CMLL
CMLL (MON) 09/30/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Grada, La Prensa, Mano a Mano]
1) Dreyko, El Malayo, Siky Ozama b Amnesia, Black Tiger, El Asturiano
2) Capitán Suicida, El Audaz, Fuego b Arkalis, Meyer, Rey Samuray 
3) Xelhua b Felino Jr.
Felino Jr. went for a mask pull in fall three, but Xelhua evaded and submitted him to “La Cruz de Los Remedios”
4) Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr. b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
5) Euforia, Soberano Jr., Valiente b Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Hechicero [Relevos Increíbles]
Straight falls, setting up Valiente challenging Esfinge for the MEX LH
6) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Templario & Volador Jr. [CMLL TAG]
16th defense (Chavez counting it as 17)
The tag title match sounds like it went well. CMLL seems to be slightly turning up the burner on Xelhua.
CMLL (TUE) 10/01/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
1) Leono b Inquisidor 
10:57.
2) Capitán Suicida, Dragón de Fuego, Valiente Jr. b Enfermero Jr., Grako, Nitro
12:37. Dragon de Fuego appears to be back on the tecnico side.
3) India Sioux & Tabata b Dark Silueta & Valkiria
12:56. La Vaquerita made her debut as referee.
4) Barboza, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black
11:55. Zandokan’s team is going by Barco Pirata (pirate ship)
5) Persephone, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis b Princesa Sugehit, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard
12:03.
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Neón b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
12:41.
This had more energy than usual Tuesday show, especially with Mascara Dorada deciding to break out a few new tricks in the third fall of the main event. That match was good, the fourth match was good, the tecnicos tried a lot in the second match and everything else was OK.
La Vaquerita made her debut as a referee in match 3. Her counts are strange. She pounds the mat, then raises her arm straight up to indicate the count, then lowers her hand to make the next count. It was off-putting, and the fans were already on her by the third fall. She toned it down a bit in her second match. In a media interview on Wednesday, Vaquerita said a knee injury led her to becoming a referee.
CMLL made several other changes to celebrate women’s wrestling matches. The ring ropes are pink, and the building has more pink/purple lighting. Most wrestlers wore a ribbon for breast cancer awareness. The men wrote them on armbands, while the women tended to wear them as leg bands. There were two women’s matches on this show, which will be true for every Mexico City show in October, and possibly for the other venues as well.
CMLL (TUE) 10/01/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Fuego en el Ring]
1) Lince De Baijo & Prince Drago b Obek & Ray
2) Lady Diamond, Sakura, Universys, Zafiro b Candela, Centinela, Hatanna, Magia Azul
GDL/CDMX vs Juarez. Lady Diamond replaced Venus.
3) Draego & Persa b Leo & Omar Brunetti
4) Lady Shadow, Llamarada, Miss Guerrera b Diablita Roja (Puebla), Lady Amazona, Lady Metal
Puebla versus Comarca Lagunera
5) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Bestia Negra, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
6) Atlantis Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Flip Gordon b Averno, Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia
No stream, and no live results on Twitter. The Arena Coliseo Guadalajara Facebook did post clips and results.
CMLL (SAT) 10/05/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Aéreo vs Pequeño Polvora
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
women’s match featuring independent wrestlers
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Volcano vs El Coyote, Kráneo, Okumura
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Xelhua vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Kira, La Catalina, Skadi vs Hera, Olympia, Reyna Isis
6) Atlantis Jr., Flip Gordon, Titán vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
Aereo & Pequeno Polvora get their match, while Guerrero Maya and Xelhua have one more week to work out their issues. (Poor Stigma.)
Match 2 is curious. No names are listed, instead “Segunda Luchas en Relevos con Telanto Femenil Independiente.” It’s the same situation on Sunday. To CMLL, anyone who is not an official part of their women’s roster (the Amazonas division) is an independent. Miss Guerrera, Lady Shadow and Lady Metal worked in CMLL last year. Maybe they’ll be back; everyone who worked match 4 on that Guadalajara show may figure into those spots. The 2023 versions of those matches had a lot of La Guerrera and Tiffany when they were on the edge of the CMLL roster, so perhaps of Candela and Magia Azul will be seen more often. The weird part is that CMLL is just not listing who will be in those matches; I can’t think of another recent time where an entire match was left off. My hunch is CMLL will introduce the people in these matches and the posters will then be updated; a Dr. Landru comment suggests viewers may not be thrilled with one of those names.
