CMLL H2L in Puebla and Guadalajara, WM Week, Gravity

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 04/01/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) El Perverso, Multy, Prayer b Asturiano, Capitán Suicida, Valiente Jr.
2) Crixus, Difunto, Raider b El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama © [OCCIDENTE TRIOS] 
Puebla team falls in their first defense
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Gran Guerrero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Titán
Tony Salazar was honored before the match.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [CMLL TAG] 
14th defense
6) Rocky Romero b Volador Jr. 
A one fall main event.

I’m a bit surprised about the trios title change; it feels like it signals the Puebla/Guadalajara stuff is over for now. Attendence was good for this, though not as strong as the week before.

CMLL taped this show, second week they’ve done it. CMLL taping shows exclusively for YouTube is a relatively new and rare format. Most of the announcing has always been done because they’re selling an hour or two to a TV network and YouTube has just been a way to make a little extra out of work they’re already doing. There’s a least a chance CMLL’s got a new TV deal that they haven’t promoted at all, and that’s where the footage is going. Those Puebla shows were being sold as TV footage prior to the pandemic, which was a reason they were being streamed at that time.

(The deals we do know about:

• Friday Arena Mexico -> Televisa/TUDN
• Saturday Arena Coliseo -> Heraldo TV
• Sunday Arena Mexico -> Mexiquenese TV/AMX
• Tuesday Arena Mexico -> MVS TV (sometimes will air Friday instead)
• Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara -> Quiero TV

There’s also a long running deal with “Megacable” but I’ve never been able to find a feed or find a single person who’s mentioned watching that show.)

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Astral & Leono b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
11:13
2) Acero & Angelito b Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
10:10
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
12:22. Virus submitted Disturbio to win the match in straight falls. Challenges followed.
4) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
11:54. Akuma used the ropes to pin Dulce, challenges followed.
5) Rocky Romero b Star Jr.
14:51.
6) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
12:04

The midcard trios challenges are going somewhere or I wasted my time today waiting to watch Informa to finish this post. Find out below! Romero/Star Jr. was good, not at Friday levels, and Star Jr. is still just missing something for me. While the crowd reacted well to the last two matches, it had to be a bit of a comedown for the people who signed up for Friday’s show to watch this one.

Zacarias, who’s been working on US micro wrestling shows, was back in CMLL here.

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) Johnny Dinamo, Minotauro, Shezmu b Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Temerario b Astro Oriental, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr.
3) Elemental, Explosivo, Yutani b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
Explosivo replaced Dark Magic (double booked)
4) Andrómeda, La Catalina, Lluvia b Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
Vaquer & Catlina kept fighting after the match
5) Magnus b Villano III Jr. [lightning]
6) Atlantis & Blue Panther b Rey Bucanero & Satánico
7) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Máscara Dorada b Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

My suspicions that something was up here seems well founded. CMLL took the long running Arena Coliseo Guadalajara free YouTube stream and put it behind the paywall at the Fan Leyenda (highest tier.) As with everything lucha libre, there was no forewarning or messaging, it just happened and everyone had to figure it out themselves. The first three matches aired for free on Facebook. I have no idea if this is simply Homenaje a Dos Leyendas related or a full time change, but I’d guess this is not a one time incident. CMLL sells itself as a fun experience and hiding all the live streams that’ll showcase that experience behind an expensive paywall is misreading their appeal.

(The stream itself wasn’t streaming well on Tuesday. I made it through the Villano/Magnus match and there was moves being missed because the video stopped playing for seconds at a time.)

One of the quirks of the Guadalajara stream has been the announcers responding to and mostly shouting out people in their Facebook and YouTube chats between matches, and sometimes during matches. The YouTube chat was turned off on the paid stream, though there’s not a lot of conversation when it’s on for other shows. There were other changes to fall graphics and intros to make it more in line with CMLL’s normal presentation, instead of the Guadalajara self produced style. The length of the shows have been cut down as well; they’ve gone down from around 2:30-2:40 to about 2:00 even. It all feels like there’s been some changes behind the scenes but I lack the sources to know if that’s really true.

(I guess I’m eventually uploading these Guadalajara shows to the drive? I don’t even know. That thing is going to get full quickly again.)

CMLL Informa also officially decided the match between the four feuding midcard teams. It’ll be a hair match with one member from each team: Akuma, Dulce Gardenia, Virus and Disturbio. The rules are the same as the H2L apuesta: the first two people pinned go to the back, and the next person who gets pinned loses their hair. I’m still not in love with that rule set but at least I understand it this time. The trios feud ending with a four way feels a little bit of a switch but it should still be good. Disturbio seems the most likely loser, yet the way he’s lost badly to Virus in the lead up suggests they may be setting up a different ending.

