Author: thecubsfan

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 08/19/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, El Sol del Puebla, Grada, Mano A Mano, Parabolica]
1) Dreyko, El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis b Astro, Asturiano, Rayo Metálico
2) Lady Amazona, Persephone, Zeuxis b Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit, Tessa Blanchard 
3) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Okumura b Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
4) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Akira, Ikuro Kwon, Mansoor 
5) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Templario b Kyle Fletcher, Robbie X, Rocky Romero 

This looked to be another sell out in Arena Puebla with Mistico being very over. Didn’t read strong things about the main event. It’ll air Sunday.

CMLL (TUE) 08/20/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Full Metal, Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora b Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy
8:41
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Inquisidor b Eléctrico, Leono, Valiente Jr.
12:56
3) Espíritu Negro, Pelon Encapuchado, Rey Cometa b Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
11:50
4) Lian Po b Bárbaro Cavernario [lightning]
9:32. Lian Po is a character from a mobile game (Honor of Kings); it appeared to be Blue Panther Jr. under the mask.
5) Fugaz, Neón, Star Jr. DQ Magia Blanca, Magnus, Vegas 
13:47. Debut of Vegas as an official Los Depredadores. Vegas unmasked Fugaz (after his mask was practically ripped off a few minutes earlier.) Sets up a singles match next week.
6) Ángel de Oro, Averno, Niebla Roja b Atlantis Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. 
15:24. Angel de Oro was eliminated, but snuck back in and fouled Atlantis Jr. to set up Niebla Roja’s win. Atlantis wanted a match with Angle de Oro. Angel de Oro unmasked Atlantis Jr.

It seems like it breaks down like Atlantis Jr./Angel de Oro in the main event and a Vegas/Fugaz lightning match. This also probably means the foreigners are working in Guadalajara next week or finished up by Tuesday.

The semi-main was the best match on this week’s show. The main event was a professional match that did pick up a bit as it went on.

Lian Pon is a very muscled and very agile comic book character. Blue Panther Jr. has cartoonish muscles, but asking him to be very mobile in a singles match is tough at that size. His decision to put on all that size is definitely hurting his wrestling, yet guys who look like Blue Panther Jr. will absolutely get oppurtinties (like playing a mobile game character) because they’re so big.

CMLL (TUE) 08/20/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha]
1) Dulce Kitty, Valkiria, Zorah b Adira, Magia Azul, Náutica
2) Chamuel & Tengu b KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas
Scheduled as Átomo, Mije, Tengu vs Chamuel, KeMalito, Periquito Sacaryas, but Atomo ended up working Arena Mexico (part of the mobile game promotion)
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico b Crixus, Difunto, Raider
Los Magnificos won this time, and again challenged for the OCCIDENTE TRIOS
4) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Templario b Bestia Negra, Euforia, Gallero
5) Barboza, Dulce Gardenia, El Elemental, Furia Roja, Hijo del Villano III, Místico, Soberano Jr., Star Black, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Akira, Dark Magic, Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon, Kyle Fletcher, Mansoor, Okumura, Robbie X, Rocky Romero, Yutani
Mistico defeated Robbie X to win it for Team Mexico.

The main event was said to be pretty good. (This turned out to be a Fan Leyenda show.) The foreigners keep losing these lead-up matches, which means they’re almost certainly going to win the Gran Prix on Friday—probably Claudio, maybe Yota.

CMLL (SUN) 08/25/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Hera, Olympia, Skadi vs Metálica, Reyna Isis, Sanely [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Hijo del Pantera, Star Black, Volcano vs Akuma, Felino Jr., Kráneo
4) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Ikuro Kwon [lightning]
5) Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. vs Akira & Yota
6) Atlantis Jr. vs Davey Boy Smith Jr.

That’s a second generation singles match I didn’t expect to see. The MLW guys are staying the longest and getting booked kindly. Hijo del Pantera makes another Sunday appearance.

Atlantis Jr. forms an all-masked man team with Serpentico and Fuego del Sol against the Gates of Agony on this Thursday’s Ring of Honor.

CMLL Informa tonight has

• Atlantis (?)
• Blue Panther (?)
• Niebla Roja (return from injury)
• Kyle Fletcher, Robbie X, Flip Gordon, Mansoor, Ikuro Kwon, Akira (Gran Prix)

Flip Gordon is like the voice of reason on that team. The Gran Prix foreigners showing up on Informa usually produces some sort of train wreck and I’m sure it’ll happen again.

CMLL says the Aniversario show is almost sold out. It’s only the upper deck and a few seats in the FREEDOM restaurant area that are left open. I would say CMLL overpriced the restaurant tickets but those are going to sell.

Playboy Japan interviewed Okumura. I assure you that if you click that link, there are no scantily clad Okumura photos. He talks about his career and his role in helping FantasticaMania become what it is.

In classic Mexican wrestling fashion, those English language CMLL tweets appeared for a day or two and then ceased again.

Hugo out in AAA

Hugo Savonivich popped onto Konnan’s podcast before Verano de Escandalo, and the two (accidentally?) revealed that Hugo had been cut down to three more shows in AAA for the rest of the year. “Three” may have ended up being TripleMania Mexico City. Savonivich announced via Lucha Libre Online that he was released from his contract. Savonivich said Dorian Roldan encouraged Savonivich to sign a contract elsewhere if he could find one. That sounded to me like AAA would still have interest in bringing Hugo back for occasional dates, but it came off as more definitely over in Hugo’s YouTube video. Savonivich praises everyone in and around AAA and insists he’s leaving with good feelings towards everyone. He mentions interviewing with JBL at midnight after TripleMania because he was asked and he wanted to help out, and that he’s going to finish up some voiceover work for AAA for free because he loves them so much. Savonivich goes as far as to say he was trying to lose weight to see if he might be a donor for Konnan’s kidney, though it seems like that idea didn’t work out. Hugo was told the reason for his contract was economic reasons, consistent with what was said on the podcast. He says the Mexican economy hasn’t recovered since COVID, and the AAA was expecting to get big money from a TV deal for years and years, and it just hasn’t happened. (There was no mention of Luchatitlan.) Hugo says he’s open to whatever job offers there and puts over his lengthy resume in the wrestling business and in helping to guide wrestlers to have a healthy life outside of wrestling in his role as a pastor.

Hugo Savonivich probably wants it clear it was an economic decision because others might believe it was for a different reason. Savonivich was a huge get for AAA when they brought him in. The Mexican wrestling fans, especially the very online ones, had turned hard against him as time passed. Part of it is that if fans turn against a wrestling show, the fans start to hate the most visible portions of the show, and that includes the announcers. Savonivich mentioning he was part of the AAA creative process also turned him into another pinata for people who didn’t like AAA’s booking. The most significant part of the dislike was because Hugo Savonivich the person turned into a Hugo Savonivich person soundboard at max volume, someone who seemed to be just yelling his famous catchphrases from the past with no context or interest in what was going on. He became a caricature of an announcer, which would produce a few viral moments but became way too much over a three or four show. Savonivich and Jose Manuel Guillen seemed to push each other to be louder and more reliant on hitting those catchphrases as time passed. (The surprisingly short time when ex-WWE partner Carlos Cabrera joined the crew worked better because Cabrera’s mellow seemed to balance the mix better. I think Guillen is better with long-time partner Bernado Guzman in a similar way.) Savonivich was also completely unfamiliar with AAA when he came in and was slow to pick up on the history; he never overcame feeling like an outsider to long-running fans. Some fans definitely enjoyed Savonivich in AAA, and I think English fans still have that nostalgic feeling for seeing his table get destroyed in WWE for so long. He was not my favorite, but there were more significant AAA problems. For me, this is one of those decisions where my feelings about the situation are far overshadowed by my desire never to hear about the situation again.

During the many shows AAA has not brought in Hugo, the AAA announce team has been Jose Manuel Guillen and Jesus Zuniga. I assume that’ll be the same going forward. The big difference is probably that Guillen and Zuniga are based in Mexico, and Hugo Savonivich required a flight from New York.

If we take Hugo’s story at face value, then AAA continues to make no sense. They can’t afford to bring in their announcer, but they’re focusing on Riddle, Dhesi, Singh, and Jarrett – those people aren’t coming cheap and need plane tickets too. Maybe AAA believes all those people are selling tickets and making money for the promotion – but how does a struggling company justify flying in JBL? Does Hugo talking about the big TV never coming in mean AAA’s been given some indication their dream to get on Univision proper is not happening or that the Unimas deal got axed? Or was Hugo just trying to make sense of things by retelling stories he’s heard in the past? Did AAA give Hugo a heads up this was coming when he was in Mexico, or did they just wait until the day he was home to tell him he wasn’t coming back? I hope not, but who knows any more about these guys?

Hugo briefly talks about TripleMania in passing during the podcast, primarily defending it and feeling it’s unduly hated by people trying to get views and money by bashing AAA. He says the Vampiro “five circles of hell” match was fantastic live; I had no idea it was meant to be five circles until hearing this. He also defends the La Parka spot without explaining it, saying Konnan, Dorian, and Marisela would never do anything to dishonor “Chuy”‘s memory.

a detour into numbers-land

AAA claims this year’s Triplemania attendance was 18,000. I trust that number is only slightly more than Alberto’s post-show promo, where he says it’s 23,000. (It’s an explicit part of the heel act that Dorian, Konnan, and Alberto are lying about how many people they drew to this show.) Both of them are just doing bits. It did remind me of this past weekend’s Wrestlenomics podcast (subscriber-only, worth every cent), where Brandon Thurston noted WWE’s stop in Mexico City had a gate of a bit over one million dollars US, according to industry site Pollstar and wondered where it would rank among the events ever held in Mexico. Gates and attendance were reported all the time in Mexican magazine coverage of lucha libre in its first forty or so years; it’s something that coverage in Mexico has shifted away from or just doesn’t have access to those numbers now. (Magainzes also had some protections that one-man shops do not.) I believe it was the Wrestling Observer newsletter that reported that the Ultimo Guerrero/Atlantis mask match (September 19th, 2014) had become the first Mexico show to achieve a one-million US gate. It’s likely the La Sombra/Atlantis mask match the following year (September 18, 2015) also crossed that benchmark. Around that time, I was fortunate to meet Dorian Roldan at AAA’s office in Mexico City. One of my memories of that day was noticing Roldan (or someone in AAA) had used one of the office’s white walls to do some math. I never got to ask him about it, but it appeared that writing was a breakdown of how many tickets would have to be sold at what prices AAA themselves would have to break that one million gate. That wall was across from Roldan’s desk, so the goal was in front of him daily. It’s certainly possible, maybe probable, that AAA did achieve that goal with the Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner Jr. mask match (August 26, 2017.) But, for both the CMLL shows and the AAA shows, we don’t have numbers because there aren’t reported numbers in Mexico (and I lack the sources to get those numbers, and I haven’t made much of an effort to fix that.) Thurston bringing up Pollstar this weekend and AAA reporting a round number reminded me that I don’t have those numbers, but maybe someone does.

Brandon was kind enough to check for “Lucha Libre AAA” numbers in the Pollstar database and share it with me. In true lucha libre fashion, the information is incomplete. Pollstar has numbers for some TripleMania Mexico City shows and not others. They have some Showcenter events and some other random tapings. Pollstar doesn’t have a number for the Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner matches, but it surprisingly includes a number for the limited attendance 2021 show. I’m not sure this information is valuable enough to be worth this long run up to it. Still, I’ll include the numbers from Pollstar via Wrestlenomics, as well as the “reported” numbers – all from cagematch, but probably from AAA telling the WON prior.

Date	Show	Location	Reported #	Pollstar #	Gate (USD)	Notable
08/09/2015	TripleMania	Mexico City (Arena Ciudad de Mexico)	18,000	14,713	$153,441	Rey Mysterio vs Myzteziz (Mistico); I purchased one of these tickets.
08/28/2016	TripleMania	Mexico City (Arena Ciudad de Mexico)	14,000	14,038	$125,994	Psycho Clown vs Pagano, hair vs hair
06/16/2018	Live Event	Cancun (Plaza de Toros)	no report	4,139	$37,224	Pagano vs Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Psycho Clown
08/25/2018	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	no report	12,803	$282,328	LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. vs Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma, mask match
09/29/2018	Live Event	Culiacan (Parque Revolucion)	no report	2,444	$8,144	Murder Clown & Pagano vs Great Eku & Rinoceronte
01/19/2019	TV Taping	Mexico City (Pepsi Center)	4,800	2,547	$46,187	La Mascara, Rey Escorpion, Blue Demon Jr. vs Dr. Wagner, La Parka, Psycho Clown
09/15/2019	Invading NY	New York (Hulu Theater)	3,000	3,708	$182,135	Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Blue Demon, Lucha Brothers vs LAX
01/25/2020	TV Taping	Mexico City (Pepsi Center)	no report	3,028	$68,113	Pentago Jr., Fenix, Psycho Clown vs LA Park, Rush, La Bestia del Ring
08/14/2021	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	4,500	5,007	$149,666	Psycho Clown vs. Rey Escorpion, mask/hair match (COVID attendance restrictions)
12/19/2021	TV Taping	Mexico City (Pepsi Center)	no report	1,765	$32,524	NGD vs Poder del Norte (late switch from live event to TV taping)
08/20/2023	TV Taping	Monterrey (Showcenter)	no report	1,872	$51,890	Pagano & Vampiro vs Antifaz & Chessman
11/26/2023	TV Taping	Monterrey (Showcenter)	no report	1,540	$48,318	TNA/AAA Ultraclash

There’s some you can take from this. It’s telling to see TripleMania years where the reported number is way over Pollstar and years where the number undersells what AAA did. AAA reporting 18,000 when it was 14,713 is why today’s “18,000” is not a number to be taken seriously. It’s perfectly random to find out that long-time Jalisco super heavyweight luchador Great Eku is a confirmed draw. Seeing the nothing special August 2023 Showcenter event outdraw the seemingly much more expensive TNA/AAA crossover show is certainly telling. (The August show was where Vampiro left his boots in the ring as one of his many retirements, but that was not advertised in the lead-up.)

