrestles as “Magic Girl” in San Luis Potosi but someone heard it and didn’t ask for it to be written down so she’s Maggie Girl here.

Other News

Bobo Produccions posted an interview with El Hijo del Santo talking positively about his debut show. His statements elsewhere suggest he’s definitely doing a show in Japan, it’s just the date that’s uncertain.

Dr. Lucha’s weekly column talk about his recent travels around Mexico; I don’t think I could keep up with this man.

QueMoniito made an appearance in San Luis Potosi over the weekend. He says he’s retiring soon and wants to make it through this year, but he’s not sure if his body will hold up. He mentioned he’d actually be willing to work with CMLL again, though he noted the window to do so is brief.

San Luis Potosi based Bendita Lucha Libre handed out 2024 awards for local luchadors.

• Best Tecnico: Bogar Jr.
• Best Rudo: Black Extreme
• Best Flyer: Illegal Jr.
• Best Luchadora: Miss Fantasy
• Best Trio: Colegio del Mal NG
• Best Team: Power Kid & Strong Panther
• Best rookie: Black Destroyer
• Best prospect: Bufalo negro
• Revelacion of the yar: Nino Sin Amor Jr.
• Best Referee: El Negro
• Best Rudo Referee: Sininesto
• Best Tecnico Referee: Helio
• Luchador most popular on social media: Estrellita de Plata

There were a lot of other honors, including for wrestlers with 40 or more years of experience: Galaxia 79, Rayo de Plata, Bogar, Zulu (/Kaliman) and Gavilan. In even more San Luis Potosi wrestling coverage, El Sol de San Luis visits (new-ish) Arena Marca.

DDT announced Demus is coming back to the promotion in late October, and it sounds like he’s sticking around for a while.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 09/20/2024 Arena México [CMLL, El Grafico, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (Video), thecubsfan]
1) Legendario & Rayo Metálico b Alom & Infarto   
7:02
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther b Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider    
15:45.
3) Magnus, Rugido, Vegas b Flip Gordon, Neón, Pelon Encapuchado     
15:27.
4) Atlantis Jr., Templario, Titán b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero    
5) Místico b Averno [lightning]    
9:28.
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Valiente DQ Esfinge, Euforia, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]    
12:19. Straight falls, Euforia unmasking Hechicero for the DQ.

Friday’s show was a good show, if a little inconsequential following week. They worked hard in the main event, even it was the destination was pretty obvious. Mistico and Averno did a nine minute version of their classic match, something far more comfortable than last week. Match four was the super professional match between regular teams, really peaking in the third fall. Match two was all third fall, I didn’t think much of the rest. The tecnicos were fun in match three.

Ultimo Guerrero dropkicked KeMalito off the apron in that match four, a moment intended to evoke UG doing the same to KeMonito two decades ago. (KeMalito didn’t do the flip, but Ultimo Guerrero didn’t hit him the same angle.) The documentary on KeMonito came out on Wednesday and got a fair bit of attention, and it’s probably not a coincidence they did the famous spot a couple of days later.

You’d have to be really paying to notice (or care), but CMLL’s moving on as if the Jericho/Mistico match didn’t happen. There’s a sort of pre-show for the Friday streams where CMLL airs in-house ads and highlights from last week. They didn’t show any highlights from the Jericho/Mistico match, which is very unusual for a main event. Later, during Mistico’s match, the announcers talked about his big weekend – in MLW, not mentioning Aniversario at all. Jericho’s face is still up in Arena Coliseo at least.

CMLL (SAT) 09/21/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) KeMalito & Mije b Chamuel & Tengu   
13:56. Tengu replaced Atomo
2) Pierrothito b Angelito [lightning]   
7:44
3) Persephone, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis b Kira, La Catalina, Lluvia   
12:19.
4) Neón & Star Jr. b Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.   
18:29.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Felino, Panterita del Ring b Negro Navarro, Octagón, Pantera, Satánico [Relevos Increíbles]   
12:11.
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Último Guerrero b Averno, Soberano Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]   
16:34. Mistico thanked the fans for supporting lucha libre and luchadors (this day is Dia de Lucha Libre.)

I didn’t think much of this one. Villanos/Neon/Star was fun in a vacuum but underwhelming for both teams – they were on different pages, there were some bad spot misses, they could’ve done better. The main event was good and the rest can safely be skipped.

CMLL wrestlers were also at the Mexico City horsetrack, as a part of a cross promotion for Dia de Luchador.

CMLL (SUN) 09/22/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Hijo del Pantera & Hombre Bala Jr. b Espanto Jr. & Felino Jr.  
10:26
2) India Sioux, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard b Dark Silueta, Hera, Reyna Isis  
16:01
3) Difunto, Kráneo, Zandokan Jr. b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II  
16:03
4) Titán © b Villano III Jr. [CMLL WELTER]  
17:52 9th defense
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Flip Gordon, Neón b Bárbaro Cavernario, Star Jr., Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]  
17:13
6) Euforia, Místico, Soberano Jr. b Esfinge, Valiente, Volador Jr.  
11:33. Mistico’s partners weren’t much help but he won anyway.

CMLL aired this one live too, free for everyone. It was billed as Dia de Luchador present to the fans. It is interesting that CMLL choose to do a live free stream against the Todo x el Todo show, though CMLL announced they were doing this so late in the day that I’m not sure anyone really picked one or the other.

The CMLL stream ended with Mistico celebrating, but he apparently came back to the ring, got unmasked, then fought Soberano until he got beat up again.

Titan/Villano III Jr. was a much better night for Villano. Everything hung together well, and he was in their with a steadier wrestler. The match was more about Villano surviving for a long time than putting Titan in convincing danger of losing the title, but it was still the most complete singles match I think Villano’s had since jumping over.

CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2024 Arena México
1) Shockercito vs Galaxy [lightning]
2) Capitán Suicida, Dragón de Fuego, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
4) Tessa Blanchard vs Sanely
5) Blue Panther, Flip Gordon, Neón vs Stuka Jr., Terrible, Valiente
6) Esfinge, Templario, Titán vs Difunto, Hechicero, Zandokan Jr.

Main event could be fun; unusual to see Difunto and Zandokan above those other rudos. Women’s match is a normal match, opener is a lightning match.

Again, no Friday lineup until Wednesday night.

CMLL (SAT) 09/28/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Emperador Jr. vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) India Sioux vs Reyna Isis [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Xelhua vs Barboza, Crixus, Rey Bucanero
5) Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black vs Akuma, Dragón Rojo Jr., Valiente
6) Esfinge, Místico, Star Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

Sioux mostly worked with Isis in her return match on Sunday, so that’ll probably be a comfortable match. Explosivo, Barboza and Emperador Jr. are in for at least the Saturday.

Barbaro Cavernario is over in the UK for RevPro this weekend. He’ll be in their British J Cup on Saturday (first round opponent TBD) and he’ll wrestle Zozaya on Sunday.

Add Titan to Lluiva and Mistico to the 11/09 MLW taping in Cicero.

Persephone says she has a degree in sports medicine but has put aside that career to wrestle CMLL.

CMLL Puebla matches this week

• Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther

• Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Último Guerrero vs Averno, Hijo de Octagón, Octagón

• Rocky Romero, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Atlantis and Octagon aren’t good but the crowd still pops the first time they’re in the ring against each other in any match. That would be a big money feud if they could ever do it (they could not.)

Soberano Jr. on CMLL’s podcast

I caught Soberano Jr’s appearance on CMLL’s podcast. It’s just part 1. I don’t think they went in intended to make a multipart podcast, it is just Soberano gives detailed and thoughtful answers. He also bounces around on the timeline, doesn’t really hold back much, and isn’t afraid to say anyone’s name. (The only people not named are “that referee” Tirantes and “the guy who used to wrestle here as Semental”, and that one may only be because Soberano isn’t sure what his name is right now.) I started to take notes and my notes turned a very long mess. I cut them down and they still seem too much.

• Soberano Jr. grew up in a wrestling family, with his grandfather (Soberano) and his uncle (Hijo del Soberano) being major influences in his life after his father (Euforia) moved to Mexico City. He would watch Galavision every Saturday and  cites a a Dr. X/La Mascara match as getting him into wrestling (and into the national welterweight championship specifically.)
• Soberano Jr. identifies the behavior of his family members, and some of the people he’d later train with and learn from, would be called “bullying” by some people. He insists it was the best way for him to learn, to be tough and to figure out solutions from hardship. Soberano speaks very positively about guys like Super Comando, Artillero, Mesala, and Caligula as those who had all these old tricks that he made sure to learn from. He talks about realizing he was supposed to wrestle Arkangel de la Muerte on an early Sabado Clasico card (when they were doing a lot of singles matches and, as Soberano points out, not drawing at all) and having no idea how he’d get through it, but learning a lot from doing it. He even talked about getting an exhibition match with Halcon Suriano Jr. turning into a shoot, and his grandfather taking him aside to teach him little ways to hurt his opponent a lot in case he ever need to protect himself again.
• Soberano Jr. was told by his father to not come to Mexico City as a teenager – life was going to be hard and he wasn’t going to be ready. Soberano Jr. did not listen, and skipped his middle school graduation (15) to get on a bus to Mexico City. Turned out life was hard and he was not ready – he didn’t know how to cook an egg or do laundry or get around, got mocked for his accent in high school, and hadn’t held a real job. Euforia also wasn’t making money, and there were times were they were struggling to pay for food. Fabian el Gitano and La Sombra get name-checked as helping the family a bit during those times.
  • There’s a side discussion here where Soberano noted he was recently talking with someone who was a stand-by wrestler in Pubela (someone who’d only wrestle if there was a no-show), and was blown away about how much they were getting paid. He remembered CMLL paying him not enough to pay for a meal when he was in that role. He notes there are shows now where the prelim wrestlers are getting paid more than what the main eventers were getting when he was starting out. They’re remarkably forthcoming with the fact that CMLL wasn’t paying people much money (and then something’s changed more recently.)
• Soberano Jr. also had his struggles in CMLL’s system. They put him with Arturo Beristan, and Soberano Jr. said he learned nothing – less than he was getting in Torreon. He complained to his father, who got him in Satanico’s class – which was good until Satanico decided to move to Guadalajara. CMLL had Virus take over, but they also split the class between the guys working at the top of the card and the prelim ones. Soberano got put with the prelim guys, which turned out to be a blessing – that’s where he trained with all the old guys and Virus, who would be hard on him but make him learn and he learned a lot. Soberano Jr. started got moved to Franco Colombo’s class when the Generacion 2012 idea came about, and noted a lot of the wrestlers in that group didn’t last long – a lot of the new people in 2011/2012/2013 couldn’t handle the down time and left.
• Soberano Jr. won the 2013 Sangre Nueva tournament, though he didn’t know it – he remembers nothing from taking a Hombre Bala Spanish Fly to the floor until talking with his girlfriend in a restaurant after the show. It was a surprise to him to find the trophy in his bag after. Still, he was frustrated about failing in the Gran Alternativa year after year, and then not even being included it. He saw people like Dragon Lee passing him and thought he’d end up being a new Bengala guy, in the openers forever. (He was 21.) Soberano says he noticed it start turning around for him in September 2016, getting moved up slightly. A couple of month later, referee Edgar pulled him aside, asked him if he was ready, and started to make plane motions and noises. Soberano had no idea what this was about, then woke up a few days later to see on social media that he was going to FantasticaMania.
• There’s some talk about the En Busca de Un Idolo, though most of it focuses on the judging element. There was an incident where “that referee” Tirantes pointed out Soberano Jr. was wrestling with a hole at the toe of his boot (and they showed the clip.) Soberano said he didn’t have much money, it was like picking between rent or new gear, but grew to understand CMLL wrestlers are expected to look like stars and you can’t do that with a broken boot. “There’s a difference between Arena Mexico and Naucalpan.” It’s informed his Luxury Of Lucha Libre personality.
• A lot of talk about the Soberano/Star vs Cholo/Ramstein mask match. He was scared of Cholo after he knocked the wind out of him once. Soberano couldn’t afford to go home and buy a plane ticket back to Mexico City, so he had a very sad New Year’s utterly convinced he was going to lose his mask. (He is only the person who thought this. People familiar with the match will appreciate CMLL cutting out pretty much everything that Ramstein did in that match when showing clips; he was terrible.)
• Soberano Jr. says that many years later, when he was on a tour of NJPW, he got a phone call from Dark Angel. He says he’s never revealed this story before, but Dark Angel put on a hard sell for him to get to the WWE tryouts in Chile. Soberano eventually made up an excuse as to why he couldn’t make that date, and she offered him instead to come to Flordia for a tryout. Soberano doesn’t actually say if he went or didn’t, but talks about instead about that going to WWE for a Mexican wrestler means you become wealthy. He also talks about the struggles there – Andrade explained it to him as “they make you do what you’re not good at doing.” Soberano ultimately decided that while having more money would be nice, he’s pretty happy with how he’s doing now and what he really wants is to be face of CMLL, he wants to be who people think about when they think of luchadors, he wants to be the new Atlantis as the icon of the promotion. His first job was CMLL and he hopes it’s his last job as well.
• Soberano talks about his matches with Templario as being magic – like seeing fireworks go off in your head. Soberano didn’t think he’d make the anniversary show this year – “the promotion has slowed me down, with reason” – and Alexis suggests the Soberano/Templario lightning match got Soberano onto the show. Still, Soberano is no longer interested in Templario’s mask. He feels Templario ducked him by going with Dragon Rojo but, more so, feels Templario’s mask is not as valuable to him now that they’ve switched sides. Soberano calls every mask match a coin toss, a big risk, and figures he might as well risk it against a legendary name like Mistico or Atlantis (Jr.) if those are now available him – it’s a much bigger deal if he beats them than Templario.