CMLL Informa also announced Saturday’s Arena Coliseo Aniversario show will air live for people on the Fan Leyendas tier. There are a few other shows going on Saturday but only one show will have Los Villanos versus Ola Negra.

Informa clarified the Danielson/Panther match is a one fall match. Friday’s show is back to normal for Fridays – both the Campeon Mundial (middle) and Leyendas (highest) tiers will have access to it. If you’re someone who didn’t buy last week’s H2L and are somehow going to sign up this week, you should really sign up for that middle tier at most.

Box y Lucha has 3567 has Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on the cover.

Stephanie Vaquer will defend the NJPW Strong on their 04/12 show in Chicago. That match seemed set up already, just waiting for this announcement. Vaquer seems likely to retain.

Wrestlers announced for the 05/11 MLW show in Chicago so far

• Mistico
• Star Jr.
• Magnus
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Felino
• Atlantis Jr.
• Guerrero Maya Jr.
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Averno

Back in April 2016, there was a shooting across the street from Arena Mexico at a bar.  Infobae has an update, from a book called “Narcos de Mexico.” The shooter turns out to be Robert Moyado Esparza, nicknamed “El Betito”, who was also involved in drug trafficking. His face turned up on social media, so he fled Mexico City and was captured in 2018 at a beauty salon.

Segunda Caida reviews the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event.

AAA

Octagon Jr. met the Spanish language voice of Dragon Ball’s Goku. Octagon Jr.’s wore a Dragon Ball themed outfit on some recent shows. This is about all the real AAA names this week.

All the other AAA stuff is not really AAA stuff but I don’t have any other place to put it.

a sequence of events

• Parker Bourdeaux shows up in AAA
• I wonder (loudly) what that means for Parker Bourdeaux and AEW
• Fightful, either because they heard me or because they had the same question, asks around about Parker Bourdeaux’s AEW status, reports Monday AEW approved the AAA trip, and he’s still under contract “for a few more months” to AEW
• Parker Bourdeaux, noticing Fightful mentioned him, takes to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to say he’s said in his AAA promo that he’s in both AAA and AEW, everything is fine.
• Tuesday evening, AEW includes Parker Bourdeaux among a bunch of cuts
• Parker Bourdeaux deletes his tweet at some point.

I think AEW figured they had no plans for Bourdeaux going forward, were going to let his contract lapse, and that’s why they were comfortable letting him go get started with AAA. And why they were comfortable letting him go, once they decided to let people go. It’s good news for AAA if he works out for them and doesn’t really affect their plans otherwise.

It’s not really AAA but included in those cuts:

• Jose the Assistant – an extra, then Andrade’s assistant, then moved over to being Rush’s assistant. He was previously a journeyman pro-wrestler who wrestled in Mexico a few times. He was active on social media, and appeared to be helping Rush with his stuff the last few months, especially in terms of figuring out what would catch the attention of AEW fans as Rush was off AEW TV. I could see Rush wanting to keep Jose around, but only AAA seems to pay for managers – maybe they’ll talk ELITE into doing it for as long as it lasts. This seems like a message about how important (or not) AEW sees the LFI act to drop part of it.
• Gravity – had an all time bad performance on Collision against House of Black and that was that; went back to wrestling on Ring of Honor but was firmly typecast as a guy who wasn’t ready. I’m not sure Gravity would’ve been hired if he wasn’t Bandido’s brother (which got him on the Dark tapings) and if he wasn’t named “Gravity” (which got him the LOL match with Pac.) There is space on AEW’s roster for a bottom rung wrestler who gets amusingly destroyed and also bottom rung wrestlers who can have have fun competitive matches despite never getting real wins. Gravity didn’t improve enough to fit in either spot. His progression is stuck at the “can be a fun third guy on a trios team”, which works OK for Mexico and not great for CMLL TV. Gravity came up through Big Lucha, which meant he was just mostly working whatever shows Big Lucha was putting on. He moved over to AEW/ROH, which meant he was just those shows and the odd US indie. Gravity’s on his own now, and that’s going to be a challenge.

WrestleMania Week matches

A list of lucha libre related shows you might be able to see from home, taken from this list. It’s not much compared to past years, and mostly of it is happening on Thursday.

(all times Eastern).