Pollstar doesn’t seem to list the 2017 number. I have ticket prices from a chart I’ve maintained for many years; TripleMania’s high-end tickets more than doubled from 2016 to 2017, then experienced another 20% increase in 2018. For now, let’s go with those 2018 numbers; Pollstar says 12,803 tickets sold for a gross gate of USD 282,328. That figures to an average ticket price of $22.05. AAA had to sell 45,000 tickets to the show* – more than double the capacity – to get to a one million USD gate for that year. That’s not possible. AAA probably sold more than 12,803 in that missing 2017 year with Psycho/Wagner, but they also sold them at a lower price. AAA had a great night, but they don’t seem to have come even close to breaking that one million threshold on their best day.

(*—Yes, I know that the average price will likely go down as more tickets are sold, so the number of tickets sold would have to be higher; there are details I’m skipping to avoid overwhelming you with numbers.)

The Invading New York show is another combination of numbers that should stand out. With 3,708 attendees and an 182,135 USD gate, the average ticket is $49.12. That much higher average price is why AAA keeps throwing themselves at ideas to get into the US (and why NJPW does the same.)

Circling back to the start of this – is there any Mexican wrestling show with a larger gate than the WWE house show? We can say WWE outgated any AAA show. CMLL, in Arena Mexico, is the only other reasonable option. I don’t have Pollstar numbers for those shows, but I can do the basic math I should’ve done years ago. The one tricky part is the capacity question; no one knows the maximum number of tickets that can be sold in Arena Mexico. It’s changed over the years, and CMLL has given different numbers at different times. Let’s try some popular round number guesses, none of which are probably 100% accurate.

if Arena Mexico max tickets sold is	One million USD gate requires avg ticket price of
18000	$55.56
16800	$59.52
15000	$66.67

Tickets for both Atlantis mask matches (against Ultimo Guerrero and La Sombra) ranged between 16 USD and 202 USD. We don’t know what worked out on average. In that 2018 TripleMania show, though, tickets were between 17 USD and 278 USD, and the average of 22 is nowhere near the numbers in that chart. These are different arenas and pricing structures, yet it’s tough to believe CMLL got anywhere close to the number they’d need to get a million-dollar gate. Maybe the quoted one million dollar number for that is something I’m misremembering, or something that included food and merch and TuriLuchas travel prices on top of everything else to get to that number. That WWE house show number would’ve been much higher if they had thrown in those numbers, too. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the most enormous gate for professional wrestling in the history of Mexico was a WWE house show. If someone can spot a flaw in my numbers that proves that’s not correct, please let me know.

I Don’t Know What’s Going On In Tijuana

Generally, but also with the wrestling. Coming up

• EMW, the AAA partner in Tijuana, changed their Facebook page to reduce any connection to AAA. (It’s still in the logo, but only barely.) They’re announcing AAA-ish people for a show in the Auditorio on 09/14 (Cibernetico, Jack Cartwheel, Komander), but all the people are not under contract in AAA.
• A “Lucha Libre AAA Border” Facebook page popped up less than a week to announce they ran the Auditorio on 09/27. Their initial post teased people (Nemeth, Vampiro, Azul) who don’t make sense as appearing on a random AAA show in Tijuana, which made me suspect it was some sort of scam. They’ve since announced a couple of regular matches; Mesias & DMT Azul versus Psycho Clown & Cibernetico headline. Tickets are actually on sale.
• a mystery promoter has a show in the Auditorio on 09/28, with Dralistico versus Metalik as the headliner. The poster mentions a ticket website, but there’s no ticket on sale for this show there.

Tijuana’s long-running policy is only one lucha libre show a week at the Auditorio. That would mean one of those last two shows doesn’t really have a date, probably the Dralistico one. But the Lucha Libre AAA Border one is the weirdest—a Facebook page that came out of nowhere, with no sign of ownership, somehow has the AAA connecting in Tijuana. EMW lost it, and somehow, The Crash didn’t end up with it again? All of that is strange.

More AAA

Violent People had me on their latest Violent People Radio show, where I was held accountable for my major crimes—thinking TripleMania could be good. While it will be rough to serve 15 years of hard labor, I agree the punishment is justified. The show was fun.

Octagon Jr. says he’s going to cash in his “any title shot” victory in the Copa for the Mega championship. I still assume he will just get beat up to get heat, just like he got beat up to get heat for Parker Boudreaux.

Laredo Kid is back on Impact Thursday for the first time in eleven episodes, facing Jai Vidal and Bhupinder Gujjar, where the winner gets added to the Ultimate X match on the next show (Emergence, 08/30.) The other two wrestle on TV even less than Laredo Kid, so this is a rare moment where Laredo Kid is a definite favorite to win a TNA match.

GLEAT announced a bunch of AAA names for shows on 10/06 and 10/09

• Parker Boudreaux
• Sam Adonis
• Octagon Jr.
• Jessy Queen
• Faby Apache
• Hijo del Vikingo

TNA’s Los Rascals, who have also been on NXT frequently recently, will appear on those shows as well.

The latest Lucha Talk talks about TripleMania.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter was published early this week. The TripleMania recap is based off notes of other recaps – he did not watch the show – and so no matches are rated.

TxT

TXT (SUN) 11/10/2024 Arena Veracruz, Veracruz, Veracruz
1) Ferrari & Ferrari Jr. vs Black Silva & Blue Silva
2) Keyra & Vanilla Vargas vs Julissa & Valentina
3) Halcón Suriano Jr., Hijo del Solar, Ultraman vs Accion Jackson, Australian Suicide, Travis Banks
4) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Cinta de Oro, Huracán Ramírez, Metalik vs Bobby Lee Jr., Bobby Lee Ng, Hijo de LA Park, LA Park Jr.
5) El Hijo Del Santo & LA Park vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hijo del Fishman

They seem to have skipped over the 11/09 show in Puebla. I feel like match three is a sign Santo is probably outsourcing the work of booking these shows to someone else; I’d be surprised if he know who an Accion Jackson was. Those in the opener are Veracruz locals.

Other News

08/31 RIOT

• Prometeo & Kratoz vs Spider Fly & Noisy Boy
• Erik Ortiz (c) vs Lord Byron [RIOT CHAMP]
• Latigo & Toxin vs Hijo de Canis Lupus & Demonio del Aire – new
  • Demonio del Aire is maybe the only luchador wrestling under three different names now

Komander followed up losing on TripleMania by returning to Reynosa and also losing a title match there. Komander simply must get better at winning wrestling matches.

There’s a lucha libre art exhibit in Durango.

I heard the guy who won the NJPW G1 was that British chap who got out llaved by Hechicero a couple of months back. That makes Hechicero the actual winner of the NJPW Grade One Tournament by my math. (I guess they’re settling this in a few days.)

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 08/16/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Astro Boy Jr., Eléctrico, Leono b Grako, Nitro, Sangre Imperial
6:57
2) Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis b La Catalina, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely
15:16.
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano b Akuma, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
13:14
4) Robbie X b Neón [lightning]
8:31. Win via foul. Robbie X Mexico debut.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja b Mansoor & Rocky Romero
16:32. Mansoor debut.
6) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Místico DQ Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Valiente
14:29. Straight falls. Valiente fouled Esfinge as built to 09/13.

I know it will heat up starting this week, but August’s been a cold start. Match 3 was the only thing that went better than it looked; everything else was fine. Robbie X/Neon didn’t work for me; a bit of Robbie X is unfamiliar with the CMLL style, and Neon still needs work in singles matches. I was less convinced by Mansoor after this match, and it didn’t seem like the crowd got it either, but he’s got a week to get around and see how it goes. One weird quirk is Mansoor seems to have atomic drops in his offense. No one does atomic drops in Mexico because they come off as a foul spot – Fuerza Guerrera famously used a variation as his trademark foul. (Fuerza Guerrera was such a rudo that he had a trademark foul spot.) It looked bizarre for Mansoor to keep fouling people, and no one was selling it as a foul.

CMLL (SAT) 08/17/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas b Mije & Tengu
Los Micro Gemelos Diablos no-showed, jumping to AAA. Mije and Tengu replaced them.
2) Diamond, El Audaz, Robin b Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) El Hijo del Villano III, Sagrado, Villano III Jr. b Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Esfinge TLDRAW Euforia [lightning]
second week in a row with a time limit draw
6) Mansoor, Robbie X, Rocky Romero b Flip Gordon, Templario, Titán

Didn’t get to watch this one yet, though I think I read the main event was an improvement for the foreign crew.

There’s plenty of other AAA to cover, so let’s handle the Micro Gemelo Diablos departure here. They showed up on TripleMania to attack Mascarita Sagrada (who appears to be the ex-WWE one.) AAA’s production is so terrible that they were barely seen on scene and not identified; I timed it as them appearing for less than eight seconds on screen. I assume they will be giving a new name – it’s likely CMLL owns the old Gemelo Diablos – but no name was given. Los Micro Gemelos Diablos appear to be the two people Latin Lover said reached out to him months back for jumping, an idea he brought to Dorian Roldan. There are ways to use two tiny people who do exciting flips, but AAA’s struggles to use Microman suggest this will not work for these guys either. Microman also found higher-paying work on US micro tours, and I expect that’ll eventually be the same for these guys in the long term. Even if they don’t, there’s not a lot of room on these AAA cards as it is – acts in the first few matches disappear for months all the time, and AAA is unlikely to make long term changes for a new division. They’re also not really likely to bring Mascarita Sagrada back in that often either.

A specific issue with the Micro Diablos is how they will fit in with AAA. They’re leaving CMLL because they wanted to be the stars, but they weren’t, and they’re going to expect that in AAA. The Micro Diablos lost that position in CMLL twice to KeMalito, and they were openly angry about in their final bookings. As mentioned, CMLL’s original plans were to create a new KeMonito with the two Micro Diablos portraying it. CMLL got cold feet on the idea after KeMonito threatened a lawsuit. Still, they had his new rival, KeMalito, ready and eventually decided to start using him while figuring out what happened next. KeMalito quickly got so over there was no point in dealing with the flack of introducing a new KeMonito, and the Micro Diablos were out of an excellent paying and famous spot.

KeMalito got so over that CMLL put him in the micros matches, even though he’s clearly not well-trained enough to be in those yet. The Gemelo Diablos had to put over a guy who wasn’t at their level of a worker, or it wasn’t what they thought they had signed up to do. They threw more than one public fit about it. It essentially became a CMLL choice between KeMalito or Los Micro Gemelos. The twins are better wrestlers in matches that don’t matter. KeMalito is much more over. It wasn’t a real choice. Los Micro Gemelos could’ve accepted their new role, but instead, they became one of the many over the years who AAA convinced they’d take much better care of them in their promotion. Like past people who’ve been swayed that way, the relationship will not go very well if they find out the truth is a bit different. I’ve got no doubt the Micro Gemelos will end up getting some belt to replace the one they gave up from CMLL, and maybe that’ll be enough to mollify them as it’s been for NGD, or maybe they’ll be back in the regional indies where they came a year from now.

To me, the real CMLL mistake was falling in love with the idea of having micro twins to go along the normal sized twins. They gave up doing anything the normal sized Gemelos for one, so the association didn’t mean much. Those two micros would have also been much better as opponents than rivals; when it goes down it, they’re the micro Arkangel Divino and Ultimo Malditos, two guys who want to do their matches and would be best at doing them exclusively against each other. AAA should turn them into the 2024 versions of Chucky and Cuije. Not precisely the gimmicks (though it’s AAA, maybe that too), but two guys who work primarily as mascots and work a few flashy spots with each other a match. Making them partners is never going to work with as few talented people to work with at their size.

The CMLL micros should probably not be an active division and should not be wrestling on these shows, but that’s been true since Microman left (and since Chamuel is around a lot less), and the Micro Diablos don’t really change the math. It may help them because the rest of the guys aren’t asked to do as many basing spots they can’t pull off, but it’s still not going to be good. And CMLL will need to find a couple of more people to fill out the matches who are probably going to be worse than the people who came. The real news is this appears to be a wrap on any idea of a new KeMonito for now, and the only thing stopping him and CMLL from making peace is their stubbornness.

People still argue on Twitter daily if Stephanie Vaquer did or did not burn her bridges with CMLL with the way she left to go to WWE. (It’s partly happening because only now do they realize Vaquer won’t actually be to work for WWE in the US for months and months due to needing a new work visa.) I wonder if those same people will argue if the Micro Gemelo Diablos burned a bridge with CMLL since burning the bridge with CMLL must be the part they care about. (They did burn the bridge, won’t be back, and won’t mention if/when CMLL decides a new Micros champ.) I wonder at the timing – did they agree to go to AAA a while ago and so they were acting out in CMLL matches because it was not going to matter, or was the last suspension enough for them to push them out – but they’re gone either way.

CMLL (SUN) 08/18/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Fantasy b Pequeño Polvora [lightning]
2) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Okumura b Capitán Suicida, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
3) Xelhua b Pólvora [lightning]
4) Blue Panther, Fugaz, Star Black b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
5) Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero, Valiente DQ Euforia, Magnus, Mephisto
Euforia unmasked Valiente
6) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada b Flip Gordon, Mansoor, Robbie X

Kyle Fletcher, Ikuro Kwon, and Akira also were introduced to the crowd.

With the new TV schedule, matches from this show will air on AMX on Thursday, 08/29.

Hera & Olympia versus Kira & Skadi from last Monday’s Puebla show aired on Sunday night. They didn’t get as much time as their Arena Mexico match, but it showed some good progression as wrestlers. They’re risk takers, not all the risks work out, but they’re getting better at figuring out what to do when stuff goes wrong and adapting to it. Olympia is right there to ensure Kira’s Mistico toss in the ring goes as well as possible. (I could not believe they dared to try that spot.) A Las Valientinas pinfall breakup spot doesn’t go as desired, but Skadi reacts immediately and powerbomb her opponent to keep it going. Those are should be the advantages of them working a lot and working together a lot, but you don’t always see that improvement in CMLL. I don’t know if they’re simply self-motivated to improve continuously or if those four know something is coming that we’ll all find out about in two months, but it feels like there’s a goal they’re headed towards.

CMLL started tweeting in English again on Saturday; there were far more English-language tweets from CMLL than AAA on the day of TripleMania. They had let that Twitter account go dormant for more than a year. I assume they’re hoping to capture attention with more people in for the Gran Prix, but I don’t know if it expands beyond that—if they’re finally doing English commentary for an internationally focused show. No one has contacted me for help with the notes for the show, which would be the easiest tell if they were doing something, but they could just use translator Miguel as the voice and the info.