Part 2 should go up next Thursday.

AAA

There’s an ugly situation this weekend between two current and former AAA wrestlers. Myzteziz Jr. and Keyra were a couple, had a son together, and later split. The child is now three years old and appears to live with Keyra only. Keyra took the boy to the hospital this week for undisclosed reasons, where he stayed for a couple of days and needed a blood transfusion. Myzteziz came to visit while he was in the hospital. Keyra said that visit surprised her, as Myzteziz had not been in the child’s life in the last two years. Keyra came to the hospital to check out her son on Sunday, only to find out Myzteziz had already checked him out. Myzteziz and his family also stopped responding to Keyra’s phone calls. Myzteziz’s side is telling people that the reason the child was hospitalized was Keyra – he was malnourished because of her poor parenting among other issues she’s having; that side sees themselves as rescuing the child from improper living conditions. At any rate, there’s an amber alert in Mexico for information about the child to return him to Keyra, her friends are pushing AAA to get involved somehow, and I hope this works out the best for the kid. I have no idea what that would mean, though.

I still haven’t watching AAA TV. The CMLL extra show threw me! I’ll do it today (maybe.)

AAA’s episode on Space announced a bunch of upcoming tapings. The remaining 2024 taping schedule

• 09/29 in Monterrey
• 10/06 in Guadalajara (Heroes Inmortales, will air live)
• 10/26 in Mexico City – new
• 11/03 in Monterrey (Showcenter)
• 11/17 in Juarez – new (Guerra de Titanes, will air live)
• 12/07 in Mexico City – new

Those will be tapings five and six in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera this year. They’ve only been there more in 1993 – and in 1993, they had a lot more original TV and misguided belief they could end CMLL by running weekly Friday shows in Mexico City. (They definitely wounded CMLL, but CMLL is hard to end.) The attendance has held up well in Mexico City so far, but running that venue so often is a risk they wouldn’t take in other years – it would be safer to sell a taping to a local promoter.

The 11/03 Showcenter isn’t confirmed to be a taping, but AAA needs two more weeks of tapings somewhere in Monterrey and they’ve announced no other cities. If I’m right, that means AAA will run only 19 TV tapings this year.. They will travel to eight metro areas (Mexico City, Queretaro, Monterrey, Saltillo, Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Aguascalientes, and Guadalajara.) In 2019, they ran 33 TV tapings in 26 different metro areas. The original business case for AAA is that they would tour the country, bringing top-class wrestling to all the places CMLL doesn’t go. That was not the plan this year.

The side effect of AAA repeating so many towns is that Vampiro’s already had his retirement show. It’s just Guadalajara and Juarez as the remaining stops. In theory, and I can’t underline in theory enough, Vampiro’s Mexican retirement tour ends on November 17th in Ciudad Juarez. There has been no advertising thus far pushing that will be Vampiro’s last match (though no one in Juarez was promoting anything beyond their lucha libre festival this past weekend.) Vampiro lived in Guadalajara for a number of years, that would make more sense as a final stop for him and he’d get to do it in front of a bigger crowd. Maybe Heroes Inmortal will end up being the Vampiro last match, and the hold up to AAA announcing that lineup is that they also want Vampiro to announce that final show news. Grasping at straws here.

The Vampiro retirement stop in Tampico on Friday seems to have drawn very well. Not the biggest room, but it appears to be a sell-out. Vampiro did an interview to talk about his future plans – he’s going to work Italy’s NWE, expecting to turn it in to take over Europe. The NWE had a moment a couple of decades ago, fueled by WWE getting on TV in the country and becoming a big thing for a short time. Vampiro says he lived in Europe for six years, understands the market, and will try to combine styles from all the countries.

Mas Lucha caught up with El Hijo del Vikingo. These AAA interviews seem to have been taped Wednesday, since Jose Manuel Guillen talked about seeing him about a day earlier in Arena Aficion. Vikingo says his doctor saw the lineup for that show and gave him the business about returning too soon, so no return. The extra couple of weeks might be for the best mentally too; Vikingo came off as nervous and unsure about his return. He talks about having eight people catch the first dive he tried, and about changing some things up with his style and presentation. It does seem like he’s relatively sure he’ll actually return on 09/29, and he’s very excited for the GLEAT matches. JMG reveals Vikingo’s previous trip to Japan with GCW was such a disaster that he never thought he’d go back – Vikingo missed his first flight out of Mexico City, almost missed his second flight, then got pulled in a security room at a layover in Canada. They thought he must be trafficking something, since he was only going to Japan for a few days. Vikingo explained he was a wrestler, showed him his gear, and then could hear them watch his AAA matches from outside the room. Vikingo knew what they were doing because he could hear JMG’s commentary/yelling, which is how it all tied together. Vikingo had a two hour walk to get where he was going in Japan after he got there; it was just not a good travel experience.

AAA and INJUVE announced they’ll have another edition of their Lucha X el Barrio talent search in the near future. The last one took place in January, with the new Taurus, the new Bengala and the not-seen-again Lady Wind finding top 3. INJUVE also honored various Luchadors and Jose Manuel Guillen from Mas Lucha for their participation in their campaigns.

DTU is promoting an upcoming appearance as “Sexy Star from AAA”, so everyone seems to think she hasn’t left. Selfishly, I hope she doesn’t so I don’t have to try to explain a third Sexy Star to Twitter. That may finally get me to leave the site.

Flammer defended the Reina de Reinas championship in Melbourne, Australia.

AAA will have a mass to honor Antonio Pena on 10/01.

Todo x el Todo

TXT (SUN) 09/22/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal [Apolo Valdes, ESTO, MedioTiempo, SuperLuchas]
1) Heddi Karaoui b Cerebro Negro
2) Lady Apache, Shamila, Therius b Hija de Fuerza Guerrera, Ludark Shaitan, Vanilla Vargas
Ludark replaced Keyra (personal)
3) Solar I & Texano Jr. b Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Misterioso Jr. [ruleta de la muerte, 8f]
4) Bobby Lee Jr. & Cinta de Oro b Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 & Rayman [ruleta de la muerte, 8f]
Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 replaced Cien Caras Jr.
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. & LA Park b El Hijo Del Santo & Fuerza Guerrera [ruleta de la muerte, 8f]
6) Canek Jr. & Súper Nova vs Hijo del Fishman & Máscara Sagrada Ng [ruleta de la muerte, 8f]
7) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Misterioso Jr. b Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 & Rayman [ruleta de la muerte, quarterfinal]
8) Hijo del Fishman & Máscara Sagrada Ng DQ El Hijo Del Santo & Fuerza Guerrera [ruleta de la muerte, quarterfinal]
9) El Hijo Del Santo & Fuerza Guerrera b Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 & Rayman [ruleta de la muerte, semifinal]
10) Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 b Rayman [ruleta de la muerte, hair] 
Máscara saved his mask, Rayman lost his hair. Fuerza Guerrera, Mascara 2000, and Angel Blanco Jr. attacked Hijo del Santo after the match, with Santo Jr. making the save

Mas Lucha says they’ll air this show next Saturday for members only.

The early photos of this building looked pretty poor, but it filled up decently as the night went on. Not TripleMania full, and there’s probably a decent gap between “tickets distributed” and “tickets actually paid for”, but the photos are going to look nice enough. (AS calls it was “just over 10,000” in one article and “15,000” in another article these may not be serious numbers.) Rayman taking the loss is no big surprise. Neither really is Santo Jr.’s return – Hijo del Santo has been teasing it in his interviews and the Monterrey lineup telegraphs it. Santo’s Jr. offense lacked, uh, quality but he was also trying to beat up some old men who couldn’t really do much.

The other planned surprise was Angel Blanco Jr. showing up, one of el Hijo del Santo’s old TxT rivals. Blanco said he was angry Santo didn’t invite him for the the show, Santo said he did but Blanco said he was working for CMLL. I have no idea what Santo is talking about. Santo also explains he was going to defend his WBC championship against a foreign opponent to be named, but now he and Santo Jr. will team in the tag tournament. (He was always listed in the tag tournament.) Santo sends a shout out to Dr. Lucha for coming and says he wants to do a show in Korakuen Hall in March or April.

The real surprise is the promotion announcing a return date for April 6th in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. El Hijo del Santo had pitched this retirement tour as the final visit for every city. It never made much sense – why would he have burned off Mexico City first? Where else was he going to go if he wasn’t going to retire in June. Santo’s tried to walk that back for Mexico City in recent interviews, probably because he knew they were going to do at least one more show here. It does mean Santo’s adhering to his own retirement even less than Vampiro. The difference is I tend to believe Santo will actually be done when this tour ends, and I expect Vampiro to just try to get around his retirement as soon as it becomes inconvenient. I still struggle to figure what Santo is going to put on for an April 6th show. It’s a long time away, but I don’t think people are coming back to say goodbye again without something more than this. Maybe Angel Blanco showing up means they’ll be the ones doing the apuesta match next time.

Mascara 2000 Jr. dedicated his win to Cuatrero, “wherever he is.” The idea is that Cuatrero started the feud with Rayman to get revenge for the Rayo/Cien Caras match and Mascara finished it for him.

Other News

Penta made a surprise appearance as a bonus match on the Ciudad Juarez lucha libre festival, wrestling DMT Azul. This was a twelve hour marathon and there’s few people who could be added to a card that would make fans want to see more wrestling at that point, but Penta did. Thunder Rosa was scheduled on the show but is still out recovering from a concussion.

Mas Lucha’s Torneo Suprema, the women’s tournament, will take place 10/19 in Arena Lopez Mateos. That will also be a member’s only show.

Wrestlers and promoters in Oaxaca are throwing a benefit show for local lucha libre reporter/photographer Julio Sanchez Garcia. He’s battling an illness (“he knows his illness has no cure.) and recently had his right leg amputated.

