Mascara Dorada 2.0 wins Leyenda de Plata, Bandido out of Big Lucha, Futuro champ

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 07/28/2023 Arena México [CMLL, CMLL, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, Record, The Gladiatores (text), The Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) Astral, Oro Jr., Valiente Jr. b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio    
8:26
2) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Blue Panther Jr., Cachorro, Dark Panther    
10:49. CMLL gave fans inflatable beach balls to toss around in between matches here.
3) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido    
14:19.
4) Averno, Templario, Volador Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]    
12:06. Volador Jr. faked a foul from Angel de Oro. All the feuding guys feuded.
5) Titán b Metalik    
12:27. Clean win with Llave Inmortal.
6) Máscara Dorada 2.0 b Rocky Romero [Leyenda de Plata, final]     
20:19 via SSP. Dorada becomes the youngest-ever Leyenda de Plata winner. Romero stole the trophy and threatened to break it (ala Perro Aguayo Jr.) but eventually gave it back.

Dorada/Romero delivered up there with the first Volador/Romero match as the best of CMLL match this year. Rocky pushed Dorada hard (and found new ways to do it), Dorada fought back spectacularly. They did a lot and they got a lot out of it. There was even care to work in the big near fall around Rocky Romero getting a camel clutch – the signature move of the guy this tournament is named after – and the fans bought it as the finish. The fans were totally into Mascara Dorada 2.0, in a way that really stood out after poor reactions to the prior match. I don’t know what’s next for him – they didn’t explicitly set up the title match – but Mascara Dorada 2.0 is clearly a top guy going forward.

Titan/Metalik was a disappointment, even with lower expectations for 2023 Metalik. It was hurt by being three falls and those falls being laid out poorly. Titan beat Dorada so quickly and so matter of factly to win the first fall in 90 seconds that it took the crowd out of it. The big spots near the end of the third fall got the crowd into it a little bit, but even the Llave Inmortal was a “oh, that’s it?” moment. Metalik’s CMLL return felt mandatory. Nothing he did made me want to see more of him here. He did tease a return at some point.

The Aniversario guys match was nothing notable. Angel de Oro/Volador seemed like the sharpest rivalry of the three this week. Zandokan and the Villanos were great together in the tercera. (CMLL had to tell fans to stop throwing money in the ring after that match.) It could be they have great trios chemistry or it could be that Zandokan’s really good. The Villanos beat the national tag champs but nothing was made of it. Match 2 picked up as it went along, the opener was fine.

It was wild to see CMLL people throwing out giant inflatable balls for the front-row fans to bounce around between matches. That’s so unlike CMLL – they don’t want people getting up, they definitely don’t want people bouncing things around in the seats. That, the kiss cam and the other in-between-match features feel directly ported over from the sports world. It’s as if CMLL hired someone who was in charge of the in-game entertainment for a baseball, basketball or soccer team and also approved of that person’s ideas. You can see it with the graphics on the big screen, which now more clearly show the names of each wrestler and explain who won the match. It’s a touristy thing, but it’s also a sports thing – everyone player gets a big photo and a big name just in case you’re new. It is a break from traditional CMLL style but it seems to be working.

KeMonito hasn’t been on these Friday shows the last couple of weeks. He was supposed to be in Tijuana one of those Fridays but wasn’t there either.

CMLL (SAT) 07/29/2023 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Kaligua & Shockercito b Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Crixus b Retro [Relevos Increíbles]
3) La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Amapola, Dark Silueta, Metálica
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b Kráneo, Okumura, Pólvora
5) Felino, Misterioso Jr., Rey Bucanero b Esfinge, Star Black, Star Jr.
Misterioso beat Star Black to set up a MEX HEAVY title match
6) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. b Mephisto, Místico, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
Mephisto ended up throwing the match to give his partner Euforia the win.

CMLL shot a video of a packed building for this show. Video of fans in seats is quickly forgotten. An actual number would live a lot longer.

Misterioso lost to Halcon Negro Jr. last week, won a title shot this week.

