CMLL
Long time CMLL Guadalajara referee/trainer/wrestler (Wlialdo Estrada Espinoza. 68) passed away Wednesday. He’d been mentioned as being ill last month. Estrada had been the lead referee in Guadalajara as long as I can remember and was trainer at the in-house school. He also did legend’s wrestling matches as recently as last year. Estrada seemed a central part on the Arena Coliseo Guaadalajara and I’m sure they’ll remember him on next week’s show.
CMLL (MON) 06/10/2024 Arena Puebla [El Sol del Puebla, Grada, Mano A Mano]
1) Meyer & Rayo Metálico b Dreyko & Rencor
2) Shockercito b Mercurio [lightning]
around 9 minutes.
3) Multy, Perverso, Prayer b Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Valiente Jr. 
4) Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón b Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Xelhua
5) Averno © b Esfinge [CMLL LH]
Averno won with Esfinge’s Nudo Egipico
6) Místico b Ángel de Oro
Averno keeping his title is no surprise, but winning with Esfinge’s hold is more definite than I’d normally expect. Match four was said to be good and should air on TV. Neon beat Stigma and those teams rematch next week, so they may be headed to a CMLL Super Lightweight title match
CMLL (TUE) 06/11/2024 Arena México
1) Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II b Astral & Leono
11:52.
2) Espanto Jr., Nitro, Okumura b El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Legendario
11:02. Okumura replaced Raider on Tuesday
3) Hera & Olympia b Metálica & Reyna Isis
12:38.
4) Fugaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Black b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
10:17
5) Hechicero b Blue Panther
15:40.
6) Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. b Atlantis, Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada
10:00.
Hechicero/Blue Panther was great, but it was great in the way Blue Panther matches in front of tourists crowds are – a big comeback, and an old man doing things the fans don’t expect fans to do. They did more mat wrestling and llaves than almost all matches, but it wasn’t all about that – it may have been they didn’t trust the fans would be with them to keep doing that style. (It’s why ZSJ/Hechicero could be better for being in Arena Coliseo, which seems to be less of a tourist crowd and perhaps more patient for a slower building match.)
Nothing to watch on the rest of this show.
The Tunel Arena Mexico was apparently dissembled today. The Tunel – a small building on one of the sidewalks around Arena Mexico – was installed last June. It was billed as a 90th Anniversary thing but had stuck long after. El Grafico says it’s gone due to legal action filled by neighbors filed even before the Tunel was opened. Those neighbors complained the Tunel violated city rules, including by taking up public roads and walking space and disrupting the living space with additional people. Judges ordered the removal of the tunnel back on December 7th, 2023 – who knows how it stuck around for six months after that.
The Tunel had booths where CMLL and their wrestlers could do meet and greets and sell merch prior to shows. I was skeptical of it when it was introduced, feeling it existed to take away business from the vendors outside the building. I think I had it wrong – it probably did, but it more offset it in allowing those luchadors to make more money selling directly to fans, which the interior of Arena Mexico isn’t really set up to do. The CMLL wrestlers are going to really miss it if there’s no replacement.
CMLL (TUE) 06/11/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Avispón Negro, Cosmos, Último Ángel vs Abigor La Pesadilla, Rav, Shezmú 
2) Adira, Magia Azul, Náutica b Diablita Roja (Puebla), Estrellita Mágica, Lady Metal
3) Exterminador & Maléfico DQ El Perverso & Prayer
Excessive violence DQ. Hair match challenges followed
4) Bestia Negra, El Elemental, Furia Roja DQ El Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
Zandokan unmasked Elemental (after whiffing on a foul)
5) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero DQ Averno & Euforia
Euforia unmasked Gran Guerrero for the DQ
6) Magnus & Volador Jr. b Místico & Titán
Volador pinned Mistico after a mask pull.