Arena Union in Veracruz revealed they were moving to a new location, which some people had guessed based on their announcement.

A profile of Los Funebres from Puebla.

A profile of Luz Viva from San Luis Potosi.

Segunda Caida writes about the Aniversario main and some more Monterrey lucha,

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 09/20/2024 Arena México
***Dia de Luchador, 2024***
1) Legendario & Rayo Metálico vs Alom & Infarto
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Flip Gordon, Neón, Pelon Encapuchado vs Magnus, Rugido, Vegas
4) Atlantis Jr., Templario, Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Místico vs Averno [lightning]
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Valiente vs Esfinge, Euforia, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

“The guy who lost the Aniversario apuesta match beats the winner on the following Friday show” is one of those facts stuck in my head. It’s also a ‘fact’ that was worth checking out, because it’s been a decade since it was accurate:

• 2023: Dragon Rojo unmasked Templario for the DQ
• 2022: Stuka Jr. wins main event but Atlantis Jr. not booked
• 2021: COVID year/Night of Champions format so no apuesta
• 2020: COVID year/Night of Champions format so no apuesta
• 2019: Negro Casas not booked after he lost his hair
• 2018: neither Volador nor Matt Taven are booked after they lost their hair
• 2017: Niebla Roha and Gran Guerrero are booked but two weeks of shows are canceled due to the earthquake
• 2016: La Mascara unmasked Dragon Lee for the DQ
• 2015: La Sombra beat Atlantis in a trios match

So I guess bet on Euforia unmasking Hechicero for the DQ (or maybe some terrible disaster.)

Mistico/Avenro should be good and should get Mistico cheered, if that’s an issue. Match 4 looks great. Fuego as Pelon has been a lot of fun so match 3 should be good as well. The Panthers will see if Ola Negra can work their formula, and the opener will be a good test of Rayo Metalico’s readiness for what looks to be a big match next week. That 09/27 is the Night of Champions show, so there isn’t much room to set up stuff here.

The most striking portion of this week’s CMLL Informa was the interview with Mistico at the end. I didn’t time this one, but he and Julio Cesar Rivera spent roughly 30 seconds talking about Aniversario and about 5 minutes talking about Misitco’s matches in MLW. Mistico talked about being happy to give the fans the faceoff they wanted to see with him and Chris Jericho. He later obliquely mentioned hearing positive and negative comments and trying to learn from both. Everyone knows the match was not a success, there’s no real attempt to pretend it was something it was not. What they learn from it is up to them, but there’s no point in harping on it any more. It happened, and everyone’s moving on.

Near the end of the interview, Julio Cesar Rivera revealed that Mistico would be going to NJPW to celebrate his 20th anniversary. Details are to be announced “soon.” Mistico on the January 5th, 2025 multi-promotion WrestleDynasty show is the easiest explanation, though I’m not sure that’s going to be announced soon. The most tantalizing idea is NJPW seeing Mistico invent his own title match challenge with DOUKI back at FantasticaMania USA, deciding that wasn’t a bad idea, and bringing Mistico to Japan to do the match there. But who knows, they were very unspecific. (That NJPW announcement and the MLW Opera Cup recap might have been the other intended message of this segment: whatever happened Friday, Mistico is still an international star in demand and doing well.)

Sanely announced she was officially switching to the ruda side on Informa. She’ll face Tessa next week in a singles match, and she’s on Team Mexico for the Grand Prix. CMLL also announced Zeuxis would be in the competition Grand Prix. On CMLL’s podcast, Zeuxis talked about wanting to be on Team Mexico at some point, so it would free up an additional spot for an international wrestler. Zeuxis has a Puerto Rican father and Mexican mother. I think CMLL intentionally had people like Zeuxis and Dalys on the international side so they wouldn’t have to find and pay to bring in one more international person. The economics has changed this year, so Zeuxis is now Team Mexico.

The Gran Prix teams for now

• Mexico: Lluvia, Zeuxis, Sanely
• World: Tessa Blanchard, La Catalina, Sayaka Unagi

The full teams will be announced next week. There are 7 spots left on each team. The national champions (Reina Isis, Skadi and Kira) are a lock for Team Mexico, which leaves four spots. Hera, Olympia, Dark Silueta and Princesa Sugehit seem the safest guesses there. Persephone is from El Paso, so she’d go on the World team, but I think she’s the only other CMLL foreign woman to add. That leaves six spots there. CMLL’s usually booked 3 Japanese women and then filled the spots with random US based wrestlers, but that math may change with AEW, ROH, MLW and RevPro all possibly being included.

Informa also revealed that the Noche de Campeones matches will be announced next week; that means there will be no lineup for that show until less than 48 hours before the show—though we’ll know the champions, and it won’t be hard to figure out the matches from the poll results for the truly possessed. I think CMLL did this last year, and I blanked on it.

There is a rare show in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara this Saturday

Indy (SAT) 09/21/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Amon Ra, Colorado, Giro, Sureño Fly vs Albatros, Ave de Fuego, Golden Silver, Surgeon Clown
Arena GDL
2) Centauro, Demencía, Dragón Kid, Zigma vs Aquiles, Dark Power, Neptuno, Olimpo
Arena Roberto Paz
3) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica vs Atenea, Estrella Maldita, Valkirya
4) Destrucción, Frayle De La Muerte Jr., Reycko vs Destino, Kaiju, Santi Betancourt
Arena Jalisco
5) Astro Oriental, Draego, Makara, Persa vs Eclipse Jr., Rav, Shezmu, Temerario
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
6) Obek © vs Continental [GDL LIGHT]

This appears to be a commission show for Dia de Luchador, with the four major local arenas participating. The Guadalajara Lightweight championship is an inter-promotional title they’re trying to get going,

CMLL (TUE) 09/24/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Gallo Jr., Makara, Rafaga Jr., Shezmu vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Draego, Persa
2) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Felino Jr., Hombre Bala Jr., Robin
3) Lluvia © vs Valkiria [OCCIDENTE WOMEN]
first defense
4) Atlantis, Pantera, Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Rey Bucanero, Satánico
5) Star Black © vs Gallego [MEX HEAVY]
fifth defense
6) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Averno, Furia Roja, Soberano Jr.

A rare Pantera appearance in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara; his last match in that building was in 2016 for another promotion.

CMLL announced they’ve opened an Amazon store. There are a lot of designs here. Whoever put this one together put a lot of work in and came up with some great ideas. It’s a limited selection of wrestlers – maybe about a dozen – but it’s much better than the usual logo-only stuff. They appear to be shipping these from the US, which is good if you want to buy them there, but maybe they are a bit pricey if you’re ordering in Mexico.

CMLL’s podcast this week has Soberano Jr. as a guest. I guess recapping these is now mandatory, or maybe more interesting to you all than my AAA recaps. The show was posted late Thursday; I’ll try to catch up on it on the weekend. There are some obvious topics (Ultimo Guerrero and also Ultimo Guerrero) where they probably won’t directly address things, but I want to see what they talk about anyway. These usually have some sort of announcement, and I’m not sure what that would be for Soberano. The teaser has Soberano mentioning WWE saw him on NJPW World and offered him to come to their tryout in Chile. WWE scouts sure don’t like watching Mexican wrestlers in Mexico. Soberano did not appear at that tryout, so there’s probably more to that story.

Jornada decided to do an article about the life and working conditions of luchadors for Dia de Luchador, which is sound enough. They did it by interviewing Octagon about this (seemingly non-existent) union and his (always coming soon, never actually happening) re-possession of AAA’s office after his court victory. This article suggests Octagon is the first luchador to appear in commercials; it is an article entirely reliant on the author’s belief in everything Octagon has to say and do no additional research. (This is normal.) Octagon has been doing these same interviews for about seven years, and they’ve only changed in one significant way – he used to talk about all the big promotions being bad, and now he praises CMLL for how they take care of wrestlers since he’s working with them.

Speaking of unchanging legal issues, KeMonito has been asked about his case against CMLL and says nothing has happened in the year since he announced he was suing. There are much bigger issues with the Mexican court system at the moment than KeMonito, but he remains hopeful for a positive outcome once things get moving again.

MLW is doing daily announcements for their 11/09 show in Cicero. Mistico and Lluvia have already been announced. Lluvia is announced as a CMLL Women’s World Tag champion. Her partner is left unmentioned. MLW is selling GA tickets at $10, which means they’re going to sell out, the gate isn’t too important to them and everyone else in the area might struggle to sell tickets for a while. (I bought a $10 ticket.)

Reina Isis told the press that many great international women wrestlers have come to Mexico, and it’s great that those doors are open, but CMLL needs to make sure they’re still supporting the Mexican wrestlers because they’re the best.

La Fe has an interview with Okumura, who says he converted to Catholicism following his neck injury, and it gave him the strength to continue. He said he was told he’d be out two years after neck surgery but returned in nine months.

LuchaTalk recaps the CMLL Aniversario.

CMLL on AMX (taped)

• Astral, El Audaz, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
• Hijo del Pantera vs Hijo de Stuka Jr. in a lightning match
• Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Vegas

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo did press at AAA’s office in the last couple of days, saying he’ll be back in the ring by the 09/29 show. (He also said that was his plan on Tuesday, though it wasn’t reported then.) He’s happy and prepared but still nervous about how his moves will go. Mas Lucha also caught up with La Hiedra and, of course, asked her about Latin Lover’s comments about AAA’s women. La Hiedra went with pretending she had no idea what Latin Lover said and didn’t really care, but everyone in AAA knows how strong she is.

AAA TV (SUN) 10/06/2024 Auditorio Benito Juárez, Zapopan, Jalisco
1) Crazzy Steve & Havok vs Abismo Negro & Flammer © [AAA MIXED TAG]
4th defense
2) Dinámico, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
3) ? vs ??, ???, ????, ?????, ??????, ???????, ???????? [Copa Antonio Pena]
4) El Fiscal vs Matt Riddle © [AAA CRUISER]
first defense
5) Mecha Wolf, Negro Casas, Vampiro Canadiense vs El Mesías, Forastero, Sansón
6) Laredo Kid vs El Patrón Alberto © [AAA MEGA]
first defense. Latin Lover and Konnan will be seconds

AAA hasn’t officially announced this lineup. Mas Lucha had it on Wednesday, and others were passing it around. It’s a little strange that AAA hasn’t put it out yet, but maybe it’ll turn up when you see this.

The top 3 matches will air live on 10/06 on Space, and the rest will air on 10/12. Laredo Kid’s role is to get a good match out of a wrestler who seems unlikely to have exceptional matches. Laredo has no chance to win, but will surely do something crazy given a main event. (It’ll be overshadowed by the Eye bit.) It’s going to be weird to have Vampiro back wrestling normal matches after that TripleMania bit.  El Fiscal has limited experience, and most of it is really wrestling the same match over and over again. Matt Riddle has limited experience with people working that style, and is clearly a diminished worker from years ago. I’m sure that match is happening because it’s a numbers thing and because AAA believes they can get heat by having Abismo cost Fiscal a title match, but the reasons people care about that feud aren’t about title matches. It seems like a waste of a plane ticket to fly Riddle in for this, but they get to say he’s actually defending the belt. Likewise, I’m sure Crazzy Steve and Havok will give it their all and good for them to get two paydays out this, but bringing in people to work a mixed tag opener that’s not been promoted much seems like an unwise use of funds for a company making obvious cutbacks. This is one place where CMLL is far ahead of AAA; if they’re going to fly someone in, they’re going to present them as a big star and they’re going to use them in important positions, no matter who it is. The Japanese guys – who may be going by the Tokyo Bad Boys – make two straight TV tapings.