CMLL (SUN) 10/06/2024 Arena México
1) Fantasy vs Full Metal [lightning]
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
women’s match featuring independent wrestlers
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Pelon Encapuchado vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) India Sioux & La Catalina vs Persephone & Sanely
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Esfinge, Neón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]
6) Máscara Dorada, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Valiente
The Barbaros break up still sort of continues.
CMLL Informa today has
- Mistico (NJPW)
- Sanely, Los Infernales, Rayo Metalico (Night of Champions title changes)
- Alex Windsor (Grand Prix)
- La Catalina (Toni Storm)
- Zeuxis, La Catalina, Amapola, Dark Silueta, Metalica, Olympia, Princesa Sugehit, India Sioux, La Maligna (Universal)
While I’m thinking about it; Toni Storm’s promo earlier this week in Stardom was hilarious. She’s going to be in Mexico next week, they’re probably going to have her do a media session on Friday like they do for all the foreign wrestlers. I am sure it will be completely unhinged; that’s the point. I’m unsure if the style of some her material will work for CMLL, where the guy running the place just talked about how much he wants to draw more children to their shows. A slight tone shift may be a good idea to win friends there.
Las Planchitas reports unrest among the CMLL production staff, citing a single source who says they all feel they’re being underpaid and getting last-minute notice about being needed for work. He cites a camera person getting paid 2000 pesos ($1oo USD) per show. He also claims CMLL’s booking department is still not high on Hehicero; Salvador Lutteroth overruled them and picked Hechicero as the Aniversario winner. (La Planchitas also said Karis la Momia was retired; he’s listed for a show later this month, for what it’s worth.)
The Chivas men’s team apparently takes team photos at different locations every season, and this year, they took them at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara with CMLL luchadors. It’s mostly the local luchadors, though noted super-fans Atlantis and Atlantis Jr. also participated.
MLW announced Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis Jr. for their 11/09 show.
El Informador interviews Satanico and Arelquin about lucha libre.
Sexy Star (II) is leaving AAA
Sexy Star (II) is indeed leaving AAA, as has been rumored for the last few weeks. I had wrongly assumed her working shows this past weekend meant she was sticking around, but she’s actually professionally working out previously agreed-upon dates. That’s uncommon in Mexico. She announced her departure via Facebook on Tuesday night. Her last show will be the 10/21 show in Leon. It’s possible she is booked or was booked for this weekend’s Verano de Escandalo; AAA has Copa Antonio Pena with no names announced. Sexy Star previously worked in the Baja California area as Hija de Gatubela (following her mother), and she’ll wrestle as just “Gatubela” name. Gatubela means Catwoman, though it’s in more a general ‘woman who happens to be a cat’ sense and not as a DC comics character. Lucha Libre Norte announced Gatubela for their 11/10 show early in the evening, which may have led to the announcement a few hours later. Normal practice is not to announce the departure until completing all the dates she’s going to do. Sexy Star/Gatuebla also announced she was giving up her EMW Women’s championship, which is a bit confusing – that promotion isn’t working with AAA (at the moment), so there’s no obvious need to give up that title unless there’s more to this story.
Gatubela posted a “I’m moving on” Instagram post on September 13th, though she left it vague what she was moving on from at that point. She chimed in on the Latin Lover/AAA women’s fitness controversy on September 4th, noting she’s already in excellent shape while (jokingly) vowing to stay in shape to not upset him. I don’t believe she quit over Latin Lover’s comments, though it might have been just one issue in a pile of reasons to leave. She’s only appeared on three tapings this year; she was on the canceled Torreon show. Sexy Star had that odd appearance in IWRG in June; a singles match with Keyra came off as she was trying to prove what she could do if she got a chance to have an actual match. It was unclear if she was trying to prove it to AAA or herself.