CMLL (TUE) 08/20/2024 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy vs Full Metal, Mercurio, Pequeño Polvora
2) Eléctrico, Leono, Valiente Jr. vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Inquisidor
3) Espíritu Negro, Pelon Encapuchado, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Lian Po vs Bárbaro Cavernario [lightning]
5) Fugaz, Neón, Star Jr. vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Vegas
6) Atlantis Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Averno, Niebla Roja

Lian Po is a character from the mobile game Honor of Kings. CMLL’s done a tie up with a mobile game or twice a year pretty regularly now. It’s silly but usually not too problematic. Lian Po is a lucha libre character. His mask looks like someone was inspired by Dragon Rojo’s old one, and maybe he’ll end up doing the character.

Main event reminds you there was Averno/Volador that got dropped cold. Match five could be great if they want it to be great. Pelon fits correctly along side the Atrapsuenos. Nice to see the Calavers back.

CMLL (SAT) 08/24/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Capitán Suicida, El Audaz, Fuego vs El Coyote, Nitro, Pólvora
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Espanto Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III
4) Akira vs Difunto [lightning]
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto vs Titán, Yota, Zandokan
6) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Soberano Jr. vs Davey Boy Smith Jr., Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon

All the AEW crew – Claudio Castagonli, Kyle Fletcher, Mansoor, and Rocky Romero – appear to be finishing on Friday, which may mean they’re involved with All In. Robbie X also appears to be heading home. Davey Boy Smith, Yota, and the MLW duo will be around for a few more days. Flip lives here now, of course.

DOUKI was in Mexico back in July, bringing his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and visiting many of the people who helped start him on that journey. The most emotional photo of the bunch was his visit with Gran Apache. The funniest one was visiting old trainer Arturo Beristain, who taught DOUKI when he was first starting in Arena Mexico. Beristain asked DOUKI where he was wrestling these days – maybe over in Arena Naucalpan? This story came to mind when looking at this lineup. Match five is a reference to a specific story from one of NJPW’s tours last year: Zandokan was Yota’s surprise partner in their heavyweight tag league. Zandokan would’ve gotten to join LIJ if they won, and they came short. It did get referenced on CMLL Informa a time or two, but putting Titan, Yota, and Zandokan together as a nod to that story is something only someone with a good memory and a solid knowledge of wrestling outside of Mexico would do. I think Panico – 68 years old and as unlikely to be paying attention to non-CMLL stuff as Beristain – is not a person who will think to put Titan with Yota and Zandokan. Maybe it was a suggestion from Rocky, maybe it was an idea from Julio Cesar Rivera, maybe it was someone we don’t even know, but it’s one of those signals that it’s a group effort to put these CMLL shows together. People seem to be focused on figuring out a single person to credit for booking CMLL, as if writing in a name on their end-of-year awards is the point of the whole thing. To me, it’s very clearly a committee; it’s a bunch of people, and Panico is just the name we call that committee.

Valiente, in hyping the Aniversario mask match, acknowledged he’s a dark horse in the match – but he feels people have been betting against him since he started his career, so he’s not afraid of that.

An interview with Princesa Sugehit starts by noting she vacated the title last year, and now it’s in Willow Nightingale’s hands after winning it in a three way match, as if nothing happened in between. Sugehit wants to get back to 100% before thinking about challenging, just to be fully have her rhythm first.

CMLL pulled Mistico, Averno, and Tessa Blanchard from the 09/08 Lucha Libre Norte show in Apodaca. (Apodaca is a suburb of Monterrey and the location of the major international airport.) The Lucha Libre Norte promoter blamed the Alto Voltaje promotion for causing it; the idea is their big show in Arena Monterrey on 09/29 gave them exclusivity. That show in Arena Monterrey looks good but is unlikely to do well; they’ve cut down the arena in half, and there’s still a ton of seats to be sold. CMLL is picking a promotion with big dreams over a smaller, more consistent group.

AAA

Triller declined my refund. Worth a shot. I think I won’t be giving them my money for the AEW shows.

I may have to retract something from the TripleMania recap. I assumed it was Karis La Momia Jr. portraying his father La Parka in the Vampiro match and that it was OK if Parka’s family approved of it. I now believe it wasn’t Karis, and Karis himself may not have known what was happening until he saw it. Karis talked to La Tijera following Sunday’s show. He’s wearing a split Parka/Karis mask, and he happens to mention that he might need his identity soon. Karis has talked recently about wanting to forge his path like his father did and not just take over his character, and I thought that’s what he meant. It could also mean AAA owns the Karis gimmick, and Karis may not stick with AAA. About midway through, the interviewer from La Tijera says he has to bring up the split opinions on the La Parka appearance on TripleMania and asks Karis what he thinks about it. Karis is noticeably careful with his words, asking the interviewer (and maybe himself) if he should answer that question as a person or a luchador. He then shifts to explicitly saying he has no opinion. The next part is a lot of talking around an answer, but he mentions watching it happen and realizing it would happen eventually. It certainly sounds like Karis wasn’t this La Parka if he was watching it happen, that someone else was in that casket, and that Karis was wondering with the rest of us if that meant AAA had handed off the gimmick to someone new or was just doing it as a one off bit. Karis ends the interview pretty quickly after talking about the situation. I am not 100% sure it was someone else in that casket because Karis doesn’t spell it out, but his reactions tell a story.

I understand AAA’s business reasons for wanting a new La Parka, but they might as well have him team up with Alberto, Dorian, and Konnan for all the heat he’ll get. People are going to be upset with AAA over this for not picking Karis, even though Karis has made it clear he doesn’t want to be the new La Parka.

Vampiro’s supposed to have a press conference on Wednesday to announce a new music project. That article (that reads like a press release) says Vampiro’s retiring in “2024”.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 08/18/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, La Tijera]
1) Rock Power b Fauno
2) Alan Extreme, Histeriosis, Mr. Mike b Felino Boy, Halcón Suriano Jr., Willy Banderas
3) Águila Roja b Spider Fly
sets up a title match on Thursday
4) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. b Veneno & Vudu Max 
5) Hell Boy b Vangellys, Hijo Del Silver King
a new member of Mafia Ruso attacked Hell Boy after the match
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal b DMT Azul & Hijo de Canis Lupus 
win via foul, Wagner wants a title match with DMT Azul

It’s very odd to name someone Felino Boy when there’s a very famous Felino. The Lucha Libre Real show honoring Felino took place Friday and went very long and late in the night because Mistico had to make it over from Arena Mexico. Puma King challenged Mistico to a mask match, which has as much chance of happening as that match being Puma King’s retirement match.

IWRG (THU) 08/22/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Cosmic & Génesis vs Celta & Samodeo
2) Astarlis & Titanium vs India & Ratzinger
3) Fobia, Pitbull, Sanda Kid vs Ángel Kid, Black Dragón Jr., Black Dragón Ng
4) Rock Power, Shura King, Willy Banderas vs Jitsu, Kundra, Yoruba
5) Fauno, Hysteriosis, Príncipe Centauro, Puma de Oro, Rey Aztaroth, Súper Boy, Tornado, Vudu Max vs Coco Loco Ng, Dark Horus, Hijo del Alebrije, Intenso, Payaloco, Rasta Man, Silencero, Terrorista [Torneo FILL]
6) Spider Fly © vs Águila Roja [IWRG REY DEL AIRE]

The main event could be good or it could just be a plunder thing.

Other Notes

The second Mosco de la Merced, who also wrestled as Loco Valentino (Jose Juan Valdez, 60) passed away Monday. He was part of AAA from 1996 until losing his mask to Heavy Metal in 2004. He was an ally of the second Psicosis, who lost his mask this past Saturday. AAA acknowledged his passing on Facebook.

Mosco 2 is on the older side because he started out in the 80s wrestler and was one of the guys who got into the promotion commonly known as UWA in 1993, as that promotion was going down. People were escaping to AAA or CMLL – that’s his Loco Valentino career. He got into AAA in 1996 and got the Mosco gimmick in 1997 when the original was part of the group that left to find Promo Azteca. Valentino/Mosco 2 was part of Pena regimmicking many people to replace those who had left. Many of them endured in those gimmicks longer than the originals, as Psicosis 2 took a moment to point out on Saturday, but no one outside of the second La Parka was as popular. Mosco 2 was both a Mexican national atomicos (4v4) and tag champion, the later with Fuerza Guerrera. One of Guerrera’s old nicknames was “La Mosca de Merced”, which was a reason for the team. The Mosca is the vital part they were both guys on the small-ish side. Mosco 1 returned to AAA to do a name versus name match with his successor in 2003. Mosco 2 won with a lot of help from Abismo Negro, and Mosco 1 changed his name to X-Fly. (Mosco means Fly, so he is literally an ex-fly.) Mosco’s AAA career came to an end shortly after losing his mask to Heavy Metal in a cage match. The 1996-2004 dates to his AAA run make me reflect on how that’s about the inverse of Konnan’s AAA time; Loco Valentino’s first show was a couple of months before Konnan left, and his last show is two weeks before Konnan returns. I think that’s just a weird coincidence, and Mosco 2 just happens to be an emblem of an era of AAA not talked about much now. Mosco2 continued to work occasionally on the indies, and was taking bookings as recently as June.

Segunda Caida’s review of IWRG Retro show includes a match with (I think) this Mosco de Merced. Another total coincidence.

Rocky Santana says everyone should have to train for three to five years before they wrestle. This is positioned as “kids today don’t know what they’re doing,” but it’s not the kids who are booking undertrained people on the show. Santana works at Arena Lopez Mateos, which routinely lets people with less than three years of training in the ring. The story is more interesting for Santana talking about his training style and his love for wrestling—he says he would rather leave his wife than leave wrestling.

Andrade sent a video to RGR Promotions officially vacating his Supremo championship for that group. Laredo Kid and Arez will wrestle for it on shows this weekend, something that was already announced. I try to keep up with a lot of wrestling posters, and I even I don’t have a lot of show listing where Andrade was in a match to win this title – no one outside the promotion knew he was supposed to be the champion. This is just a WWE wrestler filming a video to promote an indie show. That’s fairly surprising, even in today’s more open WWE. That RGR group must’ve taken care of Andrade well.

It was a train. The light at the end of the tunnel was a train.

AAA TV (SAT) 08/17/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal [AAA, thecubsfan]
1) Flammer © b Faby Apache [Reina De Reinas]
10:27. First defense (after a full year.) Moved to the pre-show, where fans had been told to not expect a match. Sexy Star seconded Faby Apache, Dalys seconded Flammer. Hijo del Tirantes pulled Faby Apache out as she has a pin, then Karen Jarrett attacked Faby Apache to set up Flammer’s win.
2) Octagón Jr. b El Elegido, Zumbido, Guapito, Mr. Iguana, Microman, Niño Hamburguesa, La Hiedra, Estrellita, Máscarita Sagrada 2000, Charly Manson, Heavy Metal, Kenzo Suzuki, Marco Corleone, Pimpinela Escarlata, Alan Stone, Jessy Queen [Copa Bardahl]
32:40. Moved to match 2. Marco and Kenzo returned to AAA for the first time in over a decade. Octagon Jr. eliminated Zumbido to win, earning a title shot of his choosing at a date of his choosing.
3) Raj Dhesi & Satnam Singh b Negro Casas & Psycho Clown © and Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal [AAA TAG]
15:01. Moved down a spot. Dhesi pinned Casas after Jeff Jarrett hit Casas with a guitar.
4) Matt Riddle b Laredo Kid, Komander © [AAA CRUISER]
14:07. Moved up a spot. Komander added on 08/07. Second defense, first on TV. Riddle pinned Komander. Announcers were instructed to avoid mentioning Riddle obviously not being a cruiserweight.
5) Vampiro Canadiense b Sam Adonis, Jeff Jarrett, Pagano, Mecha Wolf, Sansón, Forastero, Cien Caras, Konnan, Pirata Morgan, Octagón Jr., El Mesías, Chessman [casket]
9:35. Not truly a match, but here for a completeness. Vampiro walked around the arena and was confronted by a variety of surprise figures from his past, with tecnicos appearing to fight them off. Rudos tried to put Vampiro in a casket only to find La Parka (implied to be the deceased second one, likely his son) in the casket. Vampiro put Mesias in another casket to win, and then the casket lit on fire. Vampiro gave his eight-or-so retirement speech following the match.
6) El Patrón Alberto b Nic Nemeth © [AAA MEGA]
15:59. Ex-WWE John Layfield (doing a version of his JBL character) seconded Nic Nemeth to the ring and watched the match from the crowd. Patron won with a drink to the face and foul, as Nemeth had done in Monterrey. Latin Lover presented Alberto win the belt but scolded him for his actions. Alberto turned rudo on Latin, then revealed himself as being the Eye videos. Konnan came down as if for the save and (unsurprisingly) revealed himself to be allied with Alberto. A masked man came to the ring and (unsurprisingly) revealed himself as Dorian Roldan. Layfield got in the ring, teased helping Latin Lover, and (unsurprisingly) shook hands with the heel group. Latin was left bloodied, with no one making a genuine attempt at saving him.
7) Psicosis II L Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Cibernético, El Fiscal, Abismo Negro Jr., Panic Clown, Dave The Clown, Murder Clown [dome cage, hair, mask, cage]
15:53. There was no time minimum before escapes counted; Panic Clown was out within four minutes. Order of escape: Panic Clown, Dave the Clown, Dark Cuervo, Ozz, Murder (Panic and Dave lowered a cable with balloons and a hook to pull Murder up out of the cage), Fiscal, Abismo, and Cibernetico, leaving Psicosis as the loser. Abismo and Fiscal had issues during the match, and Abismo betrayed Psicosis as he tried to leave at the end of the match. Psicosis praised Antonio Pena for giving him this mask, praised Cibernetico for helping him in his career and unmasked as Juan Gonzalez Cruz from Puebla. No age was given, and he listed his career as “27 years since starting as Psicosis.” (He’d been unmasked as Leon Negro prior.)