AAA this weekend

• Space: part 2 of the 09/07 Showcenter card
• Unimas: part 3 of TripleMania Mexico City
• YouTube; part 1 of the 09/07 Showcenter card

AAA posted a video update with Roberto Figueroa and Jose Manuel Guillen, talking about upcoming AAA events. There’s nothing new in there, but it’s a good summary of all the stuff AAA has going on (taping in Monterrey, Verano de Escandalo in Guadalajara, GLEAT, Flammer defending her title in Australia, Spain) for people who aren’t paying attention to everything. Most people aren’t, so this stuff is needed and fills a needed gap.

Sexy Star is still mentioning upcoming AAA shows in her Instagram stories. Luchadors are fairly terrible about communicating about what’s going on with them, but it seems like she’s working those shows.

Abismo Negro Jr. and El Fiscal are back to shooting promos on each other in media interviews and on social media. It’s going to be a month and a half between TripleMania and the next time they’re on TV, they might as well do something if the company isn’t going to do much.

Karis La Momia Jr. may be out of AAA and retired, but he’s still showing up in AAA promotional partnerships.

IWRG

The Mexico State Commission has suspended Rock Power for “10 shows.” How you can suspend someone for 10 shows which no one seems to keep track of shows and he’s booked irregularly – is 10 IWRG shows regardless of if he would’ve been booked? Do other Mexico State shows count? (This is why most wrestling suspensions are for days instead of shows.) I’ve put too much thought into this.

IWRG (THU) 09/19/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental & Shamila b Fauno & Kali
2) Avisman b Calibus
3) Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado b Hysteriosis & Rey Halcón
4) Noisy Boy b Aquiles, Bendito, Águila Roja
5) Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus © b Jessy Ventura & Mamba [IWRG IC TAG]
first defense

Noisy Boy did a cool dive.

Todo x el Todo

I guess I should flag this lineup since it’s this weekend.

TXT (SUN) 09/22/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal
1) Heddi Karaoui vs Cerebro Negro
2) Lady Apache, Shamila, Therius vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera, Keyra, Vanilla Vargas
3) El Hijo Del Santo & Fuerza Guerrera vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & LA Park and Bobby Lee Jr. & Cinta de Oro and Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Misterioso Jr. (Laguna) and Solar I & Texano Jr. and Cien Caras Jr. & Rayman and Hijo del Fishman & Máscara Sagrada Ng and Canek Jr. & Súper Nova [ruleta de la muerte]

I have no expectations this will stream. Everyone is a little frightened of Santo’s legal actions but I think it’ll turn up on YouTube fancams nevertheless. I probably would pay for this show on PPV but I’m also silly. Rayman looks like the most likely loser but they could go with some other names here.  There are a lot of advertisements for this show around Mexico City and it seems like either those – or some deep discounts on tickets – has caused tickets to move a bit. They’re not going to do as well as WWE or TripleMania, but it still will look fine.

The El Hijo del Santo media tour has reached El Econimista, who aren’t playing around with hiding his real name. El Santo told him son that he could run any business but he should buy real estate, that money will always work for you.

Santo also was less committed to his plan about retiring in June this year, saying maybe it’d be June or maybe he’d do it in May. He’s really doing the old luchador bit of throwing a lot of ideas out there, without really settling or committing to any of them. The announced shows are dates he’s committed to (unless they don’t sell tickets) but the rest is not locked in.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (SAT) 09/28/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Auzter & Skayde vs Platino & Tempo
2) Mexicano vs Iku
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
winner gets a tag title shot
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo vs Eli Isom, Kento, Takuma
5) Flamita, Mr. Win, Ricky Marvin, Viajero vs ?, Big Tao Tao, Limbo, Tonalli

I’m unclear why Black Generation is teaming with a mystery person instead of Emperador Azteca, but I will take the risk it might be a plus. Eli Isom is a US wrestler (and ex-ROH wrestler) who was around Big Lucha in 2022 and IWRG in 2023.

Lucha Brothers

Wrestlebuddy announced the Lucha Brothers have signed with WWE. Penta told Hugo no, he’s still signed to AEW. Nothing has changed in this story since it broke in August – they’re under an AEW deal and they’re signing with WWE as soon as that changes – and so there’s no point in rediscussing it until they actually show up in WWE or WWE actually admits to signing them.

This is like the AEW TV news this week; I understand why it’s news, but I also have a negative interest in reading a detailed breakdown of the rumored deal when the same people will be doing the same breakdown of the actual detail soon enough.

Other News

Tauro (Antonio Grimaldo, 89) passed away on Wednesday. Two of his brothers were also luchadors. He started under his real name in the early 50s, then switched to the masked Tauro gimmick in the 60s. He wreslted for EMLL from 1964 to 1978, and then spent a couple of years working UWA dates to finish out his career. Tauro was a lightweight when EMLL didn’t have much use for lightweights; he was a decade or so early for the UWA. The magazines seemed to praise him a lot. His biggest break was getting into a mask feud with the popular Estrella Blanca. Tauro lost, but the issue continued, and Tauro ended up winning the national lightweight championship out of it. He kept it for the better part of three years, just missing a six-month switch and back with Dardo Aguilar. Tauro was praised for his skills; El Halcon had his match with Rodolfo Ruiz as the most technical match of 1975. The local paper mentions he ended up promoting back in his home of San Luis Potosi after his in-ring career ended.

There’s a viral video of part of a light tube piercing the arm of a luchador. The video is from the Monday September 16th Arena Queretaro show and a main event of Joe Lider and local wrestler Ursus. Other video of the match shows it was stopped right away to Ursus him medical aid. Ursus posted on Facebook on Thursday, saying he was back home, recovering, and hopes to wrestle again. He thanked everyone for the well wishes.

Masked Republic announced “Lucha Libre Legend of the Mask”, a 2D side-scrolling fighting game scheduled to release March 2025. They’ll use some real people in the game; Mr. Iguana and Konnan are mentioned in the preview art as bosses. It looks good.

The 09/28 MV Promociones show (Metalik vs Dralistico) is said to be canceled. Too many shows and low ticket sales. All the Auditorio shows in Tijuana seem to be struggling the last few months, and this show was from an established promoter who’s previous show had also bombed, coming one day after an AAA spot show and with people those fans don’t see as main eventers. There was little chance it was going to turn out well.

Eduardo Valenzuela, the producer/director of lucha libre movie “El Halcon”, said it debuted in the US theaters with great success on September 13th. Box Office Mojo does not list a move by that name in last week’s gate recipets.

Periodismo & Punta has a story on Martin Karadagain. It’s a bit amazing how often he’s remembered in that culture, given his show went off TV in Argentina in the 1980s, but it is also a lot of writers in their 50s and 60s getting to write about a treasured childhood memory. That also means a lot of writing about their memories and not wanting to look too close at them; in this tale, Karadagain was an undefeated wrestler in the US before returning to his home country.

Imagen Noticias has an interview with retired wrestler El Reo.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 09/16/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico b Angelito & Fantasy  
2) Capitán Suicida, El Audaz, Legendario b Alom, Hunter, Infarto  
12:43
3) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro  
13:44
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Difunto, Terrible b Magnus, Rugido, Vegas  
13:06
5) Esfinge & Euforia DQ Hechicero & Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]  
10:07. Straight falls, Valiente attacking everyone and unmasking Esfinge for the DQ.
6) Místico © b Máscara Dorada [MLW MIDDLE]  
15:29

Mascara Dorada/Mistico was a lot of call backs to Dorada winning last year, including him going for the same La Mistica finish that had won it. Mistico was able to escape this time and put it on himself. The fans were generally pro-Dorada and anti-Mistico, which appeared to be residual unhappiness with the Aniversario main event. We’ll see if it sticks. I liked the match, but then I got feedback that there were issues with the match that I just wasn’t seeing, so maybe I need to go back and watch it closer. There does seem something with Mascara Dorada that’s not connecting with everyone.

Hechicero had his bad arm heavily wrapped, but wrestled without issue here and wrestled the previous night on a Guadalajara show (not Arena Coliseo) without noticeable issue. CMLL would not have him wrestling with a bicep torn enough to need surgery, so I presume it’s a minor issue if it is one at all.

CMLL did surprise stream this show, though not without issues. CMLL usually streams the Puebla show too, they just keep it private, and both the Arena Mexico shows and the Arena Puebla shows happening at the same time made it tricky to figure out what stream should be public. We are paying $35/month for this service, far higher than any wrestling service anywhere else, it seems like the easy thing to do would’ve been to just make them both public. CMLL instead streamed the opening of the Puebla show, killed that stream, put out a new link, that link was still Puebla, it switched over to Arena Mexico, CMLL killed that stream anyway, and put out a third link that picked up the Arena Mexico opener just as it was ending. It worked out fine for the rest of the show.

CMLL (MON) 09/16/2024 Arena Puebla [DeporPuebla, Grada, Mano a Mano, Porra Fresa]
1) Astoreth & Lady Metal b Enigmática & Lady Amazona 
2) Arkalis, Rayo Metálico, Xelhua b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio 
3) La Catalina b Reyna Isis [lightning]
8:20. The tecnico fans held up Chilean flags to support Catalina.
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
5) Averno, Hijo de Octagón, Octagón b Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
Averno beat Atlantis after a mask pull. Atlantis wanted one more fall and Averno just unmasked him again.
6) Rocky Romero, Templario, Volador Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles] 
Niebla Roja unmasked Templario. Rocky Romero and Volador had issues.

The Atlantis/Avenro match doesn’t seem to be followed up next week, or maybe I just got the Atlantis confused in the results. Some matches from this show will air Sunday night.

CMLL (TUE) 09/17/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Full Metal b Acero [lightning] 
5:44
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio b Eléctrico, Retro, Valiente Jr. 
14:11
3) Crixus, Magia Blanca, Okumura b Hijo del Pantera, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano 
14:26.
4) Amapola, Sanely, Zeuxis DQ Kira, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles] 
13:25. Straight falls, the second when Sanely tossed her mask to Tessa (or really tossed it well past her, so Tessa had to turn around and pick it up before the referee turned back.) Tessa demanded a singles match with Sanely.
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Rocky Romero, Zandokan Jr. b Máscara Dorada, Neón, Volador Jr. 
13:22.
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja b Atlantis Jr. & Star Jr. [CMLL TAG] 
20:58. 15th defense.

The rudo teams won every match. A fine day for evil.

The tag title match was very good, though I spent the match thinking about how this title reign can’t end to a random team on a Tuesday match. I was into the near falls but probably not the way they wanted. The Chavez say they’re at 16th defenses; it’s possible there’s one I just haven’t found. It’s not like there’s an official list anywhere. Semi-main was good.

Sanely played cartoon ruda for the entirety of the match, and the announcers pushed the idea this could be a permanent character change. I’m sure CMLL will make it clear next week, or on Informa. She seemed to be having fun with it, anyway.

CMLL (TUE) 09/17/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno b Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico
2) KeMalito, Micro Sagrado, Tengu b Átomo, Mije, Periquito Sacaryas
Mije replaced Chamuel on Tuesday morning.
3) Dark Magic, El Elemental, Yutani b Arlequín, Leo, Omar Brunetti
4) Hera, Olympia, Valkiria b La Catalina, Lluvia, Náutica
Valkiria defeated Lluvia and challenged for an OCCIDENTE WOMEN shot.
5) Espíritu Negro, Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr. b Fantástico, Fugaz, Star Black [Relevos Increíbles]
Gallero beat Star Black and challenged for a MEX HEAVY shot.
6) Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Titán DQ Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
DQ for mask removal

Lots of matches set up for next week.