Gatubela’s farewell message talked about being unhappy and wanting to keep growing. She wrestled 51 matches on AAA TV since debuting as a surprise in May 2021, including some as Marvel Lucha Libre character Picadura Letal. (Her best match may have been under that character.) She won the 2023 Reina del Ring tournament, which wasn’t mentioned much past that show. She had six matches for the AAA mixed tag team titles with random partners. AAA occasionally teased directions with her – 2023 Guerra de Titanes began a Lady Shani/Sexy Star versus Dalys/Chik Tormenta feud that never got followed up on to pick one. Sexy Star II seemed to exist because AAA wanted to keep the character on screen, but they never showed much interest in getting the character over. It may not have been an issue particular to her – AAA rarely has had plans for their women and even more sees them through – but she was not going to get over without a push. AAA did a half-effort job of getting the second Sexy Star over to their audience, and I was still explaining that it was a new person two years after she had taken the mask. If Gatubela wanted to progress as a luchadora, she either needed AAA’s booking philosophy to change or to wrestle someplace besides AAA. That second choice is a lot easier to accomplish.
Gatubela’s shown in-ring ability in AAA (and a clear love of Kenny Omega matches.) Her problem is that she’s good but not to a must-see level, and she has no strong identity because of the confusion over the Sexy Star character. She didn’t show the personality or the charisma to get over the Sexy Star character, but maybe that’ll be less of an issue under her mask. It would be less of an issue in other promotions; her style might fit better in CMLL. There have been rumors of Gatubela training with CMLL luchadoras, though wrestlers training with people outside of their promotion happens occasionally, and it just rarely is notable. (This is the same as Forastero hanging around Arena Mexico prior; it is a normal thing that only gets mentioned when related news or people try to stir something up.) CMLL took in Kira and Persephone right after they left AAA, and they seemed pretty happy with that decision. Gatubela said she still plans to work out her scheduled dates, which may mean nothing’s happening there for a while. Gatubela might also be looking at what’s happened with Aramis and Komander and hope she follows them. I think it’d be a long shot for her to get a WWE or AEW deal; she may need to improve to fit in those places, but besides, those groups tend to go for people who have built more prominent names, and she’s back to starting from scratch. They’re not entirely out of the question at some point. Gatubela was working US shows (mostly Texas) in addition to AAA work, so she may just end up being like Keyra and figure she’s better off controlling her schedule than working through AAA. Gatubela doesn’t even hint at money being an issue, but AAA running fewer shows means there’s less work.
I think there’s little chance the original Sexy Star will be brought back to reprise the character. Sexy Dulce, Baby Love, and Sagittarius had a match back on 09/22. Dulce and Baby Love both stopped working professionally with each other by the end of the match; it didn’t turn it until a total shoot, but they didn’t much to hide their issues. It struck me as funny, in a time is an infinite loop sense, that match in Monterrey lead into a moment to honor Martha Villalobos. The same Martha Villalobos was also honored directly after Sexy Dulce/Sexy Star I’s final match in AAA, she was in the ring right after the incident with Rosemary. Nothing’s changed, Sexy Dulce is the same person she’s always been and would quickly self-destruct in the same way if AAA thought of bringing her back. It is AAA, so I don’t rule it out.
I think if/when AAA introduces a new third Sexy Star, I’m not going to try to correct people on Twitter. Maybe AAA’s not going to learn a lesson here, but I can try to learn something about futility.
AAA
AAA’s mass to honor Antonio Pena took place Tuesday.
AAA finally released the full lineup for Heroes Inmortales on Wednesday afternoon. It was the same lineup that was announced a week ago.
Octagon Jr. was the first guest on Desayunado con Quetzalli.
IWRG
I didn’t go through the IWRG/Lucha Libre Boom stream until Tuesday, and I got a surprise. IWRG typically streamed the complete show of whoever is running Arena Naucalpan, be it themselves or another promoter. Sunday’s stream aired the first five matches, then cut to a replay of last year’s Castillo del Terror. It did not appear to be a technical issue. It is Mexican wrestling, so neither IWRG nor Lucha Libre Boom addressed the obvious issue, and that led to the fans guessing the most damaging answer – there were CMLL wrestlers in the top matches, and CMLL is no longer allowing their wrestlers to be streamed outside of their official channels. I have no idea if that’s the case, but I think it’s a reasonable assumption.
IWRG (THU) 10/03/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Oriental & Sky Man vs Arceus & Fauno
2) Shamila & Tornado vs Águila Roja & Kali
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
Lucha Random
4) Hell Boy & Noisy Boy vs Aquiles & Spider Fly
5) Hijo del Fishman © vs Hijo de Canis Lupus [IWRG JUNIORS]
7th (?) defense
The main event is a rematch from January.