TripleMania Monterrey was terrible because it featured a lot of angles that fell flat, and AAA didn’t bother to book any quality matches. TripleMania Tijuana was terrible because it focused on a bunch of feuds that were not over and didn’t even seem to matter much to the people of Tijuana. TripleMania Mexico City was the worst of the bunch because it made it clear there is no hope, no reason to expect AAA to get better, and they prefer it that way. It’s a dark, depressing promotion, even beyond the big angle. Octagon Jr. won the goof battle royal, defeating irrelevant non-roster Zumbido after a badly blown spot, and there was nothing else happy about the rest. Laredo Kid failed again. Faby Apache failed again. Negro Casas failed. Alberto got built up as a national hero, so it would be more depressing when he turned heel a half hour later. I am completely confused as to who was supposed to be the tecnico and who was supposed to be the heel by the end of the cage match because of the turns, but Psicosis was the sad loser there. Even the Vampiro tearful retirement speech was supposed to make you feel sad you’ve seen him wrestle for the last time. He didn’t actually wrestle; it’s not the last time, and I didn’t feel sad about him retiring, but that was the idea.

The Eye angle played out after the Mega title match. Alberto won via foul, in a reversal of the Monterrey finish. Latin Lover congratulated Alberto for winning the championship but pointed out he awarded Alberto the rematch because Nemeth had cheated on Monterrey, and the fans were tired of title matches ending via fouls. Alberto immediately shifted to his rudo personality, taunting Latin as a retired old man. Latin said he was retired from wrestling but would still fight and started to take off his coat. Alberto jumped Latin before he could react, knocking Latin down. Alberto revealed that he had been behind the Eye attacks all along. Konnan came out for the save, then betrayed Latin to reveal he was in on it. Dorian Roldan came out to also ally himself with Konnan and Alberto. John Layfield (JBL, playing his WWE character), who had come to the ring with Nemeth and watched the match without getting involved, came to the ring and allied himself with the Eye faction. Layfield told the press he was a new investor in AAA, playing off reports of AAA looking for an investor. Previously, Konnan and Dorian had appeared in segments following the appearance of the Eye video, and there were hints Alberto was involved. Latin Lover was left bloody in the ring with no one trying to save him. 

It’s evident in the post-show interviews that Alberto, Konnan, and Dorian believe they’re the Freedbirds, and they just shut the door on Kerry Von Erich – they’ve just run the big money angle they’ve been thinking about for months, and now the territory. This Eye angle is trash. It takes AAA back to a critically despised period, where Konnan and Dorian were booked as the lead heels of a promotion with no story or direction. Like then, the only purpose is to get heat, to use the real-life dislike for those two men as wrestling characters. The big idea is this time, they’ll do it right, stick around for long enough, and let the story play out. There is no reason to give AAA that benefit of the doubt, they fail at paying things off everytine. There is no reason to be confident in AAA’s heroes; they exist to fail. Latin Lover is lying about not returning to wrestle again, but no other person on the roster is treated seriously. Hijo del Vikingo, only appearing in a post-show interview, was treated like a person of no genuine interest and didn’t seem bothered about the angle. There is no real payoff to an evil owner storyline outside of everyone involved going away, and that’s never happening unless AAA is sold. In a year built around nostalgia, this crew managed to bring back the one thing no one was asking for, and no one wanted to see, and they’re proud of themselves for coming up with it.

The Eye storyline also doesn’t make any sense. Konnan and Dorian were angry about Latin Lover’s comments on Vampiro’s podcast, so they spent half a year giving him a job with real power just to beat him up? Why not just beat him in the first place and not give him a position of power? Why not fire him now? (Because the next 12 months of storylines is GM vs GM, because the only ideas they have are to repeat ideas from WWE and WCW in the late 90s.) If Latin Lover had such a problem with title matches ending in cheating, why didn’t he get involved after the Reina de Reinas matches or the tag title match? Both were even more screwy than Alberto/Nemeth. Why does Dorian Roldan need to lead a heel group to take over his own promotion? From a heat standpoint, both Dorian and Konnan were heavily disliked by the AAA audience even before the podcast. Konnan’s attempt at repositioning himself as a legendary face was a flop, he got noosd and Dorian got it worse. AAA spent half a year, so much TV time, setting up an angle to get people already booed easily. It was an idiotic use of time and investment in two people who will never be in a money-drawing match when AAA desperately needs new people. It’s either complete distrust in anyone else in AAA or bookers complete booking for their ego.  

This eye angle is about trolling people and pretending that it’s heat. It’s from the minds of people who stopped learning two decades ago, as trapped in the past as the people Konnan mocked when he was starting, so they can’t help but book the same things repeatedly. They’re re-running WWE storylines, they’re doing the same “shock” turn three times in one segment, they’re wearing a Judgement Day t-shirt to try to connect themselves to something popular and liked instead of whatever this is (and they’re hoping you believe their hints about secretly being behind that too.) Setting up Dorian Roldan and Konnan as the led heels for ruining AAA in the storyline is a clever way to escape criticism for ruining AAA in real life. If you hate the angle or the people involved, you’re just marking out for their characters and giving them the reaction they’re looking for.

I don’t think the production crew is meant to be heat-gathering heels, but they were the worst part of the show. AAA does run-throughs on the Mexico City TripleMania, so they should have a better idea of what is happening than a normal. Yet, the camerawork was actually far worse. There were so many missed shots; big moments missed when AAA was in replays, and issues with the audio at different points of the show. The first hour of the English feed had the Spanish feed mixed in. The Spanish audio disappeared near the end of the cruiserweight title match. The reveal of Los Micros Gemelos Diabalos appearing on the show – something Latin Lover had teased for months – was nearly missed. (AAA managed to get them on-screen for 8 seconds, which was such a poor job that they had to explain what had happened a half hour later.) There were timing issues in the Vampiro, and he had an on-screen temper tantrum when he couldn’t find a chair for the planned finish. The fans who put up their version of matches on YouTube make for better viewing than AAA does half the time; by having only one camera, they can’t mess up switching to the wrong one like AAA does every single show. It never gets better, and it will never get better, because it’s part of an endemic poor culture where repeated failure is ignored.

This TripleMania also had severe timing issues. In the final press conference before the event, Dorian Roldan asked people to be ready for the show’s start but said there would be no matches there. The reason to be there was a strong history of AAA video package, albeit one that mostly focused on the familiar names. AAA then went directly into the women’s title match, with most seats still empty because the head of the promotion had told them all there would be no wrestling until 9 pm. AAA then started the Copa Baradahl as the pre-show supposedly crossed over to the main show. (More on that in a sec.) What appears to have happened is AAA got 4 hours of satellite time instead of the usual 5, and so had to start earlier than expected to squeeze everything in. They did get everything in, though it was a rather sudden ending for the English broadcast when they were informed they were out of time. Maybe the reason for the shorter window was general idiocy or strictly budgetary. There’s no defense for saying, “There will be no matches on the pre-show,” and then not bothering to say, “plans change, we’re starting early,” except pure laziness on AAA’s part.

The biggest production error may not have been AAA’s fault. Or maybe it was a result of starting action early on the pre-show. TrillerTV originally started the free pre-show at 9:30 and just never signaled it was over. The entire TripleMania show aired as part of the “free pre-show” and remained accessible on Triller’s until Sunday afternoon. It was well known that the show was for free, and AAA and Triller didn’t bother to fix the problem. If you paid to watch the show live, you paid for no reason—everyone got it whether they paid or not. Part of paying for a show is getting the show, but I believe part of paying for the show is you’re paying to get something other people don’t get. If I paid $25 for a show and it turned out to be free, I feel it’s fair to ask for a refund of that $25. I have actually done that with this show, but I haven’t heard back yet. I encourage anyone else who paid for TripleMania Mexico City to ask for a refund. (In past years, TripleMania airing for free would’ve led to a large uptick in viewership. There wasn’t much this year because AAA is what AAA is.)

Speaking of things said by the AAA management, Konnan recently explained that the reason AAA storylines struggled over the last few years is because the Mexicans were getting too much money from the US, they’d leave with his titles, and so Konnan would be unable to tell his stories the way he wanted to tell them. (Konnan portrayed it as if putting titles on people who would not be working in Mexico was a thing out of his control.) He insisted this would not be a problem going forward. Indeed, he’s addressed the situation by taking title belts off Mexicans and putting them on US-based workers who are obviously going to make working elsewhere their top priority. If another promotion did the same thing Booker Konnan just did – bad-mouthing Mexicans for making money and blatantly favoring non-Mexicans over them – podcast Konnan would raise the issue of racial discrimination. Matt Riddle, Satnam Singh, and not-Jinder Mahal are not over, and Satnam was the better wrestler. The Indians weren’t meant to get over in the tag title match; that was a Jeff Jarrett heat segment. The wrestlers in the three-way tried, but no one cared about that match or Matt Riddle. These people are over to the booking team, and the booking team is focused on stuff that pops themselves. Matt Riddle is also an avid marijuana smoker, and Konnan frequently seems to favor people who share that hobby with him. Both of the decisions seem to freeze these belts out for many months to come.

Vampiro’s match was the expected celebration of Vampiro in the strange ways that could only appeal to him. (Between the big angle and the Vampiro segment, there hasn’t been as much self-love in wrestling since Lanny Poffo passed away.) It was “cinematic” in the ways only people who don’t follow wrestling would understand “cinematic” to mean. They didn’t want to do a proper match – Vampiro made a point of getting close to the ring but never it in. Vampiro (and whoever was working with him) had some ideas for Bits but didn’t want to go through the effort to thinking how they’d figuring out how they’d work in a match (or bumping), and wanted to have the live crowd pat Vampiro on the back as he shambled past him, so they just did a bunch of bits live. The part I most dreaded about the match was going on forever, and it did not. It was a bunch of 30-second skits, with a minute or two breaks between them as Vampiro stumbled wearily from one location to another location. He didn’t sell, nothing anyone else did really affected him, and the rest of the world existed only when he needed parts of it to exist. He got to book himself as a god – a weak, diminished, broken-down god – and why shouldn’t he if everyone else here with any booking power gets to do the same? It did nothing for anyone besides Vampiro, and that was the entire point. Truly, Vampiro got a gigantic break by Penta never agreeing to do this as pitched – people would’ve had expectations of being an actual match, and Vampiro would’ve had to work with an opponent, maybe even put someone over a bit. Vampiro had no interest in any of that.

I wonder how much Pirata Morgan got paid for showing up, lightly hitting an unresponsive Vampiro for exactly 58 seconds of work, calmly brawling with Octagon Jr. (bizarrely wearing his title belt) and then disappearing.He earned every peso. His gold cape looked great.

There was some social media discussion about the La Parka cameo in the Vampiro being offensive; it was the most viral clip of the show, and people argued about whether it was respectful to his memory. It was weird to me, but I also figured it immediately was Karis La Momia Jr. in the mask – he was wearing it during the march on Thursday – and I can’t have an issue with it if he doesn’t have an issue with it. It didn’t add anything to match, but it did what it was supposed to do. A lot of the four-hour TripleMania seemed to exist to be repurposed 10-second clips to post on TripleMania. The clown balloon escape of the cage was the same way. AAA cannot monetize that clip. They can’t even monetize their TV show. they just figure “buzz->???->money” and book accordingly. The Dorian Roldan unmasking was another thing. It’s one of those moments where the wrestling promotion is saying in real-time everyone who watches their show is too big of a moron to figure out it’s Dorian Roldan under the mask from the moment he walks out, as the announcers insist it must be a surprise. The social media department can clip it down to a few seconds after the fact, and it plays fine when it’s just over an instant. It’s a show supposed to be watched via funny clips the next day; any deeper look reveals the surrounding mess.

There’s not much to say about the main event cage match. The balloon escape was cute and a new idea on a show that was not exactly flush with them. Fiscal and Abismo were having problems, but also Abismo betraying Psicosis and getting back with Cibernetico with no setup or logic left me unclear which side I was supposed to be on. AAA gave Psicosis II some dignity in his unmasking, then missed easy camera shots of him embracing his family after the match. The iconic image of last year’s CMLL Aniversario was unmasked Dragon Rojo Jr. hugging his family, and AAA cannot produce that same shot. I wonder what that split means for the AAA trios titles, though I can rest assured that this is not something AAA is considering.

There’s not a lot to say about the women’s match. Flammer is OK at this point, though not used to working hard in the match. Faby Apache would rather do spots with Hijo del Tirantes because she thinks she can get more of a reaction with him than any of the women. She may be right. Flammer turned out to be less important than Faby, Tirantes, and Karen Jarrett, and the women’s match happening in front of a quarter-full crowd only existed as a setup for an ultimately meaningless tag title match.

There’s not a lot to say about the Copa. Marco Corleone looked older facially but was still in great shape. Kenzo Suzuki looked like a man very retired from professional wrestling but happy to be in an AAA show one last time. The stipulation that the winner would get a title shot of their choosing felt bolted on at the last second to give it some stakes, though the guy who already has a belt earning a title shot is goofy.

AAA kept the arena very dark throughout the whole show, only posting their usual carefully selected photos of the attendance (which were also dark.) I have not scoured Instagram to examine the crowd; I don’t think it’s worth the effort when AAA insists they had their best show ever no matter what happened. Either AAA didn’t have a big crowd or failed to show that big crowd. The crowd sounded much better than usual – crowd audio is one place where AAA’s shown year-to-year improvement –

There were no mentions of TripleMania Mexico City on Unimas Saturday. It will air there in three weeks, which will be news to everyone watching the show. Unpleasant news, I know, but there’s at distinct chance someone might end the show to fix the dozens of shots AAA missed live, and those people will see a better show. I will say I was on AAA about missing the chance to convert Unimas viewers into PPV buyers but that was a misplaced concern; it’s better for people not to have seen that broadcast of the show because it would’ve run them off, and most of them probably wouldn’t end up having giving Triller any more since AAA broadcast the show for free.

There’s also no knowing how things will work out if people make different choices, but it’s always interesting to speculate. Watching Octagon Jr. be one of AAA’s best performers this year and relegated to the battle royal and a blink-and-you-missed-it appearance in the Vampiro “match” made me wonder where others would’ve been if they stuck around. Maybe Mala Fama would’ve ended up in the cage match, but I believe AAA loved the idea of doing the Fiscal/Abismo stuff. It would’ve appealed strongly to AAA, and those guys would’ve bumped out first. Where would’ve Aramis been? Maybe he could take Octagon Jr.’s place in the Vampiro match since he was loosely aligned with him, but AAA seemed to drop that in favor of the Vatos Locos idea. (That’s gone nowhere, but never mind.) There’s no telling how well AEW will follow up with Hologram outside now that they’re leaving their Arlington stop, but I do know that he was 5-0 and put over as a rising star on their TV. Aramis was 2-8 in AAA last year, definitely not put over.