CMLL (SUN) 07/30/2023 Arena México
1) Robin b Enfermero Jr. [lightning]
2) La Vaquerita & Skadi b La Guerrera & La Magnifica
3) Difunto, Okumura, Pólvora b El Audaz, Fuego, Rugido
Rugido replaced Flyer.
4) Futuro b Max Star, Rayo Metálico (Guanajuato), Meyer, Gallo Jr., Ráfaga Jr. (Jalisco), Brillante Jr., Misterio Blanco [MEX LIGHT, final] 
Announcers said Misterio Negro was in the match but it was supposed to be Misterio Blanco (and seemed to be him based on offense.) It also appeared as if one of the battle royal eliminations was messed up (maybe Gallo Jr. not supposed to be knocked out) and it confused the wrestlers. Eliminations order: Rafaga Jr., Meyer, Rayo Metalico, Gallo Jr., Max Star (the most popular wrestler in the match; crowd was chanting Barbie at him for his pink outfit), Misterio Blanco, and then Futuro beat Brillante Jr. for the win. Futuro is the 52th champion.
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Volcano
6) Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., Titán b Hechicero, Niebla Roja, Templario

Futuro is a good choice, Max Star would’ve been a better choice.  He’s been the best guy of this batch since the Escuelas tournament. (He was also the most over tonight, but that had more to due with his pink outfit than his performance.) The lightweight final was predictable full of really good and really bad moments. Brillante Jr. could stand to learn some tranquillo from his cousin because he was (once again) all over the place and may have messed up the first half of the match by eliminating someone out of the seeding battle royal he wasn’t supposed to. (Rayo Metalico was visibly confused about what had happened after the battle royal, and the referees were a bit obvious about relaying new plans.) This tournament match was likely worked out a bunch this weekend and having the wrong guy on the wrong side messed with the first half of the match. The Brillante/Futuro finishing sequence wasn’t good either, and someone still needs to convince Brillante that his rope flip senton does not look good. Futuro was in tears after his win.

CMLL hosted a group of Mexico City Denver Bronco fans at the show, part of a tour of Mexico the Broncos were doing. Atlantis Jr., Templario and Titan were part of the festivities. The Broncos previously worked with AAA but it’s not as easy to bring a group of fans to an AAA show in Mexico City outside like a very few days a year. How is Titan doing promotion for an AFC rival? CMLL should’ve found any one of the previous Broncos they had for this.

CMLL (TUE) 08/01/2023 Arena México
1) Leono & Oro Jr. vs Grako & Inquisidor
2) Astral vs Valiente Jr. [lightning]
3) La Jarochita, Sanely, Skadi vs Dark Silueta, La Catalina, Zeuxis
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Volcano vs Felino, Felino Jr., Kráneo
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
6) Atlantis, Templario, Titán vs Euforia, Mephisto, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

CMLL’s had some packed Tuesday shows of late. This is not one of those. There should always be a reason a match is a relevos increibles and there is no obvious one here.

Dark Silueta is listed as part of an autograph signing in Japan on August 5th, so this will probably be her last match in Mexico.

CMLL (FRI) 08/04/2023 Arena México
1) Brillante Jr., Futuro, Max Star vs Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro, Vegas
2) La Magnifica, Lluvia, Skadi vs Amapola, Hera, Zeuxis
3) Magnus vs Difunto [lightning]
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Star Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Soberano Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

Feels like an off week show, with nothing too important. The main event is just a Mistico appearance with no feud. Angel de Oro and Volador Jr. are opposite sides in the semimain. The Villanos and Zandokan move up to facing to the national trios champs (and it’s notable here Dulce Gardenia hasn’t been around much recently.) The one women’s feud gets split over two shows this week. Hopefully the Misterios are better here.

AAA

Still not much here. There might not be a lot this week unless AAA drops a post-TripleMania lineup.

AAA on Space did air early part of TripleMania Tijuana with the usual bonus vignettes. They made the odd decision to show the Omega/Callis/Takeshita angle, building up a match for another promotion since none of those guys are coming back here. (They cut it off before Callis got attacked.) That is just the way with these TripleMania TV shows, whatever material AAA’s TV people can find gets thrown on there to fill out time. You get stuff like Hiedra and Flammer declaring they’re still friends after having issues in Copa TripleMania, Komander and Arez doing a promo with nothing to say because they have no idea when (or if) the Rebelion match is happening, and a close up on very beat up looking Brandon Moreno.