CMLL (FRI) 09/20/2024 Arena México
***Dia de Luchador, 2024***
1) Legendario & Rayo Metálico vs Alom & Infarto
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Flip Gordon, Neón, Pelon Encapuchado vs Magnus, Rugido, Vegas
4) Atlantis Jr., Templario, Titán vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Místico vs Averno [lightning]
6) Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Valiente vs Esfinge, Euforia, Soberano Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

A good looking Friday show. The main event is the usual mask match rematch; bet the house on Euforia defeating Hechicero. Mistico gets his most favorite opponent after a bad Friday. Rocky seems to be done for now, so no idea when/where the stuff with Flip will get followed up.

CMLL (SAT) 09/21/2024 Arena Coliseo
***Dia de Luchador, 2024***
1) KeMalito & Mije vs Átomo & Chamuel
2) Angelito vs Pierrothito [lightning]
3) Kira, La Catalina, Lluvia vs Persephone, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis
4) Neón & Star Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Felino, Panterita del Ring vs Negro Navarro, Octagón, Pantera, Satánico [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Último Guerrero vs Averno, Soberano Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]

Negro Navarro seemed to be telling people this past weekend that he was retiring. I haven’t seen a statement from him saying so, but this could be his final CMLL match. Match 4 could steal the show.

CMLL (SUN) 09/22/2024 Arena México
1) Hijo del Pantera & Hombre Bala Jr. vs Espanto Jr. & Felino Jr.
2) India Sioux, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Dark Silueta, Hera, Reyna Isis
3) Difunto, Kráneo, Zandokan Jr. vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
4) Titán © vs Villano III Jr. [CMLL WELTER]
9th defense
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Flip Gordon, Neón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Star Jr., Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Euforia, Místico, Soberano Jr. vs Esfinge, Valiente, Volador Jr.

Villano III/Titan really makes me wish we had a Sunday live stream; it should air on AMX on 10/03.

CMLL (MON) 09/23/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Black Tiger vs Prayer & Rencor
2) Arkalis & Rayo Metálico vs El Perverso & Multy
3) Rey Samuray & Xelhua vs Felino & Felino Jr.
4) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
5) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Hechicero vs Averno, Euforia, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Templario & Niebla Roja probably feud in the main event. The squad is back together in match four.

CMLL Informa has

• Hechicero & Euforia (Aniversario)
• Mistico (Aniversario, MLW)
• Octagon, Atlantis, Pantera, Felino (Dia de Luchador)
• KeMalito (????)
• Zeuxis (title win)
• Sanely (ruda?)

The CMLL Micros championship is vacant, with Micro Gemelo Diablo I’s jump to AAA. The KeMalito bit could be about CMLL addressing that situation.

In the old days, Mistico would speak his mind when things weren’t going well, often not staying on CMLL message. Mistico is a persistently positive person in this go-around, but I am intrigued to see how they talk about last Friday. I expect we’ll get a Hechicero injury update.

CMLL Informa will also probably announce the final matches for Noche de Campeones on 09/27, as determined by fan voting. When I checked this morning, the voting was:

• Atlantis Jr. defending against Soberano Jr. [NWA LH]
• Templario defending against Volador Jr. [CMLL MIDDLE]
• Futuro defending against Rayo Metalico [MEX LIGHT]
• Reyna Isis defending against Sanely [MEX WOMEN]
• Magnus & Rudio defending against Los Villanos [MEX TAG]
• Mascara Dorada, Neon, and Star Jr. defending against Los Infernales [MEX TRIOS]
• Ultimo Dragoncito defending against Pierrothito [CMLL MINI]

It’ll take a big last minute effort to change any of these matches. I haven’t dug into the exact voting totals, but almost all of these are blowouts by percentage. Calavera Jr. I is the only person who’s within 10% of the leader in their category. Akuma used to be a slam dunk in these fan voting, and that appears to have waned. Sanely got votes in part because of her current character and may be a ruda by the time that match happens.

Back when control of CMLL shifted from Sofia Alonso to Salvador Lutteroth III, I and others noted that there was an issue with the CMLL trademarks. For whatever purpose, all of them had been filed in Paco Alonso’s name, not the promotion, and so they passed to someone who was had been pushed out of CMLL. Lutteroth, using the promotion name “PROMOCIONES MÉXICO, COLISEO Y REVOLUCIÓN, S.C.”, filed for those same trademarks in attempt to resolve that issue. I was checking around in the database for other info, and I noticed that action seems to have at least partly succeeded. All of the Alonso trademarks with “CMLL” in them are now “En Tramite” (the trademark office has received them, hasn’t approved them, can be here forever) and the only CMLL trademarks approved are Lutteroth controlled. Some of the Lutteroth trademarks are new ones; some look like they were transferred from Alonso’s account. There’s still a bunch that neither side has control of, but any concern about the name seems a thing of the pass. It’s impossible to know if this resulted from a legal battle or if the two parties worked it out themselves.

CMLL/Lutteroth’s most recent trademarks are for Kira, Tengu, Al Filo de la Butaca, Esto es Lucha,  and “Salon de la Fama CMLL Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.” None of these have been approved, but that process moves at strange speeds. Kira had the weird name change; it looks like CMLL tried to get both Andromeda and Esterllita Lagunera and those were equally stuck. Al Filo de la Butaca means “On the Edge of your Seat”, and the filing description makes it sound like the name of a TV program. Esto es Lucha is the name of the CMLL podcast. The Salon de la Fama (Hall of Fame) was filed this month. Many of CMLL’s trademark applications have changed their email contact from a generic Hotmail address to the contact email of a IP legal firm in Mexico City.

On CMLL’s booking

Last Friday, I recapped a podcast where SuperLuchas’ Ernesto Ocampo said he believed Julio Cesar Rivera, not Panico, should be considered as CMLL’s booker in the “Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Booker” meaning. I’ve got feedback from an informed source to that recap, which has a slightly different story. One of their objections is the idea that Panico is not around CMLL much; the other version has Panico around CMLL once a week. That’s a sort of difference where both versions could be saying the same thing, but they just wanted it clear Panico is still a regular. Why that bit is important is because it’s a piece of how CMLL shows are run and why the creative stuff is a mystery. Each weekly show has a CMLL backstage person in charge. (Panico is still in charge, about once a week.) I’m going to call them an “agent” because that’s the old US term, and the responsibility is similar; I don’t know exactly what they call them in CMLL. The agent is responsible for making sure the wrestling portion of show gets off without a hitch, including communicating results to the wrestlers. The agent isn’t making those decisions; they’ve been given those decisions in advance, and they’re the middleman handing out orders. The agents are not allowed to change the results themselves; they must call (or text) someone higher in the food chain with more power if an issue arises. Who are they calling? Well, the agents know, but it might as well be the Wizard of Oz for the wrestlers. They don’t know who is behind that curtain, which is also probably why we don’t know who is behind that curtain. The real purpose of the agents is to ensure the wrestlers have no direct way of complaining to the creative on the day of the show. It also makes those agents the most important to the wrestlers; they need the agents to like them enough to argue their case.

My best guess is that Jose Luis Feliciano is answering the agents’ phone calls, but no one’s quite sure. That buffer and mystery is the intention. It’s also possible that someone like Feliciano is making those snap decisions while someone like Julio Cesar Rivera (or more people) contributes to the company’s long-term direction. Salvador Lutteroth (III) is also part of the process. He’s not the booker either, but he has his ideas about who’s good and who’s he believes will attract fans, and those ideas do make it into the product. Like any owner, any really big idea with the company has to get his approval. It’s not one singular person. These categories really shouldn’t be person-specific in general; the idea of one single person making all the creative decisions without influence from others died out with the territories. The more accurate answer to “Who books CMLL?” for that award is probably best put as “CMLL”, as unsatisfying as that would be.

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo did not return to wrestling Tuesday night in Arena Aficion. He appeared at the show to explain he wasn’t medically cleared. Murder Clown replaced him, though Psicosis also was added to the match so they could do another Abismo/Psicosis break up. I had thought Vikingo would be added to a lot of Independence Day shows if he was returning on this date, but I should’ve thought about it the other way: taking only one isolated show in a flood of shows meant he optimistically took that date early and then stopped taking more dates once he wasn’t going to make it. The promotion hadn’t really pushed Vikingo’s return on the show, which seemed like weird Mexican promoting but they might have known it wasn’t actually happening and didn’t feel like updating the poster (another aspect of weird Mexican promoting.)

It’s great that Vikingo’s taking medical advice seriously and is not rushing back early. It would be better if he was healthy enough to return. The next known Vikingo booking (in my incomplete) is the September 29th TV taping.

(AEW’s 2024 program has a lot of active people and some people who have been out for a long time, like Keith Lee, Kota Ibushi, and Penelope Ford. Hijo del Vikingo isn’t in that program. That may mean something, or that may just be a weird merchandise rights issue with AAA.)

The main event of that Arena Aficion show was Mascara 2000, defeating Oriental for his hair. Mascara was always a bigger star than Oriental, so it was not a surprising outcome, but a 66-year-old man picking up hair wins still feels off. It didn’t draw—not the hair match, not the Vikingo return.

Record reports Karis La Momia Jr. is now retiring from wrestling completely. Karis had previously said he left AAA and would be coming up with a non-AAA gimmick but had indicated he’d still continue in wrestling. Maybe he really meant it when he didn’t want to just follow in his father’s footsteps and decided to do something else, or maybe he’s 23 and made a decision he’ll undo later. Record says Karis is one of “13 recognized children of La Parka.” 13 is a considerable number itself, even without throwing the loaded “recognized” adjective in there.

Today’s silly gossip is a random commenter on a Latin Lover Facebook Live claimed he saw Sanson and Forastero near Arena Mexico. That’s about nothing. Latin Lover reacted along the lines of “well, if they go they go, they’ll do good wherever”, which would be meaningful if came from someone who didn’t just say a lot of stuff without thinking about it too much. Latin Lover also said wrestlers are allowed to go where they want, which appears to be the actual situation. Forastero says this story is nothing, saying they were in that area but visiting people and picking up masks. Arena Mexico tends to be a gathering spot for Mexico City based luchadors, both in CMLL and not. I can tell you some non-CMLL wrestlers in the front row of one of CMLL’s shows this past week; it’s expected to see them around, and it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I presume NGD would have difficulty getting back into CMLL (even beyond the Vaquer/Cuatrero situation), but it’s probably also irrelevant.

Today’s other gossip bit is WWE uploading the When Worlds Collide Octagon & Hijo del Santo versus Eddy Guerrero & Art Barr match on their WWE vault match. That event – an AAA show produced by WCW and now owned by WWE – is always a bit of a legal grey area, but WWE’s included it on a best of Eddie Guerrero DVD set and other releases in the past. This is a good bit if you’re deep in the Mexican wrestling space and are grasping for signs of an AAA/WWE relationship, but I don’t think it means much in that way. The video is introduced by Dominic Mysterio, whose current look is obviously influenced by Los Gringos Locos of that time.

That WWC match is the one Mexican wrestling match that got attention from the US tape traders through the 90s. There were other AAA matches nearly as good, maybe better, but they were in Spanish, and so they didn’t get passed around as much as the one that had a WCW crew explaining it. The Aniversario mask match is getting highly praised and is being seen by a lot of people (some of whom have paid for it), but there will always be another level to reach by making good Mexican wrestling available in more languages.

AAA visited with Casa de la Amistad.