I watched the last half of this show frustrated. Frustrated that I gave AAA the benefit of the doubt that they could put on a show that didn’t suck, and frustrated that I’ll have the entire promotion mad at me for saying their terrible show was indeed terrible. The reason why AAA people get angry at me is not even the reason they think. They believe I’m unfair; I don’t give them credit where they do, and that’s why I’m the ire of the attention. They’re mad at me because there’s no one else to be mad at. No one else bothers to cover AAA anymore; they’ve run off everyone else with their booking, with their terrible production, with them running off wrestlers people wanted to see, with their general attitude, with the obstacles AAA throws in anyone’s path to watch and learn about their shows, and with how none of this ever gets better. No one else bothers to deal with all that to find out if the Laredo Kid match was a three or four-star match. (It was 3.5. It was not 5.) If I disappeared tomorrow, the only news about AAA in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter would be whatever Meltzer politely asks Konnan when they’re gossiping about relevant US stuff. This specific day makes AAA easy to overlook – the NJPW G1 final happened later that night, and AEW just announced big news and has their Wembly show coming up, there may be no actual edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter to rate matches this week, but it’s not like people are dying to talk about AAA on any other day. No one outside of Mexico would miss AAA if they disappeared tomorrow. AAA can draw whatever they draw, claim whatever number they want on top of it, and point to some trending topic on the dying platform of Twitter, but they’re still utterly irrelevant to the rest of the wrestling world. The AAA problem is not me; the AAA problem is running off everyone else who might tell their story the way they want because they realize it’s a waste of their efforts. I’m just the final stubborn person left. There are no choirs of voices who will sing cheerful AAA songs, just waiting for me to shut up so they can be heard. It’ll just be a silence of AAA’s making.

That’s AAA’s problem. My problem is that I can see AAA is bad and will not get better soon. In recent years, I’ve gone from watching a lot of Mexico City indie wrestling to mostly giving up on it because it was bad and wouldn’t get better soon. I rarely watch IWRG because most of the wrestling is terrible – I’ll pick up a match or two if they look good, but I’m just posting results from most shows (and not bothering with even that if IWRG can’t be bothered to write them up.) After a few false starts, I think I’m generally done with Big Lucha – they gave up what made them special, and there’s not enough else to get me to stick around. I may be in the same place with AAA right now. It’s not good blog content to tell you how terrible AAA is; everyone reading this knows AAA is terrible, and they’ve long stopped caring enough about it to be concerned with the specific way off terrible. I hope those reading this blog entry today get something out of it. Still, the hours I’ve spent on this could’ve gone to discovering something new – I could’ve spent Sunday reading a Rolando Vera biography that’s been sitting in my bag for months and told you all about it. I could’ve dug into the lucha libre scenes I don’t watch enough. I could’ve picked up some of the magazine recaps I’ve been doing or started a new project going the ’90s stuff I’ve barely seen. I could’ve spent it enjoying non-wrestling content, which would have made me a more rounded person with better insights into all of this. I could’ve spent it wandering around on a cloudy summer day and been far happier than I am right now. I spent very early Sunday morning wandering around in my house, my mind racing to put together the words I would say about this show. That’s not healthy. I felt horrible on Sunday, and I felt even worse on Monday. People think I’m doing bits when I get very aggravated over AAA, but they’re not. I am very aggravated. I wouldn’t put up with this with any other entertainment – there’s too much good stuff out there, and there’s not nearly enough time to get to it all to hate-watch – and I’d handwaved AAA already if I wasn’t writing this blog. And, again, I’m not sure most people care about AAA in any detail at this point, so why am I doing this?

AAA will have one or two weeks of TripleMania recaps on Space. They’ll include a couple of minutes of new footage – the videos they taped backstage and posted for social, basically – but nothing else. They’ll follow with the second half of Verano de Escandalo, featuring Faby Apache winning a title opportunity she’s already lost. None of the matches look particularly special, and it doesn’t matter if they’re special – no one cares; it’s not really worth writing about. Rob likes to tell a story about the early days of this blog, about how I only covered CMLL because I thought AAA sucked. That’s not true; I covered just CMLL because lucha libre is weird and confusing, and there are a million people. and I didn’t know any of them, and I was learning how to swim before going into deeper waters. After twenty years of diving into it, maybe now I’ve concluded that the original theory was correct – it’s not worth covering AAA closely because it does indeed suck. I don’t know; I do know that AAA’s schedule means I don’t have to think much about any of this for weeks, and I’ll do my best to write a lot less about it when it does come up.

CMLL

Tonight’s show:

CMLL (FRI) 08/16/2024 Arena México
1) Astro Boy Jr., Eléctrico, Leono vs Grako, Nitro, Sangre Imperial
2) La Catalina, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano vs Akuma, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Neón vs Robbie X [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Mansoor & Rocky Romero
6) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Místico vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Valiente

More Valiente/Esfinge preview in the main event, a week before they’re all supposed to team. Mansoor debuts in the semi-main. Robbie X does the same against Neon, though that one might have more meaning. The foreigners usually start with a win, and that works well for RevPro. Neon’s the RevPro cruiserweight champion. There’s still a space left in RevPro’s six-way cruiserweight scramble on 08/24, and Robbie X getting the would set up him being added to the match. Match 3 looks like good dumb fun, the women’s match should be fine, and the opener gets some people work.

This is where I’d usually put the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday lineups, but they’ve already been announced.

CMLL (TUE) 08/20/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Átomo, Mije, Tengu vs Chamuel, KeMalito, Periquito Sacaryas
2) Adira, Magia Azul, Náutica vs Dulce Kitty, Valkiria, Zorah
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Crixus, Difunto, Raider
4) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Templario vs Bestia Negra, Euforia, Gallero
5) Barboza, Dulce Gardenia, El Elemental, Furia Roja, Hijo del Villano III, Místico, Soberano Jr., Star Black, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. vs Akira, Dark Magic, Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon, Kyle Fletcher, Mansoor, Okumura, Robbie X, Rocky Romero, Yutani

Guadalajara gets its annual “Liga de Nacions” show, with a preview of the Gran Prix. There are fewer people in the actual Gran Prix compared ot prior years. Claudio, Yota, and Davey Boy Smith are all missing from the World team; they may all be in only for that Friday. Mistico is working on this match and the Friday one. Match 3 was possibly meant to be a trios title match show here, but the rudos accidentally won last time; I still can’t make sense of it. They’ll probably fix that here.

CMLL Informa had almost no news. Mistico challenged Chris Jericho to make their Aniversario match a mask versus hair match (as he did the night before in Guadalajara). It’s not happening, and it wasn’t treated as if it were happening. In passing and with no details, Julio Cesar Rivera mentioned CMLL would be running a Dia de Luchador show (usually 09/23) and that there were yet to be announced international plans for Mistico this year. Everything else was people confirming they’re excited for their previously announced matches and Vegas getting his official Depredador mask. There was no explanation about the missing names from the women’s match on the Gran Prix show. I keep waiting for some big reveal and maybe it’s just “La Catalina may or not be available, we’re waiting to find out first.)

In a stunning tribute to persistence, I’ve finally located the other airing of CMLL on the AMX show. The Friday night airing is now Thursdays, the same time as before (11 pm Mexico City time.) It’s now the first airing of the show, so we got matches 3, 5, 6 from 08/04. (We’re getting the show one day earlier and not against another CMLL show; that’s a win.) This all might have been easier if the promotion had just told us what was airing, but I guess maniacly recording every moment the channel was on the air for days was the way to go.

Akira and Ikuro Kwon appeared on Informa and did media interviews earlier in the day. Both mentioned they’d wrestled in Mexico prior; Akira is exceptionally detailed about wrestling in Monterrey, but I can’t find anything about either show. (It has to be NGX or  OLX or something like that for AKIRA, and I just don’t have the right name.) Akira felt his hardcore style would add to Team World in the Gran Prix. Kwon says he’s worked on his cardio to prepare for Mexico City’s altitude.

Euforia says the other three guys in the mask match are all scared of him.

MLW did announce TJP as a replacement in their Opera Cup tournament, but not for Mistico or Atlantis Jr. He’s stepping in for an ‘injured’ Davey Boy Smith. The video promo for the change makes it clear it’s an angle, and it won’t impact Smith’s appearance in Mexico. (I think he’s off the MLW show due to a date conflict with AJPW.)

Stardom’s Mina Shirakawa will fill the spot left by Stephanie Vaquer on 08/24 RevPro show. That’s a positive replacement for that fanbase. It was implausible for another CMLL luchadora to take that spot; none of them are much known or over to fans outside of CMLL in the way, Vaquer had become (except for Tessa, and she’s a particular case.)  Vaquer got over internationally because she was good, because NJPW US believed she was good enough to pick her and put her in huge spots, and because NJPW US had huge spots to put her in. CMLL has luchadoras who can be good at wrestling, but the other parts of the equation aren’t there. October is going to be interesting because that equation may come together. I don’t know if Mercedes Mone is coming to wrestle in Arena Mexico, but if she does, whoever CMLL puts in front of her will say a lot about who they do and do not believe in. NJPW US and AEW will probably have a voice on that pick, so will Mone.

Infobae has an article on CMLL Japan announcer Miki Motoi. It’s just adding social media posts to form an easy story with nothing new.

AAA

TripleMania Mexico City is tomorrow, Saturday. It starts at 10:00 pm US ET on Triller and streams in English and Spanish. You can buy it for 25 USD. The show’s back half will also air on Space, Claro Sports, and MAX in Mexico. No, you can not watch it on MAX in the US. AAA’s put Mutli-hour “Best of” cuts of these shows within a day or two of the event and put the whole show on YouTube about a week later. I estimate TripleMania City will start airing in the US on Unimas on 09/07, but AAA hasn’t advertised a date.

AAA said they have a pre-show for a half hour before the show, but Triller lists it as an hour-long show. Either way, no matches are scheduled, and the other shows’ pre-shows have been thoroughly useless. It’ll probably be the anthem and some sponsor work, maybe a video package or two. You will probably be fine-tuning in a half hour early.

The lineup:

AAA TV (SAT) 08/17/2024 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Azcapotzalco, Distrito Federal
1) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 [Copa Bardahl]
2) Flammer © vs Faby Apache [Reina De Reinas]
first defense (after a full year.) Sexy Star will second Faby Apache, Dalys will second Flammer.
3) Laredo Kid vs Matt Riddle, Komander [AAA CRUISER]
Komander added on 08/07. Second defense, first on TV.
4) Negro Casas & Psycho Clown © vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal and Raj Dhesi & Satnam Singh [AAA TAG]
5) Vampiro Canadiense vs ? [casket]
6) Nic Nemeth © vs El Patrón Alberto [AAA MEGA]
7) Dark Cuervo vs Dark Ozz, Cibernético, El Fiscal, Abismo Negro Jr., Psicosis II, Panic Clown, Dave The Clown, Murder Clown [dome cage, hair, mask, cage]

I wrote a preview of TripleMania for Voices of Wrestling, and I’m being lightly ribbed for being too positive about AAA. There’s a first time for everything.

My issue is I see a light at the end of the tunnel. For one, this is the last time any of us must endure a four-hour TripleMania event for the next six months; AAA’s schedule is bizarre in bunching all these shows together, but it gives a big break on the backside. This is also the best TripleMania AAA’s run in a while, totally helped by the last few being among the worst TripleManias AAA’s ever produced. (If Monterrey was a 1 out of 10, Tijuana was a 2, which could be a 3 or a 4.) Mostly, I feel like there’s is a light at the end of the tunnel because AAA’s booked themselves into corners and have to do either positive or at least interesting things. Adding Komander and Cruiserweight title to the Riddle/Laredo match means AAA has to put Laredo Kid over, and that’s good. Vikingo is going to be back soon, and that’s good. The Vampiro match will probably be too long and self-indulgent, but letting him do whatever he wants is superior to pretending he can wrestle a standard match. At the same time, he struggles to move around, and everyone is scared of hitting him. The big ideas AAA’s been slow walking all year – the Eye guys, the Latin Lover/Konnan split, even the Alberto title reign – are things AAA is going to commit to on this show. Seeing how they work (or not) is interesting; getting away from the “time wasting” that AAA pretends is built for these events is even better. I’ve been asking AAA to pick a direction and get on with it all year, and they’ve forced themselves to do it on this show. I know it’s AAA; that light at the end of the tunnel may be a train about to crush me, but I will take that risk over what they’ve done the last eight months. TripleMania Monterrey was all about setting up stories that were dead on arrival. TripleMania Tijuana was screwing around with an intra-city feud that didn’t appear to be much over. TripleMania Mexico is about getting on with it, whatever it is, and that’s a positive change.

The other bit concerns the slightest pressure for TripleMania Mexico City to deliver to expectations in a long time. The expectations for this show are sky-low. This is not supposed to lead to some big charge in the US (because they’re not even bothering to advertise the show in the US). It’s a show built around nostalgia; it’s a show about bringing back old fans instead of making new fans, people who are going to be happy to see these people again and not be all that bothered about what they’re doing. There are some apparent issues with being in this situation, but it adds up to an event that should not be hard to please its intended audience. There may be some behind-the-scenes business pressures for it to deliver, but we won’t get accurate details.

Superboletos showed a decent amount of tickets left, which doesn’t fit the idea that this is one of the highest ticket-selling TripleManias ever, as Dorian Roldan and Konnan have each stated. I don’t think Konnan lies about attendance often; he prefers to shape the narrative by avoiding talking about something if it’s bad news. (They’ll never mention the terrible number they did in Tijuana and never address the “transitory period” left in a previous podcast.) Konnan isn’t going on Superboletos to look up tickets, he’s 100% relying on what Dorian and other AAA people are telling him, and what it looks like the day of the show. We’ll find out what the turnout is on Saturday. It doesn’t matter what people think of it on Friday, but there’s a definite disconnect between what they’re saying and what Superboletos is saying, and I’m not sure what it is. Are they cutting off fewer tickets for the stage? Do they mean they gate instead of attendance? (Ticket prices are in last year’s record high number.) Is it a projection for the top 2, and they figure the unsold will be sold in 24 hours? Is the Superboletos map just wrong? I have no idea.