Psycho Clown says that he worked as an Uber driver for about a month and a half during the pandemic when not much was going on and not much money was coming in. He says he intentionally didn’t talk much because he was afraid passengers would figure out he was by his voice. He also sold bathroom furniture for a time, helping to install it, then transitioned to selling wrestling merchandise and figures as his schedule picked up again. He’s now running his own gym, one he helped remodel himself.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (SAT) 07/29/2023 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [Arena Luchas]
1) ? & ?? ?? ??? & ????
four new wrestlers, one of which was Cruz del Toro’s brother (debut)
2) Morfosis b Helios, Reieyl, Steel Dragón
3) Diosa Nix, La Brava, Lady Maravilla b India Sioux, Kiedens, Marianee
4) Mr. Iguana b Brazo De Oro Jr., Vengador
bonus match
5) Carito, Mr. Win, Tirano b Andrómeda, Macho (2023), Máscara Año 2000 Jr.
Carito/Andromeda continue to feud. Andromeda apparently from Guatemala!
6) Brujo De Iztapalpa & Forneo b Skayde & Viajero
lots of object usage. Post match challenges set up a Brujo/Viajero mask match and a Skayde/Foreno coffin match
7) Maximiliano Rivera Romero, Potro, Rey Horus L Bendito, Flamita, Yutani and Elipse, Iku, Orbita and Monsther Clown, Panic Clown, Parka Negra
Max replaced Gravity (ROH). Announced as a TLC match but was not one. Flamita announced that the losing team would have to disband. Reverse elimination match: team AAA and Lokos Evans won their way out first, then Black Generation beat Max for the win. Golden Guns are done.
8) Emperador Azteca © b Negro Casas [BIG LUCHA CHAMP]
Empreador Azteca won with a casita.

I don’t have much more details about the show – no live stream – but there’s a story to talk about.

Big Lucha entered a new era with this event. The abrupt “losing team must disband” bit was to write Bandido out of the promotion many people think of his promotion. He’s done with Big Lucha and I assume Gravity is as well. Dr. Landru was the first to report it on Twitter. The fans seemed just to assume the Golden Guns disbandment was just a normal wrestling angle, albeit a strange one since most of the shows revolved around the Black Generacion/Golden Guns relationship. No one thought of it as the end of Bandido in the promotion; Bandido wasn’t there and the promotion didn’t press thhe point. Neither side is talking about it publicly, but they’re done with each other at this point.

Bandido and Big Lucha splitting will confuse most people because of the perception that Bandido was Big Lucha. That was an intentional misdirection by Bandido and the people who put the money behind the group. In reality, Bandido owned a share of the gym (not the majority) and no part of the promotion. He was not the Big Lucha booker trainer, though he may have thrown in his own ideas in typical top-star fashion. Being the top star was the actual role; he got attention in a way that calling it “Gonzalez Team” wrestling did not.

Bandido and the actual owner of both Big Lucha and Bandido’s Gym had a falling out over the direction of the promotion; I don’t know specifics, just that Bandido thought Big Lucha was going to be one thing and it had ended up being something else. Knowing he was going to lose that struggle, Bandido tried to rally some names into leaving and starting up something new. That also failed. Part of it was simple economics: Big Lucha’s ownership pays the wrestlers, and Bandido had an idea but not a plan or new backers. Part of it was interpersonal relationships breaking apart: Gravity getting these AEW and ROH bookings upset a lot of others. Those wrestlers told people it was a sign that Bandido was pushing for his brother and abandoned the rest of them, while Bandido insisted to others that he had pitched more Big Lucha wrestlers getting chances and AEW/ROH just weren’t interested in those names. Whatever the truth, the roster decided to stay with the current ownership when it came to picking a side. Big Lucha ownership seemed to be preparing for this break up for months; the arena was switched to “Arena Big Lucha” back in March. There was also a “Big Lucha will be renewed” vague post last Monday that might have been a reference to this breakup.

(I think AEW was primarily interested in using Gravity this week because they could do some joke matches around a guy named Gravity. They like him and continue to use him beyond those matches, but Gravity wouldn’t have gotten past Dark at this point in his career if he billed himself as “Astronauta.” No one in Mexico understands that, they just see it as Bandido’s brother getting a full-time spot. I don’t think Gravity has a full-time spot yet with AEW, though it may end up that way.)