Thursday

• Defy (11 am): Schaff vs. Luke Jacobs vs. Galeno del Mal vs. Gene Munny; this airs on TrillerTV
• Stardom (3 pm): Stephanie Vaquer is in a trios match; this airs as a standalone PPV.
• WrestleCon (7 pm): Team CMLL (Mistico, Averno, Barbaro Cavernario, Villano III Jr., Star Jr.) vs. Team Dragon Gate (Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker, Kota Minoura, Ben-K, YAMATO) + Titan vs Michael Oku. This airs on Highspots TV
• DVDVR/Segunda Caida/Action (8 pm): Matt Makowski vs Arez, Gringo Loco vs Dr. Cerebro. This airs on IWTV.
• JCW/GCW (11:59): Los Desperados (Gringo Loco, Arez, Latigo) vs. Team Dragon Gate (YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker) + Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) vs. Amboss (Robert Dreissker & Laurance Roman) vs. Boisterous Behaviour (Man Like Dereiss & Leon Slater) vs. MAO & Yoshihiko. This airs on TrillerTV

Friday

• Battleground (7:30 pm): Tajiri vs. Super Crazy + 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Juventud Guerrera – this is on Titlematch Network.
• ROH (8:00 pm): there’s no lucha libre match currently announced for the Ring of Honor show but I’m led to believe at least one luchador is booked for this show. This is on HonorClub,

Saturday

• GCW (11:59 pm): Punjabi Prison, GCW Tag Team Championship: Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini) vs. Jacob Fatu & Zilla Fatu vs. Bollywood Boyz (Harv Sihra & Gurv Sihra) vs. Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) – part of the TrillerTV subscription.

I’m skipping this WrestleMania weekend. There were only one or two shows I was interested in, and I can catch them as easy from home. It’s fun to hang out with people, but I haven’t had a lot of chances to do actually do that last couple of years. I’m also already planning to go to plenty of stuff locally (or not quite locally) over the next month, so I’ll be good on live shows. It is a weird feeling not going after going to a bunch over the last few years; I’m not sure when the next time I’ll get on a plane to see a wrestling show, which was a thing I was fortunately able to do for a while there.

IWRG

Here’s the lineup for Thursday:

IWRG (THU) 04/04/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) ? vs ??
4) ? vs ??
5) ? vs ??

It’s all random matches from the IWRG roster. The poster has Latigo among the possibilities, which seems hard for him to do given he’ll be in Philadelphia at the same time.

The Crash

The Crash (SAT) 04/20/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Gallo Xtreme & Psicodelica vs Azteca Fly & Rey Furia
2) Anubis vs Mirage [bull terrier]
3) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Canis Lupus Ng & Tonalli and Bamboo & El Rey
4) Destiny, Noisy Boy, Toto vs Carta Brava Jr. (AAA), Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
5) Dralistico vs Metalik vs Nick Wayne
6) Mecha Wolf, Pagano, Rey Horus vs Bestia 666, D-Luke, Rey Escorpión (Indie)

Carta Brava Jr. is making one of his first indie appearances on a The Crash show with special AAA appearances. I can’t figure it out. I also can’t figure out what to call this Carta Brava. It usually to be there was a Carta Brava Jr. (AAA) and a Carta Brava Jr. (Indie) who works almost nothing but Lucha Libre Boom, but now thy’re both indie. These are the things that concern me.

No idea who wins the semimain. Maybe no one.

The Crash did post footage of the AAA angle on their last show, two weeks later.

Other News

Tepic luchado/promoter Rayo Mortal (Ernesto Ruis Medina, 54) passed away recently. This is the second lucha libre figure from that area who’s passed away in the last week (through un related reasons.)

Robles posted a press release saying Gronda removed himself from their 04/14 show after taking his guarantee and will not give it back. There’s also a series of text messages sent by Gronda and his legal representative. Not sure why Robles is only now concerned about paying for wrestlers who didn’t do much for them. Elegido replaces Gronda.

RGR announced a bunch of Mexican luchadors have new work visa through them: Pimpinela Escarlata, Pirata Morgan, Diamante Azul, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Laredo Kid, Faby Apache, Reyna Dorada, La Hiedra, Lady Flammer, Abismo Negro Jr., Nino Hamburguesa, Mamba, Jessy Ventura, Diva Salvaje, Hell Boy, Tonalli, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Gran Pandemonium, Hijo de Pandemonium and Pandemonium Jr. That list including Laredo Kid should pop out – it’s not Impact who’s handling his US work visa situation. (It also notable to me that Pimpinela’s being announced as just getting a visa when he’s been announced for a WrestleMania weekend show for a while; sometimes these are down to the write.)

Back in march, RGR announced they’d have Volador Jr. for their shows this weekend. Volador is not believed to have a US work visa at this point; it’s a lucha promotion, so it’s possible RGR is just not updating their advertising. Wouldn’t be the first time for that, or for a wrestler to slip into US without a valid work visa.

El Siglo del Torreon has a short bio of Gran Markus.