El Hijo del Santo

Record’s El Planchitas had an hour-long interview with El Hijo del Santo. He’s done so many of these but I at least skimmed through this to see if there was anything new. There was some stuff. El Hijo del Santo says the Todo x el Todo tour names came from him sitting down and making a list of wrestlers he thought might be independent who he wanted to get involved. He mentions Dr. Wagner Jr. as one name he thought might be an AAA guy, but Wagner assured him he’s not under AAA contract. I’m sure this is a true story is for some of the names; I’m a bit skeptical he came up with Misterioso and Therius in his list. Santo says he would’ve liked to book Negro Casas, Blue Panther, and Ultimo (I think Guerrero), but the problem with wrestlers is they like to be chained to companies and those guys weren’t available. Santo feels AAA and CMLL deciding to work together – and letting their wrestlers work wherever they wanted – would improve the state of lucha libre. Santo believes a national commission of lucha libre should exist, but he doesn’t want any part of doing that work. They start to go through a list of the biggest ticket sellers in the last few decades, and El Hijo del Santo argues Super Muneco is underrated as a draw at his peak. He praises Ciclon Ramirez  Jr. as a young wrestler with skills.

Santo goes over some tour dates; the Puebla one with no lineup is still on the list, though he also skips over some with lineups. He’s still insistent he wants to go the Japan and the US, but he doesn’t want to make too many plans in case he gets hurt and can’t fulfill dates. Santo says the tickets for the show are selling very well. Both Superboletos and word on the ground suggest that’s not accurate. El Hijo del Santo goes over the tour schedule three or four times, making sure that the venues get out as much as the cities. Mano Negra will be the lead referee for the shows, who he insists will call it straight and not be characters.

El Hijo del Santo is, of course, asked about working for CMLL and AAA and explains he won’t work with them because of something he likes to call “dignity”. He feels both promotions threw him out on the street, asking the interviewer how he would feel if Record threw him out if he asked for a raise or disagreed with something they were doing. El Hijo del Santo says he didn’t like AAA because he didn’t like the men versus women or men versus minis matches, and they also didn’t pay him. Santo claims he came up with the Leyenda de Plata tournament, CMLL trademarked it behind his back and then started to block him with promoters when he got angry about it. (The Leyenda de Plata story has come up before, though trademark records show it was Santo’s side who had it trademarked first.) He says he loves Mistico a lot and feels CMLL messed with plans for them to be a tag team on outside shows by lying to promoters about his availability. Santo explains that returning to either is like a bad romantic relationship; he’s broken up with these groups, and he knows it would never work if he went back. He’s asked if he believes he wants to wrestle in Arena Mexico one more time before returning, and Santo says he had great memories from that building, bringing up his late 90s feuds (Scorpio Jr. & Bestia Salvaje name-checked) and trained there when he was started out. Still, he has no dreams or interest in returning. If he were to wrestle anywhere in Mexico City for his retirement match, he’d like it to be at the Plaza de Toros. The interviewer touches on this later – isn’t the Arena Ciudad de Mexico date supposed to be the last Mexico City show? Santo explains that’s the current plan, there’s no guarantee he’ll do a retirement match in Mexico City, just an idea. El Hijo del Santo expands on his reoccurring yarn about why the mask match with Blue Demon Jr. never happened: they feuded and had some great technical matches, never brawls, but they once talked on a plane and decided the lucha libre world would be too sad if one or the other were unmasked. It would be wrong to do it. Santo also admits that his relationship with Blue Demon Jr. fractured and ended. He says it was for reasons outside of wrestling; he respects Demon, but they don’t talk. Santo treats his problems with Demon on the same level as he has with CMLL and AAA and says that he’s learned he must remove toxic people from his life. “It’s better to be alone than around bad company.”

El Hijo del Santo says he’s worked on himself in therapy for the last 42 years. “Mr. Guzman” and El Hijo del Santo have agreed that it is time for El Hijo del Santo to leave the ring, though he has all sorts of ideas of non-wrestling ways to continue the character. Most of it is the usual bit, but el Hijo del Samto mentions that he recorded conversations with his father in college about his career, which have never been released. He’s thinking about putting those out. El Hijo del Santo believes his father would adore his wife Gabriela if she was alive, because she’s done a lot to protect the Santo brand – trademarks, coming up with the store, getting the wax statue of Santo at the store, getting the statue of Santo in Tepito. Santo said he’d made good money working with the national lottery and would spend it on a car (a Jaguar!), but Gabriela said no – it makes him a kidnapping risk. She said he should buy a gift for his father instead. Hijo del Santo was confused about why he’d buy a Jaguar for his deceased father, but she explained the statue idea to him, and he was blown away. Santo notes she’s the ruda of the family, but in a way where she’s looking out for him. Gabriela has that rep among Mexican wrestling people, though they don’t see it as favorably as Santo does.

Cerebro Negro says it’s a great honor to open this show on Sunday. Besides his son Cerebro Negro Jr., he mentions his daughter is the luchadora Sinapsis.

IWRG

IWRG (MON) 09/16/2024 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del RIng, IWRG]
1) Drakula Ng, Felino Boy, Príncipe Centauro, Sacro, Shamila, Sky Man b Fauno, Kali, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón, Súper Boy, Tornado [Copa High Power]
2) Multifacetico Jr. © b Cerebro Negro Jr. [IWRG IC WELTER]
3) Aquila, Luka, Spider Fly DRAW Abigor, Hysteriosis, Rock Power
Rock Power gave Spider Fly a martinete.
4) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba b Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. DQ Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool and Medico Brujo, Ovett Jr., Sick Boy
Pigs unmasked Pandemonium
6) DMT Azul, Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus b Hijo del Fishman, Vangellys, Vengador

In the tercera, Rock Power gave Spider Fly a martinete. Spider Fly was taken to the hospital. IWRG says Rock Power is suspended indefinitely. They’re trying to play this up as a real injury, but I presume it’s part of the Fake Spider Fly (or maybe Clone Spider Fly) saga.

IWRG (THU) 09/19/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental & Shamila vs Fauno & Kali
2) Calibus vs Avisman
3) Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado vs Hysteriosis & Rey Halcón
4) Aquiles vs Noisy Boy, Bendito, Águila Roja
5) Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus © vs Jessy Ventura & Mamba [IWRG IC TAG]
first defense

Other Notes

Sinaloa luchador El Tigre del Ring (Francisco Montero Cota, 99) passed away Monday. He worked as a wrestler, referee, and promoter. The debate bio lists him as the Mexican National Welterweight champion in 1968. My records have that title being held by Humberto Garza and Alberto Munoz. Sinaloa is a region where with little information from that period, maybe there was a title change we didn’t know about, but I have no records of one outside this mention.

Ernesto Ocampo mentioned Tauro (Antonio Grimaldo Martinez) passed away as I was finishing up. I’d like come back to write about him Friday with more time; he was not a big star, but he’s a guy who’s name I saw a lot reading through 70s magazines so it feels like I was seeing him a couple of years ago.

Tribuna de Queretaro has a long interview with Queretaro’s Dragon de Oriente I. He was the original Rey Cometa; he wanted to be Cometa Halley as an astronomy fan, but went with the different name in fear of being rejected. He (Raul), his brother and his friend (Marcelino) went to the commission to get their name changed approved when they decided to become Los Dragones del Oriente. Marcelino came up with the idea but the commission decided to make Raul #1.

The KeMonito short documentary debuts on Netflix (in Latin America only) on Thursday.

Latin Lover’s podcast had promoters Nacho de la O (The Crash), Alonso Botello (KAOZ), and Arturo Serna (Panther) to talk about the ups and downs of the wrestling business. The Crash you may already know, KAOZ runs like three shows a year if even, Panther runs weekly or close to weekly in Reynosa. There is a speedy summary in this post. They praise La Parka (AAA) and Mistico as the best ticket sellers, and Botello and Serna call Penta the most overvalued wrestler. Nacho disagreed with them, saying Penta’s always been good for him in Tijuana. Serna said Penta and Psycho cost the most, and everyone agreed it is actually Hijo del Santo who costs the most but he’s not worth the cost so he sort of costs nothing because no one wants to pay him. Botello and Serna praise Komander as someone good to work with.

The city of Juarez held a press conference to talk about the Lucha Libre festival on Sunday. It runs from noon to midnight; I counted 31 matches on between the two posters. Komander versus the Beast Mortos is listed as the main event, though the last four matches are listed in a way where any of them might be it. They’ll have a tribute to Eddie Guerrero on the show, with Vickie in attendance.

Longtime weekly Veracruz promotion UVLL announced they’re closing down this Sunday. They’ve been running that place for 15 years, since 2009, pretty much every Sunday. The promoter talked about the closing and the history they have there, but hasn’t given a story about what happened (outside of saying it’s for bad reasons.) Some of their fans are hoping it’s just a change of location as a surprise. Stephanie Vaquer sent in a video to promote the show; she wrestled there in a lot in 2014 when she moved from Chile and she and Ricky Marvin were living in his hometown of Veracruz. She’sthe most famous person to come out of that arena.

Aniversario

CMLL (FRI) 09/13/2024 Arena México [CMLL, El Grafico, El Universal, Excelsior, Gamavision, Kaiser Sports, Milenio, Post Wrestlng, Record, Telediaro, The Gladiatores, The Gladiatores (videos), thecubsfan, Voices of Wrestling]
***CMLL 91st Aniversario***
1) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido    
8:37
2) Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. b Neón, Star Jr., Templario    
17:11.
3) Titán b Máscara Dorada [Copa Independencia]     
14:40.
4) Zeuxis b Willow Nightingale © [CMLL WOMEN]  
11:07. Willow falls on first defense. Zeuxis becomes 23rd champion.
5) Atlantis Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b Kojima, Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero  
Flip Gordon, who earlier did an anti-Rocky Romero interview, got into a shoving match with Romero from the crowd, then tried to jump the rail and attack him. He was ejected, but rooted for the home twm to win (which they did.)
6) Euforia L Hechicero, Esfinge, Valiente [mask]  
Euforia submitted Esfinge at 10:32, Hechicero submitted Magia Negra at the 14:14 mark, and Hechicero submitted Euforia at 36:06. Soberano Jr. and Mephisto consoled Euforia after his loss. He gave credit to Hechicero for the win, and unmasked him as Jose Leobardo Moreno Leon, 49 years old, from Torreon. Hechicero suffered a left bicep injury early in the match.
7) Místico b Chris Jericho  
22:11. A three fall match. Big Bill seconded Chris Jericho and interfered on his behalf. Mistico won via La Mistica after an earlier attempt was reversed into the Wall of Jericho. Bill and Jericho attacked Mistico after the match until Orange Cassidy made the save. Cassidy put his sunglasses on Mistico (and immediately fled.)

The four-way match was incredible. The action from the start was fast and intense; they went for some tough spots, and they pulled off everything they needed. Three people catching a big man life Euforia as he’s flying at them is tough to coordinate, and they made it look easy. Both Valiente and Esfinge hit the spots they needed to hit, with Valiente wrestling like his old self for the first time in years. They even did the little things correctly; matches like that typically use pinfall breakups for drama, but everyone correctly realizes that breaking up pins under those rules would’ve been counter-productive, and they didn’t do them. It’s one of those things only noticed when it’s done wrong, but they did it very right. Both eliminations were genuinely stunning; Esfinge and Valiente were the most logical finalists and ended up being the two on the outside. Hechicero/Euforia was the best match on paper and the one with the most history, but it took vision and some trust to put those two guys in that spot. It worked out beautifully. CMLL’s typical match structure – best of three matches means everyone’s finish is seen often and well established – played into the drama of the final two. Everyone following CMLL has seen Euforia use the Euforia Special hundreds of times in the last couple of decades to put away opponents instantly and understood it was certain doom for Hechicero if he got caught in it. Even for fans who didn’t know the finishing moves, Hechicero & Euforia sold them so big and so important that the meaning of that offense became obvious. Hechicero & Euforia milked every bit of drama out of their moment, sold the moves big, sold the exhaustion and desperation bigger. There was no logical way someone getting an international rise like Hechicero was going to lose his mask, but he and Euforia absolutely made fans believe it was going to happen. The emotion after the result was super compelling. Nothing in any other form of wrestling can compare to the feelings after a big mask match; wrestling, people elsewhere barely seem to even understand or grasp it. It would be outstanding if this leads to a bigger role for Hechicero in CMLL, but it doesn’t need to lead to anything else to be still remembered as one of the great Aniversario apuesta matches of all time. I can not say enough good things about this match.