The frustrating part of this story is that I firmly believe there’s just some piece I’m not getting or misunderstanding. I would like to understand it – but posting about this on Twitter just leads to the textual version of people grabbing me by the shoulders and loudly telling me, “They’re lying; you need to understand it’s just a lie; there’s nothing there to learn.” And, kind of yes, they’re wrestling people, and games are being played with the truth of the situation. Still, I also feel like it’s too weirdly specific (not a good turnout, not the best turnout, but specifically the top 2 ever) that there’s something in that’s true and worth knowing. I am probably a fool.

Konnan posted a podcast with Hugo to preview TripleMania. Konnan’s podcasts are as disorganized as his storylines, with a general idea of topics they need to cover but no planning to see if they’ve accomplished the task. They remember to mention three of the seven matches before Hugo decides he would rather hear Konnan repeat his favorite stories from the Latin Lover podcast. Hugo talks up Alberto/Nemeth; he’s always a big believer in Alberto and treats if like the biggest and best match on the show. There are mentions of surprises in Copa Baradahl. Konnan mentions most of the surprise people on the show are Mexican but reveals there will be one American. He says it in a way where he’s confident the podcast audience won’t care about the Mexicans, but getting that one American is vital. The other match is the main event, though no names are mentioned. Hugo tells a story about how he got Mesias a job with WWE, but then he wrestled in the dome cage match, hurt his shoulder, and couldn’t pass medical testing. (That looks to be the 2009 match.) It was weird how they were trying to sell this match around how much it cost Mesias a job and how dangerous it is to wrestlers; it may be accurate, but it doesn’t make the match more appealing. Konnan explains that “this year,” they’re putting weapons and a ladder in the cage so people can climb out. They put a ladder in the dome most times and weapons in the cage every time – the wrestlers cannot keep the fan’s interest in the pre-escape portion of the cage match without the weapon spots.

There’s an amusing bit where Hugo keeps talking about TripleMania being on FITE and Konnan asks if it’s also on Triller. Neither of them (or the other voices on the show) realize that FITE changed its name to Triller about a year ago.

AAA held its annual pilgrimage on Wednesday. There are some roster photos; Kento and Takuma made the trip again.

Sam Adonis signaled he’ll be on TripleMania. No offense to Adonis, who seems to be doing precisely what AAA wants of him to the best of his ability, but AAA sure focused a lot on the foreign legion team to have them not being advertised on AAA’s biggest show of the year. If AAA believes what they were doing with them was working, then they’ve screwed up by not including their most pushed rudos of the year. If AAA believes it wasn’t working, their big idea for the first two TripleManias was a flop, and maybe they need to stop using that angle. Nothing will probably change.

People are making up their storylines because they’ve got nothing to talk about department: Abismo Negro Jr. talked to TV Azteca, and said he might give his (theoretical ally) El Fiscal a martinete during the cage match. Both guys want to do their feud, but AAA is slow in playing the angle. Maybe they’ll end up on opposite sides of whatever’s going on tomorrow, and they’ll be able to get on with it. A Flammer interview about big ideas that are not happening. “Maybe I’ll have a hair/mask match with Faby Apache. Maybe I’ll defend my belt in TNA.”

AEW

AEW announced their All In show would take place in Dallas, Texas, on July 12th. This was a late August show in London’s Wembley Stadium last year and will be again next weekend. The show will take place in Globe Life Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers. There has been frequent Mexican wrestling participation through AEW’s stay in nearby Arlington this summer, and I’d expect to see the same on this show. The AEW Forbidden Door (with a lot of CMLL participation) show took place June 30th this year and is almost certainly moving to another spot in the calendar.

A big show in a Texas market should include an intense feud for some Latino wrestlers to draw in their fanbase. That would likely mean a Lucha Brothers tag run at another time, but that certainly doesn’t seem like it will happen in AEW in 2025. AEW has featured Thunder Rosa, Hologram, and The Beast Mortos on Collision while taping in Arlington, but that is the B-show. They’ve featured Atlantis Jr. on ROH, but that’s the D-Show. Rush is part of storylines but maybe the 12th most important one in the promotion. Komander’s around. Bandido will get cleared someday. CMLL wrestlers are in occasionally. There’s probably someone I’m forgetting that I’m going to slap my head after realizing. None of them would be considered among the top dozen or so most essential wrestlers in AEW. If AEW wants a luchador to draw and draw significantly, they can’t just start getting behind someone four weeks before the PPV. That’s not going to take, that’s not going to convince anyone. It has to be months of convincing the people that they’re taking that person (or people, probably better if it was plural) seriously and as a serious player. Picking a non-star and consistently behind them for months has proven to be a problem for AEW. They want to do it, but they always want to do it with about thirty people at once while also featuring all the people they’ve already been featuring, and there’s just not enough space to operate like that. Again, I think AEW would’ve usually just defaulted back to the Lucha Brothers because it would’ve been far less effort to convince the fans they’re top guys – the fans already wanted to believe that – and now they’ve got a more significant task ahead of them. AEW’s some time to chart a course, but they do eventually have to pick someone.

A funny story on the April Elite show was – after Rush and LA Park had their usual match and their usual silliness as a finish – was Rush’s usual demand for a hair versus mask match with LA Park. Rush would’ve talked about them in Arena Mexico, but they’re long gone. Rush talked about how a promoter should put on in the gigantic Estadio Azteca prior, but no one believes ELITE can put on a show that big. Rush’s big idea was suggesting the match happen at All In in Wembley. The fans laughed pretty because there’s no chance those would ever get to do in London. That bit came back to mind with All In 2025 since Dallas is a place where they could do that match and make it mean something. I’m confident Rush will bring up the idea before long. I’m unsure the last time Tony Khan and Dorian Roldan chatted, but the AEW boss would be wise to have a chat with the AAA one about the pros and cons of handing over your biggest show of the year to those two men. An LA Park/Rush apuesta match would draw in Dallas, and getting it to happen would be an absolute nightmare. I don’t have to deal with that part; I just have to write about it, so I’m not against the idea.

To close a loop: Penta did wrestle in Saltillo on Wednesday and in Torreon on Thursday, as advertised. Like with the TripleMania attendance, I would like to know what actually happened to cause that story to come out, but it would probably be easier if I just accepted “someone lied.”

ELITE

The identity of the mystery person at the end of this weekend’s ELITE show has been revealed. It’s “Rey Aztlan” – because ELITE is running a pair of shows at the Aztlan theme park in Mexico City on September 8th and 9th, and the wrestler is now the official spokes-luchador of the park. Shows will start at 5 pm each day. When Rey Aztlan invited people to where he was from, he meant the theme park. (Rey Aztlan appears to be Magno from Ciudad Juarez. They are not invited to Ciudad Juarez.) Admission to the shows is free with park entry.

ELITE’s other big idea is bringing back their title belts. The shows will include a tournament for their welterweight title belt (last held by Bandido in 2017.) Argenis, Brazo de Oro Jr., Alas de Oro, and Dios del Infrmaundo are among eight people competing in the tournament. Rey Aztlan, Demonio Infernal, and two wrestlers to be named will fight for the heavyweight title (last held by Cibernetico in 2016.) I would bet on the guy named after the theme park winning the novelty title belt. Tonalli, Fuerza Guerrera, Negro Casas, Verdugo, Gravity, Rey Horus, Octagon Jr., Vangellys, and Texano were also either pictured or mentioned as appearing.

Todo x el Todo

These lineups, which are released on Bobo Producciones’ Instagram and not mentioned elsewhere, are generally so sleepy that I’m forgetting to include them.

TXT (SUN) 10/06/2024 Palenque de León, León, Guanajuato
1) Lady Apache & Therius vs Hijo De Fuerza Guerrera & Keyra
2) Bobby Lee Ng, Hijo del Solar, Ultramán Jr. vs Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico Jr., Herodes Jr.
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Hijo de Máscara Sagrada, Misterioso Jr. vs Hijo del Fishman, Súpernova, Texano Jr.
4) Cinta de Oro, El Hijo Del Santo, Huracán Ramírez vs Bobby Lee Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Fuerza Guerrera

The poster’s quality control isn’t great. The main event is listed as a Relevos Atomicos (4v4), and match 2 is listed as match 3.

TXT (SUN) 10/13/2024 Arena Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Julissa, Lady Apache, Valentina vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera, Keyra, Vanilla Vargas
2) Desalmado Ibarra, Hijo del Fishman, LA Park Jr. vs Ciclón Ramírez Jr., Halcón Suriano Jr., Máscara Sagrada Jr.
3) ? & El Hijo Del Santo vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King Jr. and Hijo de LA Park & LA Park and Dralistico & La Bestia Del Ring and Fuerza Guerrera & Juventud Guerrera and Súpernova & Texano Jr. and Bobby Lee Jr. & Bobby Lee Ng and Huracán Ramírez & Huracán Ramírez Jr. [torneo]

There are many names on this show who haven’t popped up on the previous ones, which may have consequences later. (Wrestlers working these shows can’t work with CMLL wrestlers and aren’t going to be used by AAA.) It is amazing that LA Park is up to getting three family members booked with him on these shows; he’s a legend.

But the real story is that tournament. There are seven teams of relatives, and El Hijo del Santo is listed with no partner. The obvious conclusion is that El Hijo del Santo has convinced his son Santo Jr. to wrestle at least one more match, and that needs a bigger announcement than a random Instagram post.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 08/15/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Sacro b Rock Power 
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Tornado, Willy Banderas b Fly Star, Histeriosis, Ovett Jr. 
3) Águila Roja & Puma de Oro b Noisy Boy & Spider Fly 
win via unseen foul
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. DDQ Arez, Látigo, Toxin 
Fouls both ways and they kept brawling after.
5) Flamita & Galeno del Mal b Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus 

La Pandemia should’ve got the win, Latigo fouled on of them first, but the bit is La Pandemia keep going to draws.

IWRG (SUN) 08/18/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Felino Boy & Sacro vs Fauno & Rock Power
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Iron Kid, Willy Banderas vs Alan Extreme, Histeriosis, Mr. Mike
3) Spider Fly vs Águila Roja
4) Veneno & Vudu Max vs Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr.
5) Hell Boy vs Vangellys, Hijo Del Silver King
6) DMT Azul & Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal

Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno del Mal have two tag matches of nearly equal importance this week. I feel bad for Halcon Suriano Jr. leaving CMLL because he was stuck in match 2s, and ending up in match 2s in IWRG.

Other Notes

I spent far too long – maybe a whole hour? – on Thursday night, I was trying to figure out the tape dates of some videos Mas Lucha uploaded earlier this year. It’s a show called Yeric Fest, the announcers say it is from Cancun or Rivieria Maya, Cancun’s TWS is credited as the promtoion, and the full show went up back in June. The main event was Brazo de Oro Jr. & Hijo del Octagon against locals Principe Cometa and Angeluz. I can’t find a mention of “Yeric Fest” outside these videos, so my hunch is it was a private show that was nevertheless sent to Mas Lucha, edited, and uploaded (likely for a fee.)

I searched a lot through Facebook for Facebook pages that might have information on this show. I didn’t have much luck, and I’m giving up for the moment, but I did stumble upon some stuff. I didn’t realize Mistico and crew are in Merida on Saturday. And I definitely didn’t realize Sabu is advertised for a show in Cancun in October. That show is connected to a comic-con/geek culture autograph event, so perhaps Sabu will show up just to get the free vacation and sign some autographs – but chances are slim.

Notus has a story on an Irapuato luchador turned firefighter; he seems to have found the fire fighting more exciting.

A lucha libre themed crossword puzzle.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 08/12/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, En Linea Deportiva, Grada, Mano A Mano, Mas Lucha Jr.]
1) Astro, Meyer, Rayo Metálico b Espíritu Maligno, King Jaguar, Rencor
2) Milenium, Robin, Xelhua b El Malayo, Multy, Raider 
3) Virus b Panterita del Ring [lightning]
Virus beat Panterita close to the 10 minute time limit
4) Kira & Skadi © b Hera & Olympia [MEX WOMEN TAG] 
2nd defense
5) Místico, Soberano Jr., Templario b Máscara Dorada, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. 
Moved down a spot.
6) Esfinge, Hechicero, Titán DQ Averno, Euforia, Valiente 
Valiente fouled Esfinge, Euforia unmasked Hechicero. Moved to the main event.

It’s unusual to see Mistico in the semimain without a big match on top, but the guys in the Aniversario match are the big match right now. It sounds like the title match went well.

El Sol del Puebla catches up with some tourists visiting Arena Puebla. It doesn’t seem like there’s as many tourists going these shows, but there does seem to be some.

CMLL (TUE) 08/13/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio & Pierrothito b Angelito & Galaxy   
7:13
2) El Audaz b Capitán Suicida [lightning]   
8:59
3) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora  
14:30
4) Vegas b Dragón de Fuego, Legendario, Retro, Emperador Jr., Rayo Metálico, Infarto, Alom, Hunter, Crixus [cibernetico]   
26:06. Order of elimination is Hunter (via Retro, 8:09), Alom (Crixus, 11:47), Emperador Jr. (Legendario, 13:55), Infarto (Vegas, 15:05), Dragon de Fuego (Rayo Metalico, 16:39), Crixus (Retro, 18:50), Retro (Legendario, 19:10), Legendario (Rayo Metaliico, 20:15), Rayo Metalico (Vegas, 27:36) leaving Vegas as the winner and new member of Los Depredadores Vegas becomes the new Depredador.
5) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. b Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Terrible  
14:13

The Depredador Cibernetico was Great, especially compared to expectations. They went as hard as any Torneo Escuelas cibernetico, there were genuine surprise eliminations, and the crowd was into the last few moments. Empeador looked good, Rayo Metalico had his biggest performance in CMLL, and Alom almost landed on his head on a dive. It was a trip.

The Los Deperadores unit was first introduced as Rugido, Magia Blanca, Magnus and Diamond (who’s been replaced by Max Star) – but Volador at the time explained there was meant to be one more. Black Warrior Jr. was meant to be part of the group, but suffered an injury in training that would eventually take his life many months later. I’m unsure if it’s intentional or just a coincidence that the newest member of Los Depredadores happens to be Black Warrior’s prize protege.