DQ, DQ, DQ, mask pull is a very odd way for CMLL to run a show. Some of those must have a purpose. Volador and Mistico have their singles match next week, and the Infernales and Guerreros are also scheduled to rematch. The rudos/rudos tag feud could be a match for either Puebla or Guadalajara Anniversary shows coming up. The Zandokan/Elemental match doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so that’s one that could’ve been better.
Titan says he’s headed back to Japan today. (Not straight away today, I guess – more in a few paragraphs.) Ring of Honor has not promoted his match as airing this week, so maybe they’re saving it for some time they’ll be able to follow up. NJPW has a break between June 23rd and July 3rd to allow their wrestlers to appear on the AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door show (and TV around it), so that’s maybe when we’ll next see Titan on this side of the Pacific.
The next NJPW tour is the G1 Climax. CMLL wrestlers have been in a G1 for a very long time. It’s even less likely now that NJPW is shrinking the field back to 20 names. But, if you’re holding out hope, NJPW will announce 18 of the names on their show Sunday. The last two will be determined in a play tournament happening immediately; one would assume any CMLL wrestler participating in that portion would already be going to Japan. (I don’t think Titan’ is getting a G1 spot.)
CMLL teased Hechicero as going to AEW today. (They posted both a wizard and a fire emoji, but I believe they’re both for Hechicero and not for a second wrestler. AEW is not lucky enough to get Fuego.) Tonight’s Dynamite’s match card seems pretty close to full already. Zeuxis faces Mercedes Mone on that show, Rey Fenix wrestles Will Osprey, Rush has a match, and that’s just the lucha libre component. Hechicero seems likely to wrestle on Rampage, if that’s what he’s even doing.
Today’s CMLL Informa has
- Octagon & Hijo de Octagon – Copa Dinastias
- Titan – Best of Super Juniors
- Atlantis Jr. – (Copa Dinastias)
- Templario – the singles match in the next paragraph
- Magnus, Rugido, Esfinge – AEW
CMLL (FRI) 06/14/2024 Arena México
1) Capitán Suicida & Diamond vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
2) Blue Panther Jr. & Dark Panther vs Crixus & Raider
3) La Catalina, Lluvia, Tessa Blanchard vs Kira, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Neón, Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Bad Dude Tito, Che Cabrera, Zandokan Jr.
5) Michael Oku vs Templario
6) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Místico vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.
Oku, Tito and Cabrera start their tour on Friday. Oku get a chance to impress against Templario before his title match on Tuesday. Catalina and Vaquer meet before their title match. Soberano makes a rare Friday appearance. Atlantis Jr. is listed as wrestling, so his injury appears to be minor.
AAA
Haven’t gotten full results from Juarez but there is some news
- Negro Casas & Psycho Clown did win the tag team championships from Forastero & Sanson. That seems like the right call. It is the first time NGD have lost a direct title match in AAA, and the first time they’ve lost any sort of major title match. They’re also really not that over for that long of a win streak and the Casas family is, so right call.
- Forastero posted in Instagram about losing but getting Psycho Clown’s mask afterwards, so it doesn’t look like they’re taking off. NGD joining Wagner back in Monterrey sure didn’t go anywhere so far but maybe this is all supposed to lead to something for Mexico City.
- Laredo Kid, Drago and Dinamico are now trio La Fraternidad. It hasn’t been built to at all – Dinamico is a rudo leading a Mexicali group last we knew, and Drago missed the Mexico City taping entirely – but they had matching gear so knew something was coming. They did win their debut over Los Vipers. Perhaps that’s a trios title match to come or perhaps this is AAA and they’ll never team again.
AAA posted a video promoting their Unimas debut this Saturday. Psycho Clown, Octagon Jr., Negro Casas, Vampiro, Dalys la Caribena, Faby Apache, Laredo Kid, Pimpinela Escaralata, and Latin Lover are shown in a studio shot with smoke. No footage from shows is used. It’s very generic but it’s better than nothing. I didn’t see the commercial in on screen during my Unimas watching Monday, but I didn’t watch more than couple of hours and maybe it rolled out later in the week.