Mexico is a country that still covers important wrestling results as news and sports, and most of those outlets considered the mask match the main event of this show: Record, Excelsior, Milenio, El Universal, El Grafico, Telediario, and Publimetro all went with that match on top. ESTO and Marca went with Jericho & Mistico. The more wrestling-focused sites like Kaiser Sports and The Gladiatores went with the mask match, and it’s the entire cover of this week’s Box y Lucha. Wrestling sites that don’t cover CMLL as frequently tended to go with Jericho & Mistico. The record book will list Mistico & Chris Jericho as the final match of Aniversario, and Jericho has claimed his goal of being the trivia answer to various “who has headlined [X], [Y] and CMLL’s Aniversario show” answers. The mask match will be remembered as the main event.

That Chris Jericho/Mistico match was a disaster. It was hurt by the show going unusually long. It still would’ve been bad on an average show. It was hurt by following the mask match, and it still would’ve been bad in the semi-main. It would’ve been bad in front of an all-AEW crowd, it would’ve been bad in front of an all-CMLL crowd, it would’ve been bad on any other Friday night, and it would’ve been bad on a random match in another arena. Everyone was at fault. Most of the blame goes to Chris Jericho, who earned a lot of it. Mistico was at fault, too. Big Bill, unable to catch a telegraphed dive, was at fault. Referee Edgar was at fault. CMLL and AEW themselves were at fault. It was a group effort, and the whole team lost Friday.

That match shouldn’t have been twenty minutes and three falls long, not after how long that show had gone and not with those two wrestlers. It likely would’ve been bad at 12 minutes and one fall. When the story of the match is La Mistica versus Walls of Jericho and then Mistico jogs into applying the worst La Mistica in a very long time, the issue isn’t the factors around the match. It was the match. (And then they did the spot again, just as bad.) The rest of the match was clunky and ill-designed. Jericho wrestled Titan and Atlantis Jr., working in their big spots while generally wrestling his style of match. Those matches were generally well received. The idea didn’t work with Mistico this night, wouldn’t work with Mistico on a good night, and certainly didn’t work at all here. It wasn’t all Mistico either, there were Jericho issues that were Jericho issues. He nearly took a header on the Lionsault, and he was gassed by the end of the match. He didn’t have the fitness for a twenty minute match in Mexico City altitude and paid for it by the end. I’m not sure the Mistica’s would’ve looked good in minute 1, but he didn’t show up in condition for the match he wanted to do. Jericho seems desperate to prove the ‘haters’ wrong – he’s still vital, he still can go, he’s still capable of headlining big shows. A Jericho who was more accepting of his limitations, Mistico’s abilities and the expectations of this match might have put together less ambitious. He did it his way, did it to make a point, and the point he made was that his detractors were right.

Mistico’s got to take his share of the blame. This is his building, his show, his promotion – if anyone has earned the way to say “this is what we’re going to do it”, it is Mistico. And he influenced how the match went; the missed tornillo dive is his trademark when he’s teasing losing a big singles match. He knew the importance of the match, he deferred, and now he’s going to hope the stars will align to give him another chance at a Aniversario main event. CMLL is at fault for talking themselves into the main event, and not putting bigger limits on it. I do not believe “Jericho forced CMLL to put him in the main event” or “Mistico demanded the main event for not getting a mask match with Magnus.” Unless someone provides hard proof, those guys headlined the show because CMLL thought they were the biggest stars by far and worthy of the spot. The people who run CMLL are not children; they’re not people who bend to their will to wrestlers, for better or worse. AEW’s at fault, too. People who claim to be as big as worldwide wrestling fans should’ve known Jericho going after a mask match would’ve been a hard sell at best and convinced him and CMLL Jericho to just bill it as a double main event and wrestle in the semi-main. There are a lot of people who could’ve thrown themselves against this match in the best interest of the show, and no one stepped up enough to do it.

AEW’s biggest crime was treating the finale of CMLL’s biggest show of the year as a good playground for a heat-up angle for an Orange Cassidy versus Chris Jericho. It was worthless, because it was always only going to be a blink and you missed it clip on AEW’s b-show – that’s how AEW uses all their international footage. It was worthless because Jericho and Cassidy had already taped an entirely separate, stronger heat-up angle for those two on that same Collision show, one that was obviously going to overshadow whatever AEW showed from CMLL. It was worthless because it was the exact kind of low-impact angle that adds no value and exists just to say you’ve done something, but no one watching the show from Arena Mexico needs anything to build up a match. Most of them aren’t even going to see. (For a thousand time, I will remind you that AEW has no TV in Mexico. There are hardcore AEW fans who find a way to watch, and they did make noise. They were the minority, bitterly disappointed that the entire crowd wasn’t singing along with Judas, or that CMLL didn’t play it longer.) The Orange Cassidy/Chris Jericho bit is the typical midcard feud that’s going to draw or not draw based on whatever it does because of pre-existing affinity for the character, not because they did a post-match run-in in Arena Mexico or because they did a choking angle no one took seriously on Collision. It was intensely disrespectful to end a CMLL show with a meaningless attack and run-in for another promotion (a promotion which may not draw as many people this month as CMLL drew for this one show), entirely out of tune with the rest of the show. CMLL’s not a promotion where people run out to make a save while their music plays and their entrance video is shown, and there was no reason to make the last few minutes of CMLL’s biggest show of the year an AEW production. There’s not a chance AEW would ever allow CMLL or someone else to end All In with an angle for one of their matches; AEW didn’t even go as far as mentioning the existence of this show until after it happened, they’re not going to let CMLL (or anyone else) run their heat up angles on AEW TV.

The very specific bit with Orange Cassidy endorsing Mistico just showed how out of touch the idea was. That is Mistico’s house, Mistico is the star. I like Orange Cassidy, Orange isn’t close to the star Mistico is. Orange also was a complete rudo three matches earlier, and there was no reason for anyone to react to him as a good guy, except that’s what AEW needed for their story, so forget what happened the rest of the show. The angle died a death because it followed a disaster of a match, but it would’ve died a death even in better circumstances. None of this was what anyone watching CMLL wanted, it existed for AEW purposes and for the minority of AEW fans who came to Aniversario. And you could tell both the match and the post match angle wasn’t for the CMLL fans, because every wide angle showed a bunch of empty seats where CMLL fans were a match earlier. I didn’t like it,

This ending is a CMLL problem at the core, not an AEW one. AEW will ask for as much as possible until they’re told no. That’s what AEW did with AAA, and what we all expect WWE will do with AAA should that deal ever happen. AEW should have the common sense to know ending CMLL’s biggest show of the year with their own angle is as smart as jumping out of a plane without a parachute, but CMLL’s show is CMLL’s responsibility. They went crazy for the idea of Chris Jericho, they approved the show ending with Orange Cassidy putting his glasses on Mistico’s head, the buck stops with them. They’ve been pretty fortunate that big stuff with AEW this year has worked out well, probably even better than they hoped. There’s a limit to everything; everyone has gone far past it here, and you can only hope they learn from it. CMLL’s popular phrase is “no one is indispensable,” and that’s just as true for ideas or alliances that don’t work for CMLL. That bit didn’t work for CMLL.

There were other matches on this show! I think I’m the only person who liked Mascara Dorada/Titan as much as I did; it didn’t seem to be what anyone else wanted out of that match. Likewise, I thought Zeuxis/Willow was fine, but the consensus seems much lower. There was a spark that was missing. I’m having trouble making sense of Zeuxis’ post-match reaction; my (very wild) guess is they got cut on time since that was shorter than all the big matches, and she was unhappy about it. The all star trios was exactly what it should be. I was surprised Orange’s “you’re going to see different from me than in AEW” meant he was going to work rudo, but it worked very well for that match. Orange seemed as upset as everyone else at the main event, and I don’t know what he thinks about the experience, but he’s a guy who would work again in another match. The Flip/Rocky stuff was also very “not CMLL”, but Rocky has earned a lot more leeway (and there’s a fair case the element CMLL has been missing this year is the out-of-the-box stuff Romero did in 2023.) The Viajeros/Deperdadores was good for how long it lasted, but obviously not the match they’d have on any other show. The Chavez/Soberano vs Neon/Templario/Star match was superb, with everything hitting you want on a big show. I don’t want to dog AAA anymore here, but that match showed the difference between AAA and CMLL in 2024. CMLL can just throw six guys out there that they have no particular plans for on that show and have a great match, AAA has to specificy engineer circumstances to have a great match (and even that doesn’t always work for them.)

Hechicero’s left arm has a bicep tear – the one that was wrapped. The Gladaitores reported the other way, but it was late and it was the right arm from the way they were looking at him. I thought I had missed the injury, but it happened during the match and was dealt with quietly. He’s told people it happened on the Valiente armdrag. Hechicero showed the injury to Alexis Salazar at ringside before both the CMLL and the commission doctor checked on Hechicero off-camera and wrapped the arm. Hechicero said there was a hole in the muscle, and they’d have to do an MRI to figure out how bad it was. (The holiday weekend probably means that’s going to take longer than normal to schedule.) Hechicero is scheduled to wrestle Monday in Arena Mexico, but that seems unlikely.

In CMLL post-match promos

• Euforia said he dreamed of having Hechicero’s mask in his hands, but it didn’t work out. He says his mask in good hands, but Euforia will continue.
• Hechicero thanked everyone for their support, feel he proved he was meant for great things.
• Chris Jericho really wanted to do his in Spanish, but he struggled a bit with remembering the words. He said he wanted to come back and now remembered how thin the air was in Mexico City.
• Zeuxis said she lived up to her promise of bringing the belt back home and is ready to defend it anywhere in the world.

In the longer media interviews

• Hechicero noted he hadn’t wrestled in Arena Mexico since August 11th, and on a Friday show since August 2nd, so he was a bit nervous and at a disadvantage. Hechicero noted that some people don’t like his style, and some of his fellow wrestlers don’t like it (think it is outdated), but the same style opened doors for him internationally this year. It’s been a great year for him internationally and he felt a need to do the same in his home arena. He was very happy with the fan reaction; the fans got into the match, and it didn’t matter their position. Hechicero explained that he had to think about a hold that would work against a wrestler Euforia’s size and strength. Hechicero says he tore his left bicep early in the match. There’s a hole in it, and he’s started crying a bit out of despair about his big chance ruined by injury. He just kept going. He notes the ring is one place where you’re free to express your emotions and everyone supports you for showing them. Hechicero says there were a lot of factors in making this match happen and believes the fan reaction to the Zack Sabre Jr. versus Hechicero, the crowd support he got on the day, was an essential factor. Hechicero noted that the object of matches and nights like this is to build loyalty to lucha libre, from new fans and from returning fans, and he feels they accomplished that goal. Hechicero praised Euforia. To move forward and advance, everyone has to have great rivals who will push them. Hechiero’s set on continuing the momentum from this win; he feels he didn’t do that with the heavyweight title but won’t let it again. Hopefully, the bicep injury won’t leave him out long.
• Euforia says someone had to lose, he respects Hechicero, but this is not the outcome he wanted and not one he ever thought would happen. He’s hopeful he can turn being unmasked into a rebirth for him, and he’ll keep trying to get stronger. He’d been under that mask for 18 years, and a masked in general for 32 or 34 years. He doesn’t regret being in the match or staying in the match; Euforia said he was pretty sure that it would Hechicero would beat Valiente when those two were left in the ring and that was the match he wanted – he wanted to face Hechicero at the end because that was the personal issue and Hechicero was one he dreamed he was going to beat. Euforia is going to look for revenge and if he can’t get it against Hechiero, he’ll look for it against Esfinge or Valiente, he won’t forgot those issues. Euforia said that Soberano told him “tu un chingon, papa” when he consoled him after. Euforia did not want to cause controversy but believed main event wrestlers prove they’re main event wrestlers in whatever spot they’re booked, and the four in that mask match did that.