Match 3 was a bit of a snooze, but the rest was all right for a Tuesday show.

CMLL (TUE) 08/13/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Mas Lucha]
1) Cosmos, Obek, Thunder Boy b Abigor La Peasdilla, Destructor, Eclipse Jr. 
2) Draego, Makara, Persa b Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Lince Del Bajio 
3) Cris Skin, Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr. b Brillante Jr., Felino Jr., Xelhua [Relevos Increíbles] 
Gallero beat Xelhua after a mask pull
4) Barboza & Zandokan Jr. b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa 
5) Lluvia, Náutica, Tessa Blanchard b Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis 
Nautica replaced La Catalina.
6) Atlantis Jr. & Místico b Averno & Mephisto 

Match 4 was said to be the best on the show.

CMLL Informa is tonight, but CMLL is locked in on not announcing anything for that show until their afternoon taping. This may be the show where they announce the full Aniversario lineup. I expect they’ll also reveal who is wrestling Lluvia & Tessa on the Gran Prix show.

On Thursday, Atlantis Jr. defends the Ring of Honor TV championship against Robbie Eagles.

CMLL (SAT) 08/17/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas
2) Diamond, El Audaz, Robin vs Doctor Karonte I, Doctor Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero vs El Hijo del Villano III, Sagrado, Villano III Jr.
5) Esfinge vs Euforia [lightning]
6) Flip Gordon, Templario, Titán vs Mansoor, Robbie X, Rocky Romero

AEW originally announced Mansoor would be wrestling for them on Saturday, then aired another vignette just to explain it would instead be airing on Friday (which will be taped on Wednesday). It is fairly obvious that AEW didn’t understand Mansoor’s CMLL schedule and was unaware he was booked on this Arena Coliseo show, so AEW had to backtrack. Here’s a rule of thumb: once CMLL brings in a foreigner, they will use them every day of the week until they leave. If they’re working on Friday, they’re working all weekend.

Someone figured out Mansoor’s Mexico schedule; he’s here through the Gran Prix. The micros and the Karontes in the opener may make for some unwelcome highlights. This is going against TripleMania so that no one may notice.

CMLL (SUN) 08/18/2024 Arena México
1) Fantasy vs Pequeño Polvora [lightning]
2) Capitán Suicida, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Okumura
3) Xelhua vs Pólvora [lightning]
4) Blue Panther, Fugaz, Star Black vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
5) Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero, Valiente vs Euforia, Magnus, Mephisto
6) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada vs Flip Gordon, Mansoor, Robbie X

I’m unsure how often a mini and his main roster equivalent have had lightning matches on the same show.

If you subscribe to CMLL’s Fan Leyenda starting tomorrow, you’ll get both the Gran Prix and the CMLL Aniversario show in a one-month window. 35 USD/month is still really high for a streaming service, but the next 30 days give you the most value for that level. (You may be able to sign up today and get both shows, but I’m not 100% sure how they count days in a month, and there’s also nothing new on there today. Wait one more day.)

Titan, in talking about the Gran Prix, mentioned he admires PAC & AJ Styles, and he’s copied parts of their styles to improve himself.

MLW officially announced Atlantis Jr. versus Mistico for 08/29. That’ll air live for free on their YouTube channel.

Barbaro Cavernario will be in the RevPro British J Cup on 08/28. Mascara Dorada participated in this tournament last year.

Box y Lucha 3616 has the Gran Prix.

AAA

The big Latin Lover/Konnan podcast went up on Monday night. This whole saga – and AAA’s year of booking – stemmed from a Vampiro podcast with Latin Lover, where they both buried Konnan and then the podcast went viral. That podcast’s popularity is why AAA has run a Vampiro retirement tour all year, and it’s the story behind Latin Lover returning to AAA in his Director of Talent role. It will probably be the set-up for Latin Lover or Konnan splitting on-screen at TripleMania in a few days. But, on their podcast together, it was a setup for Latin Lover apologizing to Konnan for being too harsh towards him earlier, and Konnan seemingly accepted that apology.

Konnan was as open about the professional wrestling business on Latin’s podcast as he is on his own, and Mexican wrestling is generally very closed about those things, so this podcast was a rare chance for Mexican wrestling fans to hear a take on how the business of lucha libre works. (Or how it doesn’t work; one of the most repeated clips is Konnan bemoaning promoters today, not being serious business people like they were thirty years ago and wrestling instead filled with fan promoters who are doing harm.) The podcast seems to be very popular among the intended audience. I’m not the right person to do a summary. Infobae repeats one story from the show, where Konnan mentions La Parka (AAA) was kidnapped briefly a few years before he passed away, and Rey Escorpion helped get him out of that situation. The little I know about Rey Escorpion, it did not surprise me to hear he knew how to handle that situation.

The annual AAA pre-TripleMania pilgrimage is underway today. That’s more fun to look at after the photos and videos come out in the next few hours.

Parker Boudreaux is not on TripleMania, and justifiably so; he’s added nothing to the two matches he’s been in and has seemed to be the poor investment of time and plane tickets everyone outside AAA assumed he would be from the moment they brought him in. Yet, he (or his social media team) is still tagging AAA in social media posts, so he expects to return to AAA at some point. Imagine if AAA used some of the money they spent on these longshots to tell English-speaking people they have a PPV this weekend.

El Hijo del Vikingo is listed as wrestling on a September 17th show in Arena Aficion. The semi-main of a show headlined by Oriental versus Mascara 2000 in a hair match is not the most exciting way to return, but perhaps he’ll turn before then. I figure he’ll at least show up to wave at TripleMania on Saturday.

AAA wrestlers appeared on TV Azteca’s Venga la Alegria on Tuesday as part of TripleMania promotion.

Tu Plan de Juego has an interview with Lady Wind. Like Dick Angelo 3G/Taurus and Legendario/Bengala, she finished top 3 in AAA’s talent search earlier this year but she hasn’t been seen on TV since that victory though she is under AAA contract. She is 17 years old, which may be the reason. Hijo del Tirantes recommended her after seeing her on his local Xalapa shows, and she’s trained at Bandido’s Gym. Her grandfather was a boxer, her father wrestled as Viento Negro, and she wanted a name that kept that Viento/Wind connection.

Pentagon Jr.

The probable move of the Lucha Brothers to WWE has turned into a story with life on its own, with people flooding the zone with every bit of gossip they’ve heard about and not really doing the best job of vetting it. Here’s what I got: the Lucha Brothers will probably go to the WWE; the Lucha Brothers have not officially signed with WWE because they’re both under contract to AEW, and they’re so surely going to one place while being under contract is causing some fairly obvious and foreseeable issues. It’s now a story about WWE allegedly tampering with contracted AEW wrestlers and if/how AEW will want to respond. The Lucha Brothers have become pawns in a game by being too open about their plans.

The one part of this story that tracks back to Mexican wrestling is a gossip passed around in the dark corners of direct messages the last few days. That gossip had Penta going to Pittsburgh on Wednesday for his WWE medical tests, then visiting NXT in Orlando on Thursday. That all seems highly unlikely for someone still under an AEW contract on the surface. Because this is (the only?) website that covers Mexican wrestlers having matches in Mexico, I can additionally point out that Penta is scheduled to wrestle in LA Park’s arena in Monclova tonight and in Torreon on Thursday night. Both promotions have recently assured their fans that Penta will be there. Penta – and most definitely his brother – isn’t above missing a promoted indie date, so I can’t be sure he’ll be there. But I doubt he’s going to Pittsburgh today.

That entire story is what Penta’s odd “my present is in AEW” post was trying to explain; he’s still in AEW at the moment, he’s respecting his contract, he’s not going to get a WWE physical, please don’t threaten legal action against him. I’m not sure who’s representing Penta at the moment, but those people really need to help him a bit; a prepared statement of “I’m in AEW now, I’m ready to wrestle for them, my contract is coming up soon, and I haven’t decided what I’m doing, please trust only what I’m saying” would help a lot, true or not. That’s the damage control he’s giving up part of his contract to get. Penta (and Fenix) will get paid no matter what’s going on or who’s upset with them, but people with a vested interest in him getting the most money should be getting involved right now.

Other News

Monday was Cinta de Oro day in El Paso.

08/31 RIOT

• Prometeo & Kratoz vs Spider Fly & Noisy Boy
• Erik Ortiz (c) vs Lord Byron [RIOT CHAMP]

Big Lucha is also back on 08/31

Big Lucha (SAT) 08/31/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Platino & Reiyel vs Brujo & Zenky
2) Lady Wind & Sussy Love vs La Brava & Marishka
3) Auzter vs Tempo, Estrella de Oro, Uzumaki
4) Black Skayde, Elipse, Vengador vs Cósmico, Helios, Nordico
5) Mr. Win, Orbita, Viajero vs Big Tao Tao, Limbo, Tonalli
6) Flamita vs Emperador Azteca

There are no outisders on this show, which also kinda exposes the scarcity of familiar names left here. Tonalli’s new, but he’s been meant to be part of this new version of Black Generation for a couple of shows. They seem to have dropped the Orbita/Elipse feud, for at least one show.

A visit to Babe Face’s rice shop. I’ve been. It’s nice.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 08/09/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Eléctrico & Leono b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial  
9:35.
2) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Okumura b Capitán Suicida, Legendario, Valiente Jr.   
14:44.
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma   
4) Dragón Rojo Jr. b Difunto [lightning]    
9:53
5) Atlantis, Octagón, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero    
11:25
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario b Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Soberano Jr.    
18:29

The main event was pretty good; otherwise, this was an easily skippable Friday show. Nothing happened; most stuff was just OK, and some stuff was not at the level of other Friday nights.

Chris Jericho sent in a video talking up his match with Mistico. Mistico responded after his win. Nothing much new ground, except Jericho was doing some of his Learning Tree bits. He had done a stripped-down basic rudo bit in his previous appearances, and only the most dedicated Mexican AEW fan (the ones subscribing to AEW+ on Triller) would have any idea what Jericho was trying to do with his catchphrases.

CMLL (SAT) 08/10/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito 
8:13.
2) Amapola, Candela, Metálica b La Vaquerita, Magia Azul, Maligna 
16:49. Candela debut
3) El Audaz, Volcano, Xelhua b Crixus, Okumura, Vegas 
14:36.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr. TLDRAW Felino Jr. [lightning] 
10:00
5) Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa 
14:18
6) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Soberano Jr. 
12:28

Nothing extraordinary, but slightly better than usual for a Sunday show.

Felino Jr. works in such a disinterested style that I never realized they were working for the draw until after they got nine minutes. He always wrestles as if he’s going for the ten-minute draw.

Candela and Magia Azul had some good moves but looked lost between those moves. Candela was the better of the two. Both need a lot more ring time, but they’re not completely hopeless, either.

CMLL (SUN) 08/11/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) KeMalito, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo, Chamuel, Periquito Sacaryas
2) La Catalina, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard b Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis
3) El Cobarde, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Brillante Jr., Hijo del Pantera, Hombre Bala Jr.
CMLL debut of Cobarde.
4) Titán b Flip Gordon [lightning]
5) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther
6) Averno, Euforia, Valiente DQ Esfinge, Hechicero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Hechicero unmasked Euforia, Valiente, and his partner Esfinge.

A clip of the main event finish shows Hechicero and Esfinge unmasking Valiente and Euforia. Esfinge decided to swing at Hechicero as they were both celebrating, and Hechicero ended up unmasking him, too. Esfinge is a poor stragetical mind.

AMX is the station that streams some of the matches from this weekly Sunday show on an internet stream, but that stream was down all weekend. It’s back up Monday, but the 07/28 taping is lost to time. That show does exist on CMLL’s YouTube channel, but in a private video that the promotion has decided to make available at any price.

CMLL (MON) 08/12/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Meyer, Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno, King Jaguar, Rencor
2) Milenium, Robin, Xelhua vs El Malayo, Multy, Raider
3) Panterita del Ring vs Virus [lightning]
4) Kira & Skadi © vs Hera & Olympia [MEX WOMEN TAG]
2nd defense
5) Esfinge, Hechicero, Titán vs Averno, Euforia, Valiente
6) Místico, Soberano Jr., Templario vs Máscara Dorada, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

CMLL booked the normal amount of rudos and tecnicos for the top matches, but the main event is messed up on both sides because the semi-main is messed up on both sides.

I’d like to see Virus/Pantera, but I doubt it’ll make it to TV. Women’s tag match should be fun.

CMLL (TUE) 08/13/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito & Galaxy vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Capitán Suicida vs El Audaz [lightning]
3) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Dragón de Fuego vs Legendario, Retro, Emperador Jr., Rayo Metálico, Infarto, Alom, Hunter, Vegas, Crixus [cibernetico]
winner becomes new Depredador
5) Flip Gordon, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr., Terrible

Putting aside training situations, Vegas seems like the best fit for Los Depredadores: physically talented, solid worker, lacking a lot of personality. Teaming with those guys may bring it out to him. Crixus is going to get pushed before he’s ready – because he looks like CMLL’s dream wrestler, he gets a good reaction, and also he may never actually progress to ‘ready’ – but he doesn’t seem to fit along Magia Blanca, Rugido and Magnus. Legendario’s the other person in this group that’s over, but he’s a more tecnico character, and it seems a missed chance to turn him rudo here.

Match 3 is the new trios champs against Los Chacales. Coyote’s been missing for about three weeks.

CMLL (FRI) 08/16/2024 Arena México
1) Astro Boy Jr., Eléctrico, Leono vs Grako, Nitro, Sangre Imperial
2) La Catalina, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely vs Dark Silueta, Persephone, Zeuxis
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado, Volcano vs Akuma, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
4) Neón vs Robbie X [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Mansoor & Rocky Romero
6) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Místico vs Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Valiente

The foreigners start trickling in for the Gran Prix, though Mansoor and Rocky are headed back to the US for Collision on Saturday. Neon in a singles match is always a necessary test. I do no know if the Mansoor male model gimmick will get over with this crowd. (It’s not my thing, but it is also beside the point.) Leono making two straight Fridays is odd; that opener seems like getting people their scheduled work hours on an unusual day.