I don’t think Bandido will start a new promotion without a roster; I’m not even sure he would’ve been able to start one if people did come with him. AEW is going to be the priority since that’s his actual money, and the Big Lucha people are staying with Big Lucha because that’s their money. It’s possible a small number of other people who are more loyal to Bandido will quietly disappear from Big Lucha; it’s impossible to know, because everyone’s not talking about the situation.

Big Lucha is going to need some shake up or influx going forward. The Golden Guns was the lead tecnico unit in a promotion with two strong rudo groups. I guess the Delta Force trio of Radiactivo, Cometa Maya and Morphosis are the top tecnicos now. Black Generacion are popular enough that maybe they become the default home team and play off others, but they need more people to play off of. Basically, this promotion has revolved around Bandido and Flamita for two years and there’s no obvious plan to replace half of that dynamic.

On top of that, Big Lucha announced CMLL’s involvement in their upcoming August 26th anniversary show. No names have been announced.  Big Lucha worked heavily with AAA wrestlers the past year and had AAA people on this show when they announced a deal with CMLL. Big Lucha and CMLL did work together last August on a show in Arena Coliseo, with lucha libre collector Christian Cymet putting it together. That may be what this is again, a one-off combination. Those Big Lucha wrestlers with AAA ties did not end up working that show, though there’s a lot less of an issue this year. (Emperador Azteca might be the only one with AAA, but he also might be done for working The Crash.) I believe the CMLL/Big Lucha tie-up and the Bandido/Big Lucha split are two different stories, but I don’t know that 100%. Those talking to Bandido said indicated he didn’t know Big Lucha was about to do a deal with CMLL before it was announced.

I’m not sure why the show didn’t stream. There’s Instagram and Facebook content from people who appeared to be there to produce a stream, but none turned up. Maybe it’ll air late. Big Lucha didn’t mention any issue, didn’t mention any results from the show. (Hearing bits and pieces of this story and not being able to see it made putting it together a bit rough.)

Lighter stuff to close this out: El Grafico had an interview with Yutani. His backstory is always given as a Japanese soccer player who came to Mexico and eventually switched to wrestling. The interview has a few more details: he came to Mexico to play with Pachuca in 2017, ended up on the second division Quintana Roo squad, and he switched to his other childhood love of wrestling after they failed to get promoted to the first division. I can’t find a roster with Yutani on it but finding info on second division Mexican soccer team seems skethcy.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 07/30/2023 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Centurion & Rey Aztaroth b Kauris & Rey Espartano  
2) Satania b Bengalee, Danessa, Sagitarius  
Satania beat Danessa
3) Karaoui, Relámpago, Shocko b Gannicus, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly  
4) Dr. Cerebro & Dr. Cerebro Jr. b Nishikawa & Nozaki  
Nozaki’s final match in Mexico for now.
5) Ivan Rokov b Hijo de Canis Lupus  
sets up an RGR HEAVY title match
6) León Dorado, Rey Espectro, Tonalli b Aramis, Hell Boy, Rey Horus 
Espectro beat Hell Boy to set up an IWRG MEXICO title match

That leads into next Sunday’s Caravana del Campeones show:

IWRG (SUN) 08/06/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Spider Fly © vs Gannicus [IWRG IC Light]
4th defense
2) Puma de Oro © vs Shocko [IWRG IC MIDDLE]
3rd defense
3) Cerebro Negro & Cerebro Negro Jr. © vs Dr. Cerebro & Dr. Cerebro Jr. [IWRG IC TAG]
2nd defense
4) Rey León © vs Tonalli [RGR MIDDLE]
2nd defense
5) Hell Boy © vs Rey Espectro [IWRG MEXICO]
3rd defense
6) Hijo del Fishman vs Hijo De Dos Caras [IWRG JUNIORS]
2nd defense
7) Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Ivan Rokov © [RGR HEAVY]
1st defense

Hell Boy/Rey Espectro may be strange enough to work. Maybe Tonalli/Rey Leon and te tag title match. This is a Mas Lucha Premium show.

Other Notes

Marado lost his mask in to Mariachi in Xalapa. Marado is Diego Alan Rangel Ramírez, 31, 13 years a wrestler. Shocker was back wrestling on this show