I barely check in on the Televisa airing of CMLL, but I can’t wait to check in next week on commentary Hechicero breaking down luchador Hechicero’s mask victory. I’d love to know how many viewers that show gets, though it’d be hard to know what it means without context.

I don’t think this bad night affects the entire AEW/CMLL relationship much. CMLL sold tickets to people who appeared there just to see the AEW people, and any wrestling promotion will keep going with a ticket selling ideas until the moment it stops selling tickets (and probably three moments beyond, just to be sure.) If you follow CMLL enough to be reading this blog regularly, you already know CMLL will imminently announce between 3-5 AEW wrestlers coming in for the Women’s Gran Prix at the end of October. (There’s a hint of one person already if you know where to look.) Will Ospreay probably turn up at some point, and likely others will.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Orange Cassidy again. This was a bad experience, but it doesn’t outweigh the very good experiences both sides had earlier this year, with matches like Bryan Danielson versus Chris Jericho. The Aniversario main event will instead directly affect the wrestlers involved. Chris Jericho talked a lot about wanting to have matches against a lot of CMLL’s top wrestlers, and that’s going to be a much harder sell after that match. This match will also fall on Mistico’s reputation, typecasting him further as a guy who can have really good matches with specific people in specific places. I’m sure both would like another chance to prove it was just a bad night, but I also doubt they’ll get it.

A relatively minor subplot was AEW’s Collision show airing a video package covering the CMLL Aniversario, showing the first fall finish and a voiceover talking about Chris Jericho defeating Mistico. The often ridiculed AEW social media team got blamed for making this mistake but appeared innocent – “Chris Jericho beat Mistico” was exactly how it appeared on TV, and the social media was just following that lead. That team reacted first, changing their social media posts. AEW posted on social media out a new video package on Sunday morning, instead noting that Jericho won the first fall and Mistico won the final two. AEW’s actions in this don’t affect CMLL at all – everyone who CMLL cares about knowing the results knows Mistico won. It is just AEW who is harmed and looks like goofs to the parts of their audience who know better. AEW also bills Mistico as forever undefeated, so they’re killing their own gimmick there. I know the leading theory is AEW was confused as to who won, but it is hard for me to accept that a half dozen people edited, produced and put that on the air without someone raising their hand and questioning the basic premise of Jericho beating Mistico. (But maybe that’s how we get to people thinking ending the biggest CMLL of the show with an AEW angle is a good idea, just living in an AEW-centric world.)

The CMLL YouTube stream played well. There were a couple of graphics issues and the audio always can be better, but the stream worked and there’s no reason to take that granted. I’m told the big illegal Facebook stream that peaked at 13K viewers (and then went down during the main event) also worked well.

Dralistico took advantage of the poor reaction to Jericho/Mistico to pitch a Mistico/Dralistico match on social media. I think that match would draw, I’m not sure if it would be good given the egos of the people involved, and I’m sure it ain’t happening. Dralistico is way out of the news in Mexico (and the US), so it was smart of him to find a way to get some attention.

Satanico praised Hechicero and Euforia for their performance.

Everything Else CMLL

CMLL (SAT) 09/14/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Grako b Sangre Imperial [lightning] 
8:13
2) Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio b Leono, Retro, Robin 
15:20
3) La Catalina & Tabata b Amapola & Olympia 
15:11
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero 
13:06
5) Dark Panther, Fugaz, Star Black b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo 
12:38
6) Dragón Rojo Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. b Flip Gordon, Rocky Romero, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles] 
11:54. Flip and Rocky had issues, cost each other the match, and teased a singles match afterwards.

Grako and Sangre Imperial are among the least impressive CMLL wrestlers, and they were surprised by a perfectly accepting lightning match. Everyone on this show was OK.

The Sunday show is a Monday show for this week only, with a 5 pm local start time. CMLL is intentionally obtuse about these holiday shows airing. It comes off as antagonistic to the people who are subscribing to their subscription service, though I believe the intention is to make sure everyone who might buy a ticket does that by making no promises of it airing. CMLL likely will not reveal the show airing until shortly before it starts. My guess is it’ll stream, but I also wouldn’t recommend you build your Monday around expecting to see it. If it doesn’t stream, matches will air on AMX on 09/20. The Mistico/Mascara Dorada match will likely air on the next MLW stream (09/28) as well.

Mistico won the MLW Opera Cup on Saturdays with wins over Bad Dude Tito and KENTA. Both were fun matches, nothing you have to see, but a breath of a fresh air after the show before. The Mistico/KENTA battle happened because the people who run MLW love 00s wrestling and those were the two big international junior heavyweight stars of the 00s. 2024 KENTA is nothing close to the KENTA of that era most nights, and this match was no different – but that was fine. It might have even been better that way. Mistico works best against someone playing a conventional rudo, and a lot of KENTA’s tricks and shortcuts boil down to typical rudo actions. (2024 KENTA is not Averno but their playbooks overlap a bit.) The fans seemed completely satisfied with both matches.

MLW will run Ultimo Guerrero versus Kojima for the MLW Championship on their 10/04 show in St. Petersburg, Flordia.  Kojima suggested the idea on the Friday press conference, Ultimo Guerrero (watching the stream) accepted, and UG won on Friday. This show will air on YouTube.

CMLL (TUE) 09/17/2024 Arena México
1) Acero vs Full Metal [lightning]
2) Eléctrico, Retro, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Hijo del Pantera, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano vs Crixus, Magia Blanca, Okumura
4) Kira, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard vs Amapola, Sanely, Zeuxis [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Máscara Dorada, Neón, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Rocky Romero, Zandokan Jr.
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Atlantis Jr. & Star Jr. [CMLL TAG]
15th defense

That main should be great, and the semi-main might be pretty good as well if they’re up for it.

The 09/18 Lucha contra Hambre show appears to have been quietly canceled. Tickets are no longer available and people were told the show was off when asking why. I do not believe they’ve solved the hunger issues in Mexico so it must be another issue.

Televisa Puebla aired matches from 09/07

• Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard © vs Persephone & Zeuxis [CMLL WOMEN TAG]
• Atlantis, Flip Gordon, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Averno, Niebla Roja
• Esfinge, Hechicero, Último Guerrero vs Euforia, Soberano Jr., Valiente in a relevos increíbles match

I was late at hitting the buttons to record MVS this weekend, so I don’t know what aired as the opener. It reads like the other person in the comments watching this show also didn’t get it; it was off on Sunday for holiday programming.

AAA

I didn’t get to watch AAA on Space this week. My recording of the Saturday night show failed (which happens a lot) and I wasn’t actively monitoring it to find an alternate source. Space repeats AAA on Sunday mornings and did again this week, but strangely repeated the last two TripleMania episodes rather than this week’s new episode. That Showcenter episode should air next Sunday and go up on YouTube later that night. I’ll catch it then. The matches that appeared to air, based on AAA’s social media, were all from the 09/01 taping:

• Brillante RB vs Reykco vs Black Raven
• Estrellato & Lider vs Epydemius & Sayrus
• Dinamico, Drago, Laredo Kid vs Antifaz, El Mesias, Pierroth Jr.
  • Mesias recruited Pierroth Jr. for his group, though Pierroth’s identity was kept secret for whatever reason.
• A video aired with Cibernetico pledging his support to Latin Lover. This one looked like it was taped at the press conference to announce the next Monterrey show, rather than at Showcenter itself.

Can you imagine how bad an Alberto/Cibernetico title match would be? If it happens, Cuervo and Ozz will be the only ones taking bumps. Pierroth Jr. being officially added to Mesias’ group and Mesias adding another member on the next taping likely means Dark Espiritu also won’t be around much going forward, in addition to Dark Spiritu’s departure. That Secta split was just a colossal failure of an angle, everyone was less over than when it started, no good matches were had, no one drew any money, just a whiff when they would’ve been better off doing nothing. But, if they did nothing, the important people wouldn’t get to say ‘here, look at what I did’, so something had to be done.

El Lindaman, Octagon Jr., and Faby Apache take on Michiko, Chris Ridgeway and Sam Adonis on the 10/06 GLEAT show. Octagon Jr. talked to AS about working the recent ELITE shows, in part because they were so helpful in getting him to his current AAA spot.

The 09/14 EMW show, built around freelance AAA wrestlers but no longer AAA affiliated, drew what looks to be their worst crowd in a very long time.

Laredo Kid wrestled Jonathan Gresham on the Impact tapings this Saturday. I have not heard if it was an actual match or if it ended in two minutes.

IWRG

No show here Sunday for the same Independence Day reason. They’re running this evening.

IWRG (MON) 09/16/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Fauno, Kali, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón, Súper Boy, Tornado vs Drakula Ng, Felino Boy, Príncipe Centauro, Sacro, Shamila, Sky Man [Copa High Power]
2) Multifacetico Jr. © vs Cerebro Negro Jr. [IWRG IC WELTER]
3) Aquila, Luka, Spider Fly vs Abigor, Hysteriosis, Rock Power
4) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba vs Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Pig Destroyer, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. and Medico Brujo, Ovett Jr., Sick Boy
6) DMT Azul, Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Hijo del Fishman, Vangellys, Vengador

Lucha Libre Boom has also announced a show for the end of the month.

CMLL , LLB , IWRG (SUN) 09/29/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Fobia & Pitbull vs Ángel Kid & Titanium
2) Arashi, Argus, Máscara De Hierro vs Águila Dorada, Argus Fly, Gaius
3) Karma I, Príncipe Centauro, Willy Banderas vs Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Multifacético
4) Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Fandango, Fantasma de la Ópera vs Cíclope, El Mago, Miedo Extremo and Gallego, Rocky Santana, Romano García
5) La Catalina & Mary Caporal vs Persephone & Sagitarius
6) Hijo de Octagón & Octagón vs Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr.

Other News

Zacatecas luchador Tormenta Roja (Santiago Cervantez) passed away Saturday night. He was stabbed twice at a residence during an argument. He looks to have wrestling since the 2010s, though lineups from Zacatecas are sparse. Big Bear Promotions mentioned he was working behind the scenes for them recently.

With TripleManias and Aniversarios passed, the next big show is El Hijo del Santo’s Mexico City retirement show, next Sunday in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. There’s a “buy 3, get 1” ticket sale going on for that show through tonight. El Hijo del Santo continued on a national media out to promote show; El Manana caught up with him in Monterrey to promote the show there on 10/13. He continues to hint heavily that his son will wrestle on that show. The article’s last section mentions El Hijo del Santo’s last match will take place on July 26, 2025. He’s done many of these interviews, so maybe I’ve missed it, but I haven’t seen him put a firm date on the end prior. The gimmick is that the July 26 date was the first El Santo match, and it’ll be the last El Hijo del Santo match (and seemingly the final match for anyone wearing the mask.)

Hijo del Fishman hypes up his feud with Mascara Sagrada to promote the Todo x el Todo.

El Paso Inc. has interviews with Cinta de Oro, Manny Hernandez of 915-616, and Michelle Delgado of “God fo the Ring” about the business of promoting shows in the city. All of them say the market is cooled, and they’re greatly supplemented by sponsors; Hernandez said he spends $15,000 per show of sponsor money to pay for talent, equipment, and logistics.

Segunda Caida reviews some 1993 Arena Coliseo Monterrey.