CMLL released the Friday show lineup on Saturday, which they did normally until the last year or so. Not sure if it’s a one-time thing, but CMLL also released the Gran Prix card:

CMLL (FRI) 08/23/2024 Arena México
1) Fugaz vs Villano III Jr. [lightning]
2) Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard vs ? & ??
Opponents to be announced
3) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón vs Ángel de Oro, Bárbaro Cavernario, Soberano Jr.
4) Akira, Claudio Castagnoli, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon, Kyle Fletcher, Mansoor, Robbie X, Rocky Romero, Yota vs Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Euforia, Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario, Titán, Último Guerrero, Valiente, Volador Jr. [Gran Prix]

Putting Villano III Jr. on a big show sounds fun, though I wish he had a better opponent. I’m less thrilled about seeing Octagon there. Lluvia & Tessa’s opponents sound like a CMLL Informa deal, which is strange if it’s just meant to be two CMLL rudas. Perhaps there’s a chance it will be someone else.

This weekend, a weird bit of timing ended with MLW and CMLL airing taped Magnus versus Mistico matches. MLW aired one taped on 07/12 on YouTube on Saturday, CMLL’s show on Televisa Puebla aired the one taped 08/05 on Sunday night. I have the Puebla one as slightly better, though it takes longer to get there because of the three fall format. The crowd knows the story, Mistico makes a better and more substantial comeback in Puebla.

The announcing hampers the MLW version of Magnus/Mistico. MLW has had CMLL people in for months now, and the announcers still don’t know them beyond their Wikipedia profiles and have no sense of what’s going on in their home promotion. They were trying to sell it as Mistico and Magnus normally got along until the Opera Cup got in the way when these guys had been feuding for months and were doing their normal CMLL feud match. If the MLW guys were as oblivious to an NJPW rivalry between their wrestlers, it would’ve gotten fixed after one show – I guess they can be grateful they don’t have 100 people yelling at them on social media when they get something like this wrong. I wish they cared about being authentic to the brand they’re trying to represent, but so it goes.

Mistico is next scheduled to wrestle Atlantis Jr. in the Opera Cup tournament. That’s one where there’s no obvious finish – Mistico is Mistico, but AEW would probably prefer Atlantis Jr. not to lose matches while ROH TV champion. MLW has strangely announced that TJP will be a replacement if anyone happens to leave the tournament, which likely means TJP is facing Mistico.

After that Puebla show, Magnus declared he’s on the side of anyone against Mistico, pledging to help Chris Jericho at the Aniversario should he ask for it.

El Grafico has more details on the CMLL summer camp that they’ve often promoted on CMLL Informa for the last few weeks. They ran a pilot program last year with just kids of CMLL employees, and they’ve opened it up to more people this year. The kids are at Arena Mexico for five hours a day and get two classes. One is an art class with Ivonne and Cesar Valero, the artists behind the Dia del Muerto promotion and the cartoon history videos CMLL does. The other class is a wrestling class with referee Tigre Infante (Metalico), who’s an accredited Olympic wrestling coach. Infante and his fellow coaches said they’re not trying to recruit the new batch of CMLL luchadors but more to teach them values and discipline. They all have a CMLL wrestler stop by the camp; Titan was there the day Grafico stopped by. This sounds like a one-day camp.

AAA

More Dorian Roldan interviews have come out after the TripleMania press conference, and there’s an interesting spin on the current situation with Penta and Fenix’s names. Roldan confirmed AAA is blocking their wrestlers from appearing on shows with them but frames it as an IP issue—he’s only blocking them because he feels they’re using AAA-owned names, not because they’re working with CMLL or AEW or whomever. He wishes them well but wants to protect the IP.

It’s worth stepping back here to understand the change around this. AAA in Mexico owns Pentagon Jr. and Fenix. Lucha Libre FMV (the Lucha Underground holding company owned by a group including AAA) owns the names in the US. After leaving AAA around 2017, they switched to Penta el Zero M and Rey Fenix, among other variations. The idea seemed they were legally distinct enough from AAA names to get away with them, just as the original La Parka had switched to LA Park. AAA did not appear to fight this battle for years, through times when the Lucha Brothers were working with AAA and times when they were not. Only recently, AAA apparently decided that even the “Penta el Zero M” and “Rey Fenix” names are too close to their owned names and have threatened issues. (At least in Mexico; it hasn’t seemed to affect them in the US.) The timing of the change suggests it was those two men showing up in CMLL that caused the issue, and CMLL was clearly aware there was an issue in how they went with safe alternative names. I suspect it wasn’t actually AAA getting angry about CMLL; I believe whatever AAA is trying to do to get an influx of capital is connected to their owned IP. Either they’re being far more aggressive about threatening legal action to make it more valuable, or whomever they’re working with has requested them to take it more seriously. AAA acted similarly with Black Taurus/Beast Mortos and hasn’t gone to CMLL. It’s still an open question if AAA is going to be this strict on just people who have decided not to work with them, or if they’re going to go after the others who still use gimmicks or names invented by AAA on indies but are just people, AAA’s not interested in. The other Alebrijes, Infierno Rockers, and other minor characters running around may be in trouble, but I wonder what happens to the Electroshock level when AAA is done using them for this Origines tour. Or, it could be a promoter just making decisions to justify his feelings.

Talking with Record, Dorian Roldan said AAA would like to have an alliance with WWE – but in the way where AAA would like to have alliances with everyone, not that they’re specifically working with AAA right now. Roldan says they work with TNA, NOAH and AEW. (Working with NOAH seems like news? Maybe he meant GLEAT? Maybe he’s thinking of past times when they did work with NOAH?) Roldan says he doesn’t know where AAA’s relationship with AEW stands – he thinks it’s solid but believes it may be better to ask AEW that question because he claims not to know what’s going on. He sees the distance between AEW and AAA as a function of NJPW and CMLL only wanting to work together and pulling AEW away from AAA rather than any issue between AAA and AEW themselves. Roldan acknowledged that CMLL is doing phenomenally but feels that AAA is pulling in a different audience and doing great themselves.

AAA on Space was treated as a TripleMania preview. The many “preview” shows AAA’s aired this year run old matches with the idea that they’re relevant to the show that’s coming up. It’s a way to very cheaply produce a TV episode without running an actual taping anything that week, which makes absolutely no sense if those AAA shows are as successful as AAA continually claims – if business is good, they’d be adding more tapings instead of cutting them down. (AAA is on pace to run 18 tapings this year, down from 22 last year.)

The one thing that seems worth doing on a TripleMania preview show is to run through the matches on the card. AAA’s done this with their past preview shows. They did not do it here; the show just ended with Psycho & Casas celebrating their tag title win in Juarez. My guess is AAA edited this episode together at the same time they did the Verano de Escnadlao preview show (aired on 07/27), and they didn’t have the TripleMania lineup locked in at that point. That’s a bizarre way to produce a TV show, and it’s equally strange they couldn’t have taped an extra two minutes this past week to jam at the end of the episode with the lineup. They didn’t make the effort.

(Space cares about getting people to watch TripleMania more than AAA actually does and has been promoting the top three matches in an ad for weeks.)

One other thing bugs me. AAA choosing to air an old Faby Apache match instead of the one they taped last week is idiotic. I know that’s harsh, but there is no point in arguing it. Faby won a #1 contenders match on Verano de Escandalo, which will now not air for weeks until after her title match happens. That kind of goofy behavior makes everyone involved with the promotion look dumb. They shouldn’t bother to air it if they couldn’t air it this week, but AAA treats their TV show as an irrelevant obligation rather than a marketing tool.

The AAA on Unimas show is as dumbly produced. We still don’t know the ratings numbers for that AAA show, and it doesn’t appear AAA knows either – Konnan mentioned on his podcast that they haven’t been able to get numbers from the network, with the network saying they’ve been busy with Copa America and the Olympics. Still, based on past numbers on that channel, AAA on Unimas has in the range of 200K viewers. If even 0.1% of those watching Unimas were convinced to take a chance on a TripleMania, that’s 200 extra buys. I think that’s a useful amount for a promotion that seems to use the money. Unfortunately, this is AAA, so there’s no mention there’s a TripleMania a week away, and definitely no mention that someone could pay to watch the show on Triller TV. Perhaps they’ll pound it home at the last second next week, but history suggests the TV will continue to just exist for TV’s sake.

Fresero Jr. claims his time in AAA has ended after just one match. Could be true, though Fresero Jr. just says a lot of things.

ELITE

ELITE (SUN) 08/11/2024 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal [Mas Lucha]
1) Forneo & Torito Negro b Mexica & Olmeca  
Torito Negro replaced Halcon Suriano Jr.
2) La Hiedra & Lady Flammer b Julissa & Valentina  
3) Black Warrior Jr. & Verdugo b Argenis & Tonalli  
4) Travis Banks b Gravity, Rey Horus 
Horus picked up a shoulder injury, Banks defeated Gravity
5) Fuerza Guerrera b Negro Casas 
Casas lamely bumped the referee, Fuerza fouled Casas, Fuerza faked a foul, and the referee awarded the match to Fuerza after a long period of back and forth. Hair versus mask challenges followed.
6) Metalik b Laredo Kid  
Laredo was playing up being with AAA as a rudo move. Metalik beat Laredo Kid using an inside cradle and with both feet on the ropes.
7) Pagano NC DMT Azul, Demonio Infernal 
Pagano left with a shoulder injury (which seemed to be an angle), and then a mystery man ran in to attack both men. The stream ended here. There appeared to be no finish live.

My best guess is the idea was you were supposed to think Soberano Jr. was the mystery man, but it was also clearly not Soberano Jr. That sentence doesn’t really make sense, and neither does this promotion. The previous ELITE show (from April) went up on Mas Lucha’s YouTube channel on Saturday. That one is visibly a TV pilot, so perhaps we can read the long break between the shows as ELITE hoping to get picked up, and it just never happens. This stream was a (lesser quality) Mas Lucha production, including mics that were way out of sync and the stream ending prematurely. The matches don’t look good, and the finishes in the top matches are all stunk. ELITE previously indicated they’d be back in September, but they didn’t actually announce a date here.

There were very few tickets sold to this show on Ticketmaster map, just like last show. There are a decent amount of people in the seats by mid-show, just like last time. I presume Elite is just papering these shows. Mas Lucha set up the hard camera to face a wall instead of the stands, so they must’ve believed those stands would be pretty empty.

News agency EFE interviews Argenis in the lead-up to this show, but it turned out to be more about the life of an independent Mexican luchador. Argenis has just been in that lifestyle for the last year and talks about the tradeoff of having more freedom but not having the support system of a promotion if it goes wrong. Argenis says he’s hoping his TV fame will continue to allow him to get more work, and being independent has allowed him more time with his family. He believes wrestlers who’ve established themselves in a big company should try indie for a while to broaden their knowledge and meet new colleagues.

Todo x el Todo

Bobo Productions posted the Queretaro lineup

TXT (SAT) 10/05/2024 Arena Arteaga, Querétaro, Querétaro
1) Lady Apache & Therius vs Hija de Fuerza Guerrera & Keyra
2) Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Solar, Ultramán Jr. vs Canek Jr., Súper Nova, Verdugo
3) Ciclón Ramírez Jr. & Cinta de Oro vs Bobby Lee Jr. & Texano Jr.
4) El Hijo Del Santo & LA Park vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera

Nothing special here. They won’t do anything extra on these shows unless/until they tank. Doing nothing more than promising the last match ever in that town has worked for Vampiro, so I guess it’s worth a try for El Hijo del Santo.

El Hijo del Santo’s retirement interview tour took him to ImagenTV’s “El Minute que Cambio mi Desitno” interview show. The big viral bit of the show is after a discussion about El Santo’s unmasking in his final TV appearance, El Hijo del Santo unmasking. It’s 48 minutes in, but you don’t see anything – they turn the lights down, and Santo’s still careful to hide his face from any camera as he hands off one mask to the host and puts another on. Infobae summarizes the rest of the interview and many of the stories are ones you may have heard before. He explains his situation with AAA as him agreeing to a verbal deal to do TripleMania, AAA shortchanging him on money, Santo having no legal recourse because it was a verbal deal, and then suing over the image rights as a way to get the money owed to him in the first place. One thing I didn’t know was his personal family situation. El Hijo del Santo has talked about his wife and two kids but apparently has other kids from a first marriage. Santo claims that first wife was physically violent towards her, he reported her to the police, and they didn’t take his complaints seriously. He has no contact with the children from that relationship after the end of the relationship.

AEW/ROH

ROH matches taped for upcoming shows, in case you’re like me and signed up to watch the PPV and keep forgetting you need to unsubscribe

(via JunkyardAkiyama)

• AR Fox & Komander vs unidentified masked wrestlers
• Fuego del Sol, Serpentico, Altantis Jr. vs Cage of Agony
• the Beast Mortos vs Mark Briscoe for the Ring of Honor championship
• Peter Avalon vs Atlantis Jr.

ROH taped weeks of TV in unclear order over the last few weeks; only the people behind the curtain know the order of these matches airing.

Other Notes

IWRG’s Sundays stream failed, just like Thursday’s stream. They say they’ll have the Sunday stream up as a VOD on Monday. They also didn’t post results from most of their show, though there’s a lineup for next Thursday:

IWRG (THU) 08/15/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sacro vs Rock Power
2) Halcón Suriano Jr., Tornado, Willy Banderas vs Fly Star, Hysteriosis, Ovett Jr.
3) Noisy Boy & Spider Fly vs Águila Roja & Puma de Oro
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. vs Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Hell Boy & Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Flamita & Galeno del Mal

Flamita returns from his Dragon Gate run. It’s notable he’s back in IWRG, as there seemed to be a break between this promotion and Big Lucha after some incidents in a FULL/Big Lucha cibernetico years ago. Mostly I’m curious if the strong performances Flamita’s been putting in for Dragon Gate will also be seen in Mexico.

El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. is out of NOAH’s N1 tournament due to a neck sprain. Dr. Landru says he talked to Wagner3 on Sunday; Wagner originally feared it was a much worse injury, and instead, he’ll just need to rest for a while.

Segunda Caida reviews early Misawa & Koshinika in Mexico.

An author visits Arena Planeta de Campeones in Guatemala City, where the promoter and the wrestlers convince the author that this is the last dying breath of lucha libre left in the country. There’s at least one and maybe three other promotions running in that same city.