Big Lucha
Big Lucha (SAT) 11/02/2024 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Jack Evans vs Eli Isom
2) ? & Marishka vs Marianne & Sussy Love
Marishka will team with a Luchadora del Inframundo
3) Ricky Marvin vs Cometa Maya, ?, ??
El Campeonato Nacional Ligera 1971
4) Reiyel vs Black Skayde, Auzter, Helios, Uzumaki, Rey Orochi, Cósmico, Salvatore [Torneo Alas de Mitclantecuhtli]
5) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
Leyenda de Mictlan 3 v 3
Again, the gimmick here appears to be Big Lucha wrestlers doing gimmicks of deceased (or older) wrestlers. It is meant in tribute. I am sure someone will be offended. Wrestlers pictured include Black Shadow, Villano V, one of the Cavernicolas, Picudo, Love Machine, Brazo de Oro, Anibal, Kato Kung Lee, and a luchadora I can not quite identify. I can not imagine the Villano family being happy with someone wearing a Villano V mask, unless it’s one of them. I can not imagine the Brazos being happy with someone else wearing a Brazo de Oro mask, unless it’s them or they’re getting paid for it. I’m unsure if that’s a specific list of those who will “appear”. Estrella Blanca defeated Rodolfo Ruiz for the lightweight title in 1971 and I don’t see any of them pictured.
Other News
The viral video of the week is Metallica playing Los Luchadors at a concert in Mexico City. Or maybe it’s Konnan Big giving train boarding instructions.
Penta opened a new training facility on Monday, “Arena del Valle” in Ecatepec. This replaces his previous facility and looks to be bigger and more able to run shows in addition to training. He talked about it with Jose Manuel Guillen; a lot of the discussion is about starting up Penta trying to build income outside the ring to keep him going after wrestling is over and about the importance of having good wrestling trainers. Guillen gets about 25 minutes into the conversation before he starts asking questions about Penta’s US contract situation, and Penta gives no different answers than he gave with Lucha Libre Online previously; he’s presently under AEW contract, and the future is to be determined. He knows Tony Khan is looking out for his best interest, just like the Lucha Brothers are looking against their own, and he’s ready to wrestle in AEW if/when he’s asked. Penta’s focus was trying to position stories about him telling various AEW wrestlers that they were going to WWE months ago as incorrect gossip, false stories that got told one and then repeated everywhere. The video abruptly cuts off due to an apparent streaming issue before he finishes his point, but you can get the idea. I’m having trouble believing him on that one, but it’s what he’s got to say publicly, regardless. There’s stuff early in the discussion that kind of feels like talking about his future plans if you read into it.
The press conference for the new building mentioned the plan is for monthly shows at Arena del Vallie, with the first on 10/27 headlined by the Negociantes and the Parks. The arena portion seats 800 people, which is a good size building for an indie arena. The trainers at the gym will include Skayde, Guerrero Nocturno, Ikaro, and Arez. Monsther CLown and Panic Clown will also work at the gym, and Kahn del Mal also appeared at the press conference. Penta first posted photos of the new building on May 19th, which has been in the works for quite a while. Skayde’s Big Lucha departure seems to be related to him getting a better offer to work for Penta.
In another interview from the La Mole comicon, Blue Demon Jr. said he’ll (eventually) have a retirement tour and introduce a Blue Demon III. The new Blue Demon was listed as a “continuer” of the name, which certainly hints he’s not actually related. Demon Jr. was mostly pushing a new comic book and said he plans to be back in the ring in November.
RIOT’s next show is a Halloween-themed show on 10/31.
The world is healing if we’re back to getting a steady run of articles about Bolivia’s las cholitas luchadoras. La Jornada (Mexico) visits a group in El Alto, who say there is 20 luchadoras running shows on Thursday and Sundays. They also train three days a week. They’re paid up about 400 bolivianos ($58 USD) per match. Los Cholitas have wrestled around South America (Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador), and they’re having a conversation with a promoter in Mexico about coming during the conversation.
Mexico City indie luchador Indio Cholula tells a story about how he never actually wanted to be a wrestler when he started training, then ended up in for 50 years.
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