AAA and Triller did get the link up to purchase the Tijuana show. It’s a 9:30 pm ET start. (And the Triller time is the same that AAA is advertising, so it’s probably right.)
Violent J will appear on TripleMania, according to MechaWolf. Hooray.
GLEAT announced Octagon Jr. will team with Soma Watanabe against SBK & TAKUMA on their July 1st show. Dorian Roldan will also be in appearance. There’s been hints of something brewing between GLEAT and AAA for the last few months, and especially so when CIMA showed up on the TripleMania lineup.
CIMA and his then marauding group of ex-Dragon Gate wrestlers (T-Hawk and El Lindaman) were introduced as a faction in AAA in early 2020. The pandemic hit, and the idea ended before they even wrestled a match. CIMA and his friends have since settled in GLEAT. Takuma and Kento have also ended up in GLEAT after leaving Dragon Gate. They’re probably the conduit to get AAA and GLEAT together, after the Big Lucha/GLEAT partnership fell apart. Octagon Jr. is an interesting pick because it’s another sign AAA’s picked him to now be one of their key guys, and he goes back with some of these guys; T-Hawk pointed it was Octagon Jr. (then Golden Magic) who helped learned him lucha way back in IWRG.
(Roldan going means they’re probably announcing a long term agreement and I wonder if it’ll last any longer than recent past short AAA/Japan deals. GLEAT doesn’t seem to be doing great at the box office. Maybe AAA will help, maybe this a bit of relationship building in case CIMA needs another place to land in the future.)
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 06/13/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
4) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
5) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. © vs Látigo & Toxin [IWRG IC TAG]
7th defense
I have no idea if Mala Fama is going to end up with more belts, but I wanted to point out that seven defenses of a title in about a year is an epic title run by IWRG standards. Usually someone’s quit by now.
Big Lucha
Oni el Bendito announced he was leaving Big Lucha immediately. He’d appeared less often this year in Big Lucha. He was listed on the original lineup for Big Lucha’s show at the racetrack this Saturday, and is not on the latest poster. (Texano posted a poster with a different lineup; I have no idea which of three are now correct. It’s Mexican wrestling, the reality is all the lineups are probably wrong.)
Bendito was a day one Big Lucha roster member. He wasn’t even Bendito before he got there, he was unknown IWRG rookie Blue Monsther Jr. He progressed as much as any one in that time. My understanding is Big Lucha deals work somewhat similar as other Mexican wrestling contracts, where the home promotion gets some cut from the wrestler’s work outside the promotion. The contracted wrestlers get a free room at the gym and access to the gym itself. It’s a great deal if you’re a wrestler from outside the Mexico City area, and if you’re a young wrestler just trying to build your name. Once you build that name and can get booked fine on your own, a Big Lucha deal doesn’t offer as much. A healthier Big Lucha, running regular shows and getting guys attention, would have more value to people sticking around, but that’s also not the Big Lucha of 2024. Bendito’s Mexico CIty matches outside of Big Lucha will probably just be the random scrambles and tag matches of the indie scene, none of the others who’ve ended up in the indies have really excelled, but he’ll get to control his dates and at least try his luck at getting into one of the big two groups.
Still no date announced for a next Arena Big Lucha show.
Other News
06/15 RIOT
- Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Demonio del Aire
- Zuzu Divine vs Dulce Tormenta
- Erik Ortiz (c) vs Travis Banks vs Rene Rocks for the RIOT Championship
- Arez, Toxin, Latigo vs Prometo, Kratoz, Vengador
- The Beast Mortos vs King Rex
- Iron Boy vs Aero Boy – new
This would be a card I would’ve been very excited for if not for presence of Travis Banks.
Dr. Lucha has a good obituary for El Signo. He mentions Signo was hospitalized after a fall, and then passed away in the hospital due to complications from diabetes.
There’s a new lucha libre exhibit in Ocotlan.
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